50 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



north, it will amount to about onehuYidred ard fifty 

 miles. Its width is from one to eighteen mi:es, 

 being very different in different places ; 

 the mean width mny be estimated at fivie 

 miles. This will give one thousand square 

 miles, or six hundred and forty thousand acrt s, 

 as the ai'ea of its surface. Its depth is sufficient 

 for the navie:ation of the larp-est vessels. It 

 contains several islands ; one of them, the Grand 

 Isle, is twenty four miles long, and from two to 

 four miles wide. 



The waters which form this lake, are col- 

 lected from a large tract of country. Ail the 

 streams, which arise in more tlian one half of 

 Vermont, fiow into it. There are several, 

 W"hich also fall into its eastern side, from the 

 province of Canada. It is probable the rivers 

 which fiow into the west side, are as large, nu- 

 merous, and extensive, as those on the east. 

 The waters therefore, from which Lake Cham- 

 plain is formed, seem to be collected from a 

 tract of ccuntr}', cf a larger extent, than the 

 whole state of Vermont. 



There are many m^aj-ks and indications that 

 the surface of this lake, was form.erly thirty or 

 forty feet liigher than it is now. The rocks m 

 several places appear to be marked, and stained, 

 wiih the former surface cf the lake, many feet 

 higher, than it has been, from its first discovery 

 by Sir Samuel Champlain, in 1608, Fossil 

 shelis, the limbs and bodies of trees, are fre- 

 quently found at the depth of fifteen or twenty 

 feet in the earth ; this is the case not onlv a- 

 long the shores, but in the low lands at the dis- 

 tance of two or three miles from them. The 



