NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK 
449 
iirst student to visit it was Moses H. Perley who was there in 
1849. He gives some account of its physical characteristics, to- 
gether with much information about its fisheries and its history, 
in his well-known Report on the Fisheries of New Brunswick 
of 1850. Among his other observations he describes the finding 
of great quantities of walrus bones at Grande Plaine, and this is 
the original of the frequently (and sometimes incorrectly) 
quoted accounts of those interesting objects, which are more fully 
described in a later Note, (No. 98), of this series. No other 
student visited Miscou until 1886 when Dr. Robert Chalmers, 
accompanied by Dr. G. U. Hay spent some two weeks upon the 
island examining its surface geology and botany, with results 
mentioned in brief in Dr. Chalmers’ Report on the Surface 
Geology of Northeastern New Brunswick of 1888 and shown on 
his surface geology map accompanying the report. Aside from 
these I can discover no further mention of the island in all our 
scientific literature. Dr. J. Orne Green during his many long 
visits to the island has made observations upon its natural history, 
especially its bird life, but unfortunately the results have not been 
published.* Finally, I spent three days on the island in 1904, and 
three weeks in 1905, making the observations which follow. 
Miscou is a famous center for a special kind of sport, the 
shooting of wildfowl, which resort in immense numbers to its 
lagoons and lakes ; and many sportsmen have visited it for that 
purpose. But I have not noted any references to it in any of the 
sporting literature I am acquainted with. 
Historically the island is of unusual interest, and much 
thereon has been published, all of which I have tried to summar- 
ize, with the addition of some new material, in an essay on “The 
Founding of Miscou” to appear with an historical map as part of 
a Monograph to be published soon in the Transactions of the 
Royal Society of Canada. The island has a population of some 
500 to 600 English and French, mostly following the rich fishery 
*As this paper is in press, I learn that Dr. Green has presented a paper 
before this Society upon the game birds of Miscou ; and doubtless it will 
appear later in this, or in the next following, Bulletin. 
