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Pollution by petroleum wastes from refineries has also affected the streams studied. The only refinery within the area is at Arkansas City. In Butler County there are four refineries on the Walnut watershed upstream from the area surveyed. Metzler noted that "fish-kills" occurred from the mid-1940's until 1952 in connection with wastes periodically discharged from these refineries. However, the largest kill, in 1944, was attributed to excessive brine pollution.

In Arkansas City a meat-packing plant, a large railroad workshop, two flour mills, two milk plants, and several small manufacturing plants contribute wastes which may figure in industrial pollution. There are milk plants and small poultry processing plants at Winfield. In Chautauqua and Elk Counties there is little industrial activity.

CONSERVATION

In recent years several measures have been implemented or proposed to conserve the water and land resources of the Arkansas River Basin. Droughts and floods have focused public attention on such conservation. Less spectacular, but nevertheless important, problems confronting conservationists include streambank erosion, channel deterioration, silting, recreational demands for water, and irrigation needs.

Congress has authorized the U. S. Corps of Engineers to construct six dam and reservoir projects in the Verdigris watershed. Two of these--Hulah Reservoir in Osage County, Oklahoma, on Big Caney River, and Fall River Reservoir in Greenwood County, Kansas--have been completed. Other reservoirs authorized in the Verdigris watershed include Toronto, Neodesha, and Elk City in Kansas and Oologah in Oklahoma. Construction is underway on the Toronto Reservoir and some planning has been accomplished on the Neodesha and Elk City projects.

The possibilities of irrigation projects in the Verdigris and Walnut River basins are under investigation by the United States Bureau of Reclamation .

An area of 11 square miles in Chautauqua and Montgomery Counties is included in the Aiken Creek "Pilot Watershed Project," a co-operative effort by federal, state, and local agencies to obtain information as to the effects of an integrated watershed protection program .

PREVIOUS ICHTHYOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS

Few accounts of fishes in the area here reported on have been published. Evermann and Fordice made a collection from Timber Creek at Winfield in 1884.

The State Biological Survey collected actively from 1910 to 1912, but localities visited in the Arkansas River System were limited to the Neosho and Verdigris River basins . The only collection made in the area considered here was on the Elk River in Elk County on July 11, 1912. The total species list of this collection is not known.

In the years 1924-1929 Minna E. Jewell collected at various places in central Kansas. On June 30, 1925, Jewell and Frank Jobes made collections on Timber Creek and Silver Creek in Cowley County.

Hoyle mentions collections made by himself and Dr. Charles E. Burt, who was then Professor of Biology at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas. Records in the Department of Biology, Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia, indicate that Dr. Burt and others made collections in the area which have not been published on.

TABLE 4.--COLLECTIONS MADE BY DR. FRANK B. CROSS OF THE STATE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY IN 1955.

Claire Schelske studied fishes of the Fall and Verdigris Rivers in Wilson and Montgomery counties from March, 1954, to February, 1955.

In the annotated list of species that follows, records other than mine are designated by the following symbols:

E&F--Evermann and Fordice SBS--State Biological Survey J&J--Jewell and Jobes C--Collection number--Cross UMMZ--University of Michigan Museum of Zoology OAM--Oklahoma A&M College Museum of Zoology

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to Professor Frank B. Cross for his interest in my investigation, for his counsel, and for his penetrating criticism of this paper. This study would have been impossible without the assistance of several persons who helped in the field. Mr. Artie C. Metcalf and Mr. Delbert Metcalf deserve special thanks for their enthusiastic and untiring co-operation in collecting and preserving of specimens. Mrs. Artie C. Metcalf, Miss Patricia Metcalf, Mr. Chester Metcalf, and Mr. Forrest W. Metcalf gave help which is much appreciated. I am indebted to the following persons for numerous valuable suggestions: Dr. John Breukelman, Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, Kansas; Dr. George Moore, Oklahoma A&M College, and Mr. W. L. Minckley, Lawrence, Kansas.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Collections were made by means of: a four-foot net of nylon screen; a 10x4-foot "common-sense" woven seine with 1/4-inch mesh; a 15x4-foot knotted mesh seine; a 20x5-foot 1/4-inch mesh seine; pole and line . At most stations the four-foot, ten-foot, and twenty-foot seines were used; however, the equipment that was used varied according to the size of pool, number of obstructions, nature of bottom, amount of flow, and type of streambank. Usually several hours were spent at each station and several stations were revisited from time to time. Percentages noted in the List of Species represent the relative number taken in the first five seine-hauls at each station.

COLLECTING STATIONS

Collecting was done at stations listed below and shown in Fig. 2. Each station was assigned a letter, designating the stream system on which the station was located, and a number which indicates the position of the station on the stream. This number increases progressively upstream from mouth to source. Code letters used are as follows: A--Arkansas River; W--Walnut River System; B--Beaver Creek System; C--Big Caney River System; G--Grouse Creek System; M--Middle Caney Creek System; E--Elk River System. All dates are in the year 1956.

A-1. Arkansas River. Sec. 2 and 3, T. 35 S, R. 4 E. June 14 and August 20. Braided channel with sand bottom. Water slightly turbid, with layer of oil sludge on bottom.

A-2. Arkansas River. Sec. 22, T. 34 S, R. 3 E. August 25. Flowing through diverse channels. Average depth 12 inches. Bottom sand.

A-3. Arkansas River. Sec. 21, T. 33 S, R. 3 E. August 27 and December 22. Flowing over fine sand. Average depth 11 inches. Some areas of backwater with oil sludge on bottom.

W-1. Walnut River. Sec. 20, T. 34 S, R. 4 E. July 7. Flowing rapidly, with large volume, because of recent rains. Average width 300 feet. Bottom gravel. Water turbid.

W-2. Walnut River. Sec. 11, T. 34 S, R. 4 E. July 20. Rubble riffles and large shallow pools with gravel bottoms. Average width, 100 feet. Water clear.

W-3. Walnut River. Sec. 29, T. 32 S, R. 4 E. July 17. Pools and riffles below Tunnel Mill Dam at Winfield. Water clear.

W-4. Badger Creek. Sec. 6, T. 33 S, R. 5 E. July 17. Small pools. Average width 7 feet, average length 40 feet, average depth 8 inches. Water turbid and malodorous. Bottoms and banks mud. Much detritus present.

W-5. Timber Creek. Sec. 35, T. 31 S, R. 4 E. June 6. Intermittent pools, widely separated. Average width 9 feet, average depth 8 inches. Bottom mud and gravel.

B-1. Big Beaver Creek. Sec. 8, T. 35 S, R. 7 E. May 28. Isolated pools. Average width 10 feet, average depth one foot. Water turbid. Bottom rubble.

B-2. Little Beaver Creek. Sec. 18, T. 35 S, R. 6 E. July 21. Intermittent pools. Average width 10 feet, average length 35 feet, average depth 10 inches. Bottoms rubble, mud, and bedrock.

B-3. Big Beaver Creek. Sec. 28, T. 34 S, R. 7 E. July 22. Series of small turbid pools.

G-1. Grouse Creek. Sec. 5, T. 35 S, R. 5 E. May 30, September 5, and September 24. Intermittent pools in close succession. Average width 22 feet, average depth 16 inches. Water turbid on May 30 but clear in September. Bottom rubble. Steep banks. Little shade for pools.

G-2. Grouse Creek. Sec. 23, T. 34 S, R. 5 E. August 29. Series of shallow intermittent pools. Average width 42 feet, average length 120 feet, average depth 15 inches. Bottom bedrock and mud.

G-5. Grouse Creek. Sec. 19, T. 32 S, R. 7 E. July 2. Succession of riffles and pools. Water clear. Volume of flow approximately one cubic foot per second, but creek bankful after heavy rains on June 22. Average width 20 feet, average depth 18 inches.

G-8. Silver Creek. Sec. 1, T. 33 S, R. 5 E. July 17. Intermittent pools. Average width 30 feet, average length 120 feet, average depth 12 inches. Water clear.

G-9. Silver Creek. Sec. 4, T. 32 S, R. 6 E. July 17. Small upland brook with volume less than one-half cfs. Average width 12 feet, average depth 10 inches. Water clear, bottom mostly rubble.

G-10. Crab Creek. Sec. 33, T. 33 S, R. 6 E. June 24. Intermittent pools, showing evidence of having flowed after rains on June 22. Average width 15 feet, average depth 16 inches.

G-11. Crab Creek. Sec. 35, T. 33 S, R. 6 E. July 16. Small intermittent pools. Average width 13 feet, average length 55 feet, average depth 11 inches. Water clear. Bottom rubble and mud.

G-13. Crab Creek. Sec. 21, T. 33 S, R. 7 E. July 29. Isolated pools 300 feet by 24 feet. Average depth 12 inches. Water turbid.

G-14. Unnamed creek . Sec. 26, T. 31 S, R. 7 E. August 30. Intermittent pools. Average width 15 feet, average length 45 feet, average depth 11 inches. Water clear. Bottom rubble.

G-15. Unnamed creek . Sec. 17, T. 31 S, R. 8 E. July 27. Small upland creek bordered by bluestem pastures. Pools with average width of 10 feet, average length 30 feet, average depth 9 inches. Water slightly turbid. Bottom rubble and mud.

G-16. Crab Creek. Sec. 22, T. 33 S, R. 7 E. July 25. Small isolated pools. Average width 17 feet, average length 58 feet, average depth 9 inches. Water turbid.

G-17. Crab Creek. Sec. 23, T. 33 S, R. 7 E. July 25. Upland brook bordered by bluestem pastures. Unshaded intermittent pools. Average width 7 feet, average length 40 feet, average depth 9 inches. Water turbid.

C-1. Big Caney River. Sec. 16, T. 33 S, R. 10 E. July 19. Intermittent pools. Average width 47 feet, average length 90 feet, average depth 13 inches. Bottom rubble and bedrock. Water clear to slightly turbid.

C-2. Big Caney River. Sec. 1, T. 35 S, R. 9 E. September 5. Series of intermittent pools. Bottom rubble and large stones.

C-3. Big Caney River. Sec. 29, T. 34 S, R. 9 E. June 17. Large shallow pool below ledge 3 feet high forming "Osro Falls." Bottom bedrock.

C-4. Big Caney River. Sec. 32, T. 34 S, R. 9 E. June 3. Three large pools with connecting riffles. Water turbid. Bottom bedrock and rubble.

C-5. Big Caney River. Sec. 11 and 12, T. 34 S, R. 8 E. May 27, May 29, June 11, June 18, June 19, and June 27. From a low-water dam, 6 feet high, downstream for 1/4 mile. Pools alternating with rubble and bedrock riffles. Collecting was done at different times of day and night, and when stream was flowing and intermittent.

C-6. Big Caney River. Sec. 26, T. 33 S, R. 8 E. June 16. Intermittent pools with bedrock bottom. Water slightly turbid. Average width 16 feet, average depth 10 inches.

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