The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-09-10
A BATTLE REGION OF EMPIRE.

=
uel Champlain discovered the lake tc
which he gave his name, Recently,
on the occasion of the excursion of the
Vermont Fish and Game Leauge,
many people re-discovered the crystal
sheet which, in the deepest core OF
the free wilderness" expanded its
mirror to the gaze of the French ex-
plorer-first of the pale faces, and
among these were numbers who had be-
fore sailed over the shimmering waters
of the lake. The good steamer Chateau
gay carried some hundreds of explor-
ers from Burlington southwark. She
bore them between nook shotten
coasts" beyond which rose the green
hills of Vermont on the one hand,
and on the other the Adirondack
peaks of the Empire State, - Past
lands of quiet splendor where pleas
ant waters lave" past lands basking
in the haze and sunshine of a Septem-
Der day of tempered warmth and radi-
ance Green slopes and harvest fields
rose from the shores to the foot hills
of the mountains. Flocks were graz
ing in the pastures or reposing in the
shade of spreading elms. II was a
pastoral scene. The dwellings of the
farmers, the country houses and cot
tages of city residents, dotted the
landscape or adorned the shore. 1t was
a panorama of peace,
But pass three feeting centuries
back;
This land torpid giant slept,
Wrapt in his mantle thick aud black
That DER his mighty form had crept
Since time began---".
Champlain, having founded Quebec
in 1908, in the following year
sailed from the st. Lawrence to spy
out the land to the south He passed
into aud up the eXpanse of water upon
whose bosom the tide of empire was
destined to ebb and flow Following
the course Of an afflueut stream he
came into the bejewelled waters among
the hills which the aborigines, with
their keen sense of the poetical fit
ness of things. called Horizon, which
the French, in similar but homely
recognition Of the purity of its waters,
called st. Sacrament brit to which
the later coming English, in COM
memoration of their sovereign. gave
the name which abides today. A
rose by any other name would smell
as sweet and Lake George, despite its
inheritance from unsavory royalty,
is still a name that stands for what is
most beautiful in nature, spot dedi-
Gated to summer enjoyments, which
the chimney stacks of industry or the
iron roads Of commerce, even in this
intensely material age, have not pre-
sumed to invade and profane.
While the Frenchman was finding
and following the water ways leading
south, an Englishman was entering a
great stream which was pouring its
floods into an arm of the Atlantic and
pushing his way toward its sources.
Ohamplain and Hudson, representatives
OF the nations which, generations
later, in bloody wars were to contend
for the possession of these regions,
may have been in close proximity in
the wilderness about the headwaters
of the streams flowing north to the st.
Lawrence, and those flowing south to
the Hudson. From Quebec to Man
haitian they had determined the far
flung battle line" along which, later,
the conflict for empire was waged.
For the feudal contests of the aborigi-
mes, whose rights each nation was dis
regarding,a war of conquest was substi-
tuted which ended in the extinction of
the dominion of France: which ended
later in the conquering of the conquer
ors and the independence of the col
onists who had BEEN the chief factor in
the British victory over the French.
In all these wars, colonial and revolus
tionary, the tide of conflict was along
the lines mapped out by Champlain
and Hudson, and the great link in the
chain of military operations was Lake
Champlain Every mile of tine lake
is historic.
The discoveries peaceful entry into
these wilderness regions was followed,
in 1871, by the settlement of his coun-
trymen on the eastern shore of the
lower lake opposite Grown Point. They
built their cabins, cultivated their
fields and reared their herds. In the
same year the French built strong
fort on the opposite shore at the north
end of peninsula called Grown
Point and named the fortification Sc.
Frederic The peninsula extended
northerly from the main land, mar
rowing the lake at this place to about
one half mile in width. In course of
time wars alarums drove the set
tiers on the Vermont shore to seek
safety at The north end of the lake.
The chimneys of their deserted cabins,
conspicuous feature in the land