.'56 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



scanty as they are, seem to show that the southern fauna is but 

 slightly represented at the head of Bay Chaleur. Though the summer 

 temperature of the water seems high, it is probably, owing to the 

 proximity of deeper water and more considerable tides, lower than at 

 Shediac, and a little below the surviving point for these southern 

 forms ; and perhaps also the more rocky character of the shores is 

 unfavorable to sand-loving species such as most of the southern ones 

 are. Dredging may yield some other forms, though the general 

 character of the coast does not promise a rich fauna. 



11. — A Natural History of New Brunswick projected in 1771. 



Read March 1st, 1898. 

 From June, 1770, until June, 1771, Lieut. William Owen, R.N., 

 lived at Campobello, and his journal, part of which has been printed 

 by the Historical Society, contains in the yet unpublished parts some 

 items of no little scientific interest. Thus, under date of October 1st, 

 1770, he says that, when near Indian Island, he "made here two 

 hauls of the trawl, but took nothing material except a few curious 

 shells, and other sub-marine productions." No doubt this is the earliest 

 existent reference to dredging in New Brunswick waters. Three years 

 earlier he speaks of dredging off the coast of Massachusetts and finding 

 scallops, and " sea-eggs, starfish, coral, weeds and other curious sub- 

 marine productions." During the entire year at Campobello he kept 

 a very careful meteorological record of temperature, wind direction 

 and force, and general weather, the whole given in full in his journal. 

 This is no doubt the earliest record kept in New Brunswick, and is so 

 full and carefully made that it must be of much more than antiquarian 

 interest. But most important of all is the following passage : 



" It was his [i. c. , the author's] intention (and some time before he left the 

 island he began) to make very particular observations on the quantity of rain 

 and snow that fell; the greatest depth of the snow upon a plain: the depth the 

 frost penetrated into the earth; the nature and quality of the soil, and the 

 different strata under; some remarks in the three kingdoms — animal, vegetable. 

 and mineral; the progress of vegetation; the migration of birds and fish; the 

 seasons for the spermaceti whale, cod, haddock, and [Hillock fisheries, as well 

 as the river fisheries of sturgeon, salmon, shad, bass, and ale wives; the mode 

 and time of killing seals; the Indian's seasons and manner of hunting for their 

 furs and peltries; their fishing and fowling; the modi' and best season for 

 hunting the moose or orignal, the cariboo, the fallow deer, and every other 

 miscellaneous matter or event that mighl occur. This work he left to be carried 

 on by a sober and ingenious young man he left there, who was, unfortunately, 

 lost in the " Owen " (with all her crew and passengers) on his return to Eng- 

 land eighteen months after." 



