However though these animals play such disagreeable tricks, yet the English, the Swedes, the French, and the Indians in these parts tame them. They follow their masters like domestic animals, and never make use of their urine, except they be very much beaten or terrified. When the Indians kill such a polecat, they always eat its flesh, but when they pull off its skin, they take care to cut away the bladder, that the flesh may not get a taste from it. I have spoken with both Englishmen and Frenchmen, who assured me that they had eaten of it, and found it very good meat, and not much unlike the flesh of a pig. The skin which is pretty coarse, and has long hair, is not made use of by the Europeans; but the Indians prepare it with the hair on, and make tobacco pouches of it, which they carry before them.
November the 6th. In the evening I went out of town to Mr. Bartram, I found [[279]]a man with him, who lived in Carolina and I obtained several particulars about that province from him; a few of which I will here mention.
Tar, pitch and rice are the chief products of Carolina. The soil is very sandy, and therefore many pines and firs grow in it, from which they make tar: the firs which are taken for this purpose are commonly such as are dried up of themselves; the people here in general not knowing how to prepare the firs by taking the bark off on one, or on several sides, as they do in Ostrobothnia. In some parts of Carolina they likewise make use of the branches. The manner of burning or boiling, as the man describes it to me, is entirely the same as in Finland. The pitch is thus made: they dig a hole into the ground and smear the inside well with clay, into which they pour the tar, and make a fire round it, which is kept up till the tar has got the consistence of pitch. They make two kinds of tar in the North American colonies: one is the common tar, which I have above described, and which is made of the stems, branches, and roots of such firs, as were already considerably dried out before; which is the most common way in this country. The other way in peeling the bark from [[280]]the firs on one side, and afterwards letting them stand another year; during which the resin comes out between the cracks of the item. The tree is then felled and burnt for tar; and the tar thus made is called green tar, not that there is that difference of colour in it, for in this respect they are both pretty much alike; but the latter is called so from being made of green and fresh trees; whereas common tar is made of dead trees: the burning is done in the same manner as in Finland. They use only black firs; for the white firs will not serve this purpose, though they are excellent for boards, masts, &c. green tar is dearer than common tar. It is already a pretty general complaint that the fir woods are almost wholly destroyed by this practice.
Rice is planted in great quantity in Carolina: it succeeds best in marshy and swampy grounds, which may be laid under water, and likewise ripens there the soonest. Where these cannot be had, they must choose a dry soil; but the rice produced here will be much inferior to the other: the land on which it is cultivated must never be manured. In Carolina they sow it in the middle of April, and it is ripe in September: it is planted in rows like pease, and commonly fifteen inches space is left [[281]]between the rows; as soon as the plants are come up, the field is laid under water. This not only greatly forwards the growth of the rice, but likewise kills all weeds, so as to render weeding unnecessary. The straw of rice is said to be excellent food for cattle, who eat it very greedily. Rice requires a hot climate, and therefore it will not succeed well in Virginia, the summer there being too short, and the winter too cold; and much less will it grow in Pensylvania. They are as yet ignorant in Carolina of the art of making arrack from rice: it is chiefly South Carolina that produces the greatest quantity of rice; and on the other hand they make the most tar in North Carolina.
November the 7th. The stranger from Carolina whom I have mentioned before, had met with many oyster shells at the bottom of a well, seventy English miles distant from the sea, and four from a river: they lay in a depth of fourteen English feet from the surface of the earth: the water in the well was brackish; but that in the river was fresh. The same man, had at the building of a saw-mill, a mile and a half from a river, found, first sand, and then clay filled with oyster shells. Under these he found several bills of sea birds as he called them, which were already quite petrified: they were probably Glossopetræ. [[282]]
There are two species of foxes in the English colonies, the one grey, and the other red: but in the sequel I shall shew that there are others which sometimes appear in Canada. The grey foxes are here constantly, and are very common in Pensylvania and in the southern provinces: in the northern ones they are pretty scarce, and the French in Canada, call them Virginian Foxes on that account: in size they do not quite come up to our foxes. They do no harm to lambs; but they prey upon all sorts of poultry, whenever they can come at them. They do not however seem to be looked upon as animals that cause a great deal of damage; for there is no reward given for killing them: their skin is greatly sought for by hatters, who employ the hair in their work. People have their clothes lined with it sometimes: the grease is used against all sorts of rheumatic pains. These foxes are said to be less nimble than the red ones: they are sometimes tamed; though they be not suffered to run about but are tied up. Mr. Catesby has drawn and described this sort of foxes in his Natural history of Carolina, by the name of the grey American fox, vol. 2. p. 78. tab. 78. A skin of it was sold in Philadelphia for two shillings and six-pence in Pensylvanian currency. [[283]]
The red Foxes are very scarce here: they are entirely the same with the European sort. Mr. Bartram, and several others assured me, that according to the unanimous testimony of the Indians, this kind of foxes never was in the country, before the Europeans settled in it. But of the manner of their coming over I have two different accounts: Mr. Bartram and several other people were told by the Indians, that these foxes came into America soon after the arrival of the Europeans, after an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea to the northward was frozen: from hence they would infer, that they could perhaps get over to America upon the ice from Greenland or the northern parts of Europe and Asia. But Mr. Evans, and some others assured me that the following account was still known by the people. A gentleman of fortune in New England, who had a great inclination for hunting, brought over a great number of foxes from Europe, and let them loose in his territories, that he might be able to indulge his passion for hunting.[43] This is said to have happened [[284]]almost at the very beginning of New England’s being peopled with European inhabitants. These foxes were believed to have so multiplied, that all the red foxes in the country were their offspring. At present they are reckoned among the noxious creatures in these parts; for they are not contented, as the grey foxes with killing fowl; but they likewise devour the lambs. In Pensylvania therefore there is a reward of two shillings for killing an old fox, and of one shilling for killing a young one. And in all the other provinces there are likewise rewards offer’d for killing them, Their skin is in great request, and is sold as dear as that of the grey foxes, that is two shillings [[285]]and six-pence, in Pensylvanian currency.
They have two varieties of Wolves here, which however seem to be of the same species. For some of them are yellowish, or almost pale grey, and others are black or dark brown. All the old Swedes related, that during their childhood, and still more at the arrival of their fathers, there were excessive numbers of wolves in the country, and that their howling and yelping might be heard all night. They likewise frequently tore in pieces, sheep, hogs, and other young and small cattle. About that time or soon after, when the Swedes and the English were quite settled here, the Indians were attacked by the small pox: this disease they got from the Europeans, for they knew nothing of it before: it killed many hundreds of them, and most of the Indians of the country, then called New Sweden died of it. The wolves then came, attracted by the stench of so many corpses, in such great numbers that they devoured them all, and even attacked the poor sick Indians in their huts, so that the few healthy ones had enough to do, to drive them away. But since that time they have disappeared, so that they are now seldom seen, and it is very rarely that they commit [[286]]any disorders. This is attributed to the greater cultivation of the country, and to their being killed in great numbers. But further up the country, where it is not yet so much inhabited, they are still very abundant. On the coasts of Pensylvania and New Jersey, the sheep stay all night in the fields, without the people’s fearing the wolves: however to prevent their multiplying too much, there is a reward of twenty shillings in Pensylvania and of thirty in New Jersey, for delivering in a dead wolf, and the person that brings it may keep the skin. But for a young wolf the reward is only ten shillings of the Pensylvanian currency. There are examples of these wolves being made as tame as dogs.
The wild Oxen have their abode principally in the woods of Carolina, which are far up in the country. The inhabitants frequently hunt them, and salt their flesh like common beef, which is eaten by servants and the lower class of people. But the hide is of little use, having too large pores to be made use of for shoes. However the poorer people in Carolina, spread these hides on the ground instead of beds.
The Viscum filamentosum, or Fibrous misletoe, is found in abundance in Carolina; the inhabitants make use of it as straw in their [[287]]beds, and to adorn their houses; the cattle are very fond of it: it is likewise employed in packing goods.