Beginnings of Natural J listory in. /Uf/rrica. 373 



in 1624, contains one of the earliest descriptions of the Indians of the 

 Northeast. 



WiUiam Wood's New England's Prospect, which was issned in 

 London in 1634, and Morton's New English Canaan, printed three 

 5^ears later in Amsterdam, were the first formal treatises upon New 

 England and its animals and plants. The two authors were ver}^ inilike, 

 and their books even more so — \-et complementing each other very 

 satisfactorily. Morton was the best educated man, brightest, and most 

 observant; Wood the most conscientious and the most laborious in 

 recording minute details. 



"Thomas Morton, of Clifford's Inn, Gent.," was by no means a rep- 

 resentative man in the Puritan community in which he lived. His habits 

 were those of an English man of fashion, and his Rabelaisian humor, 

 when directed against his fellow-colonists and their institutions, was no 

 recommendation to their favor. We can not wonder that he was hunted 

 from settlement to settlement and even cast into prison, to endure, with- 

 out l:)edding or fire, the rigor of a New England winter. 



As a naturalist, Morton appears to have been the most accurate of the 

 two of this time. In those parts of his book which describe animals and 

 plants he manifests a definite scientific purpose. He discriminates 

 between species, and frequently points out characters l^y which American 

 and European forms may be distinguished. He was the first to banish 

 the lion from the catalogue of the mammals of eastern North America. 

 Even Wood, though he admitted that he could not sa}^ that he ever saw 

 one with his own eye, evidently believed that lions inhabited the woods 

 of Massachusetts. Morton was a skeptic because, as he said, " it is con- 

 trar}' to the Nature of the beast to frequent places accustomed to snow; 

 being like the Catt, that will hazard the burning of her tayle, rather than 

 abide from the fire. ' ' His brief biographies, especially those of mammals, 

 indicate that he was an observer of no slight acuteness. 



Twenty species of mammals, thirt^'-two of birds, twenty of fishes, eight 

 of marine invertebrates, and twenty-seven of plants are mentioned, 

 usually in such definite terms that they may readily be identified. 



A thorough pagan himself, he seems to have commanded the confidence 

 of the Indians more than others, to have lived in their society, and 

 learned to comprehend the meaning of their customs. His first book, 

 The Originall of the Natives, their Manners and Customs, seems to 

 have been the careful record of rather critical observations. 



Wood's book is no less deserving of praise. The climate and the soil 

 are judiciously discu.ssed, and the herbs, fruits, woods, waters, and 

 minerals, then "the beasts that live on land," "beasts living in the 

 water," "birds and fowls both of land and water," and fish, after which 

 follows a topographical description of the colony. His catalogues of 

 species are in verse, and his adjectives are so descriptive and pictorial 

 that his subsequent remarks in prose are often superfluous. I quote his 



