Francis Bain | The Canadian Encyclopedia

article

Francis Bain

Francis Bain, geologist, ornithologist, botanist, author, artist (b at Charlottetown 25 Feb 1842; d at York Point, PEI 23 Nov 1894). Bain, a self-educated farmer, was an authority on Prince Edward Island rocks, FOSSILS and natural history.

Francis Bain

Francis Bain, geologist, ornithologist, botanist, author, artist (b at Charlottetown 25 Feb 1842; d at York Point, PEI 23 Nov 1894). Bain, a self-educated farmer, was an authority on Prince Edward Island rocks, FOSSILS and natural history. He began DINOSAUR collecting in Canada when he found and identified a primitive reptile fossil (Bathygnathus borealis) on PEI. He also discovered a species of fossil fern on PEI that Sir William DAWSON subsequently named Tylodendron baini. In 1892 Bain was commissioned by the federal government to investigate the feasibility of constructing a submarine tunnel from PEI to New Brunswick.

Between 1881 and 1893, he published over 20 scientific papers and 2 books, The Natural History of Prince Edward Island (1890) and Birds of Prince Edward Island, Their Habits and Characteristics (1891). He also wrote more than 50 natural science articles in the Daily Examiner and the Chignecto Post, including a column "Notes of a Naturalist." Francis Bain's knowledge and understanding of natural science mark him as the first Islander for whom the contemporary term "ecologist" is appropriate.