Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 603 
Massachusetts Bay, it is in marked contrast with that of the bays 
south of Cape Cod. We may, in fact, say that the fauna of the 
Bay of Fundy is more closely allied to that of the coasts of 
Greenland, as far as its pelagic life is concerned, than it is to that 
of Narragansett or Buzzards Bay. The reason for this diversity 
in the inhabitants of bodies of water so near together, and the 
resemblances of faunæ of localities so far apart, may easily be found 
in the direction and character! of oceanic currents to which the 
distribution of marine life is almost wholly due. Moreover, the 
surface life is in a measure dependent on the amount of water 
brought to the coast by the tides. The greater the volume of 
water which sweeps into the bay, the larger the number of animals 
which it brings with it, if other conditions remain constant. The 
great tides of the Bay of Fundy are admirable for the purpose, 
and they bring to the shores of New Brunswick a wealth of surface 
life seldom equalled and never excelled elsewhere on the coast. 
There is a strict line of demarcation between the surface fauna 
found south of Cape Cod and that immediately north of the same 
headland. It would seem the most natural thing in the world 
that an animal which passes its life floating or swimming on the 
surface waters of the ocean should live equally well in Narragansett 
Bay or the Bay of Fundy. That is, however, not the fact, for 
while stragglers from the true Arctic faune of the waters of 
New Brunswick may sometimes be found at Newport, there is as 
marked a difference in the facies of the faune of the two regions as 
between those of the two sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Why 
is there this difference? : 
The answer is found in those limitations in the distribution of 
animals brought about by the differences in the temperature of the 
sea. Everyone who has tried the ocean bathing in these two 
localities knows how much warmer the surface water south of Cape 
Cod is than that of Grand Menan, and this difference of tem- 
perature means life or death to the delicate creatures which live in 
it. The animals south of Cape Cod are those of warmer waters, 
and some of them have their home in the Gulf Stream, while those 
in the Bay of Fundy are pre-eminently of polar origin, and can 
endure with impunity a fall in temperature which would kill the 
! The boreal life of the Bay of Fundy is thought to be due to the 
Labrador current, 
