have an experience or to gather information that 
     
     might be used as a subject for literary creation and 
     
     expression. However, what is important is that, 
     
     whatever their initial motive, for each of them, 
     
     their trips into the woods resulted in a literary 
     
     creation of some sort or other, and these creations 
     
     were the first expression of a post-pioneer 
     
     appreciation of the forest that stood apart from the 
     
     antagonistic attitude that predominated among the 
     
     mass of the population. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The forest as a place of novelty and adventure — In 
     
     the island literature there survive two accounts of 
     
     excursions into the forest that contain a strong 
     
     element of a search for novelty and adventure, 
     
     though the write—ups that resulted have more the 
     
    
   
   
    
     feeling of ’pseudo-adventures' than real 
     
     excursions, with the accounts, and the forest they 
     
     describe, having a strong input from the 
     
    
   
   
    
     imagination and creativity of the two authors. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The two could not be more different in 
     
     background: the earlier was Robert Gray, a 46 
     
     year old Scottish-born Loyalist and government 
     
     office-holder, who in August 1793 led a small 
     
     gr0up of men through the forests of Lot 13 from 
     
     Malpeque Bay (near present-day Tyne Valley) to 
     
     the Egmont Bay shore; the other was a young 
     
     Englishwoman, Isabella Bird, at 23 half Gray’s age, 
     
     who, when on a North American tour in the 
     
     summer of 1854, made an ’expedition’ into some 
     
     woods near St. Eleanors. For both authors the 
     
     two journeys were to assume a greater importance 
     
     on account of the literary effort that each of them 
     
     put into the 'writing up’ of their visits as 
     
     adventurous stories for others to read: Gray 
     
     included his embellished account in what, 
     
     incongruously, would otherwise have been a 
     
     straightforward business letter that he sent to the 
     
     landlord of Lot 13 back in England for whom he 
     
     was acting as agent (in fact its only reader until its 
     
     recent publication in The Island Magazine was the 
     
     landlord's agent in England 86°); Isabella Bird’s 
     
     account reached a much wider contemporary 
     
     audience: she included it in the chapter on Prince 
     
     Edward Island in her travel book An Eng/ishwoman 
     
     in America. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Despite the differences in the backgrounds of the 
     
    
   
   
    
     two writers and in the nature of their 
     
     ’expeditions’, there are some interesting 
     
     similarities in the contents of their stories. Firstly, 
     
    
   
   
    
     both present their excursions into the forest as a 
     
     journey in search of a specific objective, which 
     
    
   
   
    
     “6° Sobey 1997. 
     
    
   
   
    
     129 
     
    
   
   
    
     even before entering the woods they clothe with 
     
     an element of mystery. Here is Robert Gray 
     
     describing the start of his journey: 
     
    
   
   
    
     It was with great mortification to me on inquiry to find 
     
     that no person in that country had ever been through 
     
     Township 13 to Egmont Bay. This though discouraging 
     
     did not deter me from attempting to execute what I had 
     
     planned, to penetrate through the Lot to Egmont Bay 
     
     and view as much of it as my time would possibly 
     
     permit. Much dissuasion by the Tenants against the 
     
     attempt on the grounds of its impracticability, from 
     
     imperfect and uncertain accounts received from Indians 
     
     did not shake me. And | persisted in saying that I would 
     
     proceed alone if none would accompany me. 
     
    
   
   
    
     A rather prosaic objective — simply to cross the 
     
     island to its southern side (an eight and a half mile 
     
     journey at that particular spot), and to note the 
     
     forests and land along the way — has been 
     
     invested with an element of the mysterious. His 
     
     insertion of ’Indians' into his story — as Isabella 
     
     Bird also does in hers — though neither writer came 
     
     across any ’lndians’ in the woods — was an easy 
     
     way for both to give their stories an exotic North 
     
     American colouring for their English readership. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Likewise, Miss Bird at the beginning of her story 
     
     invests her ’exploring expedition’ with ’mystery’ 
     
     (she actually uses the word), by making it a 
     
     journey in search of a spring long 'lost’ in the 
     
     woods: 
     
    
   
   
    
     We set out on an exploring expedition in search of a 
     
     spring which Mr. K. remembered in his childish days. 
     
     We went down to a lonely cabin to make inquiries, and 
     
     were told that ”none but the old people knew of it — it 
     
     was far away in the woods.” Here was mystery; so, 
     
     leaving the waggon, into the woods we went to seek for 
     
     it. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Another similarity is that in the search for these 
     
     different objectives, both authors stress — and, I 
     
     think, also exaggerate — the great personal 
     
     difficulties they experienced on their journeys. 
     
     Robert Gray: 
     
    
   
   
    
     l was not to be baffled by this obstacle [Le a ”spruce fir 
     
     swamp”] nor by the remonstrances of my companions 
     
     who wished to return, added to the extreme heat of the 
     
     weather, much greater than in England, and the 
     
     incessant attacks of moschettoes and other troublesome 
     
     flies, which was such that we could hardly venture to 
     
     stop to take a drink of water — the least relaxation of 
     
     our hands and handkerchiefs in brushing them away 
     
     producing Swarms like the swarms of Bees just broke 
     
     loose from the hive and ready to devour us. Continuing 
     
     our journey we were often obliged to lift ourselves up by 
     
     the help of the boughs and step from the top of one