eel De U eB ON eB Us lo Libel oN 23 
Resources discussed include prairies, forests, insects, fish, amphibians, 
reptiles, mammals, and birds; sand, gravel, and ground water deposits; 
streams and lakes; soil and landscape. Proposals are made for conservation 
or preservation where such steps are needed. The eleven chapters of the 
booklet were contributed by specialists on each subject. A bibliography 
appears at the end of every chapter. A mimeographed version (1959) of the 
present edition was the first attempt in Illinois to describe accurately the 
resources of a single county. 
The booklet is unique in that it contains some scientific and cultural 
information about Champaign County resources that has not heretofore 
been easily accessible to young people, or even to adults. For example, 
it is shown that railroad right-of-way vegetation is prairie vegetation; 
that much of Champaign County was originally covered with marshes and 
could not be farmed until field tile was laid and drainage ditches dug; 
that the county fauna includes 90 fish species, 12 amphibians, 12 snakes, 
8 turtles, 40 mammals, and about 270 birds. The student will learn that 
the action of the glaciers molded the sand, gravel, and ground water re- 
sources, and flattened the land; that the soil layer in Champaign County 
is rock that was pulverized by the glaciers and deposited by winds from 
western Illinois during glacial times. Many descriptions of the resources 
will apply quite well to neighboring counties, while some suggestions for 
conservation will apply to the entire state, as well as to neighboring states. 
The Champaign County Education Council was formed at the sug- 
gestion of the State Supervisor of Conservation Education in the office of 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Natural Resources 
Booklet is the first project of the Champaign County Council. It was the 
feeling of council members that the first and most important step in teach- 
ing conservation is to interest the student in local natural resources. 
D. F. Hansen, Illinois Natural History Survey, Natural Resources Building, Urbana, Ill. 
A a! A fl 
THE FISHES OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, ILLINOIS, AS AFFECTED 
BY 60 YEARS OF STREAM CHANGES. By Weldon Larimore & Philip 
W. Smith. Bulletin Illinois Nat. Hist. Survey, Urbana, Ill. 28 (2): pp. 
299-382, figs. 1-70. 1963. Free. 
This volume evaluates the effects of ecological changes that occured 
over a period of approximately 60 years, beginning with the monumental 
work of Stephen A. Forbes and Robert E. Richardson in “The Fishes of 
Illinois, 1908,” and David H. Thompson and F. D. Hunt in “The Fishes of 
Champaign County: a study of the distribution and abundance of fishes 
in small streams, 1930,” in an area that includes both intensive farming 
and urbanization. 
Part 1 is a brief introduction of methods, equipment, and sampling 
techniques. Parts 2 and 3 give a description of the county and different 
types of stream habitats, Part 4 is an annotated list of the 90 species 
of fish recorded for Champaign County, of which 74 were taken during 
the present 1959 survey. This is followed by an analysis of distributional 
patterns, with an explanation of the changes in distribution over the 
past 60 years. Part 5 describes the ecological associations, with emphasis 
on the species in different stream: habitats and the degrees of association 
between certain species. Part 6 compares the general abundance and 
occurence of samples taken in the 1928 and present 1959 survey, 
with emphasis on the number of species and the fish weight in relation 
