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\ ^ SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE 





Minute Forms of Life 



IN THE WATERS OF THE LAKES. 



Paper Read before the Kirtland Society of Natural Sciences, 

 February 16, 1880. 



By C. M. VOROE, Esq. 



The waters of the great lakes are well known to abound in 

 varied forms of life, the most generally known of which are the 

 products of the fishing industry, the encouragement by govern- 

 mental aid to fish propagation serving to render this industry 

 and its results familiar to all. The annual catch of fish and the 

 vast beds of mollusca found in some localities constitute about 

 all that a great mass of people know of the life inhabiting these 

 waters. And with the exception of a few reflective minds, the 

 present condition of life in the waters of the lakes is popularly 

 supposed to have always existed in about the same condition. 

 As numerous and prolific as are the popularly known forms of 

 life inhabiting the waters of the lakes, careful search with ade- 

 quate means reveals a vastly more abundant and prolific world 

 of minute forms, both animal and vegetable, many of which are 

 only visible with microscopical aid. 



The naturalist knows more or less thoroughly of the varied 

 forai3 of visible life abounding in the waters, and of their sig- 



