PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1939 87 
established that many fish in such waters are definitely below par 
in general physiological condition and reproductive capacity. Irriga- 
tion, therefore, constitutes a major and growing hazard to fish life 
in many of our Western streams. 
Utilizing these same methods, the studies of fishes from streams 
polluted by mine wastes have demonstrated chronic injuries to fishes 
resulting from much higher dilutions of the wastes than has hereto- 
fore been recognized. A detailed report on the effects of lead, gold, 
silver, arsenic, zinc, and copper mining is in preparation, based on 
the data obtained during these studies. 
Summer field sur veys.——Duri ing the summer of 1939 intensive stud- 
ies of stream pollution were made along the Atlantic seaboard, and 
throughout the greater part of the Western United States, and con- 
siderable new information was collected on the nature and effects of 
polluted waters. Observations were made in the States of North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Califor- 
nla, New Mexico, Oregon, W ashington, Idaho, W yoming, and Mon- 
tana. Over 9,000 analy ses were made in the field and additional 
material was returned to the laboratory at Columbia, Mo., for further 
analyses. 
Early in the summer Dr. Ellis and a field party continued the field 
work in the headwaters of the Grand River in Oklahoma, Kansas, 
and Missouri, relative to the pollution of the Grand River impound. 
ment which is being constructed near Vinita, Okla. This work was 
completed in the fall and a report submitted to the Grand River 
Authority, pointing out the hazards of the chatfields and other 
sources of pollution found in this area. 
From Oklahoma the party continued south to Fort Worth for work 
on the catfish under observation at the Bureau of Fisheries’ Fort 
Worth Station, thence to Medina Lake and Uvalde, Tex., where spe- 
cial studies of bass and Rio Grande perch are in progress. 
On completion of this trip the field party visited North Carolina 
and worked southward through the coastwise streams to Florida for 
a series of paper-mill and phosphate-mine pollution studies, A stop 
was made at the Welaka (Fla.), Station, to obtain bass material 
to be used in connection with the studies of mosquito control. 
Late in July the field party moved west through South Dakota, 
Montana, and Idaho on the mine-pollution problems, and gave parti- 
cular attention to the Black Hills gold-mine pollution of the Belle 
Fourche River, the copper-mine pollution of Clarks Fork, in the 
vicinity of Deer Lodge, Mont., and the lead and zine pollution of the 
Coeur d’Alene River in Idaho. 
From Idaho the party proceeded to Mt. Rainier and Mt. Shasta 
for a continuation of glacial-water pollution studies which have been 
in progress there for 3 years, and to make specific checks of silt con- 
ditions which will contribute to the fishery problems in the Sacra- 
mento River following the construction of a new dam, now in progress 
near Redding, Calif. 
From California the party returned via Lake Mead, central Utah, 
Arizona, and New Mexico, stopping at established stations in these 
States where stream-pollution studies from mines and irrigation are 
in progress. 
