of these statements, are consistent with the mast sizes in a third letter, signed jointly by Governor Saint-Ovide and Commissaire Mézy’”, which includes details of a draft contract for 200 pine masts (a later record indicates these to be red pine“): half of the masts were to be under 12 inches in diameter, and ”half greater, up to 18 and 20 inches" — the diameter is to be measured at ten feet from the large end and their length is to be three times in feet their diameter in inches (the standard ratio for masts, as noted in footnote 45). Though these diameters may be the maximum sizes required for this particular contract rather than indicative of the largest trees available on the island, in conjunction with the three earlier letters, the overall implication is that the parts of the island then known to the French were not considered capable of supplying masts of the largest sizes (eg. the 40-inch diameter lower main-mast of a first rate ship). Otherwise the fact would likely have been mentioned, especially given the keenness of the local officialdom to promote the exploitation of the island’s trees so as to encourage an inflow of cash investment by the home government.

The only other record on tree sizes, though on paper the most precise, is clearly an estimate and may even be based on second-hand information: La Roque (1752) reported that the cedar trees in the ’grande cedriére’ between Cascumpec and Egmont Bays were ”commonly of four feet in diameter and two and a half brasses [i.e. 4.0

metres] in cirCUmference”49.

Thus, except for pine and cedar, the French records contain no data on the sizes of trees. Notably absent is any information on the sizes of the hardwood trees in the climax forest.

THE FOREST AS A NATURAL HABITAT

Though none of the recorders gives an extended description of the ecology of the forests, a number

‘7 Saint-Ovide 1726: 28 November, Letter 1.

‘8 Mézy 1728. ‘9 La Roque‘s two measurements are internally consistent one with the other: a circle with a diameter of 4 feet will have had a circumference of 12.6 feet, or 2‘/2 brasses. According to Littré (1969) (p. 618) a brasse was equal to five ‘pieds anciens‘ or 1.62 metres - it was the distance between the ends of the two arms outstretched .

of different ecological and habitat features emerge from the documents.

Fallen trees in the forest — Roma (1734) records that in clearing a riding trail through the forest from Trois Rivie'res [Brudenell Point] to Saint-Pierre [St. Peters Bay] his line cut across fallen trees ”often in great numbers” — these he had to cut and clear in order to make the trail useable by a person riding on horseback. He also says that there were fallen trees on a walking trail that he blazed from Trois Riviéres to Port La-Joie, though he gives no indication of their frequency. Since on this latter trail he says such trees were easily stepped over, it may imply that they were only of small size, though this is not necessarily so.

This is the first evidence that we have on Prince Edward Island for what foresters now term ’coarse woody debris’. We may presume that such fallen trees were the product of natural mortality in old- growth forest and that they would have comprised everything from recent falls to well-rotted logs.

Ground hemlock in the beechwoods — In the only mention of the ground vegetation of the forest in any document of the French period, Roma (1734) says that in running the riding trail through the forest from Trois Rivie‘res to Saint Pierre, sapin trainard (i.e. ground hemlock, Taxus canadensis)so cluttered up the trail in the hétriéres [the beech woods]. This had to be cut to make the trail passable; otherwise it was very tiresome to get through, presumably even on horseback. The key point for our purposes is that he associates ground hemlock with areas of beech predominance.

The open nature of old-growth hardwood forests — Gotteville (1720) says that ”the mature forests are fairly open” [les bois de futayes51 [sont] assez claires]. The open nature of the mature forests had been described in more detail elsewhere in Acadia by Nicholas Denys, and it is also recorded in later British period records for Prince Edward Island and other parts of the Maritimes.52 This

5° Marie-Victorin (1964) (p. 137) gives sapin frafnard (literally ‘trailing fir’) as a French common name for Taxus canadensis. Massignon (1962) (p. 164) recorded the name in current use in Acadian—French, but could not find it in the early written records - she had obviously not seen Roma’s 1734 report.

5‘ Littré (1969) Dictionnaire: futaie = ‘forét de grandes arbres’ (i.e. mature or old-growth forest).

52 Nicholas Denys (1672) (reprinted in Ganong 1908, pp. 377 & 573) in his chapter on the forests of Acadia in general, describes the forests occurring inland away from the coast as follows: “the trees stand more open [plus clairs] and less confused [mains confus] [than on the coast]. One could there chase a moose on