Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-08-24
Cats by Millions.

peak WHICH rises MANY IteJ dpoNe
the sea, without verdure and water
ed only by such lakelets as gathered
in recesses of the cliffs during rain
storms. 1t is uninhabitable and
undesirable in every way, since it
affords no shelter to vessels nor any
thing that might be Of value to the
crows. Fishermen touch in pass
ing, but they are the only men who
ever bring news from the bleak
sentinel rock. The island is about
three-eighths of square mile in
a ell and stands a frowning menace
to navigators who go down to that
part Of the SEA in ships. It's posi-
ton, seventy-tive miles from the
coast line, would make it suitable
as summering place if any attrac-
tions were there, but its only in-
habitants are cats. Where they
came from or why they have thriv-
ed upon the desolate rocks are un-
answerable queries. They are there
in numbers and increasing.
No one believes that evolution
has produced them from star fish or
that they were generally spontane-
ously. Even the budding scientists
among the fishermen of Ventura
admit that the present stock of cats
on the island must have had ances-
tors in kind. The only tenable
theory, and that one finds general
acceptance, is that the toms and
tlbby cats from some fishing smack
which tcu he'd at Santa Barbara Is
land must have gone ashore and been
left when the smack sailed away.
Common sailors and fishermen the
world over have in fancy peopled
unknown shores with all sorts of
strange monsters and distorted
men, and Santa Barbara Island in
common with other rarely visited
spots, has been reached about with
garlands of sea-dogs fancy until the
superstitious have come to look up
on it as an uncanny place. Sailors
tell of horrible phantoms that sail
through the air from pinnacle to
pinnacle of the rocks, singing as
they fly, and Of others that gather
ed near the waters edge and entice
the mariner by las,ivious genuhec-
tions and soft murmurings like
those of the sirens who wait for
Jack ashore. But it is all cats.
The cats do the singing, and if
there is any murmuring, the cats
purr that into the eagerly receptlv We
sailors ears. Fish are in plenty
about the island, but some Of the
fishermen haved fancied that cer-
tain whitish objects to be seen when
near the beach on the southern side
are human skulls, and other objects
are thought to be the bones of hu-
man castaways, who may perchance
have, after death, been gnawed by
the cats.
When all foolishness of the fish
ermen is put aside, there yet re-
mains the curious fact that the
island is thickly infested by cats of
all colors. They manage to live by
eating such fish as may be washed
upon the beach or rocks, and find
theyoung and eggs OF the sea birds at
certain seasons. An occasional
feast of flesh is carried to them in
the carcass of porpoise killed from
some passing vessel, or in the car
rion refuse from some adjacent
whaling stations, drifted to the is
land by passing currents. A pre-
carious existence it is at best, and
the wonder is small that the cats
are gaunt and eager. They
troop about their island and
sometimes indulge in general en-
gagements, after which the surviv-
ors devour the killed and wounded.
Some years ago two fishermen
at Ventura were lost at sea. A
year later another fisherman, Fazzlo
by name, was carried by adverse
winds near Santa Barbara Island.
and when he at last escaped, being
wrecked, and returned to his home
he told a ghastly tale. of snowy
skulls on the island beach and
wreckage from a fishing sloop
among the rocks. He fancied the
skulls must be those Of his missing
friends. He told of angry screech-
ing cats that gathered OH the rocks
and apparently waited for his body
to be cast ashore, and his story
soon became legend of the island,
Shooting parties have gone to the
island and wasted ammunition in
practice upon the bowling beasts,
but without diminishing the num-
ber materially.
The lonely island is still in pos
session of the pussies, and passing
sailors nionslv cross themselves ns