46 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, which still bears his name. He re- 

 mained in Brazil less than five years, and in 157S published at 

 Rouen a work entitled " Voyage en Amerique, avec la descrip- 

 tion des Animaux et Plantes de ce Pays." 



Jose d' Acosta was another Spanish explorer who preceded 

 Harriott, and was a man of much the same school and temper of 

 mind. Born in the province of Leon about the year 1539- ne 

 entered the society of Jesuits at the age of fourteen, and in 1 571 

 went to Peru, where he travelled as a missionary for seventeen 

 years. After his return to Spain he filled several important eccle- 

 siastical offices and died February 15, 1600, rector of the University 

 of Salamanca. His first book, " De Natura Novi Orbis Libri 

 Duo," was published in 1589. His " Historia Natural y Moral 

 de las Indias " appeared in 1590, and is one of the best known and 

 most useful of the early Spanish works on America, having passed 

 through numerous editions in many languages. 



Acosta was. perhaps, the most learned of the early writers upon 

 America, and his writings, though modeled after those of the 

 mediaeval schoolmen, were full of suggestive observations, " touch- 

 ing the naturall historic of the heavens, ayre, water and earth at 

 the West Indies, also of their beasts, fishes, fowles, plants, and 

 other remarkable varieties of nature." He discoursed tw of the 

 fashion and form of heaven at the new-found world." " of the ayre 

 and the winds," of ocean-physics, of volcanoes and earthquakes, 

 as well as of metals, pearls, emeralds, trees, beasts and fowls. 



He discussed the appearance and habits of the manatee and the 

 crocodile, and described the Indian methods of whaling and pearl- 

 fishing. He dwelt at length upon the condition of the domestic 

 animals, sheep, kine, goats, horses, asses, dogs and cats which 

 the Spaniards had introduced into the New World and which 

 were already thoroughly acclimated. It seems strange to learn 

 from his pages that in the year 1587, 99,794 hides of domestic 

 cattle were exported from St. Domingo and New Spain to Seville. 

 Lynceus has suggested that some of these skins were from the 



