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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR 
 BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
 
 GEORGE M. BOWERS, ComtnU«ton«f 
 
 THE MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE 
 KANKAKEE BASIN 
 
 Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 758 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICB 
 
 1912 
 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR 
 
 BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
 
 GEORGE M. BOWERS, Commissioner 
 
 THE MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE 
 KANKAKEE BASIN 
 
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 Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 758 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1912 
 
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 THE MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN 
 
 By Charles B. Wilson and H. Walton Clark 
 
 Bureau of Fisheries Document No, 758 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Physical features of the Kankakee Basin 6 
 
 Mussel survey 9 
 
 Localities examined 9 
 
 Summary of mussel distribution 39 
 
 Commercial value of shells obtained 41 
 
 Small fishes found on mussel beds 40 
 
 Discussion of mussel species 40 
 
 Economic considerations 51 
 
 2 
 
U. S. B. F.— Doc. 75E 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 FIG. 1.— AN UNDREDGED PORTION OF THE KANKAKEE RIVER, FILLED WITH VALUABLE SPECIES 
 OF MUSSELS, SHOWING CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THEY FLOURISH 
 
 fig. 2— a dredged portion of the kankakee river. all the mussels here were 
 Killed by dredging, and not one can live under the artificial conditions 
 here established. 
 
THE MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 By Charles B. Wilson and H. Walton Clark. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following paper gives the results of fresh-water mussel investi- 
 gations made by the authors in the Kankakee Basin during the sum- 
 mer of 1909, under the auspices of the United States Bureau of 
 Fisheries. 
 
 The mussel fauna of the various localities is recorded in the table 
 on page 38, and forms an important result of the investigations. But 
 careful attention was also given at each of the localities to the kind 
 of bottom on which the mussels were found, the depth of water and 
 rapidity of the current, the relative temperature of the water, the 
 nature of the plankton present and suitable for food, the actual 
 stomach contents of selected samples, the relative size and physical 
 condition of the mussels, the small fish and crawfish found on or 
 near the mussel beds, and the times of spawning of the various mussel 
 species. Ip particular, most of the species secured alive were examined 
 for parasites, for the color of the nacre and any staining or spotting 
 produced by the parasites, and for pearls or baroques as a result of 
 parasitic infection. The results of these studies are given under 
 the various stations where they were made and constitute by far the 
 most valuable portion of the work. 
 
 Samples of the shells were afterwards examined by Mr. J. F. Boep- 
 ple and others who are experts in the manufacture of pearl buttons. 
 The value per ton of the different marketable species was carefully 
 estimated and is recorded in the table on page 39, giving some idea 
 of the economic importance of the investigation. 
 
 The boat was put into the Yellow River at Burr Oak, Ind., and 
 traversed the remainder of that river to its junction with the 
 Kankakee, and the latter river from this junction to the city of 
 Kankakee, 111. 
 
 The river below this city, the upper portions of both the Yellow 
 and Kankakee Rivers, the whole of the Iroquois River, and the 
 various lakes and tributaries, were worked by means of short drives 
 
 a 
 
4 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 from the nearest railroad towns. At each of the lakes a boat was 
 secured and the whole of the lake shore and as much of the outlet as 
 was deemed advisable were examined. The fact that quite a portion 
 of the Yellow and Kankakee Rivers has been artificially dredged 
 and the old winding channel converted into a straight cross-country 
 ditch, presented changed conditions of extreme importance in their 
 relation to mussel propagation. These conditions have been accu- 
 rately recorded, and furnish an instructive contrast to the remainder 
 of the area worked. 
 
 While the entire Kankakee Basin was thus more or less completely 
 examined and satisfactory results were obtained, the authors would 
 not regard the work as in any sense final. It is rather initiatory 
 and suggestive, and its value lies in the data and comparisons it 
 furnishes with reference to the natural conditions under which mus- 
 sels live and thrive in a region which has been as yet scarcely touched 
 by the progress of civilization. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 The Kankakee Basin embraces the whole of the northwest corner 
 of the State of Indiana south of the narrow Great Lakes drainage, 
 and adjacent portions of Illinois, and is drained by the Kankakee, 
 Yellow, and Iroquois Rivers and their tributaries. These 3 rivers, 
 the principal streams that flow into them, and 12 of the more im- 
 portant lakes lying within the basin were thoroughly examined. 
 
 This basin is radically different from that of the Maumee River, 
 previously examined, in that the Indiana portion of it lies wholly 
 within what geologists designate as a plain of accumulation. The 
 origin of the valley can not be stated more concisely than in the 
 words of W. S. Blatchley in the Twenty-second Report of the Geol- 
 ogy of Indiana, page 59 : 
 
 The valley doubtless owes its origin to the flow of waters which followed the 
 melting of one of the later retreating ice sheets. This flow was at first suffi- 
 cient in volume and velocity to erode the present valley to quite a depth through 
 the underlying clay. Later, on account of a diminution of the supply of water, 
 as well as the gentleness of the slope, the current became too sluggish to erode 
 much deeper or to carry coarse material, and only the finer sediment was 
 brought down. From a still further diminution of the water supply, as well as 
 by the building up of a sedimentary dam near the western end of the valley, 
 the water for a long period ceased to flow, and a lake of shallow depth resulted. 
 Again by a new accession of water from the northwest, the barrier at the foot 
 of the valley was washed away and the river of the present had its beginning. 
 At first its waters flowed the full width of the valley, but in time their volume 
 decreased, and a portion of the river's bed became bare in summer. Over this 
 a vegetation sprang up and decayed. A soil was thus started above the sands 
 and was added to each year by the decay of the summer's vegetation and the 
 sediment brought down by the overflow in the spring. The main current of 
 the stream was thus gradually narrowed until it reached its present size. 
 
mussel fauna of the kankakee basin. 5 
 
 We thus have a basin surrounded by glacial moraines and every- 
 where covered with a heavy mantle of glacial drift. or till, so thick 
 that not a single outcrop of surface rocks is known to occur within 
 its limits, even in the bed of the river or any of its tributaries. Con- 
 sequently, there are no rocky bottoms with alternating riffles and 
 quiet reaches, but everywhere a uniform current and labyrinthine 
 windings. The river itself is noted for its low banks and the crooked- 
 ness of its channel. It rises in a marsh about 3 miles southwest of 
 South Bend in St. Joseph County, Ind., flows southwesterly through 
 that county to the Laporte County line, from which point it forms 
 the boundary between the counties of Laporte, Porter, and Lake on 
 the north, and St. Joseph, Starke, Jasper, and Newton on the south. 
 At about the center of the Starke County line it receives the Yellow 
 River as a tributary from the east. Crossing the State line between 
 Lake and Newton Counties, it flows south of west to the town of 
 Waldron, 111., where it is joined by the Iroquois River from the south. 
 Thence it flows northwesterly to the northeastern corner of Grundy 
 County, where it joins the Des Plaines, coming from the north, and 
 the two form the Illinois River. 
 
 The Yellow River, its principal eastern tributary, rises in three 
 forks, north, middle, and south, in the southeastern corner of St. 
 Joseph County, Ind., the southwestern corner of Elkhart County, 
 and the northwestern corner of Kosciuszko County, respectively. 
 
 The north and middle forks unite near Bremen in Marshall 
 County, and flow directly south until opposite Plymouth, the county 
 seat. Here they are joined by the south fork, and the river turns 
 westward through Plymouth, then south for about 5 miles, and then 
 westward again through the remainder of Marshall and the whole 
 of Starke County, entering the Kankakee at about the center of what 
 was formerly English Lake. 
 
 The Iroquois River, the only other tributary of any size, arises in 
 several creeks in the southeastern portion of Jasper County, Ind., 
 flows a little south of west across Jasper and Newton Counties, cut- 
 ting the State line 6 miles north of the southern boundary of Newton 
 County. It then flows west through Iroquois County, 111., as far as 
 Watseka, the county seat, where it receives Sugar Creek from the 
 south. The two then flow northwest about 5 miles to a junction 
 with Spring Creek, also from the south. There the river turns 
 almost due north and crosses the remainder of Iroquois County and 
 into Kankakee County, where it empties into the Kankakee River a 
 mile west of the town of Waldron. The Yellow River is about 65 
 miles, the Iroquois 100 miles, and the Kankakee 300 miles in length. 
 The banks of the Yellow and Iroquois Rivers, and those of the 
 Kankakee River in Illinois, are high and solid and in many places 
 well wooded, and the adjacent country is of the usual prairie type. 
 
 ° That is, in the State of Indiana. 
 
6 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 In Indiana, however, the entire basin of the Kankakee River is 
 marshland, the most extensive body of swamps within the State. 
 On the immediate border of the river there is a strip^ from a few 
 rods to a mile or more in width, which is heavily timbered. Then 
 come dense thickets of underbrush, and finally the open marsh, 
 covered with a rank growth of grasses, sedges, reeds, and semi- 
 aquatic vegetation. 
 
 There were formerly more than half a million acres of this marsh- 
 land in the seven Indiana counties drained by the Kankakee, but its 
 area has been recently somewhat reduced by extensive ditching. 
 Enough still remains, however, of this old glacial lake bed to act 
 in the manner of an immense sponge, overflowing and absorbing 
 water during the wet season and slowly oozing it forth during 
 the dry. 
 
 There is thus never any real lack of water in the river, the amount 
 of discharge at the State line being considerably over a thousand 
 cubic feet per second even at low water. In general the soil of the 
 marshes is a dark sandy loam, very rich in organic matter, and 
 hence the waters of the river contain an abundance of food material 
 for the mussels they contain. In many places the wild rice, rushes, 
 lily pads, and aquatic grasses fill all except the very channel of the 
 river and contribute their quota of food material. Owing to the 
 fact that the land can not be cultivated, there are few dwellings on 
 or near the river, and repeatedly one may row 15 or 20 miles without 
 seeing a human habitation. The presence of the rich marshes, com- 
 bined with the absence of human environment, have made this 
 region an ideal breeding ground for waterfowl and aquatic animals 
 of every sort. Fish are also abundant in the river, together with 
 plankton of great variety and richness. Each and all of these con- 
 ditions have a very important bearing upon mussel life. 
 
 And withal the region is one of marvelous beauty and attractive- 
 ness, and as radically different in many respects from an ordinary 
 swamp as could well be imagined. In the first place, the river itself, 
 in spite of its intricate windings and rich vegetation, is not sluggish 
 as one would expect, but has everywhere a good current, averaging 
 3 or 4 miles an hour. Then the river bed is nowhere of the pro- 
 verbial quagmire type, but is hard sand or fine gravel, mixed with 
 mud to just the right consistency for most mussels. Here, then, we 
 have a region especially favorable in almost every particular for 
 mussel growth, strictly secluded by its environment from all but the 
 hunter, the trapper, and the fisherman, and still maintaining primi- 
 tive conditions throughout most of its extent. Futhermore, its 
 waters have always drained into the Mississippi Basin as they do 
 now, and the mussel fauna, originally derived from that source, has 
 never undergone any radical changes. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 7 
 
 We may be reasonably certain, therefore, that the data here ob- 
 tained are natural and authentic, and that they have not been to 
 any degree artificially modified. 
 
 MUSSEL SURVEY. 
 LOCALITIES EXAMINED. 
 
 Station 1. The middle fork of the Yellow River. — The entire upper 
 portion of this river, down to within G miles of Plymouth, has been 
 recently dredged. The result has been a conversion of the winding 
 forks of the river and their tributary streams into a series of straight 
 cross-country ditches, in which the water flows at a uniform rate 
 over an equally uniform and undifferentiated bottom of sandy gravel. 
 
 These ditches were examined at several places (the first four sta- 
 tions) in order to ascertain what effect the dredging had upon the 
 mussels and other life in the headwaters of the river. The dredged 
 material, thrown up along the sides of the ditches, everywhere pre- 
 sented abundant evidence that mussels were formerly present in 
 considerable numbers. But the process of dredging, by throwing out 
 the living mollusks upon the land where the ditch coincided with the 
 old channel and by withdrawing the water from such portions of 
 the old channel as did not thus coincide, completely destroyed the 
 entire mussel fauna. There has been some restocking of the new 
 channels by ordinary natural methods, but the conditions have been 
 extremely unfavorable for such restoration. Our fresh-water Unio- 
 nidse are dependent upon small fish for their distribution and for 
 transportation into new regions like those created by this dredging. 
 At the last rebuilding of the dam at Plymouth no fishway was pro- 
 vided. Consequently, the only fish available, as well as the only 
 supply of glochidia, had to come from the short undredged space of 
 6 miles above the Plymouth dam and from such specimens as may 
 have escaped destruction during the dredging. Furthermore, the 
 reduction of the water channels to an absolutely uniform grade and 
 depth has proved very unfavorable to the spread of mussel life. The 
 constant shifting of the sand and soil along the bottom of the chan- 
 nel effectually prevents the young mussels from obtaining a stable 
 foothold anywhere. In the presence of such adverse conditions it 
 was remarkable to find any evidence of a restoration of the mussel 
 fauna. 
 
 This first station was near the town of Bremen, in the northeastern 
 corner of Marshall County; the ditch representing the middle fork 
 of Yellow River was 6 feet wide and the water was about 8 inches 
 deep at the center. There was no vegetation of any sort present, 
 and no fish or crawfish could be found for the distance of a mile 
 above the town. The bottom of the ditch was gravel or sand, kept 
 
8 MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 in constant motion by the swift current, The only trace of mussels 
 were the dead shells which had been dredged out of the old channel 
 and left high and dry along the sides of the ditch. 
 
 Station 2. Half a mile below (west of) Bremen. — The ditch had 
 been enlarged here to 10 feet in width, and the water was knee-deep 
 (22 inches) at the center, with a current fully 8 miles an hour. The 
 bottom was of sand over firm peat, and there was some vegetation in 
 the form of scattered patches of Ceratophyllum. This served to 
 prevent in places the constant motion of sediment along the bottom 
 and gave an opportunity for mussels to establish themselves. The 
 three specimens recorded were found alive and of fair size, and 
 there were more of the dead shells in the piles of clay along the 
 banks than at the previous station. 
 
 A number of Campeloma, Sphmrium, Planorbis, and Pisidium 
 shells were also found, which probably represented the inhabitants 
 of a swale that had been drained by the ditch. No fish or crawfish 
 were seen. The only mussels found were two " fat muckets " (Lamp- 
 silis luteolus) and one "floater" (Anodonta grandis). 
 
 Station 3. Junction of north and middle forks. — This junction 
 is about 2 miles west of Bremen and a few rods north of the Balti- 
 more & Ohio Railroad tracks. The north fork is much the larger 
 and its waters were very muddy, in strong contrast to those of the 
 middle fork. 
 
 No life at all, animal or vegetable, except a few young pike, 
 Lucius reticulatus, was found at this station. This was probably due 
 to the fact that the peat over a large area along both sides of the 
 forks and the main stream had been recently burned to a considerable 
 depth, changing the water, for the time being, into a sort of lye. 
 
 Station 4- Yellow River, 1 mile below station 3. — The ditch here 
 is 12 to 15 feet in width, and the water is 2 to 3 feet deep at the 
 center; the bottom is gravel and clay, firm and solid, with a slower 
 current, about 6 miles an hour. The ditch has been cut through 
 about 8 feet of blackish alluvial soil, and the water, in consequence, 
 is turbid. 
 
 There was no vegetation in the water, but we found a large num- 
 ber of mature crawfishes, Cambarus propinquus, and a few small 
 fishes which proved to be young pike. No mussels were found alive, 
 but there was an abundance of dead shells along the sides of the 
 ditch. 
 
 A short distance to the west of this station are two other dredged 
 ditches, running approximately parallel with the river. These are 
 known as the Bunch ditches and were dredged several years before 
 the river itself. They run into Bunch Creek, the first outlet of the 
 Lake of the Woods, and this creek empties into Yellow River 2 miles 
 farther south. Both ditches and the creek were examined for con- 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 9 
 
 siderable distances, but although fishes and crawfish appeared to 
 be abundant no live mussels could be found. The water in the 
 eastern ditch was quite black and there was considerable " ditch 
 moss" (Philotria) in scattered patches. A few small minnows, 
 Notropis whipplii, were found here, and a number of sunfish, Eupo- 
 motis gibbosus, were nesting in the crannies of a pile of rocks that 
 had been thrown into the edge of the ditch from the railroad. The 
 western ditch is shallower and cleaner; the water is yellow instead 
 of black, and quite clear. The bottom is a fine gravelly clay, well 
 adapted for mussel life, and many Cambarus propinquus were seen. 
 
 These facts seem to indicate that even after the conditions become 
 again favorable for mussels it still takes a long time to restore them 
 under natural conditions. In all probability the introduction of 
 small fish well infected with glochidia would materially hasten the 
 restoration of the mussel fauna here. 
 
 Station A. The Lake of the Woods. — This lake is situated in the 
 northeastern corner of Marshall County, 4 miles southwest of 
 Bremen. It is 1^ miles long and 1\ miles in extreme breadth; it is 
 oval in shape, with a fairly regular outline, except on the western 
 shore, where a broad bay increases the width by half a mile. It 
 formerly occupied a much larger area than at present, as is evidenced 
 by the distance from the present water's edge of an old shore line, 
 separated by a broad, sandy, level plain, once lake bottom. On 
 the eastern side large peat deposits extend north into St. Joseph 
 County and south to the line between North and Center Townships. 
 This latter southeast corner was the original outlet of the lake into 
 the Yellow River. 
 
 Through the drying up of the lake its area was diminished to 
 one-tenth of the original size. This reduced lake was bordered by 
 high and heavily wooded banks, except at the northeast and southeast 
 corners, and must have been a beautiful sheet of water, plentifully 
 supplied with all sorts of life, including mussels. But a ditch was 
 dug 50 or 60 j^ears ago from the northeast corner into the north fork 
 of the Yellow River and the lake level was reduced 4 feet. The 
 original shore, in places a high, picturesque, abrupt bank, covered 
 with large oak and cottonwoods, can still be seen from 500 to 1,000 
 feet back from the present beach. 
 
 Even this outlet, however, did not satisfy the farmers in the 
 vicinity and another ditch was dug 15 or 20 years ago from the 
 southwest corner of the lake, running south for a mile or more, then 
 turning east into the Yellow River. This lowered the lake again 
 from 2| to 3 feet and the second lake shore is also visible in many 
 places, covered with poplars and yellow birches. 
 
 By these two lowerings the lake has become little more than a 
 mud hole, fringed with reeds and rushes which grow far out into the 
 
10 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 water. In addition the bottom of the lake, wherever it can be seen, is 
 entirely covered with plants, Chara and Potamogeton. In following 
 around the entire lake margin only a single spot was found free from 
 this vegetation. Finally the water itself is filled with a suspended 
 plankton which is entirely vegetative, made up mostly of minute 
 alga? {Glathrocystis and Lyngbyd). 
 
 All the water plants are covered with a fuzzy growth of Meso- 
 carpus, which also forms in floating masses, and with the Clath- 
 rocystis collected in large curdlike lumps. Such a lake does not 
 afford good conditions for either fish or mussels and both were very 
 scarce. A careful examination of the entire margin of the lake 
 yielded only 7 specimens of the " fat mucket " (Lampsilis luteolus), 
 of which 5 were dead, 16 specimens of Anodonta grandis, 14 of 
 which were dead, and 1 dead Anodontoides ferussacianus subcylin- 
 draceus. As it was of interest to know the food and parasites of 
 mussels living under such conditions, the four live specimens were 
 examined, with the following results: In A. grandis, Atax was 
 abundant, with an occasional Cotylaspis. The distomid of Osborn * 
 was exceptionally abundant and made the nacre very rough, but 
 gave a dark discoloration instead of the usual salmon tint. The 
 stomachs yielded Glathrocystis and C celospherium in abundance with 
 some Pediastrum. In L. luteolus both marginal cysts and the dis- 
 tomid of Kelly were fairly abundant, with no other parasites. 
 Small pearls were found in the margin of one mantle and a small 
 dorsal baroque in the other specimen. The stomachs were filled with 
 Glathrocystis and Cosmarium well fused into a dark gritty mass. 
 
 Station 5. Above the dam at Plymouth. — This dam was built 60 
 years ago, but has been washed out and rebuilt several times, the 
 last time without any fishway. It backs the water up the river 
 about 4 miles ; this dead water and the river for 2 miles above were 
 thoroughly examined, as well as the side lagoons, which are common 
 along the dead water. The center of the dead water was too deep 
 for wading and there were so many snags it was impossible to 
 dredge it. Elsewhere the mussels were widely scattered and not 
 many were found alive. In some places the banks were too soft and 
 miry, in others too hard and solid for mussels, and it was only the 
 infrequent spots between the two that jdelded any returns. 
 
 On examining the mussels for parasites the following were found : 
 In L. luteolus there were many cysts along the mantle margin and 
 the distomid of Kelly was fairly abundant. In many of the speci- 
 mens there were small pearls and in some of them dorsal baroques. 
 In A. grandis, Atax was the most common parasite, with a few 
 
 1 This name is applied to a distomid which was found by Prof. Osborn to be the cause 
 of salmon discoloration in Anodonta grandis J investigations undertaken since the above 
 was written lead to the belief that the dislomid in question, which produces a chocolate 
 instead of a salmon-colored stain, is of a different species. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 11 
 
 Cotylaspis. The distomid of Osborn was abundant, producing a 
 dark discoloration and rough nacre like that found at the Lake of 
 the Woods. 
 
 Station 6. Below the dam at Plymouth. — This station offered a 
 pleasing contrast to the preceding. The water was shallow, the 
 maximum depth being 2 feet, the bottom was firm sand and gravel, 
 and the current was about 3 or 4 miles an hour. From the dam to 
 the mill race we found good collecting ; below there the river became 
 deeper and there were not as many mussels. 
 
 Of the specimens obtained one small L. ventricosus had a very 
 thin shell with pink nacre; A. imbecillis was quite common and five 
 were obtained that were gravid; one L. parvus was also found 
 gravid; a few L. iris and large A. calceola were found along the 
 shore. 
 
 In addition to the mussels collected by the authors here, Mr. 
 Aaron Greenwaldt, who had collected shells from the river for the 
 State Geological Survey, presented the Bureau of Fisheries a beauti- 
 ful collection of 125 shells very perfectly cleaned and kept with the 
 two valves tied together. For this valuable present the authors 
 here return sincere thanks. The collection included the following 
 species, the number of specimens being given after each : Q. coccinea, 
 16; Q. rubiginosa, 6; Q. pustulosa, 3; Q. undulata (from above the 
 dam), 6; S. costata, 12; S. compressa, 7; A. imbecillis, 1; S. eden- 
 tulus, 2; A. grandis, 10; L. iris, 6; L. luteolus, 20; L. ventricosus, 
 21 ; U. gibbosus, 15. 
 
 Of the small fishes obtained at this station the straw-colored min- 
 now (Notropis blennius), chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) , and 
 Johnny darter (Boleosoma nigrum) were particularly abundant and 
 many of each species were put back into the river. A consider- 
 able number of the young straw bass (Micropterus salmoides) and 
 grass pike (Esox vermiculatus) were also caught, but only one or 
 two samples were kept. We were told there was a severe attack of 
 the " pearl fever " here during the previous year and that the boys 
 brought out and examined mussels by the barrel without material 
 results. If so, they must have disposed of the shells, since none were 
 found except a single pile, containing about a ton and a half, a short 
 distance below the dam. 
 
 Station B. Pretty Lake. — Pretty Lake, situated 3 miles southwest 
 of Plymouth, is a typical glacial kettle hole, nearly circular in out- 
 line and about half a mile in diameter. The water is remarkably 
 clear and has a fine greenish tint, like that of Lake Maxinkuckee. 
 
 It is fed by springs, the entire northeastern shore being covered 
 with them, and at present has no outlet. There is a single inlet at 
 the northwest corner which is a dry run most of the time, but the 
 presence of a large gravel delta testifies that at times it discharges 
 
12 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN". 
 
 considerable water into the lake. There is an old outlet at the south- 
 east corner of the lake, which formerly drained into the Yellow 
 River. Although the mouth is closed by a sand bar, the water in 
 the lake occasionally rises high enough to overflow this and run into 
 the river. The bottom of the lake is firm sand and gravel, and the 
 shores slope off rapidly into deep water, the depth being 40 feet 
 at the center. 
 
 It is a very clean lake and in this respect presents a marked con- 
 trast to the Lake of the Woods. For vegetation pickerel weed 
 (Pontederia) was common around the shores, the largest patch being 
 along the northern margin. The broad-leaved pondweed (Potamoge- 
 ton amplifolius) and Robbins's pondweed (P. robbinsii) were found 
 in large patches, and Char a, probably fcetida, was also common. 
 There were plenty of white water lilies but no spatterdock (Nym- 
 phcea). Great patches of ditch moss (Philotria) , considerable wild 
 celery (Vallisneria) and hornwort (Ceratophyllum) , and some 
 Naias, Cladophora, bladder wort ( Utricularia) , and Decodon, and in 
 one place some Nostoc were found in shallow water. The water tem- 
 perature at the surface near the center of the lake was 79° F. ; the 
 plankton was very light, containing no vegetation and but a few 
 water fleas {Gladocera). 
 
 A careful examination of the entire margin of the lake yielded 
 eight specimens of L. luteolus, widely scattered, and a half dozen A. 
 grandis. The mussels were too far apart to breed well and all were 
 stunted in size and peculiarly fragile at the hinge. 
 
 For food the stomachs of the A. grandis contained one Cosmarium, 
 two or three C celosphceriums, a few Clathrocystis, and one Ascaris. 
 In the L. luteolus Avere found one Anuraia and a little Clathrocystis 
 mixed in a dark gritty mass. Here where the mussels are nearly 
 starved they seem to digest well. (It is common where food is 
 abundant to find undigested organisms at the posterior end of the 
 mussel's intestine, but such was not the case here.) 
 
 Station 7. Yellow River at Hibbard. — The water of the river 
 here was perfectly clear and had a maximum depth of 3 feet. The 
 bottom was of fine sand, coarse gravel, and here and there a mud 
 bar, particularly along the shore. The current was rather slow, not 
 more than 2^ miles an hour, and the temperature was 78° F. 
 
 For vegetation there were lodged masses of alga?, some Cladoplwra, 
 and patches of the river pondweed {Potam-ogeton fluitans) and 
 aquatic moss. There were also many small sponges scattered over 
 the rocky parts of the bottom. A large number of young black bass, 
 some Johnny darters (Boleosoma nigrum), and a few black-sided 
 darters (Tladropterus aspro) were found on the mussel beds. Only 
 a few mussels were found in the muddy places, chiefly U. gibbosus, 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 13 
 
 A. grandis, and L. ligamentinus. None occurred in the shifting sand, 
 but where the sand was firmly packed and among the rocks they were 
 placed almost as thick as they could lie. L. ventricosus and U. 
 gibbosus were most abundant and occurred in about equal numbers. 
 The ventricosus were all upright, the tips pointed upstream, and 
 the entire mussel buried with the exception of the large brown 
 siphons. The gibbosus were more active, moving about in every 
 direction, and often found lying flat on one side. S. costata was also 
 very common and when buried, with only the crinkled edge showing, 
 was easily mistaken for undulata. A single L. rectus was found 
 lying upon its back and spawning. Nearly all the costata also were 
 gravid, and most of them contained one or more dorsal baroques, 
 yellowish in color. The Q. coccinea nearly all had pink nacre. 
 
 The shells obtained at this station were of large size, particularly 
 the pocketbooks (L. ventricosus), and of excellent luster. And it 
 is certain that a qualitative examination would show them to be as 
 valuable as any obtained during the entire summer. 
 
 Station 8. Yellow River at Burr Oak. — This is the station where 
 the boat and outfit were launched for the trip down the river. The 
 conditions were identical with those at Hibbard, except that the 
 current was a little swifter — 4 miles an hour. Potamageton natans, 
 Cladophora, and Tetraspora were found in patches on the mussel 
 beds. As before, the mussels were found mostly in the gravel and 
 hard sand and were completely buried, except the siphons. Many 
 of the ventricosus and some of the gibbosus were spawning and it 
 was noticeable that the small fishes, especially Notropis blennius, 
 B oleosoma, and Semotilus, which were the ones most abundant, kept 
 playing about near the spawning mussels. 
 
 Station 9. County Line Bridge, 4- miles west of Burr Oak. — This 
 was a broad, pond-like stretch of river, with a sluggish current, 
 plenty of spatterdock and white water lilies, a bottom of hard mud 
 and fine gravel, and banks of seepy blue clay. 
 
 Not many mussels were collected here — just enough to show that 
 they were still scattered plentifully along the river bottom. 
 
 Station 10. Zinc Bridge at Ober. — The water was shallower than 
 at the preceding station, with a maximum depth of only 2 feet, and 
 a current of 5 miles an hour ; the other conditions were the same. 
 
 The mussels were thickly scattered everywhere, with especially 
 dense beds along the shore. The small fish were again noticed play- 
 ing about in the immediate vicinity of the spawning mussels. 
 
 L. ventricosus has a habit of moving its bright yellow siphon 
 fringes, which are much enlarged during spawning, back and forth 
 in the water. This undulatory motion seems to attract the small 
 darters and minnows, particularly Notropis blennius, which could 
 
14 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 K e seen darting in toward the fringes repeatedly. It also probably 
 assists in furnishing fresh water for the respiration of the young 
 mussels. 
 
 At intervals during the undulations small numbers of glochidia 
 are discharged from the brood chambers of the mussel and carried 
 out of the excurrent aperture. These glochidia are of the hookless 
 type, and must be taken into the mouth of the fish that is to carry 
 them during their parasitic period. We can thus understand the 
 advantage of attracting these fish and keeping them in the immediate 
 vicinity during the discharge of the glochidia. 
 
 Since this is the last station before the dredged portion, which 
 includes all the remainder of the Yellow River, we may summarize 
 the results. 
 
 This stretch of river from Plymouth to Ober, a distance of 20 
 miles or more, forms an ideal breeding ground for mussels. The 
 natural conditions are exactly suited to mussel life; there are the 
 right kinds of river bottom, plenty of lime and food in the water, 
 and a current of fairly uniform velocity; the water is kept reasona- 
 bly cool by the springs and brooks which flow into the river, and 
 there are plenty of small fish to distribute the glochidia. 
 
 The river is already well stocked with mussels whose shells are far 
 above the average in size and quality, as can be readily seen by refer- 
 ence to the table of values given on page 39. Furthermore, these 
 mussels are not irregularly distributed in small patches, but form a 
 single bed which is practically continuous for the entire 20 miles. 
 With such natural resources it would be a very easy matter to keep 
 the river stocked with mussels that would yield the farmers a far 
 better revenue than any of the swamp land found in the immediate 
 vicinity. A judicious use of the supply already at hand, selecting the 
 larger mussels and leaving the smaller ones unharmed for further 
 development, and replenishing the stock regularly by introducing 
 small fish richly infested with glochidia, would insure ample returns 
 for a long series of years. 
 
 The new mussel hatchery just started at Fairport, Iowa, will be able 
 to supply the fish carrying glochidia. Furthermore, the proved 
 quality of the mussels, particularly L. ventricosus and L. ligramentinus. 
 would make of this a profitable region from which to obtain glochidia 
 for supplying that same hatchery. The railroad facilities at Ply- 
 mouth, Hibbard, Ober, and Knox are all that could be desired, and 
 there is no trouble in navigating the river between these points in 
 an ordinary rowboat, as was proved beyond question by the present 
 expedition. 
 
 Station- 11. Old bed of Yellow River below Ober. — No greater con- 
 trast could well be imagined than that which was actually pre- 
 sented between the strip of river just described and that same river 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 15 
 
 bed from Ober to where it empties into the Kankakee, all of which 
 has been artificially dredged. The dredged portion begins 1 mile 
 west of Ober, and since the sole aim of the contractors was to cover 
 the greatest possible distance at the least expense, irrespective of 
 natural scenery, animal and vegetable life in the river, or in fact any- 
 thing else, they did not follow the old winding channel, but cut across 
 country in a straight line, which intersected the old bed at various 
 places. This dredged part is of nearly uniform depth, from 1 to 3 
 feet, with a flat bottom of sand and gravel, which the swift current 
 washes up into ripple marks, zigzagging across the entire width of 
 the river. The current is uniform from 4^ to 6 miles an hour and 
 keeps the finer sediment in constant motion along the bottom, thus 
 forming an effectual barrier againt mussel life. Hence, although 
 this stretch has been dredged eight years, and there was an abundant 
 mussel fauna in the old channel, which was not killed off except in 
 limited areas, and which might easily have established itself in a 
 much shorter time in the new channel if the conditions had been 
 favorable, practically no progress has been made in that direction. 
 
 An occasional L. ventricosus was found alive in the dredged chan- 
 nel, together with shells of Q. rubiginosa, L. iris, L. ligarroentinus, L. 
 luteolus, etc., which had recently died (probably washed in from the 
 old channel). 
 
 No real restocking can be expected until the bottom gets thor- 
 oughly solidified, packed down so that it will not wash along con- 
 tinually, and until at least some breaks in the current are formed 
 similar to those in the old channel. 
 
 All the mussels found in this long stretch of 20 miles were ob- 
 tained from the old channel, and it was very interesting to see how 
 completely they had accommodated themselves to the changed condi- 
 tions. Instead of a good current running over a sandy or gravelly 
 bottom and keeping everything clear and clean, we now find lagoons 
 and bayous in which the water is practically motionless except during 
 floods. 
 
 Consequently, they are rich in algae and other water plants, and 
 the firm bottom has been covered with soft mud and in many places 
 with fine ooze, 2 feet or more in depth. And jet the mussels have 
 remained, Q. pustulosa being the only one killed off to any extent. 
 The others have succeeded in climbing up on top of the mud and 
 ooze as fast as it was deposited. Even the large and heavy rectus, 
 ventricosus, and undulata are found on the very top. How such an 
 unwieldly bulk as a full grown undulata can move about and actu- 
 ally lift itself up through mud so soft that it will not hold up an 
 empty shell is difficult to understand. But the undoubted fact re- 
 mains that they actually accomplish it. A noticeable peculiarity of 
 all these lagoon mussels was the presence of a large tuft of growing 
 21432°— 12 2 
 
16 MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 alga? around the siphonal (upper) end of the shell. These would be 
 a manifest aid in oxygenating the stagnant water in which the 
 mussels live, and might also be of assistance in keeping them on 
 top of the mud, just as webs of gossamer keep spiders suspended 
 high in air and enable them to perform aerial journeys. 
 
 Of the mussels found luteolus was far the most common; then 
 came ventricosus, undulata, and rectus, in the order named. Many 
 of the luteolus and ventricosus and one rubiginosa were gravid. 
 Atax ypsilophorus was found in nearly all the species and was espe- 
 cially common in luteolus, ventricosus, and edentubus, and many of 
 the eggs and young were found in the mantle. All of the rectus 
 shells had a deep pink nacre, as did also one ventricosus and one 
 ligamentinus. Both of the imhecillis found were gravid and were 
 imbedded perpendicularly in the mud, with the siphons pointing 
 straight upward, a very unusual position for that species. 
 
 The minnows and darters were abundant on the mussel beds, as is 
 shown by the list of those obtained. Notropis blennius and Bole- 
 osoma nigrum- were most in evidence and could be found every- 
 where, while the others were more scattered. 
 
 Only a few mussels were collected below Knox, and they have 
 been recorded with the others from the old river channel. With 
 the account of the Twin Lakes which follows, this concludes the 
 investigations on the Yellow River. 
 
 Station C. The Twin Lakes. — These " twins " are really four in 
 number, grouped near the center of the western third of Marshall 
 County in two pairs, separated by the Vandalia Railroad. The 
 eastern pair are elongated in a northwest and southeast direction and 
 lie in the same straight line. The eastern and smaller one is Lorance 
 Lake, about 80 rods in length and width. It is separated from the 
 larger lake by a stream 50 rods in length. The larger is called 
 Meyer's or East Lake and is a mile in length and about 40 rods 
 wide. The western pair on the other side of the railroad are elon- 
 gated at right angles to the others, or in a northeast and southwest 
 direction, and they lie side by side with their long diameters parallel. 
 The northern, larger one is Cook or Northwest Lake, and is the 
 same size as Meyer's. The southern one is Holem or Southwest 
 Lake and is about three-quarters of a mile long and 30 rods wide. 
 It is separated from Cook Lake by a narrow ridge of gravel, 15 to 
 20 feet high and 200 to 300 feet in width. 
 
 Lorance Lake empties into Meyer's through the short brook men- 
 tioned. Meyer's runs under the Vandalia Railroad track into Cook; 
 Holem also drains into Cook from its southwestern end and Cook 
 delivers the drainage of all four lakes into Eagle Creek, which 
 empties into the Yellow River just above Knox. All the lakes are 
 very shallow, the maximum depth being under 20 feet, and the area 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 17 
 
 drained into them is limited. In general, they are surrounded by 
 high banks of clay with only a little sand and gravel. They are 
 fed largely by springs, nearly the whole shore line being marshy, 
 with only a few bits of sandy beach. 
 
 Three of the lakes, Lorance, Meyer's, and Cook, were carefully 
 examined for mussels ; nothing was found in the one first mentioned ; 
 the other two yielded returns as follows: 
 
 East Lake (Meyer's) is considerably the shallower and warmer 
 of the two; the bottom is a firm sandy marl, with scattered patches 
 of Chara and Potamogeton, while the shores were fringed with pick- 
 erel weed, water lilies, reeds, bulrushes, and similar vegetation. The 
 mussels were rather widely scattered, but formed beds where they 
 did occur. Only two species were found, Anodonta grandis and 
 Lampsilis subrostratus, the former in far greater abundance than the 
 latter. The subrostratus yielded no parasites at alL the grandis 
 were fairly loaded with them, every specimen yielding large numbers. 
 They included At ax of several species, prominent among which was 
 a rather small, deep-red one, Cotylaspis, marginal cysts, and the 
 distomid of Osborn. The cysts of the marginal distomid were 
 especially abundant and number hundreds in many of the specimens, 
 while one must have had fully a thousand. The distomid of Osborn 
 formed great pink patches under the umbo and tinged nearly all 
 the shells with a reddish salmon color. 
 
 Northwest Lake (Cook) is deeper and the water was clearer and 
 colder. Like East Lake the bottom is a firm sandy marl, covered 
 in many places with Chara. The shallow water along the shore 
 was one solid mass of reeds, bulrushes, and lily pads. The mussels 
 were widely scattered and the same two species were found as in 
 East Lake, with the addition of L. luteolus. As before, grandis was 
 much the more common; the older examples were found with their 
 shells high out of the sand, just enough being buried to hold them 
 in place. The younger examples were more deeply buried. Many 
 small fishes were seen upon the mussel beds ; they included Notropis 
 blennius, Fundulus dispar, and the young of Lepomis pallidus and 
 E rimy 3 on sucetta. 
 
 Samples of plankton were secured from the clear water in the 
 center of the lake at a depth of 8 feet. There were found five 
 species of copepods, most of them covered with Vorticella^ small 
 pink water mites, Daphnia, a few nauplii, Lyngbya, minute Spiro- 
 gyra, Anurcea cochlearis, Ceratium hirudinella, Fragillaria eroton- 
 ensis, and Anabcena. This was the richest plankton obtained during 
 the summer, and yet the water appeared perfectly clear. 
 
 On examining the mussels they were found to be as badly in- 
 fested with parasites as those of East Lake, but here the Atax and 
 Cotylaspis were far more numerous, and there were not as many 
 
18 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 cysts. Some specimens contained 30 or more of the adult para- 
 sites, besides innumerable young swarming over the gills or the 
 mantle. 
 
 The bed of mussels along the center of the north shore gave a 
 remarkably fine opportunity to study the activities of the mussels 
 in the natural beds, as the perfectly clear, calm water enabled one 
 plainly to see them carrying on their life processes. The species 
 examined was the Anodonta grandis of the lake, a plump, inflated 
 form which probably represents the subspecies footiana. 
 
 The inhalent aperture was very large, black exteriorly and for 
 some distance in. It was possible to look in far enough to see the 
 gills. Long papillae in approximately a single row project directly 
 across and nearly to the center of the siphonal opening; most are 
 single, but a few may be forked. The incoming current of the mussel 
 is not nearly as strong as the outgoing, since the latter has a much 
 smaller cross-section for the same amount of water. Minute red 
 water mites ventured to the very orifice of the inhalent aperture but 
 were not swept in, while small objects coming near the exhalent 
 opening would be driven away with some force. 
 
 The exhalent opening was black for some distance in, then faded 
 out to white. It was possible to see the posterior opening of the 
 alimentary canal and the water-tubes running down into the gills 
 of the living mussel. These mussels were quite apathetic; they did 
 not close up at near approach, which must have caused both shock 
 of waves and shadow. One, taken from the bed, closed only for a 
 moment, then opened and began feeding while held in the hand. 
 River mussels in general are more sensitive, and sometimes close 
 when simply a shadow passes. 
 
 Station 12. Potato Creek, Kankakee River. — Having finished the 
 workable portion of Yellow River, our attention was next directed 
 to the headwaters of the main Kankakee. 
 
 At its source this river forks like the Yellow River, the west fork 
 rising in the Fish Lakes^ the east fork in the swamp southwest of 
 South Bend. We found conditions here similar to those at the head- 
 waters of Yellow River, but with this difference: While the east 
 fork and the main river have been dredged recently down to the 
 entrance of the Yellow River and about 10 miles beyond, many of 
 the tributary creeks have been left in their original conditions; and 
 since the west fork has been dredged only here and there, the Fish 
 Lakes., at its source, remain practically unchanged. We were thus 
 able to combine in our examination natural with artificial conditions, 
 and we found an even stronger contrast between the two. 
 
 This entire section was worked by short drives from Walkerton, 
 in the extreme southwest corner of St. Joseph County, since it was 
 
mussel fauna of the kankakee basin. 19 
 
 impracticable to row up against the swift current in the dredged 
 Kankakee above its junction with Yellow River. 
 
 Naturally we examined first those portions in which the condi- 
 tions had been least changed. Potato Creek is the southernmost of 
 several large creeks which empty into the east fork of the Kankakee, 
 and lies just north of Walkerton. The bed of the creek is hard 
 sand or gravel, and, being undredged, it still preserves those alter- 
 nations of swift and sluggish current, deep and shallow water, 
 coarse and fine bottom, which are conducive to mussel life. 
 
 We found in it nine species of mussels, nowhere very thickly 
 bedded, but as many, perhaps, as would be expected in a creek of 
 the size, it being 8 or 10 feet wide, with the water nowhere more 
 than a foot or a foot and a half in depth. On examining these 
 mussels, the Anodontoides and the Anodonta were found infested 
 with Atax parasites and the distomid of Osborn; the other mussels 
 were free. 
 
 Station 13. Pine and Yellowoanks Greeks. — These are two other 
 creeks of about the same size as Potato Creek and lying to the north 
 of Walkerton. But, although they presented conditions apparently 
 as favorable as those of the last station and were examined for long 
 distances on either side of the highway, not a single mussel could be 
 found in them, nor any dead shells, with the exception of one valve 
 of Symphynota compressa in Yellowbanks Creek. 
 
 Station D. The Fish Lakes. — These lakes really occupy a single 
 lake basin which is divided by narrow channels into four bodies of 
 water, known as the Upper Mud Lake, Upper Fish Lake, Lower 
 Fish Lake, and Lower Mud Lake, respectively. The two Fish Lakes 
 have each an area of about 100 acres and a maximum depth of 40 
 feet. The thoroughfare between them is 80 rods long and 15 or 20 
 feet wide, with a maximum depth of 2 feet, and has a good current. 
 The water in both of the lakes and the thoroughfare was clear and 
 quite warm. The bottom was marl, hard and firm in most places, 
 but very soft in a few spots. The shallow belt along the shore is 
 narrow, as a rule, though wider and more irregular in the Lower 
 Lake than in the Upper. The banks are high about halfway around 
 each of the lakes, but low and swampy for the other half, where 
 in each case it borders on the respective Mud Lake. There was the 
 usual lake vegetation around the shores — reeds, rushes, spatterdocks, 
 and some algae. 
 
 Mussels were found abundantly everywhere. A. grandis was the 
 most common and was found everywhere mingled with the other 
 species. Most of the specimens were exceptionally large. Their 
 shells were also thick and strong; in fact, many of them possessed 
 shells of sufficient thickness for the manufacture of buttons. 
 
20 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 L. luteolus was fairly abundant, and, instead of the usual dwarfed 
 specimens found in lakes, these were fully as large as any obtained 
 in the Yellow or Kankakee Rivers. 
 
 L. subrostratus was sparingly distributed, only 20 specimens being 
 found, but each of these had large shells for the species, with an ex- 
 ceptionally thick white nacre. 
 
 A few Unio gibbosus were found in shallow water close to the 
 shore. 
 
 A large number of dead shells of Q. undulata were scattered about 
 over the bottom, and at one spot in the Upper Lake a colony of living- 
 examples was found. This is the first instance in our experience 
 of finding this species in a lake, although Call reports it as fairly 
 common in the lakes of northern Indiana. The shells were all fully 
 as large and of as fine quality as those found in the rivers. A single 
 live specimen of L. iris was found near the shore, one of L. glans, and 
 one of A. imbecillis. All these mussels were well incrusted with 
 marl, but the size of the shells and the healthy appearance of most 
 of the specimens indicate that the conditions are at least very 
 favorable. 
 
 A. grandis was as plentifully distributed in the thoroughfare 
 between the lakes as over the lake bottom, but the other species were 
 not found there. 
 
 The two Mud Lakes, as their names indicate, had a bottom of soft 
 black muck and contained no mussels. 
 
 On the way back to Walkerton another Mud Lake on the east fork 
 of the river, and into which Potato Creek empties, was visited. But 
 the lake has been practically all drained by the dredging of the 
 river and what is left was so black and swampy that it was not 
 deemed worth examining. 
 
 The mussels from the Fish Lakes yielded an abundance of Atax 
 parasites, some Cotylaspis, and many of the distomid of Osborn. 
 The exceptional size and thickness of the shells of all the species is 
 worthy of notice. 
 
 Station 14. Kankakee River at Davis, Ind. — The old bed of the 
 river was examined close to the bridge of the Pittsburgh Division 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The same conditions were repeated 
 here as in the dredged portion of the Yellow River below Ober. 
 There was too swift a current and too much moving sand for the 
 mussels to obtain a foothold in the dredged channel, but the old bed 
 of the river was full of them. In this latter locality the hard sandy 
 bottom had been overlaid with 1 or 2 feet of soft black mud, brought 
 down during the freshets and deposited in the quiet water of these 
 lagoons. 
 
 The mussels were even more numerous than in the old bed of the 
 Yellow River, three or four being often obtained in a single square 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 21 
 
 foot of the mud. These mussels also usually had a large mass of 
 algse attached to their upper ends and forming a sort of funnel in 
 the water. Whatever may be the effect of the supporting power 
 of the algse in the mud, the two furnish a good example of sym- 
 biosis. The mussel supplies the alga with a place of attachment, 
 otherwise lacking, and in return the alga helps to purify and 
 oxygenate the water for the mussel. 
 
 Q. undulata was by far the most common species, there being two 
 of them to every one of all the other kinds. No adult Atax parasites 
 were found in this species, but the mantles of many of them con- 
 tained clusters of the eggs. 
 
 Each of the Q. pustulosa (75 specimens in all) contained from 
 several to a large number of adult Atax, besides clusters of eggs in 
 the mantle, and young in various stages of development, swarming 
 over the gills. Q. coccinea contained no parasites at all, and the 
 nacre of all but two of them was white and would make excellent 
 buttons. L. ventricosus had an abundance of young Atax in the 
 mantle and on the gills, and many of them had dorsal baroques. 
 
 L. rectus showed anywhere from 10 to 20 adult Atax in each speci- 
 men, besides plenty of young and an occasional Gotylaspis. A mar- 
 ginal baroque was found in one, and the nacre of all was a deep 
 purple. None of the other species contained parasites. 
 
 Station 15. Kankakee River at the crossing of the Nickel Plate 
 Railroad. — Just above the railroad bridge is a large island with the 
 old channel to the west of it and the newly dredged one to the east. 
 The water runs through this old channel oftener than at the previous 
 station, so that only a few inches of mud have been deposited. The 
 mussels were very abundant here, forming the largest and most 
 densely populated bed found anywhere in the old channel of either 
 river. There was much driftwood buried in the mud along the west 
 bank of this old channel, and the mussels were clustered around the 
 twigs and branches as thickly as they could stand, seeming to get 
 some support from these solid objects. 
 
 Farther up behind the island the water was shallower and there 
 was a perceptible current and no mud. Here the mussels were 
 actively moving about, and as the water was clear they could readily 
 be found. 
 
 On examination, none but the Q. pustulosa contained any parasites, 
 but these had enough to compensate for any lack in the others. 
 Every specimen was infested, and it was not at all uncommon to 
 find 50 or 60 adult Atax, besides the eggs and young, in a single 
 mussel. Many of these mussels contained small pearls and some of 
 them dorsal baroques. 
 
 The Q. coccinea, again, had white nacre, none of the rosy nacred 
 being found, and being at the same time large and flat, furnished 
 
22 MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN". 
 
 excellent material for buttons. (See values, p. 39.) The L. rectus, on 
 the contrary, were not merely pink, but nearly all of them were 
 deep purple. 
 
 The small fishes seined on these mussel beds furnish a good sample 
 of those to be found in the upper part of the Kankakee River. 
 Boleosoma nigrum was by far the most common, with Notropis 
 blennius second in abundance. Notropis heterodon was common and 
 easily recognized by its dark lateral stripe and black chin. We also 
 obtained five examples of Ericymba buccata. 
 
 Station E. Koontz Lake. — This lake is situated in the extreme 
 northeastern corner of Starke County, Ind. It is shaped like a 
 three-leafed clover, the middle leaflet considerably the largest, and 
 the whole lake covers 200 or more acres. The outlet is at the south- 
 west end, where a stone dam has been built, 10 feet high and wide 
 enough to accommodate a carriage road across its top. This outlet, 
 called at first Cedar Creek, runs west into Robbins ditch, where 
 it is joined by other ditches and becomes 40 or 50 feet wide, or 
 nearly the size of the Kankakee itself, and empties into that river 
 a couple of miles above the mouth of Yellow River and about the 
 same distance below station 15. The outlet was examined for a mile 
 west of the lake but yielded only a single L. luteolus. 
 
 The lake is in a large measure artificial, being formed by back- 
 water from the dam. It has a hard sandy or gravel bottom and the 
 shallow water around the shore is filled with rushes and lily pads, 
 while the bottom itself is covered with Chora and Potamogeton, and 
 so does not afford good localities for mussels. In a few places, how- 
 ever, the bottom is of clear sand and here A. grandis and L. luteolus 
 were found in considerable abundance, and a few Q. rubiginosa. 
 
 These mussels were all of good size and quality for lake shells. 
 No adult Atax were found in the A. grandis, but the eggs and 
 young were abundant. Adult Atax species were found in all the 
 luteolus, in addition to eggs and young. No parasites were present 
 in rubiginosa. 
 
 Station 16. Kankakee at mouth of Yellow River. — Since being 
 dredged this part of the Kankakee is called the Sisbro ditch. The 
 old channel of the river crosses the ditch here and is available on 
 both sides. 
 
 To the north we found a rather deep pool with a solid bottom 
 and only a little mud and containing a large number of minnows and 
 darters. Here we obtained only a few shells, chiefly undulata and 
 luteolus with some coccinea and pustulosa. Farther down where the 
 old channel crossed to the south there was running water, shallow 
 in depth, with a firm sandy bottom in places and mud elsewhere. 
 Here the mussels were exceedingly active, and nearly all were found 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 23 
 
 at the end of long tracks that looped and turned upon themselves. 
 Some Oscillatoria was found growing on the quieter shells. 
 
 Three or four miles farther down the river the old channel crossed 
 the ditch again. Here in the deeper parts of the pools the mussels 
 fairly touched one another. A pearler had been working on these 
 mussels and had left a couple of large piles of freshly killed shells 
 on the bank. 
 
 Along this stretch of river we obtained the first good evidence that 
 the mussels are reestablishing themselves in the dredged channels. 
 Living specimens were fairly common near the shore. 
 
 This part of the river was once the bottom of English Lake, a 
 marshy overflow from the Kankakee, 10 or 12 miles long, 2 or 3 in 
 width, and of shallow depth. It was filled with algse of all kinds, 
 reeds, rushes, water lilies, and an abundance of wild rice, and formed 
 a natural breeding ground for thousands of waterfowl. It must 
 have fairly swarmed with mussels, to judge from the dead shells of 
 those thrown out by the dredge and the large numbers still found 
 alive in every portion of the old channel that contains water. The 
 dredging has entirely drained the lake and it is now a straight cross- 
 country ditch, with the mussels gradually repopulating it. The con- 
 ditions here are much more favorable than in the Yellow Eiver, and 
 a little artificial restocking would restore the mussel fauna in a few 
 years. 
 
 On cleaning the mussel shells we found them an interesting lot. 
 The L. luteolus were all more or less blistered and steel-colored at 
 the tips of the valves, and frequently the whole shell was curiously 
 roughened. They yielded many small pearls, all located near the 
 tip of the mantle in the region of the siphons. And they usually 
 had a number of young Atax crowded around the exhalent orifice. 
 So far as our experience goes this is a rather unusual position for 
 young Atax. Their ordinary situation is along the lips of the in- 
 halent aperture. Q. pustulosa also contained many Atax, but they 
 were not as numerous as at station 15. Four of the Q. coccinea had 
 white nacre and all the L. rectus were pink instead of the deep 
 purple of those farther up the river. Parasites were also found 
 occasionally in L. ventricosus, L. ligarnentinus, and Q. undulata. A 
 few of the ventricosus and luteolus were gravid or beginning to 
 become so. 
 
 Station F. Bass Lake, Starke County, Ind. — This lake is fourth 
 in size among the Indiana lakes and covers an area of 2| square miles. 
 It lies in the southeastern part of the county, about 6 miles south of 
 Knox. It is somewhat boot-shaped, the leg portion elongated 
 northeast and southwest, the foot portion at right angles to this. It 
 occupies a shallow basin on the top of a morainic ridge and more 
 than half of its area is 5 feet or under in depth; the maximum 
 
24 MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 depth is 32 feet. The greater part of the shore line is low and 
 marshy, and the water is filled with a dense growth of reeds and 
 rushes. The bottom is sand or blue and sticky clay, interspersed with 
 extensive muck beds, the latter giving rise to a luxuriant growth of 
 aquatic vegetation. The sand and clay are also covered with algre, 
 among which is Chara. Potamogeton is also common. In fact the 
 lake flora is richly developed at the expense of the fauna. At present 
 the lake has no outlet or natural inlet, but is fed entirely by springs. 
 The old outlet, however, now so filled that water runs through it only 
 occasionally, was to the west, emptying into the Kankakee about 3 
 miles below station 16. Dwarfed L. luteolus were fairly common in 
 the gravelly sand close to the shore, and there was a large bed of 
 them around a point which juts out into the lake from the eastern 
 shore, Cranberry Point. A few A. grandis were also found. Both 
 species were infested with Atax parasites, but not in large numbers, 
 and in addition Cotylaspis and the distomid of Osborn were present 
 in A. grandis. This lake had been examined in 1906, and a number 
 of Anodontas obtained near the ice houses and Lampsilis luteolus on 
 the opposite shore. 
 
 Station 17. Kankakee River, Riverside, Ind. — On the way down 
 from English Lake to Riverside small piles of mussel shells that had 
 been left by pearlers were frequently found. Here the mussels have 
 fully reestablished themselves in the dredged portion of the river, 
 and the steep banks just under the water were well lined with L. 
 luteolus. 
 
 Just above Riverside the dredged ridge along the north bank of 
 the river held back a small pond covered with Euglena in a portion 
 of the old channel. This was nearly filled with soft mud and con- 
 tained but few mussels, though there were plenty of dead shells along 
 the bank. On this stretch of river there was a marked increase in 
 the number of ligamentinus and ventricosus. All the shells found 
 were large and of excellent quality. 
 
 Station 18. Burrow's Camp to Bamn's Bridge. — The dredged 
 portion of the river stopped at the last station and we now entered 
 the genuine Kankakee swamps. The sides of the river were low and 
 boggy but heavily wooded for a short distance back from shore. The 
 bottom we found to be firmly packed sand, admirable for wading, 
 and there was a current of 4 miles an hour. 
 
 Mussels were plentiful along the shore wherever the bottom could 
 be seen, and we wadecl often enough to show that they continued into 
 the deeper water. There were occasional piles on the banks, left by 
 fishermen and pearlers, and in one of the shells thus left a small pearl 
 was found. But only one of the live luteolus yielded pearls, a much 
 smaller percentage than farther up the river. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 25 
 
 Every specimen of pustulosa was infested with Atax parasites and 
 most of them contained dorsal baroques. The ventricosus specimens 
 contained both Atax and Cotylaspis; two of them were gravid and 
 one had two dorsal baroques. The single A. grandis was the first one 
 found in the Kankakee River. 
 
 Station 19. BaurrCs Bridge. — Just below the bridge is a clubhouse 
 belonging to the Crawfordsville Club. We stopped over night with 
 Mr. George Wilcox, the keeper of the clubhouse, who, besides enter- 
 taining us hospitably, gave us much valuable information in regard 
 to the river. He told us of a mussel fisherman who had gone down 
 the river two years before and who had obtained several hundred 
 shells from a bed in front of the clubhouse. We had also been in- 
 formed that button manufacturers had sent out circulars along the 
 river offering $20 per ton for good shells, and that people along the 
 river who had sent in samples had been offered from $5 to $8 and $12. 
 We tried our dredge in the same place, a sort of eddy in the current. 
 The water was 8 to 10 feet deep and the bottom of hard sand and 
 fine gravel with some lumpy blue clay. The mussels were abundant 
 both in the sand and at the edge of the clay. Most of the specimens 
 were undulata, but there were many luteolus near the shore and some 
 fine ligamentinus, rectus, and coccinea. Several of the ligamentinus 
 were gravid, and most of the coccinea had white nacre. Nearly all 
 the luteolus contained Atax and Cotylaspis parasites and 5 out of 
 the 32 had small pearls in the mantle edge. 
 
 Station 20. Hebron Bridge, Kankakee River. — The river widens 
 out into a sort of lake about 3 miles above this bridge. The bottom 
 was firm sand and nearly uniform, not more than 4 feet deep at 
 the maximum, with large patches of water lilies and smartweed, and 
 plenty of Potamogeton -fluitans along the banks. 
 
 Mussels were found all over the bottom, but were most plentiful 
 among the roots of the Potamogeton along the shore. Nearly all the 
 L. luteolus were found there, while the ventricosus and ligamentinus 
 were in midstream and proved exceptionally large and fine. Q. 
 undulata was also common in the deeper water, but there were almost 
 no Q. pustulosa. The three specimens of S. complanata were the 
 first found in this river. 
 
 Most of the luteolus and ventricosus were either gravid or becom- 
 ing so, and, together with the undulata, were each infested with a 
 few adult A tax, and often with eggs and young parasites; and many 
 contained also Cotylaspis. The luteolus averaged about one pearl 
 apiece in the edge of the mantle, while the ventricosus contained 
 dorsal baroques. The other species were free from parasites. 
 
 Station 21. Water Y alley, Kankakee River. — The collection here 
 was obtained from three different localities: (1) Hog Wallow Slough, 
 
26 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 a marshy lagoon on the north bank of the river with water 2 or 3 feet 
 deep and a hard bottom of sand; (2) the south bank of the river, 
 which is in the town of Thayer and where some pearlers had left 
 a pile of about 100 shells all freshly killed; and (3) the middle of the 
 river between the two places, where we used the dredge in water about 
 6 feet deep, with a hard sandy bottom and very little current. 
 
 At the slough the mussels were scattering, but of excellent size 
 and quality. In the pearlers' pile, which were all lutfeolus, we found 
 many pearls of small size in the edges of the mantles. From the 
 deep water of the midriver were obtained coccinea (in deep water 
 only), undulata, and pustulosa. Shells are said to be easily obtained 
 in large numbers here at low water. Many of the ventricosus were 
 nearly gravid, and the luteolus were all infested with Atax and 
 Cotylaspis parasites, though the other species were free. 
 
 During our stay in Water Valley we stopped with Mr. John 
 Phelps, a fisherman who is thoroughly acquainted with the Kanka- 
 kee River, and who gave us much valuable information in reference 
 to the mussels as well as the fishes. Through his courtesy we had 
 an opportunity to examine many of the fish caught in the river. 
 
 The redeye, Ambloplites rupestris, yielded a few specimens of 
 Ergasilus centrarcMdamm attached to the gill filaments. Another 
 specimen had mussel glochidia on its gills, while a third one was 
 covered with bloody spots over the outside surface of the body, most 
 common near the anal fin. Attached to one of these spots was a 
 Lernaeocera cruciata, which Mr. Phelps told us were quite abundant 
 on this fish in the early spring. These redeyes, together with the 
 large and small mouthed black bass and the sunfish, all of which 
 are plentiful in this portion of the Kankakee, have proved to be 
 the most satisfactory species for carrying glochidia (Bulletin of the 
 Bureau of Fisheries, vol. xxviii, p. 624.) Their presence, therefore, 
 insures one of the most important conditions for the success of arti- 
 ficial mussel propagation. 
 
 Station G. Cedar Lake, Lake County. — This must have been a 
 favorite name with the early settlers, judging from the fact that 
 there are at least six " Cedar " lakes in the State of Indiana. This 
 particular one is in the center of Lake County and covers 1.17 
 square miles, being a little over 2 miles in greatest length and about 
 three-quarters of a mile in greatest breadth. It is shaped like a 
 kidney or bean, and owes its origin to irregularities in the deposition 
 of the drift material. It is surrounded on all sides except the south 
 by heavily wooded ridges, which formerly were its shores. It is 
 another case of artificial drainage, like the Lake of the Woods. 
 
 In order to reclaim 200 acres of comparatively worthless marsh 
 land at the southern end of the lake, a ditch was cut on its eastern 
 side which lowered the level of the lake 10 or 12 feet. This artificial 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OE THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 27 
 
 ditch is the present source of Cedar Creek, which flows south into the 
 Kankakee River. 
 
 The present shores are hard and firm and the bottom is sandy along 
 the north and east sides and muddy along the west and south sides. 
 Both sand and mud are covered in many places with Chara and 
 Potamogeton pusillus, mixed with some Vallisneria, Philotria, and 
 Cladophora, the latter on the pebbles. Along the shores are reeds 
 and rushes, forming a thick fringe. 
 
 The water of the lake was remarkably green, due to the presence 
 of minute suspended algae, mostly Clathrocystis, with some Lyngbya 
 and Anabmna. A tow taken at the surface near the center of the 
 lake yielded a wineglassful of Entomostraca, chiefly copepods and 
 Daphnia, much the richest haul of any taken during the summer. 
 
 In front of the Siegler Hotel, on the west shore, is a broad sand 
 bar used for bathing. Here, just outside the bathing rope, in 6 feet 
 of water, was a thick bed of mussels, nearly all A. grandis, with a few 
 dwarfed L. luteolus. 
 
 Mr. Siegler kindly furnished us with a boat and a long-handled 
 rake with which to secure our specimens. 
 
 We were told at the hotel that formerly the people about the 
 lake were accustomed to cook and eat the Anodontas with much relish, 
 but had gotten out of the habit in late years. An examination of the 
 eastern shore showed that the A. grandis was very plentiful there, 
 but L. luteolus was scarce. 
 
 A seine haul just south of Cedar Point gave us the largest number 
 of small fishes obtained during the season, mostly Labidesthes sic- 
 culus and Boleosoma nigrum. Evidently the abundance of Entomo- 
 straca produced its legitimate effect. 
 
 On examining the mussels, all the female luteolus were found to 
 be gravid and infested with a small red Atom. Only one or two of the 
 grandis were gravid, but they were all badly parasitized, containing 
 from 5 or 6 to 30 Ataw, chiefly A. ypsilophorus, and a few Cotylaspis. 
 No pearls were found in any of our specimens, though we were told 
 many had been obtained from the Anodontas. 
 
 Station 22. Burtons Landing, Kankakee River. — This station was 
 on the south bank of the river just above where the dredged ditch 
 empties in. 
 
 The bank was very steep, giving 4 or 5 feet of water close to the 
 shore; the bottom was mixed sand and mud; the current was slow 
 and there was no vegetation present. The mussels proved to be 
 abundant, both along the shore and in the deeper water of the mid- 
 river, Q. undulata being the most common species. It was noticeable 
 that there were no mussels in the sand brought down by the ditch. 
 A broad delta had been formed, reaching far out into the river, but 
 the mussels carefully shunned its shifting sands. Furthermore, all 
 
28 MUSSEL. FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN". 
 
 those on the down-river side, which had been caught by these same 
 sands, were dead, another striking testimony of the effect of a 
 shifting bottom on the mussel fauna. 
 
 All the luteolus and pustuloses were infested with Atax, one pus- 
 tulosa yielding 61 of the adult parasites. The luteolus also con- 
 tained a few Cotylapsis / the other species were free. 
 
 The two A. grandis and the single 8. complanata are worthy of 
 note in view of the rarity of the species in the river. 
 
 This is the last station in the swamp region of the Kankakee, and 
 it may be well to give a brief summary of the conditions prevalent 
 there. 
 
 This length of the undredged portion of the river from English 
 Lake to the State line is variously estimated by different authori- 
 ties. A conservative estimate would make it at least 100 miles, 
 and it is practically one continuous mussel bed for the entire distance. 
 There are places where the mussels are thicker than elsewhere, but 
 there is hardly a spot where search will not reveal at least some 
 species". 
 
 We have here again an ideal breeding ground for mussels, similar 
 to the Yellow Eiver from Plymouth to Ober, but at least five times as 
 large. The natural conditions are even better here than they were 
 in the Yellow River; there is the same kind of a bottom, lime and 
 food enough in the water, a good current the whole distance, and 
 plenty of small fish to distribute the glochidia. 
 
 Then there is in addition the great swamp reservoir to regulate the 
 supply of water, the organic material derived from the swamp vege- 
 tation to serve as food, and the enforced seclusion of the region to 
 obviate any disturbing influences. There are several valuable species 
 of mussels, like rectus, pustulosa, and coccinea, which were not 
 common in the Yellow River, but which would add greatly to the 
 value of the mussel product; and finally we find the mussels here 
 infested with the same pearl and baroque producing parasites. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of expending large sums of money in an arti- 
 ficial drainage system, thereby entirely destroying the natural re- 
 sources of the region, making it of no possible use as a game or 
 fishing resort, and annihilating its rich mussel fauna, all for, the sake 
 of reclaiming a few hundred acres of land that have not proved to 
 be worth much, it would seem to be far more profitable to cultivate 
 the resources already in existence. 
 
 Nature has herself clearly indicated the kind of products suited to 
 the region. Now that man has learned how to handle one of the 
 most valuable of those products, mussel shells, it would require very 
 little effort or expense to convert the native mussel fauna into a rich 
 source of revenue. The L. rectus, which has white nacre, called the 
 " white sand shell " by the mussel fishermen, could be easily intro- 
 
MUSSEL, FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 29 
 
 duced, and would produce shells that bring large sums of money in 
 the market. The hunting and fishing would not be injured, but 
 rather benefited by the increase of the mussels. 
 
 Here is an ideal chance for the breeding of mussels on a large 
 scale; it only needs to be once started to prove its value. Further- 
 more, the mussels are infested with the same kinds of parasites as 
 those of the Yellow Kiver, while pearls and baroques are even more 
 plentiful. Consequently, the prospects of a reasonable bonus from 
 this source are exceptionally good. 
 
 Station 23. Kankakee River between the State line and Momence, 
 III. — Just across the State line occurs the first limestone outcrop in 
 the bed of the river. This is the ledge which has acted as a natural 
 dam and prevented the wearing down of the river bed. Were it not 
 for this ledge the river would have long since drained the immense 
 swamp region. But just as it is responsible for the character of the 
 channel above it in Indiana, so it marks the beginning of a very dif- 
 ferent kind of channel below it in Illinois. In the 50 miles of river 
 from the State line to the head of the Illinois, the Kankakee falls 
 130 feet, or nearly 3 feet per mile. From a deep and smoothly mov- 
 ing river, without a break between its source and the State line, it 
 is suddenly converted, on passing this ledge, into a succession of 
 broad and shallow rapids difficult to navigate. The old bed of sand 
 and fine gravel ceases and in its place we find shelving rocks, coarse 
 gravel, and bowlders. 
 
 Such radical changes in the surrounding conditions would suggest 
 that the mussel fauna must change also, and such we find to be the 
 case. Several additional species appear all at once and are common 
 down to the mouth of the river. We no longer find a continuous bed 
 of mussels, but they are scattered wherever they can find a foothold. 
 For long distances the solid rocky bottom prohibits them from re- 
 maining; then come favorable localities where they are packed as 
 closely together as they can lie. In general, the conditions are not 
 as favorable in Illinois as in Indiana ; it is certainly very much more 
 difficult to gather the mussels. Our first collection within the State, 
 however, was made rather easy by the fact that pearlers had been 
 at work along the river and had left small piles of shells scattered 
 here and there on the banks. We selected from these and supple- 
 mented them with living specimens of other species. Near the State 
 line some undulata were found with a yellowish epidermis instead 
 of black. 
 
 Station 2Jf. Momence, III. — Just above the town was the camp of 
 three mussel fishermen who had been collecting shells from the im- 
 mediate vicinity for the market. They had secured about 15 tons, the 
 only culls from which were a few U. gibbosus. They told us the 
 shells from this locality were not as tough as those in the Wabash 
 
30 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 River, and hence did not bring quite as much per ton. They showed 
 us a good collection of pearls and baroques obtained from their mus- 
 sels, and just as we landed they picked a large spherical pearl the 
 size of a pea out of the mantle of an L. ligamentinus. We looked 
 over their pile of shells and took samples of the different species ; the 
 great bulk of the pile was ligamentinus and ventricosus. 
 
 We secured the following species which had not been found in 
 the river above: L. ellipsiforvnis, common; Q. tuberculata, several; 
 Q. metanevra, rather common; A. truncata, frequent; S. edentulus, 
 two; S. costata, common and large; 0. ellipsis, two. Some of the 
 L. rectus had white nacre, but most were pink; the U. gibbosus 
 showed purple, pink, and white nacre., with considerable difference 
 in shape and size of shells. 
 
 Station 25. Waldron, III. — The river was shallow and rocky and 
 very difficult to navigate below Momence, but the water was fairly 
 clear, so the shells could be seen on the bottom. There was consid- 
 erable Potamogeton lonchites and water willow along the water's 
 edge. Beds of mussels could be seen in various places, especially 
 near the riffles ; but as the mussel fishermen at Momence had worked 
 this part of the river thoroughly, no stop was made until we were 
 close to Waldron. Here was found a pile of freshly cleaned shells, 
 about one-quarter of a ton, which had been left by pearlers. Sam- 
 ples of the different species were selected and kept; the pile was 
 nearly all L. ligamentinus, with some L. ventricosus and U. gib- 
 bosus; the other species listed occurred in small numbers. One of the 
 L. rectus had white nacre, the first white-nacred one seen; the rest 
 were pink. Both the ligamentinus and the ventricosus had been 
 gravid in considerable numbers when captured. 
 
 At Waldron an 8-foot dam prevents all intercourse with the river 
 farther down. 
 
 Station 26. Watseka, Iroquois River. — This river is the chief tribu- 
 tary of the Kankakee in Illinois as was the Yellow River in Indiana. 
 Like the main river, the character of this tributary changes radi- 
 cally at Watseka. Nearly half the river basin, 800 square miles, lies 
 in Indiana, and is of the same type as the Kankakee Basin in that- 
 State, marshy and sandy. 
 
 Just before reaching Watseka, 111., it crosses the so-called Iroquois 
 moraine and afterwards traverses an old lake bed. There is much 
 more fall in the river, but it is never as rapid as the Kankakee. The 
 great amount of dry prairie land it drains makes it a " flashy " 
 river, subject to rapid rise and fall, and hence the upper portions 
 of it are not very rich in mussels. Furthermore, in the vicinity of 
 Watseka the banks of the main river and of Sugar Creek, a large 
 tributary from the south, are so steep and slimy with clay that it 
 was practically impossible to do any wading. The collection of 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 81 
 
 shells from this station, therefore, includes simply what could be, 
 picked up along the shore. 
 
 About a dozen years ago a Mr. Hill started a woolen factory in 
 Watseka for the manufacture of woolen goods, and, as an adjunct 
 to employ the surplus water power and to furnish the buttons for 
 the goods he turned out, operated a button factory. The farmers 
 along the Iroquois River and Sugar Creek kept him supplied with 
 shells, which they gathered and carried to the factory. A flourish- 
 ing business was done for six or eight years until hard times came 
 and caused the shutting down of both factories. Enough was accom- 
 plished to prove that these two streams contain a plentiful supply 
 of shells — enough to run such a factory for a long time. 
 
 Station 27. UErable, Iroquois River. — This is about 10 miles 
 below Watseka, but the river widens in that distance from about 40 
 feet to fully 175 or 200. It was about 3 feet deep at the center, with 
 a bottom of fine gravel along the channel bordered on each side by 
 sand, while the banks were soft clay mud. The current was almost 
 imperceptible and the water very muddy. The mussel fauna was 
 rich and varied, as the list given amply proves, and the species were 
 fairly well sorted according to the kind of bottom. 
 
 In the soft mud were found luteolus and the first fallaciosus we 
 had seen, with an occasional ventricosus. In the sand were a few 
 lachrymosa, also the first found in the Kankakee Basin, pustulosa, 
 undulata, complanata, costata, and rubiginosa. In the gravel was 
 the great majority of the lachrymosa and undulata, with an occa- 
 sional ventricosus and complanata. Q. lachrymosa was more abun- 
 dant than all the other species taken together, and in many places 
 were so thick one could hardly get a foothold without standing on 
 them. The shells were exceptionally large and of fine luster and 
 quality. 
 
 On examining the mussels for parasites, nearly all the complanata, 
 luteolus, pustulosa, trigona, and lachrymosa were found to be in- 
 fested with Atax, the distomid of Kelly, and marginal cysts. A 
 few of the shells contained pearls and dorsal baroques, but in much 
 smaller numbers than were found in the mussels of the Kankakee 
 River. A small number of each of the species just named were 
 gravid, the others were free from parasites, and in none of them had 
 the eggs passed down into the gills. While most of the rubiginosa 
 had the characteristic reddish orange meat, a few were found almost 
 white. 
 
 The Iroquois is a river of Quadrulas, with comparatively few 
 Lampsilis, in marked contrast to the Yellow and Kankakee Rivers, 
 which are nearly all Lampsilis, with comparatively few Quadrulas. 
 
 Station 28. Iroquois River 3 miles above its junction with the 
 Kankakee. — The change in the bed of the river already noted was 
 21432°— 12 3 
 
32 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 even more apparent here; the river was shallow and full of riffles 
 and the bottom was almost continuous rocks, with little sand or mud 
 between them. But the shores still showed the obnoxious black 
 clay mud. 
 
 I Fortunately, the muskrats had been busily at work eating the 
 smaller mussels with some of the large ones, and had collected large 
 piles in many places. The mud on shore was nearly a solid network 
 of muskrat tracks, with here and there the long groove where they 
 had dragged a shell too large to lift and carry. They evidently had 
 no trouble in finding plenty of mussels, although we could not locate 
 the live ones among the rocks. The 15 species listed were all obtained 
 from the muskrat piles, and, as will be seen, include Q. metanevra, 
 which evidently prefers localities with a very rocky bottom. 
 
 Station 29. Mouth of the Iroquois River. — Where the Iroquois 
 joins the Kankakee, there are two or three small islands, raised 
 but little above the level of the water, but giving support to a mass 
 of dense underbrush. 
 
 Here again the muskrats had nearly covered the mud around the 
 roots of the bushes with nicely cleaned mussel shells of many 
 species — probably all that can be found in the vicinity. Two Q. 
 lachrymosa were found alive at the water's edge; all the others 
 collected were the shells from the muskrat piles. 
 
 Station 30. Kankakee, III. — Several pearlers had been at work on 
 this portion of the river and about 1 mile above the city of Kankakee 
 were two large piles of shells close to the water's edge on the south 
 bank. The first pearler, and evidently the more experienced one, had 
 collected only L. luteolus, but his pile of shells did not show proof 
 of having yielded many pearls. The other party had collected all 
 species indiscriminately, and 14 different kinds were found in the 
 pile. None of these shells gave evidence of having been much para- 
 sitized and probably did not yield very large returns. They gave 
 us a fine collection from the locality, however, without the trouble 
 of wading and hunting for them. 
 
 The selection of luteolus as a pearl producer is worthy of notice, 
 since it coincides exactly with our own experience in the whole 
 Kankakee Basin. The pearl problem is quite possibly different in 
 each river. In some rivers Q. undulata or plicata are regarded as 
 the pearl-bearing shells; in others, L. ligamentous, and so on. In 
 the Kankakee L. luteolus was the most prolific, and indeed the only 
 species that one could count on to yield them, but the pearls were 
 all, though perfectly spherical and of good luster, of very small 
 size, called by the pearlers " mustard-seed pearls." 
 
 Station SI. Custer Park, III. — Just below the city of Kankakee 
 there are five large dams across the river within a few miles, while at 
 Altorf and Wilmington there are rapids with a sudden descent of 20 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 33 
 
 feet in the river. These make this part of the river unnavigable. 
 Accordingly, the boat and outfit were shipped from Kankakee, and 
 the remaining portion of the river was worked from the railroad. 
 
 From Wilmington, the nearest station, we drove to the house of 
 Mr. Jesse Fairchild, on the north bank of the river. He kindly lent 
 us his boat and told us where to find a mussel bed, which he said 
 was the only one for some distance up and down the river. 
 
 It lay along the edge of a riffle where the water was about 2 feet 
 deep and the current 5 or 6 miles an hour. The bottom was entirely 
 covered with stones of all sizes and shapes, mostly well rounded, and 
 thrown together with small pockets between them. These pockets 
 were filled with sand or fine gravel, and in them the mussels were 
 found. The stones, the gravel or sand, and the mussels were all 
 covered with a dense coating of dark green algae. 
 
 All the mussel specimens obtained were small, for large ones can 
 not crowd in among the rocks, and many of the females were gravid. 
 L. ligamentinus was the most common species, and every specimen 
 showed clearly the radiating rays on the external surface. 
 
 Marginal cysts were found in some of the S. edentulus and L. liga- 
 mentinus, and a few Atax in one L. ventrieosus, but as a whole this 
 lot of mussels was remarkably free from parasites. The number of 
 species at this station was only equalled by those which were obtained 
 from the 15 tons collected at Momence by the mussel fishermen. 
 
 Station 32. Wilmington, III. — This station was just below the 
 road bridge across the Kankakee River, between the second and 
 third dams. The river here has a rocky bottom and is practically 
 one continuous riffle with a very swift current. There was a large 
 outcrop of limestone on the shore and more appeared in the bed of 
 the river. 
 
 The collecting was very difficult, but the few live mussels found 
 were supplemented by a large pile of freshly cleaned shells on the 
 shore, probably left by a pearler. All the shells were large and well 
 developed, particularly the L. ligamentinus and S. costata. The L. 
 ventrieosus and rectus had an exceptionally good luster and were of 
 excellent quality ; the other species were about average. 
 
 Station 33. Forked Creek, Wilmington, III. — This is a rather small 
 creek that runs into the Kankakee from the north, and is made up 
 of alternating pools and riffles. In the riffles the bottom is rocky, 
 with many gravel and sand bars; in the pools there is more or less 
 mud. The main vegetation is water willows, with occasional yellow 
 water lilies and Philotria, and everywhere an abundance of tough 
 algse. Most of the shells were dead and seemed to have been killed by 
 muskrats. The live specimens of A. calceola, S. edentulus, and L. 
 ell'ipsiformis were all gravid. The L. ventrieosus and ligamentinus 
 and the Q. undulata were all small in size, but otherwise normal. 
 
34 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 Station 34, Mason Creek, Gardner, III. — This is another tributary 
 of the Kankakee from the north and in its general features closely 
 resembles Forked Creek. It consists mainly of rather shallow pools 
 connected by slender threads of water, with numerous sand and gravel 
 bars. The bottom is practically all pebbles and sand, with almost no 
 mud. Water willows are thickly distributed, with large patches of 
 spatterdock, but there were not many algse. 
 
 The mussels were found mostly along the edges of the sand bars 
 and were usually small in size. Many of them were actively 
 crawling about and lay at the ends of long furrows. Pearlers had 
 been at work here also, and many recently killed shells were seen 
 along the banks, mostly Q. undulata, with some L. luteolus. The 
 muskrats were evidently abundant and had left many dead shells 
 scattered along the water's edge, chiefly the small L. ellipsiformis 
 and young specimens of Q. undulata, S. complanata, and S. edentulus. 
 
 The L. ellipsiformis was particularly abundant and an excellent lot 
 was obtained. The young S. edentulus and S. complanata were all 
 bright-rayed. One edentulus and most of the ellipsiformis were 
 gravid, and in the former was a single large Atax ingens, the only 
 parasite found. The dead shells of luteolus, however, looked as if 
 they had been well parasitized and had contained many pearls. One 
 pearl about the size of a small buckshot was obtained from a living 
 specimen, which contained many marginal cysts. This pearl was 
 perfectly spherical, and though fresh, was of rather poor luster. 
 
 Station 35. Mouth of the Kankakee River. — The Des Plaines River, 
 which joins the Kankakee to form the Illinois River, is simply an 
 immense sewer bringing down the Chicago drainage. Both rivers, 
 but especially the Des Plaines, are full of the characteristic algse 
 and other vegetation which grow in such waters, and the combi- 
 nation of a copious vegetation with the sewage has effectually killed 
 off all the mussels in the vicinity. Not a single living specimen 
 could be found in either river, but there were hundreds of dead 
 shells along the banks, most of them old and well bleached, but still 
 capable of identification. The species listed from this station are 
 all such dead shells. 
 
 Since this finishes the examination of the Kankakee Basin, it 
 will be well to sum up the general results of the work in the form 
 of brief statements : 
 
 SUMMARY OF MUSSEL. DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 1. The Kankakee River and its two principal tributaries, the 
 Yellow and Iroquois Rivers, present a very rich and varied mussel 
 fauna throughout their entire lengths, except in those portions which 
 have been artificially dredged. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 35 
 
 2. The 32 mussel species obtained in the Kankakee Basin produce 
 shells of exceptional size, luster, and quality, and many of them are 
 of high commercial value. (See table, p. 39.) 
 
 3. The basin is divided at the State line into two regions, radically 
 different in the conditions which they present, and harboring conse- 
 quently different mussel faunas. These regions may be designated 
 as the Indiana and Illinois portions of the basin. 
 
 4. The Indiana part of the basin is a region of swamps, smooth 
 sandy bottoms, a uniform current, and abundant vegetation. It is 
 the home of Lampsilis and Anodonta, with relatively few Quadrula 
 species. It contains seven species not found in the Illinois part of 
 the basin, viz, S. compressa, A. f. subcylindraceus, A. imbecittis, L. 
 glans, L. iris, L. subro stratus, and L. parvus. 
 
 5. The Illinois part of the basin is a region of rolling prairie 
 iand, rough rocky bottoms, alternating riffles and dead water, with 
 almost no vegetation. It abounds in Quadrula, V . gibbosus, and 
 Symphynota, with comparatively few species of Lampsilis. It con- 
 tains eight species not found in the Indiana part of the basin, viz, 
 Q. trigona, Q. lachrymosa, Q. metanevra, P. cesopa, S. complanata, 
 O. ellipsis, L. ellipsiformis, and L. fallaciosus. 
 
 6. There are seven species universally distributed throughout both 
 regions, viz, Q. coccinea, Q. undulata, U. gibbosus, A. grandis, L. 
 ligamentinus, L. luteolus, and L. ventricosus. Five of these possess 
 shells which are in constant demand for the manufacture of buttons, 
 and the table of values given on page 39 shows that they are of 
 exceptionally good quality. 
 
 7. Most of the species are richly infested wherever they occur 
 with an interesting variety of parasites, and some of these furnish 
 the requisite incentive for the production of pearls and baroques. 
 Both these products are common throughout the entire basin and 
 would undoubtedly become a valuable revenue if the mussels were 
 properly cultivated. Pearling might not pay here now, as the pearls 
 are quite small. It is, however, the best place the authors have ever 
 seen from which to attack the pearl problem. 
 
 8. The most valuable species are all good breeders throughout the 
 basin. This, taken in connection with the excellent quality of the 
 shells they produce and the good railroad facilities everywhere avail- 
 able, makes this basin one of the best yet examined for the supply 
 of glochidia to be used in artificial mussel propagation. 
 
 9. The fishes which have proved to be the most satisfactory hosts 
 of glochidia are abundant in all three of the principal rivers of this 
 basin. Their presence insures one of the most essential conditions 
 necessary for the success of mussel culture. 
 
 10. The undredged portions of the Yellow River, a distance of 
 20 miles from Plymouth to Ober, and of the Kankakee, a distance 
 
36 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 of at least 100 miles from Riverside to the State line, furnish an 
 ideal breeding ground for the artificial propagation of mussels on a 
 large scale. The swamp reservoirs keep the supply of water uniform, 
 there is just the requisite amount of current, a suitable variety of 
 hard bottom, plenty of lime and natural food in the water, and the 
 region is well protected by its environment from outside molestation 
 and disturbance. For this, as well as many other reasons, it well 
 deserves to be protected from future dredging syndicates. 
 
 11. Dredging entirely annihilates the mussel fauna of such a basin 
 throughout the portions operated upon, no matter how prolific and 
 varied that fauna may have been previously. And it establishes 
 artificial conditions, every one of which is antagonistic to any re- 
 establishing of the fauna. The most fatal condition is the constant 
 movement of the fine sand and silt along the bottom of the dredged 
 channels. Until that has ceased there can be no chance for mussels 
 to live. 
 
 Portions of the basin which were dredged 15 or 20 years ago show 
 no signs of restocking with mussels, though there are thousands of 
 them close at hand in the old channels. 
 
 12. The mussel fauna of the lakes is almost entirely composed of 
 Anodonta and L. luteolus. With the exception of those found in the 
 Fish Lakes all the lacustrine mussels were practically worthless from 
 a commercial standpoint. The shells were either too thin and brittle 
 or they were dwarfed below a workable size. The excellent quality 
 of those found in the Fish Lakes, however, suggests strongly that 
 under favorable conditions lake mussels may become as valuable as 
 those from a river. The presence in the lake of such a flourishing 
 colony of Q. undulata shows that some, at least, of the thick-shelled 
 species can thrive in a lake, a fact experimentally proved for other 
 species by the authors. Why not stock some of the lakes, then, along 
 with the rivers, selecting those species best suited for such conditions ? 
 
 Station H. Tippecanoe Lake, Kosciusko County, Ind. — This lake 
 does not properly belong to the Kankakee Basin, but drains into 
 the Tippecanoe River and thence into the Wabash. For this reason 
 it has been placed here at the end of the list after the finishing of 
 the Kankakee Basin. The lake lies a little north of the center of the 
 eastern boundary of the county and covers 1.6 square miles, being 
 the fifth largest lake in the State. It is divided into three basins — ■ 
 the eastern, known as James Lake; the central; and the western, 
 called Oswego Lake. Tippecanoe River enters the eastern end of 
 James Basin and flows through the entire length of the lake, main- 
 taining a good current throughout the year. Grassy Creek, the 
 outlet of a chain of four small lakes (Maybe, Sawmill, and the two 
 Barbees) to the south, enters the middle basin near its southwest 
 corner. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 37 
 
 The two upper basins are remarkably free from aquatic vegeta- 
 tion, while Oswego basin is packed with Potamogeton, Utricularia, 
 Philotria, and many species of rushes, spatter-dock, water arum, 
 pickerel weed, cat-tails, etc. 
 
 The entire lake is surrounded by high and steep banks except in 
 one or two places, and promontories run out into it from both sides. 
 At the southernmost of these promontories on the east side the 
 lake has the remarkable depth of 178 feet, making it probably the 
 deepest fresh-water lake of its size in America. And this is true 
 of the whole lake, the only shallow-water areas of any size being the 
 delta brought in by the Tippecanoe River and a small area along 
 the north side of the east shore. Furthermore, the lake is to-day 
 more nearly in its natural state than any of the others examined. 
 It was a genuine relief to find such a body of water unaffected by 
 damming or draining. 
 
 Owing to its great depth, the water is always cool, even in the hot- 
 test weather, and is very clear and free from vegetable debris. The 
 bottom is hard and marly in most places except the Oswego Basin, 
 where it is soft black muck. The entire margin of the lake and 
 Tippecanoe River for a mile and a half below the outlet were ex- 
 amined, and mussels were everywhere abundant. At Government 
 Point, over the shallow-water area on the eastern margin already 
 mentioned, they were especially plentiful. Here the marly bottom 
 was softer and the mussels had dug circular cavities 2 or 3 inches 
 deep into the marl. In the bottom of the excavation were some- 
 times one mussel, sometimes a whole nest of them of varying sizes. 
 Anodonta, StropMtus, and Lampsilis were thus found. 
 
 This and other portions of the eastern shore were the only places 
 where L. glans and M. fabale were found during the entire summer, 
 with one exception for each species. 
 
 In the Tippecanoe River the sand and gravel of the swifter cur- 
 rent and the marl of the quieter water were found thickly covered 
 everywhere with living mussels and dead shells. Q. undulata was 
 the most common species and most of the specimens were excep- 
 tionally large and plump. In several of them there was a decided 
 breaking up of the ridges on the outside surface into pustules simi- 
 lar to those on pustulosa, making a sort of nondescript shell that 
 was difficult to classify at first. 
 
 As would be expected, there were a few species in this fauna not 
 found in the Kankakee Basin. These include Micromya fabale, L. 
 multiradiatus, T. sulcata, and P. phaseolus. 
 
 The Quadmdas have been searched strenuously for pearls and sev- 
 eral good ones are reported to have been found, but none of the 
 other species contain either pearls or baroques. 
 
38 
 
 MUSSEL FAUNA OP THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
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MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 39 
 
 COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE SHELLS OBTAINED. 
 
 The relative values of the mussel shells from the Kankakee Basin 
 were determined by Mr. J. F. Boepple, lately deceased, a mussel 
 expert of wide experience and high authority, then stationed at 
 Fairport, Iowa. 
 
 Average lots of the different species were weighed, blanks of vari- 
 ous diameters were stamped upon the inside of the shells and counted, 
 the number of similar blanks which could be obtained from a ton 
 of shells was computed, and from these data, together with the 
 quality of the pearl, the value per ton was calculated. In many 
 instances the results of these computations were verified by sending 
 the stamped shells to a button factory, where the blanks were 
 actually sawed out, and their value given. 
 
 These values are expressed in the following table, each value quoted 
 being an average from several lots of the same species. The diameter 
 of the blanks is measured in " lines" (=^q- of an inch), 16, 18, etc. 
 " F." and " M." denote first and medium quality. " T." indicates that 
 more than half of the blanks are " tips," that is, uneven in thickness 
 and of poor quality ; " t." indicates that considerably less than half 
 are tips. The numerals " 1," " 2," and " 3 " indicate different grades 
 of shells, including size, color, luster, etc. Thus, reading the second 
 line, 1 ton of second quality L. ligamentinus shells would yield 1,119 
 gross of 20-line blanks, more than half of which would be "tips.'^ 
 The value of blanks and tips together would be $33.57. 
 
 Table of Shell Values. 
 
 Locality and species. 
 
 • 
 
 Gross of blanks per ton of shells. 
 
 Value 
 
 16 line. 
 
 18 line. 
 
 20 line. 
 
 24 line. 
 
 30 line. 
 
 35 line. 
 
 40 line. 
 
 per ton. 
 
 YELLOW RIVER. 
 
 
 
 F. 1,009 
 T. 1,119 
 M. 833 
 
 
 
 
 
 $60. 54 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 33.57 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 F. 173 
 
 
 50.94 
 
 
 
 
 
 M. 588 
 
 
 23.52 
 
 
 
 
 t. 607 
 T. 573 
 
 M. 673 
 t. 1.285 
 F. 578 
 t. 1,166 
 
 
 
 
 12.14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M. 78 
 F. 104 
 
 
 15.09 
 
 KANKAKEE IN INDIANA. 
 
 
 
 
 
 38.91 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 32.15 
 
 
 
 
 
 F. 347 
 
 
 
 64. 76 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 29.15 
 
 
 
 M. 1,297 
 
 
 
 
 
 38.91 
 
 
 
 t. 803 
 
 
 
 
 
 32.36 
 
 
 
 t. 1,011 
 t. 1,255 
 
 
 
 
 
 30.33 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 37.65 
 
 
 
 t. 839 
 
 
 
 
 
 29.45 
 
 
 
 T. i,404 
 
 t. 1.198 
 
 
 
 
 
 28.08 
 
 IROQUOIS RIVER. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 35.70 
 
 
 t. 1,098 
 
 
 
 
 F. 32 
 
 F. Ill 
 
 F. 34 
 
 35.20 
 
 KANKAKEE IN ILLINOIS. 
 
 
 T. 771 
 
 
 
 39.78 
 
 L. ligamentinus, 2 
 
 T. 1,219 
 
 F. 408 
 
 
 
 24.37 
 
 T. 1,190 
 T. 711 
 
 
 
 
 
 35.70 
 
 
 
 
 
 F. 278 
 
 
 
 32.13 
 
 
 T. 1,994 
 
 
 
 
 19.94 
 
 
 t. 1.1-12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 45.68 
 
 H ' 
 
 
 
 
 F. 119 
 
 
 
 11.90 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
40 
 
 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 SMALL FISHES FOUND ON THE MUSSEL BF4)S. 
 
 Key to Table.— I, the undredged portion of the Yellow River from Plymouth to Ober; II, the un- 
 dredged portion of the Kankakee River from Riverside to the State line; III, the Iroquois River- IV the 
 Kankakee River in Illinois; V, the lakes. 
 
 Species. 
 
 Catostomus commersonii. . . 
 
 Catostomus nigricans 
 
 Schilbeodes gyrinus 
 
 Cottus ictalops 
 
 Lucius lucius 
 
 Lucius reticulatus 
 
 Pimephales notatus 
 
 Semotilus atromaculatus. . . 
 
 Abramis chrysoleucas 
 
 Cliola vigilax 
 
 Fundulus dispar 
 
 Fundulus diaphanus 
 
 Percina caprodes 
 
 Notropis blennius 
 
 Notropis whipplii 
 
 Notropis cornutus 
 
 Notropis umbratilis atripes . 
 
 Notropis heterodon 
 
 Ericymba buccata 
 
 Phenacobius mirabilis 
 
 Hybopsis amblops 
 
 Hybopsis kentuckiensis 
 
 Labidesthes sicculus 
 
 Pomoxis annularis 
 
 Perca Qavescens 
 
 Microperca punctulata 
 
 Micropterus dolomieu 
 
 Micropterus salmoides 
 
 Chsenobryttus gulosus 
 
 Ambloplites rupestris 
 
 Lepomis pallidus 
 
 E upomotis gibbosus 
 
 Hadropterus phoxocephalus 
 
 Hadropterus aspro 
 
 Boleosoma nigrum 
 
 Etheostoma coeruleum 
 
 Etheostoma iowae 
 
 Maxostoma aureolum 
 
 II. 
 
 HI. 
 
 IV. 
 
 DISCUSSION OF MUSSEL SPECIES. 
 
 1. Quadrula tuberculoid (Raftnesque). Purple warty-bdck. — This 
 mussel, although it attains considerable size and weight, rivaling 
 or exceeding the common warty -back {Q. pustulosa) in this respect, 
 is of no value whatever to the button industry on account of the dull 
 purple nacre. It nowhere forms large beds and wherever found 
 usually constitutes a small per cent of the mussel fauna. 
 
 Of all the heavy-shelled species examined anywhere, however, 
 this is the most liable to infection by distomids, perhaps on account 
 of its immense inhalent aperture, which allows a larger and greater 
 variety of objects to enter than is the case of other strong-shelled 
 mussels. This makes it among the greatest producers of dorsal 
 baroques and, generally speaking, it is the species most likely to 
 produce genuine pearls. The baroques may be either purple or pale, 
 almost white, and generally are rather lusterless and of low value. 
 The pearls are always purple, sometimes almost black, and, when 
 formed near the iridescent tip of the mussel, may have a very good 
 luster. The cla miner cleans all shells he obtains, whether valuable 
 for buttons or not, in the hope of finding pearls. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 41 
 
 Viewed in this light, Q. tuberculata is not altogether unimportant 
 as a commercial species. Its shell is the package that may contain 
 a prize — usually a worthless trinket, but always arousing expectancy- 
 Q. tuberculata adds more markedly than any other species to the 
 size, but hardly to the value, of the clammer's pile of slugs or 
 " chicken feed " which furnishes, in some cases a small, in others a 
 considerable addition to the revenue derived from the sale of his 
 shells, and it is indeed one of the strongest incentives to persistence 
 in the clammer's trade, as it furnishes not so much in actual cash as 
 the element of luck or chance, and keeps him in constant expectancy 
 of a possible great discovery. 
 
 Accordingly, it is not improbable that clamming operations the 
 country over depend in no inconsiderable degree on the presence 
 of this and similar species, not directly useful of themselves, but 
 appealing to the instincts of the treasure seeker, the nomad, and 
 adventurer, who can not endure the monotony of a steady, uneventful 
 trade and who require some special incentive or stimulus to 
 persistency. 
 
 This species is of value as furnishing in almost any part of the 
 country readily available material for the study of the natural causes 
 and phenomena of pearl production and will probably prove in the 
 end one of the gateways through which our knowledge in that direc- 
 tion, and its practical applications, will come. 
 
 We did not find this species in the headwaters of the Kankakee 
 or Yellow Eivers, though it is common in the Tippecanoe, not far 
 distant. The first found in the Kankakee was at Momence, 111., and 
 in the lower stretches of the river. It was also found in the Iroquois. 
 
 The systematic position of this species is doubtful. We have never 
 found it gravid, and it is, apparently, but rarely found in that condi- 
 tion. It is reported to bear glochidia in only the outer gills. When 
 ground and polished for ornament, this is one of the most attractive 
 of shells. 
 
 2. Quadrula ebena {Lea). Niggerhead. — This, the most valuable 
 of button shells, does not occur within the Kankakee Basin, though it 
 is fairly common in parts of the Illinois River, below. We found one 
 specimen of what appeared to be this shell at Tippecanoe Lake, where 
 its occurrence is difficult to account for. 
 
 3. Quadrula coccinea {Conrad). — Q. coccinea is, at its best, a 
 very good, if not excellent, button shell. The assemblage of forms 
 that pass under this name exhibit so much variation, however, that 
 no general statement can be made concerning it. It has no trade 
 name, probably because it has not been found in great quantities in 
 regions exploited by the button industry and partly because of its 
 lack of distinctive characters. But it is found throughout the length 
 of the Kankakee and Yellow River systems wherever shells thrive 
 at all, being represented by specimens in 22 of the 35 river stations 
 
42 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 investigated. It occurs occasionally in lakes, but is essentially a 
 river shell. A few were found in Tippecanoe Lake. 
 
 In the upper parts of the Yellow River, from Plymouth down to 
 Ober, and in places in the upper Kankakee this species reaches great 
 perfection and is represented by a well-defined type not easily con- 
 fused with any other species— a large flat shell of pretty uniform 
 thickness and very good luster. The majority of the shells of the 
 upper part of the river are of a delicate pink color, very pleasing to 
 the ordinary eye, but not to the maker of buttons. Farther down 
 stream the majority are white-nacred and serviceable in the com- 
 mercial sense. We were unable to obtain any gravid specimens of 
 this flat, highly characteristic form. Q. coccinea was fairly common 
 in the clammer's pile at Momence. 
 
 In some of the lower parts of the Kankakee system, and espe- 
 cially in the Iroquois River, what appears to be this species loses its 
 distinctive character and is represented by a much more inflated 
 form, closely approaching Quadrula solida or some other member 
 of the perplexing obliqua-tngona-plena-solida group. A gravid 
 specimen of this inflated form was obtained in the Iroquois River. 
 Only the outer gills contained the glochidia. These filled the entire 
 gill, which was padlike and white in color. According to Simpson's 
 classification this would place it in the genus Pleurobe?na, but more 
 examples are desired and the whole subject requires investigation. 
 Dr. A. E. Ortmann is of the opinion that Q. coccinea is identical with 
 Q. obliqua, which usually bears its glochidia in only two gills and 
 which he considers a Pleurobema. All the examples of Q. coccinea 
 we have ever seen, however, even the inflated ones, have lacked the 
 peculiar sulcus that is to be found in Q. obliqua. 
 
 Jf. Quadrula trigoim (Lea). Pig-toe. —This species is one of the 
 staple button shells. Its size is usually rather small, and a furrow 
 on the valve makes it difficult to cut to advantage, but its excellent 
 luster and whiteness compensate to some extent for its deficiencies 
 and it is excellent for small buttons. Its occurrence in the Kankakee 
 area is exceptional; one was found in the Iroquois at L'Erable and 
 one in that stream 3 miles above its mouth. Another was found in 
 the Kankakee at Wilmington. These are not exactly typical shells. 
 It is somewhat surprising that it is not more common, as it could 
 easily come up from the Illinois River. 
 
 In the upper Mississippi, where the species is abundant, it is very 
 constant in form, and well marked from any other species, but out- 
 side of this range it is quite variable in form. It is very frequently 
 infested by a distomid which forms cysts in the mantle, and it occa- 
 sionally produces beautiful pearls. 
 
 6. Quadrula rubighiosa (Lea). — This shell is quite similar to 
 Q. coccinea, from which it is somewhat difficult to separate it. It 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 43 
 
 is usually a smaller shell and has a more distinct posterior ridge, 
 which is the chief distinguishing characteristic. The nacre is never 
 pink, but may in rare instances have a yellowish cast. The species 
 has about the same value for buttons as Q. coccinea, In the button 
 makers' category it would be classed with the pig-toe group, but it 
 has received no regular trade name. 
 
 Q. rubiginosa was found almost the entire length of the Yellow 
 and Kankakee Basins, but was more common in the lower river. 
 It was common in the clammer's shell pile at Momence and in the 
 Iroquois. It is one of the few Quadrulas found fairly common in 
 the lakes. We found it in both Tippecanoe and Koontz Lakes. In 
 lakes it is represented by a peculiar dwarfed form with a satiny 
 epidermis. It was difficult to distinguish between the peculiar in- 
 flated form found at L'Erable and trigona. Some of these were 
 gravid, all four gills being filled, and of a reddish color. The flesh 
 of some of the examples was white, of others reddish. Distomid 
 cysts were very abundant in the margins of the mantle. 
 
 6. Quadrula pustulosa {Lea). Warty-back. — This is a well-known 
 shell among the clammers and button cutters. It is exceedingly 
 variable, sometimes being small and much inflated, and at other 
 places flatfish. In some localities it is exceedingly rough and warty 
 and in other places almost smooth. It therefore varies considerably 
 in value, the flatter shells being of more value than the inflated 
 and the smooth better than the rough. In the Kankakee Basin this 
 species has about the same distribution as Q. rubiginosa, but is never 
 found in lakes, and is more common in the lower stretches of the 
 river. The examples obtained at Nickelplate were unusually flat- 
 fish; those about Momence had some of the tubercles developed 
 into long ribs elongate along the lines of growth. It was common 
 in the clammer's pile at Momence and at the pearler's camp below 
 Momence. It was also found in the Iroquois at Watseka and 
 L'Erable. 
 
 7. Quadrula lachrymosa {Lea) . Maple-leaf. — This is a well-known 
 shell among button manufacturers, hardly so much on account of its 
 excellence as of the fact that it occurs in considerable abundance 
 in regions where clamming is carried on and the shells can be made 
 good use of. In quality they are about the same as Q. pustulosa, 
 the warty-back, but the sulcus or groove along the middle of the 
 shell prevents it from being used to so good an advantage. 
 
 In the Kankakee Basin this species is found only in the lower 
 stretches of the Kankakee River and in the Iroquois, and then only 
 in small numbers. At L'Erable on the Iroquois (Aug. 21) they were 
 beginning to become gravid. 
 
 8. Quadrula metanevr a {Rafinesque). Monkey-face. — This species, 
 which has about the same commercial value as the preceding, was 
 
44 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 found only in the lower stretches of the Kankakee. The first we 
 saw were in the clammers pile at Momence, where it was fairly 
 common. A few were found in the mouth of the Kankakee. 
 
 9. Quadrula undulata (Barnes). Three-ridge. — Two closely related 
 shells, Q. undulata and Q. plicata, are known to the shell trade as 
 " three-ridge " and "blue-point," both names being applied indis- 
 criminately to either species. The extreme forms of these two spe- 
 cies are well marked and easily recognizable, and where this is the 
 case it is better to apply the term " three-ridge " to Q. undulata and 
 "blue-point" to the other shell. Generally, one does not find well- 
 marked examples of both species in the same stream ; where the well- 
 marked flatter form (Q. undulata) is common, the fuller form 
 (Q. plicata) is usually, if not always, absent. All the shells in the 
 Feeder Canal, at Fort Wayne, Ind., seem to be Q. undulata, and 
 all noted from the Illinois River seem to be Q. plicata. The shells 
 of White River, Ind., seem to be intermediate. 
 
 Q. plicata is a fairly valuable button shell and is usually regarded 
 among pearl hunters as a fruitful source of pearls. Q. undulaia, on 
 account of its thinness, is not quite so valuable as plicata. It is a 
 variable shell and differs considerably in value, according to which 
 of its many forms is encountered. The Q. undulata of the Kankakee 
 is of low value on account of its roughness and the great depth of 
 its furrows, which interfere with cutting and polishing. It was 
 found abundantly and quite large in Fish Lake, as well as through- 
 out the course of the Yellow and Kankakee Rivers, where it was 
 one of the most widely distributed shells. It was fairly common 
 in the Iroquois as well as in the Yellow and Kankakee and was 
 found in Mazon Creek near Gardiner, 111. In the old Kankakee 
 Channel at the Nickel Plate Railroad bridge, also at Davis, Ind., 
 and at Kouts and Burton's camp it was the most abundant shell. 
 At Peterson's camp we found some with a yellow epidermis, and at 
 Tippecanoe Lake (July 28) we obtained three gravid examples. 
 
 10. Pleurobema asopa ( Green) . Bullhead. — The bullhead is a well- 
 known shell among button manufacturers. Its quality and value 
 differ considerably in different rivers, but it is always a rather in- 
 ferior shell on account of its brittleness, and in some of the southern 
 rivers it is so hard and flinty that it breaks the teeth out of the saws 
 and the button cutters do not attempt to cut it at all. Among the 
 clammers of the Cumberland it is known as the " clear profit," as 
 the clammer is the only one who gets anything out of it. 
 
 In the Kankakee this is a very rare shell. The only ones we saw 
 during the entire trip were three in the clammer's pile at Momence 
 and one at Water Valley. 
 
 11. Pleurobema, clana (Lamarck) . — This is a handsome shell, too 
 small to be of any use in the manufacture of buttons. It does not 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 45 
 
 occur at all in the Kankakee Basin, but is common in the Tippecanoe 
 River. We found a few in Tippecanoe Lake. 
 
 12. Unio gibbosus {Barnes). Lady -finger, spike. — Unio gibbosus 
 is a common, widely distributed shell, found in all sorts of situations ; 
 being one of the common shells of lakes, as well as rivers. 
 The nacre is usually a rather dull purple, which unfits it for the 
 button industry. A white-nacred form is not altogether uncommon. 
 It has a soft satiny luster and can be used commercially. The shells 
 vary in form as well as in color, some being short and humped, more 
 or less closely resembling P. phaseolus, and others long and sharp, 
 and at times difficult to separate from L. rectus. 
 
 V . gibbosus was one of the most widely distributed shells within 
 the Kankakee Basin, being found at nearly all the stations in the 
 Yellow and Kankakee as well as in the Iroquois and in Fish Lake. 
 It was also found in Tippecanoe Lake. It formed most of the culls 
 in the pearler's pile at Momence. 
 
 Marginal cysts caused by distomids, dorsal baroques, and small 
 round pearls are common in this species. 
 
 One white-nacred shell was found at Plymouth, but as a rule all 
 the shells of the upper parts of the river were deep purple. At 
 Momence these shells exhibited peculiar and interesting phenomena. 
 They seemed to be passing here from the purple-nacred form to the 
 white, and one had all intermediate stages ; many were of a beautiful 
 rosy hue throughout, others shaded from blue about the margin 
 through rosy to pale rose. Investigations on other streams have 
 shown similar peculiarities of the color distribution in this shell. 
 
 It is worthy of note that both U. gibbosus and L. rectus become 
 more nearly, or a greater per cent, white-nacred as we go down the 
 Kankakee system, and a careful study here may throw light on the 
 cause of the color in these shells. It may be that the softer waters 
 and amount of humic acid in the upper waters may favor the pur- 
 plish deposit, while the colorless forms which occur shortly after the 
 limestone river bed is reached may be favored by an excess or 
 abundance of lime. 
 
 13. Alasmidonta truncata(B. H. Wright). Elk-toe. — Alasmidonta 
 truncata is a handsome, beautifully rayed shell, attractive to the col- 
 lector, but too thin to be of any service in the manufacture of but- 
 tons. It is not common in the Kankakee Basin. There was a fair 
 number of shells in the clammer's shell pile at Momence and a few 
 were collected at the mouth of the Iroquois River. 
 
 H. Alasmidonta calceola {Lea). — This shell is too small to have 
 any commercial value. It is a shell of small streams, and is occa- 
 sionally found in lakes. It was quite common in the Yellow River 
 at Plymouth and some examples there reached a very large size for 
 the species. It was found at Forked Creek, near Wilmington, and 
 was there noted as becoming gravid (Aug. 27). 
 
46 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN 
 
 15. Symphynota complanata {Barnes). Heel- splitter, hatchet- 
 back. — At its very best, this species, offering a broad, flat expanse of 
 satiny white nacre, is an excellent button shell, furnishing more 
 blanks per shell than any other species. In many cases, however, it 
 is too thin for use. This species is found only in the lower half of 
 the river ; the first seen were at Hebron Bridge, where we found three. 
 In the clammer's shell pile at Momence it was common and large. 
 It was also found at the mouth of the Iroquois, some fine ones were 
 seen at Kankakee, 111., and a few at Wilmington. Small ones, 
 cleaned out by muskrats, were found in Mazon Creek. 
 
 16. Symphynota costata {Rafinesque) . Squaw-foot. — This species 
 is rarely used for buttons, the nacre being too yellow, and frequently 
 too thin. It is well distributed throughout both the Yellow and Kan- 
 kakee Rivers, and is fairly common at Plymouth below the dam ; 26 
 were obtained there in a shell pile left by pearlers. In the clammer's 
 pile at Momence it was common and large, although not so immense 
 and thick as found in some rivers. It was also found in the Iroquois 
 River at L'Erable. This species in some rivers is especially subject 
 to distomid infection and occasionally bears pearls. 
 
 17. Symphynota compressa {Lea) . — Compared with the Symphy- 
 notas just mentioned, this is a small shell. It is always too thin to 
 have any commercial value. It was found in the Yellow River from 
 Plymouth just below the dam to the Zinc Bridge at Ober, in Potato 
 Creek at Walkerton, in Yellowbanks Creek, and the Kankakee at 
 Davis. It is a species belonging to small streams. It was beginning 
 to be gravid at Plymouth September 20, with the embryos orange red, 
 in the outer gills of the parent. 
 
 18. Anodontoides ferussacianus {Lea). — This is a small thin shell 
 of no economic importance. Like Symphynota compressa it is 
 usually confined to small streams, and occasionally lakes. It was 
 rather common at Plymouth; one was found dead in Lake of the 
 Woods, and a few in Yellowbanks Creek. The form found in this 
 area appears to be the subspecies subcylindraceus. 
 
 19. Anodonta grandis {Say). — This species, although it reaches 
 large size, is usually thin-shelled, and only exceptionally attains 
 sufficient thickness to have any commercial value. It was found 
 at the majority of stations throughout the Yellow and Kan- 
 kakee Rivers, and in the Iroquois. In the lakes (except Fish Lakes, 
 where the river form occurred) this species was represented by a* 
 dwarfed somewhat inflated form, the variety footiana. Particular 
 attention was paid to the shells above the dam at Plymouth, where 
 the water had been pond-like or lake-like for many years, to observe 
 whether the shells were beginning to approximate in appearance the 
 dwarfed form of the neighboring lakes; but they were all the large, 
 elongate river form. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 47 
 
 Anodontas are always more subject to attacks of parasites than any 
 other of our fresh-water mussels, and those of the Kankakee Basin 
 were no exceptions to this rule. Common among the parasites is a 
 distomid which usually is found on the surface of the mantle in the 
 dorsal region of the mussel next to the hinge and causing the nacre 
 to become brick red in color. As this distomid has never received 
 a scientific name, the adult form being up to the present unknown, 
 in our reference to it we have spoken of this form as the distomid 
 of Osborn, after its discoverer. Others of the infected shells were 
 of a dark chocolate color and the distomids, which were plentiful, 
 were smaller in size and probably belonged to a different species. 
 
 Other parasites frequently found were Aspidogaster conchicola 
 in the pericardial cavity, Cotylaspis insignis in the axils of the 
 gills, and numerous species of Atax inhabiting the branchial cavity. 
 All the Anodontas found in the streams corresponded pretty closely 
 to one type, in no case departing so far as to raise any doubts as to 
 identity ; in the lakes, however, it was different ; each lake seemed 
 to have a more or less pronounced type of its own. The Anodontas 
 of Twin Lakes resemble those of Bass Lake and Cedar Lake pretty 
 closely, but those of Lake of the Woods differ considerably, being 
 larger and thinner. At Tippecanoe Lake, where the dead Anodonta 
 shells were so abundant that in places we would frequently find them 
 nested sometimes three in a nest, they presented a different, more 
 inflated type. They very closely, indeed, approached the form known 
 as Anodonta corpulenta, generally considered a distinct species from 
 grandis. We also found two broken dead shells at Tippecanoe Lake 
 which very closely resembled A. suoorfticulata, and may, indeed, have 
 been that species; more material would be desirable before deciding. 
 
 The Anodontas from one of the Twin Lakes, as has already been 
 remarked, were infected in great numbers by a distomid forming 
 clear spherical cysts in the margin of the mantle. Sporocysts and 
 peculiar large white areas like blisters were common on the Anodon- 
 tas of Tippecanoe Lake. 
 
 W. Anodonta imbecillis (Say).— This dainty, fragile Anodonta is 
 of no commercial value. It is a shell of ponds and small streams. 
 The only shell found in Millpond Lake of the Twin Lakes was one 
 example of this species. In the Yellow River at Plymouth below the 
 dam it was fairly common. On July 14 several were obtained here, 
 all gravid, the entire outer gills being thick and padlike, and, when 
 the gills were fully ripe, dark brown. The glochidia have a brown 
 shell, shield-shaped in profile, and have long, coiled threads. One 
 found in Tippecanoe Lake was unusually elongate. A large one was 
 found in the Yellow River at Zinc Bridge, another was found in 
 the outlet of Fish Lakes, and a gravid example was found in the 
 Kankakee bed at Davis (Aug. 9). 
 21432°— 12 4 
 
48 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 21. Strophitus edentulus (Say). — This is an exceedingly variable 
 shell, considerably resembling an Anodonta, and in none of its forms 
 of any commercial importance. It is found in a great variety of 
 situations, in lakes and ponds and both in rather small creeks and 
 large rivers. It is never found in great abundance anywhere. In 
 the Kankakee Basin we found only a few, but these were widely dis- 
 tributed. A dead shell was found at the first station made, on the 
 banks of the Yellow River at Bremen. Some were found at the 
 pearler's pile below the dam at Plymouth, some in Tippecanoe Lake, 
 dwarfed and mostly dead, one valve in the old bed of the Kankakee at 
 Davis, Ind., two at Momence, one at Custer Park with distomid 
 cysts, some at Wilmington, and a gravid example in Forked Creek 
 (Aug. 27). In Mazon Creek at Gardiner, 111., occurred a brightly 
 rayed form, pavonia. 
 
 The question of rays appears to be closely related to clearness of 
 water; in turbid streams mussels are usually dull colored, while in 
 clear streams they are usually more brightly rayed. 
 
 22. Ptychobranchus phaseolus (Hildreth). Kidney-shell. — This 
 species, which at its best is a very good button shell, having a white 
 nacre of soft satiny luster, was found only in Tippecanoe Lake. 
 It is also fairly common in the Tippecanoe River, but was not found 
 in the Kankakee River or any of its tributaries. 
 
 23. Obovaria ellipsis (Lea). Missouri niggerhead. — This is a 
 first-class button shell and well known among clammers and button 
 manufacturers. It is of rare occurrence in the Kankakee. We saw 
 it only at the clammer's shell pile at Momence. 
 
 24. Lampsilis alatus (Say). Pancake. — This shell, on account of 
 its thinness and purple color, is of no value to the button trade. It is 
 rare in the Kankakee. We found only one decayed dead shell above 
 Nickel Plate crossing and another dead shell at Custer Park. 
 
 25. Lampsilis glans (Lea). — This is a shell of lakes and small 
 streams. Its small size and purple color prevent its being of any 
 commercial value. L. glans was found only at Plymouth below the 
 dam and in Tippecanoe Lake. At Plymouth it was found gravid 
 (July 27). The glochidia were in a kidney-shaped mass in the 
 posterior part of the outer gill, and are apron-shaped in outline, as 
 is usual in Lampsilis. The edge of the gravid portion of the gill 
 has a deposition of black pigment, as in L. ventricosus and related 
 forms. 
 
 26. Lampsilis ellipsiformis (Conrad). — This small shell (too small 
 to be of any value commercially) was found only in the lower part 
 of the river and in the tributary streams. The first we saw were in 
 the clammer's pile at Momence, where it was fairly common. We got 
 20 there. It was also common in Forked Creek near Wilmington, 
 where all but one were gravid (Aug. 27). Shells opened by musk- 
 rats were quite common in Mazon Creek near Gardiner, 111. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 49 
 
 27. Lampsilis iris (Lea). — This very pretty shell is of no com- 
 mercial importance on account of its small size. It was fairly com- 
 mon and reached an unusual size in the stretch of Yellow River from 
 Plymouth to below Burr Oak. Two were obtained in Tippecanoe 
 Lake, one of them gravid (July 28). A gravid one was obtained 
 above Zinc Bridge (Aug. 3). One was found dead in the Kankakee 
 at Davis, Ind. 
 
 28. Lampsilis subrostratus (Say). — This shell, like L. iris, which 
 it in some respects resembles, is too small to have any commercial 
 value. Although occasionally occurring in rivers, it is essentially a 
 lake or slough shell. All we obtained within the Kankakee Basin 
 were found in lakes. Four were obtained in Twin Lakes (July 2), 
 of which one was gravid, the young being contained in a kidney or 
 bean shaped mass in the posterior part of the outer gill, the mass 
 being deeply ribbed, dusky near the margin, and white along the very 
 margin. Some were obtained in Tippecanoe Lake and some in Fish 
 Lake, where it was fairly common. Fragments were found at Round 
 Lake, a small lake near Knox, Ind. 
 
 29. Lampsilis rectus (Lamarck). Black sand-shell. — This species, 
 when it has white nacre, as it sometimes does, is an excellent shell for 
 both buttons and knife handles, approaching in value the yellow sand 
 shell. In some rivers the majority of shells are white, in others 
 colored. This shell is rare in Yellow River. Some were found at 
 the pearler's pile below the dam at Plymouth, Ind., and in 1906 a few 
 were found at Knox. A few were found also in the Kankakee above 
 Nickel Plate crossing, some at Davis, and near Kouts and Hebron 
 Bridge. It was not common in the clammer's pile at Momence, and 
 some young shells were found at Wilmington. It was also in the 
 Iroquois at L'Erable and at the mouth. 
 
 The shells of the upper portion of the Kankakee were all colored, 
 some of them a deep purple. Lower down this color faded to a 
 pink. In a pearler's pile at Momence we found the first white-nacred 
 one. The color of this shell seems to be about the same as that of U. 
 gibbosus and seems to respond to the same conditions. It is not, how- 
 ever, distributed the same in the shell, but seems to be most marked 
 in the umbonal cavity or teeth. Shells of L. rectus which are per- 
 fectly white otherwise often are pink or amethystine purple on the 
 teeth or umbonal cavity. The rosy hue of Q. coccinea seems to be 
 of a somewhat different nature and notably differs as one proceeds 
 down the river. 
 
 30. Lampsilis fallaciosus (Smith). Slough sand-shell. — This spe- 
 cies, valuable for small buttons, is rare in the Kankakee Basin. The 
 only ones found were in the Iroquois River at L'Erable. Most of 
 these contained distomid cysts in the margin of the mantle. 
 
 31. Lampsilis ligamentinus (Lamarck) . Mucket. — The mucket is 
 one of the best known of the button shells, and probably more tons of 
 
50 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 this species are used in the button-making industry than any other 
 single species. It is not so good a shell as the niggerhead and a few 
 others, but is one of the commonest and most widely distributed and 
 the material is very good. 
 
 This species is not found in lakes and is not common in the smaller 
 streams. It occurs throughout the length of the Yellow and Kan- 
 kakee Rivers, but is rather scattered in the Yellow and upper Kan- 
 kakee. In the lower Kankakee it is found at every station, and began 
 markedly increasing in numbers about Sheldon, Ind. It formed the 
 main mass of shells in the pearler's pile at Momence, 111., and fine 
 examples were seen in a pile of shells left by a pearler below 
 Momence. It was also found in considerable numbers at Custer Park, 
 Wilmington, and at the mouth of the Kankakee. In the Iroquois 
 River it was found at L'Erable and near the mouth. A large num- 
 ber were gravid at Momence, August 23. 
 
 ■ 32. Lampsilis luteolus {Lamarck) . Fatmucket. — Lampsilis luteolus 
 is a quite variable shell. It is inferior to the mucket on account of 
 being smaller and more cylindrical, and the greater curvature of the 
 valves makes it harder to work up satisfactorily. Such large fine 
 specimens as occur in some rivers, e. g., the St. Joseph River at Fort 
 Wayne, Ind., would make excellent buttons, but these are not 
 common. 
 
 It is one of the most abundant and widely distributed shells and is 
 usually found in lakes and in small rivers. In the Kankakee Basin 
 it occurred at almost every station, in lakes, rivers, and streams alike. 
 
 In parts of the Kankakee Basin this species is of especial interest, 
 as many of the examples found are infested with a parasite which 
 leads to the formation of perfect spherical pearls. The pearls are all 
 of small size and on this account not of enough value to justify work- 
 ing them. They are, however, of great scientific interest, as they 
 offer unusual opportunities for the study of pearl formation. In 
 places a single mussel will contain as many as a half dozen or more 
 pearls, and the average will run more than a pearl per mussel. A lot 
 of material was collected which furnished fine sections showing the 
 epithelial sac in which pearls are formed. It also indicated the 
 cause of pearl formation to be probably a small distomid which 
 formed cysts in the mantle of the mussels. It was greatly hoped that' 
 opportunities would be given to follow up this subject further, but 
 this hope has not been realized. This field offers excellent oppor- 
 tunities to the investigator. 
 
 33. Lampsilis multiradiatus (Lea). — This very pretty, much-rayed 
 shell resembles Lampsilis ventricosus in general form, but is too small 
 and thin to be of any service in the manufacture of buttons. It was 
 not found in the Kankakee Basin at all, but was not rare in Tippe- 
 canoe Lake and River. 
 
MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 51 
 
 3Jf. Lampsilis ventricosus {Barries). Pocketbook. — Lampsilis ven- 
 tricosus is a widely distributed and exceedingly variable shell, occur- 
 ring* in both lakes and streams. Its commercial value varies greatly 
 in different situations. In some locations it is too thin to be of any 
 value whatever. The nacre is usually white and of good luster, 
 though pink or reddish ones are occasionally found. 
 
 In the Yellow and Kankakee Rivers this species reaches unusual 
 size and thickness; indeed, in 1906 was obtained, in the Yellow River 
 near Plymouth, what at that time was the record shell for this species, 
 exceeding in size any in the National Museum collection. In the 
 active collecting that has been going on since, it is possible, of course, 
 that larger shells have been found. It was fairly abundant in the 
 Yellow River below Plymouth and became more common in the 
 Kankakee, until below Burton's camp it was present at every station. 
 We did not find it in the Iroquois or in any of the lakes within the 
 Kankakee Basin, though it is fairly common in Lake Maxinkuckee. 
 The form found in the Yellow and Kankakee is the large oval form, 
 either plain or, in some cases, beautifully rayed (occidens) ; near 
 the city of Kankakee, 111., however, we obtained some specimens with 
 a pretty well-marked posterior ridge (subovatus). It was repre- 
 sented by numerous large shells in the clammer's camp at Momence. 
 They were found becoming gravid at Plymouth July 15, spawning in 
 the Tippecanoe River July 28, gravid at Zinc Bridge August 4, and 
 at Custer Park August 27. In Yellow River this species bears numer- 
 ous sma^ dorsal baroques. 
 
 35. Micromya f abate (Lea) . — This dainty little shell was found at 
 Tippecanoe Lake and is fairly common in the Tippecanoe River, but 
 was not found in the Kankakee Basin. It has no commercial value. 
 
 36. Truncilla sulcata (Lea). — This little shell was found at Tippe- 
 canoe Lake, but was absent from the Kankakee Basin. It is interest- 
 ing as the representative of the most highly differentiated genus of 
 mussels, a genus mostly southern in distribution. It has no commer- 
 cial value. 
 
 ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 Although the upper portion of the Yellow River is fairly well 
 populated with mussels, it is a small stream and the distance is 
 short, so that commerical operations would soon deplete it. It is, 
 however, a region of especially large and fine L. ventricosus. Many 
 of the finest shells of this part of the river have been killed by pearl- 
 ers, and to gather tap and market the cleaned shells might be worth 
 while to some resident of the vicinity. It would hardly be profitable 
 for a professional clammer to construct gear and work this region. 
 Whether it would be a good plan to procure spawn of the remarkably 
 fine ventricosus found here for planting elsewhere can not be deter- 
 
52 MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN. 
 
 mined until it is known that their excellence was hereditary rather 
 than produced by exceptionally favorable conditions. 
 
 The dredged portion of the Yellow River, extending from Ober 
 to its mouth, and the dredged part of the Kankakee, so far as the bot- 
 tom is still unsettled, extending from its source to below the Hebron 
 Bridge, would be hardly workable, for though there is a fair number 
 of mussels, these are all in the old bed, which lies now on this, now 
 on that, side of the main navigable channel in the form of crescent- 
 shaped bayous, in many cases extending miles back from the present 
 (artificial) channel. Even in this new channel clamming operations 
 would be neither wise nor profitable until the mussel fauna becomes 
 more firmly established. The clammers at Momence worked up- 
 stream as far as they found it profitable, and were getting ready to 
 leave for more promising regions at the time of our visit. 
 
 The most profitable region commercially is the stretch of river 
 between Momence and Wilmington, 111., and this is now (1911) being 
 exploited. A shell dealer of Muscatine (Mr. W. S. Berry) furnished 
 the information (October, 1911) that between Waldron and the 
 Kankakee Dam (5^ miles by water) he had obtained nine carloads 
 of shells, and three below Kankakee, 90 per cent of which were 
 muckets, with a few razorbacks, three-ridges, and big pink pocket- 
 books. The three-ridges were of little value on account of the deep 
 furrows between the ridges. Below the Kankakee Bridge 200 tons 
 were obtained within 1,000 yards by means of the fork. 
 
 o 
 
IIYER BASIN 
 [D ILLINOIS 
 
 INVESTIGATION 
 
 OF FISHERIES 
 
 ~^is shown thus: \_/ 
 
 ale 
 
 IE 16 Miles 
 
108701—14. (Faco pago 20.) 
 
lBAg'12