Tea, coffee, and chocolate, which are at present universally in use here, were then[22] wholly unknown. Bread and butter, and other substantial food, was what they breakfasted upon; and the above-mentioned superfluities have only been lately introduced, according to the account of the old Swede. [[123]]Sugar and treacle they had in abundance, as far as he could remember; and rum formerly bore a more moderate price.
From the accounts of this old Swede I concluded, that before the English settled here, they followed wholly the customs of Old Sweden; but after the English had been in the country for some time, the Swedes began gradually to follow their customs. When this Swede was but a boy, there were two Swedish smiths here, who made hatchets, knives, and scythes, exactly like the Swedish ones, and made them sharper than they can be got now. The hatchets now in use are in the English way, with a broad edge; and their handles are very narrow, Almost all the Swedes made use of baths; and they commonly bathed every Saturday. They celebrated Christmas with several sorts of games, and with several peculiar dishes, as is usual in Sweden; all which is now, for the greatest part, left off. In the younger years of this Swede, they made a peculiar kind of carts here. They sawed thick pieces of liquid-amber trees, and made use of two of them for the foremost wheels, and of two more for the hindmost. With those carts they brought home their wood. Their sledges were at that [[124]]time made almost in the same manner as they are now, or about as broad again as the true Swedish ones. Timber and great beams of wood were carried upon a dray. They baked great loaves, such as they do now. They had never any biscuit, though the clergymen, who came from Sweden, commonly got some baked.
The English on their arrival here bought large tracts of land of the Swedes, at a very inconsiderable price. The father of the old Swede sold an estate to the English, which at this time would be reckoned worth three hundred pounds, for which he got a cow, a sow, and a hundred gourds.
With regard to the decrease of birds, the number of them and fish, he was wholly of that opinion which I have already mentioned[23]. This was the account which the old man gave me of the former state of the Swedes in this country. I shall speak more particularly of it in the sequel.
Hurricanes are sometimes very violent here, and often tear up great trees. They sometimes proceed as it were in peculiar tracts, or lines. In some places, especially in the hurricane’s tract, all the [[125]]trees are struck down, and it looks as if the woods were cut down designedly; but close to the tract the trees receive no hurt. Such is the place which was shewn to me to-day. It is dangerous to go into the woods where the hurricanes blow; for the trees fall before one has time to guard himself, or make the least provision for his security.
The Pensylvanian Asp was now in full blossom. But neither this tree, nor those near a-kin to it, shewed their leaves.
An old countryman asserted that he commonly sowed a bushel of rye, on an acre of ground, and got twenty bushels in return; but from a bushel of barley he got thirty bushels. However in that case the ground must be well prepared. Wheat returns about as much as rye. The soil was a clay mixed with sand and mould.
In the evening I returned[24].
March the 28th. I found a black beetle[25] (Scarabæus) with a pentagonal [[126]]oval Clypeus or shield, on the head a short blunt horn, and a gibbous, or hump-backed Thorax, or Corselet. This beetle is one of the bigger sort here. I found here and there holes on the hills, which were so wide that I could put my finger into them. On digging them up I always found these beetles lying at the bottom, about five inches under ground. Sometimes there were short whitish worms, about as thick as one’s finger, which lay with the beetles; and perhaps they were related to them. There were likewise other insects in such holes, as, a black cricket (Gryllus campestris)? spiders, earth-beetles (Carabi), and others. This beetle had a scent exactly like the Trifolium melilotus cærulea, or the blue melilot. It was entirely covered with oblong pale ticks (Acari). Its feet were as strong as those of the common Dung-chaffer (Scarabæus stercorarius).
April the 4th. A Cicindela, or shining beetle, with a gold-green head, thorax, and feet, and a blue green abdomen or belly, flew every where about the fields, and was hunting other insects. It is very common in North America, and seems to be a mere variety of the Cicindela campestris.