Johnstone, Walter (1823) Travels in Prince Edward Island, Gulf of St. Lawrence, North America, in the Years 1820—1821. D. Brown, Edinburgh. 132 pp. [Reprinted (1824) by J. Robertson, Edinburgh; Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, London. Excerpts printed in: Harvey, D. C. led.) (1955) Journeys to the Island of St. John or Prince Edward Island. MacMillan, Toronto. pp. 163-172.]

After publishing his ’Letters Descriptive of Prince Edward Island’ in 7822, the fol/o wing year Walter Johnstone published a journal of his travels around the island, which is especially useful for indicating the parts of the island that he visited. See Johnstone (1822) for the biographical note on Walter Johnstone.

l embraced the opportunity of an open boat of going [from Three Rivers] to the

Bay of Fortune. I was put to land at the foot of a high bank of freestone rock,

about 50 or 60 feet high. It was a point of land that ran out a considerable way

at the entrance of the Bay. l was set down at the bottom of the precipice ADE/’5 Cape ? alone, upon an unknown shore. The company in the boat were going a good way farther to East Lake, near to East Point. It was impossible to ascend this bank, and as impossible, had it been ascended, to have walked there, as the wood formed an impenetrable thicket. I had therefore to make my way along the bottom of the precipice for nearly half a mile scrambling over great rocks that had fallen down In this way, scrambling from one great rock to another, l made forward until the bank became lower, not so steep, and capable of being ascended. | scrambled up with great difficulty and some danger, but as the thicket was so impenetrable upon its top, I had again to return to the bottom. Proceeding forward, I found the bank still lower, and at last I remounted it, and to my great comfort found the land cleared.

Coastal thickets.

[pp. 4647 of original: pp. 165-66 in Harvey (1955)]

The cradle-hills The greater part of the land here must be turned to pasture before it can be after dean-”g stumped, and some of it is only fit for pasture all the time, and often it is not even good for this purpose, for the cradle—hills, where they are high (and they are not equally high everywhere) cause all the good earth to fall down into the hollow

parts, and the higher produce nothing but moss or sorrel. [p. 26 of original]

frees creek/”9 On Thursday, the 14th [December, 1820], l was able to set out, and crossing the ”7 the frost. Vernon and Orwell rivers upon the ice I reached Flat River. While I passed through the wood betwixt the settlements, the trees were cracking with the strength of the frost, which surprised me; showers of snow were occasionally

falling, and it lay at that time upon the ground about nine inches deep. [p. 58 of original]

107