Walsh, Edward (1803) Travel Journal. [an extract was published (1984) as ’An Account of Prince Edward's Island’, The Island Magazine, 15: 9-13 (with an introduction by H. T. Holman).]

Edward Walsh was a medical officer in the British army who visited Prince Edward Island on his way from Portsmouth, England to Quebec in 7803. He spent two weeks on the island, from 25 September to 9 October, and recorded his impressions in his /ournal, under the heading ’Some Notices of the Island’. During his stay he was based at Charlottetown, but whether he travelled from the town, and if so, how far, is not apparent from the journal. Parts of his plant and animal material shows some resemblance to that of John Cambridge’s Description of Prince Edward Island, though his extensive tree list appears to also contain first-hand information. He may also have had conversations with persons very experienced at the island — including John Stewart, who Walsh records arrived from England on the same ship. The polished nature of the account — it has none of the roughness of a private journal — suggests that he may have intended it to be published — if this were so, it remained unpublished until 1984.

REFERENCE: Holman, H. T. (1984) Introduction to 'An Account of Prince Edward's Island by Edward Walsh’, The Island Magazine, No. 15: 9-13.

23 September. At daybreak we found ourselves close in with the Coast of Prince

The WOOdS from Edward’s Island which appears low, even and thickly wooded to the waters edge.

the sea. The low even cliff of a bright red with the wood bristling up gave it a striking resemblance to a Mahogany Cloths Brush [p. 9] Some Notices of the Island. By far the greater part of the surface of the Country (perhaps seven eighths) is still Tree Size- covered with wood. The Trees in general are Slender, few exceeding a foot in diameter. There is no underwood. [p. 10] Vegetation

The Natural Vegetable productions of this Island may be reduced to four kinds of Tree spec/ea Forest Trees namely Pines, Birches, Beeches and Maples, for of Oak, Ash or Elm I

could discover no kinds except a few trees which had been evidently planted. Of the

Pine Tribe the most numerous, not only of that Genus, but of all the other trees The SprCE’S- togeather, is the Spruce Pine; White or Silver, Black or Red. These trees nowhere arrive to a large Growth but they are of so quick a vegetation & so tenacious of the soil that it is impossible to extirpate them. No sooner is a Tract cleared of wood than a young Grove of Spruces immediately spring up. The common Pitch Pine grows large and may be converted into Timber. The American or Weymouth pine & the Hemlock. Larch are small and not often met with. But the Hemlock Pine is one of the grossest & tallest trees in the Country. It grows straight to the height of 30 feet & is found sometimes 6 feet in circumference. Its head is remarkably close & its branches appear as if they had been blasted. They make a Beer of the Decoction of the tops of the Hemlock pine, which is esteemed far superior as an antiscorbutic to that made from any of the Spruces. The Beech Trees are numerous. Their Leaf is larger than those of Europe, but there are few of even a Middling Growth. The Beech however makes the best small timber & fire wood of any on the Island.

Secondary succession.

Beech trees.

Birches. Of the Birches there are 3 Kinds, which next to the spruces are most numerous in the Island; the White, Yellow, and Black. Of these the Black grows to a large size & Map/es. produces excellent Timber. The maples, the White or Curled & the Black or Sugar,

are to be found tolerably numerous. The Sugar Maple, exclusive of its advantages as producing the Saccharine sap of which they make excellent sugar, grows tall and gross and is sawed into excellent Timber. There are a few Cedars in the marshes of the White kind, but soft and of little service. [pp. 10-11]