FOURTH AXXUAL MEETING. 25 



The State Laboratory of Natural History, acting in co-opera- 

 tion with the Forest Sers-ice of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, has finished, during the past year, a forestry survey 

 of the state, and has pubhshed its report on "Forest Conditions 

 in Illinois" in the form of a bulletin of the State Laboratory, now- 

 available for general distribution. 



The Laboratory has also been continuously at work upon the 

 Illinois River, engaged especially in the study of the tishes and 

 the plankton, with main reference to an analysis of changes in 

 the physical and biological system of the stream and its depen- 

 dent waters due to the opening of the Chicago Drainage Canal. 

 We have also undertaken to bring the Illinois River into compari- 

 son with the Mississippi, and even with the Ohio, by means of 

 plankton collections, continuous for all practical purposes, made 

 lengthwise of these great rivers. Our collections were made 

 over distances aggregating 1,000 miles for the Illinois, 1,200 miles 

 for the Mississippi, and forty-six miles for the Ohio. 



C. C. Adams, representing the State Laborator}-, and E. X. 

 Transeau and T. L. Hankinson, of the Eastern Illinois Normal 

 School, spent some weeks of the summer vacation together in 

 the neighborhood of Charleston, in Coles County, making a sys- 

 tematic study, from the ecological standpoint, of the plant and 

 animal hfe of certain areas chosen as representative remnants 

 of the original prairies and forests of the state. This work was 

 undertaken primarily as an example of the objects, methods, and 

 results of local ecological work, and had also a special value as a 

 test of the possibility of reconstructing the primitive ecolog}' of 

 Illinois by a careful selection and expert study of the remaining 

 tracts of native prairie and forest in different parts of the 

 state. The results of the reconnaissance encourage us to believe 

 that, although this task is becoming yearly more difficult, it can 

 still be accomplished, and we hope to be able to set on foot dur- 

 ing the coming year operations to this end in various parts of 

 the state. These Charleston studies have resulted in two papers 

 by Mr. Adams, presented at this meeting of the Academy, and a 

 full report will be published in the bulletin of the State Labo- 

 ratory. 



What amounts to co-operative work on the ecolog>' of the 

 Chicago area, although done by various individuals independently, 

 has been far advanced by the personal studies of V. E. Shelford 

 and Frank C. Baker, and bv two Chicago University men, one 



