- Francis Bain
Francis Bain (Feb 25 ,1842 -Nov 20 ,1894 ) was anauthor ,scientist andfarmer fromPrince Edward Island . In 1865, in his time away from managing his family farm, he began a career as an amateur naturalist, collecting and cataloging the flora, fauna, and seashells of the island. He was especially interested ingeology , and became an expert on the bedrock and fossils of PEI. In an 1882 study, he found that it would be possible to dig a tunnel under the Northumberland Strait, fulfilling the federal government's commitment made when PEI entered Confederation, that constant communication with the mainland be provided. He would later be hired by the federal government to do a more in-depth investigation of the idea, although it was never carried out.In 1883 Bain identified a fossil as Bathygnathus borealis, in the first recognised dinosaur find in Canada (although the species has since been reclassified as a
pelycosaur , not a dinosaur). The fossil was recovered when a Spring Brook farmer was digging a well at his home in the New London area. The find was confirmed by geologistJohn William Dawson who later named the fernTylodendron baini in Bain's honour.Bain wrote on
natural history in a column in the "Daily Examiner", as well as publishing many papers in scholarly journals. He authored two books "The natural history of Prince Edward Island" (1890) and "Birds of Prince Edward Island" (1891 ).A monument in his honour is located in Queens Square in Charlottetown, incorporating a
glacial erratic hauled to the site.External links
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5940 Biography at "the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
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