Mussel fauna op the kankakee basin. 



25 



Every specimen of pustulosa was infested with Atax parasites and 

 most of them contained dorsal baroques. The ventncoms specimens 

 contained both Atax and Cotylaspis; two of them were gravid and 

 one had two dorsal baroques. The single A. grandis was the first one 

 found in the Kankakee River. 



Station 19. Baum)s Bridge. — Just below the bridge is a clubhouse 

 belonging to the Crawfordsville Club. We stopped over night with 

 Mr. George Wilcox, the keeper of the clubhouse, who, besides enter- 

 taining us hospitably, gave us much valuable information in regard 

 to the river. He told us of a mussel fisherman who had gone down 

 the river two years before and who had obtained several hundred 

 shells from a bed in front of the clubhouse. We had also been in- 

 formed that button manufacturers had sent out circulars along the 

 river offering $20 per ton for good shells, and that people along the 

 river who had sent in samples had been offered from $5 to $8 and $12. 

 We tried our dredge in the same place, a sort of eddy in the current. 

 The water was 8 to 10 feet deep and the bottom of hard sand and 

 fine gravel with some lumpy blue clay. The mussels were abundant 

 both in the sand and at the edge of the cla}^ Most of the specimens 

 were undulata., but there were many luteolus near the shore and some 

 fine ligamentinus^ rectus., and coccinea. Several of the ligamentinus 

 were gravid, and most of the coccinea had white nacre. Nearly all 

 the luteolus contained Atax and Cotylaspis parasites and 5 out of 

 the 32 had small pearls in the mantle edge. 



Station W. Hebron Bridge^ Kankakee River. — The river widens 

 out into a sort of lake about 3 miles above this bridge. The bottom 

 was firm sand and nearly uniform, not more than 4 feet deep at 

 the maximum, with large patches of Avater lilies and smartweed, and 

 plenty of Potamogeton fluitans along the banks. 



Mussels were found all over the bottom, but were most plentiful 

 among the roots of the Potamogeton along the shore. Nearly all the 

 Z. luteolus were found there, while the ventricostis and ligamentinus 

 were in midstream and proved exceptionally large and fine. Q. 

 undulata was also common in the deeper water, but there were almost 

 no Q. pustulosa. The three specimens of S. complanata were the 

 first found in this river. 



Most of the luteolus and ventricosus were either gravid or becom- 

 ing so, and, together with the undulata^ were each infested with a 

 few adult Atax.^ and often with eggs and young parasites; and many 

 contained also Cotylaspis. The luteolus averaged about one pearl 

 apiece in the edge of the mantle, while the ventricosus contained 

 dorsal baroques. The other species were free from parasites. 



Station 21. Water Valley^ Kanhakee River. — The collection here 

 was obtained from three different localities: (1) Hog Wallow Slough, 



