worked with us during a part of the summer of 1897, is now 
nearly ready for the press. 
The so-called plankton work, the systematic study, that is, 
of the minuter forms of plant and animal life suspended in the 
water, has gone steadily forward under Dr. Kofoid’s immediate 
care. Refinements and improvements of method, new forms of 
apparatus, and a vast mass of material which has been largely 
identified and studied by him are some of the more obvious 
results of our recent work in this field. No part of the work of 
the Station attracts more general attention among scientific men 
or is likely to lead to more interesting and important results. 
By the Chemical Department of the University regular 
analyses of the waters of certain selected localities have been 
made during the entire two years, including one series of 
analyses of the gaseous contents of the water, made at Havana, 
one for each of twenty-four consecutive hours. This chemical 
work combined with the continuous biological work of the 
Station will, when generalized, furnish a most substantial and 
authoritative body of knowledge of the conditions of the waters 
of the middle Illinois previous to the opening of the Chicago 
drainage canal which can scarcely fail to have a high utility 
for comparison with the results of similar studies made after 
that event. 
Our main equipment—the cabin boat, the launch, and the 
smaller boats—has served our purpose perfectly, and the Station 
property is in good order and condition in all respects. 
The Summer School of 1898, for whose expenses you voted 
a guarantee fund of $300, proved a disappointment only in the 
number in attendance, a deficiency easily accounted for in part 
by the lateness of the period at which we were able to announce 
our session, and in part by the fact that we could not offer last 
year certain local and personal inducements which may easily 
be provided for another session. Authority to advertise the 
school was not given until the March meeting of the Board this 
year, too short an interval thus remaining before our opening in 
June. For want of any special building of our own we were 
obliged to resort to the village school building at Havana, 
generously placed at our disposal without compensation by the 
school trustees, and students of the School were thus compelled 
