14 
provide in advance. The specimens dying were, however, pre- 
served and added to the mass of material held for the supply of 
public schools and other educational institutions of the State. 
My experiment here, and my much more valuable experience 
at the Exposition Aquarium in the thoroughly successful main- 
tenance of marine animals under artificial conditions, have given 
me positive assurance that it would be quite practicable, within 
the limits of a reasonable expenditure, to maintain at this dis- 
tance from the seaa salt water aquarium continuously, year 
after year, in which the more hardy and interesting forms of 
marine life could be exhibited for the benefit of a general public, 
and likewise for that of university students. I desire to com- 
mend this matter very earnestly to your attention, especially 
as no university in America not in the immediate vicinity 
of the sea is at present doing anything whatever in this direc- 
tion. The maintenance of a fresh water aquarium, although 
more difficult than that of a marine exhibit, would be in many 
respects more convenient and in every way equally useful. The 
two sorts of collections could, of course, be readily combined in 
the same establishment. This enlargement of our facilities 
would be particularly helpful as an apparatus for experimental 
investigation in connection with the Biological Station on the 
Illinois River, now maintained jointly by the State Laboratory 
and the University of Illinois. I suggest it to you for considera- 
tion in connection with plans for a university museum building, 
with which it might best be associated both in management and 
construction. } 
THE BIOLOGICAL STATION. 
I have next to report the establishment last spring, in leased 
quarters on the Illinois River, at Havana, of an aquatic Bio- 
logical Station, jointly maintained throughout the season by 
the University of Illinois and the State Laboratory of Natural 
History. 
This Station was opened April 1, under authority of the 
Trustees of the University given in your action on a communi- 
cation submitted by me to your Committee on Instruction 
March 2, 1894, and printed in’ part in the Proceedings of the 
Board for March 13 (p. 114). As the appropriation made by you 
to this end from the University funds was not immediately avail- 
