l6o CHAPTER II 



At least it seems more reasonable to suppose that these species have arrived in 

 Newfoundland from the adjacent mainland, either carried by ship, or flying 

 (all three of them are capable of flight), than that they should have been introduced 

 directly from Europe, for instance to Corner Brook on the west coast. 



If the non-resident French fishermen of earlier centuries had been partly res- 

 ponsible for the introduction of European species into western Newfoundland, 

 this would be supposed to have resulted in the appearance there of species un- 

 known elsewhere in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, such as the beetles Nebria 

 brevicoUis F., Aegialia rufa F., and Trachodes hispidus L., on St. Pierre- Miquelon. 



In 195 1 I was told by an old fisherman of St. Pierre that even in later years 

 sailing-vessels sometimes went in ballast from the west coast of Newfoundland, 

 at least from the Port-au-Port region oflF St. George's Bay, to St. Pierre. The 

 isolated occurrence on the French islands (in part also on the Burin Peninsula 

 situated just opposite) of such westcoast species as the Carabid beetles Amara 

 avida Say, Harpalus rufipes DeG., and Patrobus longicornis Say, all favoured on 

 cultivated ground, may possibly be explained thereby. 



Some of the earliest introductions in Newfoundland, for instance the ground- 

 beetles Agonum mulleri Hbst. and Bembidion bruxellense Wesm. {rupestre auctt.), 

 which are more abundant and widespread there than anywhere else in North 

 America, may very well have used this island as an accumulator from which waves 

 of air-borne emigration started and reached the mainland. 



In order to understand the eff'ect of the animal transport with man here suggested, 

 it is also necessary to get a clear idea of where and how the ballast was taken on the 

 European coast. Both the composition of the introduced faunal element in New- 

 foundland and the history of the North Atlantic trade have shown that English 

 ships and English ports have played the foremost role. Unfortunately, published 

 English records on the ballast -traffic seem to be very scarce. The brief description 

 given here has therefore been compiled mainly from information generously 

 supplied by persons living in or closely connected with the southwestern ports: 

 in Poole by Mr. Edwin F. J. Mathews and the late Mr. Horace P. Smith, respect- 

 ively present and former borough historian; in the Bideford district by the late 

 Mr. Vernon C. Boyle of Westward Ho!, who was deeply interested in the matter; 

 in Barnstaple by Mr. Alfred E. Blackwell, Head Librarian; in Bristol by Miss 

 Elizabeth Ralph, City Archivist. Especially profitable was the study of Poole 

 harbour journals, from 181 3 and some years thereafter, liberally put at my disposal 

 by the present owner, Mr. E. E. Kendall, aged 84, former Harbour Comissioner. 



