in the United States of America. _ 48 i 
meaning a tide or flowing of fresh in distinction from salt water. But 
thé reviewers were not satisfied that there was any errour of the press; and 
in fact there was not ; the word /reshet is a term familiar to the people of 
New England, as it was to their forefathers, who brought it from England, 
where it was equally familiar in the last century.” Dr. Belknap then cites 
two authorities for the word ; the first is from Milton’s Paradise Regained, 
- Book II. line 345, which is also given by Johneon : 
ee 
all fish from sea or ‘shore, 
Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin.” 
Upon wich Dr. Belknap remarks, “It seems this author, by a fresher, 
meant a sfreading collection of fresh water, distinguished from a brook.’? 
The commentators on Milton, however, seem to have understood it to mean 
—- stream. In Todd’s edition of Milton’s works there is the following note 
on ‘the above lines: “ Freshet, a stream of fresh water. So Browne in 
“ his Brit. Pastorals 1616, B. II. s. iii. of fish, 
Who now love the freshet, and then love the sea.” 
The other authority cited by Dr. B. is the Description of New England, 
written and published in England, in 1658, by Ferdinando Gorges, who 
uses the word, as Dr. B. justly observes, aeeaeaipe De nenee in which 
it is now understood in New. England: “ P, 29——Between Salem and 
Charlestown is situated the town of Lynn, near to a river, whose strong 
Sreshet at the end of winter’filleth all her banks, and with a violent torrent 
vents itself into the sea.” 
Fas Sf NAA Ie 3° 3 
t l ula USC this ft ndG in Ar yalmost two 
centuries ago, does it follow that it is mow a 2 ple of the English language ? 
If this rule should be ad pted, it thorize us to use many words which 
would be as new to most Americans of the present day, as Sreshet was to 
the English Reviewers. The English would doubtless use the term floods 
_ or freshes, as is done, in the following example, by an English traveller in 
New England : “ This bridge, like the others, having been carried away 
by the floods or freshes, here called ern 8 &e. A sgremape Travels, vol, 
i, p. 291. The Encyclopedia Britt t Fresues, which 
853 aS 
