Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-09-22

r1cochet and bump, bump, bumpi we
SKINNED successfully sand ridges in spume
and foam; and in q trice a score of bare
legged men and even women, shoulder deep
at times in the splendid surf, with shrill
cries and crooned 'fshantyings," ran our
craft out of harms way, and with creaking
windlass soon had her at rest in "a soft bed
OF sand as she was ever rocked in by dreary
ebb and flow of tide at home in old Eastpert
harbor.
While good Captain Ballast, new the real
hero of the island, is receiving, with a drop
Of grog, proud attributes to his skill and
seamsnship at headquarters-a little collec.
ton of houses reached through a cleft In the
sand hills of the shore edge, and the only
real settlement upon the island-with that
gentle though roaring humility which ever
became the true Yankee skipper, let us chat
little about the geography, history, hydro
graphy and neurology of this vampire of the
sea, Sable Island. On your maps, in about
latitude forty-four degrees and longitude
sixty degrees, one hundred miles south Of
Cape Breton Island and ninety miles south
east of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, you
will see tiny dot surrounded by the geo.
grapher's wavY lines. This spot is Sable Is
land. The date of its discovery is not clear,
though it is said that Morse tradition as
oribes it to Heriafson in the ninth century;it
was stocked with swine three hundred and
thirty five years ago by the Portuguese; and
it must have been well known by the colo-
nists OF old Acadia, for it was made French
penal colony in 1898. The priceless black
fox and the huge walrus in those days made
the island their home. During the last
quarter of the last century and the early
part of this, Sable Island was the resort of
wreckers and pirates more heartless and
cruel than ever swept the Caribbean or gath
cred under the bloody leadership of "Black
Beard" of the Bahamas: but in 1902, after
the wreck of the stPrincess Amelia, p con-
tanning goodlY lot of the belongings of
Prince Edward, the father of Queen Victoria
the Nova Scotian government drove the pi-
rates from the island and established in a
small way 1ookouts and life saving force,
which in 1926 was effectively augmented by
annual provision by the British government.
About fifty years ago the buildings now
found here were constructed; the lookout
stations increased; and in 1873 the govern
nent erected the two immense lighthouses,
one at the western and one at the eastern
end of the island.
The entire region round for great dis
tance ia O hideous hurt to ocean navigation.
Lying almost directly in the path of the
great transatlantic highways of the sea;
set squarely in the way Of the entire coast
ing trade between all American and Canadi-
an ports; a constant menace to whalers,
cod and mackerel fishers; no other known
| island or coast has equal dangers or possesses
/ SO startling a record for death and destruc
| ton. For perhaps fifty miles in every di
rection the sea is filed with shifting shoals,
over which, in storms which almost con-
stantly rage, the ocean tosses and howls with
| Uncomfortable fury. Sunken bars extend to
| the northeast and the northwest fully thirty
| miles, and between their extreme points, for
| twenty-five miles off shore, the sea lashes
| and thunders terribly, the outreaching bars
| hidden like monstrous tentaoles grasp1ng for
prey Old Captain Ballast's theory regard
| ing the formation of this ocean vampire is
hat anQfQrint fol Ia n
| suffer somehow; u providence sot the cussed
| thing hhere to get even with anybody mean
l 'nuf to stick to sailorin'i" But for years
have made something of a study of this
i northeast coast, with the action of the sea
beside it, and rnodestly offer an additional
| theory to that of my bluff Yankee skipper.
I believe the entire formation of the Grand
/ Banks, and this knob of deadly sand set out
of water upon another vast bank, or series
| of shoals, to be due wholly to the action OF
| the opposing forces off the Gulf Stream and
the immeasurable icy currents that sweep
around Labrador and Newfoundland from
polar seas. Together, through the ages
| they have here ceaselessly deposited alluvia
! and sand until vast submarine mountains
have been piled along these waters, which
l within the memory of man have played, anC
! forever will break, in Titanic convulsioni
1 shove and around the table lands and peak
| of this measureless ocean accretions. So toe
the almost endless fegs of Newfoundland
the Grand Banks and of Sable Island waters
are simply the visible atmospheric phenome
ma of the meeting of the warm and icy airi
above this meeting of the waters; the vast
fog dust and humid smoke as it were of these
elemental struggles.
The narrow island is much the form of q
1 bow is about twenty-five miles long and is
nowhere over two miles in width. Mount
ing the old lookout and crows nest, piotur~
esqusly hanging in its peak, the entire
1 reach of land is visible with the turbulent
1 sea ever lashiug its changing shores of sand.
The most singular freak of the whole island
is the narrow lake, set like bent ribbon of
| silver in its center, perhaps half mile wide,
twelve miles long, nowhere over fifteen feet
l deep, and only tenanted by founders and
menstrous CLANS with which its bottom is
| fairly paved. The rawlings of the are
compelling constant changes. Many years
| ago Eve miles of tho western extremity Of
| the island were torn away and submerged
One storm will build an arm here or there
mile into the ocean. Another will in night
rear a new island in sight and the next night
| sweep it from existence. Again the reused
tempest will cut swath through the sand
dunes, opening the lake with an arm of the
sea- Shortly this will be closed and a noun
tain of packed sand, almost as hard as flint
will appear as If by magic instead.
Where there is such an awful record OF
death fascination turks in whatever of rug
ged life may have existed or still exists. In
| the dim days walrus, whose huge skulls are
yet bleaching in the sand, were here in vas
numbers. Then the black foxes, which may
have drifted here on fields of ice, alone in.
| habited the dolorous desert wilderness
Again the Portuguese stocked it with swine
Then wild cattle roamed here the sole
| possessors. Pirates and wreckers followed
| these as the dreaded shores came to be more
| and more the burying place of richly lader
| wrecks; for these are counted by thousands
l since the settlement of America, and to day
| true records have it that more than one ole
hulk lies buried in these changing sands
hiding vast stores of unhurt wares anC
| precious coin and metals. But lest the Gu
l pidity of men in service here shall b'
| aroused, the Canadian government persis
tently refuses quest for such treasure trove
and the daring visitor OR sodden habitan
when pacing the shores may only dream
the buried wealth beneath his feet. In som
mysterious way wild rabbits came, and 70
= the area the pest is as keen as Australia's
| Snowy owls, canni1y learning this, came il
great numbers, and these are lords of higl
: living, dining daily on rabbit pie. Brow
> rats, fat and aggressive as ever assaile
: Hamline town swarm here, often the onl
dread salvage from ocean wrecks. Hundred
| of seals, the oceans focks of bulls, COW
| and calves, bark and founder upon th
/ beaches. These, the gulls shIieking an
circling grewsomely, the half hundred or 6
I souls VINO l68Q CQ1S Q6SOIAL0 IlI0 10 save III
| for pay, inclusive of the few families a.
9 taehed to the needs of the service, are a
= that live in the sandy ocean grave, save th
4 famous little weird ponies of the island, a
hoof and head and hair, whose origin here
, variously attributed, but practically III
J, known. Perhaps there are six or seven hui
' dred of these shaggy beasts. No one know
: They refuse protection from shed or stsbl
. fatten in summer upon the luxurious grass
f in which they are all but buried from sigh
- starve among the sand dunes in winter; a
!. furious and aggressive if disturbed in the
- picturesque herds when running at will; bl
4 on the annual ''round ups" those which a
+ captured, tied and tossed into the goverl
"a nent cutter like bags of merchandise are
"a completely tanned by their helplessness az
n the rough sea trip, that on their arrival
10 Halifax the veriest child can fondle and CO
"a troll them.
7e To fully appreciate the intense dolor
Ie Sable Island to the eyes and mind of it's v
or itor, and to the consciousness of every &c
n, fairing soul who ever conned his ment
L -ooor5 oE tho onaap2a Y,orit pouaA Ia ,