THE BLUE CRAB PIERS. 89 



Precious references to these specimens. — -It may be mentioned 

 that in notes on interesting accessions published in the Report 

 on the Provincial Museum for 1902 (appended to the Report 

 of the Department of Mines), Halifax, 1903, page 5, I briefly 

 referred to our first specimens as "several Blue Crabs (Call- 

 inectes sapidus), new to this province, taken at Cow Bay"; 

 and in the report for 1903 (Halifax. 1904, page 6), stated that 

 in that year "a number of Blue Crabs {Callinectes sapidus) have 

 been obtained from Cow Bay and Eastern Passage, showing 

 that this species has an established habitat in the province." 

 This reference to the Eastern Passage I cannot now explain, as 

 that locality is not given for any of the specimens recorded in 

 our accession-book or on the labels, and it is without doubt 

 a mistake, although at the time of then writing I must have 

 had some reason for thinking that the species . also occurred 

 near the sandy Eastern Passage, an arm of Halifax Harbour, 

 which adjoins Cow Bay to the westward.* As these brief records 

 were buried in the before-mentioned reports, it seems well to 

 draw attention more formally to such an interesting and unex- 

 pected extension of the geographic range of an important 

 economic species. 



Summary. — 1. The Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) occurs as 

 a fairly numerous colony at Cow Bay, on the Atlantic coast of 

 Nova Scotia, seven miles east-southeast from Halifax, and 

 possibly at immediately adjoining favourable localities. A 

 single specimen has also been taken at Sandford, Yarmouth 

 County, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. It occurs in both 

 salt and brackish water, but apparently rarely in the latter. 



2. No previous records are known of its occurrence to the 

 north of Salem Harbour, Mass., and the question naturally 

 arises whether in Nova Scotia we have merely isolated colonies 

 established by casual drift individuals borne northward by the 

 Gulf Stream and cast upon our shore; or whether, less likely, 

 they are the survivors of a continuous occupation which once 

 extended this far north. Further search should be made to 



*Since writing the above, I have met the woman from whom I obtained 

 the Cow Bay specimens of this crab which are in the museum. She had 

 been a Miss Iceton of Cow Bay, but is now Mrs. Soward of Purcell's Cove, 

 N. W. Arm. She assures me that all the Blue Crabs I obtained from her 

 were taken at the southwestern end of Cow Bay beach, near the outlet ot 

 Cow Bay Pond, about 4/5 mile southwest of the Mosher house. She has 

 never heard of any having been taken in the Eastern Passage or elsewhere 



