3 



The force cictually under eiioa<)ement at any one time 

 has varied from six to sixteen. 



INVESTIGATION. 



The investifiations of the Jjaboraiory dnrinji,' the pei'i(jd 

 covered by this report have followed the same gen- 

 eral diiection as during the two years ])receding, but 

 with closer concentration on entomology than I like — a 

 defect whicli I hope to avoid hereafter by changes in 

 organization. 



Pj-ogress in our knowledge of the general zotilogy of 

 the State has been immediately fui-thered by a consid- 

 erable amoun>t of work done on waters outside our lim- 

 its by myself and my assistants, during our vacations, 

 under the auspices and at the expense of the United 

 States Fish Commission. One able to appreciate the 

 fact that the life of no region can be thoroughly studied 

 without a knowledge of that of other regions, adjacent 

 and remote, and tha.t in those depai-traents of natural 

 history where new forms must be described it is indis- 

 pensable that opportunity should be had for a compari- 

 son of collections made over a large extent of country, 

 will understand the advantages to our own studies 

 which this extension of our aquatic work outside the 

 State must bring us in the end. The parties kept in tlie 

 field ever since last fall on behalf of the Exposition col- 

 lections, have also added considerable material and in- 

 formation available for tlie purposes of our natural 

 history survey. I 'need, however, as I have needed for 

 some years, a zoological assistant, whose time should 

 go continuously to the zoiilogical survey outside of ento- 

 mology. In the entomological department of the sur- 

 vey. Exposition work has likewise aided ns immensely. 

 The collections a,nd various studies which this woi-k has 

 re(]|uired in all parts of the State, have given us a, mass 

 of facts and material equivalent, I think, to the product 

 of five years of our ordinary o]ierations. 



