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be enabled to investigate experimentally the problems of mutual 
influence and relationship which come under the general head of 
what is now known as biological cecology. With the new Sta- 
tion at Havana put ona firm foundation and liberally main- 
tained, the University of Illinois will be better equipped in this 
particular than any other institution in America. 
The utility of the Station to the University Summer School 
has already been mentioned. Possibly still more important is 
the opportunity which it will offer, when permanently estab- 
lished and fairly well developed, to the independent student and 
investigator, zodlogical or botanical, who may desire to pursue his 
studies in the field covered by our operations. It isa part of 
the plan of organization and equipment of our Illinois River 
Station to receive and assist in every practicable way advanced 
students and investigators of this description, from whatever 
place they may come. 
Havana was selected by meas the site of the Station because 
of several unique advantages offered by that locality. Streams 
and lakes illustrating practically all the typical Illinois River 
situations are to be found there, convenient of access from a 
central point and from each other. An extensive sandy bluff, 
commonly well shaded and oozing spring water at its foot, 
borders the river bottom on the east, and introduces several un- 
usual features of interest to the cecologist, besides affording a 
clean and hard shore to work from, dry, shady, and well-drained 
camping ground, and an abundance of very pure cold water at 
all times of the year. No other situation at all suited to our 
purpose could have been selected which was less likely to en- 
danger the health of our field parties, necessarily exposed to 
malarial infection as they are in midsummer and early fall by 
the nature and immediate surroundings of their work. The 
Havana Division of the Illinois Central Railway affords ready 
means of communication between the Station and the University 
by trains running without change of cars, and thus makes pos- 
sible the convenient transportation of live material to the Uni- 
versity for study and experimental use, and also gives the 
students of the summer school a chance to avail themselves of 
the Station equipment for experience in the field. The absence 
of any extraordinary source of pollution to the river water nearer 
than Pekin, thirty miles above, and the neighborhood of the field 
