FRESH-WATER BIOLOGICAL STATIONS OF THE WORLD. 501 



to a well-defined problem. A scanty collection was made to serve as 

 tlie basis of a faunal list supposed to characterize the body of water in 

 question, and the enumeration of species was regarded as the ne plus 

 ultra of many investigators. 



Like the spiritless systematic zoology, which, in the work of many 

 minor investigators, followed upon the example set by the great Lin- 

 nneus, so lacustrine investigators in considerable number were appar- 

 ently satisfied to describe, as the results of brief sojourns, the fauna of 

 a lake or lake region, or, perhaps, even from a couple of vials of material 

 collected by some rich iDatron in the course of a journey around the 

 world, to discuss monographically the fresh-water fauna of the Fiji 

 Islands, for instance. Under such circumstances there could be no 

 biological study. The chief aim seemed to be to cover as much ground 

 as possible in a short time. And what Lauterborn said five years ago 

 is even truer to-day in the light of our more extended experience : " For 

 the question as to the distribution of organisms, the methods so cher- 

 ished even up to the present day of fishing in the greatest possible 

 number of lakes (which recalls, in many respects, the chase after new 

 summits on the part of our modern high climbers — Hochtmiristen!) 

 really have only limited claim to scientific value, since through them 

 but a very incomplete picture of the faunal character of a water basin 

 can be obtained." 



The earlier investigators whose work has already been mentioned, 

 Fritsch in Bohemia, and Forel in Switzerland, had been pursuing a 

 single problem or investigating a limited locality for nearly twenty 

 years, and they were among the first to emphasize the necessity of a 

 modification of the prevalent tendency and of a more formal character 

 for lacustrine work, if valuable scientific results were to be expected 

 from it. Forel was the first to publish, in outline, a plan for the precise 

 formal investigation of a body of water, in which emphasis was laid 

 upon the necessity also of continuous and extended investigation 

 before satisfactory conclusions could be hoped for. This programme 

 has suffered some modification in detail at the hands of various stu- 

 dents, but in its general features remains the aim and desire of work- 

 ers everywhere. With the appreciation that such work must needs be 

 formal, continuous, and extended, came naturally the desire that sta- 

 tions of a permanent character should be established at various points 

 for the realization of the idea. And the first of these that were founded 

 were of a general character, concerned with the biological investigation 

 of water as a problem of general scientific interest and importance. 



But almost immediately other influences made themselves felt which 

 have led to the extension of the general idea along particular lines of 

 economic importance. Improved methods of fish catching and larger 

 demands for fish food had brought various countries to the point where 

 the drain on this kind of food supply was becoming very evident. The 

 fish were being destroyed more rapidly than natural means could 



