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RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST.
BY     I ^''
JOHN D.  GODMAN, M. D.
         4M,
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
Hemtnfecences of a *5?ogage to Xutita.
BY
REYNELL COATES, M. D.
          PHILADELPHIA:


THOMAS T. ASH--KEY AND  BIDDLE

              1833. 
OSVfr
 IS 3*3 
PREFACE.
  The beautiful  sketches, under the title of " The Ram-
bles  of a Naturalist,"  which  first appeared in "The
Friend," a reUgious  and literary weekly journal of this
city, were lately published collectively in Waldie's Select
Circulating Library, and being deemed worthy of still
further dissemination, they have  been dressed in the
present  garb, and  thus offered  to  public  patronage.
Though they were dashed off on the spur of the  occa-
sion, they possess all  the characteristic  freshness and
vigour of the author's style, and were among the last ef-
fusions of his vigorous mind.  They were written while
he was confined to the bed of sickness, from which he
was  removed in a few weeks  afterwards to the tomb
and  the series  consequently interrupted.  The sale  of
the present  edition may contribute to more  pious uses
than mere commercial profits. 
6                    PREFACE.

  As a suitable accompaniment, the  " Reminiscences"
of Dr. Reynell Coates, likewise first published  in  " The
Friend," have  been appended;  the  whole forming  a
delightful pocket  companion for a spring or  summer
ramble.
  The biographical sketch is from the pen of Dr. Drake,
of Cincinnati, and first appeared in the " Western Jour-
nal of the Medical and Physical Sciences."
  "The  great characteristics  of Dr.  Godman's mind,"
says a friend, who knew him well, " were  his retentive
memory, an  unwearied industry and quick perception,
and  his capacity  of concentrating all his powers upon
any  given object of pursuit.  What he had once read or
observed, he rarely, if ever,  forgot.  Hence it  was, that
although his early education  was much neglected, he
became an  excellent linguist, and made himself master
of Latin,  French,  and  German, besides acquiring a
knowledge of Greek, Italian and Spanish.  He had read
the  best works in  all these languages, and wrote with
facility the Latin and French.
   " His  powers of observation were quick, patient, keen
and  discriminating ; and it was  these qualities that ren-
dered him so admirable a naturalist.  He came to the
study of natural history as an investigator of  facts, and
not  as  a pupil of  the schools;  and while he  regarded
systems and nomenclature with perhaps too little respect,
his great aim was to learn the instincts, the structure and
the  habits  of all animated beings.  This science was his 
PREFACE.
7
favourite pursuit, and he devoted himself to it with inde-
fatigable zeal.   He has been heard to say, that in investi-
gating the habits of the shrew mole, he  walked many
hundred miles.   Those parts of his natural history in
which he relates the results of his  own  observation, are
among the most interesting essays on that subject in our
language.  This praise is due in a still greater degree to
his Rambles  of a Naturalist, which are not inferior in
poetical beauty and vivid and accurate description, to the
celebrated letters of Gilbert White on the Natural History
of Selbourne.   These essays were among the last pro-
ductions of his pen, and were written in the intervals of
acute pain and  extreme  debility.  They  form a mere
sketch of what he intended, and  had he lived to com-
plete them, he would have left a work and a name  of
enduring popularity.
   " There were few subjects of general literature, except-
ing the  pure and mixed  mathematics, with which Dr.
Godman was not more or less familiar.   Among other
pursuits to which his attention had been turned, was the
study of ancient coins, of which he had acquired a criti-
cal knowledge.
   " The powers  of his mind were always buoyant.  His
eagerness  in the pursuit of knowledge seemed like the
impulse of gnawing hunger  and  unquenchable thirst.
 Neither adversity  nor disease  could allay it,  and had  it
 pleased Providence to heal his mortal wound, and prolong 
8
PREFACE.
his life and strength, he would have borne away the palm
from all his contemporaries.
  "The fine imagination and deep enthusiasm of Dr.
Godman occasionally burst forth in  impassioned poetry.
He wrote verse and prose with almost equal facility, and
had he  lived and enjoyed leisure  to prune the exuber-
ance of his style, and to bestow the  last polish upon his
labours, he would have ranked  as one of the great mas-
ters of our language, both in regard to the curious felicity,
and the strength and  clearness of his diction.  The fol-
lowing specimens  of his  poetical  compositions are se-
lected less for  their  intrinsic  excellence,  than for  the
picture which they furnish of his private meditations." 
PREFACE.
9
          A MIDNIGHT MEDITATION.

 'Tis midnight's solemn hour ! now wide unfurled
 Darkness expands her mantle o'er the world:
 The fire-fly's lamp has ceased its fitful gleam
 The cricket's chirp is hushed; the boding scream
 Of the grey owl is stilled; the lofty trees
 Scarce wave their summits to the failing breeze;
 All nature is at rest, or seems to sleep;
 'Tis thine alone, oh man! to watch and weep !
 Thine 'tis to feel thy system's sad decay,
 As flares the taper of thy life away
 Beneath the influence of fell disease :—
 Thine 'tis to know the want of mental ease
 Springing from memory of time misspent;
 Of slighted blessings ; deepest discontent,
 And riotous rebellion 'gainst the laws
 Of health, truth, heaven, to win the world's applause!

Such was thy course, Eugenio, such thy hardened heart,
Till mercy spoke, and death unsheathed the dart,
Twanged his unerring bow, and drove the steel,
Too  deep to be withdrawn, too wide the wound to heal;
Yet left of life a feebly glimmering ray,
Slowly to sink and gently ebb away. 
10
PREFACE.
 —And yet, how blest am I ?
 While myriad others lie
 In agony of fever or of pain,
 With parching tongue and burning eye,
 Or fiercely throbbing brain;
 My feeble frame, though spoiled of rest,
 Is not of comfort dispossess
 My mind  awake, looks up to thee,
 Father of mercy! whose blest hand I see
 In all things acting for our good,
 Howe'er thy mercies be misunderstood.

 —See where the waning moon
 Slowly surmounts yon dark tree tops,
 Her light increases steadily, and soon
 The solemn night her stole of darkness drops :
 Thus to my sinking soul in hours of gloom,
  The cheering beams of hope resplendent come,
  Thus the thick clouds which sin and sorrow rear
  Are changed to brightness, or swift disappear.
Hark ! that shrill note proclaims approaching day;
The distant east is streaked with lines of gray ;
Faint warblings from the  neighbouring groves arise,
The tuneful tribes salute the brightening skies.
Peace breathes around ; dim visions o'er me creep,
The weary night  outwatched, thank  God ! I too may
    sleep. 
PREFACE.
11
Lines written under a feeling of the immediate approach
                      of Death.

The damps of death are on my brow, the chill is in my
       heart,
My blood has almost ceased to flow,  my hopes of life
       depart;
The valley and the shadow before me open wide,
But thou, Oh Lord! even there wilt be my guardian and
       my guide.
For what is pain, if thou art nigh its bitterness to quell ?
And where  death's boasted victory, his last triumphant
       spell?
Oh! Saviour, in that hour when mortal strength is nought,  N
When nature's agony comes on, and every  anguished
       thought
Springs in the breaking heart a  source of darkest woe,
Be nigh unto my soul, nor permit the floods o'erflow.
To thee ! to thee alone ! dare I raise my dying eyes;
Thou didst for all atone, by thy wondrous sacrifice ;
Oh! in thy mercy's richness extend thy smiles on me,
And let my soul outspeak thy praise throughout eternity !


  " Beneath  the  above stanzas  is the  following note:
1 Rather  more than a year has elapsed since  the above
was first written.  Death is now certainly near at hand ; 
12
PREFACE.
but my sentiments  remain unchanged, except that my
reliance on the Saviour is stronger.'
  " This reliance on the mercies of God through Christ
Jesus, became indeed  the  habitual frame of his mind ;
and imparted to the closing scenes of his life a solemnity
and a calmness, a sweet serenity and a holy resignation,
which robbed death of its sting, and the  grave of its
victory.  It was a melancholy sight to witness the pre-
mature extinction of such a spirit; yet the dying couch
on which  genius,  and virtue, and learning thus  lay
prostrated, beamed with more hallowed lustre, and taught
a more salutary  lesson than could have been imparted
by the proudest triumphs of intellect.  The memory of
Dr. Godman, his blighted promise, and his unfinished
labours, will long continue to call forth the vain regrets
of men of science and learning.  There are those who
treasure up in their hearts as a more precious recollection,
his humble faith and his triumphant death, and who can
meet with an eye of  pity, the scornful glance  of the
scoffer, and the infidel, at being told that  if Dr. Godman
was a philosopher, he was also a Christian." 
         MEMOIR

                 OF

DR. JOHN D. GODMAN.
  Of Dr.  Godman's early years, we have received a
number of interesting memoranda, from his first medical
preceptor, Dr.  Luckey, now of Circleville, in this state.
According to this gentleman, Dr. G. was born at Wil-
mington, in the state of Delaware.  At an early  period
he lost his parents, and was left  without  patrimony, or
deprived of it.   Dr. Luckey first saw him  in 1810, when
he was fifteen years old.  The doctor was,  at that time, a
senior  student in the office of Dr. Thomas E. Bond, of
Baltimore. " The office," says Dr. L., " was fitted up
with taste, and boys, attracted by its appearance, would
frequently drop in, to gaze  on  the labelled  jars  and
drawers.  Among them I discovered, one evening, an in-
teresting lad, who was amusing himself with the manner
in which  his  comrades pronounced the  ' hard words,'
with which the furniture was labelled.  He appeared to
       2 
14
MEMOIR OF
 be  quite an  adept in  the Latin  language.  A strong
 curiosity soon prompted me to enquire ' Who are you ?'
 ' Don't you  recollect,' says he, ' that  you visited a boy
 at Mr. Creery's, who had a severe attack of bilious colic ?'
 ' I  do.  But  what is your name, my little boy ?'   He
 was small of his age.  ' My name, sir, is  John D. God-
 man.'  'Did  you study the Latin language with Mr.
 Creery ?'   ' No, he does not teach any but an English
 school.'   ' Do  you intend to prosecute   your studies
 alone ?' ' I do.  And I will,  if I live, make myself a
 Latin, Greek, and French  scholar."
  In the autumn of 1811,  Dr.  Luckey commenced the
 practice of medicine in Ehzabethtown, Pennsylvania, and
 the  next  summer received a letter  from his  protege,
 stating that  he had been bound  an apprentice to the
 printer of a  newspaper.  With this business,  he  was,
 from the beginning, exceedingly dissatisfied, as he evinced
 in his  numerous letters to Dr. Luckey.
  In one of these, dated July 23d, 1812, he expressed the
 opinion, that it was worse than " cramping his genius
 over a pestle  and mortar"—it was " cramping  it over a
 font of types, where there are words without ideas."
  Addicted to reading, and aspiring to a more intellectual
 pursuit, it is not probable that our young printer was
 much  devoted to the drudgery of the office, or performed
 his duties con amort; which may sufficiently explain the
if
 origin of  the difficulties  set forth in  the following
 paragraph from a subsequent letter to the same. 
DR.  GODMAN.
15
  " Every thing is in statu  quo with me.   The  same
series of oppressions, impositions and insults are still my
lot to bear.  But 1 will not bear them  long.  From the
oldest to the youngest, master and man, all seem to have
a disposition to peck at me.  You will (or may be) sur-
prised to hear that I can never make a printer.  It is an
erroneous opinion of some people, that no one can make
a  printer unless  he be  a scholar.  On the contrary,
scholars can hardly, if at  all, be printers.  I would not
wish you to think that 1 count myself a scholar.  On the
contrary I think myself no scholar."
  The following extract from another letter, dated Oc-
tober 23d, 1813, shows that, at this early period, young
Godman was threatened with the malady which ultimately
destroyed him.
  " The disease for which I  mentioned a recipe in my
last has commenced its direful effects on my poor  body.
A continued pain in my breast, and at  night a slow but
burning fever, convince me that  I am  travelling down a
much frequented road to the place where  disease has no
effect.   This my friend is  no phantasy.  I do not say it
from affectation.  I  feel it.  I cannot believe  in this
disease  being contagious,  or I  should be certain that I
have caught it. I sleep with a youth who was born with
it and has it fully."
  In the opinion of Dr. L-,  the deceased, at that early
period, laboured under a hypertrophy of the heart.
  Through the whole of his apprenticeship,  young God- 
16
MEMOIR OF
man had  a strong desire to  study medicine, but his
guardian  was opposed  to  any  change of destination.
Early  in  the month of January,  1814,  he  writes to
Dr. L.—
  "At the suggestion of Dr. Anderson,  I have deter-
mined to commence the  study of chemistry, as  he says it
will be a great improvement to the  mind,  and more so,
I may be enabled, the ensuing season (if I  should live so
long) to attend the lectures  at  the University (of Mary-
land,) and it seems to run greatly in Dr. A.'s head that I
shall one day be a physician.  How far this surmise may
be right, time will disclose.   It may indeed so happen,
and should I  study chemistry now, I shall not have it to
do at a future period.  I  must, however, ask your opinion
in this affair."
  On the 24th of the same month, he writes to the same
gentleman—
  " I have read the catechetical part of Parke's Chemis-
try, and I  can assure you I liked it not a little.  But my
knowledge, so  far  as  I  may obtain it, will only be
theoretical."
  In the same letter he sets forth his early views of the
Christian religion:
  " I have not ever had a fixed determination to read the
works of that Modern Serpent,* nor had  I  determined
not to do it; and it seems to me surprising, that a fellow
* Thomas Paine. 
DR. GODMAN.                17
student of yours should recommend the perusal of such
writings as Thomas Paine's.
  " I had, thank heaven, before I asked you the question,
and still have, the  "Apology  for the Bible," by the cele-
brated Lord  Regius,  of  Landaff,  (Bishop  Watson.)
There is a great comfort in the belief of that glorious
doctrine of salvation, that teaches us to look to the Great
Salvator for happiness in a future life ; and it has  always
been my earnest desire, and I must endeavour to  die the
death of the righteous, that my last end and future state
may be Uke his.  It would  be a  poor hope indeed—-it
would be a sandy  foundation for the dying  soul,  to have
no hope but such as might be derived from  the works of
Bolingbroke and  Paine;  and  how rich the consolation
and satisfaction afforded  by the glorious tidings of the
blessed Scriptures. It is my opinion, there has never one
of these modern deists died as their writings would lead
us to believe ; nor are but few of their writings  read at
the  present day."
   In the year 1814, when the war raged in  the Chesa-
peake, he became a sailor under Com.  Barney, and was
engaged in the  service  at  the bombardment of Fort
M'Henry.  Early in the next year,  Dr.  Luckey, capti-
vated by his genius, and touched by his misfortunes, re-
 solved to invite him to  his house, in  Ehzabethtown, and
 afford him  all the facilities in his power for studying  the
 profession to  which he  aspired.  It does not appear how
 lie had rid himself of his apprenticeship; but he seems to
                          2* 
18
MEMOIR OF
have been at liberty to accept the doctor's generous invi-
tation.  This  he did, with emotions of joy which are
uttered in the following simple and affecting reply, dated
April 4th, 1815.
  " I have this hour received your last letter, and I can
assure you, that language  is inadequate to express to
you my sincere, unfeigned joy, for the pleasing news you
have communicated  to me.  Let  the manner in which
these lines are penned, convince you of the state of my
mind  at present.  I was, thirty minutes before I received
your letter, on  the point of going to  a printer, in this
city, to seek  employment, and, but for Providence, I
should have done so.   You may suppose that, as soon as
I read your letter,  I abandoned this intention  and re-
turned  to my sister's house,* * with fire in each eye and
paper in each hand,' to answer your epistle of friendship's
own dictating.   I must lay this aside for  a short time,
till my mind becomes settled and undisturbed.  I stopped
at the line above, in order that I might recover a small
degree of composure, in order  to express myself as I
ought, to so good a friend.   I will certainly comply with
your request, should it please God to continue my health
and strength during the ensuing week.  Should it please
the mercy  of Providence to suffer me to take up my re-
sidence with you, I shall endeavour, by the most inde-
fatigable study and diligence, to  give you the satisfaction
* Mrs. Stella Miller, of Baltimore. 
DR. GODMAN.
19
your kindness to me deserves.  I am in hopes that I shall
be able to come some day in the course of the next week;
but, as my journey must be a pedestrian one, I should
not wish to mention a particular day."
  " On the 10th of April, four days after the date of this
letter, he arrived," says Dr. L., " at my house, and took
up his residence  in my family. He made his  promise
good, for in six weeks he had acquired more knowledge
in the different  departments  of medical  science,  than
most students do in a year.  During this short period he
not only  read Chaptal, Fourcroy, Chesselden, Murray,
Brown, Cullen, Rush, Sydenham, Sharp, and Cooper, but
wrote annotations on each, including critical remarks on
the incongruities in their reasonings.  He remained with
me five months, and at the end of that time, you would
have imagined  from his conversation,  that he was  an
Edinburgh graduate.   When  he sat down to study, so
completely was he absorbed by his  subject, that it seemed
as though the amputation of one of his limbs would
scarcely withdraw his  attention."
   A circumstance having  no connection  with the rela-
tion between him and his benefactor, but involving  them
both, led to premature  separation.  One or both of  them
were requested by the political party to which they be-
longed, to deliver orations on the approaching Fourth of
July.  Dr. L. began  at the  appointed hour, and went
through with his  discourse, but attempts were made by
the opposite party to offer insult and create disturbance ; 
20                  MEMOIR OF

at which our young orator became indignant; and yield-
ing to the impulse of his strong native feelings, not only
refused to deliver what he  had prepared, but resolved on
returning forthwith to Baltimore.  His oration was left
with his preceptor, who speaks of it  as not unworthy of
Patrick Henry.
  Departing from Ehzabethtown, he returned to Balti-
more, and became a pupil  of Dr. Hall; and, in the suc-
ceeding autumn, began to attend the lectures in that city.
His pecuniary difficulties,  however, were pressing, and,
in the ensuing February, 1816,  he  wrote to his benefac-
tor in the following eloquent and affecting style :
  " Need I then inform you how high my expectations
were raised, when I commenced attending the lectures
this winter—need I say I  was almost certain of future
competency ?  Alas ! my  friend,  the Great  Ruler of
events has interposed (in order to  teach  me resigna-
tion to his will) this heavy disappointment.  By unforeseen
events—by domestic  calamities, I have been compelled
to relinquish the study of  medicine, so long the ultima-
tum of all my hopes.  Father of all, thy will be done.
I have made this my motto—my consolation;  and did I
not daily see the truth of " Omnia  pro  oplimo," I might
perhaps repine.   I am now in expectation of a situation
with an eminent apothecary of  this  city, and I may be
enabled, at a future period, to recommence the study of
medicine."
  This situation however he did not obtain. 
DR.  GODMAN.
21
  " Let me now give you a retrospect of' the days of my
life.'  Since I have returned from you, I have discovered
my real age, in an old book of my father's,  (and you
would hardly suppose it,) I was 21  years old the 20th
day of December, 1815.   Before I was two years old I
was motherless—before I was five years old I was father-
less and friendless—I have been cast among strangers—
I have been deprived of property by fraud, that was mine
by  right—I have eaten the bread  of misery—I have
drunk of the cup of  sorrow—I have passed the flower of
my days in a state little better than slavery, and have
arrived—at what?  Manhood,  poverty,  and desolation.
Heavenly  Parent, teach  me  patience and resignation to
thy will."
   About this time  he seems to have found a patron in
Professor Davidge, and,  on the 18th of April following,
he wrote to Dr. Luckey—
   "I still continue to  study with Dr. Wright, (the part-
ner of Dr. Davidge,) and provided it shall be  the will of
heaven, I may possibly procure admission in the course
of the next  year into  the  venerable   circle of medi-
cine."
   In speaking of his perplexed and embarrassed situation,
and of the mutations of fortune, he says—
   " There is only one thing which points to, and affords
immutable consolation, and that is, the observance of re-
ligion.  Although we should  be incapable of reaping
enjoyment in this world, even  from uninterrupted pros- 
22
MEMOIR OF
perity, yet we can ardently long for, and sincerely believe,
we may be eternally happy in the next."
   In this situation he finished  his medical education. In
the language of Professor Sewall*—
   " Here he pursued his studies with such diligence and
zeal, as to furnish, even at that early period, strong inti-
mations of his future eminence.  So indefatigable was
he in the acquisition of knowledge, that he left  no op.
portunity of advancement unimproved, and notwithstand-
ing the deficiencies  of his  preparatory education,  he
pressed  forward  with an energy and perseverance, that
enabled him not only to rival, but to surpass all his fel-
lows."
   He appears to have attended the lectures m the Balti-
more school, through the sessions commencing in the
autumns of 1816, and 1817.   In the course of the last,
Professor Davidge was disabled,  by an  accident, for
several  weeks, and Mr. Godman was appointed to supply
his place.  This,  as he had been an apprentice to a trade,
not three years before,  in the same city, was an hon-
ourable testimony to his talents and industry, and must
have been highly gratifying to  his ambition,  According
to Professor Sewall, {loco citato.)
  "This situation he filled for  several  weeks  with  so
much propriety—he  lectured with  such enthusiasm and
eloquence, his illustrations were so clear and happy, as
* Eulogy on Dr. Godman, p. 4. 
DR. GODMAN.
23
to gain universal applause; and at the time he was ex-
amined  for his degree, the superiority of his  mind, as
well as the extent and accuracy of his knowledge, were
so apparent, that he was marked by the professors of the
University as one who was destined at some future period
to confer high honour upon the profession."
   In reference to his graduation, on the 10th of February,
1818, he wrote to his  friend,  Dr. Luckey,  in these em-
phatical words:
   " I know not what to tell you  for news, unless I tell
you that I passed my graduate examination, on Saturday;
(Feb. 7,) which lasted twenty minutes; and, of course, 1
have now the ' vast unbounded prospect  all before me ;'
though ' shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.'  I
will go to the country to practise, most  probably to
Frederick county."
   In the  United States, it is  common to see young men,
without preparatory education or fortune, become prac-
titioners of medicine; but most of this class struggle into
the ranks of the profession, totally unprepared;  and de-
part from it for other pursuits, or for the grave, unknown
 and unhonoured by  the scientific  world.   Such an ad-
 mission,  must not be confounded with that  of young
 Godman; who scorned to enter the profession unqualified
 and unauthorised by those who guard, or ought to guard,
 its portals.  In this  respect he was a shining example;
 and his subsequent success should animate every friend-
 less young man, who may engage in the study of medi- 
24                  MEMOIR OF
cine, to imitate his industry and unfaltering perseverance.
By these means, if not blessed with his genius, they may
prepare themselves  for extensive usefulness,  and earn
respectability if not renown.
   We come now to contemplate Dr. Godman, as a mem-
ber of the profession.   His first location was in the vil-
lage of New Holland, on the  banks of the Susquehanna;
where, however, he remained but a few months.  The
next was  on the Patapsco,  near Baltimore, whence, in
July, 1819, he wrote to Dr. Luckey as follows:
   " My success in business has been considerable,  or my
practice, at least, has been as extensive as I could ration-
ally expect."  "What my success may be in the  end is
at present very doubtful.   I  still  have considerable ex-
pectation of being  recalled to  Baltimore, in order to fill
the  place which I held in the University.  If  it so hap-
pen, I shall be much delighted, as a country life is very
little, or not at all, to my taste."
   In these rural situations  he devoted himself to the
study of nature; and, at a subsequent time, set forth the
fruits of his observations in a series of papers, entitled
the Rambles of a Naturalist.   But his ardent tempera-
ment was little adapted to the  stagnant existence of a
village doctor.  He thirsted for competition,  and longed
to engage in the rivalries which prevail  among the can-
didates for fame. Nature seems to have urged him on.  It
was she who revealed to him the  compass of his  intel-
lectual powers; and bid him seek a theatre  commen- 
                    DR.  GODMAN.                25

 surate with their efficiency.   A  different arrangement
 from what he had anticipated was made in the Baltimore
 school; he  returned, however, to that city, but at length
 boldly resolved to fix himself in Philadelphia, and become
 a public teacher of anatomy and physiology.
   But an unexpected event gave, for  the time being, a
 different  direction to his efforts.  The  writer of this
 article was enquiring, at  that time, for a suitable person
 to fill the chair of surgery in the medical college of Ohio,
 the first session of which had just closed; and Dr. God-
 man was recommended.  His qualifications for the first
 place, were expressed by Professor Gibson, then of the
 University of Pennsylvania, but previously a member of
 the Baltimore institution, in the following unequivocal
 and prophetic language.  " In my opinion, Dr. Godman
 would do honour to any school in America."   He was
 forthwith appointed; and arrived in Cincinnati the en-
 suing October, (1821,)  in time to enter  on the second
 session of the school.
   For  the practical details of such a professorship, he
 could not of course be well prepared, as his surgical ex-
 perience was  exceedingly limited; but he was learned
 in the institutes of the  science, and his  knowledge of
anatomy was comprehensive, accurate and commanding.
As a dissector, he was  equally  rapid and adroit.   His
lectures were well received by the class, who  admired
his genius, were  captivated by his  eloquence,  and
charmed with  the naivety  of his manners.
       3 
26
MEMOIR OF
  In the course  of the  session, difficulties,  of which he
was neither the cause nor the victim, were  generated in
the faculty, the class was small, and the prospects of the
institution  overcast: under these circumstances,  Dr.
Godman resigned, but did not at that time  return to the
east.
  Not long before, the author of this narrative had issued
proposals for a medical journal,  to be edited by the pro-
fessors of  the college, and obtained  a number of sub-
scribers ; but the distracted state of the institution pre-
vented the  fulfilment of the design.  To this  enterprise, as
soon as he had  resigned,  Dr.  Godman directed his at-
tention ; and assisted by Mr. Foote, a liberal and literary
bookseller  in this  city,  in  a few weeks issued the first
number  of the  Western  Quarterly Reporter.  Thus, if
not the first to project,  Dr. G. had the honour of being
the first to commence, a  journal of  medicine, in the
Valley of the Mississippi.   At the end of the 6th number,
of a hundred pages each, the work was  discontinued, for,
previously  to that time, its editor had returned to Phila-
delphia.   More  than three hundred pages of this periodi-
cal were from his own pen ; chiefly  in translations and
reviews  of anatomy, physiology, and  medical jurispru-
dence.
   Dr. Godman resided in our city for one year only; but
in that short period he deeply inscribed himself on the
public mind.  The  memory of his works  still remains
with  us.   In addition to writing for his medical journal, 
DK. GODMAN.
27
and to his practice, which was considerable for a stranger,
he erected an apparatus for  sulphurous fumigation, and
translated  and published  a  French pamphlet on  that
remedy; he read medical books, and many current works
of general literature; prosecuted the study of the German
and Spanish languages; and labelled  the ancient coins
and medals of the Western Museum.  In  the midst of
the whole, he found time to cultivate his social relations;
and  every day added a new friend to the catalogue of
those, who loved him for  his simplicity  and frankness,
not less than they admired him for his genius, vivacity,
and  diligence.  Thus, to  use an idiomatic expression,
he was a growing man, and might have remained  with
us and done  well.  But the hand of destiny was  upon
him.   He had left  the  banks of the  Patapsco, to  be a
public teacher: the same object had drawn him from
Philadelphia to Cincinnati; and that object,  at length, re-
stored him to the great emporium of the medical sciences.
Contrary to the wishes and  importunities of his western
friends, in the autumn of 1822, with his young family, he
set off for the  theatre of his future glory; which he
reached  in  safety, though  not without  some of the
many difficulties, at that  time connected with a journey
across the state of Ohio;  of which, in a letter  from
Wheeling to one of his friends in this city, he gave a
familiar  account, in all respects so characteristic,  that
we hope to be excused for extracting it:
   " We arrived last night, after a journey  which exceeded 
28
MEMOIR OF
in miseries any twenty journeys I ever made in my life.
Thank God, the whole has been productive of nothing
worse, than some hoarseness to my wife, and a galloping
consumption of my bank notes.  We were thirteen days
on the way, twelve of which gave  us as heavy rains as
ever  poor mortals could venture to travel in; and this
produced such a delightfully soft state of the roads, that
but for the rocks, (which fortunately were  not  twenty
feet  below the surface,) we might  have  been  extracted
some thousand years hence, in a high state of preserva-
tion,  to decorate Best's museum, having one of Dor-
feuille's mummy labels around our necks.
   " If I were one of the ' tristful travellers,' I  might draw
much 'matter  of melancholy' from  these  'misadven-
tures,' as  my friend Sancho Panza calls them.  But as
the blessed sun of heaven has driven forth once more in
his beamy chariot,  and  the  clouds are  scattered from
their long  held  seats, those  which have loured on my
mind, have also  fled ; and with ' a light heart,' I am once
more preparing to encounter all the good or ill that God
may  send."
   Of Dr. Godman's  life and  labours from this time for-
ward, we  shall  say but little, as they are  known to all
the reading people of the United States, both in and out
of the profession; and as our chief object  is to present
the difficulties and triumphs of his earlier years, for the
benefit of our younger readers.
   In Philadelphia he immediately began to  lecture on 
DR. GODMAN.
29
anatomy and physiology, his first and greatest objects ;
and  succeeded so well,  that, in 1826, he was called to
Rutgers' College, in the city of New York,  as an asso-
ciate of Mott and Hosack.
  In 1824 he was made one of the editors,  (a working
editor,) of  the  Philadelphia Journal  of the Medical
Sciences: and continued a liberal contributor to that
respectable periodical, to the last weeks of his life.
  At different times he published a number of interesting
and  eloquent introductory lectures.
  He was the writer of several  elaborate analytical and
critical reviews, in  the American Quarterly.
  At the present time, actual discoveries in anatomy are
no more to be expected, yet Dr. G., with admirable skill,
revealed many new connections and relations of certain
parts, and described them in a volume which he entitled
Anatomical Investigations.
  He translated and published  from the  Latin, French,
and  German languages, a variety of papers  and distinct
treatises; several of them on subjects not professional, as
for example, Lavasseur's Narrative of La Fayette's Visit
to the United States.
   He wrote critical and emendatory notes on several im-
portant English and  continental works, which the book-
sellers of this country were about to publish.
   The article of Natural History, in  the Encyclopedia
Americana,  was exclusively  confided to him, and his
labours upon it ended only with his life.
                          3* 
30
MEMOIR OF
  He studied the Zoology of North America, both existing
and fossil, and favoured us with an interesting and ex-
tended history of all  its own quadrupeds, embracing a
great variety of new observations.
  Such were the labours of the deceased,  during the
seven years that he  resided in Philadelphia and New
York.   For the whole of that period,  his life was one of
unmitigated toil.  As far back as  November,  1823, he
writes to his friend Dr.  Best,
  " Whatever you  may think  of  my  long continued
silence, it has  been unavoidably produced by the inces-
sant and laborious employments which have occupied the
whole of my time."
  In 1824, he writes to another  friend—
  " My time has been very much occupied in the various
duties which devolve on me here,  and I am obliged to
neglect my friends, in appearance, because it is out of my
power to bestow the  necessary attention  to correspond-
ence."
   Again, in 1825, he says to the same—
   " It is needless to tell you, that I am  excessively occu-
 pied, and shall be more so as the winter approaches."
   In the next year we find him still in the  same condi-
 tion—
   " If you expect news at my hands," says he to Dr.
 Best, " you expect in vain.  My life is  one  monotonous
 round of incessant toil after bread and fame, that' certain
 portion of uncertain paper.'   Of my success in the bread 
DR. GODMAN.
31
making way, I can, thank God, speak more satisfactorily
than when we last met, though still nothing to boast of."
  Again in the same year he writes—
  " You recollect how much and  how hard  I  had to
work, when you were here—that was nothing to  what I
have to do now, as vigilance  and labour are incessantly
demanded, not only to gain more ' reputation,' but to re-
tain that which I  have already with vast toil acquired."
   In the following year,  after he had removed to  New
York, and was there a candidate for professional business,
he writes to the same friend—
   " The prospects of our college are fair enough at pre-
sent, but what will be the event, cannot be told until the
time of trial  arrives.  For my own  part, I am not a little
sick of the life such a business occasions, and think you
far better off, in a situation, where you can  acquire a
subsistence and respect, without the incessant worry and
vexation  attendant on a life of professional  ambition.
For my own part, I shall lay myself as much out for the
profession as I can, though I fear,  not the best  subject
for improvement in that way. My  situation is such, that
 I am obliged to rely, in a very great degree, on my pen,
 and that, you will  say, produces habits very little com-
 patible with the introduction of one's self into practice,
 where there are so many professed bowers,  scrapers, and
 flatterers."
   In the ensuing winter  he  was seized with the disease
 of the lungs of which he finally died, and was compelled 
32                 MEMOIR OF
to suspend his lectures.  In the following January, 1829,
he speaks to  the  same gentleman, of his situation and
labours, in these affecting words—
  " My excessive  exertion, and the exposure to a dread-
ful climate destroyed me.  My lungs became diseased,
and last winter, I was threatened with so rapid a decline
as to force me to  escape from the climate of New York,
by going to the West Indies.  The months of February,
March, and April,  my wife and I spent in the Danish
Island  of Santa Cruz, where I very nearly perished from
my disease, though  I certainly should have done  so  in
New York.   On  my return to Philadelphia,  in May, I
took a  house in Germantown, within seven miles from
the city, where I have since resided.  During the warm
weather I was able  to creep about, but since the first of
the fall have been confined to a single room.  My health
during all this time  has been  in  a very wretched  state,
and my consumption very obvious indeed, for I wasted to
bones and lost all my strength.  Until the last  three
weeks past, I was exceedingly low, unable to sit up, eat,
or perform any function  advantageously. Since the time
mentioned I have greatly recovered in all respects.  My
cough  is by no means troublesome, and I  eat and sleep
well.  What is best  of all is that I have never had hectic
since leaving  New York, where I was not properly pre-
scribed  for.   Notwithstanding all these  drawbacks,  I
have had my  family to support, and have done so merely
by  my pen.  This  you may suppose severe  enough for 
DR.  GODMAN.
33
one in my condition, nevertheless necessity is a ruthless
master.  At present, that  I  am comparatively well, my
literary occupations form  my chief pleasure, and all the
regret I experience is, that my strength is so inadequate
to my wishes.  Should my health remain as it  is now I
shall do very well, and I cannot but hope, since we have
recently passed through a tremendous spell of cold wea-
ther without my receiving any injury. All my prospects
as a public teacher of anatomy are utterly destroyed, as I
can never hope, nor would I venture if I could, again to
resume my  labours.  My success  promised to be very
great, but it has pleased God that I should move in a dif-
ferent direction."
   In the following year, continuing to write for the sup-
port of his family  till the  last month of his existence,  he
was taken  from them, and in him  they lost their all.
Twelve years of  unfaltering industry,  that  had carried
his name into all the  countries where  science is culti-
vated, had not enabled him to accumulate property ; and
ended by consigning him to the grave,  ere  he reached
the noon-day of life, or had put forth,  to their full extent,
the vast intellectual powers, with which he was endowed.
In all this, there is much more to grieve than astonish
us.  As a  physician  and surgeon, Dr.  Godman's busi-
ness was never considerable.  At the very  beginning of
his professional career, his mind took a different direc-
tion.  No human  heart was ever imbued with a  deeper
thirst for  knowledge, or  warmed with  a  nobler love of 
34                 MEMOIR OF

glory. He made the former subservient to the latter; but
the objects of his ambition were teaching  and writing,
not the practice of  his  profession.  Perhaps, indeed, he
adapted the aims of his ambition to his taste. He relished
reading, writing,  and lecturing, more than the practice
of medicine;  and sought to derive from them, that emo-
lument, which, in  this  country, they  seldom afford, and
which can much more certainly be drawn  from a close
attention to the practical duties of the profession.  Had
he possessed a patrimony,  this course would have been
unexceptionable; without such a reliance, no young phy-
sician should neglect the means of acquiring professional
business, at the outset of his career.
   Dr. Godman was, without doubt, a man of genius; but
he was not, perhaps, so  much the expositor, as the histo-
rian of nature. Observing, imaginative, fluent, and gra-
phical,  he abounded  less in deep and original analysis
than  vivid and accurate delineations.  Thus his mind,
like that  of Lucretius,  Darwin, and  Good, was poetical
and philosophical; and he left behind him several fugitive
pieces, written chiefly in his last illness, which prove that
he might have shone as the poet of nature,  not less  than
her historian, had circumstances awakened his powers.
   He possessed uncommon abilities for dissection, and
was accustomed, in the presence of his class, to disen-
tangle the structures intended for exhibition ; thus show-
ing their connections  and dependences,  while  he de-
scribed them with that clearness, animation, and elo- 
                   DR. GODMAN.                 35

quence, which only can render the study of anatomy at-
tractive.
  In every situation, and on every subject, his attention
was active and acute, his perceptions rapid, his memory
exceedingly retentive, and his ratiocination profound and
analytical.
  For languages, he  had both taste and talents; and,
succeeded in acquiring a practical knowledge of a greater
numher, perhaps, than any American physician who had
preceded him.
  The  qualities of his heart  harmonised with those of
his  head.  They did honour  to the  profession, and in-
spired confidence wherever he  went.  To pure moral
habits,  and incorruptible honesty, he added that unsus-
pecting frankness, and  all  those fine and glowing sensi-
bilities, which at once excite our respect, and  win our
affection.
  But it is not our design to attempt an extended delinea-
tion of his character, and we shall close an article already
prolonged far beyond our original intention, with his own
statement  of his opinions and hopes, in regard to that
world of which he is now a " bright inhabitant."
  In his last letter  to Dr.  Best, who followed him in  a
few months, he writes:—
  " It gives me  great happiness to  learn that you have
been  taught, as  well  as myself, to  fly to  the Rock of
Ages for shelter against the  afflictions of  this life, and
for hopes of eternal salvation.  But for the hopes afforded 
36          MEMOIR OF DR. GODMAN.
me, by an humble reliance on the all-sufficient atonement
of our blessed Redeemer,  I should have  been the most
wretched of men. But I  trust, that the afflictions I have
endured have been sanctified to my awakening, and to
the regeneration of my heart and life.  May we, my dear
friend, persist to cling to the only sure  support against
all that is evil in life, and all that is fearful in death."
  Thus fell from the firmament of the American profes-
sion, before he had reached his meridian splendour, one
of the brightest stars which have yet risen above its hori-
zon ; but he  was  one  only, and  we may hope that his
own example wiU contribute to place some other in  the
constellation. 
RAMBLES  OF  A NATURALIST.
                      NO.  I.

   From  early youth devoted to  the study of nature, it
has always been my habit to embrace every opportunity
of increasing my knowledge and pleasures by actual ob-
servation, and I have  found ample means of  gratifying
this disposition, wherever my place has been allotted  by
Providence.   When an inhabitant of the country, it was
sufficient to go a few  steps  from  the door to be in the
midst of numerous interesting objects ; when a resident
of the crowded city, a healthful  walk of half an hour
placed me where my favourite enjoyment was offered in
abundance; and now, when no longer able to seek  in
fields and woods and running streams for that knowledge
which cannot readily be elsewhere obtained, the recollec-
tion of my former rambles is productive of a satisfaction,
which  past  pleasures but seldom bestow. Perhaps a
statement of the manner in which my studies were pur-
       4 
38
RAMBLES OF
sued, may prove interesting to those who love the works
of nature, and may not be aware  how  great a  field for
original observation is within their reach, or how vast a
variety of instructive objects are  easily accessible, even
to the  occupants of a bustling metropolis.  To me it will
be a source of great delight to spread these resources be-
fore the reader, and enable him so cheaply to participate
in the pleasures I have enjoyed, as well as place him in
the way of enlarging the general stock  of knowledge by
communicating the results of his original observations.
   One of my favourite walks was through Turner's lane,
near Philadelphia, which is about a quarter of a mile
long, and not much wider than an ordinary street, being
closely fenced in on both sides; yet my reader may feel
surprised when informed that I found ample employment
for all my leisure, during six weeks, within and  about its
precincts.   On entering the lane from the Ridge road, I
observed a gentle elevation  of the turf beneath the lower
rails of the fence, which appeared to be uninterruptedly
 continuous; and  when I had cut through the verdant
 roof with  my knife, it proved to be a regularly arched
gallery or  subterranean road, along which the inhabitants
could securely travel at all hours without fear of discovery.
The sides  and bottom of this  arched way were smooth
and clean, as if much used; and the raised superior por-
tion had long been firmly consolidated by the grass roots,
intermixed with  tenacious  clay.  At irregular and  fre-
quently distant intervals, a side path diverged into  the 
                  A NATURALIST.               39

neighbouring fields, and by its superficial situation, irre-
gularity, and frequent openings, showed that its purpose
was temporary, or had been only opened for the sake of
procuring food.  Occasionally I found a little gallery di-
verging from the main route beneath the fence, towards
the road, and finally opening on the grass, as  if the in-
mate had come out in the morning  to breathe the early
air, or to drink of the crystal dew which daily gemmed
the close cropped verdure.  How  I  longed to detect the
animal which tenanted these galleries, in the performance
of his labours !  Farther on, upon the top of a high bank,
which prevented the pathway from  continuing  near the
fence,  appeared another evidence of the industry of my
yet unknown miner.  Half a dozen hillocks of loose, al-
most pulverised earth were thrown  up, at irregular dis-
tances, communicating with the main gallery by side
passages.   Opening one of these carefully, it appeared to
differ little from the common gallery in size, but  it was
very difficult to ascertain where the loose  earth  came
from, nor have I ever been able to tell, since I never wit-
nessed the formation of  these hillocks, and conjectures
are forbidden, where nothing but observation is requisite
to the decision.  My farther  progress was now  inter-
rupted by a delightful brook which sparkled across the
road over a clear sandy bed; and here my little galleries
turned into the  field, coursing  along at a moderate dis-
tance from the stream.  I crept through the fence into
the meadow on the west side, intending to discover, if pos- 
40
RAMBLES OF
sible, the animal whose works had first fixed my attention,
but as I approached  the bank of the rivulet something
suddenly retreated towards the grass, seeming to vanish
almost unaccountably from  sight.  Very carefully ex-
amining  the point at which it disappeared, I found the
entrance of another  gallery or burrow, but of very dif-
ferent construction from that first observed.  This new
one was formed in  the grass, near and  among  whose
roots and lower stems a small but regular covered way
was practised.  Endless, however, would have been the
attempt to follow this, as it opened in various directions,
and ran irregularly into the field, and towards the brook,
by a great variety of passages.   It evidently belonged to
an animal totally different from the owner of the subter-
ranean passage, as I subsequently discovered, and may
hereafter relate.  Tired of my unavailing pursuit, I now
returned to the little brook, and  seating  myself on a
stone, remained for some  time unconsciously gazing on
the fluid which gushed along in unsullied brightness over
its pebbly bed.  Opposite to my seat, was an  irregular
hole in the bed  of  the stream, into which, in an idle
mood, I pushed a small pebble with the end of my stick.
What was my surprise, in a few seconds afterwards, to
observe the  water in this hole in motion, and the pebble
I  had pushed into it gently approaching  the  surface.
Such was the fact j the hole was the dwelling of a stout
little crayfish or fresh water lobster, who did not choose
to be incommoded by the  pebble, though doubtless he at- 
                  A NATURALIST.                41
tributed its sudden arrival to the usual accidents of the  r
stream, and not to my thoughtless movements.  He had   ^
thrust his broad lobster-like claws under the  stone, and
then drawn them near to his mouth; thus making a kind
of shelf; and as he reached the edge of the hole, he sud-
denly extended his claws, and rejected  the incumbrance
from the lower side, or down stream.  Delighted to have
found  a living object  with  whose habits I was  unac-
quainted, I should have repeated my experiment, but the
crayfish presently returned with what might be called an
armful of rubbish, and threw it over the side of his cell,
and down the stream as before.  Having watched him
for some time while  thus  engaged,  my attention was
caught by the considerable number of similar holes along
the margin and in the  bed of the stream.  One of these
I explored with a small rod, and found it to be  eight or
ten inches deep, and widened below into a considerable
chamber, in which the little lobster found a comfortable
abode.   Like all of his tribe, the crayfish makes con-
siderable opposition to being removed  from his dwelling,
and bit smartly at the  stick with his claws : as my pre-
sent object was only to gain acquaintance with his dwell-
ing, he was speedily permitted to return to it in  peace.
   Under the end of a stone lying in the bed of the stream,
something was floating in  the  pure  current, which at
first seemed like  the tail of  a fish, and being desirous to
obtain  a  better view, I gently raised  the stone  on  its
edge, and was rewarded by a very beautiful sight.  The
                          4* 
42                  RAMELES OF

object first observed was the tail of a beautiful salaman-
der,  whose sides were of a  pale straw  colour, flecked
with circlets of the richest crimson.  Its long lizard like
body seemed to be semitransparent, and its slender limbs
appeared like mere productions of the skin.  Not far dis-
tant, and near where the upper end of the stone had been,
lay crouched,  as if asleep, one of the most beautifully
coloured frogs I had ever beheld.  Its body was slender
compared with  most frogs, and its  skin covered with
stripes of bright reddish brown and  grayish green, in
such a manner as to recall the beautiful markings of the
tiger's hide; and since the time alluded to, it has received
the name of Tigrina from Leconte, its first scientific de-
scriber.  How long I should have been content to gaze
at these beautiful animals,  as  they lay basking  in the
living water, I know not, had not the  intense heat made
me feel the necessity of seeking a shade.  It was now
past  12 o'clock, I began to retrace my steps  towards the
city ; and without any particular object moved along by
the little galleries examined in the morning.  I had ad.
vanced but a short distance, when I found the last place
where I had broken open the gallery was repaired.  The
earth was perfectly fresh, and I had  lost the chance  of
discovering the miner, while watching my new acquaint-
ances in the stream. Hurrying onward, the same circum-
stance uniformly presented;  the injuries were all effici-
ently repaired,  and had evidently been very recently
completed.  Here was one  point gained; it was ascer- 
A NATURALIST.                43
tained that these  galleries  were  still inhabited, and  I
hoped soon to become acquainted with the inmates.  But
at this time, it appeared fruitless to delay longer, and  I
returned home, filled with anticipations of pleasure from
the success of my future researches. These I shall relate
on another occasion, if such narrations as the present be
thought of sufficient interest t^o justify their presentation
to the reader. 
44
RAMBLES OF
                     NO. 11-


  On the day following my first related excursion, I
started early in the morning, and  was rewarded by one
sight, which  could  not  otherwise have been obtained,
well worth the sacrifice of an hour or two of  sleep.
There  may be persons who will  smile contemptuously
at the idea of a man's being delighted with such trifles;
nevertheless,  we are not inclined to envy  such as dis-
esteem  the pure  gratification  afforded by  these simple
and easily accessible pleasures.   As I crossed an open
lot on my way to the lane,  a succession of gossamer spi-
der  webs, iightly suspended  from  various weeds and
small shrubs, attracted  my attention.  The dew  which
had formed during  the  night  was condensed upon this
delicate lace, in globules of most resplendent brilliance,
whose clear lustre pleased while it dazzled the sight.  In
comparison with the immaculate purity of these dew-
drops, which reflected and refracted the morning light
in beautiful rays as the  gossamer webs trembled in  the
breeze, how poor would appear the most invaluable dia-
monds that were ever obtained from Golconda or  Brazil!
How rich would any monarch be that could boast the 
A NATURALIST.
45
possession of one such, as here glittered in thousands on
every herb and spray!  They are exhaled in an hour or
two and lost, yet they are almost daily offered to the de-
lighted contemplation of the real lover of nature, who is
ever happy to witness the beneficence of the great Crea-
tor, not less displayed in trivial circumstances, than the
most wonderful of his works.
  No particular change was discoverable in the  works
of my little miners, except that all the places which had
been  a second  time broken down were again repaired,
showing that the animal had passed between the times
bf my visit; and it may not be uninteresting to observe
how the repair was effected.  It appeared, when the ani-
mal arrived at the spot broken open  or exposed  to the
air, that  it changed its  direction,  sufficiently downwards
to raise enough of earth from the lower  surface to fill up
the opening; this of course slightly altered the direction
of the gallery at this point, and though the earth thrown
up was quite pulverulent, it was  so nicely arched as to
retain its plaee, and soon became consolidated.  Having
broken open a gallery where the turf was very close, and
the soil tenacious, I was pleased to find  the direction of
the chamber somewhat changed; on digging farther with
ray clasp knife, I found  a very beautiful  cell excavated in
very tough  clay, deeper than the eommon level  of the
gallery and towards one side.   This little lodging-room
would probably have held a small melon, and was nicely
arched  all  round.  It  was perfectly clear, and  quite 
46
RAMBLES OF
smooth, as if much used; to examine it fully,  I was
obliged  to open it completely.  (The  next day,  it was
replaced by another, made a little farther to one side, ex-
actly of the same kind; it was replaced a second time,
but when broken up a third time, it was left in  ruins.)
As twelve o'clock approached, my solicitude to discover
the little miner increased to a considerable  degree; pre-
vious observation led me to believe that about that time
his presence was to  be expected.  I had trodden down
the gallery for some inches in a convenient place, and
stood close by, in vigilant expectation.   My wishes were
speedily gratified; in a short time the flattened  gallery
began at one end to be raised to  its  former convexity,
and the animal rapidly advanced.  With a beating heart,
I thrust the knife blade down by the side of the rising
earth, and quickly turned it over to one side, throwing
my prize  fairly into the sunshine.  For  an instant,  he
seemed motionless from surprise, when I caught and im-
prisoned him in my  hat.  It would be vain for me to at-
tempt a description of my pleasure in having thus suc-
ceeded, small as was my conquest.  I was delighted with
the beauty of my captive's fur; with the admirable adap-
tation of his diggers or broad  rose-tinted hands; the
wonderful  strength  of his  forelimbs, and the peculiar
suitableness of his head and neck to the kind of life the
Author  of nature had designed him for. It was the shrew-
mole, or scalops canadensis, whose history and peculiari-
ties of structure are minutely related in the 1st  volume 
A NATURALIST.               47
of Godman's American  Natural  History.  All my re-
searches never enabled me to discover  a nest, female or
young one of this species. All I ever caught were males,
though this  most probably was a mere accident.   The
breeding of the scalops is nearly all that is wanting to
render our knowledge of it complete.
  This little animal has  eyes, though they are not dis-
coverable  during its living condition, nor are they of any
use to it above ground. In running round a room, (until
it had perfectly learned where  all the obstacles  stood,) it
would uniformly strike hard against them with its snout,
and  then  turn.  It appeared to me as singular that a
creature which fed upon living earth worms with all the
greediness of a pig, would not  destroy the larva? or mag-
gots of the flesh fly. A shrew-mole lived for many weeks
in my study, and made use of a gun case, into which he
squeezed  himself, as  a burrow.  Frequently he would
carry the meat he was fed with into his retreat; and as
it was warm weather, the flies deposited their eggs in
the same  place.   An offensive  odour led me to discover
this circumstance, and I found a number of large  larva
over which the shrew-mole passed without paying them
any attention: nor would  he, when hungry, accept of
such food, though nothing could exceed the eager haste
with which  he seized  and munched earth worms.  Often
when engaged in observing him thus employed, have  I
thought of the stories told me, when a boy, of  the man-
ner  in which snakes were destroyed by swine; his vora- 
48
RAMBLES OF
city readily exciting a recollection of one of these animals,
and the poor worms writhing and twining about his jaws
answering for the snakes.  It would be tedious were I to
relate all my rambles undertaken with a view to gain  a
proper acquaintance with this creature, at all hours of
the day,  and  late  in  the evening,  before  daylight,
&c. &c.
   Among other objects which served as an unfailing
source of amusement,  when resting from the fatigue of
my walks, was the little inhabitant of the brook, called
the gyrinus natator.   These merry swimmers occupied
every little sunny pool  in  the stream, apparently alto.
gether  engaged  in  sport.  A circumstance connected
with  these insects,  gives them additional interest to  a
close  observer; they are allied by their structure  and
nature to those nauseous vermin, the  cimices (or bed.
bugs.)  All of which,  whether found infesting fruits or
our dormitories, are  distinguished by their disgusting
odour.  But their distant relatives, called by the boys
the water-witches and apple smellers, the gyrinus natator
above alluded to, has a delightful  smell, exactly similar
to that of the richest, mellowest apple.   This peculiarly
pleasant smell frequently causes the idler many unavail-
ing efforts to secure some of these creatures, whose ac-
tivity in water renders their pursuit very difficult, though
by no means so much so as that  of some of the long
legged water spiders which walk  the waters  dry shod,
and evade the grasp with surprising ease and celerity. 
A NATURALIST.
49
What purposes either of these racers serve in the great
economy of nature, has not yet  been ascertained, and
will scarcely be determined until our store of facts is far
more extensive than  at present.  Other and still more
remarkable inhabitants of the brook, at the same time,
came within my notice, and afforded much gratification
in the observation of their habits.
5 
50                  RAMBLES OF
                     NO. III.


  In moving along the  borders of the stream, we may
observe, where the sand or mud is fine and settled, a sort
of mark or cutting, as if an edged instrument had been
drawn along, so as to leave behind it a track or  groove.
At one end of this line, by digging a little into the mud
with the hand, you will generally discover a shell of con-
siderable size, which is tenanted by a molluscous animal
of singular construction.  On some occasions, when the
mud is washed off from the shell, you will be delighted
to observe the beautifully regular dark lines with which
its greenish smooth surface is marked.  Other  species
are found in the same situations, which, externally, are
rough and inelegant, but within are ornamented to a
most  admirable degree, presenting a smooth surface of
the richest pink, crimson, or purple, to  which we have
nothing of equal  elegance  to  compare it.  If the mere
shells of these creatures be thus splendid, what shall we
say of their internal structure, which, when  examined
by the microscope, offers a succession of wonders ?  The
beautiful apparatus for respiration, formed of a network
regularly arranged, of the most exquisitely delicate tex- 
A NATURALIST.
5!
ture;  the foot, or organ by which the shell is moved for-
ward through the mud or water, composed of an expanded
spongy extremity, capable of assuming various figures to
suit particular purposes, and governed by several strong
muscles that move it in different directions; the ovaries,
filled with myriads, not of eggs, but of perfect shells, or
complete little animals,  which, though not larger than
the point of a fine needle, yet when examined by the mi-
croscope, exhibit all the peculiarities of conformation that
belong to the parent; the mouth, embraced by the nervous
ganglion, which may be considered aathe animal's brain;
the stomach, surrounded by the various processes of the
liver, and the strongly acting, but transparent heart, all
excite admiration and gratify our curiosity. The puzzling
question often presents itself to the enquirer, why so much
elaborateness of construction, and such exquisite orna-
ment as are common to  most of these creatures,  should
be bestowed ? Destined to pass their lives in and under
the mud, possessed of no sense that we are acquainted
with-, except that of touch, what purpose can  ornament
serve in them ?  However much of vanity there may be
in asking the question, there is no answer to be offered.
We cannot suppose that  the individuals have any power
of admiring each other, and we know that the foot is the
only part they protrude from their shell, and that  the in-
side of the shell is covered by the  membrane called the
mantle. Similar remarks may be made relative to conch-
ology at  large: the most exquisitely  beautiful  forms, 
52
RAMBLES OF
 colours and ornaments are lavished upon genera and spe-
 cies which exist only at immense depths in the ocean, or
 buried in the mud;  nor can any one form a satisfactory
 idea of the object the great Author of nature had in view,
 in thus profusely beautifying creatures occupying so low
 a place in the scale of creation.
   European naturalists  have  hitherto  fallen  into  the
 strangest absurdities concerning the motion of the bi-
 valved shells, which five  minutes' observation of nature
 would have served them to correct.   Thus they describe
 the upper part of the shell as the lower, and the hind part
 as the front, and speak of them as moving along on their
 rounded convex surface, like a boat on its keel; instead
 of advancing with the odgos or  open part of the shell to-
 wards the earth. All these mistakes have been corrected,
 and the true mode of progression indicated from actual
 observation, by our fellow citizen, Isaac Lea, whose re-
 cently published communications to the American Philo-
 sophical Society, reflect  the highest credit upon their
 author, who is a naturalist in the best sense of the term.
  As I wandered slowly along  the borders of the run,
 towards a little wood, my attention was caught by a con-
 siderable  collection  of shells lying near an old  stump.
 Many of these appeared  to have been recently emptied'
 of their contents,  and others seemed to have long re-
 mained exposed to the weather.  On most of them, at the
thinnest part of the edge, a peculiar kind of fracture was
obvious, and this seemed  to be  the  work of an animal. 
                  A NATURALIST.                53

A closer examination  of the locality showed the foot-
steps of a quadruped which I readily believed to be  the
muskrat, more especially as upon examining the adjacent
banks numerous traces of burrows were discoverable.  It
is not a little singular that this animal, unlike all others
of the larger gnawers, as the beaver, &c. appears to in-
crease instead of diminishing with the increase of popu-
lation.   Whether it is that the dams and other works
thrown  up by men, afford more favourable  situations for
their multiplication, or their favourite food is  found in
greater  abundance, they  certainly are quite as numerous
now, if not more so, than when the country was first dis-
covered, and are to be found at this time  almost within
the limits of the city. By the construction of their teeth,
as well  as all the parts of the body, they are closely allied
to the rat kind; though  in size and some peculiarities of
habit, they more closely approximate the beaver.  They
resemble the rat  especially,  in not being  exclusively
herbivorous, as is shown by their feeding on the uhiones
or  muscles above mentioned.  To obtain this food, re.
quires no small exertion of their strength; and they acr
complish it by introducing the  claws of their fore-paws
between the two edges of the shell, and tearing it open
by main force.  Whoever has tried to force open one of
these shells, containing a living  animal, may form an
idea of the effort made by the muskrat:—the strength of
 a strong man would be requisite to produce the same re.
 suit in the same way.
                          5* 
54
RAMBLES OF
  The burrows of muskrats are very extensive, and con-
sequentiy injurious to dykes and dams, meadow banks,
&c.  The entrance is always  under water, and thence
sloping upwards above the level of the water, so that the
muskrat has to dive in going in and out.  These crea-
tures are excellent divers and swimmers,  and being noc-
turnal are  rarely seen unless  by those who watch for
them at night.  Sometimes we alarm one near the mouth
of the  den, and he darts away across the water, near the
bottom, marking his course by a  turbid streak in the
stream : occasionally we are made aware  of the passage
of one to some distance down  the  current  in the same
way; but in both cases the action is so rapidly performed,
that we should scarcely imagine what was  the  cause, if
not previously informed. Except by burrowing into and
spoiling the banks, they are not productive of much evil,
their food consisting principally of the roots of aquatic
plants, in addition to shellfish.  The musky  odour, which
gives rise to their common name, is caused  by glandular
organs placed near the tail, filled with a viscid and power-
fully musky fluid, whose  uses we know  but little of,
though it is thought to be intended as a guide by which
these creatures may discover each other.  This inference
is strengthened by finding  some such contrivance in dif-
ferent races  of animals,  in various  modifications.  A
great number carry it in  pouches similar to those  just
mentioned.  Some, as the musk animal, have the pouch
under  the belly; the shrew has the glands  on  the side; 
A NATURALIST.
55
the camel on the back of the neck; the crocodile under
the throat, &c.  At least no other use has ever been  as-
signed for this apparatus; and in  all creatures possess-
ing it, the arrangement  seems to be adapted peculiarly
to the habits of the animals. The crocodile, for instance,
generally approaches the shore in such a manner, as to
apply the neck and throat to  the  soil, while the  hinder
part of the  body is under water.   The glands under  the
throat leave the traces of his presence, therefore, with
ease, as they come in contact with the shore. The glan-
dular apparatus on the back of the neck of the male ca-
mel, seems  to have reference to the general elevation of
the olfactory organs of the female; and the dorsal gland
of the peccary, no doubt has some similar relation to the
peculiarities of the race.
   The value of the fur  of the muskrat causes many of
them to be  destroyed, which is easily enough effected by
means of a  trap.  This is a simple box, formed of rough
boards nailed together, about three feet long, having an
iron door, made of pointed bars, opening inwards, at both
ends of the  box.  This trap is placed with the end oppo-
site to the entrance of a burrow observed during the  day
time.  In the night when the muskrat sallies forth, he
enters the box, instead of passing into the open air,  and
is drowned, as the box is quite filled with water.  If the
traps be visited and emptied during the night, two may
 be caught in each trap, as muskrats from other burrows
 may come to visit those where the traps are placed,  and 
56
RAMBLES OF
thus one be taken going in as well as on coming out
These animals are frequently very fat, and their flesh
has a  very wholesome appearance, and would probably
prove good food.  The musky odour, however, prejudices
strongly against its use ; and it is probable that the flesh
is rank, as the muscles it feeds on are nauseous  and bit-
ter, and the roots which supply the rest of its food are
generally  unpleasant  and acrid.  Still we  should not
hesitate to partake of its flesh in  case of necessity, espe-
cially  if of a young animal, from which the musk bag
had been removed immediately after it was killed.
   In this vicinity, the muskrat does not build himself a
house  for the winter, as our fields and dykes are too often
visited.  But in other parts of the country where exten-
sive marshes exist,  and  muskrats are  abundant, they
build very  snug and substantial houses, quite as  service-
able and ingenious as those of the beaver.  They do not
dam the water as the beaver, nor  cut branches of trees
to serve for the walls of their dwellings.  They make it
of mud and rushes, raising a cone two or three feet high,
having the entrance on the  south  side under  water.
About the  year 1804,1 saw several of them in Worrell's
marsh, near Chestertown, Maryland, which were pointed
out to  me by an old black man who made his living prin-
cipally by trapping these animals, for the sake of their
skins.  A few years since I visited the marshes, near the
mouth of Magerthy  river in Maryland, where I was in-
formed by a resident, that the muskrats still built regu- 
A NATURALIST.
57
larly every winter.  Perhaps these quadrupeds are as
numerous in the  vicinity of Philadelphia as elsewhere,
as I have never examined a stream of fresh water, dyked
meadow, or milldam, hereabout, without seeing traces of
vast numbers. Along all the water courses and meadows
in Jersey, opposite Philadelphia, and in the meadows of
the neck, below the navy yard, there must be large num-
bers of muskrats.  Considering the value of the fur, and
the ease and trifling expense at which they might be
caught, we have often felt surprised that more of them
are not taken, especially as we have so many poor men
complaining of wanting something to do.  By thinning
the number of muskrats, a positive benefit would be con-
ferred on the farmers and furriers, to say nothing of the
profits to the individual. 
58
RAMBLES OF
                     NO. IV.


   My next visit to my old hunting ground, the lane and
brook, happened on a day in the first hay harvest, when
the verdant sward of the meadows was rapidly sinking
before the keen edged scythes swung by vigorous mowers.
This unexpected circumstance afforded me considerable
pleasure, for it promised me a freer scope to my wander
ings, and might also enable me to ascertain various par-
ticulars, concerning which my curiosity had long been
awakened. Nor was this promise unattended by fruition
of my wishes.   The reader may recollect, that, in my
first walk, a neat burrow in the grass, above ground, was
observed,  without my knowing its author. The advance
of the mowers explained this satisfactorily, for in cutting
the long grass, they exposed several nests of field mice,
which, by means of these grass-covered alleys, passed to
the stream in search of food or drink, unseen by their
enemies, the  hawks  and owls.   The numbers of these •
little creatures were truly surprising; their  fecundity is
so great, and their food so abundant, that were  they not
preyed upon by many other animals, and destroyed in 
A NATURALIST.               59
great numbers by man, they would become exceedingly
troublesome. There are various species of them, all bear-
ing a very considerable resemblance  to each  other, and
having to an incidental observer much of the appearance
of the domestic mouse.  Slight attention, however, is re-
quisite to perceive very striking differences, and the dis-
crimination of these will prove a source of considerable
gratification to the enquirer.  The nests are very nicely
made, and look much like a bird's nest, being lined with
soft materials, and usually  placed in some snug  little
hollow, or at the root of a strong tuft of grass. Upon the
grass roots and seeds these nibblers principally feed; and
where  very abundant, the effects of their hunger may be
seen in the brown and withered aspect of the grass they
have injured at the root.  But under ordinary circum-
stances,  the hawks, owls, domestic  cat, weasels, crows,
&c. keep them in such limits, as prevent them from do-
ing essential damage.
   I had  just observed another and a smaller  grassy
covered way, where the mowers had passed along, when
my attention was called towards a wagon at a short dis-
tance,  which was receiving its load.  Shouts and laughter,
accompanied by a general running and scrambling of the
people, indicated that some rare sport was going forward.
When I approached, I found that the object of chase was
a jumping mouse, whose actions it was truly delightful
to witness.  When not closely  pressed by its  pursuers, it
ran with some rapidity in the usual manner, as if seek- 
60
RAMBLES OF
ing concealment.  But in a moment it would vault into
the air, and skim  along  for ten or twelve feet, looking
more like  a  bird  than a little quadruped.   After  con-
tinuing this for some time, and nearly exhausting its pur-
suers with running and falling over each other, the
frightened creature was accidentally struck down by one
of the workmen, during one  of its  beautiful leaps," and
killed.  As the hunters saw nothing worthy of attention
in the dead  body of the animal, they very willingly re.
signed it to me; and with  great satisfaction  I  retreated
to a willow shade, to read what nature had written in its
form for my  instruction.  The general appearance was
mouse-like;  but the length and slenderness of the body,
the shortness of its fore  limbs, and the disproportionate
length of its hind limbs, together with the peculiarity of
its tail, all indicated its adaptation  to  the peculiar  kind
of action I had just witnessed.  A sight of this  little
creature vaulting or bounding through the  air, strongly
reminded me of what I had read of the great  kanguroo
of New Holland; and I could not  help  regarding our
little jumper  as in some respects a sort of miniature re-
semblance of that curious  animal.   It was  not evident,
however, that the jumping mouse derived the aid from its
tail, which so powerfully assists the kanguroo.   Though
long and sufficiently stout in proportion, it had none  of
the robust muscularity which, in the New Holland ani-
mal, impels the lower part of the body immediately up-
ward.   In this mouse, the leap is principally, if not en- 
A NATURALIST.
61
tirely effected by a sudden and violent extension of the
long hind limbs, the muscles of which are strong, and
admirably suited to their object.  We have heard that
these little animals  feed on the roots, &c. of the green
herbage, and that they are  every season to be found in
the meadows.   It may perhaps puzzle  some to  imagine
how they subsist through the severities of winter, when
vegetation  is  at rest, and the earth  generally frozen.
Here we find another occasion to admire the all-perfect
designs of the awful Author of nature, who has endowed
a great number of animals with the faculty of retiring
into the earth, and  passing whole months in a state of
repose so complete, as to allow all the functions of the
body to be suspended, until the returning warmth of the
spring calls them forth to renewed activity and enjoy-
ment  The jumping mouse, when the chill weather be-
gins to draw nigh,  digs down about six or eight inches
into the soil, and there forms a little  globular cell, as
much larger than his own body as will allow a sufficient
covering of fine grass to be introduced.  This being ob-
tained, he contrives to coil up his body and limbs in  the
centre of the soft dry grass, so as to form a complete ball;
and so  compact is this, that, when taken out,  with  the
torpid animal, it may be rolled across a floor without in-
jury.  In this  snug cell, which is  soon filled up and
closed externally,  the jumping mouse securely abides
through all the frosts and storms  of winter, needing
neither food nor fuel, being utterly quiescent, and  appa-
       6 
62
RAMBLES OF
rently dead, though susceptible at any time of reanima-
tion,  by being very gradually stimulated by light  and
heat.
  The little burrow under examination, when called to
observe the jumping mouse, proved to be made by the
merry musicians of the meadows,  the  field crickets,
acheta campestris.  These lively black crickets are very
numerous,  and contribute very largely to that general
song which is so delightful to the ear of the true lover of
nature, as it rises on the air from myriads of happy crea-
tures rejoining amid the bounties conferred on them by
Providence.  It is not a voice that the crickets utter, but
a regular vibration of musical chords, produced by  nib-
bing the nervures of the elytra against a sort of network
intended to produce the vibrations. The reader will  find
an excellent description of the apparatus in  Kirby  and
Spence's book, but he may enjoy a much  more satisfac-
tory comprehension of the whole, by visiting the field
cricket in his summer residence, see him tuning his viol,
and awakening the echoes with his music.  By such an
examination as may be there obtained, he may derive
more  knowledge than  by frequent perusal of the most
eloquent writings,  and perhaps observe circumstances
which the learned authors are utterly ignorant of
  Among the great variety  of burrows formed  in  the
grass, or under the surface  of the soil, by various  ani-
mals and'iiisects, there is one that I have often anxiously
and as yet fruitlessly explored.  This burrow is formed 
A NATURALIST.               63
      by the smallest quadruped animal known to man, the
      minute  shrew, which, when full grown, rarely exceeds
      the weight of thirty-six grains.  I had  seen specimens
      of this very interesting creature in the museum, and had
      been taught, by a more experienced friend, to distinguish
      its burrow, which I have often perseveringly traced, with
      the hope of finding the living  animal, but in vain.  On
      one occasion, I patiently pursued a burrow nearly round
      a large barn, opening it all the way.  I followed it under
      the barn floor, which was sufficiently high to allow me to
      crawl beneath. There I traced it about to d tiresome ex-
      tent, and was at length rewarded by discovering where
      it terminated, under  a foundation  stone, perfectly safe
      from my attempts.  Most probably a whole  family of
      them were then present, and I had my labour for my
\      pains.  As these little creatures are nocturnal, and are
      rarely seen from the nature of the places they frequent,
      the most probable  mode of taking them  alive would be,
      by placing a small mousetrap in their way, baited with
      a little  tainted or slightly spoiled  meat.  If a  common
      mouse trap be used, it is necessary to work it  over with
      additional wire, as this shrew could pass between the
      bars even of a close  mouse trap.   They are sometimes
      killed by cats, and thus obtained, as the cat never eats
       them, perhaps on  account of their rank  smell, owing  to
       a peculiar glandular apparatus on  each  side, that pours
       out a powerfully odorous greasy substance.  The specie^
       of the shrew genus are not all so exceedingly diminutive, 
64                 RAMBLES OF

as some of them are even larger than a common mouse.
They have their teeth coloured at the tips in a remarkable
manner; it is generally of a pitchy brown, or dark chest-
nut hue, and, hke the coloming of the  teeth in the beaver
and other animals, is owing to the enamel being thus
formed, and  not to  any mere  accident of diet.  The
shrews are most common about stables and cow-houses;
and there, should I ever take the field again, my traps
shall be set, as my desire to have one of these little quad-
rupeds is still as great as ever.
                             I- 
A NATURALIST.
65
                      NO.  V.

  Hitherto my rambles have been confined to the neigh-
bourhood  of a single spot, with a view of showing how
perfectly accessible to all, are numerous and various in-
teresting natural objects.   This habit of observing in the
manner indicated, began many years anterior to my visit
to the spots heretofore mentioned,  and have extended
through many parts of our  own  and another country.
Henceforward my observations shall be presented with-
out reference to particular places, or even of one  place
exclusively, but with a view to illustrate whatever may be
the subject  of description, by giving all I have observed
of it under various circumstances.
  A certain time of my life was spent in that  part of
Anne Arundel county, Md. which is washed by the river
Patapsco on the  north, the great Chesapeake bay on the
west, and the Severn river on the south. It is in every di-
rection cut  up by creeks, or arms of the rivers and bay,
into long, flat  strips of land, called necks, the greater part
of which is covered by dense pine forests, or thickets of
small shrubs and saplings, rendered impervious to human
footsteps  by the  growth of vines, whose inextricable
                         6* 
66
RAMBLES OF
mazes nothing but a fox, wild cat, or weasel, could thread.
The soil cleared for cultivation is very generally poor,
light, and sandy, though readily susceptible of improve-
ment, and yielding a considerable produce in Indian corn,
and most of the early  garden vegetables, by the raising
of which for the Baltimore market the inhabitants obtain
all their ready money. The blight of slavery has long
extended its influence over this region, where all its usual
effects are but too obviously visible.  The white inhabit-
ants are  few in number, widely  distant from each other,
and manifest, in their mismanagement  and half indigent
circumstances,  how  trifling an advantage they  derive
from  the  thraldom  of their dozen  or more  of sturdy
blacks, of different sexes and  ages.  The number  of
marshes formed at  the heads  of the creeks, render this
country frightfully unhealthy in autumn, at which time
the life  of a  resident physician  is one of incessant toil
and severe privation.  Riding  from  morning till night,
to get round to visit a few  patients, his  road leads gener-
ally through pine forests, whose aged and lofty trees, en-
circled by a dense undergrowth,  impart an air of sombre
and unbroken  solitude.  Rarely or never  does he en-
counter  a white person on his way, and only once in a
while will he see a miserably tattered negro, seated on a
sack of corn, carried by a starveling horse or mule, which
seems poorly able to bear the weight to the nearest milh
The  red-head woodpecker,  and the flicker or yellow-
hammer, a kindred species, occasionally glance across his 
                  A NATURALIST.               67
path; sometimes when he turns his horse to drink at the
dark coloured branch, (as such streams are locally called,)
he disturbs a solitary rufous thrush engaged in washing
its plumes; or  as he moves steadily along, he is slightly
startled by a sudden appearance  of the towhe" bunting
close to the side of the path.  Except these creatures, and
these by  no  means frequently  seen,  he  rarely  meets
with animated objects; at  a distance the harsh voice of
the crow is often heard, or flocks  of them  are observed
in the  cleared fields, while now and then the buzzard, or
turkey vulture, may be seen wheeling in graceful circles
in the higher regions of the air, sustained by his broadly
expanded wings, which apparently remain in a state  of
permanent and motionless extension.  At  other seasons
of the  year, the physician must be content to live in the
most positive seclusion; the white  people are all busily
employed in  going to and from  market; and even  were
they at home, they are poorly suited for companionship.
I here  spent month after month, and, except the patients
I visited, saw no one but the blacks; the house in which
1 boarded was kept by a  widower, who, with myself, was
the only white man within the distance of a mile or two.
My only compensation was this, the house was pleasantly
situated on the bank of Curtis's creek, a considerable arm
of the Patapsco, which extended for a mile'or two beyond
us, and immediately in front of the door expanded  so as
to form a beautiful little bay.  Of books  I possessed very
few, and those exclusively professional; but in this beau- 
68                 RAMBLES OF
tiful expanse  of sparkling water,  I had a book opened
before me, which a life-time would scarcely suffice me \p
read through.  With the advantage of a small but neatly
made and easily manageable skiff, I was  always  inde-
pendent of the service of the blacks, which was ever re-
pugnant to ray feelings and principles.  I could  convey
myself in whatever direction objects of enquiry might pre-
sent, and as my little bark was visible for a mile in either
direction from the house, a handkerchief waved,  or the
loud shout of a negro, was sufficient to recall me, in case
my services were required.
  During the spring months, and while the garden vege-
tables are yet too young to need a great deal of attention,
the proprietors frequently employ their blacks in hauling
the seine; and this  in these  creeks is productive of an
ample supply of yellow perch, which affords a very valua-
ble addition to the diet of all.   The blacks in an especial
manner profit by this period  of plenty, since they are
permitted to eat of them without restraint, which cannot
he said of any other sort of provision allowed them. Even
the pigs and crows obtain their share of the abundance,
as the fishermen, after picking out the best  fish, throw
the smaller ones on the beach.  But as the summer months
approach, the aquatic grass begins to grow, and this fish-
ing can no longer be  continued, because the grass rolls
the seine up in  a wisp, so that it  can contain nothing.
At this time the spawning season of the different species
of sun-fish begins, and to me this was a time t>f much 
                  A NATURALLST.                69
gratification.  Along  the edge of the river, where  the
depth of water was not greater than from four feet to as
shallow as twelve inches, an observer would discover a
succession of circular spots cleared of the  surrounding
grass, and showing a  clear sandy bed.   These spots, or
cleared spaces, we may regard as the nest of this beauti-
ful fish.   There, balanced in the transparent wave, at the
distance of six or eight inches from the bottom, the sun-
fish is suspended in the glittering sunshine,  gently sway-
ing its beautiful tail and fins; or, wheeling around in the
limits of its little circle, appears to be engaged in keep-
ing it clear of all incumbrances.  Here the mother de-
posits her eggs  or spawn, and never  did hen guard her
callow brood with more eager vigilance, than the sun-fish
the little circle within  which her promised offspring are
deposited.  If another individual approach too closely to
her borders, with a fierce and angry air she darts against
it, and forces it to retreat.   Should any small, and not too
heavy object be dropped in the nest, it is examined with
jealous attention, and displaced if the owner be not satis-
fied  of its harmlessness.  At the approach of man she
flies with great velocity into deep water,  as  if willing to
conceal that her presence was more than accidental where
first seen.  She may, after a few minutes, be seen cau-
tiously venturing to return, which is at length done with
velocity;  then  she  would take a hurried turn  or two
around, and scud back again to the shady bowers formed
by the river grass which grows up from the  bottom to 
70
RAMBLES OF
within a few feet of the  surface, and attains to twelve,
fifteen, or more feet in length.  Again she ventures forth
from the depths;  and if no further cause of fear present-
ed, would gently  sail into the placid circle  of her  home,
and with obvious satisfaction explore it in every part
  Besides the absolute pleasure I derived from visiting
the habitations of these glittering tenants  of the river,
hanging over them  from  my little skiff, and watching
their every action, they frequently furnished  me with a
very acceptable addition to my frugal table.   Situated as
my boarding house was, and all the inmates of the  house
busily occupied in raising vegetables to be sent to market,
our bill of fare offered little other change than could be
produced by varying the mode of cookery.  It was either
broiled bacon and potatoes, or fried bacon and potatoes,
or cold bacon and potatoes, and so on  at least six days
out of seven.  But, as soon as I became acquainted with
the habits of the sun-fish,  I procured a neat circular iron
hoop for a net; secured to it a piece of an old seine, and
whenever I  desired to dine on fresh fish, it was only ne-
cessary to take my skiff, and push her gently along from
one sun-fish nest to another, myriads of which might be
seen along all the shore.   The fish, of course, darted off
as soon as the boat first drew near, and during this absence
the net was placed so as to cover the nest, of the bottom
of which the meshes but slightly  intercepted the view.
Finding all things quiet, and not being disturbed by the
net, the fish would resume its central station, the net was 
                  A NATURALIST.               7]
suddenly raised, and the captive placed in the boat  In
a quarter of an hour, I could generally take as many in
this way as would serve two men for dinner, and when
an acquaintance accidentally called to see me, during the
season of sun-fish, it was  always in my power to lessen
our dependence on the endless bacon. I could also always
select the finest and largest of these fish, as while stand-
ing up in the boat, one could see a considerable number
at once, and thus choose the best.   Such was their abun-
dance, that the next day would find all the nests re-occu-
pied.  Another circumstance connected with this matter
gave me no small satisfaction; the poor blacks, who could
rarely get time for angling, soon learned how to use my
net with dexterity; and thus, in  the ordinary time al-
lowed them for dinner, would borrow it, run down to the
shore, and catch some fish to add to their very moderate
allowance. 
72
RAMBLES OF
                     NO. VI.

  After the sun-fish, as regular annual visitants of the
small rivers and creeks containing salt or brackish water,
came the crabs in vast abundance, though for a very dif-
ferent purpose.  These singularly constructed and inter-
esting beings furnished me with another excellent subject
for observation; and, during the period of their visitation,
my skiff was in daily requisition. Floating along with an
almost imperceptible motion, a person looking from the
shore might have supposed her entirely adrift; for as I
was stretched at full length across the seats, in order to
bring my sight as close to the water as possible without
inconvenience, no one would have observed my presence
from a little distance.  The crabs belong to a very exten-
sive tribe of beings, which carry  their skeletons on  the
outside of their bodies, instead of within; and of neces-
sity the fleshy, muscular, or moving power of the body,
is placed in a situation the reverse of what occurs in ani-
mals of a higher order, which have internal skeletons or
solid frames  to their systems.  This peculiarity  of the
crustaceous animals and various other beings, is attended
with one apparent inconvenience; when they have grown 
                   A NATURALIST.               73
 large enough to fill their  shell or skeleton completely,
 they cannot grow farther, because the skeleton being ex-
 ternal, is incapable of enlargement.  To obviate this diffi-
 culty, the Author of nature  has endowed them with the
 power of casting  off the entire shell, increasing in size,
 and forming another equally  hard and perfect, for several
 seasons successively, until the greatest or maximum size
 is attained, when the  change  or sloughing ceases to be
 necessary, though  it is not always discontinued on that
 account.  To undergo this change with greater ease and
 security, the crabs seek retired and peaceful waters, such
 as the beautiful creek  I  have been speaking of,  whose
 clear, sandy shores are rarely disturbed by waves causing
 more than a pleasing murmur, and where the number of
 enemies must be far  less in  proportion than in the bois-
 terous waters of  the Chesapeake, their  great  place  of
 concourse.  From the first day of their arrival in the lat-
 ter part of June, until the time of their departure, which
 in this creek occurred towards the first of August, it was
 astonishing to witness the vast multitudes which flocked
 towards the head of the stream.
  It is not until they have been for some time in the
 creek, that the moult or sloughing generally commences.
 They may be then observed gradually coming  closer in
 shore, to where the sand is fine, fairly exposed to the sun,
 and  a short distance farther  out than the lowest water
mark, as they must always have at least a depth of three
or four inches water upon them.
       7 
74
RAMBLES OF
    The individual having selected his place, becomes per-
 fectly quiescent, and no change  is observed during some
 hours but a sort of swelling along the edges of the great
 upper shell  at its back part.  After a time this posterior
 edge of the shell  becomes fairly disengaged like  the lid
 of a chest, and now begins the more difficult work of with-
 drawing the great claws from their cases, which every one
 recollects  to be vastly larger at their extremities and be-
 tween  the joints than the joints  themselves.   A still
 greater apparent difficulty presents in the shedding of the
 sort of tendon which is placed within the muscles.  Never-
 theless, the Author of nature has  adapted them  to the
 accomplishment of all this.  The disproportionate sized
 claws undergo a peculiar  softening, which enables the
 crab, by  a very steadily continued, scarcely perceptible
 effort, to pull them  out of their shells, and the business
 is completed by the separation of the complex parts about
 the mouth and eyes.  The crab now slips out from the
 slough, settling near it on the sand.   It is now covered
 by a soft,  perfectly flexible skin; and though possessing
 precisely the same form as before, seems incapable of the
 slightest exertion.  Notwithstanding that such is  its con-
 dition, while you are gazing on this  helpless creature, it
 is  sinking in the fine loose sand, and in a short time is
 covered up sufficiently to escape the observation of care-
 less or inexperienced observers.   Neither can one say how
 this is effected, although it occurs under their immediate
* observation; the  motions employed to produce the dis- 
A NATURALIST.
75
placement  of the sand are too slight to be  appreciated,
though it is most probably owing to a gradual lateral
motion of the body by which the sand is displaced in the
centre beneath, and thus gradually forced up at the sides
until it falls over and covers the crab.  Examine him
within twelve hours, and you will find the skin becoming
about as hard as fine writing paper, producing a similar
crackling if compressed; twelve hours later the shell is
sufficiently stiffened to require some slight force to bend'
it, and the crab is said to be in buckram, as in the first
stage it was in paper.   It is still helpless, and offers no
resistance;  but at the end of thirty-six hours, it shows
that its natural instincts are in action, and by  the time
forty-eight hours have elapsed, the crab is restored to the
exercise of all his functions.  I have stated the above as
the periods in which the  stages of the moult are accom-
plished, but I have often observed  that the rapidity of this
process is very much  dependent upon the temperature,
and especially upon sunshine.  A cold, cloudy, raw, and
disagreeable spell happening at this period, though by no
means common, will retard the   operation considerably,
protracting the period of helplessness.  This is the  har-
vest season of the white fisherman and of the poor slave.
The laziest of the former are now in full activity, wading
 along the shore from morning till night, dragging a small
 boat after them, and holding in the other hand  a forked
 stick with which they raise the crabs  from the sand.  The
 period during which the crabs remain in the paper state 
76
RAMBLES OF
is  so  short, that great activity is required  to  gather a
sufficient number to take to market, but the price at
which they are sold is sufficient to awaken all the cupidity
of the crabbers.  Two dollars a dozen is by no means an
uncommon price for them, when the season first comes
on; they subsequently come down to a dollar, and even
to  fifty cents, at any  of which rates the trouble  of  col
lecting them is well paid.  The slaves search for them at
night, and then are obliged to kindle a fire of pine-knots
on the bow of the boat, which strongly illuminates the
surrounding water, and  enables them  to  discover the
crabs.  Soft crabs are, with great propriety, regarded as
an exquisite treat by those who are fond of such eating;
and though many persons are unable to use crabs or lob-
sters  in  any form,  there are few who taste of the soft
crabs  without being willing to recur to them.  As an ar-
tick  of luxury they are  scarcely  known north  of the
Chesapeake, though  there is nothing to prevent them from
being used to considerable extent in Philadelphia, espe-
cially since the opening of the Chesapeake and Delaware
canal. The summer of 1829 I had the  finest soft crabs
from  Baltimore.   They arrived at the market in the after-
noon, were fried according  to rule, and  placed in a tin
butter kettle, then covered for an inch or two with melt-
ed lard, and put on board the steam boat which left Bal-
timore at five o'clock the same afternoon.  The next morn-
ing before ten o'clock  they were  in Philadelphia, and at
one they were served up at dinner in Germantown.  The 
A NATURALIST.
77
only difficulty in the way is that of having persons to at-
tend to their procuring and transmission, as when cooked
directly after they arrive at market, and forwarded with
as little delay as above mentioned, there is  no danger of
their being the least injured.
   At other seasons, when the  crabs did not  come close
to the  shore, I derived much amusement by taking them
in the  deep water.  This is always easily effected by the
aid of proper bait; a leg of chicken, piece of any raw
meat, or a salted or spoiled herring, tied to a twine string
of sufficient length, and a hand  net of convenient  size,
is all that is necessary.   You throw out your line and
bait, or you fix as many lines to your boat as you please,
and in a short time you  see, by the straightening of the
line, that the bait has been seized by a crab, who is try-
ing to make off with it.  You then place your net where
it can conveniently be picked up, and commence steadily
but gently to draw in your line, until you have brought
the crab sufficiently near the surface to distinguish him;
if you draw him nearer, he will see you and immediately
let go, otherwise his greediness and voracity will make
him cling to his prey to the last.  Holding  the line in the
left hand, you now  dip  your net edge foremost into the
water  at some distance  from the line, carry it down per-
pendicularly until it is five or six inches lower than the
crab, and then with a sudden turn out bring it directly
before him, and lift up at the same time.   Your prize is
generally secured, if your net be at all properly placed;
                          7* 
78                 RAMBLES OF
for as soon as he is alarmed, he pushes directly down-
wards, and is received in the bag of the net  It is better
to have a little water in the bottom of the boat to throw
them into, as they are easier emptied out of the net, al-
ways letting go when held over the water.  This a good
crabber never forgets, and should he unluckily be seized
by a large crab, he holds him over the water and is freed
at once, though he loses his game.  When not held over
the water, they bite sometimes with dreadful obstinacy,
and I  have seen it  necessary to crush the  forceps or
claws before one could be induced to let go the fingers of
a boy.   A poor black  fellow also placed himself in an
awkward situation; the crab seized him by  a finger of
his right hand, but he was unwilling  to lose his captive
by holding him over the water, instead  of which he at-
tempted to secure the other claw with his left hand, while
he tried to crush the biting claw between his teeth.  In
doing this, he somehow relaxed his left hand, and with
the other claw, the crab seized poor Jem by  his under
lip, which was by no  means a thin one, and forced him
to roar  with pain.  With  some difficulty he was freed
from his tormentor,  but it  was  several days before he
ceased to excite laughter, as the severe bite was followed
by a swelling of the lip, which imparted a most ludicrous
expression to a naturally comical countenance. 
A NATURALIST.
79
                     NO.  VII.


  On the first arrival of the crabs, when they throng the
shoals of the creeks  in vast crowds, as  heretofore men-
tioned, a very summary way  of taking them is resorted
to by the country people, and for a purpose that few would
suspect without having witnessed it.  They  use a three
pronged  fork  or gig made  for this sport, attached to a
long handle ; the crabber standing up in the skiff, pushes
it along until he is over a large collection  of crabs, and
then strikes his spear among  them.   By this several are
transfixed at once and lifted into the boat, and the opera-
tion is repeated until enough have been taken.  The pur-
pose to which they are to be  applied is to feed the hogs,
which very soon learn to collect  in waiting  upon the
beach when the crab spearing  is going on.  Although
these bristly gentry appear to devour almost all sorts of
food with great relish, it seemed to  me that they regard-
ed  the crabs as a most luxurious banquet; and  it was
truly amusing to see the  grunters,  when the crabs were
thrown  on  shore for them, and were scampering off in
various directions, seizing them in  spite of  their threat-
ening claws, holding them down with  one foot, atfl} 
80
RAMBLES OF
speedily reducing them to a state of helplessness by break-
ing off their forceps.   Such a crunching and cracking of
the unfortunate crabs I never have witnessed since;  and
I might have commiserated them more, had not I known
that death in some form or  other was continually await-
ing them, and  that their devourers were all destined to
meet  their fate  in a few months in the sty, and thence
through the smoke house  to be placed upon our table.
On the shores  of the Chesapeake I have caught crabs in
a way commonly employed by all those who are unpro-
vided with boats and nets.   This is to have a forked stick
and a baited line, with which the crabber wades out as
far as he thinks  fit, and then  throws out his line.  As
soon as he finds he has a bite, he draws the line in, cau-
tiously lifting but a very little from the bottom.  As soon
as it is near enough to be fairly in reach, he quickly, yet
with as little movement as possible, secures the crab by
placing the forked stick across his body and pressing him
against the  sand.  He must  then stoop down and take
hold of the crab by the two posterior swimming legs, so
as to avoid being seized by the claws.  Should he not
wish to carry each crab ashore as he catches it, he pin-
ions or spansels (as the fishermen call it) them.   This is
a very effectual mode of disabling them from using their
biting claws, yet it is  certainly not the  most  humane
operation; it is  done by taking the  first of the sharp-
pointed feet of each side, and forcing it in for the length
of the joint behind the moveable joint or thumb of the 
                  A NATURALIST.               81
opposite biting claw.  The crabs are then strung upon a
string or  wythe, and allowed to hang in the water until
the crabber desists from his occupations.   In the previous
article crabs were spoken of as curious and interesting,
and the reader may not consider the particulars thus far
given as being particularly so.   Perhaps, when he takes
them altogether,  he  will agree that they have as much
that  is curious  about their construction  as almost any
animal we have  mentioned, and in the interesting details
we have as yet made but a single step.
   The circumstance of the external skeleton  has been
mentioned, but who would expect an animal, as  low in
the scale as a crab, to be furnished with ten  or twelve
pair  of jaws to its mouth ?  Yet such is the fact, and all
these variously constructed pieces are provided with ap-
propriate  muscles,  and move in  a  manner which can
scarcely  be  explained, though it may be very readily
comprehended when once observed in living nature. But,
after all the complexity of the jaws, where would an in-
experienced person look for their teeth? surely not in the
stomach ? Nevertheless, such is their situation; and these
are not mere  appendages, that are called teeth by courte-
sy, but stout  regular grinding teeth, with a light brown
surface.   They are not only within the stomach, but fixed
to a  cartilage nearest to  its lower extremity, so that the
food, unlike  that of other creatures, is submitted to the
action of the  teeth as it is passing from the stomach; in-
stead of being chewed before it  is swallowed.   In some 
82
RAMBLES OF
species the teeth are five in number; but throughout this
class of animals the same general principle of construc-
tion may be observed.  Crabs and their kindred have no
brain, because they are not required to reason upon what
they observe;  they have  a nervous system excellently
suited to their  mode of life, and its knots or ganglia send
out nerves to the organs of sense, digestion, motion, &c.
The senses of these beings are very acute, especially their
sight, hearing  and smell.   Most of my readers have heard
of crabs' eyes, or have seen these organs in the animal
on the end of two little  projecting knobs,  above and on
each side  of the mouth; few of them, however, have seen
the crab's ear, yet it is very easily found, and is a little
triangular bump placed near the base of the feelers. This
bump has  a membrane stretched over it, and communi-
cates with a small cavity, which is the internal ear.  The
organ of smell  is  not so easily demonstrated as that of
hearing, though the evidence of their possessing the sense
to an acute degree is readily attainable.  A German na-
turalist inferred, from the faet of the nerve corresponding
to the olfactory nerve in man being distributed to the an-
tennae, in insects, that the  antennas were the organs of
smell in them.  Cuvier and others suggest that a similar
arrangement may exist in the Crustacea.   To satisfy my-
self whether it was so  or not, I lately dissected a small
lobster, and was delighted to find that the first pair of
nerves actually went to the antennae, and gave positive
 support to the opinion  mentioned.  I state this, not to 
                  A NATURALIST.                83
claim credit for ascertaining the truth or inaccuracies of
a suggestion, but with a view of inviting the reader to do
the same in all cases of doubt.  Where it is possible to
refer to nature for the actual condition  of facts, learned
authorities give  me no uneasiness.  If I find that the
structure bears out their opinions, it is more  satisfactory;
when it convicts them of absurdity, it saves much fruit-
less reading, as well as the trouble of shaking off preju-
dices.
   The first time my attention was called to the extreme
acuteness of sight possessed by these animals, was during
a  walk along the flats of Long Island,  reaching  to-
wards Governor's Island in New York.  A  vast number
of the small land crabs, called fiddlers by the boys (gecar-
cinus,) occupy burrows or caves dug in the marshy soil,
whence they come out and go for some distance, either
in search of food  or to sun themselves.  Long before I
approached close enough to see their forms with distinct-
ness, they  were  scampering towards  their holes,  into
which they plunged with a tolerable certainty of escape;
these retreats being of considerable depth, and often com-
municating with each other, as well as nearly filled with
water.  On endeavouring  cautiously to approach  some
others, it  was quite amusing to observe their vigilance;
to see  them slowly change position, and from lying ex-
tended in the sun, beginning to gather themselves up for
a start should it prove necessary; at length standing up
 as it were on tiptoe, and raising their pedunculated eyes 
84
RAMBLES OF
as high as  possible.  One quick step on the part of the
individual approaching  was enough—away they would
go, with a celerity which must appear surprising to any
one who had not previously witnessed it.  What is more
remarkable, they  possess the power of moving  equally
well with any part of the body foremost, so that when
endeavouring to escape, they will  suddenly dart off to
one side  or the other, without turning round, and thus
elude pursuit.  My observations upon the  crustaceous
animals have extended through many years, and  in very
various situations ; and for the sake of making the gene-
ral view of their qualities more satisfactory, I will go on
to state what I remarked of some of the genera and spe-
cies in the West Indies, where they are exceedingly nu-
merous and various. The greater proportion of the genera
feed on animal matter, especially after decomposition has
begun; a large number are exclusively confined  to the
deep waters, and approach the shoals and lands only during
the spawning season.   Many live in the  sea, but daily
pass many hours upon the rocky shores for the pleasure
of basking in the sun; others live  in marshy or moist
ground, at  a considerable distance from the water, and
feed principally on vegetable food,  especially the sugar
cane, of which they are extremely destructive.  Others
again reside habitually on the hills or mountains, and
visit the sea only once a year for the purpose of depositing
their eggs in the sand.  All those which  reside  in bur-
rows made in moist ground, and those  coming daily on 
                   A NATURALIST.                85
the rocks to bask in the sun, participate in about an equal
degree in the qualities of vigilance and swiftness.  Many
a breathless race have I run in vain, attempting to inter-
cept them, and prevent their escaping into the sea. Many
an hour of cautious and solicitous endeavour to steal upon
them unobserved, has been frustrated by their long sight-
ed watchfulness;  and several  times, when,  by extreme
care and cunning approaches,  I have actually succeeded
in getting between a fine specimen and the sea, and had
full hope  of driving him farther  inland, have all my an-
ticipations been ruined by the  wonderful  swiftness  of
their flight, or the  surprising facility with  which they
would dart off in the very opposite direction, at the very
moment I felt almost sure of my prize.  One day, in par-
ticular, I saw on a flat rock, which afforded a fine sunning
place, the most beautiful crab I had ever beheld.  It was
of the largest size, and would have covered a large din-
ner plate, most beautifully coloured with bright crimson
below, and  a variety  of tints of blue, purple, and green
above; it  was  just  such  a specimen as could not fail to
excite all the solicitude of a collector to obtain.  But, it
was not in the  least deficient in the art of self-preserva-
tion ;  my most careful manoeuvres proved ineffectual, and
all my efforts only enabled me to  see enough of it to
augment my regrets to a  high degree.  Subsequently I
saw a  similar individual in the collection of a resident;
this had been killed against the  rocks during a violent
hurricane, with very slight injury to its shell.  I offered
       8 
86               RAMBLES OF

high rewards to the black people if they would bring me
such a one, but the most expert among them seemed to
think it an unpromising search, as they knew of no way
of capturing them.  If I  had been supphed with some
powder of nux vomica with which to poison some meat,
I might have succeeded.
                     i 
A NATURALIST.
87
                    NO.  VIII.


  The fleet running crab (cypoda pugilator,) mentioned
as living in burrows dug in a  moist soil, and preying
chiefly on the sugar cane, is justly regarded as one of the
most noxious pests  that can infest  a plantation.  Their
burrows extend to a great depth, and run in  various di-
rections ; they are also, Uke those of our fiddlers, nearly
full of muddy water, so that, when these marauders once
plump into their dens, they may be considered as entirely
beyond pursuit.   Their numbers are so great, and they
multiply in such numbers, as in some seasons to destroy
a large proportion of a sugar crop,  and sometimes their
ravages, combined with those of the rats and other plun-
derers, are absolutely ruinous to the sea-side planters.  I
was shown, by the superintendent of a place thus infest-
ed,  a great quantity  of cane utterly killed by these crea-
tures, which  cut it off in a peculiar manner, in order to
suck the juice; and he assured me that, during that sea-
son, the crop would  be two thirds less than its average,
solely owing to the inroads of the crabs, and rats, which
if possible are still more numerous.   It was to me an ir- 
88
RAMBLES OF
resistible source of amusement to observe the air of spite
and vexation with which he spoke of the crabs; the rats
he could shoot, poison, or drive off for a time with dogs.
But the crabs would not eat his poison, while  sugar cane
was growing ; the dogs could only chase them into their
holes ;  and if, in helpless  irritation,  he sometimes fired
his gun at  a cluster of them, the shot  only rattled over
their shells like hail against a window.  It is truly desira-
ble that some summary mode of lessening  their number
could be devised,  and it is probable that this will be best
effected by poison, as it may be possible to obtain a bait
sufficiently  attractive to ensnare them.   Species  of this
genus are found in various parts of our country, more
especially  towards the south.   About  Cape  May, our
friends may have excellent opportunities of testing the
truth of what is said of their swiftness and vigilance.
   The land crab, which is common to many of the West
India islands, is more generally known as the Jamaica
crab, because it has been most frequently described from
observation in that island. Wherever found, they all have
the habit  of living, during  great part of the  year, in
the highlands, where they pass the  day time, concealed
in huts, cavities, and under stones, and come out at night
for their food.  They  are remarkable  for collecting in
vast bodies, and marching annually to the sea side, in
order to deposit their eggs in the sand; and  this accom-
plished, they return to their former abodes, if undisturbed,
They commence their march  in the night, and move in 
A NATURALIST.
89
the most direct line towards the destined point.  So ob-
stinately do they pursue this route, that they will not turn
out of it for any obstacle that can possibly be surmounted.
During the day time they skulk and he hid as closely as
possible, but thousands upon thousands of them are taken
for the use of the table by whites and blacks, as on their
seaward march they are very fat and of fine flavour.  On
the homeward journey,  those that have escaped capture
are weak, exhausted, and unfit for use.  Before  dismiss-
ing the crabs, I must mention one which was a source of
much annoyance to me at first, and of considerable interest
afterwards, from the observation of its habits.  At that
time I resided in  a house delightfully  situated about two
hundred yards from  the  sea, fronting the  setting sun,
having  in  clear weather the lofty mountains of Porto
Rico, distant about eighty miles, in view.  Like most of
the houses in the  island, ours had seen better  days, as
was  evident  from various breaks in  the  floors, angles
rotted off the doors, sunken sills, and other indications of
decay.  Our  sleeping room, which was on the lower floor,
was  especially  in this condition; but as the weather was
dehghtfully warm, a few  cracks and openings, though
rather large,  did not threaten much inconvenience.  Our
bed was provided with that indispensable accompaniment,
a musquito bar or curtain, to which we were indebted  for
escape from various  annoyances.  Scarcely had we ex-
tinguished the light, and composed ourselves to rest, than
we heard, in various parts of the room, the most  startling
                          8* 
90                RAMBLES OF

noises.  It appeared as if numerous hard and heavy bo-
dies were trailed along the floor; then  they sounded as
if climbing up by the  chairs and other furniture, and fre-
quently something like a large stone would tumble down
from such elevations with a loud noise,  followed by a pe-
culiar chirping note.  What an effect this produced upon
entirely inexperienced strangers, may well  be  imagined
by those who have been suddenly waked up in the dark,
by some unaccountable noise in the room.  Finally, these
invaders began to ascend the bed; but happily the mus-
quito bar was securely tucked under the bed all around,
and they were  denied access,  though  their efforts and
tumbles to the floor produced no very comfortable reflec-
tions.  Towards  daylight they began  to retire, and  in
the morning no trace of any such visitants could be per-
ceived.  On mentioning our troubles, we were  told that
this nocturnal disturber was only Bernard the Hermit,
called generally the soldier crab, perhaps from the pecu-
liar habit he has of protecting his body by thrusting  it
into an empty shell,  which he afterwards  carries about,
until  he outgrows it,  when it is relinquished for a larger.
Not choosing to pass another night quite so noisily, due
care  was  taken  to exclude Monsieur Bernard, whose
knockings were thenceforward confined to  the outside  of
the house.  I baited a large wire rat trap with some corn
meal, and placed it outside of the back door, and in the
morning, found it  literally half filled  with these crabs,
from the  largest  sized  shell that could enter the trap, 
A NATURALIST.
91
down to such as  were not larger than  a hickory nut.
Here was a fine collection made at once, affording a very
considerable variety in the size and age of the specimens,
and the different shells into which they had introduced
themselves.
  The soldier, or hermit crab, when withdrawn from his
adopted  shell, presents about the head and claws a con-
siderable family resemblance to the lobster.  The claws,
however, are very short and broad, and the body covered
with hard shell  only in that part which is liable to be
exposed or protruded.  The  posterior  or abdominal part
of the body, is covered only by a tough skin, and tapers
towards a small extremity, furnished with a sort of hook-
like apparatus,  enabling it to hold on to  its  factitious
dwelling.  Along the surface of its abdomen, as well as
on the back, there are small projections, apparently in-
tended for the same purpose.  When once fairly in pos-
session of a shell, it would be quite a difficult  matter to
pull the crab out, though a very little heat applied to the
shell will quickly induce him to leave it.  The shells they
select are taken solely with  reference to their suitable-
 ness, and hence you may catch a considerable number of
 the  same species, each of which is in a different species
 or genus of shell.  The shells commonly used by them,
 when of larger size, are those of the whilk, which are
 much used as an article of food by the islanders, or the
 smaller conch [strombus] shells.  The very >oung her-
 mit crabs are seen in almost every variety of small shell 
92                 RAMBLES OF
found on the shores of the Antilles. I have frequently been
amused by seeing ladies, eagerly engaged in making a col-
lection of these beautiful little shells, and  not dreaming
of their being  tenanted  by a  living animal, suddenly
startled, on displaying their acquisitions, at observing
them to be actively endeavouring to escape -, or on intro-
ducing the hand into the reticule to produce a particular
fine specimen, to receive a smart pinch from the claws of
the little hermit  The instant the shell  is  closely  ap-
proached or touched, they withdraw as deeply into the
shell as possible, and the small ones readily escape obser-
vation, but they soon become impatient of captivity, and
try to make off.  The species of this genus (pagurus) are
very numerous, and during  the  first  part of their lives
are all aquatic.  That  is, they  are hatched  in the little
pools about the margin of the sea, and remain there until
those that are destined to live  on  land are stout enough
to commence their travels.   The hermit crabs which are
altogether  aquatic are by no means so careful to choose
the lightest and thinnest shells, as the land troops.  The
aquatic soldiers may be seen towing along shells of most
disproportionate size ; but their relatives, who travel over
the hills by moonlight, know that all unnecessary  incum-
brance  of weight  should be avoided.  They are as pug-
nacious and spiteful as any of the crustaceous class; and
when taken, or  when they fall  and jar themselves, con-
siderably, utter a  chirping noise,  which is evidently an
angry expression.  They are ever ready to bite with their 
                  A NATURALIST.                93

claws, and the  pinch of the  larger individuals is quite
painful.  It is  said, that when they are changing their
shells, for the sake of obtaining more commodious cover-
ings, they frequently fight for possession, which may be
true where two that  have forsaken their old shells meet,
or happen to make choice of the same vacant one.  It is
also said, that one crab is sometimes forced to give  up
the shell he is in, should a stronger chance to desire it.
This, as I never saw it, I must continue to doubt; for I
cannot imagine how  the stronger could possibly  accom-
plish his purpose, seeing that the occupant has nothing
to do  but keep close quarters.  The invader would have
no chance of seizing him to pull  him out, nor could he
do him any injury by biting upon the surface of his hard
claws, the only part  that would be exposed.  If it  be true
that  one  can dispossess  the  other, it must be by some
contrivance of which we are still ignorant.  These sol-
dier crabs feed  on a  great variety of substances, scarcely
refusing any thing  that is edible; like the family they
belong to, they have a decided partiality for putrid meats,
and the planters accuse them also of too great a fondness
for the sugar cane.   Their excursions are altogether noc-
turnal, in the day time they he concealed very effectually
in small holes,  among stones, or any kind of rubbish, and
are rarely taken notice of, even where hundreds are within
a  short distance of each  other. The larger soldier crabs
are sometimes eaten by the blacks, but they are not much
sought after even by them, as they are generally  regard- 
94
RAMBLES OF
ed with aversion and prejudice.  There is no reason, that
we are aware of, why  they should not  be  as good as
many other crabs, but they certainly are not equally es-
teemed. 
A NATURALIST.
95
                     NO. IX.

  Those who have only lived  in forest countries, where
vast tracts  are  shaded by a dense  growth of oak, ash,
chestnut, hickory  and other trees of deciduous  foliage,
which present the most pleasing varieties of verdure and
freshness, can have but little idea of the effect produced
on the feelings by aged forests  of pine, composed in great
degree of a single species, whose towering summits are
crowned with one dark green canopy, which successive
seasons find unchanged, and nothing but death  causes
to vary.  Their robust and gigantic trunks rise an hun-
dred or more feet high in purely proportioned columns,
before the limbs begin to diverge; and their tops, densely
clothed  with long bristling foliage, intermingle so closely
as to allow of but slight entrance to the sun.  Hence the
undergrowth of such forests is comparatively slight and
thin, since  none but shrubs and plants that love the shade,
can flourish under this perpetual exclusion of the animat-
ing and invigorating rays  of the  great exciter  of the
vegetable world.   Through such  forests,  and  by the
merest foot paths  in great part,  it  was my lot to pass
many miles almost every day;  and had I not endeavoured 
96
RAMBLES OF
to derive some amusement and instruction from the study
of the forest itself, my time would have been as fatiguing
to me, as it was certainly quiet and solemn.   But wher-
ever nature is, and under whatever form she may present
herself, enough is  always proffered to  fix attention and
produce pleasure, if we will condescend to observe with
carefulness.  I soon found that even a pine forest was far
from  being devoid of interest, and shall  endeavour to
prove this by  stating  the result of various  observations
made during the time I lived in this situation.
  The common pitch, or as it is generally called Norway
pine, grows from a seed, which is matured in vast abun-
dance in the large  cones peculiar to the pines.   This seed
is of a  rather triangular shape, thick and heavy at  the
part by  which  it grows from the cone, and terminating
in a broad membranous fan or sail, which, when the seeds
are shaken out by the wind, enables them to sail obliquely
through the air to  great distances.   Should an old corn-
field or other piece of ground be thrown out of cultivation
for  more than one  season, it is sown with the pine  seeds
by the winds,  and  the young pines shoot up  as closely
and compactly as hemp.   They continue to grow in this
manner until  they become twelve or fifteen feet high,
until their roots begin to encroach on each other, or until
the  stoutest and best rooted begin to overtop so  as entirely
to shade the smaller.  These gradually begin to fail, and
finally dry up and perish, and  a similar process is con-
tinued until the best trees acquire room enough to grow 
A NATURALIST.                97
without impediment.  Even when the young pines have
attained to thirty or forty feet in height, and are as thick
as a man's thigh, they stand so closely together, that their
lower branches, which are all  dry and dead, are inter-
mingled, sufficiently to prevent any one  from passing
between  the  trees without first breaking these obstruc-
tions away.   I have seen such a wood as that just men-
tioned, covering an old corn-field, whose ridges were still
distinctly to be traced, and which an old resident informed
me he had seen growing in corn.  In a part of this wood
which was not far from my dwelling, I had a delightful
retreat, that served me as a private study or closet, though
enjoying all  the advantages of the open  air.   A road
that had once passed through the field, and was of course
more  compacted than any other part, had denied access
to the pine seeds  for a certain distance, while on each
side of it they grew with their usual density. The ground
was covered with the soft layer or  carpet  of dried pine
leaves which  gradually and  imperceptibly fall through-
out the year, making a most pleasant surface to tread on,
and rendering the step perfectly noiseless.  By beating
off with a stick all the  dried branches that projected
towards  the  vacant space, I formed a sort of chamber,
fifteen or twenty feet long, which above was canopied by
the densely mingled branches of the adjacent trees, which
altogether excluded or scattered the rays of the sun, and
on  all sides was so shut in  by the trunks of the young
       9 
98
RAMBLES OF
trees, as to prevent  all observation.  Hither during the
hot season, I was accustomed to retire, for the purpose of
reading or meditation; and within this deeeper solitude,
where all  was solitary,  very many of the subsequent
movements of my life were suggested or devised.
  From all I could observe, and all the enquiries I could
get answered, it appeared that this rapidly growing  tree
does not attain its full growth until it is eighty or ninety
years old, nor does its time of full health and vigour much
exceed an hundred.  Before this time it is  liable to the
attacks of insects, but these are of a kind that bore the
tender spring shoots to  deposit their eggs therein, and
their larva? appear to live principally on the sap which is
very abundant, so that the tree is  but slightly injured.
But after the pine has attained its  acme, it is attacked
by  an insect which deposits its egg in the body of the
tree, and the larva devours its way  through the solid
substance of the timber;  so  that after a pine has been for
one or two seasons subjected to these depredators, it will
be  fairly riddled, and if cut down is unfit for any other
purpose than burning.   Indeed, if delayed too long, it is
poorly fit  for firewood,  so thoroughly do these insects
destroy its substance.  At the same time that one set of
insects is engaged in destroying the  body, myriads  of
others are at work under the  bark, destroying the sap
vessels, and the foliage wears a more and more pale and
sickly appearance as the tree declines in vigour.   If not
cut down, it eventually dies, becomes leafless, stripped of 
                   A NATURALIST.               99
its bark, and  as the decay  advances, all the smaller
branches are broken off; and it stands with its naked
trunk and a few ragged limbs, as if bidding defiance to
the tempest which howls around its head. Under favour-
able circumstances, a large  trunk will stand in this con-
dition for nearly a century, so extensive  and powerful
are its roots, so firm and stubborn the original knitting
of its giant frame.  At length some storm, more furious
than all its predecessors, wrenches those ponderous roots
from the soil, and hurls the  helpless carcass to the earth,
crushing all before it in  its fall.  Without the aid of fire,
or some peculiarity of situation favourable  to rapid de-
composition, full another hundred years will be requisite
to reduce it to its elements, and obliterate  the  traces of
its existence.  Indeed, long  after the lapse of more than
that period, we find the heart of the pitch pine still pre-
serving its original form, and from being thoroughly im-
bued  with turpentine, become  utterly indestructible ex-
cept by fire.
   If the proprietor attend to the warnings afforded by
the woodpecker, he may always cut his pines in time to
prevent them from being injured by insects.  The wood-
peckers run up and around the trunks, tapping from time
to time with  their powerful bills. The bird knows at once
by the sound whether there be insects below or not.  If
the tree is sound, the woodpecker  soon forsakes it for
another; should he begin to break into the bark, it is to
catch the worm, and such trees are at once to be marked 
100
RAMBLES OF
for the axe.   In felling such pines, I found the woodmen
alway anxious to avoid letting them strike against neigh-
bouring sound trees, as they said that the insects more
readily attacked an injured tree than one whose bark was
unbroken.  The observation is most probably correct, at
least the experience of country folks in  such  matters is
rarely wrong, though they sometimes give very odd rea-
sons for the processes they adopt.
   A full grown pine forest is at all times a grand  and
majestic object to one accustomed to moving through it.
Those vast and towering columns, sustaining a  waving
crown of deepest verdure; those robust and rugged limbs
standing forth at a vast height overhead, loaded with the
cones of various seasons; and the diminutiveness of all
surrounding objects compared with these gigantic child-
ren of nature, cannot but inspire ideas of seriousness and
even of melancholy.  But how awful and even tremen-
dous does such a situation  become, when  we hear  the
first wailings of the gathering storm, as it stoops upon
the lofty summits of the pine, and soon increases to a
deep hoarse roaring,  as the boughs begin to wave in the
blast, and the  whole tree is forced  to  sway before its
power.
   In a  short  time  the  fury of the  wind  is at its
height, the loftiest trees bend  suddenly before  it,  and
scarce regain  their  upright  position  ere they are again
obliged to cower beneath its violence. Then the tempest
literally howls, and amid the tremendous reverberations 
                  A NATURALIST.              101

of thunder, and  the blazing glare of the lightning, the
unfortunate wanderer hears around him the crash of nu-
merous trees hurled down by the  storm, and knows not
but the next may be precipitated upon him.  More than
once have I witnessed all the grandeur, dread, and  deso-
lation  of such a scene,  and have always found safety
either  by seeking as  quickly as  possible a  spot where
there were none but young trees,  or if on the main road
choosing the most open and exposed situation out of the
reach  of the large trees.  There, seated on my horse,
who seemed to understand the propriety of such patience,
I would quietly remain, however thoroughly drenched,
until the fury of the wind was  completely over.  To
say nothing of the danger  from  falling trees, the peril
of being struck by the lightning, which so frequently
shivers the loftiest of them, is so great as to render any
attempt to advance at such time highly imprudent.
  Like the  ox  among animals,  the pine tree may be
looked upon as one of the most universally useful of the
sons of the forest.  For all sorts of building, for firewood,
tar, turpentine,  rosin, lampblack, and  a vast variety of
other  useful  products,  this  tree  is invaluable to  man.
Nor is it a pleasing contemplation, to one who knows its
usefulness, to observe to  how vast an amount it is annu-
ally destroyed in this country, beyond the proportion that
nature can possibly supply.  However, we are not dis-
posed to believe that this evil will ever be productive  of
                         9* 
102
RAMBLES OF
     very great  injury, especially as coal fuel  is  becoming
     annually  more extensively used.   Nevertheless, were I
     the owner of a pine forest, I should exercise a consider-
«||'  able degree of care in the selection of the  wood for the
     axe. 
A NATURALIST.              103
                      NO.  X.

  Among the enemies with which the farmers of a poor
or light soil have to  contend, I know of none so truly
formidable and injurious as the crows, whose numbers,
cunning, and audacity, can scarcely be  appreciated, ex-
cept by those who have had long continued and  numer-
ous opportunities of  observation.  Possessed of the most
acute senses, and endowed by nature with a considerable
share of reasoning power, these birds bid defiance to al-
most  all the contrivances resorted to for their destruc-
tion ;  and when  their numbers have accumulated to vast
multitudes, which annually occurs, it is scarcely possible
to estimate the destruction they are capable of effecting.
Placed in a situation where every object was subjected
to close observation,  as a source of amusement, it is not
surprising that my attention should be drawn to so con-
spicuous an object as the crow;  and having  once  com-
menced remarking the peculiarities of this bird, I con-
tinued to bestow attention upon it during  many years,
in  whatever situation it was met with.   The  thickly
wooded and well watered parts of the state of Maryland,
as affording them a great abundance of food, and almost 
104               RAMBLES OF
entire  security during their  breeding season, are espe-
cially infested by these troublesome creatures, so that at
some times of the year  they are collected in  numbers
which  would appear incredible to any one unaccustomed
to witness their  accumulations.
   Individually, the common crow  (corvus corona) may
be compared in  character with the brown or Norway rat,
being, like that  quadruped, addicted to all sorts of mis-
chief,  destroying the  lives of any small creatures that
may fall in its way, plundering  with audacity wherever
any thing is exposed to its rapaciousness, and triumphing
by its  cunning over the usual artifices employed for the
destruction of ordinary noxious animals.  Where food is
at any time scarce, or the opportunity for such marauding
inviting, there is scarcely a young animal about the farm
yards safe from the attacks of the crow. Young chickens,
ducks, goslings, and  even little pigs, when quite  young
and feeble, are carried off by them.   They are not less
eager  to discover the  nests of domestic fowls, and will sit
very quietly in  sight, at a convenient distance, until the
hen leaves  the  nest,  and then fly down and  suck her
eggs at leisure.  But none of their tricks excited  in  me
a greater interest, than the observation of their attempts
to rob a hen of her chicks. The crow, alighting at a little
 distance from the hen, would advance in an apparently
careless way towards the brood, when the vigilant parent
 would bristle up her feathers, and rush at the black rogue
to drive him off. After several such approaches, the hen 
A NATURALIST.              105
would become very angry, and would chase the crow to
a greater distance from the brood.  This is the very ob-
ject the robber has in view, for as long as the parent
keeps near her young, the crow has  very slight chance
of success; but as soon as he can induce her to follow him
to a little distance  from the brood, he takes advantage of
his wings, and before she can regain her place, has flown
over her, and seized one of her chickens. When the cock
is present, there is still less danger from such an attack,
for chanticleer shows all his vigilance and gallantry in
protecting his tender offspring, though it frequently hap-
pens that the number of hens with broods renders it im-
possible for him to  extend  his care to all.  When the
crow tries to carry off a gosling from the  mother, it re-
quires more daring and skill, and is far less frequently
successful than in the former instance. If the gander be
in company, which he almost uniformly is, the crow has
his labour in vain.  Notwithstanding the  advantages of
flight and superior cunning, the honest vigilance and de-
termined bravery of the former are  too much  for him.
His attempts to approach, however cautiously conducted,
are promptly met, and all his tricks rendered unavailing,
by the fierce movements of the gander, whose powerful
blows the crow seems to be well aware might effectually
disable him.  The first time I witnessed such a scene,  I
was  at the side of the creek, and saw on the opposite
shore a goose with her goslings beset  by a crow; from
the apparent alarm of the mother and brood, it seemed to 
106
RAMBLES OF
me they must be in great danger, and I called to the
owner of the place, who happened to be in sight, to in.
form him of their situation.  Instead of going to  their
relief, he shouted back to me, to ask if the gander was
not there too; and as soon as he was answered in the af-
firmative, he bid me be under no uneasiness, as the crow
would find his  match.  Nothing  could exceed the cool
impudence and pertinacity of  the  crow, who, perfectly
regardless of my shouting, continued to worry the poor
gander for an hour, by his efforts to obtain a  nice gos-
ling for his next meal. At length convinced of the fruit
lessness of his efforts, he flew off to seek some more easily
procurable food. Several crows sometimes unite to plun-
der the  goose of her young, arid are then generally sue
cessful,  because they are able to distract the attention of
the parents, and lure them farther from their young.
   In the summer the crows disperse in pairs for the pur-
pose of raising their young, and then they select lofty
trees in the remotest parts of the forest, upon which with
dry sticks and twigs they  build a large strong nest, and
line it with softer materials.  They lay four or five eggs,
and when they are  hatched, feed, attend,  and watch over
their young with the most zealous devotion.  Should any
one by chance pass near the nest while the eggs are still
unhatched, or the brood are very young, the parents keep
close, and neither by the slightest movement  nor  noise
betray their presence.  But if the young are fledged, and
beginning to take their first lessons in  flying, the ap- 
                  A NATURALIST.               107
proach of a man, especially if armed with a gun, calls
forth all their cunning and solicitude.   The young are
immediately placed in the securest place at hand, where
the foliage is thickest, and remain perfectly motionless
and quiet.  Not so the alarmed parents, both of which
fly nearer and  nearer  to the hunter, uttering the most
discordant  screams, with an  occasional  peculiar note,
which seems intended to direct or warn their young. So
close do they approach, and so clamorous are they as the
hunter endeavours to get a good view of them on the tree,
that he is almost uniformly persuaded the young crows
are also concealed there; but he does not perceive, as he
is cautiously trying to get within gun shot, that they are
moving from tree to tree, and at each remove are farther
and farther from the  place where the young are hid.
After continuing this trick, until it is impossible that the
hunter can retain any idea of the situation of the young
ones, the parents  cease their distressing outcries, fly
quietly to the  most convenient lofty tree,  and  calmly
watch the movements of their disturber.  Now and  then
they utter a loud quick cry, which seems intended to bid
their  offspring lie  close and keep quiet, and it is  very
generally the case  that they escape all danger by their
obedience.   An experienced crow-killer watches eagerly
for the tree where the crows first start from ; and if this
can be observed, he pays no attention to their  clamours,
nor pretence of throwing themselves in his way, as he is
satisfied they are too  vigilant to let him get a shot at
• 
108
RAMBLES OF
them; and if he can see the young, he is tolerably sure
of them  all,  because  of their inabihty to fly or  change
place readily.
  The time of the year in which the farmers suffer most
from them is in the spring, before their enormous  congre-
gations disperse, and when  they are rendered voracious
by the scantiness of their winter fare.  Woe betide the
corn field which is not closely watched, when the young
grain begins to shoot above the soil! If not well guarded,
a host of these marauders will settle upon it at the first
light of the dawn, and before the sun has risen far above
the horizon, will have plundered every shoot of the germi-
nating seed, by first drawing it  skilfully from the moist
earth by the  young stalk, and then swallowing the grain.
The negligent or careless planter, who does not visit his
field before breakfast, finds, on his arrival, that he must
either  replant his corn, or  relinquish  hopes of a crop;
and  without  the exertion  of due vigilance, he may be
obliged to repeat  this  process  twice or thrice the same
season.  Where the crows go to rob a field in this way,
they place one or more sentinels, according to circum-
stances, in convenient places, and these are  exceedingly
vigilant,  uttering a single warning call, which puts the
whole to  flight the instant there  is the least appearance
of danger or  interruption.   Having fixed their sentinels,
they begin regularly at one part  of the field, and  pursu-
ing the rows  along, pulling up each shoot in succession,
and biting off the  corn  at  the root.   The green  shoots
• 
                  A NATURALIST.              109
thus left along the rows, as if they had been arranged
with care, offer a  melancholy memorial of the work
which has been effected by these  cunning and destruc-
tive plunderers.
  Numerous experiments have been made,  where the
crows are thus injurious, to avert their ravages; and the
method I shall now relate I have  seen tried with the
most gratifying success.  In a large tub a portion of tar
and grease were mixed, so as to render the tar sufficiently
thin and soft, and to this was added a portion of slacked
lime in powder, and the  whole stirred until  thoroughly
incorporated.  The seed corn was  then thrown in, and
stirred with the mixture  until each grain received a uni-
form coating.   The corn was then dropped in the hills,
and covered as usual.  This treatment was found to re-
tard the germination about three days, as the mixture
greatly excludes moisture from the grain. But the crows
did no injury to the field; they pulled up a small quantity
in different parts of the planting, to satisfy themselves it
was all alike; upon becoming convinced of which, they
quietly  left it for some less carefully managed  grounds,
where pains had not been taken to make all the corn so
nauseous and  bitter.
10 
110
RAMBLES OF
                     NO. XI.

  It rarely happens that any of the works of nature are
wholly productive of evil,  and even the  crows, trouble-
some as they are, contribute in a  small  degree to the
good of the district they frequent.  Thus, though they
destroy eggs and young poultry, plunder the cornfields,
and carry off whatever may serve for food, they also rid
the  surface of the  earth  of a considerable quantity of
carrion, and a vast multitude of insects and their destruc-
tive larvae. The crows are very usefully employed when
they alight upon newly ploughed fields,  and pick up
great numbers  of  those  large  and long-lived  worms,
which are so destructive to the roots of all growing vege-
tables ;  and they are scarcely less  so, when they follow
the seine haulers along the shores, and pick up the small
fishes, which would otherwise be left to putrify and load
the air with unpleasant vapours.  Nevertheless, they be-
come far more numerous in some parts  of the country
than is at all necessary to  the  good of the  inhabitants,
and whoever would devise a method of lessening their
numbers suddenly, would certainly be doing a service to
the community. 
A NATURALIST.
Ill
  About a quarter of a mile above the house  I lived in
on Curtis's creek,  the shore was a sand bank or bluff,
twenty or thirty feet high,  crowned with a dense young
pine forest to its very edge.   Almost directly opposite,
the shore was flat, and formed a point extending  in the
form of a broad sand bar,  for a considerable  distance
into the water, and when the tide was low, this  flat af-
forded a fine level space, to which nothing could approach
in either direction,  without being  easily seen.   At a
short distance from the water, a young swamp wood of
maple, gum,  oaks,  &c. extended back, towards some
higher ground.  As  the sun  descended, and threw his
last rays in  one broad sheet of golden effulgence  over
the crystal mirror of the  waters, innumerable  compa-
nies of crows arrived daily, and settled on this point, for
the purpose of drinking, picking up gravel, and uniting
in one body prior to  retiring for the night to their accus-
tomed dormitory.  The trees  adjacent and all the shore
would be literally blackened by those plumed marauders,
while their increasing outcries, chattering and screams,
were almost deafening. It certainly seems  that they
derive great pleasure from their social habits, and I of-
ten amused myself by thinking the uninterrupted clatter
which was kept up, as the different  gangs united with
the main body, was produced by the recital of the adven-
tures they had encountered during their last marauding
excursions.   As the sun became entirely  sunk below the
horizon, the grand flock crossed to the sand bluff  on the 
112
RAMBLES OF
opposite side, where they generally spent a few moments
in picking up a further supply of gravel, and then, rising
in dense and ample column, they sought their habitual
roost in the deep  entanglements of the distant pines.
This daily visit to the point, so near to my dwelling, and
so accessible by means of the skiff, led me  to hope that
I should  have considerable  success in destroying them.
Full of such anticipations, I loaded two guns, and pro-
ceeded in my boat to the expected  place of action, pre-
vious to the arrival of the crows.  My view was to have
my boat somewhere about half way between  the  two
two shores,  and as they never  manifested much fear of
boats, to take my chance of firing  upon the main body
as they were flying over my head to the opposite side of
the river.   Shortly after  I  had gained  my station, the
companies began to arrive,  and every thing went on as
usual.  But whether they suspected some mischief from
seeing a boat so long stationary in their vicinity, or could
see and distinguish the guns in the boat, I am unable to
say; the fact was,  however, that  when they set  out to
fly over, they passed at an elevation which secured them
from my artillery effectually, although,  on  ordinary oc-
casions, they were in  the habit of flying  over me at a
height of not more than twenty or thirty feet.  I return-
ed home without having had a shot, but resolved  to try
if I could not succeed better the next day.  The same
result followed the experiment, and when I  fired at one
gang, which it appeared possible to  attain, the instant 
                  A NATURALIST.              113
the gun was discharged, the crows made a sort of halt,
descended considerably, flying in circles, and screaming
most vociferously, as if in contempt or derision.  Had I
been prepared for this, a few of them might have suffer-
ed for their  bravado.   But my second gun was in the
bow of the boat,  and before I  could get it, the black
gentry had  risen to their  former security.  While we
were sitting at tea that evening, a black came to inform
me that a considerable flock of crows, which had arrived
too late to join the great flock, had pitched in the young
pines not a great way from  the  house,  and at a short
distance from  the road-side.   We quickly had the guns
in  readiness,  and I scarcely could  restrain my  impa-
tience until it  should be late enough  and dark enough to
give us a chance of success.  Without thinking of any
thing but the great number  of the crows, and their in-
ability to fly to advantage  in the night, my notions of
the numbers we should bring home were extravagant
enough, and I only regretted that we might  be obliged
to leave some behind.  At length, led by the black boy,
we  sallied forth, and soon arrived in  the vicinity of this
temporary and unusual roost; and now the true charac-
ter  of the enterprise began to appear. We were to leave
the road, and  penetrate several  hundred  yards among
the pines, whose proximity to each other, and the diffi-
culty of moving between which, on account of the dead
branches, has been heretofore stated.  Next, we had  to
be careful not  to alarm the crows before we were ready
                         10* 
114
RAMBLES OF
to act, and at the same time were to advance with cocked
guns in our hands.   The only way of moving forwards
at all, I found to be that of turning  my shoulders as
much as possible to the dead branches, and breaking my
way as gently as I could.  At last we reached the trees
upon which the  crows were  roosting; but as the foliage
of the young pines was extremely dense, and the  birds
were full forty feet above the ground, it  was out of the
question to distinguish where the greatest number were
situated.  Selecting  the  trees  which appeared by the
greater darkness of their summits to be most  heavily
laden with our game, my companion and I pulled our
triggers at the same moment.  The report was followed
by  considerable outcries from the crows, by a heavy
shower of pine twigs and leaves upon which the  shot
had taken effect, and a deafening roar caused by the sud-
den rising  on the  wing of the alarmed  sleepers.   One
crow at length fell  near  me, which  was  wounded too
badly to fly or retain his perch, and as  the flock  had
gone  entirely off, with this one crow did  I return, rather
crestfallen  from  my grand nocturnal expedition.  This
crow, however, afforded me instructive employment and
amusement during the next day, in the dissection of its
nerves and organs of sense, and I know  not that I ever
derived more pleasure from any anatomical examination,
than I did from the dissection of its internal ear.  The
extent and convolutions of its semicircular canals, show
how highly the sense of hearing is perfected in these 
                  A NATURALIST.              1 15

creatures, and those  who wish to be  convinced of the
truth of what we have stated in relation to them, may
still see this identical crow skull, in  the Baltimore Mu-
seum, to which I presented  it after finishing the dissec-
tion.  At  least, I saw it there  a year or  two since,
though I little thought, when employed in examining, or
even when I last saw it, that it would ever be the subject
of such a reference " in a printed book."
  Not easily disheartened by preceding failures, I next
resolved to try to outwit the crows, and for this purpose
prepared a long line, to which a very considerable  num-
ber of lateral lines were tied, having each  a  very small
fishing hook at the end.  Each of these hooks was bait-
ed with a  single grain of corn,  so  cunningly  put  on,
that it seemed impossible that the grain could be taken
up without the hook  being  swallowed  with  it.  About
four  o'clock, in order to be in full time, I rowed up to
the sandy point, made  fast my main line to a bush, and
extending it toward  the water, pegged it down  at the
other end  securely in the sand.  I next arranged all my
baited  lines, and  then covering  them all nicely with
sand, left nothing exposed but the bait.  This  done, I
scattered a quantity of corn all around, to render the
baits as little liable to suspicion as possible.  After taking
a final view of the arrangement,  which seemed a very
hopeful one, I pulled my boat gently homeward, to wait
the event of my solicitude for the capture of the crows.
As usual,  they arrived  in thousands, blackened the sand 
116
RAMBLES OF
beach, chattered, screamed, and fluttered about in great
glee, and finally sailed over the creek and away to their
roost, without having left a  solitary unfortunate to pay
for having  meddled with my  baited hooks.  I jumped
into the skiff, and soon paid a visit to  my  unsuccessful
snare.  The corn was all gone ; the very hooks were all
bare, and it was evident that some other expedient must be
adopted before I could hope to  succeed.  Had I  caught
but one  or two alive, it was my intention  to have  em-
ployed them to procure the  destruction of others, in  a
manner  I shall hereafter describe. 
A NATURALIST.
117
                     NO.  XII.

  Had I succeeded in obtaining some living crows, they
were to be employed  in  the following manner.   After
having made a sort of concealment of brushwood within
good gunshot distance, the crows were to be fastened by
their wings on their backs, between two  pegs, yet not
so closely as to prevent them from fluttering or  strug-
gling.  The other crows,  who  are  always very inquisi-
tive where their species is in any trouble,  were expected
to settle down near the captives, and the latter  would
certainly  seize  the first  that  came near  enough with
their claws, and  hold on pertinaciously.  This  would
have produced fighting and screaming in abundance, and
the whole flock  might gradually be so drawn into the
fray, as to allow many opportunities of discharging the
guns upon them with full effect  This I have often ob-
served, that when a  quarrel or  fight took place in a
large  flock  or  gang  of crows,  a  circumstance  by no
means infrequent, it seemed soon to extend to the whole,
and, during the continuance of their anger, all the usual
caution of their nature appeared to be forgotten, allowing
themselves at such times to be approached closely and re- 
118
RAMBLES OF
gardless of men, fire-arms,  or  the  fall  of their compa-
nions, continuing their wrangling with  rancorous obsti-
nacy.  A  similar disposition may  be produced among
them by catching a  large owl,  and  tying it with a cord
of moderate length to  the  limb of a naked  tree  in a
neighbourhood frequented by the crows.  The owl is one
of the few enemies  which the crow has much  reason to
dread, as it robs the nests of their young, whenever they
are left for the shortest time.   Hence,  whenever crows
discover an owl in the day  time, like many other birds,
they commence an attack upon it, screaming most  voci-
ferously, and bringing together all  of their species with-
in hearing. Once this clamour has fairly begun, and their
passions are fully aroused, there is  little danger of their
being scared away, and the chance of destroying  them
by shooting is continued as long as the owl remains un-
injured.   But one such opportunity presented during my
residence where crows were abundant, and this was un-
fortunately spoiled by the eagerness of one of the gun-
ners, who, in his anxiety to demolish one of the crows,
fixed upon some that were  most busy with the owl, and
killed it instead of  its  disturbers, which at once ended
the sport.  When the crows  leave  the  roost, at early
dawn, they generally fly to a  naked or  leafless tree in
the nearest field, and there  plume themselves and chatter
until the  daylight is sufficiently clear to show  all objects
 with distinctness.  Of this circumstance I have taken
 advantage several^ times to get  good shots at them in 
                  A NATURALIST.               lig
this way.  During the day time,  having selected a spot
within proper distance of the tree frequented by them
in the morning, I have built with brushwood and  pine
bushes a thick, close screen, behind which one or two
persons might move securely without  being observed.
Proper openings, through which  to level the guns, were
also made, as the slightest  stir  or noise could not be
made at the time of action, without a risk of rendering
all the preparations fruitless.  The  guns were all in or-
der and loaded before going to bed, and at an hour or
two before daylight, we repaired quietly to the field and
stationed  ourselves  behind the   screen,  where, having
mounted our guns at the loop-holes to be in perfect rea-
diness, we waited patiently for the daybreak.  Soon after
the gray twilight of the dawn  began  to displace the
darkness, the voice of one of  our expected visitants
would be heard from the distant  forest, and shortly after
a single crow would  slowly sail towards the solitary tree
and settle on its very  summit.   Presently a  few more
would arrive singly,  and in  a little  while small flocks
followed.  Conversation among them is  at  first rather
limited to occasional salutations, but as the flock begins
to grow numerous, it becomes general and very  animat-
ed, and by this time all that may  be expected on  this oc-
casion have arrived.   This  may be known also, by ob-
serving  one  or more of them descend  to the  ground,
and if the gunners do not now make the best of  the oc-
casion, it will soon be lost, as the whole  gang will  pre- 
120
RAMBLES OF
sently sail off, scattering as they go. However, we rare-
ly waited till there was a danger of their departure, but
as soon as the flock had fairly arrived and  were still
crowded upon the  upper parts of the  tree,  we pulled
triggers together, aiming at  the thickest of the throng.
In this way, by killing and wounding them, with two or
three guns, a  dozen or more would be destroyed.  It
was of course needless to expect to find a similar oppor-
tunity in the same place for a  long time afterwards, as
those which escaped had too good  memories to return to
so disastrous a spot.  By ascertaining other situations at
considerable  distances, we could  every now and  then
obtain similar advantages over them.
  About the years  1800, 1, 2, 3, 4, the  crows were  so
vastly accumulated and destructive in the state of Mary-
land, that the government,  to  hasten their diminution,
received their heads in payment of taxes, at the price of
three cents each.  The store-keepers bought them of the
boys and shooters, who had no taxes to pay, at a  rather
lower rate, or exchanged powder and shot for them. This
measure caused a great havoc to be kept up among them,
and in a few years so much diminished the grievance,
that the price was withdrawn.   Two modes of shooting
them in considerable numbers were followed  and with
great success; the one, that of killing them  while on
the wing towards the  roost, and   the  other  attacking
them in the night when they had been  for  some hours
asleep.  I have already mentioned the  regularity with 
                    A NATURALIST.               121
  which vast flocks  move  from various quarters of the
  country to their roosting places every afternoon, and the
  uniformity of the route they pursue.   In cold weather,
  when all the small bodies  of water  are  frozen, and they
  are obliged to protract their flight  towards  the bays or
 sea, their return is a work of considerable labour, espe-
 cially should a strong wind blow  against them ; at this
 season also, being rather poorly fed, they are of necessity
 less vigorous.  Should the wind be  adverse, they fly as
 near the earth as possible,  and of  this the shooters at the
 time I allude to took advantage.   A large number would
 collect on such an afternoon, and station themselves close
 along  the foot-way of a high bank, over which the crows
 were in the habit of flying ; and as they were in a great
 degree screened from sight as the flock  flew over, keep-
 ing as  low  as possible  because of the wind,  their shots
 were generally very effectual. The  stronger  was the
 wind,  the greater was  their success.  The  crows  that
 were not injured found it very difficult to rise; and those
 that diverged laterally, only came  nearer to gunners sta-
 tioned  in  expectation of such movements.   The "flocks
were several hours  in  passing over, and as there was
generally a considerable interval between each company
of considerable size, the last arrived, unsuspicious of what
had been going on, and the shooters had time to recharge
their arms.  But  the grand harvest  of crow  heads was
derived from the invasion of their dormitories, which are
well worthy a particular description, and should be visited
       11 
122               RAMBLES OF
by every one who wishes to form a proper idea of the
number of these birds, that may be accumulated in a single
district.  The roost is most commonly the densest pine
thicket that can be found, generally at no great distance
from some river, bay, or other sheet of water, which is
the last to freeze, or rarely is altogether frozen.  To such
a roost,  the crows, which are,  during the  day-time,
scattered over perhaps more than a hundred miles of cir-
cumference, wing their way every afternoon,  and arrive
shortly  after sunset.   Endless  columns pour  in  from
various quarters, and as they arrive pitch upon their  ac-
customed perches,  crowding  closely  together for the
benefit of the warmth and the shelter afforded by the
thick foliage of the pine.  The trees are literally bent by
their weight, and the ground is covered for many feet in
depth by their dung, which by its gradual fermentation,
must also tend  to  increase the  warmth of the roost.
Such roosts are known to be thus occupied  for years,
beyond the memory of individuals; and I know of one or
two, which the  oldest residents in  the quarter state to
have been known to their grandfathers, and probably had
been resorted to by the crows during  several ages pre-
vious.   There is one of great age and magnificent extent,
in the vicinity of Rock Creek, an arm of the Patapsco.
They  are sufficiently numerous on the  rivers opening
into the Chesapeake, and are every where similar in their
general aspect.   Wilson has signalised such a roost at no
great distance from Bristol, Pa. and I know by observa- 
                   A NATURALIST.               123
 tion, that not less than  a million of crows sleep there
 nightly during the winter season.
   To gather crow heads from the roost, a very large
 party was made up, proportioned to the extent of surface
 occupied  by the dormitory. Armed with double barrelled
 and duck guns, which threw a large charge of shot, the
 company was divided into small parties, and these took
 stations, selected during the day time, so as to surround
 the roost  as nearly as possible.  A dark night was always
 preferred, as the crows could not when alarmed fly far,
 and the attack was delayed until full  midnight.  All
 being at their posts, the firing was commenced by those
 who were most  advantageously posted, and followed up
 successively by the others, as the affrighted crows sought
 refuge in  their vicinity.  On every side the carnage then
 raged fiercely, and there  can  scarcely be conceived a
 more forcible idea of the horrors of a battle, than such a
 scene afforded.  The  crows screaming with  fright and
 the pain of wounds, the loud deep roar produced by the
 raising of their whole  number  in  the  air, the incessant
 flasliing and thundering  of the guns,  and the shouts of
 their eager destroyers, all produced an effect which can
 never be forgotten by any one who has witnessed it, nor
 can  it well be adequately comprehended by those who
 have not.   Blinded by the blaze of the powder, and be-
wildered by the thicker darkness that ensues, the crows
rise and settle again at a  short  distance,  without being
able to withdraw from the field of danger ; and the san- 
124
RAMBLES OF
guinary work is continued until the shooters are fatigued,
or the approach of daylight gives the survivors a chance
of escape.  Then the work of collecting the heads from
the dead and wounded began, and this was a task of con-
siderable difficulty, as  the wounded  used their utmost
efforts to conceal  and  defend themselves. The bill and
half the front of the skull were cut off together, and strung
in sums for the tax-gatherer, and the product of the night
divided according  to the  nature  of  the  party  formed.
Sometimes the great mass of shooters were hired for the
night, and received no shares of scalps, having their am-
munition provided by the employers;  other parties were
formed of friends and neighbours, who  clubbed for the
ammunition, and shared equally in the result.
  During hard winters the  crows suffer severely, and
perish  in considerable  numbers from  hunger, though
they endure a wonderful degree of abstinence without
much  injury.   When  starved   severely,   the  poor
wretches will swallow bits of leather, rope, rags, in short
any thing that  appears to promise the slightest relief.
Multitudes belonging to the Bristol roost, perished dur-
ing the winter of 1828-9 from this cause.   All the water
courses were  solidly frozen, and it was  distressing  to
observe these starvelings every  morning  winging their
weary way towards  the shores of the sea in  hopes  of
food,  and again to see  them toiling homewards in the
afternoon, apparently scarce able  to fly.
  In speaking of destroying crows, we have never ad- 
A NATURALIST.
125
verted to the use of poison, which in their case is wholly
inadmissible on this account Where crows are common
hogs generally run at large, and  to poison  the crows
would equally poison them; the crows would die, and
fall to the ground, where they would certainly be eaten
by the hogs.
  Crows, when caught young, learn to talk plainly, if
pains be taken to repeat certain phrases to  them, and
they become  exceedingly impudent and  troublesome.
Like all of their tribe, they will steal and hide silver or
other bright objects, of which they can make no possible
use.
11* 
 
REMINISCENCES
OF A
VOYAGE TO INDIA.
REYNELL COATES, M. D 
 
REMINISCENCES.
                       NO.  I.


   The American public need not be reminded of the folly
of those tourists, who, after a week's residence in a capi-
tal city, take passage  in a line of coaches, and hastily
circumambulating a small portion of a great continent,
return to launch out into profound disquisitions on na-
tional character and the mutabihty of governments.  I
am not of this school;  but as no one can  travel round
two thirds  of the circumference of our globe, either by
land or sea, without acquiring many facts, and making
many observations highly interesting to those who quietly
enjoy the sweets of social intercourse around the paternal
hearth, I hope that these detached reminiscences, while
they contribute to ray own happiness by recalling scenes
of grandeur and of beauty which I can never hope to
revisit, may also prove a harmless recreation. 
130             REMINISCENCES OF
         MINUTE ANIMALS OF THE OCEAN.
  The innumerable  tribes of insects which swarm in
every part of the world, delighting us by the brilliancy
of their colouring, or tormenting us with their attacks
upon our persons or our property, although their armies
sometimes render whole countries uninhabitable, destroy-
ing every blade of grass in their career; even these seem-
ingly interminable hosts must y ield the palm in number,
beauty, every thing except destructiveness,  to  the sky-
tinted denizens  of the  ocean.   Every leaf of sea-weed,
every fragment of floating timber, teems with life in some
of its most interesting forms, and the blue expanse of
waves is every where studded with animated gems, which
sail along its surface  or lie hidden in its bosom-
  The seaman,  as the vessel hurries along, catches occa-
sional glimpses  of misty  specks floating beneath him,
which, to his careless eye, appear like the spawn of fishes,
or the slime washed  from their  bodies, yet in  these un-
promising and neglected atoms,  closer  examination  dis-
covers beings whose delicacy of  structure defies  the
pencil, and whose tints are rivalled only by those of a
summer's evening.
  It is much to be regretted that many minds capable of
enjoying, in  the highest degree, those pleasures  which
may be drawn from every  department of natural history,
are arrested on  the threshold of the study by the dry and
technical systems,which are but the common-place books 
               A VOYAGE TO INDIA.            131

of the science, but which are too  generally regarded as
the science itself.  Some knowledge of these systems
seems indispensable to the grand and general views which
constitute the chief interest of many departments of  na-
ture ;  but the minute inhabitants of the ocean possess a
charm for every eye, an interest  peculiarly their own.
In observing their beauties  and their manners, the tra-
veller would find delightful occupation, and the tedium
of the sea Would be forgotten.
  Much of my time was employed  in catching these
minute animals with a net of bunting secured to a cane
twelve feet in length, with which practice soon rendered
me so adroit, that little escaped me that floated within
three feet of the surface.  I  cannot  hope, by mere  de-
scription, to inspire others  with the same enthusiastic
admiration which I felt in a personal  examination of the
wonders  of my net;  but I  trust that, in introducing
some of these new acquaintances to your readers, I shall
not be accused of making a burdensome  addition to their
circle.
  The vast tract of waters constituting the Gulf stream,
stretching itself along the coast of North America,  lies
like a huge  ocean desert, shunned  even by  the fish,
which are seen but rarely within  its limits ;  but on  the
farther side a counter current travels  at a slower pace in
the opposite  direction.   The surface of this  current is
thickly covered with masses of sea-weed and other float-
ing bodies, swept by the stream from the shores of the 
132
REMINISCENCES OF
Gulf of Mexico and the southern states, and collected in
the eddies.  Each little tuft, if carefully taken, and placed
in a tumbler or basin of salt water, will display a number
of beautiful shrimps, spotted, chequered, or striped with
every shade of colouring; a variety of minute crabs, little
shells,  and  not  unfrequently fish,  in  comparison  with
which  the minnoes of our creeks arc leviathans.   Most of
these various tribes which have been carried by the cur-
rent from their native shores, would speedily perish in
the unfathomable depths of their own element, if deprived
for  a long time of the support afforded  by their little
vessel.
  One  would  suppose that a voyage of three thousand
miles,  performed in company, and  within the narrow
confines of  a tuft of leaves, would be  sufficient to es-
tablish a good understanding in the little  community;
but, alas! the natural propensities to violence and plunder,
which  not even the lofty attribute of human reason can
control, here rage with unrestrained violence; no sooner
is this  mimic world confined within the precincts of the
tumbler or  the basin, than the whole vessel displays  a
system of inveterate warfare.  In vain do the smaller
shrimps dart through the labyrinth of leaves to elude the
pursuit of the crabs; they are speedily  torn in pieces, or
driven  from  their shelter to become the prey of some vo-
racious fish, which, flying  before the persecution of its
larger  brethren, thus repays the  hospitality of those in
whose  dominions it seeks obscurity and safety.   But this 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.            133
ingratitude seldom passes unpunished.  Pent within nar-
row bounds, and unable to elude pursuit by shooting be-
yond the grasp of its insulted protectors, a desperate con-
flict ensues between the fish  and the crabs, and in  a few
hours  nothing of the animated scene survives, except
some two or three mutilated  combatants, who, no longer
possessed of their dangerous weapons of offence, or  ex-
hausted with wounds, are fain to make a peaceable meal
upon  the  carcasses of their  former  associates.   What
moral might  the  observer extract from the high daring
and noble prowess of these little aquatics, none of which
ever  acquire the paltry magnitude of three  quarters of
an inch!  What exquisite similes  might be drawn from
such a fertile  source to embellish the pages of history, or
to  be sounded upon the harp  of flattery, to swell  the
festive raptures of the hero!
   Nothing is  more striking to the naturalist than the
contrast between the grandeur and the immensity of
power displayed by the  angry waves around  him,  and
the delicate and fragile forms which crowd their surface.
   The crest of a billow, which causes the tough fir-ribbed
vessel to tremble beneath it like a child under the  rod of
its tutor, passes harmlessly over myriads of beings, which,
when removed from their native element, dissolve  under
the fervour of the sun, or break in pieces by their own
weight.   Yet, unobtrusive as are these  lower links in
the scale of nature, escaping by their very humility  that
destruction which so often overwhelms the proud lord of
        12 
134            REMINISCENCES OF
the creation in spite of all his science and his strength
they are often individually dressed in beauty before which
the lily would  fade, and the rose hide its  blushes; and,
collectively, they produce some of the most sublime phe-
nomena,  which have  even astonished the philosopher,
building up islands in the midst of the  deep, or, in mimic
sportiveness, alarming the mariner with the appearance
of unreal shoals, and wakening the lightning of the wa-
ters to increase the brilliancy of  moonlight, or to render
more terrific the gloom of the midnight tempest.
  This picture may appear too glowing to many, but in
my next I will endeavour to establish its correctness.
                                                C 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
135
                     NO.  II.

              MOLLUSCiE.  FALSE SHOALS.

  Those who have sought relief from the summer heats
at Long Branch or Cape May, have  probably noticed,
in their ramblings along the beach, certain gelatinous
transparent masses deposited by the receding tide upon
the sands.   They resemble very large  plano-convex
lenses, and are devoid of colour, except in a few minute
points, which appear like grains of yellow sand, or  the
eggs of some shells embedded in their substance.  This
has led many to consider them as the  spawn of some
marine animal.
  If one of these gellies be placed in a tub of brine im-
mediately after it reaches the shore, the observer will be
surprised to find it possessed of animation. The supe-
rior, or convex part, will expand like the top of an um-
brella, and from its under surface several fringed and
leaf-like  membranes will be developed.  The remains
of numerous threads, or tendrils, will  float out from the
margin of the umbrella, following the motions of the
animal as it swims around the tub.   These threads are 
136
REMINISCENCES OF
often several feet in length before they are broken by
the sand ;  they are probably employed both to entice
and secure the prey, and they produce a sharp, slinging
sensation,  when applied to the skin.  It is from the ap-
pearance and offensive power of these last organs, that
seamen have given the animal the title of the sea nettle,
and naturalists the generic name medusa.
  I have offered this rude description of the medusa, as
a  familiar example  of  the-elass of animated beings
which are the subjects of the following remarks. They
are all alike gelatinous  and transparent, and  many of
them melt and flow away when exposed in the open air
to the direct rayluf the  sun.
 Of all the tribes of molluscae which are scattered over eve-
ry part of the ocean, the most splendid and the best known
is the Portuguese man-of-war (physalia).   This is an
oblong animated sack of air, elongated at one extremity
into a conical neck, and surmounted by a membraneous
expansion  running nearly the whole length of the body,
and rising above into a semicircular sail, which can be
expanded or contracted to a  considerable extont, at the
pleasure of the animal.   From  beneath the body are
suspended from ten to fifty or  more little tubes,  from
half an inch to an inch  in  length, open  at their lower
extremity, and formed like the flower of the  blue bottle.
These have been regarded as temporary  receptacles for
food, like  the first stomach of cattle ; but as the animal
is destitute  of any  visible mouth or alimentary canal, 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
137
and as I have frequently seen fish in their cavities ap-
parently half digested, I cannot but consider them as
proper stomachs; nor indeed is it a greater paradox in
zoology that an animal should possess many indepen-
dent stomachs, than that the strange  carniverous vege-
table, the saracinea, should make use of its leaves appa-
rently for a similar purpose.
  From the centre of this group of stomachs depends a
little  cord, never exceeding the fourth of an inch in
thickness, and often  forty times as long as the body.
  The size  of the Portuguese man-of-war varies from
half an inch  to  six inches in length. When it is in
motion, the sail  is  accommodated to the force of the
breeze, and the elongated neck is curved upward, giving
to the animal a form strongly resembling the little glass
swans which we sometimes see swimming in goblets.
  It is not the  form, however, which constitutes the
chief beauty of this little navigator.   The lower  part of
the body and the neck are  devoid of all colour, except a
faint  irridescence in reflected  lights, and they  are so
perfectly transparent that the  finest print is not ob-
scured when viewed  through them.   The back becomes
gradually tinged as we ascend, with the finest and most
delicate blue that can be imagined; the base of the sail
equals the purest sky in depth  and beauty of tint; the
summit is of the most splendid red, and the central part
is shaded by  the  gradual intermixture of  these colours
through all the intermediate grades of purples.   Drawn
                        12* 
138
REMINISCENCES OF
as it were upon a ground-work of mist, the  tints  have
an aerial softness far beyond the reach of art, and war-
ranting the seemingly imaginative description given at
the close of the first number.
  The group of stomachs  is less  transparent, and al-
though the hue is the same as that of the  back, they
are, on this account incomparably less elegant. By their
weight and form they  fill the double office of a keel and
ballast, while the  cord-like appendage, which  floats out
for yards behind, is called by seamen the cable.
  The mode in which the  animal secures his prey has
been a  subject of much speculation, for the fish  and
crabs that, are frequently found within  the little tubes,
are often large enough to tear them in pieces  could they
retain their  natural vigour  during the contest.   De-
ceived by the extreme pain which is felt when  the ca-
ble is brought into contact with the  back of the hand,
naturalists have concluded,  I think too hastily, that this
organ secretes a poisonous or acrid fluid, by which  it
benumbs any unfortunate fish or other animal that ven-
tures  within its toils, allured by the hope of making a
meal upon what, in its ignorance, it has mistaken for a
worm.  The secret will be  better explained  by  a more
careful examination of the  organ  itself.   The chord  is
composed of a narrow layer of contractile fibres, scarcely
visible  when  relaxed, on  account of its transparency.
If the animal be  large, this layer of fibres will some-
times extend itself to the length of four or five yards.  A 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
139
spiral line of blue bead-like bodies, less than the head of
a pin, revolves around the  cable from end to  end, and
under the microscope these beads appear covered with
minute prickles, so  hard and sharp, that they  will rea-
dily  enter the  substance of wood, adhering with such"
pertinacity that the  cord can rarely be detached without
breaking.
  It is to these prickles that the man-of-war owes its
power of destroying  animals  much its  superior in
strength and  activity.  When any  thing becomes im-
paled upon the cord, the  contractile fibres  are called
into action, and rapidly shrink from many feet in length
to less than the same number of inches, bringing  the
prey within reach of the little tubes, by one of which
it is immediately  swallowed.
  This  weapon, so insignificant in  appearance, is yet
sufficiently formidable  even to man.  I had once the
misfortune to become entangled with the cable of a very
large man-of-war  while swimming in the  open ocean,
and amply did it avenge its fellows,  who now sleep in
my cabinet robbed at once of life and beauty.  The
pain which it  inflicted was almost insupportable  for
some time, nor did it entirely cease  for twenty-fbur
hours.
  I might now proceed to describe many analogous ani-
mals scarcely inferior in interest, but it is time to no-
tice some individuals of another tribe, residing beneath
the surface, and therefore  less generally known. 
140
REMINISCENCES OF
   The grandest of these is the beroe.  In size and form
 it precisely resembles a purse, the mouth, or orifice, an-
 swering to one of the modern metallic  clasps.   It is
 perfectly transparent, and in order to distinguish  its
•filmy outlines, it is necessary to place it in a tumbler of
 brine held between the observer and the light.  In cer-
 tain directions the whole body appears faintly irrides-
 cent, but there  are several longitudinal narrow lines
 which reflect  the  full rich tints of the rainbow in the
 most vivid manner, for ever varying and  mingling the
 hues,  even while the animal  remains at rest.  Under
 the microscope these lines display a succession of innu-
 merable coloured scales or minute  fins, which are kept
 unceasingly in motion, thus producing the play  of co-
 lours by continually changing the angle of reflection.
   The movements of tho beroe are generally retrograde,
 and are  not aided by the  coloured scales, but  depend
 upon  the alternate  contraction and  dilatation of  the
 mouth.  The  lips are never perfectly closed, and the
 little fish and  shrimps which play around them are con-
 tinually entering and leaving them at pleasure.  The
 animal is dependent for its food upon such semi-anima-
 ted substances as it draws within its  grasp by moving
 slowly backwards in the water, and retains them  in con-
 sequence of their own feebleness and inability to  escape
 the weakest of snares.
   Another tribe of the sea-purses, (salpa,) though much
 smaller than the beroe, are more complex in structure, 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
141
and possess a higher interest in consequence of the sin-
gular habits of some of the species.  They are double
sacks, resembling the beroe in  general form, but desti-
tute of irridescence.
  The outer sack, or mantle, rarely exceeds an inch in
length, and is commonly about half as wide.  The inner
sack  is much smaller, and  the  interval  between these
forms a cavity for the  water which they breathe, and
for some of the viscera.  Their visible organs are a trans-
parent heart, which can only be seen in the strongest
light; a splendid double row of whitish bead-like cavities
forming a spiral line near one extremity, and supposed
to be either lungs or ovaries; numerous broad, flat,
pearly muscles, barely distinguished by their mistiness,
and an  alimentary canal as fine as  horse-hair, with a
slight enlargement at  one spot, which  has been called
a stomach.  This enlargement resembles both in size
and colour a grain of sand.  From the base of the ani-
mal arises two longer  and four or  five  shorter conical
spines of jelly, curved into hooks at the points, by means
of which  numerous individuals attach  themselves to-
gether in  double rows like the leaflets of a pinnated leaf.
Cords of this kind, composed of forty or fifty animals,
were often taken, but they  separate and  reattach them-
selves at pleasure.
  To the gregarious habits  of this little mollusque we
owe a very singular and'  striking phenomena,  which
I have  never seen  noticed by naturalists,  although 
142
REMINISCENCES OF
we frequently  witnessed it near  the Cape  of Good
Hope.
  The animals are  occasionally  found associated to-
gether in such countless myriads that the sea is literally
filled with  them, sometimes over three or four  square
miles of surface, and to  the depth of several fathoms.
The yellow spots which have been  described, being the
only coloured portions of  their  body, give to the whole
tract the appearance of a shoal or  sand bank at some
distance below  the  surface.  The  deception is  height-
ened by the greater smoothness of the water at these
places, particularly in  calm weather,  for so closely are
the animals crowded together, that the water is rendered
in a manner less fluid ;  the smaller billows break  around
the margin and are lost, while  the  heavy waves of the
southern ocean are somewhat opposed in their  progress,
and take on in a slight  degree  the  usual appearance of
the ground swell.   There can  be but  little doubt that
many of the  numerous shoals  laid down in the charts
of this region, but which  have  never  been seen  by any
but the supposed discoverers, have been immense banks
of these gregarious molluscae. In sailing through a tract
of this description, in which the progress of the ship
was very sensibly retarded, I  have  dipt up  with the
ship's bucket a greater bulk of the animals than of the
water in which they were suspended.   How wonderful
are the effects produced by the  minute links of creation !
                                               C. 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
143
  C. wishes those of his friends who have devoted them-
selves to the study of natural history, to understand dis-
tinctly  that the anatomical and chemical  terms  con-
tained  in  these  essays,  are employed,  not in their
scientific but in their popular sense, and also that  in
drawing the organs of the  salpa he has  followed La-
marck  and Cuvier, without committing himself by any
opinions upon the correctness of their  generic descrip-
tions, as applicable to this particular species. 
144
REMINISCENCES OF
                     NO. III.

            PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE OCEAN.

  As  the glow-worm and the fire-fly enliven the night
by land, so do many of the molluscae and other marine
animals kindle their mimic fires by  sea—but on a  far
grander and more  imposing scale.
  If, during a dark night, we  watch  attentively the ad-
vance and retreat of the breakers on the beach, we shall
generally perceive the crest of each billow to be illumi-
nated by a faint flash at the moment of its fall; and after
the wave subsides, the beach will be spangled with mi-
nute but brilliant specs, which shine for a few moments
and then disappear.  These lights  will convey an idea
of what is meant by the phosphorescence of thejocean.
  At  all limes, and in nearly all situations, the spray
thrown up by the bow of the vessel is thickly  strewed
during the  night  with  little silvery stars, that dance
and whirl about  among the eddies, until they are lost
in the distance.  These luminous particles are generally
so small that they are  caught with difficulty, and so
perfectly transparent, that they can scarcely  be distin- 
               A  VOYAGE TO INDIA.            145

 guished from the  drops of brine adhering to the net.
 Their own radiance, by which they  are visible in their
 native element, is  soon  lost when brought into the air,
 for it ceases instantly on the death of the animal.   The
 few specimens which I have examined were either gela-
 tinous  molluscas  or microscopic  shrimps;  the former
 being luminous throughout their entire substance, and
 the latter, like the glow-worm, emitting an intermittent
 light from a lantern near the tail.
   Such were the appearances noticed in most parts of
 the North Atlantic Ocean, excepting the Gulf stream.
 The fretful waves  of this region, vexed as it  is by per-
 petual squalls, appear to be wrapped in total darkness.
 But in the tropical regions, and throughout the vast ex-
 panse of the Southern and Indian Oceans, the grandeur
 and sublimity of the night  scene were often beyond
 description.   The  vivid hues of " the double headed
 shot clouds,"  which rise like  immense  mountains from
the water of the western  horizon, seemed to fade into
twilight only to give place to a still more beautiful illu-
mination in the  bosom of the waves.  The bow of the
vessel scattered far around a blaze of light, which shone
brilliantly under the brightest moon, and was often suffi-
ciently  intense to enable us to read  upon  the  deck.
Leaning over the stern, our  track  resembled a vast
trough of fire, studded with innumerable floating lanterns
and stars, such as fall from an exploding sky-rocket. In
the eddies, the whirling of these bodies produced long
       13 
146
REMINISCENCES OF
streams of light like serpents drawn in flame, and oc-
casionally immense globes of fire  would roll along be-
neath the keel, at the depth of several  fathoms, yet so
intensely bright that the little rudder fish were distinctly
visible sporting  beneath the cabin  windows.   These
globes are generally as large  as a flour barrel, and ac-
cording to Peron and Lesueur, they are sometimes seen
to reach the enormous diameter of twenty feet.   I  had
once the gratification to observe one of these animals
within a foot of the surface. It was a medusa, large
enough to fill a bushel basket, visible in every  fibre by
its own illumination."
  At these times the crest  of every  wave resembles a
long line of ignited phosphorus, and every  dip of the
oar, or plunge of the bucket, produces a flash of light,
and scatters scintillations on every side.  Even  the
larger fish, when they approach the vessel, are followed
by a luminous path like the tail of a comet, and they
are often struck with the harpoon, guided by  this ap-
pearance alone.
   The  sea at times resembles a field of snow or milk,
and Peron asserts that it is often tinged with prismatic
colours, vary ing at every moment; but these phenomena
were not witnessed in our voyage.
   The strangest of all the modes in which the phospho-
rescence of  the ocean is exhibited, was witnessed near
the island of Tristan  D'Acunha, under circumstances
too impressive to be forgotten. 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
147
   The night was dark and  damp, and the breeze too
 light to steady the vessel.  She  rolled heavily over the
 waves, making it  difficult for a  landsman to walk  the
 deck.   A fog bank,  which hung around the  northern
 horizon at sunset, now swept slowly down towards us.
 The captain  ordered the light sails furled in expectation
 of a squall, and we stood leaning together over the rail,
 watching the mist, which approached more and more
 rapidly, till it resembled, in the increasing darkness, an
 immense wall extending from the water to the clouds,
 and seemed threatening to crush us beneath it.  Just at
 this moment, a flash,  like a bfoad sheet  of lightning,
 spread  itself over the surface of the* ocean asjfar as the
 eye could reach—five or six times, at intervals of a few
 seconds, the flash was repeated, and then the vessel was
 enveloped in  the fog. The breeze quickened—the bustle
 of preparation attracted the attention of every  one, and
 in a few moments  we were hounding along at the rate
 of ten miles an hour, over waves sparkling in the clear
 moonshine, but the  " lightning of the waters"  had
 ceased.  I have always regretted that  I did not  ascer-
 tain by what animal this most singular  phenomenon
 was produced, but  the  wild ■ interest of the scene ban-
 ished every thought of the kind.  In the course of the
night we passed through several beds of the salpa, and
 it is very probable that the  flashes were produced by
 these little  creatures, induced, by a wonderful instinct,
 to act in concert for some inscrutable purpose. 
148
REMINISCENCES OF
  There are few phenomena in nature which have led
to a greater diversity of opinion among modern men of
science, than the luminous appearance of the ocean dur-
ring the night  Some have regarded it as the effect of
electricity, produced by the friction of the waves ; others
as the product of a species of fermentation in the water,
occurring  accidentally in certain places.  Many  have
attributed it to the well known phosphorescence of pu-
trid fish, or to the  decomposition of their  slimo and
exuvia, and a few only to the real cause—the voluntary
illumination of many distinct species of marine animals,
generally analogous to the tribes which were  described
in the former  number  of these Reminiscences.  Even
those  authors  who have acknowledged the agency of
animal life in producing this wonderful appearance, have
been in a manner compelled, by its universality, and by
the  almost incredible multiplication of beings which it
infers,  to admit  the  probable co-operation of other
causes.
  My own observation has led to the conclusion, that
the  phosphoresence of the ocean is due solely to the pe-
culiar instinct  of the molluscae, and some genera of the
crustacean
  The electrical hypothesis is certainly fallacious, for
were we even  to grant the possibility of producing an
electric light in an agitated fluid,  which is itself an im-
perfect conductor, similar to that occasioned by the at-
trition of white sugar or glass  in the dark, the acknow- 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
149
ledged  physical law,  that  like  causes  produce like
effects, would lead us to expect an uniform diffusion of
the phosphoresence over a considerable extent of water
under the same  latitude and  longitude; but this is  not
the case.  A ship will often be enveloped for  a few mo-
ments in so bright  an illumination that a book  may be
read upon the deck, and at the next instant she may be
involved in almost total  darkness.  Again,  electricity
is eliminated with the greatest  facility in a cold and
dry atmosphere; but the phosphorescence of the ocean
is most considerable in tropical climates, nor is it dimin-
ished by storms  or  rain.   The supposition of a fermen-
tation of the surface is equally unsatisfactory, for such
a process would  lead to an equable diffusion of light over
the whole space  in which  it acted.  But the luminous
matter is almost always seen in  distinct masses or par-
ticles ; and the  few exceptions to  this rule which have
bean observed, do not admit of an explanation according
to the known effects of fermentation.  The light elimi-
nated by putrid  fish furnishes a  more plausible  theory,
but the very wide extent of the illumination, is, of itself;
sufficient to prove its incorrectness.  It has been already
shown  to what  an  incalculable amount the living inha-
bitants of the ocean increase, but the reverse is  true of
the dead.   The air  and the water swarm with innume-
rable  depurators, who devour every thing that dies,
whether beneath the surface or upon it.  The albatross,
the stormy petrel,  the Cape  pigeon, some of the gulls, 
150
REMINISCENCES OF
and other marine  fowls, which are constantly soaring
by thousands over every sea, seize upon all unprotected
animals,  dead or  living,  which  remain within  their
reach.  The three  former  birds will follow the ship for
days during calm weather, to  share the  offals thrown
over by the cook ; and so ravenous is their appetite, that
they are frequently caught with the hook and line baited
with meat, and trolled in the wake of the vessel.  I have
frequently  seen  them  bathing their  feathers  in the
grease which floats around the  refuse of the camboose,
and skimming it up  with  their spoon-shaped bills with
every  demonstration of pleasure.  Those  bodies that
sink by their gravity fall a prey to the fish, and those
that are too minute to attract  the  attention  of the
larger animals, are speedily devoured by the molluscae.
Thus the waters are preserved in a high degree of pu-
rity, and probably  there does not remain sufficient pu-
trescent  matter in a cubic league  of water to  render
luminous a cubic  yard.  In passing  over an extent of
ocean greater  than the  whole  circumference  of the
earth, I did not  see a single dead animal of any kind.
   The purpose  for which  this phosphorescence is de-
signed, is lost in conjecture; but when we recollect that
fish are attracted to the net by the lights of the fisher-
men, and that many of the  marine shells are said to leave
their native element to crawl around a fire built upon the
beach, are we not warranted in supposing that the ani-
mals  of which  we have  been speaking, are  provided 
A VOYAGE TO INDIA.
151
with their luminous properties, in order to entice their
prey within their grasp ?
  In quitting the  subject of the minute animals of the
ocean, I should not neglect to refer the curious to three
engravings in the  volume of plates to the Voyage aux
Terres Australes, by Peron and L.esueur, where may be
seen the  happiest  efforts of the  pencil in delineating
some of  these  interesting beings.  The work is con-
tained in the Philadelphia library, and will amply repay
the trouble of a visit.                           C. 
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