THE

Proceedings and Transitions

OF THE

$7S5~

Jtoba §cotiait Institute of (Science,

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA.

HALIFAX:

Printed for the Institute by McAlpine Publishing Co., Ltd.
Date of Publication : 24th August, 1908.

Prtce to Non-Members: One Half-Dollar.

CO NT EON TPS

Proceedings, session oe 1906-1907 : page.

Presidential address.— By F. W. W. Doane, C. E i

The Institute’s work i

Research work iv

Sanitary scientific work v

Report of treasurer ix

Report of librarian ix

Exchange of publications x

Officers for 1906-1907 x

Ordinary meetings x

Institute’s seal , xi, xxx

Reminiscences of a Nova Scotian naturalist : Andrew Down?.— By Major-

General Campbell Hardy, R. A xi

Self-recording rain-gauge for Halifax , xxx

The run-off from a small drainage area near Halifax.— By H. W. Johnston,

C. E. (Title only.) xxx

Transactions, session of 1906-1907 :

Influence of radium on decomposition of hydriodic acid.— By H. Jermain

M. Creighton, M. A 1

Water power of Halifax county, Nova Scotia: part 1, Dartmouth Lakes

power.— By F. W. W. Doane, C. E 21

A few chemical changes influenced by radium : a new method for the de-
tection of amygdalin.— By H. Jermain M. Creighton, M. A 34

Behaviour of solutions of Hydriodic acid in light in the presence of

oxygen.— By H. Jermain M. Creighton, M. A 49

Notes on mineral fuels of Canada.— By R. W. Ells, LL.D, F. R. S. C 61

Halifax water works.— By H. W. Johnston, C. E 72

Fungi of Nova Scotia : first supplementary list. -By A. H. MacKay, LL.D.,

F. R.S. C 119

Appendix I :

List of members, 1906-1907 i

List of presidents of the Institute since its foundation in 1862 iv

THE attention of members of the Institute is directed to the following
recommendations of the British Association Committee on Zoological
Bibliography and Publications : —

“ That authors’ separate copies should not be distributed privately
before the paper has been published in the regular manner.

“ That it is desirable to express the subject of one’s paper in its title,
while keeping the title as concise as possible.

“That new species should be properly diagnosed and figured when
possible.

“ That new names should not be proposed in irrelevant footnotes, or
anonymous paragraphs.

“ That references to previous publications should be made fully and
correctly, if possible in accordance with one of the recognized sets of
rules of quotations, such as that recently adopted by the French Zoological
Society

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Jtoba ^cotimx Jixstitxxte of Science.

SESSION OF 1906-1907

Annual Business Meeting.

Assembly Room, Province Building, Halifax, 12th Nov., 1906.

The President, F. W. W. Doane, in the chair.

Presidential Address: (1) Work of the Institute; (2)

Research Work; (3) Sanitary Scientific Work. — By F.

W. W. Doane, C. E., City Engineer, Halifax.

Gentlemen, — A year ago, at the beginning of my twentieth
year as a member of the Institute, yon elected me to the highest
office in your gift, an honor which I appreciate more because I am
fully conscious that a better selection might well have been made
in order to maintain the standard established by my predecessors.

In opening the forty-fifth session of the Institute by a short
review of the events of the past year, it is a pleasure to be able to
report that we have met with no losses either through death or
resignation.

Payers. — The following papers have been communicated to the
Institute during the year :

1. Presidential Address. — By Dr. H. S. Poole.

2. The Flora of MacNab’s Island, Halifax. — By Captain J. H.

Barbour, M. D., Royal Army Medical Corps.

3. Catalogue of the Birds of Prince Edward Island. — By John

Mac Swain.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XIL

(■)

Proc.— A.

11

PROCEEDINGS.

4. Mining — Is it a Science? — By W. E. Lishman, M. A.,

M. Inst. M. E.

5. Additions to xhe List of Nova Scotia Fungi. — By Dr. A. PL

MacKay.

6. Halifak Water Works. — By Ii. W. Johnston, C. E.

7. The Oil Fields of Eastern Canada. — By Dr. R. W. Ells.

8. The Frost and Drought of 1905. — By F. W. W. Doane.

9. Eels in Water Pipes and Their Migration. — By Watson L.

Bishop.

10. Notes on Protective Coloring. — By Frank H. Reid.

11. The Grignard Synthesis: Action of Phenyl Magnesium

Bromide on Camphor. — By H. Jermain Creighton.

12. Contribution to the Study of Hydroxylamiiie. — By G. M.

Johnston MacKay, B. A.

13. Water Powers on the Mersey River, N. S. — By W. G.

Yorston, C. E.

14. The Damage done to Timber by Teredo navalis and Limnoria

lignorum. — By R. McColl, C. E.

15. Pheno logical Observations, Canada, 1905. — By Dr. A. H.

MacKay.

16. Water-rolled Weed-balls. — By Dr. A. H. MacKay.

Of the thirteen authors who gave the Institute the benefit
of their labors and observation, six presented papers for the
first time, a fact which in itself is evidence of some pro-
gress. We cannot congratulate ourselves, however, that we are in
the healthy condition that every member who has the best interest
of the Institute at heart could wish. We have been depending too
much on the work of the older members, and in consequence of the
willingness with which they devote their time and energy to the
arduous demands of each session, the enlistment of new workers
has been somewhat neglected. While the interest of the older
active members has not abated, their work could be lightened by
the assistance of the younger members, who, by a little effort,
might relieve the strain upon the knowledge and active intellect of
those whose wonderful energy in the past has proved equal to the

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

demand upon them, and who have done so much to place the Nova
Scotian Institute of Science among the chief scientific associations
of British America.

Membership. — No addition has been made to the list of coT-
responding members, but four have been proposed and approved
as ordinary members or associate members. A number of new
members have not yet qualified for membership by paying the
annual fee in consequence of defects in our financial system. This
matter is receiving the attention of the council, and it is probable
that changes will be made which will lead to the adoption of a more
satisfactory system and place the finance department on a better
business basis.

It should be our aim first to “ set our house in order, ” then
to add to our membership as much as possible. We should have on
our roll the name of every man in Nova Scotia who has the ability
to add to our knowledge, and also all those who, though they may
not have the opportunity or the requisite preparatory training to
enable them to advance science themselves, are willing to encourage
others in their efforts by their interest and their annual fees.
There must be many of the latter class in the acquaintance circles
of all our members, who might be induced to come in and help us
if we make the effort. Indeed, there must be more persons in
Nova Scotia devoting some portion of their time to scientific work
than those whose names are inscribed on the membership roll of
the Institute of Science. Let each member make a list of the
names of those whom he considers eligible for membership and
submit it to the new council. Let it be the duty of the council,
assisted by individual members, to use every endeavor to obtain
the allegiance of such persons, and I have no doubt that the result
will be very beneficial to the Institute.

Meeting rooms. — The closing meeting of the last session was
held in the room of the Mining Society, through the courtesy of its
president. While one hesitates to record feelings of envy, it must
be admitted that the cozy quarters placed at our service suggested
speculations as to the benefits that would result to the Institute if
we were able to maintain similar headquarters. If a campaign is

IV

PROCEEDINGS.

inaugurated for increasing the membership and consequently the
revenue of the Institute, the next step should be to consider the
.advisability and possibility of providing a home for our society.
From the first -tire provincial government gave the use of the only
;spare room at its disposal, and we are still indebted to the
generosity of the government for a place in which to hold our
meetings, and also a place wherein to keep our valuable library.

Publication. — We are handicapped by our limited purse and
other conditions, so that it would be impossible to expend a larger
sum at present on the publication of papers. A great effort should
be made, however, to bring this work up to date. We should then
consider the advisability of printing before they are read, all
papers of general interest or special importance. If an advance-
proof of such papers could be sent out some time before the meeting
at which they are to be read, it would doubtless result in freer and
much more valuable discussion and larger attendance at such
meetings. Even under our present system the discussion is often
second in value only to the paper itself.

Research work. — The practical value of reseach work is being
impressed upon the public, and the business portion of the public
is becoming interested more and more in the results of such work.

An address on a strictly scientific subject is not often of par-
ticular interest except to those who are engaged in the department
of science discussed. The superficial observer who sees the oak
but forgets the acorn, is likely to ascribe the great material
advances of recent times wholly to scientific knowledge and rare
ingenuity, and to consider the great inventors and the great cap-
tains of industry as the most important agents in bringing about
the modern era. No other agent, however, has been of greater
influence in making the mechanical evolution of the latter part of
the last century possible than the great scientific investigators
whose forceful intellect opened the way to secrets previously hidden
from men.

Nature turns a forbidding face to those who pay her court with
the hope of gain, and is responsive only to those suitors whose love
is for herself alone. It is impossible to know what application

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

V

knowledge may have until after it is acquired, and the seeker after
purely useful knowledge will fail to acquire any real knowledge
whatever. In this fact lies the explanation of the extreme rarity
with which the functions of an investigator of the laws of nature
and those of the inventor who applies these laws to utilitarian pur-
poses, are united in the same person.

This theme is one of special importance at the present time,
because it is customary to ask about every new discovery in science.
What is its value ? It is only by going backward over the develop-
ment of applied science that it is possible to realize the funda-
mental importance of research work. For instance, hardly any of
the basic principles of engineering were discovered by men with
any intent on practical work. The mathematical methods which
are necessary for the engineer are the result of strictly scientific
investigation, and the laws of physics and chemistry are being
determined by the research work of men who care little whether
their discoveries are to find immediate practical application or not.
The development of industrial processes often, suggests new sub-
jects for investigation, and some of the best research work of
to-day is being guided by business corporations, but the men who
are so engaged are working in a purely scientific spirit, and leave
the practical development of their results to the engineer.

The beginner in research work may be discouraged when he
reviews the work of more advanced scientific investigators, in the
belief that the greater part of the work' has been done. He will
soon learn, however, that in the words of the late Cecil Ehodes,
“ there is so much to be done.” For instance, how little we really
know of meteorology except a few statistics. IIow intangible is the
air, yet it uproots strong trees firmly anchored in mother earth,
tears heavy structures from their foundations and drops them in
fragments far from their original location.

There is much to learn and plenty of room for every new worker
who has the inclination, the energy and the persistency to wrest
from nature her jealously guarded secrets.

Sanitary scientific work. — In that branch of science with
which my daily work brings me in intimate connection, prominence

VI

PROCEEDINGS.

has been given during the year to the extermination of the mos-
quito, the purification of water by copper sulphate, and the ven-
tilation of sewers and plumbing, and the abolition of the main
trap.

The extermination of the mosquito has been accomplished,
where it has been undertaken by first a campaign of education, then
the expenditure of considerable sums of money in destroying the
breeding places by draining and filling up, etc.

The copper sulphate treatment of water has engaged the atten-
tion of the world, and it is apparently becoming more and more
evident (1) that water infected with algae can be purified by this
means, and (2) that water which has been so purified is quite fit
for human consumption, and that no one need fear harmful effects.

Abolition of the drain trap. — The ventilation of sewers and
plumbing has been a burning question elsewhere, but the “ abolition
of the house trap ” has become a live question in Halifax, and con-
sequently may be worthy of more than passing notice.

The regulations of the city health board require the installation
of a trap at or near the point where the drain leaves the house, and
although there has been much diversity of opinion elsewhere
regarding the necessity for its use, there had been no question here
until the master plumbers asked that the sanitary regulations be
amended so that the main trap could be omitted. This trap, known
in England as the intercepting trap, is in that country intimately
connected with the larger question of the ventilation of sewers and
drains, which has been more or less the subject of controversy since
the illness of King Edward, when Prince of Wales, in 1872. The
intercepting trap was patented by W. P. Buchan, Glasgow, about
1875, and, without any special investigation, was adopted by the
local government board and introduced into its model by-laws in
1877. Such official recognition caused its advantages to be taken
for granted, and deterred many people from investigating the ques-
tion for themselves. The controversy resulted in a general con-
census of opinion that “ sewer gas must be cut off from the house,”
and the intercepting trap was adopted with that object in view.

Recently many engineers engaged in municipal work have
favored the abolition of the trap, and their argument has been

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. vil

.greatly strengthened by experiments made in England and else-
where to determine whether sewer air is actually dangerous or not.
Medical officers of health are more conservative in their views, and
are for the most part strongly in favor of the retention of the
trap.

It is probably true that there is no local sanitary authority in
this province, where sewers, drains and plumbing exist, which has
not had to deal, at some period or other, with complaints as to the
nuisance caused by the escape of sewer gas, and it may therefore be
assumed that the subject is of importance to every section of the
community.

It is not advisable or necessary in these remarks to introduce
the technical pros and cons that are so often used. Such arguments
may be reserved for a technical paper or for the benefit of
municipal sanitary authorities. The question which is of special
interest to us, and which, too, must be considered to a certain
extent unsettled, since it is yet under investigation, is, does sewer
air injuriously affect health?

About a year ago the borough council of Hampstead, England,
employe I two experts, F. W. Andrews, M. D., F. B, C. P., D. P. H.,
and W. H. Hurtley, E. Sc., to make analyses of sewer air and
report on the bacteria suspended therein.

The particular points which the experts set themselves to
investigate were: (1) Can it be determined whether the emana-

tions from the sewers are likely to cause disease? (2) What is the
•substance which gives rise to the disagreeable odors? (3) What is
the chemical composition of the sewer air at different levels?

As regards the first point, which is the most important, it is the
general, but not altogether unanimous opinion, that sewage bacteria
do not exist in sewer air. This opinion has been based upon the
results of only a few investigations; and on the other hand it has
been abundantly proved that sewer air, escaping direct into houses,
has injuriously affected the health of the inmates. This fact has
led to the assumption that there must be some subtle chemical
action in such cases which has not yet been discovered, and which
might possibly also exert its influence in the open air.

Vlll

PROCEEDINGS.

The bacteriological examination of sewer air lias not received
the attention which should have been given to it, and possibly we
have in our own ranks members who, by research and investigation,,
can throw some light on this important question. Within the last
few years improved methods for investigating air-borne bacteria,,
especially Streptococci , have been introduced, but they have not yet
been applied to sewer air, and when it is borne in mind that
Streptococci are the most abundant organisms in sewage, that they
are amongst the most important of disease-producing bacteria, and
that some at least of the diseases to which sewer air is credited with
giving rise, are in all probability strepcococcal infections, it is
plain that the examination of sewer air for Streptococci should
prove an important field of investigation.

Improved methods have also been recently introduced whereby
the common intestinal bacteria belonging to the B. coli group
(including the typhoid bacillus) may be much more easily identi-
fied and isolated.

The first step taken by Dr. Andrews was to endeavor to find
sewage organisms in the sewer air, and he succeeded in finding an
organism which was not the true B. coli communis , but was identi-
cal with a characteristic sewage member of the group, present in
the sewage to the number of at least 30,000 per c. c.

The most important experiments, however, were those relating
to Streptococci', and Dr. Andrews established the fact that the
Streptococci of the sewer air are very different from those of the
fresh air outside the sewers, and in the very point in which they
differ from those of the fresh air they tend to approach those of
the sewage. The importance of this discovery cannot be over-
estimated, and it is fairly obvious that the whole future disposition
of sewer ventilation or sewer air treatment may depend upon the
facts which further examination in this direction will produce.

The question arises, what effect does this .variation in the con-
stitution of Streptococci have upon the human constitution? Both
Dr. Andrews and Dr. Hurtley remained in the sewers for long
periods and it is not recorded that they suffered at all; in fact.
Dr. Hurtley specifically states that he did not experience the slight-

librarian’s report.

IX

est inconvenience. In this connection the case of sewer men, who
are notoriously healthy subjects, may be instanced.

Although these investigations seem to establish pretty clearly
that sewer air, as such, is not necessarily dangerous, and that the
probability of sewer air organisms being carried into the outer air
so as to become a danger is exceedingly remote, yet it must be
admitted that there is still an off-chance, and it is that off-chance
which produces a doubt.

There is still a belief that, for some as yet unknown reason,
sewer, air escaping direct into dwelling houses is a danger, and that
sewer smells are objectionable and a nuisance no one will deny. The
public therefore will probably await the result of further
investigation.

W. McKerron presented the treasurers accounts, which were-
referred to the auditors.

The librarian’s report was presented by H. Piers, showing that
1911 books and pamphlets had been received by the Institute
through its exchange-list during the year 1905 ; and 1,457 had been
received during ten months (January to October) of the present
year, 1906. Particulars were also given of the total number of
books and pamphlets received by the Provincial Science Library
(with which the books of the Institute are incorporated) during
the year 1905.. This number was 2,590, of which 1,911 were the
society’s exchanges as above-mentioned. Increased use of the-
library was reported, as shown by the number of books borrowed,
namely 536 in 1905. A card catalogue of the manuals and general
works, arranged alphabetically by authors and subjects, has been
completed during 1906, and these books have been arranged on the
shelves according to the decimal system of classification. The
report was received and adopted.

The Secretary reported that the Kings County Branch of
the Institute had done no work during the session of 1905-6, nor
during the previous session. It was resolved that the subject of
branch societies be referred to the incoming council.

X

PROCEEDINGS.

It was resolved that the thanks of the Institute be conveyed to
His Honor the Speaker of the House of Assembly, for his
courtesy in permitting the use of the assembly room as a place of
meeting.

Eeference was made to the desirability of having some exchange
system in Canada which would take the place of that of the Smith-
sonian Bureau of International Exchanges at Washington, which
latter bureau can not now undertake the work of forwarding book
packages to foreign countries owing to the magnitude to which
such work had grown of late years. The subject was referred to
the council.

The following were elected officers for the ensuing year (1906-
1907) :

President — F. W. W. Doane, C. E., ex officio F. R. M. S.

Vice-Presidents — Professor Ebenezer MacKay, Ph. D.; Professor
J. E. Woodman, D. Sc.

Treasurer — J. B. McCarthy, B. A., M. Sc.

Corresponding Secretary — A. H. MacKay, Ll. D., F. R. S. C.

Recording Secretary — Harry Piers.

Librarian — Harry Piers.

Councillors without Office — Maynard Bowman, B. A.; Watson L.
Bishop; Edwin Gilpin, Jr., Ll. D., F. R. S. C., I. S. O.;
Alexander McKay; Professor Frederic H. Sexton, B. Sc.;
Henry S. Poole, D. Sc., F. R. S. C.; William McKerron.

Auditors — Professor D. A. Murray, Ph. D. ; R. McColl, C. E

A vote of thanks was presented to the retiring treasurer, W.
McKerron, for his services; to H. Piers, for his work as secre-
tary ; and to the President, Mr. Doane.

First Ordinary Meeting.

Assembly Room, Province Building, Halifax, llfth Jan., 1907.
The President, Mr. Doane, in the chair.

It was reported that Philip A. Freeman, engineer, Halifax
Electric Tram Co., Halifax, had been elected an ordinary member.

A paper was read, entitled, “ Notes on Mineral Fuels of Can-
ada” by E. W. Ells, Ll. D., F. G. S. A., F. E. S. C., of the
Geological Survey, Ottawa. (See Transactions, p. 61.)

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XI

Second Ordinary Meeting,

City Council Chamber , Halifax , 11th March , 1907.

The President, Mr. Doane, in the chair.

H. Piers and J. B. McCarthy were appointed a committee to
prepare a suitable design for a seal for the Institute, and to have
the same engraved.

In the absence of the author, Mr. Piers read the following
paper by General Campbell Hardy :

Reminiscences of a Nova Scotian Naturalist: Andrew
Downs. — By Major-General Campbell Hardy, R. A.,
Dover, England.

In days gone by, when the writer of this paper was quartered
■at Halifax, N. S., then a great naval and military station of the
imperial government, there were two interesting spots which a
stranger generallv visited first, namely the Old Point Woods and
Downs’s Zoological Gardens at the head of the North West Arm.
The former are now enclosed and preserved in the area termed
Point Pleasant Park : the latter have vanished from the scene. It
is then the object of this paper to recall a picture of the past,, to
speak of the remarkable man who lived at the head of the North
West Arm, and to describe his charming location, Walton Cot-
tage.*

A little stream runs in at the head of the North West Arm, and
following it up by the road which branches from the main road
from Halifax in the direction of the Dutch Village, a few hundred
yards brought us to Downs’s gates.

. The cottage nestled in its prettily wooded grounds, with the
shores of the Arm in the background receding towards the blue
Atlantic. Here nature and cultivation were charmingly blended
together, and the wild birds from the hills behind loved to come in
and nest in perfect confidence in the owner’s good will towards all
living creatures. For I will say this of Downs by way of introduc-

*The grounds on which Downs’s zoological gardens were situated are now the
property of the estate of the late John Doull, and Walton Cottage is at present the
residence of Dr. Arthur Doull.

Xll

PROCEEDINGS.

tion, that he was a man of sweet disposition, tender and merciful to*
all his feathered friends, and though perhaps he could not say yes
to Emerson’s pointed question, “Hast thous named all the birds
without a gun ?” he was incapable of any act of cruelty or neglect.

My acquaintance with Downs commenced very soon after
arrival, for in him I found the very man who could tell me all
about the wild creatures of this favoured little province, the ideal
home of the naturalist and sportsman. To live and camp in the
great backwoods of Canada had been mv ambition in early youth*
and in his company I served an apprenticeship as it were, and
commenced habits of observation which have stored my memory
with the songs and scents of the woods and the ways of their
denizens during a prolonged residence of some sixteen years.

In re-reading lately a very entertaining little book by Samuel
Smiles, entitled “ The Life of a Scotch Naturalist,” I was struck
by some points of resemblance between its subject, Thomas Edward,.
A. L. S., and Andrew Downs of Nova Scotia. Both were men of
humble origin, and both became in their early lives devotees of
nature study as it is now popularly termed, leaving their respective
callings to work in that fascinating field. Both were strenuous
workers, taxidermists and collectors, practical men and not over
much given to library lore. Both were recognized by the scien-
tific world as having acquired their knowledge of natural history at
first-hand, and though cultivating their own powers of observation.
It seems, too, that they had much similarity of character, the same
honest grasping of facts and hatred of shams, the same Spartan-like
simplicity of life, with much originality and a sturdy independence
which under all circumstances compels respect. Edward was
credited with many discoveries and additions to British zoology.
Downs gave more impetus to forwarding the knowledge of local
natural history than any Canadian before his day. Every visitor
desirous of acquaintance with wild life in the woods or by the
waters of Acadie, went to Downs for advice or reference; and few
returned to Europe, after a sojourn more or less prolonged in the
maritime provinces, without taking back either some trophy of
the larger game or specimens of the beautiful avi-fauna of eastern
Canada which had passed through our naturalist’s skilful hands.

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

Xlll

An extended biographical sketch of Downs’s life on the model
of Smiles’s little work would doubtless be very interesting, but as
he was a man who sought retirement and seldom troubled himself
with correspondence, and as, moreover, time is fast effacing his
memory in Nova Scotia, it would be difficult to get together suffi-
cient and reliable materials for such, a compilation. I have, how-
ever, recently received from the recording secretary of the Nova
Scotian Institute of Science,* of which I am a corresponding mem-
ber, a paper on this subject written by himself and embodying ex-
tracts from an article by the editor of the New York Forest and
Stream, a personal friend and admirer of Downs, whom he had
visited. On reading it, I was induced to refer to a number of old
diaries and notebooks of Nova Scotian days, and was glad to find
Downs’s name frequently occurring therein, as well as an article
which I contributed in 1864 to a Halifax newspaper* and have for-
tunately preserved, undoubtedly the first notice of Downs and his
•establistment which had then been published. I quote the article
here, as a contemporary account of the naturalist and his interest-
ing collection of animals :

Sketches in Our Neighbourhood : An Afternoon with Downs.

Half an hour’s walk from the city, over the Common, and down the
telegraph-road leading to the west, brings the visitor to the cross-roads at
the head of the North West Arm. If a stranger, your question— “ Is this
the way to Downs’s ? ” is probably answered by a piscatorial urchin,
seated by a little brook which here trickles into the salt-water under a
bridge, by “ Yaas, that’s it, where yer hear them burds screaming’,” point-
ing to the road turning off towards the Dutch Village. In confirmation
whereof the shrill scream of a peacock or discordant cry of a cockatoo
reaches your ear, and we presently arrive at the gates of Walton Cottage
Gardens.

And here let me say ere proceeding, that these gardens were the first
Zoo ” established on the American continent — a fact often recounted to
me by the founder with some pride.

Prettily surrounded and hid from the road by fir woods, Downs’s
house, approached by a circular drive, stands on a slight eminence over-
looking the whole length of the North West Arm. It is a neat, rustic
little residence with tall, sharp-pointed gables ornamented with trellis,

♦Harry Piers, Esq. See “Sketch of the Life of Andrew Downs, founder of the
first zoological garden in America.”— Proc. N. S. Inst. Sci., vol. x, p. cii, with portrait,
t The Acadian Recorder, edited by Mr. Peter Hamilton and Hunter Duvar.

XIV

PROCEEDINGS.

and a porch groaning under the weight of the honeysuckles and Virginia
creepers which have seized upon it. Several pairs of antlers of moose and
deer adorn the sides under the roof; and tall poles, bearing painted minia-
ture cottages, are planted around for the express benefit of such birds as
will take advantage of the gratuitous lodging thus afforded, and the offer
of free board with the well-fed poultry in the yard — a spacious enclosure
with a large, clear pond fed by a stream from the liill-side in the rear, and
shaded by shrubberies, through which are cut prettily-winding walks in
every direction.

Here we probably find the owner himself spreading Indian corn
broadcast amongst a rude, greedy assembly of every kind of fowl —
land-fowl and water-fowl, great thick-thighed cochins and diminutive
bantams, hearty swans which come up to the banquet, with a hasty,
waddling gait ill befitting their dignity, and fat, glossy ducks of every hue
that at once suggest the idea of comestibles in the shape of green pease.
In fact, I was about to pass them over as being, in the language of the
advertisers, “ too numerous to mention,” but as Downs himself is engaged
in feeding them, it is worth our while to stay and hear him expatiate on
their beauties and peculiarities; for he is a quick, sharp-sighted, and
enthusiastic naturalist, and will point out things which we should other-
wise have never thought of noticing. “ There are days,” he says, “ when
the light seems to bring out the colours on birds’ feathers which you
would never see in dull weather, days when all nature seems brightened
up by the peculiar state of the atmosphere; when the trees seem greener,
when the sky has a greater softness and depth than commonly, and your
own feelings are in tune with all around. Look at that wild turkey as he
comes swelling along, and the sun’s rays light up the wonderful metallic
hues on the neck, back and sides, hues of bronze, and green, and orange-
copper, which now and then flash with the brilliancy of the humming bird’s
plumage.” A pair of pigeons alight at your feet, bowing and scraping
around. Perhaps a delicate plum-bloom appears to colour their necks and
breasts; but in a moment they burn with emerald green, and in another
with the sparkling tints of hyacinth or topaz. These brilliant greens
placed on a subdued ground-colour, and changing into the gleaming tints
of precious minerals, are favourite touches of nature’s pencil from
amongst the wide range of colours with which she has so lavishly painted
the plumage of birds. The beautiful pencil marking on the silver Ham-
burgs are pointed out to us, and the bright golden spangles on another
variety of domestic fowls. The uncomfortable appearance of the little
fowls from China with all their feathers curled back, and the curious blue
ear-lobes of the Japanese, which have a blue skin underneath their white
feathers and blue bones likewise; the beautiful green velvet jacket which
sits so trim and close on the East Indian duck, are all brought under
notice by the zealous exhibitor, and the uncouth — stay, I have used a
wrong word, and shall be presently corrected by Downs himself, with whom

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XV

I heartily agree that there is nothing really ugly or frightful in nature,
and though these terms are often employed conventionally, it is really
very snobbish to do so, unless in the case of accident or design, by which
nature has been made to fall short of her work. It appears to me the
height of arrogance to criticize or disparage any of nature’s handiwork.
Wherein lies our ability to judge? “Ask a toad,” says Voltaire, “what
is beauty, the supremely beautiful, the to mXov ! He will tell you, it is
my wife, with two large eyes projecting out of her little head, a broad
and flat neck, yellow belly, and dark brown back.” So, friend visitor, be
warned not to revile even the toad in the presence of our naturalist, or
perchance he may cause thee to be ashamed of thy speech.

Within a little paled enclosure adjacent to the yard are the wood-ducks,
the gems of the collection. To see these beautiful birds looking their best, we
must choose a bright day, such as has been described. No stuffed specimens
can show the vivid colouring of the living and healthy bird in its prime.
Many of the glossy hues fade in death, as well as the rich colouring on the
upper mandible, of the iris and legs, and which cannot be artifically rendered
with justice to the bright tints of life. The wood-duck, so called from its
habit of roosting and building in trees, is a rather rare summer visitor
in this province. It loves to make its nest in hollows in tall trees, by the
banks of forest streams far from the haunts 01 man. Its Latin name
( Anas sponsa) signifies the bride-duck, “ a pretty name for a pretty
creature,” as Frank Forester says of it. As Downs chases them over the
brook which trickles through this enclosure, and up the sunny bank, that
we may the better observe the play of the light on their gorgeous plum-
age, we notice how strictly they keep in pairs, each drake accompanying
his soft, modest-looking duck, and continually uttering a little, subdued
cry — peet, peet. I have seen these birds in their wild state on the Shuben-
acadie ; once on Gold River, and, more frequently, in the wild river soli-
tudes of northern New Brunswick, when, as our invading canoe scared
them from their haunts, they would fly down stream, their brightly-
painted forms standing out against the dark background of fir-forest in
the soft light of a summer’s afternoon. A flock of almost equally beauti-
ful little ducks, natives of South America, with less gorgeous, bat
exquisitely marked plumage and showy crimson spots on the bill, occupies
the same cage as the wood-ducks, where also stalks a very conceited and
rather obtrusive crane from the Mississippi, who marches around you,
apparently earnestly regarding the ground, but really meditating as to
the prudence of indulging in an old failing — that of casually driving his
long, sharp beak through your boot.

We cannot fail to notice the tameness of the swallows (the white-
bellied wood- swallow ) , which breed in the little boxes set up for them
round the house, and sometimes but a few feet above the ground. Quite
regardless of your presence, they continue their nest-building or feeding

XVI

PROCEEDINGS.

their young almost within reach of your hand. I like to see these swallow
boxes set up round country house's; they seldom fail to attract a pair of
tenants, and nothing is more pleasing than to hear their twittering song,
as they busily flit past the window, when awakening on a bright summer’s
morning.

Many other wild birds also chose these grounds for their family
residence. A pair of golden-winged woodpeckers have built in an old stump
close to the house for several seasons; robins’ nests are met with every-
where; last year a pair hatched two broods in a low fir bush by the side
of the glass-house; and in the shrubberies, close to the paths, majny,
varietiees of warblers may constantly be seen throughout the summer
flitting to and from their closely-hidden nests. Nor is their confidence
misplaced. Downs may apply the words of our gentle-minded Cowper in
the “ Winter Walk at Noon”:

“ These shades are all my own. The timorous hare,

Grown so familiar with her frequent guest,

Scarce shuns me; and the stock-dove unalarm’d
Sits cooing in the pine tree, nor suspends
His long love-ditty for my near approach.”

Sure of protection and ample fare, many migratory birds spend the
long, cheerless winter in these grounds. One of these late, cold, dull days,
by which the advance of the spring is this year so retarded, I heard the
first song-bird here, the joyous note of the song-sparrow emanating from
a thicket in the pheasant’s enclosure. The little bird had been a guest
all winter. Blue-birds ( Junco hiemalis ) and robins also remain. The
latter are often seen during this season in many places in the neighbour-
hood.

It is very satisfactory to see robins and all other small birds now
protected by law from being shot within the precincts of the city; whereas
formerly they were continually stalked and fired at, particularly in the
spring before mating, when the former birds hop over open grass-plots
from which the snow has disappeared, in search of worms, in large flocks.
Hard times do these appear for the early visitors, and many a buffeting
snow-storm and hard-binding frost drives them to the verge of starvation
before the new land flows for them with milk and honey, as the numbers
of dead robins found on the snow-covered fields in the very cold weather
of March, 1863, testified. Instead of cruel persecution, our small birds
are deserving of encouragement and protection. In England the long-
sustained suspicions of the farmer and the peasant as to the destructive-
ness of many species have been allayed, and every hedge-row is jubilant
with songsters ; whereas in France scarce a bird is to be seen in many dis-
tricts, not only from their supposed noxious qualities, but from the com-
prehensive spirit of the term “ la chasse ” as pursued by French gunners.

XVII

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

“ You call them thieves and pillagers ; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms.
*******

And think of your woods and orchards without birds !

Of empty nests that cling to boughs and leaves,

As in an idiot’s brain remembered words
Hang empty ’mid the cobwebs of his dreams ! ”

But to return from this digression to Downs’s feathered captives who
are apparently not a whit less happy than the wild birds who flit around
them.

Leaving the motley assemblage of poultry and water-fowl in the yard,
we enter the shrubberies by soft tanned walks along which are scattered
the clean-looking, roomy cages allotted to a variety of feathered creatures.
Here is an airy little tenement devoted to silver pheasants. The neatness
of their plumage and the graceful sweep of their tails render them,
exceedingly ornamental ; but they are, withal, so pugnacious that two
separated males apparently devote their whole lives to pacing up and
down the dividing wire netting, challenging each other to mortal combat.
The silvery plumage of their necks and backs is beautifully pencilled with
minute lines, and strongly relieved by their glossy black breasts and
bodies. We so generally see birds with the lightest colours beneath, tnat,
when this rule is excepted, a strange appearance is produced and the bird
would almost seem inverted. Another instance is that of our common bob
o’Lincoln in its summer dress. Further on, whole groves of young spruces
are enclosed and netted over; and against their dark foliage the resplend-
ent plumage of the golden pheasants shines in bright contrast as they run
to and from the cover and their littie house in the corner. Then there
are aviaries with flocks of plump snow-buntings; another where the merle
and throstle, so often mentioned in the poetry of the fields of merry Eng-
land, nestle in the fir tree, happily forgetful of the hawthorn bush or oak
coppice; the plumed and Californian quails from the far west pick lazily
at ant-hills or squat in groups on the warm, sunny banks, under fern and
low bushes tastefully introduced in tbeir enclosures; whilst, in another,
the spruce partridge of our own forests may be seen pruning the foliage of
his favourite larch or silver-fir.

These grounds offer great natural advantages for the tasteful arrange-
ment of a zoological garden: the sloping hillside topped by thick woods is
continually broken by mossy hollows with numerous little brooks to which
the woodcock and bittern often resort; and the dry, grassy knolls between
are adorned by clumps of young firs and white birches, and the olive green
tufts of the ground-juniper, amongst the roots of which the retiring may-
dower trails towards the light.

By the side of one of these little valleys, dammed Iso as to form a
miniature lake over which a picturesque rustic bridge is thrown, stands a
Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII. Proc — B.

Xyjjj PROCEEDINGS.

building known as the “ glass house,” a light and ornamental structure
of painted wood-work and glass used as a green-house and aviary for
rare tropical birds, an aquarium room, and a museum; and from the
summit of the tower can* be obtained a beautiful view of the grounds and

the surrounding scenery.* .

The aquarium is very attractive; a constant stream of water, derived
from a more elevated pond, flows through all its compartments. Here
may be seen many inhabitants of our lakes and streams-the silver dace
and the yellow perch, in all respects similar to the English species save
in his bright golden hue; the cat-fish of hideous mien, whose wide, gaping
jaws and voracity render him the tyrant of the lake; the little terrapin
or mud turtle of our alluvial rivers basking on semi-submerged rock-work
with gorgeously coloured species from other climes; and several other
amphibious reptiles, including the yellow-throated and leopard frogs, and
the large yellow-spotted salamander common to our little rocky pools by
the road-side, though seldom seen, as it is strictly nocturnal in its habits.

But now let us glance at the birds of prey encaged close by. A splen-
did pair of bald-headed eagles at once arrest our attention, though they
have not arrived at the mature age necessary to produce the condition of
plumage from which their misnomer, “ bald-headed,” has been derived. In
the adult bird the head, neck and tail become pure white; the pointed
hackles of the neck laying in sharp regularity on the close bronze plumage
of the bird’s body. The iris, beak, nostrils and legs assume a bright
golden orange hue. This is the chosen emblem of the United States— the
bird of America. The description given of its habit of depriving the
osprey of its finny prey, by the great ornithologist of this continent.
Wilson, is a beautiful piece of composition; as likewise is that of Audubon,
the subject of which is the eagle’s attacK upon the wild swan in mid-air.
There is about this bird an unmistakable air of fierceness and intractabil-
ity; and it continually indulges in a habit of throwing back its head and
giving vent to screams of defiance which must strike terror into the
breasts of the captives around.

In adjacent cages sit several specimens of our native birds of wisdom —
the owls. These are the great horned owls whose deep-toned hooting
emanating from the dark spruce swamps is so familiar to the sojourner in
tjhe woods. Heard on a calm, still nignt in the forest, this sound is most
impressive, and, though so connected with melancholy associations, it
brings with it nevertheless a strange feeling of pleasure, probably owing
to the mournful notes harmonizing with the mystery with which our
imagination delights to invest the woods at night, especially when fitfully
illumined by the moon. There is a dapper little owl of this species — quite
a beau, trim in plumage and wide-awake — confined in one of these cages,
who will treat hs to some of his music whenever we approach him ; and
we see. if we look closely, that in emitting the sound, the bill is not opened

The glass-house is now (1908) almost in ruins.

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XIX

in the least; the sound is very gutteral and the throat swells to a large
hemispherical bag and at the same time the tail is raised, dhe oldei
birds of his species sit far back in the shade under the sloping roof,
apparently absorbed in moody reflection; for we cannot look at their great
eyes, over which the covering membrane, which acts a» an eyelid, slowly
falls and is withdrawn, and the apparent abstraction evinced by their
form and attitude, without fancying them to be cogitating deeply.

“ Upon a beam aloft he sics,

And nods, and seems to think, by fits.”

A much brighter-looking bird, however, appears in the form of the
snowy owl, confined close by, a stray wanderer from Arctic climes to our
woodlands on an extended hunt for rabbits. His quick eyes, which lie
uses to seek his prey by daylight, unlike most of his family, follow our
every movement. Dr. Gilpin states that this bird may be seen sitting
in the full glare of the sun, watching the rabbit burrows on the sands of
Sable Island, of which he has of late years become a visitor.

Finally our agreeable guide and entertainer conducts us to the top
of the hill, where, standing on a huge, erratic boulder of granite which
has been left by glacial action in its present site on a bare plateau of slate
rock, we may enjoy the beautiful and comprehensive view which opens to
us as we turn. Beneath us and at our right are the gardens, with their
walks and shrubberies, and the white tops of the bird houses. Beyond,
the North West Arm stretches away to the outer harbour; Thrumcap,
projecting from the eastern snore, just coming into the picture; and the
wooded top of McNab’s Island appearing above the south end of the
peninsula. The snugly ensconced little sheet of water called Chocolate Lake
is partly seen. On the high lands of the peninsula which ridges in front
of us, the citadel and its signal station, the common, the fields and farms
dotted with white houses, and the wooded spur of Rockhead successively
meet our view as we sweep the horizon. Then the blue expanse of Bed-
ford Basin and its distant hills, with the little, white tower of the three-
mile church nestling in a fir grove by its shores in the foot of the valley;
the picture being bounded on our extreme left by the slopes of Geizer’s hill,
thickly wooded and skirted at its foot by the road which winds round the
valley through the pretty settlement known as the Dutch Village.

And now we retrace our steps, and take leave of our worthy guide
with many a good wish for his long enjoyment of the beauties of nature
in the pleasant retreat which he has chosen. His conceptions of her teach-
ings, and the mode in which he imparts them to the visitor, are alnce
original and sound; and few can leave the zoological gardens at the North
West Arm without realizing that they have spent a happy afternoon with
Downs.

XX

PROCEEDINGS.

“ Happy wlio walks with liim! whom what he finds
Of flavor or of scent in fruit or flower,

Or what he views of beautiful or grand
In nature, from the broad majestic oak
To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,

Prompts with remembrance of a present God.”

It was a year or so (it may have been two) after the foregoing
article was published that I find in my diary some notes on an
incident in which I was much interested at the time, the packing
and shipment of some live specimens of moose-deer at Walton
Cottage gardens, consigned to Victor Emmanuel, then King of
Italy, who was an enthusiastic acclimatizer of large game in his
grounds at Pisa. The following is an extract from an account of
this incident which I forwarded to the London Field. I may here
mention that at this time much interest was taken m acclimatiza-
tion, to forward which there were societies in London, Paris, and
elsewhere. In Great Britain the leading men in this direction
were Buckland, Grantley, Berkeley, Tegetmeir and others. I have
not heard much of this subject of late, but curiously enough saw
in a paragraph in my Morning Post quite recently a request from
the government of New Zealand for as many as fifty moose deer,
if procurable, to be forwarded from Canada to the antipodes. Of
course the deer would go to the south island where both pine trees
and snow are to be found, but what would their food consist of?
That would prove, 1 think, the crux of the experiment.

It appears that Victor Emmanuel, imbued with the spirit of
acclimatization, had been procuring a number of the deer of the
New World through an agent who made known to our
provincial naturalist his majesty’s wants with respect to the
monarch of the North American forest — the moose. The right
man and the right place were selected ; but although in no part of
North America is the moose-deer more plentiful than in Nova
Scotia, living in our small forest areas nearer the borders of civi-
lization than anywhere else, so few of these noble animals are taken
young, and successfully reared, that but three could be procured
on that occasion throughout the province.

The trio consisted of two cow-moose of the ages of two and a
half years and eighteen months, and a sprightly young bull-calf of

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XXI

seven months, the latter as nearly resembling an overgrown juvenile
donkey as could well be imagined on the part of a member of the
deer family. The youngest of the cows had been for the past year
a much-admired resident in Downs’s gardens, where, perfectly
domesticated, and roaming in a railed-off patch of its native
thickets, it had thriven and afforded much pleasure in contempla-
tion of its strange action and configuration, so often described as
uncouth, but so beautifully adapted to its natural state of existence.
The larger animal was three-quarters grown, the finest tame speci-
men I had ever seen; she had been brought in from a distant
settlement, the property of a farmer whose clearings verge on
woods where moose are plentiful, and had been long a pet of the
settlement, feeding with the domestic cattle and from the child-
ren’s hands, and occasionally roaming at large in the woods. “ I
can’t tell when I can bring her down,” said the settler to Downs,
when he offered to part with her ; “ I guess she’s away off in the
woods just now.” But the next time her ladyship took a notion of
returning to a state of civilization, the stable door was shut on her,
and, driven into a roughly constructed cage of planks, she was
shipped and brought down to Halifax in a schooner. A few days
after her arrival J went to Downs’s gardens to witness the packing
of the moose for their voyage to Boston. A little previous fasting,
and their excessive fondness for turnips, readily induced them to
step boldly into the narrow crates prepared for them, so narrow
that when we stuffed in the wadded bolsters to prevent their being
injured by struggling or motion on board the packet, it was as
■tight a fit as could be imagined. “ Pack them as tight as they can
stand,” were the express orders. I never saw animals take such
sudden and close confinement so philosophically. Their long
heads and prehensile mouffles were stretched out of the apertures
in front, eagerly expecting the chopped turnips, without manifest-
ing the least alarm at the novelty of their position ; and they were
most quietly and satisfactorily drawn into town on a long truck,
and swung in their cages on to the deck of the packet. Mr. Downs
himself accompanied them, taking plenty of their natural food, i. e.
the tops of young birch and maple, and a few evergreen branches,
such as the Canadian hemlock and silver fir, to which they are like-

XXII

PROCEEDINGS.

wise partial, especially in winter. The cases were securely lashed
across-ship, and the vessel started with favourable auspices. Alas,
I have now to chronicle disaster: they made a capital run, almost
within sight of Boston light, when one of our terrible mid-winter
gales sprang up from the south-west, and drove them nearlv the
whole distance back. For nearly a week was the vessel most merci-
lessly buffeted, whilst the seas dashed over her; and under the
influence of intense frost everything on board was coated with
huge masses of ice. Suffice it to say, that the two smaller moose
died from the roughness of the passage and their cramped position.
The survivor would doubtless have perished likewise, had not two
cages been knocked into one so as to allow her to lie down and
stretch her limbs. This she always did when the weather was
heaviest, invariably lying with her head towards the seas; and she
was landed in Boston, and thence by train at New York in excellent
health, and without a gall or scratch. This fine cow — whose value,
I almost omitted to mention, was greatly enhanced by her being
heavy with calf — was joyfully received by the agent for tne King
of Italy, and shared with a herd of thirty wapiti (also the property
of his majesty, and alike awaiting a passage to Europe), the atten-
tions of many visitors in the Empire City.

Although the passage which has proved so disastrous to the
poor moose was unusually rough and protracted, even for a sailing
vessel, we have a wrinkle here in connection with shipment of large
animals of the deer tribe. Close packing, even writh lots of
padding, will not answer. Applied, perhaps, to short voyages,
and where the animal is restive, it may do ; but the exhaustion from
a cramped and long-continued position, where it has to bear every
shock as part and parcel of the ship, has proved fatal in the cases
noted. On the opposite side, witness the largest moose quietly
down in bad weather as soon as chance to do so was allowed
her, and her always adapting her position to the motion of the
vessel and the run of the sea. I, therefore, agree with Mr. Downs
in the idea that a crate shaped like a hen-coop, well padded on the
sides, and especially above, is the best form of cage for transport-
ing large animrls of the ruminant order on long sea-vo}rages.

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS. xxiil

As a suitable animal for acclimatization in England, I cannot
recommend the moose. The great objection is the nature of his
food ; he is exclusively a wood-eater, living upon the tender
branches of deciduous trees, with a proportion, more particularly in
winter, of those of evergreens. No plantation or copse in England
could thrive with a couple of moose in it; and, though fond of
roots, such feeding would prove fatal, as I know from experience;
whilst, with one exception, I have never seen a tame moose accept
hay or grass. If it were not for this, we would have in the moose
an animal most appropriate for acclimatization — with the speed
of a trotting horse, the strength and endurance of an ox, a docile
and useful beast of -burden, and good for food. Its flesh, being
very open in its fibre, is very digestible, possessing a good flavour
between that of beef and that of venison. It always commands a
good price in the market when in season.

Speaking of this animal, the moose was once exceedingly plenti-
ful in the forests of Nova Scotia, and is still holding its own
despite increasingly restricted areas, and the large annual tribute
it is called on to pay to the sportsman — to say nothing of the
poachers, back-wood settlers or greedy Indians. And so the con-
stant employment of Downs as the one taxidermist in the province
who could set up a head and horns, can be well imagined. All
through the autumn and that part of the winter during which
moose-hunting was legal, a stream of trophies from the woods
came up to his work-sheds. The skins of the heads were there
pickled in preservative liquor in vats, and the horns, with a portion
of the frontal bone of the skull, cut out and labelled with the
shooter’s name. He employed a trusted workman to carve out the
pine block fit was always of yellow pine) on which the skins were
stretched and united round the horns, which were with the con-
necting piece of the skull firmly screwed down. It was quite a
sight to see these magnificent sporting trophies ranged in his shed.
Downs stuffed many hundreds of these moose heads as well as cari-
boo (I see Mr. Piers states eight hundred in his paper) and they
are scattered all through Europe and America. Some I know of are
still in good preservation after fifty years of resistance to time and
the attacks of moth. One of his finest specimens is (or was) I

XXIV

PROCEEDINGS.

believe in Buckingham Palace, having been presented to Her Late
Majesty Queen Victoria; whilst a whole family stuffed by him
appeared in the Nova Scotia Court at the Paris exhibition of 1867.
His charge was moderate; I think I used to pay him twenty or
twenty- five dollars for setting up my own heads. The true-to-
nature modelling of the curious nose of the moose was his forte.
The eyes he put in, so he told me, were the upper part of the
inturned glass at the bottom of a black bottle. I never heard any-
one express aught but delight on receiving his trophy back from
the hands of Downs.

To get the heads out of the woods to his establishment
what work we sometimes had ! To back tiie huge thing

out of the woods, and such woods too, with swarms of blow-
flies trying to lay tneir eggs on it (I am speaking of the warm
days of the autumn hunting, in the winter the snow makes it much
easier) was often a difficult undertaking even for an Indian, who
carries it over his shoulders by the “carrying-strap,” and he is liable
to have one of the great moose-ticks fasten on his neck — “ all same
as pieces of fire, he bite.” I remember once coming out of Beaver-
bank woods, twenty miles from Halifax, with a splendid head we
had shot while “ calling ” the night before. My friend was my
guest, who had come out from England to see the woods, and being
most anxious to get the head into Downs’s pickling tub the same
day, I started off with about sixty pounds weight on my back, hop-
ing to do it alone, the Indian being obliged to go back to the hunt-
ing ground to get the meat with the settlers’ help. I did not get
far. It was too much, and we had to obtain a cart or rather a
waggon.

But to return from this digression to the occupant of Walton
Cottage gardens. He called it Walton Cottage after visiting
Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, the author of Wanderings in
South America, of which more anon. There were many additions
to the zoo after my descriptive paper of 1864 was written, to wit
bears, polar and black ; moose, seal, beaver, etc. White bears are
often procurable in Halifax, brought in by vessels trading with
Labrador. The specimen I saw at Downs’s was always consistently
ferocious. Those of the black species, on the other hand, are pleas-
ant to have as pets. The Indians often bring them in. I bought

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XXV

a young one for a dollar which did a deal of damage in my barrack
room the first hour I possessed him, and, finally, by attacking my
legs, compelled me to get on a chair. But he was an exception. I
gave him to an officer going home — poor Welsford who fell at the
Redan, and I believe the animal came to a bad end, having
injured a child. I gave him porridge and milk, and I well remem-
ber his comical snarling face as he greedily plunged his head into
it up to his eyes, growling the whole time. My wife and I, visiting
Downs’s establishment one afternoon, found two young bears
encaged there making a great fuss, the owner having gone into
town and left them without food — not a usual trait with Downs.
T went up the hill to saunter awhile in the woods, and on return-
ing, found her pacifying the youngsters by feeding them out of a
child’s bottle obtained from the house, one at a time, on her lap,
to the astonishment of the boy who was left in charge. Perhaps I
had better state here that a young bear, even at mid-summer, is not
a very big animal. At birth, generally in February, it is surpris-
ingly diminutive, not more than six inches in length, almost
hairless, blind for the first month, and weighs less than a pound;
four to six hundred pounds being the weight of the adult bears,
i. e. the black species, the only one found in Nova Scotia.

Downs had some trouble with his seals. They were the ordinary
harbour species ( Phoca vitulina), frequently seen in Halifax
harbour and in the North West Arm. Though wired in an enclos-
ure with a pond and running water, the smell of the sea so near
was too much for them, and several times have they been met on
the road, bumping themselves along down the hill to the head of
the Arm near which, the alarm having been given, they were
recaptured.

To Downs the province owes the introduction of both the Eng-
lish pheasant and the Canadian red-deer ( Cervus virginianus) ,
and I find the following paragraphs in a paper entitled, “Provin-
cial Acclimatization,” which I contributed, in December, 1864, to
the N. S. Institute of Natural Science, of which I was at that time
a vice-president:

“ With the fact of the introduction and breeding of the Eng-
lish and gold and silver pheasants at Mr. Downs’s establishment we

XXVI

PROCEEDINGS.

are well acquainted; and the most interesting fact is the well-
ascertained capability of the English pheasant to live and find its
own subsistence in our woods through a rigorous winter. Why
should not this experiment be continued ?”

I have known golden pheasants on the property of Mr. Faulk-
ner, the brewery, Dartmouth, to roost out away from their weather-
proof house in the branches of fir trees, uninjured in any way, on a
cold night when 23 degrees of frost were registered.

And as to the Virginian deer, the following appears in the
same paper : — “ The red deer then of Maine and the Canadas, and
more recently of New Brunswick, appears to be perfectly adapted
for an existence in the Nova Scotian woods — a graceful species,
but little inferior to the red deer of Europe, affording the excellent
venison with which the New York and Boston markets are so well
supplied. Indeed it is already with us, for a small herd of healthy
animals may now be seen at Mr. Downs’s gardens, to whom the
country is already indebted for many an unassisted attempt at real,
practical acclimatization.”

Between the above and the present date, 1906, this beautiful
deer has been turned out and so thriven that it is be found now in
every couiJty of the province. Its greatest enemy, the wolf, is
not found in Nova Scotia, though frequent in the adjacent
intervals a troop of these marauders comes in over the connecting
isthmus and is heard of here and there from various counties which
it visits, but the species has never been known to stay. There is
something about this province which does not suit its fancy. In
frequent wanderings I have only once seen the track of a wolf in
Nova Scotian woods. It was chasing a young moose in deep snow.

Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the Game Protection Society
which was inaugurated at Halifax in 1852 when I was present, the
province has definitely added Cervus virginianus to its larger game.
It is everywnere increasing. One of the society’s agents speaks of
it in last year’s report as “ coming out in the fields among the
cattle on several occasions.”

Though spoken of in the yearly reports as being found wild
here and there, the pheasant is not doing so well, as the fox, the

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XXV11

wild-cat, the eagle, owl, and the rabit-snares are against it, with
the great host of the weazel tribe — ermine, mink and marten.
Raccoons, too, which are numerous in some parts of the province,
are most destructive to game birds nesting on the ground.

In one of his papers on Nova Scotian birds, contributed by
Downs to the N. S. Institute of Natural Science in 1865, Downs
writes thus of the English sparrow : — “ What a treat it would be
to see these saucy fellows preening their feathers on our roofs and
collecting in dozens round our doors to pick up the scraps, and I
would even go so far as to say, gobbling up the cherries in our
gardens; for who would not make a sacrifice of some kind to colo-
nize his domain with such a family of merry friends?” Anent
which Mr. Harry Piers, the secretarv of the Institute, writes me
the following answer to a question about the sparrow, dated Hali-
fax, 1904: “ Yes, the European sparrow is met with every-
where in Nova Scotia, I am sorry to say. I once was his friend,
but with all the evidence there is against him, I have had to turn
over to his enemies.”

Thoughtlessly brought over the Atlantic to eat up the canker-
worm in the trees of American cities, the sparrows did well for a
while, but with change of climate soon developed other tastes.
They became almost wholly seed and vegetable eaters, devouring
young buds on vines and trees, and injuring all cereal crops, so that
they are now protested against as bad citizens and criminals and
condemned by everyone. They increase very fast and spread every-
where, driving away tne native birds, taking their homes and
making themselves generally nuisances. The same storv comes
from Bermuda, where they are driving out the two wild birds of
that colony — the beautiful blue and red birds. Another instance
of the terrible mistakes which may be made by ill-advised accli-
matization.

Although it has been stated that Downs was rather shy of letter-
writing, there was one man whose correspondence he prized and
whose praises he was never tired of recounting — the veteran
naturalist, Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, Yorks, the author
of Wanderings in South America, and of many essays on

XXV111

PROCEEDINGS.

natural history subjects — “ My worthy master in ornithology/’
he calls him, as he quotes from the well-known book which I own
took my own fancy immensely when, as a boy, I first read in its
pages the wonders of the South American forest. In those untra-
velled times there was no library without it. On Downs’s return
from Europe, which he visited in 1864, being given a free passage
in H. M. S. Mersey , and taking over many cases of birds as well as a
stuffed moose, I went to see him, to hear him recount his adven-
tures. At that time I lived with my family on the shores of the
Arm and was a near neighbour. He had received many attentions
from savants and had been a guest of Waterton. He spoke of Water-
ton’s tenderness of feeling towards all created things, especially the
feathered tribes ; how he would allow no guns to be fired by sports-
men or others on his estate, how the wild birds all seemed to
understand him, and what a motley gathering there was in the
groves and shrubberies of the park at Walton Hall; how he would
inveigh against the superficial and absurd natural history as often
published in his days both in England and the United States, even
Wilson and Audubon coming under the lash of his criticism. “ You
should hear him,” said Downs, “ talk of the Hanoverian rat, the
only dumb creature I really believe which he really hated.”
Waterton being of an old English Roman Catholic family which
had held Walton Hall for centuries, had no good word for the
Hanoverian dynasty, and averred that he had evidence to prove
that the grey rat was part of the freight of the vessel that brought
over Dutch William. Anyhow, Walton Hall, besides having
some of Cromwell’s musket balls lodged in the old wood of the
house porch, was more than ordinarily troubled by the grey rats,
the deadly foes and exterminators of the old English black rat,
both in Europe and America, which latter country it very soon
reached. I remember a specimen of the black rat being shown at
one of our Institute’s meetings at Halifax, which had just been
killed in Water Street. It was then stated that up to about a
century ago it was the common vermin of both countries. In Hew
Zealand, too, the European grey has destroyed the native black rat,
once the sole animal food of the Maori, being the only indigenous
quadruped of the islands.

REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS.

XXIX

Frank Buckland, an old friend of my own, was delighted to
meet Downs. Every one of note visited his grounds, including
our sovereign, King Edward, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince
Jerome Bonaparte, and many others. Pleasure excursions to the
head of the Arm by steamers often bore numbers of Halifaxians
bent on an afternoon’s ramble in his charming domain.

Offered the post of superintendent of the New York Central
Park Menagerie in 1867, he declined the post through some mis-
understanding, and, giving up his grounds at the NorthWest Arm,
died in Halifax on 26th August, 1892, aged eighty-one years all
but one month.*

In concluding this paper, I think I cannot do better than close
with the words of our friend in ending one of his contributions
to the proceedings of our Institute, the subject of which was the
land birds of Nova Scotia, read in 1865 :

“ Having now arrived, gentlemen, at the end of my present
list, I must state that all the facts I have given may be safely
relied on as they are the result of forty years’ experience in bird
life. And I would, here, as it is the very first time I have ever
appeared as a reader in public, take the opportunity of counselling
the young men of Halifax to take more interest than they do in
the natural history of their country. Many an hour passed in
walking up and down Granville Street in tight boots might be
devoted far more profitably to studying the quiet scenes of nature.
If I had listened to the advice given me by the young men of my
time, I do not think I should have had the pleasure of appearing
here this evening ; and instead of being happy, as I now am, in the
presence of my brother naturalists, and possessed of a cheerful
home to which I can retire, surrounded by my feathered favourites,
I should most probably either have descended to an early grave, or
been the habitual frequenter of the tobacco and dram shops. No ;
the country for me, before all the pleasure and grandeur of the
town. Old Waterton once said to me he would sooner be in the
woods than in the finest palace in Europe.”

* Other particulars regarding his life, and a list of his published papers,
will be found in Mr. Piers’s article before referred to.

XXX

PROCEEDINGS.

General Hardy’s paper was discussed by the President, Dr. A.
P. Reid, Dr. A. H. MacKay, W. L. Bishop, H. Piers, and T. C.
James.

The Secretary was directed to convey to General Hardy the
thanks of the Institute for his interesting communication.

Third Ordinary Meeting.

Assembly Room , Province Building, Halifax, 13th May, 1907.

The President, Mr. Doane, in the chair.

It was reported that Louis L. Mowbray, of Hamilton, Ber-
muda, had been elected a corresponding member.

The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Stupart, director of the
meteorological service, Toronto, informing the society that the
self-recording rain-gauge for Halifax, that had been asked for that
station in accordance with a resolution of the Institute of 9tli April,
1906, had been received by the department and would shortly be
installed.

H. Piers reported on behalf of the committee appointed on
11th March, that the committee had prepared a design for a seal
for the Institute, and had had a die engraved, which had been
approved by the council.

H. W. Johnston, assistant city engineer, Halifax, read a paper
entitled, “ The Run-off from a Small Drainage Area near Halifax,
N. S.,” the drainage area in question being that of Bayer’s Lake,
a portion of the Chain Lakes water-shed. The subject was dis-
cussed by E. L. Fenerty, P. A. Freeman, H. Piers, and the
President.

W. L. Bishop took the chair while the President, F. W. W.
Doane, city engineer, Halifax, read a paper on “ Halifax County
Water Powers: (1) Starr Manufacturing Company’s Power.”

(See Transactions, p. 21). The subject was discussed by E. L.
Fenerty, M . L. Bishop, P. A. Freeman, and others.

Harry Piers,

Recording Secretary.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

<§>cotimi Jnstitnte of (Science.

SESSION OF 1906-1907-

The Influence of Radium on the Decomposition of
Hydriodic Acid.*— H. Jermain M. Creighton, M. A.
Dalhousie University, Halifax, N. S.

(Communicated by Dr. E. Mackay. 25th October, 1907.)

The first mention of the influence of radiant energy of any
kind on chemical reactions was made by William Cruickshanks* 1,
who observed that hydrogen and chlorine combine under the
influence of light. This particular reaction has been the source
of many investigations, carried out by such men as Dalton2,
Draper3, Bunsen and Roscoe, and, very recently, Mellor4 5, Bevan6,
and Burgess and Chapman®. Of the numerous reactions affected
by light, the following are some of the more important : — in-
fluence of light on silver salts, on the action of bromine and
chlorine on metallic silver, on dyed colours, on enzymes in
oxygen and hydrogen, on glass, on the oxidation of iodoform,
action of oxygen on carbon bisulphide under the influence of
light, the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide by light, effect of
light on the combination of hydrogen and bromine, and the
reaction between chlorine and benzene in the light.

♦Contributions from the Science Laboratories of Dalhousie University— [Chemis-
try]. Printed in advance in present part by permission of the Council of the Institute.

1. Nicholson’s Jour., 1801, (1), 5, 202.

2. A New System of Chem. Phil., p. 300.

3. Phil. Mag., 1844, (iii), 25, 9 : 1845, (iii), 26, 473.

4. Journ. Chem. Soc., 1904, 53.

5. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 1902, (ii), 264-266.

6. Jour. Chem. Soc., 1906, 88, 1399.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Yol. XII. Trans. 1.

2

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

Other forms of radiant energy whose effects on chemical
action have been investigated are ultra violet light, Rontgen
rays and radium radiations.

Only a comparatively small amount of work has been car-
ried out on the effect of radium on chemical reactions. Hardy
and Wilcocks1 have investigated the oxidation of iodoform when
acted on by Rontgen rays and by radium, and Hardy2 has ob-
served the coagulation of globulin under the influence of the
latter. Becquerel3 found that white phosphorus is changed into
the inactive red phosphorus, and that mercuric chloride in the
presence of oxalic acid is reduced to mercurous chloride by the
radiations from radium. The Curies4 have shown that the rays
from radium change oxygen into ozone and discolour glass.
Berthelot'5 cites the following cases : iodic acid is decomposed

by radium rays and by light, with liberation of iodine, this
change being much slower than that of iodoform ; nitric acid
gives off nitrous fumes when acted on by radium rays and by
light. These, as far as I have been able to discover, are all the
reactions that have been investigated up to the present time.

These investigations have been mainly of a qualitative
nature, the quantitative side receiving very little attention. The
following experiments were carried on with a view to finding
out whether a quantitative examination of the change, if any,
produced in hydriodic acid by the presence of radium would
throw light on the part played by the rays in this decomposi-
tion. Hydriodic acid was chosen on account of its instability
and from its behaviour under the influence of light, it was
believed that it would be affected by radium rays.

The effect of light on the decomposition of hydriodic acid
has, in the iast few years, been largely investigated. Pinnow 6,

1. Proc. Roy. Soc., 72, 480, 200.

2. Proc. Phys. Soc., 1903, May 16.

3. C. R., 1901, 133, p. 709.

4. C. R., 1899, 129, p. 823.

5. C. R., 1901, 133, p. 659.

6 Ber. d. deut Chem. Ges., 1901, 34, 2528.

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIOD1C ACID. CREIGHTON.

3

who has done a lot of this work, used acid solutions of potassium
iodide for the production of hydriodic acid. He found that the
best results are obtained when the solution of potassium iodide*
used has a concentration of 1 gram per litre. It was a solution*
of this strength that was used in all the following work. The
hydriodic acid was set free from the iodide by a solution of
sulphuric acid consisting of one part of acid (sp. g. 1.84) tc
five parts of water. The proportion of acid to iodide solution
was one to eight.

The amount of oxidation was determined in the usual wa}7,
by titrating the liberated iodine with sodium thiosulphate
solution.

It was found that the end point could be determined very
quickly and accurately by highly illuminating the solution by
means of an electric light placed behind it, and reflecting back
the rays through the solution by placing a piece of white paper
around the beaker on the opposite side.

The potassium iodide used was the chemically pure guaran-
teed reagent supplied by C. F. Kahlbaum.

By carrying out the titration in the above manner, the error
was found to be about ± 0.08 cc. sodium thiosulphate solution.

Five milligrammes of radium bromide of activity of about
1,000,000 were employed. The radium was enclosed in a small
glass tube, so that only the ft and 7 rays were used.

The starting point in the investigation was to determine
whether radium exerted any influence on the oxidation of
hydriodic acid. For this purpose, the radium was placed over
a vessel containing the acid solution of potassium iodide, of the
concentration mentioned above, and allowed to bombard the
solution for a certain time ; at the end of that time the amount
of decomposition was compared with that of a similar solution
that had not been acted upon by radium. The vessels used to
contain the solutions were ordinary wide-mouthed reagent
bottles, with a capacity of about 125 cc. The small glass tube

4

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

containing the radium was held in the end of a hollow brass
rod, which was placed in a fixed position in a wooden block ;
this latter fitted into the mouth of one of the bottles Thus, by
:filling the bottle to a definite mark, the distance between the
radium and the surface of the liquid was always kept the same.
This distance was between two and three millimeters.

These experiments were all carried out in a photographic
dark room, so that there was no chance of the reaction being
influenced by light. The solution which was not to be acted on
by radium was protected from the rays by a screen of lead, so
placed that the solution would not be affected appreciably by
the secondary rays set up in the lead.

Several experiments carried out in this way showed, at the
end of twenty- four hours, that the decomposition in the solution
acted upon by radium was greater than the decomposition in
the other; but the excess varied in different trials from 15 per
cent to 25 per cent. In order to obtain more concordant
results for similar experiments, the temperature at which the
reaction took place was kept constant for a series of measure-
ments and it was found that this made a decided improvement
in the agreement of the results. It was still found, however,
that the differences in results under similar conditions were
considerably greater than those due to experimental error. In
order to see whether these differences were due to small errors
in the mixing of the solutions, a large quantity of solution was
prepared and divided into six equal parts of 225 cc. each. These
were allowed to stand for twenty hours in the dark room, with-
out radium, at a temperature of 16 ± 0°.5C. At the end of
that time the amount of decomposition, as measured by the
number of cc. of titrating solution required, was found to be for
the several portions, 5.38, 5.23, 5.41, 5.34, 5.07, 5.33, respectively.
The lack of equality of these numbers shows that the irregular-
ity is not to be accounted for in this way.

The influence of the impurities in the ordinary distilled
water used in making up the solution was next investigated,

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC ACID. — CREIGHTON.

5

and it was found that when the water had a conductivity of
2.0 x 10'6 or less, at 18°0., expressed in Kohlrausch’s unit
(ohm'1, cm'1)1, the agreement between the amounts of decomposi-
tion of several similar solutions was within the limits of experi-
mental error.

The water used in the following experiments was prepared
according to the method of Jones and Mackay2. The ordinary
distilled water was doubly distilled. The steam from the first
flask, which contained the water mixed with an alkaline solution
of potassium permanganate, was bubbled through an acid
solution of potassium bichromate in a second flask. Into the
neck of the latter flask was thrust a block-tin condenser, and
held there by means of a cork made of a mixture of plaster of
Paris and asbestos. The water thus obtained has a mean con-
ductivity of 1.6 x 10“6 at 18°C. It was kept in bottles which
had been used several years for that purpose.

It was found that the purity of the water, as determined by
the conductivity, played an important part in the rate of decom-
position of the solution. The table below shows the results
obtained when using water of two different grades of purity in
the preparation of the solutions.

In this table, and all those that follow, the numbers given
denote the amount of normal sodium thiosulphate solution
required to titrate the free iodine content in the hydriodio acid
solution at the specified times after the instant of mixing. The
mixing was done in the dark room. In all cases the amount of
hydriodic acid solution experimented upon was 50 cc.

The numbers in the following table are for the case where
the mixture was left to stand in the dark room, and was not
subjected to the action of radium or any other external
action. The temperature was 15 + 0°.5C.

1. Kohlrausch und Holborn : Leitvermogen der Elektrolyte, 1898, p. 1.

2. Zeit, phys. Chem., 1897, 22, 237.

6

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

Table I.

Time in hours.

No. of cc. of ^ Na2S203 solution required
in titration when hydriodic acid solutions
were made up with

Water of conductivity
4.98 x 10-6.

Water of conductivity
2 16 x 10-«

7

0.73

0.90

11

0.97

1.24

15

1.38

1.40

20

1.68

1.63

25

2.05

30

2.45

1.79

35

2.80

• • •

40

2.86

1.95

50

3.20

• . • •

70

4.05

95

4.37

3.08

120

4.25

3.35

170

3.75

3.24

200

3.24

3.24

300

3.45

3.22

380

1.58

3.23

450

....

3.21

550

....

3.25

650

0.89

3.20

1100

3.24

From an examination qf this table it will be seen that there
is a striking difference between the behaviour of solutions made
up with ordinary distilled water, and with water which has
been more carefully purified. For the less pure water the
content of free iodine rises to a maximum in about four days,
and then gradually falls off again ; but with the purer water
the iodine content increases with the time for the first five days
and then remains constant for the next six weeks during which

DECOMPOSITION OF H TDRIODIC ACID. — CREIGHTON.

7

it was under observation. Similar hydriodic acid solutions
made up with the less pure water were subjected to the influ-
ence of sunlight, and in that case also the iodine increases at
first, reaches a maximum after some days, and finally disappears.
Hence the effect of impure water is of the same nature
whether the solution be left in the dark or acted on by the
sunlight. It will be seen later that in certain circumstances
radium has the same effect on solutions made up with
pure water.

It would seem that the effect of the small amount of
impurity in the water is to cause the iodine, by some sort of
catalytic action to change into a third iodine product in addi-
tion to the hydriodic acid and free iodine, which alone we
might at first expect. In the case of solutions made up with
the purer water, where the iodine content tends towards a
constant asymptotic value, as given in the third column of the
above table the simplest explanation is that a third product is
not being formed, and that we have there the ordinary
equilibrium between the hydriodic acid, the hydrogen and the
iodine. If the third product is still being formed, two sugges-
tions present themselves to account for the continued constancy
of the amount of free iodine present : (1) that the rate of
formation of the third product is very small, but that in time
the numbers in the last column of the table would begin to
decrease also ; (2) that the whole system reaches a state of
equilibrium, and the iodine content will be constant however
long the time. The former suggestion is the more probable
one, since it is likely that by a more careful distillation of the
water we have not got rid entirely of the cause of the trouble,
but only reduced it in amount.

This, however, is not the only effect of the impurity in the
water ; it also accelerates the rate of accumulation of iodine.
This is evident from the fact that the maximum value reached
in the case of the less pure water is greater than the asymptotic
value approached in the case of the more pure sample. As it

8

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

was found that the rate of production of free iodine was much
affected by temperature, it was felt that an answer to the
question of whether radium radiations had a specific action of
their own on hydriodic acid, or only changed in degree the
action going on in their absence, was to be looked for from a
study of the action at different temperatures both with and
without the presence of radium. Further efforts at an explana-
tion of what is the action of external agencies such as impurity,
light, Becquerel rays, etc., will therefore be deferred until the
experiments on the effect of temperature on solutions with and
without radium have been detailed.

The following table contains the results obtained with
water of a high degree of purity at a temperature of 24° C., both
with and without radium. A new sample of 50 cc. of hydriodic
acid solution was taken for each period of time shown.

Table II.

No. of cc. of 1~ Na2 S2 03 solution required in titration
when decomposition of hydriodic acid solution takes place
in the dark in the presence of

Time in
hours.

No

radium.

Radium.

Observed

Calculated from

Observed

Calculated from

y

y = a ( 1— e— bt)
a = 1.54, 6 = 0.175

y

y = a ( 1— ft—bt)
a = 2. 10, 6 = 0.175

2

0.45

0.45

0.58

0.62

3

0.65

0.63

0.85

0.86

5

0.92

0.90

1.25

1.23

7

1.10

1.09

1.51

1.48

10

1.23

1.27

1.73

1.73

12

1.27

1.35

1.77

1.85

16

1.38

1.45

1.94

1.98

21

1.52

1.50

2.01

2.05

38

1.56

1.54

2.09

2.10

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC ACID. CREIGHTON.

9

In the third and fifth columns of Table II. are added num-
bers calculated from the equation

y = a (1 — e-bt)

with the values of a and b there given, to show how well the
observations are represented by curves of this type. These
calculated curves are plotted in figure (1), the amounts of
sodium thiosulphate solution being represented as abscissae.
The observed values are marked and lie remarkably well on the
curves. The similarity of these two curves seems to show that
with pure water, at this temperature, the action of radium is of
the same nature as that which goes on without it in the dark,
but is greater.

FIG. I

10

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

o

o

<

o

5

o

a

F

5

o

a

2

o

u

u

Q

qs^l eo*S,ieNrw

IN HOURS

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC v ACID.-— CREIGHTON. 11

If now, in t' e reaction under investigation, we assume that
the hydriodic acid breaks down into iodine, and that this in
turn breaks down into a third substance, then we have a case
which is similar to the successive changes which take place in
the break down of radium. Rutherford1 has shown that if in
such a change as this n is the amount of any substance A, in
this case hydriodic acid, initially present, then the amount of
B, in this case free iodine, at any time is given by the equation

y =

n'^1 (0—^2 k—p-Al t

\ \

(1)

where \ and X2 represent the rates of change of A into B and
of B into C, respectively, where C is the third product.

Assuming that this third product is formed, there seem to
be three probable ways in which the radium may act.

(1) The production of iodine is accelerated and also the
production of the new product into which the iodine is changed.

(2) The production of iodine is unaffected, but that of the
third product retarded.

(3) The production of the iodine is accelerated, while the
production of the third product is retarded.

Of these three cases the two latter seem to be the least
probable.

Let us apply equation (1) to the results of observation at
24aC. If the second change is very slow or zero, that is, if
\ is negligible, the amount of free iodine at the end of time t
would be given by the equation

y = n (1 — e~ \fc). . . (2)

Solving this equation for we get

x= log % log (n-y)
t log10e

Substituting in this equation values of t and y obtained
from columns 1, 2, and 4 of Table II, we derive for \ values
which show a very satisfactory agreement, as is seen in the fol-
lowing table :

(3)

L “ Radioactivity,” p. 332.

12

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

Table III.

Time in
hours.

No radium curve .n= l 54

Radium curve

.w=2.10

Amt. Na2 S2 O3

y

Rate of
change.
X

Amt. Na2 S2 O3

y

Rate of
change.

X

2

0.45

0.173

0.58

0.162

3

0.65

0.183

0.85

0.173

5

0.92

0.182

1.25

0.181

7

1.10

0.719

1.51

0.181

10

1.23

0.160

1.73

0.174

This justifies us in supposing that at 24°C., both with and
without radium, there is no third product being formed from
the iodine ; and the numbers given in columns three and five of
Table II were calculated from equation (2). As was pointed
out before, the action of radium serves merely to accelerate
the action which goes on in its absence.

In order to see if more light would be thrown on the action
of the radium the decomposition of hydriodic acid was observed
at other temperatures.

The reaction was next observed at 12°C., and the results
are given in the following table :

Table IV.

No. of cc. of jJ^Na2S203 solution required in titration
when the decomposition of hydriodic acid takes place in
the dark in the presence of

Time in

hours.

No radium.

Radium

Observed

Calculated from

Observed

Calculated from

y~a (1 — e — bt)

y = a (1— e~bt)

y

a=l 92,6 = 0.07

y

a=2. 90, 6 = 0.07

2.5

0.30

0.31

0.49

0.46

8.0

0.75

0.83

1.15

1.25

10.0

0.95

0.96

1.43

1.46

18.0

1.47

1.37

2.15

2.08

30.0

1.69

1.69

2.55

2.55

DECOMPOSITION OE HYDRIODIC ACID. — CREIGHTON. 13

The curves for these numbers are similar in form to those
for 24°C. The only difference between the behaviour at this
temperature and that at 24°C. is that at the former the decom-
position of the solution is much slower, and the equilibrium
values consequently much longer in being reached. The effect
of radium is again apparently only to increase the action in
degree, but not to change it in type. Here, too, as at 24°C.,
there is probably no third product being formed from the iodine.
The reaction was next observed at 36°C., and the following
table shows the results obtained :

Table V.

No. of cc. of g, Na2 S2 03

solution required in titration

when the decomposition of hydriodic acid solution takes

Time in

place in the presence of

hours.

No radium

Radium

Observed

Calculated from
y = a (1— e~bt)

Observed

Calculated from
y — a (e— bt— e— ct)
a = 3 3, 6 = 0.06,

y

a = 0.92. 6 = 0 70

y

c = 0. 3 1

0.5

0.18

0.27

0.30

0.38

1

0.35

0.46

0.60

0.69

2

0 70

0.69

1.15

1.15

3

0.85

0.81

1.50

1.46

4

0.88

0.87

1.65

1.64

6

0.93

0.91

1.75

1.79

8

0.92

0.92

1.75

1.75

10

0.93

0.92

1.65

1.64

12

0.91

0.92

1.50

1.52

16

0.90

0.92

1.25

1.24

27

0.93

0.92

0.65

0.65

The curves formed from these numbers are given in figure 2.

iroij

14

THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

O

o

<

8

a

o

>

o

h

«

o

a

5

o

ui

Q

TIME IN HOURS

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC ACID. — CREIGHTON. 15

At this temperature it is seen that the maximum is quickly
reached in the case of the solution under the influence of the
radium ; and the effect due to the second reaction, the supposed
changing of the iodine into a third substance, is soon noticeable.
On the other hand, the curve for the solution not affected by
radium resembles the curves for both radium and no radium at
lower temperatures, but it would seem probable that in this
case the time taken to reach the maximum is shorter. In this
case also there is therefore no measurable formation of the
third product. A comparison of the no radium curves for 12°,
24® and 36°C will show that with a rise in temperature the rate
of decomposition of hydrioclic acid increases, while the maximum
amount of iodine in solution is less and the time taken to reach
this maximum shorter. The same is true for the radium curves
at 12° and 24°C.

If the theory previously stated of what is taking place be
correct, the general equation (1) should be the equation of the
radium curves for 36°C.

Rutherford1 has shown that the smaller of the two quanti-
ties \ and X2 is given by the latter part of the downward curve.
The equation of this part of the curve is then of the form

y = n.e (4)

Accordingly, from the observed values of y at 12, 16 and 27
hours, n was found to be 3.3 and \ to be 0.06. By finding the
differential of equation (1) with regard to time and equating it
to zero, we find that the maxim um* occurs at a time T, given by
the equation

X1e-Xlt =\ (5)

Putting for t the value 6.6 found from the curve, and for
\ its value 0.06, we find \ to be 0.31. The numbers calcu-
lated from equation (1) with these values of the constants are
given in the last column of Table Y, and the agreement with
the observed values falls wTell within the limit of experimental
error.

1. Loc. cit, p. 343.

16

THE INFLUENCE OF KADIUM ON THE

Since for no radium at 36°C., \ was found to be 0.70, and
X2 was zero (or very small), we see from the foregoing
results that the influence of the radium at this temperature is
to decrease the rate of decomposition of the hydriodie acid into
iodine, and to increase the second action considerably, namely
the transformation of the iodine into the third compound.

It is an easy matter to determine when the amount of
hydriodie acid is half gone. If n is the amount of hydriodie
acid initially present and P is th e amount present at any time
t , then p = n

Calling T the time taken for half of the hydriodie acid to be
transformed, we have J = e— ^lU

whence T = — — -e— ' -

Substituting the values of X obtained with no radium for
24°C. and 36°C. in this equation, we find that it takes about 384
hours at the former temperature and about 17 hours at the
latter for half the amount of hydriodie acid to be decomposed
into iodine.

Effect of Temperature.

In order to show the effect of temperature alone, both when
the solution is under the influence of radium and without it,
the reaction was allowed to proceed for ten hours at various
temperatures. The results were as follows :

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC ACID. — CREIGHTON. 17

Table VI.

Temper-

ature.

No. of cc. of Na2 S2 03 solution required in

titration when the decomposition of hydriodic
acid takes place in the dark in presence of

Difference.

No radium.

Radium.

0

0.20

0.78

0.58

4

0.45

1.02

0.57

8

0.68

1.21

0.53

12

0.95

1.43

0.48

16

1.20

1.73

0.53

20

1.25

1.75

0.50

24

1.23

1 73

0.50

36

0.93

1.65

0.72

Mean of all Differences except that for 36°C, . .

0.53

If these numbers are plotted it is seen that the curves are
straight lines below 16°C. If the latter are produced backward
they will cut the axis of temperature at about — 12°C. and
— 3°C. for the radium and no radium curves respectively. At
these temperatures there should be no decomposition unless the
curves should become asymptotic, and, considering the steepness
of the curves at 0°C., this would not seem probable for the “no
radium ” curve at least. Of course it was out of the question
to keep the solution at — 12°C. on account of its freezing, but
a solution could easily be kept at — 3°C. for a time.

This temperature ( — 3°G.) was easily obtained by placing the
solution in a bath of very dilute alcohol, which was surrounded
by a mixture of salt and snow. It required but little attention
to keep this bath at a temperature of about — 3° 6C. to — 4°C.

It was found at the end of ten hours that the decomposition
in a solution not under the influence of radium, and kept at a
temperature of — 3°C. during that time, was equivalent to
0.19 cc. sodium thiosulphate. Hence the curves at 0°C. must
cease to be straight lines, and begin to run asymptotically
toward the axis of temperature.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII.

Trans. 2.

18 THE INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON THE

From this work on the effect of temperature we are again
led to conclude that the radium intensifies the action that is
already going on.

Effect of 7 Rays A lone.

Hardy and Wilcocks1 have shown that the 7 rays from
radium accelerate slightly the decomposition of iodoform, but
that the acceleration is small as compared with that due to the
/3 rays. In order to determine whether the 7 rays behave in
the same way upon the hydriodic acid reaction, the rays from
the radium were made to pass through 6 millimetres of lead
before entering the solution. This thickness of lead is sufficient
to absorb all but the fastest rays, and does not appreciably
absorb the 7 rays. The reaction was first allowed to go on for
ten hours at 24°C, when the amount of free iodine was found to
be equivalent to 2.10 cc. sodium thiosulphate solution.

For the sake of comparison the results for ten hours are here
grouped :

No radium for 10 hrs. at 24°C 1 .23 cc. Na2 S2 03 solution

/3 and 7 rays “ “ 1.73 " “

7 rays “ “ 2.10 “ “

At first this result seems to disagree with that obtained by

Hardy and Wilcocks. Indeed it does not seem reasonable that
the 7 rays, whose energy is much less than that of the /3 rays,
should accelerate the decomposition more than the latter. Closer
consideration, however shows that the disagreement is only
apparent and that the result is in accordance with the above
theory of the break down of hydriodic acid.

For if, as we have supposed, there are two successive
reactions taking place, both of which are accelerated by the
influence of radium, then since it has been shown that the
second one of these is the more influenced, it is quite probable
that when the energetic ft rays are absorbed and not allowed to
enter the solution, the second reaction is relatively retarded, and
so we have the amount of free iodine in the solution increased.
If this is what is happening, then for a few hours after the

1. Loc. cit.

DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRIODIC ACID.— CREIGHTON. 19

beginning of the reaction, before the second reaction begins to
make itself felt, we should expect to find that the amount of
iodine set free is less when the solution is acted upon by 7 rays,
than when it is acted upon by /3 and 7 rays. At the end of
three hours, when the solution had been kept at 24°C., the
decomposition was found to be as follows :

No radium for 3 hrs. at 24°C . . .0.65 cc. Na2S203 solution

/3 and 7 rays “ “ 0.85 “ “

7 rays “ “ . . .0.72 f “ “ “

Influence of Sunlight and Radium in the Absence of Oxygen.

If a hydriodic acid solution such as was used in the pre-
ceding experiments be entirely freed from occluded air, and
placed in a tube from which all the air has been removed, it
was found that this tube could be placed in the sunlight for
any length of time, without the solution showing any decom-
position. In order to remove all occluded air before being
sealed off, the solution was kept in a vacuum in the dark for
twenty-four hours; for otherwise it is found that extremely
minute quantities of dissolved air will slightly decompose the
hydriodic acid.

The same experiment was then tried with radium, instead of
sunlight. In order to keep the solution under a vacuum for
two or three days, without sealing up the radium in a tube with
the solution, the vessel containing the solution with the radium
was placed under a bell jar on a brass plate, connected by a
glass tube to a “ Geryk ” vacuum pump. The joint between the

bell jar and the brass plate was made
perfectly tight by sealing it with a
preparation made by heating together
equal parts of pure india rubber, par-
affin, and vaseline. When the vacuum
was made this tube was sealed off from
the pump. A delicate manometer con-
nected with the jar, showed no change

to pump

20

INFLUENCE OF RADIUM ON HYDRIODIC ACID.

in vacuum at the end of several days. It was found that the
radium also produced no effect. The experiment was tried at
room temperature only.

Summary.

1. When prepared with very pure water a hydriodic acid
solution decomposes in the dark, reaching an equilibrium value.
(Experiments made up to 36°C.)

2. Ordinary distilled water contains impurities producing
some catalytic action which accelerates the decomposition of
hydriodic acid solution in the dark, at the same time intro-
ducing another reaction, which causes the amount of free iodine
to reach a maximum value and then fall off' indefinitely.
(Experiments made at 15°C. only.)

3. At any temperature up to 24°C, more iodine is liberated
in a given time from a solution of hydriodic acid in the dark,
under the influence of radium, than from one that is not so
influenced.

4. When the experiment is tried at 36°C. this last statement
is only true up to 24 hours ; for whereas the amount of free
iodine with no radium reaches an equilibrium value, with
radium it reaches a maximum and then falls off indefinitely.

5. At 3fi°C. radium seems to cause the formation of the
same third product which impurity in water produces at low
temperature.

6. In general, increase of temperature tends to increase the
amount of free iodine at any time, whether radium is used
or not.

7. The 7 rays alone cause more iodine to be free than do
the ft and 7 rays together. (Experiments made at 24°C. only.)

8. Neither sunlight nor radium causes decomposition of
hydriodic acid solution in absence of oxygen. (Experiment
made at room temperature only.)

I wish, in conclusion, to thank Professors Mackay and
Mackenzie, for their kind suggestions and criticisms during the
progress of this work.

Dalhousie University, June 1st, 1907.

Watee Powee of Halifax County, Nova Scotia: Paet I,
Daetmouth Lakes Powee. — By F. W. W. Doane,
C. E., City Engineer, Halifax.

(Read 13th May, 1907.)

It is not the purpose of this paper to present any novel or
improved ideas in hydraulics or hydro-electric power, but first
to call attention to the undeveloped possibilities in our well-
known water courses, and second to describe somewhat in detail
the water power available from a water shed i'n the county of
Halifax, a portion of which is partially developed, the
remainder almost as nature formed it.

To the average man a water power is Inecessarily something
with a big dam across an imposing stream. Indeed, mamj
engineers are accustomed to look for large watersheds and high
heads, overlooking entirely the possibilities of the small streams.
In the House of Assembly a short time ago, it was stated that
there are no water powers in Nova Scotia worthy of the notice
of the government. This assertion may or may not be correct,
yet while all of the larger powers have been discovered, and
many of them harnessed, there still remain many falls on our
streams which have escaped notice or have been considered too
unimportant to develop. Many hydraulic powers are in use,
but are (not furnishing anything like the quantity of power
which they are capable of developing.

The board of trade last year, in a quarterly report,
regretted the lack of cheap powers for industries in Halifax,
but went no farther in a search for a remedy. Mr. Yorston, in
his paper read before the Institute last year, stated fully the
possibilities of the power on the Mersey Biver iln Queens
County. A portion of the dormant power in the Gaspereau
Valley is being developed for transmission to the neighboring

(21)

22 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA:

towns, Wolfville and Kentville, while the latent energy of the
tides of the Bay of Fundy still await the master halnd of the
engineer, the promoter, and the capitalist.

With the rapid growth of the demand for power, and the
necessity for obtaining that power as cheaply as possible, we can
no longer afford to ignore the possibilities of the minor hydrau-
lic powers, many of which are yet undeveloped, while others now
in use are not developed to their full capacitv.

We have no mountain streams with great heads in Halifax
County, but there are many streams which contain possibilities
which would justify investigation at least.

At twenty feet head it takes a wheel a couple of feet in
diameter and a flow of about 3,500 cubic feet of water uer min-
ute to give 100 horsepower. At eighty feet head a 10-inch
wheel will do the same work on one-quarter of the quantity of
water, while with a very high head a mere brook may suffice to
give a power that may be worth at least developing for local use.

Minor powers are not uncommon in alny hillv district, but
the small flow diverts attention from them. Yet this very class
may have possibilities in the way of storage of water that would
make them most attractive. In some cases where a number of
square miles of watershed are available, it may be possible by
the construction of dams to form storage lakes or increase the
capacity of existing natural reservoirs, and by this means create
a useful power where only a moderate stream flowed before.

There is, of course, a limit to the minimum quantity of con-
tinuous water power that is worth considering, whether for local
use or in connection with electric transmission. The governing
features of the problem are the general cost of development and
equipment, the cost of transmission, aind the cost of operation.

In hydraulic work the cost of conduits from the dam to
the power house is generally the controlling item, and this is
again determined by the distance necessary to be covered and
the available flow.

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER. — DOANE.

23

If the cost can be kept in the neighborhood of $100 per
horse-power, the outlook for an economical short transmission
is good, since this means an annual charge of no more than
$10 or $12. per horse-power for the motive power. The cost of
wheels and generators with their equipment will ru'n generally
from $25 to $30 per kilowatt in cases where raising trans-
formers are not needed, the usual case for small powers. All of
this can be approximated very readily, as also can the cost of
the necessary buildings.

The heaviest charges in small work come in the operating
expenses and in the pole line. Pole lines for light wires need
not cost more than $250 to $300 per mile, exclusive of wires
and right-of-way. The latter, in working on a small scale, is
commonly along the highway, so that the cost is small ; hut the
cost of wire, unless the line is short, may add considerably.
Still, at a given voltage, the cost of copper per kilowatt trans-
mitted is a constant, and the only relatively fixed item is the
cost of stringing, which varies only slightly with the size of wire
until the larger sizes are involved. For mechanical reasons,
however, it is not desirable to string wire smaller than Ho. 4 or
Ho. 5j so that the minimum cost of conductor is somewhere
about $500 per mile. Fortunately, the depreciation charge
against bare wire is practically negligable, and wire of this
minimum size will carry comfortably the output of the class of
plant considered.

In hydro-electric plants the operating expense is largely one
of fixed charge, while with steam plants it is made up of fixed
charges coupled with variable items of coal, water, oil, waste
and incidentals. With the hydro-electric plant, consequently
the cost per horse-power per year is almost constant, regardless
of whether supplied one hour a day or twenty-four hours a day.
Repairs are about the only variable, and they may be considered
as increasing in direct proportion to the load factor. Labor, oil,
waste, etc., are nearly the same, irrespective of the proportion

24 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA :

of light loads to full loads. With the steam plant, on the con-
trary, the items of coal, labor, etc., increase rapidly with the
load factor, and hence the cost per horse-power per annum
increases in almost the same proportion.

The cost of attendance is the most serious outlay in small
stations. It means, generally, the pay of at least three men, and
occasional extras — not less than $2,000 per annum, even for a
very small plant. At 100 kilowatt capacity this would come to
at least $20 per kilowatt per year, which added to the other
charges, is pretty nearly prohibitive. At 200 kilowatt capacity,
the operating charge gets down to reasonable figures. In a
rough estimate, one will not go far wrong in saying that for
electrical purposes a water power of 250 to 300 horse-power on
steady flow is worth considering. Anything below this is of
little account, except for local utilization, and the usefulness of
the power increases rapidly above this point.

If the situation is favorable for storage, a good deal can be
done with small streams; but unless the above amount can be
made available without going to heavy expense, there is not
much that can be done. If two or more such powers are avail-
able they can be often worked together to advantage. There are
powers near the limiting size that have been passd over as too
small, and these are the ones which ought to be carefully looked
after in the interest of small places and small industries.

The fundamental fact that faces the engineer of a hydro-
electric plant is that the total amount of hydraulic power avail-
able is, once for all, a fixed quantity. Of the rain that falls in
the drainage area of the stream a certain proportion finds its
way into the stream and that is all that is there available. Tak-
ing a series of years, too, the distribution of this available water
through the year is approximately uniform, so that one can
state broadly the total normal power per year, and that its dis-
tribution through the year follows a certain power curve. In
some streams this curve is very regular, in others extremely

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER. — DOANE.

25

irregular, showing torrents at certain seasons and rivulets at
others. The task of the engineer is to take the power curve and
do with it the best hie can in earnings, attacking) the prohleluL
with all the resource at his command.

No hydro-electric plant of limited capacity should be
studied at the present time without considering the use of
auxiliary power. Oftentimes such a study would result i'n the
rejection of auxiliaries altogether. At other times, after all has
been done that is possible in obtaining the best available storage,
there may remain a feature of the problem which may be econ-
omically handled only by steam or gas auxiliaries. But a short
time ago, the presence in any hydro-electric system of steam or
gas auxiliaries, was considered a confession of weakness in the
hydraulic system. Fortunately this false idea is fast losing
ground, and it is recognized that the best of engineering is shewn
by their use, and in consequence, hydro-electric opportunities
are being utilized which were previously neglected.

Streams of comparatively constant flow, by the installation
of steam or gas auxiliaries, are enabled to supply heavier loads
than would be otherwise possible, though perhaps the most
important use for auxiliaries is found in cases where the normal
stream flow is very materially reduced during short periods of
the year, by reason of special conditions in the watershed.

It is not reasonable to develop a hydro-electric station when
a steam or gas station could be built which would supply the
same territory at a lower cost, but it is also unwise to condemn
a hydro-electric development because the cost per unit of capac-
ity is high, when at the same time it can develop cheaper power
than can be done in any other manner.

I'n the province of Ontario, the government has appointed a
hydro-electric power commission, whose duty it is to develop and
supply electric energy not only to municipalities requesting it,
but also to any railway or to a private company distributing
electricity.

26 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA :

In the annual report of the New York state water supply
commission, that body strongly urges the state control of
waters. This refers 'not only to such a regular examination f
water supplies for potable purposes as shall insure the detection
of any serious change in their quality, but also to the larger
problem of the regulation of stream flow in order to prevent
floods. The commission believes that it is unwise to allow the
appropriation of potable waters for power purposes, except
under such state supervision and regulation as is at present
exercised in the case of water-works plants. The diminution of
floods, the report states, could be brought about by the construc-
tion of reservoirs which need not flood public forests, an act
prohibited by the constitution, and the waters stored in these
reservoirs might be made a source of revenue. The portions of
the report recently made public do not reveal any definite plans
for legislation to carry out the suggestion, but the general pro-
position that the state should exercise an equitable supervision
and control over the unappropriated waters of the state meets
with public approval. The time is coming quickly when water
powers and water supplies will be appraised much higher than
now, and any failure to secure state control of them, so far as
they are now unappropriated, may be unfortunate.

It is becoming daily more and more apparent that the coal
mines, steamers and railroads cannot supply a permanent and
continuous generation of power so readily as the rivers. The
experience of the past has brought this home to all classes and
sections of the Dominion, till in some parts of the country we
are now appealing to our courts and legislative bodies to relieve
us from the perils of fuel famine. These conditions are but
the natural outgrowth of a national improvidence which in the
past has consumed our store of domestic fuel for power purposes
and has allowed to run to waste the easily available power
resources of the water which constantly falls upon our hills, and
will continue to fall while the earth is habitable.

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER. DOANE.

27

• Cheapness of power lias long ago been demonstrated for the
hydro-electric plant and transmission line; reliability is now
being proved. The duplicate line has already become afn estab-
lished factor in the system, and attention has been turned to the
duplicate plant as well. The advantages of the duplicate source
will be the next study.

Not only is the unreliability in the supply of coal aiding in
the development of hydro-electric projects, but the price also is
exercising a great influence. We do not have to go far afield to
hear tales of scarcity of fuel and closed plants in consequence of
strikes, car famine, etc., and every consumer of coal knows that
there has been a permanent increase of about 50 per cent, in the
cost. This price will not be reduced, but in all probability will
continue to advance, so that it may be claimed that the hydro-
electric plant, which will begin by paying expenses, must neces-
sarily become a source of profit in the near future.

Water Power of the Dartmouth Lakes.

The nearest water power to the city of Halifax is that owned
by the Starr Manufacturing Company, in Dartmouth. Until
very recently this power was not controlled entirely by one
company. By the amalgamation of the Starr Company and the
Dartmouth Rolling Mills Company, the whole water power
becomes the property of the new company, and it is now possible
• to develop it to its full capacity.

The drainage area from which this power is obtained
includes the watershed and water surface of five lakes. Begin-
ning at a divide a short distance south of Cranberry Lake, which
lies on the south side of the Preston Road, about three and one-
half miles east of Dartmouth, the surface slopes northwardly
and westwardly. Cranberry Lake empties by a stream about
one-third of a mile in length, crossing the Preston Road into
Lake Loon, which in turn drains into Lake Charles, about one
mile and one-half westwardly as the crow flies. Prom Lake

28 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA :

Charles the surface slopes both northwardly and southwardly,
Lake Charles being the highest of the chain of lakes utilized in
the construction of the Shubenacadie Ca'nal. While no longer
needed for canal purposes, the masonry of the old locks is still
ifn good condition, and! is used by the Starr Company in con-
nection with their storage dams.

When the lakes are overflowing, Lake Charles has an outlet
at both ends, but except in time of freshet, the outlet is south-
wardly into Second Dartmouth Lake. The stream between
Lake Charles and Second Dartmouth Lake is about seven-
eighths of a mile in length, and passes through two of the old
locks. From Seco'nd Dartmouth Lake the water flows directly
into First Dartmouth Lake. From the latter, it is let down
through Sullivan’s Pond as it is required. Penhorn Lake, lying
south of the Preston Load, about a mile and a half east of Dart-
mouth, drains into the Second Lake. Oathill Lake, situated
about three-quarters of a mile eastwardly from the town, and
south of the Preston Road, empties into First Lake.

From a map in the possession of the Deputy-Commissioner
of Public Works and Mines, the areas have been obtained as
follows : —

Lake Loon watershed 840 acres.

Lake Charles watershed 3400 “

First and Second Lakes watershed .... 3060 “

Total area of lakes and watershed. . 7300 “ =11.4 sq. miles

Lakes only :

Cranberry Lake 23 acres.

Loon Lake 190 “

Reservoir below Loon Lake 23 “

Lake Charles 337

First and Second Lakes 441 “

Other lakes 36 “

= 1.6 sq. miles
= 9.8 sq. miles

Area of lakes 1050

Area of watershed, not including lakes 6250

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER. DOANE.

29

The country is rough and broken, a portion bein.q: wooded,
and a large proportion waste land.

After passing through the Starr Manufacturing Company’s
works, the water, previous to the amalgamation of the two com-
panies, was used again at the electric light station below Port-
land Street.

Por this purpose the water was carried to a point opposite
the light station by a flume 4 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 in.
deep. When examined by the writer the water was flowing
about 14 in. deep with an inclination of .002 feet per foot.
Under those conditions the sluice would discharge 1134 cubic
feet per minute. Prom the flume the water was taken by a 4 ft.
pipe to a 20 in. crocker turbine, working under a head of 18 ft.
4 in. At 75 per cent, efficiency the wheel would develop 29.25
horse-power.

The water running the Starr works is drawn from Sullivan’s
Pond through a 44 in. pipe, 417 feet long, with a discharging
capacity of 12,900 cu. ft. per minute. The wheels work under
31 ft. head. The shop is run by a 30 in. wheel, “ standard ”
make, purchased from T. H. Risdon & Co., Mount Holly, Hew
Jersey. The grinding room machinery is kept in motion by a
10 in. “ American ” turbine manufactured by the Dayton Globe
Iron Works Co., Dayton, Ohio. A 22 in. “ special ” new
American turbine (Dayton make) has been used to operate elec-
tric generators for lighting the town.

The catalogue capacity of these wheels is : —

Cu. ft. of water

Size

Head in ft.

Revolutions.

Horse-power.

used.

30 in.

31

262

83.4

1674

10 in.

31

681

21.8

465

22 in.

31

326

116.7

2492

A comparison with the theoretical horse-power of the water
used shows that the wheels are rated at higher efficiency than

30 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA :

they can reach in practical work. The large wheel is rated at
85 per cent, efficiency and the other two at 80 per cent.

At 75 per cent, efficiency 1674 cu. ft. at 31 ft. head = 73.5 horse-power.

75 “ “ 465 “ 31 “ = 20.25 “

75 “ .* 2492 “ 31 “ = 109.5

The Starr Company was under contract to supply power to

the Electric Light Company up to 100 horse-power from sunset
to midnight, and 30 horse-power from midnight to dawn. It is
estimated, therefore, that the average quantity of water con-
sumed per day in developing power was : —

1674

465

2139 cu. ft. per minute x 60 x 9 hours = 1 153,560 cu. ft. per day.

2492 “ “ x 60 x 6 “ = 897,120

1134 “ “ x 60 x 5 “ = 2,390,880 “ “

This quantity used at an equal hourly rate for twenty-four
hours would produce 73 horse-power at 75 per cent, efficiency.
Adding the 29.25 horse-power developed below, the total 24-
hour power would he 99.25 horse-power. For nine hours it
would produce 195+29.25=224.25 horse-power.

Assuming for the present that the quantity of water used
daily is correct, it is not developing the total horse-power that
it is capable of producing. If, instead of the present system,
all of the water were carried in a pipe from Sullivan’s Pond to
a wheel at the electric light station, there would be a head of at
least fifty feet. The above quantity of water would then develop
at 75 per cent, efficiency, 116.75 horse-power for twenty-four
hours, or 314.25 horse-power for nine hours. The nine-hour
power would be an increase of 90 horse-power, or 40 per cent.
In order to obtain this additional power it would be necessary to
convert the hydraulic plant now running the Starr works into
a hydro-electric plant.

•The same water used for power at the Starr works is available
for the development of power at the foot of First Lake, as Sul-

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER.— DOANE. 31

li van’s Pond, through which water is drawn from First Lake
for the Starr Company’s plant, is comparatively very small, and
has practically no watershed. When First Lake is full, there
is a head of about twelve feet above Sullivan’s Pond. Assum-
ing that First Lake can be maintained at overflow level every
day of the year, and that the quantity hereinbefore estimated is
available, a wheel at the canal lock would develop at 75 per cent,
efficiency, 28 horse-power for 24 hours, or 77.5 horse-power for
9 hours. If Sullivan’s Pond could be raised 12 feet, this addi-
tional power would he available at the Starr works without
electric transmission.

The quantity of power that could be taken from the estim-
ated available water by carrying it in a pipe from First Lake to
a wheel at high-water mark would not he greater than that
developed by a wheel at the Canal lock at the foot of First Lake,
and another at high-water mark, operated by water drawn from
Sullivan’s Pond. The total would be about 390 horse power for
9 hours, or 145 hore-power for 24 hours.

The fall in the stream from Lake Charles to Second Lake
affords another opportunity to increase the total capacity of this
power. This portion of the old canal is known as Port Wallis
Locks. The upper lock gate is closed, and holds the water up to
the level of Lake Charles. There is a fall in the lock of about
19 feet, and at the lower lock about 10 feet. Estimating the
available portion of the rainfall over the watershed draining to
this point at two feet, a wheel at Port Wallis Locks would
develop 25 horse-power for 24 hours or 66 horse-power for 9
hours.

The quantity of water available, depending not only on the
rainfall but on the possibility of storage, it is of the greatest
importance to know what can be done to hold the water draining
through the old canal. The writer is not familiar with Lake
Loon, and has had no opportunity to ascertain the storage poss-
ibilities of this lake. It is stated, however, that a rise of three
feet would cause the water to flow in another direction.

32 WATER POWER OF HALIFAX COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA :

Lake Charles can be dammed at both ends. At the south
end there is a good location for a dam. The lake could be raised
six feet by a structure about 100 feet long. At the north end
the dam would be from 100 to 200 yards in length. At one point
on the Waverley Load the highway would have to be raised, as
it is not much above the present overflow level of the lake. Rais-
ing Lake Charles six feet would increase the storage capacity
about 90,000,000 feet, or about 40 days’ supply for the Starr
works. This additional storage would be nearly one-third of
the estimated available rainfall, and there is no doubt in the
mind of the writer that the storage in this power system can be
increased so that the whole run,-off in a dry or ordinary year can
be held and used as required.

The contract with the Electric Light Company began
January 1st, 1898. In 1894, which was a very dry year, the
water failed, but all the wheels did not stop again for want of
water until 1905, which was the dryest year on record.

In 1904 the shop ran by steam from August 5th to September
10th.

In 1904 the electric lights ran by water without stop.

In 1905 the electric lights ran by steam from September 14tli
to November 22nd.

In 1905 the shop ran half water, half steam, from August 29th
to September 14th.

In 1905 the shop ran by steam from August 14th to Dec. 1st.

The Starr Manufacturing Company has an auxiliary steam
plant, as may be inferred from the foregoing statement, which
they use in case of emergency, or when once in ten years water
fails. This plant affords a good illustration of the advantages
of the auxiliary system, which permits a larger horse-power
development on the available water than would be possible with-
out it. In its absence the daily capacity of the plant would be
reduced, and there would be danger of complete shut-down in
case of accident or shortage of water.

DARTMOUTH LAKES POWER. — DOANE.

33

The estimate of the quantity of water used daily at the Starr
works is based on information given by the manager. If cor-
rect, the proportion of the rainfall is much larger than the usual
estimate. 2,390,880 cubic feet of water every day, equals
872,671,200 cubic feet a year, which, spread over 7,300 acres,
would be 33 inches, or 59 per cent, of 55,927, the average rain-
fall in Halifax. It is, therefore, probable that the estimated
capacity is in excess of the actual capacity. The estimated
capacity based on the manager’s data is : —

At high-water mark (9-hour day) 365 days 314.25 h. p.

At first lock , 75 5 “

At Port Wallis locks 66 “

457.75 “

Possible nine-hour power under present

development. . 224.25

Possible increase 233.5 “ 104 p. c.

It would be very interesting to know positively the exact
quantity of water used by each wheel at the Starr works, and
the exact total time run during one year, so that the run-off
determined by Mr. Johnston and that at the Starr works could
be compared.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol XII.

Trans. 3.

A Few Chemical Chances Influenced by Radium : A

FT ew Method for the Detection of Amygdalin.* —
By H. Jermain M. Creighton, M. A., Dalhousie
University, Halifax, FT. S.

Read 13th April, 1908.

Up to the present time only a comparatively small amount
of work has been carried out on the effect of radium on chem-
ical reactions. Hardy and Wilcocks* 1 have investigated the
oxidation of iodoform, when acted on by Rontgen rays and by
radium, and Hardy2 has observed the coagulation of globulin
under the influence of the latter. Becquerel3 found that white
phosphorus is changed into the inactive red phosphorus, and
that mercuric chloride in the presence of oxalic acid is reduced
to mercurous chloride by the radiations from radium. The
Curies4 have shown that the rays from radium change oxygen
into ozone and discolour glass. Berthelot5 cites the following
cases : iodic acid is decomposed by radium rays and by light,
with liberation of iodine, the change being much slower than
that of iodoform ; nitric acid gives off nitrous fumes when acted
upon by radium rays and by light. The decomposition of
hydriodic acid has been observed and studied by Creighton.6
These,, as far as I have been able to discover, are all the
reactions that have been investigated up to the present time.

When it had been decided to investigate what influence
radium had on different chemical changes, it seemed probable
that the best results would be obtained if the radium were
allowed to act on the substances that were to be transformed,
under the conditions most favourable to the transformation. It
was mainly for these conditions that the following: substances
were choseln.

♦Contributions from the Science Laboratories

1 Proc. Roy. Soc., 72, 480, 200.

2 Proc. Phys. Soc., 1903, May 16.

3 C. R., 1901, 133, p. 709.

4 C. R., 1899, 129, p. 823.

5 C. R., 1901, 133, p. 659.

6 Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Science, XII, 1, 1.

of Dalhousie University [Chemistry. I

(34)

CHANGES INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON.

35

Five milligrammes of radium bromide of activity of about
1,000,000 were employed. Tbe radium was enclosed in a small
glass tube, so that only the a - and ft -rays were used.

Action of Radium on Lead and Tin.

After a particularly cold winter, 1867-68, it was found that
some blocks of tin that had been stored i'n the customs house
at St. Petersburg, had mysteriously crumbled to a grey powder.
It has since been shown that tin exists in two allotropic forms,
one of which is this grey powder, the other the ordinary white
malleable metal. The transition temperature of these two
varieties of tin is about 20° C., the former being stable below,
and the latter above this temperature. The reason all ordinary
tin, most of which is at a temperature below that of transition,,
does not change into the grey kind, is due to its being in a state
of unstable equilibrium, and kept there by an unknown agent,
to which the name passive resistance has been given. If in
some way this passive resistance could be overcome, then the
transition of white into grey tin would readily take office.

It was in order to see whether radium would do this that
the following experiment was carried out.

Two pieces of white tin, about two and a half centimetres
square and a millimetre thick were prepared from pure mossy

tin, and their surfaces made
smooth and clean. These
were placed in a small
leaden box, Fig. 1, and
separated from each other
by means of a leaden
partition, which was suffi-
ciently thick to keep all but
the fastest /3 -rays from
passing from one compart-
ment to the other. The ends of the box were left open. The

36

A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

small glass tube, containing the radium, was held in the end of
a hollow brass rod ; this latter passed through a hole in one end
of the leaden cover of the box, so that the radium was over, and
about a millimetre distant from, the square of tin in one of the
compartments of the box. This box Was placed in a large tin
box and kept at a temperature of about 0°C. for four months.

At the end of that time, the pieces of tin were taken out and
examined under the microscope, and it was found that there
was a formation of grey tin on the surface of each, but that the
amount on the piece that had been bombarded by the rays from
the radium, was greater than that on the piece which had not
been so acted upon. This difference, however, was not very
great, but the lead box which had contained the pieces of tin,
had undergone a curious change, during the four months. The
inside of the compartment into which the tube containing the
radium had penetrated, was completely covered, with the
exception of the bottom, with a thin white film, which was
present in some places, particularly the top of the box, in rela-
tively large quantities, while the other compartment did not con-
tain the most minute trace of this substance. Around the hole
in the top of the box, where the tube containing the radium
entered, the lead was coated with the white substance, much
more thickly than anywhere else. Some of this powder was
scraped off and analysis showed that it was lead carbonate.

The only explanation the author can give of its formation
is this. Some of the rays from the radium, after striking the
surface of the tin, which was probably not perfectlv even, were
reflected upward, and bombarded the top of the lead box and
ionized it, thus making it more active than it was. The por-
tions of the lead which were thus made active, were able to
combine with the moist carbon dioxide in the air, with the
production of lead carbonate. This seemed to be borne out by
the fact that it was the top of the box that was most coated with
the carbonate.

INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON. 37

The Action of Radium on Hydrogen Peroxide.

The action of radium on hydrogen peroxide was next inves-
tigated, as on account of its behaviour under the influence of
light,1 it was believed that it would be affected by radium rays.

The hydrogen peroxide solution used in these experiments
had a strength of 4.832 grams per litre.

Since hydrogen peroxide, when it decomposes,, breaks np
into water and oxygen, its decomposition can be estimated by
measuring the oxygen produced, or the amount of hydrogen
peroxide left in the solution by titrating with potassium per-
manganate. As this latter method necessitated changing the
amount of substance in the system, the former was chosen, and
the oxygen was measured by the change of pressure it produced.

A large reagent bottle, with a side tubulature near the bot-
tom, was half-filled with hydrogen peroxide. Into the side neck
was fitted a long graduated tube with a bend at right angles,
which was to act as a pressure gauge. The brass tube contain-
ing the radium was passed through a tightly-fitting rubber cork,
which was fixed firmly into the neck of the reagent bottle and
so adjusted, that the radium was about three or four millimetres
away from the surface of the liquid. In this way, any increase
in the volume of the gas over the peroxide would produce a
change in its pressure, and this change could be read by means
of the pressure gauge. Figure 2 shows the apparatus.

These experiments were carried out in a photographic dark-
room, so that there was no chance of the reaction being
influenced by light.

1 D’Arcy, Phil. Mag., 1902 [VI], 3, 42.

38 A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

360 oc. of hydrogen peroxide, of the
strength mentioned above, were placed in
the bottle just described, and put in the
dark without being under the action of
radium. The volume of gas enclosed over
the liquid was 350 cc. The variations in
pressure as observed by the pressure gauge
were recorded for three hundred hours.
After correcting this pressure for the varia-
tions due to changes of temperature and
pressure, it was found that the pressure of
the enclosed gas had not varied, showing
that the peroxide had not suffered any
decomposition during the time it was under observation.

Next an experiment was carried out, similar to that just
described, except that the surface of the peroxide was bom-
barded by radium radiations. The increase in pressure was
recorded from time to time, and the results obtained are
tabulated in the following table :

Table I.

Time in
hours.

Barometric
pressure
mm. Hg.

Temperature

°C.

Height of
liquid in
manometer
divisions.1

Increase
in pressure
of gas
mm. Hg.

Corrected
increase in
pressure of
gas mm. Hg.

0

761.0

19.1

145.0

7

762.01

18.8

149.9

o.h

*i*7

15

762.11

18.0

157.3

l.i

4.4

30

764.10

18.8

160.2

1.4

4.1

40

763.90

19.2

165.0

2.0

2.7

50

764.01

18.0

156.0

1.0

5.8

75

761.39

17.1

151.3

0.6

6.4

100

767.11

‘ 16.6

155.5

1.0

10.9

118

764.31

16.8

163.0

1.9

10.0

142

766.01

17.9

167.0

2.2

8.4

165

764.02

18.0

162.1

1.9

6.7

200

765.13

18.0

160.1

1.4

6.8

219

764.99

18.1

158.4

1 3

6.3

238

764.41

18.1

155.0

1.0

5.6

265

760.99

19.5

163.0

1.9

0.8

20 scale divisions = 25 mm.

INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON. 39

In the preceding table column five gives the changes in pres-
sure of the gas in millimetres of mercury. These values have
been calculated from the data in column four, the hydrogen
peroxide having a density which is approximately one. Column
six contains the values of column live after approximate cor-
rections have been made for the. changes due to variation in
temperature and pressure ; that is, these numbers represent the
changes in pressure due to the increase of gas.

From these results, then, it is seen that the effect of radium
on the solution of hydrogen peroxide is to decompose it. This
decomposition, however, is small; for the increase in pressure
corresponds only to a small increase in volume. In its behaviour
towards hydrogen peroxide radium resembles light. It will be
‘noticed that the pressure exerted by the gas, as given in the
sixth column of the above table, after a time begins to decrease.
The reason of this diminution in pressure will be considered
later.

It is a well-known fact that the presence of finely divided
solid matter or salts of the heavy metals slowly decomposes con-
centrated solutions of hydrogen peroxide, even at ordinary
temperature. For this reason 10 ce. of ft solution of lead
nitrate were added to 350 oc. of the dilute hydrogen peroxide
used in these experiments. The addition of the lead nitrate to
the peroxide caused the formation of a finely divided precip-
itate, the presence of which should also tend to decompose the
solution. After making the necessary approximate corrections
for changes in temperature and pressure, it was found that
during the ten days the solution was under observation the pres-
sure had not changed at all. Hence, it would seem that dilute
solutions of hydrogen peroxide are not, or at most only exceed-
ingly slowly, decomposed by the presence of finely divided solid
matter or solution of lead nitrate.

An experiment similar to this was next carried out, with

40

A

FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

the exception that the surface of the liquid was bombarded
with radium rays. The results are given below in Table II.

Taple If.

Time

in

hours.

Barometric
pressure
mm. Hg.

Temperature

°C.

Height of
liquid in
manometer
divisions.1

Increase
in pressure
of gas
mm. Hg.

Corrected
increase in
pressure of
gas mm. Hg.

0

759.99

20.8

142.0

9

759.90

20.8

160.5

i’7

"\'.7

12

759.71

21.2

167.0

2.3

1 7

15

759.41

21 .4

169.5 '

2.5

0.8

19

758.74

21.6

165.0

2.1

0.1

23

759.21

21.8

156.5

1 .4

1.5

33

759.20

21.1

141 .5

0.1

1.1

36

759.30

20.6

142.8

0.1

0.4

41

759.21

19.6

136.6

0.5

2.3

48

759.41

19.1

138.0

0.4

3.9

58

759 53

17.4

95.0

4.3

4.3

63

759.91

17.4

107. 0

2.3

6 3

67

760. 10

17.4

108.0

3.3

5.3

73

765.31

17.4

90. 0

4.8

6.3

82

767.90

16.8

89.0

4.9

9.9

87

769. 18

17.6

104.0

3.5

9.0

92

767.20

18.5

123.0

0.7

9.0

100

766.17

18.0

170.0

2.6

13.2

104

764.39

18.0

208.0

6.1

15.7

109

75^.55

18.0

252.5

10.1

16.7

115

754.54

18.5

305.0

14.1

17.9

120

758.52

18.4

352.5

19.3

24.9

130

758.63

18.7

483.7

31.2

36.0

136

758.63

18.7

489.2

31.8

36.6

153

761.05

18.6

358.2

19.8

27.5

160

761.52

19.6

394.5

23.2

26.9

167

761.09

19.0

387.0

22.5

28.4

177

760.99

17.4

343.0

18.6

28 3

188

761.26

17.4

389.0

22.8

32.5

194

761.84

17.2

413.0

25.0

35.5

202

765.17

17.0

391 .0

23.0

35.6

216

764.69

15.4

299.0

14.4

309

225

762.70

12.6

238.0

8.8

31.5

236

761.75

14.2

299.0

14.4

34.2

240

761.23

14.2

334.0

17.6

37.1

255

769.36

15.6

379.0

21.8

41.5

265

761 .91

14.8

354.5

19.5

35.7

276

763.30

11.6

274.5

12.2

379

294

765.86

11.8

286.5

13.2

39.6

304

767.02

12.3

303.0

14.8

40.4

314

752.34

12 8

638.3

46.4

63.7

321

752.34

13.6

711.3

52.3

67.4

324

753.86

13.6

681.0

49.6

65.2

i 20 scale divisions = 25 mm.

i

INELUENCED BY RADIUM.— CREIGHTON. 41

Iii column six of this table the increases in oressure due to
the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide are given, and on
comparing these results with those given in Table I, it will be
seen that the effect of the radium is to produce a much greater
decomposition when lead nitrate is present than when it is not.

The Curies1 have shown that the effect of radium radiations
on oxygen is to transform it into ozone. It is to this cause that
the decreases in pressure, corresponding to contractions in vol-
ume of the gas, observed in these experiments, have been
attributed. Why there is this periodic change, the accumula-
tive effect of which, as shown in Table II, is to enlarge the
volume of gas, will have to be investigated more thoroughly
before a suitable explanation can be given. On examining the
gas which was over the liquid when the experiment was over, it
was found that it contained 1.4 per cent, of ozone.

The foregoing experiments show that neither solutions of
hydrogen peroxide (4.832 grams per litre), nor solutions of
hydrogen peroxide in which lead nitrate is present undergo any
decomposition in the dark; also that dilute solutions of hydro-
gen peroxide are slowly decomposed by radium, this decom-
position being much more rapid when the solution contains lead
nitrate and finely divided solid matter. Lastly, that ozone is
produced by the action of radium on the oxygen present.

Action of Radium on Chloroform.

It is well known that the reason chloroform, CHC13, does
not give a precipitate with silver nitrate, is due to the fact that
it is unionized. As there seems to be no absolutely undisso-
ciated substance, there is in chloroform, probably some few
chlorine ions ; these are so few that when they unite with the
silver ions present in the system, the amount of silver
chloride is very much too small to be visible. However, as soon
as these chlorine ions are removed from the system as undis-
sociated silver chloride, more of the chloroform dissociates in

l Loc. cit.

42

A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

order to maintain the value of its solubility product, which
must be exceedingly small. Thus the silver chloride accumu-
lates very slowly and finally becomes visible. This explanation
would seem to account for the appearance of silver chloride in a
mixture of silver nitrate and chloroform a long time after
mixing.

The following experiment was carried out to find whether
chloroform could be ionized by radium to a sufficient extent, as
to produce a visible amount of silver chloride when mixed with a
solution of silver nitrate. About 50 cc. of chloroform which were
found to produce no precipitate on mixing with a solution of sil-
ver nitrate, were placed in a wide-mouthed reagent bottle, with
a capacity of about 125 cc. The brass tube containing the
radium was passed through a tightly fitting rubber cork and fixed
firmly into the mouth of the bottle. This solution was placed
in the dark, and at the end of twenty-four hours it was shaken
up with a few cc. of silver nitrate solution. After removing the
water from the chloroform by allowing it to remain for a few
hours over anhydrous copper sulphate, the liquid remaining
possessed a milkiness which must have been due to the presence
of silver chloride, thus proving that chlorine ions had been
separated from the chloroform by the action of the radium.

Action of Radium on Amygdalin.

The laws of the action of light on glucosides, enzymes,
toxins and antitoxins have been thoroughly investigated by
Dreyer and Haussen,,1 who have shown that the effect of light
on the glucosides is to cause them to break down with the
formation of glucose. For the purpose of investigating the
action of radium upon the glucosides, the most common one,
amygdalin C^H^NO^ was chosen. The amount of decom-
position could readilv be measured by estimating the amount
of glucose formed.

1 C. R , 1907, 145. p. 564.

INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON. 43

A saturated solution of amygdalin in water, was subjected
to the action of radium rays for four days. At the end of that
time part of the solution was tested with Fehling’s solution for
glucose. Not the least trace of glucose was found to be present.
Another part of the solution was boiled with ammonium poly-
sulphide, and after the excess of the latter had been removed
by boiling, a few drops of dilute ferric chloride were added.
As there was no change in colour hydrocyanic acid was inferred
to be absent, Solutions of amygdalin were acted upon by
radium for different lengths of time up to ten days, with the
same result as above.

Although on boiling the solution of amygdalin, which had
been under the influence of radium for a time, with a few drops
of Fehling’s solution, the copper was not reduced, thus showing
the absence of glucose, the blue colour due to the copper, almost
disappeared, a whitish or pale blue gelatinous orecipitate was
formed, and a fairly strong odour of ammonia was given off.
If more than a few drops of Fehling’s solution were added to
the amygdalin, the blue colour did not disappear on boiling.
When Fehling’s solution was added to an ordinarv solution of
amygdalin, it was found that the same changes took place on
boiling, except that the solution of amygdalin which had not
been acted upon by radium, was not able to discolour as much
Fehling’s solution as was a solution that had been acted upon
by radium. These changes must be due to some reaction taking
place between the amygdalin and the Fehling’s solution, or one
or more of its constituents ; these reactions are more complete
when the amygdalin has been under the influence of radium
for a time.

Amygdalin solutions were boiled with the constituents of
Fehling’s solution combined in all possible ways, but it was
only when they were present so as to form Fehling’s solution
that the above results were obtained. When a solution of
amygdalin was boiled with caustic potash alone, ammonia was
given off but no precipitate was formed.

44

A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

Liebig and Wohler prepared amygdalic acid or glucoman-
delic acid, C H 0 from amygdalin, bv boiling it with

baryta water, the change taking place in this way: —

C H NO + 2H 0 = C H O + NH

20 27 11 2 20 28 13 3

This acid is a white crystalline substance which readily
forms amorphous salts.

It is probable that the change taking place with Fehling’s
solution is one similar to this. The action of the potassium
hydroxide is to form amygdalic acid and ammonia, 'and at the
same time an insoluble salt of the former is formed with the
copper, which is held, in solution by the sodium and potassium
tartrate in the Fehling’s solution.

The decomposition of amygdalin by F eh ling’s solution does
not take place unless the solution is boiled. However, if the
solution of amygdalin is boiled with potassium hydroxide,
cooled, and then a few drops of Fehling’s solution added to it
the bluish precipitate is formed.

A quantity of this precipitate was formed and washed free
from amygdalin and Fehling’s solution. When some of it was
heated on a piece of platinum foil it charred, showing that it
contained organic matter, and a greyish residue containing a
carbonate and copper, but no sodium nor potassium was left
behind.

From the foregoing facts it would seem that, on adding
Fehling’s solution to a solution of amygdalin and boiling, we
have a change taking place like that observed bv Liebig and
Wohler, resulting in the break down of the amygdalin. As a
result of this decomposition the nitrogen of the amygdalin is
changed to ammonia, and a bluish' white precipitate, which is
probably a copper salt of amygdalic acid, is formed. It is
believed that the evolution of ammonia and the formation of the
precipitate noted above, might be used for the detection of
amygdalin. When the amygdalin has been under the influence
of radium for a time, it is found this change is more complete.

INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON. 45

Since solutions of glucosides are readily changed into glucose
by hydrochloric acid, even in the cold,, it was believed that
if a solution of amygdalin were bombarded with radium radia-
tons, this transformation might be accelerated.

The solutions of amygdalin used for this purpose had a con-
centration of ten grams per litre; the hydrochloric acid con-
sisted of one volume of acid (sp. g. 1.2) to five volumes of water.
The proportion of amygdalin to acid solution was ten to one.

The amount of decomposition was determined bv titrating
the glucose that was produced, with Paw’s solution, 25 cc. of
which =0.0151 gram of glucose CgH Ofi.

To determine whether the radium exerted any influence on
the hydrolysis of amygdalin, the radium was placed over a vessel
containing the acid solution of amygdalin, of the concentration
mentioned above, and allowed to bombard the solution for a
certain time ; • at the end of that time the amount of decom-
position was compared with that of a similar solution that had
not been acted on by radium. The vessels used to contain the
solutions were ordinary wide-mouthed reagent bottles with a
capacity of 125 cc. The tube containing the radium 1 was
securely fixed in a wooden block, which loosely fitted over the
mouth of one of the bottles. Thus, by filling the bottle to d
definite mark, the distance between the radium and the surface
of the liquid was always kept the same. This distance was
between two and three millimetres.

The following experiments were carried out in a photo-
graphic dark room, so that there was no chance of the reaction
being influenced by light. The solution which was not to be
acted on by radium was protected from the rays by a screen of
lead, so placed that the solution would not be affected appre-
ciably by the secondary rays set up in the lead.

Several experiments were carried out in this1 Way, and thd
amount of glucose formed was estimated after different lengths
of time. In the following table the numbers given in column two

46

A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES

denote the amount of amygdalin solution required to decolour-
ise 2 cc. of Pavy’s solution (25 cc.=0.0151 g. CgH Og), at

the specified times after the instant of mixing. The tempera-
ture at which the action took place wa& 18 ± 0° .5 C.

Table III.

Time in
hours.

No. of cc. of Amygdalin solu-
tion required to decolourise 2 cc.
of Pavy’s solution when acted on
by

No. of grams of glucose per 1
cc. of Amygdalin solution acted
on by

Radium.

No Radium.

Radium.

No Radium.

19

11.54

12.08

0.000104

0.000099

30

13.39

12.29

0.000089

0.000097

48

14.77

12.28

0.000081

0.000097

66

16.27

12.39

0.000073

0.000097

From an examination of this table it will be seen that there
is a striking difference between the behaviour of solutions of
amygdalin acted upon by radium and those which have not been
so influenced. For the solutions that have been bombarded with
the radiations from radium, the content of glucose reaches a
maximum and then falls off again; but with the solutions not
under the influence of radium the amount of glucose present
increases with time and then remains constant. An effect sim-
ilar to this has been observed by the author1 when acid solutions
of potassium iodide made up with ordinary distilled water are
allowed to decompose in the sunlight or dark ; and when acid
solutions of potassium iodide made up with pure water (con-
ductivity 2.16 x 10 ), are allowed to decompose under the

influence of radium. In each of these cases the content of free
iodine reaches a maximum and then gradually falls off again.

It would seem that the effect of the radium is to cause the
glucose, in some manner, to change into some new product. In
the case of the solution of amygdalin which has not been under

Loc. cit.

INFLUENCED BY RADIUM. — CREIGHTON 47

the influence of radium, where the content of glucose tends
toward a constant asymptotic value, the simplest explanation is
that the new product is not being formed, and we have an ordin-
ary example of equilibrium between the amygdalin and its
products of decomposition. If the new product is being
formed two suggestions present themselves to account for the
continued constancy of the glucose present: (1) that the rate of
formation of the new substance is very small, but that in time
the numbers in column five of the table would begin to drop
also; (2) that the whole system reaches a state of equilibrium,
and the amount of glucose will remain constant however long
the time.

In order to ascertain whether the glucose was transformed
into a simple substance or a complex one, by the action of
radium, the effect of the latter on solutions of glucose in water
and dilute hydrochloric acid, and on solutions of pure cane
sugar in dilute hydrochloric acid was next studied.

Solutions of glucose and cane sugar of various strengths
were experimented upon for different lengths of time, the
change being measured by means of the polariscope. It was
found that in no case was the change in the solution under the
action of radium any different from that which was not
influenced by radium, which seemed to show that the substance
into which the glucose was changed in the amygdalin solution
was not likely a simple one.

Action of Radium on Brass.

As has been mentioned before, the radium used in these
experiments was enclosed in a narrow glass tube, which was
held in the end of a hollow brass rod. The radium had been
kept in this brass rod for about a year previous to these experi-
ments. Some time after being placed there it was observed
that the end of the brass rod, at which the radium was, began to
be discoloured, and finally turned a deep grey. This discoloura-

48

A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES.

tion was only at the surface next the air, for on scraping the
surface of the rod with a knife, the inside was found to have
the yellow colour of brass. While allowing the radium to act
on hydrogen peroxide in the experiment previously described,
where the brass rod wras enclosed in an atmosphere of ozone,
and air containing more oxygen than ordinarv air. there was
found on the part of the rod near the radium, a small quantity
of this dark grey substance. Some of this was scraped off, care
being taken not to remove any of the brass. On analyzing this
substance it was found to contain only copper, there not being
even so much as a trace of lead or zinc present. What has
probably taken place is that the action of the radium on the
brass in the presence of oxygen has slowly converted the copper
of the alloy to copper oxide; the greater the amount of oxy-
gen present the more rapidly the change takes place.

The results here given show that in many reactions the effect
of radium is to accelerate that action already going on, and in
the case of amygdalin and hydrochloric acid it may perhaps set
up a new action of its own, besides accelerating the hydrolysis
of the amygdalin into glucose, etc. Lastly the presence of
amygdalin may be detected by boiling a solution supposed to
contain it with a few drops of Fehling’s solution and noting
whether or not the odour of ammonia is given off.

The author’s best thanks are due to Professor MacKay for
the interest he has shown in these experiments.

Dalhousie University, Halifax, N. S.

March 30, 1908.

The Behaviour of Solutions of Hydriodic Acid in Light

in the Presence of Oxygen.* — By H. Jermain M.

Creighton, M. A., Dalhousie University, Halifax, U. S.

Read 13th April, 1908.

It is well known that solutions of hydriodic acid and acid
solutions of potassium iodide readily change into free iodine
and water. These reactions are accelerated by light, and also,
as the author1 has shown, by radium. While investigating “the
influence of radium on the decomposition of hydriodic acid”
the author2 observed that the iodine set free by the oxygen
increased with the time, reached a maximum and then grad-
ually fell off again, under certain conditions. It was also
observed that solutions of iodine placed in the sunlight slowly
became colourless. It was to try to account for the disappear-
ance of this iodine that this investigation was undertaken.

The hydriodic acid used in these experiments, was set free
from solutions of potassium iodide by means of a sulphuric
acid solution consisting of one volume of acid (sp. g. 1.84) to
five volumes of water. The solutions of potassium iodide used
had a concentration of 1 gram per litre. The proportion of acid
to iodide solution was one to eight.

The amount of oxidation was determined in the usual way,
by titrating the liberated iodine with sodium thiosulphate

solution.

It was found that the end point could be determined very
quickly and accurately by highly illuminating the solution by
means of an electric light placed behind it, and reflecting back
the rays through the solution by placing a piece of white paper
around the beaker on the opposite side.

♦Contributions from the Science Laboratories of Dalhousie University [Chemistry].

1 Creighton, Proc. and Trans. N. S. Inst. Science, vol. xii, 1, 1.

2 Loc. cit. Also Creighton and Mackenzie, Amer. Chem. Jour., 1908. 39, 4 (April).

Puoc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII.

(49)

Trjlns. 4.

50 THE BEHAVIOUR OF SOLUTIONS OF HYDRIODIC ACID

The potassium iodide used was the chemically pure guaran-
teed reagent supplied by C. F. Kaulbaum.

By carrying out the titration in the above manner, the error
was found to be about ± 0.08 cc. sodium thiosulphate solution.

As has already been stated, the iodine in solutions of
hydriodic acid diminishes under certain conditions; in the case
where the hydriodic acid is placed in the sunlight the iodine
entirely disappears in time. If there was a new substance
being formed, it was felt that its nature could best be ascer-
tained from a study of the change under the action of sunlight,
as this was the most easy to control and by far the most rapid.

As a starting point in this investigation, a large quantity of
solution was made up in the manner previously described, and
placed in a window where it would receive the most sunlight.
Portions of 50 cc. of this solution were titrated with sodium
thiosulphate from day to day and thus the variations in the
content of free iodine were established.

On account of the reaction being a- reversible one and its
point of equilibrium being changed bv light, the numbers in
the following table are given for the days which were of about
the same degree of brightness.

Table I.

Time in
hours.

No of cc. of Na2s203

solution required in titra-
tion when the decomposition
of hydriodic acid takes place
in sunlight.

Time in
hours.

No. of cc. of Na2S203

solution required in titra-
tion when the decomposition
of h3'driodic acid takes place
in sunlight.

24

46.31

552

20.42

72

58.42

720

18.55

120

64.42

840

16.62

144

58.93

888

14.26

189

52.14

960

11.80

236

49.97

1056

10.74

288

45.14

1152

6.41

408

44.12

1272

3.12

456

28.55

1368

0.46

504

23.41

1392

0.00

IN LIGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN. — CREIGHTON. 51

From this table it is again seen that the iodine content
reaches a maximum very rapidly and then slowly falls off again
and finally disappears. During the last two hundred hours the
disappearance of the iodine is relatively rapid. In this experi-
ment it was found that the disappearance of the iodine was due,
in part, at least, to evaporation; accordingly, to see whether
evaporation was responsible for the whole change,, and at the
same time to determine how much light influenced this change
of iodine, the following experiment was carried out.

300 cc. of an acid solution of potassium iodide, such as had
been used already, were put in each of two reagent bottles, one
amber colour, the other clear; these were closed, and about
every twelve hours the air that was over the liquid was passed
through U-tubes containing a solution of potassium hydroxide
(sp. g. 1.27), by means of an aspirator.

52 THE BEHAVIOUR OF SOLUTIONS OF HYDRIODIC ACID

Tig I

IN LIGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN. CREIGHTON. 53

The air thus removed was replaced by air from outdoors,
which first passed through a U-tube containing potassium
hydroxide. The air, after passing through this solution of
potassium hydroxide divided, and half went- to one solution and
half to the other. After passing over these solutions it went,
as stated, through the potassium hydroxide in the U-tubes, A
and B, and then met in a common tube leading to the aspirator.
By these mea:ns it was very easy to pass the same quantity of
air over each solution. A diagram of the apparatus is given in
Fig. 1. After the last trace of the iodine had disappeared the
amount absorbed could easily be estimated. The use of the
second smaller TJ-tubes marked B in the diagram was to make
sure of the complete absorption of the iodine.

After the solution had been exposed to the action of sunlight
for seven weeks, the solution in the bottle that was not coloured,,
became . colourless. The solution in the ambev coloured bottle
still contained considerable quantity of iodine, and it was not
for nearly another seven weeks that its colour entirely dis-
appeared. This shows that the change of the iodine is acceler-
ated by light, and that its loss cannot probably be totally
accounted for by evaporation. On examining the U-tubes com
taining the caustic potash solution, it was found that the first
one, A, contained iodine, while there had been none absorbed in
the second smaller tube, B, showing that no escape of iodine
had taken place.

The amount of iodine carried away by the air and absorbed
by the solution of potassium hydroxide was next determined.

When iodine is absorbed in potassium hydroxide, there is
formed five molecules of potassium iodide to one of iodate. The
solution of hydroxide was acidified Avith sulphuric acid ; and as
some of the iodide might have oxidised to iodate, a little iodide
was added to ensure complete decomposition of the iodate, then
a few cc. of starch solution added, and the liberated iodine
determined by means of sodium thiosulphate solution.

54 THE BEHAVIOUR OF SOLUTIONS OF HYDRIODIC ACID

The potassium hydroxide solution from the U-tubes was
diluted to 200 cc. 45 cc. of this solution were acidified and
titrated with sodium thiosulphate solution, of which 1.53 cc.
were required to remove the blue colour due to the iodine. From
this data it may be shown that the 200 cc. of hydroxide, there-
fore, contain 0.0864 gram of iodine. Only one-sixth of this
iodine was present as iodate in the potassium hydroxide solu-
tion, that is 0.0144 gram. The quantity of iodine as iodide
was estimated by oxidising it to iodate by means of potassium
permanganate solution; 1 cc. of this solution = 0.0056 gram of
permanganate. 25 cc. of the solution of potassium hydroxide
which had been diluted to 200 cc. was acidified slightly with
sulphuric acid and then made alkaline with potassium carbon-
ate. The permanganate solution was then added until the
liquid became slightly pink. In this titration 4.40 cc. of the
potassium permanganate solution, corresponding to 0.0246 gram
of potassium permanganate, were required to oxidise the iodine.
It will readily be seen that this amount of potassium perman-
ganate has been used in oxidizing 0.0098 gram of iodine.
Therefore, the amount of iodine in the potassium hydroxide
solution as iodide was eight times this amount, or 0.0784 gram.
Hence, the total amount of iodine lost by evaporation from the
iodine solution and absorbed by the potassium hydroxide solu-
tion Avas,

0.0144 gram iodine as iodate

0.0784 “ “ “ iodide

0.0928 “ “ absorbed.

In this experiment 300 cc. of iodide solution (cone. 1 gram
per litre) which contained 0.2293 gram of iodine, were used,
From these numbers it will be seen that the loss by evaporation
was 40.47 per cent., which leaves still sixty per cent, to be
accounted for.

Before leaving this experiment it would be well to mention
here that after all the iodine had disappeared from the solution

IN LIGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN.— CREIGHTON. 55

it still possessed a slight colour, not unlike the colour produced
when Kessler’s solution is added to a solution containing a min-
ute quantity of ammonia. About a week after the last of the
iodine had disappeared, this colour went also. In all solutions
of hydriodic acid, where the iodine disappears, this colour was
observed.

Although it seemed absolutely certain, from the fact that
the second U-tube, B, in the above apparatus contained no
iodine, none of it could have escaped out of the latter into the
atmosphere, yet the objection arose that as the gas inside the
bottles was taken out, carrying with it iodine, some of the
iodine, although very unlikely, might have escaped. It was to
overcome this objection that the experiment to be described was
carried out.

500 cc. of acid potassium iodide solution were placed in a

reagent bottle provided
with a tightly fitting
rubber cork, through
which passed a glass
tube provided with a
stop-cock. This glass
tube went almost to the
bottom of the liquid as
shown in Fig. 2. This
tube was connected
with a gas holder con-
taining oxygen under pressure, the gas from which was first
purified and dried, by passing through wash bottles containing
sodium bicarbonate and concentrated sulphuric acid, before
being allowed to enter the iodide solution.

The stop-cock was opened, the rubber cork loosened, and the
air in the bottle displaced by oxygen. The rubber stopper was
then tightly fitted, the oxygen in the bottle allowed to attain
the same nressnre as that in the holder, and the stop-cock closed.

56 THE BEHAVIOUR OF SOLUTIONS OF HYDRIODIC ACID

At the end of twenty-four hours on opening the stop-cock again,
a large quantity of oxygen was found to bubble through the
solution, showing that some of the oxygen there had been used
up during the twenty-four hours. Every day as much oxygen
as possible was forced into the bottles containing the solution,
until at the end of about nine weeks, the solution had lost all
its colour, with the exception of the slight peculiar colour men-
tioned previously. Some of the solution was drawn off and
tested for iodine and iodides, but not the least trace of either
was found to be present. The passage of oxygen into the solu-
tion was continued with the result, that at the end of another
week, the slight colour possessed by the solution entirely dis-
appeared. During this time it was roughly estimated that not
less than twenty-five litres of oxygen, at the ordinary tempera-
ture of the laboratory and a pressure somewhat above the
normal, were passed into the iodide solution.

On the foregoing grounds then, it is not unreasonable to
suppose that the iodine is being transformed into some oxygen
compound, and that this transformation is accelerated by light.

■Creighton and Mackenzie1 have shown in the case of solu-
tions of hydriodic acid acted upon by radium, where the iodine
content after a time begins to diminish, it is very probable it is
the hydriodic acid that is transformed and not the iodine itself,
thus lessening the content of free iodine by upsetting the equili-
brium between the two substances. On account of the similar-
ity between the two cases, it is possible that this is the manner
in which the change takes place here.

The colourless solutions from which the iodine had dis-
appeared were now examined. It was found that these solu-
tions contained no iodide, buf, however, a small quantity of
iodate. If these solutions were allowed to stand for a few weeks
after becoming colourless, before testing, there could 'not be
obtained the slightest trace of iodate. These facts would seem

1 Loc. cit.

IN LIGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN. CREIGHTON, 57

to show that the process of the change is one of oxidation,
through the different oxygen compounds of iodine. The amount
of iodine as iodate in the solution into which oxygen was passed,
just after the last trace of iodine had disappeared, was fou!nd
to be 0.0000372 gram per cc. or the 500 cc. started with would
contain 0.0186 gram; that is,. . 4.87 per cent, of the original
amount of iodine.

It is evident then that the amount of iodate present in the
solution will be greatest just after the solution becomes colour-
less; that is, never very much greater than 4.87 per cent. This
will readily be seen from the consideration that no appreciable
amount of iodate could exist, while there was any potassium
iodide or hydriodic acid present in a solution containing sul-
phuric acid. Also it has been shown that the amount of iodate
decreases with time, after the solution loses its colour.

It seemed a not unlikely explanation that the iodine might
be changed into periodates. It would appear a perfectly
natural process for the hydriodic acid to be oxidised to iodic
acid., possibly through the intermediate formation of hypoiodous
acid, and this quickly transformed to some of the periodic
acids. Of course, there could not, and need not, be any appre-
ciable amount of these intermediate substances present at any
time. In order to test this explanation the solution was exam-
ined for periodates.

On adding a solution of silver nitrate to the acidified solu-
tion a slight milkiness appeared. 0.0062 gram of this precip-
itate yielded on heating 0.0031 gram of metallic silver, which
amount corresponds to the quantity of silver contained in silver
dimesoperiodate, Ag^O^ + 3H^O. However, it could not be

this substance, as the solution failed to yield iodine on reduction.

Since from the manner in which the iodine disappeared, it
was believed that the iodine must have changed to some oxygen
compound, the effect of strong reducing agents were tried on
the solution. Zinc dust was added to the acid solution and

58 THE BEHAVIOUR OF SOLUTIONS OF HYDRIODIC ACID

allowed to act for a couple of hours; portions of the residue from
the solution were heated with potassium cyanide and powdered
charcoal, and with powdered magnesium ; and lastly some of the
residue was heated in a current of hydrogen to such a high tem-
perature, that the sodium sulphate was reduced to sulphide. In
neither of these instances was the slightest trace of iodine
obtained.

As it was thought that an analysis of the solution might
throw some light on the problem, the following determinations
were undertaken.

80 cc. of the colourless solution that had been acted
on by pure oxygen, and which, therefore, must have con-
tained all the iodine originally in it, were exactly neutralized
with potassium carbonate and evaporated to dryness. The
residue after being dried at 110° for an hour weighed 8.0530
grams. This residue was used for the analysis, and the only
substances that it could contain besides the iodine, were potas-
sium, and sulphuric acid in the form of sulphate, (it was
proved that there was no carbonate present).

The amount of sulphuric acid (SO") was determined by

precipitating with barium chloride. The following -.;e the
results obtained :

( 1 ) 1.4914 grams residue yielded 1.9813 grams BaSO 4

(2) 1.4914 “ “ ' “ 1.9842 “ “

mean 1.9827

This weight of barium sulphate corresponds to 0.8168 gram of
S04, or to 54.76 per cent, of the residue used.

The potassium was estimated by precipitating as double
potassium-platinum chloride. This precipitate after being
thoroughly dried, was heated with oxalic acid and reduced
to a mixture of metallic platinum and potassium chloride,

IN LIGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN. — CREIGHTON. 59

Pt + 2KC1. From this the amount of potassium was deter-
mined. It was found that:

(1) 0.4890 gram of residue yielded 0.9674 gram Pt + 2KC1.

(2) 0.4890 “ “ “ 0.9610 “ “

mean 0.9642 “ “

This corresponds to 0.2193 gram of potassium, which is 44.83
per cent, of the residue used.

These results are arranged in the following wav so as to be
more obvious :

Theoretical composition Composition of residue examined.

of K9S04 (1) High results. (2) Low results.

Potassium 44.87% 44.98% 44.68%

Sulphuric acid(SO^). 55.13% 54.81% 54.73%

100.00% 99 79% 99.41%

When the weights of the substances corresponding to these
percentages are calculated for 1.4914 grams there is obtained:

Theoretical
for K2S04

Potassium ... 0.6694 g.

Sulphuric acid (SOp 0.8220 g.

Residue examined.

(1) High results. (2) Low results.

0.6699 g. 0.6664 g.

0.8175 g. 0.8162 g.

1.4914 g. 1.4874 g. 1.4826 g.

It will be seen that 1.4914 grams of the residue used, cor-
respond to 14.81 ec. of solution, and should therefore contain
0.0100 gram iodine. The above analysis shows the difference
between this amount of residue and the amounts of potassium
and sulphuric acid ( SO " ) that it contains. The discrepancy
between this difference and the amount of iodine that should
he in the residue can'not be accounted for at present.

Although the results of this investigation have been nega-
tive in the main, nevertheless some information as to the
behaviour of hydriodic acid in the presence of oxygen and

60 THE BEHAVIOUR OF HYDRIODIC ACID IN LIGHT.

light has been ascertained. It has been shown that hydriodic
acid in the presence of oxygen is slowly changed to some-
thing else, the colour of the solution due to the liberated iodine
ultimately disappearing. This change is greatly accelerated by
light. There is good reason to believe that the process of the
change is one of oxidation, but all attempts to reduce this oxida-
tion compound have failed, and the condition in which the
iodine exists still remains unsolved.

In conclusion, my most hearty thanks are due to Professor
Mackay for his valuable criticisms, and the kind interest he has
taken in this investigation.

Dalhousie University, Halifax, N. S.

April 2nd, 1908.

Notes on Mineral Fuels of Canada: By R. W. Ells,
LL. I)., F. R S. C., Geological Survey, Ottawa.

(Read 14th. January, 1907.)

The rapidly growing importance of the Dominion of Can-
ada, with its ever-increasing development of manufacturing
industries, and its general commercial progress, calls for con-
tinued research for materials suitable for the generation of
light, heat and power. To some extent the latter feature is now
being supplied by the production of electricity through the
utilization of the numerous waterfalls found in every province,
and the power thus furnished will doubtless in a few years be
sufficient not only to supply our numerous manufacturing
centres, but to do away to a large extent with the use of steam
on our great linos of railway. But since the varied climate of
our country makes artificial heat a necessity for nearly half the
year, and many industries exist for which electrical power is
not readily available, a constant supply of mineral fuel will
always be required. From this standpoint, therefore, a brief
glance at our present known available resources in this line may
not be devoid of public interest.

Not so many years ago it was the generally accepted opinion
that Canada, as a whole, was largely lacking in this element of a
nation’s progress. The coal fields of the Maritime Provinces
were known to some extent, and had been worked on a small
scale for many years, hut Ontario and Quebec were regarded as
entirely lacking in a natural fuel supply!. As regards coal
proper, this is practically true for both provinces, yet other
materials exist which, as will be pointed out, will furnish a
fairly good substitute for bituminous coal. Of the boundless
stores of mineral fuel which have been discovered on the great

(61)

62 NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

plains and in the valleys scattered through the sea of mountains
in British Columbia, as well as along the Pacific coast, our
knowledge even forty years ago was exceedingly limited.

The object of the present paper is to direct attention to the
large supplies of this fuel which are found in all parts of the
Dominion, and which are suitable for the generation of light,
heat and power. The substances available for this purpose
include, in addition to the several varieties of coal which range
from anthracite to the newest lignite, such minerals as anthrax-
olite, albertite, oil-shale, petroleum, natural gas and peat.

Coal , etc.

The coals of the Atlantic provinces have been mined for
nearly or quite a century. They belong to the Carboniferous
period, and in point of age contrast strongly with the immense
deposits found o'n the great western plains, along the eastern
slopes of the Bocky Mountains, and further west on the Pacific
coast, which belong in part to Cretaceous and in part to Tertiary
rocks.

The eastern deposits have been described in numerous
reports and papers, both in governmental and scientific pub-
lications. The principal areas, considered from the economic
standpoint, are in Nova Scotia, where at least four well-defined
coal-basins occur. Of these the most easterly, known as the
Sydney area, is divided into several portions, in which a number
of seams are found, aggregating probably not far from fifty
feet of coal. This basin probably represents the western margin
of a great Carboniferous area which extends beneath the inter-
vening broad strait which separates Cape Breton from New-
foundland, since in the south-western part of the latter province
a well-defined coal basin also occurs. The seams of the Sydney
basin extend seaward, and have been worked for many years
beneath the water, the extension in this direction forming a
coal area of great economic importance.

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA.— ELLS. 63

Other important coal deposits in this island are in the west-
ern part, and are found i'n the Richmond and Inverness basins*
In recent vears, owing to railway construction, these areas have
been rendered accessible, and large quantities are now regularly
shipped both by land and water.

On the mainland of Hova Scotia, the most important coal
field at present is in Pictou County, and though this field is
much faulted in places, it has been worked for a century, and is
noted for the immense thickness of the coal beds contained,
which in one case reaches nearly or quite forty feet. In the
western part of the province, in Cumberland County, the
Springhill basin inland, and the Joggins basin on an arm of the
Bay of Fundy, are large and important factors as regards a coal
supply, and though the seams worked at these two places have
as yet never been directly connected, the extension of the beds
of the Joggins along the northern limit of the Carboniferous
basin has been traced for many miles, and a number of collieries
have been located along their outcrop. These have been pro-
ducers of coal in considerable amounts for a number of years.

The Carboniferous basin of Hew Brunswick is extensive,
comprising more than 10,000 square miles. The formation,
however, is comparatively thin, and the coal-bearing rocks are
regarded as of Millstone-grit age, and as beneath the Productive
measures of Hova Scotia, the thick beds of that province not
appearing i'n this direction. The workable seams in Hew
Brunswick rarely exceed twenty inches in thickness, so that the
output can never equal that of the adjacent province, but some
thousands of tons are mined yearly and find a ready market. ' In
the Upper Carboniferous formation, also, several small seams
are found* but these are not sufficiently large to be mined.

In Quebec seams of coal are almost entirelv absent, the only
deposit of the kind occurring in Devonian slates, in a small
layer two to four inches thick, oin the shore of Gaspe Basin, and
of no economic value. The oil-fields of this district, though

64 NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

exploited for a number of years by numerous borings, h?ve as
yet failed to produce petroleum in paying quantity; but there
are large areas of peat throughout the province, which, by the
new process of manufacturing into blocks by drying and
pressure, promise to become an important factor in the mineral
resources of the province before many years. Borings for
natural gas and oil in the valley of the St. Lawrence, between
Montreal and Quebec, have shewn that the former occurs at
several points in this district, and has been locally utilized to
some extent already, though up to the present. there has been no
large development of these substances such as found in Ontario.

In the latter province true coals are entirely absent ; but in the
area south of James Bay large deposits of low-grade lignite
have recently been found, which, though of poor quality, may
become of value as this part of the province becomes opened up
for settlement. Anthraxolite is also found in deposits of con-
siderable extent in the old rocks of the area west of Sudbury,
which are probably of LIuronian age. This, at first, was regard-
ed as possibly furnishing a new source of supply for fuel. The
large percentage of impurity in the material, ‘with its low colori-
fic value, has hitherto prevented its utilization for commercial
purposes. The large deposits of natural gas and petroleum in the
Niagara and Petrolea districts have been largely utilized, the
former being piped to several cities in the United States, not-
ably to Buffalo and Detroit, as well as supplying a constantly
increasing local demand. The peat deposits of this province are
also being utilized for the manufacture of a very excellent fuel
suitable for domestic purposes and for the generation of heat in
factories and on railways.

The area north of Lake Superior is occupied bv crystalline
rocks which extend westward to the shores of Lake Winnipeg,
where they are again overlaid by sedimentaries of Silurian and
Devonian age. The Carboniferous rocks are not found in this
direction, but a broad area of Cretaceous sediments commences

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. ELLS. 65

a short distance west of the Red river, near Winnipeg, and
extends, apparently without interruption, to the Rocky moun^
tains. This formation contains numerous beds of coal, princi-
pally of the lignite variety.

These deposits of the west were first brought into promin-
ence from twenty-five to forty years ago. Many of them are
high grade and true coking coals, which occasionally pass into
anthracite in the eastern slopes of the mountain range, while the
great seams of the plains east of the Rockies still remain in the
form of lignite to a large extent. Among the most important of
the true coals which have been extensively worked since the
building of the Canadian Pacific railway, are the large seams
found in the Crows Nest pass, and along the valley of the Bow
River, near Banff.

The anthracite character of these coals has evidently been
developed through the agency of heat induced by pressure dur-
ing the time of mountain uplift. All these western coals are
therefore of much more recent date than are those of the eastern
provinces. It is so far as yet known, the true Carboniferous rockr
of the Rocky Mountains do not contain coal.

Between the eastern outcrop of the Cretacous rocks of the
plains and the coal outcrops of the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains, immense deposits of lignite and of lignitic coal
occur. They are mined at several points, the most easterly
being at Souris, near the western boundarv of Manitoba. In
some places this lignite has a high fuel value, but can be dis-
tinguished from true coals, among other things, bv the fact that,
unlike the bituminous variety, lignite and even the higher
grade known as lignitic coal will not coke. Lignite also contains
a much higher percentage of moisture tha’n the true coals, this
feature in some cases reaching as much as 15 to nearly 20 per
cent. Immense beds of this lignite are found along the upper
portion of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, and fur-
ther north extend into the Peace River district. It is exten-

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII.

Trans. 5.

66

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

sively mined for local use at Edmonton on the North Saskat-
chewan, and at several places nearer the United States bound-
ary.

Passing westward across the broad chain of the Rocky
Mountains there follows a great belt of rocks, presenting a
number of formations ranging from the Carboniferous down
into the pre-Cambrian, in which no coals may he expected. But
about 200 miles east of Vancouver in a direct line, or near
Sicamous on the Canadian Pacific railway , coal-bearing rocks
again make their appearance. These are of a still more recent
date than those of the plains, being for the most part of Tertiary
age. Owing, however, to greater alteration, the lignite charac-
ter of the contained coals has been changed, so that the fuels
from these deposits, which occur for the most part as basins
resting on igneous rocks, are now in the form of true coals, and
in many cases form a fuel of great value. The contained coals
are sometimes of large extent, ranging in thickness from thin
seams up to great beds of twenty feet, or even in some cases of
more than sixty feet in thickness.

Among these important deposits may be mentioned those of
the Nicola and Similkameen valleys, lying to the south of the
Canadian Pacific railway; of the North Thompson, 40 miles
north of Kamloops, and of the Marble Canon a few miles north-
west of Ashcroft. Further north, numerous denosits of coal are
found, among the most important of these being the recently
discovered areas in the Bulkley valley, south of the Skeena
river, and not far from the projected line of the Grand Trunk
Pacific railway, where large seams of high grade bitumin-
ous coals and semi-anthracites are exposed. These promise to
be of great value on the advent of the railway. Along the upper
waters of the Peace river, also, several large seams of fine
coal have recently been located ; but at present these are not
available owing to distance from transportation.

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

67

On the Pacific coast the coal-bearing rocks again change
their character and belong to the Cretaceous series. Here, as
at Vancouver island, are the large mines of Wellington,
Nanaimo, Comox, and Ladysmith, in which area large seams
occur, some of which, as in the Wellington district, have been
worked extensively for nearly forty years. These not only sup-
ply the fuels for the Pacific division of British Columbia, but
are shipped very largely to the cities on the American coast, as
far south as San Francisco. These coals are of the bituminous
variety, generally of excellent quality, and well adapted for
coking. Further north, on Graham island, of the Queen Char-
lotte group, both the anthracite, bituminous and lignite varieties
are found. The former, although exploited at intervals for
nearly forty years, has never been found sufficiently firm to be
mined at a profit. The alteration at this place from the lignite
or bituminous coal has evidently been due to heat induced by
pressure of the beds against the igneous rocks which form high
mountains to the west, whereby the rocks and contained coals
have been crushed, while dikes of newer rocks have also pene-
trated the series. Smaller deposits of anthracite have been found
in the coal basin of the interior, occurring under like conditions.

In this interior basin of Graham island, however, large
deposits o,f high grade bituminous coal occur which outcrop at
several places in beds of great thickness. This part of the
island gives promise when opened up, of becoming one of the
most important coal fields of the Pacific slope. The containing
rocks of both the bituminous and anthracite varieties are of
Cretaceous age, while the eastern part of the island is occupied
by Tertiary rocks, in which are found seams of lignite of good
thickness.

Still further north, in the Yukon district, large deposits of
lignite have been found along the Klondike and several other
streams. These have been mined to a small extent locally, and
will, doubtless, become important as the countrv is opened up.

68 NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA.— ELLS.

Some of the seams contain coal of very good quality, and in the
White Horse district coals of fine quality have been reported.

The northern portion of the Dominion, as along the valley
of the Mackenzie river, and even on several islands off the
mouth of that great stream, are known to contain coal beds,
mostly of the lignite variety, which, however, have not yet been
utilized.

Petroleum and Natural Gas.

In addition to the coals so briefly sketched, other sources of
supply for heating and lighting are found in the presence of
petroleum, natural gas, bituminous shales, anthraxolite, alber-
tite and peat. These, with the possible exception of the last
named, have a different origin from the ordinary coals. They,
however, constitute a very important factor in the development
of the various interests of the Dominion.

Among these, petroleum a'nd natural gas may be regarded
as the most important. In Ontario, where these occur in the
greatest abundance, the petroleum has hitherto been regarded as
derived from rocks of Devonian age, though that these are the
original source of the gas and oil has never been conclusively
established. In the oil fields of the United States, more
especially in the Appalachian area, the source of the oil is as
low as the Trenton limestone, while in the western or Pacific
states it is found in great abundance in formations as high in the
geological scale as the Cretaceous and Tertiary, so that petrol-
eum has even a wider range than coal itself. As for that peculiar
form of carbon known as anthraxolite, its range is still lower
since it is found in rocks generally styled Laurentian, as well
as in the Huronian a'nd Lower Cambrian.

In the Atlantic provinces and in Gaspe, borings for oil have
been carried on for more than half a century in rocks chiefly of
Devonian age. Owing largely to the fact that these rocks are
much broken and tilted, and often inclined at high angles, no
important economic results have as yet been obtained from any

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

69

of the areas thus tested. Among the principal petroliferous
rocks in the eastern provinces are deposits of bituminous shale
which are found in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and in
Gaspe. Oil springs are seen at a number of points in the
areas occupied by these rocks, and in part these shales are so
highly charged with bituminous matter as to yield , by dis-
tillation from 30 to over 100 gallons of oil per ton. Some of
these form a good fuel, burning readily in the grate or fur-
nace, the great drawback to a perfect combustible being the
very large amount of residue or ash.

In the nresent stage of oil distillation as conducted in Scot-
land, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, and else-
where, there would appear to be a good opportunity for success-
fully exploiting these bituminous shales for the manufacture of
petroleum by distillation, since in the several countries just
mentioned, this industry is carried on extensively and profit-
ably on material fnuch less rich in bituminous matter than the
shales of our own country.

In natural gas, which is an industry of comparatively recent
development in Canada, the advance in production has been
very rapid. Large quantities have been found in western
Ontario, much of which is piped to the cities of Detroit and
Buffalo adjacent to Lake Erie. Natural gas has also been found
in somewhat limited quantity as yet in Quebec, in the St. Law-
rence Valley, and at several of the borings for oil in the eastern
provinces. But little attention has, however, been paid to this
industry in this part of the Dominion.

In the great north-west, however, the indications for large
developments of gas are favourable. Thus at Medicine Hat,
and at other points along the Canadaia'n Pacific railway, at
Edmonton, and further north along the upper Athabaska river,
it has been found, and in some places has already been applied,
to the purposes of lighting and heating. At the last named

70 NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. — ELLS.

locality it was struck in immense volume in connection with the
borings made some years ago by the Dominion government for
petroleum, the rush of the gas being so great that the borings
were suspended. At this place it has been constantly escaping for
the last ten years, no attempt having been made till recently to
check the enormous waste that has been going on for all this time.
As the area, however, is entirely uninhabited, and at a long dis-
tance from settlement, this waste has hitherto been of less im-
portance than if the area were near commercial centres. It is
probable that in the near future, natural gas will play a very
important part in the economy of the new provinces of the west %
and will be the great source of light and heat, as well as of
power, for many of the cities of the plains.

It is also to be expected that in certain portions of the plains
country, east of the Rocky Mountains, properly located borings
will disclose the presence of oil-fields in that area. , The oil
fields of Colorado, as at Florence and Bouldter, are situated on
rocks practically of the same horizon, the oil there being found
in the Pierre shales, which underlie the lignite-bearing
Laramie sandstone. The Florence oil field has been a pro-
ducer continuously for more than twenty years, several of the
wells having yielded enormously. Up to the present time,
in the western part of Canada but slight attempts have been
made to find oil, with the exception of the borings made
under government management some ten to twelve year,s
ago, in the area along the upper North Saskatchewan and
Athabaska rivers. .At neither of these places, however, did
the borings reach the supposed oil-bearing strata, owing
largely to the great flow of gas encountered.

Peat.

Peat is found in large quantities in nearly all parts of the
Dominion, and about forty years ago attempts were made to
utilize certain deposits in Quebec in the manufacture of a peat
fuel. As the product was simply pulped and air-dried, without

NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA.— ELLS.

71

being consolidated, the results, while giving good results as a
fuel both for domestic and railway consumption, were unfitted,
owing to its great bulk, for the purposes required. Within the
last few years, however, a series of experiments have shewn
that peat, properly dried and then compressed, furnishes an
excellent fuel for many purposes, and can be made and sold on
the market at a good profit, the demand far exceeding the avail-
able supply, so that it is anticipated that in a few years, with
still further improvements in modes of drying and pressure,
this source of mineral fuel will form an important part of
Canada’s mineral resources.

Halifax Water Works. — H. W. Joiikston, Assistant City
Engineer, Halifax, 1ST. S.

Read 12th February. 1906.

The city of Halifax is situated on a peninsula, at the head
of Chebucto Bay, formed by the harbour and Bedford Basin
on the east and north, and the North West Arm on the west,
and joined to the mainland by a strip of land about 1^ miles
wide at the Dutch Village, separating the Arm and Basin. The
slopes to the water on all sides are steep, and there is a prac-
tically level plateau at the summit extending north and south
about two miles and east and west one mile, with a high hill
called Shaffroth’s or “Hungry Hill” at the north end. The
general elevation of this plateau is from 150 to 170 feet above
mean low tide, and the elevation of Shaffroth’s or “ Hungry
Hill”, the highest point in the city, is 247.50 feet. There is
also an elevation at Willow Park, the highest point at present
supplied with water, of 225. The business district lies on the
eastern slope between Jacob Street and Salter Street, surmount-
ed by the citadel, which is 214 feet above mean low tide. The
chief wharves are from Richmond to South Street, a distance
of about 2 J miles. The rest of the city, with the exception of a
few streets, is residential, with few houses on the western and
northwestern slopes.

The city was founded in 1749 and incorporated in 1841.
Previous to 1844 the city was dependent entirely upon wells
for its domestic supply, and on them and the salt water of the
harbour for fire protection. It was the custom at that time on
an alarm of fire being sounded for the citizens to turn out and
assisted by the troops line the streets and pass buckets of
water from the harbour to supplement the scanty supply from
the wells, which was drawn by a hand fire pump owned by the

(72)

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON. 73

military authorities. In the year 1844 a company composed of
local men was formed, with a capital of £15,000, under the
name of the Halifax Water Company, which on the 17th of
April obtained a charter from the legislature of .Nova Scotia,
for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of the city with
water. An amendment to the act of incorporation Avas passed
during the same year, providing that the city council might
make such ordinances as might he deemed necessary for raising
such monies as might be required to furnish the city with
public fountains, hydrants and fire plug's, abundantly supplied
with water, by causing a fair and proportionate rate, not less
than £400 in each and every year, to be made upon the whole
property of the city ; and that the said company should in con-
sideration of the said annual payment of £400, erect and build
in the city eighteen fountains and hydrants and twenty-five fire
plugs. The first meeting of the company was held at the
Exchange Coffee House on the 22nd July, 1845, when a board
of directors, consisting of James B. Uniacke, Thomas ILoster-
man, W. A. Black, William Lawson, Jr., William B.
Fairbanks, James N. Shannon, and William Stairs, were
elected. Mr. Stairs refusing to act, the Hon. Michael Tobin
was elected in his stead. Mr. Uniacke was elected president,
and continued to act as such until 1855. Mr. Charles W.
Fairbanks was employed by the directors to make, surveys of the
lakes adjoining the town, and on their completion Mr. John B.
Jarvis, a well known engineer of New York, was engaged to
report on a scheme to supply the city with water.

On the 28th August, 1845, he submitted his report to the
Company recommending that the water be brought from Chain
Lakes — two lakes about 2J miles long, situated about lj: miles
from the head of the North West Arm — by a line of pipes to a
reservoir on Wind Mill Hill (now called Camp Hill), the
elevation of this reservoir to be 170 feet above mean low tide.
That the Chain Lakes be connected by an open channel or canal
with Long Lake (formerly called Beaver Lake) about 1200

74

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

feet long, and that the surface of Long Lake be raised from its
elevation of 175 feet to 200 feet above tide by a dam at its
outlet at McIntosh’s run. Mr. Jarvis estimated the population
of the town at from 20,000 to 25,000, and that there would be
1500 water takers within five years from the introduction of
the supply, and that this number would ultimately reach 2000.
This would require, at 200 gals. ' for each tenant, 400,000
gals per day. The natural flow from the valley Oi the Chain
Lakes was estimated to be capable of supplying the mill owners
who had rights in the stream and dams alreadv built, and to
furnish the town with 300,000 gals per day for five months
in the year, leaving seven months supply to be stored in the
reservoirs. This supply he estimated could be obtained from
the Chain Lakes storage reservoir. In his report he makes no
mention of any data regarding precipitation, and the presump-
tion is that as there were no records for Nova Scotia in exist-
ence previous to this record, the Hew York or Massachusetts
records were taken. He recommended that a 12-inch pipe,
which was estimated to be capable of discharging 800,000
gallons per day when new, but only 700,000 when incrusted,
be laid from the Chain Lakes to the reservoir in the city. The
estimated cost of the works, including Long Lake, the reservoir
on Wind Mill Hill and the distribution, was about $120,000.
The reservoir was proposed to be 1.58 acres in area and about
15 feet deep, which would hold a supply when drawn down of
about 5,000,000 gallons.

Before leaving this report, there is a clause dealing with
the principle of municipal ownership of water- works which
should be quoted, especially as the question of municipalities
owning or controlling all public utilities is to-day a very live
issue. After reciting several benefits following the introduc-
tion of water-works, he says : “A good supply of pure water

has a further public benefit in promoting the cleanliness,
health and general comfort of the citizens. These are con-

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

75

siderations that should induce a city to supply water under
their own authority. If the rates should not be sufficient the
general benefits would be ample remuneration for an defi-
ciency that might, under favorable circumstances for the
introduction of water, be necessary.”

A further report was submitted by Mr. Jarvis on the 10th
September, 1845, on the advisability of bringing water direct
from Long Lake without connecting with Chain Lakes. He
reported that the cost of bringing the water by open cut to
within 1500 feet of the lower end of Chain Lakes and then
laying pipes , would be practically the same as the original
estimate, and he could see no objection to the scheme. How-
ever, the directors adhered to the original scheme and con-
structed a dam at Long Lake, the canal from Long Lake to
Chain Lake, and a 12-inch pipe line from Chain Lake to St.
Andrew’s Cross (the local name; for the junction of Robie
Street and Quinpool Road) , but did not build the reservoir on
Wind Mill Hill. Considerable trouble was had in securing
the rights to Chain Lakes from the mill owners , but even-
tually these were secured, although on terms which have been
the cause of dispute ever since.

The water was turned on to the city in 1848, the first
service pipe being laid to Mr. Liswell’s house and bakery on
Gottingen Street on the 29th September, 1848. (The 6-inch
main originally laid on this street was taken up in 1905.)

A contract with the city was made on October 3rd, 1849,
agreeing to supply eighteen fountains or hydrants and twenty-
five fire plugs at an annual rental of £400. In July, 1849, th6
directors of the company authorized a free sunnly of water to
be given the poor from certain hydrants between the hours of
six and seven morning and evening.

At this time the engineer reported that there were 2700
houses inhabited and 400 uninhabited between North Street
and the gas works.

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

76

In 1849 the shareholders instructed the directors* not to
build the reservoir, and in 1851 the portion of the act requir-
ing this to be done was repealed. In December, 1849, the
directors issued a notice to water takers that they should during
the ensuing winter keep the water constantly running in a
small stream during the night to keep the oipes free from frost
— an order that has ever since been only too faithfully carried
out, much to the detriment of the works and the financial show-
ing of the system.

In fact, as early as 1854, the directors, in replying to the
city’s complaint of poor pressure, said that the difficulty in
keeping up the supply has been caused bv the great waste of
water, by the water takers running it off during the severe
weather. In this year, finding the supply insufficient, the
directors employed Mr. J. Forman to make an examination of
the lakes and report on the advisability and expediency of
raising Lower Chain Lake, and to what extent, and also the
propriety of laying another 12-inch pipe from the head works
at Chain Lakes and the advantages to be derived from it. Mr.
Forman reported to the directors on the 5th August, 1854, and
at a special meeting of the shareholders on the 24th February,
1855, a resolution was passed authorizing the directors to pro-
ceed with the laying of a new line of pipes, providing the
opinion of a competent engineer who had not been connected
with the company be fii^st obtained. An amendment that the
directors turn their attention to the immediate waste of water
was defeated by7 a large majority. Acting under this resolution,
Mr. Forman was again engaged to report on an increased
supply, and in answer to a series of questions put to him, advised
that the effect of a 12-inch pipe would double the supply and
would cost £6,026. To give full effect to the increased supply the
9-inch, 6-inch and 3-inch distribution pipes should be changed
to 12-inch, 9-inch and 6-inch. Also that a 15-inch main would
give fully one-half more than the existing supply at a cost of

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.— JOHNSTON. 77

£8,500, and that there was more water in the lakes than a much
larger pipe than one of this capacity could run, and that there
would he no danger to existing distribution pipes from increased
pressure. He also reported that the cost of bringing the water
to the pipe-house direct from Long Lake in a conduit would
cost £7,200 ; hut he could see no advantage to be gained. By
repairing and raising Long Lake dam 290 million gallons, extra
storage would be gained at an outlay of £550. He did not
think that a reservoir on Camp Hill would obviate the necessity
of a new pipe to the lakes ; but it would add to the present
supply by storing water at St. Andrew’s Cross when the con-
sumption of the town was less than the flow through the mains.
This would be the case at some periods and tend to preserve the
effective head. In reply to the request whether he could sug-
gest anything to remedy the present evil resulting from1 frost,
he recommended that frequent inspections of water-cocks ' be
made and consumers warned against allowing a more copious
How to run than was necessary. - ::

At the annual meeting on the 2nd July, 1855, Forman’s
report was adopted, and the directors authorized to lay another
line of 12-inch pipe if necessary arrangements could be made
with the city council as to increased cost. A resolution also
passed that a strict supervision be had over water takers to
prevent excessive waste. The city having agreed to pay £200
per annum for an additional ten hydrants, providing some
changes were made in the distribution, at a meeting 15tli
January, 1856, the shareholders decided to lay a 15-inch pipe,
which was done in the fall of this year. The company also
raised its rates to all private takers fifty per cent. The city
first approached the company in this year with a view to buying
the works, but the latter’s reply was that they wTere not then
in a position to sell. In 1859 a committee of the city council
was appointed, after the great fire of the 9th September in
that year, to report on the improvement of the fire department
and on the best means of obtaining an additional supply of

78 HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

water for the city. After considering several propositions this
committee reported to the council recommending the purchase
of the company’s works by the city, and also that the Birch
Cove Lakes be acquired and connected to a reservoir on
Shaffroth’s Hill, from whence the water be distributed by
three lines of pipes, one supplying the north, one the south
and the other the middle district of the city. This scheme was
proposed and advocated by Mr. E. J. Longard. Acting upon
this report, the council again approached the company, and at
a special meeting of the latter it was resolved to sell the works
to the city for £52,000, which offer the city accepted, delivery
to be made on the first of May, 1860 ; but as the city neglected
to secure the necessary legislation, the agreement fell through.
In the following year, however, the sale was made to the city
for £56,000. The transfer of the works was made on the 30th
June, the formal transfer of the deeds, etc., being made o'n the
5th August, 1861.

The water company’s capital when the works were taken
over by the city was £44,000. There were 960 water takers at
an average rate of £13 per annum, with special rates to the
military, breweries, bakeries and distilleries ; and £700 was
being paid by the city for rental of fire and street hydrants.
There was about 21 miles of pipes laid for the supply of the
city. After the transfer, the works were managed on behalf of
the city by a board of three paid water commissioners under
authority of an act passed 15th April, 1861. The commission
was composed of J. A. Bell, chairman, and Messrs. J. L. Barry
and E. J. Longard, the latter taking the place of Mr. J. R.
Morse, who was elected by the city council but declined to
serve. These gentlemen continued to act until the control of
the works was vested in a committee of the council (the board
of works) on the 30th September, 1872.

Before the purchase of the works a commission on water-
supply, with Mr. Henrv E. Pugsley as chairman, was appoint-

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON. 79

ed by the city council, and they engaged Mr. James E. Laurie,
C. E., of New York, to report on the works and increased
sources of supply. Mr. Laurie submitted his report, which is
an exceedingly interesting and valuable document, on the 10th
May, 1860. The population of the town at that date was

30.000, and there were 892 water tenants on the books of the
company. Allowing eight persons to a family, this would give
7,136 people using the water; but as the barracks, navy yard
and city counted as single tenants and a large number were
using water from free hydrants, he estimated that there were
about 20,000 consumers. While the mains were capable of
discharging 2,000,000 gallons per day, on account of there
being only about two 12-inch distributing mains only about
1,500,000 gallons were being used by these 20,000 consumers,
or at the rate of 75 gallons per capita per day. In calculating
for an increased supply he based his estimate on a population
of 60,000 using at the rate of 83^ gallons per capita per day or
for a total of 5,000,000 gallons per day.

He discussed two plans for increasing the supply, and two
for the proposed high service, and also improvements in the dis-
tribution system : —

1st. Long Lake. — By raising this lake three feet and replac-
ing the 12-inch main with a 24-inch main a daily supply of

5.000. 000 gallons wdth a storage capacity for 160 days would be
obtained at an estimated cost, of $70,070.00.

2nd. Birch Cove Lakes. — These lakes consist of several
bodies of water connected by narrow passages, having a sur-
face elevation of 239 feet above mean low tide, a'nd an area of
241 acres, with several other lakes emptying into them. The
natural flow was small, a 9-inch x 12-inch penstock carrying the
greater part of the water in the dry season to a mill on the
stream. Assuming the lakes to be capable of bei'ng raised ten
feet, which was problematical, as the eastern banks werp low and
unsuitable for dams, and eight feet of water being drawn off,

80

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

the capacity of the reservoir would be 586,000,000 gallons or
117 days full supply for the city. But as the mills on the
stream would require the whole natural flow through the sum-
mer and autumn, it would be necessary to purchase their
rights, or there would be available for the city’s use but forty-
six days supply. The cost of bringing water from these lakes,
including $40,000 for land and compensation and $30,000 for
reservoir on Shaffroth’s Hill, would be $353,980.

3rd. High service, Ragged Lake. — This lake lies about 2*4
miles westerly from the gate-house at Chain Lake, and contains
about 100 acres of water area at an elevation of 325 feet above
tide. Lying at the summit level of the country, it has a limited
water-shed (less than 300 acres by a later survey) and would
not be a suitable source to furnish the quantity required. The
estimated cost of obtaining a supply from this source, exclus-
ive of the distribution, was $55,030.

4th. Pumping by steam power to Shaffroth’s Hill. — The
most convenient station for pumps would be near St. Andrew’s
Cross, and the costt, including the annual working expenses
capitalized at 6 per cent, would be $99,000. Another scheme
was suggested — to use the stream running from the Chain
Lakes to Hosterman’s mill to pump into a 'stand pipe, and
thence by gravity to a reservoir on Shaffroth’s Hill. The first
cost would not be very different from pumping by steam, but
the operating expenses would be less. The practicability of the
pla'n depended on the amount of water running from Chain
Lakes in a dry time, the amount required to operate the pump
being about 4^ million gallons per day. In summing up, Mr.
Laurie recommended that Long Lake dam be raised and a 24-
inch main be substituted for the 12-inch from the lakes to St.
Andrew’s Cross, as the whole of the city, with the exception of
the district lying to the north and west of Gerrish and Creigh-
ton Streets, could be supplied by gravitation. This district
would have to be supplied either by bringing water from a

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHXSTON.

81

higher source or by pumping to a reservoir. He also recom-
mended extensive changes in the distribution system.

In 1863 the original 12-inch main was taken up and a 24-
inch main laid in its stead. Long Lake dam was not raised
until some years later, but the distribution system was
remodelled and enlarged on the lines of the report. The com-
missioners in their annual report for this year discussed the
necessity for a high service supply and warmly advocated some-
thing being done, as without artificial means being employed
sufficient head could hot be obtained from Long Lake to supply
the higher levels of the city with water by gravity. In review-
ing Laurie’s report they mentioned a high hill near the foot of
Chain Lakes suitable for a reservoir site, which would do away
with the necessity of a stand pipe and reservoir on Shaffroth’s
Hill in case it was decided to adopt the method of pumping
from the Chain Lakes. William Gossip, Jr., C. E., was en-
gaged to report o'n the question of obtaining a high level sup-
ply from this source. On the 29th of June of this same year
he submitted a lengthy report dealing with this matter and
also with the general state of the works, in substance as fol-
lows : — That to pump by water-power from tiie Chain Lakes to
a reservoir on the adjacent hill would require the following
quantities of water: To work the water-wheel and keep the

reservoir full (supposing 600,000 gallons per day to suffice for
the high service for some years to come) 5,000,000 gallons per
day, to which must be added 2,000,000 gallons for the low
service, 600,000 for the high and 100,000 for leakage and
waste, or a total amount of 8,600,000 gallons per day from the
Long and Chain Lakes reservoirs. The lakes, in their then state
were estimated to be capable of sustaining a daily draught .of
5,000,000 gallons without reducing the level of Long Lake to
more than two. feet below the waste weir in the driest part of
the year, leaving a deficiency of 400,000,000 gallons. By
raising Long Lake dam three feet (at a cost of $1,450) 260,-
000,000 gallons additional storage could be had, leaving 140,-

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII. Trans. 6.

82

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

000,000 gallons more required, which could only be obtained by
tapping some new source. The waters of Spruce Hill Lake
could be diverted into Long Lake and supply this amount by a
cut about a quarter of a mile long at a cost of $16,000. The
cost of the new works, using water-power for pumping, would
be $61,411 and using steam-power $44,537, the annual oper-
ating charges in the former case being $800 and in the latter
$3,286.50.

The commissioners, however, were imbued with the idea that
the Spruce Hill Lakes, lying about three miles to the westward
of Long Lake, were th!e best available source of supply, and in
1865 obtained the services of Mr. W. B. Smellie to 'make sur-
veys and report on their capabilities. On the 5th April, 1865,
he reported that he had made a survey of the lakes and found
the second lake had an area of 92^ acres, and was 153 feet above
Long Lake, and the third lake an area of 70 acres, and about
2-J feet higher than the second. He recommended a dam across
the outlet of the second lake, raising the water 7-J feet, which
would allow, say, 6 feet of water to be drawn from the second
lake and 3^ feet from the third, and would yield 217 millions of
gallons, or 180 days’ supply of 2,000,000 gallons per day. By
raising the lake one foot higher twenty-two days’ further sup-
ply could be had, and by lowering the pipe three feet below the
existing surface an extra quantity equal to twenty days’ con-
sumption would be obtained.

In a further report on the 8th July, 1865, the cost of build-
ing a canal to let the water of Spruce Hill Lakes down to Long
Lake was estimated to be $33,500, and to conduct the water by
a line of pipes to a reservoir near Chain Lakes would be $87,-
000. But neither of these schemes commended itself to him,
and he recommended conducting the water from the lakes to
St. Andrew’s Cross by a 15-inch pipe, which would be capable
of delivering two and one-half million gallons every twenty-
four hours.

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

83

The commissioners, after considering the various reports
upon the proposed increase in supply, had no hesitation in
recommending that Spruce Hill Lake be raised 10 feet, and
the water conducted into the city by a line of pipes.

In 1866 the whole scheme was submitted to Mr. Thomas
C. Keefer, and on September 25th of that year he submitted
his report. He recommended taking the supply from Spruce
Hill Lake by gravity, and estimated that these lakes would
ordinarily furnish a supply of 2,000,000 gallons, and in a dry
year not less than 1,000,000 gallons per diem, or sufficient for a
liberal supply for 20,000 persons, or about double the number
assigned to the high level district. A 15-inch pipe to within
a mile and a quarter of the lake and a 20-inch pipe connected
through the intervening distance to the lake would deliver
2,000,000 gallons per day at the higher levels and 3,000,000
per day at a level of 100 feet above tide. He also suggested
that in future an intermediate system might be obtained by
catching a portion of the Long Lake water at an elevation of 50
feet above the lake and forming a reservoir and running a line
of pipes to town. In January, 1867, the city council adopted
this report. Work was commenced on the 17th April, 1868,
on the dam and pipe line, and the work was finished in the
following year.

By an act of legislature, passed 18th April, 1872, the
powers and functions hitherto exercised by the commissioners
of water supply were to cease on the 30th September of the
same year, and a committee of the city council called the board
of works was vested with all the said powers and functions. The
following quotation is taken from the first report of Mr. E. IT.
Keating, the first city engineer of Halifax, in 1873. Adverting
to the formation of the commission in 1861, he said: “The

new commission seemed to work well, and great praise is due
to the gentlemen who comprised the board for the energetic
manner in which they grappled with the difficulties with which
they had to contend, and for the manner in which the work

84

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

of the department was planned and executed. To them is due
the credit of establishing the works as we have them to-day,
and if unsatisfactory it is through no fault that can be attached
to the plans that were adopted, but rather through the neglect of
enforcing stringent ordinances, the necessity for which I am
informed was repeatedly urged upon the council by the board.”
Since 1872 the works have been under the control of the board
of works and managed by the city engineer of the city of
Halifax.

As may be gathered from the foregoing history of the works,
the district supplied by the Long and Chain Lakes lies at an
elevation below 150 feet above mean low tide, and that sup-
plied by tlie Spruce Hill Lake system above this elevation. The
former is called the low service district and the latter the high.
Both are supplied by gravitation. One of the erreat difficulties
in connection with the high service shortly after its intro-
duction, was the constant and urgent demand of the consumers
near the higher levels of the low service district* as the pressure
became lower through the increased consumption for the letting
down of this service to the lower levels. While this was com-
batted strongly by the commissioners and subsequently by the
city engineer, it was frequently done, and greatly impaired the
efficiency of the high service system. However, since the intro-
duction of the 27-i'nch low service main the supoly has been
kept back nearer its proper level. At present the lowest points
supplied by the high service are the Victoria General Hospital
and poor house, where the ground is at an elevation of 100 feet,
and on Uniacke Street, at an elevation of 120 feet.

Low Service Gathering Grounds and Storage Reservoirs.

The water shed of the low service system comprises an area
of 4,455 acres, including the lakes- — 904 acres in the Chain
Lakes and 3,551 acres in the Long Lake gathering grounds, the
water area in the former being 97 acres and in the latter 459
acres. Included in the Chain Lakes water shed is Bayer’s Lake

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

85

with an area of 16 acres. The run-off from this water-shed has
never been measured, although some measurements of the flow
from the Bayer’s Lake portion have been made, and the cal-
culation of its yield has to be made from the rainfall. In
estimating the capacity of the gathering grounds there must be
considered the extent and character of the drainage area, the
average and minimum yearly rainfall, the distribution of the
rains through the various months of the year, the average and
least percentages that are carried by the streams, the storage
capacity that can he secured and the evaporation from the sur-
face of the area.

The slopes of the drainage area of Long Lake and Chain
Lake are steep, and consist chiefly of rock formation with
scanty soil and not very much vegetation. The rainfall is.
measured by the Dominion meteorological agent in the city of
Halifax, and at the lakes by the city water department. The
gauges at the lakes are set in such a position that they should
measure accurately the precipitation. The average yearly rain-
fall in the city of Halifax, from 1869 to 1905, is 56 inches
and the minimum 45.808 inches in 1894. In Mr. Keefer’s
report of 1876 the rainfall for the years 1859 to 1865 is given,
and during this time a minimum of 39 inches is recorded for
1860 and an average of 51.62 inches for the seven years. It is
not known by whom these records were made.

The writer is unaware of any studies to determine the
evaporation having been undertaken in Nova Scotia, but the
generally accepted rule here is to allow that one-half the rain-
fall will be lost from this cause and all that falls on the water
surface of the drainage area. In his opinion this would cover
the loss on the low sendee water-shed as there are few swamps
or shallow places where the water lies, and as before mentioned,
the slopes are fairly steep. In fact, taking the area of the
water-shed, the amount flowing over the waste weirs, the
amount estimated to be delivered in town , the loss from leak-
age at the dams and the amount delivered to the mill owners,

86

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

tiie writer is of the opinion that an average of 50 per cent,
throughout the whole year is available as the run-off from the
Long Lake drainage area. Since 1889 the quantity running to
waste yearly over Long Lake waste weir has varied from

250.000. 000 gallons to 2,173,000,000 gallons. The reservoir
has always been full during those years i‘n either March, April
or May.

To increase the available flow, it is necessary to store the
water in time of flood and thus equalize the distribution of the
rainfall. There are three low' service reservoirs, — Long Lake,
with waste-weir level at 206.00 feet, having a surface area of
423 acres, an available depth of 8.20 feet and a capacity of
871,522,000 gallons; Upper Chain Lake, with waste-weir at
same level and sluicie at 194.70, an area of 37 acres and a
capacity of 107,674,000 gallons; Lower Chain Lake, with
waste-weir at same level of 206.00 feet, main pipe at level of
192.24 feet, and an area of 42 acres and a capacity of 157,374,-
000 gallons ; giving a total available storage in the low service
reservoirs of 1,136,570,000 gallons — sufficient to supply the
legitimate wants of 'a population of 50,000 for a period of 225
days, allowing 100 gallons per capita. But to show the enor-
mous draught on this system, in November of 1905 all but

60.000. 000 gallons of this storage had been exhausted in sup-
plying 18,000 consumers between the 15th of June, when the
reservoirs were full, and the 15th of November, the rainfall
during this period amounting to 12.683 inches. The lowest
level to which Long Lake has been drawn down being 8
feet below waste-weir on the 14th November, 1905. At the
end of December, 1905, the level of Long Lake waste-weir
was raised one foot, which will increase the available storage
bv 115,000,000 gallons.

High Service Gathering Grounds and Storage Reservoir.

The water-shed of Spruce Hill Lakes amounts to 1,009
acres, including a water area of 218 acres in the lake and 6

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

87

acres in Fish Pond. The geological formation is similar to
that of the Long Lake water-shed, but the slopes are somewhat
flatter. Mr. Keefer estimated the yield from this gathering
ground in the driest year at an average of one and one-quarter
million gallons per day, and that in wet years this amount
would be doubled. The storage capacity of the lake is estimated
to be 700,000,000 gallons, or sufficient for a population of
31,000 for 225 days, allowing 100 gallons per day per capita.

Cleaning Lakes.

In raising the Spruce Hill Lakes, the area flooded was
thickly covered with trees, brushwood and moss, which appar-
ently had never been cleaned out, and which after a short time
died and greatly contaminated the water.

The effect was so bad that for a few years previous to 1876
the water became unfit for domestic use. In that year the lake
was drawn down to a level of 7 feet 9 inches below the waste-
weir, and the bed of the lake was cleared of fallen trees, brush-
wood and decomposed vegetable matter, and the stumps were
grubbed out. The trees and stumps taken out were covered
with a green slime. When Long Lake was raised, the shores
were thoroughly cleared, but in common with all the lakes
certain forms of vegetation thrive between high and and low-
water level, and it has to be periodically cleaned out.

Growths.

The growth of algae was first noticed in 1878. In that year
samples of water, algae a'nd mud from Chain Lakes and water
from Long and Spruce Hill Lakes were collected in September
when the water was low and sent to Professor Lawson to
analyze. His analysis of water from Long Lake yielded a dry,
solid residue, as follows: —

Inorganic matter 1.71 grains to the gallon.

Organic “ *2.13 “

Total 3.84 “

88

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

Another sample, taken from Chain Lakes near the pipe-
house, gave: —

Inorganic matter .2.48 grains to the gallon.

Organic “ 2.68 “ “

Total 5.12 •«

The inorganic matter consisted chiefly of alumina and iron,
with silica (soluble), common salt and a mere trace of lime.
The water belonged to the class of soft waters such as are col-
lected in districts where there are no rocks capable of yielding
soluble substances. The sources of the impurity taken up by
the water in its passage through Chain Lakes was discovered in
the form of a very peculiar deposit found in Upper Chain Lake
extending over the greater portion of the lake bottom, of a
thickness of over five feet in level places. It varied in con-
sistency from that of soft cheese to that of baker’s bread, and
in color from whitish to dark ferruginous brown, in some places
nearly black. It consists to a very large extent of the remains
of microscopic organisms belonging to the class of infusoria.
The chemical analyses of four samples is as follows : —

No. of
sample.

Color.

Insoluble

in

H. Cl.

Soluble

in

H. Cl.

Total

Inorganic

matter.

Organic

matter.

Water.

j

Pale brown.

38 . 40

11.36

49.76

11.32

38.92

2

Pale whitish.

38 . 96

9.41

48.40

•9.60

42.00

3

Between 1 and 2.

38.16

11 .04

49.20

8.72

42.08

4

Dark fur. brown.

24.70

11.85

63.45

This deposit has no doubt originally consisted of swamp
muck formed by the remains of plants, infusoria, etc.,, hut
by the long subjection to the action of water passing over it has
lost much of its organic matter.

A few specimens of fresh- water sponge (Spongilla), whose
decay gives a very offensive odor to water, were found in Upper
Cham Lakes in 1878, and in 1883 the growth was increasing

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.— JOHNSTON;

89

to such an extent that men were sent to collect all the specimens
that could he found, since which date no more have been
observed. In 1877 a microscopic alga called trichormus flos
aqua was found in Spruce Hill Lake, which had the effect of
giving the surface of the water, especially near the shore, a
brilliant green color. This is not known to be injurious, but
is regarded as an indication of water being stagnant or con-
taining organic matter. It has not reappeared, and was prob-
ably removed by clearing the lakes of vegetable matter. In 1885
new forms., of algae appeared in Chain Lakes, consisting of a
galatinous substance forming in detached masses, from the size
of a marble to a large apple, and adhering but slightlv to the
soil and stone under water, a light breeze being sufficient to
detach quantities off this substance and carry it to the screens in
the pipe-house where, if allowed to collect, it would soon cut off
the supply to the city. Lime scattered along the shores of the
lakes seems to kill this growth, and a certain amount is depos-
ited yearly to prevent its starting.

An analysis of the water from the various lakes was made
in 1890 by Mr. Maynard Bowman, with the following results :

90

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

9 ss«[Q

HHHHHHH

*V SS13I0

hhhhhhh

*-H 1— I t— 1 t— 1 1— 1 1— 1 1— 1

, io «— c: ©5 co

•uorpsnp3x\

CO — GO

CO ■<* ^ tJh »C UO

fc Q

•s.moq ^ uj

tr~ 05 © Tf CO CO

»Q ^ CO CO ~ T* l>.
O — 1 O — CO 04 <-«

CO CO CO CO CO CO CO

o 3

^ e

O M
<

•sapiuiui

si «I

1

I- O O O C -* 00
-t CO CO CD Ol — ‘O
CO CO Tf CO co *o

04 Ol 04 Cl Ol ©1 00

•pioy ouoqdsoq^

©

c - - - - -

O - - •■*'*■*

.

£

•auuoiq^

co d go eo to co

rti uo uo no CO CO CO

•saqTUp^j

©

©

® - “ “ “ “

go

EH

fc

O

o

02

H

••eiuonuuy

-H O co © © -t

■«* Tt< co rt< •<* co
O © © O O O O

i sS

i

•'Biuounuy

piouiumqjy

O ^ CO — H -H ^ -f
1 " — -t 1' — «

co t- co co oc oo

v"

T)

oOOI ^ ajq

Ol t''* CO c CO CO CO
rr Tt" rf uo CO -t

Q

©

GO

•uoiijiuSj

HO S:SOrJ

•O I© 30 00 — 00 30
Ol CO Ol CM Ol Ol Ol

1

•piuaqotqg

Source of Sample.

Ragged Lake

Lower Chain Lake
No. 55 South Street . .
No. 66 Bedford Row . .
Spruce Hill Lake ... .
Wellington Barracks
Quinpool Road

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

91

There are two points in the above that require special con-
sideration, viz., the high figures for albuminoid ammonia and
the oxygen absorbed. An opinion based on those leads to but
one result, that the water is impure.

According to Wanklyn, Chapman, and Smith, the limit for
albuminoid ammonia is 0.066 parts per million for a good
water, while here we have from 0.1470 to 0.1814, which is a
very large excess.

This impurity is chiefly attributable to contamination with
animal matter, but situated as the lakes are and considering
their surroundings its origin is not apparent. Nevertheless,
there is no question but that Lower Chain Lake must in the
spring receive a large amount of impurity from the accumu-
lations of the winter washed into it from the road along its
banks. Ragged Lake under this head is the least of all, though
its figures are much higher than they should be. As to the
oxygen absorbed, 3 parts per million is considered to be the
limit of a water of medium purity, while we have here more
than 6.

This does not necessarily condemn the water, peaty water
not being considered injurious. Still the figures are high, and
the water carries a large amount of organic matter and should
be filtered before use in all cases.

The following is extracted from a report of Prof. George
Lawson on the foregoing analysis : —

aThe result of analysis showing Ragged Lake water to
contain 0.1470 parts per million of albuminoid nitrogen and
the other samples from 0.1671 to 0.1814, the average of the
whole being 0.1714, affords sufficient evidence of organic im-
purity in all the waters. The high rate of oxygen absorbed
tells the same tale. In such cases it is usual to regard the
albuminoid nitrogen as having its origin in sewage or animal
matter, hence the great stress laid by water analysts upon the
albuminoid nitrogen. Without further knowledge of them,.

92

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

these three waters, with the exception perhaps of Ragged Lake,
would be regarded by most water authorities as impure, unfit
for use, or at least, doubtful. It may be, and I incline strongly
to this view, that the acidity of our waters enables it to give ‘
results by the ordinarv ammonia process which tends to exag-
gerate the apparent amount of albuminoid nitrogen. It is still
more likely that a large proportion of the albuminoid 'nitrogen
is due to vegetable sources. The avidity for oxygen is prob-
ably owing to peaty and other vegetable substances, as well as
ferrous salts, all of which we know exist in the water and are
not injurious in the way in which decaying animal matter and
sewerage are. For these reasons, I see no immediate cause
for alarm, but there is certainly good reason for thorough inves-
tigation as to the sources of the apparent pollution. Dr. Fox,
in his book on sanitary examinations of water, etc., gives an
analysis of a water closely resembling the Halifax samples
(albuminoid ammonia=0.18, free ammonia=0.08, nitrates
and. nitrates=0.1, chlorine=4.5) and remarks, ‘Such a water
when the nitrates and nitrites and chlorides are insignificant
cannot be condemned, but would simply be described as some- 1
what dirty.’ It may be that our Halifax water is. not essen-
tially impure, but only somewhat dirty. Those who use it are
impressed with this latter feature of the water bv observing its '
color and sediment. As a natural water accumulated in a
silicious and granitic, rocky, comparatively uninhabited dis-
trict it ought to be pure and no doubt will be when measures
are taken to preserve its purity. The first thing to be done is
to make a thorough survey of the shores of the several lakes
and their tributary streams, and of the deposits and accumu-
lations in the lake bottoms. In this way the sources of pol-
lutiun can be reached. It may then be possible to avoid or
remove them and to supply Halifax with as pure water as is
within reach of any city on the continent.”

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

93

In October, 1905, samples were collected and analyzed by
Prof. E. MacKay, Dalhousie College, with the following
results : —

Source of Sample.

Ammonia.

Chloride.

Nitrogen.

Required oxygen.

Total solids.

Free.

Albuminoid.

Nitrate.

Nitrate. j

Long Lake

.01

. 222

10.5

.425

9.870

12.8

118.0

Tap, Young Avenue. . .

.014

'224

10.9

.400

9.80

13.4

122.8

Spruce Hill Lake ....

.026

.120

8.0

.300

9.68

14.1

103.2

Tap, Dalhousie College.

.020

.124

7.8

.300

9.60

14. 1

107.9

The above are given in parts per million.

In his report Prof. MacKay says : “ All samples had a

somewhat yellowish tint due to dissolved vegetable matter. Of
the total dissolved solids more than TO per cent, was found to
be of vegetable origin. The amount of vegetable matter is
relatively large, and to this is due the high values found in
ammonia. The analyses showed all samples to be wholly free
from indication of essentially injurious constituents or con-
tamination A

In a paper read before this Institute, Dr. Campbell said
he found the Halifax water remarkably free from baeterise.

Dams and Waste-Weirs.

The dam at the foot of Long Lake was built by the Halifax
Water Company in 1848. It was 950 feet long and 29 feet
high. The original design called for a structure '20 feet wide
on top, 29 feet high above the surface, the inner slope to be
3 to 1 a'nd the outer LJ to 1; a puddle-wall to be built 6 feet
thick, its front in line with the inner edge of the top, to be
backed with 6 feet of coarse gravel, the whole surrounded with
fine gravel and loam; the outer slope to be covered with

94

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

stones, the toe of the inner slope to be composed of coarse
gravel and small stones; the level of the waste-weir (which
was a wooden structure) to be 200.00 feet above mean low tide.

In 1877 the dam was raised and strengthened by putting
rafts of brushwood and straw covered with fine material in front
where leaks had developed, and raising the dam five feet,
widening the top to twenty-four feet and flattening the outer
slope to 2-J to 1. The water side was protected by a heavy
sloping wall surmounted by a granite coping 18 inches high and
forming a low wall along the front. The dam was lengthened
to 1,018 feet to the west of the waste- weir. In 1892 the dam
was raised two feet and strengthened by depositing 5,000
cubic yards of good material o'n the face. The present waste-
weir at a'n elevation of 205.99 feet above low tide was con-
structed in 1878 of massive granite masonry and strengthened
in 1888 by the addition of a concrete wall at the front. It is
62 feet 6 inches long and the crest is- 3 wide and level, the fall
from the crest to the apron being 3J feet The latter is con-
structed of granite slabs about six feet long with granite pav-
ing outside. There is a sluice-way closed with an iron gate at
the eastern end, 62 inches wide and 50 inches high and at a
level of 198.90.

In December, 1905, iron staunchions were secured to the
top of the weir and the sill raised one foot, or to an elevation
of 207.00 by placing two 6-inch timbers in position.

The highest level to which the water has risen over the
weir is 25 inches on the 19th October, 1896.

In 1873 leaks were reported in the Long Lake dam by the
city engineer, and in June, 1877, thermometrical observations
were taken in the lake and at each of the runs of water along
the foot of the dam, when it was found that the two largest
runs were from leaks and the rest from springs under the em-
bankment. Weirs were placed on these, and the actual amount
of leakage was found to be 14.7 gallons per minute from the-

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

95

eastern one and 6.6 gallons per minute from the western one.
As the results of the improvements made in 1892 these leaks
have been very materially reduced, in one case a flow of 2
inches over the measuring weir dwindling to J inch and the
other stopping altogether.

When Lower Chain Lake was raised in 1894, a new dam
was constructed outside the existing one. It is practically two
dams joined by a natural hill, the north one also having a hill
projecting into and buttressing it. The north oart of the dam
has a concrete core-wall 4 feet wide on top and 6 feet at bottom
carried down to the solid ledge-rock and continued into the
banks on each side and running through the waste- weir. The em-
bankment is formed of gravel and loam laid in thin layers and
well compacted. The old 12-inch pipe used to let down water
to the mill owners runs through the dam, also the 24-inch main
to the pipe-house, which is at the foot of the outer slope. A
leak developed where the 24-inch came through the core-wall,
but it was repaired with concrete and has shown no signs since.
The length of this dam is 550 feet, the top width 12 feet. The
outer slopes are 2 to 1, and the inner 3 to 1, paved with heavy
stones. The waste-weir is at the northern end of the dam at an
elevation of 206 feet, and is of similar design to the Long Lake
weir, the dimensions being 16 feet long, width of crest 3 feet,
and a fall of 9-J feet broken by a ledge 5^ feet from the crest.
The apron is paved with heavy granite slabs and concrete. A
20-inch exit pipe runs through the weir to be used as a waste
pipe. The south part of the dam is constructed to the same
design as the northern part, with a gate-house in the centre of
it. The top and outer slopes of both this dam and Long Lake
dam were covered with street sweepings hauled from town and
sown with grass seed and in a year were covered with a strong,
thick sod. There are two small dams between the two Chain
Lakes, the south one built i'n 1883, with a sluice 24x36 at a
level of 194.70; the north with the old waste-weir built in
1886.

96

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

The main dam at Spruce Hill Lake is an earthen structure
1,200 feet long, 12 feet wide on top the slopes, both inner and
outer, being built of granite about 16 inches thick. There is
no puddle or core-wall through it, but it was built by simply
compacting layers of the best available material. There are two
smaller dams about 300 feet and 250 feet long respectively, of
the same section as the main dam. The dams were constructed
in 1868 and the granite face wall in front of the dam was
built in 1891-3 and the dams raised at that time. The present
waste-weir was built in 1883 at an elevation of 362.79. It is
constructed of granite with four openings of 9 feet 3 inches
each in the clear, separated by cast-iron standards to receive
stop logs to retain the surplus water. There are three such
timbers in place, each 6 inches square, thus raising the level to
364.29.

Gate-Houses.

There are two gate-houses at Chain Lakes. The north one,
originally built in 1857, is located at the north part of the dam
at the toe of the outer slope, and consists of an iron tank built in
sections, bolted together and caulked. The water is drawn
from the lake to this chamber by a 24-inch pipe. It was raised
in 1894 by bolting a section to the existing chamber. The 24-
inch supply main is connected with this house.

The south gate-house was built in 1894, over the channel
which led to the old south pipe house, which was the original
one built in 1848 and destroyed when the new one was com-
pleted. The new one is built of concrete and is 16 feet deep by
12^ feet wide by 16^ feet long with walls 4 feet thick. It is
drained by a 12-inch pipe. Both the 24-inch and the 27-inch
mains connect in this house, but may be separated should
occasion arise. There is a straining wall about 100 feet long in
front of this gate-house built of loose stones-, 4 feet 6 inches
thick on top with slopes of 1 to 4. The new house is ample in
size and avoids the difficulty always had with the north house
which is too small to vent the water freely, and was always in

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

97

danger of choking up owing to the small -size of the screen
chambers. There is a weir near the north gate-house to measure
the water let down by the 12-inch pipe to the mill owners.

The original Spruce Hill Lake gate-house was of similar
design to the old ones at Chain Lake, consisting of an iron
tank with three divisions, an inlet, screen and outlet chamber,
and was built about 150 feet north of this dam, a 20-foot pipe
running through the dam and connecting with the lake. In 1889
a permanent structure of brick, concrete and granite was built
in the dam of the following dimensions : 16 feet deep by 10

feet 4 inches wide and 8 feet 5 inches long, with walls 4 feet
thick.

The screens are made of Ho. 19 brass wire, and have sixty-
four meshes to the square inch.

Employees of the water department live both at Spruce ILill
Lake and at Chain Lake dams, whose duty it is to look after
the dams and gate-houses. The screens, in summer when the
water is low, require changing frequently as they become choked
with leaves or other impurities suspended in the water. Dur-
ing the fall of 1905, when the water was at its lowest, two men
were on duty day and night continually changing the screens,
otherwise the supply could not have been kept up to the city
through them.

Canal.

As has already been stated, the water was conducted from
Long Lake to Chain Lakes by a canal, which' was originally
constructed in 1848 by an open cut, and was intended to be
low enough to draw the water of Long Lake down, seven feet
below the waste-weir level, but during construction, owing to
difficulties met with by the contractor, the grade line was raised
1 foot 3 inches, thus, only allowing 5 feet 9 inches of Long
Lake water to be drawn off. The conduit was 2 feet by 2^ feet,
and was entirely too small to pass the water in sufficient volume
to give full effect to the storage of Long Lake. The present

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Pci., Vol. XII. Trans. 7.

98

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.— JOHNSTON.

conduit, rebuilt in 1886, is 1,300 feet long, 3J feet wide and 4J
feet high, built of 4-inch by 4-inch hemlock deal, with four
manholes throughout its length. Its upper end is at an eleva-
tion of 196.20, with a fall to Chain Lake of six inches.

Ice .

The experience with the formation of anchor ice has been
similar to that of other places. With a sheet of open water at a
temperature of 32 degrees F., and the temperature of the air
varying from 5 degrees to 20 degrees above zero, and a high
wind blowing, the ice forms in small detached needles or crys-
tals. Thin portions of it accumulate in spongy masses and float
along at or below the surface, their specific gravity differing
but little from that of water. They adhere readily to all solid
bodies with which they come in contact, and grow rapidly when
once they have secured a centre of crystallization. It will not
form in bright sunshine — on the contrary, it rises to the sur-
face in spongy masses, and when the surface freezes over it
lets go its grip. The lee side of a reservoir gets most of its
anchor ice, and whenever we have been troubled with it the
wind has always been from a north-westerly direction. Between
1883 and 1893 ;no trouble was had from ice, and it is thought
that this was due to the fact that a screen of stout pickets
driven into the bottom, capped on top with a boom rising a'nd
falling with the level of the water, was placed in front of the
gate houses. In 1892 this was removed, and on the 11th
December of that year ice closed the sluice gate at the south
gate-house cutting off the supply to the 24-inch main, and con-
tinued until four o’clock i'n the morning, when the wind sub-
sided, and the ice stopped running. In 1898 the filter wall
already referred to was built in front of the south gate-house,
but ice formed inside the wall, and there was danger that the
gate-house would freeze up solid, so the screens were removed
until the danger had passed. This is the last time there has
been any trouble from it.

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.- — JOHNSTON.

99

Riparian Rights.

When the Halifax Water Company decided to bring the
water from Chain Lakes there were several mills situated on
the stream flowing from the lakes and enjoying the privilege of
the water from them. Some difficulty having arisen in securing
the rights to the water, it was seriously contemplated by the
company to bring the water direct from Long Lake. However,
an agreement was eventually made in 1849 with the owner of
the privileges, that for a consideration of £500 the water com-
pany could build dams and take the water from Chain Lakes,
provided that they would not interfere with the natural flow
through the lakes as heretofore enjoyed by the mill owners.
The first difference arose in 1863, when the commissioners of
water-supply received a letter from the attorneys of the mill
owners, slating that the mills had closed down for want of
water, and that in previous years the water company had let
down a supply in dry weather. The commissioners on this
occasion gave orders to their superintendent to let down enough
water to fill Chocolate Lake, on the understanding that this
was not to be taken as a precedent or to act as any acknowledg-
ment of the rights of the mill owners to the supply, and on
April 13th, 1863, they presented a lengthy report dealing with
these claims. From that time to this there has been coinstant
friction with the mill owners as to the amount of water which
should be let down to them under the agreement. This has cul-
minated in an action being brought by them for a declaration
of their rights and an injunction restraining the city from
interfering with their supply. As this is now before the courts
the question may not be discussed fully, and is mentioned only
to serve as an example of the necessity for looking to the
demand for a, largely increased supply always following the
introduction of water to a town in a short time, and of the
advisability of either securing all the rights to a watershed, or
at least, having a definite agreement as to the actual quantity to

100

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

be allowed the owners, and the method by which said quantity
should be measured.

Mains.

The water was originally brought from the Chain Lakes to
the city by a 12-inch main to St. Andrew’s Cross, laid in 1848,
and was assumed by Mr. Jarvis to be capable of delivering at
this point 800,000 gallons daily. It was of cast iron, and was
ordered in Scotland through Messrs.. Kidston & Son, of Glas-
gow, and cost £7 5 s. per ton delivered, the freight being 15/ per
ton. 2,550 feet of these pipes were to be § inch thick, to be
tested to withstand a pressure of 160 pounds to the square
inch, and 13,650 feet to be J inch thick tested to 145 pounds.
All pipes were to be 9 feet long. 550 of these pipes were
ordered with spigots cast on them to fit a f-inch iron service
pipe, so that the water would not have to be turned off in mak-
ing connections. The pipes were uncoated and were laid with
lead joints.

In January, 1856, the water company ordered from
Kidston & Sons 284 lengths of 15-inch pipe, 9 feet long, f inch
thick, to be laid in the valley of the Korth West Arm, and 1,341
lengths § inch thick; the pipes to be tested to 165 and 135
pounds respectively. These pipes were laid during that year
alongside the 12-inch. The estimated delivery of this pipe was
over 1,000,000 gallons per day at St. Andrew’s Cross. Messrs.
Kidston wrote to the directors recommending the use of a coat-
ing (Smith’s patent varnish) which was then just coming into
use, and the directors wrote saying that if this coating had the
approval of authorities in Great Britain to put it on the pipes ;
but subsequently, fearing it would reduce the capacity of the
pipes, passed the following resolution, a copy of which they
sent their agents : —

Resolved, — That the directors having ordered a 15-inch
pipe, which was larger than was contemplated for the very pur-
pose of preventing the pipes filling up, do not consider that the

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

101

glazing mentioned will be necessary ; but if the glazing is con-
sidered an advantage that all the small pipes ordered be glazed.

Fortunately, before this letter was received, the order had
been placed and the pipes came ont coated. These pipes were
laid .with wood joints. The cost was £5 14s. lOd. per ton,
exclusive of freight.

In 1862 the commissioners of water-supply took up the
original 12-inch main and substituted therefor a 24-inch main.
These pipes were ordered from Glasgow. The quantity required
for the North West Arm valley to be 1 inch thick, tested to 200
pounds ; and the remainder to be f inches, tested to 150 pounds.
All pipes to be 9 feet long and coated with Smith’s patent
coating. They wer© laid with wooden joints and cost £4 4s. 3d.
per ton, exclusive of freight or duty, or £6 18s., exclusive of
truckage. The total cost of laying this main was $54,994.39,
or an average cost of $4.00 per lineal foot. The estimated
capacity was 5^ million gallons when new. There is a 12-inch
exit pipe at the Dutch Village Road. On the introduction of
the “ high service” in 1868, the 15-inch main laid in 1856 was
used as a part of the supply main and was extended to within
1^ miles of Spruce Hill Lakes, this latter distance being laid
with 20-inch pipe. These are § inch thick and the 15-inch are
f inch. They are 9 feet long and coated with Smith’s patent
varnish and are laid with wooden joints. That portion of the
old 15-inch lying in the valley of the Arm was uncovered
and lead joints substituted for the wood. On the 14th January,
1869, the commission had a report from their superintendent,
complaining that the 15-inch pipes laid the previous year were
giving considerable trouble from the fact of the unequal casting,
a number of pipes breaking under a pressure of 68 pounds. On
examination these pipes were found to be only §■ inch thick on
one side and full f- inch on the other, and during the winter the
pressure was regulated so as not to exceed 45 pounds at Chain
Lakes pipe house. The pipes split along the thin side. The

102

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

estimated capacity of this main when discharging at an eleva-
tion of 250 feet was 2,485,000 gallons. There are exits in
this main at the end of the 20-inch, at Beaver Dam Brook, at
head of Chain Lakes, and at the Dutch Village Boad.

In 1893 a new low service main, 27 inches in diameter, was
laid from the Chain Lakes. This main follows the route of
and is laid alongside the other two supply mains, to the brOw
of the hill on the western side of the Dutch Village Boad,
thence striking across the valley in a straight line to Bayer’s
Boad near North Kline Street, thence along Bayer’s Boad and
in prolongation thereof to Kempt Boad, and then to Young
Street at the comer of Gottingen Street, connecting thlere with a
24-inch main running to Cogswell Street, where the latter joins
the 12-inch and 15 finch running from the 24-inch at St.
Andrew’s Cross. The specification for this pipe calls for three
thicknesses — f, J-, 1 3V, — the first to test to 250 pounds, and
the latter to 300 pounds per square inch, and while this test is
being applied the pipes to be struck a series of sharp blows at
various points throughout their length with a 3-pound hammer
attached to a handle 16 inches long. The pipes are 12 feet
long with turned and bored joints, and coated inside and out
with coal-pitch varnish. The contract price delivered in Halifax,
free of all charges, was $32.05 per 2,000 pounds for plain pipe
and $56.10 for special castings. The contract for excavating
the trench was let for $1.85 per cubic yard for rock and 28
cents for earth excavation; measurement limited to a trench
4 feet wide. The cost of the 27-inch main laid Avas $5.71 per
lineal foot, inclusive of all charges. The cost of the 24-inch
laid in Gottingen Street was $5.52, inclusive of all charges.
This main slopes from the lake and from Gottingen Street to
the Dutch Village Boad, where a 12-inch exit pipe is placed.

Coating.

The coating on the high service main and on the 24-inch
was ordered as “Smith’s patent varnish.” This is probablv the

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

103

coating process of Dr. Angus Smith, which was first introduced
in the United States in 1858. The weight of experience seems
to show that in uncoated pipes the first ten; or twelve years of
their life results in more or less rapid corrosion. After they
have become thoroughly tuberculated very slight changes take
place. If this is removed by scraping or cleaning it begins to
form again, and the life of the uncoated pipe becomes much
reduced.

The interior of coated pipes become tuberculated in the
same way, due to a large extent to defects in the coating, but
very much less quickly, and when removed by scraping the
iron is uninjured. The writer was present recently when a
piece of pipe was cut out of the 15-inch main, and when the
deposit was rubbed off the coating was as sound and good as
when ijrst put on. The outside of the pipe was also in good
condition. The pipe had been cleaned a year previous, and
the tubereules had not begun to form, hut there was a slight
deposit over the face of the pipe. The following points should
be observed in coating cast-iron water pipes : —

That the ovens in which the pipes are heated befbre being
dipped in the coal tar hath shall be so arranged that all portions
of the pipes shall he heated to an even temperature.

The pipes should be heated to a temperature of 300° F.
before being dipped.

The varnish to be heated to a temperature of not more than
300° F., and kept at this while the castings are in the hath.

The pipes should not be submerged for less than five min-
utes, arid when taken from the bath should be evenly coated.

Joints.

There are three kinds of joints in use in the water system,
— lead, wood, and turned and bored. These latter joints have
been in use since 1890, but they do not seem to find favor with
engineers in America, and are very little used in Canada or the
United States ; although in the Metropolitan Water Works of

104

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.— JOHNSTON.

Mass., for the crossing of the Charles River, one of the three
kinds of joints used was described as follows: Three turned

grooves were made in the bell instead of the single one so as to
hold the lead more securely, and the spigot was smoothly
turned with a straight taper to a standard pattern so as to be
interchangeable. After inserting one of these tapering spigots
in the bell of the pipe and running the joint with lead the
spigot could be withdrawn, and when again inserted would
make a tight joint. This is practically one pattern of a turned
and bored joint. I'n the pattern used in Halifax a lip or rim is
cast on the spigot end of the pipe, varying in length from 2\
inches in a 27-inch, to If inches long on a 6-inch pipe, tapering
about 1-24 of an inch in its length. A finished lip or rim is oast
in the hub, the pipes are then centered in a lathe and the rim
on the spigot end is turned and the rim on the hub end is bored
by the same movement of the lathe. Care is taken that the
pattern is made to give a full size casting so that when planed
down the ends fit accurately. The total depth of the hub varies
in the different sizes from 4 to 5 inches.

In laying, the pipe is lowered into the trench with the joint
smeared with oxide paint, and placed in position on the block-
ing, entering the faucet of the last laid pipe. The next pipe is
then lowered and held in its slings while the men in the trench
swing it backwards, and forwards and thus ram the last laid pipe
tightly home in its place. A block of hard-wood between the
pipes are lowered with a derrick. Should there be any slight
diameter are held in slings by four men on the bank; larger
pipes are lowered with a derrick. Should there be any slight
weepage the joint soon rusts tight. In the fifteen years’
experience with this form of joint there have only been
two discovered leaks through them, one i'n the 27-inch
main near Young Street, and one in the 6-inch main in Young
Avenue. In the latter case the pipe was laid in the sewer trench.
As the back fill’ng of the latter settled, the blocking of the pipe
was disturbed : nd the pipe settled and drew one joint. In the

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

105

case of the 27-inch, a leak developed during the winter follow-
ing the laying of the pipe, and on digging down to the main a
joint was discovered to have drawn out about f of an inch.
This was caulked with cold lead and gave no trouble until the
following winter, when it again showed signs of leaking, and on
investigation the joint was found to have drawn another inch.
The blocking of the pipes on each side had apparently not
settled out of place, being laid on the top of the ledge rock. It
was thought that this drawing apart of the joint might have
been due to the contraction of the pipes. Assuming the differ-
ence of temperature to have been 30 degrees, which is a fair
estimate between the temperature of the pipes when laid and
when the leak developed, the contraction to open the joint |
inch would have to take place through 324 feet of pipe. If this
took place on each side of the defective joint there would be a
strain on the joint of over 16 tons, the pipes weighing a ton
and a quarter to the 12-foot length, if the leakage was from this
cause, it should close up again in the summer when the tem-
perature of the pipe rose. Unfortunately, the 4 inch which is
said the pipes separated in the second winter was not measured
accurately, but was estimated by the foreman and may have
been overstated ; but assuming it to be correct, the writer can-
not advance any theory for the increase in the opening from
this cause, as there would not be any more difference in the
temperature than the amount given above. It is possible that
the joint may not have been driven home, and as at this point
there was only about four pounds pressure when testing, the
oxide paint used may have prevented the leak showing when
the pipe was tested on being laid, and a settlement may have
occurred in one or two lengths of pipe distant from the leak
dragging the pipe apart at the weakest point.

It will be seen from the description of the method of laying,
that the process of lowering and blocking is exactly the same as
for plain pipe, except the ramming home, which takes but very
little more time than the extra care required in centering the
pipe for a lead joint and then the joint is complete ; whereas,

106

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

with the plain pipe the process of joining has not yet been
begun and necessitates considerable labor and material being
employed to finish tlie work. To get the best results with lead
or wood joints also requires a higher class of labor. The pipes
can be sprung around curves, but in this case should be caulked
with lead.

Previous to the introduction of the turned and bored pipes,
wooden joints were used extensively for pipes of 6 inches and
over. They have the merit of cheapness as compared with the
lead joint and are durable, but possess the defect of being liable
to be blown out with a sudden increase of pressure, and most
of our trouble with discovered leaks has been from this cause.
The faucets of the 24-inch and 15-inch for this kind of joint
were made tapering -J inch inwards. The joint is made as fol-
lows : — 'After the pipe is inserted in the socket it is raised up
by means of a tool called a raising iron and soft pine wedges
or staves, thoroughly seasoned and cut to the radius of the pipe,
are inserted on the lower side for about J of the circumference
of the pipe. The oipe is then lowered, and raising irons are
driven in the top and on each side of the joint, at intervals of
about 3 to 5 inches. The wedges are then driven in
with a sledge-hammer beginning from those already laid
and working up both sides, the raising irons being with-
drawn as the work proceeds. When all the wedges are in, keys
are driven where necessary between them to tighten the joint.

The wyood joints in the 15-inch main, where under the water
of the Chain Lakes, were strengthened by adding an angle strap
of wrought-iron bolted closely to the pipe in front of the wedges.
The difference in cost of turned and bored, and plain pipes,
has varied from 55 cents to $1.00 per ton, the former being
the difference in the tenders for the 27-inch and 24-inch pipes
laid in 1893. The net saving over lead joints in laying the 27-
inch man amounted to $3,147. Taking the cost of turned and
bored pipes at 75 cents per ton more than plain pipes, the fol-
lowing table gives the detailed cost of laying mains with
turned and bored, lead, and wood joints.

Cost of Laying1 and Jointing’, 9 feet lengths of C. I. Pipe with Wood, Lead, and Turned and Bored Joints.

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

107

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108

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

Incrustation of Pipes, and Cleaning.

In 1875 the old 3-inch water pipes laid by the Halifax
Water Company having become almost choked np with rust
and sediment, they were cleaned out during the succeeding
year by a scraper attached to iron rods and propelled by hand.
The scraper had four arms or knives, attached to a center
and sprung outwards by a thick rubber disc. This method
was not practically applicable to pipes of a larger diameter
than 12 inches. The cost of cleaning was 14 2-10 cents per lineal
foot. In 1880 about a mile of 12-inch pipe was cleaned by a self-
acting mechanical scraper, imported from Scotland, and known
as the Kennedy scraper. 1887 Mr. Keating, the city engineer,
at that time, constructed new scraping machines which differed
from the others in having additional springs for the cutters
and pistons. These scrapers consist of an iron rod to which are
attached two pistons and two sets of cutting tools, one in front
of the other. The cutters are each made up of four strips of
steel 2-| inches broad, sloping backwards from the rod, and at
their outward termination sharpened like the barbs of an arrow,
thus they can yield when necessary and the cutting diameter can
he altered by moving the steel strips. The pistons are of iron,
lead and leather to which are added rubber springs. All the
main supply pipes were cleaned in that year at an average cost
of 2 8-10 cents per lineal foot. The immediate results were
that the average pressure on twenty-five hydrants on the
wharves increased from 34.2 pounds in February, 1881, to
52.4 pounds in February, 1882. These were on the low service.
On the high service there was a pressure of 19 pounds on
hydrants where in the previous year there had been no water
at all. The pipes have been cleaned periodically since that
date and usually twice a year.

In cleaning the mains the water is turned off at the gate-
house and the exit opened and pipes emptied. A section of
pipe, jointed with collars and bolted together, is removed and

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON. 109

the scraper inserted by hand into the main. The piece taken
out is thein replaced and secured. The water is turned on,
and by its power forces the scraper along. As it passes the
exits they are turned off by men stationed there, and the scraper
continues its course to the end of the main where a
length of pipe has been removed. A sufficient quantity
of water escapes through the valves ahead of the scraper to
wash the incrustation removed and keep it from sticking. The
wafer is allowed to run for some time until the sediment dis-
appears, when it is shut off and the length of pipe inserted
again and the water turned on to the distribution pipes. The
average cost of cleaning the 24-inch low service main for the
past twenty years has been 15.07 for each cleaning of 13,400
feet, and of cleaning the high service main $18.80 for each
cleaning of 36,340 feet. Between 1882 and 1904, both inclu-
sive, there has been cleaned 223 miles of mains at a total cost
$732.07, or at an average rate of $3.28 per mile.

Distribution Mains.

The pipes in the distribution system ate of cast iron, all
those laid since 1855 being coated, and those 6-inch and over
laid before 1890 having mostly wooden joints. They range
in size from 3 inches to 24 inches in dameter, the mains to the
hydrants being, with few exceptions, taken from a 6-inch pipe
or larger. Some of the old 3-inch mains lately removed and
replaced with larger pipes, when cut, were found to be So
choked that there was barely room to insert a lead pencil
through the opening. These were old, uncoaled pipes and the
metal had deteriorated badly. The mains are generally laid
on the north and east sides of the streets, with valves set in
line with the street lines. Iron pipes with sleeves were first
used for stopcock boxes about 1862, before that wood had been
used. The valves used for letting the high service into the low
for purposes of fire protection are kept clear from ice and snow
during the winter.

110

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

In 1905 there were G9.68 miles of mains and distribution
pipes, and 804 valves.

Hydrants.

There were 424 hydrants in use at the end of 1904. A
large number of these are of an old style set in a brick-well
or chamber below the sidewalk inside the curb. The chamber
is covered with a cast-iron plate, provided with a hatch, by which
access is gained to the bottom of the hydrant where it joins the
branch from the mains. This arrangement, while admitting
of the easy removal of the hydrant, is objectionable on account
of the difficulty and expense in keeping the valves free from
ice, and the large iron plate becoming smooth and dangerous
to pedestrians. These hydrants are gradually being replaced
by a hydrant of a special pattern. The main valves and guide-
rod, which also forms the waste valve, are similar to the
Matthews’ hydrant. A brass and leather attachment to the
valve rod forms the waste valve. There is a waste hole bored
in the center of the flange in the stand pipe against which this
valve works. The hole was formerly at the bottom of the hy-
drant, but owing to the difficulty of reaching it, it has in the
later patterns been placed in the side. The main screw of the
valve rod is protected from the action of frost and water by a
partition and stuffing box. The frost jacket is securely bolted
to the iron seat, and when once set need never be removed.
It forms an air chamber which prevents the frost from reach-
ing the valve. A third nozzle is added to take the suction
hose of the fire engines. The hydrants are examined and
opened twice a day by the employees of the water department
all through the winter.

Service Pipes.

When the city took over the works in 1861, only about one
quarter of the number of families on the line of pipes were
supplied with water directly by service pipes to their houses,
the remainder obtaining their supply from the free domestic
hydrants paid for by the city. These service pipes were in all
cases f inch cast iron pipes connected to the distribution mains

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

Ill

by spigots cast on the latter. When on the assumption of control
of the works by the city, a general assessment was levied to
provide the funds necessary to maintain them, all citizens on the
line of pipes applied for service pipes to their properties. There
had been considerable doubt in the minds of the directors
of the water company as to the material to be used for service
pipes, and in 1846 they asked Mr. Jarvis for a report as to the
merits of tin-lined lead pipes for this purpose. He replied
that three-quarters of the service pipes used in Hew York at
that time were common lead pipes, and adds that there was
considerable discussion then going on as to the injurious effects
of lead pipe on water. He had no doubt they injured a pure
water, but that the length is so short that no material influence
is produced. However, the water company, as before stated,
laid all service pipes of cast-iron. The commissioners of water-
supply decided to use lead pipes, and during their first year in
office they laid over 6^ miles of lead service pipes to supply
water to 1,058 takers. A large number of these were renewals
as the old f inch iron pipes were found to be badly choked
and corroded. Since that time all services have been lead pipes.
While Halifax water is a very soft water, and as such, from
general observation else where, should be injuriously affected by
lead pipes, such has not been the case, the experience being
that after a short time a film or layer of sedimentary deposit
forms over the surface of the pipe which prevents the water
coming in direct contact with it. Ho cases of lead poisoning
from using the water have been reported since the intro-
duction of lead pipes for services in 1861. Under the regu-
lations of the water department, each building is entitled to
one inch service pipe laid at the department’s expense from
the main to the street line. In the event of a larger pipe being
required the difference in cost is paid for by the person desir-
ing the same. In the winter of 1882-3 a very large number of
underground leaks were discovered and were found to result
from the service pipes being severed at the connection with the

112

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

main. The gas company liad the same trouble during this
winter, and the city engineer at the time suggested that the
only cause of this could be from shock of earthquake felt on the
peninsula on the 31st December, 1882. Subsequent to the
explosion of the Acadia Powder Company’s works at IV aver ley
(about 12 miles from Halifax) on the 1st January, 1905, the
gas company had the same trouble with a number of their
service pipes, especially on Coburg Road and in that vicinity,
but the water pipes escaped injury.

At one time in the history of the works eels were a constant
annoyance in choking service pipes, but latterly it is quite
rare to have any bother from this cause. An exception to this
was in 1896, when owing to the danger of ice blocking the
screens ait thle pipe house they were removed, and the following
spring there were several complaints of service pipes being
choked by eels.

The total number of service pipes laid up to the first of
January, 1904, was 6,939.

Consumption and Waste.

In January, 1906, three Venturi meters were received from
the makers, to measure the quantity of water flowing into
the city. One of them the 15-inch, was installed, and
it was hoped that results would have been obtained before
the reading of this paper, but owing to delay in sending the
registering apparatus no records have as yet been obtained.'*

* The Venturi meters having been set and put in operation during the period
between the reading of this paper and its publication, the exact consumption has
been obtained, and this note is added giving the revision of the figures in accord-
ance with the information thus gained. For the 24 hours ending at 1 p. m. on the
6th December, 1906, the following quantity of water passed through the meters : —

Through the 14" meter 2,291,500 gallons.

“ 24" “ 4,492,500

“ 26" “ 4,586,000

Making a total of 11,370.000 imperial gallons flowing into the
city. This would give a consumption of 140 gallons per day per consumer on the
high and 477 gallons per consumer per day on the low service, or an average of 321
gallons per day per consumer, or taking the whole population of the city, an average
consumption of 277 gallons per capita per day. The figures given in the body of
the paper were conservatively estimated, and while startling enough, were consider-
ably below the actual results, which are unequalled by any other city of which the
writer has any knowledge.

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

113

The Venturi meter is different in principle, design and opera-
tion from the water meters generally used for measuring water,
it consists of two truncated cones of cast-iron, joined at the
smallest diameter by a short throat lined with brass having
a diameter varying in different meters from one-quarter to
one-half of the diameter of the large ends of the cones, the
three parts making what is known as the meter tube. At the
up-stream end and at the throat small holes are drilled into
the tube, from which pipes are carried to the register. The
operation of the meter is due to the fact that when water is
flowing through the tube the pressure at the throat is less than
at the up-stream end, and that the difference in pressure is
dependent upon the quantity of water flowing through the tube.
The differing pressures at the up-stream end and throat of the
meter tube are transmitted through small pipes to the register,
which can be located at any convenient point within 300 to 400
feet of the tube. In the register the differences of pressure
affect a column of mercury which carries a float. The
position of the float is thus made dependent upon the quantity
of water passing through the meter ; and by suitable mechanism
the quantity is recorded by a counter, and the rate of flow at
intervals of ten minutes is recorded upon a chart, so that the
fluctuations in the flow throughout each day can be observed.
Although the pressure at the throat of the meter is often several
pounds less than at the inlet or up-stream end, the lost pressure
is almost all regained by the time the water reaches the outlet
end of the tube, so that the net loss of pressure caused by the
meter is seldom more than one pound under ordinary con-
ditions of use. The meters in Halifax are set on a by-pass so
'as not to interfere with the operation of the scraper in cleaning
the mains.

As there has been no direct means of measuring the water
used it has had to be estimated by finding out the loss of
pressure by friction in the pipes by gauges placed on hydrants
at different points, and to estimate the co-efficient to use

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vor,. XII. Trans. 8.

114

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. JOHNSTON.

in the Chezy formula. In a report on the water system of St.
John, H. B., it was found, by experiment, that the co-efficient
to use there was 65. For new pipe this should be about 120,
so that the discharge from their 24-inch main laid in 1873
would be a little more than one-half that of a new pipe. The
■24-inch and 15-inch in Halifax have been cleaned regularly
twice a year for some time, although the usual fall cleaning
was omitted last year on account of the lowness of the water
in the lakes; but from an inspection of the condition of the
pipes where cut this year, the above co-efficient of 65 is con-
sidered much too low for the mains of the Halifax water-
works system, and 80 would be nearer the mark, although this
is considered a minimum. However, assuming 80 to be
applicable, the amount of water flowing into the citv on the
8th of January, 1906, was 3,288,600 gallons through the 24-
inch main, 4,294,000 gallons through the 27-inch main, and
1,600,000 gallons through the 15-inch main, or a total of
7,582,600 gallons for the low service and 1,600,000 for the
high, or 9,182,600 for the whole city. The day was mild and
there had been but little frost for some days previously. There
are 19,000 consumers on the low service and 16,400 on the
high. This would mean an average consumption for all the
water takers of 260 gallons per capita per day, or 399 gallons
per capita on the low service and 98 gallons per capita on the
high.

Our population as given by the last four census returns is as
f ol lows : —

1871 29,582 1881 36,100

T891 38,437 1901 40,332

The figures for per capita consumption were given for the
actual number of consumers. The better and usual practice is
to give the per capita consumption for the total population as
there may be some industries using large quantities of water,
the employees of which may not be using water for domestic
purposes. The figures given above would show a consumption

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

115

for the entire population (assuming it to be 41,000) of 224
gallons per capita per day. From exhaustive investigations
undertaken by the Metropolitan Water Board of Massachusetts,
the conclusion arrived at was that a liberal supoly for domestic
purposes is 25 gallons per day, for manufacturing, mechanical
and trade use 23.5 gallons, and for public use 7 gallons,
making a total of 55.5 gallons per capita per day. Taking
these figures as being applicable to Halifax, the consumption
should be 2,275,000 gallons per day, which means that
6,907,680 gallons per day are being wasted. The average
daily consumption through 144 meters on dwelling houses of
various values in the city amounts to 105 gallons for each ser-
vice pipe. Allowing five persons to a family, this would give
21 gallons per capita per day, which agrees practically with the
amount stated above as being a fair and liberal allowance for
domestic use. Another proof that the figures of the daily con-
sumption are under estimated, is the fact that during the past
year on the low service supply over 1,000 million gallons of
storage was used up during 155 days which would equal 6,500,-
000 gallons per day.

If 60 gallons per capita per day be assumed as a fair allow-
ance, it follows that at least 170 gallons per capita per day
brought into the city is wasted either through leaks in the mains
or water pipes and fittings in private premises. There is no
doubt considerable leakage from the mains, particularly on the
low service where so many of them are laid with wood joints;
and a number of them are laid through or near old drains and
sewers, so that the leaks do not show at the surface but the
water runs off through drains. In Milton, a small town in
Massachusetts, where all the services are metered and where the
total quantity of water supplied is measured, and there are 35
miles of pipe laid, the leakage from the mains amounts to about
3,600 gallons per day per mile of pipe. In Fall River it
amounts to 10,000 gallons per day per mile of pipe, although
in their case they have only 96 per cent, of their services

116

HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

metered, and the consumption for the other 4 per cent, is
estimated; and in seven cities having over 86 per cent, of the
services metered the amount of water unaccounted for varies
from 3,500 to 23,000 gallons per mile per day (these amounts
are in U'nited States gallons). Waste from pipes and fittings
on the premises of water takers is due to defective plumbing or
to negligent or wilful waste in allowing the water to run from
the taps. In a house with modern plumbing the chief cause of
waste is from a leaky ball-cock in the tank supplying fixtures.
In one instance a meter was put on a pipe supplying a closet
where the valve in the flushing cistern was worn and did not
fit its seat properly. The waste was but a trickling stream, but
the consumption was 1,073 gallons a day, while after the valve
was repaired it was reduced to 43 gallons. In other houses
closets supplied with hopper-cocks are the chief cause of waste.
There are at present about 450 of these in use in the city. In
1891 a test was made on ni'ne of these closets, and applying the
results then obtained there would be a waste from this source
alone of three-quarters of a million gallons per day. During
the cold weather an enormous amount of water in the aggregate
is allowed to run to prevent pipes freezing. As up to the
present there has been no means of accurately measuring the
water supplied to the city, this amount cannot be stated in
gallons; but the pressure at night at the various permanent
gauges throughout the city drops from five to ten pounds below
that of the day time. The modern method of controlling waste
is to supply each taker through a meter, so that each consumer
pays only for the water used. There were on May 1st, 1905,
6,939 service pipes, of which 5 per qent. were metered. In
October, 1905, when owing to the small rainfall there was
danger of the supply becoming exhausted a house to house
inspection by the police was ordered, and wherever a'ny leaky
fixtures were found the water was turned off and only turned
on again when repairs had been made and on payment of a fine.
The immediate result of this was a gain of eleven pounds

HALIFAX WATER WORKS.* — JOHNSTON.

117

pressure all over the city, notwithstanding there was a loss of
3J pounds owing to the lowness of the lakes. This in con-
junction with the fact of the pressure lowering at night would
seem to prove conclusively that the waste from the mains bears
a very small proportion to that from negligent and wilful waste.

The following table of the data of the consumption of water
of eleven cities about the size of Halifax gathered from late
reports is here inserted to enable a comparison to be made, and
also to show the effect meters have on the consumption of water.
It will he noticed that the average consumption of those cities
having over 50 per cent, of their services metered is 41 United
States gallons, and those under 50 per cent. 91 gallons, or 50
and 197 imperial gallons per capita respectively:

Town.

Population

supplied.

Number of
services.

Percentage of ser-
vices metered.

Miles of pipe.

Consumption.

Daily.

Night rate.

Brocton

37,800

90.

36

Woonsocket

34,474

86.7

28

Nftw* nn

35,400

86.

54

Malden

36,900

6,700

63.4

82.

47

25

Haverhill

37,200

10.

95

Waltham . . .

24,550

I

6.

99

Quincey

26,800

4,850

3.1

83.7

89

57

Salem

36 250

3.

79

Everett

28,000

4,670

] .

42.

81

”55

Chelsea

35,000

6,251

2.

38.7

94

65

Halifax

35,400

6,939

5.

69.6

260

Financial.

The rates are levied from four sources, — meter, fire protection,
domestic and special.

The meter rates vary from 15 cents to 7 cents per 1,000
gallons by a sliding scale, depending on the quantity of water
used per day. A meter rental is charged on all meters except

118 HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON.

those on domestic supply. The consumer pays only for the
actual quantity used, and there is no minimum rate for this
class of consumer. The fire protection rates are levied on the
assessed value of all lands and premises and are paid by all
classes of consumers.

The domestic rates are levied on the assessed value of
properties and also on the number of fixtures, the minimum
rate for fire and domestic purposes being $4.00 where no meter
is on the premises.

Water is supplied to the military and naval properties and
the Intercolonial railway under special agreements, in the
former cases at so much per fixture and in the latter by actual
measurement of water consumed, with a lump sum added for
fire protection. Ho mains are extended in the distribution
system unless a bond is executed guaranteeing the interest at
5 per cent, on the actual outlay required. This business-like
method of making extensions has been the means of assuring
the revenue keeping pace with the expenditure. The following
statement shows the amount of the funded debt a’nd annual cost
of maintenance in five year periods since the city took over the
works.

I860 Funded Debt, £ 71,900 — The costof theworks,£56,000paidforthisyear

1865

(C

$ 640,000 —Nova Scotian

currency.

1870

( <

669,653 . 33 — Dominion currency.

1875

(C

740,973.33

1880

“

740.973.33 - Maintenance $55,496.46

1885

“

740,973.33

58,605.76

1890

l (

633,906.48

66 534.96

1895

“

990,266 67

65,894.91

1900

“

1.056,600.00

69,252.38

1905

“

1.056 600.00

83,51 1 .77*

* Includes cost of renewing old 3-incli mains with 4-inch mains.

Fungi of Nova Scotia: First Supplementary List. — By
A. H. MacKay, LL. D., F. R. S. C., Halifax.

Read 11th December 1905 ; revised to November 1907.

This list is the first supplement to the “ provisional list
presented to the Institute on the 8th December, 1902 — three
years ago — and published in the Transactions , vol. xi, page 122.
My colleagues contributing to this list are (1), Mr. E. R.
Gates, M. A., of Middleton, Annapolis county [in 1907, doing
post-graduate work at Chicago University] ; (2), Mr. Clarence
L. Moore, M. A., of Pictou Academy [at present, 1907,
principal of county academy and public schools, Sydney]
and formerly a post-graduate student in Johns Hopkins
University; (3), Miss Minnie C. Hewitt, science teacher in
the Lunenburg Academy; and (4) , Air. W. P. Fraser, B. A.,
science master in the Pictou Academy (last collection in
1906). The list is not large, and some of the determinations
may be inexact, but it is hoped that the annual publication of
new species found will stimulate these and our other students
of the fungi to more energetic and systematic exploration and
study of the species indigenous to the province.

It is also expected that the corps of workers now taking
an interest in our fungi will, before long, enable us to correct
any wrong determinations, if there are any, in this and in the
provisional list of 1902. The nomenclature will then be revised
so as to keep in touch with the most modern classification, and a
new and more complete list be published. In the meantime,
the general order and nomenclature of M. C. Cooke , which
were followed by our earliest fungologists and by the pro-
visional list, will generally govern the order and nomenclature
of this supplementary list as far as convenient. The author-

019)

120

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. MACKAY.

ities are noted in the usual manner by their condensed initials ;
REG, CLM, MCH, WPF, and AHMK.

Species Not Reported in the “ Provisional List.”

Amanita frostiana Pk. Point Pleasant Park, Halifax,
AHMK. Middleton, REG. Poisonous. It approaches in
appearance A. muscaria, but is much smaller. Lunenburg,
MCH. Hew Glasgow, WPF .

A. rubescens Pers. Point Pleasant Park, Halifax,
AHMK. Common in woods, Middleton. Said to be edible;
but eve;n the expert should use caution if experimenting with it.
It is distinguished from the other Amanitas by the reddish
color which suffuses the stem and other parts when bruised,
ERG. New Glasgow and West River, Pictou county, WPF.
A. ftaviconia Atkinson. New Glasgow, WPF.

Lepiota cristata A. & S. Lunenburg, MCH.

L. granulosa Batsch. Lulnenburg, MCH.

L. illinita Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

Armillaria robusta A. & S. Middleton, edible, ERG.
Lunenburg, MCH.

A. viscipedes Pk. Lunenburg, MCH.

A. ponder osa Pk. ( ?). Lunenburg, MCH.

Tricholoma schumacheri Fr. Middleton, RRG.

T. imbricatum Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

T. virgatum Fr., var. acutum. Middleton, RRG.

T. brevipes Bull. Lunenburg, MCH.

T. albobrunneum Pers. Middlejton, RRG.

Clitocybe ectypoides Pk. Middleton, RRG.

C. ochropurpurea Berk. Middleton, edible, RRG.

C. fumosa Pers. Lunenburg, MCH.

Collybia butyracea Bull. Middleton, edible, RRG.

C. acervatus Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

Pleurotus petaloides Bull. Lunenburg, MCH.

Mycena tali folia Pk. Middleton, edible, RRG.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

121

M. leaiana Berk. Middleton, REG.

Omphalia campanella Ratsch. New Glasgow, WPF.

Pluteus cervinus Shaeff. New Glasgow, WPF.

Clitopilus micropus Pk. Middleton, rare, RRG.

Pholiota caperata Pers. Middleton, edible, REG.

P. squarosoides Pk. Lunenburg, MCIL

Hebeloma glutinosum Lind. Lunenburg, MCH.

H. crustulini forme Bull. Lunenburg, MCH.

Galera tenera Schseff. Lunenburg, MCH.

Stropharia ceruginosa Curt. A group of this species was
found in October of 1904 near the door steps of the house
of Mr. Watson Bishop, in Dartmouth. It was remarkable
on account of its more or less azure-blue green color, due
to the colored slime mainly, for the ground color was more or
less yellowish. Its spores were purple tinged. This fall only
very small caps developed in the same spot, presumably on
account of the unusually dry autumn season, AHMK.

S, stercoraria Fr. Dartmouth Park, Halifax Co., AHMK.

Hypholoma perplexum Pk. Halifax and Dartmouth,
AHMK. Middleton; “From H. sublateritium it is distin-
guished by its usually smaller size, more slender hollow stem,
the yellow-greenish and purplish tints of the gills, and the
absence of a bitter flavor C. H. Peck, Memoir, N. Y. State.
Museum, No. 4, vol. 3, Nov. 1900, ERG. Lunenburg, MCH.

Cortinarius cinnamomeus Fr., var. semi-sanguineus Fr.
Middleton, edible, REG.

Paxillus involutus (Batsch) Fr. Middleton, edible, RRG.

P. atro-tomeniosus (Batsch) Fr. New Glasgow, WPF.

Hygrophorus pudorinus Fr. Middleton, RRG.

H. fuligineus Frost. Middleton, edible although exceed-
ingly glutinous. Common in woods, especially under pines
after the autumn frosts, occurring with the following Middle-
ton species, RRG.

H. limacinus Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

122

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACK AY.

H. fiavodiscus Frost. Middleton, edible, REG. Lunen-
burg, MCLI.

H. distans Berk. Lunenburg, MCH.

H. puniceus Fr. Llalifax, AHMK. Lunenburg, MCLI.

H. coccineus Schseff. Lunenburg, MCH.

Lactarius scrobiculatus Scop. Middleton, REG.

L. aurantiacus Fr. Middleton, ERG.

L. deceptivus Pk. Middleton, edible, REG.

L. theiogalus (Bull) Fr. Middleton, edible, REG.

L. volemus Fr. Hew Glasgow, WPF.

L. hysginus Fr. Middleton, edible, ERG.

L. chelidonium Pk. New Glasgow, WPF .

L. pallidus Fr. Dartmouth, AHMK.

Russula foetens Fr. Middleton. Has a heavy empyreu-
matic odor, ERG. Pictou county, WPF.

R. brevipes Pk. Lunenburg, MCH.

R. flavida Pk. Lunenburg, MCH.

R. variata Ba'nn. Purple capped Russula, Dartmouth,
AHMK.

Craterellus cantliarellus (Schw.) Fr. Dartmouth, AHMK.

Marasmius cohcerens ( F r, ) Bres. Pt. PI. Park, Halifax,
AHMK.

Boletinus porosus Pk. On new made lawn, New Glas-
gow, WPF.

Boletus piperatus Bull. Common in open fields, Middle-
ton, RRG. New Glasgow, WPF.

B. scaber Fr., var. fuligineus. Middleton, edible, RRG.
var. fuscus , Lunenburg, MCH.

B. ornatipes Pk. Middleton, edible, RRG.

B. subglabripes Pk. Middleton, RRG.

B. versipellis Fr. Common, New Glasgow, WPF.

B. salmonicolor Frost. Dartmouth, spores, 8-9 microns
x 3. AHMK.

B. rubinellus Pk. Under conifers, New Glasgow, WPF.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

123

B. unicolor Frost- Lakes, Dartmouth, AHMK.

B. pecJcii Frost, var. Icevipes. Pt. PI. Park, ILalifax,

AHMK.

B. eximius Pk. Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, AHMK.

B. conicus Rav. Spores 12 x 4 microns, Dartmouth,

AHMK.

B. affinis Pk. Waverley, Halifax county, AHMK.

B. purpureus Fr. Dartmouth, AHMK.

B. bovinus L. Lunenburg, MCH. Dartmouth, AHMK.
Polyporus (fomes) ribis Fr. . On the bases of old red cur-
rant bushes, Dartmouth, AHMK.

P. hispidoides Pk. On dead trunks of Picea. Hew Glas-
gow, WPF.

P. schweinitsii Fr. Dartmouth, AMIIK. Lunenburg,
MCH. ( Phceolus sistotremoides Murrill.)

Hydnum cyathiforme SchsefT. Common near Pictou town,
in thickets of spruce and fir, CLM.

H. scabrosum Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

H. graveolens subzonatum Pk. Middleton, ERG.

Phceodon fennicus (Karst.) Hennings. On the ground
under conifers. Merigomish, WPF.

Tremellodon gelatinosum Pers. A few specimens were
found on decaying firs or spruce lying on mossy ground in the
woods above Hartley’s Waterfall, Pirate’s Cove near Mulgrave,
Strait of Canso, Hova Scotia, On the 29tli Sept., 1904. Dr.
G. U. Hay and AHMK.

The following descriptive note was made on the largest
specimen about 36 hours after collection, when it must have
shrunken considerable. Pileus white, opal-like, spatulate,
spines white, 500 by 600 microns long, 250 to 300 microns broad
at the base, from which they taper to the points which are dis-
tinctly recurved towards the stipe. Length of specimen 15mm,
breadth of the fan-shaped frond 7 mm, and of the stipe 4 mm.
Spores 6 to 7 microns in diameter. The whole was shrinking

124

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

very rapidly while drying and becoming smoky brown and
opaque.

Clavaria pistillaris Linn. Middleton, edible, RRG.

C. fusiformis Sow. Middleton, common, edible, RRG.

C. vermicularis Scop. Lunenburg, MCH.

C. ligula SchoefL Growing under conifers. French River
and New Glasgow, WPF.

G. mucida Pers. Growing on decaying log. New Glas-
gow, WPF.

Exidia glayidulosa Fr. Middletpn, RRG.

Dacromyces stillatus Nees. On railroad ties, Middleton,
RRG. New Glasgow, WPF.

Phallus dcemonum Rumph. Lunenburg, MCH.

Bovista pita B. & C. Common, Pictou, WPF.

Lycoperdon ivrightii B. & C. Lunenburg, MCH.

Septoria acerina Peck. On leaves of Acer pensylvanicum.
New Glasgow, WPF.

S. oenotherce West. On leaves of Oenothera biennis, New
Glasgow, WPF.

Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Sacc. and Magnus)
Briosi and Cavara. On cultivated beans. New Glasgow,
WPF.

Phragmidium subcorticium (Sclirank) Wint. Common on
Rosa, New Glasgow, WPF. On Rosa blanda, Pictou, CLM.

Triphragmium clavellosum Berk. 0!n leaves of Aralia
nudicaulis, New Glasgow and West River, WPF. Pictou,
CLM.

Gymnoconia inter stitialis (Schlecht) Lagerh. Cceoma nitens
(Schw.). Sori form orange colored confluent patches on the
under side of the leaves of Rubus strigosus. Pictou, CLM.

Coleosporium solidaginis (Schw.) Thum. On Aster
patens. Pictou, CLM.

Melampsora medusce Thum. On leaves of Populus gran-
didentata. The areas surrounding the sori become almost coal
black in color early in autumn. Pictou, CLM.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. MACKAY.

125

Peridermium balsameum Peck. The aecidia are white,
arranged in two irregular rows on the under side of the leaves.
The whole leaf takes on a bleached appearance. I have only-
found this species occurring at considerable altitudes. Pictou,
CLM.

Peridermium decolorans. Peck. On Picea rubra. Pictou,
CLM.

Peridermium elatinum (A. & S.) K. & S. On Abies
balsamea, causing the formation of “ witches’ brooms.”
Pictou, CLM.

Puccinia suaveolens (Pers.) Kostr. Pictou, appearing
throughout spring and summer on the leaves and stems of the
Canada thistle. Affected plants appears very rarely to mature
seed if at all, CLM. On leaves of Carduus lanceolatus . New
Glasgow, WPF.

P. taraxaci Plow. On Taraxacum officinale. Pictou,
CLM.

P. coronata Corda. Common on leaves of Arena sativa.
Pictou and New Glasgow, CLM, WPP.

P. rubigo-vera (DC.) Wint. On leaves of Agropyron vul-
gare. New Glasgow, WPP.

P. orbicula Peck and Clinton. On Nabalus. New Glas-
gow, WPP.

P. menthce Pers. On Mentha. Piedmont Valley, WPF.
Pictou, CLM.

P. circcece Pers. On Circcea. French Biver and New
Glasgow, WPP. Saltsprings, Pictou, CLM.

P. cicutce Larch. On leaves of Cicuta maculata. Piedmont
Valley, WPF. Pictou, CLM.

P. asteris Duby. Common on Aster macrophyllum. West-
ville, WPF.

P. violce (Schum.) DC. Common on Viola. Pictou,
CLM and WPF.

P. claytoniata (Schw.) Syd. On Claytonia virginica.

Loch Broom, WPF.

126

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

Pwccinia acuminata Peck. The sori form cushion-like,
dark purple spots on the under sides of the leaves of Cornus
canadensis. On the upper side a corresponding depression
marks the position of the sorus. Pictou, CLM.

Puccinia sessilis Perse ( ?). On Maianthemum cana-
dense. Pictou, CLM.

Ustilago levis (Kellerman and Swingle) Magnus. On
A ven a sativa , WPF.

U. nuda (Jensen) Kellerman and Swingle. Common on
Hordeum vulgar e, WPF.

Sphacelotheca hydropiperis (Schum.) DeBary. On
Polygonum sagittatum. Pictou and Piedmont Valley, WPF.

Entyloma lineatum (Cke.) Davis. On leaves of Zizania
aquatica. New Glasgow, WPF.

Uromyces trifolii. (Hedw). Lev. On Trifolium pratense
and T. repens. Pictou, CLM.

Uromyces caladii (Schw.) Farlow. On Ariscema trifolia.
New Glasgow, WPF. Saltsprings, Pictou, CLM.

Chrysomyxa pirolce (DC.) Rost. Middleton, forming a
bright yellow coating on the under surface of the leaf of Pyrola
elliptica, RRG.

Cystopus candidus (Pers.) Lev, Pictou, common on Cap-
sella Bursapastoris , CLM.

Uredo agrimonice (DC.) Schroet. Common on leaves of
Agrimonia eupatoria, WPF. Saltsprings, Pictou, CLM.

Cercospora callce- Peck and Clinton. On leaves of Calla
palustris. New Glasgow, WPF.

C. leptosperma Peck and Clinton. On the leaves of Aralia
nudicaulis. New Glasgow, WPF.

Cladosporium Inerbarum (Pers.) Link. On decaying fungi.
New Glasgow, WPF.

Sepedonium chrysospermum (Bull.) Fr. Common on
Boleti, (Conidial stage of Hypomyces chrysospermus) , WPF.

Empusa muscce Cohn. Pictou, common everywhere on the
house fly, more particularly during the autumn months, CLM.

EUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACK AY.

127

Sporodina grandis Link. Piet on and New Glasgow on
decaying Boleti , WPF.

Onygena equina (Wild) Pers. Growing on the hoofs of
horses. New Glasgow, WPF.

Splicer otheca castagnei Lev. Collected at Pictou 28th
Aug., 1905, on Bidens frondosa ; and 2.1st Sept., 1905, on
Taraxacum officinale, CLM.

Phyllactinia suffulta (Reb.) Sacc. Pictou, 2nd Oct., 1905,
on leaves of Alnus incana, CLM.

Uncinula salicis DC. Collected at Pictou, 15th Sept.,
1905, on species of Salix , probably discolor , CLM.

U. circinata C & P. Pictou, 10th Oc., 1905, on leaves of
Acer rubrum, CLM

Podosphcera oxyacantha. Pictou, on Spiraea salicifolia.
Noted on S. tomentosa, CLM.

Microsphcera alni D. C. Pictou, very common on Lilac, the
mycelium appearing in July and spores maturing in August
and until late in the fall. Also common on Alnus incana , 2nd
Oct., 1905 ; and on Viburnum cassinoides, CLM. Oil leaves of
Spring a vulgaris, New Glasgow and Pictou, WPF.

M. erineophila Peck. Collected near Saltsprings, Pictou
county, 10th August, 1905, on leaves of Fagus ferruginea
affected with leaf mites, CLM.

M. vaccinii (Schw.) Pictou, 3rd Oct., 1905, on Gay-
lussacia resinosa; 1st Oct., 1905, on Epigcea repens , CLM.

Erysiphe communis Wall. Collected at Pictou, 29th Aug.,
1905, on Oenothera biennis, Ranunculus acris, and R. repens ,
CLM.

E. cichoracearum DC. Collected at Pictou, 23rd Sept.,
1905, on various species of Solidago, CLM.

E. galeopsides DC. Pictou, 10th Aug., 1905, near Salt-
springs on Chelone glabra. Common on this host in shaded
situations and on the lower shaded leaves of plants growing
closely together, CLM.

128

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. MACKAY.

E. aggregata Peck. Collected at Pictou, 25th Aug., 1905,
Very common on the fertile aments of Alnus incana — as many
as two-thirds of them being affected over considerable districts.
Spores were forming at date of collection but were not mature.
Spores mature about May of the spring following. Alnus
viridis does not seem to be so susceptible to its attacks, CLM.
Helvetia crispa Fr. Middleton, PEG.

Geopyxis carbonaria (A. & S.) Sacc. Middleton, KEG.
Peziza vesiculosa Bull. Middleton, EKG.

Chlorosplenium ceruginosum Tul. Pictou county. Asco-
carps on rotting trunks of Fagus ferruginea, 3rd Sept., 1905.
Also on decaying Alnus incana. The fructification of this
species is said to be rather uncommon, CLM. Middleton, com-
monly occurring on rotten wood giving it a green color and mak-
ing it phosphorescent, EEG.

Exoascus robinsonianus Giesenhagen. Deforming die
bracts in the pistillate aments of Alnus incana. Very common,

WPF.

Elaphomyces cervinus (Pers.) Schroter. Pictou, under
beech trees; parasitized by Cordyceps ophioglossoides, CLM.
Subterranean at the base of pine stump, Pictou WPF.

Claviceps purpurea Fr. Pictou, on barley, 2 Oct., 1905,
CLM. On Agroyprum repens , New Glasgow, WPF.

Cordyceps ophioglossoides Ehr. Collected at Pictou, 23rd
Sept., 1905, growing in leaf mould under beech trees in a sub-
terranean fungus probably a species of Elaphomyces , CLM.
Parasitic on E. cervinus , Pictou, WPF.

Hypomyces viridis (Albertini and Schweinitz). Middle-
ton, rare. The same as H. luteo-virens. Identified by Prof.
W. G. Farlow, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. The host in this
case was not determined with certainty, but it appeared to he
Hygrophorus pudormus Fr. The gill surface only was attacked,
becoming a dark green.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCO II A.— MACK AY.

129

Xylaria polymorpha Grev. Pictou, collected in August and
September, and at Saltsprings. Appears-here to grow exclusive-
ly on rotting Fagus ferruginea on which it occasionally
becomes very abundant, CLM. Middleton, REG.

Daldinia concentrica (Bolton) Ces. and DeNot. On dead
Ulmus americanus, New Glasgow, WPF.

Phyllachora qraminis (Pers.) Fckl. On Aqropyrum repens
New Glasgow, WPF.

Dothidea pteridis Fr. On Pteris aquilina , near Yarmouth,
by Miss E. Chesley Allen, AHMK.

Dimer osporium collinsii (Schw.) Collected at Pictou
10th Sept., 1905, on leaves of Amelanchier canadensis. The
affected leaves frequently persist on the branches through, the
winter and spores mature in May of tne following spring.

Podospora amphicornis Ell. Collected 10th Aug., 1905, on
rabbits’ dung at Saltsprings, Pictou county, CLM ,

The Myxomycetes.

Mr. C. L. Moore, M. A., published in The Bulletin of the
Pictou Academy Scientific Association, Vol. L, No. 1, June,
1906, a list and general . sketch of. thirty-three, species of
Myxomycetes ,, under the title, “ The Myxomycetes of Pictou
County,” Nova Scotia. A monograph of the Myxomycetes of
Pictou County by Mr. Moore, may appear soon in the
Transactions of the Institute ; so that there will be no advantage
in the enlargement of the present list to contain a reprint of the
list of 1906.

Species Previously Reported but Found in New Localities,

with Notes.

Amanita vaginata Bull. Amanitopsis vaginata (Bull)
Roz. Middleton, generally mouse colored, but often variable;
a yellowish brown form occurring- in this vicinitv ; also the
deadly poisonous A. phalloides, common in woods, RRG.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Fci., Vol. X IT.

.Trans. 9

130

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — M4CKAY.

Lunenburg, MCH, and also verna, ccesarea, and muscaria.
New Glasgow, vaginata , verna, and muscaria , WPF.

Armillaria mellea Vahl. Common on decaying stumps,
especially of coniferce , in the neighbourhood of Halifax, Pictou,
Middleton, AHMK and ERG. Lunenburg, MCH.

Tricholma equestre , sejunctum and columbetta. Lunenburg.
MCH.

Clitocybe laecata Scop. Common near Halifax. (Var.
stria-tula), Pictou and Middleton. Variable, not poisonous,
ERG and AHMK.

Clitocybe nebulans , candicans and multiceps. Lunenburg,
MCH.

C. clavipes Pers. Shelburne, CSB. Middleton, ERG.

C. infundibuliformis Schseff. Pictou, September, CLM.

Pleurotus serotinus Schrad. Edible. Middleton, REG.
Truro, JMS. Pictou, AHMK. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. lignatilis Pers. Lunenburg, MCH.

Collybia platyphylla and dryophila. Lunenburg, MCH. C.
radicata 3 New Glasgow, WPF.

Mycena galericulata Scop. Lunenburg, MCH.

Omphalia umbeUifera L. Lunenburg, MCH-

Pluteus cervinus Schdgeff. Edible, Middleton. REG,
Halifax, JS.

Naucoria pediades Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

Psalliota campestris, Stropharia semi-globata, and Hypho -
loma sublateritium. Lunenburg, MCH.

Psylocybe fmnisecn P. Willow Park, Halifax, JS. Glace
Bay, Cape Breton, N.S., R. A. H. MacKeen, M. D • This
latter species was identified by C. H. Peck, State; botainist, of
New York, to whom I referred it after receiving it with a
communication /containing the following information from
Dr. MacKeen: —

“ Early this week I was called to attend three children
ranging in age from 3.5 to 4.5 years. The history I obtained
was practically the same in each case.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. MACKAY.

131

u The parents noticed a staggering gait, inability to talk,,
and a tendency to laugh in a hysterical way. When I saw the
patients some time had elapsed from the appearance of the first
symptoms. There was a marked dilation of the pupils, flushed
face, inability to stand, restlessness, occasionally an idiotic
laugh. The appearance was one of intoxication. The children
lived some distance apart but had been playing in the backyard
when taken sick. There was practically nothing alarming as
pulse, temperature and respiration were normal. The whole
impression seems to have been made on the nervous system.

“ The appearance was suggestive of belladonna poisoning,
but as there was no way of their obtaining that plant, we had
to look elsewhere. The mother of one patient handed me a
mushroom or toadstool which he had brought her, saying it was
‘'good to eat berries.” This looked like evidence of the
infant’s having eaten of this fungus. The other children, I
learned subsequently, had been playing among the same fungi.
What puzzles me is that I have always understood this class of
poisons produced gastro-intestinal irritation, vomiting and purg-
ing. Hot only were these symptoms absent, but it was ex-
tremely difficult to provoke vomiting. Happily, after a few
hours the symptoms passed away, leaving no after effects.”

This description was written on the 21st of September,
1905, and a week or two later, Mr. Peck wrote as follows :

“ The specimens of mushroom sent are in my opinion a
small form of Psilocybe fcenisecii (Pers.) Pr., called the Mow-
ers’ mushroom or Haymakers’ mushroom. It is usually found
growing among grass in meadows, pastures or lawns. I have
eaten it when cooked and regard it as an edible species, having
never experienced any ill effects from it. It is not pleasant in
flavor when raw, and I would not think children would eat
enough of it in the raw state to produce any ill effects.”

This genus of fungi has purple-brown spores, but when old
is 'not easily distinguished from others of similar habit such as

132

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

Panceolus which is black spored, and Strophariu which is
reddish spored. The spores of the Glace Bay SDOcimens were
rather larger than the measurements given of Psilocybe by M.
C. Cooke; so that it may not be identical with the species
reported from elsewhere. Cook’s measurements give the size
about 10 x 6.25 microns, while those of our species varied from
13 x 8 to 14 x 9 microns. Again, although the cooked fungus
might be safe, the uncooked might be deleterious. In order to
stimulate the observation and recording of experiments on these
fungi I report some of the observations already made on the
genera referred to above. Of Panceolus campanulatus
Macllvane says:

“ Mr. R. K. Macadam, Boston, Mass., informs me that he
has information of a case of poisoning by this fungus. 4 The
victim experiences dizziness, dimness of vision, trembling and
loss of power and memory. He recovered after simple treat-
ment, and was well inside 24 hours.’ A full account of this
case is to be found in 6 The London Medical and Surgical
Journal,’ vol. 36, Nov., 1816. The poison acts as a sedative. I
have several times eaten of this fungus in small quantities,
because larger could not be obtained, and with no other than
pleasant effect. There does not appear to be any case of poison-
ing reported of it since 1816, which, considering the Inquis-
itiveness of man, is singular. Caution is advised.”

With respect to the nearly related species, Panceolus papv-
lionaceus, Macllvane says :

“ The effects of eating this fungus are very uncertain. I
have seen it produce hilarity in a few instances, and other mild
symptoms of intoxication, which were soon over and with little
reaction. Many personal testings have been made without
effect. Testing upon others vary with the individuals. It is
not dangerous, but should be eaten with caution. Being of
small size, and not a prolific species, quantities of it are

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

133

difficult to obtain. Moderate quantities of it have no effect
whatever.”

Of the reddish spored Stropharia, he says :

“ The entire genus has been under a cloud. Writers upon
it assert some of its members to be dangerously poisonous. So
far as carefully tested by the writer (Macllvane) no doubtful
species has been encountered, and one ( 8. semiglob ata) has
been eaten by himself and friends since 1881, notwithstanding
its dangerous reputation.”

It was Sowerby who drew attention to the above discussed
species as dangerous, and intimated that in one case it had
been fatal. A near relative of the Glace Bay species, Psylocybe
semilanceata ■, a dark-purple spored agaric of the same general
appearance, has its spores nearly of the same size. And, accord-
ing to M. C. Cooke, a careful English authority, it has a
dangerous reputation, having been said to have proved fatal to
children when eaten raw. Macllvane says it is not deleterious
when cooked.

As there is much to learn yet about the effects of eating the
different species of our fungi, it is hoped that all well attested
experiences may be reported for publication and record. A
fatal case of poisoning was reported from the neighborhood of
Kentville the previous year; but the species were not known.
The victim was an old man who had collected them for his sup-
per, which it is presumed he had often done before. The symp-
tons were those of Amanita poisoning, and the accidental
inclusion of one specimen in the collection would have been
sufficient to account for the results.

This case was thus described in a communication from W.
B. Moore, M. D., on the 11th August, 1904:

“ Mr. M., a f aimer age 62 years, came home from his work
late in the evening, apparently in good health, and very hungry.
On his way home he hastily gathered a lot of mushrooms, and
as hastily prepared them, with the assistance of his old wife

134

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

(no one else living in the house) for supper with meat, etc. He
ate them all, the old lady not partaking, and soon afterwards
developed marked symptoms of poisoning from an irritant and
depressing agent. There was severe pain and distress in
stomach and bowels, with vomiting and rapid exhaustion
accompanied by abdominal distension, drawn features and hag-
gard countenance with clammy and cold skin, subnormal teim
perature and cardiac failure, suppression of urine and paraly-
sis of bowels. Although eliminative and supportive measures
were used thoroughly it was impossible to prevent death, 'which
occurred in about 33 hours from the time he ate the supper —
apparently from paralysis of the heart from the effects of some
toxic agent.

“ Ptomaines might produce a similar train of symptoms,
but there was no evidence to show that the food he ate had
undergone any decomposition likely to produce poiso'nous
alkaloids. I think the most reasonable assumption is that some
poisonous fungus was included in the lot he gathered, although
this cannot be proven as the fungi were eaten. The old lady
could not give a clear idea of the different kinds which might
have been present.

“ I saw a somewhat similar case a few years ago, in which .
the man recovered; and in this case it was also impossible to
demonstrate the kind or kinds of mushrooms eaten. As I have
seen only these two cases during a period of more than twenty
years in general practice, in a community in which large quan-
tities of mushrooms are consumed, I assume that the poisonous
fungi are few and far between in this region of the province ;
for I think there is doubtless much carelessness among people
in the matter of selection. ”

Panceolus retirugis Fr. Edible, Middleton, RRG. Anti-
gonish, JMS.

Panceolus campanulatus L. Lunenburg, MCH.

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

135

Coprinus comatus Fr. Middleton, RRG. Common
throughout the province, and one of the most valuable edible
species, AHMK. Lunenburg, MCIL

C. micaceus (Bull.) Fr. Middleton, RRG. New Glasgow,

WPF.

C. plicatilis Fr. Lunenburg, MCIL

Cortinarius violaceus (L) Fr. Middleton, edible with an
earthy flavor, RRG. Reported in “ provisional list ” from
other parts of the province, AHMK.

C. albo-vioiaceus and cinnamomeus. Lunenburg, MCH.

Lactarius resimus Fr. Middleton, rather common in pine
woods, RRG. Antigonish,JMS.

L. lignyotus Fr. Middleton, RRG. Pennant, Halifax,
JS. The “ bright crimson surface resembling fine silk plush ”
reported by Dr. John Somers and quoted in the u provisional
list ” of 1902, has not been observed by any other collector,
and is supposed to be an accidental error.

L. vellereus Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

L. piper atm Fr. Middleton, RRG.

L. subdulcis Fr. Middleton, extremely variable. RRG.

Russula heterophylla Fr. Dartmouth, AHMK. Shelburne,
CSB. Lunenburg, MCH. Macllvane has eaten specimens
cooked repeatedly without harm. RRG.

R. adusta , depallens and alutacea. Lmnenburg, MCH.

Cantharellus cibarius, aurantiacus and floccosus. Lunen-
burg, MCH ; cibarius , New Glasgow, WPF.

Panus stypticus Fr. Middleton, common on stumps, tastes
unpleasant in the throat, RRG. New Glasgow, WPF.

Schizophyllum commune Fr. Lunenburg, MCH. Middle-
ton, RRG. New Glasgow, WPF.

Lenziles sepiaria Fr. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg,
MCH. L. abietina Fr. New Glasgow, WPF.

L. betulina Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

136

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACK AY.

Boletus cavipes Kalchb. — (Boletinus pictus) . Pt. PL
Park, Halifax, AHMK; also at Hew Glasgow, WPF.

B. clintonianus , luteus, subluteus , edulis (claviceps). Lun-
enburg, MCH ; also at Hew Glasgow, americanus, granulutis,
chrysanteron , chromapes and felleus, WPF.

B. felleus Bull. Pt. PI. Park, Halifax, spores 14-15 x 4
microns, AHMK.

Polyporus lucidus Fr. ( Ganoderma tsugce Murrill).
Middleton, REG. Lunenburg, MCH. Hew Glasgow, WPF;
also picipes.

P. sulphur eus Fr. Cow Bay, on decaying coniferous stump
Halifax county, AHMK.

P. albellus Pk. Middleton, ERG.

P. fomentarius Fr. Middleton, common, REG. Lunen-
burg, MCH. (Coltricia, Murrill). Hew Glasgow, WPF.

P. epileucus Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. chioneus Fr. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. applanatus Fr. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.
Hew Glasgow and Pictou, WPF.

P. circinatus Fr. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. betulinus Fr. Middleton, common on bircb, RRG. Hew
Glasgow, WPF.

P. elegans Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. brumalis Fr. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg, RRG.
Hew Glasgow, WPF.

P. perennis Fr. and cinnamomeus (Jacq.) Sac. Lunen-
burg, MCH. ( Coltricia , Murrill). Hew Glasgow, WPF.

P. versicolor Fr. Polysticlus versicolor , Middleton, very
common, RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. abietinus Fr. Lunenburg, MCH.

P. hirsutus Fr. Middleton. RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.
Hew Glasgow, WPF; also pinicola (Swartz) Fr., pergamenus
Fr., cinnabarinus, ignarius and Favolus europceus.

FUNGI OF NOVA SOOTIA. — MACKAY.

137

Dcedalia confragosa P. Lunenburg, MCH. New Glasgow,
WPF ; also quercina and unicolor.

Hydnum imbricatum L. Middleton, REG. New Glasgow,
WPP.

H. zonatum. Lunenburg, MCH.

Id. repandum L. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg, MCH.

Hydnum coralloides Scop; Mt. Thom, Pictou Co., on
Fagus ferruginea, CLM. Lunenburg, MCH.

Stereum hirsutum Pr. Middleto'n, RRG.

Clavaria cinerea Bull. Middleton, RRG. Lunenburg,
MCH.

C. boirytis, cristata, rugosa mid stricta. Lunenburg, MCH.

C. aurea Schaeff. Dartmouth, AHMK.

Clavaria coralloides L. Pictou, September, on ground,
CLM.

Tremella lutescens Pr. Lunenburg, MCH.

Hirneola auricularjudce Pk. New Glasgow, WPP.

Cyanophallus caninus Pr. Lu'nenburg, MCH.

Lycoperdon gemmatum Fr; Middleton, RRG. Pictou,
LCH. Lunenburg, MCLI. New Glasgow, WPP.

L. pyriforme Schseff. Lunenburg, MCH.

Scleroderma vulgar e Pr. Lunenburg, MCH. New Glas-
gow, WPF.

Crucibulum vulgare Tul. On decaying trunks of deciduous
trees, Pictou, CLM. New Glasgow, WPP.

Puccinia graminis Pers., TJstilago tritici Jen., U. avenceJen.
New Glasgow, WPF. Pictou, on wheat and oats, CLM.

Ascophora mucedo Tode = Mucor mucedo L. = Phizopus
nigricans Ehrenb. (The common black mould of bread, &c.).
Common, Halifax, Pictou, &c., AHMK, CHM, and WPP.

Morchella conica Pers. Middleton, RRG.

Gyromitra esculenta Pr. Middleton, common, May in
sandy soil under pines, and reputed poisonous, RRG. Dart-
mouth, AHMK.

138

FUNGI OF NOVA SCOTIA. — MACKAY.

Mitrula vitellina Sac., var. irregulare Pk. Rear Dart-
mouth, AHMK. Pictou, CLM. Lunenburg, MCH.

Spathularia velutipes Cook & F arlow. Middleton, RRG.

Leotia lubrica Pers. Lunenburg, MCH.

Peziza badia P. Middleton, RRG.

Hypomyces lactifluorum (Scbw.) Tul. Middleton, com-
mon, RRG. Pictou, common, CLM.

Scorias spongiosa (Scbw.) Fr. Specimen growing on alder
found near Halifax by Mr. Harry Piers, within' a few weeks
ago, reported previously from Bedford Range and Yarmouth.

APPENDIX I

LIST OF MEMBERS, 1906-07.

. ORDINARY MEMBERS.

Date of A dmission.

Bayer, Rufus, Halifax March 4, 1890

Bishop, Watson L., Supt. of Water Works, Dartmouth, N. S Jan. 6, 1890

Bowman, Maynard, b. a , Public Analyst. Halifax March 13, 1884

Brown, Richard H., Halifax Feb. 2, 1903

Budge, Daniel, General Supt. Halifax & Bermuda Cable uo., Halifax Oct. 30, 1903

^Campbell, Donald A., M. D., Halifax Jan. 31, 1890

Campbell, George Murray, M. D., Halifax Nov. 10, 1884

Colpitt, Parker R., City Electrician, Halifax Feb. 2, 1903

*Davis, Charles Henry, c. E., New York City, U. S. A Dec- 5. 1900

Dixon, Prof. Stephen Mitchell, b. a., b. a. i., University of Birmingham,

Birmingham, England April 8,1902

Doane, Francis William Whitney, City Engineer, Halifax ...... Nov. 3, 1886

Donkin, Hiram, c. E., Deputy Com. of Mines, Halifax Nov. 30. 1892

Egan, Thomas J., Halifax Jan. 6. 1890

Fearon, James, Principal, Deaf and Dumb Institution, Halifax May 8, 1894

*Forbes, John, Moncton, N. B March 14 1883

*Fraser, C. Frederick, i.l. d., Principal, School for the Blind, Halifax March 31 1890

Freeman, Philip A., engineer, Hx. Elec. Tramway Co., Hx Nov. 6, 1906

Gates, Herbert E., Architect, Halifax April 17, 1899

Hattie, William Harrop, m. d., Supt. N. S. Hospital, Dartmouth Nov. 12, 1892

Hayward, A. A„ Halifax Nov. 7, 1905

Irving, G. W. T., Education Dept., Halifax Jan. 4, 1892

Jack, Prof. Ernest Brydone, M. a., c. e. Da’housie College, Halifax Nov. 7, 1905

Johnston, Harry W., c. e., Asst. City Engineer, Ha’ifax.. Dec 31, 1894

*Laing, Rev. Robert, Halifax . Jan. 11,-1885

McCarthy, Prof. J. B., b. a., m. sc., King’s College, Windsor, N. S Dec. 4, 1901

McColl, Roderick, c. E., Provl. Engineer, Halifax Jan. 4, 1892

Macdonald, Simon D., F. g. s., Halifax March 14, 1881

*MacGregor 1'rof. James Gordon, m. a., d. sc., f. r. s., f. r. s. c., Edin-
burgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland Jan. 11, 1877

Mclnnes, Hector, t.l. b., Halifax Nov. 27, 1889

*McKay, Alexander, Supervisor of Schools, Halifax Feb. 5, 1872

*MacKay, Alexander Hector, b. a., b. sc., ll. d., f r. s. c., Superintend-
ent of Education, Halifax Oct.. 11, 1885

MacKay, Prof. Ebenezer, ph. d., Dalhousie College, Halifax Nov. 27, 1889

*MacKay, George M. Johnstone, Dartmouth, N. S Dec. 18, 1903

MacKenzie, Prof. Arthur Stanley, ph. d., Dalhousie College, Halifax Nov. 7, 1905

McKerron William, Halifax . — Nov. 30, 1891

*Life Members.

Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XII. App. I.

II

LIST OF MEMBERS.

Date of Admission.

Marshall, Gilford R., Principal. Compton Avenue School, Halifax April 4, 1894

Morton, S. A.. M. A., County Academy, Halifax Jan. 27, 1893

Murphy, Martin, c. E., D. sc., I. s. o., Saskatoon, Sask Jan. 15, 1870

Murray. Prof. Daniel Alexander, Ph. D., Dalhousie College, Halifax Dec. 18, 1903

Piers, Harry, Curator Provincial Museum and Librarian Provincial

Science Library, Halifax Nov. 2,1888

♦Poole, Henry Skeffington, a. m., assoc, r. s. m , f. g. s , f. r. s. c , m.

can. soc. c. e., hon. mem. inst. M. E , Halifax Nov. 11, 1872

Read, Berbert H., m. d., l. r c. s.. Halifax Nov. 27, 1889

*Robb, D. W., Amherst, N. S March 4, 1890

Rutherford, John. M. E., Halifax Jan. 8, 1865

Sexton. Prof. Frederic H., Director of Technical Education, Halifax Dec. 18, 1903

'Smith, Prof. H. W, b. sc., Agricultural School, Truro, N. S.; Assoc.

Memb., Jan. 6, 1890 Dec. 1900

♦Stewart, John, m. b. c. m., Halifax Jan. 12, 1885

Wheaton, L. H., Chief Engineer. Coast Railway Co., Yarmouth, N. S Nov. 29, 1894

Wilson, Robert J., Secretary, School Board, Halifax May 3, 1889

Winfield, James H., Manager, N. S. Telephone Co., Halifax Dec. 18. 1903

Woodman, Prof J. Edmund, m. a , d. sc., School of Mining and Metal-
lurgy, Dalhousie College, Halifax Dec. 3.1902

*Yorston, W. G., c.E„ City Engineer, Sydney, C. B Nov. 12, 1892

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS.

Archibald, Monro. B. a., b. so., Truro, N. S Nov. 7, 1905

*Caie, Robert, Yarmouth, N. S Jan. 31, 1890

♦Dickenson, S. S., Commercial Cable Co., New York, U. S. A March 4, 1895

Edwards, Arthur M., m. d., f. l. s , Newark, N. J Dec. 12, 1898

Gates, Reginald R., University of Chicago, Chicago, 111., U. S. A Feb. 2, 1903

Haley, Prof. Frank R , Acadia College, Wolfville, N. S Nov. 5, 1901

Harlow, L.C., B. sc., Prov. Normal School, Truro, N. S March 23, 1905

Haycock, Prof . Ernest, Acadia College, Wolfville, N. S . .May 17, 1899

Hunton, Prof. S. W , M. A. Mount Allison College, Sackville, N. B Jan. 6, 1890

Jaggar, Miss A Louise, Cambridge, Mass Dec. 5, 1900

James, C. C., m. a., Depy. Min. of Agriculture, Toronto, Ontario — ...Dec. 3, 1896

Jennison, W. F., Sydney, C. B May 5, 1903

'Johns, Thomas W., Yarmouth, N. S Nov. 27, 1889

♦Keating, E. H., c. E., Toronto Ry. Co., Toronto Ont.; Ord. Memb.

April 12, 1882 April 11, 1900

Lawrence, H., D. d. s., Wolfville, N. S March 9, 1903

McIntosh, Kenneth, St Peters, C. B.; Ord. Memb, Jan. 4,1892... June 1900

♦MacKay, Hector H., M. D., New Glasgow, N. S Feb. 4, 1902

McKenzie, W. B., c. E., Moncton, N. B March 31, 1882

McLeod, R. R., Brookfield, N. S Dec. 3. 1897

Magee, W. H., ph. d., Annapolis, N. S Nov. 29, 1894

Matheson. W. G., New Glasgow, N. S Jan. 31, 1890

Payzant, E N., M. D., Wolfville, N. S . . April 8, 1902

Pineo, Avard V., ll. b., Kentville, N. S Nov. 5, 1901

♦Reid, A. P., M. D., L. R. c. s.. Middleton. Annapolis Co., N. S Jan. 31, 1890

♦Robinson, C. B., b.a., New York Botanical Garden, New York, U. S. A. .Dec. 3, 1902

*Rosborough, Rev. James, Musquodoboit Harbour, N. S Nov. 29. 1894

Russell, Prof. Lee, b. s., Worcester, Mass Dec. 3, 1896

Sawyer, Prof. Everett WT., Acadia College, Wolfville, N. S Feb. 6, 1901

'Life Members.

LIST OF MEMBERS.

Ill

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

Ami, Henry M., p. sc., f. g. s., f r. s. c., Geological Survey, Ottawa,

Ontario Jan. 2,

Bailey, Prof. L. W., pii; d., ll. d„ f. r. s. c., Fredericton, N. B — Jan. 6,

Ball. Rev. E. H., Tangier, N. S Nov. 29,

Bethune, Rev. Charles J. S., m. a., d. c. l , F. R. s. c , Ontario Agricultural

College, Guelph, Out . . Dec. 29,

Cox, Philip, B. sc., ph. D., Chatham, N. B Dec. 3,

Dobie, W. Henry, M. D., Chester, England Dec. 3,

Ells, R. W., ll. d., f. G. s. A., F. R. s. c., Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ont. . Jan. 2,

Faribault, E. Rodolphe, B. A., B. sc., Geological Survey of Canada,

Ottawa ; Assoc. Memb., March 6, 1888 Dec. 3,

Fletcher, Hugh, b. a., Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ontario March 3,

Fletcher, James, ll. d., f. l. s , f. r. s. c., Entomologist and Botanist,

Central Exp. Farm, Ottawa, Ontario March 2,

Ganong, Prof. W. F., b. a., ph. d., Smith College, Northampton, Mass.,

U. S. A Jan. 6,

Hardy, Maj -General Campbell, R. A., Dover, England. (Originally ad-
mitted Jan. 26, 1863) Oct. 30,

Harrington, W. Hague, F. R. s. c., Post Office Department, Ottawa May 5,

Hay, George U., D. sc , f. r. s c., St. John, N. B. — Dec. 3,

Litton, Robert T., f. g. s., Melbourne, Australia May 5,

McSwain, John. Charlottetown, P. E. I Dec. 3,

Matthew, G. F„ m. a., d. sc., f. r. s. c., St. John, N. B Jan. 6,

Maury, Rev. Mytton, D. D., Ithaca, N. Y., U. S. A Nov. 30,

Mowbray, Louis L., Hamilton, Bermuda May 3,

Peter, Rev. Brother Junian, Fall River, Mass., U. S. A Dec. 12,

Pickford, Charles, Halifax March 2,

Prest, Walter Henry, m. e , Webbwood, Ont ; Assoc. Memb., Nov. 29 1894, Nov. 2,

Prichard, Arthur H. Cooper Dec. 4,

Prince, Prof.. E. E., Commissioner and General Inspector of fisheries,

Ottawa, Ontario Jan. 5,

1892

1890
1871

1868

1902

1897

1894

1902

1891

1897
1890

1903

1896
1902

1892
1902

1890

1891
1907

1898
1900

1900

1901

1897

Life Members.

IV

LIST OF PRESIDENTS.

LIST OF PRESIDENTS

of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, afterwards
the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, since its
FOUNDATION IN 1862.

Term of Office.

Hon. Philip Carteret Hill, D. c. L 31 Dec. 1862 to 26 Oct. 1863

John Matthew Jones, f. l. s., f. r. s. c 26 Oct. 1863 “ 8 Oct. 1873

John Bernard Gilpin, M. a., m. d., m. r. c. s 8 Oct. 1873 9 Oct. 1878

William Gossip 9 OGt. 1878 “ 13 Oct. 1880

John Somers, m. d 13 Oct. 1880 “ 26 Oct. 1883

Robert Morrow 26 Oct. 1883 “ 2L Oct. 1885

John Somers, m. d 21 Oct. 1885 “ 10 Oct. 1888

Prof. James Gordon MacGregor, M. A., D. sc., F.R.S.. f,r.s c. 10 Oct. 1888 “ 9 Nov. 1891

Martin Murphy, c. E., D. sc., i. s. 0 9 Nov. 1891 “ 8 Nov. 1893

Prof. George Lawson, ph. d., ll. d., f. i. c., f. r. s. c 8 Nov. 1893 “ 10 Nov. 1895

Edwin Gilpin, Jr., M. a., ll. D., D. sc., F. G. s., f. r. s. c., i.s.o.18 Nov. 1895 “ 8 Nov. 1897

Alexander McKay 8 Nov. 1897 “ 20 Nov. 1899

Alexander Howard MacKay, B. a., b. sc., ll. d., f. r. s. c.. .20 Nov. 1899 “ 24 Nov. 1902
Henry Skeffington Poole, m a., d. sc., a. r. s. m., f. g. s.,

f. R. s. C 24 Nov. 1902 “ 18 Oct. 1905

Francis William Whitney Doane, c. E 18 Opt. 1905 “ 11 Nov. 1907

Prof. Ebenezer MacKay, ph. d 11 Nov. 1907 “

Note— Since 1879 the presidents of the Institute have been ex-officio Fellows of the
Royal Microscopical Society.

The first general meeting of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science was
held at Halifax, on 31st December, 1862. On 24th March, 1890, the name of the society
was changed to the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, and it was incorporated by an
act of the legislature in the same year.