Anderson, Alexander (1838) Road between Lots 7 and 8 [The O’Leary Road]. ’Roads 1838-1859', 
     
     Surveyors’ Field Books 1830-1900. Commissioner of Public Lands. PARO: RG 15/9/42, pp. 4-13. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The following extract comes from one of the field books of the surveyor Alexander Anderson (b. 1795, d. 
     
     7884) of Seacow Head, Bedeque, and is included here to serve as an example of the type of field record that 
     
     survives in abundance in the provincial archives from Anderson ’s long surveying career. Anderson was a 
     
     trained surveyor and the son of the Loyalist Alexander Anderson, who was also a surveyor. The younger 
     
     Anderson was also for some years a member of the Legislative Council, and between the 78305 and the 18705 
     
     he was in effect the official government surveyor for all of Prince County, as well as for the three townships of 
     
     Queens County that border on Prince. In that region he was contracted for all of the government survey work 
     
     carried out, most of which was west of the Bedeque—Ma/peque isthmus. There, from the 18303 onward, he 
     
     was responsible for surveying the new settlement roads, as well as the boundary lines of many of the 
     
     townships, and he also carried out farm surveys for many private individuals. It was in his capacity as surveyor 
     
     that he was called upon to give evidence to the Land Commissions of 7860 and 1875, and he was also one of 
     
     the elderly residents of the island who responded to the history questionnaire of 1876. Many of the lines that 
     
     he surveyed survive to the present day as roads and as the boundaries of townships and farms. Because it 
     
     was his practice to record the points along his survey lines at which changes occurred in the types of 
     
     woodland, his field books, all of which appear to have survived (unlike those of any of the other pre— 
     
     Confederation government surveyors), provide for the western part of the province an invaluable description of 
     
     the forest at precise locations before settlement had begun to clear away or alter it. This large corpus of work 
     
     has still to be analysed scientifically. It is his earliest survey lines that contain the most detail on tree species 
     
     — in later years he tended to list only the general forest-type, as either ‘hardwood ’ or ’softwood’. 
     
    
   
   
    
     REFERENCE: Jones 0. and Haslam D. (1983) An Island Refuge: Loyalists and Disbanded Troops in the Island of 
     
     St. John. Abegweit Branch of the United Empire Loyalist Association. pp. 2022. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The Road between Lots No. 7 and 8 [known as early as 1857 as ’O’Leary’s Road’] 
     
     chained from the shore eastward. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Thursday 12 July 1838. 
     
     Road between Lots 7 and 8. Chained and Ran 1 mile 60 Chns from the Shore E 
     
     [mi/es — chains — feet] 
     
    
   
   
    
     [Ol-9-25 Centre of Settlement Rd 
     
    

    
     [Ol-13-50 Old Do. 
     
    

    
     [01-19-0 The woods 
     
    

    
     1-60-0 Returned to Settlement Ip. 41 
     
     13 July 
     
    

    
     2-52—0 a few Spruce for 2 or 3 chains, the first we saw 
     
    

    
     2-71-0 then down a hollow 0-80 to a wet place 
     
    

    
     -73-65 to a river 17 ft wide 
     
     -73-90 across Do. 
     
    

    
     2-75-80 to dry land [p.51 
     
     14 July 
     
    

    
     3-50-40 water in a low place running to the 5. 
     
    

    
     3-51—30 across 00., the rest of the way Spruce, Hemlock & a few Pine 
     
    

    
     4-0-0 returned Ip. 6| 
     
     Mon. 16 July 
     
    

    
     At 4-10-0 Small Spruce on white sand covered with a thick coat of moss to 
     
    

    
     4-15-0 Very small Spruce bushes on Do. to 46 
     
    

    
     4-25-0 Left off and made camp Ip. 7| 
     
     17 July 
     
    

    
     At 4-46-0 small Spruce nearly the size of fencing to 
     
    

    
     [41-56-0 small Spruce bushes to 
     
    

    
     4-64-0 Spruce Hemlock & a few Birch to 69 chains. Then returned to Camp. Ip. SI 
     
     18 July 
     
    

    
     At 4—69-0 then small Spruce bushes to 
     
    
   
   
    
     294