NO. 3584 EXTINCT SEA MINK — MANVILLE 3 



Distribution 



Different authors have ascribed to the sea mink a probable range 

 along the Atlantic seaboard from southwestern Nova Scotia to the 

 coast of Connecticut. It probably is now impossible to document 

 records from all of this area, but certainly the sea mink once occurred 

 along most of the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. 



Near the type-locality, Moorehead (1922) reported remains of 

 "the large mink" from Boynton's shell heap at Lamoine, near the 

 head of Frenchman's Bay. His specimens were examined by G. M. 

 Allen, who later (1942, pp. 181-183) reported remains of the "sea 

 mink" from sites as distant as "Casco Bay in the south, and north- 

 eastward to Mount Desert and Frenchman's Bay, and Roques Island, 

 Washington County, Maine." Loomis (1911), on the basis of frag- 

 ments from no less than 45 individuals on Flagg Island, near South 

 Harpswell on Casco Bay, described the mink as Lutreola luson antiques. 

 A year later, Loomis and Young (1912) reported remains of 53 indi- 

 viduals from Flagg Island, 3 from Sawyer's Island near Boothbay, 2 

 from Seward Island in Frenchman's Bay, and 1 from Winter Harbor. 

 Hollister (1913, p. 478) examined the mandible of a specimen from 

 Lower Babson Island, Maine. Summarizing the distributional data 

 then available, Norton (1930, p. 27) listed the range as between 

 "Great Diamond Island, Casco Bay, on the west, and Roque's Island 

 in Washington County on the east," and probably also on the shores 

 of New Brunswick. He noted that a skin, probably of this species, 

 was handled at Campobello Island, near the mouth of the Bay of 

 Fundy, in 1894. Norton also pointed out, with supporting evidence, 

 that specimens from Crouch's Cove on Goose Island in Casco Bay, 

 reported by Wyman (1868) as Putorius vison, probably represented 

 the sea mink. 



Long ago, Gilpin (1867, p. 12) reported from Nova Scotia large 

 skins which may have come from the sea mink. Some measured as 

 much as 32.5 inches in total length; this may have been due in part to 

 stretching. Skins of AI. v. mink from the Maine coast seldom exceed 

 23 inches in length. 



More recently, Waters and Ray (1961) unearthed remains of 

 macrodon from an archeological site at Assawampsett Pond in Middle- 

 boro, Plymouth Co., Mass. The bones were in excellent condition, 

 although fu-e blackened. Radio-carbon dating indicated their age in 

 the order of 4,300 ±300 years. This site is now 12 miles from the 

 nearest salt water. The authors speculated that the animals may 

 have reached there via the Taunton or Mattapoisett Rivers, or may 

 have been transported by Indians from Narragansett or Buzzards 

 Bay. The next year, Waters and Mack (1962) reported further re- 



