with its maximum score of 46552. The tree tally thus suggests that yellow birch and sugar maple were less common than beech in the island’s hardwood forests.553

N OJ 0 O O O

Tally of tolerant hardwoods

.I O

Yellow birch

Sugar maple

FIGURE 1-14. The actual tally for the three tolerant hardwood trees (the dark area), and the maximum possible tally when non-specific references to ’maple’ and ’birch’ are added (the clear area). (See the footnotes of Table 1—9 for the data used to construct this graph.)

This suggestion about the overall importance of beech in the hardwood forests of the island is strongly supported by the contemporary comments on the species: a significant number of recorders stressed the importance of the tree, some stating explicitly that it was by far the dominant species in the island’s upland hardwood forests.554 Contemporary comments, however, also indicate that sugar maple and yellow birch were important components of the island’s hardwood forests, though at a lower level than beech. However, the only statement that might give us a hint as to the relative abundance of maple and birch in the pre- European forest is that of Selkirk (1805) who recorded that ”the most common species of timber are the beech and the maple” ~ his failure to include birch is significant. Even so, we should

records where the species could be either sugar maple, red maple, or both, we get a maximum possible score (or A. saccharum of 55.

552 Yellow birch is named in fifteen of the 70 records and is the likely species in another 22 (see footnote on birch in Table 1-9); adding the nine generic listings gives a maximum possible listing for yellow birch of 46 in the total tally.

553 It is interesting that the similar predominance of beech over yellow birch and maple was evident from the equivalent analysis of the much more limited records of the French period (see Sobey 2002, pp. 139—42).

55‘ See the comments on beech in the section on its General distribution and abundance.

224

not forget Stewart’s (1806) statement that "black birch” [i.e. yellow birch, B. a/leghaniensis] was ”common all over the Island, where the original growth of timber has not been destroyed by fire".

These three species comprised the shade-tolerant climax hardwood forest on the well-drained upland soils of the island — their presence in fact was taken as a sign of the suitability of such soils for clearance for agriculture. As we have seen in the sections on each tree, the records indicate that the three could occur either as mixtures (probably in all possible combinations), or as single species stands, which seems to have been especially so for beech, since parts of the hardwood forest were

termed "beech-wood forest"555 and ”beech lands”556 (there is some evidence that beech occurred on the drier range of upland forest soilsw) — and there is a reference to ”maple

lands” as well 558. Selkirk’s (1803) statement that ”black birch (among beech and maple) when abundant, seems also to prove a sufficient degree of moisture", indicates that within the hardwood forest, yellow birch was likely to achieve a greater abundance on the moister soils.

As for the other hardwoods, it is clear from the contemporary comments that red oak could also be a component of this upland hardwood forest, though the records indicate that it was uncommon, if not rare. Like the other hardwoods, it would seem also to have occurred in some areas as single species stands. White ash was a rare component of the hardwood forest, seemingly on the richer soils, while black ash was a swamp tree. Elm, which was more prevalent in the west of the province, was associated with the rich soils of the ’intervales’, while the poplars are not mentioned as components of the upland hardwood forests.

Finally, it is evident that those broad-leaved trees observed by the early recorders to be associated with successional habitats: white birch, trembling aspen and cherry, all occur at relatively low frequencies in the tree-lists, and even more so in the total tally. It is also evident that for poplar almost all of these records occur after 1820 (see Table ’l-8), suggesting that trembling aspen only

5“ Stewart (1806).

556 Selkirk 1803. “Hetnéres” carried the same meaning in the

French period records — see Sobey 2002. p. 134.

557 See the comments on beech in the section on its Soil

relationships.

555 Selkirk 1805.