THE PLANKTON ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 
By A. A. DOOLITTLE. 
The present chapter records observations made at the headwaters 
of the Connecticut River, in the Connecticut Lakes, upon the environ- 
ment of their minute suspended animal and vegetable organisms. 
The exhaustive determination of all the plankton forms collected 
and the study of them as to quantity, hfe cycle, distribution, and 
reaction to environment must be continued and reported upon later.¢ 
FIRST LAKE. 
The water of First Lake was examined thoroughly during the 
summer of 1904 for its plankton elements, and samples were taken 
from the Second and Third lakes and tributary streams and ponds 
as opportunity offered. At First Lake during the unfrozen season 
the prevailing winds are from the south and west, and where they 
have a long sweep they have piled up beaches of sand or gravel. The 
open space is so great that waves of considerable power are made, 
sufficient, at least, to prevent the establishment of any plants in the 
shallow bottoms off these shores, and the formation of a harbor for 
littoral forms of plankton. Two places on the northern shore are, — 
however, protected, partly by points of land and partly by a very 
gradually shelving bottom, so that some aquatic vegetation has be- 
come established. AI the shores protected from the west or south sup- 
port water plants, and those protected from both directions much 
more. ‘The other shores present too broad a belt of sand or barren 
« Assistance in the determination of the aquatic species is gratefully acknowl- 
edged as follows: 
Bryophyta.—Mr. E. B. Chamberlain, of New York City. 
Angiosperme.—Mr. KE. L. Morris, Brooklyn Institute Museum, Brooklyn. 
Infusoria.—Dr. Geo. T. Moore, Chester, Pa. 
Hirudinea,—Dr. J. Percy Moore, University of Pennsylvania. 
Insecta.—Dr. A. ®. Schwarz and Dr. D. W. Coquillet, and Mr. H. 8S. Barber 
and Miss Evelyn G. Mitchell of the National Museum. 
Mollusca.—Dr. Paul Bartsch, Smithsonian Institution. 
