278 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [^ol. vilo. 



geologists. In later years, however, Mr. Wliiteaves and Prof^ 

 Verrill have, in connection with the dredgiog operations carried 

 on in the interest of our fisheries, more fully worked up the 

 relations of these faunas, and we are now in a position to speak 

 with some certainty of the facts, and to appreciate their signifi- 

 cance. 



If we draw a straight line from the northern end of Cape 

 Breton through the Magdalen Islands to the mouth of the Bay 

 des Chaleurs, we have to the southward an extensive semicircular 

 Bay, 200 miles in diameter, which we may call the great Acadian- 

 Bay, and on the north the larger and deeper triangular area 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This Acadian Bay is a sort 

 of gigantic warm-water aquarium, sheltered, except in a few 

 isolated banks which have been pointed out by Mr. Whiteaves, 

 from the cold waters of the Gulf, and which the bather feels 

 quite warm in comparison with the frigid and often not very 

 limped liquid with which we are fain to be content in the Lower- 

 St. Lawrence. It also afi"ords to the more delicate marine 

 animals a more congenial habitat than they can find in the Bay 

 of Fundy or even on the coast of Maine, unless in a few shel- 

 tered spots, some of which have been explored by Prof. Verrill. 

 It is true that in winter the whole Acadian Bay is encumbered 

 with floating ice, partly produced on its own shores and partly- 

 drifted from the north ; but in summer the action of the sun 

 upon its surface, the warm air flowing over it from the neighbour- 

 iDg land, and the ocean water brought in by the Strait of 

 Canso, rapidly raise its temperature, and it retains this elevated' 

 temperature till late in autumn. Hence the character of itS' 

 fauna, which is indicated by the fact that many species of mol- 

 iusks whose headquarters are south of Cape Cod, flourish and 

 abound in its waters. Among these are the common oyster, 

 which is especially abundant on the coasts of Prince Edward 

 Island and northern New Brunswick, the Quahog or Wampum 

 shell, the Petricola ])^^oladiformis, which along with Zirfea 

 crispata, burrows everywhere in the soft sandstones and shales ^ 

 the beautiful Modiola jMcafula forming dense mussel-banks in 

 the sheltered coves and estuaries; Cytherea (CalUsta) convexa ; 

 Cochlodesma leana and Ciimniingia telUnoides ; Crepidida for- 

 nicata, the slipper-limpet, and its variety unguiformis, swarming 

 especially in the oyster beds ; Nassa ohsoleta and Buccinum. 

 cineremn, with many others of similar southern distributioUo- 



