54» KALM'S TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA. their colour, however, there feems to be a fmall difference in the note. I took no no- tice this year when they arrived : but the following year, 1750,1 obferved them for the firft time, on the ioth of April (new ftyle) ; the next day in the morning, I faw great numbers of them fitting on polls and planks, and they were as wet as if they had been juft come out of the fea *. They build their nefts in houfes, and under the roofs on • It has been a fubjedl of contefl among naturalifts, to determine fhe winter retreat of fwallows. Some think, they go to warmer climates when they difappear in the northern countries : others fay, they creep into hollow trees, and holes in clefts of rocks, and lie there all the winter in a torpid ftate : and others affirm, that they take their retreat into water, arid revive again in fpring. The two firft opinions have been proved, and it feems have found credit ; the laft have been treated as ridiculous, and almoft as an old woman's tale. Natural hiftory, as all the other hiftories, depends not always upon the intrinfic degree of probability, but upon faâs founded on the teftimony of pgople of noted veracity. — Swallows are feldom feen finking down into the water ; fwallows have not fuch organs as frogs or lizards, which are torpid during winter, ergo, fwallows live not, and cannot live under water. —This way of arguing, I believe, would carry us, in a great many cafes, too far ; for though it is not clear to every one, it may however be true ; and lizards and frogs are animals of a clafs widely different from that of birds, and mull therefore of courfe have a different ftruclure ; hence it is they are claffed feparately. The bear and the marmot are in winter in a torpid flate, and have however not fuch organs as lizards and frogs ; and nobody doubts of their being, during fome time, in the moft rigid climates, iu a torpid ftate ; for the Alpine na- tions hunt the marmots frequently, by digging their holes up, and find them fo torpid, that they cut their throats, without their reviving or giving the leaft fign of life during the operation ; but when the torpid marmot is brought into a warm room and placed before the fire, it revives from its lethargy. The quef- tion muft therefore be decided by fafts ; nor are they wanting here; Dr. Wallerius, thfe celebrated Swe- difh chemifl, wrote in 1748, September the 6th, O. S. to the late Mr. Klein, fecretary to the city of Dantzick : " That he has feen} more than once, fwallows aflembling on a reed, till they were all immerfed and went to the bottom ; this being preceded by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's iength. He attefls likewife, that he had feen a fwallow caught during winter out of a lake with a net, drawn, as is common in northern countries, under the ice : this bird was brought into a warm room, revived, fluttered about, and foon after died." Mr. Klein applied to many fermiers généraux of the King of Pruffia's domains, who had great lakes in their diltrifts, the fifhery in them being a part of the revenue ; in winter the fifhery thereon is the mofl confiderable under the ice, with nets fpreading more than two hundred or three hundred fathoms, and they are often wound by fcrews and engines, on account of their weight. All the people queftioned made affidavits upon oath before the magiftrates. Firft, The mother of the Countefs Lehndorf faid, that fhe had feen a bundle of fwallows brought from the Frifh-haff (a lake communicating with the Baltic at Pillau) which when brought into a moderately warm room, revived and fluttered about. Secondly, Count Schlie- ben gave an inftrument on ftamped paper, importing, that by fifhing on the lake belonging to his eftate of Gerdauen, in winter, he faw feveral fwallows caught in the net, one of which betook up with his hand, brought it into a warm room, where it lay about an hour, when it began to ftir, and half an hour after it flew about in the room. Thirdly, fermier general (Amtman) Witkowfki made affidavit, that in the year 1740, three fwallows were brought up with the net in the great pond atDidlacken; in the year 1741 he got two fwallows from another part of the pond, and took them home, (they all being caught in hi» prefence) ; after an hour's fpace they revived all in a warm room, fluttered about, and died three hours after. Fourthly, Amtmam Bbnke fay», that having had the eftate Klefkow in farm, he had feen nine fwallows brought up in the net from under the ice, all which he took into a warm room, where he diftin-Stly obferved how they gradually revived ; but a few hours after they all died. Another time his people got likewife fome fwallows in a net, but he ordered them again to be thrown into the water. Fifthly, Andrew Rutta, a mafter fifherman, at Oletfko, made-affidavit, 1747, that twenty-two years ago, two fwallows were taken up by him, in a net, under the ice, and being brought into a warm room, they flew about. Sixthly, Jacob Kofiulo, a mafter fifherman, at Stradauen, made affidavit, that in 1736, he brought up in winter, in a net, from under the ice of the lake at Rafki, a feemingly dead fwallow, which revived in half an hour's time, in a warm room, and he faw, a quarter of an hour after, the bird grow weaker, and foon after dying. Seventhly, lean reckon myfelf among the eye-witneffes of this paradoxon of natural hiftory. In the year 1735, being a little boy, I faw feveral fwallows brought in winter by fifhermen, from the river Viftula, to my father's houfe, where two of them were brought into a warm room, revived, and flew about. I faw them feveral times fettling on the warm ftove, (which the northern nations have in their rooms) and I recollect well that the fame forenoon they died, and I had them, when dead, in my hand. » In