The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-17
IT is a QUEER ISLAND.
Acres in Lake Michigan Which PERI
OdicaIIy Disappears.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Dame Nature must have been in a cur
Gus mood when she added to the remark
able and incomprehensive mysteries of the
universe an island in Lake Orion. Mich.
to which the attention of the scientific
world is now for the first time called. 1t
is literally a sinking island, periodically
vanishing from sight beneath the waters
of the lake and again rising high and dry,
to the establishment of the residents along
the lake shore, and the complete bewild-
erment of those who profess TO have solv-
ed the riddles of most natural phenome-
ma.
The island is situated far from the beat
en- track of town life, and so heretofore
has escaped the publicity that so remark
able a freak would have attracted. But
recently a scientific man has pitched his
tent, or rather his cottage, on the Dor
ders of Lake Orion, in the vicinity of the
mysterious island, and through this cir
cumstance the valuable scientific puzzle
is at last made public.
The scientist to whom the world is in
debted for making public the existence of
the sinking island is c.. Henri Leonard,
A. M, NJ. NJ, a well-known author of
Detroit. DR.. Leonard has watched the
strange antics of the island with grow
ing interest, and has, besides making sys-
tematic notes of its habits, formed a
theory regarding the causes of the appear
ance and disappearance of so interest
ing a landmark. The result of his studies
he gives as follows:
The cottagers have named a strange
spot in this vicinity the floating island
but this is something of a misnomer, as
it Is really a sinking and rising island.
During several months of the year it lies
submerged in about twenty feet or more
of water; then for the balance of the
year il is out of water, and picnics can
be held upon it, if so desired 1t is used as
a hunting place, when out of water, by
some of the boys of the summer resident
families, water fowl being shot from its
surface. Members of my family have row.
ed over the spot when the island has
chosen to sink out of sight, and have en-
deavored to reach its submerged surface
with a seven-foot oar, but could not do
So Two months later it has been up out
of the water again.
THE island approXimates an acre in
extent; it is, of course, very wet for the
first week or SO after arising from the
lakes depth, but as the season wears
along it becomes dryer, and, as before
stated can be used for picnic purposes
l would be afraid of its stability under
a large load, though I have been told by
one of the old residents that one season
the people tried to hold it down by pour
ing on It's Sunken surface fourteen wagon
loads of large stones, rowing them over
the lakes surface to the place where the
island was known to lie submerged but,
like Banquos ghost, the island would not
down; it makes it's entree into the air
every year, just the same.
In the center of the island a half-dozen
or more large sturnps are growing, a clump
of three being in the center of the mass. l
think these stumps are in a great measure
responsible for the phenomena attending
its annual sinking and rising. That is,
/ am of the opinion that a collection of
these originally formed the nucleus for
the growth of this strange freak among
the islands of our fresh-water lakes.
"The flora of the lake is something mar
Vicious in it's richness and variety These
stumps have drifted out to the center of
this portion of the lake, and taken with
them some of the strands of the long
snake-hke plants that grow there to a
length of nearly ten feet, with the lily,
fronds, MOSES and various others of the
aquatic plants These floating growths
have formed there, with the earth attach
ed to the stump roots, an island garden
all to themselves. They grew luXurianty,
and the undeTbrush cleared away from
the shores and other islands whereabouts
gradually drifted in to them, and so in
creased the size of the mass; then, as the
wood of the brush and of the stumps de-
cayed the mass became waterlogged and
the whole gradually sunk beneath the
surface.
But how comes it to rise again, as it
does each succeeding year? This is the
point that has puzzled wiser heads than
mine, but 1 have a theory for it., which
seems to answer all the requirements. As
the fora ripen during the hot months of
summer for the island is a thick mass
of vegetation the stems enlarge, become
buoyant and, as the season advances to-
ward September undergo the first stages
of decay; that is, the stems become filed
with the gases attendant upon fuller ripe
ness and commencing decay; this large
mass of gas-enelosing vegetation over
comes the natural weight of the mass, the
specific gravity being only a little heaV-
ler-than the water, ana so the whole mass
gradually rises above the waters surface;
il stays in this condition above the sur
face iii the heavy frosts Of the fall oc-
cur. when, the plants having been de-
stroyed and decay measurably completed,
tho whole mass being heavier than the
water again, it gradually sinks to the bot
tom Of the lake, which is about thirty
feet deep at this point. to arise again the
following year. when spring and summer
have brought the axes fora into life and
full vlgor once more"
----s--ap-S--
Frances T.. willard says that among
other things women of the present need