Gesner, Abraham (1846) Report on the Geological Survey of Prince Edward Island. 21 pp. [Unpublished Report, P.E.l. PARO, R.G. 1, Series 11, File 1.]

Abraham Gesner (b. 179 7, d. 7864/, as provincial geologist of New Brunswick had recently completed the first geological survey of that province in 1842, when he was commissioned in 1844 by the government of Prince Edward Island to carry out a similar survey on the island. For this work he was granted the prince/y sum of f 300 from public funds. it is probable that the field work was carried out during the summers of 7844 to 7846 — he was certainly in Charlottetown in June 7846, when during a series of public lectures, he gave the first public demonstration of his new invention, the kerosene gas lamp — a discovery that would later bring him considerable fame, though not fortune. During his island field work ”he endeavoured” he says ”to visit every locality to which he was directed by the Inhabitants, when there was hope of making any useful discovery”. The report is in effect more a survey of the island’s topographical and agricultural features than of its geological resources — there are thus frequent, if generalized, references to the woodland and trees of the localities which he visited — see Figure 8 for the location of his forest—related comments. Gesner in the end consoled the province by noting that ”if it was not favored by Providence by any rich deposits of fuel, or the metals, it is presumed that the benefits conferred upon its agriculture [by the report] will amp/y repay the small sum expended in its undertaking”.

REFERENCE: Russell, L. S. (1976) Gesner, Abraham. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, IX: 308-12.

The ’0’9313 07‘ The whole of the surface of Prince Edward Island has been covered with forests of the Island. Beech, Birches, Maples, Poplars, Spruce, Fir, Hemlock, Larch and Cedar. Great inroads have been made in these forests by the progress of cultivation and the lumbermen who fell the trees for exportation and shipbuilding. Fires have also been very destructive, and much of the primeval wood has been destroyed by its ravages: but, as trees spring up spontaneously and in great abundance, with care and foresight there is little danger of a scarcity of fuel for a long period to come. [p. 3]

Forest fires.

TOPOGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY.

Viewed from the signal station, or either of the old French Forts at the entrance of the

Charlottetown. harbour, Charlottetown, and its surrounding scenery, are very beautiful: the shores, in every direction, are cultivated, and tracts of native forest are interspersed with fine fields and spacious farm-houses [p. 4] At the extremity of Gallows Point, and opposite a low tract of peaty ground, there is A submerged a submerged forest: upwards of three acres are occupied by stumps and roots of the ’0’651- spruce, fir, and hemlock, which are covered by every tide, being from four to eight

feet below high—water mark. It is certain that these trees grew upon the spot where they are now seen as their roots and the soil that nourished them are all present: their trunks have been broken down by the ice, and at low water the tract resembles the clearing of the new settler. In this instance the barrier of a peat swamp might have been broken by the ocean—the soil drained, and consequently rendered more compact, so as to fall beneath the common sea—Ievel—or there might have been a land slip, by which the trees growing upon the bog were moved with the general mass into and beneath the water. But, from a variety of facts that will be noticed hereafter, it is more probable that there has been a submergence of the land itself, of which there are proofs in different parts of the Island. [p. 6]

From Burnt Woods to Murray Harbour a rough road has been opened, passing through White Sands, Little Sands and Guernsey Cove: and—except where it has been cleared

Burnt Woods. by a body of settlers from the Highlands of Scotland—the chief part of it is called Burnt Woods, and is covered with charred stumps and windfalls.

Murray Harbour, with its narrow mouth, is studded with pretty Islands. Its shores are

Murray Harbour. thinly settled, and it is an excellent fishing station At a short distance from the

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