420 
ing Mexico. The five Letters have 
recently been published by F. A. Mac- 
Nutt (1908) in English translation, and 
are not without interest from a purely 
natural history standpoint. Very valu- 
able for the student are the bibliographi- 
cal notes contained in this latest edition 
of the Letters, and also those given by 
the same translator in his new (1912) 
version of The Eight Decades of Peter 
Martyr D’Anghera. Critical notes on 
the chief Spanish sources for Central 
and South American archeology on 
natural history are interspersed through- 
out A. F. Bandelier’s work on The Islands 
of Titicaca and Koati (1910). 
English translations exist also of the 
narratives of two early expeditions across 
the southern part of the North American 
continent, those led by Panfilo Narvaez 
and Hernando de Soto. In the relation 
of the former of these expeditions, by 
Cabeza de Vaca, is found the earliest 
account (1537) of the American bison. 
A few years later, in 1540, herds were 
next seen by white men accompanying 
the Coronado expedition.!_ Probably the 
earliest picture of the animal in question 
is one given in the Idrography of Rotz 
(1542), and this was copied in the maps 
of Hondius, (1630 edition of Mercator) 
Blaeu (World Atlas, 1664-65) and other 
geographers. It may be remarked in 
passing that one of Blaeu’s maps of 
Brazil (vol. viii) is ornamented by col- 
1 Annotated translations of the narrative of the 
Hernando de Soto expedition, and of the Relation 
of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, were published 
by Buckingham Smith in 1866 and 1871. A new 
translation of the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, by 
F. Bandelier is included in the Trail Makers 
Series (1905). 
There are several English versions of the narra- 
tive of the Coronado expedition; one edited by 
G. P. Winship is found in the 14th Report of the 
U. S. Bureau of Ethnology. Thevet’s figure of 
the bison and Cieza de Leon’s rough woodcut of 
one of the llama group, are reproduced in Winsor’s 
Narrative and Critical History of America. A 
great deal of historical matter relating to the bison 
has been brought together by Dr. J. A. Allen. 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
ored figures of the tapir, jaguar and 
capybara, and early American cartog- 
raphy in general abounds in interesting 
portrayals of physical, animal and vege- 
tal features of the New World. 
Among North American fur-bearing 
animals the beaver holds first place in 
historical importance, and has given rise 
to voluminous literature. The first pub- 
lic seal of the province of New Nether- 
lands, in use from 1623 to 1664, carries 
the beaver as an armorial device. It is 
represented also in Vischer’s “Map of 
The Old World beaver (Castor fiber) engaged in 
felling a tree, as shown in one of the earliest 
printed works on natural history, the 15th century 
Ortus Sanitatis of J. von Cuba 
Novi Belgii’”’ (1656), together with the 
fox, marten, bear, deer, wild turkey, 
heron, etc. Probably the earliest printed 
illustration is one occurring in a plate 
given by Arnold Montanus (1671), in his 
work already mentioned. 
A much better figure of the beaver, 
together with hunting scenes of the bison 
and other animals, is to be found in 
Baron La Hontan’s Nouveaux Voyages 
(1715). Horace T. Martin, in his work 
on the Canadian Beaver (1892), and also 
Dr. F. A. Lucas in his interesting recent 
