Very interesting.  It could be that the Hudson River has just had much more written about it than Lake Champlain.  A Google search for " 'Lake Champlain' history book" has only about 263,000 hits, while a search for " 'Hudson River' history book" has about 931,000 hits.  Proportionately, however, based on the Google results, it does appear that writers of Lake Champlain history have been perhaps more careful than Hudson River writers to avoid "which bears his name." 

 

Or maybe its an influence from Canada.  A Google search for " 'Fraser River' 'which bears his name' " produced only about 127 hits, while a search for " 'Fraser River' history book" produces about 135,000 hits.  While there might be far fewer books about the Fraser River than even Lake Champlain, the use of "which bears his name" for this river seems practically miniscule by comparison. 

 

In a message dated 4/10/2007 3:16:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: