150 October 1748. 



I kept this animal, or elfe it was flung off im- 

 mediately. It was very irafcible, and would 

 bite great holes into any thing that was put in its 

 way; I held a fteel pen-cafe to it, it at firft bit 

 at it with great violence, but having felt its hard- 

 nefs, it would not venture again to bite at any 

 thing. Thefe moles do not make fuch hills as 

 the European ones, but only fuch walks as I have 

 already defcribed. 



O51. 1 3th. THERE isa plant here, from the ber- 

 ries of which they make a kind of wax or tallow, 

 and for that reafon the Swedes call it the Tallow 

 Jhrub. The Englifh call the fame tree the Candle- 

 berry -tree, orBayberry-buJh; and Dr, Linn&usgwts 

 it the name of Myrica cerifera. It grows abundantly 

 on a wet foil, and it feems to thriveparticularly well 

 in the neighbourhood of the fea, nor have I ever 

 found it high up in the country far from the fea. 

 The berries grow abundantly on the female fhrub, 

 and look as if flower had been ftrewed upontheiru 

 They are gathered late in autumn, being ripe 

 about that time, and are then thrown into a kettle 

 or pot full of boiling water; by this means their 

 fat melts out, floats at the top of the water, and 

 may be flammed off in to a veffel ; with the Hum- 

 ming they go on till there is no tallow left. 

 The tallow, as foon as it is congealed, looks like 

 common tallow or wax, but has a dirty green co- 

 lour; it is for that reafon melted over again, and 

 refined; by which mean sit acquires a fine and pretty 

 tranfparent green colour: this tallow is dearer 

 than common tallow, but cheaper than wax. In 

 Philadelphia they pay a {hilling Penfyhania cur- 

 rency, for a pound of this tallow j but a pound oif 

 5 common 



