12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



centuries ago, by the fierce war parties of the merciless Iroquois, as 

 they journeyed with a fleet of birch-bark canoes, from their wig- 

 wams on the Mohawk, to harass and imperil the three exposed col- 

 onies of New France — Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec — 

 already crippled and disheartened by early struggles with the Hu- 

 rons and Algonquins. It is well to bear these facts in mind, lest, 

 by forgetting that modern civilization has overcome so many bar- 

 riers and established so many channels of communication between 

 different regions, we lose sight of the great natural avenues that 

 were known so well to the aborigines, and to our forefathers. This 

 narrow valley, penetrating the primeval forests of the north, and 

 walled in by the Adirondacks on the west, and the Green Mountains 

 of Vermont on the east, exerts a powerful influence over the life of 

 adjoining lands, carr}'ing southern forms into the heart of a great 

 northern wilderness. Along the opposite border of the Adiron- 

 dacks we hav^e seen that the mountains and foot-hills slope gradually 

 to the westward till they disappear in the valley of the Black River. 

 Here, on the contrary, lofty rugged mountains rise some from 

 the very water's edge, and many of the highest peaks of the entire 

 region lie within a few miles from the shores of Lakes George and 

 Champlain. Among these mountains breed such northern birds as 

 the Hermit and Olive-backed Thrushes, the Red-bellied Nuthatch, 

 the Winter Wren, the Yellow- rumped, Blackburnian, Black and 

 Yellow, Mourning, and Canada Fly-catching Warblers, both Cross- 

 bills, the White-throated Sparrow, the Raven, the Canada Jay, both 

 Three toed Woodpeckers, and the Spruce Grouse ; while in the 

 valley below may be found the. Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, 

 House Wren, Large-billed Water Thrush, Field Sparrow, Chewink^ 

 Mourning Dove and other species supposed to pertain to the Alle- 

 ghanian Fauna, through much more characteristic of the Carolinian. 

 Nowhere, except in the Catskills, do representatives from the Cana- 

 dian and Carolinian Faunae so nearly meet as upon the mountain 

 sides bordering the southwestern part of Lake George. 



