Note 286 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN.

In annotating this chapter I have been indebted to Professors Asa Gray and C. S. Sargent of Harvard University for assistance, they having sent me several of the more technical notes. This and the five following chapters of the New Canaan have a certain interest as being among the earliest memoranda on the trees, animals, birds, fish and geology of Massachusetts. The only earlier publication of at all a similar character is Wood’s New England’s Prospect, which appeared in 1634, and contained the result of observations made during the four years 1629 to 1633. Morton’s acquaintance with the country was earlier and longer than Wood’s, but the New Canaan was not published until three years after the Prospect, which it followed closely in its description of the country and its products. Josselyn’s first voyage was made in 1638, and his stay in New England covered a period of fifteen months, July, 1638, to October, 1639. His second visit was in 1663, and lasted until 1671. The New England’s Rarities was published in 1672, and the Two Voyages in 1674. Josselyn’s alone of these works can make any pretence to a scientific character or nomenclature, but the four taken together constitute the whole body of early New England natural history and geology. Only occasional reference to this class of subjects is found in other writers.