140 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
• 
I did not find any rattlesnakes: these reptiles* 
however* are very commonly met with here ; 
and at the distance of twenty or thirty miles 
from the river* up the country* it is said that 
.they are so numerous .as to render the survey¬ 
ing of land .a matter of very great danger. It 
is a circumstance strongly in favour of Lower 
Canada* that the rattlesnake is not found 
there; it is seldom found* indeed* to the north¬ 
ward of the forty-fifth parallel of north lati¬ 
tude. 
Fort Erie stands at the eastern extremity of 
Lake Erie ; it is a small stockaded fort* some¬ 
what similar to that at Chippeway; and ad¬ 
joining it* are extensive stores as at Chip-? 
peway* and about half a dozen miserable little 
dwellings* On arriving there* I had no dif¬ 
ficulty in discovering my companions; I found 
them lodged in a small log-house* which con¬ 
tained but the one room* and just sitting down 
to a supper* they had procured through the 
assistance of a gentleman in the Indian depart¬ 
ment* who accompanied them from Chippe- 
way. This habitation w as the property of an 
old woman* who in her younger days had fol¬ 
lowed the drum* and now gained her liveli¬ 
hood by accommodating* to the best of her 
power* such travellers as passed by Fort Erie, 
A sorry habitation it was; the crazy door was 
ready to drop off the binges* and in all the 
