William Bingley

“ A string of buffalo-hide, stretched across the hovel, was a wardrobe for their rags; and their utensils, consisting of a large iron-pot, some baskets, one good rifle, and two that were useless, stood about in corners; and a fiddle, which was seldom silent, except when the inhabitants were asleep, hung by them.
These hunters, in the back-settlements of America, are as persevering as savages, and as indolent. They cultivate indolence as a privilege: "You English (they say) are industrious, but we have freedom." And thus they exist, in yawning indifference, surrounded by nuisances and petty wants ”

“ LAVENDER is a well-known perennial garden plant (Lavandula spica) which grows wild in the south of Europe, and the flowers of which yield a grateful perfume. Such is the fragrance of this delightful flower, and so easy is its culture, that we can now scarcely enter a garden in which it is not found. It will grow in almost any soil, but it flourishes most luxuriantly in clayey ground; and in situations whence, without inconvenience, it can be conveyed to the metropolis, it is a very valuable crop. ”

“ We are assured that the flesh of the fin-backed whale is as well tasted, and, in every respect, as excellent, as that of the sturgeon. In most of the northern countries, both of Europe and America, the fins, the skin, and the tendons, all serve for many useful purposes.
There are other species of whales which are useful, in a certain degree, to mankind, for the oil that is yielded by their bodies; but few of them are objects of pursuit, on account of the difficulty there is in killing them, or of the very inferior quantity of oil which they afford. ”

“ On arriving at the banks of the Mississippi, Mr. Bartram stood, for some time, fascinated by the magnificence of this grand river. Its width was nearly a mile, and its depth at least two hundred and forty feet. But it is not merely the expansion of its surface which astonishes and delights: its lofty banks, the steady course of its mighty flood, the trees which overhang its waters, the magnificent forests by which it is bounded; all combine in exhibiting prospects the most sublime that can be imagined. At Manchac, the banks are at least fifty feet in perpendicular height. ”

“ The brilliant purple of the ruby, the golden yellow of the topaz, the celestial blue of the sapphire, are all pleasing tints; but the green of the emerald is so lovely, that the eye, after glancing 39over all the others, finds delight in resting upon this. In value it is rated next to the ruby; and, when of good colour, is set without foil and upon a black ground, like a brilliant diamond. Emeralds of inferior lustre are generally set upon a green gold foil. ”

“ The great partiality which these birds have to honey and the maggots of bees, as food, is the cause of their pointing out the hives of wild bees to the inhabitants of those countries in which they are found. As soon as the moroc has itself discovered a nest of bees, it utters a loud and continued cry, as if for the purpose of exciting attention to its wants. If followed by any person, it flies slowly towards the place, alighting from time to time, to give opportunity for its attendant to come up. ”