are thick brownish without & yelowish within from this root riseth one upright stalk of several feet high which hath allso joynts upon it like knees from whence come forth very long & large leaves strong & hard not much unlike to monks rubarb but that these are much longer y stalk which is very like that of other docks riseth up sometimes to A considerable hight about y⚫ midle of which it sends forth A great number of branches not much unlike ye europian which have some few leaves like ye other upon them but less y° flowers grow in vast numbers upon all these branches single & each upon A short foot stalk even from thair begining up to thair very tops set in spaces at certain distances in A seeming uniform manner after ye flowers are past away y seed comes which is contained in A chafy husk like ye first & differs not much from it neither in shape color nor magnitude: thus far my author I have in my Journey to Susquehana heard surprising discourses about y retreat of y⚫ bears in winter into dark Caverns in ye mountains I am tould that they purge themselves until their guts is wholy clean from any excrements after which their fundeament is naturaly stoped up & that they then repose in these caverns in A sort of Lethargick state during y⚫ winter season & are as fat at spring as in y fall. but as to their manner of breeding I can learn very little of our hunters thay affirm never to have killed A bear with young ones in her: Now whether ye she bears as soon as they are impregnated retires into dark recesses until they have brought forth their young & reared them big enough to run about with them in search after prey And that y bears that appears in ye winter & are called runners are ye males or such which are not impregnated

Pray if thee can set me right it would oblige me to inform me in this knotty point which makes me uneasy under these doubtfull ruminations

Dear friend I am to set out tomorow morning towards egg harbour & cape may being A little recruited from A grievous fit of sickness I did not know of going so soon until this evening since which I have scrabled over these few lines in hast my kind respects to thy dear spouse &

children This comes in sincear love from thy obliged friend

JOHN BARTRAM

PSI hope thee hath received my letter with directions where to find yo Seneca root I have received ye two boxes & contents in good order from my friend Mr Allen one box I intend to send full of our black wallnuts to York for thee by first opertunity after they are dry enough to send

I have your very kind letter of the 3d of SeptTM If I have had the good fortune to gain your esteem in any degree & thereby a share in your Friendship I shall think my self well rewarded for any thing I have don & when I consider the trouble you take & the concern you have for the litle reputation I can hope to obtain I may flatter my self that I have gain'd no small share in both. This encourages me to go on in communicating to you what thoughts have occurr'd to me which I think can be any way useful in the world or amusing to you I cannot deprive my self so far of all self esteem but to hope that a life of 50 years a great part of it spent in some kind of Speculation or other may produce something worthy your inspection at leisure hours & therefor I shall continue to communicat some thoughts which have at times occurr'd to me on every opportunity I shall have of writing to you. But even while I take this resolution I receive a check least I become like a fond lover who by too earnest a desire of pleasing his Mistress becomes

intollerable to her. but even in this case I trust much to the sincerity of your Friendship that you'l curb me in my career & guide me in the way that will be most agreable to you

The Observation you made in your former that we have in America many different Species of Plants & Animals from those found in Europe or other parts of the World tho' under the same climate is certainly true & I think we may likewise add that we have different species of Men This naturally enough leads to the Question you put whether they be the effects of a different Creation But Dear Sr I dare not pretend to give any answer in a matter so high & out of my reach. It is a subject fit to be treated only by first rate Philosophers & Divines I should be glad to know your Sentiments on it.

In your last you observe the Wonderful order that is shown in regulating the increase of Noxious Animals that the Males much exceed the Females in number which proves a check to their increase You add that the truth of this as to Foxes & Pole-catts comes within your own observation that they have but one female to 3 or 4 males This never came within my observation & it is the first time I have met with it made by any other I am even out of hopes of being able to assist you from hence with any sufficient number of accurate observations to confirm a Theorem the evidence of which depends on a very great number of Facts for none of our Hunters are any way curious in observation. An Indian brought to my house the other day a female Raccoon with two young ones one a male & the other a female The Raccoon seems to be of the Fox kind I Say Sr a long Series of Observations are necessary to confirm your thoughts for a considerable number of Facts are not sufficient considering what is observ'd every day among our selves & Domestic Animals One woman brings forth a number of boys without interruption another a number of Girls & one of my Neighbours lately complain'd to me that his ewes for some years had brought almost all Ram lambs. If it be allow'd to reason theorically on a Proposition the proof of which certainly depends on fact You must allow me to

remain Sceptick for some time on this Point According to the Conceptions I have of the Method of Generation the impregnating of the Female with Males or Females is entirely casual & it is for this reason that there is so great a Profusion & Waste of the impregnating matter both in Animals & Vegetables Nature where it can be avoided never trusts any thing to chance & where there is no chance but a certain consequence there can be no use of Profusion Wherefor since the Profusion is manefest in the impregnating of Animals & Vegetables I conclude that there must be much of chance in it & that it cannot be avoided from the Nature of things

Since I have fallen on the Subject of Impregnation I shall tell you an observation I made last spring & which staggerd me not a little in my theory I observ'd a much greater number of Female Willows near my house then Males & yet all the Females impregnated tho' sometimes no Male near them In this case the impregnating matter of the Male must be Wafted by the Winds What a vast profusion then must there be of it & how exceedingly subtile to cover allmost the whole surface of the earth for a considerable space round. Otherwise a great number of the female Ovaria must have remain'd not impregnated.

If you will allow me again to speak from conjecture I shall assign another reason for the small increase of Beasts that live only on Prey for Bears & Raccoons &c eat corn aples Acorns & all sorts of Nuts as well as Flesh & it is only when the Mast fails in the more northern Climates that we are visited by great numbers of Bears in the Fall of the year Now Beasts of Prey by their own natures cannot be so prolifick as the social Animals for as they live only by hunting & running down their prey when the female grows heavy with young & when she cannot so well endure fasting either while big or giving suck she & her young must often perish from want of food. These beasts of prey never assist either the female or the young in their wants Nature has denyed them The Love to their own offspring observed in social animals If this be true as it seems probable there is no need to

swerve from the common Method of Generation & to produce a kind of Miracle on account of Noxious Animals suppose then it be true that many more Male Bears are killed by hunters at the times they come among us than Females it may as well serve to prove my Conjecture as yours for they are generally very lean when they come first among us & it may be supposed for the reason's I have given & that many more of the females have perished by Want than of the Males.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr Bartram at my house this summer. It is really surprising what knowledge that man has attain'd meerely by the force of Industry & his own Genius He has a lively fancy & a surprising Memory & indefatigable Disposition. I warn'd him with some concern against his exposing himself so much to the inclemencies of our Climate as he does & tho' he thought his constitution proof against it I find by a letter which I lately receiv'd from him that I had too much reason for my advice for he writes that he was taken very ill since I saw him on the Banks of Susquehana & had hardly strenth to return. He happening to see some of the Bush Squash here for it seems they have it not at Philadelphia he told me that you desired some of it I promised to send you some of the seed & it now goes with this

I now make haste to your Seat of earthly Bliss I am easily persuaded that you taste pleasures there which were never felt either in a Coffee House or in a Tavern No not at the Grecian nor at Will's nor at Pontacks. There is a pleasure in your little family as you describe it that can be known no where else. I shall not speak of those incommunicable pleasures you receive in the communion of the dearest relations such as you have painted in my Imagination but only of that of your Garden I must Dear Sr intreat you to give us some share of that pleasure by publishing a Description of the Plants in it for I cannot hope to partake with you in any other manner. The use you make of it in admiring the infinite variety & Beauty of the Works of the Creator comprehends only one half of our Religeous Duty contain'd in Christs first Command to his Disciples It is properly the Speculative part of Re