Douglas, Thomas, Earl of Selkirk (1805) Observations on the present State of the Highlands of Scotland. Chapter XII: Settlement Formed In Prince Edward’s Island / Its Difficulties / Progress / and Final Success. Edinburgh. [Reprinted (1984) in The Writings and Papers of Thomas Doug/as, Earl of Selkirk. Edited and introduced by J. M. Bumsted. The Manitoba Record Society Publications, Vol. VII, pp. 168-186.]

In the year after his return to Scotland from his year-long visit to British North America and parts of the United States (see Selkirk 1803) the Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Doug/as, published his influential book ’Observations on the present state of the Highlands of Scotland’ which contained a perceptive analysis of the whole question concerning High/and development and emigration. According to Bumsted, the book was ”the first serious attempt in many years to defend and justify the exodus of Highlanders to North America”. Although most/y concerned with economic and social factors relating to the Scottish Highlands, Selkirk devoted a whole chapter to his Prince Edward island settlement to show that Scottish Highlanders could successful/y adapt to the heavily forested landscape of the New World, especially when given organised support. Though the book did not by any means silence the critics of emigration, especially the large Scottish landowners and their supporters in government, it presented many forceful arguments that were not easy for them to counteract, and thenceforward opposition to emigration was on the defensive. l have extracted only those parts from the chapter on the Prince Edward Island settlement that contain matter of direct relevance to the forest.

REFERENCES:

Bumsted, J. M. (1 982) The People ’8 Clearance: High/and Emigration to British North America 1770— 7875. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 195-200.

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

Psychological There cannot be a more extreme contrast to any country that has long been under Elm-“C’s 0’ The cultivation, or a scene more totally new to a native of these kingdoms, than the North American boundless forests of America. An emigrant set down in such a scene feels almost the forest. helplessness of a child. He has a new set of ideas to acquire: the knowledge which

all his previous experience has accumulated, can seldom apply; [p. 169]

The new settler from Europe is unacquainted with the methods, by which a practised woodsman can find his way through the trackless forest. Every time he leaves his hut, he is exposed to the danger of being bewildered and lost; if he has been sufficiently warned of the danger, to teach him the requisite degree of attention, still he can feel no confidence that his children will have the same caution; and must still shudder, when he thinks of the howling wilderness that surrounds him. The horror of these impressions has, in many instances, completely un-nerved the mind of the settler, and rendered him incapable of any vigorous exertion. [p. 170]

poms, accidents. His awkwardness, too, exposes him to frequent accidents: the falling of the trees, which an experienced axe-man regulates with almost mathematical precision, often takes a novice by surprise; and it is no rare occurrence, that he is severely wounded in the course of his work. If he escape unhurt, he will probably, as the reward of a great deal of severe labour, have but a small spot of land cleared in the course of many months, perhaps not the fourth part of what a man accustomed to the business might have accomplished with less exertion. To cut down the trees is but half the work; in destroying them, and preparing the land for the seed a number of minutiae must be attended to; if, from want of experience, these are omitted, the consequence may be fatal to the crop. [p. 171]

The settlers had spread themselves along the shore for the distance of about half a mile, upon the site of an old French village, which had been destroyed and abandoned Secondary forest after the capture of the island by the British forces in 1758. The land, which had 0" Cleared land. formerly been cleared of wood, was overgrown again with thickets of young trees,