64 MARINE AND FISHERIES 



5 GEORGE v., A. 1915 



The exceedingly irregular coast-line in this vicinity, with its innumerable 

 bays, inlets and channels and its countless rocky islands and reefs, renders the 

 region a very favorable one for the support of a varied and abundant aquatic 

 fauna. Most of the types of environment in which dragonflies flourish are repre- 

 sented within a few miles of the Station Island, from the well-aerated waters of 

 the Go Home River and the more exposed parts of the Bay to the sheltered, often 

 shallow and marsh-bordered inlets, the shady woodland creeks and the small 

 lakes and ponds, margined with sphagnum bogs. The shallow lagoons on the sandy 

 beaches of Giant's Tomb Island offer stUl other conditions of environment. 



Genekal Characteristics of the Odonate Fauna. 



Owing to the rocky topography of the country and the scantiness of the soil 

 the drainage of the smaller lakes and ponds, where it exists at all, is poor and the 

 aquatic vegetation in such stations is somewh-at limited in variety, whUe the shore 

 plants are largely of the t5rpe that prevails on bog-soils having an acid reaction, 

 i.e., the plants of the sphagnum-bog society. In these ponds there is an absence 

 of some of the commonest dragonflies of the ponds in agricultural districts. Some 

 of these species are met with in the shallow bays connected with the open water, 

 but even here they are not the prevailing species. As examples of such species 

 we may take Lestes unguiculatus, Enallagma ebrium,Leucorrhinia intacta,Sympetruin 

 ruhicundulum , Libellula quadrimaculata, L. pulchella and L. lydia, all abundant 

 species in the agricultural sections of Ontario, at least in the southern part. All 

 of these species except two have been taken at Go Home Bay, but none are very 

 abundant and none have been taken in the sphagnum-bordered ponds. How 

 far this scarcity is due to soil conditions and how far, in some cases, to the com- 

 paratively northern latitudes we are unable at present to say. Sympetrum ruhicun- 

 dulum and Libellula quadrimaculata range far to the north of Georgian Bay. 



There is also an entire absence of certain regional species that breed in gentle 

 shallow rapids with sandy or gravelly bottoms. No species of Ophiogomphus, 

 e.g., has been taken in this vicinity, though Mr. Wodehouse took a nymph of a 

 species of this genus in the Shawanaga River and I have found 0. rupinsulensis 

 fairly common in Algonquin Park. Gomphus scudderi and Lanthus albistylus 

 were also taken in Algonquin Park, flying over gentle rapids, but are apparently 

 absent from the Go Home district. They are .very likely to occur on the Musquash 

 River. Other river species common in Algonquin Park but not represented at 

 Go Home Bay are Agrion aequabile and Boyeria vinosa. 



The total absence of Cordulegasters is also worthy of note and is doubtless 

 due to the absence of the proper conditions of environment. C. maculatus, an 

 inhabitant of creeks, and C. diastatops of spring bogs have been taken at Port 

 Peny, Muskoka District (Walker '06) and the former at Heyden and Searchmont, 

 near Sault St. Marie, Ont. (Williamson, '07). 



The most prominent positive feature of the fauna, as one would be led to infer 

 from the character of the country, is the abundance of individuals of those species 

 which develop in the well-aerated waters of the bay and the adults of which patrol 



