156 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



by the Indians, as it frequently has other animals, and particularly squirrels, deer, and 

 bears. Severe cold produces famine, and famine causes the migration of men, as well as 

 of other animals. Little credit is to be reposed in the opinions of savages on such 

 subjects. 



Almost all the other animals have probably been imported, but this does not disprove 

 their being also aborigines of America. Fleas have been found on gray squirrels and 

 rabbits, killed in desert parts of the country, where no human creature ever lived ; and in 

 new settlements made on pine lands they abound. The cock-roach, or blatta orientalis, 

 is said to have been imported from the West Indies ; but, on the other hand, it has been 

 found in the midst of woods and deserts. The common mouse and the rat, have also 

 been seen, at an early period, in the crevices of stones and subterraneous grottoes in re- 

 mote mountains, where no human being had ever been before. The black rat is, probably, 

 a native of America, and the gray rat imported from Eurepe. 



It is, perhaps, still more difficult to discriminate between native and naturalized plants 

 in many instances. In some cases, there is no dispute ; but, I believe, it is doubted, 

 whether the peach, the watermelon, and the parsnip, are indigenous. 



NOTE EE. 



This deduction is not a legitimate one. Honey might have been made by bees, spe- 

 cifically different from the common honey bee, and this appears to have been the case. Cla- 

 vigero says, (History of Mexico, vol. 1.) "There are at least six different kinds of bees. 

 The first is the same with the common bee of Europe, with which it agrees not only in size, 

 shape, and colour, but also in its disposition and manners, and in the qualities of it3 honey 

 and wax. The second species, which differs from the first only in having no sting, is the 

 bee of Yucatan and Chiapa, which makes the fine clear honey of Estabentun, of an aro- 

 matic flavour, superior to that of all the other kinds of honey with which we are acquaint- 

 ed. The honey is taken from them six times a year, that is, once in every other month; 

 but the best is that which is got in November, being made from a fragrant white flower, 

 like jessamine, which blows in September, called in that country estabentun, from which 

 the honey has derived its name. The third species resembles, in its form, the winged 

 ants, but is smaller than the common bee, and is without a sting. This insect, which is 

 peculiar to warm and temperate climates, forms nests, in size and shape, resembling sugar 

 foaves, and even sometimes greatly exceeds those in size, which are suspended from rocks. 



