Francis Bain

Who was Francis Bain?

Francis Bain was an author, scientist and farmer from North River, Prince 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 in geology, 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. 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 geologist John William Dawson who later named the fern Tylodendron 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 and Birds of Prince Edward Island.