4 BULLETIN" OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
It is particularly appropriate that papers of this character 
should be presented to such a society as ours. The highest 
function of a local Society of Natural History must be 
admitted to be the patronage and encouragement of local 
Natural History in its practical and educational, as well as 
scientific aspects. In this it has a claim for support and for 
sympathy upon government and people, which greater pre- 
tensions would not warrant. 
The most valuable to man by far, of all the groups of 
Invertebrates, is that of the Mollusca. In all ages, in all 
parts of the world, savage and civilized men have utilized its 
members. The ancient refuse heaps of Europe show how old 
is the use of Molluscs as food; ethnologists have shown how 
wide-spread and old has been the use of shells for ornament, 
for money and for utensils of war and the home; and in more 
modern times, there have been found various other uses 
dependent upon the more numerous wants of advancing 
civilization. Unlike some other groups of animals, then, the 
Mollusca have been much observed by practical as well as 
scientific men; as in the useful plants, so among these, the 
useful forms are known to everybody. 
Remembering these facts, we are not surprised to find, in 
works dealing with the exploration and early history of these 
provinces, that the edible Molluscs were the first Invertebrates 
to be noticed, excepting possibly some of the annoying Insects. 
Jacques Cartier, the first explorer of the coast of Acadia 
who paid any attention to the animals and plants of the places 
he visited, does not mention any Invertebrates. It is not 
until we come to the works of Champlain and Lescarbot that 
we find references to the subject. Champlain’s work, “Les 
Voyages du Sieur de Champlain,” (Paris, 1613), records the 
earliest observations on the Mollusca of this region, but 
