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The Maxinkuckee mussels are doubtless derived from ancestors 

 brought up the Outlet from the Tippecanoe River by ascending fishes. 

 It is doubtful whether any have been introduced by the numerous plants 

 of fish in the lake, though such a thing is possible. During various 

 times the lake was visited, a few Tippecanoe River mussels were 

 planted in the thoroughfare between the lakes, and a few Yellow River 

 and Kankakee mussels were planted in the main lake. 



The Outlet of Lake Maxinkuckee is now a narrow, shallow, winding- 

 stream, straightened in places by ditching, and bordered on each side 

 by a flat sedgy plain which indicates the former breadth and importance 

 of the stream. The colonization of the lake with mussels was probably 

 effected chiefly during the period when the Outlet was a broad and 

 relatively important stream. The situation has been carefully consid- 

 ered and seems to show that the mussels of the river and lake are 

 isolated from each other and that there is no longer any vital connec- 

 tion between them. The strongest indication of the independence of the 

 lake and river mussel faunas is the appearance of the Maxinkuckee 

 mussels themselves; these are lake-mussels, easily distinguished for 

 the most part from the river-mussels of the same species, and many 

 of them are distinguishable also from the mussels of the neighboring 

 lakes. 



The Tippecanoe River is fairly well supplied with mussels. Al- 

 though the number of species is considerably fewer, and the size of the 

 individuals is generally sm.aller than those of the V/abash into which 

 it flows, it compares very favorably with rivers of its size. At Belong, 

 Ind., a short distance above the mouth of the Outlet of Lake Maxin- 

 kuckee, specimens were obtained in one bed representing twenty-four 

 species of mussels, or about twice the number of kinds found in Lake 

 Maxinkuckee. 



Our knowledge of the extent and importance of migrations of fishes 

 from the Tippecanoe River up to the lake and from the lake down to the 

 river — a question which has a marked bearing upon the relationship 

 of the mussel faunas — is not as complete as it should be, but indications 

 are that they are not important or extensive. Inasmuch as the geo- 

 graphic distribution of a given species of mussel is coextensive with 

 that of the species of fish which serves as its host, this question is 



