INTENSE HEAT.—SNAKES, 139 
Chippeway there are scarcely any houses to 
be seen; but about half way between that 
place and Fort Erie they are thickly scattered 
along the banks of the river. The houses 
in the neighbourhood were remarkably well 
built, and appeared to be kept 19 a state of 
great neatness; most of them were sheathed 
with boards, and painted white. The lands 
adjoining them are rich, and were well cul¬ 
tivated. The crops of Indian corn were still 
standing here, which had a most luxuriant 
aspect; in many of the fields, there did not 
appear to be a stem less than eight feet in 
height. Between the rows they sow gourds, 
squashes, and melons, of which last every sort 
attains to a state of great perfection in the 
open air throughout the inhabited parts of the 
two provinces. Peaches in this part of the 
country likewise come to perfection in the 
open air, but in Lower Canada, the summers 
are too short to permit them to ripen suf¬ 
ficiently. The winters here are very severe 
whilst they last, but it is seldom that the snow 
lies longer than three months on the ground. 
The summers are intensely hot, Fahrenheit's 
thermometer often rising to 96°, and sometimes 
above !G 0 Q . 
As I passed along to Fort Erie, I killed a 
great many large snakes of different sorts that 
I found basking in the sun. Amongst them 
