as occurring in the forests to the south of the present North Branch?38 Seymour (1840) recorded it in Lot 13 and Stewart (1831) in Lot 47 — which, incidentally, counteracts Bain’s (1890) assertion that hemlock was not found east of St. Peters. Craswell 8: Anderson (1856) found it in Lot 11, which supports Lawson's (1877-1878) retrospective statement that at the time of settlement it had been an important tree on the township. Lawson also reported it as a component of the original forest of the New London and Brackley Point settlements, while Bain (1868-1884) recorded it both at Springfield in Lot 67, and on or near his farm at York Point in Lot 32. In evidence to the Land Commission of 1875, a farmer of Lot 20 said that fifteen acres of his farm near New London was ”mostly hemlock”. And, for what they are worth, Bird (1856) recorded ”tall hemlocks” near her “springs" at St. Eleanors, while Ready (1899) said that hemlock was an element of the coniferous forest that prior to settlement had occurred up to two miles inland along the coast of Lot 20 (the Sea View to Park Corner area) ~ though for this assertion he must have been relying on the memories of others. Gesner (1846) also identified hemlock as a component of a "Submerged forest" at "Gallows Point” [now Gallas Point projecting into Hillsborough Bay in Lot 50], where it was present as stumps and roots flooded by the tides, though the date of the first submergence may have been centuries, if not millennia before.239

Tree size — A number of recorders comment on the large size of the hemlock trees on the islandm,

the east of the other.

was referring to, then we have an interesting survival, for there is still today a stand of large hemlock trees along the North Branch, and some of the trees in the stand would have been alive at the time of Selkirk‘s visit. This stand is known as the ‘Pinette Hemlocks' and was surveyed by the Island Nature Trust in 1987. (See Anon. (1987), especially page 5, for age measurements of these trees.)

If it was indeed the North Branch that Selkirk

233 It may have been these areas that were the primary objective

of a contract that included the extraction of ‘two shiploads' of hemlock annually from “Lots 58, 60 and part of Lot 62" (Selkirk 1809).

239 In addition, according to Le Gallant (2000) (p. 6), an area in the vicinity of St, Roch near Tignish has long been known by some older Acadians as L'An’cotchere, most likely due to the presence of hemlock, or an'cot as it is known in Acadian-French — the name being a corruption of I'haricotiére. The -iére suffix attached to a tree name in North American French implies a single species stand (see Sobey 2002, p. 12). Le Gallant also points out that, according to Rayburn (1973) (p. 58), the community of Greenmount, just south of St. Roch was formerly called Laricotier Road.

2‘0 Selkirk (1803). Bain (1890), Seymour (1840) and [Lawson] (1877-1878) — Seymour noted that the largest trees he saw “in any

180

while others note that, after pine, it was the largest of the island’s treesz‘“. More usefully, several recorders give numerical estimates for both the diameter and the height of the trees: Walsh (1803) says that it grew straight to a height of thirty feet (at which point, presumably, it branched), and was sometimes ”six feet in circumferencefl“. Johnstone (1822) noted that some were ”of an amazing size being from two to three and a half feet in diameter, and from fifty to seventy or eighty feet high", while MacGregor (1828) recorded similar sizes: ”often from two to three feet in diameter, and from fifty to seventy feet in height”. Then, Lawson (1877-1878), retrospectively, noted that the hemlocks that had occurred in the Brackley Point area at the time of settlement had been "three feet in diameter and of great height"?43 However by 1904 Watson could

note that it ”was seldom met with of a large size”

Habitat and community relationships — The records indicate that hemlock could occur either in single— species stands, or in association with the island's principal hardwood trees. Pure stands are explicitly indicated by MacGregor's (1828) statement that ”it generally grows in groves in dry hollows”, and by Johnstone's (1822) comment that it grew in "clumps”. They are also implied by Selkirk's (1803) and Lawson’s (1851) references to areas where hemlock was ”prevalent” or ”prevailing”, respectively.

The records of its occurrence as an element of the island’s hardwood forest are less definite but such is suggested by Selkirk's (1803) description of the forests at Pinette, Stewart’s (1831) of the forests of Lot 47, Seymour's (1840) comments on the trees of a specific area in Lot 13, and Bain’s (1868-1884) description of the forests at Springfield, and on or near his farm at York Point.244

number" at Lot 13 were hemlock, while [Lawson] (1877-1878) noted that there were once "great huge hemlocks" on Lot 11.

2“ Patterson 1774; Stewart 1806; Hill 1839.

M This would give a diameter of twenty-one inches.

2‘3 All of these values are well above the minimum sizes that the island's House of Assembly (1773-1849) set in 1849 for the dimensions of hemlock ‘ton timber' for export: it was to be twelve inches square — which would have meant a minimum tree diameter of 17 inches after the bark had been removed.

2“ Selkirk (1803) noted “some Hemlock trees" in the hardwood forest south of the Pinette River; Stewart (1831) at Lot 47 (East Point) said "the wood is mostly hard wood such as beech and maple with black birch, some hemlock spruce, common spruce etc."; Seymour (1840) observed “much hemlock" associated with “a few pines" and “young hardwoods” on the ‘reserved‘ land in Lot