MAY. 117 



forthcoming, when the natives were questioned. Not one 

 but could give a glowing account of the strange " varmints " 

 seen in his time, and I noticed that all were mentioned as 

 seen during the winter or at night, and always in the least 

 frequented tracts of forest. I concluded that every ani- 

 mal named was really scarce, unless it be musk-rats ; and 

 judging from my own experience, a mouse at midnight is 

 always enormously magnified. 



It was nearly useless to look along the lake shore for 

 relics of the red man, as he is called, although men with 

 skins less red never existed. The raising of the level of 

 the water some ten or twelve feet necessarily submerged 

 all village sites. At present the name alone is all that 

 suggests the ancient Delawares, Hopatcong being tortured 

 Indian for where the wild potato grows. As this plant 

 does not bloom until August, and is a rather inconspicu- 

 ous vine early in the summer, it is not strange that I failed 

 to notice it. 



Long ago my eye had caught the following in the 

 New Jersey Historical Collections : " On Lake Hopatcong 

 there is a regular causeway of stone running from an 

 island nearly across to the shore, a distance of about a 

 quarter of a mile. It was no doubt made by the Indians, 

 and was a work of great labor, the lake being very deep. 

 The water is now a little above it, occasioned by the rais- 

 ing of the lake for the Morris Canal. On the opposite 

 shore are found great numbers of Indian arrows of beauti- 

 ful shape, axes, and broken jars ; and appearances indi- 

 cate that it was the site of an Indian village." Nor cause- 

 way nor relics are traceable now, and disappointment only 

 awaits the archaeologist. 



Batrachian life in all its glory filled every available 

 nook of the shores and islands of the lake. Scarcely a 



