William Bartram the naturalist. What more can you say about him. His ability to observe, record in detail (both in writing and in his exquisite drawings) and to do so in the late 1700s is nothing short of phenomenal. Yet Bartram was not an educated man. In fact his writing embarrassed him and he was reluctant to draw attention to himself. Nevertheless, by his nature, he drew support from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, &c.
Bartram wrote of his own personal experiences in living and traveling in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida as he collected specimens, described the plants, animals, peoples and terrain. He would be just as likely to be in wonderment of the area today as he was in the late 1700's. As example, I can relate my own experiences when we lived in the area of North Florida (bounded by Jacksonville to Tallahassee to Gainesville to the Georgia border.)
Bartram wrote about the rattlesnakes of the area. Let me tell you that until you have seen one of the large eastern diamond back rattlers, you haven't experienced what life must have been like before the area was settled. The snake often grows in excess of six feet in length and as it ages becomes larger in diameter. Lying in the road, one of these monsters looks like a piece of pulp wood that has fallen off a truck.
(Loblolly and slash pine are plantation grown in the Southeast. The dry-rooted one or two year old seedlings are dibble planted on 8 foot centers by a poor sole that is dropped off at the planting site with a jug of water, his lunch, a pack of seedlings and a roll of toilet paper. He is expected to plant five or more acres a day.
The trees grow rapidly and after about eight years, they reach a height of 20-25 feet, a diameter of about 8 to 10 inches and are thinned by cutting every other one. Harvest is much like planting in that a lone individual is dropped off with his lunch, chain saw, a quart of oil, a couple gallons of gas, etc and is expected to cut trees until picked up in the evening. This is hot, strenuous, solitary and dangerous work. Sometimes alone or perhaps a small crew will drive through the pine stand, picking up the pulp wood which has been rather precisely cut into 8 foot lengths. It takes considerable strength, and sense of balance to lift and pitch the log onto the truck so that it lies in an orderly fashion, the logs being stacked about 8 feet high. (One summer we were visited by a family that was into exercise, weight lifting, and muscle development. Young Wayne quickly discovered that there was much more to this than met the eye. He could not keep up with an old Negro who seemed to effortless toss the cut wood onto the moving truck.) The truck is then driven to a terminal where it is weighed and the wood unloaded. Oh yes, the remaining trees are harvested again at about 15 years when they are once again thinned, this time to yield poles, having grown now an additional 10 or more feet and some additional 10 inches in diameter. Those trees remaining are left for an additional 10 or so years before being harvested for saw timber. This cycle of 40 - 50 years is repeated, so that in one's lifetime only one generation of trees is known.)
Back to the rattlesnake. One day as I drove my truck down a lime-rock road, I ran over a large rattler. As is often the case, one stops and attempts to run over the snake to kill it. I did just that, but on the second trip over the snake, it disappeared. Had it escaped or was it now lodged under the truck? Imagine if you will how you would feel if when you arrived at home, the hapless snake emerging from the undercarriage of your truck. Not a pleasant thought! Never did find out what happened to the critter.
Another snake story. The small timber rattler grows to about two feet in length and about 2 inches in diameter. The female must have a mothering instinct as I have seen an adult being followed by a number of babies as she(?) crossed the road. It is said that when in danger the babes will be permitted to crawl into the mother's mouth for safety.
What is it about current "educated" scholars?
In Bartram's book "Travels", there is an introduction by James Dickey. I find the introduction more a criticism of Bartram's writing style and observations than a justified praise of his recordings of life and the environment of the late 1700's. I acknowledge that Dickey is a poet of some distinction, having published a couple of books, etc. But as a naturalist he doesn't have the foggiest idea about that which he writes. In fact if Dickey is a poet, then he should recognize that Bartram's writing comes close to poetry in itself.
n.b. James Dickey died in February, 1997. His daughter wrote his obit which appeared in Newsweek during March. He was a noteworthy father.
Consider the following from Bartram's observations:
"Behold, for instance, a circular expanse before you,
The waters of which are so extremely clear,
As to be absolutely diaphanous or transparent as the ether,
The margin of the bason ornamented with,
A great variety of fruitful and floriferous trees, shrubs and plants.
The pendant golden Orange dancing,
On the surface of the pellucid Waters
,
The balmy Air vibrating,
With the Melody of the merry birds,
Tenants of the encircling aromatic grove.
---
pp 150, Travels, by William Bartram. Published by Penguin Books in 1988.
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Bartram's writing reminds me of John Milton's poetry. Coleridge and have written extensively on the juxtaposition of Bartram's writings in Kuba Kahn.
On another matter, Bartram and his father described and collected many species of plants, many of which they shipped back to England. The Franklinia shrub is described by WB and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin (Franklinia Alatamaha). Bartram was recently accused of extinguishing the plant by his collection of specimens in a recent issue of Science. When I protested, the author agreed that the plant not only was not extinct, but thriving in many areas of the world specifically as the result of Bartram's collection. The fine point is that the plant no longer exist on the savannah where it was first described. It might also be added that years after Bartram passed that way, the plant was observed by other naturalist at the original site. It thus appears that the plant would have lost due to the vagrancies of nature had not WB intervened.
And then there is the matter of today's social engineers who try to interpret yesterday's writings in today's political correct environment. Waselkov and Braund's book on the Southeastern Indians, is such an attempt.
So much for those educated beyond their intelligence.
Bartram also describes in detail the soft shelled, turtle. He would have been just as enthused had he discovered its large land cousin, called a "gopher turtle" by the Georgia and Florida crackers. In particular he would have enjoyed the method of capture now employed. Since the gopher burrows in soft sand in the palmetto scrub, it leaves a tell-tale mound of dirt at the entrance of its burrow. This turtle is about two feet across and has strong forelegs for digging. It is considered a delicacy when properly prepared. A cracker goes hunting with a coke bottle of gasoline, a length of garden hose and a wary eye. When a burrow is found that appears to have had recent activity, he will place the hose deep in the burrow, pour a small amount of gas into the open end, step aside from the open burrow, and blow thru the hose. It becomes immediately clear why he stepped aside. Emerging from the burrow (in addition to the gopher), may be rattlesnakes, coons, foxes, or a number of other animals, that all appear to share the gopher's home.
The local name for turtles of the hard-shell, snapper type is "cooters" and they can still be found on the menu at some restaurants in Florida (Cross Creek Cookery, South and East of Gainesville)
Bartram described the area of Florida which is just east of Gainesville (an area familiar to many as the home of Marjorie Rawlings and her The Yearling and Cross Creek, books that are based on the primitive nature of this area.). Further north and in the Florida Panhandle once finds an area that remains almost primeval.
Wakulla springs represents the mouth of a subterranean river emerging on its way to the Gulf. Many of the old Tarzan movies were filmed here.
The Alapaha river which flows from Georgia into Hamilton County, just north of Jennings Florida has its roots in the Okefenokee swamp and courses a few miles before going underground, perhaps to reemerge as springs somewhere else in Florida. The Alapaha is a strange river indeed. Just south of the Florida line the river bed is a pure white sand of crystal size so large as to reflect sunlight. During periods of reduced flow, the river simply disappears into its own river bed. Where does it go?
And what are sink-holes?
These depressions which form spontaneously are sometimes the result of dropping water tables which no longer support the overburden of sand and lime and phosphate rock. When the surface collapses, the depression sometimes fills with water and becomes a miniature lake with the coldest water one can imagine. As nature reestablishes herself in the area, cypress trees and all kinds of vegetation surround the water-hole. Then as if by magic, one day, the water table returns to a previous level or perhaps a collapse in the subterranean structures results in a
redirection of water flow and the sink fills, sometimes to overflowing.
It is not uncommon for reports of buildings, automobiles, roads etc disappearing into a rapidly forming sink-hole. It is not usually reported when a sink slowly reforms and fills with water. (Many expensive homes built along the edge of a "dry" sink, have become submerged as the result of these changing events.) In Citrus County Florida, there is an area of interlocking lakes that form the headwaters of the Withlacoochi River. Often times these lakes "go-dry" and fishing camps find that it's a long walk to the water's edge.
Had Bartram journeyed further south he would have encountered the Everglades an area even more strange than that which he had journeyed through. For a fictional but highly accurate account of this area, the book, Journey to Matecumbe is highly recommended. And of course there is account of Marjory Stoneman Douglas in River of Grasswhich describes well the Everglades .
In Bartram's Report to Dr. Fothergill which is included in the book Travels and other Writings, Bartram describes in detail the mysterious ways of Florida's underground rivers. He accurately described the lime-rock and clay overburden that encased the waters and spontaneously released them to become flowing rivers until they once again sink into the ever-present sand.
Bartram wrote about the frontier as it was just being explored. We live on the edge of yet another unknown -- the ocean, and in particular the Gulf of Mexico. How can we live so close to such a vast unexplored territory and yet know so little about it. Help is on the way! James E. Moore has written a book, There for the Taking, which searches for the mysteries of the Gulf not unlike Bartram explored the vast Southeastern parts of our Country. There for the Taking, is the story of Jim Moore's love of the Gulf and his description of what lies beneath the seas surface.
I called Bartram a naturalist, actually as acknowledged in the coffee table book, William Bartram Botanical and Zoological Drawings, 1756-1788, he was much more--- Let's call him a naturalist first but not forget his fine attention to detail in drawing the subjects of his studies. One of the most impressive characteristics of Bartram's drawings was his ability to put in perspective the plant or animal with its environment. Thus we see snakes devouring frogs, birds feeding on insects or on twigs of plants also of interest. And sometimes for no reason other than to conserve valuable paper, he placed shells, birds, plants, etc. all in a single drawing ---
I recommend: Travels by William Bartram (Published by Penguin Books)
A New Journey to Carolina, by John Lawson.By Readex (a microfilm - hard copy of Lawson's travels in the Carolinas, in 1706.
The Rivers of America, Suwannee River by Cecile Hulse Matschat (Published by The Literary Guild of America, Inc. New York 1938)Suwannee River from
the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia to Cedar Keys in the Gulf of Mexico, a fictionalized account of travel in the area with good descriptive writing in a well researched book.
William Bartram on the Southeast Indians by George A. Waselkov and Kathyn E. Holland Brauml. Published by Lincoln Univ Press (1995) @
$45.
Bartram, Travels and Other Writings, published by The Library of America
(1996) $37.50. Well worth the price for the descriptions of the plants and animals in his "Report to Dr. Fothergill and his observation on the Indians.
William Bartram, Botanical and Zoological Drawings, 1756-1788. Published drawings from the Fothergill collection by the American Philosophical Society, Independence Square, Philadelphia PA (1968)
There for the Taking, a book by J. E. Moore about living and harvesting from the sea.
Fifty Years on the Old Frontier Jim Cook's
book on how little changed in one hundred years the West was as compared to the East in Bartram's time.
See Tom,
an American Crow for amusing writing by Bartram.
Billy Bartram and his Green World, An Interpretative Biography by Marjory Bartlett Sanger. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York in 1972.)
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Suwannee River
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