THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 

 CHAUTAUQUA 



I. Chautauqua's Natural History Background 



The Chautauqua Assembly Grounds are very favorably 

 located for the study of Natural History. Western New 

 York has been famous, from the earliest days, for the beauty 

 and diversity of its rolling hills, its lovely woodlands, its 

 verdant, stream-cut valleys, and its picturesque lakes. Lake 

 Chautauqua is richly stocked with the varied forms of aquatic 

 and semi-aquatic plant and animal life which are characteristic 

 of the northeastern United States. 



Within the Assembly Grounds itself are the pleasant 

 wooded streets; groves, open and with undergrowth; thickets 

 and ravines; brooks; grasslands, mown and unmown; orchard- 

 land; the strand and the shallow water of the lake. 



Within easy walking distance are many interesting and rep- 

 resentative types of natural regions, including the extensive 

 woodlands to the west, drumlins and glaciated hills, swamp- 

 lands, deltas and spits along the lake, forested ravines and 

 other less marked forms. All-day excursions to places of the 

 most varied fauna and flora are easily feasible. 



Geology: The Chautauqua region is the most westerly 

 New York portion of the great New York-Pennsylvania 

 Plateau, which occupies fully one-third of New York State. 

 It is made up entirely of Devonian rocks, mostly upper 

 Devonian shales and sandstones, some of which are richly 

 fossiliferous. The well-known escarpment or " hill " between 

 Mayville and Westfield forms the northern margin of this 

 remarkable plateau. 



Plant Life: On the Chautauqua Grounds are sixty species 

 of native trees, representing thirty-five genera and eighteen 



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