The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-02-14
WONDERFUL CAJAH POND,
1t Is Full of Floating Islands from Which
Fishermen Troll for PickereI

~ 10 Il uh cf iOatlnss ISLANDS from Which
Fishermen Troll for Pickerel.
A dispatch in New York paper from
place In Minnesota, announcing as a remark
able fact the discovery of a floating island
III small lake in that State inclines the
residents of Honesdale, Pa, to the belief
that If Que floating island in State so
famous for natural curosities as Minnesota
Is considered wonder, they have been liv-
ing all their lives with still greater wonder
close by without attaching any great impor-
lance to 1t They have a lake mile from
Horesdale which is filled with floating
islands THIS lake is known locally as
Cajah pond. 1t is two hundred feet above
the village. 1t is dotted with a dozen or
more islands. These are covered with trees,
some OF them twenty feet high, and dense
growth of thick folIaged bushes
The island bottoms are marshy, but the
soil Is stiff enough to sustain easily the
weight of The fishermen who troll for pick
erei from the islands IN the summer fishing
season. In the summer these little islands
are pleasing variations in the beauty of the
scene the lake presents to the spectator as
he gazes upon it from the hills that encircle
1t Ii the wind happens to be strong and
variable, as 1t generally IS on the lake, the
visitor who looks upon the lake for the first
time can hardly help being startled to see
these Islands moving about from one point
OF the compass to another as the wind
shifts. On one day these islands may be
seen huddled together in one spot, and on
another day, perhaps, they will be seen
scattered widely apart. An island from
which the fisherman casts his line at one
end of the lake to-day will, in all PROBABLE
ity, invite him to it from the other extremity
tomorrow.
The largest of these islands was some
years ago partial to the lower end of the
lake, and Rugged the shore there with only
slight changes in position day in and day
out. During stiff wind one day this island
tackled first to one side and then to the other
side of the lake, moving slowly the while to
the upper end, until it was hoated az inst
the shore at that end 1t remained there for
two or three years through some of The
hardest winds that blew off that shore. One
day while three pickerel fishermen were
fishing from the island s outer edge 1t sud
denly was seized with a whim, induced or
prompted only by gentle wind, and before
the fishermen knew it they found them
selves fifty feet from shore The island
foated slowly across the lake until it had
almost reached that shore, when counter
breeze struck It anu sent It down the axe.
1t finally landed near the spot where it
started from year ago, and it has remained
in that vicinity ever since, simply taking
snort trip now and then to and fro across
the lake, but always returning to or near
its old mornings.
Although these fair islands are constantly
shifting their places in the lake, they an
nually add percepubly to their area. There
are six or eight of them, and the scientific
theory is that in time the roots of the trees
that cover them will extend down iLto the
water so far that they will anchor the
islands in the lake, and that by the slow but
certain processes of nature they will be in
creased in size until the surface of the lake
will become solid land.