Getting a Feel for the Finger Lakes and Champlain, Part 1

BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we tell you about Lake Champlain and the Finger Lakes in the northeastern United States. BARBARA KLEIN: Lake Champlain borders two states, New York and Vermont, and Quebec, Canada. Many people like to vacation at this freshwater lake. They enjoy sailing and fishing, water skiing, swimming, or just sitting at the water's edge, daydreaming. The waters can look so still and blue, like a painting, though they can also become rough with waves when the wind blows. STEVE EMBER: Much of the area around Lake Champlain has a country feeling. Nearby are woods where people can hike. In the fall, visitors can watch the sugar maple trees surrender their colorful autumn leaves. Many animals and birds live around Lake Champlain. Road signs warn drivers to watch out for moose, big animals that can walk into the road. Visitors at the lake also keep their eyes open for "Champ." Champ is like an American Nessie, the sea monster that supposedly lives in Loch Ness in Scotland. BARBARA KLEIN: Over the years there have been reports of something in Lake Champlain. A nineteen seventy-seven photograph only fed the mystery. In the distance it shows what appears to be a large creature in the water. Champ can also be found helping the local economy by appearing on souvenirs like T-shirts and coffee cups. STEVE EMBER: Lake Champlain is a long, narrow body of water. The lake is one hundred ninety-three kilometers long and nineteen kilometers at its widest. It reaches a depth of one hundred twenty-two meters. The lake flows north from Whitehall, New York. Over the Canadian border it makes its way into the Richelieu (RISH-ah-loo) River in Quebec. The Richelieu joins the Saint Lawrence River which feeds into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Lake Champlain lies in a valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. A number of communities are near Lake Champlain. The largest is Burlington, a city of thirty-eight thousand people in Vermont. BARBARA KLEIN: Lake Champlain has more than seventy islands. One island in Vermont, Isle La Motte, is known for its prehistoric geological formations. The Chazy (SHAY-zee) Reef on the island contains coral, like a reef in a warm, tropical ocean. Scientists say this is because when the Chazy Reef began to form hundreds of millions of years ago, it was in the southern half of the world. Then the plates that form the surface of the Earth began to move around and gave the reef a new home. Source: Voice of America