"The proprietor of one of the large quarries of gypsum on the Shubenacadie showed me some wooden stakes, dug up a few days before by one of his laborers from a considerable depth in a peat bog. His men were persuaded that they were artificially cut by a tool, and were the relics of aboriginal Indians; but, having been a trapper of beavers in his younger days, he knew well that they owed their shape to the teeth of these creatures. We meet with the skulls and bones of beavers in the fens of Cambridgeshire, and elsewhere in England. May not some of the old tales of artificially cut wood, occurring at great depths in peats and morasses, which have puzzled many a learned antiquary, admit of the like explanation?"—Lyell's Travels in America, vol. ii., p. 229.
No. XXXIX.
"The Hudson's Bay Company is now the only survivor of the numerous exclusive bodies, to which almost every branch of British trade was at one time subjected. The Northwest Company, after a long and furious contest, destructive alike to the interests of both, and most demoralizing to the savage aborigines, were at length obliged to yield to their rivals; and, in consequence of their overstrained exertions, they became involved beyond their capital. They obtained in 1821 an honorable capitulation. On transferring all their property and means of influence, the principal partners were admitted to shares in the Hudson's Bay Company, who took the inferior officers into their service. Thus these two concerns were united, with great advantage to the peace of the fur countries, and perhaps to the permanent interests of the trade. A great blank was indeed felt in the city where the partners had resided, and where, according to Washington Irving, they had held huge feasts and revels, such as are described to have taken place in Highland castles. 'The hospitable magnates of Montreal, the lords of the lakes and forests, have passed away,' and that city, as to the fur trade, has sunk to a subordinate station.
"In the present case, there are some peculiar circumstances which plead strongly in favor of the monopoly exercised by the Hudson's Bay Company. For example, their trade is carried on throughout vast regions, free from all control of law, and tenanted by savage races, who are easily prompted to deeds of violence. The struggle with the Northwest Company filled large tracts with outrage, often amounting to bloodshed. The article, too, by far the most prized by those tribes, and which, amid an eager rivalry, can not be prevented from coming into the market, is spirits, the immoderate use of which is productive of the most dreadful consequences. The company, by their present position, obtained the opportunity, of which they have most laudably availed themselves, to withdraw it altogether as an object of trade, merely giving an occasional glass when the natives visit the factories. They have even prohibited it from passing, under any pretext, to the northward of Cumberland House, on the Saskatchawan, so that all the settlements beyond form complete temperance societies. Another very important specialty in their case consists in the nature of the commodities drawn from this range of territory, namely, they are such as human industry can not produce or multiply according to the demand. The wild animals, which afford its staple of furs and skins, exist only in a limited number, and being destined to give way in proportion as colonization advances, will soon be thinned, or even utterly exterminated. Bands of individual hunters, with no permanent interest in the country, capture all they can reach, young and old indiscriminately, without any regard to keeping up the breed. Thus the beaver, the most valuable of the furred animals, has been nearly destroyed in Upper and Lower Canada, and much diminished in the districts beyond the Rocky Mountains, which are traversed by trapping parties from the States. During the competition of the Northwest adventurers, a great part even of the wooded countries suffered severely; but since the Hudson's Bay Company obtained the entire control, they have carefully nursed the various animals, removing their stations from the districts where they had become scarce, and prohibiting all wasteful and destructive modes of capture. It may be finally observed, that in this vast open territory the means of excluding rivalry are so imperfect, that without good management and liberal dealing it would be impossible to maintain their privilege. In fact, Mr. Irving admits, that by the legitimate application of large capital, by good organization, regular transmission of supplies, with faithful and experienced servants, they have carried all before them, even in the western territory, where they are exposed to a full competition from the United States. Several associations from thence have made very active efforts to supplant or rival them, but without success."—Washington Irving's Adventures of Captain Bonneville, vol. ii., p. 17, 19; vol. iii., p. 267, 272; H. Murray's British America, vol. iii., p. 83.
No. XL.
"This species of rattlesnake is most commonly found between four and five feet in length, and as thick as the wrist of a large man. Its body approaches to a triangular form, the back bone rising higher than any other part of the animal. It is not with the teeth which the rattlesnake uses for ordinary purposes that it strikes its enemy, but with two long, crooked fangs in the upper jaw, which point down the throat. When about to use these fangs, it rears itself up as much as possible, throws back its head, drops its under jaw, and, springing forward upon its tail, endeavors to hook itself, as it were, upon its enemy. In order to raise itself upon its tail, it coils itself up previously in a spiral line, with the head in the middle. It can not spring further forward than about half its own length. Tho body of the rattlesnake, finely pulverized, after being dried to a cinder over the fire, and then infused in a certain portion of brandy, is said to be a never-failing remedy against the rheumatism. The liquor is taken inwardly, in the quantity of a wine-glassful at once about three times a day. It is said that one of the reasons why these creatures are decreasing so much in the neighborhood of human habitations, is, that they are eaten by the pigs."—Sir G. Simpson's Journey round the World, vol. i., p. 159; Weld, p. 411.
"The rattle is usually about half an inch in breadth, one quarter of an inch in thickness, and each joint about half an inch long. The joint consists of a number of little cases of a dry, horny substance, inclosed one within another; and not only the outermost of these little cases articulates with the outermost case of the contiguous joint, but each case, even to the smallest one of all, at the inside, is connected by a sort of joint with the corresponding case in the next joint of the rattle. The little cases or shells lie very loosely within one another, and the noise proceeds from their dry and hard coats striking one against the other. It is said that the animal joins a fresh joint to its rattle every year. Of this, however, I have great doubts; for the largest snakes are frequently found to have the fewest joints to their rattles. A medical gentleman in the neighborhood of Newmarket had a rattle in his possession which contained no less than thirty-two joints; yet the snake from which it was taken scarcely measured five feet. Rattlesnakes, however, of the same kind, and in the same part of the country, have been found of a greater length with not more than ten rattles."—Weld, p. 409.
"Man or animals bitten by the rattlesnake expire in extreme agony; the tongue swells to an enormous size, the blood turns black, and, all the extremities becoming cold, gangrene ensues, and is speedily succeeded by death. The remedies in common use are the Polygala seneca or Aristolochia serpentaria, employed as a decoction. Sometimes scarification, or cauterizing the wound with a burning iron, if immediate in their application, is attended with success. The Indians' favorite remedy is sucking the wound, which in a slight bite is generally successful. Mr. Catesby, by traveling much among the Indians, had frequent opportunities of seeing the direful effects of the bite inflicted by these snakes. He seems to consider that the success of any remedy is owing more to the force of nature or to the slightness of the bite than to any other cause. He has known persons bitten to survive without assistance for many hours; but where a rattlesnake with full force penetrates with his deadly fangs into a vein or artery, inevitable death ensues, and that, as he has often seen, in less than two minutes. The Indians, for this reason, know their destiny directly they are bit, and when they perceive it is mortal, apply no remedy, concluding all efforts in vain. From experiments made in Carolina by Captain Hall, and related in the Philosophical Transactions, it appears that a rattlesnake of about four feet long, being fastened to a stake in the ground, bit three dogs, the first of which died in less than a quarter of a minute; the second, which was bitten a short time afterward, in about two hours, in convulsions; and the third, which was bitten about half an hour afterward, showed the visible effects of the poison in about three hours, and died likewise. Four days after this, another dog was bitten, which died in half a minute; and then another, which died in four minutes. A cat which was bitten was found dead the next day. The experiments having been discontinued some time, from want of subjects, a common black-snake was procured, which was healthy and vigorous, and about three feet long. It was brought to the rattlesnake, when they bit each other, the black-snake biting the rattlesnake so as to make it bleed. They were then separated, and in less than eight minutes the black-snake died, while the rattlesnake, on the contrary, showed no signs of indisposition, appearing as well as before. Lastly, in order to try whether the rattlesnake could poison itself, it was provoked to bite itself: the experiment succeeded, and the animal expired in less than twelve hours."—Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Crotalus.
Charlevoix says that "La morsure du Serpent à Sonnettes est mortelle, si on n'y rémédie sur-le-champ; mais la Providence y a pourvu. Dans tous les endroits, où se rencontre ce dangereux reptile, il croît une plante à laquelle on a donné le nom d'Herbe à Serpent à Sonnettes (Bidens Canadensis) et dont la racine est un antidote sûr contre le venin de cet animal.... Il est rare que le serpent à sonnettes attaque les passans qui ne lui cherchent point nuire. J'eu ai en un à mes pieds qui eut assurément plus de peur que moi, car je ne l'aperçus que quand il fuyoit."—Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 235.
"Archdeacon Burnaby was told by a planter in Virginia that he had one day provoked a rattlesnake to such a degree as to make it strike a small vine which grew close by, and the vine presently drooped and died."—Burnaby's Travels in North America, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 724.