Title Pages of Nicolas Denys, Description Geographical and Historical of the Coasts of North America [Acadia], Paris, 1672.
Book
Title pages from a facsimile reprint of William F. Ganong's translated edition of Nicolas Denys' Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America, published in Toronto by the Champlain Society in 1908, from the original work printed in Paris in 1672, in two volumes. This is the earliest know natural history of North America to appear in Europe. As Dr. Ganong notes, by "North America" the author, Nicolas Denys, means old Acadia, the land stretching from Penobscot Bay around the Bay of Fundy and up to the Gaspe peninsula.
Nicolas Deny, as one of the most consistent interlocutors for nearly forty years with the native tribes of the region, may have been the source of the surname 'Deny' or 'Dana' found among the Passamaquoddy to this day, and later given to the Deny's (or Dennys) River.
