WHAT is a Museum "expedition"? 

 Digging for artifacts in Central 

 America or the Middle East to reveal 

 vanished cultures and preserve them for 

 future generations? A trek from Para- 

 maribo to the headwaters of the Surinam 

 River to collect little-known mammals 

 and birds from the interior? Searching 

 the rarified upper reaches of the Himal- 

 ayas for the legendary "abominable 

 snowman"? Or verifying the discovery 

 of a tiny invertebrate species during an 

 easy day's jaunt not far from the center 

 of a major Midwest city? 1 



Early last fall, a young Chicago 

 Heights teen-ager named John Dooley 

 was swimming in the quarry on the 

 grounds of the Lake Metonga Club, a 

 private sportsman's club in Grant Park, 

 Illinois, about forty-five miles south of 

 Chicago's Loop. He noticed some tiny, 

 translucent creatures in the water, and 

 collected a few of them. His high school 

 biology teacher was able to identify 

 them — no small feat in itself — as Cras- 

 pedacusta sowerbyi, an uncommon jellyfish 

 that is one of the very few species known 

 to exist in fresh water. The teacher 

 suggested that John notify scientists at 

 Chicago Natural History Museum. 



Dr. Alan Solem, Curator of Lower In- 

 vertebrates, took the call and immedi- 

 ately decided to go out to the site and 

 see for himself. Although he had col- 

 lected invertebrates in many parts of the 

 United States, he had never encountered 

 jellyfish in our inland waters. D. Dwight 

 Davis, the Museum's Curator of Verte- 

 brate Anatomy, was eager to try his skill 

 at photographing this unusual species. 

 Some years before, Henry Dybas, Asso- 

 ciate Curator of Insects, and Harry G. 

 Nelson, Assistant Professor at Roosevelt 

 University, had had the good fortune to 

 collect a few specimens in central Indi- 



1 "It is significant that the Museum now lists 

 most of these trips on our records as 'field trips' 

 rather than as 'expeditions.' 'Expedition' car- 

 ries with it the idea of long journeys and of 

 finding a way over unknown terrain. . . . On 

 our field trips now we can be rushed to the 

 other side of the globe by airplane, we can plan 

 our investigations with the aid of good maps. 

 . . . Although exploration in a geographical 

 sense is a thing of the past, we are still explor- 

 ing on the frontiers of knowledge. . . ." Report 

 of the Director to the Board of Trustees for the 

 Year 1959, p. 22, Chicago Natural History 

 Museum, 1960. 



PAULA 



ana. Now Dybas was out of town, but 

 the other three — Solem, Davis, and Nel- 

 son — organized an "expedition" on the 

 spot. 



I was invited to come along in the role 

 of recorder. Like Mrs. Solem, who also 

 joined us, I was curious — about the 

 jellyfish, of course, but even more about 

 the natural scientist's experience of a 

 day in the field. Perhaps by sharing it 

 I could probe — in a small way, to be 

 sure — the meaning of "expedition." 



It was a delightful autumn morning 

 when we left Chicago. I listened while 

 the others chatted in the car. "To me, 

 the exciting thing about this discovery," 

 Nelson was saying, "is that very few 

 species of jellyfish live in fresh water. 

 There are other fresh-water Coelente- 

 rates, but only a very few fresh-water 

 medusa forms have been reported." 2 



Davis agreed. "There's something 

 special about finding jellyfish, which 

 everybody associates with salt water, in 

 the middle of the great land mass of the 

 United States." 



"And another thing. Although they 

 belong to the same class as the hydras — 

 hardly more than primitive blobs of pro- 

 toplasm — they seem more exciting be- 

 cause their movements and behavior are 



2 In addition to Craspedacusta sowerbyi, two 

 other species, one each from Africa and China, 

 have been reported. 



By Staff Illustrator Marion Pahl 



more dynamic, and can easily be ob- 

 served with the naked eye." 



We drove past farms that were fast 

 being converted to suburban develop- 

 ments. Pigs, onion fields, corn, dairy 

 cows, and even beef cattle were cheek- 

 by-jowl next to new commuters' homes. 

 These changes in human ways of living 

 were of interest to me. The attention 

 of the others was caught by the insects 

 that rasped and buzzed in the wayside 

 fields and ditches. "Some day," Davis 

 said, "I'd like to take a tape into a beech- 

 maple forest I know and record the pro- 

 gression of insect sounds throughout a 

 twenty-four-hour period. Seems to me 

 this might make an interesting addition 

 to our school programs." Then, "This 

 must be the moraine." We were ap- 

 proaching a gently rolling, wooded 

 height. "Probably the southern limb 

 of the Valparaiso extension." 



"Look at the erosion on that slope !" 

 As naturalists, they kept watch for 

 any locality that might offer possibilities 

 for future field exploration. Someone 

 asked if anyone had investigated the 

 forest preserve on our left. Noting that 

 most of the trees were oaks, they dis- 

 cussed the spread of the oak wilt, which 

 has begun to make serious inroads on 

 our forests. "It's somewhat like the 

 Dutch elm disease," Nelson recalled. 

 "A killing infection. The plants don't 

 seem to develop immunity. Often, 



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