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Promoting Natural & Cultural History
TYPE: | Image |
DATE: | 1747 |
ARTIST: | Carl Johan Gethe (1728-1765) |
AUTHOR: | Viveka Hansen |
CAT/REF NUMBER: | M 280, p. 58. |
COLLECTION(S): | Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm (National Library of Sweden), Sweden. |
ADDED: | 19/04/2018 |
iFELLOW: | Viveka Hansen |
JOURNALS ETC: | Linnaeus Apostles Global Science & Adventure, Volume 5, Page 377 |
CONTENT: | This illustration of albatross and Cape pigeon is included in the East India traveller Carl Johan Gethe’s journal, shortly after the ship had passed the Cape. The birds were described as ‘Albatross is a large bird with long wingspan, of these there exist three sorts…’, whilst he regarded the Cape pigeons as curious birds. Gethe was not a natural historian, but judging by his journal (‘Dagbok hållen på Resan till Ost Indien, Begynt den 18 octobr: 1746 och Slutad den 20 Juni 1749’) he had an interest in zoology, as he made several watercolours of birds, fish, mammals etc along the route. However, which coast line the included prospects – named ‘Trinidada’ – depicted is uncertain. The two bird depictions from 1747 are also interesting comparisons to Anders Sparrman’s observations almost three decades later. Sparrman noted on 5 December 1772 in his journal: ‘…ever since leaving the Cape, not to mention the company of the usual seabirds hovering above the sea around the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape petrel or so called pigeon...’. He also recorded ‘two kinds of albatross that accompanied us…’ |