[MacDonald of Glenaladale, Captain John] (1804) General Idea of the Qualities of Prince-Edward—lsland and of an Estate which is to be sold there. Printed for the author by J. H. Hart, London. 42 pp. [Robertson Library, U.P.E.|.: PEI. FC. 2621. G 46. 1804]

Captain John MacDonald (b. 7742, d. 18 70) was 62 when in 1804 he published anonymous/y a pamphlet in London with the purpose of advertising and offering for sale a part of his island estate — specifically all of Lot 35 south of the Hil/sborough River. He had purchased Lot 35 in 1 792, which when added to Lot 36, had made him one of the island ’3 major landholders. At the time of the printing of the pamphlet he had spent a total of about twelve years on the island in two separate periods, the first from 7773 to 17 75, before his enlistment in the British army at Halifax, the second from 7792 after a ten year sojourn in London. He was again in London on political business from about 7802 to 1805, and at that time attempted to clear his considerable debts by selling all or part of nis estate. In the pamphlet he acknowledges that he has not walked over the land that is for sale, but has had information from others and has viewed it ’from two or three situations’. Apart from describing generally the island 's soils and geographical features, a considerable part of the pamphlet is concerned with the importance of salt marshes in the economy of island agriculture, and the advantage of his two lots in that respect. Unfortunate/y, apart from a general description of the species make-up of the island ’5 forests, there is little specific information on the woodland of the particular lands that are for sale — which contrasts with the extensive description of their salt marshes.

REFERENCES: Bumsted, J. M. (1979) Captain John MacDonald and the Island. The Island Magazine, 6: 15—20. Pigot, F. L. (1983) MacDonald of Glenaladale, John. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, V: pp. 514-17.

The landscape of this island at large, as far as ever I saw of it, consists of large level

The soils. sheets, or gentle slopes and waving risings. The soil consists of sand and red clay, it is very deep, and below it is generally red free-stone, with layers here and there of red clay. It is of a light and warm nature, [p. 3]

The woods are

easily cleared. It IS also eaSIer by half cleared from being wood-land than any on the continent.

[p.41

In the lower hollows, between rising grounds, or along the sides of marshes and Swamps and rivulets, there are stripes and patches of more or less, but rarely of very considerable ’interva/ lands’. extent; the more wet ones of which they call swamps, and the drier ones interval lands; but in my opinion improperly; for, very few of the moister ones are so very deep or wild as to deserve the name of swamps, and the drier ones of them, though of a stronger quality than the higher grounds, do not appear to be so very rich, as what in America goes under the name of interval grounds, which have been formed from the sletch of rivers, overflowing the respective parts, once a year, at the

departure of the snow, and leaving that mud, which accumulates in the course of years.

7779/" clearance. The patches alluded to be more of the nature of moist meadows, which become sufficiently dry and solid when exposed to the sun, by the removal of the trees and bushes, and when the run of the rivulets, which is spread about, in being intercepted by the trees and roots, is led into one single channel after being cleared.

Such moist and stronger spots, seem of course to be more grassy than the higher parts; they are supposed to be adapted for timothy-grass, which likes strong moist land; these spots are held as being desirable and valuable.

In such like moist places, and more especially on the borders of rivulets and marshes, there are parcels of allar-bushes: in other parts of the island that are at a loss for salt marshes, I am told of those bushes being pulled up by the roots, and thereafter, they

Alder bushes.

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