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find its southern end choked with vegetation, though the greater 
part to the north is open water. The woodland and open 
ground to the south are now pastures and fields of waving corn 
The only outlet to this large body of water, now somewhat re- 
duced in area but warm, turbid, and rich in plankton, is a tor- 
tuous slough six miles to the north. The discharge, however, 
is in any case but slight, the lake being, indeed, not infrequently 
the recipient of river water. Spoon River still pours a sluggish 
but constant stream into the river, but save for a water- 
bloom of livid green (Euglena) its waters yield but little plank- 
ton. Thus, of all the wide area contributing to the plankton of 
the channel at high water there now remain only Thompson’s 
and Quiver lakes and Spoon River, each much diminished in 
volume, but all diversified in character. 
Returning now to the river itself we find a gently sloping 
bank of black mud, baked and cracked by the sun’s heat, ex 
tending towards the softer deposit at the water’s margin. A 
low growth of grasses, sedges, and weeds springs up as the 
water recedes. The river margin does not often have much 
aquatie vegetation. In low-water years, such as 1894 and 1895, 
a considerable fringe is formed along the shore, but this is 
quickly cleaned out on the seining grounds, which occupy a 
large part of the shore, as soon as the fishing season opens in 
July. In years of normal high-water the vegetation rarely 
gets much of a foothold along the shores, even at low-water 
stages. Save for the few sandy banks where springs abound, 
such as those below Havana along the eastern bluff, there is 
little, at least in the LaGrange pool, to vary this monotony of 
mud banks and fringing willows. The backwaters have been 
reduced to the lakes, sloughs, bayous, and marshes (PI. II.) 
which abound everywhere in the bottom-lands. Many of these, 
as, for example, Phelps and Flag lakes, have ceased in their re- 
duced condition tocontribute tothe river. Others, like Thomp- 
son’s Lake, maintain a connection with the river by means of 
a long and tortuous bayou or slough through which the cur- 
rent flows in or out asthe relative levels of the two fluctuate. 
