January the 6th. There are a great number of hares in this country, but they differ from our Swedish ones in their size, which is very small, and but little bigger than that of a rabbit; they keep almost the same grey colour both in summer and winter, which our Northern hares have in summer only; the tip of their ears is always grey, and not black; the tail is likewise grey on the upper side, at all seasons; they breed several times a year: in spring they lodge their young ones in hollow trees, and in summer, in the months of June and July, they breed in the grass. When they are surprised they commonly take refuge in hollow trees, out of which they are taken by means of a crooked stick, or by cutting a hole into the tree, opposite to the place where they lie; or by smoke, which is occasioned by making a fire on the outside of the tree. On all these occasions the greyhounds must be at hand. These hares never bite, and can be touched without any danger. In day-time they [[46]]usually lie in hollow trees, and hardly ever stir from thence, unless they be disturbed by men or dogs; but in the night they come out, and seek their food. In bad weather, or when it snows, they lie close for a day or two, and do not venture to leave their retreats. They do a great deal of mischief in the cabbage-fields; but apple-trees suffer infinitely more from them, for they peel off all the bark next to the ground. The people here agreed that the hares are fatter in a cold and severe winter, than in a mild and wet one, of which they could give me several reasons, from their own conjectures. The skin is useless, because it is so loose, that it can be drawn off; for when you would separate it from the flesh, you need only pull at the fur, and the skin follows: these hares cannot be tamed. They were at all times, even in the midst of winter, plagued with a number of common fleas[7].
January the 16th. The common mice were in great abundance in the towns and in the country; they do as much mischief as in the old countries. Oldmixon in his [[47]]book, the British Empire in America, vol. i. p. 444, writes, that North America had neither rats nor mice before European ships brought them over. How far this is true I know not. It is undoubted, that in several desart places, where no man ever lived, I have seen and killed the common mice, in crevices of stones or mountains; and is it probable that all such mice as are spread in this manner, throughout the inland parts of the country, derive their origin from those which were brought over from Europe?
Rats likewise may be ranked among those animals which do great damage in this country. They live both in the cities and in the country, and destroy the provisions. Their size is the same with that of our rats, but their colour differs; for they are grey, or blue-grey. I enquired of the Swedes, Whether these rats had been here prior to the arrival of the Europeans, or whether they came over in the ships? But I could not get an answer which I might depend upon. All agreed, that a number of these dangerous and mischievous animals were every year brought to America, by ships from Europe and other countries. But Mr. Bartram maintained, that before the Europeans settled here, rats had been in the country; for he saw a great number of them on the high mountains, [[48]]which are commonly called the Blue Mountains, where they lived among stones, and in the subterraneous grottoes which are in those mountains. They always lie very close in the day-time, and you hardly ever see one out; but at night they come out, and make a terrible noise. When the cold was very violent, they seemed quite torpid; for during the continuance of the cold weather, one could not hear the least noise, or shrieking, occasioned by them. It is to be observed, that neither the Swedes nor the English have any dark windows in their houses here. There is hardly a dormer-window in the garret; but only loose boards. The walls in the wooden houses are frequently not closed, even with moss; so that the rooms, though they have fires in them, are no warmer than the outside apartment, or hall. The rooms where the servants sleep have never any fire in them, though the winter is pretty severe sometimes. The rats have, therefore, little or no warmth in winter; but as soon as a milder season makes its appearance, they come out again. We observed several times this winter, that the rats were very active, and made an unusual noise all night, just before a severe cold. It seems, they had some sensation of cold weather being at hand; and that they therefore eat sufficiently, or stored [[49]]up provisions. In mild weather, they were used to carry away apples, and other provisions: therefore, we could always conclude, with certainty, when the rats made an uncommon noise at night, or were extremely greedy, that a severe cold would ensue. I have already observed in the preceding volume, p. 312, that the grey squirrels in this country have the same quality. When these, and the common mice, eat maize, they do not consume the whole grains, but only the loose, sweet and soft kernel, and leave the rest.
January the 21st. The cold now equalled that of Sweden, though this country is so much more southerly. The Celsian or Swedish thermometer was twenty-two degrees below the freezing point, in the morning. As the rooms are without any shutters here, the cracks in the walls not closed with moss, and sometimes no fire-place or chimney in the room, the winters here must be very disagreeable to one who is used to our Swedish warm winter-rooms. But the greatest comfort here is, that the cold is of a very short duration. Some days of this month, the room which I lodged in was such, that I could not write two lines before the ink would freeze in my pen. When I did not write, I could not leave the ink-stand on the [[50]]table; but was forced to put it upon the hearth, or into my pocket. Yet, notwithstanding it was so cold, as appears from the meteorological observations at the end of this volume, and though it snowed sometimes for several days and nights together, and the snow lay near six inches high upon the ground, yet all the cattle are obliged to stay, day and night, in the fields, during the whole winter. For neither the English nor the Swedes had any stables; but the Germans and Dutch had preserved the custom of their country, and generally kept their cattle in stables during winter. Almost all the old Swedes say, that on their first arrival in this country, they made stables for their cattle, as is usual in Sweden; but as the English came, and settled among them, and left their cattle in the fields all winter, as is customary in England, they left off their former custom, and adopted the English one. They owned, however, that the cattle suffered greatly in winter, when it was very cold, especially when it froze after a rain, and that some cattle were killed by it in several places, in the long winter of the year 1741. About noon, the cattle went out into the woods, where there were yet some leaves on the young oak; but they did not eat the leaves, and only bit off the extremities of the [[51]]branches, and the tops of the youngest oaks. The horses went into the maize fields, and ate the dry leaves on the few stalks which remained. The sheep ran about the woods, and on the corn fields. The chickens perched on the trees of the gardens, at night; for they had no particular habitations. The hogs were likewise exposed to the roughness of the weather, within a small inclosure.
A small kind of birds, which the Swedes call Snow-bird, and the English Chuck-bird, came into the houses about this time. At other times, they sought their food along the roads. They are seldom seen, but when it snows. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, calls it Passer nivalis; and Dr. Linnæus, in his Systema Naturæ, calls it Emberiza hyemalis.
The river Delaware was now covered with ice opposite Philadelphia, and even somewhat lower, and the people could walk over it; but nobody ventured to ride over on horseback.
January the 22d. There are partridges in this country; but they are not of the same kind with ours. The Swedes called them sometimes rapphons (partridges), and sometimes aekkerhoens (quails). Some of the English likewise called them partridges, [[52]]others quails. Their shape is almost the same with that of the European partridges, and their nature and qualities the same: I mean, they run and hide themselves, when pursued. But they are smaller, and entirely different in colour. In this work I cannot insert, at large, the descriptions which I have made of birds, insects, quadrupeds, and plants; because it would swell my volume too much. I only observe, that the feet are naked, and not hairy; the back is spotted with brown, black, and white; the breast is dark yellow; and the belly whitish, with black edges on the tips of the feathers. The size is nearly that of a hazel-hen, or tetrao bonasia. Above each eye is a narrow stroke of whitish yellow. These birds are numerous in New Sweden, i. e. this part of the country. On going but a little way, you meet with great coveys of them. However, they keep at a great distance from towns; being either extirpated, or frightened there by the frequent shooting. They are always in lesser or greater coveys, do not fly very much, but run in the fields, and keep under the bushes and near the inclosures, where they seek their food. They are reckoned very delicious food; and the people here prepare them in different ways. For that purpose they are caught, and shot [[53]]in great numbers. They are caught by putting up a sieve, or a square open box, made of boards, in the places they frequent. The people strew some oats under the sieve, and lift it up on one side by a little stick; and as soon as the partridges are got under the sieve, in order to pick up the oats, it falls, and they are caught alive. Sometimes they get several partridges at once. When they run in the bushes, you can come very near them, without starting them. When they sleep at night, they come together in an heap. They scratch in the bushes and upon the field, like common chickens. In spring they make their nests, either under a bush or in the maize fields, or on the hills in the open air: they scratch some hay together, into which they lay about thirteen white eggs. They eat several sorts of corn, and seeds of grass. They have likewise been seen eating the berries of sumach, or rhus glabra. Some people have taken them young, and kept them in a cage till they were tame: then they let them go; and they followed the chickens, and never left the court-yards.
The inclosures made use of in Pensylvania and New Jersey, but especially in New York, are those, which on account of their serpentine form resembling worms, are called [[54]]worm-fences in English. The poles which compose this fence are taken from different trees; but they are not all of equal duration: the red cedar is reckoned the most durable of any, for it holds out above thirty years; but it is very scarce, and grows only in a single place hereabouts, so that no fences can be made of it. It is true, the fences about Philadelphia (which however are different from the worm-fences) are all made of red cedar; but it has been brought by water from Egg-harbour, where it grows in abundance. The supports on which the poles lie are made of the white cedar, or Cupressus thyoides, and the poles which are laid between them of the red cedar or Juniperus Virginiana. Next to the cedar-wood, oak and chesnut are reckoned best. Chesnut is commonly preferred, but it is not every where so plentiful as to be made into fences; in its stead they make use of several sorts of oak. In order to make inclosures, the people do not cut down the young trees, as is common with us, but they fell here and there thick trees, cut them in several places, leaving the pieces as long as it is necessary, and split them into poles of the usual thickness; a single tree affords a multitude of poles. Several old men in this country told me, that the Swedes on their arrival here, [[55]]made such inclosures as are usual in Sweden, but they were forced to leave off in a few years time, because they could not get posts enough; for they had found by experience that a post being put into the ground would not last above four or six years before the part under ground was entirely rotten; but the chief thing was, that they could not get any switches for to tie them together; they made some of hiccory, which is one of the toughest trees in this country, and of the white oak; but in the space of a year or two the switches were rotten, and the fence fell in pieces of itself, therefore they were forced to give over making such inclosures. Several of the new comers again attempted, but with the same bad success, to make fences with posts and switches. The Swedish way of inclosing therefore will not succeed here. Thus the worm-fences are one of the most useful sorts of inclosures, especially as they cannot get any post, made of the woods of this country, to stay above six or eight years in the ground without rotting. The poles in this country are very heavy, and the posts cannot bear them well, especially when it blows a storm; but the worm-fences are easily put up again, when they are thrown down. Experience has [[56]]shewn that an inclosure made of chesnut or white oak seldom holds out above ten or twelve years, before the poles and posts are thoroughly rotten: when the poles are made of other wood, the fences hardly stand six or eight years. Considering how much more wood the worm-fences require, (since they run in bendings) than other inclosures which go in strait lines, and that they are so soon useless, one may imagine how the forests will be consumed, and what sort of an appearance the country will have forty or fifty years hence, in case no alteration is made; especially as wood is really squandered away in immense quantities, day and night all the winter, or nearly one half of the year, for fewel.
February the 8th. The Musk-rats, so called by the English in this country, on account of their scent, are pretty common in North America; they always live near the water, especially on the banks of lakes, rivers, and brooks. On travelling to places where they are, you see the holes which they have dug in the ground just at the water’s edge, or a little above its surface. In these holes they have their nests, and there they continue whenever they are not in the water in pursuit of food. The Swedes call [[57]]them Désmans Rattor[8], and the French, Rats musqués. Linnæus calls this animal Castor Zibethicus. Their food is chiefly the muscles which ly at the bottom of lakes and rivers; you see a number of such shells near the entrance of their holes. I am told they likewise eat several kinds of roots and plants. They differ from the European Musk-rat, or Linnæus’s Castor Moschatus. The teeth are the same in both; the tail of the American is compressed on the sides so, that one sharp edge goes upwards and the other downwards: the hind feet are not palmated, or joined by a moveable skin, but are peculiar for having on both sides of the feet, long, white, close, pectinated, off-standing hair, besides the short hair with which the feet are quite covered. Such hairs are on both sides of the toes, and do the same service in swimming as a web. Their size is that of a little cat, or to be more accurate, the length of the body is about ten inches, and the tail of the same length: the colour of the head, neck, back, sides, and of the outside of the thighs, is blackish brown; the hairs are soft and shining; [[58]]under the neck, on the breasts, and on the inside of the thighs, they are grey. They make their nests in the dykes that are erected along the banks of rivers to keep off the water from the adjoining meadows; but they often do a great deal of damage, by spoiling the dykes with digging, and opening passages for the water to come into the meadows; whereas Beavers stop up all the holes in a dyke or bank. They make their nests of twigs and such like things externally, and carry soft stuff into them for their young ones to ly upon. The Swedes asserted that they could never observe a diminution in their number, but believed that they were as numerous at present as formerly. As they damage the banks so considerably, the people are endeavouring to extirpate them, when they can find out their nests; the skin is paid for, and this is an encouragement towards catching the animal. A skin of a Musk-rat formerly cost but three-pence, but at present they gave from six-pence to nine-pence. The skins are chiefly employed by hatters, who make hats of the hair, which are said to be nearly as good as Beaver hats. The Musk-rats are commonly caught in traps, with apples as baits. In the country of the Iroquese, I saw those Indians following the [[59]]holes of the Musk-rats by digging till they came to their nests, where they killed them all. Nobody here eats their flesh; I do not know whether the Indians eat it, for they are commonly not over nice in the choice of meat. The musk-bag is put between the cloaths in order to preserve them against worms. It is very difficult to extirpate these Rats when they are once settled in a bank. A Swede, however, told me, that he had freed his bank, or piece of dyke along the river, from them in the following manner: He sought for all their holes, stopped them all up with earth, excepting one, on that side from whence the wind came. He put a quantity of sulphur into the open entrance, set fire to it, and then closed the hole, leaving but a small one for the wind to pass through. The smoke of the sulphur then entered their most remote nests, and stifled all the animals. As soon as the sulphur was burnt, he was obliged to dig up part of the ground in the bank, where they had their nests; and he found them lie dead by heaps. He sold the skins, and they paid his trouble, not to mention the advantage he got by clearing his bank of the Musk-rats.
Beavers were formerly abundant in New Sweden, as all the old Swedes here [[60]]told me. At that time they saw one bank after another raised in the rivers by beavers. But after the Europeans came over in great number, and cultivated the country better, the beavers have been partly killed, and partly extirpated, and partly are removed higher into the country, where the people are not so numerous. Therefore there is but a single place in Pensylvania where beavers are to be met with; their chief food is the bark of the beaver-tree, or Magnolia glauca, which they prefer to any other. The Swedes therefore put branches of this tree near the beaver-dykes, into traps, which they laid for the beavers, whilst they were yet plentiful; and they could almost be certain of good success. Some persons in Philadelphia have tamed beavers, so that they go a fishing with them, and they always come back to their masters. Major Roderfert, in New York, related that he had a tame beaver above half a year in his house, where he went about quite loose, like a dog. The major gave him bread, and sometimes fish, which he was very greedy of. He got as much water in a bowl as he wanted. All the rags and soft things he could meet with he dragged into a corner, where he was used to sleep, and made a bed of them. The [[61]]cat in the house, having kittens, took possession of his bed, and he did not hinder her. When the cat went out, the beaver often took the kitten between his fore paws and held it to his breast to warm it, and doated upon it; as soon as the cat returned he gave her the kitten again. Sometimes he grumbled, but never did any hurt, or attempted to bite.