18 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



vista is unmodified by timbered tracts. The rivers are but slen- 

 der threads of silver, v^ending their way through wide strips 

 of sand, margined by shallow banks. The lesser streams are 

 little more than connected series of pools, which, if spring fed, 

 may survive the drouths of summer. The meandering chan- 

 nels of these latter are mere ditches bordered by narrow 

 meadows lower than the surrounding level and covered with a 

 more luxuriant growth of grasses. The region, however, is not 

 without interest for the student of aquatic Hemiptera. The 

 sandy stretches by the river channel abound with toad bugs 

 and Saldids, while the pools along river and stream course are 

 populated by the true aquatics. 



Eastern Kansas is more varied in its topography. There are 

 stretches of upland plain, wooded slopes and rich alluvial hood 

 plains. The rivers meander through wide valleys, dropping 

 their never-ending burdens of silt in every stretch of slackened 

 water, to add to the already obstructed channels. The waters 

 of the region are typically muddy. The standing waters con- 

 sist of oxbow lakes and artificial ponds. These depend upon 

 the runoff of the land for maintenance. Now and then a clear 

 spring-fed pool may be found in some stream near its source, 

 but such a pool is by no means common. There is plenty of 

 water for a study of those forms of aquatic life that thrive in 

 muddy, quiet waters. The spring freshets give rise to numer- 

 ous temporary pools that linger until the dry days of summer 

 lap them up, and these present an interesting study of tran- 

 sient and indigenous populations that spring up, flourish for a 

 time, and disappear with the passing of the waters. 



Central New York presents a marked contrast to the fore- 

 going. It is a region of great, rolling, wooded hills, with up- 

 land bogs and marshy meadows, spring-fed pools and sparkling 

 brooks, deep ravines with water falls and rapids, and finally, 

 narrow valleys with their scant flood plains and lake-confining 

 basins. Here indeed is a wealth of water types. To one accus- 

 tomed to collecting in the sluggish streams and artificial ponds 

 in Kansas the environs of Ithaca, N. Y., afford a rare oppor- 

 tunity. Here, within easy reach of the city, are to be found 

 all gradations from well-areated, rushing, tumbling waters of 

 the brook to the dark, acrid, sluggish streams of the upland 

 bog; from spring-fed pools to lake conditions. 



Thus, of the three types studied, this last presents, by far. 



