The force actually under engagement at any one time 
has varied from six to sixteen. 
INVESTIGATION. 
The investigations of the Laboratory during the period 
covered by this report have followed the same gen- 
eral direction as during the two years preceding, but 
with closer concentration on entomology than I like—a 
defect which I hope to avoid hereafter by changes in 
organization. 
Progress in our knowledge of the general zoology of 
the State has been immediately furthered by a consid- 
erable amount of work done on waters outside our lim- 
its by myself and my assistants, during our vacations, 
under the auspices and at the expense of the United 
States Fish Commission. One able to appreciate the 
- fact that the life of no region can be thoroughly studied 
~ without a knowledge of that of other regions, adjacent 
-and remote, and that in those departments of natural 
history where new forms must be described it is indis- 
-pensable that opportunity should be had for a compar'- 
son of collections made over a large extent of country, 
will understand the advantages to our own studies 
_ which this extension of our aquatic work outside the 
State must bring us in the end. The parties kept in the 
field ever since last fall on behalf of the Exposition col- 
lections, have also added considerable material and in- 
formation available for the purposes of our natural 
history survey. I need, however, as I have needed for 
‘some years, a zodlogical assistant, whose time should 
go continuously to the zodlogical survey outside of ento- 
mology. In the entomological department of the sur- 
vey, Exposition work has likewise. aided us immensely. 
The collections and various studies which this work has 
required in all parts of the State, have given us a mass 
of facts and material equivalent, I think, to the product 
of five years of our ordinary operations. 
