14 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
dried and bleached. Rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum (1.)), torn 
from its anchorage on some distant shore, is daily cast on the beach, 
but like some of the shells found there, of West Indian species, its appear- 
ance is quite accidental. There is one more plant that is worthy of 
mention, the Sandwort, as represented by Arenarta peplordes L. and A. 
grenlandica (Retz). It covers the dry bars, and among its shiny leaves, 
only a few inches high when I left, the Terns are fond of placing their nests. 
As for the ‘‘ golden-rod, asters, and blue lilies” that are said to bloom 
later in the season, I failed to obtain any specimens. Some of the grasses 
are cut for hay, but it did not look as if the crop could bea very heavy one. 
Potatoes and a few other vegetables are raised, but successful farming in such 
sandy soil is out of the question, even if the summers were not so cold. I 
make no pretence to a complete enumeration of the plants of Sable Island, 
for reasons given, but those that I have mentioned are among the most 
conspicuous and characteristic of its flora, which resembles in many respects 
that of the adjacent mainland. 
MAMMALS. 
It is not within the scope of the present paper to enter into a discussion of 
the whole fauna! of the island, and I therefore pass at once to some of the 
higher groups. Of the mammals there is little to be said, for the once 
abundant Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus (Linn.)) has long since been 
exterminated, and, with the exception of a couple of species of Seals, there 
are no mammals of any sort found there today, save those artificially 
introduced by man. Great numbers of the Harbor Seal (Phoca v7tu- 
Zina lL.) are resident. They were in large herds or smaller groups, 
basking along the beach or disporting in the lake. At the time of my 
visit many of the new-born young were seen, and could be easily cap- 
tured. Sometimes they were found straying inland, where they perished 
from hunger or from the dogs that delighted to worry them. When a 
herd was approached the old Seals would flounder down the beach 
into the water, leaving behind them a few of the mottled young either 
sound asleep or making no effort to escape. No great fear was shown 
by the adults, but they all evinced great curiosity, and they would follow 
me for considerable distances, swimming along with wide-opened eyes, 
' Dr. Gilpin’s pamphlet (1558) is the only treatise ever published that has attempted a sketch of the 
fauna and flora of Sable Island. To it is appended a list of thirty-eight species of mollusca by J. Willis. 
