the island in the historical period in lists such as those of Cameron (1958) and the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre (ACCDC 2004) is thus not backed up by the historical evidence.98 99

The moose — There is no evidence that the moose (A/ces a/ces) ever occurred on Prince Edward Island, at least during the historical period, and in fact there is strong evidence to the contrary: during the French period Nicholas Denys in 1672 and Louis Denys de La Ronde in 1721 had made a point of recording that moose were absent from the island“, as did Sutherland (1861) during the nineteenth century. The six British period records of its occurrence are all late and retrospective, and five are based on the anecdotal finding of ”time— worn” antlers in the woods‘o‘. These are far more likely to have belonged to the caribou, for which we have undisputed evidence of its past occurrence.

Other absences — Sutherland (1861) also reported the absence from the island of the raccoon, the porcupine102 and the wolverine, all of which he said occurred in the neighbouring colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The validity of these three absences is supported by the fact that none of these species was recorded as being present on the island by any of the other writers.

come from elsewhere, such as the mainland, or they may even have come from the Montreal mission.

93 The only significant evidence that I have come across that beaver may have occurred on Prince Edward Island in the pre- settlement period is the finding of a beaver incisor tooth in an archeological dig of a pre-historic aboriginal settlement (probably Mi'kmaq) near East Point that was occupied from about 800 to 1000 AD (Keenleyside 1983), Of less value is Cameron's (1958) statement that beaver tooth-marks had been reported to have been found on sticks from peat bogs. He does not give a reference for this information, and I thus suspect it was anecdotal,

99 For the history of the beaver on Prince Edward Island since its introduction in the early twentieth century I direct readers to

Dibblee (1994).

“’0 See Sobey 2002, p, 148. 10‘ Lawson 1851; Bagster 1861; Questionnaire 1876; [Lawson] 1877-1878; Bain 1890, The sixth writer (Pope 1848) does not state the reason for his belief that moose had once occurred on the island.

‘02 The porcupine had also been reported as absent from the island by Louis Denys de La Ronde in 1721 (see Sobey 2002, p. 148).

249

ERRORS — PAST AND PRESENT Males and hedgehogs — Although Johnstone (1822) stated categorically that ”there is not a mole on the island”, two later island residents, both writers of school textbooks for the island (Sutherland 1861 and Bain 1890), included it in their lists of the island’s mammals, both using similar phrasing: ”it burrows in the ground and lives on worms". Despite their assertions, there is no evidence that a species of mole has ever occurred on Prince Edward Island, and neither Cameron (1958) nor the ACCDC (2004) have included it in their lists of native mammals.

Curiously, Sutherland (1861) also reported the presence on the island of what he called the ’hedgehog’. From his description it is clear that he had in mind the hedgehog of Europe (Er/naceus europaeus), which has spines somewhat similar to a porcupine, but which does not occur in North America. And since Sutherland had recorded that the porcupine was absent from the island, he could not be confusing the two species. Either he has been misinformed by someone or has gone off on a flight of fantaSy.

The fisher — There is no evidence in the historical literature that the fisher (Martes pennann), a large member of the weasel family, that still occurs in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, ever occurred on Prince Edward Island. It is thus doubtful whether sightings reported in the 1940s can be this animalm, and it should thus be removed from the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre list (ACCDC 2004).

FOREST GAME BIRDS ‘°“

The ruffed grouse — As a game bird the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbe/lus) drew the attention of many of the recorders, and fifteen of the seventeen people who made lists of the island’s mammals also listed the grouse (Table 2-1), all but

“’3 Cameron (1958) (p. 51) included it in his list on the basis of

sightings reported to the Department of Industry and Natural Resources “from time to time”, which the Department and Cameron considered “could have been no other [animal]".

10‘ In addition to the ruffed grouse and the passenger pigeon, two recorders report ‘pheasants' on the island, However Anon. (1818) is a notoriously unreliable source, while Carrington (1837) who says he saw “5 pheasants and 3 partridges on our road", spent only eleven days on the island. Seemingly, the ring-necked (Phasianus co/chicus) was only introduced to the island in the twentieth century (Godfrey 1954).