THE MUSEUM. 



175 



bouching into the eastern side of the 

 lake, to which he gave the name La 

 Monette. Doubtless he was influenced 

 in the selection of this name by the 

 sight of the immense flocks of sea gulls 

 which were found in that vicinity, — 

 moiiettc being a French word and sign- 

 ifying gull. But, be that as it may. 

 the river was known for several years 

 as La Monette. At length another 

 geographer substituted the Indian name 

 which, with its French orthography 

 was Ouinousquoi. The name La 

 Monette was at the same time applied 

 to the river next north, which Cham- 

 plain had named Le Sud. A still later 

 geographer, copying partially from this 

 map, neglected, in his drawing, to 

 cross the "tt" and his engraver unwit- 

 tingly substituted "11". The error 

 was not discovered in time to be recti- 

 fied, and thus the name of this river, 

 the Le Sud of Champlain, became La 

 Monelle. Two more orthographical 

 changes were made and the name be- 

 came La Moille, by which name the 

 river is now known. 



But to return to the original La 

 Monette river. After the substitution, 

 it was generally known by its Indian 

 name, upon the French maps, until 

 the close of the French and Indian 

 war, when France relinquished all 

 claim to territory in North America. 

 Meantime Canada had become peopled , 

 by a class of men scarcely superior in 

 civilization to the native Indians. Like 

 them, they subsisted chiefly upon the 

 products of the chase, and, in search 

 of game, or adventure, they roamed 

 the vast wilderness from one extremity 

 to the other. In their excursions to 

 to the headwaters of the Connecticut 

 they generally made use of the valley 

 of the La Monette or Ouinousquoi as a 



highway. Hence the English carto- 

 graphers, in their maps of the country 

 re-named the river and called it French 

 river. It was legally known by this 

 name, and in the charters of the towns 

 along its banks, some of which were 

 dated as late as 1763, it was so-called. 



The people who next traversed the 

 country were English descent, they 

 were a shrewd, sensible, observant 

 people, with little knowledge of books 

 but intensely practical. To them, the 

 t'.rm French river had little significa- 

 tion except to remind them of their 

 late enemies. Noticing the quantities 

 of wild onions, which grew along its 

 banks, and which they often gathered 

 and stored for winter use, they named 

 the river coloquially Onion river. In 

 time this became the general name 

 and it was so called until about fifty 

 years ago, when, for the purpose of 

 giving a more euphonic name to the 

 river upon which the capital of the 

 state of Vermont is situated, its Indian 

 name, was, by common consent, re- 

 stored; but with its orthography, and 

 doubtless its pronounciation changed, 

 so that it is now known as the Win- 

 ooski river. 



Small, being but sixty-five miles in 

 length and draining an area of less 

 than one thousand square miles; nav- 

 igable in no place, it has little commer- 

 cial importance, except such as is af- 

 forded by the numerous mill-privileges 

 with which it abounds throughout its 

 entire length; less than one-tenth part 

 of which, however, are utilized. Hence 

 it is, that this river rarely receives no- 

 tice. But to the student of nature, in- 

 vestigating and inquiring into the past 

 history of the continent, no river in 

 New England possesses greater inter- 

 est; for it is in its valley that the his- 



