Background: for years I’ve heard conversations and opinions regarding what the Pinelands looked like, what tree species there were, before Europeans came here and messed with it. Most, if not all, of such talks ended with something along the lines of , “well, we can’t really be sure as we lack adequate documentation”.
Recently Karl Anderson sent me a book, a reproduction of Dr. Charles C. Abbott’s “Waste-land Wanderings”. Written in the late 1880’s, it describes his travels, mostly by boat, in the Crosswicks Creek valley near its exit into the Delaware River.
On pages 145 thru 147 Abbott directly quotes from naturalist Peter Kalm’s May 1749 description of the Delaware River below its falls and also a description of a journey by stage from Trenton to New York. These descriptions include mention of tree species, etc.
Unfortunately, Abbott’s book nowhere mentions the source of the Kalm quotations.
Upon reading this it occurred to me that Peter Kalm was traveling this land before the advent of bog iron furnaces. in the Pines This would be a period before significant human impact on the Pinelands.
Peter Kalm collected plant specimens from all over South Jersey and must have crossed the Pines numerous times.
All this leads to the following questions. Did Peter Kalm write descriptions of what he saw when he travelled in the Pinelands forests? In what documents are these descriptions to be found? And most importantly, what did Peter Kalm say? If his description of the forests differs from today, in what way did they?
All of which leads to other questions: did other early naturalists and plant/animal specimen collectors write descriptions of the what they saw in the Pines?
Or am I making some wrong assumptions in the abo ve?
johnny b
Recently Karl Anderson sent me a book, a reproduction of Dr. Charles C. Abbott’s “Waste-land Wanderings”. Written in the late 1880’s, it describes his travels, mostly by boat, in the Crosswicks Creek valley near its exit into the Delaware River.
On pages 145 thru 147 Abbott directly quotes from naturalist Peter Kalm’s May 1749 description of the Delaware River below its falls and also a description of a journey by stage from Trenton to New York. These descriptions include mention of tree species, etc.
Unfortunately, Abbott’s book nowhere mentions the source of the Kalm quotations.
Upon reading this it occurred to me that Peter Kalm was traveling this land before the advent of bog iron furnaces. in the Pines This would be a period before significant human impact on the Pinelands.
Peter Kalm collected plant specimens from all over South Jersey and must have crossed the Pines numerous times.
All this leads to the following questions. Did Peter Kalm write descriptions of what he saw when he travelled in the Pinelands forests? In what documents are these descriptions to be found? And most importantly, what did Peter Kalm say? If his description of the forests differs from today, in what way did they?
All of which leads to other questions: did other early naturalists and plant/animal specimen collectors write descriptions of the what they saw in the Pines?
Or am I making some wrong assumptions in the abo ve?
johnny b
) Mountain Lions, wolves, and other apex predators were still around as were populations of Elk! Ground water levels would have been significantly higher as the aquifer would be much closer to the surface thereby enlarging swampy areas and making our primary creeks, runs, and rivers significantly larger. Much more fish as well...Basically its all our fault 
