Marine Mollusca of Mew (Brunswick. 
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ARTICLE II. 
THE MARINE MOLLUSCA OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 
BY W. F. GANONG. 
PART I.— INTRODUCTION. 
(Read November 2nd, 1886.) 
Probably the very earliest published reference to the Inver- 
tebrate Zoology of this region occurs in “ Les Voyages du 
Sieur de Champlain,” written by Champlain, and published 
in Paris in 1613. He found on St. Croix Island (now Neutral 
or Dochet Island), in 1604, cockles, mussels, sea-urchins and 
sea-snails. His own words are: “Antour de notre habitation 
il y a de basse mer quantite de coquill ages, comme coques, 
moulles, ourcins & bregaux qui faisoyent grand bien a 
chacun.” * Another interesting early reference to our inver- 
tebrates is that of Nicholas Denys, who, in his “ Description 
Geographique et Historique des Costes de L’Amferiqne 
Septentrionale,” published at Paris in 1672, mentions the 
abundance of shell-fish (coquillages) upon our North Shore, 
and of oysters (huistres) at Cocagne. 
Many early books on New Brunswick give short lists of the 
edible species of mollusca and Crustacea, with an occasional 
isolated reference to the radiata. The greater number of 
these books, however, having been intended merely as guides 
for the information of immigrants, such a subject as the 
zoology of the Province could be treated only in the briefest 
and most practical way; but their writers evidently had no 
conception of the richness of marine life in our waters, and 
knew nothing of its study in a scientific sense. The chief 
lists, bearing marks of having been copied more or less the 
one from the other, occur in works by Robert Cooney (1832), 
* A still earlier publication (Lescarbot’s History of New France, 1609), in des- 
cribing Champlain’s voyage, mentions the abundance of mussels at St. Croix Island. 
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