The Spartium scoparium grew in Mr. Bartram’s garden from English seeds; he said that he had several bushes of it, but that the frost in the cold winters here had killed most of them: they however grow spontaneously in Sweden.
Mr. Bartram had same Truffles, or Linnæus’s Lycoperdon Tuber, which he had got out of a sandy soil in New Jersey, where they are abundant. These he shewed to his friend from Carolina, and asked him whether they were the Tuckahoo of the Indians. But the stranger denied it, and added that though these truffles were likewise very common in Carolina, yet he had never seen them used any other way but in milk, against the dysentery; and he gave us the following description of the Tuckahoo. It grows in several swamps and marches, and is commonly plentiful. The hogs greedily dig up its roots with their noses in such places; and the Indians in Carolina likewise gather them in their rambles in the woods, dry them in the sun shine, grind them and bake bread of them. Whilst the root is fresh it is harsh and acrid, but being dried it loses the greatest part of its acrimony. [[288]]To judge by these qualities the Tuckahoo may very likely be the Arum Virginianum. Compare with this account, what shall be related in the sequel of the Tahim and Tuckah.
After dinner I again returned to town.
November the 8th. Several English and Swedish oeconomists kept bee-hives, which afforded their possessors profit: for bees succeed very well here: the wax was for the most part sold to tradesmen: but the honey they made use of in their own families, in different ways. The people were unanimous, that the common bees were not in North America before the arrival of the Europeans; but that they were first brought over by the English who settled here. The Indians likewise generally declare, that their fathers had never seen any bees either in the woods or any where else, before the Europeans had been several years settled here. This is further confirmed by the name which the Indians give them: for having no particular name for them in their language, they call them English flies, because the English first brought them over: but at present they fly plentifully about the woods of North America. However it has been observed that the bees always when they swarm, spread to the southward, and [[289]]never to the northward. It seems as if they do not find the latter countries so good for their constitution: therefore they cannot stay in Canada, and all that have been carried over thither, died in winter. It seemed to me as if the bees in America were somewhat smaller than ours in Sweden. They have not yet been found in the woods on the other side of the Blue Mountains, which confirms the opinion of their being brought to America of late. A man told Mr. Bartram, that on his travels in the woods of North America, he had found another sort of bees, which, instead of separating their wax and honey, mixed it both together in a great bag. But this account wants both clearing up and confirming.
November the 9th. All the old Swedes and Englishmen born in America whom I ever questioned, asserted that there were not near so many birds fit for eating at present, as there used to be when they were children, and that their decrease was visible. They even said, that they had heard their fathers complain of this, in whose childhood the bays, rivers and brooks were quite covered with all sorts of water fowls such as wild geese, ducks, and the like. But at present there is sometimes not a [[290]]single bird upon them; about sixty or seventy years ago, a single person could kill eighty ducks in a morning; but at present you frequently wait in vain for a single one. A Swede above ninety years old, assured me that he had in his youth killed twenty-three ducks at a shot. This good luck no body is likely to have at present, as you are forced to ramble about for a whole day, without getting a sight of more than three or four. Cranes[44] at that time came hither by hundreds in the spring: at present there are but very few. The wild Turkeys, and the birds which the Swedes in this country call Partridges and Hazel-hens were in whole flocks in the woods. But at this time a person is tired with walking before he can start a single bird.
The cause of this diminution is not difficult to find. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the country was uncultivated, and full of great forests. The few Indians that lived here seldom disturbed the birds. They carried on no trade among themselves, iron and gun powder were unknown to [[291]]them. One hundredth part of the fowl which at that time were so plentiful here, would have sufficed to feed the few inhabitants; and considering that they cultivated their small maize fields, caught fish, hunted stags, beavers, bears, wild cattle, and other animals whose flesh was delicious to them, it will soon appear how little they disturbed the birds. But since the arrival of great crouds of Europeans, things are greatly changed; the country is well peopled, and the woods are cut down: the people increasing in this country, they have by hunting and shooting in part extirpated the birds, in part scared them away: in spring the people still take both eggs, mothers and young indifferently, because no regulations are made to the contrary. And if any had been made, the spirit of freedom which prevails in the country would not suffer them to be obeyed. But though the eatable birds have been diminished greatly, yet there are others, which have rather increased than decreased in number, since the arrival of the Europeans: this can most properly be said of a species of daws which the English call Blackbirds[45] and the Swedes Maize thieves, Dr. Linnæus calls them Gracula [[292]]Quiscula. And together with them, the several sorts of Squirrels among the quadrupeds have spread: for these and the former, live chiefly upon maize, or at least they are most greedy of it. But as population increases, the cultivation of maize increases, and of course the food of the above-mentioned animals is more plentiful: to this it is to be added, that these latter are rarely eaten, and therefore they are more at liberty to multiply their kind. There are likewise other birds which are not eaten, of which at present there are nearly as many as there were before the arrival of the Europeans. On the other hand I heard great complaints of the great decrease of eatable fowl, not only in this province, but in all the parts of North America, where I have been.
Aged people had experienced that with the fish, which I have just mentioned of the birds: in their youth, the bays, rivers, and brooks, had such quantities of fish that at one draught in the morning, they caught as many as a horse was able to carry home. But at present things are greatly altered; and they often work in vain all the night long, with all their fishing tackle. The causes of this decrease of fish, are partly the same with those of the diminution of the number of birds; being of late caught [[293]]by a greater variety of contrivances, and in different manners than before. The numerous mills on the rivers and brooks likewise contribute to it in part: for it has been observed here, that the fish go up the river in order to spawn in a shallow water; but when they meet with works that prevent their proceeding, they turn back, and never come again. Of this I was assured by a man of fortune at Boston: his father was used to catch a number of herrings throughout the winter and almost always in summer, in a river, upon his country seat: but he having built a mill with a dyke in this water, they were lost. In this manner they complained here and every where of the decrease of fish. Old people asserted the same in regard to oysters at New York; for though they are still taken in considerable quantity, and are as big and as delicious as can be wished, yet all the oyster-catchers own, that the number diminishes greatly every year: the most natural cause of it, is probably the immoderate catching of them at all times of the year.
Mr. Franklin told me that in that part of New England, where his father lived, two rivers fell into the sea, in one of which, they caught great numbers of herring, and in the other not one. Yet the places where [[294]]these rivers discharged themselves into the sea, were not far asunder. They had observed that when the herrings came in spring to deposit their spawn, they always swam up the river where they used to catch them, but never came into the other. This circumstance led Mr. Franklin’s father who was settled between the two rivers, to try whether it was not possible to make the herrings likewise live in the other river. For that purpose he put out his nets, as they were coming up for spawning, and he caught some. He took the spawn out of them, and carefully carried it across the land into the other river. It was hatched, and the consequence was, that every year afterwards they caught more herrings in that river; and this is still the case. This leads one to believe that the fish always like to spawn in the same place where they were hatched, and from whence they first put out to sea; being as it were accustomed to it.
The following is another peculiar observation. It has never formerly been known that codfish were to be caught at cape Hinlopen: they were always caught at the mouth of the Delaware: but at present they are numerous in the former place. From hence it may be concluded that fish likewise [[295]]change their places of abode, of their own accord.
A captain of a ship who had been in Greenland, asserted from his own experience, that on passing the seventieth deg. of north lat. the summer heat was there much greater, than it is below that degree. From hence he concluded, that the summer heat at the pole itself, must be still more excessive, since the sun shines there for such a long space of time, without ever setting. The same account with similar consequences drawn from thence, Mr. Franklin had heard of the ship captains in Boston, who had sailed to the most northern parts of this hemisphere. But still more astonishing is the account he got from captain Henry Atkins, who still lives at Boston. He had for some time been upon the fishery along the coasts of New England. But not catching as much as he wished, he sailed north, as far as Greenland. At last he went so far, that he discovered people, who had never seen Europeans before (and what is more astonishing) who had no idea of the use of fire, which they had never employed; and if they had known it, they could have made no use of their knowledge, as there were no trees in the country. But they eat the birds and fish which they caught quite [[296]]raw. Captain Atkins got some very scarce skins in exchange for some trifles.