510 FRESH-WATER BIOLOGICAL STATIONS OP THE WORLD. 



of half a dozen scientific workers, whose attention was exclusively 

 devoted each to his particular field, and the results of the survey were 

 published in bulletins of the Michigan fish commission. In 1894 the 

 station was moved to Charlevoix, a famous fishing region on the eastern 

 shore of Lake Michigan, and owing to the absence of Professor Reig- 

 hard in Europe I was requested to take charge of the work. The sci- 

 entific force and the methods of work were similar to those of the pre- 

 ceding year, but the location brought us in contact not only with shallow 

 waters, but also with the deeper regions of Lake Michigan, and the 

 party made investigations and collections of a precise character in the 

 deepest fresh water which has as yet been investigated by such methods. 

 The results of the summer's work were published in a bulletin of the 

 commission. Unfavorable financial conditions compelled the suspen- 

 sion of the work on the part of the Michigan fish commission, but 

 American investigators owe much to the impetus which has been given 

 to such work through their agency. 



For many years the United States Fish Commission has been urged 

 to establish on the Great Lakes a biological station similar to that 

 which has long been maintained on the ocean, at Woods Hole, Massa- 

 chusetts. Finally, a year ago a preliminary survey was undertaken 

 with a view to deciding the advisability of such a movement, and Pro- 

 fessor Eeighard Was requested to assume the leadership of the enter- 

 prise. The United States Fish Hatchery at Put-in Bay, a small island 

 in the center of the west end of Lake Erie, was selected as the seat of 

 operations, and a party of scientific workers spent two months in study- 

 ing the fauna and flora of the adjacent waters. It is to be hoped that 

 this work may develop into a permanent experiment station on the 

 Great Lakes. 



Among permanent American stations of a technical character the 

 Experimental Filter Station of the Massachusetts board of health, 

 located at Lawrence, is the best known, as it is also perhaps the most 

 famous of its kind in the world. It has been in continuous operation 

 since 1887, and has conducted extended experiments on the biological 

 examination of drinking waters. The methods worked out in connec- 

 tion with them are now standard for such purposes. Similar technical 

 laboratories are in operation in Boston, Lynn, Worcester, and other 

 cities; but in most of them the biological examination of waters is only 

 a secondary function. The Mount Prospect Laboratory, organized 

 recently in connection with the Brooklyn waterworks, and placed 

 under the direction of Mr. G. C. Whipple, whose contributions to lim- 

 nobiologic questions are well known, is more particularly devoted to 

 the investigation of questions connected with the character of the 

 water supply. Numerous samples taken from all the sources of the 

 city's supply are subjected each week to physical, chemical, microscop- 

 ical, and bacteriological examinations, and the quality of the water 

 controlled thereby, since the reports made to the chief engineer serve 



