i74 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
Creek, in Ohio County. This is a small stream with a bed 
in shale and soft limestone. Twenty years ago the hills bor- 
dering it were almost all covered by forests. The creek had 
many pools two or three feet deep and from one to several 
rods long. The stream flowed most of the year and even during 
droughts the pools contained much water, pure enough to 
afford homes for fishes. The stream was too small to support 
large species, but bullheads, sunfishes and several species of 
minnows and suckers were abundant and were frequently 
caught on hook and line. 
At the present time the forests are cleared and all the 
hills bordering the stream are under cultivation unless too 
rocky and barren to produce a crop. The stream has lowered 
its bed noticeably (probably two feet on the average in 20 
years) and the character of the stream is greatly changed. 
ow it flows only during the wet months of the year, ceasing 
soon after the flow of surface water is exhausted, but becom- 
ing a raging, unfordable torrent after heavy rains. The 
floods have changed the character of the stream, bed so that 
large pools no longer occur in times of drought only a few 
small, stagnant pools, fed by seepage from springs, can be 
found in the entire course of the stream. These contain no 
fishes large enough to take the hook, and only one or two 
small species of minnows inhabit them. 
'illow Creek is here described because the writer has 
personal knowledge of the facts. It is typical of all the smal- 
ler streams that have cut their beds in the Ordovician rocks 
of southern Indiana and more or less typical of small streams 
throughout all the southern part of the State. Paradoxical 
as it at first seems, destruction of the forests has meant des- 
truction of the fishes. 
