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. ↑
8 An Arpent in France contains 100 French perches, and each of those 22 French feet; then the French foot being to the English as 1440 to 1352, an arpent is about 2346 English feet and 8 inches long. See Ordonnances de Louis XIV. sur le fait des Eaux & Forêts. Paris, 1687. p. 112. F. ↑
9 Mr. Kalm says, in his original, that the length of an arpent was so determined, that they reckoned 84 of them in a French lieue or league; but as this does by no means agree with the statute arpent of France, which by order of king Lewis XIV, was fixed at 2200 feet, Paris measure, (see the preceding note) we thought proper to leave it out of the text. F. ↑
10 Marmor schistosum, Linn. Syst. III. p. 40. Marmor unicolor nigrum. Wall.. Min. pag. 61. n. 2. Lime-slates, schistus calcareus. Forst. Introd. to Min. p. 9. F. ↑
11 See the Memoirs of that Academy, for the year 1750, page 284.
The Stillingia Sylvatica is probably one of these roots. F. ↑
16 It seems, that for the future, the fair sex in the English colonies in North-America, will no longer deserve the reproaches Mr. Kalm stigmatizes them with repeatedly, since it is generally reported, that the ladies of late have vied one with another, in providing their families with linen, stockings, and home-spun cloath of their own making, and that a general spirit of industry prevails among them at this present time. F. ↑
20 But by this means they would loose that superiority, which in their wild state they have over the tame cattle; as all the progenies of tamed animals degenerate from the excellence of their wild and free ancestors. F. ↑
22 Cotton-tree. Mr. Kalm mentions before, that this name is given to the Asclepias Syriaca. See Vol. III. p. 28. F. ↑
23 Mr. Kalm describes it thus: Poa culmo subcompresso, panicula tenuissima, spiculis trifloris minimis, flosculis basi pubescentibus. ↑
24 The sol is the lowest coin in Canada, and is about the value of a penny in the English colonies. A livre, or franc, (for they are both the same) contains twenty sols; and three livres, or francs, make an ecu, or crown. ↑
25 Tophus Tubalcaini, Linn. Syst. Nat. III. p. 187, n. 5. Minera ferri subaquosa nigro cærulescens. Wall. Mineral. p. 263. Germ. Ed. p. 340. n. 3. Iron ockres in the shape of crusts, are sometimes cavernous, as the Brush ore. Forster’s Mineral, p. 48. ↑
26 This lime-stone, seems to be a marle, or rather a kind of stone-marle: for there is a whitish kind of it in the Krim-Tartary, and near Stiva or Thebes, in Greece, which is employed by the Turks and Tartars for making heads of pipes, and that from the first place is called Keffekil, and in the latter, Sea-Scum: it may be very easily cut, but grows harder in time. F. ↑
30 Nitrum suillum, Linn. Syst. III. p. 86. Lapis suillus prismaticus Waller. Mineral. p. 59. a. 1. Stink-stone, Forster’s Introd. to Mineralogy. p. 40. ↑
32 The river St. Lawrence, was no more a barrier to the victorious British fleets in the last war, nor were the fortifications of Quebec capable to withstand the gallant attacks of their land army, which disappointed the good Frenchmen in Canada of their too sanguine expectations, and at present, they are rather happy at this change of fortune, which has made them subjects of the British sceptre, whose mild influence they at present enjoy. F. ↑
33 Botanists know this plant by the name of Panax quinquefolium, foliis ternatis quinatis Linn. Mat. Med. § 116. Sp. plant. p. 15, 12. Gronov. Fl. Virg. p. 147. See like wise Catesby’s Nat. Hist. of Carolina. Vol. III. p. 16. t. 16. Laffitau Gins. 51. t. 1. Father Charlevoix Hist. de la Nouvelle France. Tom. IV. p. 308. fig. XIII. and Tom. V. p. 24. ↑
35 Mr. Osbeck seems to doubt whether the Europeans reap any advantages from the Ginseng trade or not, because the Chinese do not value the Canada roots so much as those of the Chinese-Tartary and therefore the former bear scarce half the price of the latter. See Osbeck’s Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 223. F. ↑
36 This is directly opposite to Mr. Osbeck’s assertion. See the preceding page, 114. note †. F. ↑
37 It is the Adiantum pedatum of Linn. sp. pl. p. 1557. Cornutus, in his Canadens. plant. historia, p. 7. calls it Adiantum Americanum, and gives together with the description, a figure of it, p. 6. ↑
39 This is a kind of cabbage, with large round eatable roots, which grow out above the ground wherein it differs from the turnep-cabage (Brassica Napobrassica) whose root grows in the ground. Both are common in Germany, and the former likewise in Italy. ↑
40 This amount seems to be highly probable, for we find [126]in Marco Paolo, that Kublai-Khan, one of the successors of Genghizkhan, after the conquest of the southern part of China, sent ships out, to conquer the kingdom of Japan, or, as they call it, Nipan-gri, but in a terrible storm the whole fleet was cast away, and nothing was ever heard of the men in that fleet. It seems that some of these ships were cast to the shores, opposite the great American lakes, between forty and fifty degrees north latitude, and there probably erected these monuments, and were the ancestors of some nations, who are called Mozemlecks, and have some degree of civilization. Another part of this fleet, it seems, reached the country opposite Mexico, and there founded the Mexican empire, which, according to their own records, as preserved by the Spaniards, and in their painted annals, in Purchas’s Pilgrimage, are very recent; so that they can scarcely remember any more than seven princes before Motezuma II. who was reigning when the Spaniards arrived there, 1519, under Fernando Cortez; consequently the first of these princes, supposing each had a reign of thirty-three years and four months, and adding to it the sixteen years of Motezuma, began to reign in the year 1270, when Kublai-Khan, the conqueror of all China and of Japan, was on the throne, and in whose time happened, I believe, the first abortive expedition to Japan, which I mentioned above, and probably furnished North-America, with civilized inhabitants. There is, if I am not mistaken, a great similarity between the figures of the Mexican idols, and those which are usual among the Tartars, who embrace the doctrines and religion of the Dalaï-Lama, whose religion Kublai-Khan first introduced among the Monguls, or Moguls. The savage Indians of North-America, it seems, have another origin, and are probably descended from the Yukaghiri and Tchucktchi, inhabitants of the most easterly and northerly part of Asia, where, according to the accounts of the Russians, there is but a small traject to America. The ferocity of these nations, similar to that of the Americans, their way of painting, their fondness of inebriating liquors, [127](which the Yukaghiri prepare from poisonous and inebriating mushrooms, bought of the Russians) and many other things, show them plainly to be of the same origin. The Esquimaux seem to be the same nation with the inhabitants of Greenland, the Samoyedes, and Lapponians. South-America, and especially Peru, is probably peopled from the great unknown south continent, which is very near America, civilized, and full of inhabitants of various colours: who therefore might very easily be cast on the American continent, in boats, or proas. F. ↑
42 What bookseller in Sweden could undertake to print such a work at his own expence, without losing considerably by it? ↑
44 Pour faire un récollet il faut une hachette, pour un prêtre un cijeau, mais pour un Jesuite il faut un pinceau. ↑
53 Here follows, in the original, an account of the enclosures made use of near Quebec, which is intended only for the Swedes, but not for a nation that has made such progress in agriculture and husbandry, as the English. F. ↑
54 The kind called Cerisier by the French, I described thus in my journal: Cerasus foliis ovatis serratis, serraturis profundis fere subulatis, fructu racemoso. The other thus: Cerasus foliis lanceolatis, crenato-serratis, acutis, fructu fere solitario. ↑
61 It has been observed by several experiments, that any liquor dipt into another liquor, and then exposed into the air for evaporation, will get a remarkable degree of cold; the quicker the evaporation succeeds, after repeated dippings, the greater is the cold. Therefore spirit of wine evaporating quicker than water, cools more than water; and spirit of sal ammoniac, made by quick-lime, being still more volatile than spirit of wine, its cooling quality is still greater. The evaporation succeeds better by moving the vessel containing the liquor, by exposing it to the air, and by blowing upon it, or using a pair of bellows. See de Mairan, Dissertation sur la Glace, Prof. Richman in Nov. Comment. Petrop. ad an. 1747, & 1748. p. 284. and Dr. Cullen in the Edinburgh physical and literary Essays and Observations. Vol. II. p. 145. F. ↑
64 Of these rings or circles, it is well known all trees get but one every year, so that they serve to ascertain the age of the tree, and the quickness, or slowness of its growth. F. ↑
79 The famous moose-deer is accordingly nothing but an elk; for no one can deny the derivation of moose-deer from moosu. Considering especially, that before the Iroquese or Five Nations grew to that power, which they at present have all over North-America, the Algonkins were then the leading nation among the Indians, and their language was of course then a most universal language over the greater part of North-America; and though they have been very nearly destroyed by the Iroquese, their language is still more universal in Canada, than any of the rest. F. ↑
85 Vinland det goda, or the good wine-land, is the name which the old Scandinavian navigators gave to America, which they discovered long before Columbus. See Torsæi Historia Vinlandiæ antiquæ s. partis Americæ septentrionalis. Hasniæ 1715, 4to. and Mr. George Westmann’s, A. M. Dissertation on that Subject. Abo 1747. F. ↑
92 Forster’s Introd. to Mineralogy, p. 50. Zincum sterilum, Linn. Syst. Nat. III. p. 126. Ed. XII. ↑
94 Pinus foliis geminis longis; ramis triplici fasciculo foliorum terminatis, conis ovatis lævibus. Flor. Canad. ↑
97 Gypsum amiantiforme, Waller. Min. Germ. ed. p. 74. Fibrous or radiated gypsum, Forst. Introd. to Mineralogy, p. 16. ↑
98 All over Poland, Russia, Turky, and Tartary, they smoke out of pipes made of a kind of stone marle, to which they fix long wooden tubes; for which latter purpose, they commonly employ the young shoots of the various kinds of spiræa, which have a kind of pith easily to be thrust out. The stone-marle is called generally sea-scum, being pretty soft; and by the Tartars in Crimea, it is called keffekil. And as it cuts so easily, various figures, are curiously carved in it, when it is worked into pipe-heads, which often are mounted with silver. F. ↑
99 The Moravian brethren in Greenland, coming once over with some Greenlanders to Terra Labrador, the Esquimaux ran away at their appearance; but they ordered one of their Greenlanders to call them back in his language. The Esquimaux hearing his voice, and understanding the language, immediately stopped, came back, and were glad to find a countryman, and wherever they went, among the other Esquimaux, they gave out, that one of their brethren was returned. This proves the Esquimaux to be of a tribe different from any European nation, as the Greenland language has no similarity with any language in Europe. F. ↑
102 The above account of the Esquimaux may be compared with Henry Ellis’s Account of a Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, by the Dobbs Galley and California, &c. and The Account of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North West Passage by Hudson’s Straights, by the Clerk of the California. Two Vols. 8vo. And lastly, with Crantz’s History of Greenland. Two Vols. 8vo. F. ↑
103 It is not only the clearing of woods, but cultivation, and population, that alter the climate of a country, and make it mild. The Romans looked upon the winters of Germany and England as very severe, but happily both countries have at present a much more mild climate than formerly, owing to the three above mentioned reasons. Near Petersburg, under sixty degrees north latitude, the river Neva was covered with ice 1765, in the beginning of December, and cleared of it April the 11th 1766. At Tsaritsin, which is under forty-eight degrees forty minutes north latitude, the river Volga was covered with ice the 26th of November 1765, and the ice broke in the river April the 27th 1766, (all old stile). Is it not almost incredible, that in a place very near twelve degrees more to the south, the effects of cold should be felt longer, and more severely, than in the more northern climate. And though the neighbourhood of Petersburg has a great many woods, the cold was, however, less severe, and lasting; Tsaritsin on the contrary has no woods for many hundred miles in its neighbourhood, if we except some few trees and bushes, along the Volga and its isles, and the low land along it. Wherever the eye looks to the east, there are vast plains without woods, for many hundred miles. The clearing a country of woods, cannot therefore alone contribute so much to make the climate milder. But cultivation does more. On a ploughed field the snow will always sooner melt, than on a field covered with grass. The inflammable warm perticles brought into the field, by the various kinds of manure, contribute much to soften the rigours of the climate; but the exhalations of thousands of men and cattle, in a populous country, the burning of so many combustibles, and the dispersion of so many caustic particles, through the whole atmosphere; these are things which contribute so much towards softening the rigours of a climate. In a hundred square miles near Tsaritsin, there is not so much cultivated land as there is within ten near Petersburg; it is in proportion to the number of the inhabitants of both places, [251]and this makes the chief difference of the climate. There is still another consideration, Petersburg lies near the sea, and Tsaritsin in an inland country; and, generally speaking, countries near the sea have been observed to enjoy a milder climate. These few remarks will be, I believe, sufficient to enable every body to judge of the changes of the climate in various countries, which, no doubt, grow warmer and more temperate, as cultivation and population increase. F. ↑
120 Asteres. Solidagines. Achillea millefolium. Prunella vulgaris. Carduus crispus. Oenothera biennis. Rudbeckia triloba. Viola Canadensis. Gentiana Saponaria. ↑