Water-Rolled Weed-Balls. — Bv A. H. MacKay, Ll. D., 

 F. R. S. C, Halifax. 



(Read 21st May, 1906.1 



In Febniarv, 1906, I received a letter and a " sea-balli " 

 from the toaclif-r at Upper Kingsburg, Liinenbnrg connty, a 

 school section in tiic imrth-eastern angle formed by the rirer 

 LaHave and the coast. The pupils were described as '" fairly 

 l)nidened Avith cnriosity " al)ont thfe strange things cast np by 

 the sea on tliis saiuly beach on tlic Atlantic. The west bank of 

 llie great La Have, running at right angles into the ocean until 

 it reaches Gatf Point, where it is submerged to rise furtlier out 

 in the far-famed Tronl)ound Island, protects this bit of shore 

 from tlie full force of the south-westers. 



The teacher, Mi>s Mary L. IT. Bowers, describes the natural 

 history of this lieach in terms of the folk-lore of the coast as 

 follows : — 



'■ For years back, the weed-^ east upon tliese shores were of the' larger 

 kinds, snch as Rockweed, Irisli 3Ioss, and Kel]i or Laminaria. Sea tirchins 

 were the pest of the lobster fishing. About three years ago the sea 

 cast up such immense numbers that the whole coast was abuadantly sup- 

 plied with fertilizers for the farms. This wholesale destruction of animal 

 and vegetable life \\a-s looked upon as .something which could not be 

 explained. Since then, however, the lob■^ter fisherman believes that th? 

 sea bottom shows fewer clean spots of sand, and a great increase of the 

 finer thread-branched sea-weeds. Last year great quantities of red sea- 

 weads have been thrown ashore; and now, thi^ winter, these ' sea-b.ills,' 

 as they are called, are being cast up, and the people declare it to b« a new 

 L.iing. Some take them to be the nests of shell fish. In proof, as many 

 as 400 minute shells, taken to be the young of clams, have been counted 

 out of the centre of one of these balls. But then the most of them have 

 few or no shells within them. I have seen perhaps two hundred balls on 

 a short strip of l>each, of varioiLs isizes, and in different stages of perfec- 

 tion, specimens of which I am sending you." 



These '' sea-balls " are ])hotogTavured on the accompanying 

 plate, with a scale which allows them to be exactly measured. 



(667) 



