394 March 1749. 



was ve/y bad. Under this floor of boards were 

 partitions of boards on all the fides, which how- 

 ever flood far enough from each other, to afford 

 the air a free paffage. 



Mar. ayth. IN the morning I went in order 

 to fpeak with the old Swede, Nils Guflafson, who 

 was ninety-one years of age. I intended to get 

 an account of the former ft ate of New Sweden. 

 The country which I now palled through was' 

 the fame with that which I had found in thofe 

 parts of North America I had hitherto feen. It 

 was diverfified with a variety of little hills and 

 vallies : the former coniifted of a very pale brick- 

 coloured earth, compofed, for the greateft part, 

 of a fine fand mixed with fome mould. I faw no 

 mountains, and no ftones, except fome little 

 ftones, not above the fize of a pigeon's or hen's 

 egg, lying on the hills, and commonly confiding 

 of white quartz;, which was generally fmooth 

 and poliflied on the outfide. At the bottom, 

 along the vallies, ran fometimes rivulets of chry- 

 ftalline water, the bottom of which was covered 

 with fuch white pebbles as I have juft defcribed. 

 Now and then I met with a fwamp in the val- 

 Jies. Sometimes there appeared, though at 

 confiderable diftances from each other, fome 

 farms frequently furrounded on all fides by corn- 

 fields. Almoft on every corn-field there yet re- 

 mained the ftumps of trees, which had been cut 

 down; a proof that this country has not been 

 long cultivated, being overgrown with trees forty 

 or fifty years ago. The farms did not lie toge- 

 ther in villages, or fo that feveral of them were 

 each other> in one places bijt they were all 



feparated 



