By Shawnigan Lake’s Shores—The Jewel’s Setting

By Robert Connell

Victoria Daily Times

August 15, 1931

Note:  Although rather lengthy (reading time ~16-17 minutes), this article by the noted naturalist explains in great detail the floral and fauna of the Shawnigan area.  Some very similar circumstances to 95 years ago, but also some striking differences.(See the short bio on Connell at the end of the article)

NOTED ISLAND NATURALIST

I have just been spending two or three days at a hospitable camp on the west shore of Shawnigan Lake, days of rest and quiet when one’s daily teachers are

“The silence in the starry sky, The sleep that is among the lonely hills.”

Occasionally for an hour or two did I hear “the lake water lapping with low sound by the shore.”

All the elements of beautiful scenery were present:  the quiet waters to right and left, the overshadowing hill, the “island floating amid the livelier light.”

"Water In some form or other is necessary for a perfect bit of scenery," says a recent writer on England, and it is with a feeling of charmed surprise that one comes suddenly on a gleam of silver in the landscape, whether, to quote M. V. Hughes again, "a still mountain lake , ... or a sedgy pool . . . . reflecting trees, sky and fleecy clouds." And the lake of Shawnigan as seen from the south after the long climb over the Malahat pass is always a delight to the eye.

Lying three hundred feet below the railway at that first glimpse, the lake ls seen, as it literally Is, embosomed In the forested hills. The comparative absence of deciduous trees gives a certain wildness to the scene which is accentuated. too, by the prevailingly sombre tints of the coniferous woods. Wave after wave the hills roll back Into the dim blue of distance, but the long strip of lake water gives at once a focus and unity to the whole.

But the lake as seen from its own shores bears another aspect. Nowhere then can It be seen in its entirety. An air of magic is over the scene. The apparently unbroken shore conceals coves and islets. Just where the lake seems to narrow it actually widens out, and behind the tree-clad hillside are "broader floods extending still." Chiefly, however, is the magic of the lake seen In the morning and at even, when delicate vapors steal across the face of the waters and the oars of passing boats seem dipped In silver, when the rays or the sun cast longer shadows over the mountain sides and throw the islets into charming relief.

THE JEWEL’S SETTING

Shawnigan Lake is some seven miles long with a breadth varying from a quarter to a little over a mile. A narrow passage a mile In length separates the two broader ends of the lake, while at the north two arms are formed, one northeasterly, the other northwesterly. The Islets are chiefly In the southern half of the lake.

The surrounding mountainous ranges or the southern half attain a height or 2,000 feet or more, but towards the north the elevation falls, passing away into the low hills through which Shawnigan Creek runs on Its way to Mill Bay.  Across these and to the right or Cobble Hill the precipitous front or Tzouhalem, sixteen miles away, is visible from parts of the west shore. The only conspicuous and definite mountain about the lake is the one locally known as Little Malahat —a designation that tends to show the poverty to our place-names — but which might well be called from its singularity and distinction “Shawnigan”.  Its lake-ward side is comparatively destitute of trees and its bare walls rise 1,000 feet above the railway and1,120 above the level of the lake.  South of Little Malahat rises Mount Wood, whose summit, 2,00 feet above the sea lies too far back, however, to be seen from across the lake.  To the south is the Goldstream Range, attaining 2,100 feet and almost meeting the Malahat Ridge at Malahat Station, where the 1,000 foot contour lines are only a quarter of a mile apart.  Westward at the hills rise gradually to the summit of a mountainous black, unnamed so far as I know, and lying between Sooke Lake and the Koksilah.

Just as there is a distinction between the surrounding topography of the two ends or the lake, so there is in the character of the underlying rocks. The loftiest heights are carved out or the diorites, whose tough granitic structure has made them conspicuously resistant both to ordinary weathering and to the sculpturing of the Glacial Period.  At a point on the west shore opposite Strathcona and on the east about half a mile further south the Jurassic volcanic rocks appear, and it is they that form the hills to the north with occasional patches of granodiorite. Were, it not for the thick covering of rarest In every direction there is no doubt that the appearance of the country would be much wilder and more severe

than it is.

“HER LENGTH IS FAR WINDING”

I have spoken of the winding shores and the coves and islets that are so often masked by what seems to be an apparently unbroken line of land. These shores are also very fascinating to the lover or plants and trees, for behind what may quite easily be taken for a somewhat dull uniformity there lies more than one taste of Nature's infinite variety.

Perhaps the most striking feature or the shoreline, particularly on the west, Is the long line or bluish-green thicket that ,extends between the summer and winter levels or the lake, with an average height of about three feet. It consists of a very Interesting shrub whose genus is or worldwide extension in the north and south temperate zones and in the tropical mountains. Ours ls Myrica gale, or, as it is better known, sweet gale, but another species, Myrica californica or California wax-myrtle, has been identified by me from Clayoquot on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  This Is one or two southern species, the other,

Sierra bay, being confined entirely to the neighborhood of the San Joaquin and lower Sacramento valleys.

Our sweet gale bears "aments" or catkins, and in this is related to the alders, willows and birches that so often grow near it, as well as to the poplars, cottonwoods and hazels. Its chief attraction, however, Iies in its leaves, which, as I

have said, are of a bluish green, especially when seen In the mass and against other foliage. They are thickly dotted on both sides with tiny globules of golden yellow wax. This wax has a pleasant aromatic odor which can be easily detected when

one is making his way through the thickets and is, or course, discernible both by touch and smell when the leaves are rubbed In the fingers. The wax is exactly the same as that found in the well-known Myrica cerifera or wax-myrtle of the Atlantic coast of this continent, from whose berries the wax used to be derived for candle making and also as a domestic medicine. It may be obtained either by the application of heat or by the use at ether or alcohol, in which it is soluble. It is known there as bay-tallow or myrtle-wax. In the British Isles, the sweet gale

is well known in the moorland regions, and there the country-people are said to have long used the leaves for the infusion of a tea.

In among the sweet gale grows the hardback or Douglas's spiraea, Its rosy flowers at this season is almost over. Then, right down to the water's edge you will find the common St. John’s-wort, whose leaves are also odd. In that they are marked

a little by transparent dots scattered about through the blade while the edge has black ones. Black dots are also round on the edge or the bright yellow petals. But If you are fortunate you may make a still more delightful find, for where the shore has soil there the lovely Gentiana sceptrum or swamp gentian raises its bright blue

flowers among tall grasses and straggling shrubs. It often grows as high as eighteen inches or more, and branching above bears several upturned bells with dotted stripes within.

Blue violets are still to be met with in bloom and In earlier days of the summer their flowers are very plentiful, tor everywhere close to the water's edge their leafy plants are to be seen. This ls the specie known as Langsdorf's, quite distinct from our common blue ones of the woods and open places.

Two galiums. relations at our common cleavers, with Its extremely adhesive little burrs, grow by the lakeside. One is the northern galium with white flowers rather larger than the galiums usually have, and In loose, many-flowered clusters.

The other ls a smaller plant, the cymose galium, so called before its Inflorescence ls a conspicuous cyme, that is to say, the first flower unfolds at the summit at a stem, the next flowers on branches springing from below the first and so on, thus producing sometimes a zig-zag Inflorescence, sometimes a one-sided and even curled one, and sometimes a rather flat-topped one. On the cymose galium the little straight stalks or the individual flowers become curved when they bear the small, smooth, dark fruits.

There is, at course, abundance of prunella or self-heal, but Its purple flower-heads are almost over. Scarlet paint-brush, the specie known as Castillenia miniata and seen on Mount Rainier a fortnight before, grows here and there, often close to the gentian. The leaves are rather narrower than usual In the species. Bugle-weed, wild mint, water-parsley and water-parsnip (Sium) are all met with along the moist shore-line.

GREEN ISLANDS

The plants or the Islands differ little, of course, from those of the main shores, such differences as exist being chiefly due to topography and soil.  Thus the island opposite the camp I found to have, because at Its open rocky character, an abundant carpet of kinnikinnik, half hiding under whose glossy leaves or dark green are the rosy red berries, so attractive to look at and so disappointing to the taste with their sweet but dry mealiness. Along one quarter at the sloping bank the

dwarf bilberry or blueberry makes a low growth from six Inches to a toot high, but in spite of the rich promise of the foliage only a solitary berry could my companions and I find. This is the same blueberry that used once to flourish where Beacon Hill Park now is and which still fights for existence on the slopes or Gonzales Hill, though well-nigh extinct. The shore Is a favorite place for seekers of violets, and here, too, grows the rather rare Douglas's sedum or stonecrop from whose inflorescent stalks little green buds often spring and eventually falling to the ground become new plants.

But while the ground flora of the island visited on this occasion Is limited owing to the rocky character of the habitat. It was not so on one where I spent a day In June, 1925. In open glades among the trees there l round three species of Pyrola, secunda, picta and bracteata, and each in numbers. The first is a small species with white flowers growing on one side of the stem; the second has mottled leaves and white or very pale pink flowers; the third ls red-!lowered. This in itself gives some hint of the floral possibilities of the Islets or Shawnigan.

The islands, like the main shores are fringed with lodgepole pines. Their foliage here by the water is generally quite dense, so that they add greatly to the picturesqueness or Island outlines. Cedars and Douglas firs grow further back with hemlocks and occasional white pines, and more rarely a yew is seen. The shore fringe ls not wholly made up or pine, for here, too, are such shrubs as the red-barked dogwood, the cascara or buckthorn and ocean-spray, but chiefly the Sitka alder with its thin and finely serrate leaves, while where some depth of soil exists the larger red alder flourishes. Arbutus trees are more numerous on the east shore, and on the little island opposite the camp manzanita ls quite plentiful though small.

A LAKESIDE FARM

Quite different from the shore I have described, which is still In Its pristine condition, is the farm some distance away. A shady walk leads up from the sandy beach to the farm buildings, which are situated among fields covered with an aftermath of clover. Nearby is a wonderful row of balm-of-Gilead trees, some thirty In number, planted as cuttings little more than twenty years ago, twenty-three, I believe, and now with diameters of as much as two feet at five feet above the ground. They set one thinking of the possibilities of tree-culture for the far-seeing man. A fertile and well-tilled garden with, for its piéce-de-resistance, not the "nine bean rows" of "Innisfree," but a single one of scarlet runners, flowers and fruit, almost halt a city block in length. Judging by the young trees that have grown up outside the cultivated portion, much of the alluvial land must have been covered with trees, but the woods nearby are still full of life.

Here the false hellebore reaches its full height and in early August is bearing its striking racemes of greenish flowers. The twin-flower still rings an occasional bell and the modest woodland panula still blooms.

The farm is one of the few places that testify to a former higher level of the lake when the sandy loam was laid down, in its foundation at least. It reminds me that in addition to the obvious glacial smoothings of the shore area, there is a very interesting evidence of reaction action to be seen, to which my attention was called by my friend and host, Mr. I. E. Cox. This consists in the shoving-up of the soil feet back from the shore by the expansion of the winter’s ice cover of the lake. Owing to the varying temperatures during the time the surface of a lake is frozen over contraction and expansion take place. The spaces left by contraction, whether in the ice itself or between and the shore, become filled up with water and when with a rise in temperature the ice once more expands, the outer edge, being now too large for the between-shore surface, is crowded and against the land and this ice-shove throws the soil into broken ridges something like those caused by upturned trees; in fact, trees are sometimes uprooted by this action of the ice.

BIRDS AND BEASTS

The birds about the camp were not numerous, and I missed the matin and vesper notes of the robin. But juncos came about quite freely, so did the handsome Stellar jays. Once in a while a song sparrow flitted through the brush. A passing flock of ducks traveling low, just above the surface of the water was often seen. A loon swam and dived a little way from the shore and soon after circled above the water, uttering his loud and not unmusical call. The jays enlivened the evenings with their swift and somewhat harsh calls.

Occasionally an owl bore off a fish in its talons.

The chief animal seen was the crayfish. It has its habitation under the branches and other wood debris below the water. Towards evening a piece of meat on a string would not only tempt these otherwise shy creatures, but even make it possible when once they had grasped it with their pincers to draw them out of the water, where the whole operation of devouring it could be watched. Once, however, they disengaged them- selves their return to the water was direct and, if the slope permitted, speedy. In length they run from three to four inches long, and in colour range a dull greenish grey to an equally dull red. Often the large flexible claws have a bright red tip.It was a fascinating thing to watch their movements, slow and cautious in advance, swift in retreat. They swim backwards rapidly and forward slowly, and when advancing, the wicked-looking claws seem ever ready for attack. Their food is both vegetable and animal.  Thompson says, “from roots to water-rats; cannibalism also occurs.” They are close relatives to the lobster, which they strongly resemble. In France they are very extensively used for food, and I believe this is true elsewhere. Their scientific generic name, Astacus, is the Latin for “lobster,” as the Greek is “astakos.”

POETIC CONCLUSION

And now the camp-fires shine out about the lake, reflected in its placid surface as warm shafts of golden light. Darkness comes down andthe stars appear in the order of their brightness.

Once more we join in watching the constellations of waning midsummer: Cassiopeia, Pegasus, the Dolphin or Job’s Coffin, the Northern Cross, and Bears, Great and Small, and all that strange and remote company. Bats flit by, scarcely seen, remote in their business from us as we from the stars. A great peace is on land and lake.

Let Byron speak our emotions:

“All heaven and earth are still—though not in sleep,But breathless, as we grow when feeling most.And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep forAll heaven and earth are still: From the whole hostOf stars to the lulled lake and mountain-coast.All is concentrated in a life intense,Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost,But hath a part of being, and a senseOf that which is of all Creator and defence.”

Ed Note:

Robert Connell: Vancouver Island Naturalist (1871–1957)

Robert Connell was a prominent early 20th-century naturalist, clergyman, and political figure based in British Columbia, best known for his deep appreciation and documentation of the natural environment of Vancouver Island. Born in Liverpool, England, in 1871, Connell immigrated to Canada in the late 19th century, settling in British Columbia where he served as an Anglican minister. His parish work brought him into close contact with the wilderness and Indigenous communities of the Island, which inspired a lifelong interest in ecology and conservation.

Connell was an astute observer of local flora and fauna, often blending scientific insight with poetic reflection. His essays, sermons, and writings revealed a keen sensitivity to the natural rhythms of coastal forests, lakes, and wildlife, including detailed accounts of birds, plants, and glacial features. He believed deeply in the spiritual value of nature and advocated for its protection well before the modern environmental movement gained traction.

In addition to his work as a naturalist, Connell played a significant political role as the first leader of the British Columbia Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1933 to 1937. His progressive ideals extended into his views on environmental stewardship.

Robert Connell’s legacy lives on through his writings and the enduring influence he had on natural history and conservation awareness in British Columbia.