THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. xut.— DECEMBER, 1879. — No. 12. 
ARCHAOLOGY OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY. 
BY PROF. GEO. H. PERKINS. : 
HE region which surrounds Lake Champlain presents a very 
great variety in its surface features. As the tourist sails 
through the lake he may see, here lowlands, there mountains; on 
the one hand rocky hillsides, on the other meadows or marshes ; 
here boundless forests, there wide and sparsely timbered plains, 
the whole intersected by numerous large streams and in the midst 
the lake itself, its northern portion filled with large islands, while 
south of these is open water. Such a territory must, if we can 
judge, have offered very great attractions to those savage tribes 
of red men who, in the early days before the white men began to 
encroach upon the lands they called their own, roamed through 
the forests or glided in their canoes over the water, for here they 
would find hunting grounds occupied by a great variety of game, 
surrounding fishing grounds of equal richness, fertile fields for — 
the cultivation of the few vegetables which they used, and many 
a wild retreat in which they could conceal themselves from any 
powerful foe who should attack and defeat them. In such a 
region we should expect to discover many a site of an ancient 
village and great numbers of those stone implements which indi- 
` cate the former presence of those who made and used them. 
We do not, however, find these expectations fully realized, for 
remains of ancient settlements are very rare, and no sure evidence 
exists of any long continued occupation of any locality in the 
immediate vicinity of the lake, and if a considerable population, 
with fixed settlements, ever lived there, it was long before the 
VOL, XIN.—NO. XII. ; 49 
advent of the early explorers. In the writings of Champlain and 
others, we find intimations, in the quoted: statements of fate sav- ce 
