3 
terials for the preservation of specimens and for ordinary micro¬ 
scopic technic. It was equipped with tables and other essentials 
for fifteen workers in addition to the station staff. It proved to be 
admirably adapted to its objects, being as comfortable and satisfac¬ 
tory a workroom for the investigator as were the regular labora¬ 
tories of the University. It had, for our purposes, the very great 
advantage of a thoroughly portable character, and it was repeatedly 
moved from place to place at Havana, and established for months 
at a time at various other points on the river. 
Beginning in April, 1894, the work continued at Havana until 
April, 1899 (five years), at which time it was transferred to Mere- 
dosia, about forty-five miles down the Illinois. Here it remained 
until June, 1901 (two years and two months), when it was moved 
up the Illinois a hundred and sixty-five miles to Ottawa, the high¬ 
est point on the river which it was possible to reach with our equip¬ 
ment. After a year and five months at Ottawa, the station equip¬ 
ment was transferred early in November, 1902, to Peoria for the 
winter, and in May, 1903, it was removed to Henry, thirty-three 
miles above. 
After the organization of the Station, the survey of its field, 
and the selection of substations for continuous work, it remained in 
charge of Professor Frank Smith for the first fifteen months, after 
which Dr. C. A. Kofoid was made its superintendent. Resigning 
to take effect December 31, 1900, Dr. Kofoid was succeeded by Mr. 
Thomas Large, who was in charge until the fall of 1902, and he was 
followed by Mr. R. E. Richardson in 1903. 
By the fall of 1903, after more than nine years of active opera¬ 
tion, our accumulations had so far outrun our systematic studies 
that a change of program was imperative; and the equipment was 
laid up at Henry under a caretaker, where it remained out of use, 
except as loaned to the Chicago Drainage Commission, until the sum¬ 
mer of 1909. You all remember the Lincoln story of the Sangamon 
river steamboat, which could make steam enough to run if it didn’t 
whistle, but could only whistle by ceasing to run. Our biological 
station has found itself, from time to time, in a similar predica¬ 
ment. It has not had money enough to maintain active operations 
in the field and to prepare and publish papers and reports at the 
same time. So, after a nine years’ run, it beg*an to whistle, and 
now, having blown its three long* blasts—two on the plankton collec¬ 
tions and one on the fishes of the state—it has been running again 
since last July. 
