File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17540745923).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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420 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL ing Mexico. The five Letters have recently been published by F. A. Mac- Nutt (1908) in English translation, and are not without interest from a purely natural history standpoint. Very valu- able for the student are the bibliographi- cal notes contained in this latest edition of the Letters, and also those given by the same translator in his new (1912) version of The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera. Critical notes on the chief Spanish sources for Central and South American archaeology on natural history are interspersed through- out A. F. Bandelier's work on The Islands of Titicaca and Koati (1910). English translations exist also of the narratives of two early expeditions across the southern part of the North American continent, those led by Panfilo Narvaez and Hernando de Soto. In the relation of the former of these expeditions, by Cabeza de Vaca, is found the earliest account (1537) of the American bison. A few years later, in 1540, herds were next seen by white men accompanying the Coronado expedition.^ Probably the earliest picture of the animal in question is one given in the Idrography of Rotz (1542), and this was copied in the maps of Hondius, (1630 edition of Mcreator) Blaeu (World Atlas, 1664-65) and other geographers. It may be remarked in passing that one of Blaeu's maps of Brazil (vol. viii) is ornamented by col- > Annotated translations of the narrative of the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of the Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, were published by Buckingham Smith in 1866 and 1871. A new translation of the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, by F. Bandelier is included in the Trail Makers Series (1905). There are several English versions of the narra- tive of the Coronado expedition; one edited by G. P. Winship is found in the 14th Report of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology. Thevet's flgure of the bison and Cieza de Leon's rough woodcut of one of the llama group, are reproduced in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America. A great deal of historical matter relating to the bison has been brought together by Dr. J. A Allen. ored figures of the tapir, jaguar and capybara, and early American cartog- raphy in general abounds in interesting portrayals of physical, animal and vege- tal features of the New World, Among North American fur-bearing animals the beaver holds first place in historical importance, and has given rise to voluminous literature. The first pub- lic seal of the province of New Nether- lands, in use from 1623 to 1664, carries the beaver as an armorial device. It is represented also in Vischer's "Map of
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The Old World beaver (Castor fiber) engaged in felling a tree, as shown in one of the earliest printed works on natural history, the 15th century Ortus Sanilatis of J. von Cuba Novi Belgii" (1656), together with the fox, marten, bear, deer, wild turkey, heron, etc. Probably the earliest printed illustration is one occurring in a plate given by Arnold Montanus (1671), in his work already mentioned. A much better figure of the beaver, together with hunting scenes of the bison and other animals, is to be found in Baron La Hontan's Nouveaux Voyages (1715). Horace T. Martin, in his work on the Canadian Beaver (1892), and also Dr. F. A. Lucas in his interesting recent

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