96 The Ottawa Naturalist. | November 



Just as the war in Europe forced a large part of the traveling 

 American public to become more familiar with its own fair land, so 

 has the world conflict been largely instrumental in causing the manu- 

 facturer of artistic commodities to look about him here at home for 

 suggestions as to new designs. Notable success in this use of 

 Museum material by industries has recently been made by the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History in New York. 



Now comes the Museum of The Geological Survey of Canada, at 

 Ottawa, with a programme for developing distinctive Canadian de- 

 signs and placing in the hands of Canadian manufacturers native 

 designs for introduction into their products. 



The wealth of material in our American museums, which has not 

 been drawn upon to suggest designs for fabrics, ceramics, jewelry, 

 costumes, etc., is just beginning to be appreciated by a few enterprising 

 manufacturers. 



We learn from Nature that the late Lord Justice Stirling's 

 herbarium, consisting chiefly of about 6,000 varieties of mosses and 

 liverworts from many parts of the world, has been presented by Lady 

 Stirling to the Tunbridge Wells Natural History Society. 



The Provincial Museum and the Halifax Disaster. 

 Mr. Harry Piers, Curator of the Provincial Museum at Halifax, 

 has replied to an inquiry regarding the relation of the explosion to the 

 Museum. The specimens and labels apparently came through fairly 

 well, better than was expected, considering the unbelieveably 

 terrific and astonishingly loud explosion which demolished the Rich- 

 mond section of Halifax, although windows were blown in, glass of 

 cases smashed, a water pipe burst, and snow stormed into one end of 

 the building. Air. Piers calls attention to the good results of always 

 using water-proof ink for labels. 



The cases were boarded over soon after the explosion in order to 

 use them as tables for Red Cross and other relief supplies, so that a 

 very long or careful examination of the damage has not been made. 

 The publications are in a considerable mess, but probably have not 

 suffered greatly. At the time of writing Mr. Piers had been too busy 

 on relief work to examine into details of the Museum. 



Mr. Pier's immediate family escaped injury from window glass 

 which shot across the breakfast room as if from a gun less than half 

 a minute after they had left the table. Hardly a window was left in 

 the house and plaster came down, although the house was two miles 

 from the explosion. His mother's family, living at the head of the 

 North West arm, escaped with numerous small cuts from glass, none 

 of them serious. 



Harlan I. Smith. 



