276 November 1748. 



ral fpecies of oak and hiccory. However we 

 could go with eafe through thefe woods, as there 

 are few bufhes (or under-wood) and ftones to be 

 met with. It was not only eafy to ride in every 

 part of the wood on horfeback, but even in moft 

 places there was fufficient room for a fmall coach 

 or a cart. 



Nov. 25th. DURING my ftay at Raccoon, at 

 time and all the enfuing winter, I endeavour- 



ed to get the moft information from the old 

 Swedes relating to the increafe of land, and the 

 decreafe of water in thefe parts ; I fhall therefore 

 infert the anfwers here, which I have received to 

 my queflions. They are as I got them -, and I 

 fhall only throw in a few remarks which may 

 ferve to explain things : the reader therefore is 

 left at liberty to draw his own inferences and con- 

 clufions. 



ONE of the Swedes called King, who was a- 

 bove fifty years of age, was convinced, that a- 

 bout this time the little lakes, brooks, fprings, 

 and rivers had much lefs water, than they had 

 when he was a boy. He could mention feveral 

 lakes on which the people went in large boats in 

 his youth, and had fufficient water even in the 

 hotteil fummers j but now, they were either en- 

 tirely dried up, or for the greateft part ; and in 

 the latter cafe, all the water was loft in fummer. 

 He had himfelf feen the fifh dying in them ; and 

 he was apt to believe that at this time it did not 

 rain fu much in fummer, as it did when he was 

 young. One of his relations, who lived about 

 eight miles from the river Delaware, on a hill 

 near a rivulet, had got a well, dug in his court 



yard : 



