variety of grapes, equal, for the table or for wine, to any that have been imported, and that they are purely native.

Of the grape now discovered, we understand there are from two to three hundred plants, in the possession of different gentlemen in that neighbourhood, in vigorous growth, independent of those in the possession of Col. Carr and the Messrs. Landreths, of Philadelphia.

Charles Thomson used to tell, that the most luscious and excellent wild grape he ever tasted, grew in a meadow on the road to Chester. He thought the fruit so fine that he intended, at a proper season, to procure cuttings, for its cultivation; but found the stupid owner had destroyed it, because "it shaded too much of his ground!"

BEASTS OF PREY, AND GAME.

"The squirrels, rabbits, and the timid deer,

To beasts of prey are yet exposed here.-Poem, 1729.

THE following notices of the state of wild animals roaming through our woody wastes in early days, will aid the mind to perceive the state of cultivation which has since banished the most of them from our territories, to wit:

Mr. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who was here in 1748, says that all the old Swedes related, that during their childhood, and still more in the time of the arrival of their fathers, there were excessive numbers of wolves prowling through the country, and howling and yelping every night, often destroying their domestic cattle.

In that early day, a horrible circumstance occurred for the poor Indians. They got the smallpox from the new settlers. It killed many hundreds of them. The wolves, scenting the dead bodies, devoured them all, and even attacked the poor sick Indians in their huts, so that the few who were left in health, were much busied to keep them off.

The Swedes, he said, had tamed some few wolves. Beavers they had so tamed, that they were taken to fish with, and bring the fish they caught to their keepers. They also tamed wild geese, and wild turkeys. Those wild turkeys which he saw in the woods, were generally larger than those of the domestic race." The Indians also tamed the turkeys, and kept them near their huts. Minks were very numerous along the waters.†

• Penn speaks of turkeys weighing from forty to fifty pounds.

+ Hector St. John, of Carlisle, in 1784, speaks of it as practised there, to render rattlesnakes harmless, and to keep them as matters of curiosity and amusement. If they find such a snake asleep, they put a small forked stick on their necks, by which they hold

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In 1721, in September, several bears, says the Gazette, were seen yesterday, near this place, and one was killed at Germantown, and another near Darby. Last night a very large bear being spied by two amazons, as he was eating his supper of acorns up a tree, they called some inhabitants of this place (the city!) to their assistance, and he was soon fetched down and despatched by them.

As late as the years 1724 and '29, they gave a premium, by law, of 15 to 20s. for wolves, and 2s. for foxes. This was for the purpose of destroying them out of the country.

In 1729, a panther was killed at Conestogoe. It had disturbed the swine in their pen at night. The owner ran to the place with his dogs, and the beast then ascended a tree. It being very dark, the women brought fire and made a flame near it. It was shot at twice. The second fire broke both its legs, when, to their surprise, it made a desperate leap and engaged with the dogs, until a third shot in the head despatched it.

About the same time, a monstrous panther was killed at Shrewsbury, by an Indian. Its legs were thicker than those of a horse, and the nails of its claws were longer than a man's finger. The Indian was creeping to take aim at a buck in view, when hearing something rustling behind him, he perceived the panther about to spring upon him. He killed him with four swan shot in the head.

In 1730, a woman in Chester county, going to mill, spied a deer, fast asleep, near the road. She hit it on the head with a stone, and killed it.

The latest notice of buffaloes, nearest to our region of country, is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from the Shenandoah, Va., saw there a buffalo killed, of 1400 pounds; and several others came in a drove at the same time.

1732.-At Hopewell, in New Jersey, two bucks were seen fighting near the new meeting-house, in the presence of a black doe. They fastened their horns so closely, that they could not separate, and were so taken alive! The doe also was taken. Another brace had been before caught in a similar extremity!

In 1749, the treasurers of the several counties declared their treasuries were exhausted by the premiums paid for squirrels. £8,000 was paid in one year, (says Kalm,) for gray and black squirrels, at 3d. a head, making the enormous aggregate of 640,000! The premium was then reduced one half.

Samuel Jefferies, who died near West Chester, in 1823, at the age of eighty-seven, very well remembered a time, in his early life, when deer were plenty in his neighbourhood: and Anthony Johnson, of Germantown, tells me of often hearing from his grandfather there,

them firm to the ground, and in that state give them a piece of leather to bite. This they jerk back with great force, until they find their two poisonous fangs torn out. Once he saw a tamed one quite gentle. It was delighted to be stroked with a soft brush, and would turn on its back to make it more grateful. It would take to the water, and come back at a call.

of his once killing deer, beavers, and some bears and wolves in that township.

Mr. Kalm, when here in 1748, says, all then agreed that the quantities of birds for eating, was then diminished. In their forefathers' days, they said the waters were covered with all sorts of water-fowl. About sixty to seventy years before, a single person could kill eighty ducks of a morning! An old Swede, of ninety years, told Mr. Kalm he had killed twenty-three ducks at one shot! The wild turkeys and the hazel hens, (pheasants,) too, were in abundance, in flocks, in the woods. Incredible numbers of cranes visited the country every spring. They spoke also of fish being once much more abundant. At one draught they caught enough to load a horse; and codfish, since all gone, were numerous at the mouth of the Delaware.

In the year 1751, as I was assured by the late aged Timothy Matlack, Esq., there was killed a bear, at the square now open eastward and adjoining the late Poor-house, nine years before it was built, in 1760. He was killed by Reuben Haines, grandfather of the late gentleman of that name. He and five others had started him from near Fairmount, and chased him through the woods nearly five miles, when he took to a cherry tree at the square aforesaid. They had no gun, but remaining there till one was procured, he was shot down. Mr. Matlack declared this was a fact. Penn's woods, we know, were then existing thereabout.

In 1750, a woman killed a large bear at Point-no-point. She lived there with Robert Watkins, and while she was at work near the kitchen out-house, he came up to it so near, that she killed him. These were of course deemed rare occurrences, even in that day, and have been since remembered and told from that cause.

Old Mr. Garrigues, a respectable Friend, when about eighty-six years of age, assured me that when he was a lad, and coming home one night late from Coates' woods, then in the Northern Liberties, he actually encountered a bear as he was passing over the path at Pegg's run, then a lonely place. It was moonlight, and he was sure he could not have been deceived, and he fully believed it was also a wild one. This may seem strange to our conceptions now, but as the time is seen to agree with the story preceding it, of Haines and others starting a bear at Fairmount, in 1751, there may be more reason for inferring the fact, than would otherwise be admitted. If no better reason could be found, it might in both cases be admitted to be a bear escaped from keeping. Those different parties certainly never thought of comparing their accounts, and probably never knew of each other's adventures. Their coincidence, so far as they accord, furnishes a reason which has not escaped my observation, that an annalist should not reject isolated facts, if interesting themselves, because he could not immediately discern their bearing; for other incidents may occur to give them their due interpretation at some subsequent period.

In 1816, January 1st.-A large she wolf was taken in West Nottingham, Chester county, nearly three feet high, measuring upwards of six feet in length.

1817, January 7.-A large eagle was shot fifteen miles from Philadelphia, in Moreland township, weighing eight pounds, and its wings extending seven feet. About the same time a wild cat was killed at Easton, measuring three feet.

1827, February.-A panther, measuring six feet, was killed seventeen miles from Easton.

At Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in December, 1832, it was published that Mr. Long, of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, called Bill Long, had killed during the hunting season, one hundred and sixty-five deer, five elks, twenty-eight bears, and thirteen wolves; one of the elks weighed seven hundred pounds. All this was done in a county within fifty miles of the great State canal, and at places but thirty miles from the great thoroughfare, the Allegheny river. So rapid is our improvement.

In October, 1834, a bear, weighing one hundred and forty pounds, was started by dogs from near the head of Joseph Lindsay's mill pond, in Chester county, and after being pursued by men and dogs, and ascending and descending several high trees, and after receiving several shots and grappling some two or three times with the dogs, was at last killed by six guns at once. Such a visiter, in so improved a county, was a strange affair, and it is supposed that it must have crossed the Delaware from the Jersey pines.

About the same time it is published, that several were seen not far from Reading, coming down from the wooded mountains, and exploring their way along the skirts of the farms.

In the same winter of 1836, a man was killed and torn to pieces by wolves, in Perry county, Liberty valley, he having first killed six of them with his knife-so it was published.

CULTURE OF SILK.

FROM the commencement of our annals, at different periods of time, the advantages of silk culture have been recommended or attempted.

As early as the year 1725, James Logan, in writing to the Penn family, recommends "the culture of silk in this country as extremely beneficial and promising." He says "iron-works also promise well." In the next year he speaks of silk sent to England, saying "he is glad it proves so good, and he doubts not, in time, the country may raise large quantities."

In 1734, Governor Gordon addresses the lords commissioners of trade on various objects of produce, &c., and speaks in strong terms of his expectations from the culture of silk," as a fit return to Great Britain" for their usual importations; he says the tree is so natural to our soil, and the worm thrives so well. Some among us have shown its practicability by making some small quantities, &c.

In the year 1770, the subject was taken up in Philadelphia and adjacent country with great spirit. It was greatly promoted by the exertions of the American Philosophical Society, stimulated by the communications from Dr. Evans and Dr. Franklin in Europe. Application was made to the assembly for the establishment of a public filature at Philadelphia, for winding cocoons, and the managers to have power to grant premiums, &c., equal to about £500 per annum, for five years. The necessary incipient funds, equal to £900 were furnished by generous individuals on subscription, being generally £2 each, some £15, and Governor John Penn £20. With such means the filature was opened in June, 1770, at a house in Seventh street, between Arch and High streets, and a rate of premiums was announced.

It appears that in the year 1771, about 2300 lbs. were brought there to reel, and that of it 1754 lbs. were purchased by the managers in about two months, in July and August; nearly two-thirds of this had been raised in New Jersey. At the same time much discussion of the subject appeared in the gazettes, and many mulberry trees were planted in New Jersey and the counties around Philadelphia. The ladies in particular gave much attention to the subject, and especially after the war had begun, when the foreign fabrics of silk were cut off from their use. As early as the year 1770, Susanna Wright, of Lancaster county, at Columbia, made a piece of mantua of sixty yards length, from her own cocoons, of which I have preserved some specimens in my MS. Annals in the City Library, page 165 and 170. She also made much sewing silk. Mrs. Hopkinson, mother of the late Francis Hopkinson, raised much cocoons. A woman in Chester county raised thirty thousand worms. To give eclat to these colonial designs, the queen gave her patronage by deigning to appear in a court dress from this American silk. The best dresses worn with us were woven in England. Grace Fisher, a minister among Friends, made considerable silk stuff; a piece of hers was presented by Governor Dickinson to the celebrated Catharine Macauley. The daughters of Reuben Haines, in Germantown, raised considerable, and his daughter Catharine, who married Richard Hartshorne, wore her wedding dress of the same material-preserved on page 230 of the MS. Annals. The late Mrs. Logan was among those who in the time of the war raised their own silk in conjunction with several other ladies, to provide for their personal or family wants.

* It received the premium of the society.