UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 184]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888
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REPORT OF STATE LABORATORY OF NATURAL HISTORY.

187

us to follow the succession, development, and relative abundance, at different seasons, of the forms of animal life upon which we have found the young of the principal food fishes to be strictly dependent During the season of 1888 we have had extraordinary opportunities for aquatic work, afforded us by the State Fish Commission through its Secretary, Mr. S. P. Bartlett. Lack of time and assistance prevented my taking as much advantage as I would have been glad to do of the facilities generously placed at our disposal; but a good beginning was made in July, and the latter part of August on a more systematic and thorough going survey of the life of our waters than we have heretofore been able to undertake. Working from the wharf boat of the Commissioners as headquarters and usually accompanying their field parties, but with boat and assistants under his own control, Professor Garman made* an especially careful examination of those waters from which young fishes were taken for distribution throughout the State, studying the plant and animal forms of such situations, noting the size, depth, condition and surroundings of the bodies of water visited, and collecting all information of every description which could aid us in the preparation of a full and e (act account of the assemblage of forms and the system of life exhibited. We learned from these studies enough to show the very remarkable and far-reaching differences occasioned here by differences with respect to the amount and period of the annual overflow, and to open up fully to us this inviting subject as affecting all the river systems of the State. A general report on this work, made with principal reference to its relations to the operations of the State Fish Commissioners, is now in coarse of preparation, and will be submitted to them when finished. A more detailed exhibit of the scientific results will be published in the Bulletin of the Laboratory. I hope to have hereafter the funds and assistance to carry studies of this description steadily forward through all the working season, moving the field headquarters from place to place as circumstances may require. Good progress has been made at the Laboratory in the study and description of all our recent aquatic collections. Under the head of the general zoology of the past two years comes my own personal study of the food, feeding habits, and structures of several families of our fishes,—to which much time was given in the winter of 1887-88,—and the preparation of a general summary and discussion of the whole series of papers on this topic published by me since 1880. Minor labors in the same general field are a study of the species of harvestmen (PhalangidaB) of Illinois by Mr. Weed; of the anatomy and histology of a remarkable new genus of earthworm by Professor