The herald., 1897-03-28
IN THE SUNK LANDS
What the Earthquake of 1911 Did in
Two States

There is no stretch of country more
gloomy or desolate than that vast ter
ritory in Southeast Missouri and Ar
kansas known as the sunk lands. The
bottom seemed to have dropped out
when the big SHAKE" as the natives call
the earthquake of 1911, occurred. To a
novice in woodcraft or swamp naviga-
tion, 1t Is Almost hazardous undertaking &
to penetrate far beyond the borders of
this wilderness of cypress. elbow brush
and other specimens of the lowland
trees and tangled vine thickets. II is
comparatively easy to move about when
the cypress monopolizes the swamp,
and when the season has been very dry,
along in the fall one can travel dryshod
over parts of the great waste There
are numerous lakes. large and small,
some of great depth. Most of these
areas of open water are dotted with
islands, and in many places fallen cy-
press trees and great black stumps
make resting places for enormous tur-
ties. snakes and other reptiles In sum-
mer while in winter the raccoon, otter,
mink and muskrat perch upon them to
sun themselves in the daytime, and at
night they use the logs when in pur-
suit of prey.
All throughout the sunk land districts
are islands from a half to twenty acres
in dimensions. The larger ones contain
oak, hickory and smaller growths of
underbrush, but most of them are COW
cred with small cane, on which deer that
find their way into the solitudes feed
and fatten.
One of the most remarkable of these
islands is known as Bone island" and
covers an area of about six acres. This
island is rendezvous for professional
hunters, and it is rarely that the buzz
yards are not seen soaring above. 1t is
s<,<~ wxla Il tel @
name from the fact that It is literally
covered with bones of animals and
birds, from the horse down through nat
ural history to the bones of ducks and
geese. OF the latter great heaps of them
can be seen at different places. These
bleaching bones tell of merciless slaugh-
ter of wild game for their pelts and
feathers.
1t seems strange that men should de-
stroy thousands of ducks and geese just
for their plumage and quills. Every
year when the weather is too warm to
ship game three men. who make Bone
island" their place of abode, Kali DUCKS
and geese, strip them of their feathers,
and throw the carcasses in heaps for
the buzzards to feed upon.
The beautiful wood duck, which rears
its young in the great swamp district,
Is the first bird to be slaughtered The
feather-hunters begin in August to de-
stroy these birds, and never stop until
they mate in the spring. Later in the
season. when the big flight OF wild fowl
moves southwark, the slaughter is some
thing unprecedented.
The birds are ''potted" in the night,
when big guns are used that do deadly
work among the flocks. as they rest in
the patches of open water. Not far from
Bone island there is ridge on which
many oaks grow that are. prolific in
acorns. There the mallards go to feed
In countless numbers. The writer has
seen a moving mass fully 100 feet wide
and 300 yards long. of ducks in the gray
of the morning along this ridge. strug-
Cling to secure some of the acorns that
fell from the oaks. One of the hunters
on the island was laying for shot. ana
when his big gun sounded the pande-
monium that followed was indescriba-
bic The roar of 10000 wings and the
cries OF frightened, sQueaking. fleeing
game were absolutely startling. The
hunters double gun left thirty-five kill
ed and wounded mallards in the water
when the rest had flown. Inside Of an
hour the ducks had massed again. when
forty-seven' were added to the thirty.