noted the export of white pine”. The domination

of the early timber trade by pine is also supported by an examination of the types of wood delivered to James Peake’s timber business in 1836, as recorded on dockets by his timber surveyors: of the 1,020 ’pieces’ or ’sticks’ of timber for which the tree-type is stated, 783 (Le. 77%) were of ’pine’.639 The only other softwoods named on the Peake dockets are ’spruce’ (fourteen pieces) and ’juniper’ (i.e. tamarack) (three pieces), and their ranking far behind pine is likely to be indicative of their overall position in the trade at that time. In the rest of British North America in fact, it was only as the more accessible pines were used up, that the lumbermen began to turn to spruces‘w, and such must also have happened on the island, although none of the recorders made any direct comments to that effect.641

There were three other softwoods — tamarack, hemlock and cedar (all known to possess to a varying degree the very useful property of being resistant to decay”) — for which there is evidence of export, though the quantities seem to have been far less than for either pine and spruce. For hemlock, I have come across only two pieces of

638 MacGregor (1828) noted that “white pine [had] for many

years formed an important article of export to Britain", while Hill (1839) said that the island‘s white pine had been “nearly all cut down and exported".

639 Peake Business Papers 1836. The rest was made up of 147 ‘pieces‘ of ‘hardwood'; 67 of ‘birch‘ (which can only be yellow birch), 14 of ‘spruce‘, six of ‘oak‘ and three of ‘juniper’ (i.e. tamarack). 560 of the pine pieces were delivered to Peake at Bedeque, 43 at New Glasgow, and 25 at Three Rivers — for the remainder, the place of delivery is not stated on the docket

64° See Lower (1973) (p. 28) for comments on this for New Brunswick in the mid-nineteenth century, and also Wynn (1981) (p. 41). 6“ There are indirect indicators of the rise in spruce, at least in the local timber trade, and the decline in pine: one is found in the account books of J, C. Morris (3 store owner and timber merchant at North Granville who bought or bartered timber and lumber from local farmers) (Morris 1864-1868): though the sample is small (spruce is recorded ten times in the accounts, pine only twice) the five to one ratio in favour of spruce may be an indicator of the relative availability of the two trees in the New London Bay catchment area at the time. Another piece of indirect evidence is provided by the witnesses to the Land Commission (1875): thirteen witnesses (concerning Lots 7, 9, 10, 13, 16 and 36) make reference to ‘spruce land' or ‘spruce trees' in a context of recent or potential lumbering, compared with just two references to pine in the whole document (a mention of “pine land" on Lot 24 that had been cleared long before 1875, and of “a scrubby growth of pines" on Lot 36).

m For contemporary perceptions of the properties and uses of these trees, see in Appendix 1 the section for each tree titled ‘Properties and uses‘.

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evidence, both concerning its potential export rather than actual: the option of shipping ”two shiploads of hemlock” was included in a contract drawn up in about 1808 between Lord Selkirk's agent on the island and an island timber merchant (the main contract was for the shipment of ”Pine etc.”)6“3; and hemlock was one of the three softwoods (along with ‘pine’ and ’spruce’) that were named in those acts of the island’s legislature that set minimum sizes for the ton- timber destined for exports“. However the absence of any other comment on the export of hemlock suggests that the actual amount is likely

to have been small.645

There is evidence, however, that from the 18405 the quantity of tamarack exported from the island began to rise: primary sources indicate the shipping to England of very large amounts of ’juniper’ [i.e. tamarack] for railway sleepers“; and we have just reviewed the specific evidence for the export of ’juniper knees’ to the United States in the late 18405 and the 18503, the only additional piece of evidence in the sources to be cited being the comment of a delegate to the Land Commission (1860) that ”latterly juniper sleepers and knees” had been exported”. As for cedar, the only reference to its export that l have come across is in the form of shingles to the West Indies and Newfoundland“. Until a more thorough analysis of the custom records of the island and of other documentation on the timber

643

Selkirk 1809.

644

House of Assembly 1773-1849: in 1817, 1820 and 1849. 5‘5 In my detailed examination of the cargo of the 42 ships listed in the island's custom records as carrying timber to Great Britain between 1802 and 1808, only one loaded some hemlock: on 9 September 1806, the Anne was recorded as having 10 tons of hemlock on board [PARO: R.G. 9: Collector of Customs. Shipping outwards, all points,1802—1827].

6‘6 De Jong & Moore (1994) (pp. 73-74) observe that from 1845, on account of a boom in railroad building in England, there was a rising demand for the export of sleepers from the island. They cite an island newspaper report of December 1846 of one island landlord having a contract for 200,000 railway sleepers, and of shippers advertising in 1847 for either sleepers, or ships to carry sleepers. In two such ads that I am aware of, the sleepers are described as of ‘juniper’ [i.e. tamarack] (Royal Gazette, 23 March 1847, p. 4, col. 2; The Examiner, 14 August 1848, p. 3, col. 3), and it is evident that they were sawn to sleeper size before shipping.

6‘7 Land Commission 1860: the evidence of William McGowan (a delegate from Lots 44 and 45). He said that "considerable money has been made" from their export.

6“ Hill 1839. Also, Gesner (1846) noted the potential for exporting what he called the “good supply of that valuable timber [i.e. cedar]", that occurred only in the west of the island.