Begi)iuings of N'aliiral History in America. 381 



and his geographical explorations and maps are of great value. His 

 observations upon the animals and plants are disappointing. He describes 

 the gar-pike and the king-crab, already described and figm-ed l)y Harriot 

 many years before, and refers in unmistakable terms to the shearwater, 

 the caribou, the wild turkey, and the scarlet tanager. His lists of ani- 

 mals which occur now and again in the course of his narrative are too 

 vague to be of value.' 



Much higher in the esteem of naturalists was Gabriel Sagard Theodat, 

 a Franciscan friar, whose I,e Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, printed 

 in 1632, was the most scholarly work upon America which had yet 

 appeared, and whose History of Canada and of the journeys made by the 

 Franciscans for the conversion of the infidels also contains most valuable 

 records. 



The first work on the plants of North America was that of Cornuti — 

 Canadensium Plantarum, aliaruuKpie nondum editarum historia — printed 

 in Paris in 1635, which described thirty-seven .species, thirty-.six of the.se 

 being illustrated b}- elaborate engravings upon copper. The botanical 

 part of this treatise is iLsuall}^ ascribed to Vespasian Rt)bin, and Tucker- 

 man suppo.ses that the local notes, as well as the .specimens descril^ed, 

 were probably the result of the labors of the worthy Franciscan mission- 

 ary, Sagard.' 



A few years later, Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoi.x [1). 16S2, d. 

 1 761], a Jesuit priest, having l)y royal connnand traveled through the 

 northern part of North America, pul)lished his Hi.stoire ct l)escvi])tion 

 Cicnerale de la Nouvelle F'rance, Paris, 1744, which was full of impor- 

 tant biological and ethnological ob.ser\'ations, the accuracy of which is 

 not (jUcstioned. 



He subsecjUently traveled in South America, and ])uljlis]ied in 1760 a 

 work full of statements concerning the animals, plants, and fruits of 

 that country, and also particularl}- interesting from the account which it 

 gives of the singular Jesuit esta])lishment in Paraguay. 



Other P'rench mi.ssiouaries, Prelxeuf, Du Poisson, Jaques, Joliet, La 

 Chaise, Lallemand, Manjuette, Senat, and vSouel, followed Charlevoix in 

 the exploration of these regions. Their works contain many valuable 

 notes upon animals and plants. 



Jean P>aptiste du Tertre, in his Histoire Gcnerale des Antilles, lia])itees 

 ])ar les P"ran9ois, puljlished in Paris in 1667 [ed. 1667-71], de.scriljed and 

 illustrated many of the New World animals. 



In 1672 Nicolas Deny.se published in Paris two comprehensive works 

 upon America, viz: Histoire Natnrelle des Peiiples, des Animaux des 

 Arbres and Plantes de PAmericiue,* and Descrijjtion Gcogra])lii(iue des 

 Co.stesde I'Amerique Septentrionale, avec THi-stoire Natnrelle du Pais.'' 



' Publications of Prince Society, Boston, 1878; Hakluyt vSocicty, XXIV, 1850. 



^Arcluuologia Americana, 1\', p. 119. 



3 Paris, 1672, octavo. •»i672, (hiodecinio, 2 vols. 



