SOUTH GYMNASIUM 280 A CORNER OF THE PLAYGROUND 290 The Story of Chautauqua CHAPTER I THE PLACE JOHN HEYL VINCENT--a name that spells Chautauqua to millions--said: "Chautauqua is a _place_, an _idea_, and a _force_." Let us first of all look at the place, from which an idea went forth with a living force into the world. [Illustration: John H. Vincent (1876)] The State of New York, exclusive of Long Island, is shaped somewhat like a gigantic foot, the heel being at Manhattan Island, the crown at the St. Lawrence River, and the toe at the point where Pennsylvania touches upon Lake Erie. Near this toe of New York lies Lake Chautauqua. It is eighteen miles long besides the romantic outlet of three miles, winding its way through forest primeval, and flowing into a shallow stream, the Chadakoin River, thence in succession into the Allegheny, the Ohio, the Mississippi, and finally resting in the bosom of the Gulf of Mexico. As we look at it upon the map, or sail upon it in the steamer, we perceive that it is about three miles across at its widest points, and moreover that it is in reality two lakes connected by a narrower channel, almost separated by two or three peninsulas. The earliest extant map of the lake, made by the way for General Washington soon after the Revolution (now in the Congressional Library at Washington), represents two separate lakes with a narrow stream between them. The lake receives no rivers or large streams. It is fed by springs beneath, and by a few brooks flowing into it. Consequently its water is remarkably pure, since none of the surrounding settlements are permitted to send their sewage into it. The surface of Lake Chautauqua is 1350 feet above the level of the ocean; said to be the highest navigable water in the United States. This is not strictly correct, for Lake Tahoe on the boundary between Nevada and California is more than 6000 feet above sea-level. But Tahoe is navigated only by motor-boats and small steamers; while Lake Chautauqua, having a considerable town, Mayville, at its northern end, Jamestown, a flourishing city at its outlet, and its shores fringed with villages, bears upon its bosom many sizable steam-vessels. It is remarkable that while Lake Erie falls into the St. Lawrence and empties into the Atlantic at iceberg-mantled Labrador and Newfoundland, Lake Chautauqua only seven miles distant, and of more than seven hundred feet higher altitude, finds its resting place in the warm Gulf of Mexico. Between these two lakes is the watershed for this part of the continent. An old barn is pointed out, five miles from Lake Chautauqua, whereof it is said that the rain falling on one side of its roof runs into Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence, while the drops on the other side through a pebbly brook find their way by Lake Chautauqua into the Mississippi.