The human transport of animals across the Northern Atlantic 



159 



FIG. 15. The most frequented 

 ports in the Newfoundland 

 trade before the 19th cen- 

 tury. 



Trepossey 



winged form, incapable of flight; on St. Pierre-Miquelon the three beetles men- 

 tioned above (p. 157). 



The western parts of Newfoundland, the climatically most favoured, served for 

 centuries as a base for the French fishery and had no permanent settlement at all. 

 In the period after 1764 the French were downright forbidden to stay over winter 

 (Prowse, 1895, p. 318; Newton, 1930, p. 144). Not until 1877 ^^^^ the colonization 

 of the west coast started by the English and shortly afterwards some French lobster 

 factories were established, the first one at Port-au-Choix in the northwest (Harris, 

 1930, p. 673 a.f.). In spite of this the European faunal element is quite pronounced 

 on the west coast and includes even species [Amara aulica Panz., A.fulva DeG., 

 Harpalus rufipes DeG., among Carabid beetles) which are lacking in the east. 

 Possibly the active trade of modern times with Nova Scotia has contributed to the 

 Newfoundland fauna some "second-hand" European species, first arrived in the 

 Halifax region or on Cape Breton Island (the three species mentioned all occur in 

 Nova Scotia). A good proof of late appearance is, as mentioned above (p. 151), that 

 Amara aulica and Harpalus rufipes, now widely distributed and abundant, were 

 not captured by any of the entomologists who made intensive collections in 

 western Newfoundland between 1905 and 191 5. The former was first taken in 

 Nova Scotia in 1929 (Fall, 1934), the latter on Prince Edward Island in 1937, in 

 Nova Scotia in 1938, in New Brunswick in 1939. 



