Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/113

Rh from Europe; but when, and by whom, we know not. The bees have generally extended themſelves into the country, a little in advance of the white ſettlers. The Indians therefore call them the white man's fly, and conſider their approach as indicating the approach of the ſettlements of the whites. A queſtion here occurs, how far northwardly have theſe inſects been found? That they are unknown in Lapland, I infer from Scheffers information, that the Laplanders eat the pine bark, prepared in a certain way, inſtead of thoſe things ſweetened with ſugar. ‘Hoc comedunt pro rebus ſaccharo conditis.’ Scheff. Lapp. c. 18. Certainly if they had honey, it would be a better ſubſtitute for ſugar than any preparation of the pine bark. Kalm tells us the honey-bee cannot live through the winter in Canada. They furniſh then an additional proof of the remarkable fact firſt obſerved by the Count de Buffon, and which has thrown ſuch a blaze of light on the field of natural hiſtory, that no animals are found in both continents, but thoſe which are able to bear the cold of thoſe regions where they probably join.