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We saw crayfish, small and larger, scuds that skid about on their sides like shrimp. We saw tiny leeches-a-plenty, and even a free-wheeling freshwater eel.
And how did that make us feel?
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For two hours, it made kids of us all, catching the river's mysteries in a net, spilling the contents into shallow dishes of water, and then peering at all the minutiae of river life.
There was some science involved, since each kind of creature can tolerate a different degree of stream pollution. The presence of mayflies, for instance, which have a low tolerance for pollution, speaks well for the river. Since the intake for Princeton's drinking water is twenty miles downstream, I like the idea that mayflies find the water clean enough to live in.
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For more info on canal state park events, go to:
http://www.dandrcanal.com/pdf/milepost_summer09.pdf
It was a great afternoon in the Millstone! Thanks to the Park naturalist and all the stream stompers who helped reveal a parallel universe in a shallow stretch of flowing water.
ReplyDeleteSteve, how grand of you to publicize the good work being done in Kingston to give people the experience of the richness of nature.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn