anada stamps were printed) and it can be easily seen that the
wetting would have quite different results on different qualities of
paper. Some would be more absorbent than others and would stretch while
damp and contract again when drying. The amount of wetting administered
would, also, result in differences even in the same qualify of paper.
These variations in the size of the design, therefore, while interesting
in themselves as examples of paper vagaries, are of little, if any,
philatelic importance.

Bi-sected stamps were not used in Canada to anything like the same
extent that similar varieties were used in the other British North
American provinces. The 6d is catalogued as having been divided
diagonally and the halves used as 3d stamps, though there can have been
no real necessity for such bi-section. A bi-sected stamp of quite
another character was mentioned in the _Monthly Journal_ for April,
1898, as follows:--

The _Post Office_ describes a so-called "split provisional" of the
early 3d stamp, which is described as consisting of one and a half
of the unperforated 3d on wove, upon an entire envelope postmarked
"Port Hope, July 16th, 1855, Canada, Paid 10c." Our contemporary
does not appear to perceive that the postmark plainly indicates
that the supposed half stamp is really only a badly cut copy; the
3d of Canada passed for 5 cents, and as this letter is plainly
marked "Paid 10c", the stamps upon it evidently passed as two 3d,
not as one and a half, which would have corresponded to no rate of
postage.

The same journal, two months later, made more extended reference to this
variety and while its bona-fides as a "split" is established its use as
a half stamp is as much a mystery as ever. We cannot do better than give
the paragraph in full:--

In the New Issues column of our number for April, we called in
question the character of a supposed "split" _three pence_ stamp of
Canada, which had been chronicled in the _Post Office_, New York.
In reply to our criticism, Messrs. Morgenthau & Co., the publishers
of that magazine, have most kindly forwarded to us the letter
bearing the divided stamp, and have requested our opinion upon it.
The specimen is such a curious one and presents, we think, such a
puzzle for philatelists, that we have taken the liberty--which we
hope its owner will pardon--of having a photographic bloc