Nova Scotia stretches 500 kilometres on a southwest-northeast axis from Cape Sable to Cape North, the shape of the province is often compared to that native delicacy, the lobster, with Cape Breton Island representing the outstretched claws, preparing to nip unsuspecting Newfoundland across the Cabot Strait.
The coastline of the uplands region is deeply indented, forming many good harbours, some of which are considered outstanding. Hundreds of islands dot the landscape along the entire Atlantic coast, most notably at St. Margarets Bay and Mahone Bay. Reefs and shoals abound, accounting for the many lighthouses erected along this coast. In many ways the Atlantic uplands coast epitomizes the North Atlantic coastline with its bare granite sheets plunging headlong into the raging surf to produce an awesome cataclysm between land and sea. When people think of Nova Scotia, they usually envisage the rocky granite shores of the uplands. Oaks of the Island
Some time before 1790, the island became known as Oak Island, because of the very fine grove of large and beautiful oak trees growing upon its eastern end. It is a fact that Oak Island is the only one out of over 300 in Mahone Bay which has on it any oak trees. That they were large and consequently very old in 1795 is well established. Owing largely to the attacks of black ants in the last century, these oaks, which were numerous at one time, have entirely disappeared, the last two or three dying about 1960.
A number of writers, apparently with a view to adding more mystery to their stories, have stated that this species of oak does not grow elsewhere in Nova Scotia, that they are southern trees found no farther north than Louisiana. Some accounts allege that they are of Mexican origin, and on that assumption advance the theory that the treasure is an Aztec hoard.
Other writers have asserted that these oaks are of the variety or species known to the botanist as the “live oak” (quercus Virginia), an evergreen oak found principally in the southern United States. Its leaves are smooth and glossy; its wood hard and heavy, much used in shipbuilding. This assertion cannot be supported, for the oaks on Oak Island undoubtedly are red oaks, found along the same coast of Nova Scotia.
In 1931 one of these oaks, which bore on its surface evidence of having received an injury in earlier life, was cut down and examined critically with a view to determining its age and the cause of injury. Embedded deeply in the tree was found the end of a stout knife blade had broken off at the point of entry into the tree, the “rings” or “layers” were counted and it was determined that the tree was at least 183 years old, or dated from 1748 or earlier.
As we shall see, the presence in the Money Pit itself of platforms of oak logs, one platform above another, to a depth of more than ninety feet (each log six to eight inches in diameter) would indicate that a very extensive grove of trees existed on oak Island when the Money Pit was constructed. As such engineering work must have been carried out previously to 1749 when Halifax was founded, it follows that the tree cut down in 1931 was of a later generation. We have it as the opinion of a forestry expert, familiar with the grounds of oak trees along the south coast of Nova Scotia, that a tree measuring approximately seven or eight inches would be in the vicinity of fifty to seventy-five years of age. The older the tree, the slower it increases in diameter. A sixteen inch oak tree in this area would probably be about 200 years old. Assuming the correctness of this opinion, it fits in with the writer’s theory that the “Pit” was constructed between 1650 and 1750.