16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



fiercely and harshly that two persons can hardly make them- 

 selves heard by each other should they be close by them, in 

 consequence of their screams and howl. 



[He states that the Indians use them for food.] The squirrels 

 have their plentiful nourishment by them. In the month of 

 July their time is up when they gather in immense armies and 

 crawl on the ground toward the nearest river and are off for the 

 water to become food for the fishes. 



If the visionary spirits of the Quakers here in Pennsylvania 

 would with moderation contemplate the Lord's wonderful 

 mightiness in regard to the emerging of those insects out of the 

 ground they should never with such a pertinacity renounce the 

 possibility of resurrection, by which they are making them- 

 selves the most noxious vermin in America. 



August 11. I killed one of the most destroying Snakes in 

 West India, that is called the Horned Snake. It is excessively 

 big and thick, certainly five ells in length with Avhite and black 

 scales all over the body and in the tail is the point it makes use 

 of in killing. It consists of a horny matter, is as sharp as the 

 prickle of a hedgehog, but not more than half a finger in length. 

 Beneath the belly it is orange-colored. The gap is terrible, 

 though harmless. When it is infuriated it stretches the mouth 

 so highly that it becomes disjointed and cannot be closed any- 

 more. When it wants to sting it curls up in a ring and then 

 just as if it were a spring it throws out its tail in a moment, 

 reaching what it may. For such a sting there is no remedy, 

 neither for human nor any other creature, death will soon follow 

 upon it. 



February 2S, 1722. Was for the first time this year heard 

 the little bird Vivi or Seri, so-called, which among all birds is 

 the one that gives the first warning of the arrival of S]3ring time. 

 It is as small as a Siskin and grayish in color, always in appear- 

 ance as if just dipped in water, perches generally alone on a 

 roof or a chimney and begins in the morning with its chirping 

 that is nothing else than a distinct expression of these words in 

 Swedish: "Vet I? Vet I ? Vet I ? vi Vet. " (Do you know? 

 Do you know ? Do you know ? We do know. ) 



March 26, 1728. Did I shoot a Muskrat or as the Swedes 



