much valuable timber”36‘,

362.

as well as wood for firewood and fencing , the problems arising for subsequent land clearance operations on the burned-over sitesm; the loss of soil fertility“; the ugly burned forest that blotted the landscape for more than a generation“; and the potential losses to human life and property“. There must also have been severe effects on the native forest birds and mammals in the areas that were burned, as Johnstone (1822) alludes to in the preceding

extract.367

361

The quote is from MacGregor (1828). Also, Stewart (1806) stressed the loss of export timber: “these fires often destroy a great deal of valuable timber, which if left growing would soon come into demand for exportation"; and three respondents to the Questionnaire (1876) (i.e. Charles and Robert Anderson, and Peter Sinott) also refer to the destruction of ‘excellent timber' by fire. The proclamation of Governor C, D. Smith in 1815 also mentioned the loss of “much valuable timber” (House of Assembly 1773-1849: 18 April 1815);

3” Johnstone (1822) stressed the loss of firewood: “when the hard wood is burnt upon a farm, the people have no convenient way of supplying themselves with fuel for their tires at home"; and the loss of ‘firewood' in forest fires is also mentioned by Peter Sinott and John Brooks — the latter also mentions the loss of ‘fencing’ wood (Questionnaire 1876).

363 Aptly described by Stewart (1806), and already discussed in the section on land clearance (see p. 47).

35‘ Both Johnstone (1822) and MacGregor (1828) describe how after a forest fire, ‘fire-weed' and other successional species ‘sprang up‘, “entirely impoverishing the land"; and, as Johnstone says, even where there was not this immediate plant growth, “the land gets so poor and dry with the rays of the sun, as to become unfit for any crop without summer fallowing" and the application of dung. The proclamation of Governor C. D Smith (1815) also included the deterioration of the soil as an undesirable effect of forest fire (House of Assembly 1773-1849: 18 April 1815). I note however that Stewart (1806) did not consider that the fires that “sometimes in very dry years killed and partially burned the timber on our best lands [this implies hardwood], acted so severely on them as to injure their fertility‘.

365 This is most vividly described by Johnstone (1822) (quoted on the next page) and is also mentioned by Lawson (1851) and Ward (1887).

366 Johnstone (1822) especially notes this effect in the passage already quoted, and it was also mentioned in the proclamation of Governor C. D. Smith (1815) (House of Assembly 1773-1849: 18 April 1815). Specific examples of the danger to property in the form of buildings is the burning of the corn mill at Stanhope (at least twice) (Lawson post 1777); the threat (averted) to buildings at the New London settlement by a fire in May 1778 (Chappell 1775-1818); the threat (again averted) to the buildings at Bird Island Creek [i.e. Wright’s Creek] near Charlottetown in 1811 (Cambridge 1811); the burning of a church at Covehead in about 1823 ([Lawson] 1877-1878); the threat to the mill at Long River in 1826 ([Lawson] 1877-1878); to farms and buildings near Charlottetown in 1829 (Mann 1829); and to settler‘s houses and barns in Lot 12 from a fire that occurred about 1840 (Mollison 1905) — in these last three the buildings were all saved

367 The only specific example that l have found of this is somewhat retrospective: [Lawson] (1877-1878) in recording the recollection of a fire at Miminegash “about twenty years ago"

58

Those responsible for the governance of the island, the island's governors and legislators, were well aware of these harmful effects, and at least four attempts were made through legislation and proclamation to exert some control on the damage caused by such fires“. The preambles to these efforts stress ’carelessness’ and ’wantonness’ as factors contributing to the escape of such fires, and it is this that they aimed to control rather than to restrict the use of fire itself, which continued to be viewed as a necessary tool in forest clearance. However, given the likely low level of law enforcement in a pioneer colony, it is doubtful whether any of these government actions could have had much effect, and I suspect that this was probably recognised by the legislators themselves, with the laws being mere window-dressing.369

The spatial distribution of fires and burned land — A picture of the distribution of forest fires on the island as a whole, even if only partial, can be obtained by mapping all of the fires and all of the burned areas for which a geographical location occurs in the records (Figure 6). Most of these mapped points refer to the presence of burned land or burned forest at particular locations, with

observed that “many animals, wild and tame, were destroyed". He goes on to describe the animals fleeing before the fire, especially ‘rabbits' and squirrels, both of which were easily caught when the fire was raging, and he adds that “bears have not been so numerous since" in the area.

368 l have found two acts of the legislature (1773, 1825), the draft of one undated bill to be put before the legislature, and one proclamation by a governor (1815), that are all concerned with the control of forest fire, though there may have been other acts, as well as regulations, that l have not come across (House of Assembly 1773-1849). Oddly, the 1773 act, passed in the first session of the island’s House of Assembly, instead of aiming to protect the forest from runaway fires, had as its principal purpose the aim of protecting the person whose fire had run away from legal actions and suits from neighbouring proprietors and tenants whose land and timber had been damaged by the fire. Thus, the preamble to the act, in contrast to that of the later acts, stresses the benefits of burning (i.e. it is an aid to clearance, and it “destroys all kinds of insects some of which are troublesome“ — this must be a reference to mosquitoes and black-flies — see pp, 33-34). The only restriction placed on the burners is that such clearance fires should only be set between April and June. See also Governor Walter Patterson‘s misguided justification for the legislation (Patterson 1773).

359 All that the proclamation of 1815 does is ‘command' justices of the peace and constables and “others whom it may concern" to report offences so as “to bring the offenders to speedy punishment”. However, the 1825 law, which must have superseded an earlier law that I have not come across, was a total reversal of the 1773 act (see the preceding footnote): it held the person setting the fire liable for any damage to a neighbour‘s “woods or property" and also to a fine of five pounds I have not examined the court records for evidence of any fines imposed under the forest fire laws, though I suspect there were few, if any.