the country that were remote from any quantity of that wood [i.e. beechl”.

Specific areas — Given this high general abundance of beech on the island it is not surprising that it enters the records for many specific areas (Figure 1-7). It is recorded along the Richmond Bay frontage of Lot 13306, as well as on the ridge of land in the same lot, running inland south of the Trout River”; in the area of the New London settlement at Elizabethtownm; at the Covehead settlementm; on the south side of the Pinette River (probably its North Branch) "50 or 100 yards back from the water”3‘°; along the shore to the west of Wood Islands on ”the land above the bank” — implying away from the shoreline”); on the North of Point Prim”3‘°; at Mount Stewart, on both sides of the Hillsborough River3“; in the environs of Charlottetown”; in the hardwood forests of Lot 47 he the lot containing East Point)”; on Oulton Island in Cascumpec Bay“; at Springfield in Lot 67315; and on a farm along the north shore of the Hillsborough River at Marshfield, as well as at another site at Hampshire”. There is also the record of the presence of the species as a single dead hollow tree used as a signpost ”in the midst of the woods” a mile from Tryon317 — undoubtedly an indicator of the presence of living

beech trees in the area.

:1

Beech also formed an element of a hardwood forest ”buried by the drifting sands” near the

“6 Morris 1769; Gray 1793. ”7 Gray 1793.

305 Curtis 1775 and Chappell 1775-1818 (in 1777). Also, [Lawson] (1877-1878), retrospectively, recorded it as an element of the forests in the New London area at the time of settlement.

”9 [Lawson] 1877-1878.

310

Selkirk 1803.

311

MacGregor 1828. 3‘2 Patterson 1770; MacGregor 1828; Chappell 1775-1818. An entry in Chappell's daybook for 1804 indicates that he cut a large beech tree “over the water", i.e. across the Hillsborough River from Charlottetown, presumably somewhere in Lot 48, where be frequently got his wood.

313

Stewart 1831.

3l4

Hill 1839.

315

Bain 1868-1884 (on 6 Feb. 1873).

3‘5 Land Commission 1875: evidence of Donald Ferguson, Lot 35. and of John Douse, Lot 31, respectively.

317

Lawson 1851.

190

mouth of St. Peters Bay, noted by Gesner (1846) in his ’Geological Survey' of the island, while in Prince County, on the mainland opposite Hog Island, he found beech trees at sea level in a hardwood forest that had succumbed to the encroaching sea ~ from his description, this would seem to have occurred recently.

Tree size — Benjamin Chappell’s "big beach” that he cut across the river from Charlottetown measured ”241/2 inches through”3‘8. More

generally, MacGregor (1828) noted that beech on the island was ”sometimes three feet in diameter” and of a ”majestic height”. Even larger trees had been recorded along a survey line in Lot 28, where beech trees from three to six feet in diameter had been noted”. Even so, Hill (1839) considered that beech trees on the island were generally smaller than ”black birch" [i.e. yellow birch, Betu/a alleghaniens/s], while Walsh (1803) (a visitor to the island) observed that there were ”few of even a middling growth” — this was presumably for the area around Charlottetown.

Habitat and community relationships — The records suggest that this widely distributed tree was a very important element of the upland hardwood forests of the islandm, where it could occur either in a mixture with other species or as single species stands.

Single-species stands — Among the strongest evidence for the existence of monospecific stands of beech is Stewart's (1806) statement that in some areas of the island beech comprised nine- tenths of the forest.321 We also have Selkirk's (1803) use of the term ”beech lands” as if it were a recognised forest-typem, and Johnstone's

3‘8 Chappell1775-1818 (in 1804). 319 The sizes are given in a note written on a map of Lot 28 (PARO No. 0,539, surveyed apparently in 1773, though the map is a copy of 1793): “From A to 8 nothing but Beach from three feet to six feet Diameter". Unfortunately, the points A and B are not to be found on the map, perhaps having been omitted by the copyist.

32° Making explicit reference to beech as an important component of the upland hardwood forests are Curtis (1775). [Robinson] (0. 1798), Selkirk (1803), Stewart (1806). Johnstone (1822). MacGregor (1828), Bouchette (1832) and Lawson (1851), and it is implicit in many others (e.g. Anon. (1836)).

321 Elsewhere Stewart uses the name ‘beech-wood forest' in

referring to such forests.

3” Selkirk 1803. In his 1805 book he makes reference to “beech and maple lands" which presumably may refer either to both species occurring together, or separately. Compare the use of the term “hétn'e‘re” [i.e. beechwoods] by French period recorders (see Sobey 2002, p. 134).