IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
167 
THE ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL STATION. 
BY L. S. ROSS. 
In Europe there are twenty- seven or more marine biological 
stations, one in Japan and five in the United States. The atten- 
tion of biologists has been given mostly to the study of marine 
life, but some of the inland scientists are taking to the fresh 
water, leaving the marine life to be salted down by those near 
at hand. But it is only of late years that a few zoologists have 
bethought themselves to halt in their rush to the marine 
stations and cast a microscopic squint at the myriads of forms 
dashing and crowding through the water of the lakes and 
streams, and even inviting the hauls of a net in order to relieve 
the pressure of an overabundant surplus of population. 
Germany possesses two fresh water biological stations, one 
on Lake Plon in the northern part of the country, and the other 
upon Mtiggle lake, near Berlin. There is one station in Prance 
and a peripatetic one in Bohemia. The Allis private laboratory 
at Milwaukee was the first fresh water station in this country. 
The University of Minnesota had for several years a summer 
station at Gull lake, and for the past two years the University 
of Indiana has maintained a summer school of biology at Turkey 
Lake. The Michigan Fish Commission and the University of 
Michigan have been studying the waters of the state for sev- 
eral years with special reference to fish culture. 
The station established at Havana, IQ., on the Illinois river, 
is the first fresh water university biological station with ade- 
quate equipment and working force in the country, and is the 
only station in the world having as its subject of investigation 
the life of a river system. The region about Havana has long 
been noted as a sportsman’s paradise because of the wide bot- 
tom lands of the river and the many sloughs and swamps; and 
it has proved to be equally the paradise of hunters of water 
deas and the like more minute game than water fowl. The 
amount of microscopic animal life of the water is much more 
