placing the loggs in a square,* and so by pyling one upon another, they build up a howse which with boghes is covered very strongly, and placed in some pond, to which they make a damme of brush-wood, like a hedge. So strong, that I have gone on the top of it across the current of that pond. The fleshe of this beaste is excellent foode.† The fleece is a very choice furre, which (before the Salvages had commerce with the christians) they learned of the tayle. This beaste is of a masculine vertue, for the advancement of Priapus, and is preserved for a dish for the Sachems." Even the Indians have not surpassed many travellers, in their astonishing accounts of the Beaver. These people say, they "were formerly a people endowed with speech, not less than with the other noble faculties they possess; but the great Spirit has taken this away from them, lest they should grow superior in understanding to mankind."§ Dr. Belknap|| refers to Hearne's Journey for the best account of the Beaver; we may now add Hearne, Carver, Charlevoix, Long, and especially Godman. The former being not often met with, and merely referred to by Belknap, will excuse the extracts in these Recollections. From the following it will be seen with what extravagance the subject has been treated. "I cannot refrain from smiling," says Mr. Hearne, when I read This agrees very nearly with Hearnes' account, 233. + Ibid, 226, and Henry, 138, who says the tail is reckoned a choice morsel. "They vary in color. The most valuable are black but the general color is a chesnut brown, more or less dark. Some have been found entirely white, others spotted but both these kinds are very rare." Bewick, 115.— This author has followed Buffon and Goldsmith in two many of their fables. Major Long seems to have heard of "three specimens" of this animal. See Expd. Rocky Mountains, I. 464. § Henry, 130, 131, where may be seen much curious information. Hist. N. Hampshire, III. 118. Journey, 291. the accounts of different authors who have written on the œconomy of these animals, as there seems to be a contest between them who shall most exceed in fiction. But the compiler of the Wonders of Nature and Art seems, in my opinion, to have succeeded best in this respect, as he has not only collected all the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly improved on them, that little remains to be added to his account of the beaver, beside a vocabulary of their language, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their religion, to make it the most complete natural history of that animal which cau possibly be offered to the public." The Beaver appears to have been common both to Europe and America. "Before the discovery of America, we find in the ancient books of the hatters of Paris, regulations for the manufacture of Beaver Hats."'* The OTTER is now nearly if not entirely extinct here. There was one caught in Suncook pond as late as 1814. The MUSQUASH, or MUSKRAT. This interesting little animal not only very much resembles the beaver in form but in habit. He builds his house in nearly the same manner; usually upon a bed of hassocs, or in a bunch of alders, surrounded by water. It has generally several apartments, which the occupants are compelled to build, one above another, as the water rises. The beaver's house doubtless contains several rooms from the same cause, but which have given rise to the notion that they were built with great elegance, containing a dining room, kitchen, &c. The Musquash completes his cabin by the last of August. The meadows and ponds were formerly very full of them, but for several years they have been growing scarce. They are very easily taken, in Charlevoix, Jour. of a Voyage to N. America, I. 151. steel traps or wicker nets. Seven of them have been taken in one of these nets or pots at a time. The method is this: the pot is let down just below the surface of the water, in a sluggish brook where they are known to swim up and down, and strips of boards or sticks are set up like stakes from each side of the net to the shores, so close together that they cannot swim between, and a wide piece edgewise upon the mouth of the net. When the animal comes to this fence, he dives down to find a passage under it, and thus makes his way into the snare. Their color is very nearly that of the beaver, and the skins of the old ones have sometimes been sold among them for the skins of that animal. Twenty years ago their houses were to be seen in almost every meadow, but at this time they seldom are met with; being few, they live in burrows, in the banks of streams and ponds. The subject of Zoology is always interesting, and every reader must be aware that the field is yet but partially cultivated. Little can be expected from a mere common observer, who views these subjects only as an occasional sportsman. MINERALOGY. Iron ore and Black Lead are perhaps the principal; neither of these are known however to be very plenty. On a tract of land owned by Rev. Mr. Prentice, there is a considerable quantity of the former, but of a very inferior quality, as experiment has proved. The latter has been found in a very pure state, but as yet in small quantities. TREES. The pine was formerly the most plenty; and but for which, Northwood might have remained many years longer uninhabited. It was a long time after the first settlement before the inhabitants turned their attention to much except lumber; and it was not until this began to fail that agriculture was much depended on. The OAK grew here in perfection. It was chiefly manufactured into staves and ship timber. The original growth is now nearly gone, and the young trees do not thrive. Cowley has attempted to perpetuate its remembrance in connexion with a great achievement to which it was made subservient, in the following lines. "And Drake's brave Oak that past to worlds unknown, Who round the earth's vast globe triumphant rode, O let the Pegascan ships no more Be worship'd on the too unworthy shore; A fixt star, shining equal with the Ram." These and the other forest trees are the same in general as described in the History of NewHampshire, as common to the state. CONCLUSION. If what is here offered to the public have a tendency to correct any prevailing erroneous opinions, or cause any to look to the important subject of the beginnings of their country, it is the end for which it has been written. Should it come under the eye of an inhabitant of the place upon which it is composed, much will occur to him that aught not to have been omitted; but let such remember that they should not neglect to record what is known to them, while in their power. If all that might, should do this, throughout a state, who could without any detriment to their ordinary concerns, we should soon have what is desired. We cannot have a good account of our state, unless we first have a good account of the parts which compose it. Should errors be discovered, it must be considered that such have been honestly committed, and that they are hardly to be avoided entirely, under the most favorable circumstances for such a work. Dec. 17, 1830. Yours truly, A-N B-E. To the Publishing Committee of the New GENTLEMEN-Having met with several original papers, during my investigations into the early history of this section of the country, I select the following and submit them to your disposal for publication, if considered worthy of a place in your forthcoming volume of collections. They are faithfully copied from the originals, and contain, among other important facts, undoubted proof, that the assertion that Maj. Simon Willard "was cashiered" for his brave defence of Brookfield in Aug. 1675, and "died of a broken heart," first published by Rev. Dr. Fiske, of Brookfield, and repeated by other writers, and recently by Hon. Mr. Baylies, in his Hist. of Plymouth Colony, rested entirely on tradition, and is without foundation. If any thing had taken place, as represented, he certainly would not have been offered the office of commander-in-chief of the army more than six months after the court, and received 1278 votes for the office of magistrate, just at the close of life, and which were not counted till he was actually dead. Without further comment, I am, with great respect, yours, LEMUEL SHATTUCK. Concord, Mass. Dec. 25, 1830. |