As early as 1741, John Bartram sent some fossil sea shells to Sir Hans Sloan; other shells were sent to his London friend Peter Collinson in 1742. He wrote to Collinson in 1743 or 1744 that he had observed such fossils everywhere, "even on the top of the mountain that separates the waters of Susquehanna and St. Lawrence." (William Darlington, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall [Philadelphia: 1849], p. 169.) Bartram was used to making rough maps of his travels and he made no pretense of being a competent surveyor. He apologized to Collinson for a map which he said was "Clumsily done, —having neither proper instruments nor convenient time," since he was drawing by the early light of dawn or by candlelight. Franklin wrote his friend Jared Eliot on 16 July 1747 of Bartram's discoveries: The great Apalachian Mountains, which run from York [Hudson] River back of these Colonies to the Bay of Mexico, show in many Places near the highest Parts of them, Strata Sea Shells, in some Places the marks of them are in the solid Rocks. 'Tis certainly the Wreck of a World we live on! We have Specimens of those Sea shell Rocks broken off near the Tops of those Mountains, brought and deposited in our Library [the Library Company of Philadelphia] as Curiosities. If you have not seen the like, I'll send you a Piece. (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin [New Haven: Yale University Press: 1961], vol. 3, p. 169.) The endorsement on the back reads, in Franklin's hand: "Mr. Bartram's Map very curious."
650: [ca.1750s]: At61mvc