fodder for his cattle through a long and severe

winter”. 835

In his anecdote Lawson was thinking only of the visual component of aesthetics (in terms of "fine scenery”), and though, undoubtedly, it was via the eye that the forest made its greatest impression on island residents and visitors, it could also be perceived, as is evident from some of the comments that were written, via other senses, such as hearing”, smell837 — and even touch, in the form of shade and coolness”. And, as we shall see, the aesthetic impact could also be negative, with recorders drawing attention to unattractive aspects — especially visual — of the forest.

It is also important to note that many of those who made an aesthetic judgment on the forests and trees of the island had acquired their aesthetic

”5 Anon. 1836.

336 The auditory impact of the forests of the island seems to have

been primarily through the singing of woodland birds (e.g. Pollard 1898), including the drumming of the ruffed grouse (Bain 1891), but there was also the ‘singing' of the wood frogs — or as Johnstone (1822) (p. 134, not extracted) called them, the “American Nightingales" — as well as the "swelling murmur” of the wind high above the “ancient fores " ([Bain] 1882). However there were also negative auditory effects, though these may have been exaggerated in retrospect: [Lawson] (1877-1878) said that the pioneer settlers at Orwell were “very frequently by night awakened by the squealing of pigs [and] the bellowing of cattle being killed by bears"; while at New London “the heavy tramps of the brutes [i.e. the bears] trotting in the dark around the little log homes would be heard by the inmates through the weary nights”. Then, John Brooks answered a question on wild animals in the historical Questionnaire (1876) by saying that: “foxes were so numerous they would howl around the dwellings of the first settlers and keep them awake at night".

837 The smell of the forest was recorded by three writers: Stewart

(1806) (p. 106, not extracted) said the ‘air‘ on the island in June was “most delightfully perfumed by the blossoms of the trees and the flowers of various aromatic shrubs and herbs"; in similar vein, Hill (1839), in his description of the “natural forest" in June, refers to “the fragrant perfumes of the native herbs [filling the air]"; while Pollard (1898), in his imaginary description of the original forests on the site of Charlottetown, refers to “delightful balmy nights laden with fragrant perfume". By the way, the first European whom we know to have visited Prince Edward Island, Jacques Cartier in 1534, had been impressed by the "grande odeur" of the island’s trees, presumably the resinous conifers (see Sobey 2002, p. 37), and undoubtedly the smell of the island's conifer forests must also have been a new experience for most persons arriving from the British Isles. There were also on occasion very unpleasant and menacing smells: [Lawson] (1877-1878) said that in the pioneer days at New London, when bears had been about, “the strong wild animal smell of them would greet the nostrils of the people as they would emerge from their primitive dwellings".

8” Johnstone (1822), in his description of the beech forest, said that “the beech furnishes the most delightfully refreshing shade over head of any I have met with".

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tastes and standards from their experience of the woodland and trees of the British Isles — not a few of them were short-stay visitors from the 'old country’, while others, though island residents, had grown up in the British Isles, or had spent some time there. It is also likely that the tastes of some were influenced by current fashions in aesthetics as acquired in their education and reading: the early nineteenth century was the heyday of the Romantic movement in literature, which placed a high value on nature and the natural landscape, and in the British Isles, as we have seen, many of the landed aristocracy in particular, valued woodland and trees as elements adding beauty to the rural landscape. Thus, as we shall see, when recorders came to assess the island’s forests and trees these Old World standards tended to exert an important influence.

The aesthetic appreciation of specific tree species — There are only a few comments in the island records indicative of an aesthetic appreciation of particular trees species: we have Lord Selkirk's (1803) description of some of the large hemlock trees at Pinette as of a ”very grand picturesque appearance”, while John Stewart's (1806) aesthetic sensibilities with respect to trees are evident from his description of the island’s beech as "a large handsome tree”, the white birch as "a much handsomer tree" than the grey birch, and the maples as "[adding] much to the beauty of our forest scenery in the autumn". Then, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the naturalist Francis Bain, in his writings both private and public, frequently included an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of various tree species including the beech, the three species of birch, the wild

cherries, and the mountain maples”.

However, not every writer viewed the island’s trees with an uncritical eye: for the Lowland Scot, Walter Johnstone, the trees of the island’s old- growth forests fell far short of the standards set by those of his homeland:

The woods here in their most perfect state [by ’perfect’, / think that he means ’in their ’natural state’, i. e. undisturbed by fire and clearance] are far from

839 Many ‘aesthetic descriptions‘ of tree species are found in

Bain's journal (Bain 1868-1884) (see, as an example, the entry for 16 December 1880). See also his article on the island's deciduous trees in the Daily Examiner in 1882 ([Bain] 1882), and the ‘Botany' section of his natural history textbook for island schools (Bain 1890), where, for example, the white birch is described as “the virgin beauty of the forest“, and the beech as “one of the noble trees of the forest".