SKETCH OF HORATIO HALE. 409 



They lived in commodious bark-covered houses, cultivated exten- 

 sive maize fields, and had encircled their chief town with a triple 

 row of tree trunks, planted as palisades, and thus making it a 

 fortress of great strength. When Champlain, nearly sixty years 

 later, ascended the river for the purpose of founding near it a 

 French colony, this " kingdom," with all its subject towns, had 

 disappeared. " A few wandering Algonkins occupied, but hardly 

 pretended to possess, the country which had been the seat of this 

 lost empire." Its destruction has been generally ascribed to the 

 attacks of these Algonkins. Mr. Hale's inquiries proved con- 

 clusively that this supposition was an error. The Huron tradi- 

 tions showed that in times long prior to Cartier's visit the Huron 

 and Iroquois nations, speaking similar dialects, or perhaps the 

 same dialect, had dwelt in unity near together along the St. Law- 

 rence ; that at length a rupture, of which the occasion and circum- 

 stances are minutely remembered, took place, followed by a des- 

 perate conflict ; that this conflict caused at first the retreat of the 

 Iroquois people to the region which is now northern New York ; 

 and, finally, after along-protracted warfare, resulted in the defeat 

 of the Hurons and their expulsion from their former seats. The 

 Algonkins, instead of being their enemies, were their friends 

 and allies, and still remained, when Champlain arrived, the bitter 

 enemies of the Iroquois. 



This outline of Mr. Hale's scientific work may be properly 

 concluded by an extract from a brief sketch of his life, which 

 appeared in the Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography : " He con- 

 tributed to periodicals in the United States, Great Britain, and 

 Canada, on scientific and literary topics, and has taken particular 

 interest in educational matters. Through his efforts the Clinton 

 High School and the Clinton Mechanics' Institute and Library 

 Association were established, and he was for many years chair- 

 man of the High School Board and President of the Institute. 

 While holding these positions he gave much time to correspond- 

 ence and interviews with the Ontario authorities, and to the cir- 

 culation of petitions to the Legislature, which resulted in largely 

 increased public grants to the high schools and mechanics' insti- 

 tutes throughout the province, and in legislation which greatly 

 enhanced their efficiency. One important result of the legislation 

 thus promoted by Mr. Hale, it may be mentioned, was to secure 

 the admission of female pupils into the high schools, on the same 

 terms and with the same advantages which were allowed to male 

 pupils a privilege which had previously been denied to them. 

 Mr. Hale has also taken part in various public enterprises, and, in 

 especial, was chairman of the committee which secured the 

 means for the construction of the London, Huron, and Bruce Rail- 

 way a successful work, which has added largely to the prosper- 



