446 Karl M. Wiegand and Arthur J. Eames 



source of the wind. On favorable quiet summer nights, a slight land breeze blow- 

 ing toward the lake is often noticed. As a result of the modifying effect of the 

 lake, peaches may be grown along its shores though they are not hardy in the region 

 farther back toward the hills. The effect of the lake on the summer temperature 

 is not so marked, though the air is often distinctly cooler close to the lake along the 

 eastern shore, where the prevailing winds have blown across the water. In the 

 valley south of the lake, however, the temperature is generally higher than in the 

 surrounding hills, due to retarded change of air incident to the high hills on either 

 side, and possibly also to retarded radiation. Garden crops can be started earlier, 

 and will mature sooner, in this region than near the lake or back on the hills. The 

 fact has been noted that many southern plants inhabit the lake valley. Whether this 

 is due to any modifying action of the lake, or solely to the depth and protected 

 condition of the valley, is uncertain. The greater warmth of the lake valley is often 

 made graphic by the snow line on the valley slopes. Frequently during the winter 

 the snow remains on the ground on the higher hills, while toward the valley floor it 

 has melted away. The winter snows are deeper on the hills, and especially in the 

 McLean region and eastward into Cortland County, than about Ithaca. All this indi- 

 cates a slightly cooler climate back from the lake, and explains the occurrence of 

 some plants of the Canadian Life Zone on the hills and in the McLean region. 42 



THE FOREST COVERING 



The basin of Cayuga Lake lies in a highly developed agricultural region which 

 has been under settlement since 1789, when the first white man established a home in 

 this region. Extensive farm land now alternates with woodlots which on the steep 

 slopes and about the ravines are often still extensive though of second- or third- 

 growth timber. Since the lake basin lies in the Appalachian forest belt, it is 

 natural to expect the climax vegetation of all or of a greater part to be the forest, 

 and such is apparently the case. Before the advent of the white man the region was 

 in the main densely forested. Few records exist from which the primitive flora may 

 be judged, and these Dudley has brought together in such excellent form that his 

 account may be quoted at length : 43 



"That the basin of Cayuga Lake was originally densely forested over three-fourths 

 of its area, there can be little doubt. It also seems clear that the Cayuga tribe of 

 Indians who were either occupants or overlords of all the territory within, and far 

 south of our limits, had many cleared fields at the time of the arrival on the shores 

 of our lake, of the Jesuits, Father Joseph Chaumonot and Father Rene Menard, in 

 Aug. 1656. Although they dwelt among the Indians until the remarkable flight of 

 all the missionaries in Mar. 1657, before the supposed conspiracy of the League ; 

 and although they wrote voluminous letters of their life, their trials, their hopes 

 and their failures, there is scarcely a word upon the aspect of the natural world 

 which surrounded them. The mission at Cayuga was restored in 1668, and Stephen 

 de Carheil remained there till 1684, when he was driven out by two Cayuga chiefs. 



42 The effect of climate on plant and animal distribution in the basin has been discussed, 

 not only by Dudley in the Cayuga Flora, but also by Reed and Wright and by Allen, in the 

 publications cited below. The soil survey bulletins, mentioned elsewhere, contain brief accounts 

 of climate; more extended accounts are found in the articles by Wilson and Turner cited below. 



Reed, Hugh D., and Wright, Albert H. The vertebrates of the Cayuga Lake Basin, N. Y. 

 Amer. Philosoph. Soc. Proc. 48:370-459. 1909. 



Allen, Arthur A. The red-winged blackbird: a study in the ecology of a cat-tail marsh. Linn. 

 Soc. New York. Proc. (Abstr.), nos. 24-25(1911-13) :43-128. 1914. 



Wilson, W. M. The night winds of Lake Cayuga. U. S. Agr. Dept. Climatological Service of 

 the Weather Bureau, New York Section. Report for August, 1906, p. 59. 



Turner, E. T. The central lake region. In The climate of New York State. New York 

 Weather Bureau. Ann. rept. 8(1896): 440-441. (Also in New York State Assembly Documents, 

 vol. 25, 1897.) 1897. 



43 The Cayuga Flora, page xix. By William R. Dudley. 



