In the numberless lakes and rivers of Canada arc va rious kinds of fish, especially salmon, chub, and carp, like those of England ; cat-fish, the flesh of which is fat and luscious like that of the eel ; black bass, pickerells, and maskinongs, particularly the sturgeon, of large size and delicate flavour.
Upper Canada abounds in rattle-snakes, from four to six feet in length ; water-snakes, resembling the rattle snake, but not venomous ; long black snakes, about six or eight feet long, but altogether inoffensive ; green snakes, exactly coloured like the grass, but also harm less ; a variety of smaller serpents, lizards, and land tor toises.
Among the insects common in this country, may be mentioned, bees, which prepare their honey under ground ; silk-worms, which produce much less silk than those of Europe ; fire-fly, or lightning-bug, which has a very effulgent appearance at night, and two or three of which upon the hand will yield a light equal to that of a candle ; horned bug, or stag-beetle, which fly about in the evening, and whose bite is very troublesome ; mosquitoes, which abound in the forests and river-banks in the more southern districts ; locusts, which are said to visit the more central regions every six or seven years ; and in many of the islands in the St Lawrence, myriads of ticks, larger than those of Europe, which spread themselves in summer ever the surface of the ground, completely cover the herbage and plants, frequently prove fatal to the cattle which graze in these places, and are exceed ingly troublesome to human beings, .especially if they reach the head, where. without occasioning much pain, they gradually insinuate themselves beneath the skin, and are not easily dislodged.
Canada, before its discovery by Europeans, was inha bited by an immense variety of Indian tribes, whose ge neral character and manners have been already described in this work, under the article Am En ICA ; but whose par ticular designations, history, and territories, it is impossi ble to delineate. The smaller tribes, if we may judge from the number of names, amount to several hundreds ; but, as they are perpetually changing their place of resi dence—as many of them have been exterminated by war or disease—as each of them almost is mentioned by dif ferent writers under separate appellations—as the French trade's were accustomed to distinguish them by various nicknames, partly with the view of preventing them from being known to other adventurers, and partly for the purpose of concealing their subject of conversation, when they spoke of the natives in their own presence— it has thus become altogether impracticable to trace their progress, or to arrange their nations with any degree of certainty. The following sketch, however, formed from
a careful comparison of different authors, may be suffi cient to point out the principal Indian nations, by which the immense regions of Canada are still occupied, or at least occasionally visited ; and may also help to guide the reader amidst the perplexities, which he will expe rience in the perusal of North American histories and travels, from the confusion of Indian names.
The Hurons, whose proper name is said to be the Tsonnontatex, who are called also Adirondacks, and who seem to be the same people with the Utawas, dwelt originally on the cast confines of Lake Huron, but were driven from their country by the Iroquois. They fled to wards that quarter, where the French afterwards built Quebec ; and were the first who formed an alliance with the new settlers. They are more prudent, sober, artful, and able than most of the other natives ; speak the same language and have much the same appearance and man ners as their inveterate enemies the Iroquois, by whose ravages they have been almost completely exterminated.
The Iroquois, a name given by the French to what are generally called the five nations, composed of—the Mo hawks, or Maquas, or Agniers,—the Senekas, or Tson nonthuans,—the Onnondagues, or Onnontagues—the Oneidoes, or Onneyouths,—the Cayugas, or Goyogans. —These, however, are now properly the six nations, as they were joined by the Tuscororas, from the south, who dwell with the Oneidoes and Onnondagoes. These na tions, united in long and firm alliance, claim all the country south of the river St Lawrence to the Ohio, near to the borders of Virginia ; and extend 300 miles west from Lake Champlain, round Lakes Ontario and Erie. They are superior to the other tribes in stature and courage ; but inferior to many of them in swiftness of foot and skill in war. They are more civilized and in genious, than most of the other Canadian Indians, and more addicted to agricultural occupations, than to the chase. They have in general been friendly to the Eng lish ; and much depends upon the continuance of their attachment.