topped during low-water periods. Besides which,
it will make the Mississippi fish question a great deal easier."

"I don't quite see what it has to do with the fish!" the boy said.

"Supposing five thousand square miles of land are flooded. When the
water goes down, at least half that amount of land is still flooded,
though no longer connected with the river, but forming shallow lakes and
pools. These are all full of fish. As the pools dry up, everything that
is in them dies, and millions of food fish are lost."

"But how can we stop that?"

"The Bureau of Fisheries does a great deal to stop it," was the answer,
"and if this rain holds--though we are all praying that it
won't--you'll probably have a chance to see. The Bureau seines as many
as it can of those bayous and pools and lakes to save the fish and
return them to the river. If a couple of men can save several thousand
fish a day, isn't that worth while? Think of a farmer who could get a
thousand bushels of wheat in a day! And that's about the proportion of
food value."

"Well," said Colin, as he was leaving the laboratory to take up another
piece of work he had been told to do, "I don't want a flood to come, of
course, but if there is one, I'd like to have a chance to see how the
Bureau handles that sort of fish rescue work."

The reports the next morning were no more encouraging,--the Weather
Bureau reporting heavy rain in Montana and the Milk River in flood.
Fortunately the weather was fine in the eastern States, but a flood on
the Milk River usually means a Missouri River flood, and that takes in
nearly two-fifths of the Mississippi basin. Around the Iowa station the
rain still poured heavily. By the end of the week more hopeful reports
came from the west. As the southwest had escaped entirely no serious
trouble was expected, but in the region near the laboratory the rain
was coming down in torrents and the Wapsipinicon and Cedar Rivers were
overflowing their banks.

[Illustration: CLIMBING UP THE WHEEL.

Device used on the lower Mississippi to haul in big nets for the
Spoonbills.

_By permission of Dr. Louis Hussakoff._]

[Illustration: BIGGEST FRESH-WATER FISH IN AMERICA.

Pulling out the source of domestic caviare, the Spoonbill.

_By permission of Dr. Louis Hussakoff._]

The neighboring stations at Bellevue, Iowa, and North MacGregor, Iowa,
were reported to be preparing for collecting black bass, crappies,
sun-fishes, yellow perch, pike, bu