NO EMIGRATION. 45 



but learning that the land I was going to was swampy, re 

 turned to Clear Creek. I found musquitoes in this trip, but 

 not so troublesome as I had supposed they would be, and 

 there were also a variety of snakes, all harmless, except the 

 copper-head and rattle snake ; but it is seldom that persons 

 are bit by these, and old residents do not dread them, as 

 many vegetable antidotes are well known in the woods ; in 

 fact, they are acquainted with the name and virtues of every 

 plant, while new comers are years learning the names of 

 trees only. 



CHAPTER V. 



ENGAGEMENT WITH COLONEL TALBOT HIS FARM, GAR 

 DEN, AND ORCHARDS DESCRl BED JOURNEY TO FORT 

 ERIE THE COUNTRY, ITS PRODUCE, AND RESOURCES 

 NOTICED. 



Aug. 9. Returned to Colonel Talbot s, who recommended 

 my waiting until the survey of the new township of Orford 

 should return from the land office at York, where it had 

 been sent for inspection, and the reserves marked out, I 

 could have an early choice, to which I assented : and as the 

 Colonel s foreman, or overseer of his farm, soon after left his 

 situation, I engaged to succeed him. The harvest this sea 

 son is earlier than usual, through the long continued drought 

 and hot weather. A Canada summer is much like the 

 finest and hottest we have in England : but I am told the 

 heat increases at a distance from the lakes. The Colonel s 

 wheat and oat crops fair, the peas good ; but too dry for 

 potatoes and corn. 



Aug. 14. &quot; Hauling&quot; peas, (that is, drawing them on 

 waggons to the stack). 



Aug. 16. Rain all day, with the wheat and oats in the 

 field yet for want of hands, the harvest in the neighbour 

 hood being nearly all finished for the year. The Colonel 

 has about 150 sheep shut up in a pen at night to preserve 

 them from the wolves, (this is not done in old settlements); 

 they are of various breeds, some with and some without 

 horns. Twenty-five milch cows ; four yoke of oxen broken 

 in, besides one yoke killed this fall; fifty or sixty head of 

 young cattle, which run in the woods all the summer; 

 F 2 



