Douglas, Thomas, Earl of Selkirk (1803) Diary / (5 August - 3 October, 1803, The Maritimes); Dairy V (30 September — 15 December, 1804, Nova Scotia.) [Published in 1958 as Lord Selkirk’s Diary 7803-7804. A Journal of His Travels in British North America and the North—Eastern United States. Edited with introduction by P. C. T. White. Champlain Society, Toronto.]

Thomas Doug/as, the fifth Earl of Selkirk (b. 7 77 7, d. 7820), had acquired a large acreage of land on scattered parts of Prince Edward Island [ust months before his first visit in August 7803. He arrived on one of three ships bringing a large party of emigrants from the Highlands, and he spent five weeks on the island (8 August — 78 September), mainly in Lots 57 and 58, as well as at Charlottetown. He returned for a second visit a year later in October on his way back to Europe. His diary contains an invaluable record of the island ’3 landscape and land usage of the day, but especially on many of the practical problems faced by both settlers and proprietors on their first encounter with wilderness land. He describes the forest extensive/y — it is evident that he attempted to record meticulously as much information as possible, beginning his observations as soon as he could get off the ship to walk along the shore of Lot 62, even before they had reached Charlottetown. He was not only a keen observer in his own right, but also a careful gleaner of information from other people (he frequent/y records the sources of his information in his notes). His observations have a scientific flavour showing interest in topics ranging from forest dynamics (i. e. secondary succession on old fields and after forest fire), and the natural forest as an indicator of soil fertility, to the relative merits of the various methods of forest clearance — even in this regard proposing to carry out a large-scale field experiment on the effects of fire. Though clearly familiar with European trees, he had no previous kno w/edge of the North American forest, so that much of what he records must come from others — two that he acknowledges in his diary are ”Mr. Wright the surveyor” and ”Jo Laird ” (a ”Loyal/st”). Many of his observations on the distributions, soil requirements, and properties of the various tree species are supported by modern observation. It is thus a very valuable record pre-dating John Stewart’s 7806 account, and having the added advantage over Stewart that much of his description can be pin-pointed to specific parts of the island.

REFERENCES:

Bumsted, J. M. (1978) Lord Selkirk of Prince Edward Island. The Island Magazine. No. 5: 3—8.

Bumsted, J. M. (1978) Settlement by Chance: Lord Selkirk and Prince Edward Island. Canadian Historical Review. LIX: 170-188.

Gray, J. M. (1983) Douglas, Thomas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, V: 264-69.

White, P.C.T. (1958) Introduction, Lord Selkirk’s Diary 7803-7804. pp. xxvii-xx. Champlain Society, Toronto.

1. There were three ’Mr. Wright’s’ who were qualified surveyors at the time of Selkirk ’8 visit: the Surveyor General, Thomas Wright, aged c. 63, and his two sons George and Charles, aged 24 and 22 — both of whom succeeded their father in the post. Although from 7803, the year of Selkirk ’5 visit, Charles was filling in for his father during periods of illness, it would seem that it was the father, Thomas Wright (b. c. 7740, d. 787 2) who accompanied Selkirk on his visit to Belfast, and who is thus likely to be the source of most of the information that Selkirk records on the tree species. Selkirk records meeting him at a levee at the Governor’s house on 72 August, and he may well have made arrangements with Wright at that time. Wright had been born in England, but had had experience of the New World since 7758 when he began work for the surveyor general of Georgia. Returning to England in 7763, he was back the following year as deputy to Captain Samuel Holland, surveyor general of the Northern District of North America. He assisted Holland in his survey of the Island of St. John in 7 764—65 being responsible for the shoreline ”from Port Joy on the south to Orby Point on the north side ” — which in effect means almost everything west of Charlottetown. After further work with Holland he returned to the island in the early 77703 and was appointed Surveyor General in 7 773. Thereafter he lived on the island until his death in 78 72.

REFERENCES:

Holland, Samuel (1765) ’Plan of the Island of St. John in the Province of Nova Scotia [P.E.|. PARO Acc. 0617C) Holman, H. T. (1983) Wright, Thomas, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, V: 873-74.

Holman, H. T. (1987) Wright, Charles, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, VI: 818v19.

Bumsted, J. M. (1988) Wright, George, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vll: 924—26.

Monday Aug. 8th — Made land [on] the south side of the Island near Bear Cape — The woods the Coast has a pleasant appearance compared with C. Breton — it is very low — from The Sh/P- cliffs about 20 or 30 feet high interspersed with Bays — the wood appears of a good size, the pine species intermixed with the hardwoods — what kinds I could not distinguish — The Nova Scotia Shore is low and similar, but the Pine tribe seem to predominate more The wind coming round to the west, I took the boat & went on shore when the vessel was near Wood Islands The Coast as we proceeded along

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