[196] See Appendix, No. XXXIX. (vol. II.)
[197] See Appendix, No. XL. (vol. II.)
[198] "While we were roaming along the shore of Lake Ontario we caught a species of tortoise (testudo picta), which was a gayly-colored shell, and I carried it a day's journey in the carriage, and then turned it out, to see whether, as I was told, it would know its way back to Lake Ontario. I am bound to admit that its instinct on this occasion did not fail, for it made directly for a ravine, in the bottom of which was a stream that would lead it in time to the Genesee River, and this would carry it to its native lake if it escaped destruction at the Falls below Rochester, where the celebrated diver, Sam Patch, perished, after he had succeeded in throwing himself with impunity down several other great waterfalls. There is a fresh-water tortoise in Europe (Terrapena Europea) found in Hungary, Prussia, and Silesia, as far north as latitude 50° to 52°. It also occurs near Bordeaux, and in the north of Italy, 44° and 45° north latitude, which precisely corresponds with the latitude of Lake Ontario."—Lyell's Travels in North America, vol. i., p. 25.
[199] "To the Malacodermous division belongs the remarkable genus Lampyris, which contains the insects commonly called glow-worms. The substance from which the luminous property results has been the subject of frequent experiment and observation. It is obviously under the control of the animal, which, when approached, may frequently be observed to diminish or put out its light. The only species with which we are acquainted in British America is Lampyris corusca. It occurs in Canada, and has been taken at least as far north as latitude 54°. It was originally described by Simmons as a native of Finland and Russia, on the authority of Uddman, but has not since been found there."—Murray, vol. iii., p. 277.
"We saw numerous yellow butterflies, very like a British species. Sometimes forty of them clustering on a small spot resembled a plot of primroses, and as they rose altogether, and flew off slowly on every side, it was like the play of a beautiful fountain."—Lyell's America, vol. i., p. 25.
CHAPTER VI.
Perhaps the saddest chapter in the history of the sons of Adam is furnished by the Red Man of America. His origin is unknown; no records tell the tale of his ancient deeds. A foundling in the human family, discovered by his stronger brethren wandering wild through the forests and over the prairies of the western desert, no fraternal welcome greeted this lost child of nature; no soothing voice of affection fell upon his ear; no gentle kindness wooed him from his savage isolation. The hand of irresistible power was stretched out, not to raise him from his low estate and lead him into the brotherhood of civilized man, but to thrust him away with cruel and unjust disdain.
Little more than three centuries and a half have elapsed since the Indian first gazed with terror and admiration upon the white strangers, and already three fourths of his inheritance are rent away, and three fourths of his race have vanished from the earth; while the sad remnant, few and feeble, faint and weary, "are fast traveling to the shades of their fathers, toward the setting sun."[200] Year by year they wither away; to them the close breath of civilized man is more destructive than the deadliest blight.[202] The arts and appliances which the accumulated ingenuity of ages has provided to aid the labor and enhance the enjoyments of others, have been but a curse to these children of the wilderness. That blessed light which shines to the miserable of this world through the vista of the "shadowy valley," cheering the fainting spirit with the earnest of a glorious future, sheds but a few dim and distorted rays upon the outskirts of the Red Man's forest land.
All the relations of Europeans to the Indian have been alike fatal to him, whether of peace or war; as tyrants or suppliants; as conquerors armed with unknown weapons of destruction; as the insidious purchasers of his hunting-grounds, betraying him into an accursed thirst for the deadly fire-water; as the greedy gold-seekers, crushing his feeble frame under the hated labors of the mine; as shipwrecked and hungry wanderers, while receiving his simple alms, marking the fertility and defenselessness of his lands; as sick men enjoying his hospitality, and, at the same time, imparting that terrible disease[203] which has swept off whole nations; as woodmen in his forest, and intrusive tillers of his ground, scaring away to the far West those animals of the chase given by the Great Spirit for his food: there is to him a terrible monotony of result. In the delicious islands of the Caribbean Sea, and in the stern and magnificent regions of the northeast, scarcely now remains a mound, or stone, or trace even of tradition, to point out the place where any among the departed millions sleep.