1842.] Francis's Discourse on Natural History. 479 and the American hare are met with at the junction of Peel's river with the Mackenzie. The didelphis forms a genus, according to Cuvier, peculiar to America; and I conjecture that we have rational grounds to infer that the castor fiber, which is found on the most solitary parts of North America, is a species distinct from that of Europe, which seems not to possess or exercise the faculty of house-building. If such be the fact, we can promptly reconcile many conflicting accounts of the beaver. We may, moreover, justly boast of the mastodon as our exclusive property, whose size is greater than that of the elephant, and of heavier proportions, and, as once, an inhabitant of North America alone. The fossil skeletons of two edentata, of great size, have been discovered in America, the megatherium and the megalonyx. With the brilliant aids daily increased in this age of fossil zoology, I am yet disposed to receive with great allowance the remarks on this subject of an eminent writer, Dr. Lyell, in his work on Geology. The Siberian fossil remains which he has classified with the American mammoth, are a distinct and inferior animal from that of America, and truly a species of elephas, not mastodon. A too solicitous desire to establish a favorite hypothesis has not unfrequently detached the best minds unwittingly from the path of a legitimate philosophy. "From the collected results of enterprising and intelligent travellers, it has been ascertained, with tolerable accuracy, that there are one hundred and forty-seven species of mammiferous animals in North America, eleven of which are fossils, and no longer occur in the living state, and twenty-eight of the cetaceous order. The remaining one hundred and eight are considered as American quadrupeds, and of these only twenty-one species are common to North America and the old world. Mr. Jefferson, more than fifty years ago, said, that of twenty-six quadrupeds common to both countries, seven are larger in America, seven of equal size, and twelve not sufficiently examined; that there are eighteen quadrupeds peculiar to Europe, and more than four times that number peculiar to America; and that the first of these, the tapir, the largest of animals peculiar to America, weighs more than a whole column of European. But we are not contesting the opinion of certain foreign writers who have alleged the inferiority of American animals and the deterioration of those imported. We at the present day might search in vain for a well-informed naturalist who would grant an affirmative to a position of such tendency. Such a doctrine has, in fact, long since been demonstrated erroneous, and holds at present no place in the enlightened mind of the nineteenth century. "Our Ichthyology is rich and peculiar in many species; and the law of limitation to particular localities is found to be sustained with respect to marine animals as well as those of the land: in short, naturalists have said that the species of whales differ, those of the north from those of the south seas; and geologists have remarked that the external aspect of the skeletons of fishes from the gypsum formation of Paris, is very different from that of the fresh water fishes of the bituminous marl-slate, independent of their zoological characters. "Our American rivers abound in individuals who have their like in the waters of Europe; and we have others exclusively our own. It is known that the fish of the Ohio and of other of our great rivers are peculiarly abundant both in number and species, yet few seem to resemble those of Europe; and although the migratory attribute of many of the piscatory tribes renders it difficult to discriminate their natural locality, enough is understood to justify the assertion that we suffer not by comparison on this head. It appears that Lacepede, not many years since, described about two thousand fishes; and at this present time this number may be quadrupled. Baron Cuvier remarks that the amount of known fishes may be safely estimated above six thousand. Many of the fishes of our inland lakes have no superior for their rare edible qualities, and exist in quantities of surpassing calculation. If the fecundity of the New-York waters be in anywise a criterion for determining the relative proportion of this extensive class for the United States, we may justly set down the amount for America in large numbers. "In Herpetology we have sufficient to gratify the keenest desires of the most ravenous student in this department of nature. The extraordinary aspect and habits of a considerable portion of the reptiles in particular which are found in the southern and western sections of the United States, imperfect and superficial as our knowledge on the subject still is, invite to researches which promise to repay with adequate returns. I believe no naturalist has elsewhere found a more magnificent specimen of the Testudo Coriacea than that caught in the waters of our bay, and now exhibited in the American Museum of this city. Within a very few years, says Dr. Harlan, most important facts have been elicited, and many new and interesting species of reptiles have been added to a list formerly extensive. Several of the Ophidea are certainly peculiar, and the crotalus horridus, the most formidable and invulnerable of poisonous serpents, was deemed by one of the fathers of our country a fit emblem to designate the national standard for the anticipated glories of the new republic created by the war of the revolution. For my own part, I concur in the wish of the patriotic Franklin, that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of the American confederacy, and I think his reasons abundantly cogent: the eagle, says he, does not get his living honestly; he is a bird of bad moral character; he is cowardly the little king-bird, not larger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of his district; therefore he is not a fit representative of that yeomanry who have thus far driven all the king-birds out of the country. So far the opinion of Dr. Franklin. As to the crotalus, or rattle-snake, he is a genuine aboriginal; he is the beau-ideal of etiquette and a type of honesty; he is never the first to molest, and he always gives - 1842.] Francis's Discourse on Natural History. 481 due warning of his intentions by his rattles; and whenever his person or his rights are invaded, his aim is unerring and triumphant. Our Indians, who best know him, give him this chivalric character. I would wish it to be most distinctly understood that the observations I have just made are to be confined to the bald eagle. The indefatigable Audubon has lately given us a distinct notice and description of the Falco Washingtonianus, or the Washington Eagle. This noble bird first drew his attention while voyaging far up the Mississippi in 1814. The Washington eagle is bold and vigorous, but jealous of his prerogatives; superior to vulgar expedients, he disdains the piratical habits of the bald eagle, and honorably maintains himself without molesting the rights of others." "The energy of the vegetable productions of the new world is displayed with a prodigality which commands our admiration. Nature, in this department, seems delighted in manifestations of her power, beauty, and grandeur, and to have unfolded a series of views well calculated to awaken desires the most urgent, and create associations the most noble, with our ideas of the beneficent author of all. To him who is solicitous of accurate attainment in his knowledge of this kingdom of nature, the present is as opportune as any former period. Though the operations of man, in his measures of settlement and civilization, have not been made without encroaches on the vegetable creation, yet the primeval forests of our country still rear their venerable forms, and impress us with delight and reverence, equally by their illimitable extent and continuity, their gigantic size and altitude, their variety, and the mystery of their antiquity. Two centuries have indeed passed away since the landing of our pilgrim fathers; but it constitutes a small portion only of the longevity of these first occupiers of the American soil, who still flourish with verdure and purity in their pristine state and grandeur." — p. 37. This last proves a fertile topic to the doctor, and one upon which he evidently delights to dwell; in descanting upon it, he gives a glowing picture of the beauty and majesty of our American forests, ornamented with the graceful liriodendron, the splendid magnolia, and numerous other flowering trees, unknown to those of Europe and the East, and enriched with an unequalled variety of valuable timber trees,oaks of gigantic size, cypresses of vast circumference, and pines of towering height. Nor does he forget the tribute so justly due to the Michaux, father and son, who first made known to the naturalists of the old world the extraordinary riches of the Sylva of the new. Honorable mention is also made of Nuttall, Lambert, Long, Lewis, and Clarke, to all of whom we are more or less indebted for what we know of the natural productions of our wide-spread land. To Nuttall, in particular, who is second only to Michaux in this respect, and, in all other respects as a naturalist, second to no one living. As friends of science, we are rejoiced to see that a new edition of the North American Sylva is now in a course of publication, by Dobson, of Philadelphia, under the superintendence of Mr. Nuttall, with three additional volumes by himself. If such things can be done in our days of darkest gloom, we have no occasion, as yet, to despair of the republic. Dr. Francis has necessarily said less in his discourse of the mineralogy and geology of our country, for, at the time when it was written, little had been done for attaining a knowledge of them; the state surveys were then only begun, but they have since been prosecuted to a sufficient extent to furnish a great amount of important geological facts, and to disclose to us that we have exhaustless deposits of the useful metals and fossils beneath the surface of our soil. We have twice called the attention of our readers to the geological reports of our own state, which have done a vast deal to enlighten the community upon our natural history. Could we have found room for it, we should have given them an article in the present number of our journal, upon the recently published report of Professor Hitchcock, on the geology of Massachusetts, which is a contribution to the natural history of the country that entitles him to rank with Michaux, Wilson, Audubon, Nuttall, Say, and Holbrook. Every page, every line of this discourse is replete with instruction, and it evinces throughout an extent and variety of reading, that we know not how a professional man in full practice can have found time for. Whatever point it calls up, it discusses with the readiness of an adept, and it calls up almost every one that has any bearing, even the most remote, upon its leading subject. But to follow our author through the excursive range he has taken, would lead us far beyond our appropriate limits, and we must refer our readers to the discourse itself, for many curious suggestions thrown out in it upon the origin of the varieties of the human species, the pritnitive population of this continent, the common characteristics in the structure of the Indian languages, the distinctive physical and intellectual attributes of the red race, and many other kindred topics. Dr. Francis is imbued as strongly as man ever was, with the spirit of a naturalist, and he has 1842.] Francis's Discourse on Natural History. 483 wanted nothing but leisure to make him a pre-eminent one. It is delightful to observe the gush of enthusiastic love for nature which wells up from his heart upon such an occasion as this, and still more delightful to mark his grateful admiration for every distinguished votary of his favorite science. The opportunity here afforded to gratify this generous feeling was not lost upon him; the concluding part of the address is an earnest exhortation to the living to render justice to the illustrious dead, by "a faithful record of their acts and virtues." There is no deserving name that is not mentioned with appropriate commendation; laying aside all respect for persons, he is no less careful to claim the due meed of renown for the almost forgotten but truly great botanist, Paul Sannier, than he is to rescue from the aspersions of malignant revilers the memory of the illustrious De Witt Clinton. Cherishing as we do the highest reverence for this proudest boast and greatest benefactor of our state, we join with our whole hearts in the beautiful tribute which is here paid to him. "We are, too, indebted to the generosity and friendship of one of our lately deceased associates, for a memoir of great importance on the public life of De Witt Clinton; and in all that relates to that great undertaking which has rendered his name enduring among all people, the work of Dr. Hosack will long be consulted as the authentic source of important information. But Clinton deserves from some competent individual of our society that his investigations and contributions in American natural history should be more widely known and analyzed. He studied, when not trammelled by public cares, with philosophical precision, the peculiarities of the physical constitution of our aborigines; furnished us with important conjectures on the habits and characteristics of the zizania aquatica, or wild rice of the American lakes, wrote on birds and on fishes, and loved, with a naturalist's fondness, every department of physical science. He delighted to dwell upon every incident associated with the labours and services of naturalists; from Hennepin to Kalm, every thing was familiar to him; the great Swede was ever a topic of delight, and the heroic achievements of Cuvier the theme of his admiration. So much did he, at a late period of his life, become enamored of the genius and skill of the modern French school of naturalists, that there is reason to conclude he would have finally adopted the natural system of Jussieu in preference to the artificial method of Linnæus, and would have chosen the improved nomenclature of the Parisian savans rather than that of the English writers, whose works he had studied with deference, and to whose authority he had originally bowed with submission. "There is, moreover, an obligation of the severest nature en |
