“THE SURCHARGED AND PROVISIONAL STAMPS OF NOVA SCOTIA. “The title of this is no doubt startling, but it is true nevertheless. It is a well-known fact in Philately that nearly every country has some stamps, provisional or error, that are not found in catalogues, but which are nevertheless known to exist, as the St. Pierre Miquelon P.D., the Bremen Marken error, and so in Nova Scotia we have the so-called surcharges. In February of this year I received a parcel of old Nova Scotia stamps from a friend in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, and among them I found three Three Penny stamps, with 5 c. in an oval printed on them. They had all been cut out of the envelopes, having a part of the paper as a margin, and as I had in writing for them specified the dates between which the Pence issues would be found, all the stamps had the respective dates of the letters pencilled on the backs of them. Immediately taking the three surcharged stamps I returned them, and asked if the envelopes from which they were cut could be sent me, and I was lucky enough to get them. I then thought I had a bonanza, a regular surcharged stamp of Nova Scotia, overlooking the fact that there were no other cancellation marks on them. The three letters had all been mailed from the same office, Baddeck, within a month—January 13th, 20th, the third the day of the month does not show, 1860—and all addressed to the same person. To make me more sure of the fact of their being really a surcharge, I saw in No. 304 of _Le Timbre Poste_ an illustration of one which was in the collection of M. de Ferrari, and which was precisely the same as the three I had. Being informed that the postmaster who is now at Baddeck, was the same as was there in 1860, I decided to write him for information on the subject, and find out how those stamps came to be surcharged. Imagine my disappointment when I received the following answer: “‘BADDECK, NOVA SCOTIA, _April 24th, 1888_. “‘DEAR SIR,—Twenty-eight years ago I made my own stamps out of wood, and had the 5 c. one that appears on envelopes enclosed. Without any order I used the latter in manner thereon as I do now in a hurry with ink or date stamp. Enclosed paper shows stamps then in use, but I cannot find the 5 c. one. I could tell you how the wind blew and the temperature forty years ago, but I had a job to find the old stamps. “‘(Signed) ROBERT ELMSLY.’