The 30/75.

Beech mast and mice.

Tree size and quality.

Open forests.

Bears.

The soil is generally fertile although a little sandy, but subject to an unfortunate calamity, namely to the ravages of mice that in certain years spread in millions in the countryside and devour not only the grain, but also the potatoes, turnips and any other vegetables they can get. One recognizes that there will be mice in large numbers when there has been a lot of beech mast in the woods the year before, because they nourish themselves with this fruit and multiply, to the misfortune of the farmers. Is there a shortage of beech mast? One thanks heaven for it, because the mice, deprived of this nourishment, die of hunger the following year and only a few of them survive.

The trees on this island. are not notable for either their height or their size. They are even generally inferior to those in Canada. There is little hardwood, almost no maple at all, still less cedar, in place of which they make use of larch, called vio/on locally, as the one that withstands longer the open air and rain. They heat themselves with beech and birch. The fences or bouchures being without posts, are made in a zig-zag, of gummy and badly branched poles, and without gates ......

Although the forests of Isle St. Jean are open and interspersed with many roads, even rather wide, which the Government has taken care to have opened up, all the same there are bears there. They are seen every year and in greater number than one would expect; sheep, pigs and horned animals are often their victims.

[pp. 80-81]

90