126 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



where in this report, the quantity of grasshoppers caught in the 

 vicinity of the lake and used as bait by the anglers is astonish- 

 ingly large. Moreover, various trees and shrubs leaning over the 

 lake are the homes of various insects which frequently drop 

 into the lake. In the spring of 1901 it was observed that the 

 water-surface was covered with vast numbers of leaf-eating beetles. 

 It was later discovered that these laid their eggs on the leaves of 

 the willow trees along shore and that the black larvse which 

 hatched, defoliated the willows. Moreover, the myriads of midges, 

 may-flies and caddis-flies which spend the larval period of their 

 lives in the water and furnish an important part of the food of the 

 fishes, when they emerge from the water and take their nuptial 

 flight, run a gauntlet while in the air, and are reduced to a re- 

 markable degree by the forest-dwelling birds along shore — cuckoos, 

 warblers, song sparrows, night hawks, etc. 



The number of forest and weed seeds that blow into the lake 

 and float upon its surface is very great. The sycamore seeds 

 blow out on the ice in great numbers and are washed ashore in 

 spring. Some conception of the immense amount of seeds borne 

 on the surface of the lake can be obtained by a walk along the 

 beach almost any season of the year. In places there are long rows 

 of seedling sycamores, in others, seedling elm and willow. In the 

 autumn of 1913 whole stretches of beach were covered by an almost 

 continuous mat of little seedlings of Erigeron. These seeds, it is 

 true, probably never have any important influence on the lake, prob- 

 ably none of the lake-dwelling animals feeds upon them ; but they 

 form at times a noteworthy part of the plankton towings, and in- 

 crease greatly the number of forms the plankton-student has to 

 puzzle over. If not a part of the actual plankton, as generally un- 

 derstood, they certainly constitute at times a considerable part of 

 the plankton catch. 



There is another consideration which makes the land flora 

 v/orthy of our attention in an attempt to study the lake. Lake 

 Maxinkuckee was taken at first as a typical glacial lake ; but careful 

 study proves it not to be such ; at any rate, a large number of small 

 Indiana lakes are pretty markedly different from it and have a 

 closer set of resemblances among themselves than it has to any of 

 them. It is a lake of marked individuality, and this individuality 

 is indissolubly associated with its surroundngs — the sorts of soil 

 and accompanying plants and animals. A given association of 

 plants will at once suggest to the botanist the type of soil, slope, 

 etc., and soil surveys to be complete, should always be associated 

 with botanical surveys. 



