Proceedings and transactions

OF THE

^oba ^cattail Institute of Science

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
VOLUME XV

PART 2

SESSION OF 1919-1920

HALIFAX

Printed for the Institute by the Royal Print and Litho Limited
Date of Publication: 30th June, 1923

Price to Non-members: One Half-dollar

CONTENTS

Proceedings of Nova Scotian Institute of Science Year 1919-1920:

Page

Annual Meeting xxi

Treasurer’s and Librarian’s Reports xxii

Election of Officers xxii

First Ordinary Meeting xxiii

Second Ordinary Meeting xxiii

Third Ordinary Meeting xxiv

Fourth Ordinary Meeting xxv

Fifth Ordinary Meeting xxv

Sixth Ordinary Meeting xxvi

Obituaries. — By A H. MacKay:

Ex-President Prof. Eben MacKay, B. A., Ph. D xxvii

Transactions of Nova Scotian Institute of Science Year 1919-1920:

Port Hood Harbour: its Past, Present and Probable Future. By D. S. McIntosh 71
The Blue Crab: Extension of its Range Northward to Near Halifax, N. S. By

Harry Piers 83

Variation in the Composition of Compressed Illuminating Gas. By Henry

Jermain Maude Creighton 91

Accidental Occurrence of the Pygmy Sperm Whale on the Coast of Nova Scotia
— An Extension of its known range; probability of former presence of

True Sperm Whale in these waters. By Harry Piers 95

A Convenient Forin of Burette for Exact Gas Analysis. By Henry Jermain

Maude Creighton 115

Notes on the Spring Bird Migration of 1914 at Antigonish, N. S. By Harrison

F. Lewis 119

The Phenology of Nova Scotia, 1919. By A. H. MacKay 129

THE attention of members of the Institute is directed to
the following recommendations of the British
Association Committe 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 '

^a6a j^cuthut ^Institute of Science

SESSION OF 1919 - 1920

(Vol. XV, Part 2)

58th Annual Business Meeting,

Physiological Lecture Room , Dalhousie College, Carleton St.,
Halifax, 10th November, 1919.

The President, Dr. H. L. Bronson, in the chair. Other
members present: Prof. C. J. Connolly, Dr. E. Mackay,

D. J. Matheson, Dr. A. H. Mackay, Prof. D. S. McIntosh,
C. B. Nickerson, Dr. J. Cameron, Dr. D. Fraser Harris,
Dr. J. H. L. Johnstone, P. R. Colpitt, Dr. W. W. Woodbury,

E. Chesley Allen, Dr. S. G. Ritchie, B. R. Coysh, F. C.
Churchill and H. Piers.

The President in his opening remarks stated that the soc-
iety’s efforts to increase its membership had met with success,
the number of members being nearly doubled. The member-
ship list had also been generally revised. The council was con-
sidering what might be done by the society to further the cause
of science in a more popular and general way, and a committee
had been appointed to deal with the subject, but was not ready
to report. Reference was made to the loss sustained during the
year through the death of Major General Hardy, who had
been the last surviving original member of the Institute, 1862,
and who died at Dover, England, on 11th April, 1919; of Dr.
Donald A. Campbell, who died at Halifax on 7th January,
1919; and of Rev. Robert Laing, who died on 19th April, 1919.

Pros. & Tran. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XV. Proc. Ill

(xxi)

XXII

PROCEEDINGS

By request of the President, Mr. Piers briefly sketched the
career of General Hardy and spoke of his interest in all that
related to this province and its natural history as well as in
the affairs of the Institute which he assisted in founding.

The Treasurer, Mr. Matheson, presented his financial
report for the year ended Oct. 1919, shewing that the receipts
were $1,103.93, the expenditures $183.93, and the balance in
hand $917.98 (in current account), while the balance at credit
of the reserve fund was $361.48, and the permanent endowment
fund, invested in Maritime Telephone bonds, was $1,000.00.
The report was received and adopted.

On motion, $500.00 will be invested in Victory Bonds, and
placed to the credit of the permanent endowment fund, as
representing life-fees.

The Librarian s report was presented by Mr. Piers, showing
that 1,163 books and pamphlets had been received through
the exchange-list during the calendar year 1918. The total
number of books and pamphlets received by the entire
Provincial Science Library (with which that of the Institute
is incorporated) for the same year, was 1 ,432. The total
number in the Science Library on 31st Dec. 1918, was 60,
890. Of these, 44,390 belong to the Institute, and 16,500 to the
Science Library proper. 128 books were borrowed in 1918,
besides the many consulted in the Library. No binding or
purchasing had been done by the Library directly, there still
being no grant at its disposal. The report was received and
adopted.

Dr. A.H. MacKay laid on the table copies of theTransactions,
vol. xiv, part 4, which had recently come from the press.

The following were elected officers for the ensuing year

(1919-1920):

President — Professor Howard Logan Bronson, Ph.D., F.R.
S.C., ex officio F.R.M. S.

First Vice-President — Professor C. J. Connolly, Ph.D.
(Antigonish.)

Second Vice-President — Professor John Cameron, M.D.,
D.Sc., F.R.S.E.

Treasurer — Donald J. Matheson, B.Sc.

Corresponding Secretary — Professor Ebenezer Mackay, Ph.D.
Recording Secretary and Librarian — Harry Piers.

ORDINARY MEETINGS XX111

Councillors without office — Alex. Howard MacKay, Ll.D.,
F.R.S.C.; Professor Donald Sutherland McIntosh,
M.Sc.; Carleton Bell Nickerson, M.A.; Professor
David Fraser Harris, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.SS. E. C.:
E. Chesley Allen; Stephen Galway Ritchie B.A.,
D.M.D.; and Captain John H. L. Johnstone, M.Sc.,
M.B.E.

On motion of Dr. E. Mackay, the President, Prof. Con-
nolly and Mr. Piers were appointed a committee to consider
means by which the Institute could extend its usefulness.

First Ordinary Meeting.

Physiological Lecture Room, Dalhousie College, Carleton St.

Halifax , 10th November, 1919.

The first ordinary meeting was held on the conclusion of the
annual business meeting. The President, Dr. Bronson, in the
chair.

Prof. Donald Sutherland McIntosh, M. Sc., Dalhousie
University, read a paper entitled “Port Hood Harbour: its
Past, Present and Probable Future.” (See Transactions, p. 71)
The subject was discussed by Dr. A. H. MacKay, Mr. Piers
and Prof. Connolly.

Second Ordinary Meeting.

Physiological Lecture Room, Dalhousie College, Carleton St .,
Halifax, 19th January, 1920.

The President, Dr. Bronson, in the chair.

It was reported that Prof. Donnell Brooks Young, B.Sc.,
Prof. Roy Aubrey Spencer, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ebenezer W. Todd,
B. Sc., and Dr. Frank W. Ryan, proposed on 10th Nov., had
been elected ordinary members by the Council in December.
The following papers were read by title:

(1) Scattered Notes of a Field Botanist in Brittany, France,
during the War. — By Major J. H. Barbour, R.A.M.C.,
F.L.S., St. Omer, Pas de Calais, France.

XXIV

PROCEEDINGS.

(2) The Blue Crab ( Callinectes sapidus Rathbun): Extension
of its Range Northward to near Halifax, N. S. — By Harry
Piers, Curator of the Provincial Museum, Halifax. (See
Transactions, page 83).

On motion from the Chair, seconded by Prof. McIntosh,
it was unanimously resolved that the Nova Scotian Institute
of Science desires to place on record its profound sense of loss
in the death from pneumonia on the sixth day of January, 1920,
after an illness of eight days, of Professor Ebenezer Mac-
kay, Ph.D. (J. H. U.), MacLeod Professor of Chemistry in
Dalhousie University. He was a member of the Institute
from 1889, from 1907 to 1910 its President, from 1899 a member
of the Council, and for the last few years the efficient Corres-
ponding Secretary. As he was only in his fifty-sixth year, full
of vigor, incessantly active, happy and hopeful; an ideal trainer
of students in science; the most tactful and generous of col-
laborators; his death is a profound loss to the Nova Scotian In-
stitute of Science, as well as to Dalhousie University and the
science of Chemistry in Canada. Even in the affairs of the
city of Halifax his usefulness in aiding many public improve-
ments has created demonstrations of sorrow for his loss which
have rarely fallen to the lot of an educationist.

It was further resolved that an obituary notice and portrait
of the late Dr. Mackay be inserted in the proceedings. (See
page xxvii.)

Prof. D. S. McIntosh reported that he had received an in-
teresting specimen of Inyoite from Hillsboro, New Brunswick,
a mineral which formerly had only been reported from Cali-
fornia, U.S.A.

Third Ordinary Meeting.

Physiological Lecture Room, Dalhousie College, Carleton St.>
Halifax, 9th February, 1920,

The President, Dr. Bronson, in the chair.

The election of a Corresponding Secretary to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of Dr. E. Mackay, was left to the Council.

C. B. Nickerson read a paper by Prof. H. Jermain M.
Creighton, D. Sc., F.C.S., Swarthmore, Penn., U. S. A., on
“Variation in the Composition of Compressed Illuminating

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

XXV

Gas with Pressure as it issues from the Compression Cylinder.’’
(See Transactions, page 91) The paper was discussed by Dr.
Bronson, Dr. A H. MacKay, C.B Nickerson, E. W. Todd,
and Dr. S. G. Ritchie.

Harry Piers, Curator of the Provincial Museum, Halifax,
read a paper on the “Accidental Occurrence of the Pygmy Sperm
Whale ( Kogia breviceps) on the Coast of Nova Scotia: an ex-
tension of its known range.’’ (See Transactions page 95)
The subject was discussed by Dr. MacKay, Prof. D. B. Young,
F. C. Churchill, Prof. Cameron, Dr. S. G. Ritchie, and
others.

Fourth Ordinary Meeting.

Physiological Lecture Room, Dalhousie College, Carleton St.,
Halifax, 8th March, 1920.

The Second Vice-President, Dr. Cameron, in the chair.

It was announced that William G. Robertson, Halifax,
proposed on 9th Feb., had been elected an ordinary member
by the Council.

Prof. D. Fraser Harris, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.SS.E. and C,,
Dalhousie University, read a paper on “The Descent of Man
in Medicine,’’ illustrated with charts and lantern slides. A
vote of thanks was presented to the lecturer.

On motion of Mr. Piers and Dr. Harris, it was resolved
that the N. S. Institute of Science convey to the publishers and
editors of Nature, London, its congratulations on the occasion
of the fiftieth aniversary of the establishment of that well-
known scientific journal, and wish them continued success in
the future.

Fifth Ordinary Meeting.

Munro Room, Dalhousie College, Carleton St.,

Halifax, 1 2th April, 1920.

The President, Dr. Bronson, in the chair.

It was announced that Ralph F. Hopkins, Halifax, proposed
on 8th March, had been elected an ordinary member by the
Council.

XXVI

PROCEEDINGS

A letter was read from the editor of Nature , thanking the
Institute for its resolution of 8th March.

Prof. John Cameron, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Dalhousie
University, read a paper entitled, “A Contribution to the Eth-
nology and Craniology of the Eskimos of Southampton Island,
Hudson Bay,” illustrated by lantern slides. The subject was
discussed by Dr. A. H. MacKay, G. W. T. Irving, H. Piers,
A. B. Wiswell, and others.

Sixth Ordinary Meeting.

Physiological Lecture Room , Dalhousie College Carleton St.,
Halifax, l Oth May, 1920.

The President, Dr. Bronson, in the chair.

On motion, Prof. Donald S. McIntosh was elected Corres-
ponding Secretary to fill the unexpired term of office of the late
Dr. E. Mackay.

A paper by Frederick C. Churchill of Wolfville, N. S., on
“An Abandoned Marine Sand-bar in the Cornwallis Valley,
N. S.” was read by Mr. Piers. (See Transactions page 65.)
The subject was discussed by Prof. McIntosh, E. W. Todd,
Dr. Bronson, Mr. Piers and the author.

A paper by Prof. H. Jermain M. Creighton, D. Sc.,
Swarthmore, Penn., on “A Convenient Form of Burette for
Exact Gas Analysis,” was read by C. B. Nickerson in the author’s
absence. (See Transactions, page 115). The paper was dis-
cussed by Dr. Bronson, Mr. Nickerson, and Mr. Todd.

The following papers were read by title:

“The Spring Bird Migration of 1914 at Antigonish, N. S.’
— By Harrison F. Lewis, Quebec, P.Q. (See Transac-
tions, page 119.)

‘‘Phenological Observations, Nova Scotia, for 1919” -By
A. H. MacKay, LL.D., F. R. S. C. (See Transac-
tions, page 56.)

A discussion took plaGe as to the selection of papers for pub-
lication, the cost of printing having very greatly advanced of
late, and resulted in matters being left in the hands of the Council.

A vote of thanks was passed to Professors Harris and
Cameron for the use of their lecture-room as a place of meeting.

Harry Piers,

Recording Secretary.

PROFESSOR EBENEZER MACKAY,
B. A. (Dal.), Ph. D. (J. H. U.)

Born, 1864; Died, 1920.

President of

N. S. INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE.
1907-1910

OBITUARY

XXVII

Obituary Notice of Ex-President
Professor Ebenezer Mackay,
B.A. (Dal.), Ph.D. (J.H.U.)
1864-1920.

On the 6th of January, 1920, a great science teacher died in Halifax after
about a week of illness from pneumonia, struck down in spite of the best
medical skill after one of the most busy sessions of the Chemistry Depart-
ment of the University of Dalhousie, of which he was the very efficient head.

Ebenezer Mackay was born January 24th. 1864, at Plainfield, at the foot
of Mount Dalhousie, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. He was the son of Angus
and Elizabeth Mackay, the father coming out from Rogart, Sutherlandshire,
Scotland, as the youngest member of a large family, whose descendants have
already figured well in the history of Canada.

Ebenezer had a good grounding in the rural school. He carried off honors
in the Pictou Academy, and graduated from the University of Dalhousie in
1886 with first-class honors in experimental physics and chemistry, and the
Mackenzie Gold Medal.

He was Principal of the High School and the Public Schools of New Glas-
gow, Pictou County, from 1886 to 1892, where he had great success. He
then took a post-graduate course in the Johns Hopkins University, became a
Fellow in 1895, and graduated Ph. D. in 1896. He was engaged in a special
research course of study at Harvard when appointed to the McLeod
Professorship of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Dalhousie, 1896, after which
he became a resident of the City of Halifax, and one of the active members
of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science.

He was elected a member 27 November, 1889, and became President,
11 November, 1907, and was continued in this office until 12 December,
1910. He was elected President of the “Greater Halifax Conference” in
1911; and later filled many high positions in scientific, educational, social
and civic departments.

His urbanity of manner, his unassuming demeanor, his accuracy of lan-
guage with minimum expenditure of words, as well as his encyclopedic know-
ledge, his self-reliance, coupled with a most genial and sympathetic dispo-
sition, endeared him to all, from the rural school to the great scientific
fellowships, and also to the general public which had often commandeered
his services. He was the soul of honor and friendship.

The tragedy of his unexpected removal in the prime of his powers, and at
the beginning of the fruition of his career, appealed profoundly to the general
public as well as to the members of the Institute, as was shewn in the
public obsequies on the occasion. His students were becoming important
contributors to original research for which the Institute was organized as
a stimulus. The torch had been suddenly flung down; but, Vitai
Lampada! it is being caught up by those who learned to play the game.

A. H. McK.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

j^oba ikottan institute of detente

SESSIONS OF 1919-1920

(Vol. XV, Part 2.)

Port Hood Harbour: Its Past, Present and Probable
Future. — By D. S. McIntosh, B. A., M. Sc., Professor of
Geology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N. S.

(Read 10 November, 1919)

INTRODUCTION

To an observant watcher by the seashore, the work of storm
waves is readily apparent. The seeming ease with which the
sand, pebbles and larger fragments of rock are moved about
cannot fail to be noted. When the waves strike so as to make an
oblique angle with the shoreline, the undertow is changed into
a current which sweeps material along the coast instead of
carrying it directly seaward. If the cliffs are reached by the
storm, the waves hurl loose portions of rock from the beach
against them, gradually wear them back, and sweep the debris
along in the direction of advance. The shoreline is thus being
worn away in one place and built up in another; the land mass
is being reduced, while bars and shoals are forming on and near
the strand line. With each succeeding storm this activity is
repeated, and it needs but length of time to greatly alter the con-
tour of the coast. Like most of the natural processes, the action
of the waves along the shore is slow in making noticeable changes,
and what is observed by one generation may be lost to the next.
Hence, the necessity of records of change which may be invaluable
to the future geographer.

Pros. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XV.

(71)

Trans 1.

72

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCKINTOSH.

The collection and preservation of data that had been neglect-
ed and were in danger of being forgotten was the motive that
prompted the writer of this paper. Interest grew with the work,
however, and its scope has been enlarged so as to present what,
in the writer's opinion, is the probable development of Port
Hood Harbour into a safe natural haven, the manner in which
it became changed into a less safe refuge, and, likewise, to attract
attention to the probable future of the port.

Location of Port Hood1 Harbour.

The County of Inverness embraces the western side of Cape
Breton Island from Cape St. Lawrence to the Strait of Canso.
From Cape St. Lawrence, the general trend of the coast line is
south-west for about eighty-five miles in a straight line to Cape
Linzee near Port Hood, the shiretown of the County. From
here it bends south with an easterly component and extends to
Point Tupper, about thirty-five miles. Two islands lie off the
coast to the south west of Cape Linzee and are a continuation of
the north-east trending land to the north, and formed at one
time an integral portion of it. The outer or Henry Island
is over a mile beyond Smith Island, the larger of the two. The
latter island is situated a mile from the mainland and op-
posite the town of Port Hood. Between Smith Island and the
mainland is the harbour which js the subject under consideration.
(See Fig. I .)

Events of the Distant Past,

It is afar cry from the Port Hood Harbour of today to the time
in which the coal-measures were laid down. The rocks around
the harbour are associated with that period of time. They are

1 . Just au Corps (Just’ au Corps) corrupted by the English to Chestico,
was a former name for Port Hood. Mr. Brown in his History of Cape
Breton, quoting from a report on the state of the island, says that “the
Acadians had built small vessels during the winter of 1764-65 at Just au
Corps seven leagues to the northward of the Gut of Canceau, for the French
merchants at St. Pierre and Miquelon." There is added as a footnote:

"Mr. Morris states that during the French occupation of the island, fifty
men were constantly employed at Just au Corps quarrying freestone for
Louisburg and the French forts in the West Indies." Port Hood is the name
used by Brown in reference to grants of land made during Macormick's
administration, begun in 1787. This name appears also on Desbarres’ charts,
and was given the place in honour of Admiral Hood of the British Navy.

portJhood harbour — MCINTOSH 73

Fig. 2. Sketch-map. Port Hood Harbour of To-day.

74

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

sedimentary, and one must realize that there was a time in the
long, long ago when here was a shallow sea in which sand and
mud were being deposited in alternating beds with layers of
gypsum and sea-shells, and where at various times great swamps
existed in which grew the vegetation from which the coal of
today resulted. A glance at a geological map of the Island will
show that what is now Cape Breton was then a much smaller
land area made up of individual parts into and around which the
sea extended. It had, however, topographical features similar
to those of the present landscape, as the valleys of today are
found to be floored by these same sedimentary rocks that are
seen at Port Hood. The plateau of older rock that today oc-
cupies the larger part of the north and interior of the Island
existed as today, but the sea entered all the old valleys drown-
ing the rivers for a long distance towards their sources. Through
succeeding ages, the sediment laid down in the sea was changed.
The mud, sand, and gravel became consolidated into hard rock;
the shells became limestone; the vegetation, coal; and the gyp-
sum grew firmer. Slowly the land emerged from the sea, and
not unlikely the area where is now the Gulf of St. Lawrence
became land, and the old St. Lawrence and other streams made
their way seaward and emptied far beyond the coast line of
today. Onwards through the vast stretches of time the land
was undergoing change — now elevation, now subsidence; but
always were the sub-aerial forces at work removing material
from a higher to a lower level, and the ocean waves beating upon
the coast tearing away here and building up there. A general
subsidence of the land allowed the sea to flood the lower course
of the St. Lawrence and cover a large part of the surrounding
area, and thus brought about the St. Lawrence Gulf, the waves
of which are now pounding upon the Inverness coast. A period
there was also, during which the whole country was covered by
ice as Greenland is today, and this event also left its impress
upon the land. These long-continued processes, at length,
resulted in the physical features of today with a somewhat
more extensive land area.

The Less Distant Past ANp Origin of the Harbour.

In the less distant past, the land stood some scores of feet
higher in relation to the sea than it does today. The continuous

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

75

action of the waves was, however, gradually reducing the extent
of the land, and its height was being lessened by weathering and
running water. In the course of time a line of weakness was
found on the seaward side, and a portion was detached from the
land mass and formed Henry Island.

It cannot be stated with certainty how the harbour came into
existence, but there is evidence that points strongly to the prob-
able way. Its location was an area of structural weakness.
(See Fig. 1 .) The rocks on the present landward side and on
the greater part of Smith Island form a part of the Coal Measures.
Smith Island has a fringe of the Lower Carboniferous on the
northern end, showing also on both sides on the shore underneath
the rocks of the Coal Measures. Here is the contact of the two
formations, and the upper beds of the lower series consist of soft
shales, gypsum, marl, etc. which yield easily to eroding forces.
The harbour length is along the strike of these rocks. It is not
unlikely, also, that this is a broken or faulted area. The soft
rock and the attitude and conditions of the beds were, thus,
such as to lend themselves readily to rapid wear whether to
sub-aerial or wave processes. The slope of the land was in all
probability southward, and it may be said with a good deal of
certainty that a gentle sloping valley developed about the
middle portion of the area largely through stream and general
erosion and that it lay open to the south. A slow subsidence of
the land bringing it to about the present level allowed the sea
to enter this valley depression. The sinking of the land was
general along our coast. All our rivers show it. The sea enters
their lower courses. Mabou river, some few miles north of
Port Hood, has its lower valley drowned. The tidal waters
extend inland to Mabou village some five miles. A depth of
fifty feet of water in the Mabou river channel would indicate a
sinking of that extent at least, probably much more, as the chan-
nel bed has silted up largely since the subsidence. The harbour
of Port Hood thus began as a submerged valley of erosion.
On the northern side of the depression the rocks were more
resistant hard sandstone and withstood the wave attacks and
the general weathering, so that the harbour lay sheltered from
the northern gales by a neck of land perhaps a half-mile wide.

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH

Fig. 2. Port Hood Harbour. (Reduced from Desbarres’ Chart. 1781.)

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH .

77

Evidence of Former Land Connection.

The discussion up to this point has been based upon known
geological changes in the earth’s history, and the probable re-
sults of processes at work under conditions that very likely ex-
isted. That they may be questioned, the writer is well aware.
No doubt, however, exists as to the presence of a land con-
nection where is now the northern entrance to the harbour.

In the Legislative Library at Halifax are three volumes of
unique charts owned and used by Admiral Lord Nelson, and
presented to the Library on August 21st, 1885, by Vice-Admiral
Sir J. E. Commerell, K. C. B., V. C. They were published for
use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain by Joseph F. W. Des-
Barres, and bear the date of 1781. Two of these charts, plates
3 and 33, are of the western coast of Cape Breton and show
the harbour of Port Hood, with the depths of water in the harbor
and around the coast. Henry Isle is separated from the nearest
land by shallow water with two narrow channels three fathoms
deep. What is now Smith Island is joined to the mainland
and the connecting neck is marked ‘‘Sand hills/ ’ but at four
places, two near each end of the neck, is the conventional
sign for “Cliffs of red earth.’’ (See Fig. 2.) These red banks
must indicate underlying rock above high water mark. It is
probable that the original rock extended from each side, and that
towards the middle the sea had worn it down, so that at high
tide or during heavy gales some water passed to and from the
harbour. The customary sand grasses would cover the sand
hills.

On the plate, a part of which is shown in Figure 2, is the
following in engraved script; — “Port Hood, situated on the
north-western extremity of the Island of Cape Breton, bears by
eompass North 4° East distance twenty miles from the north
entrance of the Gut of Canco, and East 8° South 1 71/ \ miles
from Cape George, The Flood Tide sets from ye Northward at
from Cape George. The Flood Tide sets from ye Northward at
the rate of one and half miles an hour and on the days of Full
and Change it is High Water at half-past seven. Common
Spring Tides rise about five feet. To sail in, keep your course
to the Eastward till Point Emersion is on with the Gut of Canso;
this direction will lead you into no less than six fathoms water,
and close by the end of the Sand Flatt which runs from the South-
east part of the Peninsula, here are two small remarkable white

78

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

beaches at the bottom of the cliffs. When the Southermost
bears W. by S. you may haul around by the anchorage in four
and five fathoms water and muddy bottom, where ships may
lie well sheltered from all winds. The water on the Flatts
appears very white, and breaks when ye wind blows strong
from the southward.

“There is a passage for small vessels between Point Susannah
and Henry Isle.”

In the Crown Lands Office in Halifax are old land grants
which show that late as 1826 the northern entrance was closed.
On one grant the connecting strip of land is divided into cross
lots from end to end of the neck, six in all, evidently for fishing
purposes. The narrowest part of the neck on this grant, which
bears date of 1826, is about six chains. There appears to.be
some doubt about the accuracy of these plans, as a grant of
1 823 on which the land connection is much narrower has written
upon it: “A dependance can be placed on this plan. — T. Craw-
ley, Sur-General.”

There is also available evidence of personal recollection.
The writer is indebted to Mr. N. H. Meagher, until recently a
Judge of the Supreme Court in his native province, for the follow-
ing :“My father came to Nova Scotia about 1820 or 1821 and
for a time lived at Port Hood. At that time there were a ruim-
berof Smiths living on the inner Port Hood Island. A daughter
of one of these married a man named Hayes — a Catholic. The
visit of the priest to Port Hood at that time was a very rare
event, and when one came, my father was sent over to the island
to notify the Hayes family of his presence on the mainland.
Sometimes he made the journey to the Island on foot, and at
others on horseback. At that time a small stream would cross
the sand bar when high tides occurred — and only then.”

The Immediate Past.

There is, therefore, accurate knowledge of Port Hood Harbour
as it existed somewhat less than a hundred years ago. As a
haven for ships it ranked high. It was excellently protected
from wind and wave. Lying open to the south-west, it would
not be affected much by a storm from that quarter as the reach
of outside water in that direction is not great. The approach
lay open giving easy accessibility. The channel was sufficiently
wide with a depth at the shallowest part of six fathoms. No

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

79

bars obstructed it, although a sand shoal had built out nearly
half the width from the western side about a third of the dis-
tance from the mouth. There was, however, sufficient water in
a wide channel east of this. The depth of water in the harbour
varied from four to six fathoms. The anchorage was safe.
There was freedom from strong or high tides and from fog. One
drawback it had then as now, ice interfering with navigation
for something like three of the winter months.

A False Move and Serious Results. — The abundance of fish
around this coast early attracted men to the sea. The homes of
the fishermen were around the harbour, but the best fishing
grounds lay to the north. To reach the banks it was necessary
to make a wide detour south and around the island. 'A channel
for boats could easily be made across the isthmus from the head
of the harbour to the open sea. This would be a great con-
venience. Accordingly at the lowest part of the beach a passage
for boats was cut through. This was left unprotected in any
way, and soon the waves and currents widened it making great
inroads on both sides, until at the present day the channel is
about three-quarters of a mile wide with a maximum depth of
one and a-half fathoms. In less than a hundred years, therefore,
a neck of land three-quarters of a mile in length has been re-
moved by the ceaseless action of the waves.

The Change a Gradual One. — For a tirflfe after the opening of
the northern entrance, the harbour retained its main former
characteristics. Fishermen from other parts frequented the
fishing grounds and sought refuge here. Some three-score years
ago when the “North Bay” was the favorite mid-summer haunts
of the American mackerel hookers and seiners, Port Hood was
a noted rendezvous. More than a hundred schooners of the
fleet were often at anchor at one time in its capacious harbour.
Many interesting accounts of the time are related of the en-
counters between law-breakers and coastal-guard cutters. Our
own countrymen were often to be found among the fishermen,
and frequently figured in the escapades. Capt. Patillo of the
schooner “Highland Lass” seems to have been one of the ablest
and most daring of these mackerel catchers. His ability to
locate fish was well known. Should the fleet be around the
Magdalen Islands at night-fall, and in the morning the “High-
land Lass” be missing, Patillo had surely sailed for Port Hood

80

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH

through the night, and accordingly the whole fleet would follow.
His hair-breadth escapes from the cutters were also the common
property of the fleet.

The Present Conditions.

The removal of the land protection on the north left the har-
bor open to the northerly and northeasterly gales which are the
most severe along this coast. The seas sweep in and it is diffi-
cult to maintain a wharf on the Port Hood side. The land on
both sides of the harbour has suffered much from the waves.
In this connection, Mr. Meagher says: “In my own recol-

lection when I went to school at Port Hood in the winter of
1863 the land extended out, I am quite sure, as far as, if not
further than the head of the present public wharf. There was
an old Catholic Church, the first at Port Hood, situate some
distance to the southward and eastward of the present pier,
and was, I believe, as far out from the present shoreline as the
head of the pier. There were some old buildings there too — one
of them a store belonging to Peter Smythe. They disappeared
years ago. I am under the impression that there was an old
meeting house there too. The school boys in the spring of the
year were in the habit of going to the shore and having contests
to see who threw down the largest area of sod which had been
undermined several feet by the action of the sea.” The harbour
has silted up to some extent at the middle and at the southern
end, and many of its fine features as a haven of refuge are gone.
It now partakes of the type of harbour determined by a shelter
behind an island. In this regard it compares favourably with
others of that type. The old anchorage still remains with Smith
Island serving as a protection from the north and west winds.
The island side serves also as a safe shelter for the fleet of fishing
boats, and a site for the wharves and buildings connected with
the fisheries which continue to be valuable. On the mainland
side towards the southern entrance, a coal shipping pier was
built some years ago. It appears not to have been adversely
affected by the waves, but the shifting sands have, doubtless,
lessened the depth of water around.

The Probable Future.

In the ordinary course of natural events, the harbour must
be destroyed, providing the coast remains stationary. The

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

81

island is wearing away somewhat rapidly. For thousands of
years, however, it may exist as an inferior type of natural haven,
and serve as a port. The current through the northern entrance
is such as to preclude the probability of the island being in time
tied to the mainland by a sand bar, and thus renewing the old
condition.

What nature may not do, may, however, be done by man. It
is possible to close the northern entrance artificially. The at-
tempt was begun in 1 903 when the sum of nearly three thousand
dollars was spent. Work on the project was continued each
succeeding summer up to 1912, the whole expenditure being
upwards of one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. The
plan of operation consisted in building a structure across the
channel from a point a short distance above the public wharf
to extend to the nearest point on the island. Stout twigs were
made into mattresses, these sunk and ballasted. Work was
done on both sides of the channel, but has not been resumed
since 1912. The project is referred to by the Chief Engineer as
the “proposed closing of the northern entrance,” and he says
“the estimated cost is approximately five hundred thousand
dollars at present prices for labour and material.”

But a new danger threatens the sheltered portion of the
harbour. On the northern end of the island about 230 feet
from the shore at the channel, there begins a weak place in the
rock, and this extends westward for about 600 feet. This is
probably the same kind of rock and structure which led at first
to the depression that formed the harbour. The cliff here is
about 30 feet high and from it the ground slopes southward for
about 650 feet to a pond on a level with the se . This pond is
separated from the best sheltered part of the harbour by a nar-
row sand beach about 60 feet wide over which at very high
tides the sea enters the pond. Now this northerly facing cliff
of soft rock is rapidly wearing away under the attacks of the
northerly storms. Last year, it is stated, the sea advanced
about 1 3 feet. As it is cutting into a southerly sloping area,
it is likely to progress more rapidly as the work goes on, unless
the increasing length of the cove it forms becomes a
deterring factor. It is, at any rate, evident that in fifty years
or so, this place may be cut across and a small island be left
where is now the headquarters of the fisheries for the Port

82

PORT HOOD HARBOUR MCINTOSH.

Hood Island. This part of the island, therefore, needs to be
protected artificially to preserve the present harbour.

Like many other harbours, that of Port Hood has a tragic
side to its history. On December 17th, 1876, the schooner
Maggie H, Capt. McLellan, from Bonne Bay, Newfoundland,
was wrecked there. The newspaper report describes her as a
vessel of 90 tons register, 10 years old, built at Boston and owned
by Capt. Murdoch McLellan of Port Hawkesbury. Besides
the crew of nine men, there were on board, as passengers, a man
and his wife and three children. Two members of the crew and
the three children were lost. The remainder of the crew and
passengers were rescued by Mr. H. A. Smith, of Port Hood Is-
land, and his three brothers, each of whom received a silver
watch from the Government in recognition of his humane
act. The newspaper of the same date contains also the follow-
ing:— “A despatch to the Marine and Fisheries received yester-
day states that the barque Minerva of Charlottetown was
ashore at Port Hood, full of water, and was breaking up. The
second mate was drowned in attempting to land.”

In the preparation of this paper the writer has received val-
uable help from several sources. He wishes to acknowledge his
indebtedness to Mr. Harry Piers of the Provincial Museum, who
acquainted him with the presence of the charts in the Legis-
lative Library, to Miss Donohoe, the efficient librarian of that
institution, to Mr. R. M. Smith, of Port Hood Island, for in-
formation and some measurements on the island, to the officials
of the Crown Lands Office, and to Dr. A. W. Chisholm, M. P.
for Inverness County, for statistics regarding the work of clos-
ing the northern entrance to the harbour. Grateful acknow-
ledgements are due also to Mr. N. H. Meagher, who took a keen
interest in the work from its inception, and furnished material
and helpful suggestions.

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

83

The Blue Crab ( Callinectes sapidus Rathbun): Extension

of its Range Northwarp to near Halifax, Nova
Scotia. — By Harry Piers, Curator of the Provincial
Museum of Nova Scotia, Halifax,

(Read 19 January, 1920.)

Callinectes sapidus, the Blue or Common Edible Crab of the
Atlantic coast of the United States, and the only northern
form of the genus, was, until 1893, known as Lupa ( Callinectes )
hastatus of Say. It is not the Lupa hastata of Desmarest, and
therefore was assigned its present name by Miss Mary J. Rath-
bun in a paper on “The Genus Callinectes” (Proc. U. S. Nat.
Museum, vol. 18, p. 349, Wash., 1893). It belongs to the
family Portunidae (the swimming Crabs), which is distinguished
by the last pair of periopods (legs) being broad and flattened
at the end, thus forming effective paddles for propulsion.

Range.— Up to now the most northern locality from which
it has been recorded is Millpond, an inlet of Salem Harbour,
Massachusetts, U. S. A., where a single individual was taken as
recorded by C. Cooke in the American Naturalist, vol. 1, p. 52,
1867. It is occasionally found in Massachussetts Bay (Smith,
Rept. U. S. Com. Fish and Fisheries for 1871-2, p. 548, 1874).
It is common in bays and at the mouths of rivers from Cape
Cod, Mass., to the northern extremity of Texas, and is especially
abundant in Chesapeake Bay, where it is the basis of an ex-
tensive industry. Specimens have been taken also in the Ber-
mudas, Jamacia, and Brazil; but outside of the region from
Cape Cod to Texas it is of rare occurrence. Dr. J. F. Whiteaves
makes no reference to it in his Catalogue of Marine Inverte-
brates of Eastern Canada, Ottawa, 1901, nor do any later writers
mention its occurrence north of Salem Harbour. Dr. A. G.
Huntsman of the Biological Board of Canada informs me that
they have never obtained it in any of their investigations along
the Atlantic coast, and he knows of no reference to its occurrence
in Canadian waters. Mr. William Macintosh, curator of the
Museum of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick,
St. John, tells me that he has no record of its having been taken
along the New Brunswick coast.

Habitat. — It occurs on muddy shores and bottoms, down to
deep water, and among eelgrass, being particularly abundant
in bays and in the brackish waters of estuaries; and has even
Proc. & Trans, N. S, Inst,Sci., Vol. XX. Trans. 7.

84

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

been taken in fresh water contiguous to the coast. During
the summer it is found in relatively shallow water; but retires
in winter to greater depths. Adults are more often obtained
in deep water; but the young, as well as some adults, come
inshore to water only a few inches in depth.

Economics. — Next to the Lobster, this crab is the most im-
portant food crustacean of the United States, it being extensive-
ly eaten both in the hard- and soft-shelled stage, and is highly
esteemed.* Any extension of its range is therefore of consid-
erable general interest.

Occurrence on the Nova Scotian coast. — In the Provincial
Museum of Nova Scotia, Halifax, when 1 took charge of it in
1899, was an old dried specimen of an adult female Callinectes
sapiduSi but without any data. As there were a few foreign
crustaceans in the collection, I did not then consider its presence
of any significance.

On 8th November, 1902, I purchased from a Miss Iceton,
in the Halifax market, two specimens of the species, a male and
an immature female, which had been found alive, cast up
with kelp on the sand beach at Cow Bay, Halifax County, N. S.,
on 7th November, and which had been boiled and so turned red.
A third one, an adult male, had been taken with the others,
and was obtained for the Museum on the following market
day. I requested the woman to look for more, and accordingly
other specimens from the same place were obtained from her
in November and December of that year, and in April and May,
1903; making in all fourteen specimens. One of them was
alive when I received it, and the others quite fresh.

Two more specimens, a male and an immature female, were
taken on 8th May, 1903, in what is known as the Lily Pond, a
brackish lagoon, immediately behind the Cow Bay sand-and-
gravel beach. This lagoon is now connected with the sea at
high-tide by a narrow channel at the southwestern end of the
beach. Up to about 1901 the water of this pond was fresh,
being fed by a couple of brooks, and white waterlilies flourished
there; but about that year a new outlet was broken through
and since then the water has been brackish. The pond is

* "Soft-shelled” crabs are those met with two or three days after moulting, before the
shell has become hard. The period between moults is from 1 5 to 25 days, according to whether
the individual is young or approaching maturity. The usual period of life is about three
years, and the number of eggs laid about 1,750,000.

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

85

shallow, and the bottom mostly sand, overlaid with decaying
organic material.

The place where all these specimens were obtained was at
the southwestern end of the sand beach, near the present out-
let of the Lily Pond, or Cow Bay Pond as it is sometimes
called, about four-fifths of a mile southwest of the Mosher
house. The two which were collected in brackish water
were taken in the adjoining pond, close to the outlet, and
therefore in the immediate vicinity of where the others were
found in salt water.

Cow Bay itself is on the Atlantic coast, seven miles in a direct
line east-southeast from the city of Halifax, in Halifax County,
and lies between Hartling Point on the west and Osborne Head
on the east. It has a long beach of sand and gravel, exposed to
the full inward sweep of the Atlantic Ocean.* The locality is
very scantly settled by farmers.

One male Blue Crab was obtained from Beazley and Henrion,
fish dealers, of Halifax, who told me it had been taken at Cole
Harbour, Halifax County, on 25th November 1902; but as Cole
Harbour is about three miles northeast from Cow Bay, and it is
the only specimen reported to have come from there, I think it
very probable that it also came from the latter place. The dealer
had purchased it from someone living in that district, and may
have mistaken the name of the exact locality, as such details
were of no interest to him.

All of the Cow Bay specimens were obtained in the Halifax
market from one woman, who then lived in that district, and
they were taken by her brothers. She told me that no one
about Cow Bay to whom the crabs had been shown, had seen
the species before. Since the spring of. 1903, this woman has
ceased coming to the market, and I have not since happened to
note any of the crabs exposed for sale. I am therefore not in a
position to state whether the colony still exists at Cow Bay,
but there can be hardly any doubt that it does, as it seemed to
be well established.

Besides the Cow Bay occurrence, I am only aware of this
species having been once taken elsewhere in Nova Scotian waters.
Mr. E. Chesley Allen, formerly of Yarmouth but now of Halifax,
informs me that he identified a single adult specimen of C. sapidus

* For an account of Cow Bay beach and its pond, see McIntosh, Prof. D. S., AStudyof the Cow
Bay Beaches, Trans. N. S. Inst. Sc., vol. 14, pt. 2, p. 109, 1906.

86

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

which he obtained in a fish-market in Yarmouth. It had been
taken on the shore at Sandford, just outside of the mouth of the
Bay of Fundy, Yarmouth Co., six miles north-northwest of the
town of Yarmouth, N. S., about the year 1921. No person of the
district had met with the species before, and it is the only speci-
men Mr. Allen has noted in this province, although he has care-
fully examined the shore about Yarmouth for marine inverte-
brates. His specimen has since been lost. On the coast at
Sandford there is, I believe, a lagoon or cove which is separated
from the sea by a roadway.

Summary of specimens. — In all, seventeen specimens and the
right cheliped of an eighteenth one, have been received by the
Museum from the Cow Bay district, exclusive of the old female,
without data, which we suppose must have been also collected
here. Of the 18 complete specimens, 12 are males, immature
and adult, varying in greatest width from 4.20 inches to 6.03
inches; and 6 are females, varying in width from 4.30 inches to
5.90 inches. Of the females, 2 are adults with the distinguishing
broad, rounded abdomen, and 4 are immature specimens with
wedge-shaped abdomens.*

Grouped as to months in which they were taken, we get the
following result; April, 6 specimens (all male): May, 3, (2
males and 1 immature female); November, 6, (4 males and 2
immature females); and December, 2, (both females, immature
and adult). These scant figures indicate that they may be
most common in April and November. It is possible that
during the more busy summer season they were not searched
for. In the winter they no doubt retire, as elsewhere in their
range, to the bottom in deeper and warmer water, but they
are met with on shore as early as the later part of April and
as late as 11th December. In Chesapeake Bay, Va. and Md., U.
S. A., they are most abundantly taken in Mayor June, and in
October or November.

Particulars of Nova Scotian specimens. — On the next page
are given particulars of the eighteen complete specimens and
one cheliped of Callinectes sapidus in the Provincial Museum:

* Unlike the case of the female, we have no criterion by which to distinguish adult males from
immature ones, except so far as size and general appearance is indicative of age, unless one can
make observations on sexual activity.

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

87

Accession

Number

Sex

Age

Locality

Date

Length I P

I*

PACE

S ,

g

Ins-

Ins.

Old specimen

Female

Adult

Nova Scotia (?).

Not known.

2.25

4.65

1073

Male

Cow Bay, Hfx. Co., N. S.

7 Nov. 1902

2.55

5.26

1073

Female

Immature

M ,, ,, M

• • •» ,#

2.35

5.09

1077

Male

• » M *f

2.75

6.03

1 078+

£

14 „

2.50

5.36

1098

Cole HaV. 0). Hx. Co., N. S.

25 „ „

2.36

5.14

1099

Female

Immature

Cow Bay, Hfx. Co.

27 „

1.96

4.30

1 125

9 t

1 1 Dec. .,

2.18

4.82

1126

Adult

M ,,

24 Ap. 1903

2.52

5.90

181 1

Male

2.46

5.30

M

2.46

5.12

2.64

5.70

■

2.46

5.26

»» „

2.31

4.74

„

2.28

4.73

/ R ■ C9 h

\rvigin

cheliped)

”

1815

Male

>> ,, ,, ,,

1 May .,

2.73

6.00

1820

••

Cow Bay Lily Pond, Cow Bay

8 ., .,

1.98

4.20

Female

Immature

.. ..

.. ..

2.00

4.35

All specimens were obtained from one person, except the “old specimen” and No. 1098.

t Alive when received.

12 males: average length, 2.457 ins; average width, 5.237 ins.

6 females: average length, 2.210 ins.; average width, 4.852 ins.

2 adult females: average length, 2.39 ins.; average width, 5. 28 ins.

Males vary in size from the smallest (No. 1820), 1.98 ins. in length, 4.20 ins. width, to the
largest (No. 1077), 2.75 ins. length, 6.03 ins. width.

Females vary in size from the smallest (No. 1099), 1. 96 ins. length, 4.30 ins. width, to the
largest (No. 1 126), 2.52 ins. length, 5.90 ins width.

Largest immature female is No. 1073, 2.35 ins. length, 5.09 ins. width.

All of these specimens agree fully with descriptions and figures
of Callinectes sapidus. The following notes on the colour were
made from Acc. No. 1078 (male), which was alive when received,
and No. 1077 (male) which was quite fresh, and represent fairly
well the colouration as found here, which agrees generally with
that of more southern specimens:

Colour. — Carapace greenish-olive, passing into olive-green on posterior
margin. Tips of teeth on anterior margin of carapace and of lateral spines,
reddish. Underparts generally white. Legs (periopods) pale olive-green and
blue; their callosites and spines red. Upper part of chelae (“pincer-claws”)
dirty olive-green; inner side of same, a fine cobalt blue.

In Chesapeake Bay, U. S. A., 36 adult females had an average
width of 6. 1 1 7 inches, and they are known to attain a width of
7 inches; and the average width of adult males is there probably
about 6.3 inches at least, while they are known to grow to a width
of 8.3 inches.* As our two adult females (with rounded abdomens)

* Churchill. E. P.. Life History of the Blue Crab, Bull. Bur. of Fisheries, vol. 36, 1917-18,
p.101. Wash., 1919.

88

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS.

only measure 4.65 inches and 5.90 inches, and the males are all
6.03 inches or less in breadth, we are lead to the conclusion that
our Nova Scotian individuals undergo their final moult and so
attain maturity at a smaller size then do those of the more
favourable southern coast. This is as might be expected on
the extreme northern extension of the geographical range, where
suitable food may not be so abundant, and the torpid winter
condition may be slightly longer, as this crab becomes sluggish
when the temperature of the water falls below 50 degrees.

Conclusion. — We thus see that at this northern locality on the
Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, in latitude 44° 37', there is a re-
markable and apparently well-established and comparatively
numerous colony of this important species of crab, which pre-
viously had never been recorded from Canadian waters, or even
from further north than Salem Harbour, Mass., situated in
latitude 42° 30\ nearly four hundred miles to the southwest.
It seems truly remarkable that this crab has not been found in
the Bay of Fundy, except the single specimen from Sandford,
Yarmouth Co., or even on the coast of Maine.* It would be
interesting to know if it occurs in suitable localities elsewhere
along our Nova Scotian Atlantic coast, or whether at Cow Bay
and Sandford, we have isolated colonies whose origin may have
been casual individuals, or even a single egg-bearing female,
borne northeastward on the Gulf Stream and thence straying
to our shore. This current has brought many unexpected
marine visitors from the south. Such accidental crustacean
wanderers, if cast upon a favourable part of the coast, where
suitable food occurred, could multiply and establish themselves.
The marked swimming ability of the family to which the Blue
Crab belongs, may lend strength to such an explanation of the
origin of such colonies here, should subsequent observations
indicate that the species does not occur in the intervening area
between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. f Nothing at present
indicates that the Cow Bay colony and the Sandford individual
are the survivors of an occupation which once extended un-
broken up to this latitude.

* See Rathbun's List of Crustacea of New England, 1905.

t W. P. Hay (Life History of Blue Crab. Rept. U. S. Bur. of Fisheries. 1904, p. 401. Wash..
1905) says the species is one of great activity and considerable power of endurance. It pro-
gresses through the water by a sculling motion of the broad hind legs, and under ordinary
conditions it moves slowly, its efforts apparently being to keep afloat while it is borne along by
the current. In this way it might easily go adrift and be carried northward by the set of the
Gnlf Stream.

THE BLUE CRAB— PIERS.

89

Previous references to these specimens. — -It may be mentioned
that in notes on interesting accessions published in the Report
on the Provincial Museum for 1902 (appended to the Report
of the Department of Mines), Halifax, 1903, page 3, I briefly
referred to our first specimens as “several Blue Crabs ( Call -
inectes sapidus), new to this province, taken at Cow Bay”;
and in the report for 1903 (Halifax, 1904, page 6), stated that
in that year “a number of Blue Crabs ( Callinedes sapidus) have
been obtained from Cow Bay and Eastern Passage, showing
that this species has an established habitat in the province.”
This reference to the Eastern Passage I cannot now explain, as
that locality is not given for any of the specimens recorded in
our accession-book or on the labels, and it is without doubt
a mistake, although at the time of then writing I must have
had some reason for thinking that the species also occurred
near the sandy Eastern Passage, an arm of Halifax Harbour,
which adjoins Cow Bay to the westward.* As these brief records
were buried in the before-mentioned reports, it seems well to
draw attention more formally to such an interesting and unex-
pected extension of the geographic range of an important
economic species.

Summary. — 1. The Blue Crab ( Callinedes sapidus ) occurs as
a fairly numerous colony at Cow Bay, on the Atlantic coast of
Nova Scotia, seven miles east-southeast from Halifax, and
possibly at immediately adjoining favourable localities. A
single specimen has also been taken at Sandford, Yarmouth
County, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. It occurs in both
salt and brackish water, but apparently rarely in the latter.

2. No previous records are known of its occurrence to the
north of Salem Harbour, Mass., and the question naturally
arises whether in Nova Scotia we have merely isolated colonies
established by casual drift individuals borne northward by the
Gulf Stream and cast upon our shore; or whether, less likely,
they are the survivors of a continuous occupation which once
extended this far north. Further search should be made to

*Since writing the above, I have met the woman from whom I obtained
the Cow Bay specimens of this crab which are in the museum. She had
been a Miss Iceton of Cow Bay, but is now Mrs. Soward of Purcell’s Cove,
N. W. Arm. She assures me that all the Blue Crabs I obtained from her
were taken at the southwestern end of Cow Bay beach, near the outlet of
Cow Bay Pond, about 4/5 mile southwest of the Mosher house. She has
never heard of any having been taken in the Eastern Passage or elsewhere

90

THE BLUE CRAB PIERS

discover if the species exists elsewhere on our coast to the south-
westward of Halifax, from which region, with the exception of
Sandford, it has so far not been reported.

3 Inhabitants of the districts where it was found, had not
noted the species before, which, although not evidence of much
weight, tends to increase the probability that it had been intro-
duced by natural agencies within comparatively recent years.

4. Individuals from Nova Scotia seem to mature when of a
slightly smaller size than do those of more southern regions, but
this is not sufficiently pronounced to be at all varietal.

Provincial Museum. Halifax, N. S.,

12th December, 1919.

VARIATION IN COMPOSITION OF GAS

REIGHTON

91

Variation in the Composition of Compressed Illumin-
ating Gas with Pressure as it issues from the Com-
pression Cylinder. — By Henry Jermain Maude Creighton,
Dr. Sc., F. C. S., Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Swarth-
more College, Swarthmore, Penna., U. S. A.

(Read 9 February, 1920)

In the course of another investigation it became necessary
for the writer to employ an illuminating gas containing 5 to 6
per cent, of carbon dioxide. As the content of carbon dioxide
in the gas of the laboratory was about one-half this amount,
a cylinder of purified carburetted water-gas under a pressure of
approximately 300 pounds per square inch was obtained through
the courtesy of a neighboring gas company. An analysis of the
gas prior to compression gave the following results:

Carbon dioxide .
Illuminants . . . .

Oxygen

Carbon monoxide

Hydrogen

Methane

Ethane

Nitrogen

Per cent.
. 3.5

. 13.7
0.9
. 26.9
. 35_0
. 12.4
. 1.3
. 4.3

*100_0

Before employing the gas in the investigation to which refer-
ence has been made, the carbon dioxide content in a sample
taken from the compression cylinder was determined. To the
writer’s surprise this amounted to only 3.5 per cent. The same
result was obtained with several other samples. On thinking
the matter over, the conclusion was reached that the low carbon
dioxide content in the samples of gas taken from the compression
cylinder must be due to differences in the rates of diffusion of the
components of the gas through the very small orifice of the
compression cylinder; the heavier carbon dioxide diffusing less
rapidly than the lighter hydrogen and methane. In order to
substantiate this conclusion, and to ascertain the manner in
which the composition of the diffused gas altered with the dif-
fusing pressure, analyses were made of samples of gas taken from
the compression cylinder as the pressure therein was gradually
decreased.

92

VARIATION IN COMPOSITION OF

The reducing valve of the compression cylinder was con-
nected with a gas-meter, which in turn was attached to a bunsen
burner. Samples of the gas were obtained for analysis from a
three-way tube placed between the cylinder and the gas-meter.
The gas was allowed to flow from the cylinder at a constant rate
of 120 liters per hour. Since each division on the scale of the
main pressure gauge of the cylinder corresponded to 62.5 pounds
per square inch, samples of gas were taken for analysis after
each reduction in pressure of this amount. Determinations of
carbon dioxide, illuminants, oxygen and carbon monoxide were
made in the usual way. Owing to lack of apparatus for the
separation and estimation of hydrogen, methane and ethane,
these components could not be separately determined. In
Table 1 are recorded the amounts of carbon dioxide, illuminants,
oxygen, carbon monoxide and the mixed lighter components
(H2 + CH4 + C2H2 + N?) found in samples of gas taken at var-
ious cylinder pressures. These results are shown graphically
in Figure 1 .

Table 1

Component

Percentage Composition

At a

pressure (in lbs. per sq. in.) of :

Average

312.5

250

187.5

125

62.5 |

15

co2

3.8 j

1 4-5

5.2

5.8

6.4

6.9

5.4

111.

8.2

9.8

11.2

12.9

14.8

16.6

12.2

o2

1.0

0.8

0.9

0.7

0.8

0.7

0.8

CO

21.2

23.2

25.3

28.1

30.5

32.0

26.7

Hfi -f- CH4 -f-

C2 Hs + N2

65.8

61.7

57.4

52.5

47.5

43.8

55.0

It will be observed from the results contained in Table 1,
that the averages of carbon dioxide, oxygen and carbon monox-
ide agree closely with the amounts of these components con-
tained in the gas before compression. The low average for
illuminants and the consequent high average for the residue of
hydrogen, methane, ethane and nitrogen are quite possibly due

ILLUMINATING GAS WITH PRESSURE CREIGHTON.

93

to condensation of a small portion of the heavy hydrocarbons
while the gas was under the higher pressures. From the data
contained in the table and from the curves it will be seen that,
in accordance with Graham’s diffusion law, with decrease in
pressure the percentage increase for carbon monoxide is less
than that for carbon dioxide, and this in turn is less than that
of illuminants.

FIG. 1

PRESSURE IN LBS. PER SQ. IN

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

95

Accidental Occurrence of the Pygmy Sperm Whale ( Kogia
breviceps) on the Coast of Nova Scotia: an extension
of its known range; with remarks on the probability

OF THE FORMER PRESENCE IN THESE WATERS OFTHeTrUE

Sperm Whale (Physeter macro cephalus). — By Harry Piers,
Curator of the Provincial Museum, Halifax, N. S.

(Read 9 February, 1920.)

Contents.

Page

Pigmy Sperm Whale

(K. breviceps) 25

Specimen taken at Herring Cove 25
Specimens taken on United

States coast - . . . 26

Range ... 27

How the p esent individual

came on this coast 28

Description 28

Diagnosis 29

External characters 29

Colour 32

Skull 32

Page

Description (continued) 34

Teeth 34

External measurements 35

Cranial measurements 35

Micmac Indian tradition of

a blunt-headed whale 36

Sperm Whale (P. macroceh-

alus) 38

Did the true Sperm Whale
formerly occur on the Nova

Scotian coast? 38

Conclusion 43

Any information regarding the rarer Cetaceans of Nova Scotia
is of value, as we have little positive data regarding their occur-
rence here This more particularly applies to the True Whales
( Balaenidae ) and the Sperm Whales ( Physeteridae ). Our Dolph-
ins ( Delphinidae ) are somewhat better known, but they also de-
serve attention. Whenever possible, advantage should be taken
of any opportunity to examine and definitely determine the
specific name of specimens stranded or otherwise taken on ou
coast.

Pygmy Sperm Whale ( K . breviceps).

Specimen taken at Herring Cove, Halifax County, N. S. — On 1 7th
January, 1920, when Jeremiah Gray and other men were cutting
out ice to prevent it carrying away the wharves, in case of storm,
in Herring Cove (west long. 63° 33', north lat. 44° 34'), a small
inlet on the western side of the outer part of Halifax Harbour,
Halifax County, Nova Scotia, they chanced to come upon the
body of a small-sized whale. The animal was eight and a half
feet long, and it was lying dead just beneath the ice. The spot
where it was found was about one hundred yards from the head of
the narrow cove, and about twenty yards from the western shore,

Proc .& Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci. Vol. XV. Trans. 8.

96

PYGMY SPERM WHALE— PIERS.

and the depth of water there is ten feet at low tide. The species
had never before been seen by any of the many fishermen and
other sea-going men of the locality.

The winter of 1919-20 had been a most abnormally cold one,
with the temperature about zero (Fah.) for quite long periods,
and cold weather had set in very early in the season, about
the middle of December. Herring Cove had frozen on 12th
January, and the ice, which was five inches thick, extended
from the head of the inlet, nearly down to the government wharf
which is on the western shore three hundred yards from the head.
No doubt the whale on coming into the small inlet, had got under
the ice, and not happening to retrace its way, had drowned be-
neath the strong covering, as it was unable to reach the surface
to breathe. The black skin was abraded off the top of the head,
doubtless from the frantic efforts of the suffocating animal to force
its way through the ice.

A newspaper reference to the capture of the whale caused me
to telephone for the head, fins and flukes to be sent to the Pro-
vincial Museum, where they arrived on 22nd January. On ex-
amination of these essential parts, I was much surprised to find
that the species was the Pygmy Sperm Whale ( Kogia breviceps,
Blainville), a nearly adult female, belonging to the family Phy-
seteridae and related to the huge Sperm Whale or Cachalot ( Phy-
seier macrocephalus, Linn.) from which it differs distinctly, apart
from the great inequality in size. An adult Pygmy Sperm Whale
grov/s to a length of only fifteen feet or so, while a male true
Sperm Whale may be nearly seventy feet in length. After mak-
ing careful drawings and measurements, the flesh was removed
from the head; and the skull, dorsal and left pectoral fins, and the
flukes were preserved ( Museum Accession No. 4829).

Specimens taken on the United States coast. — The Pygmy
Sperm Whale, which is generally a rare species, has never before
been reported from Canadian waters, and previous to 1904 there
was no reference to its occurrence on the adjoining New England
coast from Maine south to Connecticut (vide Glover M. Allen’s
List of Mammalia: Fauna of New England; Occas. Papers Bost.
Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, Bost., 1904; and F. B. Sumner’s Catalogue
of Marine Fauna of Woods Hole and Vicinity, Bull. U. S. Bur.
of Fisheries, vol. 31, Wash., 1913). Since 1904 it has been twice
taken in Massachussetts waters, and a life-size cast and the
skeleton of one of these are in the museum of the Boston Society

PYGMY SPERM WHALE — PIERS.

97

of Natural History (vide letter of G. M. Allen, 30 Jan., 1920.)
That is the most northern range on this coast hitherto known.
Gerrit S. Miller did not include it in his Preliminary List of New
York Mammals (Bull. N. Y. State Mus., 6, no. 29, Albany, 1899),
but a large female, containing a foetus, was stranded at Long
Beach, Long Island, N. Y., on 28th February 1914, and the skel-
eton is now in the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, (vide Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 38, pp. 7-72, N. Y., 1918),
and a second specimen was taken at South Beach, Staten Island,
N. Y., on 1 March 1920 and is now in the same museum (vide
letter of F. A. Lucas). It has been taken several times on the
coast of New Jersey, viz., (a) female, 8V2 It. long, containing a
foetus, collected at the Life Saving Station, Spring Lake, lat. 40°
10', on 27th April, 1883, now in U. S. National Museum, acc.
13060, (type of Kogia goodei True)*; (b) adult female, 10ft. 6 in.
long, collected at Barnegat City, 24th Oct. 1883, now in U. S.
National Museum, acc. 16706; and (c) young male, collected at
Loveladies, 23th Oct. 1883, now in U. S. National Museum, acc.
16705. In Virginia, a male was washed up on the beach during
a storm at Dam Neck Mills, south of Virginia Beach, in Feb.,
1887 (U. S. Nat. Museum, acc. 22559); and in North Carolina,
a male, 7 ft. 10 in. long, was taken at Kitty Hawk, 5th Jan. 1885
(U. S. Nat. Museum, acc. 15560).f It is not commonly found
about the West Indies.

Range. — Its general range is in tropical regions, and its occur-
ence beyond is more or less accidental. True (1885) gives the
geographic habitat as “temperate and tropical seas”. Lydekker
(Guide to Whales, Porpoises and Dolphins in Brit. Museum, p. 26,
Lond., 1909) says it is very widely distributed, having been met
with in the Indian and Southern Oceans, and in the North Pacific,
but it does not occur in British waters. It is apparently more
common in the southern hemisphere; it or very closely related
forms having been taken a number of times in the New Zealand
seas, and also once on the coast of California. Some of these
specimens have been described as different species, but G. ’M.
Allen thinks that probably they should all be included under

*This specimen is figured by True, Rept. U. S. Fish Com. fori 1 883, pi. 8,
fig. 22, Wash., 1885.

fl am .indebted to W. deC. Ravenal and Wm. Palmer, of the U. S.
National Museum, Wash., for particulars regarding the specimens taken on
the coasts of New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina.

98

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

breviceps. F. E. Beddard (Mammalia, p. 367, Camb. Nat. His-
tory, Lond., 1902) allows two species, if the accounts of their
osteology are to be depended upon, namely Kogia breviceps and
Kogia ( Callignathus ) simus, the latter from the coast of India.
The former is said to have 13 pairs of ribs, no teeth in upper jaw
and 14 or 1 3 in each ramus of lower jaw; and the latter, 14 pairs of
ribs, 2 teeth in upper jaw and 9 in each ramus of lower jaw.
K. floweri, a Californian form, whose teeth are particularly long
and recurved, and K. pottsi from New Zealand, have been de-
scribed as distinct forms, but further investigation will probably
indicate that they are merely varietal forms of K. breviceps.

We thus see that the accidental occurrence of Kogia breviceps
in north latitude 44° 34', close to Halifax, Nova Scotia, is remark-
able and worthy of note, because it considerably extends the
range and also adds another mammal to the casual members
of our marine fauna.

How the present individual came on our coast.— To account for
its occurrence here, we must surmise that it had come from trop-
ical regions, to the southern coast of the United States or the
vicinity of the West Indies, and thence northward in the warm
waters of the Gulf Stream, and straying westward out of that
current, had come by chance to our cold shore in the middle of an
unusually severe winter, there to die, not directly as a result of
the low temperature of the water, but because of the ice which
gave it no opportunity to come to the surface to breathe. That
it coasted up along the shore of the United States, is a less probable
hyposthesis. The number of female specimens containing
foetuses which have been taken in northern waters, suggests the
possibility that their unusual visits are in someway associated
with the breeding season.

Description. — As the species is seldom met with, a description
of the present specimen will be of some interest. The accom-
panying plate illustrates the external characters of the entire
animal, and also depicts all aspects of the cranium, which latter
is complete in all its parts. These drawings have been made
with considerable care, so as to be accurate in all particulars,
especially as regards the skull. Gray, in his Catalogue of Seals
and Whales in the British Museum, second edition, Lond., 1866,
p. 216, gives figures of the dorsal and lateral views of a skull
and a lateral view of a lower jaw, reproduced from those of M.
de Blainville of 1838, and these figures have generally been

99

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

copied as depicting the cranial characters of this species. De
Blainville’s drawing, made from a single skull fro m Cape of Good
Hope, in the Paris Museum, was not a perfect one, as the origin-
al lacked some rather important parts, particularly about the
maxillary notches, and the details of the parts present are not
very well ‘represented. The ear-bones (periotic and tympanic
bones) were without doubt missing in de Blainville’s specimen,
as is very often the case with cetacean skulls; and these ex-
tremely interesting and important bones have never, I believe,
before been figured, and they are difficult to describe without
drawings. Both the right and left ear-bones are complete in
our specimen and the left one is figured, in opposite side-views,
on my plate, on a scale very slightly less then one-third
natural size, (See plate, page 101.)

Diagnosis. — The species may be readily recognized by its pro-
truding snout, bluntish head which is not truncate, the toothless
upper jaw, and toothed lower jaw having about fourteen sharp
teeth on each side, blowhole on the top of the head, and the
presence of a dorsal fin. The skull may be known by its unsym-
etrical and concave dorsal region, and the dental characters
referred to.

External characters. — Head contained six times in total length.
Snout projecting beyond the mouth; the face only very slightly
flattened below extremity of snout. Eye much above angle of
mouth. Blowhole on top of head and very slightly to left side;
shape crescentric. Lower jaws very narrow in front; no teeth in
upper jaw; fourteen on each side of lower jaw. Dorsal fin
present, small and low, falcate. Pectorals rather small, pointed.
Peduncle of tail strongly keeled above and below.

Viewed dorsally, the snout is moderately sharp; viewed laterally,
the front of the head is blunt, the mouth projecting 3 inches be-
yond a vertical line from the anterior end of the mouth. Mouth
very narrow, capable of being opened to an angle of about 70°;
tongue short, its extremity only coming to 3 ins. of end of mandible;
transverse diameter of throat, 2.13 ins. Eye set rather high,
about midway between dorsal and ventral lines, and slightly
posterior to the posterior end of mouth opening. The single
external oriface of the blowhole is on the upper part of the head
(not anteriorly as in Physeter), and it is somewhat crescentic,
with the convexity to the front, and its transverse length is 2.45

100

PYGMY SPERM WHALE. PIERS.

ins. It is situated not quite on the medial dorsal line, the centre
being .52 inch to the left of that line. It is closed, in a valve-like
manner, by the posterior wall coming in contact with the anterior
wall, so as to exclude water; and surrounding it is a white, very
tough, muscular or cartilaginous fibre. The outer vestibule of
the blowhole is of the length of the external opening, and is 1.75
ins. deep It is coloured black within. From the left end of
this vestibule is a small tubular passage (spiracle) penetrating
nearly perpendicularly into the head, to the left superior naris,
which could be explored with a probe to a depth of 5.50 ins.
from the surface of the head. A right-hand passage could not
be located with the probe, but the man who removed the flesh
said he found also a right-hand smaller opening leading into the
head, and connecting with the right-hand superior naris.
Although I searched for the small external ear-opening, I was not
quite sure I had located it, but the petition of the well-developed
ear-bones (tympano-periotic bones) of the skull, shows that the
external orifice must be about 2.50 ins. behind and a little below
the level of the eye, where I had detected a minute pore or open-
ing.

Dorsal fin composed of adipose tissue, without any osseous
connection with the vertibrae; low, falcate; its basal length con-
tained about 13 times in length of animal, its height about 2%
times in its basal length. Pectoral fins short, moderately broad,
and somewhat pointed; their anterior margin a little less than
J/gth as long as length of animal, their greatest breadth contained
21/2 times in their greatest length. Flukes moderately excavated
on the hind margin, and with a small acute notch in the centre
of that margin; the distance from tip to tip, 1.84 times the greatest
length of the pectoral.

The weight of the animal was reported to have been about 400
pounds. The “blubber” or fatty tissue was concentrated on the
outside of the animal, immediately beneath the skin, and at the
back of the neck it formed a layer 1 .40 ins. thick, white in colour
and it readily furnished a clear yellowish oil of high quality. The
flesh was of a very dark red colour, entirely free from fat; and on
being eaten after frying, was exceedingly tender, but in my opin-
ion was somewhat too strong in flavour to be very palatable, al-
though two gentlemen who also tried it considered it excellent.
It has no oily or fishy flavour; but does not possess the very fine
edible qualities of a steak from the back of the Harbour Porpoise

Cranium : Dorsal View Cranium: Ventral View Mandible : Lateral View

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

103

(P. communis ), which is particularly savoury, resembling some-
what a very tender moosesteak.

Colour. — Upper parts and sides, including interior of blowhole,
outside of pectoral and upper side of flukes, black. Underparts
whitish or greyish white. Inside of mouth pink; teeth white.

Skull. — As crania of the Pygmy Sperm Whale are seldom met
with in collections, particularly in America, a rather full descrip-
tion of that part of the animal will probably be of interest. The
skull of Kogia and that of the allied Physetcr are thought to be
perhaps the most modified from the ordinary type of cranium in
the whole mammalian class. The skull of the present specimen
is short, bro^d, and with the exception of the mandible, massive;
and crests are strongly developed. The rostrum, from in front
of the maxillary notches, forms about an equilateral triangle,
the lateral margins being somewhat concave anteriorly and
slightly convex posteriorly. The length of rostrum to a line
drawn between the bases of the deep maxillary notches , is con-
tained in the total length of skull, 1.91 times (32.3 per cent.).
The greatest breadth of the skull (post-orbitally) is contained in
the total length, 1.23 times (81.6 per cent.).

Viewed dorsally the skull is very strongly asymmetrical along
the median posterior region, whereas the lateral outlines are
symmetrical. The lack of symmetry is chiefly noticeable in
(a) the median crest, (b) the intermaxillae, and (c) the nares.
We find the prominent median crest strongly twisted to the left
as it proceeds from the vertex anteriorly until it reaches the
nares; the left intermaxilla anteriorily is widened, and the right
one narrowed, whereas posteriorly the right one is widened and
passes back to the vertex and the left one is short. The left
naris is very much the larger one, its diameter being about 33^ rd
times that of the right one; and although the septem is mesially
situated, the disproportion between the magnitude of the two
openings give the nares the appearance of being towards the left
side. A prominent horse-shoe shaped crest proceeds from one
maxillary notch, around to the vertex, and thence to the other
notch.

Examined more minutely, the two intermaxillae show great
lack of symmetry, more particularly in the posterior parts. Both
widen posteriorly, but in different degrees, and the right one is
much the longer. The right one is anteriorly the narrower, but
from the small right naris backward it is considerably widened,
Pros. & Tran. N. S., Inst. Sci., Vofc . XV, Trans. 3.

104

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

is twisted, and joins the median crest on its lefthand edge,
and extends to within a short distance of the supraoccipital-
frontal crest. The left premaxilla is wider than the right one
before tho nares, and seemingly terminates at the posterior
margin of the large left naris, but the suture is somewhat
difficult to discern.

The maxillae are narrow anteriorly, but widen and thicken
greatly at the maxillary notch, which latter is narrow but
penetrates very deeply (4.3 cm. deep). Transversely the max-
illae begin to be strongly concave here. Just posterior to the
notches, the maxillae are very greatly thickened, and thence
rise in a strongly elevated lateral crest which passes in a curve,
as before mentioned, back to where they and the supraoccip-
ital form a sharp, curved tranverse crest near the vertex. This
curved crest thus forms a “horse-shoe” enclosing a concave
basin, in which formerly was situated the loose connective tissue
containing the supply of spermaceti. Another very promi-
nent crest arises at the vertex (where it joins the transverse
crest) and passes forward, being twisted to the left, S-wise, and
finally is lost at the posterior margin of the large left naris.
Whether this crest is formed by the right margin of the left
maxilla, or by it in conjunction with the left nasal, I am unable
to say with certainty, as only the median suture between the
maxillae can be traced. At any rate, the nasals are difficult
to precisely locate, unless the sutures should subsequently open
up-

The frontal is entirely covered by the maxillae posteriorly;
but the supraorbital process of the frontal is massive and well
developed. The body of the malar is massive, and has a strong
postero-inferior process, just anterior to the orbit. The
zygomatic process of the squamosal is prominent, but shows no
unusual thickening. The greatest breadth of the skull is in this
region. The supraoccipital bone rises almost vertically from
the foramen magnum, to meet the posterior margins of the
maxillae (and the covered frontals) and then joins in forming
the transverse crest.

Viewed ventrally, the skull is symmetrical. The inter-
maxillae show for a short distance only (3.3 cm.) at tip of ros-
trum. The maxillae are convex in cross-section, and have two
narrow but deep channels towards their lateral margins; these
grooves representing the obselete tooth-row. The palatines

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

105

show, in a rather small area, just anterior to the pterygoids. The
pterygoids meet mesially for about half their length anteriorly,
then are separated by an elongate-ovate space, and again ap-
proximate posteriorly at their crests. Their posterior free
margins or crests are straight and set somewhat obliquely to a
transverse line. From the sides of the inferior nares, two sharp,
much elevated crests proceed backward, divergingly, to the
region of the auditory meatus, as is usual in allied animals.

The interesting periotic and tympanic bones, or “ear-bones,”
are dark coloured in the exterior member, which measures 5.8
cm. in vertical length, 3.4 cm. in antero-posterior breadth, and
2.1 cm. in greatest thickness at the superior end; while the
interior inflated, shell-like member (the tympanic) is ivory-
coloured, rather thin, and beautifully and rather intricately
convuluted in a manner which cannot be easily described.
Both of the ear-bones have been preserved and are com-
plete. The accompanying plate contains opposite sideviews
of the left ear-bone, on a scale slightly less than one- third
the natural size. As before mentioned, I believe the ear-bone
of this species has never before been figured.

The mandibles (lower jaws) are very thin and delicate,
and have little depth at the anterior half where the tooth-row
is situated, but are moderately deep at the posterior ends. The
symphysis is long (6.5 cm.); and posterior to it the rami grad-
ually, and then strongly, separate from each other. The tooth-
rows are thus approximately parallel, and only 1 .5 cm. apart,
for about half the length of the rows. The length of the tooth-
row is contained in the mandibular length, 2l/<2. times; the dis-
tance between the condyles is about 5/6ths of the same length;
and the depth from the coronoid process to the angle, is con-
tained 2 %rd times in that length, while the depth at the tooth-
row is only J^th of the length of the tooth-row.

Teeth. — Upper jaw toothless; teeth in lower jaw, 14 on each
side; dental formula, The teeth are not very firmly

attached in the alveolae, and therefore may be slightly moved
about. They are rather small, slender, conical, decidedly
sharp, very slightly curved inward at the tip and also to-
ward the embedded basal part. Their total length, mid-
way in the row, is .73 inch; the diameter at the basal part is
.12 in., and the crown projects out of the gum .35 in. They are
separated, from centre to centre, .36 in.

106

PYGMY SPERM WHALE — PIERS.

External measurements , — The following general measure-
ments, with the exception of those of the fins and flukes, were
made by Mr. Gray, and without doubt follow the contour of
the body in some of the dimensions. They also have been
reduced to percentages of the total length of the animal.

Inches

Total length, snout to notch in posterior margin of tail 102.00

Circumference of body 70.00

Snout to anterior end of dorsal fin 48.00

Snout to anterior insertion of pectoral fin 24.00

Dorsal fin, basal length 7.50

Dorsal fin, vertical height 3.40

Pectoral fin, greatest length, (anterior margin) 12.50

Pectoral fin, greatest breadth 5.10

Pectoral fin, basal length 5.75

Flukes, from tip to tip 23.00

Cm.

Percent.

259.3

100.0

178.0

68.6

122.0

47.1

61.0

23.5

19.0

7.4

8.6

3.3

31.8

12.3

13.0

5.0

14.6

5.6

58.5

22.5

The following measurments (chords) were very carefully
made by myself frcm the head. They have also been reduced
to percentages of the total length of the head.

Length of head, snout to basal condyle

Diameter of head, from eye to eye

Snout to anterior margin of eye

Snout to anterior margin of blowhole

Snout to anterior end of mouth (above)

Snout to posterior end of mouth

Mouth opening, length measured on upper jaw

Mouth opening, length measured on lower jaw

Upper jaw, breadth near anterior end

Lower jaw, breadth near anterior end

Lower jaw, width midway in length

Lower jaw, width at posterior end of mouth opening

Blowhole, transverse length

Blowhole, antero-posterior width

Centre of blowhole to centre of right eye

Centre of blowhole to centre of left eye

Right hand extremity of blowhole to centre of right eye
Right hand extremity of blowhole to centre of left eye _
That is, the blowhole is situated to left of medial dorsal

line

Eye, length

Eye is 7.20 ins. (18 3 cm.) above, and about 2 ins. (5 cm.)
posterior to the posterior angle of mouth

Blubber, thickness at back of head

Skin, thickness

Inches

Cm

Percent

17.25

43.8

100.0

13.75

35.0

79.7

13.80

35.1

80.0

10.40

26.5

60.3

7.50

19.1

43.5

13.00

33.1

75.3

6.25

15.9

36.2

6.00

15.2

34.8

1.50

3.8

8.7

1.00

2.5

5.8

2.50

6.3

14.8

4.25

10.8

24.6

2.45

6.2

14.2

.85

2.2

5.0

10.38

26.3

60.2

9.35

23.7

54.2

9.16

23.2

53.1

8.12

20.6

47.1

.52

1.3

3.0

1.00

2.5

5.8

1.40

3.6

.02

.05

Cranial Measurements. — The following are the measurements
of the skull, with the same reduced to percentages of the
total length of the skull:

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

107

Cm. Percent.

Total length, from centre of line joining surface of occipital cond-

les to extremity of rostrum 34.8 100.0

Length of rostrum to line joining bases of maxillary notches 18.2 32.3

Length of rostrum to outer end of maxillary notches 13.2 43.7

Breadth of rostrum at base of maxillary notches 12.8 36.9

Greatest breadth of rostrum in front of maxillary notches 16.5 47.4

Depth of maxillary notches 4.3 12.4

Breadth of rostrum midway in its length 10.6 30.5

Breadth of right intermaxilla at middle of rostrum 1.7 4.9

Breadth of left intermaxilla at middle of rostrum 2.0 5.8

Breadth of both intermaxillae between their exterior edges, at

middle of rostrum 6.5 18.7

Greatest breadth between intermaxillae posteriorly 8.2 23.6

Length of right tooth-groove 12.0 34.5

Length of left tooth-groove 10.9 31.3

Posterior end of right tooth-groove to base of maxillary notch.. 6.1 17.5

Posterior end of left tooth-groove to base of maxillary notch 7.3 21 .0

Extremity of rostrum to anterior margin of right superior naris 20.2 58.0

Extremity of rostrum to anterior margin of left superior naris__ 18.6 53.4

Extremity of rostrum to end of pterygoid crest, mesially 21. 5 61. 8

Extremity of rostrum to end of pterygoid crest, laterally 22.1 63.5

Anteorbital breadth (between processes of malar) 27.4 78.7

Breadth between orbits 28.0 80.5

Breadth between squamosals (postorbital breadth):- greatest

breadth of skull __ 28.4 81.6

Breadth between hinder margins of temporal fossae 18.0 51.7

Greatest breadth of occipital bone 23.9 68.7

Temporal fossa, greatest length 8.1 23.2

Temporal fossa, greatest breadth 5.2 14.9

Length of mandible 30.6 88.0

Length of symphysis of mandible 6.5 18.7

Length of tooth-row of mandible, right 11. 8 34.0

Length of tooth-row of mandible, left 12.0 34.5

Depth between angle and coronoid process 8.3 24.0

Distance apart of upper edges of mandible, halfway in lengths 6.7 19.2

Diameter of right naris, antero-posteriorly 1.3 3.7

Diameter of right naris, laterally 1.1 3.2

Diameter of left naris, antero-posteriorly 4.0 11.5

Diameter of left naris, laterally 3.2 9.2

Diameter of largest tooth 24 .7

Micmac Indian tradition of a blunt-headed whale. — On show-
ing the head of this whale to a very well-informed Micmac
Indian, Jeremiah Lone-cloud ( alias Bartlett), he examined
it carefully and stated that he had never seen the species
before, but from descriptions given him by two very old Indians,
Noel Jeddore, who is now dead, and Soolian (William) Bill,
he felt sure it must be what was known by the Indian name
Ded' -men-ak-paf -jet, a name which means “blunt-head” fish.
Noel Jeddore had been born at Melrose, St. Mary’s, N. S., and

108

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

died about 25 years ago, aged 84 years; and old Soolian Bill
had formerly belonged to Cape Breton Island and now lives on
the Truro reservation, aged about 97 years.*

Noel Jeddore told Lone-cloud that about fifty years ago, say
about 1870, he and other Indians were encamped on a small
island called by the Indians Up-quaw' -wc-kunk or “Bark-camp
Island”, off West Medford, on the south side of the entrance to
Pereau Creek, in Minas Basin, Kings Co., N. S., when a school
of about a dozen cetaceans became stranded on a mudflat there.
The Indians examined them and got some of the flesh for
food, and he said that the cooked back-fin was much relished by
them. The animals were about 12 or 15 feet long, coloured
black, and had a small dorsel-fin. Such cetaceans had never
before or afterwards been seen by Jeddore and his companions,
but he had heard from other older Indians that such animals
had occurred years previously, and that they had been called
by the Micmacs Ded-men-ak-paj-iet, from the blunt apparancee
of their head. This word resembles an old Micmac name ap-
plied to another rare cetacean which once occurred here, Ded-
men-ak~part, which means “head cut off squarely,” not merely
“blunt-head.” Further reference will be made to this latter
animal when I come to write of the true Sperm Whale. (See
page 112).

Old Soolian Bill very recently told Lone-cloud that he
also had seen the cetacean which they call Ded-men-ak-paj-jct,
and said it occurred in the same season when the others were
taken off West Medford. About fifty years or more ago,
he states, a number of sea animals of the kind seen at West
Medford came ashore in a “gut” of water near the Indian
reservation at Whycocomagh, St. Patrick’s Channel, Bras d’Or
Lakes, Cape Breton Island.! Bill and other Indians examin-

*The well-known and respected Micmac I idian, William Prosper, usually known as
‘‘Soolian Bill,” died at the Truro Reservation 01 3rd April, 1923, and it was claimed that
he was o 'e hundred and o 'e years of age. The name Soolian is evidently a corruption of
the French name Guillaume (William). He was born at Bay of Islands, Newfou ldland, and
came to Whycocomagh, Cape Breton, about 1848, removing to Dartmouth, opposite Halifax,
in 1860, the year the Prince of Wales was i i Nova Scotia. About 1888 he finally
we t to Truro. If he came to Halifax in 1860, as stated, the date of the occurrence of the
above-me tioned cetacean at Whycocomagh must nhave been prior to that year.

tit may be mentioned that at the same time that these cetaceans came ashore at Whycoco-
magh, two very large whales (Micmac Boot-up, name for any large whale) came in at the same
place and one ran a ah ore and was killed by the Indians with a scythe-blade on the end of a
p >le. Soolian Bill saw it, and ho said it made a great commotion with its very long fins, so
that one had to be careful in approaching it. It was towed to Arichat, Rich. Co., and there
the blubber was removed. It is n >t reported whether it had a back-fin or not. Probably it
was the Humpback Whale ( Mepaptera nodosa).

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

109

ed and cut up the animals and obtained much oil

from the blubber ; and one which they opened contained
a foetus. They also called the animal Ded-men-ak~paj-jet,
agreed that it was the same species as that taken
in Minas Basin, and that it was extremely rare, but that
old Indians told them it had been taken years before. It also
had a dorsal-fin.

The rare animals described by Jeddore and Soolian Bill were
not Black-fish ( Globicephala melas) which is the only other dis-
tinctly “blunt-headed” cetacean it might be confused with, and
which is a common species, well known to the Indians as Sarb'-
a-dee -mee\w, which means “John Fish,” but why so-called is
not known. The Bottlenose Dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus) has
too much beak to be particularly designated as the “blunt-head.”
We are therefore led to conclude that these very rare cet-
aceans referred to by our Micmacs, must have been the Pygmy
Sperm Whale ( K . breviceps), which answers the Indians’ rough
description in having a blunt head, a dorsal-fin, and being about
twelve or fifteen feet long, black in colour, and very rare in these
waters. The presence of the dorsal-fin shows it was not the
true Sperm Whale, for which apparently our Indians also have
a descriptive name. This is a related subject to which we will
now refer.

Sperm Whale (P. macrocephalus).

Did the True Sperm Whale formerly occur on the Nova

Scotian coast ? — Whether the huge Sperm Whale or Cachalot
( Physeter macrocephalus Linn.) ever occurred on our Nova
Scotian coast, accidentally or otherwise, in the early years when
its range was very much less restricted than now, is a point
which is not definitely settled in my mind, although from evid
ence at hand I am very decidedly of the opinion that it must
have. In a paper like this, dealing with a related species, it may
not be altogether out of place to give a little attention to the
subject.

Many years ago the true Sperm Whale was reported all along
the New England coast as far north as Casco Bay, Maine,
where it is recorded that one was stranded in 1668.* Casco

*G. M. Allen, List of Mammalia of N. E., Occ. Papers Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 7, pt. 3, Bost.
1904; and G. Brown Goode, Fisheries and Fishing Industries of U. S., sec. 1, page 9, Wash.,,

110

PYGMY SPERM WHALE— PIERS.

Bay is in the same latitude as southern Nova Scotia. In August
1761, one was killed in lat. 45° 54 long. 53° 57/, which is off
the southern Newfoundland coast and 275 miles due east of
Scaterie, Cape Breton; and in 1766 another was seen near
George’s Bank, which is to the south of Nova Scotia and a
little beyond its limits.* These are merely recorded occur-
rences, but of course there are many others which did not
happen to be noted. The most northern grounds which they reg-
ularly frequented some thirty-five years ago, were off Cape
Hatteras. Glover M. Allen, in a recent letter to me, writes
that “the Sperm Whale (P. macrocephalus ) must occasionally
reach Nova Scotian waters, although I do not recall at this
moment a definite record. It is taken once in a while off the
Newfoundland coast at the whaling stations.” The manager
of a Newfoundland whaling station told Prof. E. E. Prince
that their whaling vessels had twice taken Sperm Whales off
the Cape Breton coast and towards Newfoundland.

While this paper is in type, I find a thrilling account of the
capture of thirty Sperm Whales in the harbor of Keels (lat.
48° 32') in Bonavista Bay, almost eighty miles north-northwest
of St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the early part of August, 1922.
The account, by Thomas Kelly, appeared in the “Canadian
Fishermen,” Gardenville, P.Q., Oct. 1922, vol, 9, p. 221, and it
describes a remarkable instance of daring among the Newfound-
land fishermen. A motor-boat from Keels, when a few miles off
land, encountered about seventy large whales, which the fisher-
men mistook for Blackfish or “Pot-heads” ( G . melds') and which
they accord ngly undertook to drive to the shore. Some seven
motorboats took part in this operation, three boats on either
side, and one behind making much noise with its exhaust. The
large animals went shorewards like a flock of sheep, and made
no commotion even when a boat happened to run upon one of
their backs.

When, however, the whales found that they were entrapped
in the cliff -surrounded harbour of Keels, they began to fight
terrifically, and the men, in some twenty or thirty boats, com-
menced to kill them. Hatchets, axes, knives, and guns were
used in efforts to subdue the monsters. Forty-eight bullets are
said to have been fired into the head of one of them. Men were
to be seen on the backs of the animals, chopping with axes. No

*G. B. Goode, loo. oit., page 8.

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

Ill

men were killed, although a small boat was smashed to pieces.
Hawsers and steel cables were made fast to some of the whales
but were snapped with great ease. Some of the infuriated
animals dashed themselves against the cliffs and so died. In
al1 thirty were killed.

The services of a man who for ten years had been foreman of
a “whale factory” were secured, and he identified them as Sperm
Whales. Wells were made in the heads of the monsters, and
a great quantity of pure oil was dipped therefrom; from one to
four puncheons of fluid being taken from each head.

Additional particulars of this very remarkable occurrence
were forwarded to me on 19th January, 1923, by the De-
partment of Mines and Fisheries of Newfoundland, which had
obtained the information from a most reliable source, Mr. J. F.
Murphy of St. John's, who had visited Keels and examined the
dead animals. Mr. Murphy says that they were undoubtedly
Sperm Whales, the most valuable of the cetaceans, and he en-
closed a carefully prepared drawing with measurements made by
himself, which proves conclusively that their specific identity
had been correctly determined. They were all young males,
and varied in length from 43 to 48 feet, whereas an adult
male sometimes measures as much as 80 feet. The one he
measured particularly was 47 feet in greatest length from the
anterior end of the truncated snout to the tip of the flukes or
tail. From the snout to the posterior angle of the mouth it
measured 12 feet; and from the angle of the mouth to the ex-
tremity of the flukes, 35 feet. The vertical depth of the head,
from the dorsal region to the mouth, was 7 feet; and the distance
between the two ends of the flukes was from 9 to 1 1 feet. It
had 22 teeth in each side of the lower jaw. Three of the teeth,
forwarded by Mr. Murphy to the Provincial Museum, are
definitely the teeth of the true Sperm Whale.

He says that about forty-four of the whales were driven ashore
at Keels, the harbour of which is of circular form, everywhere
surrounded by vertical cliffs except at the entrance. The fish-
ermen killed thirty of them, using guns, axes, mowing-scythes,
and sharpened sticks employed as lances. In some cases stout
pieces of timber with pointed ends were driven into the blow-hole
of the animals, which maddened them, and so furious did they
become (probably because of the difficulty experienced in their
efforts to breathe) that they dashed themselves against the cliffs.

112

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

thus driving home the stakes which had protruded from the front
of their heads like a vessel’s jib-boom. These animals died
suddenly. Later the others, which were wounded, went into
a “flurry*’ and thrashed themselves to death against the cliffs
and isolated rocks.

Knowing that the valuable substance called ambergris is ob-
tained from the alimentary canal of this species of whale, Mr.
Murphy went to Keels and had the stomach of one of the car-
casses opened. In it was found about a bushel of the beaks of
small and large species of squid, the favourite food of this whale,
the beaks being of all sizes from a quarter up to one-and-a-half
inch in length, each with, a curious growth on the larger end,
somewhat like a cock’s comb. No ambergris was found. It is
known that beaks of the cuttle-fish or squid are frequently
found embedded in ambergris sent to market, and Mr. Murphy
believes that the irritating action of these pointed beaks on the
animal’s stomach causes the formation of that material. Other
carcasses were then opened, but also without finding real amber-
gris. One, however, contained a growth about six or eight
inches long and about six inches in diameter, having holes in it
like those of a sponge, and varying in color from pale green to
dark brown. This was examined by the government analyst,
Mr. Davis, who reported that it was not ambergris. It is pos-
sible that it may have been an early stage in the formation of
that substance, and that the animals were too young to have
developed it perfectly.

The fishermen were unfortunately entirely unprepared for
such an unexpected and unprecedented occurrence, and had no
knowledge of the great value of such whales, and they destroyed
them, with but little if any profit to themselves. Two or three
groups of men dipped from four to five hundred gallons of pure,
clear sperm-oil from the head of each whale. Very little of it,
however, was saved, as they had no facilities for properly handl-
ing it owing to the huge carcasses and the workers being ex-
posed to the wash of the surf.

Sperm whales usually swim in herds or schools, or else singly.
The schools consist of (a) females and their young, with one or
two adult males, and (b) young and half-grown males. Full-
grown males go singly in search of food. The Keels school was
one of the herds of half-grown males, which had no doubt come
northeastward in the Gulf Stream, and then by chance had

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

113

wandered westward to the Newfoundland coast, in pursuit of
the great multitude of squid which are its principal food.

When we consider the northern range of the Sperm Whale
in early years, before the persistent industry of whalers had near-
ly exterminated it in the northernmost waters of the Atlantic, it
cannot be possible that that species did not also occur in our
intervening waters, at least casually if not somewhat regularly,
a couple of hundred years ago and probably much later.

In the absence of definite records, we naturally turn for some
light on the subject to our Micmac Indians who are keen ob-
servers of natural objects which come to their attention, anct
whose ability for handing down information traditionally, in
the absence of written records, is trully remarkable.

Our Indians inform me that very old men of their tribe have
an ancient tradition, handed down by their fathers, of a very
rare cetacean which the later men have never seen. To this
animal they gave the very characteristic descriptive name of
Ded' -men-ak' -part, which signifies “head cut off sharply or square-
ly,” or as my informant, Lone-cloud, further explained it,
“Just the same as if you cut the head off squarely in front.”
Such a name could surely only have been applied to the Sperm
Whale, whose large and remarkably blunt head is so character-
istic a feature that it would instantly have attracted the sharp
eyes of our natives on viewing a casually stranded individual,
and who, in their well-known fashion, would have included this
character in framing a descriptive name which has been handed
down to later generations. It must be noted that this name is to
be distinguished from the related one, Dcd-mcn-akrpaj-jct , to which
reference has previously been made, which means an animal
with merely a blunt head, and which I believe designated the
Pygmy Sperm Whale, as a dorsal-fin is specifically referred to
as being present. The same Indian knew the two names and
applied them to different animals. The name Ded-men-ak-part
was known through tradition to both old Soolian Bill, formerly
of Cape Breton Island, and to Nole Jeddore, before mentioned,
so that the animal probably occurred both about that island
as well as off the mainland of Nova Scotia. Unfortunately the
tradition does not seem to mention whether the dorsal fin was
absent in this very blunt-headed cetacean; for if it did, the
identification would be as about complete as could be desired.

114

PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS.

Conclusion. — Taking into consideration all the evidence, I
think we may quite safely conclude that Ded-men-ak-part of
the Micmacs was the true Sperm Whale and that it formerly
occurred to some extent at least in our Nova Scotian waters.

Teeth of this cetacean should be searched for in some of the
Indian shell-heaps or kitchen-middens in Nova Scotia, as the
natives would no doubt preserve such relics of an unusual mar-
ine animal if one had been stranded on our coast.

In the DesBrisay collection of Indian remains collected in
Lunenburg County, N. S., now in the Provincial Museum, is
a small tooth, a good deal corroded, which has a general re-
semblance to one from an exceedingly young Sperm Whale.*
But it may even prove on further examination to be merely
a young Bear’s canine tooth, which somewhat closely resembles
the former. I do not believe it belonged to a Black-fish ( Glob -
icephala melas) or any other cetacean I happen to be familiar
with, and it is decidedly not a tooth of a Pygmy Sperm Whale.
It measures 1.87 in. (47.5 mm.) in greatest length; its diameter,
midway in length, is .48 in. (12.5 mm.); it projected out of the
gum .57 in. (14.5 mm.), and the conical free end (crown) is
very strongly incurved;

The Provincial Museum possesses several Sperm Whale teeth,
but theyhave all been brought by whalers from the southern
whaling rounds.

Provincial Museum, Halifax, N. S.,

9th February, 1920.

♦The smallest Sperm Whale on record, taken on the [New England coast, was one 16 feet
long, taken near New Bedford in 1842.

A CONVENIENT FORM OF BURETTE CREIGHTON. I 1 5

A Convenient Form of Burette for Exact Gas Analysis.
By Henry Jermain Maude Creighton, D. Sc., Assist-
ant Professor of Chemistry, Swarthmore College, Swarth-
more, Penn., U. S. A.

(Read 10 May, 1920)

A large number of gas burettes for various kinds of analysis
is described in the chemical literature and in the catalogues of
chemical apparatus. With most of these burettes, which have
a volume of 1 00 or 1 50 cc. and are graduated to read to 0. 1 or
0.2 cc., it is not possible to measure differences in volume with
an accuracy of more than 0.1 or 0.2 per cent., an accuracy
sufficient for many purposes. Since in some kinds of work a
greater accuracy is highly desirable, the writer proposes to de-
scribe a type of burette which has he designed and had specially
made for determining differences in gaseous volumes with a
accuracy of about 0.02 per cent.

This burette (Figure I) consists of a measuring tube, P, and
a reservoir-tube, A, joined together at the top by a capillary
tube to which is connected a stop-cock, L, and closed at the
bottom ends by the stop-cocks, LI and L2. The tube A is
made up of five small bulbs, Bl, each holding 5.00 cc. between
the marks on the constricted portions on either side of the bulb,
and a large bulb, B2. The volume of the bulb B2 and the cap-
illary tube between the stop-cock L amd the mark M on the
upper portion of the tube P is 70 cc. The arm P, consisting of
a thick-walled tube with an internal diameter of three mill-
imeters, has a volume of 5.00 cc. getween the marks M and N.
This portion of P is graduated throughout its entire length and
each division reads 0.01 cc.

As small variations in temperature during analysis produce
changes in the volume of gas amounting to several hun-
dredths of a cubic centimeters, the burette is enclosed in a water-
jacket, K, along with a thermometer, T, reading to tenths of a
tenth of a degree. The water-jacket has a diameter of 85,
cm., and is closed at the ends by the rubber stoppers R1 . There
are also enclosed in the water-jacket two leveling tubes, D1 and
D2, which have approximately the same diameter as the small
arm, P, of the burette. These two tubes are joined together
at the bottom outside the water-jacket. Each of the rubber
stoppers, Rl, has a small opening (not shown in the Figure)

.

16

FI &. 1.

'

A

A CONVENIENT FORM OF BURETTE CREIGHTON.

117

through which the water-jacket be filled or emptied, or through
which water at a constant temperature can be circulated.

The lower end of Dl, and D2, and the lower ends of thr
small and large arms of the burette are joind by heavy rubbee
tubing to the three-arm tube X, the horizontal portion of which
is joined by two meters of rubber pressure tubing to a reservoir
containing mercury.

The absorption pipettes are connected to the upper end
of the burette in the usual way. The rubber connections are,
however, enclosed in mercury to prevent leaks. It is also ad-
visable to employ for L a stop-cock with a mercury seal.

In order to measure a given volume of gas enclosed in the
burette, the stop-cock LI is closed, the stop-cock L2 opened
and the reservoir containing the confining liquid raised or
lowered, until the level of mercury the in the larger arm of the
burette is brought to one of the marks between two of the bulbs
Bl. If the volume of gas is between 95 and 100cc., the first
small bulb is filled with mercury; if the volume is between 90
and 95 cc. the first two small bulbs are filled with mercury

and so on. The stop-cock L2 is then closed and the stop-cock

LI opened, and the fraction of 5cc contained in P measured by
bringing the mercury in P, Dl and D2 to the same level. This
is readily accomplished by getting the mercury meniscus in
each of the three tubes in a line, one behind the other When

this is done, the stop cock LI is closed and the volume of gas^

read. It is necessary, of course, to make corrections for changes
temperature and pressure which occur during analysis.

With this particular burette it is only possible to measure gas.
volumes which are more than 70 cc. and not more than 100 cc.

The writer has used this burette to determine the carbon-
dioxide, oxygen and carbonmonpxide in more than one hundred
samples of air, in laboratories and large industrial plants. In a
number of instances where small quantities (0.02 to 0.04 per
cent.) of carbonmonoxide were found present in the air, sub-
sequent investigation showed its presence to be due to small
leaks in the illuminating gas lines and connections.

The Chemical Laboratory,

March 2nd, 1920.

.. tic

SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS. 119

Notes on the Spring Bird Migration of 1914 at Antigonish,
Nova Scotia. — By Harrison F. Lew s, Quebec, P. Q.

(Read 10 May, 1920)

The County of Antigonish lies in the eastern part of the Nova
Scotian peninsula on the south shore of St. George’s Bay, an
arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With the exception of two
weeks in late December and early January, the period from
August 25, 1913, to June 27, 1914, was spent by me in the
county, my residence being in the small town of Antigonish,
the county town.

In the spring of 1914, a record of the migration was made for
the Biological Survey of the United States Department of
Agriculture. The time spent in making observations for this
record consisted chiefly of the early morning hours every day
with additional time later in the day on Saturdays and Sundays.
There was then no thought of publishing the results of these
observations, but, in view of the scarcity of published records
of the birds of Antigonish County, to which my attention has
since been called, and of the improbability of additional similar
work on my part in the county, it may be advisable to make
readily accessible such data as were obtained. As far as I
know, or have been able to find out, the only previous pub-
lications relating directly to the birds of this county are the
four brief ones hereinafter quoted in their respective approp-
riate connections.

The coming of spring is normally later in Antigonish County
than it is in western and central Nova Scotia. This is due to
the large fields of heavy ice which form in winter in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, and which, in melting, cool the winds which
blow from them across the land to the southward. The spring
of 1914 was said by the inhabitants of the county to be some-
what later than the average. Snow in the woods was knee-deep
on April 25. About two inches of snow fell on the night of
May 1-2. On May 15 the shore of St. George’s Bay was found
to be strewn with great blocks of ice, some of them three or four
feet thick, while large fields of ice could be seen floating in the
bay. Heavy frosts, accompanied by the formation of thin ice
on dishes of water left out-of-doors, occurred once or twice in
early June. These conditions are the cause of the lateness of
the arrival of many species of birds. Where I have any especial

120 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS.

reason to think that the date of arrival as observed for a par-
ticular species is, or may be, inaccurate, this fact has been in-
dicated in this paper.

Of the species herein recorded from Antigonish County, the
following are stated by Chapman (‘Handbook of Birds of East-
ern North America’ revised edition, 1912, p. 30) to be charac-
teristic of the Alleghanian fauna: Black-billed Cuckoo, King-

bird, Bobolink, Chipping Sparrow, Blue-headed Vireo, Catbird,
and White-breasted Nuthatch.

Taking one species, such as the Fox Sparrow, for instance, the
following items are recorded concerning it in this paper in the
order here stated: serial number, scientific name, vernacular

nam^ date first seen, number of individuals observed on the
date ti ot seen, date next seen, date of becoming common,
estimated degree of abundance, date last seen, remarks. So far
as they are applicable or were noted, similar items are recorded
in similar order for each of the other species in the list of migrants.
The nomenclature used is that of the 1910 edition of the ‘A. O. U.
Check-List’. Terms indicating degrees of abundance are used
in the following relative order: rare, uncommon, not common,
tolerably common, common, very common, abundant, very
abundant. A species is not recorded as breeding unless its
nest was seen by me in the county; other species were observed
as summer residents, presumably breeding, unless otherwise
stated.

1. Sterna hirundo. Common Tern. — First seen, May 21
(13); next seen. May 23; common, May 21; a very common
summer resident; breeds. On June 13th I visited Mahoney’s
Beach, at the western side of the entrance to Antigonish Harbor,
and there found about 30 pairs of this species nesting. The
beach on which the nests were placed is a long, narrow ridge of
sand, forming part of the mainland, and separating the waters
of Antigonish Harbor from those of St. George’s Bay. Much
of it is covered with the usual low herbage of our sand beaches;
other parts are bare white sand. I counted 49 nests containing
eggs; of which 23 were hollowed i-n the sand, while the 26 others
were hollowed in dry bunches or windrows of seaweed which
had been thrown above ordinary high-tide mark by the storms
of winter. On June 21 I again visited this colony, when I found
but one nest containing eggs. As a search revealed no trace
of the other eggs or of any young Terns, it seems probable that

SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS. 121

the colony, so easily accessible, had been raided by human en-
emies in the interval between my two visits.

2. Anas rubripes. — Black Duck. — First seen, March 28 (2);
next seen, April 10; apparently uncommon.

3. Branta canadenis canadensis. — Canada Goose. — First seen,
March 19 (10); next seen, March 29 common, March 19;
common; last seen, May 7; a transient only. Apparently
these birds pause in their migration for some time at this point,
until conditions farther north are favorable for a resumption
of their movement to their breeding grounds. During April
the great shallow areas in Antigonish Harbor form the feeding-
ground of large flocks of Canada Geese, containing several
thousand individuals.

4. Botaurus lentiginosus. — American Bittern. — First seen, May
10 (1); next seen, May 13; common, May 21; common.

3. Ardea herodias herodias. — Great Blue Heron. — First seen,
April 27 (1); next seen, April 30; not common.

6. Gallinago delicata. — Wilson’s Snipe. — First seen, April
20 (2); next seen, April 22; not common. When passing through
Antigonish County in 1917, I saw a single bird of this species
on the upper South River on April 10.

7. Actitis macularia. — Spotted Sandpiper. — First seen, May
13 (2); next seen, May 13; common, May 17; common.

8. Aegialitis semipalmata. — Semipalmated Plover. — First

seen, May 15 (5); next seen, May 23; not common. Probably
not an accurate record of first arrival. The only place where
I observed this species was Mahoney’s Beach.

9. Aegialitis meloda. — Piping Plover. — First seen, May 23
2); next seen, June 13; rare. Perhaps not an accurate record

of first arrival. The only place where I observed this species
was Mahoney’s Beach, at the mouth of Antigonish Harbor.
When I visited the Beach on May 15, none were seen, but 2
were there at the time of my next visit, on May 23. The great-
est number of individuals seen in one day was 4, seen June 13.

10. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis. — Osprey. — First seen
May 9 (1); next seen, May 17; uncommon.

1 1 . Ceryle alcyon.— Belted Kingfisher. — First seen, April
30 (1);.next seen, May 2; common, May 5; tolerably common.

12. Colaptes auratus luteus. — Northern Flicker. — First seen
April 20 (1); next seen April 26; common, April 28; common’

122 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS.

13. Chordeiles virginianus virginianus. — Nighthawk. — First
seen, May 29 (1); next seen, May 30; uncommon.

14. Chaetura pelagica. — Chimney Swift. — First seen, May
22 (2); next seen, May 23; common, May 23; common. (This
record published in “A Cooperative Study of Bird Migration”
by Charles H. Rogers, ‘Bird-Lore’, Vol. XVI, No. 4, p. 272,
July-August, 1914.)

13. Archilochus colubris. — Ruby-throated Hummingbird. —
First seen, May 31 (1); next seen, June 1; common, June 1:
very common.

16. Tyrannus tyrannus. — Kingbird. — First seen, May 21
(2); next seen, May 22; common, May 22; common.

17. Nuttalornis borealis. — Olive-sided Flycatcher. — First
seen, May 23 (1); next seen, May 27; uncommon.

19. Myiochan.es Virens. — Wood Pewee.— First seen, May 30
(1); next seen, May 31; uncommon.

19. Empidonax fiaviventris. — Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. —
First seen, May 25 (3); next seen, May 30; common, May 30;
common.

20. Empidonax trailli alnorum. — Alder Flycatcher. — First
seen, May 28 (1); next seen, May 30; common, June 3; common.

21. Empidonax rr.inimus. — Least Flycatcher. — First seen
May 19 (1); next seen, May 20; common, May 21; common,

22. Otocoris alpestris subsp.? — Prairie (?) Horned Lark. —
First seen, March 24 (1); next seen, March 25; common, March
27; tolerably common; last seen, April 18. Although Horned
Larks were observed as transients only, all my observations of
them in the field led me to believe them to be Prairie Horned
Larks, O. a. praticola. I t is possible that their breeding-grounds
were in some of the great pasture areas in Antigonish County,
some miles from Antigonish town.

23. Dolichonyx oryzivorus. — Bobolink. — First seen, May 16
(1); next seen, May 18; common, May 21; common.

24. Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus. — Red-winged Black-
bird.— First seen, May 2 (1); next seen, May 23; rare summer
resident; breeds. Probably not an accurate record of first
arrival. An account of my discovery of a nest and eggs of this
species in a swamp near the mouth of Antigonish Harbor has
been published in ‘The Auk’, Vol. XXXI. No. 4, pp. 537-538,
October, 1914.

SPRING BIRD MIGNATION, MIGRATION, 1914 LEWIS* 123

23. Euphagus carolinus . — Rusty Blackbird. — First seen.
April 8 (5); next seen, April 9; common, April 11; tolerably
common transient rare in summer.

26. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus. — Bronzed Grackle. — First seen,
April 7(1); next seen, April 8; common, April 12; common.

27. Carpodacus purpureus purpureus. — Purple Finch. —
First seen, May (1); next seen, May 10; common, May 11;
common. Although individuals of thjs species not infrequently
pass the winter in Nova Scotia, my notes lead me to believe
that migrants usually do not arrive until late April or early May.

28. Astragalinus tristis tristis. — Goldfinch. — First seen. May
26 (1); next seen, May 27; common, May 28; very common.
Individuals of this species also are known to winter in Nova
Scotia, but it would appear from my notes that the migrants
generally arrive in the latter half of May.

29. Pooecetes gramineus gramineus. — Vesper Sparrow. — First
seen April 28 (3); next seen, April 29; common, April 28; tolerably
common.

30. Passerculus sandwichensis savanna. — Savannah Sparrow. —
First seen, April 26 (2); next seen, April 27; common, April 30;
common.

31. Passer herbulus nelsoni subvirgatus. — Acadian Sharp-tail-
ed Sparrow. — First seen, June, 3 (1); next seen, June 4; un-
common.

32. Zonotrichia albicollis. — White-throated Sparrow. — First
seen, May 8 (1); next seen, May 9; common, May 9; abundant
summer resident; breeds. It will be observed that this speces
arrived on the night of May 7-8, and that the Fox Sparrow de-
parted on the same night. At Halifax, N. S., in 1918, the Fox
Sparrow departed and the White-throated Sparrow arrived on
the night of April 28-29. In both of these instances the Fox
Sparrow had been a very common transient. The feeding habits
of these two species appear to be essentially similar, as they both
feed largely on the ground among bushes, and it is possible that
this fact, in combination with the comparative scarcity of food
in early spring, when much of the ground is still snow-covered,
may have aided in causing these species to be thus complement-
ary in Nova Scotia at that season.

33. Spizella passer ina passer ina. — Chipping Sparrow. — First
seen, May 9 (2); next seen. May 10; common, May 15; very
common summer resident; breeds.

124 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS.

34. Jutico hyemalis hyemalis. — Slate-colored Junco.— First
seen, March 24 (1); next seen, April 4; common, April 7; abund-
ant summer resident; breeds.

33. Melospiza melodia melodia — Song Sparrow. — First seen,
April 4 (1); next seen, April 3; common, April 7; very common.
First song heard April 5, when, of 4 birds seen, one only was
heard to s ng.

36. Melospiza lincolni lincolni. — Lincoln’s Sparrow. — First
seen, May 19 (1); next seen, May 20; common, May 20; tolereably
common.

37. Melospiza georgiana. — Swamp Sparrow. — First seen,
April 30 (1); next seen, May 5; common, May 9; tolerably
common.

38. Passerella iliaca iliaca. — Fox Sparrow. — First seen, April
13 (4); next seen, April 14; common, April 14; very common;
last seen, May 7; a transient migrant only. Antigonish appears
to lie on an important highway of migration for this species.
Probably most of these birds were on their way to Newfoundlan d.

39. Zamelodia ludoviciana. — Rose-breasted Grosbeak. — First
seen. May 25 (3); next seen. May 27; common, May 27; com-
mon. Nowhere else has it been my good fortune to find this
species as common as I found it about Antigonish.

40. Petrochelidon lunifrons lunifrons. — Cliff Swallow. — First
seen, May 22 (25); next seen, May 23; common, May 22; com-
mon. The accuracy of this date of arrival seems questionable,
although I watched carefully for this species.

41. Hirundo erythrogaster. — Barn Swallow. — First seen, May
15 (9); next seen, May 16; common, May 15; common summer
resident; breeds.

42. Iridoprocne bicolor.- — Tree Swallow. — First seen, April

26 (1); next seen, April 28; common, May 15; common.

43. Riparia riparia. — Bank Swallow. — First seen, May 23
(5); next seen, May 30; common, May 30; locally common
iummer resident; breeds. Found only about earthen banks
along the shore of St. George’s Bay. As I did not visit that
shore between May 15 and May 23, the above date of arrival
may not be accurate.

44. Bombycilla cedrorum. — Cedar Waxwing. — First seen, May

27 (9); next seen, June 5; irregular in occurrence.

45 Vireosylva olivacca. — Red-eyed Vireo. First seen, May
25 (4); next seen, May 27; common, May 27; common.

SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS. 125

46. Lanivireo solitarius. — Blue-headed Vireo. — First seen,
May 20 (1); next seen, May 21; common, May 23; tolerably
common.

47. Mniotilta varia. — Black-and-White Warbler. — First seen,
May 16 (1); next seen, May 18; common, May 20; common.

48. Vermivora ruficapilla ruficapilla. — Nashville Warbler.
--First seen. May 25 (1); next seen, May 30; rare.

49. Compsothlypis americana usrteac. — Northern Parula,

Warbler. — First seen, May 16 (1); next seen, May 18;

common, May 20; 21 very common.

50. Dendroica aestiva aestiva. — Yellow Warbler. — First seen
May 19 (1); next seen, May 20; common, May 20; very common

51 . Dendroica caerulescens caerulescens. — Black-throated Blue
Warbler. — First seen. May 23 (1); next seen, May 24; uncom-
mon.

52. Dendroica coronata. — Myrtle Warbler. — First seen, April
21 (2); next seen, April 22; common, May 5; common.

53. Dendroica magnolia. — Magnolia Warbler. — First seen,
May 14 (1); next seen, May 16; common, May 21; very abun-
dant. I consider this to be the most abundant summer resident
bird about Antigonish If my experience in a number of other
localities in Nova Scotia is typical, I should judge this to be the
most abundant Warbler, perhaps the most abundant summer
resident bird, in the province as a whole.

54. Dendroica pensylvanica. — Chestnut-sided Warbler. — First
seen, May 24 (1); next seen, May 25; rare.

55. Dendroica striata. — Black-poll Warbler. — First seen, May
25 (3); next seen May 27; common, May 28; common. Al-
though I have no reason to suppose that this species is a summer
resident in Antigonish County, I can now find no record of the
date of its departure for the summer.

56. Dendroica fusca. — Blackburnian Warbler. — First seen,
May 27 (1); next seen, May 30; not common.

57. Dendroica Virens. — Black-throated Green Warbler. — First
seen, May 9(1); next seen, May 10; common, May 17; abundant
The second Warbler in point of abundance.

58. Dendroicapalmarum hypochrysea. — Yellow Palm Warb-
ler.— First seen, April 24 (1); next seen, May 9; common, May
9; very common transient; probably not generally common as
a summer resident. I have no similar migration record for this
or any like species. In comparison with records of arrival in

126 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS.

other parts of Nova Scotia in other years, April 24 appears to
be a normal date of arrival for this bird. The. individual seen
on that date at Antigonish was clearly observed in the bare
branches of an apple tree. On the days immediately following
I sought faithfully for this Warbler, ror I always tried to obtain
dates of second observations as close to arrival dates as possible,
and, as day after day went by without my seeing anyth;ng more
of the species, I hunted for it the more persistently. Yet t
was not observed again until fifteen days after the first indi-
vidual was seen; then, on May 9, it suddenly became common.

59. Seiurus aurocapillus. — Oven-bird. — First seen, May 18
(1); next seen, May 20; common, May 20; very common.

60. Seiurus noveboracensis. — Water-Thrush. — First seen, May
17 (2); next seen, May 19; common, May 20; common transient;
not common summer resident. In most of western Nova Scotia
this bird appears to be uncommon or rare. About Antigonish
I found it, by comparison, rather more common as a summer
resident and very much more common as a transient visitor in
spring. In summer it is confined to deep, swampy woods,
where there is stagnant water, but in the migration its cheerful
song sounds not only in such places, but along every brook and
river and body of fresh water, large or small. Apparently
Antigonish is on the main highway followed by individuals of
this species which breed in Cape Breton and Newfoundland,
and, perhaps, eastern Labrador. The comparative rarity of the
species in western Nova Scotia would seem to indicate that
these eastern migrants enter the province by way of the Isthmus
of Chignecto.

61. Oporornis Philadelphia.—- Mourning Warbler. — First seen
May 30 (1); next seen, May 31; not common. More common
than I have found it elsewhere in Nova Scotia.

62. Geothlypis trichas trichas. — Maryland Yellow-throat. —
First seen. May 21 (4); next seen, May 22; common, May 22;
common.

63. Wilsonia pusilla pusilla. — Wilson’s Warbler. — First seen,
May 25 (3); next seen, May 28; uncommon; last seen, May 28;
observed as a transient only.

64. Wilsonia canadensis. — Canadian Warbler. — First seen,
May 25 (1); next seen, May 27; common, May 29; common.

65. Sctophaga ruticilla. — Redstart. — First seen, May 21 (2);
next seen, May 22; common. May 22; very common.

SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS. 127

66. Anthus rubescens — American Pipit. — My only obser-
vation of this species at Antigonish was of one bird seen in a
plowed field on May 20.

67. Dumetella carolinensis. — Catbird. — First seen, May 28
(6); next seen, May 30; common, May 28; common.

68 Nannus hiemalis hiemalis — Winter Wren.- — First seen,
May 8 (1); next seen, May 9; not common.

69. Regulus calendula calendula. — Ruby-crowned Kinglet.—
First seen, April 27 (I); next seen, April 30; common, May 2;
common.

70. Hylocichala guttata pallasi. — Hermit Thrush. — First seen
May 1 (1); next seen, May 8, common.

71. Planesticus migratorius migratorius. — Robin. — First seen,
March 26 (1); next seen, March 28, common; April 9, very
common. (This record published in “A Cooperative Study of
Bird Migration, * by Charles H. Rogers, ‘Bird Lore’, Vol. XVI,
No. 3, p. 182, May-June, 1914).

Unfortunately regular notes on birds not observed as spring
migrants were not made From occasional notes on rare or
unusual occurrences, or events of particular interest, however,
the following additional data concerning the birds of Antigon-
nish County may be supplied. Certain familiar species, which
were presumably common or abundant, must, from lack of
record, here be conspicuous by their absence.

72. Hcrelda hyemalis. — Old Squaw. — One male observed on
St George’s Bay, not far from the entrance to Antigonish Har-
bor, January 31, 1914.

73. Bonasa umbellus togata. — Canada Ruffed Grouse. —
A not common permanent resident.

74. Coccyzus erythr ophthalmia — Black-billed Cuckoo. — The
familiar, characteristic notes of a Cuckoo distinctly heard
June 20, 1914, doubtless emanated from one of this species.

75. Sphyrapicus varius Darius. — Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. —
A pair observed September 27, 1913.

76. Cyanocitta cristata cristata. — Blue Jay. — My only records
are of several observations of the species during January and
February, 1914.

77. Perisoreus canadensis canadensis. — Canada Jay. — Re-
corded in September and October, 1913, and January, 1914.

78. Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos. — Crow. — Common
permanent resident.

128 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION, ANTIGONISH, 1914 LEWIS.

79. Piriicola enucleator leucura. — Pine Grosbeak. — My only
observation was of a flock o' 8 or 9, containing no adult males,
seen near Mary vale, April 18, 1914

80. Passer domesticus dcmesficus — English Sparrow. — A com-
mon permanent resident in Antigonish town

81. Loxia curvirostra miner. — American Crossbill. — A small
flock, containing several adult male , was observed at close
range, May 2, 1914, near Mahoney’s Beach. The birds were
feeding in low spruce trees and on the ground. A few Cross-
bills were seen during the winter, but the species was not de-
termined.

82. Acanthis linaria linaria — Redpoll. — Seen in small flocks
during the winter and early spring.

83. Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis. — Snow Bunting. — Recorded
as seen occasionally in small flocks from January 1 1 to March 7.

84. Spizella monicola monticola. — Tree Sparrow.— My only
observation was of a single individual, March 7, 1914.

85. — Lanins borealis. — Northern Shrike. — Single individuals
observed several .times in winter and early spring. Heard
singing in January and February.

86. Certhia farriliaris arr^ericana. — Brown Creeper. — Several
observed in song in heavy deciduous woods in late April.

87. Sitta carolinensis carol mns is. — White-breasted Nuthatch
— Observed several times in autumn and winter, principally on
shade trees in Antigonish town.

88. Sitta canadensis.— Red-breasted Nuthatch — My only
observation of this species was of a pair seen January 24. 1914.
(See “A Problem in Food-Supply and Distribution ” ‘Bird-Lore,”
Vol.XVl, No. 2, p. 113, March-April, 1914.)

89. Penthestes atricapillus. — Chickadee. — Common; partic-
ularly noticeable in - winter.

90. Penthestes hudsonicus littoralis. — Acadian Chickadee.—
Common permanent resident in coniferous woods.

91. Regulas satrapa satrapa. — Golden-crowned Kinglet.
Noted in February, 1914. Doubtless observed, but not re-
corded, in other seasons also.

The Phenology of Nova Scotia, 1919. — By A. H.

MacKay, LL.D., Halifax.

These observations were made by the school children of
the Province of Nova Scotia as a part of the Nature Study
work prescribed. The pupils report by bringing into the school-
room the flowering or other specimens when first observed,
for authoritative determination by the teacher, who generally
credits the first finder by placing the name and the observation
on the honor roll section of the blackboard for the day. The
teacher, after testing the correctness of the observation, marks
it on the schedule with which every teacher is provided — a copy
of which is sent in to the Inspector with the school returns at
the end of June and January.

The following tables are compiled from 140 of the best
schedules out of the 400 sent in. The selections were made
and compiled under the direction of Mr. H. R. Shinner, B. A.,
and Miss Gladys MacLeod, of the Education Department.

The schedules for each year are carefully bound up in a
large annual volume, which is placed in the Provincial Museum
and Science Library, where they can be used by students of
climate, etc. The compilers of the phenochrons of the different
belts, slopes or regions, have been rural science teachers who
have most distinguished themselves as instructors. They were
selected for the purpose on the recommendation of the Director
of rural science education. The sheets from which the pro-
vincial phenochrons are calculated are also bo ind in annual
folio volumes for ease of consultation and preservation.

The Province is divided into its main climate slopes or
regions not always coterminous with the boundaries of counties.
Slopes, especially those to the coast, are subdivided into belts,
such as (a) the coast belt, (b) the low inland belt, and (c) the
high inland belt, as below:

No. Regions or Slopes. Belts.

I. Yarmouth and Digby Counties, (a) Coast, (b) Low Inlands,

(c) High Inlands.

II . Shelburne, Queens & Lunenburg Co’s, “ “

III. Annapolis and Kings Counties, (a) South Mts., (b) Annapolis

Valley, (c) Cornwallis

Valley, (d) North Mts.

IV. Hants and Colchester Counties, (a) Coast, (b) Low Inlands,

(c) High Inlands.

V. Halifax and Guysboro Counties,

VI. a. Cobequid Slope (to the south), “ “ “ “

VI b. Chignecto Slope (to the northwest),

VII. Northumberland Straits Slope (to the n’h),

VIII. Richmond & Cape Breton Co’s. “

IX. Bras d’Or Slope (to the southeast), “

X. Inverness Slope (to Gulf, N. W.),

The ten regions are indicated on the outline map on page 134.

(129)

130

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NOVA SCOTIA, 1919 MACKAY.

131

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THE PHENOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA, 1919 —Continued.

When Becoming Common.

Observation Regions

1

PHENOLOGICAL

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OBSERVATIONS IN

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00 00 CO © W GO © lO <N -t^i-i -iMififrH • CO © Oi CO CO i-i
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Year 1919.

Day of the year corresponding to the last day
of each month.

Jan 31 July 212

Feb 59 Aug 243

March 90 Sept 273

April 120 Oct 304

May 151 Nov 334

June 181 Dec ....365

For Leap Year add one to each except
January.

19. Prunus Pennsylvanica

20 “ “ fruit ripe

21. Vaccinium Can. and Penn

22. “ “ fruit ripe

23. Ranunculus acris

24. R. repens

25. Trill, erythrocarpum

26. Rhododendron Rhodora

27. Cornus Canadiensis

28. “ “ fruit ripe

29. Trientalis Americana

30. Clintonia borealis

31. Calla palustris

32. Cypripedium acaule

33. Sisyrinchium angustifol

34. Linnaea borealis

35. Kalmia glauca

36. Kalmia augustifolia

37. Crataegus oxyacantha

38. Crataegus coccinea, etc

39. Iris versicolor

40. Chrysanthemum Leucanth

41. Nuphar ad vena

42. Rubus strigosus

When First Seen.

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THE PHENOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA. 1919.— Continued.

NOVA SCOTIA, 1919— MACKAY

133

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THE TEN PHENOLOGICAL REGIONS OF NOVA SCOTIA. *

NOVA SCOTIA, 1919 MACKAY.

135

Thunderstorms — Phenological Observations, Nova Scotia, 1918-1919.

The indices indicate the number of stations from which the Thunderstorms
were reported on the day of the year specified.

Observation Regions.

1. Yarmouth and
Digby.

2. Shelburne, Queens
and Lunenburg.

3. Annapolis and
Kings.

4. Hants and Colcheste]

5. Halifax and
Guysboro.

6a. Cobequid Slope,
(to the South)

6b. Chignecto Slope
(to the north)

7. Northumb. Sts. Slope
(to the north)

8. Richmond and
Cape Breton.

9. Bras d’Or Slope
10. Inverness Slope

Total 1919

64

64

91

91

99

99

io7

107

108

108

108 2

1097

1092

1Q92

109u

111

111

112

112

115

115

115

120

120

121

121

122

122

1252

1253

125

1253

1252

12513

125* ,

1256

12533

126. .

126

127

127

134

1342

134

1344

134 8

135

135

135 2

137

137

138

138

1382

141

141

145

145

145 2

146

1462

146 3

147

147

1472

149

1492

149

149

149 5

152

152

155

155

1563

156®

1564

156

156

15615

157

157s

157

157

157 8

1582

1586

158

1585

1586

158

15821

161

161

%

161 2

168

1682

1682

168

168

168 7

170

170

170

170

1702

170

170 7

1713

1713

171

171

171

17113

172

172

17213

1725

1722

17210

172

17232

173

173

136 PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN N. S., 1913. — MACKAY

Thunderstorms — Phenological Observations, Nova Scotia, 1919.

The indices indicate the number of stations from which the Thnnderstorms
were repor’ed on the day of the yjar specified.

Observation Regions.

3

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1983

2013

2022

203

215

226

227

238

220

238

251

261

268

275

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280

3022

302

174
198 3
201 3
202 2
203
215
220
226
227
238 2
251
261
268
275

278

279 3

280
302 3

Fig. 11. Front view of the Micmac Skull. Norma frontalis.

Fig. 12. Lateral view of the Micmac Skull. Norma lateralis.

(Insert in Vol. 15, part I, opp. p. 32)

(Insert) in Vol. 15, part 1, opp. p. 32)