John Mason Clarke was an American palaeontologist and a world authority on Devonian life and time. He was author of more than 10,000 printed pages, distributed among 450 books and papers.
The Heart of the Gaspe contains early twentieth-century sketches of the peoples and places of the Gaspé Coast, along with photos and illustrations.
As Clarke states in the introduction, “It is my hope that the kindly people of the Gaspé coast, to whom these sketches come and who will be first to detect their inadequacy, may not be indisposed at this attempt to picture some aspects of their country. Where settlements so vulnerable it may seem a somewhat intrusive enthusiasm that regards this ancient coast a theme for special discourse, but I have approached Gaspé less with a tourist’s eye than with a mind absorbed by some of its scientific problems. The effort to solve the latter has awakened a lively appreciation of its other attractions and a geologist’s interest in the rocks of the country has served to sharpen my appreciations of the rest. To other readers, I may say that there may be some excuse for these untechnical sketches in the fact that really very little has been written of this inviting country, save in the way of statistical reports or unpoetical inducements to colonization.”
Originally published by Macmillan in 1913, The Heart of the Gaspé has 292 pages, thirty-five black and white illustrations, including one map and a glossary of place names, lighthouses and light signals of Gaspé County. It is available for purchase through antique book dealers or for online viewing at www.nosracines.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=1855. It is also available for consultation at the CASA office, New Carlisle.