Beares which are all of black colour. The beares of this countrey are good meat; the inhabitants in time of winter do use to take & eate manie; so also somtime did wee. They are taken commonlie in this sort. In some Ilands or places where they are, being hunted for, as soone as they haue spiall of a man they presently run awaie, & then being chased they clime and get vp the next tree they can, from whence with arrowes they are shot downe starke dead, or with those wounds that they may after easily be killed; we sometime shotte them downe with our caleeuers.
I haue the names of eight & twenty seuerall sortes of beasts which I haue heard of to be here and there dispersed in the countrie, especially in the maine: of which there are only twelue kinds that we haue yet discouered, & of those that be good meat we know only them before mentioned. The inhabitants somtime kil the Lyon & eat him: & we somtime as they came to our hands of their Wolues or woluish Dogges, which I haue not set downe for good meat, least that some woulde vnderstand my iudgement therin to be more simple than needeth, although I could alleage the difference in taste of those kindes from ours, which by some of our company haue been experimented in both.
Of Foule.
Turkie cockes and Turkie hennes: Stockdoues: Partridges: Cranes: Hernes: & in winter great store of Swannes & Geese. Of al sortes of foule I haue the names in the countrie language of fourescore and sixe of which number besides those that be named, we haue taken, eaten, & haue the pictures as they were there drawne with the names of the inhabitaunts of seuerall strange sortes of water foule eight, and seuenteene kindes more of land foul, although wee haue seen and eaten of many more, which for want of leasure there for the purpose coulde not bee pictured: and after wee are better furnished and stored vpon further discouery, with their strange beastes, fishe, trees, plants, and hearbes, they shall bee also published.
There are also Parats, Faulcons, & Marlin haukes, which although with vs they bee not vsed for meate, yet for other causes I thought good to mention.
Of Fishe.
For foure monethes of the yeere, February, March, Aprill and May, there are plentie of Sturgeons: And also in the same monethes of Herrings, some of the ordinary bignesse as ours in England, but the most part farre greater, of eighteene, twentie inches, and some two foote in length and better; both these kindes of fishe in those monethes are most plentifull, and in best season, which wee founde to bee most delicate and pleasaunt meate.
There are also Troutes, Porpoises, Rayes, Oldwiues, Mullets, Plaice, and very many other sortes of excellent good fish, which we haue taken & eaten, whose names I know not but in the countrey language; wee haue of twelue sorts more the pictures as they were drawn in the countrey with their names.
The inhabitants vse to take then two maner of wayes, the one is by a kind of wear made of reedes which in that countrey are very strong. The other way which is more strange, is with poles make sharpe at one end, by shooting them into the fish after the maner as Irishmen cast dartes; either as they are rowing in their boates or els as they are wading in the shallowes for the purpose.
There are also in many places plentie of these kindes which follow.