THE INTERESTING GEOLOGICAL FEATURES AT THE 

 CHAMPLAIN ASSEMBLY, CLIFF HAVEN, N. Y. 



BY GEORGE H. HUDSON 



Visitors reaching the grounds of the Champlain Assembly by the 

 Delaware and Hudson Railroad must notice that the last few miles 

 of the journey are over an exceptionally level roadbed. The land 

 at Cliff Haven is spread out like a plain which tips gently toward 

 Lake Champlain with a drop of about i foot in 90. One marked 

 exception to this general and rather widespread flatness of surface 

 is the large rocky elevation on which the Hotel Champlain stands, 

 elevated nearly 150 feet above the eastern edge of the assembly 

 grounds. 



If the visitor arrives by boat he will observe the very marked 

 irregularity in the Lake Champlain shore line which is caused by the 

 position of this elevated area, for here the lake is not only bordered 

 by high and vertical rock cliffs, but these project into the lake 

 itself, a part of the cliff face being nearly a mile east of a straight 

 line connecting the Champlain Assembly bathing beach with the 

 mouth of the Salmon river ; hence the name " Bluff point." 



A student of nature may well ask himself the reason of this 

 great elevated rock mass to the south, now beautifully clothed with 

 woodlands, affording a veritable sanctuary for birds and a flora of 

 unusual interest. What were the forces which gave rise to this 

 rock barrier, with its long and protecting seaward arm (shown in 

 figures 1 and 2), and to the recess on the north, with its beautiful 

 bay and sand beach so well protected from the waves of a " south 

 blow " and forming a veritable " Cliff Haven " ? 



The thoughtful student should first of all visit the apex of the 

 somewhat acute angle where the beach meets the cliff (indicated 

 by arrows in figures 1 and 2) and there note the great difference 

 in character between the kind of rock forming the south cliff and 

 the kind of rock lying in contact with it on the north. A view of this 

 contact is given in figure 3. The rock on the north side (the right) 

 consists of sheets of a hard but brittle limestone with many partings 

 of weak shale. This rock belongs to the Trenton formation and 

 crumbles readily and rapidly under the action of frost, water, and 

 the roots of trees. In the early spring the lake also reaches the cliff 

 base (see figure 4) and lake ice and wave action help to break down 

 this wall. That this wall is receding rapidly will be realized by 



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