10 TLLINOTSFAUDUBONS Biya 
THAT BOOK, THE RIVER 
by MIKE CONLIN 
Division of Fisheries 
Illinois Department of Conservation 
A river is a book. It is the home of the beaver, the bullfrog, the red-tailed 
hawk, the mayfly, the many varied fishes. A stream is alive; a vibrant 
entity flowing on the pages of countless geologic time. Its shining rhythm 
rends us reflective, its waters give us life, its violent stages make us won- 
der. The thread of life is never more visible for those who can read the 
pages of the river’s book. The pages are countless, its chapters cover all 
of life’s stages. We must read and learn. 
To those who cannot read or understand the words of the book, the 
river is but a conveyor of water. Whether a river, ditch or concrete 
sluiceway makes little difference to those ignorant of the values inherent 
in a stream ecosystem. Money is their base of understanding and that 
which stands in the way of the great god “Progress”, whether human or 
natural, is uneconomic and must be altered, decimated or destroyed. To 
those who see no value in the natural book, the river, I say you are 
surely dead, but remain so wrapped in material comfort that you are 
blinded to your death, whether recent or long ago. 
The sound of the whippoorwill at dusk, the great-horned owl on a 
clear moonlit night, the death cry of the white-footed mouse—the victim 
of the pilot black snake, the quiet splash announcing the fruitful foray 
of the snapping turtle from beneath his river windfall. This, then, is the 
river's symphony—whose sounds are so often distorted, muffled or si- 
lenced by man. Another sacrifice for the almighty dollar. Look at the 
symphony of man where once the river ran—the lazy gurgle of a straight 
barren ditch, the sound of roaring 60 m.p.h. machines on the new free- 
way, the farmer’s plow turning over black earth next to the former 
river's edge, the churn of the barge tow, the bite of the giant shovel seak- 
ing coal in the onetime riverbed. This is no symphony—only noise in 
the most disharmonizing sense. ; 
