96 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



water brought down by the St. Lawrence river sweeps past Anticosti 

 island into this deep channel and then outwards to the ocean. From Cara- 

 quet on Chaleur bay to the Bras d'Or lakes of Cape Breton, curving 

 with the coast and enclosing Prince Edward Island, is one extensive 

 oyster region, the great shallow Acadian gulf, whose waters are tempered 

 by similar causes to those already defined for a single small oyster bay. 



Contrast with the Bay of Fundy. — That this is the case may be judged 

 also by comparison with the next great indentation to the south — the gulf 

 of Maine and its extension, the bay of Fundy. The waters of Northumber- 

 land strait and of the bay of Fundy are only separated across the isthmus 

 of Chignecto by about 17 miles of land, and yet there is a surprising dif- 

 ference in the aspect of the shores, the height of the tide, the temperature 

 of the water, the nature of the bottom, and the character of the flora and 

 fauna of the two regions. The gulf of Maine and bay of Fundy are some- 

 what like a funnel — having a wide open mouth and a narrowing pro- 

 longation which however does not possess a second opening. Between 

 cape Sable and cape Cod is a wide channel of over 100 fathoms depth, 

 which becomes curved and narrowed, but continues deep between Digby 

 and Grand Manan. The Labrador current, descending to the outside of 

 Newfoundland, sweeps westward between Nova Scotia and the Gulf 

 Stream, bringing cold water to the deep channel entering the gulf of 

 Maine, where some of it is caught by the great tide and carried up the bay 

 of Fundy/ The cold, deep water, the high tides and strong currents, the 

 steep shores and the great amount of mud may be mentioned as the chief 

 causes why the oyster, the quahaug, Clidiophora and Tottenia, are not 

 found in the bay of Fundy, although they occur in the gulf of St. Lawrence 

 to the north and again from cape Cod southward./ A few oysters are to 

 be found on the southern shore of Nova Scotia, to the east of Halifax (as at 

 Musquodoboit) and in the south-western portion of the gulf of Maine, thus 

 partly connecting the oyster districts of Canada with the great oyster 

 regions of the United States. 



Distribution of Atlantic Fauna. — When the first settlements were 

 made on the New England and Acadian coasts, oysters were found to be 

 more plentifully distributed up the shores of Massachusetts, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Maine, and along a large portion of the southern Nova Scotia 

 sea-board, including Sable island. The interesting and important re- 

 searches of Ganong into the oldest historic records of this country prove 

 that the northern distribution of the oyster has been considerably more 

 extensive than at present. Nicolas Denys, writing in 1672, mentioned 

 oysters at the mouth of the Grand Pabos river on the north of the bay of 

 Chaleur, and in 1GG4 there were said to be numbers of good oysters in the 

 neighborhood of Perce island near the entrance to Gaspe bay. That this 

 was possible is supported by those remnants of former periods expose;! in 



