244 Miscellaneous. 



were mainly limited to the irregular peninsular of Avalon, the 

 south-easterly extremity of the island, and the record of his collec- 

 tions beside mentioning the neighbourhood of the city of St. Johns, 

 embraces such familiar names as Trinity Bay, Harbour Grace, and 

 Heart's Content, the landing-place of the Atlantic cable. 



He writes, " I was extremely sorry that, owing to my limited 

 time and the impenetrability of the interior to any ordinary effort, 

 I could not gain access to the great lakes in the heart and the 

 western portion of the island. I have merely made a dip into a 

 few of the ponds on the N. (?) E. coast." These are more particu- 

 larly mentioned as Virginia and Ouidi Vidi Lakes, near St. Johns ; 

 Lady Lake, Bannermau Lake, Rocky Lake, and Carbonear Lake, 

 small bodies of water near Harbour Grace ; and other lakelets and 

 brooks upon the rocky ridges and near the sea-level between Harbour 

 Grace and Heart's Content. All this region is described as " the 

 Canadian Huronian, the equivalent of the English Cambrian ; " and 

 the collections were generally limited to the shallow margins of the 

 ponds, where the sponges were found upon the undersides of splin- 

 ters of hard slaty quartzites, in numbers very plentiful, but generally 

 small — " from mere points to an inch or more in diameter." 



It is to be regretted that the date of Mr. MacKay's visit was 

 necessarily so early in the year, as the specimens collected were 

 either immature or contained only the degenerate statoblasts of the 

 preceding season. The information gathered as to the range of 

 temperature upon this island is valuable as indicating so far the 

 conditions of the growth of these and other organisms. 



He says : " The island is not extreme in its temperature, and the 

 frost does not go very deep into the soil. The lakes freeze in 

 November or December with ice at least a foot in thickness, and 

 remain closed until the end of April. The average temperature 

 during eight years, from 1857 to 18G4, was 41°*2 Fahr, Average 

 maximum thermometer during the same time 83°, minimum 7°. In 

 the year 1879, the mean temperature was 40°-2 Fahr. ; highest 

 record August 3, 82°, lowest December 22, +4^. In Nova Scotia, 

 though that is so much further south, the range is far greater, from 

 -1-U6° to —20° or -24"' Fahr., with an annual average of 44°." 



The specimens of sponges so kindly forwarded by Mr. MacKay 

 for examination and report were more or less minute incrustations 

 upon smaU stones, gathered as above indicated, and belonging to 

 the species SjwngiUa lacustris, auct. ; S. frai/ilis, Leidy ; iS. Mac- 

 kaiji, Carter ; Meyenia fiuviatilis, auct. ; and Ileteromeyenia picto- 

 vensis and Tuhella pennsylvanica, Potts. Of these Spongilla 

 fragilis was by far the most abundant, and our knowledge of its 

 range is thus extended along the eastern coast of North America 

 from Florida to Newfoundland ; whereas it had previously been 

 traced westwardly to British Columbia near the Pacific Ocean, and 

 more recently has been discovered iu Russia, Bohemia, and England. 

 Beside the familiar species, S. lacustris, S. fragilis, and M. 

 Jluviatilis, Tuhella pcnnsglvanica has been rapidly enlarging its 

 borders beyond the narrow limits of its original territorial desigua- 



