4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 122 



mains from Conant's Hill on the Weweantic River. This is a tidal 

 river about 2 miles inland from Buzzards Bay and 15 miles from the 

 earlier site at Middleboro. In Connecticut, Goodwin (1935, p. 70) 

 suggested that the sea mink "might well have been found in the salt 

 marshes and rivers along the coast of the state." In Rhode Island, 

 Cronan and Brooks (1962, p. 104) consider the former occurrence of 

 the sea mink as possible but speculative. Anderson (1947, p. 192) 

 reported that it was "traditionally said to have been commonly 

 trapped along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in southern New Bruns- 

 wick" and may have "formerly occm'red on the southwestern coast 

 of Nova Scotia." 



Recent History 



The formal description of macrodon as a distinct species prompted 

 Manly Hardy (1903) of Brewer, Maine, to write a short account of 

 the sea mink. From about 1835, Hardy's father had been a fur buyer 

 and had handled most of the fiu^s from Penobscot to Frenchman's 

 Bays. Manly Hardy himself continued this trade, and over 50,000 

 mink skins passed through his hands. He recognized as distinct an 

 unusually large mink, especially from Swan's and Marshall's Islands, 

 whose skins he received from the Indians of the Penobscot and Jericho 

 Bay regions until about 1860. The fur of this mink was much coarser 

 and of a more reddish color than in the inland form. It was usually 

 extremely fat and possessed a very strong, pecidiar, fishlike odor. In 

 the early days, because of its large size, it brought a higher price and 

 was persistently sought. Few were trapped; instead they were 

 hunted with dogs. Some men piu-sued them from island to island, 

 investigating any small ledge where a mink might live. 



They carried their dogs with them, and, besides guns, shovels, pick-axes and 

 crow-bars, took a good supply of pepper and brimstone. If they took refuge in 

 holes or cracks of the ledges, they were usually dislodged by working with shovels 

 and crow-bars, and the dogs caught them when they came out. If they were in 

 crevices of the rocks where they could not be got at and their eyes could be seen 

 to shine, they were shot and pulled out by means of an iron rod with a screw at 

 the end. If they could not be seen, they were usually driven out by firing in 

 charges of pepper. If this failed, then they were smoked with brimstone, in which 

 case they either came out or were suffocated in their holes (Hardy, 1903). 



In a short time these practices exterminated the sea mink. 



Mansueti (1954) reports that La\vrie Holmes, well-known conser- 

 vationist of Mount Desert Island, recalled seeing mink traps made of 

 laths, as well as the deadfall variety, in use during the late 1890s 

 along the shore of the outer island near Northeast Harbor. 



To Arthur Stupka, Naturalist at Acadia National Park on Mount 

 Desert Island from 1932 to 1935, I am indebted for unpublished notes 



