In 1730, a cow whale of fifty feet length is advertised as going ashore to the northward of Cape May, dead. The harpooners are requested to go and claim it; thus showing, I presume, that a fishery was then near there, by the same persons who may have harpooned it.

In 1733, month of April, two whales, supposed to be a cow and a calf, appeared in the river before the city. They were pursued and shot at by people in several boats, but escaped notwithstanding. What a rare spectacle it must have been to the fresh water cockneys of the city.

In 1735, month of July, some fishermen proved their better success at this time in capturing an ocean fish, such as a shark of seven feet length in a net, a little above the city. The Gazette of the day says it is but seldom a shark is found so high in fresh water. If that was strange in that day, it was still stranger in modern times, when a voracious shark" of nine feet long and five hundred weight was caught at Windmill cove, only five miles below Philadelphia, in July, 1823. Not long after, say in January, 1824, near the same place, was taken a seal of four feet four inches long, and sixty-one pounds weight, near the Repaupa flood gates.

About the same time another was taken in the Elk river. Many years ago seals were often seen about Amboy, but to no useful purpose. In 1736, February," two whales are killed at Cape May, equal to forty barrels of oil, and several more are expected to be killed by the whalemen on the coast."

Finally, the last "huge potentate of the scaly train" made his visit up the Delaware about the year 1809,-then a whale of pretty large dimensions, to the great surprise of our citizens, was caught near Chester. He was deemed a rare wanderer, and as such became a subject of good speculation as an exhibition in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Thomas Pryor, who purchased it, made money by it, and in reference to his gains was called " Whale Pryor." The jaws were so distended as to receive therein an arm chair, in which yisiters sat.

Two dead whales were driven on shore at Assateague beach, near Snowhill, Maryland, in December, 1833; one a hundred and seventeen feet in length, and the other eighty-seven feet in length. The cause of their death unknown. They were expected to make three hundred barrels of oil.

It is a fact but little known, that, even now, there is a family on Long beach, New Jersey, who are every winter seeking for, and sometimes capturing whales. In this business they have been engaged, the father and two sons, ever since the time of the Revolution.

In May, 1834, a young whale, of sixty feet, went into New Haven harbour-was chased, grounded, and used up.

In April, 1833, three seals were seen near Chester. One of them was caught in the shad seine, and was kept for exhibition. Some had before appeared in New York harbour near their old haunt at Robyn's reef.

GRAPES AND VINEYARDS.

NUMEROUS incidental intimations and facts evince the expectations originally entertained for making this a flourishing grape and wine country. Before Penn's arrival, the numerous grapevines, every where climbing the branches of our forest trees, gave some sanction to the idea that ours may have been the ancient Vineland so mysteriously spoken of by the Norwegian writers. Almost all the navigators, on their several discoveries, stated their hopes, from the abundance of grapevines, with exultation. But neglecting these we have substituted whisky!

Penn, in his letter of 1683, to the Free Society of Traders, says, "Here are grapes of divers sorts. The great red grape, now ripe, (in August,) called by ignorance the fox grape, because of the rich relish it hath with unskilful palates, is in itself an extraordinary grape, and by art, doubtless, may be cultivated to an excellent wine -if not so sweet, yet little inferior to the Frontignac, as it is not much unlike in taste, ruddiness set aside, which in such things, as well as mankind, differs the case much. There is a kind of muscadel, and a little black grape, like the cluster grape of England, not yet so ripe as the other, but they tell me, when ripe, sweeter; and that they only want skilful vignerons to make good use of them." Then he adds-" I intend to venture on it with my Frenchman this season, who shows some knowledge in these things. At the same time he questions whether it is best to fall to fining the grapes of the country, or to send for foreign stems and sets already approved. If God spare his life, he will try both means"-[a mode of practice recently obtaining favour with several experimenters.] Finally," he says, "I would advise you to send for some thousands of plants out of France, with some able vignerons."

With such views, Penn, as we shall presently show, instituted several small experiments. He and others naturally inferred, that a country so fruitful in its spontaneous productions of grapes, must have had a peculiar adaptation for the vine. When the celebrated George Fox, the founder of Friends, was a traveller through our wooded wilderness, he expressly notices his perpetual embarrassments in riding, from the numerous entangling grapevines. The same too is expressly mentioned by Pastorius, in his traversing the original site of Philadelphia. And when Kalm was here, in 1748, he speaks of grapevines in every direction, the moment he got without the bounds of the city; and in his rides to Germantown and Chester, &c., he found them all along his way. Thus numerous and various as they once were, it may be a question, whether, in the general destruction of the vines since, we have not destroyed

several of peculiar excellence, since modern accidental discoveries have brought some excellent specimens to notice, such as the Orwigsburg and Susquehanna.

In 1685, William Penn, in speaking of his vineyard to his steward, Jaines Harrison, writes: "Although the vineyard be as yet of no value, and I might be out of pocket, till I come, be regardful to Andrew Dore, the Frenchman. He is hot, but I think honest." This, I presume, refers to the vigneron, and to the vineyard at Springettsbury.

In another letter, he writes to "recommend Charles de la Noe, a French minister, who intends, with his two servants, to try a vineyard, and if he be well used more will follow."

If

In 1686, he writes to the same steward, saying, "All the vines formerly sent and in the vessel (now,) are intended for Andrew, (Dore,) at the Schuylkill, for the vineyard. I could have been glad of a taste last year, as I hear he made some." Again he says, wine can be made by Andrew Dore, at the vineyard, it will be worth to the province thousands by the year,-there will be hundreds of vineyards, if it takes. I understand he produced ripe grapes by the 28th of 5 mo., from shoots of fifteen or sixteen months, planting. Many French are disheartened by the Carolinas, (for vines,) as not hot enough!"

About the time William Penn was thus urging the cultivation of the vine, his enlightened friend Pastorius, the German and scholar, was experimenting, as he expressly says, on his little vineyard in Germantown.

How those vineyards succeeded, or how they failed, we have no data on which to found an explanation now. We beheld, however, lately, that Mr. E. H. Bonsall was succeeding with a vineyard among us; and at Little York the success is quite encouraging.

The following description of the discovery and character of the Susquehanna grape, will probably go far to prove the superiority of some natural grapes once among us, or leave grounds to speculate on the possibility of birds conveying off some of Penn's above mentioned imported seeds! Another new and excellent grape has been discovered on the line of the new canal, beyond the Susquehanna.

About 15 years ago, there were obtained some cuttings of a grapevine which was discovered by Mr. Dininger, on an island in the Susquehanna, called Brushy island. The island upon which this vine was found is uninhabited and uncultivated, the soil alluvial, and subject to overflow. The vine runs upon a large sycamore, spreading through the top branches, to the height of forty or fifty feet from the ground, and appears to have grown with the tree, the root being from twenty to thirty feet from the tree. The wood, leaf and early shoots very much resemble what is called Miller's Burgundy, also the fruit, in colour and flavour; but in size it is much larger. It was observed, that the fruit obtained in September, 1827, was a deep brown; that of the next season, some were brown and

others a deep black. The difference was accounted for by Mr. Dininger, who stated that the brown bunches were those that were shaded from the sun by the thick foliage of the tree; but those exposed to the sun were black. Some of the bunches procured that season were very fine, and set closely upon the stem-fruit the size of the Powel grape, skin thin, no pulp, a sweet water, seed small, flavour equal to the celebrated Black Prince, and not inferior to any foreign grape, for the table.

It is believed to be a truth, that no native grape was previously found, that did not possess a secondary skin, enclosing a stringy pulp, and most of them possessing a husky flavour, proving their affinity to the fox. But because this one, found on the Susquehanna, is an exception-because it possesses all the delicate sweetness, tenderness of skin, and delicious flavour of the most esteemed exotics, we are not willing to concede that it is not entitled to be classed among the native productions of our soil.

In favour of its being purely of American origin, we will state, that the island on which it was found has never been inhabited; that lying immediately below Eshleman's falls, the approach to it is difficult; and that it has rarely been visited, except by the proprietor, an aged man named Fales, lately deceased, who did not trouble himself much about grapes, native or foreign, and merely used it as a place to turn young cattle upon in the summer season. The sycamore, of which it is the parasite, appears to be about forty years old, and the vine is rooted about thirty feet from the stem of the tree, under a pile of drift wood, from which it runs along the ground, in company with three other vines of the fox or chicken variety, apparently of the same age, and, interwoven, climb the tree together. From appearances, one should judge that the tree is not older than the vine; and that the young sycamore, in its growth, carried the vine with it.

At the period in which this vine must have taken root, foreign grapes were little known in the United States, and then their cultivation was confined to the neighbourhood of the great Atlantic cities.

None of the foreign varieties we have seen correspond in appearance with this fruit; for though the wood and leaf of Miller's Burgundy are so similar as scarcely to be distinguished apart, yet the bunches and fruit of that of the Susquehanna are much larger.

Again-we have many stories related through the country, by persons worthy of credit, of the delicious grapes found upon the islands of the Susquehanna; some described as white, some red, black, purple, &c., without pulp, and all ripening in August and September. It was these reports which urged several gentlemen to the pursuit, that has been so far crowned with success, in the discovery of the kind above described. Mr. D. was one of several citizens who visited the Brushy island, in the autumn of 1827, and saw the vine, and from the observations then made, and facts that have since come to his knowedge, says, I have no doubt that there does exist in those islands a

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