1903 | VEGETATION OF THE BAY OF FUNDY MARSHES 295 
by those who work with the marshes, that when the marsh is 
diked and drained, a natural succession of plants follows the 
freshening of the marsh soil, ending with the English hay 
grasses, which come in of themselves without any artificial seed- 
ing or other aid whatever. They could not do this if there were 
other plants in the vicinity better adapted to the new conditions. 
Moreover, having once established themselves in this way, they 
maintain themselves indefinitely without cultivation. It is true, 
as already mentioned, that at regular intervals the marsh is gen- 
erally plowed, but this is by no means to aid these grasses in 
their competition with other plants, but is mainly to renew the 
stock on special places to keep it up to the very highest condi- 
tion of productive vigor. The case of marsh not plowed for 
over forty years, and still bearing the English grasses with 
apparently undiminished vigor, shows that the plowing is not 
essential. Man, therefore, has both created a new field by 
diking the marshes, and has also brought in a vegetation better 
fitted than any native vegetation for that field. Later the ques- 
tion of why this introduced vegetation is better than any native 
kind for this situation will be discussed. 
It is an interesting question as to what appearance these 
great expanses of marsh would present today had man never 
reclaimed them. We cannot doubt that they would be salt 
marsh like the still unreclaimed pieces. The fact that the 
marshes are still sinking, or at least are not rising, would pre- 
vent any natural recovery and building up by the action of large 
vegetation, such as is occurring at the mouth of the Rhone, as 
described by Flahault and Combres, though were the region 
rising such a result would probably occur. 
As to other animals on the marshes, insects seem fairly 
abundant, and of course play their part in the pollination of the 
plants which have showy flowers, but as the greater part of the 
vegetation is anemophilous, or wind-pollinated, their influence is 
not ecologically important. Birds occur as in upland meadows. 
Mosquitoes are abundant and voracious. Various fishes occur in 
the ditches and canals, and frogs and muskrats are abundant in 
the fresh-water streams. None of these appears to have any 
