1894.] Scientific News. 123 
gan. In addition to these, a number of specialists will be guests of 
the Commission for a longer or shorter interval. 
The laboratory will be open during July and August, and visiting 
scientists will be aecorded a most cordial welcome. To a certain ex- 
tent it will be possible to offer the privileges of the laboratory to spe- 
cialists who may wish to carry on investigations on special groups. 
Notice of such cases should be sent to the director as early as possible, 
that the necessary arragements may be made. 
The Biological Station of the University of Illinois.— 
'The field operations and the resources of thé'natural history depart- 
ments of the University, especially those of zoology and botany, have 
been notably increased during the last term by the establishment, 
April 1, on the Illinois River, at Havana, of a biological station 
devoted to the systematic and continuous investigation of the plant 
and animal life of the waters of that region. This establishment, 
authorized by the trustees of the University at their March meeting, is 
under the direction of Professor Forbes, with Mr. Frank Smith, assist- 
ant in zoology, in immediate charge of the work. Mr. Adolph Hem- 
pel and Mrs. Smith also work there continuously, with an expert 
fisherman as factotum. 
The field work is now done from a cabin boat, chartered for the 
summer, which carries the seines, dredges, surface nets, plankton appa- 
ratus, and other collecting equipment, together with microscopes, 
reagents for the preservation of specimens, a small working library, a 
number of special breeding cages for aquatic insects, and a few aqua- 
ria. This boat is provided with sleeping accommodations for four men, 
and with a well-furnished kitchen. 
In Havana itself are office and laboratory rooms supplied with run- 
ning water and electric light, and provided with the usual equipment 
of a biological laboratory, consisting of first-class microscopes, micro- 
tomes, biological reagents, etc., and tables for five assistants. Profes- 
sor Forbes and Mr. Hart, of the state laboratory of natural history, 
visit the station frequently for special lines of work. 
The boat is established in Quiver Lake, an elongate hay or 
Illinois, two and a half miles above Havana. At low water this lake 
is about two miles long with a steep sandy bank some fifty feet high 
on the eastern side and a mud flat on the western. The banks are 
wooded, on the east mostly with oak and hickory, and on the west with 
the lowland species. — The locality is beautiful and healthful, and the 
water excellent. 
From the lake and the river selection has been made of a number ot — 
