on its own“. 62 However, Stewart’s (1806) statement that white pine was ”no where to be found in large groves unmixed with other trees, as is frequently the case on the continent”, indicates that such single-species stands may have been limited in their spatial coverage. Whether red pine was more likely to occur as single species stands is not evident from the British period records other than a hint in Stewart's (1806) statement that it ”was chiefly confined to two or three districts of small extent", and the late record of Watson's (post 1904) that fine specimens were found in "groves” at Brudenell Road.63

Past pine stands — In fact both Stewart (1806) and MacGregor (1828) considered that the most extensive of these pine ’groves’ had been destroyed by a forest fire that had occurred in the north-east of the island during the French period.64 Stewart inferred from ”the old pine trees and stumps still remaining” on these ”burnt lands" that they had been ”covered chiefly with pine and other resinous woods”, while MacGregor makes reference to "majestic pines” destroyed by ”a tremendous fire" of the French period that he erroneously dates to 1750. He also, in a more general context, says that ”large tracts of the original pine forest have been destroyed by fires", with the result that pine, though still occurring on the island, was no longer found in the form of "extensive groves”.65 It is also likely that the ”lofty pillars or columnes” that Samuel Holland had observed in 1765 in some of the same burnt-over

areas, were the remains of pine trees“. All of this

5‘ Curtis writes: “in Other parts Pine of different quality, which

grow very large" which is immediately contrasted without a break, by: “and some parts is quite a mixture All sorts growing together”. (But see footnote 41 for my questioning the meaning of Curtis' use ofthe word ‘pine‘.)

62 We should also recall here the evidence of the French period recorders, who had recorded ‘pinieres' (i.e. pine stands or pine woods - implying a single species stand) at ‘Trois Rivieres’ and at ‘Ma/peck' (see Sobey 2002, p. 130).

63 The two harvesting ventures of red pine for masts by the French in the 17205 certainly suggest that the particular red pines that were cut did occur in compact stands (see Sobey 2002, pp. 161-176).

64 There had in fact been two such forest fires, in 1736 and 1742 (see Sobey 2002, pp. 22-24), though Stewart and MacGregor would not have been aware ofthis fact.

65 Murray (1839), using second-hand information (from either Stewart or MacGregor), also noted that the “burnt-grounds" had been originally covered with “extensive pine-forests”.

56 Holland 1765: March. Holland recorded that such ‘columnes’ occurred “particularly at the Carrying Place [i.e. the portage] betwixt the North East River [i.e. the Hillsborough] and Tracady [i.e. Tracadie Bay]" (the portage is marked clearly as a line on his map). However his inclusion of the words “in many places"

160

suggests that a substantial portion of the area burned in the fires of the French period had had a cover of pines — which is supported in part by the French records.67 Whether the species was white pine or red pine or a mixture of both is an open question.68

Pine as an element of upland hardwood forest — The presence of pine, presumably mostly white pine, as a scattered and variable element in the upland hardwood forest is attested by several recorders. On the portage running across Point Prim, Selkirk (1803) noted "a considerable proportion of Pines etc. mixed with maple, birch etc.”; then after crossing the Pinette River, he noted among the ”the great deal of Hardwood — maple, beech, birch, yellow and black here and there some pine, spruce etc.". Also Johnstone (1822) explicitly states that ”pine is not found but in detached trees, here and there in the woods”; and fifty—one years later Francis Bain noted at Springfield that the white pines grew ”solitary on the dry land among the hardwood” where they projected above the forest canopy“. Later in the school textbook that he wrote, he applied a similar description to the pines of the island’s hardwood forests in general: ”spreading [their] tasseled arms above the summit of the

deciduous forest”.70

Soil relationships — The early recorders were aware of the varying soil relationships of pine. On the one hand, the presence of pine in the upland hardwood forest (and we may presume that it is white pine that was meant) was taken as an indicator of the best soils for clearance.71

suggests that they were found more widely than at a single spot. (Johnstone (1822) also describes in burned-over areas in general, dead pines, barkless and weather-beaten, and of great height, scattered “here and there”)

67 See Sobey (2002), and especially compare the distribution of pine at the top of the Hillsborough River (Figure 1-2, p. 127) with the records of the spatial occurrence of the fires (Figure 2, p. 23).

68 That at least some of the areas that had been burned had

contained stands of red pine is evident from the records of a masting operation by the French in the 1720s that had involved the

harvest of red pine (see Sobey 2002, pp. 161-176, and especially footnote 109 on p. 171).

69 Bain (1868-1884) (in 1873). (Similarly, in December 1880, at another unnamed site he described the ‘pines' (which from their “five long needle-shaped Ieaves” can only be the white) rising “above the rolling top of the forest")

7° Bain 1890. [Lawson] (1877-1878) also gives a similar description of the pre-settlement pines in the Brackley Point area, as "towering majestically into the skies, every here and there“.

7' We find the inclusion of pine in the ‘hardwood — best soils

correlation‘ by Selkirk (1803), Stewart (1806), Hill (1839) and