FISHES FROM ARKANSAS AND INDIAN TERRITORY. 
345 
I visited the main river near Big Bay and at Marked Tree. At Big Bay the river 
is about 5 miles wide, although the main current is much narrower. The river con- 
tains much vegetation on each side and in shallow places in the main channel. The 
vegetation was too abundant in shallow water to enable us to use a seine; where less 
abundant the water was too deep. This made collecting very irksome and unsatis- 
factory, but our labors were rewarded by getting a feAv species not taken elsewhere. 
The bottom of the river, especially in the main channel, is sandy, and the water 
very clear. The current was moderate. The amount of fish life in the river was very 
great. Large fishes were everywhere coming to the surface and with a quick motion, 
sufficient to agitate the water considerably, would sink below the surface. In quietly 
floating down the stream in a dugout, many large fishes could easily be seen moving 
slowly about in the river below or resting quietly among the weeds. Professor Samp- 
son and myself, in a half dozen strokes with a gig, caught one large gar and a 3-pound 
black bass. This was our first attempt to capture fish by this method. 
In the spring, as the overflow water recedes, many large fishes become stranded in 
shallow bayous and even on level ground. Many of these are taken by farmers and 
lumbermen and used by them for food, while a large number are left to die as the 
water recedes. The buffalo are among the largest number destroyed tor lack of water; 
some are reported of immense size. 
One of the most noticeable features of Old River is the immense numbers of 
mollusks found in the sandy bottom and the banks of the stream. The Arkansas hogs 
feed on the mollusks in the shallow water; they root the mollusk out of the sand, crack 
the shell, and extract the meat; they also destroy many gasteropods, which are 
very abundant, by the same method. The hogs also consume many of the stranded 
fishes. Minnows were found in the St. Francis in much less quantities than one would 
at first suppose. They are probably reduced in number by the abundance of large 
predatory fishes. Crawfishes seemed quite scarce; only two species, the young 
Cambarus palmeri , and a small new species, Cambarus faxoni , being all that were 
found in the river. 
At Marked Tree the St. Francis is confined to an ordinary river channel. It has 
clear water, a rather slow current, and a sandy bottom. About 2 miles above Marked 
Tree the Little River, its most important tributary from the east, empties into the 
St. Francis. When visited the water was low, there being scarcely enough water in 
Little River to enable us to get a small boat more than a mile above its mouth. The 
Little River is the outlet of Big Lake, and other smaller lakes between the St. Francis 
and the Mississippi rivers. Its water was clear and its current more SAvift than that 
of the St. Francis River. In places its sides and bottom Avere covered with vegeta- 
tion. In dry weather it does not have enough water for the larger fishes, except in 
an occasional hole along its course. It afforded excellent opportunity to collect the 
smaller fishes, and nearly all of those listed from Marked Tree are from Little River. 
At the mouth of the Little River the St. Francis is wide and very deep. Large 
schools of minnows, Hybognatlius nuchalis , seem to loiter on the shalloxv sandbar 
bordering the deep water. We baited our hooks with some of these minnows and 
soon had a nice string of striped bass, Morone interrupta. 
Rear Greenway we seined in a small bayou. Only a few species of fishes were 
found in it and most of them in abundance. Among the most abundant was Aplire- 
doderus sayanus and Noturus gyrinus. Several specimens of Amia calva and one 
specimen of TJmbra lirni , besides a few others of less importance, were taken. 
