Introduction. 



Dr. Johann David Schoepf, b. Wunsiedel, Bavaria, March 8, 1752; 

 received liis degree in medicine from the University of Erlangen in 

 1776; appointed surgeon to the Ansbach troops, arriving at New York, 

 June 4, 1777; for six years in the hospitals of New York, Philadelphia, 

 and Rhode Island; d. September 10, 1800, President of the United 

 Medical Colleges of Ansbach and Bayreuth.* 



Leaving New York as soon as possible after the war, in July, 1783, 

 Dr. Schoepf set out upon his travels to the South. After ten days in 

 Philadelphia, he visited Bethlehem and Nazareth, and thence crossed 

 Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, in a two-wheeled chaise. His route lay 

 through the Wyoming Valley, by Reading, Lebanon, and Carlisle. Re- 

 turning he took the southern road, to the Potomac, through George- 

 town, Alexandria, Annapolis, and Baltimore. He was at Philadelphia 

 a second time October 31, 1783. This is the region covered by his tirst 

 volume. 



Towards the end of November, 1783, he left Philadelphia and 

 passed through Maryland into Virginia ; from Richmond he made an 

 excursion to Yorktown. Thence following the coast he arrived at 

 Charleston in February. March 9, 1784, he sailed for St. Augustine, 

 and on the 29th of that month crossed to the Bahama Islands. He 

 set sail for England June 7, 1784. 



Schoepf was the first naturalist to traverse so much of the United 

 States during the year following the Peace of 1783. Therefore, in 

 the extracts here given, it has been thought well to include some- 

 thing of his observations touching the economic aspects of the subject. 

 Dr. Schoepf was a particularly well-informed man of science, of a 

 wide range of interests, and it may be added that his Beytrdge zur 

 miner alogischen Kenntnis des dstlichen Theils von Nord America is 

 regarded as the first work on American Geology.^ His Travels, a 

 rare book, have been translated for the first time into English by 

 Alfred J. Morrison, from the copy in the Library of Congress. These 

 extracts have been supplied by the translator, at the request of Dr. 

 John Uri Lloyd. 



* cf. I. Kremers, Introd., Materia Medica Americana [Schoefif^, Lloyd Library Bulletin. 2. 

 Hirsch, ' iografrhisihes Lexikon der hervorra enden Aerztc aller Zpiten uid Volker 3. Fr Ralzel, 

 in AUg-'nt. Deutsche Hiographie. 4 Robengarten, The Gerjtian Soldier in the Wars 0/ the United 

 States, 2nd ed., pp. 91-98. 



T[cf. George P. Merrill, Contributions to the History 0/ A7nerican Geology, Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution Report {Nat. Museum) 1904, p 208. 



