getting the large pines out of the woods at the upper end of the Hillsborough River.

The fertility of the forest soils — From Cartier onward, almost every recorder commented on what they perceived to be the high fertility of the island’s soils.57 This is mostly from first-hand observation, and for most recorders seems to have been based on the luxuriant tree growth on the natural forest soils, though their reason for recording the fact is almost always from the point of view of the soil’s potential to support agricultural crops after the forest is cleared.“3 Roma (1750) went so far as to say that the greater the elevation of the ’terre franche’ [i.e. the good land or soils] the better the soils, and that soils that were a little blackish and those with a clay base were the best.

Only one recorder specifically comments on the role of the soil’s fertility in promoting tree growth: Saint-Ovide writes that ”the soil [of the island], a rich red sand, should produce fine and good masts” [le terroir d'un Sable rouge gras doit produire de belle et bonne maturel.” It is worth remembering that in comparison with most of the soils in the area ar0und the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and especially those of the east coast of Cape Breton Island (which was the area most familiar to many of the recorders), the soils of the island are indeed fertile.

The fauna of the forest — An analysis of the forest mammals and birds mentioned in the records of the French period (Appendix 2) indicates that the island’s mammalian fauna was a boreal one that was similar to that of the adjacent mainland, except for the notable absence of the moose, porcupine and beaver. The records indicate that some members of this fauna (notably a species of vole, and probably all of its predators) underwent marked fluctuations in numbers. If the comments of Franquet (1751) and La Roque (1752) — that the vole outbreaks were caused by fluctuations in beech-mast production — are true, this would

5’ Cartier 1534; Couange 1713; Gotteville 1720; La Ronde 1721; Mézy 1726; Saint-Ovide 1726 (18 September; 28 November: Letter 1); Pensens 1732; Boulaye 1733; Le Nonnant 1734; Duchambon 1738; Anon. 1743; Charlevoix 1744; Roma 1750; Franquet 1751; La Roque 1752; Pichon 1760F & E.

53 In the letters of the commandants at Port La-Joie there are also frequent comments on the fertility of the soils that had been converted to agriculture, based on the crop yields of such soils. It seems also to have been a commonly held view that the soils of the Saint—Pierre settlement were better than those of the other settlements on the island.

5° Saint-Ovide 1726: 28 November, Letter 1.

present a clear example of the tree composition of the forest exerting a significant effect on the island’s fauna. However, it seems unlikely that the reverse occurred, i.e. that any of the animals (or birds, for that matter) would have had a significant effect, either general or localised, on the composition and structure of the forest. Such an effect is all the more unlikely, given the absence of the moose, porcupine and beaver, three of the more damaging of the tree-browzing animals.

FOREST CLEARANCE

Forest clearance for agriculture — Before the beginning of the first agricultural settlement on lle Saint-Jean in 1720 it is likely that at most, parts of the island provided a seasonal shore base for fishermen and sealers, but the extent of this activity, and where on the island it took place, is not known.60 Effects on the forest, if any, are likely to have been localised, though there is evidence that seasonal fishing bases elsewhere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence could have considerable effects on the adjacent coastal woodland.61

With the seigneurial grant of the island to the Count of Saint-Pierre’s Company of lle Saint-Jean and the arrival in August 1720 of three ships with some 300 colonists from France“, we get the beginnings of agricultural settlement on the island.63 Thereafter we are fortunate to have at intervals comprehensive census data, along with the occasional map showing settlement areas.64

6° See Clark 1959, p. 25.

6‘ Denys (1672) (reprinted in Ganong 1908, p. 506) records that near Percée Rock in the Gaspé, areas formerly covered with sapin (sapin for Denys meant both spruces and fir - see Appendix 1, footnote 9) had been converted to prairies (i.e. grassland) due the activity over the years of fishermen who had cut "a great amount of sapin” for their drying stages, so that they had to go the distance of “two musket shots” from the coast to get wood.

“2 Maude 1969. 63 It seems that a few settlers may have come to the island in 1719, perhaps as scouts for the Company of He Saint-Jean (see Clark 1959, p. 229, tn. 4) and Arsenault (2001). Clark (p. 27) also

notes that a few settlers may have arrived from Acadia in 1711 but did not remain very long.

6‘ See Harvey (1926) and Clark (1959) for the changes in the size of the human population. There were detailed censuses in 1728, 1730, 1734, 1735 and 1752, and total counts of the population in other years (eg. 1732 and 1751). The maps consist of one of 1730 showing the habitations of individual settlers along the Hillsborough River (PAC, map no. 49768), and Franquet's maps (associated with his inspection of 1751), showing areas of cleared land at Trois Riviéres and Port La-Joie (these are reproduced in