452 MICHAEL COLLINSON [1772. 



country of France and Italy, &c. The traveller has generally ex- 

 erted his abilities in deciphering some obsolete vestige of antiquity, 

 or in describing the works of art, whilst the natural history of each 

 kingdom is quite neglected. He is wafted from city to city, and 

 all the intermediate space, which I think a naturalist would wish 

 to know something about, is, for what he says of it, a mere vacuum. 

 or little better. 



We were not, my dear sir, nearer to the grand Canal of Lan- 

 guedoc, to my great regret, than Montpellier, and which is but a 

 short distance from it. I very particularly wished to see it, as 

 well for its own importance, as for the reason of botanizing in the 

 hills of Narbonne, through which place we should of course have 

 passed, and which are famous for most valuable productions in the 

 vegetable world, and remarkably so for the Orchis tribe my 

 favourites if we are to believe Parkinson's Herbal. Many very 

 curious fossil shells are likewise picked up in the chalky hills of 

 Narbonne. There is, however, a most magnificent work lately 

 finished, at Montpellier. and of miles in extent, being a noble 

 aqueduct constructed of an elegant white stone, and designed to 

 convey water from the mountains to a grand reservoir, for the 

 service of the city ; and I think I never tasted any water so 

 deliciously pure and sweet. It is built on the principle of the 

 famous Roman one, at Nismes, not many miles distant, with this 

 dhTerence, only, the former one consists of only two tiers, or rows 

 of arches, whereas the Roman one has three. My companions 

 trembled for the imagined fervour of an Italian sun ; and therefore 

 were impatient to push away, before the heats commenced, so that 

 Montpellier was our furthest point west in the whole journey. 



Your account of the migration of the Bears, Rabbits, and Par- 

 tridges, is really wonderful, but I believe in a manner local ; as 

 Cadr. Coldex, Esq., of New York, from whom I have just re- 

 ceived a letter, takes no notice of any such circumstance, in those 

 parts of the country. Considering the destruction that is perpe- 

 tually going on, I should not be surprised if the whole race of 

 Bears should become extinct ; and still more so with regard to the 

 Beaver, there being an annual sale, here only, of between forty 

 and fifty thousand of their skins ; and I make no doubt, with 

 Camden, but that we formerly had the Beaver, among the unfre- 

 quented mountains and lakes in Wales, which, in the course of 

 time, have been utterly destroyed. 



