110 Selections from the Correspondence of > 



from me in Botany, and which is so inconsiderable that I can 

 have no pretensions to any merit in the science.* 



As to your other queries I can give you but little satisfaction. 

 You know a great deal more than I do of the quadrupeds in 

 America. I never heard, nor did I imagine that we had so many 

 species of Foxes in America as you mention. It is very unhappy 

 that our climate is so fitted to the fox constitution. I know of 

 neither Hare nor Rabbit in this country ; what we have is a 

 middle species between the two. I have heard of a white Squir- 

 rel. Panthers are so rare that we hear of one only in a dozen 

 years. I have seen two species of the Mustela ; one, Mustela 

 fulvo-nigricans inferiore parte capitis, gidce, abdominis, et inte- 

 riori fern or am alba; 2. Mustela tot a candidissima excepto 

 Cauda apice atro. This last is the only beast of the ravenous 

 kind that I have a value for; because one or two of them de- 

 livered my house and barn from rats, when I was like to be 

 devoured by them. * * * It is a most beautiful white and soft 

 fur, so that I do not doubt of its being the true ermine. 



I never saw an Opossum, nor heard of any in this province. 

 I never heard of more than one kind of Wolf, and I suppose that 

 you know the Indian Dog is much shaped like a Wolf. I never 

 saw any Porcupine but in the Mohawks country, nor have I ever 

 heard of any in this part of the country. I know only one sort 

 of Rat ; none of the Rat-kind I believe are properly natives of 

 America, but have been all originally imported. I have often 

 heard of the Moose-deer. One, I think, since I came to the 

 country was catched near Albany, but I can give you no descrip- 

 tion of it. I have heard that it is as large as an ox, and has a 

 mane like a horse. Any country boy you meet with can inform 

 you more of fishes than I can. 



As to the reason of the children of the people from Europe 

 (not the native Indians) losing their teeth so commonly, I attri- 

 bute it entirely to the scurvy, of which scarce one family is free. 

 * # * I have heard that the Indians eat the roots of one kind of 

 Nymphma ; but I did not suspect it to be the Colocassia, be- 

 cause Linnaeus ranks that with the Arum. Please to distinguish 

 the species, and tell me the reason you think it the Colocassia 





* The reader will find another brief autobiography of Dr. Colden, in his letter 

 to Peter Collinson, dated May, 1742.— A. G. 



