[1] Mr. Kalm speaks here of the Swedish Liturgy.
[2] Perhaps it is the Gryllus campestris, or common black field cricket
of Europe, of which Rocsel in his work on insects, vol. 2, Gryll. f.
13. has given a fine drawing. F.
[3] A still more infallible remedy, is to wash all the furniture,
infected with that vermin, with a solution of arsenic. F.
[4] In Siberia, and in the province of Wiatka, in the government of
Cazan, in Russia, the inhabitants make use of the knobs, which are
pretty frequently found in birches, to make bowls and other domestic
utensils thereof. They are turned, made pretty thin, and covered with a
kind of varnish, which gives them a pretty appearance; for the utensil
looks yellow, and is marbled quite in a picturesque manner, with brown
veins. The best kind of these vessels are made so thin that they are
semi-diaphanous, and when put into hot water they grow quite pliant,
and may be formed by main force, quite flat, but when again left to
themselves, and grown cold, they return to their original shape. This
kind of wood is called, in Russia, Kap, and the vessels made of it,
kappowie Tchashki, and are pretty high in price, when they are of the
best kind, and well varnished. F.
[5] Though it is very desirable, that the members of the church of
England may enjoy the same religious liberty in America as the rest of
their fellow-subjects and have every part of their religious
establishment among themselves, and that therefore bishops might be
introduced in America, it is however to be feared this will prove one
of the obstacles to the introducing of English bishops in that part of
the world.
[6] See his Journal historique d’un voyage de l’Amerique. Tome v. p. m.
311, and the 13th letter.
[7] This account sufficiently proves, that these hares are a species
distinct from our European reddish grey kind, and also of that species
or variety only, which in the northern parts of Europe and Asia is
white in winter, with black tipped ears, and has a grey coat in summer.
Upon a closer examination naturalists will perhaps find more characters
to distinguish them more accurately. F.
[8] Desm signifies musk in the Swedish, and in some provincial dialects
of the German language; consequently Désman rat is nothing but
Musk-rat, and from hence Mr. de Buffon has formed his Desman or Russian
Musk-rat. F.
[9] The Mink, or Minx, is a kind of small otter, which is called by Dr.
Linnæus, Mustela lutreola, in his system. i. p. 66. F.
[10] The village of Raccoon.
[11] This seems to be nothing but a variety of the Quercus rubra. Linn.
F.
[12] See page 10.
[13] See Catesby’s Natural history, vol. I. pl. 38. Coccothraustes
rubra.
[14] See Catesby’s nat. hist. of Carolina, vol. i. tab. 12. The purple
daw, and tab. 13. the red-winged starling: but as both these drawings
are in a very expensive work, we have, from specimens lately brought
over from America, made a new drawing, which represents them both, and
it is engraved here, tab. I. F.
[15] Probably nothing but an Aurora borealis.
[16] Of this Pigeon of Passage we have given here a plate, tab. ii.
taken from a parcel of birds, lately brought from America, of which we
were favoured with a fine specimen. F.
[17] Of this bird we have given a figure in plate 3, where likewise the
Mocking bird is represented; both drawn after specimens lately brought
from America, and which we were favoured with. F.
[18] Professor Kalm wrote this, when the truly laudable method of
treating the small-pox with a cold regimen, was not yet adopted; and he
thought therefore, the way in which the Americans treated this disease,
was the cause of its being so deleterious. But when the Khalmucks, in
the Russian dominions, get the small-pox, it has been observed, that
very few escape. Of this I believe no other reason can be alledged,
than that the small-pox is always dangerous, either when the open pores
of the human skin are too numerous, which is caused by opening them in
a warm water bath; or when they are too much closed, which is the case
with all the nations, that are dirty and greasy. All the American
Indians rub their body with oils, the Khalmucks never wash themselves,
and rub their bodies and their fur coats with grease; the Hottentots
are I believe known to be patterns of filthiness, their bodies being
richly anointed with their ornamental greasy sheep guts; this shuts up
all the pores; hinders perspiration entirely, and makes the small-pox
always lethal among these nations; to which we may yet add the too
frequent use of spirituous inflammatory liquors, since their
acquaintance with the Europeans. F.
[19] In page 39 of this Volume.
[20] Grass of the savages.
[21] In the Swedish language Wilskt Toback.
[22] Before the English settled here.
[23] See vol. I. page 289.
[24] From Nils Gustafson, the old Swede.
[25] The beetle here described, seems to be the Scarabæus Carolinus,
Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 545, and of Drury Illustrations of Nat. Hist. tab.
35. f. 2. It is common in New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania, Maryland,
and Carolina. F.
[26] Wilskt Hampa.
[27] Allium arvense; odore gravi, capitulis bulbosis rubentibus. See
Gronov. Flora Virginica, 37. This Leek seems to be Dr. Linnæus’s Allium
Canadense, scapo nudo tereti, foliis linearibus, capitulo bulbifero.
Spec. plant. I. p. 431. F.
[28] These three points are common to most insects, and ought therefore
not to be made characteristics of any particular species. They are
called Stemmata, and are a kind of eyes which serve the insects for
looking at distant objects, as the compound eyes do for objects near at
hand. F.
[29] It has been a subject of contest among naturalists, to determine
the winter-retreat of Swallows. Some think, they go to warmer climates
when they disappear in the Northern countries: others say, they creep
into hollow trees, and holes in clefts of rocks, and ly there all the
winter in a torpid state: and others affirm, that they take their
retreat into water, and revive again in spring. The two first opinions
have been proved, and it seems have found credit; the last has been
treated as ridiculous, and almost as an old woman’s tale. Natural
history, as all the other histories, depends not always upon the
intrinsic degree of probability, but upon facts founded on the
testimony of people of noted veracity.—Swallows are seldom seen sinking
down into the water, Swallows have not such organs as frogs or lizards,
which are torpid during winter, ergo, Swallows live not, and cannot
live, under water.—This way of arguing, I believe, would carry us, in a
great many cases, too far; for tho’ it is not clear to every one, it
may however be true: and lizards and frogs are animals of a class
widely different from that of birds, and must therefore of course have
a different structure; hence it is they are classed separately. The
bear and the marmot are in winter in a torpid state, and have however
not such organs as lizards and frogs; and no body doubts of their
being, during some time, in the most rigid climates in a torpid state:
for the Alpine Nations hunt the marmots frequently, by digging their
holes up, and find them so torpid, that they cut their throats, without
their reviving or giving the least sign of life during the operation;
but when the torpid marmot is brought into a warm room and placed
before the fire, it revives from its lethargy. The question must
therefore be decided by fact; nor are they wanting here: Dr. Wallerius,
the celebrated Swedish Chemist, wrote in 1748, September the 6th O. S.
to the late Mr. Klein, Secretary of the City of Dantzick: “That he has
seen more than once Swallows assembling on a reed, till they were all
immersed and went to the bottom; this being preceded by a dirge of a
quarter of an hour’s length. He attests likewise, that he had seen a
Swallow caught during winter out of a lake with a net, drawn, as is
common in Northern countries, under the ice: this bird was brought into
a warm room, revived, fluttered about, and soon after died.”
Mr. Klein applied to many Fermiers generaux of the King of Prussia’s
domains, who had great lakes in their districts, the fishery in them
being a part of the revenue; in winter the fishery thereon is the most
considerable under the ice, with nets spreading more than 200 or 300
fathoms, and they are often wound by screws and engines, on account of
their weight. All the people questioned made affidavits upon oath
before the magistrates. First, The mother of the Countess Lehndorf
said, that she had seen a bundle of Swallows brought from the Frish
Haff (a lake communicating with the Baltic at Pillau) which when
brought into a moderately warm room, revived and fluttered about.
Secondly, Count Schlieben gave an instrument on stamped paper,
importing, that by fishing on the lake belonging to his estate of
Gerdauen in winter, he saw several Swallows caught in the net, one of
which he took up with his hand, brought it into a warm room, where it
lay about an hour, when it began to stir, and half an hour after it
flew about in the room. Thirdly, Fermier general (Amtman) Witkowski
made affidavit, that in the year 1740, three Swallows were brought up
with the net in the great pond at Didlacken; in the year 1741, he got
two Swallows from another part of the pond, and took them home, (they
all being caught in his presence); after an hour’s space they revived
all in a warm room, fluttered about, and died three hours after. 4thly,
Amtman Bönke says, that having had the estate Kleskow in farm, he had
seen nine Swallows brought up in the net from under the ice, all which
he took into a warm room, where he distinctly observed how they
gradually revived; but a few hours after they all died. Another time
his people got likewise some Swallows in a net, but he ordered them
again to be thrown into the water, 5thly, Andrew Rutta, a master
fisherman, at Oletsko, made affidavit, 1747, that 22 years ago, two
Swallows were taken up, by him, in a net, under the ice, and being
brought into a warm room, they flew about. 6thly, Jacob Kosiulo, a
master fisherman, at Stradauen, made affidavit, that in 1736, he
brought up in winter, in a net, from under the ice of the lake at
Raski, a seemingly dead Swallow, which revived in half an hour’s time,
in a warm room, and he saw, a quarter of an hour after, the bird grow
weaker, and soon after dying. 7thly, I can reckon myself among the
eye-witnesses of this paradoxon of natural history. In the year 1735,
being a little boy, I saw several Swallows brought in winter by
fishermen, from the river Vistula, to my father’s house, where two of
them were brought into a warm room, revived, and flew about. I saw them
several times settling on the warm stove, (which the Northern nations
have in their rooms) and I recollect well that the same forenoon they
died, and I had them, when dead, in my hand.
In the year 1754, after the death of my uncle Godefroy Wolf, captain in
the Polish regiment of foot guards; being myself one of his heirs, I
administered for my co-heirs, several estates called the Starosty, of
Dirschau, in Polish Prussia, which my late uncle farmed under the king.
In January the lake of Lybshau, belonging to these estates, being
covered with ice, I ordered the fishermen to fish therein, and in my
presence several Swallows were taken; which the fishermen threw in
again; but one I took up myself, brought it home, which was five miles
from thence, and it revived, but died about an hour after its reviving.
These are facts, attested by people of the highest quality, by some in
public offices, and by others, who, tho’ of a low rank, however made
these affidavits upon oath. It is impossible to suppose
indiscriminately that they were prompted by views of interest, to
assert as a fact, a thing which had no truth in it. It is therefore
highly probable, or rather incontestably true, that Swallows retire in
the Northern countries during winter, into the water, and stay there in
a torpid state, till the return of warmth revives them again in spring.
The question therefore I believe ought for the future to be thus
stated: The swallows in Spain, Italy, France, and perhaps some from
England, remove to warmer climates; some English ones, and some in
Germany and other mild countries, retire into clefts and holes in
rocks, and remain there in a torpid state. In the colder northern
countries the Swallows immerse in the sea, in lakes, and rivers, and
remain in a torpid state, under ice, during winter. There are still
some objections to this latter assertion, which we must remove. It is
said, Why do not rapacious fish, and aquatic quadrupeds and birds,
devour these Swallows? The answer is obvious. Swallows chuse only such
places in the water for their winter retreat, as are near reeds and
rushes; so that sinking down there between them and their roots, they
are by them secured against the rapaciousness of their enemies. But
others object, Why are not these birds caught in such waters as are
continually harrassed by nets? I believe the same answer which has been
made to the first objection, will serve for this likewise. Fishermen
take care to keep off with their nets from places filled with reeds and
rushes, for fear of entangling and tearing their nets; and thus the
situation of Swallows under water, is the reason that they are seldom
disturbed in their silent winter-retreats. What confirms this opinion
still more is, that Swallows were never caught in Prussia, according to
the above-mentioned affidavits, but with those parts of the net which
passed near to the reeds and rushes; and sometimes the Swallows were
yet fastened with their feet to a reed, when they were drawn up by the
net. As to the argument taken from their being so long under water
without corruption, I believe, there is a real difference between
animals suffocated in water, and animals being torpid therein. We have
examples of things being a long time under water; to which we may add
the intense cold of these northern regions, which preserves them. Who
would have thought it, that snails and polypes may be dissected, and
could reproduce the parts severed from their body; if it was not a
fact? Natural history ought to be studied as a collection of facts; not
as the history of our guesses or opinions. Nature varies in an infinite
manner; and Providence has diversified the instinct of animals, and
their œconomy, and adapted it to the various seasons and climates. This
long digression I thought necessary and excusable; and the more so, as
the ingenious great friends to the cause of Natural History, the late
Mr. Collinson, and Mr. Pennant, have both asserted the impossibility
and improbability of this immersion. I revere the memory and the ashes
of the one, and think the friendship of the other an honour to me: but
am assured, that both prefer truth to their private opinion; and can
bear a modest opposition, when it is proposed with candour, with a view
to promote truth, and with sentiments of respect and gratitude, as it
is done by me, in the present case. F.
[30] Hirundo, caudâ aculeatâ, Americana. Catesb. Carol. vol. iii. t. 8.
[31] Hirundo purpurea. Nat. Hist. of Carol. vol. i. t. 51.
[32] It must be carefully distinguished from what is called Currants,
in England, which is the Ribes rubrum. F.
[33] Cratægus tomentosa, Linn. Spec. Pl. p. 682.
[34] Mespilus inermis, foliis ovato-oblongis, serratis, subtus
tomentosis. Gronov. Fl. Virgin. 55.
[35] Caprimulgus minor Americanus. Catesb. Nat. Hist. of Carolina, Vol.
iii. t. 16. Edwards’s Nat. Hist. of Birds, t. 63.
[36] Morus rubra.
[37] Kungsfogel.
[38] The tenth part of an inch.
[39] Pyrus coronaria. Linn. Sp. Plant, p. Malus sylvestris, floribus
odoratis. Gronov. Fl. Virginica. 55.
[40] Azalea nudiflora. Linn. Spec. Plant. p. 214. Azalea ramis infra
flores nudis. Gron. Virg. 21.
[41] Azalea erecta, foliis ovatis, integris, alternis, flore luteo,
piloso, præcoci. Cold. Ebor. 25.
[42] Accordingly about the 29th of May, new stile.
[43] Rana boans. Linn. Syst. I. p. 358. Rana maxima, Americana,
aquatica. Catesb. Carol. II. 72.
[44] Cupressus thyoides. Linn. Spec. pl. p. 1422. Cypressus Americana,
fructu minimo. Miller’s Gard. Dictionary.
[45] Juniperus Virginiana. Linn. Spec. pl. p. 114.
[46] Juniperus communis. Linn. Spec. pl. p. 1470.
[47] An island in the river St. Lawrence, close by the town of
Montreal, in Canada.
[48] See vol. I. page 115. The lower part of the yachts, which is
continually under water, is made of black oak; the upper part is built
of red cedar, because it is sometimes above and sometimes in the water.
[49] Bruchus Pisi.
[50] See vol. i. page 338.
[51] Warglo; Felis Lynx. Linn. The Swedes mention two kinds of lynx,
the one is called the Warglo, or wolf-lynx, and the other the Kattlo,
or cat-lynx. The Germans make the same distinction, and call the former
Wolf-luchs, and the latter Katz-luchs: the former is the biggest, of a
brownish red, mixed with grey and white, on its back, and white towards
the belly, with brownish spots; the latter is smaller, and has a coat
which is more white, and with more spots. F.
[52] Anguis niger. See Catesby’s Nat. Hist. of Carol. ii. t. 48.
[53] It has been found by repeated experience, that the specific
character employed by Dr. Linnæus, for the distinction of the species
of snakes, taken from their Scuta abdominalia & caudalia, or their
Squamæ subcaudales, varies greatly in snakes of the same species, so
that often the difference amounts to ten or more: the whole number of
the scuta sometimes helps to find out the species; care ought however
to be taken, that the snake may not by any accident have lost its tail,
and that it be growing again; in which case, it is impossible to make
use of this character. The character is not quite so good and decisive,
as may be wished, but neither are the marks taken from colours, spots,
stripes, &c. quite constant; and so it is better to make use of an
imperfect character, than none at all. Time, and greater acquaintance
with this class of animals, may perhaps clear up their natural
characters. F.
[54] See vol. i. p. 319.
[55] See the volume for the year 1756, page 10, of the Swedish edition.
[56] William Pen, Esq; and his heirs after him.
[57] See Vol. I. p. 220.
[58] Ibid, p. 224–237.
[59] See an account of that place in Vol. I. p. 228.
[60] See Vol. I. p. 230.
[61] See Vol. I. p. 247, &c.
[62] Commonly called Black-heart Cherries.
[63] That rum is among the spirituous liquors less noxious than any one
of the rest, is chiefly owing to the balsamic quality it gets from the
sugar, which corrects the styptic quality all kinds of brandy and
spirituous liquors have. The older the rum is, and the longer it has
been kept in a great cask, the more is its stypticity corrected. All
which has been lately proved by the clearest experiments, explained and
deducted from the most indisputable principles of chymistry, in a
pamphlet written by that able chymist Mr. Dossie. F.
[64] The New-York Sturgeons which I saw this year brought over, had
short blunt noses, in which particular they are different from the
English ones, which have long noses. F.
[65] Mr. Kalm was certainly mistaken, by thinking the summits of these
mountains without wood, on account of the great degree of heat: for it
is a general notion, founded on experience, that the sun operates not
so much on the tops of mountains, as in plains or vallies, and the cold
often hinders the increase of wood on the summits of high mountains. F.
[66] From the French Bateaux (Boats).
[67] The reader must reckon all this according to the old stile.
[68] I have mentioned them before. See vol. i. p. 176, 177.
[69] Populus glandulis variis basi foliorum adnexis, foliis
cordato-deltoidibus, acuminatis, serrato-angulosis, utrinque
glabris.——An Populus heterophylla Linnæi?
[70] See Vol. I. p. 228, &c.
[71] New Jersey and part of Pensylvania were formerly comprized under
this name.
[72] Mr. Kalm published his third volume just during the time of the
last war. F.
[73] Mr. Kalm is, I believe, not right informed. The French
ecclesiastics have allured some few wretched Indians to their religion
and interest, and settled them in small villages; but by the accounts
of their behaviour, in the several wars of the French and English, they
were always guilty of the greatest cruelties and brutalities; and more
so than their heathen countrymen; and therefore it seems that they have
been rather perverted than converted. On the other hand, the English
have translated the bible into the language of the Virginian Indians,
and converted many of them to the true knowledge of God; and at this
present time, the Indian charity schools, and missions, conducted by
the Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock, have brought numbers of the Indians to
the knowledge of the true God. The society for propagating the gospel
in foreign parts, sends every year many missionaries, at their own
expence, among the Indians. And the Moravian Brethren are also very
active in the conversion of Gentiles; so that if Mr. Kalm had
considered all these circumstances, he would have judged otherwise of
the zeal of the British nation, in propagating the gospel among the
Indians. F.
[74] Romans ii. 24.
[75] See the description of it, p. 241.
[76] See page 251.
[77] See in the first Volume, p. 223, 224.
[78] Cancer Astacus Linn.
[79] Sambucus Canadensis Linn.
[80] This appears to be a new observation, as Linnæus, De Buffon, and
Sarrasin pretend, they only feed on the Acorus, or Reeds, and other
roots. F.
[81] This is the literal meaning of the Swedish word jætte grytor. See
the memoirs of the Swed. Acad. of Sciences for the year 1743, p. 122.
and Kalm’s vol. 1. p. 121.
[82] See the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for the year 1754, page 19,
&c.
[83] In Sweden and in Russia it is usual for people of all ranks to
bathe every week at least one time; this is done in a stove heated by
an oven, to a surprising degree, and which is enough to stifle people
who are not used to it: for commonly the heat is encreased by the hot
steam, caused by throwing red hot stones into water. In these baths, in
Russia, the lower sort of people, men and women, bathe promiscuously,
as the Romans did, and from whom, as Plutarch observes, in his Life of
Cato, the Greeks adopted this indelicate and indecent custom, and which
spread so much, that the Emperor Adrian, and Marcus Antoninus were
obliged to make laws against it, but neither were they long observed,
for we find soon the Council of Laodicea obliged to prescribe a canon
against this brutal custom, and notwithstanding this we find soon after
that not only persons of all ranks, but even clergymen and monks bathed
promiscuously with women, in the same baths; and from thence, it is
probable, this custom passed among the Russians, when christianity took
place among them. Near the bath, in Russia, is commonly a pond, where
the people plunge in, when quite hot, and in winter they welter in the
snow; and Saturdays it is common to see before the bath naked men and
women, each having a bundle of rods in their hand, with which they
gently beat one another, when in the bath. F.
[84] On my travels through the desart plains, beyond the river Volga, I
have had several opportunities of making the same observations on Tea;
and every traveller, in the same circumstances, will readily allow them
to be very just. F.