Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 601 
male, from Elk River. The variations in color of under parts do 
not seem to depend on age, sex, or season, though of course the fur 
is everywhere longer and more dense in winter than in summer, as 
is the case in all northern Arvicole. 
General Remarks.— Arvicola minor is so different from all Amer- 
ican Arvicole except austerus that comparison with others is unne- 
cessary. Lest, however, there should be any question as to its dis- 
tinctness from “A. cinnamonea” of Baird, which is said to have 
come from Pembina, I have measured the skull of the type (No, 
591, male, U. S. National Museum—the skin has been lost), and 
find it to be as large as that of austerus proper. And Baird’s mea- 
surements of the animal show that it was larger even than average 
austerus. The dental peculiarity pointed out by Baird as one of 
the distinctive characters of the supposed species, namely, the fact 
that the angular depressions in the crowns of the back upper 
molars communicate across the teeth, forming transverse loops 
instead of lateral triangles, I incline to agree with Coues in consid- 
ering abnormal. 
ON ARCTIC CHARACTERS OF THE SURFACE 
FAUNA OF THE BAY OF FUNDY, AND THE 
CONNECTION WITH A THEORY OF 
THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLOAT- 
ING MARINE LIFE. 
BY J. WALTER FEWKES. 
QEVERAL naturalists have shown a similarity between the 
fauna of the Bay of Fundy and that of the waters of Labrador 
and Greenland. This comparison is of great interest to students of 
New England marine zoology. 
As the evidence thus far adduced is mainly drawn from studies 
of littoral animals, it has seemed in place to test the theory by a 
consideration of oceanic genera. It would be pre-eminently fitting 
to consider floating marine life with this thought in mind, and as 
the young of a large number of marine genera are free-swimming, 
. 
