have been red spruce. It also seems that within 
     
     the broad areas of upland hardwood forest these 
     
     conifer species would have achieved a local 
     
     dominance in the valleys and hollows, especially 
     
     along streams. However, on the more widespread 
     
     lowland areas, especially in the east and west of 
     
     the island where conifers seem to have 
     
     frequently had a dominance — they were taken as 
     
     an indicator of poor soils, pine and spruce being 
     
     especially associated with poor sandy soils. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Conclusion — It is clear from the tree-lists and the 
     
     total tally that the tree species composition of the 
     
     forests of Prince Edward Island in the eighteenth 
     
     and nineteenth centuries was very different from 
     
     that of the forests of today. In an analysis of data 
     
     from the 1990-1992 Prince Edward Island Forest 
     
     Inventory (Sobey 1993), the five trees most 
     
     frequently recorded in the 1200 randomly selected 
     
     forest plots were balsam fir (in 74% of plots), red 
     
     maple (68%), white spruce (53%), white birch 
     
     (45%), and trembling aspen (25%). The climax 
     
     hardwood species that the historical records 
     
     indicate to have been so important in the pre— 
     
     European forest all had a much lower frequency: 
     
     yellow birch (20%), sugar maple (19%), and beech 
     
     (10%). White pine was barely detectable in the 
     
     inventory (in 2% of plots), and red oak even less 
     
     so (in 0.33%). Thus, the forest at the time of 
     
     European settlement was a very different forest 
     
     from its descendant of the late twentieth century: 
     
     it was a forest of climax shade-tolerant tree 
     
     species in comparison with a forest in which early 
     
     successional species, and those tolerating and 
     
     responding to disturbance, now predominate. 
     
    
   
   
    
     I conclude by noting that it is pleasing that my 
     
     previous comments on the relative importance of 
     
     the island’s tree species, based on the very limited 
     
     records of the earlier French period, have been 
     
     supported (with much more detail being added) by 
     
     the analysis of the tree data of the British period. I 
     
     will end by noting that there is a large body of 
     
     further data, much of it location—specific, which 
     
     can be used to refine the picture presented here of 
     
     the relative abundance of the trees in the pre- 
     
     settlement forests of the island: I refer to the data 
     
     on trees and forest—types that was recorded in 
     
     many of the maps and survey books that are 
     
     housed in the provincial archives. Analysis of that 
     
     data, however, will have to await another report. 
     
    
   
   
    
     226 
     
    
   
   
    
     REFERENCES 
     
    
   
   
    
     Anon. (1976) Prince Edward Island Road Atlas 
     
     (based on Canada Dept. of Energy, Mines and 
     
     Resources maps, updated to 1976). Published in 
     
     the 19905 by the Forestry Branch, Prince Edward 
     
     Island Dept. of Energy and Forestry, 
     
     Charlottetown. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Anon. (1987) Site identification and compilation 
     
    
   
   
    
     form: Pinette Hemlocks, 20 May 1987. 
     
     (Unpublished file, Island Nature Trust Natural 
     
     Areas Program) Island Nature Trust, 
     
    
   
   
    
     Charlottetown, P. E. l. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Albion, R. G. (1926) Forests and Sea Power: The 
     
     Timber Problem of the Royal Navy 1652-1862. 
     
     Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Allen, C. R. (1880) Meacham’s Illustrated 
     
     Historical Atlas of the Province of Prince Edward 
     
     Island. J. H. Meacham & Co., Philadelphia. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Blum, B. M. (1990) Picea rubens Sarg. Red 
     
     Spruce. In Burns R. M. & Honkala B. H. (eds.) 
     
     Silvics of North America. Vol. 7: Conifers. Forest 
     
     Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
     
     Washington, DC., pp. 250-59. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Bumsted, J. M. (1987) Land, Settlement, and 
     
     Politics in Eighteenth-Century Prince Edward 
     
     Island. McGill-Oueen’s University Press. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Carroll, C. F. (1973) The Timber Economy of 
     
     Puritan New England. Brown University Press, 
     
     Providence. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Catling, P. M., Erskine, D. S. and MacLaren, R. B. 
     
     (1985) New records, nomenclatura/ changes, and 
     
     corrections and deletions to: The Plants of Prince 
     
     Edward Island (by D. S. Erskine). Agriculture 
     
     Canada Publication 1798. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Clark, A. H. (1959) Three Centuries and the Island. 
     
     University of Toronto Press. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Elwes, H. J. and Henry, A. H. (1910) The Trees of 
     
     Great Britain and Ireland. R. R. Clark, Edinburgh. 
     
     (Seven volumes) [Reprinted 1971, S. R. 
     
     Publishers, Wakefield, Yorkshire.]