Travels into North America, Volume 3 (of 3)

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. III. LONDON: Printed for the EDITOR; And Sold by T. Lowndes, in Fleet-street. MDCCLXXI.
I could have left this volume without preface, was it not for some circumstances, which I am going to mention.
The author, however, often does justice to the excellent constitution of Pensylvania , as may be seen Vol. I. p. 58, 59, and likewise pag. 270, 271.
Page 36. The author represents the white cedar-wood as almost entirely destroyed ; though at present, above twenty years after his account, it is still used in Pensylvania , and quantities of it to be had, sufficient both for home consumption, and exportation to the West-India islands.
Page 48. The river Delaware is called one of the greatest rivers in the world ; here, I suppose, the author forgot a great many its superiors.
For the tenor of the above remarks I am indebted to a worthy friend and benefactor.
A word more I must add about the American Fauna and Flora , which I promised in my proposals. The author, who, as far as I know, is still living, has not yet finished this work; these three volumes contain all that he has hitherto published relative to America ; the journal of a whole year’s travelling, and especially his expedition to the Iroquese , and fort Niagara , are still to come; which, as soon as they appear, if Providence spares my life and health, and if my situation allows of it, I will translate into English ; and there are some hopes of obtaining the original from the author. He likewise often promises, in the course of this work, to publish a great Latin work, concerning the animals and plants of North-America , as far as he went through it; which would certainly make the small catalogue I could make, useless. It is likewise probable that the description of the animal kingdom will fall to the share of an abler pen than mine.