ELEMENTS OF BARTRAM'S LANDSCAPE 99 



. . . instantly the lightning, as it were, opening a fiery chasm in the 

 black cloud, darted with inconceivable rapidity on the trunk of a large 

 pine tree, that stood thirty or forty yards from me, and set it in a blaze. 

 The flame instantly ascended upwards of ten or twelve feet, and con- 

 tinued flaming about fifteen minutes, when it was gradually extin- 

 guished, by the deluges of rain that fell upon it (pp. 13-14). The 

 mighty cloud now expands its sable wings, . . . and is driven 

 irresistibly on by the tumultuous winds, spreading his livid wings 

 around the gloomy concave, armed with terrors of thunder and fiery 

 shafts of lightning. Now the lofty forests bend low beneath its fury, 

 their limbs and wavy boughs are tossed about and catch hold of «ach 

 other; the mountains tremble and seem to reel about, and the ancient 

 hills to be shaken to their foundations: the furious storm sweeps along, 

 smoaking through the vale and over the resounding hills; the face of 

 the earth is obscured by the deluge descending from the firmament, and 

 I am deafened by the din of the thunder (p. 343). 



These, then, are the elements of Bartram's landscape. Because 

 they were new to him and because they contain an element of 

 the picturesque, he emphasized the plants and animals peculiar 

 to the South, but he did not exclude the plants and animals that 

 are common to the other regions of the United States. His 

 landscape is dotted with ornate and " exotic " plants, but he 

 does not overlook " the useful vegetables." He often refers 

 to " indigo, corn, potatoes," and to " other sorts of esculent 

 plants " (p. 6). He observes fields of tobacco and gardens of 

 cucumbers, lettuce, and berries. He notes a new species of gourd 

 (p. 479) and a root of China briar from which the Indians 

 make " a very agreeable, cooling sort of jelly " (p. 241). Nor 

 does he overlook the common domestic animals. He sees herds 

 of cattle and he stops to watch " a number of slaves, women, 

 boys and girls . . . milking the cows " (p. 310). Indian horses 

 attract him, and the Seminole horses, he thinks, " are the most 

 beautiful and sprightly species of that noble creature, perhaps 

 any where to be seen " (p. 215). He admires a black Florida 

 dog trained to take care of his master's horses (p. 215). 



Nor is Bartram's landscape entirely without human life. 

 There are of course days when nothing is to be seen but 

 earth and sky, fields and swamps and woods and streams and 

 mountains, trees and flowers, birds and bees, and Bartram him- 

 self in the center of it all, toiling up a river in his canoe or 



