/ 22 



the field exc-iirsions of tlie classes. At ikj time is the speed very 

 great, seven miles an hour l)eing the maximum maintained. 

 Furthermore, the drauj^ht of the l)oat interferes with its greatest 

 usefulness in the shoal waters in which at times our work com- 

 pels us to go. It is only a question of time when extensive 

 repairs will l)e necessary upon the hull. I would therefore 

 recommend that an effort he made to secure a larger boat with 

 more i)owerful machinery so as to carry more passengers and, 

 if iiecessary, to toAv a barge. Greater speed and less draught 

 can be secured with such a boat. It would also enable us to 

 considerably extend the field of our operations. Such a launch 

 will be a prime necessity when the work of the Station is 

 extended to the Mississippi Eiver. 



The outfit of small boats, wliich consists of two lap-streak 

 lake-boats, one lap-streak river-boat, and an Illinois Eiver skitf, 

 has been supplemented by the addition of a large fiat-bottom 

 seine Ijoat twenty feet in length with five-foot beam for the 

 plankton work. The increasing complexity of this work and the 

 variety of apparatus necessary for its performance has made 

 the load required for a plankton trip too cumbersome for an 

 ordinary boat. The total weight of the boat when manned and 

 loaded with the outfit and water samples is not less than a 

 thousand pounds. The increased attention given to winter 

 work has necessitated the adaptation of the boat to the 

 exigencies of that season. The l)ow and sides are protected by 

 a sheath of zinc, and while the ice prevails the bottom is shod 

 with two steel runners. With the boat thus equipped it is usu- 

 ally possible by rockiug the boat and skillful manipulation of 

 the ice-hooks to beat a way through the thin and rotten ice 

 which will not carry the weight of the load, while the runners 

 allow the boat to slide easily over the surface of the smooth ice 

 Avherever this is strong enough to bear the weight. The greatest 

 difticulty attending transit in the field in the winter occurs at 

 times when the river is low and access to Thompson's Lake 

 must be had by ])ortage across the bottomlands at the southern 

 end of the lake. A pair of Avheels has been riggetl up for this 

 work, but in wet weather or after heavy snows they are hardly 

 ade(|uate to the task. 



In tlie fall of 1S9G tlie rented ipiarters which the Station 



