106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



also extends over portions of Hillsdale and Lenawee counties, Mich., 

 and of Steuben, Dekalb, Allen, and Adams counties, Ind., embracing 

 in all a territory of about 7,500 square miles. The main river, formed 

 by the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers, at Fort 

 Wayne, Ind., flows in a general northeasterly direction a distance of 

 9G miles to Toledo, where it empties through Maumee Bay into Lake 

 Erie, of which it is the most important side tributary. The water is 

 rather clear in the main stream and its larger affluents, but more or less 

 turbid in the smaller branches, owing to their clay channels; in all of 

 the lakes visited it was remarkably clear and pure. Examinations were 

 made in the Maumee River proper, in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, 

 Ind., and of Antwerp, Cecil, Defiance, Grand Rapids, Waterville, and 

 Toledo, Ohio. 



The other waters studied were the St. Joseph River and seven of its 

 tributaries, including Fish Lake and Cedar Lake; St. Marys River, 

 Gordon Creek, Lost Creek, Tiffin River, and Devils Lake; Auglaize 

 River and four of its tributaries, and Beaver Creek. 



This water system was found to be exceedingly rich in variety of 

 lishes, the total number of species observed having been 87, more than 

 is known from any other river basin of the same size. The list includes 

 8 species of catflshes, of suckers, 25 of minnows (Cyprinidw), 9 of 

 sunfishes and basses, and 16 of perches. Over 30 species are of value 

 for food, the most important of these being the two species of black 

 bass, the grass pike, and the wall-eyed pike. Crayfishes and mussels 

 are rather common in all parts of the basin; snails are plentiful, and 

 shrimps were obtained in several streams. 1 



INDIAN TERRITORY. 



In May, 1894, Prof. S. E. Meek, of the Arkansas Industrial Univer- 

 sity, began an investigation of certain streams in the southeastern part 

 of Indian Territory, along the line of the St. Louis and San Francisco 

 Railroad between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Arthur, Texas, this work 

 being continued into the next fiscal year. Two of the most important 

 rivers of that region are the Poteau and the Kimishi, both rising in the 

 Ozark Mountains between the Arkansas and Red rivers, the former 

 flowing north into the Arkansas, the latter south into the Red River. 

 In the upper two thirds of their courses they drain a mountainous 

 sandstone region, their currents being swift and the bottom generally 

 rocky. The Poteau River, below the town of the same name, occupies 

 a deep and rather broad channel, with an occasional rocky shoal, the 

 current being sluggish and causing it to partake somewhat of the 

 nature of a lake. Examinations were made near the mouth of the river 

 and in the vicinity of Poteau. The fishes of the Kimishi River were 



1 Report upon investigations in the Maumee River basin during the summer of 

 1893, by Philip H. Kirsoli, commissioner of fisheries for the State of Indiana. Bull. 

 U. S. Fish Com., xiv, 1894, pp. 315-337. 



