B(](^iiinii/qs of Nciliiral History in Aiucrica. 361 



with prepossessed ideas coneernins tliein, is t]ioroui;ii and scholarly, and 

 one of the fullest and most relialjle of the early treatises upon the inhabi- 

 tants of North America. 



The chief man of the Roanoke colony, vSir Ralph I^ane, usually spoken 

 of as the first i^overnor of Virj^inia, was a man of j^reat enert^y and 

 enterprise,' and with the help of Harriot planned and conducted expe- 

 ditions in every direction — southward, 80 leagues to vSecotan, "an Indian 

 town, lying- between the rivers l\am])ticoe and Neus; " to the northwest, 

 up the Albemarle Sound and Chowan River to the forks of the Meherrin 

 and Nottaway; and north, 130 miles to the Elizaljeth River, on the south 

 side of Chesapeake Bay. 



Besides his description of the Tndian.s, Harriot wrote "a ixirticular 

 narrative of all the beasts, birds, fishes, fowls, fruits, and roots, and how 

 they may be usefid." A systematic report could hardl>- l)e expected 

 from one who lived a century and a half before L,innieus, but if we keep 

 in mind the condition of zoology at that day we can but l)e pleased with 

 the fullness of his narrative. 



He collected the names of twenty-eight species of mammals, twelve of 

 these, including the black bear, the gray squirrel, the cony or hare, the 

 otto, and the possum and raccoon [Saquoiuckot and Maqiiincoc), he saw, 

 beside the civet cat or skunk, which he observed by means of another 

 sense. He was the first to distinguish the American from the Kuropean 

 deer, stating that the former have longer tails, and the snags of their 

 horns look backward — a brief diagnosis, but one which was not replaced 

 by a better one for ncarl}' two centuries. 



Of l)irds he collected the names of eighty-six "in the countrie lan- 

 guage," and had pictures drawn of twenty-five. He mentions turkeys, 

 stockdoves, partridges, crows, lierons, and, in winter, great storeof swans 

 and geese. 



With aquatic animals he seems to have been well acxjuainted. He 

 refers to some l)y Ivnglish names, and to many others which had no names 

 "but in the countrey language." In the plates accompanying the first 

 edition of his book are figured .several familiar forms, then for the first 

 time made known in Europe, among them the gar pike (yLcpidoslcus),~ 

 and the horse shoe or king cral) { /.idiuIus),^ '\S{rka)ia/tk\ -a kinde of 



'Edward Ivveretl Ilak-'s Life of v'-^ir Ralph Lane. Arelucolot^ia Amerieana, IV, 



PP- 317-344- 



- Sub.sequently referreil lo by Champlain in 1613, and Sayard in 1636, nnder the 

 name c/iaousaroii, and fissured by Chain]ilain on his map of Nonvelle I'rance. 

 I)n Creiix, in his Ilistorijc Canadensis, 1664, also mentions it. 



5 It has been generally snpposed that Cham])lain was the first to notice this char- 

 acteristic American animal, an<l Slafter, in liis notes npon Cli;implain's works [Pub- 

 lications of the Prince Society, Chamjilain's Voya,i!fes, II, p. 87], makes a statement 

 to that effect, and is followed l)y niijt^inson in his History of the United States. 

 Actually, the I'rench ex])lorer did not observe it until twenty years after Harriot, 

 and his accoinit of it was not ])rinted until 1613. 



