16 L. W. BAILEY : 



The subject of the prehistoric human occupatiou of Acadia is oue of considerable 

 interest, and although, according to the organization of ovir Society, it is one which pro- 

 perly appertains to another Section, it is really quite as appropriate to our own, and a few 

 facts relating thereto may be acceptable. 



Among the most important investigations connected with this subject, so far as New 

 Brunswick is concerned, are those of the recognition and exploration of the shell-heaps, 

 which are found at different points along the coast, and especially about the shores of 

 Passamaquoddy Bay. Some of these were very fully examined by the late Prof. S. F. 

 Baird, abovit fifteen years ago, and many interesting articles were obtained, which are 

 now in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, but of which no 

 published description has yet been made. Others were explored by a committee of the 

 Natural History Society of St. John, and in their Proceedings is contained a very interest- 

 ing account, from the pen of Mr. Matthew, of what was evidently an ancient Indian 

 village, at the mouth of Bocabee River, in Charlotte County. In the interior of the Pro- 

 vince, scattered relics, chiefly thé coarser stone implements and arrow-heads, are of com- 

 mon occurrence, and with these are sometimes found such articles as pipes, pottery, 

 wampum, net-sinkers, pendants etc., often somewhat elaborately ornamented. The 

 coarser and finer relics, including both chipped and polished implements, are, however, 

 promiscuously mixed together, and no facts have been observed from which, in any case, 

 any high degree of antiquity can be inferred. An article by the author, summing up the 

 facts upon this subject, and accompanied by photographic illustrations, is contained in 

 the Sixth Bulletin of the Natural History Society of St. John (1887). This, it is hoped, 

 will soon be followed by a similar article, by Mr. Matthew, upon the prehistoric relics 

 of the coast. 



The author cannot close this brief review of scientific progress in New Brunswick 

 without some reference to work which, though not directly geological, must be of some 

 interest to the geologist, as it will also be to other members of the Section. I allude to 

 the advances made in our knowledge of the botany and zoology of the Province. As 

 regards the former, much interesting and valuable work has been done by various local 

 observers, in the way of adding to the lists of species occurring within our limits, or 

 of more acc^^rately defining the range of their distribïition ; but by far the most import- 

 ant contribution to the subject is that of the systematic synopsis of our entire flora, by 

 Prof. James Fowler, and which has since been incorporated in the still more extensive 

 and elaborate flora of the Dominion, published under the auspices of the Geological and 

 Natural History Survey, by Prof Macouu. A valuable supplement to the work of Prof 

 Fowler, which is confined to terrestial forms, is ^lat of Mr. G. U. Hay and Mr. A. H. 

 MacKay, on the marine Algae of New Brunswick, and which was published in 

 Volume V of our Transactions. An interesting and thoughtful article, showing some of 

 the relations of our plant distribvition to the climate and physical conditions affecting it, 

 was published by Mr. Matthew in 1869, under the title "The Occurrence of Arctic and 

 Western Plants in Continental Acadia," ' and a somewhat similar article, by Prof. Fowler, 

 "Arctic Plants growing in New Brunswick," in Volume V of our Transactions. 



Among important papers bearing upon the subject of our zoology are those ol Mr. 



Can. Naturalist, June, 1869. 



