730 [Assembly 



whole night the conflagration raged, exhibiting to tlie gaze of 

 hundreds, almost the splendor and awe of a volcanic eruption^ in 

 its wildest vehemence.* 



Public sentiment will not ratify the acts of private men, who 

 would obliterate the aboriginal names of the great physical features 

 of this continent, and substitute those of individuals, however 

 eminent their political position or excellent and esteemed their 

 private characters. The Indian nomenclature is pre-eminently 

 rich in its forcfe and euphony, and in the beauty and illustrative 

 appropriateness of its designations. The names they have attach- 

 ed to physical objects, will soon be the only vestiges of their exis- 

 tence. They will leave no other monuments of their former pre- 

 sence upon the land they once possessed, and fondly deemed their 

 own peculiar heritage. 



LAKES. 



Lake Chainj)lain—\\\ an early part of this report, I glanced at 

 the military aspect and commercial importance of Lake Champlain. 

 The rare and exceeding beauty of its scenery arrests, and delights 

 the observer. On the east it is bounded by an undulating plain, 

 rich in a high and luxuriant culture, whilst beyond this, the 

 horizon is limited by the bold and broken outline of the Green 

 Mountains. On the western border the dark and towering 

 Adirondacs, spread far into the interior, here and there project- 

 ing their rugged spurs into the bosom of the lake, and often form- 

 ing lofty and inaccessible headlands, covered with forests, or ex- 

 posing bleak and frowning masses of naked rock. The lake ranges 

 in width, from one mile to fifteen miles. It is studded by innu- 

 merable islands ; some of which are mere rocky projections j others 

 clothed in their native green woods, rest like gems upon the wa-. 

 ters, and others, formed by alluvial deposits, are unsurpassed in 

 their native loveliness, or in their exuberant fertility. 



The severity of a northern climate, closes the navigation of this 

 lake, no inconsiderable portion of the year. The ice usually forms 

 upon the broadest part about the 1st of February, and remains in 

 an average of years, until near the 1st of April. The navigation 

 is suspended for a longer period, by the ice forming earlier and 



•Iddo Osgood, Esq. 



