16 
The Station differs from most of the small number of similar 
stations thus far established in this country in the fact that its 
main object is investigation instead of instruction, the latter be- 
ing a secondary, and at present an incidental, object only. It 
has for its field the entire system of life in the Illinois River and 
connected lakes and other adjacent waters, and it is my inten- 
tion to extend the work as rapidly as possible to the Missis- 
sippi River system, thus making a beginning on a comprehensive 
and very thoroughgoing work in the general field of the aquatic 
life of the Mississippi Valley, in all its relations, scientific and 
economic. 
The special subject which I have fixed upon as the point of 
direction towards which all our studies shall tend, is the effect 
on the aquatic plant and animal life of a region produced by 
the periodical overflow and gradual recession of the waters 
of great rivers, phenomena of which the Illinois and Missis- 
sippi rivers afford excellent and strongly marked examples. 
The field is entirely fresh, no such investigation having been 
before undertaken anywhere in the world. It is highly interest- 
ing and important, including in its scope very nearly every 
topic concerning the life of our waters which in any way inter- 
ests the biologist or the practical man, and it is one for whose 
investigation we are perhaps better prepared by experience, 
equipment, purposes, and associations than any other institution 
or group of naturalists in the country. 
As an incidental, but by no means unimportant, result of our 
work we shall accumulate the material for a comparison of the 
chemical and biological conditions of the waters of the Ilinois 
River at the present time and after the opening of the Chicago 
drainage canal. 
The practical importance of our undertaking as affording the 
only sound basis for a scientific fish culture is fully recognized 
by the highest American authority in this field. In a recent let- 
ter on this subject, Hon. Marshall McDonald, U. S. Commis- 
sioner of Fish and Fisheries, says: 
‘‘T have carefully gone over the plans of the biological sta- 
tion proposed by you, and am particularly struck with the com- 
prehensiveness of the plan of work to be undertaken. The knowl- 
edge to be obtained by such investigation as you contemplate 
is absolutely necessary as a foundation upon which to build an 
