Part 7

The houses which the Swedes built when they first settled here, were very bad. The whole house consisted of one little room, the door of which was so low, that one was obliged to stoop in order to get in. As they had brought no glass with them, they were obliged to be content with little holes, before which a moveable board was fastened. They found no moss, or at least none which could have been serviceable in stopping up holes or cracks in the walls. They were therefore forced to close them, both without and within, with clay. The chimnies were made in a corner, either of grey sand, a stone, or (in places where no stone was to be got) of mere clay, which they laid very thick in one corner of the house. The ovens for baking were likewise in the rooms. Formerly the Swedes had proper stables for the cattle; but after the English came hither, and made no peculiar buildings for their cattle, the Swedes likewise left off making stables.

Before the English came to settle here, the Swedes could not get as many cloaths as they wanted; and were therefore obliged to make shift as well as they could. The men wore waistcoats and breeches of skins. Hats were not in fashion; and they made little caps, provided with flaps before. They had worsted stockings. Their shoes were of their own making. Some of them had learnt to prepare leather, and to make common shoes, with heels; but those who were not shoemakers by profession, took the length of their feet, and sewed the leather together accordingly; taking a piece for the sole, one for the hind-quarters, and one more for the upper-leather. At that time, they likewise sowed flax here, and wove linen cloth. Hemp was not to be got; and they made use of flaxen ropes and fishing tackle. The women were dressed in jackets and petticoats of skins. Their beds, excepting the sheets, were skins of several animals; such as bears, wolves, &c.

Tea, coffee, and chocolate, which are at present universally in use here, were then [22] wholly unknown. Bread and butter, and other substantial food, was what they breakfasted upon; and the above-mentioned superfluities have only been lately introduced, according to the account of the old Swede. Sugar and treacle they had in abundance, as far as he could remember; and rum formerly bore a more moderate price.

From the accounts of this old Swede I concluded, that before the English settled here, they followed wholly the customs of Old Sweden; but after the English had been in the country for some time, the Swedes began gradually to follow their customs. When this Swede was but a boy, there were two Swedish smiths here, who made hatchets, knives, and scythes, exactly like the Swedish ones, and made them sharper than they can be got now. The hatchets now in use are in the English way, with a broad edge; and their handles are very narrow, Almost all the Swedes made use of baths; and they commonly bathed every Saturday. They celebrated Christmas with several sorts of games, and with several peculiar dishes, as is usual in Sweden; all which is now, for the greatest part, left off. In the younger years of this Swede, they made a peculiar kind of carts here. They sawed thick pieces of liquid-amber trees, and made use of two of them for the foremost wheels, and of two more for the hindmost. With those carts they brought home their wood. Their sledges were at that time made almost in the same manner as they are now, or about as broad again as the true Swedish ones. Timber and great beams of wood were carried upon a dray. They baked great loaves, such as they do now. They had never any biscuit, though the clergymen, who came from Sweden, commonly got some baked.

The English on their arrival here bought large tracts of land of the Swedes, at a very inconsiderable price. The father of the old Swede sold an estate to the English, which at this time would be reckoned worth three hundred pounds, for which he got a cow, a sow, and a hundred gourds.

With regard to the decrease of birds, the number of them and fish, he was wholly of that opinion which I have already mentioned [23]. This was the account which the old man gave me of the former state of the Swedes in this country. I shall speak more particularly of it in the sequel.

Hurricanes are sometimes very violent here, and often tear up great trees. They sometimes proceed as it were in peculiar tracts, or lines. In some places, especially in the hurricane’s tract, all the trees are struck down, and it looks as if the woods were cut down designedly; but close to the tract the trees receive no hurt. Such is the place which was shewn to me to-day. It is dangerous to go into the woods where the hurricanes blow; for the trees fall before one has time to guard himself, or make the least provision for his security.

The Pensylvanian Asp was now in full blossom. But neither this tree, nor those near a-kin to it, shewed their leaves.

An old countryman asserted that he commonly sowed a bushel of rye, on an acre of ground, and got twenty bushels in return; but from a bushel of barley he got thirty bushels. However in that case the ground must be well prepared. Wheat returns about as much as rye. The soil was a clay mixed with sand and mould.

In the evening I returned [24].

March the 28th. I found a black beetle [25] (Scarabæus) with a pentagonal oval Clypeus or shield, on the head a short blunt horn, and a gibbous, or hump-backed Thorax, or Corselet. This beetle is one of the bigger sort here. I found here and there holes on the hills, which were so wide that I could put my finger into them. On digging them up I always found these beetles lying at the bottom, about five inches under ground. Sometimes there were short whitish worms, about as thick as one’s finger, which lay with the beetles; and perhaps they were related to them. There were likewise other insects in such holes, as, a black cricket (Gryllus campestris)? spiders, earth-beetles (Carabi), and others. This beetle had a scent exactly like the Trifolium melilotus cærulea, or the blue melilot. It was entirely covered with oblong pale ticks (Acari). Its feet were as strong as those of the common Dung-chaffer (Scarabæus stercorarius).

April the 4th. A Cicindela, or shining beetle, with a gold-green head, thorax, and feet, and a blue green abdomen or belly, flew every where about the fields, and was hunting other insects. It is very common in North America, and seems to be a mere variety of the Cicindela campestris.

Cimex lacustris, a kind of Water-bugs, hopped in numbers on the surface of waters which had a slow course.

Dytiscus piceus, or, the great Water-beetle, swam sometimes in the water.

About sixty years ago, the greatest part of this country was covered with tall and thick trees, and the swamps were full of water. But it has undergone so great a change, as few other places have undergone, in so short a time. At present the forests are cut down in most places, the swamps drained by ditches, the country cultivated, and changed into corn-fields, meadows, and pastures. Therefore, it seems very reasonable to suppose, that so sudden a change has likewise had some effect upon the weather. I was therefore desirous of hearing from the old Swedes, who have lived the longest in this country, and have been inhabitants of this place during the whole time of the change mentioned, whether the present state of the weather was in some particulars remarkably different from that which they felt in their younger years? The following is an account which they all unanimously gave me in answer to this question.

The winter came sooner formerly than it does now. Mr. Isaac Norris, a wealthy merchant, who has a considerable share in the government of Pensylvania, confirmed this by a particular account. His father, one of the first English merchants in this country, observed, that in his younger years, the river Delaware was commonly covered with ice, about the middle of November, old style, so that the merchants were obliged to bring down their ships in great haste before that time, for fear of their being obliged to ly all winter. On the contrary, this river seldom freezes over at present, before the middle of December, old stile.

It snowed much more in winter, formerly, than it does now; but the weather in general was likewise more constant and uniform; and when the cold set in, it continued to the end of February, or till March, old style, when it commonly began to grow warm. At present, it is warm, even the very next day after a severe cold; and sometimes the weather changes several times a day.

Most of the old people here were of opinion, that spring came much later at present, than formerly, and that it was now much colder in the latter end of February, and the whole month of May, than when they were young. Formerly the fields were as green, and the air as warm, towards the end of February, as it is now in March, or in the beginning of April, old stile. The Swedes at that time made use of this phrase: Pask bitida, Pask sent, altid Gras, that is, we have always grass at Easter, whether it be soon or late in the year. But perhaps we can account as follows, for the opinion which the people here have, that vegetation appeared formerly more forward than it does now. Formerly the cattle were not so numerous as now; however, the woods were full of grass and herbs, which, according to the testimony of all the old people here, grew to the height of a man. At present a great part of the annual grasses and plants have been entirely extirpated by the continual grazing of numbers of cattle. These annual grasses were probably green very early in spring, and (being extirpated) might lead the people to believe, that every thing came on sooner formerly, than it does at present.

It used to rain more abundantly than it does now, during the harvest especially, the rains fell in such plenty, that it was very difficult to bring home the hay and corn. Some of the last years had been extremely dry. However, a few people were of opinion that it rained as plentifully at present, as formerly.

All the people agreed, that the weather was not by far so inconstant, when they were young, as it is now. For at present it happens at all times of the year, that when a day has been warm, the next is very cold, and vice versa. It frequently happens that the weather alters several times in one day; so that when it has been a pretty warm morning, the wind blows from N. W. about ten o’clock, and brings a cold air with it; yet a little after noon it may be warm again. My meteorological observations sufficiently confirm the reality of these sudden changes of weather, which are said to cause in a great measure the people to be more unhealthy at present, than they were formerly.

I likewise found every body agree in asserting, that the winter, betwixt the autumn of the year 1697, and the spring of the year 1698, was the coldest and the severest which they had ever felt.

April the 6th. Sanguinaria Canadensis, which is here called Blood-root, because the root is great and red, and, when cut, looks like the root of red beet, and the Epigæa repens, which some call the creeping ground Laurel, were both beginning to flower. The former grew in a rich mould, the other in a poorer soil.

The Laurus æstivalis, which some people call Spice-wood, likewise began to blossom about this time; its leaves were not yet broke out; it liked a moist soil in the woods.

April the 9th. Apocynum Cannabinum was by the Swedes called Hemp of the Indians; [26] and grew plentifully in old corn-grounds, in woods, on hills, and in high glades. The Swedes have given it the name of Indian hemp, because the Indians formerly, and even now, apply it to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp; for the stalk may be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. When the Indians were yet settled among the Swedes, in Pensylvania and New Jersey, they made ropes of this Apocynum, which the Swedes bought, and employed them as bridles, and for nets. These ropes were stronger, and kept longer in water, than such as were made of common hemp. The Swedes commonly got fourteen yards of these ropes for one piece of bread. Many of the Europeans still buy such ropes, because they last so well. The Indians likewise make several other stuffs of their hemp. On my journey through the country of the Iroquese, I saw the women employed in manufacturing this hemp. They made use neither of spinning-wheels nor distaffs, but rolled the filaments upon their bare thighs, and made thread and strings of them, which they dyed red, yellow, black, &c. and afterwards worked them into stuffs, with a great deal of ingenuity. The plant is perennial, which renders the annual planting of it altogether unnecessary. Out of the root and stalk of this plant, when it is fresh, comes a white milky juice, which is somewhat poisonous. Sometimes the fishing tackle of the Indians consists entirely of this hemp. The Europeans make no use of it, that I know of.

Flax and Cat-tail, were names given to a plant which grows in bays, rivers, and in deep whirlpools, and which is known to botanists by the name of Typha latifolia. Its leaves are here twisted together, and formed into great oblong rings, which are put upon the horse’s neck, between the mane and the collar, in order to prevent the horse’s neck from being hurt by the collar. The bottoms of chairs were frequently made of these leaves, twisted together. Formerly the Swedes employed the wool or cotton which surrounds its seeds, and put it into their beds, instead of feathers; but as it coalesces into lumps after the beds have been used for some time, they have left off making use of them. I omit the use of this plant in physic, it being the peculiar province of the physicians.

A species of Leek [27], very like that which appears only in woods on hills in Sweden, grows at present on almost all corn-fields mixed with sand. The English here called it Garlick. On some fields it grew in great abundance. When the cattle grazed on such fields, and ate the garlick, their milk, and the butter which was made of it, tasted so strongly of it, that they were scarce eatable. Sometimes they sold butter in the Philadelphia markets, which tasted so strongly of garlick that it was entirely useless. On this account, they do not suffer milking cows to graze on fields where garlick abounds: this they reserve for other species of cattle. When the cattle eat much of this garlick in summer, their flesh has likewise such a strong flavour, that it is unfit for eating. This kind of garlick appears early in spring; and the horses always passed by it, without ever touching it.

It would take too much room in my Journal, and render it too prolix, were I to mark down the time when every wild plant in this country was in blossom, when it got ripe seeds, what soil was peculiar to it, besides other circumstances. Some of my readers would be but little amused with such a botanical digression. I intend therefore to reserve all this for another work, which will give a particular account of all the plants of North America; and I shall only mention such trees and plants here, which deserve to be made known for some peculiar quality.

April the 12th. This morning I went to Philadelphia and the places adjacent, in order to know whether there were more plants lately sprung up, than at Raccoon, and in New Jersey in general. The wet weather which had happened the preceding days, had made the roads very bad in low and clayey places.

The leaves which dropt last autumn had covered the ground, in depth three or four inches. As this seems to hinder the growth of the grass, it was customary to burn it in March or at the end of that month, (according to the old stile) in order to give the grass the liberty of growing up. I found several spots burnt in this manner to-day; but if it be useful one way, it does a great deal of damage in another; all the young shoots of several trees were burnt with the dead leaves, which diminishes the woods considerably; and in such places where the dead leaves had been burnt for several years together, the old trees only were left, which being cut down, there remains nothing but a great field, without any wood. At the same time all sorts of trees and plants are consumed by the fire, or at least deprived of their power of budding; a great number of the plants, and most of the grasses here, are annual; their seeds fall between the leaves, and by that means are burnt: This is another cause of universal complaint, that grass is much scarcer at present in the woods than it was formerly; a great number of dry and hollow trees are burnt at the same time, though they could serve as fewel in the houses, and by that means spare part of the forests. The upper mould likewise burns away in part by that means, not to mention several other inconveniences with which this burning of the dead leaves is attended. To this purpose the government of Pensylvania have lately published an edict, which prohibits this burning; nevertheless every one did as he pleased, and this prohibition met with a general censure.

There were vast numbers of Woodlice in the woods about this time; they are a very disagreeable insect, for as soon as a person sits down on an old stump of a tree, or on a tree which is cut down, or on the ground itself, a whole army of Woodlice creep upon his clothes, and insensibly come upon the naked body. I have given a full account of their bad qualities, and of other circumstances relating to them, in the Memoirs of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. See the Volume for the year 1754, page 19.

I had a piece of petrified wood given me to-day, which was found deep in the ground at Raccoon. In this wood the fibres and inward rings appeared very plainly; it seemed to be a piece of hiccory; for it was as like it, in every respect, as if it had but just been cut from a hiccory-tree.

I likewise got some shells to-day which the English commonly call Clams, and whereof the Indians make their ornaments and money, which I shall take an opportunity of speaking of in the sequel. These Clams were not fresh, but such as are every where found in New Jersey, on digging deep into the ground; the live shells of this kind are only found in salt water, and on the sea coasts. But these Clams were found at Raccoon, about eight or nine English miles from the river Delaware, and near a hundred from the nearest sea-shore.

At night I went to Mr Bartram’s seat.

April the 13th. I employed this day in several observations relative to Botany.

Two nests of wasps hung in a high maple-tree, over a brook. Their form was wholly the same with that of our wasp-nests, but they exceeded them in size. Each nest was ten inches in diameter; in each nest were three cakes, above one another, of which the lowermost was the biggest, and the two uppermost decreased in proportion: there were some eggs of wasps in them. The diameter of the lowest cake was about six inches, and one quarter, and that of the uppermost, three inches, and three quarters. The cells in which the eggs or the young ones were deposited were hexagonal, and the colour of the nest grey. I was told, that the wasps make this kind of nests out of the grey splints, which stick to old pales and walls. A dark brown bee, with black antennæ, and two black rings on the belly, and purple wings, flew about the trees, and might perhaps be an inhabitant of these nests.

Another kind of wasps, which are larger than these, make their nests quite open. It consists merely of one cake, which has no covering, and is made of the boughs of trees. The cells are horizontal, and when the eggs or the young larvæ ly in them, they have lids or coverings, that the rain may not come into them. But whither the old wasps retreat during storms, is a mystery to me, except they creep into the crevices of rocks. That side of the cake which is uppermost is covered with some oily particles, so that the rain cannot penetrate. The cells are hexagonal, from five to seven lines deep, and two lines in diameter. Mr. Bartram observed, that these nests are built of two sorts of materials, viz. the splints which are found upon old pales, or fences, and which the wind separates from them; for the wasps have often been observed to sit on such old wood, and to gnaw away these splints; the sides and the lid or cover of the cells are made of an animal substance, or glutinous matter, thrown up by the wasps, or prepared in their mouths; for when this substance is thrown into the fire, it does not burn, but is only singed, like hair or horn. But the bottom of the nest being put into the fire, burns like linen or half-rotten wood, and leaves a smell of burnt wood. The wasps, whose nests I have now described, have three elevated black shining points on the forehead [28], and a pentagonal black spot on the thorax. Towards the end of autumn these wasps creep into the cavities of mountains, where they ly torpid during winter. In spring, when the sun begins to operate, they come out during day-time, but return towards night, when it grows cold. I saw them early in spring during sunshine, in and about some cavities in the mountains. I was told of another species of wasps, which make their nests under ground.

Gyrinus natator (Americanus), or the Whirl-beetles. These were found dancing in great numbers on the surface of the waters.

April the 14th. This morning I went down to Chester: in several places on the road are saw-mills, but those which I saw to-day had no more than one saw. I likewise perceived that the woods and forests of these parts had been very roughly treated. It is customary here, when they erect saw-mills, wind-mills, or iron works, to lead the water a good way lower, in case the ground near a fall in the river is not convenient for building upon.

April the 16th. This morning I returned to Raccoon. This country has several kinds of swallows, viz. such as live in barns, in chimneys, and under ground; there are likewise martens.