igo2] Biological Station of Canada. 49 



years the vexed question of sawdust and fish-life has been dis- 

 cussed, and Professor Knight has, for the first time, conducted 

 exact scientific experiments and made tests in regard to that all 

 important matter. His report is certain to attract wide attention, 

 and the results which he reports, appear to show that sawdust is 

 not fatal to adult fishes, but affects mainly their food, eggs and 

 young ; a result vcy much at variance with the views of loud-voiced 

 theorists, who have spoken of fishes as being choked and killed in 

 large numbers by that kind of pollution. Dr. Knight also gives 

 dietails of his exact and thorough study of the effects of the other 

 water pollutions. He states that a report of Professor Prince, 

 published in 1899, stimulated him to take up the investigation, 

 and he was much assisted by the chemical analyses of Mr. F. T. 

 Shutt, who, like Professor Prince, is an ex-President of the 

 Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club. An account of the sand-clam 

 [Mya) and of the New Brunswick fishery for that valuable mollusk 

 by Dr. Joseph Stafford, is of great interest, covering 21 pages 

 and illustiated by four beautiful plates. The paper is of much 

 practical importance though the detailed description of the shell 

 and internal organisation seems somewhat redundant and out 

 of place in a series of original papers. Nothing very new or 

 original can be said on that phase of the subject. Indeed, every 

 scientific student can find a full account in the current class-books 

 of zoology. The pages, however, dealing with the food, repro- 

 duction, etc., are both original and valuable, and important 

 additions to science. The fourth paper, by Professor Fowler, is 

 open to criticism. The flora of St. Andrews might have been 

 made extremely valuable by incorporating in it some account of 

 the algce and microscopic plants ot Passamaquoddy Bay : but as 

 Dr. Fowler's list stands, it adds little or nothing to the very 

 excellent reports already published by Dr. G. U. Hay, Mr. J. 

 Vroom and other New Brunswick botanists. The three last re- 

 ports are creditable in every way, for they add to our knowledge, 

 and they show how valuable work can be done by busy men in a 

 short time at a properly equipped Station. Dr. Scott gives us 

 some very unexpected results in his study of the sea-urchin's food. 

 Many authorities have stated that the sea-urchin lives on shell-fish 

 and the like, an opinion apparently supported by the powerful 



