io8 



THE MUSEUM. 



ed with the name of species, state, 

 county and stream taken from. If 

 you wish them to look as fresh and 

 nice as. they did when taken from the 

 water, give them a coating of white 

 vasehne or French nut oil. 



The mussels are divided into three 

 great families, Anodontas, Margari- 

 tanas and Unios; no teeth, single teeth 

 and double teeth. There are also two 

 other general divisions called sympho- 

 nate and non-symphonate, winged and 

 non-winged. 



As an actual experience is always 

 more interesting to the collecting nat- 

 uralist I will briefly describe a trip 

 made to the "Big Rocks" on Spoon 

 river near Bernadotte not long since 

 by myself aud wife and W. C. Morley, 

 a young lawyer and his best girl. It 

 was ten miles from Lewiston to this 

 locality on the river but by lo a. m. 

 we had arrived. The writer was the 

 only one of the party with a collecting 

 fad, the others having come along to 

 have a day's picnicing in the woods 

 and boat riding on the river. 



The "Big Rocks" are a half mile 

 below the village of Bernadotte, where 

 a ten foot dam has spanned the river 

 for three quarters of a century. There 

 is no other obstruction from here to 

 the Illinois river thirty miles below. 

 The shell hsh have gradually worked up 

 stream until the bed of the river in 

 some places is almost paved with 

 them, and there is everything needed, 

 found here to meet the wants of the 

 different species; lime rock, sand 

 stone, black mud, blue clay, sand and 

 gravel and deep and shallow water. 

 Perhaps there is not a locality this side 

 of the mussel shoals of the Alabama 

 river that can equal this place on 

 Spoon river for its numbers and vari- 



ety of fresh water shells. The banks 

 of the stream are well shaded with elm, 

 silver-leaved maple, hackberry, willow 

 and many gigantic sycamores. The 

 "Big Rocks" on the south bank jut 

 out over the river for a quarter of a 

 mile. After we had made camp I 

 modestly retired under a ledge of the 

 rocks and attired myself for the work 

 of shell hunting. Donning an old 

 coat, pants and shoes and with a- large 

 coffee sack I was quickly out in the 

 stream crawling around feeling for 

 shells and they were here by the 

 scores, but only about one in ten was 

 young and fine enough to go iuto the 

 bag. The water was warm and in 

 three hours' time two sacks were filled 

 with choice specimens, all that our 

 buggy would well accommodate, and 

 after eating a hearty dinner the animals 

 were removed and we were then ready 

 to return home. 



Perhaps a partial list, without au- 

 thorities, of the species found will be 

 of interest to the shell loving readers 

 of the Museum. 

 Unio alatus. 



anodontoides. 



cornutus. 



crassidens. 



donaciformis. 



ebenus. 



elegans. 



gibbosus. 



gracilis, 



lacrymnsus. 



laevissimus. 



ligamentinus. 



luteolus. 



metaneverus. 



multiplicatus. 



obliquus. 



occidens. 



parvus. 



