48 July 1749* 



THE Rattle Snake, according to the 

 unanimous accounts of the French, is never 

 feen in this neighbourhood, nor further 

 north near Montreal and Quebec ; and the 

 mountains which furround fort St. Frederic, 

 are the moft northerly part on this fide, 

 where they have been feen. Of all the 

 fnakes which are found in Canada to the 

 north of thefe mountains, none is poifon- 

 ous enough to do any great harm to a man; 

 and all without exception run away when 

 they fee a man. My remarks on the 

 nature and properties of the rattle-fnake, 

 I have communicated to the royal Swedijh 

 academy of fciences,* and thither I reier 

 my readers. 



July the 22d. THIS evening fome 

 people arrived with horfes from Prairie, in 

 order to fetch us. The governor had fent 

 for them at my defire, becaufe there were 

 not yet any horfes near fort St. John, the 

 place being only a year old, and the people 

 had not had time to fettle near it. Thofe 

 wholed the horfes, brought letters to the go- 

 vernor from the governor-general of Canada, 

 the Marquis la GaliJJbniere, dated at Quebec 

 the fifteenth of this month, and from the 

 vice-governor of Montreal, the Baron 



* See their Memoirs for the year 1752, p- 308, fed. 9. 



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