determined, that they reckoned 84 of them in a French lieue or league;
but as this does by no means agree with the statute arpent of France,
which by order of king Lewis XIV, was fixed at 2200 feet, Paris
measure, (see the preceding note) we thought proper to leave it out of
the text. F.
[10] Marmor schistosum, Linn. Syst. III. p. 40. Marmor unicolor nigrum.
Wall.. Min. pag. 61. n. 2. Lime-slates, schistus calcareus. Forst.
Introd. to Min. p. 9. F.
[11] See the Memoirs of that Academy, for the year 1750, page 284.
The Stillingia Sylvatica is probably one of these roots. F.
[12] Saint Jean.
[13] Sea Wolves.
[14] See their Memoirs for the year 1752, p. 308, sect. 9.
[15] Abies foliis subtus argenteis.
[16] It seems, that for the future, the fair sex in the English
colonies in North-America, will no longer deserve the reproaches Mr.
Kalm stigmatizes them with repeatedly, since it is generally reported,
that the ladies of late have vied one with another, in providing their
families with linen, stockings, and home-spun cloath of their own
making, and that a general spirit of industry prevails among them at
this present time. F.
[17] Perdrix blanches.
[18] See Br. Zool. Suppl. plate XIII. f. 1. F.
[19] See a figure of this hare in its white state, in the Suppl. to Br.
Zool. plate XLVII. f. 1. F.
[20] But by this means they would loose that superiority, which in
their wild state they have over the tame cattle; as all the progenies
of tamed animals degenerate from the excellence of their wild and free
ancestors. F.
[21] See Vol. I. p. 207.
[22] Cotton-tree. Mr. Kalm mentions before, that this name is given to
the Asclepias Syriaca. See Vol. III. p. 28. F.
[23] Mr. Kalm describes it thus: Poa culmo subcompresso, panicula
tenuissima, spiculis trifloris minimis, flosculis basi pubescentibus.
[24] The sol is the lowest coin in Canada, and is about the value of a
penny in the English colonies. A livre, or franc, (for they are both
the same) contains twenty sols; and three livres, or francs, make an
ecu, or crown.
[25] Tophus Tubalcaini, Linn. Syst. Nat. III. p. 187, n. 5. Minera
ferri subaquosa nigro cærulescens. Wall. Mineral. p. 263. Germ. Ed. p.
340. n. 3. Iron ockres in the shape of crusts, are sometimes cavernous,
as the Brush ore. Forster’s Mineral, p. 48.
[26] This lime-stone, seems to be a marle, or rather a kind of
stone-marle: for there is a whitish kind of it in the Krim-Tartary, and
near Stiva or Thebes, in Greece, which is employed by the Turks and
Tartars for making heads of pipes, and that from the first place is
called Keffekil, and in the latter, Sea-Scum: it may be very easily
cut, but grows harder in time. F.
[27] La haute Ville & la basse Ville.
[28] A kind of Franciscan friars, called Ordo Sti. Franciscì
strictioris observantiæ.
[29] Le Seminaire.
[30] Nitrum suillum, Linn. Syst. III. p. 86. Lapis suillus prismaticus
Waller. Mineral. p. 59. a. 1. Stink-stone, Forster’s Introd. to
Mineralogy. p. 40.
[31] Meaning Quel bec.
[32] The river St. Lawrence, was no more a barrier to the victorious
British fleets in the last war, nor were the fortifications of Quebec
capable to withstand the gallant attacks of their land army, which
disappointed the good Frenchmen in Canada of their too sanguine
expectations, and at present, they are rather happy at this change of
fortune, which has made them subjects of the British sceptre, whose
mild influence they at present enjoy. F.
[33] Botanists know this plant by the name of Panax quinquefolium,
foliis ternatis quinatis Linn. Mat. Med. § 116. Sp. plant. p. 15, 12.
Gronov. Fl. Virg. p. 147. See like wise Catesby’s Nat. Hist. of
Carolina. Vol. III. p. 16. t. 16. Laffitau Gins. 51. t. 1. Father
Charlevoix Hist. de la Nouvelle France. Tom. IV. p. 308. fig. XIII. and
Tom. V. p. 24.
[34] Peter Osbeck’s voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 223.
[35] Mr. Osbeck seems to doubt whether the Europeans reap any
advantages from the Ginseng trade or not, because the Chinese do not
value the Canada roots so much as those of the Chinese-Tartary and
therefore the former bear scarce half the price of the latter. See
Osbeck’s Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 223. F.
[36] This is directly opposite to Mr. Osbeck’s assertion. See the
preceding page, 114. note †. F.
[37] It is the Adiantum pedatum of Linn. sp. pl. p. 1557. Cornutus, in
his Canadens. plant. historia, p. 7. calls it Adiantum Americanum, and
gives together with the description, a figure of it, p. 6.
[38] Adiantum Capillus Veneris. True Maiden-hair.
[39] This is a kind of cabbage, with large round eatable roots, which
grow out above the ground wherein it differs from the turnep-cabage
(Brassica Napobrassica) whose root grows in the ground. Both are common
in Germany, and the former likewise in Italy.
[40] This amount seems to be highly probable, for we find in Marco
Paolo, that Kublai-Khan, one of the successors of Genghizkhan, after
the conquest of the southern part of China, sent ships out, to conquer
the kingdom of Japan, or, as they call it, Nipan-gri, but in a terrible
storm the whole fleet was cast away, and nothing was ever heard of the
men in that fleet. It seems that some of these ships were cast to the
shores, opposite the great American lakes, between forty and fifty
degrees north latitude, and there probably erected these monuments, and
were the ancestors of some nations, who are called Mozemlecks, and have
some degree of civilization. Another part of this fleet, it seems,
reached the country opposite Mexico, and there founded the Mexican
empire, which, according to their own records, as preserved by the
Spaniards, and in their painted annals, in Purchas’s Pilgrimage, are
very recent; so that they can scarcely remember any more than seven
princes before Motezuma II. who was reigning when the Spaniards arrived
there, 1519, under Fernando Cortez; consequently the first of these
princes, supposing each had a reign of thirty-three years and four
months, and adding to it the sixteen years of Motezuma, began to reign
in the year 1270, when Kublai-Khan, the conqueror of all China and of
Japan, was on the throne, and in whose time happened, I believe, the
first abortive expedition to Japan, which I mentioned above, and
probably furnished North-America, with civilized inhabitants. There is,
if I am not mistaken, a great similarity between the figures of the
Mexican idols, and those which are usual among the Tartars, who embrace
the doctrines and religion of the Dalaï-Lama, whose religion
Kublai-Khan first introduced among the Monguls, or Moguls. The savage
Indians of North-America, it seems, have another origin, and are
probably descended from the Yukaghiri and Tchucktchi, inhabitants of
the most easterly and northerly part of Asia, where, according to the
accounts of the Russians, there is but a small traject to America. The
ferocity of these nations, similar to that of the Americans, their way
of painting, their fondness of inebriating liquors, (which the
Yukaghiri prepare from poisonous and inebriating mushrooms, bought of
the Russians) and many other things, show them plainly to be of the
same origin. The Esquimaux seem to be the same nation with the
inhabitants of Greenland, the Samoyedes, and Lapponians. South-America,
and especially Peru, is probably peopled from the great unknown south
continent, which is very near America, civilized, and full of
inhabitants of various colours: who therefore might very easily be cast
on the American continent, in boats, or proas. F.
[41] This part has not yet been published.
[42] What bookseller in Sweden could undertake to print such a work at
his own expence, without losing considerably by it?
[43] Remèdes Souverains.
[44] Pour faire un récollet il faut une hachette, pour un prêtre un
cijeau, mais pour un Jesuite il faut un pinceau.
[45] A French acre.
[46] A French coin, value about a crown English.
[47] Pasteur.
[48] Sorbus aucuparia.
[49] Poa angustifolia. Linn.
[50] Spiculæ tri vel quadri-floræ minimæ; semina basi pubescentia.
[51] Agrostis. Linn.
[52] Trifolium repens. Linn. Trifolium pratense album. C. B.
[53] Here follows, in the original, an account of the enclosures made
use of near Quebec, which is intended only for the Swedes, but not for
a nation that has made such progress in agriculture and husbandry, as
the English. F.
[54] The kind called Cerisier by the French, I described thus in my
journal: Cerasus foliis ovatis serratis, serraturis profundis fere
subulatis, fructu racemoso. The other thus: Cerasus foliis lanceolatis,
crenato-serratis, acutis, fructu fere solitario.
[55] Helleborus trifolius.
[56] Oxalis Acetesilla, Linn.
[57] Circæa alpina, Linn.
[58] Betula nigra, Linn.
[59] Viburnum dentatum, Linn.
[60] Helianthus annuus.
[61] It has been observed by several experiments, that any liquor dipt
into another liquor, and then exposed into the air for evaporation,
will get a remarkable degree of cold; the quicker the evaporation
succeeds, after repeated dippings, the greater is the cold. Therefore
spirit of wine evaporating quicker than water, cools more than water;
and spirit of sal ammoniac, made by quick-lime, being still more
volatile than spirit of wine, its cooling quality is still greater. The
evaporation succeeds better by moving the vessel containing the liquor,
by exposing it to the air, and by blowing upon it, or using a pair of
bellows. See de Mairan, Dissertation sur la Glace, Prof. Richman in
Nov. Comment. Petrop. ad an. 1747, & 1748. p. 284. and Dr. Cullen in
the Edinburgh physical and literary Essays and Observations. Vol. II.
p. 145. F.
[62] Thuja occidentalis, Linn.
[63] Lichen, Bryum, Hypnum.
[64] Of these rings or circles, it is well known all trees get but one
every year, so that they serve to ascertain the age of the tree, and
the quickness, or slowness of its growth. F.
[65] The bark is not included, when I speak of the diameters of these
trees.
[66] Polypodium fronde pinnata, pinnis alternis ad basin superne
appendicularis.
[67] Formica nigra. Linn.
[68] Probably Onidoes.
[69] Venus mercenaria. Linn.
[70] Triglochin.
[71] It was probably impregnated with particles of copper ore.
[72] Vitis labrusca & vulpina.
[73] Saxum micaceo quarzoso-calcarium.
[74] Salicornia, Glaux, Pisum maritimum.
[75] See p. 24. of this volume.
[76] See p. 24. of this volume.
[77] Tipula hortorum. Linn.
[78] See p. 92. of this volume.
[79] The famous moose-deer is accordingly nothing but an elk; for no
one can deny the derivation of moose-deer from moosu. Considering
especially, that before the Iroquese or Five Nations grew to that
power, which they at present have all over North-America, the Algonkins
were then the leading nation among the Indians, and their language was
of course then a most universal language over the greater part of
North-America; and though they have been very nearly destroyed by the
Iroquese, their language is still more universal in Canada, than any of
the rest. F.
[80] See his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Tom. II. p. m. 125.
[81] Sterna hirundo, Linn.
[82] Arundo arenaria Linn.
[83] Elymus arenarius Linn.
[84] Sea-rye.
[85] Vinland det goda, or the good wine-land, is the name which the old
Scandinavian navigators gave to America, which they discovered long
before Columbus. See Torsæi Historia Vinlandiæ antiquæ s. partis
Americæ septentrionalis. Hasniæ 1715, 4to. and Mr. George Westmann’s,
A. M. Dissertation on that Subject. Abo 1747. F.
[86] Plantago maritima Linn.
[87] Arbutus uva ursi Linn.
[88] Myrica gale Linn.
[89] Bunias cakile Linn.
[90] See Wallerius’s Mineralogy, Germ. ed. p. 87, Forster’s Introd. to
Mineralogy, p. 13.
[91] It is a cubic lead ore, or lead glance. Forster’s Introd. to
Mineralogy, p. 51.
[92] Forster’s Introd. to Mineralogy, p. 50. Zincum sterilum, Linn.
Syst. Nat. III. p. 126. Ed. XII.
[93] Typha latifolia, Linn.
[94] Pinus foliis geminis longis; ramis triplici fasciculo foliorum
terminatis, conis ovatis lævibus. Flor. Canad.
[95] Myrica gale. Linn.
[96] See his Histoire de la Nouv. France, tom. v. p. m. 100.
[97] Gypsum amiantiforme, Waller. Min. Germ. ed. p. 74. Fibrous or
radiated gypsum, Forst. Introd. to Mineralogy, p. 16.
[98] All over Poland, Russia, Turky, and Tartary, they smoke out of
pipes made of a kind of stone marle, to which they fix long wooden
tubes; for which latter purpose, they commonly employ the young shoots
of the various kinds of spiræa, which have a kind of pith easily to be
thrust out. The stone-marle is called generally sea-scum, being pretty
soft; and by the Tartars in Crimea, it is called keffekil. And as it
cuts so easily, various figures, are curiously carved in it, when it is
worked into pipe-heads, which often are mounted with silver. F.
[99] The Moravian brethren in Greenland, coming once over with some
Greenlanders to Terra Labrador, the Esquimaux ran away at their
appearance; but they ordered one of their Greenlanders to call them
back in his language. The Esquimaux hearing his voice, and
understanding the language, immediately stopped, came back, and were
glad to find a countryman, and wherever they went, among the other
Esquimaux, they gave out, that one of their brethren was returned. This
proves the Esquimaux to be of a tribe different from any European
nation, as the Greenland language has no similarity with any language
in Europe. F.
[100] Phoca vitulina. Linn.
[101] Trichechus rosmarus. Linn.
[102] The above account of the Esquimaux may be compared with Henry
Ellis’s Account of a Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, by the Dobbs Galley and
California, &c. and The Account of a Voyage for the Discovery of a
North West Passage by Hudson’s Straights, by the Clerk of the
California. Two Vols. 8vo. And lastly, with Crantz’s History of
Greenland. Two Vols. 8vo. F.
[103] It is not only the clearing of woods, but cultivation, and
population, that alter the climate of a country, and make it mild. The
Romans looked upon the winters of Germany and England as very severe,
but happily both countries have at present a much more mild climate
than formerly, owing to the three above mentioned reasons. Near
Petersburg, under sixty degrees north latitude, the river Neva was
covered with ice 1765, in the beginning of December, and cleared of it
April the 11th 1766. At Tsaritsin, which is under forty-eight degrees
forty minutes north latitude, the river Volga was covered with ice the
26th of November 1765, and the ice broke in the river April the 27th
1766, (all old stile). Is it not almost incredible, that in a place
very near twelve degrees more to the south, the effects of cold should
be felt longer, and more severely, than in the more northern climate.
And though the neighbourhood of Petersburg has a great many woods, the
cold was, however, less severe, and lasting; Tsaritsin on the contrary
has no woods for many hundred miles in its neighbourhood, if we except
some few trees and bushes, along the Volga and its isles, and the low
land along it. Wherever the eye looks to the east, there are vast
plains without woods, for many hundred miles. The clearing a country of
woods, cannot therefore alone contribute so much to make the climate
milder. But cultivation does more. On a ploughed field the snow will
always sooner melt, than on a field covered with grass. The inflammable
warm perticles brought into the field, by the various kinds of manure,
contribute much to soften the rigours of the climate; but the
exhalations of thousands of men and cattle, in a populous country, the
burning of so many combustibles, and the dispersion of so many caustic
particles, through the whole atmosphere; these are things which
contribute so much towards softening the rigours of a climate. In a
hundred square miles near Tsaritsin, there is not so much cultivated
land as there is within ten near Petersburg; it is in proportion to the
number of the inhabitants of both places, and this makes the chief
difference of the climate. There is still another consideration,
Petersburg lies near the sea, and Tsaritsin in an inland country; and,
generally speaking, countries near the sea have been observed to enjoy
a milder climate. These few remarks will be, I believe, sufficient to
enable every body to judge of the changes of the climate in various
countries, which, no doubt, grow warmer and more temperate, as
cultivation and population increase. F.
[104] Cornus sanguinea, Linn.
[105] Pontederia cordata Linn.
[106] Nymphææ.
[107] Cucurbita citrullus Linn.
[108] Orignacs.
[109] Cariboux.
[110] Loup cerviers.
[111] In his Hist. de la Nouv. France, Tom, V. p. 158.
[112] Loups cerviers.
[113] Originacs verts.
[114] Cerfs verts.
[115] Originacs et cerfs passés.
[116] See his Hist. de la Nouv. Fr. Tom. VI. p. 415.
[117] Avoir beaucoup d’esprit.
[118] Rhus glabrum. Linn.
[119] See the Volume for the year 1751, p. 143, &c.
[120] Asteres. Solidagines. Achillea millefolium. Prunella vulgaris.
Carduus crispus. Oenothera biennis. Rudbeckia triloba. Viola
Canadensis. Gentiana Saponaria.
[121] Phaseoli.
[122] Cucumis melo, Linn.
[123] Zizania aquatica, Linn.
[124] Annona muricata, Linn.
[125] Fagus pumila, Linn.
[126] Magnolia glauca, Linn.
[127] Epinette blanche. The way of brewing this beer is described at
large in the Memoirs of the Royal Acad. of Sciences, for the year 1751,
p. 190.
[128] Franc is the same as Livre; and twenty-two Livres make a pound
sterling.
[129] An Ecu is three Francs.
[130] Twenty Sols make one Livre.
[131] A French measure, about the same as two bushels in England.
[132] Urtica divaricata, Linn.
[133] Oenothera biennis, Linn.