Chapter I: Part 1

TRAVELS
INTO
NORTH AMERICA;

CONTAINING

Its Natural History, and
A circumstantial Account of its
Plantations and Agriculture in general,

WITH THE
CIVIL, ECCLESIASTICAL AND
COMMERCIAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY,

The MANNERS of the INHABITANTS, and several
curious and IMPORTANT REMARKS on various Subjects.

By PETER KALM,

Professor of Oeconomy in the University of Aobo in Swedish
Finland, and Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

By JOHN REINHOLD FORSTER, F.A.S.

Enriched with a Map, several Cuts for the Illustration of Natural
History, and some additional Notes.

VOL. I.

WARRINGTON:
Printed by WILLIAM EYRES.

MDCCLXX.

TO THE HONOURABLE

DAINES BARRINGTON,

One of his Majesty’s Justices of the Grand Sessions for
the Counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth.

SIR,

I Presume to prefix your name to a performance which will in
some measure display to the British nation, the circumstances
of a country which is so happy as to be under its protection.

Every lover of knowledge, especially of natural history, must
be sensible of your zealous endeavours to promote every branch
of it. It was my great happiness to fall within your notice,
and to receive very substantial and seasonable favours from
your patronage and recommendations. I shall ever remain mindful
of your generosity and humanity towards me, but must lament
that I have no other means of expressing my gratitude than by
this publick acknowledgment.

Accept then, Dear Sir, my earnest wishes for your prosperity,
and think me with the truest esteem,

Your most obliged,
and obedient
humble Servant,

John Reinhold Forster.

Warrington,
July 25th. 1770.

PREFACE.

The present Volume of Professor Kalm’s Travels through North America, is originally written in the Swedish language, but was immediately after translated into the German by the two Murray’s, both of whom are Swedes, and one a pupil of Dr. Linnæus, and therefore we may be sure that this translation corresponds exactly with the original.

Baron Sten Charles Bielke, Vice president of the Court of Justice in Finland, was the first who made a proposal to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, to send an able man to the northern parts of Siberia and Iceland, as places which are partly under the same latitude with Sweden, and to make there such observations and collections of seeds and plants, as would improve the Swedish husbandry, gardening, manufactures, arts and sciences. Dr. Linnæus found the proposal just, but he thought that a journey through North America would be yet of a more extensive utility, than that through the before-mentioned countries; for the plants of America were then little known, and not scientifically described, and by several trials, it seemed probable that the greatest part of the North American plants, would bear very well the Swedish winters; and what was more important, a great many American plants promised to be very useful in husbandry and physic.

Thus far this journey was a mere scheme; but as Captain Triewald, a man well known for his abilities in England, gave his Observations on the Cultivation of Silk in a series of Memoirs to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and mentioned therein a kind of mulberry tree, which was discovered by Dr. Linnæus, and which bore the rigours of the Swedish climate as well as a fir or pine tree; this circumstance revived the proposal of such a journey in the year 1745. Count Tessin, a nobleman of established merit both in the political and learned world, becoming president of the Royal Academy, it was unanimously agreed upon to send Professor Kalm to North America. The expences were at first a great obstacle; but the Royal Academy wrote to the three universities to assist them in this great and useful undertaking. Aobo sent first her small contribution, Lund had nothing to spare, but Upsala made up this deficiency by a liberal contribution.

Count Piper was intreated to give a family exhibition to Mr. Kalm, which he readily promised, but as the Academy had obtained from the convocation of the university of Upsala and the magistrates of Stockholm, another exhibition of the family of Helmsfield for Mr. Kalm, Count Piper refused to grant his exhibition, as being contrary to the statutes of the university and without any precedent, that one person should enjoy two exhibitions. The present king of Sweden being then prince royal, successor to the throne, and chancellor of the university, wrote to the convocation, and expressed his wishes to have from the treasury of the university for so useful a purpose, about 1000 plates, or about 150l. sterling. The university complied generously with the desire of her chancellor, and gave orders that the money should be paid to the Royal Academy. The board for promoting manufactures gave 300 plates, or about 45l. Mr. Kalm spent in this journey his salary, and besides very near 130l. of his own fortune, so that at his return he found himself obliged to live upon a very small pittance. The rest of the expences the Academy made up from her own fund.

We on purpose have given this detail from Mr. Kalm’s long preface, to shew the reader with what public spirit this journey has been supported in a country where money is so scarce, and what a patriotic and laudable ardor for the promotion of sciences in general, and especially of natural history and husbandry animates the universities, the public boards, and even the private persons, in this cold climate, which goes so far, that they chuse rather to spend their own private fortunes, than to give up so beneficial and useful a scheme. We have the same instance in Dr. Hasselquist, who with a sickly and consumptive constitution, went to Asia Minor, Egypt and Palestine, and collected such great riches in new plants and animals, that Dr. Linnæus’s system would never have contained so many species, had he not made use of these treasures, which the queen of Sweden generously bought by paying the debts of Dr. Hasselquist, who died in his attempt to promote natural history. The Reverend Mr. Osbeck in his voyage to China, made an infinite number of useful and interesting observations at the expence of his whole salary, and published them by the contributions of his parish. The Reverend Mr. Toreen died by the fatigues of the same voyage, and left his letters published along with Osbeck, as a monument of his fine genius, and spirit for promoting natural history. We here look upon the expences as trifling, but they are not so in Sweden, and therefore are certainly the best monuments to the honour of the nation and the great Linnæus, who in respect to natural history is the primum mobile of that country.

Professor Kalm having obtained leave of his Majesty to be absent from his post as professor, and having got a passport, and recommendations to the several Swedish ministers at the courts of London, Paris, Madrid, and at the Hague, in order to obtain passports for him in their respective states, set out from Upsala, the 16th. of October 1747, accompanied by Lars Yungstrœm, a gardener well skilled in the knowledge of plants and mechanics, and who had at the same time a good hand for drawing, whom he took into his service. He then set sail from Gothenburgh, the 11th. of December but a violent hurricane obliged the ship he was in to take shelter in the harbour of Grœmstad in Norway, from which place he made excursions to Arendal and Christiansand. He went again to sea February the 8th. 1748, and arrived at London the 17th. of the same month. He staid in England till August 15th. in which interval of time he made excursions to Woodford in Essex, to little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, where William Ellis, a man celebrated for his publications in husbandry lived, but whose practical husbandry Mr. Kalm found not to be equal to the theory laid down in his writings; he likewise saw Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire, Eaton and several other places, and all the curiosities and gardens in and about London: at last he went on board a ship, and traversed the ocean to Philadelphia in Pensylvania, which was formerly called New Sweden, where he arrived September the 26th. The rest of that year he employed in collecting seeds of trees and plants, and sending them up to Sweden; and in several excursions in the environs of Philadelphia. The winter he passed among his countrymen at Raccoon in New Jersey. The next year 1749, Mr. Kalm went through New Jersey and New York along the river Hudson to Albany, and from thence, after having crossed the lakes of St. George and Champlain, to Montreal and Quebec, he returned that very year against winter to Philadelphia, and sent a new cargo of seeds, plants and curiosities to Sweden. In the year 1750, Mr. Kalm saw the western parts of Pensylvania and the coast of New Jersey; Yungstrœm staid in the former province all the summer for the collection of seeds, and Prof. Kalm in the mean time passed New York and the blue mountains, went to Albany, then along the river Mohawk to the Iroquois nations, where he got acquainted with the Mohawk’s, Oneida’s, Tuskarora’s, Onandaga’s and Kayugaw’s. He then viewed and navigated the great lake Ontario, and saw the celebrated fall at Niagara. In his return from his summer expedition, he crossed the blue mountains in a different place, and in October again reached Philadelphia.

In the year 1751, the 13th. of February, he went at Newcastle on board a ship for England, and after a passage subject to many dangers in the most dreadful hurricanes, he arrived March the 27th. in the Thames, and two days after in London. He took passage for Gothenburgh May the 5th. and was the 16th. of the same month at the place of his destination, and the 13th. of June he again arrived at Stockholm, after having been on this truly useful expedition three years and eight months. He afterwards returned again to his place of professor at Aobo, where in a small garden of his own, he cultivates many hundreds of American plants, as there is not yet a public botanical garden for the use of the university, and he with great expectation wishes to see what plants will bear the climate, and bear good and ripe seeds so far north. He published the account of his journey by intervals, for want of encouragement, and fearing the expences of publishing at once in a country where few booksellers are found, and where the author must very often embrace the business of bookseller, in order to reimburse himself for the expences of his publication. He published in his first volume observations on England, and chiefly on its husbandry, where he with the most minute scrupulousness and detail, entered into the very minutiæ of this branch of his business for the benefit of his countrymen, and this subject he continued at the beginning of the second volume. A passage cross the Atlantic ocean is a new thing to Swedes, who are little used to it, unless they go in the few East India ships of their country. Every thing therefore was new to Mr. Kalm, and he omitted no circumstance unobserved which are repeated in all the navigators from the earlier times down to our own age. It would be a kind of injustice to the public, to give all this at large to the reader. All that part describing England and its curiosities and husbandry we omitted. The particulars of the passage from England to Pensylvania we abridged; no circumstance interesting to natural history or to any other part of literature has been omitted. And from his arrival at Philadelphia, we give the original at large, except where we omitted some trifling circumstances, viz. the way of eating oysters, the art of making apple dumplings, and some more of the same nature, which struck that Swedish gentleman with their novelty.

Mr. Kalm makes use of the Swedish measure; its foot is to the English foot, as 1134 to 1350. For his meteorological observations, he employed the thermometer of Prof. Celsius generally made use of in Sweden, and his was of Celsius’s own making; the interval from the point of freezing to the point of boiling water, is equally divided in this thermometer into 100 parts. In the names of plants, we have chiefly employed after his directions the Linnæan names in the last edition of his Spec. Plantarum, and Systema Naturæ, Vol. 2. But as his descriptions of animals, plants, and minerals are very short, he promises to give them at large some time hence in a Latin work. He excuses the negligence of his stile, from the time in which he methodised his observations, which was commonly at night, after being fatigued with the business of the preceding day, when his spirits were almost exhausted, and he, incapable of that sprightliness which commends so many curious performances of that nature.

He gives you his observations as they occurred day after day, which makes him a faithful relater, notwithstanding it takes away all elegance of style, and often occasions him to make very sudden transitions from subjects very foreign to one another. This defect we will endeavour to supply by a very copious index at the end of the whole work, rather than derange the author’s words, which are the more to be relied on, as being instantly committed to paper warm from his reflections.

At last he arms himself with a very noble indifference against the criticism of several people, founded on the great aim he had in view by his performance, which was no less than public utility. This he looks upon as the true reward of his pains and expences.

These are the contents of his long preface. We have nothing to add, but that we intend to go on in this work as soon as possible, hoping to be supported and encouraged in this undertaking, by a nation which is the possessor of that great continent, a great part of which is here accurately and impartially described, especially at this time when American affairs attract the attention of the public.

We intend to join for the better illustration of the work, a map and drawings of American birds and animals which were not in the original. They will be copied from original drawings and real birds and animals from North America, which we have access to, and must therefore give to this translation a superiority above the original and the German translation.

An encourager of this work proposed it as an improvement to the translation of Kalm’s travels, to add in the margin the paging of the original, as by this means recourse would be had easily to the quotations made by Dr. Linnæus. We would very readily have complied with this desideratum, had we had the Swedish edition of this work at hand, or had the work not been too far advanced at the time we got this kind hint: however this will be remedied by a copious index, which will certainly appear at the end of the whole work.

As we have not yet been able to procure a compleat list of the subscribers and encouragers of this undertaking, we choose rather to postpone it, than to give an imperfect one: at the same time we assure the public, that it shall certainly appear in one of the subsequent volumes.

We find it necessary here to mention, that as many articles in Mr. Kalm’s travels required illustrations, the publisher has taken the liberty to join here and there some notes, which are marked at the end with F. The other notes not thus marked were kindly communicated by the publisher’s friends.

Lastly, we take this opportunity to return our most sincere thanks in this public manner to the ladies and gentlemen, who have generously in various ways exerted themselves in promoting the publication of these useful remarks of an impartial, accurate and judicious foreigner, on a country which is at present so much the object of public deliberation and private conversation.

PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

August the 5th. 1748.

I with my servant Lars Yungstrœm (who joined to his abilities as gardener, a tolerable skill in mechanics and drawing) went at Gravesend on board the Mary Gally, Captain Lawson, bound for Philadelphia; and though it was so late as six o’clock in the afternoon, we weighed anchor and sailed a good way down the Thames before we again came to anchor.

August the 6th. Very early in the morning we resumed our voyage, and after a few hours sailing we came to the mouth of the Thames, where we turned into the channel and sailed along the Kentish coast, which consists of steep and almost perpendicular chalk hills, covered at the top with some soil and a fine verdure, and including strata of flints, as it frequently is found in this kind of chalk-hills in the rest of England. And we were delighted in viewing on them excellent corn fields, covered for the greatest part with wheat, then ripening.

At six o’clock at night, we arrived at Deal, a little well known town, situate at the entrance of a bay exposed to the southern and easterly winds. Here commonly the outward bound ships provide themselves with greens, fresh victuals, brandy, and many more articles. This trade, a fishery, and in the last war the equipping of privateers, has enriched the inhabitants.

August the 7th. When the tide was out, I saw numbers of fishermen resorting to the sandy shallow places, where they find round small eminences caused by the excrements of the log worms, or sea worms, (Lumbrici marini. Linn.) who live in the holes leading to these hillocks, sometimes eighteen inches deep, and they are then dug out with a small three tacked iron fork and used as baits.

August the 8th. At three o’clock we tided down the channel, passed Dover, and saw plainly the opinion of the celebrated Camden in his Britannia confirmed, that here England had been formerly joined to France and Flanders by an isthmus. Both shores form here two opposite points; and both are formed of the same chalk hills, which have the same configuration, so that a person acquainted with the English coasts and approaching those of Picardy afterwards, without knowing them to be such, would certainly take them to be the English ones. [1]

August the 9th–12th. We tided and alternately sailed down the channel, and passed Dungness, Fairlight, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, the Peninsula of Portland and Bolthead, a point behind which Plymouth lies; during all which time we had very little wind.

August the 13th. Towards night we got out of the English channel into the Bay of Biscay.

August the 14th. We had contrary wind, and this increased the rolling of the ship, for it is generally remarked that the Bay of Biscay has the greatest and broadest waves, which are of equal size with those between America and Europe; they are commonly half an English mile in length, and have a height proportionable to it. The Baltic and the German ocean has on the contrary short and broken waves.

Whenever an animal is killed on board the ship, the sailors commonly hang some fresh pieces of meat for a while into the sea, and it is said, it then keeps better.

August the 15th. The same swell of the sea still continued, but the waves began to smooth, and a foam swimming on them was said to forebode in calm weather, a continuance of the same for some days.

About noon a north easterly breeze sprung up, and in the afternoon it blew more, and this gave us a fine spectacle; for the great waves rolled the water in great sheets, in one direction, and the north easterly wind curled the surface of these waves quite in another. By the beating and dashing of the waves against one another, with a more than ordinary violence, we could see that we passed a current, whose direction the captain could not determine.

August the 16th–21st. The same favourable breeze continued to our great comfort and amazement, for the captain observed that it was very uncommon to meet with an easterly or north-easterly wind between Europe and the Azores (which the sailors call the Western Islands) for more than two days together; for the more common wind is here a westerly one: but beyond the Azores they find a great variety of winds, especially about this time of the year; nor do the westerly winds continue long beyond these isles; and to this it is owing, that when navigators have passed the Azores, they think they have performed one half of the voyage, although in reality it be but one third part. These isles come seldom in sight; for the navigators keep off them, on account of the dangerous rocks under water surrounding them. Upon observation and comparison of the journal, we found that we were in forty-three deg. twenty-four min. north lat. and thirty and a half degrees west long. from London.

August the 22d. About noon the captain assured us, that in twenty-four hours we should have a south-west wind: and upon my enquiring into the reasons of his foretelling this with certainty, he pointed at some clouds in the south-west, whose points turned towards north-east, and said they were occasioned by a wind from the opposite quarter. At this time I was told we were about half way to Pensylvania.

August the 23d. About seven o’clock in the morning the expected south-west wind sprung up, and soon accelerated our course so much, that we went at the rate of eight knots an hour.

August the 24th. The wind shifted and was in our teeth. We were told by some of the crew to expect a little storm, the higher clouds being very thin and striped and scattered about the sky like parcels of combed wool, or so many skains of yarn, which they said forebode a storm. These striped clouds ran north-west and south-east, in the direction of the wind we then had. Towards night the wind abated and we had a perfect calm, which is a sign of a change of wind.

August the 25th. and 26th. A west wind sprung up and grew stronger and stronger, so that at last the waves washed our deck.

August the 27th. In the morning we got a better wind, which went through various points of the compass and brought on a storm from north-east towards night.

Our captain told me an observation founded on long experience, viz. that though the winds changed frequently in the Atlantic ocean, especially in summer time, the most frequent however was the western, and this accounts for the passage from America to Europe commonly being shorter, than that from Europe to America. Besides this, the winds in the Atlantic during summer are frequently partial, so that a storm may rage on one part of it, and within a few miles of the place little or no storm at all may be felt. In winter the winds are more constant, extensive and violent; so that then the same wind reigns on the greater part of the ocean for a good while, and causes greater waves than in summer.

August the 30th. As I had observed the night before some strong flashes of lightening without any subsequent clap of thunder, I enquired of our captain, whether he could assign any reasons for it. He told me these phœnomena were pretty common, and the consequence of a preceding heat in the atmosphere; but that when lightenings were observed in winter, prudent navigators were used to reef their sails, as they are by this sign certain of an impendent storm; and so likewise in that season, a cloud rising from the north-west, is an infallible forerunner of a great tempest.

September the 7th. As we had the first day of the month contrary wind, on the second it shifted to the north, was again contrary the third, and fair the fourth and following days. The fifth we were in forty deg. three min. north lat. and between fifty-three and fifty-four deg. west long. from London.

Besides the common waves rolling with the wind, we met on the 4th. and 5th. inst. with waves coming from south-west, which the captain gave as a mark of a former storm from that quarter in this neighbourhood.

September the 8th. We crossed by a moderate wind, a sea with the highest waves we met on the whole passage, attributed by the captain to the division between the great ocean and the inner American gulf; and soon after we met with waves greatly inferior to those we observed before.

September the 9th. In the afternoon we remarked that in some places the colour of the sea (which had been hitherto of a deep blue) was changed into a paler hue; some of these spots were narrow stripes of twelve or fourteen fathoms breadth, of a pale green colour, which is supposed to be caused by the sand, or as some say, by the weeds under water.

September the 12th. We were becalmed that day, and as we in this situation observed a ship, which we suspected to be a Spanish privateer, our fear was very great; but we saw some days after our arrival at Philadelphia the same ship arrive, and heard that they seeing us had been under the same apprehensions with ourselves.

September the 13th. Captain Lawson, who kept his bed for the greater part of the voyage, on account of an indisposition, assured us yesterday we were in all appearance very near America: but as the mate was of a different opinion, and as the sailors could see no land from the head of the mast, nor find ground by the lead, we steered on directly towards the land. About three o’clock in the morning the captain gave orders to heave the lead, and we found but ten fathom: the second mate himself took the lead and called out ten and fourteen fathoms, but a moment after the ship struck on the sand, and this shock was followed by four other very violent ones. The consternation was incredible; and very justly might it be so; for there were above eighty persons on board, and the ship had but one boat: but happily our ship got off again, after having been turned. At day break, which followed soon after (for the accident happened half an hour past four) we saw the continent of America within a Swedish mile before us: the coast was whitish, low, and higher up covered with firs. We found out, that the sand we struck on, lay opposite Arcadia in Maryland, in thirty-seven deg. fifty min. North lat.

We coasted the shores of Maryland all the day, but not being able to reach cape Hinlopen, where we intended to take a pilot on board, we cruized all night before the bay of Delaware. The darkness of the night made us expect a rain, but we found that only a copious fall of dew ensued, which made our coats quite wet, and the pages of a book, accidently left open on the deck, were in half an hours time after sun-setting likewise wet, and we were told by the captain and the sailors that both in England and in America a copious dew was commonly followed by a hot and sultry day.

September the 14th. We saw land on our larboard in the west, which appeared to be low, white, sandy, and higher up the country covered with firs, cape Hinlopen is a head of land running into the sea from the western shore, and has a village on it. The eastern shore belongs here to New Jersey, and the western to Pensylvania. The bay of Delaware has many sands, and from four to eleven fathom water.

The fine woods of oak, hiccory and firs covering both shores made a fine appearance, and were partly employed in ship-building at Philadelphia; for which purpose every year some English captains take a passage in autumn to this town, and superintend the building of new ships during winter, with which they go to sea next spring: and at this time it was more usual than common, as the French and Spanish privateers had taken many English merchant ships.

A little after noon we reached the mouth of Delaware river, which is here about three English miles broad, but decreases gradually so much, that it is scarcely a mile broad at Philadelphia.

Here we were delighted in seeing now and then between the woods some farm houses surrounded with corn fields, pastures well-stocked with cattle, and meadows covered with fine hay; and more than one sense was agreeably affected, when the wind brought to us the finest effluvia of odoriferous plants and flowers, or that of the fresh made hay: these agreeable sensations and the fine scenery of nature on this continent, so new to us, continued till it grew quite dark.

Here I will return to sea, and give the reader a short view of the various occurrences belonging to Natural-History, during our crossing the Ocean.

Of sea weeds (Fucus linn.) we saw August the 16th. and 17th. a kind which had a similarity to a bunch of onions tied together, these bunches were of the size of the fist, and of a white colour. Near the coast of America within the American gulf, September the 11th. we met likewise with several sea weeds, one species of which was called by the sailors rock-weed; another kind looked like a string of pearls, and another was white, about a foot long, narrow, every where equally wide and quite strait. From August the 24th. to September the 11th. we saw no other weeds, but those commonly going under the name of Gulf-weed, because they are supposed to come from the gulf of Florida; others call it Sargazo, and Dr. Linnæus, Fucus natans. Its stalk is very slender, rotundato-angulated, and of a dark green, it has many branches and each of them has numerous leaves disposed in a row, they are extremely thin, are serrated, and are a line or a line and a half wide, so that they bear a great resemblance to the leaves of Iceland-moss; their colour is a yellowish green. Its fruit in a great measure resembles unripe juniper berries, is round, greenish yellow, almost smooth on the outside, and grows under the leaves on short footstalks, of two or three lines length; under each leaf are from one to three berries, but I never have seen them exceed that number. Some berries were small, and when cut were quite hollow and consisted of a thin peel only, which is calculated to communicate their buoyancy to the whole plant. The leaves grow in proportion narrower, as they approach the extremities of the branches: their upper sides are smooth, the ribs are on the under sides, and there likewise appear small roots of two, three or four lines length. I was told by our mate that gulf weed, dried and pounded, was given in America to women in childbed, and besides this it is also used there in fevers. The whole ocean is as if it were covered with this weed, and it must also be in immense quantities in the gulf of Florida, from whence all this driving on the ocean is said to come. Several little shells pointed like horns, and Escharæ or Horn wracks are frequently found on it: and seldom is there one bundle of this plant to be met with, which does not contain either a minute shrimp, or a small crab, the latter of which is the Cancer minutus of Dr. Linnæus. Of these I collected eight, and of the former three, all which I put in a glass with water: the little shrimp moved as swift as an arrow round the glass, but sometimes its motion was slow, and sometimes it stood still on one side, or at the bottom of the glass. If one of the little crabs approached, it was seized by its forepaws, killed and sucked; for which reason they were careful to avoid their fate. It was quite of the shape of a shrimp; in swimming it moved always on one side, the sides and the tail moving alternately. It was capable of putting its forepaws entirely into its mouth: its antennæ were in continual motion. Having left these little shrimps together with the crabs during night, I found on the morning all the crabs killed and eaten by the shrimps. The former moved when alive with incredible swiftness in the water. Sometimes when they were quite at the bottom of the glass, with a motion something like to that of a Puceron or Podura of Linnæus; they came in a moment to the surface of the water. In swimming they moved all their feet very close, sometimes they held them down as other crabs do, sometimes they lay on their backs, but as soon as the motion of their feet ceased, they always sunk to the bottom. The remaining shrimps I preserved in spirits, and the loss of my little crabs was soon repaired by other specimens which are so plentiful in each of the floating bundles of gulf-weed. For a more minute description of which I must refer the reader to another work, I intend to publish. In some places we saw a crab of the size of the fist, swimming by the continual motion of its feet, which being at rest, the animal began immediately to sink. And one time I met with a great red crawfish, or lobster, floating on the surface of the sea.

Blubbers, or Medusæ Linn., we found of three kinds: the first is the Medusa aurita Linn.; it is round, purple coloured, opens like a bag, and in it are as if it were four white rings, their size varies from one inch diameter to six inches; they have not that nettling and burning quality which other blubbers have, such for instance as are on the coast of Norway, and in the ocean. These we met chiefly in the channel and in the Bay of Biscay.

After having crossed more than half of the ocean between Europe and America, we met with a kind of blubber, which is known to Sailors by the name of the Spanish or Portugueze man of War, it looks like a great bladder, or the lungs of a quadruped, compressed on both sides, about six inches in diameter, of a fine purple-red colour, and when touched by the naked skin of the human body, it causes a greater burning than any other kind of blubber. They are often overturned by the rolling of the waves, but they are again standing up in an instant, and keep the sharp or narrow side uppermost.

Within the American gulf we saw not only these Spanish men of War, but another kind too, for which the Sailors had no other name but that of a blubber. It was of the size of a pewter plate, brown in the middle, with a pale margin, which was in continual motion.

Of the Lepas anatifera Linn. I saw on the 30th. of August a log of wood, which floated on the ocean, quite covered. Of insects I saw in the channel, when we were in sight of the Isle of Wight several white butterflies, very like to the Papilio Brassicæ Linn. They never settled, and by their venturing at so great a distance from land they caused us just astonishment.

Some common flies were in our cabbin alive during the whole voyage, and it cannot therefore be determined whether they were originally in America, or whether they came over with the Europeans.

Of Cetaceous fish we met with Porpesses, or as some sailors call them Sea-hogs [2] (Delphinus Phocæna, Linn.) first in the channel and then they continued every where on this side the Azores, where they are the only fish navigators meet with; but beyond these isles they are seldom seen, till again in the neighbourhood of America we saw them equally frequent to the very mouth of Delaware river. They always appeared in shoals, some of which consisted of upwards of an hundred individuals; their swimming was very swift, and though they often swam along side of our ship, being taken as it were with the noise caused by the ship cutting the waves, they however soon outwent her, when they were tired with staring at her. They are from four to eight feet long, have a bill like in shape to that of a goose, a white belly, and leap up into the air frequently four feet high, and from four to eight feet in length; though their snoring indicates the effort which a leap of that nature costs them. Our sailors made many vain attempts to strike one of them with the harp iron from the forecastle, when they came within reach, but their velocity always eluded their skill.

Another cetaceous fish, of the Dolphin kind, [3] with which we met, is called by the sailors Bottle-nose, it swims in great shoals, has a head like a bottle, and is killed by a harpoon, and is sometimes eaten. These fish are very large, and some fully twelve feet long; their shape, and manner of tumbling and swimming make them nearly related to Porpesses. They are to be met with every where in the ocean from the channel to the very neighbourhood of America.

One Whale we saw at a distance, and knew it by the water which it spouted up.

A Dog-fish of a considerable size followed the ship for a little while, but it was soon out of sight, without our being able to determine to which species it belonged: this was the only cartilaginous fish we saw on the whole passage.

Of the bony fish, we saw several beyond the Azores, but never one on this side of those isles, one of them was of a large size, and we saw it at a distance; the sailors called it an Albecor, and it is Dr. Linnæus’s Scomber Thynnus.

The Dolphin of the English is the Dorado of the Portugueze, and Dr. Linnæus calls it Coryphæna Hippuris; it is about two feet and a half long, near the head six inches deep, and three inches broad; from the head the Dolphin decreases on all sides towards the tail, where its perpendicular depth is one inch and a half, and its breadth hardly one inch. The colour of the back near the head is a fine green on a silver ground, but near the tail of a deep blue; the belly is white, and sometimes mixed with a deep yellow, on the sides it has some round pale brown spots. It has six and not seven fins as was imagined; two of them are on the breast, two on the belly, one at the tail extending to the anus, and one along the whole back, which is of a fine blue: when the fish is just taken the extremities of the most outward rays in the tail were eight inches one from another. Their motion when they swam behind, or along side of the ship was very slow, and gave a fair opportunity to hit them with the harpoon, though some are taken with a hook and line, and a bait of chicken bowels, small fish, or pieces of his own species, or the flying fish, which latter are their chief food: and it is by their chasing them, that the flying fish leave their element to find shelter in one to which they are strangers. The Dolphins sometimes leap a fathom out of the water, and love to swim about casks and logs of wood, that sometimes drive in the sea. They are eaten with thick butter, when boiled, and sometimes fried, and afford a palatable food, but rather somewhat dry. In the bellies of the fish of this species which we caught, several animals were found, viz. an Ostracion; a little fish with blue eyes, which was yet alive, being just the moment before swallowed, and measuring two inches in length; another little fish; a curious marine insect, and a flying fish, all which not yet being damaged by digestion, I preserved in spirits.

The Flying Fish (Exocoetus volitans, Linn.) are always seen in great shoals, sometimes of an hundred or more getting at once out of the water, being pursued by greater fish, and chiefly by Dolphins; they rise about a yard, and even a fathom above the water in their flight, but this latter height they only are at, when they take their flight from the top of a wave; and sometimes it is said they fall on the deck of ships. The greatest distance they fly, is a good musket-shot, and this they perform in less than half a minute’s time; their motion is somewhat like that of the yellow-hammer, (Emberiza Citrinella, Linn.). It is very remarkable that I found the course they took always to be against the wind, and though I was contradicted by the sailors, who affirmed that they went at any direction, I nevertheless was confirmed in my opinion by a careful observation during the whole voyage, according to which they fly constantly either directly against the wind, or somewhat in an oblique direction. [4]

We saw likewise the fish called Bonetos, (Scomber Pelamys, Linn.) they were likewise in shoals, hunting some smaller fish, which chase caused a noise like to that of a cascade, because they were all swimming close in a body; but they always kept out of the reach of our harpoons.

Of amphibious animals, or reptiles; we met twice with a Turtle, one of which was sleeping, the other swam without taking notice of our ship; both were of two feet diameter.

Birds are pretty frequently seen on the ocean, though Aquatic Birds are more common than Land Birds.

The Petrel (Procellaria Pelagica, Linn.) was our companion from the channel to the shores of America. Flocks of this bird were always about our ship, chiefly in that part of the sea, which being cut by the ship, forms a smooth surface, where they frequently seem to settle, though always on the wing. They pick up or examine every thing that falls accidentally from the ship, or is thrown over board: little fish seem to be their chief food; in day time they are silent, in the dark clamorous; they are reputed to forebode a storm, for which reason the sailors disliking their company, complimented them with the name of witches; but they are as frequent in fair weather, without a storm following their appearance. To me it appeared as if they stayed sometimes half an hour and longer under the waves, and the sailors assured me they did. They look like swallows, and like them they skim sometimes on the water.

The Shearwater (Procellaria Puffinus, Linn.) is another sea-bird, which we saw every where on our voyage, from the channel to the American coasts; it has much the appearance and size of the dark-grey Sea-gull, or of a Duck; it has a brown back, and commonly a white ring round its neck, and a peculiar slow way of flying. We plainly saw some of these birds feed on fish.

The Tropic bird (Phaëton æthereus, Linn.) has very much the shape of a gull, but two very long feathers, which it has in its tail, distinguish it enough from any other bird; its flight is often exceedingly high: the first of this kind we met, was at about forty deg. north lat. and forty-nine or fifty deg. west long. from London.

Common Gulls (Larus canus, Linn.) we saw, when we were opposite the Land’s End, the most westerly cape of England, and when according to our reckoning we were opposite Ireland.

Terns (Sterna hirundo, Linn.) though of a somewhat darker colour than the common ones, we found after the forty-first deg. of north lat. and forty-seventh deg. west long. from London, very plentifully, and sometimes in flocks of some hundreds; sometimes they settled, as if tired, on our ship.

Within the American gulph we discovered a sea-bird at a little distance from the ship, which the sailors called a Sea-hen.

Land-birds are now and then seen at sea, and sometimes at a good distance from any land, so that it is often difficult, to account for their appearance in so uncommon a place. August the 18th. we saw a bird which settled on our ship, and was perfectly like the great Titmouse, (Parus major, Linn.) upon an attempt to catch it, it got behind the sails, and could never be caught.

September the 1st. We observed some Land-birds flying about our ship, which we took for Sand Martins (Hirundo riparia, Linn.) sometimes they settled on our ship, or on the sails; they were of a greyish brown colour on their back, their breast white, and the tail somewhat furcated; a heavy shower of rain drove them afterwards away, September the 2d. a Swallow fluttered about the ship, and sometimes it settled on the mast; it seemed to be very tired; several times it approached our cabin windows, as if it was willing to take shelter there. These cases happened about forty deg. north lat. and between forty-seven and forty-nine deg. west long. from London, and also about twenty deg. long. or more than nine hundred and twenty sea miles from any land whatsoever.

September the 10th. within the American gulph a large bird, which we took for an Owl, and likewise a little bird settled on our sails.

September the 12th. a Wood-pecker settled on our rigging: its back was of a speckled grey, and it seemed extremely fatigued. And another land-bird of the passerine class, endeavoured to take shelter and rest on our ship.

Before I entirely take leave of the sea, I will communicate my observations on two curious phœnomena.

In the channel and in the ocean we saw at night time, sparks of fire, as if flowing on the water, especially where it was agitated, sometimes one single spark swam for the space of more than one minute on the ocean before it vanished. The sailors observed them commonly to appear during, and after a storm from the north, and that often the sea is as if it were full of fire, and that some such shining sparks would likewise stick to the masts and sails.

Sometimes this light had not the appearance of sparks, but looked rather like the phosphorescence of putrid wood.

The Thames-water which made our provision of fresh water, is reputed to be the best of any. It not only settled in the oak casks it is kept in, but becomes in a little time stinking, when stopped up; however this nauseous smell it soon looses, after being filled into large stone juggs, and exposed to the open fresh air for two or three hours together. Often the vapours arising from a cask which has been kept close and stopped up for a great while take fire, if a candle is held near them when the cask is opened, and the Thames water is thought to have more of this quality than any other; though I was told that this even happened with any other water in the same circumstances.

Now I can resume my narrative, and therefore observe that we afterwards sailed on the river with a fair wind, pretty late at night. In the dawn of the evening we passed by Newcastle, a little town on the western shore of the river Delaware. It was already so dark, that we could hardly know it, but by the light which appeared through some of the windows. The Dutch are said to have been the first founders of this place, which is therefore reckoned the most ancient in the country, even more ancient than Philadelphia. But its trade can by no means be compared with the Philadelphia trade, though its situation has more advantages in several respects; one of which is, that the river seldom freezes before it, and consequently ships can come in and go out at any time. But near Philadelphia it is almost every winter covered with ice, so that navigation is interrupted for some weeks together. But the country about Philadelphia and farther up, being highly cultivated, and the people bringing all their goods to that place, Newcastle must always be inferior to it.

I mentioned, that the Dutch laid the foundations of this town. This happened at the time, when this country was as yet subject to Sweden. But the Dutch crept in, and intended by degrees to dispossess the Swedes, as a people who had taken possession of their property. They succeeded in their attempt; for the Swedes not being able to bear with this encroachment, came to a war, in which the Dutch got the better. But they did not enjoy the fruits of their victory long: for a few years after, the English came and deprived them of their acquisition, and have ever since continued in the undisturbed possession of the country. Somewhat later at night we cast anchor, the pilot not venturing to carry the ship up the river in the dark, several sands being in the way.

September 15th. In the dawn of the morning we weighed anchor, and continued our voyage up the river. The country was inhabited almost every where on both sides. The farm-houses were however pretty far asunder. About eight o’clock in the morning we sailed by the little town of Chester, on the western side of the river. In this town, our mate, who was born in Philadelphia, shewed me the places, which the Swedes still inhabit.

At last we arrived in Philadelphia about ten o’Clock in the morning. We had not been more than six weeks, or (to speak more accurately) not quite forty one days on our voyage from Gravesend to this place, including the time we spent at Deal, in supplying ourselves with the necessary fresh provisions, &c. our voyage was therefore reckoned one of the shortest. For it is common in winter time to be fourteen, nineteen, or more weeks in coming from Gravesend to Philadelphia. Hardly any body ever had a more pleasant voyage over this great ocean, than we had. Captain Lawson affirmed this several times. Nay he assured us he had never seen such calm weather in this ocean, though he had crossed it very often. The wind was generally so favourable that a boat of a middling size might have sailed in perfect safety. The sea never went over our cabin, and but once over the deck, and that was only in a swell. The weather indeed was so clear, that a great number of the Germans on board slept on the deck. The cabin windows needed not the shutters. All these are circumstances which show the uncommon goodness of the weather.

Captain Lawson’s civility increased the pleasure of the voyage. For he shewed me all the friendship, that he could have shewn to any of his relations.

As soon as we were come to the town, and had cast anchor, many of the inhabitants came on board, to enquire for Letters. They took all those which they could carry, either for themselves or for their friends. Those, which remained, the captain ordered to be carried on shore, and to be brought into a coffee-house, where every body could make enquiry for them, and by this means he was rid of the trouble of delivering them himself. I afterwards went on shore with him. But before he went, he strictly charged the second mate, to let no one of the German refugees out of the ship, unless he paid for his passage, or some body else paid for him, or bought him.

On my leaving London I received letters of recommendation from Mr. Abraham Spalding, Mr. Peter Collinson, Dr. Mitchel, and others to their friends here. It was easy for me therefore to get acquaintance. Mr. Benjamin Franklin, to whom Pensylvania is indebted for its welfare, and the learned world for many new discoveries in Electricity, was the first, who took notice of me, and introduced me to many of his friends. He gave me all necessary instructions, and shewed me his kindness on many occasions.

I went to day accompanied by Mr. Jacob Bengtson, a member of the Swedish consistory and the sculptor Gustavus Hesselius, to see the town and the fields which lay before it. (The former is brother of the rev. Messrs. Andrew and Samuel Hesselius, both ministers at Christiana in new Sweden, and of the late Dr. John Hesselius in the provinces of Nerik and Wermeland). My new friend had followed his brother Andrew in 1711 to this country, and had since lived in it. I found that I was now come into a new world. Whenever I looked to the ground, I every where found such plants as I had never seen before. When I saw a tree, I was forced to stop, and ask those who accompanied me, how it was called. The first plant which struck my eyes was an Andropogon, or a kind of grass, and grass is a part of Botany I always delighted in. I was seized with terror at the thought of ranging so many new and unknown parts of natural history. At first I only considered the plants, without venturing a more accurate examination.