Nothing Gold Can Stay: The Wildlife of Upper Canada

John I. Jackson was a library technician at the University of Toronto.

Nothing Gold Can Stay is essentially a history of the evolution of human society in Ontario, with specific reference to its relationship with the natural environment. The major element of this attractive book is a selection of passages from eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century observers of that environment. Represented are pioneer settlers, gentlemen farmers, hunters, and mere watchers — from Elizabeth Simcoe’s 1790s diary through Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush, the artistic visions of Paul Kane, to the seminal Birds of Eastern Canada, which P.A. Taverner published in 1919.

An informed commentary provides context for these passages and organizes them into a logical progression, making clear the development and evolution of attitudes toward nature. From the confrontational approach of the first settlers, which was predicated on the provision of food, shelter, and protection, there is a recognizable shift through the nineteenth century to restore exploitation/management fuelling expanding industry and agriculture. This book makes the present attitude of more-or-less philosophically-based conservationism seem very modern indeed.

However, the social history notwithstanding, there is another equally attractive element to this book. Illustrated throughout with beautiful black-and-white drawings by the author, the book becomes a very useful catalogue of the birds, mammals, and fishes of Ontario. The inclusion of species which have passed into extinction during the historical period, and of comments that help to define the magnitude of the loss, makes the book an eloquent polemic in the conservationist cause.

The interdisciplinary approach of this book should appeal to a wide readership.