The mussel fauna of the Kankakee basin

Front matter

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR BUREAU OF FISHERIES

GEORGE M. BOWERS, ComtnU«ton«f

THE MUSSEL FAUNA OF THE KANKAKEE BASIN

Introduction

The following paper gives the results of fresh-water mussel investigations made by the authors in the Kankakee Basin during the summer 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. Boepple 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 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 accurately 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 mussels 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 important 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 Geology 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 sufficient 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.

We thus have a basin surrounded by glacial moraines and everywhere 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. Consequently, 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 crookedness 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, cutting 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.

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 semiaquatic vegetation.

There were formerly more than half a million acres of this marshland 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, combined 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 conditions have a very important bearing upon mussel life.

And withal the region is one of marvelous beauty and attractiveness, 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 proverbial 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 primitive 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.

We may be reasonably certain, therefore, that the data here obtained 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 stations) 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 presented 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 Unionidse 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 provided. 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 channel 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 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 " (Lampsilis 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 Baltimore & 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 number 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 considerable 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, Eupomotis 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 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 Mesocarpus, which also forms in floating masses, and with the Clathrocystis 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 subcylindraceus. 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 distomid 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 specimens 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.

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 beautiful 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. edentulus, 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 minnow (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 considerable 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 outline 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 considerable water into the lake. There is an old outlet at the southeast 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 contrast 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 (Potamogeton 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 (Nymphcea). 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 temperature 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,

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.