From this expedition Champlain learned much regarding the geography of eastern North America, and he brought back with him to France, to present to King Henry IV, two scarlet tanagers—­one of the commonest and most beautiful birds of the eastern United States—­a girdle of porcupine quills made from the Canadian porcupine, and the head of a gar-pike caught in Lake Champlain.[23]

[Footnote 23:  Unconsciously, no doubt, he brought away with him to the King of France one of the most remarkable freshwater fish living on the North-American continent, for the gar-pike belongs, together with the sturgeon and its allies, to an ancient type of fish the representatives of which are found in rock formations as ancient as those of the Secondary and Early Tertiary periods.  Champlain may be said to have discovered this remarkable gar-pike (Lepidosteus osseus), which is covered with bony scales “so strong that a poniard could not pierce them”.  The colour he describes as silver-grey.  The head has a snout two feet and a half long, and the jaws possess double rows of sharp and dangerous teeth.  These teeth were used by the natives as lancets with which to bleed themselves when they suffered from inflammation or headache.  Champlain declares that the gar-pike often captures and eats water birds.  It would swim in and among rushes or reeds and then raise its snout out of the water and keep perfectly still.  Birds would mistake this snout for the stump of a tree and would attempt to alight on it; whereupon the fish would seize them by the legs and pull them down under the water.]

On Champlain’s return from France in 1610 (he and other Frenchmen and Englishmen of the time made surprisingly little fuss about crossing the North Atlantic in small sailing vessels, in spite of the storms of spring and autumn) he found the Iroquois question still agitating the minds of the Algonkins, Montagnais, and Hurons.  Representatives of these tribes were ready to meet this great captain of the Mistigosh or Matigosh[24] (as they called the French), and implored him to keep his promise to take part in another attack on the dreaded enemy of the Adirondak heights.  Apparently the Iroquois (Mohawks) this time had advanced to meet the attack, and were ensconced in a round fortress of logs built near the Richelieu River.[25] The Algonkins and their allies on this expedition were armed with clubs, swords, and shields, as well as bows and arrows.  The swords of copper(?) were really knife blades attached to long sticks like billhooks.  Before the barricade, as usual, both parties commenced the fight by hurling insults at each other till they were out of breath, and shouting “till one could not have heard it thunder”.  The circular log barricade, however, would never have been taken by the Algonkins and their allies but for the assistance of Champlain and three or four Frenchmen, who with their musketry fire at short range paralysed the Iroquois.  Champlain and one other Frenchman were wounded with arrows in the neck and arm, but not seriously.  The victory of the allies was followed by the usual torture of prisoners, which Champlain made a slight—­only slight—­attempt to prevent.