ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 25 
inant eroding factor on the surface of the island, so that it is quite 
possible that the whole island is, under the compulsion of these west- 
erly winds, slowly creeping eastward along the summit of the Sable 
Island Bank. 
In any case, the island is rapidly wasting away. Three hundred 
years from now Sable Island, in all probability, will have vanished, 
and then there will be no lighthouse to warn the mariners of those 
times from the treacherous bars on the summit of the Sable Island 
Bank. The study of its fauna and flora will then be ancient history, 
only to be pursued by consulting the few specimens in the larger mus- 
eums and herbaria. 
The Endemic Fresh-water Sponge. 
An endemic species of fresh-water sponge, Heteromeyenia macouni 
]\Iac Kayi has been described from Sable Island. " This sponge was 
collected in considerable abundance on the 18th of August, 1899, by 
Professor John Macoun, Botanist of the Geological Survey of Canada, 
in the fresh water pond found in the center of that great sand-shoal 
in the Atlantic Ocean, well known as Sable Island, nearly one hun- 
dred miles from Nova Scotia, the nearest part of the continent. It 
was growing around the submerged portion of the slender stems of 
Myriophyllum tenellum, Bigelow, in green, compact, lobular masses, 
showing, where broken, numerous orange yellow gemmules. 
"It appears to approach most nearly to the following fresh water 
sponges described by Potts: Heteromeyenia ryderi v. baleni, found from 
Florida to New Jersey, in its spiculation; and Heteromeyenia ryderi v. 
walshii, from Gilder Pond, INIassachusetts, in the fasciculation of its 
skeleton spicules." Gilder Pond is at 1,800 feet altitude on the side 
of Mt. Everett, Mount Washington, Berkshire County, Massachu- 
setts.^ 
Ipswich Sparrow. 
The Ipswich Sparrow, first discovered in 1868 by C. J. Maynard 
among the sand dunes at Ipswich, has constantly been a source of 
interest to ornithologists. Repeated observations along the Atlan- 
tic seacoast proved it to be a regular migrant starting south from Nova 
Scotia in September, stopping at the bleak wind-swept areas of sand 
•dunes on its journey to Maine, Virginia or sometimes to Georgia. 
^ Mac Kay, A. H.: Fresh Water Sponge from Sable Islaiul. Trans. 
N. S. Inst. Sci. X. 31»-322 (1900). 
2Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.l(>li)liia, 231 (1SS7). 
