Peter Kalm's Travels in North America: The English Version of 1770 with a Translation of New Material from Kalm's Diary Notes, in Two Volumes (The America of 1750) (Dover Books on Nature)

xxiii, 797, [7] pp. 1966 reissue of 1937 Wilson-Erickson edition, with two additional illustrations and the map from Forster's English edition of 1770-71, which is reproduced two and a half times larger than in the 1937 edition. Revised from the original Swedish and edited by Adolph B. Benson, with a translation of new material from Kalm's diary notes. A student of Carl Linnaeus, Kalm came to the North American colonies at the behest of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who tasked him with gathering seeds and plants from the continent to improve Sweden's agricultural diversity. This account of his journey was translated into numerous languages, and described the flora and fauna of the New World, as well as the lives of the Native Americans and the British and French colonists he encountered along the way. It has become a standard reference for those interested in colonial American history. Other than this book, his most important accomplishments are a scientific description of Niagara Falls was the first scientific paper on the North American cicada known as Magicicada septendecim.