WATER-ROLLED WEED-KALLS. — MACIvAY, 669 



sandy boadi on ^laeNnb's Island at tli(> iiioiitli ol" Halifax 

 Harbor, where others were noted, and also a specimen from a 

 fresli-water hike near New Ross, Lnnenbnro- connty. 



-Mr. P. I!, hnntz, of Xew IJoss, Lnnenl)nrii' eounty, has found 

 them in ;i fresl.-water lake near the head of Gold River, and 

 in Indian Lake in Xew Gernumy. The people think they are 

 nests made by the water newts foniid in these lakes — probably 

 the aquatic staii'e of J)l('inj/rli/liis riri(]('srrns Hatinesque — just 

 because these two objects are the two mysterious tliin2;s found 

 together in the same place. The fresh-water balls are spoken 

 of as the nests i»f the newts or as l)nrr-bal]s, the former suggest'ed 

 by the proofl'ess, p(>])ular hy])otliesis referred to, the latter by 

 their apnearance. 



Professor W. F. Ganong read, ;5rd May, 190-i, a paper " On 

 'S'^egetable-, or Burr-, Balls from Little Kedron Lake, X. B.," 

 whicli is published on page -"504, vol. v., part iii., no. xxiii., 

 of the Bulletin of the Xatiirat Jflstort/ Society of New Bruns- 

 wick with a photogravure of two balls, one from Lake Kedron 

 and the other fi-om Sandy Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts. 

 The former was fonnd in a sandy cove of the lake, open to no 

 wind except from the south-east. Tlie cove is surrounded with 

 tir and spruce, whose leaves fall into the water. The balls are 

 coni]:)osed chietly of these leaves, i'.ududing otli'er vegetalde 

 nm.tter, -^uch as small twigs, etc., all interlocked together. 

 The latter, from Flint's or Sandv Pond, was com]);>sed mainly 

 of the tangled stems and leaves of the Duck grass ( EriocauJou 

 septanijuJare) which was growing in the lake. Tlioreau, in 

 chapter ix of his Wnt,den, describes this pheiioutenon in the 

 ide'.itical lake in the following words: 



■'I usfd to admire the ripple marks on the sundybottom at tlie north 

 end of this pond, made firm and liard to the feet of the wader by the 

 pra-snre of the water, and the rushes which grew in Indian file, in waving 

 lines, corresponding to these marks, rank l)f'hind rank, as if the waves had 

 planted them. There also I have found, in considerable quantities, curious 

 balls, composed apparently of finr grass or roots, of pipewort, perhaps, 

 from half an inch to four inches in diameter, and perfectly spherical. 



