And they would_ Acorns _eat;
’Twere simple fury in thee still to wast
Thy self, on them that have no tast;
No, give them draff their fill,
Husks, Grains and swill;
They that love Lees and leave the lustie Wine,
Envy them not, their palats with the Swine._
The _Raven_ is here numerous and Crowes, but _Rooks_, _Danes_,
_Popinjaes_, _Megpies_ there be none. It is observed that the
female of all Birds of prey and Ravin is ever bigger than the male,
more venturous, hardy, and watchful: but such Birds as do not live
by prey and Ravin, the male is more large than the female. So much
for Birds of prey, the next are Birds for the dish, and the first
of these is,
[p. 99.] The _Turkie_, which is in _New-England_ a very large Bird,
they breed twice or thrice in a year, if you would preserve the
young Chickens alive, you must give them no water, for if they come
to have their fill of water they will drop away strangely, and you
will never be able to rear any of them: they are excellent meat,
especially a _Turkie-Capon_ beyond that, for which Eight shillings
was given, their Eggs are very wholesome and restore decayed nature
exceedingly. But the _French_ say they breed the Leprosie; the
Indesses make Coats of _Turkie_-feathers woven for their Children.
The _Partridge_ is larger than ours, white flesht, but very dry,
they are indeed a sort of _Partridges_ called _Grooses_.
The _Pidgeon_, of which there are millions of millions, I have seen
a flight of _Pidgeons_ in the spring, and at _Michaelmas_ when they
return back to the Southward for four or five miles, that to my
thinking had neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and
so thick that I could see no Sun, they joyn Nest to Nest, and Tree
to Tree by their Nests many miles together in _Pine_-Trees. But of
late they are much diminished, the _English_ taking them with Nets.
I have bought at _Boston_ a dozen of _Pidgeons_ ready pull’d and
garbidgd for three pence, [p. 100.] Ring-_Doves_ they say are there
too, but I could never see any.
The _Snow_-Bird is like a _Chaf-Finch_, go in flocks and are good
meat.
The singing Birds are _Thrushes_ with red breasts, which will be
very fat and are good meat, so are the _Thressels_, _Filladies_
are small singing Birds, _Ninmurders_ little yellow Birds.
_New-England_ Nightingales painted with orient colours, black,
white, blew, yellow, green and scarlet, and sing sweetly,
_Wood-larks_, _Wrens_, _Swallows_, who will sit upon Trees, and
_Starlings_ black as _Ravens_ with scarlet pinions; other sorts of
Birds there are, as the _Troculus_, _Wag-tail_, or _Dish-water_,
which is here of a brown colour, _Titmouse_ two or three sorts, the
Dunneck or hedge-_Sparrow_ who is starke naked in his winter nest.
The golden or yellow hammer, a Bird about the bigness of a _Thrush_
that is all over as red as bloud, Wood-_Peckers_ of two or three
sorts, gloriously set out with variety of glittering colours. The
_Colibry_, _Viemalin_, or rising or waking Bird, an Emblem of the
Resurrection, and the wonder of little Birds.
The water-fowl are these that follow, _Hookers_ or wild-_Swans_,
_Cranes_, _Geese_ of three sorts, grey, white, and the brant
_Goose_, the first and last are best meat, the white are [p. 101.]
lean and tough and live a long time; whereupon the proverb, Older
than a white _Goose_; of the skins of the necks of grey _Geese_
with their Bills the _Indians_ makes Mantles and Coverlets sowing
them together and they shew prettily. There be four sorts of
_Ducks_, a black _Duck_, a brown _Duck_ like our wild _Ducks_, a
grey _Duck_, and a great black and white _Duck_, these frequent
Rivers and Ponds; but of _Ducks_ there be many more sorts,
as _Hounds_, old _Wives_, _Murres_, _Doies_, _Shell-drakes_,
_Shoulers_ or _Shoflers_, _Widgeons_, _Simps_, _Teal_, Blew wing’d,
and green wing’d, Divers or _Didapers_, or _Dip-chicks_, _Fenduck_,
_Duckers_ or _Moorhens_, _Coots_, _Pochards_, a water-fowl like
a _Duck_, _Plungeons_, a kind of water-fowl with a long reddish
Bill, _Puets_, _Plovers_, _Smethes_, _Wilmotes_, a kind of _Teal_,
_Godwits_, _Humilities_, _Knotes_, _Red-Shankes_, _Wobbles_,
_Loones_, _Gulls_, white _Gulls_, or Sea-_Cobbs_, _Caudemandies_,
_Herons_, grey _Bitterns_, _Ox-eyes_, _Birds_ called _Oxen_ and
_Keen_, _Petterels_, _Kings fishers_, which breed in the spring
in holes in the Sea-banks, being unapt to propagate in Summer, by
reason of the driness of their bodies, which becomes more moist
when their pores are closed by cold. Most of these Fowls and Birds
are eatable. There are little Birds that frequent the Sea-shore in
flocks called _Sanderlins_, [p. 102.] they are about the bigness of
a _Sparrow_, and in the fall of the leaf will be all fat; when I
was first in the Countrie the _English_ cut them into small pieces
to put into their Puddings instead of suet, I have known twelve
score and above kill’d at two shots. I have not done yet, we must
not forget the _Cormorant_, _Shape_ or _Sharke_; though I cannot
commend them to our curious palats, the _Indians_ will eat them
when they are fley’d, they take them prettily, they roost in the
night upon some Rock that lyes out in the Sea, thither the _Indian_
goes in his Birch-_Canow_ when the Moon shines clear, and when he
is come almost to it, he lets his _Canow_ drive on of it self, when
he is come under the Rock he shoves his Boat along till he come
just under the _Cormorants_ watchman, the rest being asleep, and
so soundly do sleep that they will snore like so many Piggs; the
_Indian_ thrusts up his hand of a sudden, grasping the watchman
so hard round about his neck that he cannot cry out; as soon as
he hath him in his _Canow_ he wrings off his head, and making his
_Canow_ fast, he clambreth to the top of the Rock, where walking
softly he takes them up as he pleaseth, still wringing off their
heads; when he hath slain as many as his _Canow_ can carry, he
gives a shout [p. 103.] which awakens the surviving _Cormorants_,
who are gone in an instant.
The next Creatures that you are to take notice of, are they that
live in the Element of water. _Pliny_ reckons them to be of 177
kinds, but certainly if it be true that there is no Beast upon
Earth, which hath not his like in the Sea, and which (perhaps) is
not in some part parallel’d in the plants of the Earth; we may by
a diligent search find out many more: of the same opinion is the
Poet, who saith that it is
_Affirm’d by some that what on Earth we find,
The Sea can parallell in shape and kind._
Divine _Dubertus_ goes further.
_You Divine wits of elder dayes, from whom
The deep invention of rare works hath come,
Took you not pattern of our chiefest Tooles
Out of the lap of_ Thetis, _Lakes, and Pools?
Which partly in the Waves, part on the edges
Of craggy Rocks, among their ragged sedges,
Bring forth abundance of Pins, Spincers, spokes,
Pikes, piercers, needles, mallets, pipes & yoaks,
Oars, sails & swords, saws, wedges, razors, rammers,
Plumes, cornets, knives, wheels, vices, horns and hammers._
[p. 104.] Psalm 104.25, 26. _In ipso mari magno & spatioso, illic
reptilia sunt atque innumera animantia parva cum magnis. Illic
navea ambulant; balæna quam formasti ludendo in eo._
And as the females amongst Beasts and Birds of prey for form and
beautie surpass the males, so do they especially amongst fishes;
and those I intend to treat of, I shall divide into salt-water
fish, and fresh-water fish.
The Sea that _Piscina mirabilis_ affords us the greatest number,
of which I shall begin first with the Whale a regal fish, as all
fishes of extraordinary size are accounted, of these there are (as
I have said in another place) seven kinds, the Ambergreese-_Whale_
the chiefest. _Anno Dom._ 1668 the 17 of _July_ there was one
of them thrown up on the shore between _Winter-harbour_ and
_Cape-porpus_, about eight mile from the place where I lived,
that was five and fifty foot long. They are Creatures of a vast
magnitude and strength. The Royal Psalmist, in the 148 psalm, and
the 7 verse, _makes mention of them_. _Laudate Jehovam terrestria;
Cete (Dracones as some translate it) & omnes abyssi. And Moses in
his history of_ Job, Job 41. 1. _An extrahas balænam hamo_, &c. [p.
105.] _Whereby the subtlety of the Devil is shewed, as also, the
greatness and brutishness of the Devil by the Elephant, in the_ 10
_verse of the foregoing Chapter. In the book of_ Jonas _prophecies
we read of a great fish_, Jonah 1. 17. _Pararat autem Jehova piscem
magnum, qui obsorberet Jonam. But whether this were a Whale or
not is questioned by some. In the head (saith Mr._ Parkinson _the
Herbalist) of one only sort of Whale-fish is found that which is
called_ sperma Cæti, _it lyes in a hole therein, as it were a Well,
taken out and prest that the oyl may come out, the substance is
that we use for_ sperma Cæti, _and hath little or no smell, the oyl
smells strong. See the rarities of_ New-England.
The _Sea-hare_ is as big as _Grampus_ or _Herrin-hog_, and as white
as a sheet; There hath been of them in _Black-point_-Harbour, &
some way up the river, but we could never take any of them, several
have shot sluggs at them, but lost their labour.
The _Sturgeon_ is a Regal fish too, I have seen of them that have
been sixteen foot in length: of their sounds they make _Isinglass_,
which melted in the mouth is excellent to seal letters.
_Sharkes_ there are infinite store, who tear the Fishermens nets
to their great loss and hinderance; they are of two sorts, one
flat [p. 106.] headed, the other long-snouted, the pretious stone
in their heads (soveraign for the stone in a man) so much coveted
by the travelling Chirurgeon is nought else but the brains of
the flat-headed _Sharke_. With these we may joyn the Dog-fish or
Thorn-hound, who hath two long sharp prickles on his back.
The _Sea-horse_ or _Morse_ is a kind of monster-fish numerous about
the Isle of _Sables_, i. e. The sandy Isle. An Amphibious Creature
kill’d for their Teeth and Oyl, never brings forth more than two
at a birth; as also doth the Soil and Manate or Cow-fish which is
supposed to be the Sea-monster spoken of by _Jeremy_, _Lament._ 4.
3. _Etiam phocæ præbent mammam, lactant catulos suos; So the Latins
render it_, phoca _a Sea-Calf or Soil_.
The small _Sword-fish_ is very good meat, the _Sea-bat_ or
_Sea-owl_ a kind of flying fish.
_Negroes_ or _Sea-Devils_ a very ugly fish, having a black scale,
there are three sorts of them, one a hideous fish, another about
two foot long; of these I have seen store in _Black-point_ Harbour
in the water, but never attempted to take any of them.
_Squids_ a soft fish somewhat like a cudgel, their horns like a
_Snails_, which sometimes are found to be of an incredible length,
[p. 107.] this fish is much used for bait to catch a _Cod_,
_Hacke_, _Polluck_, and the like Sea-fish.
The _Dolphin_, _Bonito_, or _Dozado_, the ashes of their teeth
mixed with honey, is good to asswage the pain of breeding teeth in
Children.
The _Sea-bream_, _Dorado_, or _Amber-fish_, they follow ships as
doth the _Dolphin_, and are good meat.
The _Mackarel_, of which there is choicefull plenty all summer
long, in the spring they are ordinarily 18 inches long, afterwards
there is none taken but what are smaller.
The _Liver-fish_ like a _Whiting_.
The _Herrin_ which are numerous, they take of them all summer
long. In _Anno Dom._ 1670. they were driven into _Black-point_
Harbour by other great fish that prey upon them so near the shore,
that they threw themselves (it being high water) upon dry land in
such infinite numbers that we might have gone up half way the leg
amongst them for near a quarter of a mile. We used to qualifie a
pickled _Herrin_ by boiling of him in milk.
The _Alewife_ is like a _herrin_, but has a bigger bellie therefore
called an _Alewife_, they come in the end of _April_ into fresh [p.
108.] Rivers and Ponds; there hath been taken in two hours time
by two men without any Weyre at all, saving a few stones to stop
the passage of the River, above ten thousand. The _Italian_ hath
a proverb, that he that hath seen one miracle will easily believe
another; but this relation far from a miracle will peranter meet,
instead of a belief with an Adulterate construction from those
that are somewhat akin to St. _Peters_ mockers, such as deny the
last judgement. I have known in _England_ 9 score and 16 _Pikes_
and _Pickarel_ taken with three Angles between the hours of three
and ten in the morning, in the River _Owse_ in the Isle of _Ely_,
three quarters of a yard long above half of them; they make red
_Alewives_ after the same manner as they do _herrins_ and are as
good.
The _Basse_ is a salt water fish too, but most an end taken in
Rivers where they spawn, there hath been 3000 _Basse_ taken at a
set, one writes that the fat in the bone of a _Basses_ head is his
brains which is a lye.
The _Salmon_ likewise is a Sea-fish, but as the _Basse_ comes into
Rivers to spawn, a _Salmon_ the first year is a _Salmon-smelt_;
The second a _Mort_; The third a _Spraid_; The fourth a _Soar_;
The fifth a _Sorrel_; The sixth [p. 109.] a _forket tail_; and
the seventh year a _Salmon_. There are another sort of _Salmon_
frequent in those parts called white _Salmons_.
_Capeling_ is a small fish like a smelt.
The _Turtle_ or _Tortoise_ is of two sorts Sea-_Turtles_ and
land-_Turtles_: of Sea-_Turtles_ there are five sorts, of
land-_Turtles_ three sorts, one of which is a right land-_turtle_
that seldom or never goes into the water, the other two being the
River-_Turtle_, and the pond-_Turtle_: there are many of these in
the brooke _Chyson_ in the _Holy land_. The ashes of a Sea-_Turtle_
mixt with oyl or _Bears_-grease causeth hair to grow: the shell of
a land-_Turtle_ burnt and the ashes dissolved in wine and oyl to an
unguent healeth chaps and sores of the feet: the flesh burnt and
the ashes mixt with wine and oyl healeth sore legs: the ashes of
the burnt shell and the whites of eggs compounded together healeth
chaps in womens nipples; and the head pulverized with it prevents
the falling of the hair, and will heal the Hemorrhoids, first
washing of them with white-wine, and then strewing on the powder.
_Lobster_, which some say is at first a _whelk_, I have seen a
_Lobster_ that weighed twenty pound, they cast their shell-coats
in the spring, and so do _Crabs_; having underneath a thin red
skin which growes thicker and [p. 110.] hard in short time. The
_Indians_ feed much upon this fish, some they rost, and some they
dry as they do _Lampres_ and _Oysters_ which are delicate breakfast
meat so ordered, the _Oysters_ are long shell’d, I have had of them
nine inches long from the joynt to the toe, containing an _Oyster_
like those the Latines called _Tridacuan_ that were to be cut into
three pieces before they could get them into their mouths, very fat
and sweet.
The _Muscle_ is of two sorts, Sea-_muscles_ in which they find
Pearl and river-_muscles_. Sea-_muscles_ dryed and pulverized and
laid upon the sores of the _Piles_ and _hemorrhoids_ with oyl will
perfectly cure them.
The _Whore_ is a shell-fish, the shells are called whores-eggs,
being fine round white shells, in shape like a _Mexico_ pompion,
but no bigger than a good large Hens-egg; they are wrought down the
sides with little knobs and holes very prettily, but are but thin
and brittle.
The _Perriwig_ is a shell-fish that lyeth in the Sands flat and
round as a shovel-board piece and very little thicker; these at a
little hole in the middle of the shell thrust out a cap of hair,
but upon the least motion of any danger it drawes it in again.
_Trouts_ there be good store in every brook, ordinarily two and
twenty inches [p. 111.] long, their grease is good for the _Piles_
and _clifts_.
The _Eal_ is of two sorts, salt-water _Eals_ and fresh-water
_Eals_; these again are distinguished into yellow bellied _Eals_
and silver bellied _Eals_; I never eat better _Eals_ in no part of
the world that I have been in, than are here. They that have no
mind or leasure to take them, may buy of an _Indian_ half a dozen
silver bellied _Eals_ as big as those we usually give 8 pence or 12
pence a piece for at _London_, for three pence or a groat. There
is several wayes of cooking them, some love them roasted, others
baked, and many will have them fryed; but they please my palate
best when they are boiled, a common way it is to boil them in half
water, half wine with the bottom of a manchet, a fagot of Parsley,
and a little winter savory, when they are boiled they take them
out and break the bread in the broth, and put to it three or four
spoonfuls of yest, and a piece of sweet butter, this they pour to
their _Eals_ laid upon sippets and so serve it up. I fancie my way
better which is this, after the _Eals_ are fley’d and washt I fill
their bellies with Nutmeg grated and Cloves a little bruised, and
sow them up with a needle and thred, then I stick a Clove here and
there in their sides about an inch asunder, [p. 112.] making holes
for them with a bodkin, this done I wind them up in a wreath and
put them into a kettle with half water and half white wine-vinegar,
so much as will rise four fingers above the _Eals_, in midst of the
_Eals_ I put the bottom of a penny white loaf, and a fagot of these
herbs following, Parsley one handful, a little sweet Marjoram,
Peniroyal and Savory, a branch of Rosemary, bind them up with a
thred, and when they are boiled enough take out the _Eals_ and
pull out the threds that their bellies were sowed up with, turn
out the Nutmeg and Cloves, put the _Eals_ in a dish with butter
and vinegar upon a chafing-dish with coals to keep warm, then put
into the broth three or four spoonfuls of good Ale-yeast with the
juice of half a Lemmon; but before you put in your yeast beat it in
a porringer with some of the broth, then break the crust of bread
very small and mingle it well together with the broth, pour it into
a deep dish and garnish it with the other half of the Lemmon, and
so serve them up to the Table in two dishes.
The _Frost fish_ is little bigger than a _Gudgeon_ and are taken
in fresh brooks; when the waters are frozen they make a hole in
the Ice about half a yard or yard wide, to which the fish repair
in great numbers, where with [p. 113.] small nets bound to a hoop
about the bigness of a firkin-hoop with a staff fastned to it they
lade them out of the hole. I have not done with the fish yet,
being willing to let you know all of them that are to be seen and
catch’d in the Sea and fresh waters in _New-England_, and because I
will not tire your patience overmuch, having no occasion to enlarge
my discourse, I shall only name them and so conclude.
_Aleport_
_Albicore_
_Barracha_
_Barracontha_
_Blew-fish_
_Bull-head_
_Bur-fish_
_Cat-fish_
_Cony-fish_
_Cusk_
_Clam_
_Rock-Cod_
_Sea-Cod_
_divers kinds of Crabs_
_Sea-Cucumber_
_Cunner_
_Sea-Darts or Javelins_
_Flail-fish_
_Flounder or Flowke_
_Flying-fish_
_several kinds Sea-Flea_
_Grandpisse_
_Hake_
_Haddock_
_Horse-foot_
_Hallibut_
_Hen-fish_
_Lampre_
_Limpin_
_Lumpe_
_Maid_
_Monk-fish_
_Sea-mullet_
_Nun-fish_
_Perch_
_Polluck_
_Periwincle_
_Pike_
_Pilat-fish_
_Plaice_
_Porpisse_
_Prawne_
_Purple-fish_
_Porgee_
_Remora_
_Sea-Raven_
_Sail-fish_
_Scallop_
[p. 114.] _Scate_
_Stingray_
_Sculpin_
_Shadd_
_Spurlin_
_Sheath-fish_
_Smelt_
_Shrimps_
_Sprates_
_Star-fish_
_Swordfish_
_Thornback_
_Turbet_
_The Ulatife or saw-fish_
_Sea-Urchin_
_Sea-Unichorn_
The fish are swum by, and the Serpents are creeping on, terrible
creatures, carrying stings in their tails. That will smart worse
than a _Satyrs_ whip, though it were as big as Mr. _Shepperds_ the
mad Gentleman at _Milton-Mowbrayes Constantinus Lasculus_.
The chief or Captain of these is the Rattle-snake described already
in my Journal, in some places of the Countrey there are none as at
_Plimouth_, _New-town_, _Nahant_ and some other places, they will
live on one side of the River, and but swimming over and coming
into the woods dye immediately.
The fat of a Rattle-snake is very Soveraign for frozen limbs,
bruises, lameness by falls, Aches, Sprains. The heart of a
Rattle-snake dried and pulverized and drunk with wine or beer is an
approved remedy against the biting and venome of a Rattle-snake.
Some body will give me thanks for [p. 115.] discovering these
secrets and the rest; _Non omnibus omnia conveniant_.
The _Snake_ of which there are infinite numbers of various colours,
some black, others painted with red, yellow and white, some again
of a grass-green colour powdered all over as it were with silver
dust or _Muscovie_-glass. But there is one sort that exceeds all
the rest, and that is the Checkquered snake, having as many colours
within the checkquers shaddowing one another, as there are in a
Rainbow. There are two sorts of snakes, the land-snake and the
water-snake; the water-snake will be as big about the belly as the
Calf of a mans leg; I never heard of any mischief that snakes did,
they kill them sometimes for their skins and bones to make hatbands
off, their skins likewise worn as a Garter is an excellent remedie
against the cramp. I have found of the skins that they cast in
woods in some quantity, they cast not their very skins, but only
the superfluous thin skin that is upon the very skin, for the very
skin is basted to the flesh, so Lobsters and Crabs.
The Earth-worm, these are very rare and as small as a horse hair,
but there is a Bug that lyes in the earth and eateth the seed,
that is somewhat like a Maggot of a white colour with a red head,
and is about [p. 116.] the bigness of ones finger and an inch or
an inch and half long. There is also a dark dunnish Worm or Bug of
the bigness of an Oaten-straw, and an inch long, that in the spring
lye at the Root of Corn and Garden plants all day, and in the night
creep out and devour them; these in some years destroy abundance of
_Indian_ Corn and Garden plants, and they have but one way to be
rid of them, which the _English_ have learnt of the _Indians_; And
because it is somewhat strange, I shall tell you how it is, they go
out into a field or garden with a Birchen-dish, and spudling the
earth about the roots, for they lye not deep, they gather their
dish full which may contain about a quart or three pints, then they
carrie the dish to the Sea-side when it is ebbing-water and set it
a swimming, the water carrieth the dish into the Sea and within a
day or two if you go into your field you may look your eyes out
sooner than find any of them.
_Sow-bugs_ or _Millipedes_ there be good store, but none of that
sort that are blew and turn round as a pea when they are touched;
neither are there any _Beetles_ nor _Maple-bugs_, but a stinking
black and red _Bug_ called a _Cacarooch_ or _Cockroach_, and a
little black _Bug_ like a _Lady-cow_ that breeds in skins and
furrs and will eat them to their [p. 117.] utter spoil. Likewise
there be infinite numbers of _Tikes_ hanging upon the bushes in
summer time that will cleave to a mans garments and creep into his
Breeches eating themselves in a short time into the very flesh of
a man. I have seen the stockins of those that have gone through
the woods covered with them. Besides these there is a _Bug_, but
whether it be a Native to the Countrie or a stranger I cannot
say: Some are of opinion that they are brought in by the Merchant
with Spanish goods, they infest our beds most, all day they hide
themselves, but when night comes they will creep to the sleeping
wretch and bite him worse than a flea, which raiseth a swelling
knub that will itch intolerably, if you scratch it waxeth bigger
and growes to a scab; and if you chance to break one of the _Bugs_
it will stink odiously: they call them _Chinches_ or _Wood-lice_,
they are fat, red and in shape like a _Tike_ and no bigger. There
are also Palmer-worms which is a kind of Catterpiller, these some
years will devour the leaves of Trees leaving them as naked almost
as in winter, they do much harm in the _English_ Orchards. Of
_Snails_ there are but few, and those very little ones, they lye at
the Roots of long grass in moist places, and are no where else to
be found. [p. 118.] Spiders and Spinners there be many, the last
very big and of several colours.