The English and the Swedes gave the name of Mink to an animal of this country, which likewise lives either in the water, or very near it. I have never had an opportunity to see any more than the skin of this animal. But the shape of the skin, and the unanimous accounts I have heard of it, make me conclude with much certainty, that it belonged to the genus of weasels or mustelæ. The greatest skin I ever saw, was one foot, eight inches long, a lesser one was about ten inches long, and about three inches, one third broad, before it was cut; the colour was dark brown, and sometimes almost black; the tail was bushy, as that of a marten; the hair was very close; and the ears short, with short hair. The length of the feet belonging to the lesser skin was about two inches long. I am told this animal is so similar to the American polecat, or Viverra putorius, [[62]]that they are hardly distinguishable[9]. I have had the following accounts given me of its way of living; it seldom appears in day-time, but at night it comes out of the hollow trees, on the banks of rivers. Sometimes it lives in the docks and bridges, at Philadelphia, where it is a cruel enemy to the rats. Sometimes it gets into the court-yards at night, and creeps into the chicken-house, through a small hole, where it kills all the poultry, and sucks their blood, but seldom eats one. If it meets with geese, fowls, ducks, or other birds on the road, it kills and devours them. It lives upon fish and birds. When a brook is near the houses, it is not easy to keep ducks and geese, for the mink, which lives near rivers, kills the young ones. It first kills as many as it can come at, and then it carries them off, and feasts upon them. In banks and dykes near the water, it likewise does mischief, with digging. To catch it the people put up traps, into which they put heads of birds, fishes, or other meat. The skin is sold in the towns, and at Philadelphia; they give twenty-pence and even two shillings a-piece for them, [[63]]according to their size. Some of the ladies get muffs made of these skins; but for the greatest part they are sent over to England, from whence they are distributed to other countries. The old Swedes told me that the Indians formerly used to eat all kinds of flesh, except that of the mink.
I have already mentioned something of the Raccoon; I shall here add more of the nature of this animal, in a place which is properly its native country[10]. The English call it every where by the name of Raccoon, which name they have undoubtedly taken from one of the Indian nations; the Dutch call it Hespan, the Swedes, Espan, and the Iroquese, Attigbro. It commonly lodges in hollow trees, lies close in the day-time, never going out but on a dark, cloudy day; but at night it rambles and seeks its food. I have been told by several people, that in bad weather, especially when it snows and blows a storm, the Raccoon lies in its hole for a week together without coming out once; during that time it lives by sucking and licking its paws. Its food are several sorts of fruit, such as maize, whilst the ears are soft. In gardens it often does a great deal of damage among the apples, chesnuts, plumbs, and [[64]]wild grapes, which are what it likes best; among the poultry it is very cruel. When it finds the hens on their eggs, it first kills them, and then eats the eggs. It is caught by dogs, which trace it back to its nest, in hollow trees, or by snares and traps, in which a chicken, some other bird, or a fish, is put as a bait. Some people eat its flesh. It leaps with all its feet at once; on account of this and of several other qualities, many people here reckoned it to the genus of bears. The skin sold for eighteen-pence, at Philadelphia. I was told that the Raccoons were not near so numerous as they were formerly; yet in the more inland parts they were abundant. I have mentioned the use which the hatters make of their furs; as likewise that they are easily tamed, that they are very greedy of sweet-meats, &c. in the preceding volume. Of all the North American wild quadrupeds none can be tamed to such a degree as this.
February the 10th. In the morning I went to Philadelphia, where I arrived towards night. On my arrival at the ferry upon the river Delaware, I found the river quite covered with drifts of ice, which at first prevented our crossing the water. After waiting about an hour, and making an opening near the ferry, I, together with [[65]]many more passengers, got over, before any more shoals came on. As it began to freeze very hard soon after the twelfth of January (or New Year, according to the old style) the river Delaware was covered with ice, which by the intenseness of the frost grew so strong, that the people crossed the river with horses at Philadelphia. The ice continued till the eighth of February, when it began to get loose, and the violent hurricane, which happened that night, broke it, and it was driven down so fast, that on the twelfth of February not a single shoal came down, excepting a piece or two near the shore.
Crows flew in great numbers together to-day, and settled on the tops of trees. During the whole winter we hardly observed one, though they are said to winter there. During all this spring they commonly used to sit at the tops of trees in the morning; yet not all together, but in several trees. They belong to the noxious birds in this part of the world, for they chiefly live upon corn. After the maize is planted or sown, they scratch the grains out of the ground and eat them. When the maize begins to ripen, they peck a hole into the involucrum which surrounds the ear, by which means the maize is spoiled, as the rain passes [[66]]through the hole which they have made, and occasions the putrefaction of the corn. Besides eating corn, they likewise steal chickens. They are very fond of dead carcasses. Some years ago the government of Pensylvania had given three-pence, and that of New Jersey four-pence premium for every head of a Crow, but this law has now been repealed, as the expences are too great. I have seen the young Crows of this kind in several places playing with tame ones whose wings were cut. The latter hopped about the fields, near the farm-houses where they belonged to, but always returned again, without endeavouring to escape on any occasion. These American Crows are only a variety of the Royston Crow, or Linnæus’s Corvus Cornix.
February the 12th. In the afternoon I returned to Raccoon from Philadelphia.
On my journey to Raccoon, I attentively observed the trees which had yet any leaves left. The leaves were pale and dried up, but not all dropt from the following trees:
The Beach-tree, (Fagus sylvatica) whether great or small; it always kept a considerable part of its leaves during the whole winter even till spring. The greater trees kept the lowermost leaves. [[67]]
The white oak (Quercus alba). Most of the young trees which were not above a quarter of a yard in diameter, had the greatest part of their leaves still on them, but the old trees had lost most of theirs, except in some places where they have got new shoots. The colour of the dry leaves was much paler in the white oak than in the black one.
The black oak (as it is commonly called here). Dr. Linnæus calls it the red oak, Quercus rubra. Most of the young trees still preserved their dried leaves. Their colour was reddish brown, and darker than that of the white oak.
The Spanish oak, which is a mere variety of the black oak. The young trees of this kind likewise keep their leaves.