4 



MUSSEL FAUNA OF MAUMEE EIVEK. 



The authors had as an associate in the work Mr. Donald M. Earll, 

 of Washington, D. C, to whom is due much credit for the results. 



During the Maumee investigations, not only the main river, but 

 also the two streams which unite to form it, the St. Joseph and St. 

 Marys, were examined for the last few miles of their course, and the 

 other principal affluents, the Tiffin and the Auglaize, were likewise 

 investigated for a short distance above where they join the Maumee. 

 Other bodies of water flowing into the Maumee or closely related to 

 its basin, such as the feeder canal at Fort Wayne and its reservoir, 

 and Spy Eun, a small tributary to the St. Marys not far above its 

 mouth, were studied. Below Defiance, Ohio, the Miami and Erie 

 Canal runs parallel with the river, and was followed to avoid the 

 riffles and difficulties of navigation to be encountered in the main 

 stream. It offered a favorable subject of research in itself and the 

 Maumee could readily be examined from time to time, as that river 

 was never any great distance away. 



During the trip to the United States fish hatchery at Fut-in Bay, 

 Ohio, opportunity was taken to examine the mussel fauna of that 

 region. This gave data for inference as to which species had prob- 

 ably ascended the Maumee from Lake Erie and which had entered 

 more recently from the Wabash system. It also furnished a basis 

 for comparison between the river and the lake mussels as regards 

 size, etc. 



The authors are about equally responsible for the work. To Mr. 

 Clark belongs the credit for the final determination of the mussel 

 species, all of the observations on the food of mussels, and most of 

 those upon the parasites. Dr. Wilson supervised the work and has 

 furnished the geological and geographical distribution and most of 

 the notes upon the various stations. 



GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE MAUMEE AND UPPER WABASH 



BASINS. 



Although the Maumee River flows into Lake Erie and is therefore 

 a part of the great St. Lawrence system, while the Wabash flows 

 into the Ohio and thence to the Mississippi, the basins of the two 

 rivers have been so intimately connected in their geological history 

 and topographical features, as well as by the artificial connections 

 established during the existence of the Wabash and Erie Canal, that 

 they are practically one. Even at the present day the headwaters 

 of the Little Wabash River approach within 3 miles of the St. Marys 

 River and still nearer to small affluents of that stream, and when 

 the white settlers first came to Fort Wayne they found this point 

 an important portage for the native Indian tribes. There is no per- 

 ceptible divide between the two basins, and a large open country 

 ditch still unites them through an old flat lake plain known locally 



