155 



find its southern end choked with vegetation, though the greater 

 part to the north is open water. The woodland and open 

 ground to the south are now pastures and fields of waving corn 

 The only outlet to this large body of water, now somewhat re- 

 duced in area but warm, turbid, and rich in plankton, is a tor- 

 tuous slough six miles to the north. The discharge, however, 

 is in any case but slight, the lake being, indeed, not infrequently 

 the recipient of river water. Spoon River still pours a sluggish 

 but constant stream into the river, but save for a water- 

 bloom of livid green (E/iglena) its waters yield but little plank- 

 ton. Thus, of all the wide area contributing to the plankton of 

 the channel at high water there now remain only Thompson's 

 and Quiver lakes and Spoon River, each much diminished in 

 volume, but all diversified in character. 



Returning now to the river itself we find a gently sloping 

 bank of black mud, baked and cracked by the sun's heat, ex 

 tending towards the softer deposit at the water's margin. A 

 low growth of grasses, sedges, and weeds springs up as the 

 water recedes. The river margin does not often have much 

 aquatic vegetation. In low-water years, such as 1894 and 1895, 

 a considerable fringe is formed along the shore, but this is 

 quickly cleaned out on the seining grounds, which occupy a 

 large part of the shore, as soon as the fishing season opens in 

 July. In years of normal high-water the vegetation rarely 

 gets much of a foothold along the shores, even at low-water 

 stages. Save for the few sandy banks where springs abound, 

 such as those below Havana along the eastern bluff, there is 

 little, at least in the LaGrange pool, to vary this monotony of 

 mud banks and fringing willows. The backwaters have been 

 reduced to the lakes, sloughs, bayous, and marshes (PL II.) 

 which abound everywhere in the bottom-lands. Many of these, 

 as, for example, Phelps and Flag lakes, have ceased in their re- 

 duced condition to contribute to the river. Others, like Thomp- 

 son's Lake, maintain a connection with the river by means of 

 a long and tortuous bayou or slough through which the cur- 

 rent flows in or out as the relative levels of the two fluctuate. 



