Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and Other Matters Worthy of Notice. Made by Mr. John Bartram, in his Travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, in Canada. to which is annex'd, a curiou…

viii, [9]-94 pp. John Bartram was a Quaker, brother of naturalist William Bartram, and the first native-born American botanist. Carl Linnaeus called him 'the greatest natural botanist in the world.' In 1743, he and Benjamin Franklin co-founded the American Philosophical Society. An important book, notable also for the fold-out frontispiece which depicts the town of Oswego, as well as an overhead view plan of an Iroquois longhouse. Church 977: "This is a very reliable work by two of the most eminent observers and naturalists of their day. Bartram made this trip in 1743 with Conrad Weiser, an agent of Pennsylvania, sent to hold a friendly conference with the Iroquois. His principal object in making the trip was to study the flora of the country. He was an expert botanist, and acquired such a reputation that he attracted the attention of Linnæus. His book throws considerable light upon the manners and thoughts of the people with whom he came in contact. It contains a plan and view of the Long House, a form of architecture peculiar to the tribes of the Six Nations. Kalm's account is the first scientific description, in English, of Niagara Falls."