Note 2 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

Great efforts are made here for the advancement of Natural History, and there are few places in the world where such good regulations are made for this useful purpose, all which is chiefly owing to the care and zeal of a single person. From hence it appears, how well a useful science is received and set off, when the leading men of a country are its patrons. The governor of the fort, was pleased to shew me a long paper, which the then governor-general of Canada, the Marquis la Galissonniere had sent him. It was the same marquis, who some years after, as a French admiral, engaged the English fleet under admiral Byng, the consequence of which was the conquest of Minorca. In this writing, a number of trees and plants are mentioned, which grow in North-America, and deserve to be collected and cultivated on account of their useful qualities. Some of them are described, among which, is the Polygala Senega, or Rattle Snake-root; and with several of them the places where they grow are mentioned. It is further requested that all kinds of seeds and roots be gathered here; and, to assist such an undertaking, a method of preserving the gathered seeds and roots, is prescribed, so that they may grow, and be sent to Paris. Specimens of all kinds of minerals are required; and all the places in the French settlements are mentioned, where any useful or remarkable stone, earth, or ore has been found. There is likewise a manner of making observations and collections of curiosities in the animal kingdom. To these requests it is added, to enquire and get information, in every possible manner, to what purpose and in what manner the Indians employ certain plants and other productions of nature, as medicines, or in any other case. This useful paper was drawn up by order of the marquis la Galissonniere, by Mr. Gaulthier, the royal physician at Quebec, and afterwards corrected and improved by the marquis’s own hand. He had several copies made of it, which he sent to all the officers in the forts, and likewise to other learned men who travelled in the country. At the end of the writing is an injunction to the officers, to let the governor-general know, which of the common soldiers had used the greatest diligence in the discovery and collection of plants and other natural curiosities, that he might be able to promote them, when an opportunity occurred, to places adapted to their respective capacities, or to reward them in any other manner. I found that the people of distinction, in general here, had a much greater taste for natural history and other parts of literature, than in the English colonies, where it was every body’s sole care and employment to scrape a fortune together, and where the sciences were held in universal contempt.2 It was still complained of here, that those who studied natural history, did not sufficiently enquire into the medicinal use of the plants of Canada.