120 



man thigh bones, and a tooth discovered four fingers broad, 

 which lie thought to be the eye-tooth of a man ! Dr. Wood- 

 ward comments in a doubtful way upon these supposed hu- 

 man remrjns by saying: " It were to be wished that the 

 writer had given an exact figure of tiiese teeth and bones," 

 which had it been done, the learned Secretary would proba- 

 bly have at once discovered that they belonged to some large 

 animal, such for instance, as the Mastodon.* 



The second letter describes a few plants to be found in 

 New England, with a promise to furnish more. 



In the third letter Dr. Mather gives us an account of the 

 wild turkey seen in New England, some of them weighing 

 sixty pounds, but says they are poor meat, being tough and 

 hard. This as an ornithologist we should pronounce a 

 tough story. Audubon says, a fair estimate of the ordinary 

 weight of a wild turkey is from fifteen to eighteen pounds. 

 He saw one in Louisville market that weighed thirty-six 

 pounds. Bonaparte says, " I have ascertained the existence 

 of some weighing forty pounds, and all the relations above 

 this weight he considers fabulous."! Dr. Mather's notion 

 that wild pigeons migrate to the moon, must be classed with 

 those v.'liO suppose tha,i swallows go into the mud in Autumn ! 



The fourth letter, on antipathies and the force of imagi- 

 nation, is amusing and characteristic of its author. 



The fifth letter relates to monstrous births, but is summa- 

 rily dismissed by Dr. Woodward as nothing remarkable. 



The sixth letter relates to persons receiving medical aid 

 from dreams. This is rejected and refused publications, 

 with the remark, these accounts relate but little to " natural 

 philosophy." 



*It is now well understood that the giants he referred to, were distinguished, for 

 their great wickedness and not their large stature. 



tThomas Morton in his New English Canaan, wiitten in 1632, when speaking of 

 turkcvs as seen at his re^^idence in JSraintree, saj^s : " at divers times in great flocks 

 have "tliev sallied by our doores ; and then a gunne (being commonly called in a 

 readiness) salutes them with such a courtesie as makes them take a turn in the 

 Cooke roome. Of these liave been killed, that have weighed fortj^-eight pounds 

 apeece. They are man}^ degrees sweeter than the tame turkies of England, feede 

 them how you can." It is said the wild tm-key is still to be found on tlie Holyoke 

 range of mountains in Massachusetts. It will be noticed that Morton's weight of 

 the largest turkey he saw m 1632, exceeded by eight pounds, the one noticed by 

 Buonaparte. All writers with the exception of iJather, attest to the good eating 

 qualities of this bird. It is possible Dr. Mather eat his wild turkey out of season 

 during the summer, at some of the councils at Salem village, held for the purpose of 

 settling Mr. Parris's difficulties, or at the dinner given him by John Hathorne, Esq., 

 of Salem, at the execution of George Burroughs at Gallnws Hill. It would not be 

 surprising if he thought his dinner upon that day, whether turkey or pig, was hard 

 and tough ! 



