the wharf
he was the first of its passengers to leap on the land--and in after
years, George Edgar Vincent, LL.D., was wont to claim that he, at the
mature age of nine years, was the original discoverer of Chautauqua!

[Illustration: Old Amphitheater]

[Illustration: Old Auditorium in Miller Park]

It was in the summer of 1873, soon after the fourth session of the Erie
Conference Camp Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that Dr.
Vincent came, saw, and was conquered. His normal class and its
subsidiary lectures and entertainments should be held under the beeches,
oaks, and maples shading the terraced slopes rising up from Lake
Chautauqua.

A lady who had attended the camp meeting in 1871, its second session
upon the grounds at Fair Point, afterward wrote her first impressions of
the place. She said that the superintendent of the grounds, Mr. Pratt
(from whom an avenue at Chautauqua received its name some years
afterward), told her that until May, 1870, "the sound of an axe had not
been heard in those woods." This lady (Mrs. Kate P. Bruch) wrote:

Many of the trees were immense in size, and in all
directions, from the small space occupied by those
who were tenting there, we could walk through seas
of nodding ferns; while everywhere through the
forest was a profusion of wild flowers, creeping
vines, murmuring pine, beautiful mosses and
lichens. The lake itself delighted us with its
lovely shores; where either highly cultivated
lands dotted with farmhouses, or stretches of pine
forest, met on all sides the cool, clear water
that sparkled or danced in the sunlight, or gave
subdued but beautiful reflection of the moonlight.
We were especially charmed with the narrow,
tortuous outlet of the lake--then so closely
resembling the streams of tropical climes. With
the trees pressing closely to the water's edge,
covered with rich foliage, tangled vines clinging
and swaying from their branches; and luxuriant
undergrowth, through which the bright cardinal
flowers were shining, it was not difficult to
fancy one's self far from our northern clime,
sailing over water that never felt the cold clasp
of frost and snow.

The steamers winding their way through the romantic outlet were soon to
be lad