171 



drawings of living flsti. The number of species occurring is in tlie neigli- 

 borliood of two hundred. 



At present sevex-al lines of work are in progress: At the Biological 

 Station on the Illinois River, located in the past two summers at Mere- 

 dosia, aquaria were fitted in the floating laboratory and a gasoline engine 

 and pump on the shore made to furnish clear water in which colors of 

 living fish were studied for color descriptions and were painted by the 

 laboratory artists. The field work for the geographical distribution has 

 been pushed forward by means of wagon and launch expeditions and by 

 volunteer collectors. The launch has not been used sufficiently for ex- 

 tended excursions to make the experience of value to others. With the 

 wagon two men were in the field for six weeks in the fall of 1899, making 

 collections in the Big Vermillion and Kaskaskia rivers and their ti'ibuta- 

 ries. In 1900, with the advantage of the experience of the previous year, 

 an expedition was fitted out to make collections in eastern Illinois, with 

 Golconda on the Ohio River as the objective point, and returning to 

 Urbana, the starting place, through the western and central portion of the 

 State. The equipment consisted of an ordinary covered grocei-'s delivery 

 wagon and two horses, a 9x9 miner's pyramid tent, woolen blankets, a 

 blue-flame oil stove, an aluminum cooking outfit, a supply of groceries and 

 canned meats, five large milk cans for shipping collections home, "hand- 

 cans" for killing specimens as soon as taken, a ten-foot minnow seine 

 hung to fish three feet, a thirty-foot minnow seine hung to fish five feet, 

 and a forty-yard minnow seine hung to fish six feet. The Baird nets are 

 not serviceable in the muddy sti-eams of Illinois, as the bag collects too 

 much mud. Tlie party, consisting of two men who had had experience in 

 such work, made no attempt to secure accommodations from farmers more 

 than horse feed and water, experience of the previous year proving it to 

 be very expensive in time and temper. Occasionally stops were made at 

 hotels. The entire distance covered was about six hundred miles, in six 

 weeks' time. The cost of subsistence in field, including some repairs, was 

 about ten dollars per week. 



In preserving fish the laboratory uses 10 per cent, formalin solution for 

 killing,. in which the fish is put as soon as taken from the water. In this 

 the fish die with fins expanded. After remaining a few hours in this solu- 

 tion they are wrapped in cheese-cloth and transferred to a weaker solu- 

 tion (about 1 per cent, to 5 per cent.), for shipment. After being brought 

 into the laboratoi-y they are bottled in a solution consisting of 70 parts 



