It is a peninsula, connected to tlie main by a very narrow isthmus, the extremities of wliich are at the villages of Whitehall, on Lalce Champlain, and Fort Edward, on the Hudson, about twenty-five miles apart. The lowest portion of that isthmus is not more tlian fifty feet above Lake Champlain, whose waters are only ninety above the sea. This istlimus is made still narrower by the waters of Wood Creek, which flow into Lake Champlain, and of Fort Edward Creek, wliich empty into the Hudson. These are navigable for light canoes, at some seasons of the year, to within a mile and a-half of each other. The canal, which now connects the Hudson and Lake Champlain, really makes New England an island.

THE HUDSON. 39

of the aute-ColuniLiau period, darting swiftly through ia thoir baik canoes, intent upon blood and plunder. Then came Champlain and his men [1609], with guns and sabres, to aid the Hurons in contests "with the Adirondacks and other Iroquois at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Then came French and Indian allies, led by Marin [1745], passing swiftly through that door, and sweeping with terrible force down the Hudson valley to Saratoga, to smite the Dutch and English settlers there. Again French and Indian warriors came, led by Montcalm, Dieskau, and others [1755-1759], to drive the English from that door, and secure it for the house of Bourbon. A little later came troops of several nationalities, with Burgoyne at their head [1777], rushing through that door with power, driving \imerican republicans southward, like chaff before the wind, and sweeping victoriously down the valley of the Hudson to Saratoga and beyond. And, lastly, came another British force, with Sir George Prevost at their head [1814], to take possession of that door, but were turned back at the northern threshold with discomfiture.