The custom of moving villages is a possible explanation as to why the exact location of the Iroquois settlement remains a mystery in the present day, despite the numerous hypotheses that locate it close to Mount Royal. William Douw Lighthall maintained that Hochelaga was located at the Dawson site, discovered in 1860 close to McGill University. The site appears to correspond to a village preceding the foundation of Ville-Marie by one or two centuries, but which lacked a palisade and seemed to be too cramped. Another proposed location is Outremont, north of the mountain, which would be more likely if Cartier had arrived via the Rivière des Prairies. The urbanist Pierre Larouche, based on the topometric data deduced from the Gastaldi illustration, has proposed that the village was situated on the summit of the mountain. This hypothesis is not well-supported, as "La Terra de Hochelaga" is a second-hand reconstruction. Furthermore, Cartier states clearly that the mountain was "adjacent to their said village", that Hochelaga was "close to and adjoining a mountain", and that he went to Mount Royal a distance of a quarter-league of the site, the distance that, in fact, separates the basin of Mount Royal from the surrounding hills dominating it. Archaeological excavations undertaken recently on the summit of the mountain, around the basin, and in the Jeanne-Mance Park east of Mount Royal have come up empty. The exact location of Hochelaga remains unknown.