Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy Alaska's First Naturalist: Georg Wihelm Steller by Ann Arnold (227 pages copyright 2008)
I finished this biography of Georg Steller at the beginning of June. I had never heard of him before reading this book. The further I got into this book the more it aligned with my interests. There were a lot of maps and drawings and descriptions of plants.
Georg Steller joined the second Kamchatka expedition led by Vitus Bering across Russia and over the ocean to Alaska. The expedition lasted from 1733-1742. The mission of the expedition was to map Siberia, set up a postal route, explore Kamchatka, build light houses, sail to America, claim land for Russia and cultivate friendly relations with the natives. That is one wild to-do list!
Georg Steller was a naturalist and doctor. He studied the flora and fauna and the natives' customs. He collected samples and catalogued everything he saw. Several animals and plants bare his name either in their common name or scientific name because he was the first to discover and describe them in a scientific context. One of the coolest animals that he found was a northern sea cow, Steller's Sea Cow. They were huge 25-30 feet long, lived in herds, omnivorous, ate constantly of the sea weeds, had two boney grinding plates as teeth, gathered around where rivers and streams emptied into the ocean, and bellowed loudly. I was excited to look up some pictures and see a Steller's Sea Cow. I was very disappointed to find out that they were hunted into extinction 30 years after their discovery. The flesh tasted like veal and the fat was like butter. I see why they were hunted relentlessly, although, I wish the hunters had been more conservative. Some sea cow skeletons have been preserved and are at museums.
Anyway, the explorers were shipwrecked for 8 months on an island over winter in the far north. It was pretty rough. Of the 78 people that set out on the voyage 46 survived. Many of the deaths were caused by scurvy. Georg Steller survived but his life was not long. He died from a fever in 1746 at 35 years old.
The most difficult part of reading this book was pronouncing all the Russian names. They were quite a challenge to my tongue. I'm talking about names like: Kamchatka, Okhotsk, Krasheninnikov, and Yakutsk.
I found the maps to be very helpful and referenced them frequently. Ann Arnold was going to make a picture book and it shows. She has a lot of illustrations throughout the book. I think that she should go head and make a picture book as well. I don't think many people have heard about Georg Steller and it would be nice to introduce children to the explorations that took place in that part of the world.
I learned a lot of geography by reading this book. I had never even heard of Lake Baikal. I was fascinated to read that Lake Baikal contains one fifth of the fresh water on Earth. I found that hard to believe. The surface area of Lake Baikal is similar to that of Lake Michigan. Do you realize how deep that must mean Lake Baikal is? It is hard to fathom!
There are a lot of notes and extra reading material in this book. The main part of the book concludes at page 161. Then there is an afterword, a concordance of animals and plants, a time line, extensive notes for each chapter of the book (where I learned about Lake Baikal,) source notes, bibliography, and a very nice index.
I have enjoyed learning nature facts from this website. I have the page bookmarked and check in every so often to see what new interesting thing has been posted.
The blog is written my Mary Holland. A naturalist, photographer, and author from Vermont. I didn't know much about Mary Holland so I read this interview that she gave for Northern Woods. Now I want to buy her book! It sounds full of the kind of wildlife and nature information that I love to learn.
Just to give you an idea of the type of posts you can expect over at Naturally Curious, this month she has written about Wolf Spiders, Turtle Leeches, Tulip Trees, and a mystery photo of some species of turtle or tortoise. Pretty neat stuff! And the posts are very short with bite sizes of information.
To end this post I am going to show nature photos of things that caught my interest around my home recently.
Some kind of crab spider
Some kind of oriental beetle
A beautiful box turtle wandering through the back yard
Leaf leg bug
Oyster mushroom
Wolf's milk slime mold aka toothpaste mold
Bee fly
Hackberry butterfly (they look prettier in person.)
Some kind of caterpillar. My three year old son asked me to take this picture. I am so happy that he appreciates little things in nature, too!
A pretty little Pearl Crescent butterfly sunning itself in the morning.
These shoes that are new to me needed a little stitch where the thread had unraveled.
You may have noticed that I had no sewing updates for May. That is because I had a baby on April 28th. I took the month of May off from sewing projects. Due to baby gifts and people bringing us meals I have a lot of thank you cards to send.
I made this design, copied off a bunch, and then added the color with crayons. It's not a sewing project but it is a creative endeavor.
I have also started another pioneer doll. So far the face is embroidered and the seam allowances are marked.
By the way, our baby is a girl. Delivery was a very uncomplicated, routine affair. Baby girl has been blessed with good health and is growing like a bean. We love her very much!
"Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely
grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof? ......
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the
brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the
horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."
I recently found a really nice version of King James's Counterblast to Tobacco in a PDF. The spelling has all been updated, and the text is formated in an easy to read way across 9 pages, conveniently in the public domain. There are some latin phrases in the Counterblast. In this version translations to the latin phrases have been given in brackets, which I found very helpful because I don't know latin. Here is a link:
This was a short and entertaining read. I found myself laughing out loud in a few places. King James could be quite hilarious! I found a few sentences challenging and had to read them 5 times to understand the meaning. Some of the sentences are so long that I forgot what the sentence was about by the time I reached the end. I really enjoyed catching on to King James's train of thought. He was way ahead of his time in arguing that smoking tobacco is unhealthy.
Below, I have compiled my analysis of Counterblast to Tobacco. I have distinguished 11 points of argument.
King James's Counter Arguments and excerpts:
Summary of the Introduction: Even good people have a tendency towards corruption and as King he is going to act as physician and diagnose this societal disease of tobacco smoking.
#1. The origins of tobacco use are bad.
"For tobacco being a common herb, which (though under divers names) grows almost everywhere, was first found out by some of the barbarous Indians, to be a preservative, or antidote against the pox*, a filthy disease, whereunto these barbarous people are (as all men know) very much subject, what through the uncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies, and what through the intemperate heat of their climate: so that as from them was first brought into Christendom, that most detestable disease, so from them likewise was brought this use of tobacco, as a stinking and unsavory antidote for so corrupted and a execrable a malady, the stinking suffumigation whereof they yet use against that disease, making so one canker or venom to eat out another.......
.....Why do we not as well imitate them in walking naked as they do? In preferring glasses, feathers, and such toys, to gold and precious stones, as they do? Yea why do we not deny God and adore the devil, as they do?"
#2. People say that all hot and dry things are good for the brain because the brain is cold and moist. King James's counter argument goes like this:
Just because the brain is cold and moist it doesn't proceed that all things hot and dry are a benefit. If the brain is cold and moist, it is because it needs to be for it's good function and smoke is then a detriment.
#3. People say that smoking is good because it helps the body void phlegm. King James's counter argument goes like this:
The smoke doesn't help void phlegm. It causes the phlegm that then must be voided.
"....so this stinking smoke being sucked up by the nose, and imprisoned in the cold and moist brains, is by their cold and wet faculty, turned and cast forth again in watery distillations, and so are you made free and purged of nothing, but that wherewith you willfully burden yourselves: ...."
#4. People say there must be something good about tobacco because so many people find it pleasing. King James's counter argument goes like this:
People are just attracted to novelty.
"And so from hand to hand it spreads, till it be practiced my all, not for any commodity that is in it, but only because it is come to be the fashion. ..... and therefore the general good liking and embracing of this foolish custom, doth but only proceed from that affectation of novelty, and popular error, whereof I have already spoken."
#5. People think tobacco is a cure. King James's counter argument goes like this:
Correlation doesn't equate causation.
"...so if a man chance to recover one of any disease, after he have taken tobacco, that must have the thanks of all. But by the contrary, if a man smoke himself to death with it (and many have done) so then some other disease must bear the blame for that fault. So do old harlots thank their harlotry for their many years, that custom being healthful (say they) ad purgandos renes,["for purifying the loins"] but never have mind how many die of the pox* in the flower of their youth. And so do old drunkards think they prolonged their days, by their swinelike diet, but never remember how many died drowned in drink before they be half old."
#6. People say that tobacco is like a medicine and keeps one in good health. King James's counter argument goes like this:
Medicine can't be taken constantly (as people take tobacco) because it will cause harm if not used appropriately.
"Medicine hath that virtue that it never leaveth a man in that state wherein it findeth him: it makes a sick man whole, but a whole man sick. And as medicine helps nature being taken at times of necessity, so being ever and continually used, it doth but weaken, weary, and wear nature."
#7. Tobacco has addictive qualities.
"In your person having by this continual vile custom brought yourselves to this shameful imbecility that you are not able to ride or walk the journey of a Jew's Sabbath but you must have a reeking coal brought you from the next poor house to kindle your tobacco with? ..... To make a custom in anything that cannot be left again, is most harmful to the people of any land."
#8. Tobacco is a waste of money.
"Now how you are by this custom disabled in your goods, let the gentry of this land bear witness, some of them bestowing three, some four hundred pounds a year upon this precious stink, which I am sure might be bestowed upon many far better uses."
#9. Tobacco smoking is filthy and rude.
"And for the vanities committed in this filthy custom, is it not both great vanity and uncleanness, that at the table, a place of respect, of cleanliness, of modesty, men should not be ashamed, to sit tossing of tobacco pipes, and puffing of the smoke of tobacco one to another, making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale althwart the dishes, and infect the air, when very often, men that abhor it are at their repast?"
#10. Smoking tobacco corrupts one's breath.
"But herein is not only a great vanity but a great contempt of God's good gifts, that the sweetness of man's breath, being a good gift of God, should be willfully corrupted by this stinking smoke, wherein I must confess it has too strong a virtue: and so that which is an ornament of nature, and can neither by any artifice be at the first acquired, once lost, be recovered again, shall be filthily corrupted with an incurable stink, ..."
#11. Tobacco smoking is dishonoring to one's wife.
"Moreover, which is a great iniquity, and against all humanity, the husband shall not be ashamed, to reduce thereby his delicate, wholesome, and clean complexioned wife, to that extremity, that either she must also corrupt her sweet breath therewith, or else resolve to live in a perpetual stinking torment."
Conclusion: [tobacco smoking is] "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."
*The use of the word pox can refer to many diseases that cause a rash. I am guessing that this use of the word pox is in reference to syphilis. Syphilis is one of the few diseases that came from the Americas to Europe. This is to the best of knowledge, but I am not an authority on the subject.
I have made a recording of this Counterblast. I have been unable to find a reading of this work on YouTube. So I made one myself, though it is a little rough around the edges.
May and June are the best time of year to gather Pineapple Weed buds. Pineapple Weed has petal-less flowers that make really calming tea, in fact Pineapple Weed is closely related to Camomile. Pineapple Weed loves poor quality soil like driveways and empty lots. I love the smell of the buds. I like to squeeze a bud between my fingers and sniff the fruity aroma. It smells kinda like....... pineapple!
Another yellow bud that is about the same size that grows in the same places is Black Medic aka Yellow Trefoil.
Can you see the difference? Above is Black Medic. Below is Pineapple Weed.
And here they are growing side by side:
Black Medic is a legume and has clover type leaves.
Pineapple Weed has feathery leaves.
The buds of Pineapple Weed mature into seeds. The seeds fall off of the flower head leaving cone shaped spires.
And hopefully they fall on some poor quality soil and grow a bunch more Pineapple Weed next year!
I have learned a new wild edible. This is the Nanking Cherry. They are succulent tart little cherries grown on a shrub.
Do you remember this flower that bloomed in March that I saw during my morning walks but didn't know what kind of flowers is was?
Now on my morning walks I see these cherries. I was able to look up the shrub now that it has leaves and berries and make a sure identification.
Nanking Cherries are a drought resistant shrub. I need to get a bunch of these planted in my yard. I think they would make a great hedge. The cherries are tart, delicious, and prolific. All along each branch there are cherries up and down. They would make good pies and jam I think. The trouble would be getting the pits out. They have a miniature cherry pit in each fruit.
I really enjoyed this documentary about nutmeg. I learned many things about the tree and fruit but also about the history of European trade and conquest in the Spice Islands. The second time that watched this documentary my children joined me and I considered it part of homeschooling (even though we watched it on the weekend.) I even drew these coloring pages and made copies for my children to color.
Nutmeg is native to the Banda Islands, which was a closely guarded secret by spice traders for many many years. When the European companies and governments finally figured out where nutmeg was coming from each power tried securing a monopoly on nutmeg. In the end England ceded their Banda Island to Holland as a trade for what Holland called New Amsterdam in America. New Amsterdam's name was changed and today we know it as Manhattan Island of New York!
If you would like to print my coloring pages you should be able to use the links below to access my scanned drawings and print them.
My son had this idea for a funny cartoon depicting the British leaving the Banda Islands to the Dutch saying, "Enjoy your monopoly on nutmeg!" all the while having hundreds of nutmeg seedlings to take and grow elsewhere.
I thought it was such a good idea so I drew it like this:
This is my mom's pineapple upsidedown cake recipe. I am still not able to make pineapple upsidedown cake as well as my mother. Her cakes are the best. The caramel crust on her pineapple upsidedown cakes are so crisp and praline-like. She has made this cake probably a hundred times. When she melts the butter and sugar in the skillet she knows by experience how long to cook the mixture. She doesn't time it. She doesn't measure the temperature. So she can't tell me exactly how to replicate what she does. One of these days I am going to practice pineapple upsidedown cakes until I get it perfect like she does. Now I will have the recipe to do it right.
