MUSSELS OP CENTRAL AND NOKTHERN MINNESOTA. 



17 



2. While the shipping facilities do not warrant artificial propa- 

 gation in this drainage, such exceptional shells should not be 

 allowed entirely to disappear before an earnest effort is made to 

 introduce them in other localities. Here is a peculiarly fine parent 

 stock which richly deserves protection and cultivation as a source 

 from whence to derive propagation material. 



MUSSELS OF THE MISSISSIPPI GROUP. 



As would be expected, this is much the largest of the groups here 

 considered, and includes all of the Mississippi River above the mouth 

 of the Crow Wing River, together with the lakes and tributaries 

 connected with it. This portion of the Mississippi is entirely post- 

 glacial and has been formed since the disappearance of the glacial 

 lake Nicollet. 



It drains Crow Wing County, the northern portions of Aitkin, Cass, 

 and Hubbard Counties, and the southern portions of Itasca, Beltrami, 

 and Clearwater Counties. All of these regions, but especially Itasca 

 County, contain a large number of lakes, some of which, like Leech, 

 Winnibigoshish, and Cass Lakes, are among the largest in the State. 

 This region, of course, has been in constant communication with the 

 Mississippi since the very beginning and hence has been stocked with 

 samples of all the mussels found in that river above the Falls of 

 St. Anthony. The following table gives the geographic distribution 

 of these mussels : 



Distribution of Mussels in the Mississippi Group. 



Species. 



Missis- 

 sippi 

 River, 

 Brainerd. 



Prairie 

 River, 

 Grand 

 Rapids. 



Prairie 

 Lake, 

 Grand 

 Rapids. 



Missis- 

 sippi 



River, 

 Wolf 

 Lake. 



Missis- 

 sippi 

 River, 

 below 

 Bemidji. 



Missis- 

 sippi 

 River, 

 Bemidji 

 Lake. 



Missis- 

 sippi 

 River, 

 above 

 Bemidji. 



Lampsilisligamentina (mucket) . 









XX X XX ; 



: X X XX 



X 





Lampsilia luteola (fat mucket) . 

 Lampsilis ventricosa (pocket- 



X 



X 



X 



:x X XX 



X 



X 

 X 



Lampsilis recta (black sand 

 sheU) 





X 

 X 

 X 





Anodonta grandis (floater) 





;xx X 



Anodonta corpulenta (floater) . . 







Anodontoides ferussacianus 

 subcylindracus 





X 





X 

 X 



X 



X 

 X 



Symphynota compressa 









Strophitus edentulus (squaw- 

 foot) 













Strophitus edentulus pavonius 

 (squaw-foot) 









X 





X 















The poverty of specimens at Brainerd is explained by the fact that 

 we could only examine the river for a short distance .above and 

 below the city, and in this interval we did not find any mussel bed. 

 Doubtless there are as many mussels in this portion of the Mississippi 

 as elsewhere. 



