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7 
Braucher and Prof. Charles Oglevee, of Lincoln, for one week’s 
collecting in Logan county; and to Mr. H. L. Roberts for 
several days’ collecting in the neighborhood of Farmington, 
Fulton county. 
CARE OF COLLECTIONS. 
Extensive work on the Laboratory collections of fishes . 
accumulated during former years has been done by Dr. Kofoid, 
assisted by Mr. Large. The accumulations of the last thirty 
years have been overhauled, and the cataloging, identification, 
and arrangement of this material has been practically com- 
pleted. The collections assorted to the present time are con- 
tained in sixty-three large copper tanks and in 2,327 jars and 
bottles. They represent 474 Illinois localities from which col- 
lections have been made sufficient to represent the fish fauna 
fairly well. About six barrels of specimens lately collected at 
Havana and Meredosia are still to be distributed. These 
specimens have now been kept for several months quite closely 
packed in a preservative consisting of ninety-five parts of sixty 
per cent. alcohol, four parts of glycerine, and one part of for- 
malin. This formula has thus far given excellent results, the 
form and color of specimens being remarkably well preserved. 
It has the further advantage that the fishes do not dry up 
readily when out of the fluid for examination. 
A very large work has been done during the last year 
upon other aquatic material stored in the State Laboratory 
rooms, especially on collections made some years ago in Yel- 
lowstone Park, in Lake Winnebago, Wis., in the Mississippi 
River and connected waters at Quincy, and in a number of 
other minor localities. 
COLORED PLATES OF FISHES. 
A beginning was made this summer in the preparation of 
colored plates for the report on the fishes of the State now in 
course of preparation. The Artist of the Laboratory, Miss L. 
M. Hart, spent a considerable part of the season at the Bio- 
logical Station, at Meredosia, where an aquarium was main- 
tained with a continuous flow of water to keep fishes alive. 
