Natural History of District of Columbia — McAtee 7 



was thickly settled and the waters there were favorite fishing 

 resorts. The Indian village Nacostines (Anacostia) is spe- 

 cifically mentioned by Henry Fleet who visited it in June, 

 1632, and obtained "800 weight of beaver." This is good 

 evidence of the abundance at that time of these animals in 

 country easily reached from Anacostia. Collateral evidence 

 is afforded by the name Beaver Dam Branch still applied to 

 a stream flowing into Eastern Branch through the town of 

 Benning. 



Fleet, like the travellers previously mentioned, also 

 ascended to Little Falls. He describes 6 the trip as follows : 

 "On Monday the 25th of June, we set sail for the town of 

 Tohoga, when we came to anchor two leagues short of the 

 falls, being in latitude of 41, on the 26th of June [1632]. 

 This place without all question is the most pleasant and 

 healthful place in all this country, and most convenient for 

 habitation, the air temperate in summer and not violent in 

 winter. It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The Indians 

 in one night commonly will catch thirty sturgeons in a 

 place where the river is not above twelve fathoms broad. 

 And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do 

 swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile, but 

 above this place the country is rocky and mountainous like 

 Cannida." (p. 228.) 



Apparently none of the other early travellers recorded 

 anything on the natural history of this region until Andrew 

 Burnaby, whose visit was in 1759 but whose account of it 

 was not published until 1775. He visited Mount Vernon 

 in October, 1759, and in his reference to the event describes 

 fish hawks capturing their prey and being robbed of it by 

 the bald eagle. Shortly after describing the Potomac River, 

 he says, 7 evidently speaking of Virginia in general : 



"The forests abound with plenty of game of various kinds ; 

 hares, turkies, pheasants, woodcocks and partridges, are in 

 (p. 9) the greatest abundance. In the mashes are found 



9 Fleet, Henry. A brief journal of a voyage made in the bark "War- 

 wick" to Virginia and other parts of the continent of America. 



Printed in Neill, E. D. The English Colonization of America during the 

 Seventeenth Century. London, 1871, pp. 221-237. 



7 Burnaby, Andrew. Travels through the Middle Settlements in North 

 America in the years 1759 and 1760. London, 1775, 106 pp. 



