End of the Third Volume.
[[311]]
[1] De verdronkene landen. [↑]
[2] It seems Mr. Kalm has forgotten his own assertions in the first volume. Dr. Colden, Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Bartram, have been the great promoters and investigators of nature in this country; and how would the inhabitants of Old England have gotten the fine collections of North-American trees, shrubs, and plants, which grow at present almost in every garden, and are as if it were naturalized in Old England, had they not been assisted by their friends, and by the curious in North-America. One need only cast an eye on Dr. Linnæus’s new edition of his Systema, and the repeated mention of Dr. Garden, in order to be convinced that the English in America have contributed a greater share towards promoting natural history, than any nation under heaven, and certainly more than the French, though their learned men are often handsomely pensioned by their great Monarque: on the other hand the English study that branch of knowledge, from the sole motive of its utility, and the pleasure it affords to a thinking being, without any of those mercenary views, held forth to the learned of other countries. And as to the other parts of literature, the English in America are undoubtedly superior to the French in Canada, witness the many useful institutions, colleges, and schools founded in the English colonies in North-America, and so many very considerable libraries now erecting in this country, which contain such a choice of useful and curious books, as were very little known in Canada, before it fell into the hands of the English; not to mention the productions of original genius written by Americans born. F. [↑]
[4] The country of the Illinois is on the river Ohio, near the place where the English have found some bones, supposed to belong to elephants. See Vol. I. p. 135. in the note. [↑]
[5] In France the young blanched leaves, which scarce peep out of molehills, and have yet a yellow colour, are universally eaten as a sallad, under the name of Pisenlit. F. [↑]
[7] A sol in France is about the value of one half penny sterling. [↑]