The record-union., 1899-04-29

ward making some provision for the
numerous wrecks which occurred on
the island. In 1902 Nova Scotia voted
50 900 a year for the purpose. This
small sum was supplemented twenty
five years later by an equal allowance
from the Imperial Government. Then.
in 1867, when the provinces of Canada
were united the island came under the
charge of the Federal government, and
since that time has had hundreds of
thousands of dollars spent upon it. The
life-saving station is particularly well
equipped not only with boats, but with
rocket apparatus for ,. signaling, and
there is telephone connection between
all the principal buildings on the ISL
and. The rich grass, which somehow
draws its nourishment from the sand,
affords fine pasturage for sheep and
cows, so that the inhabitants have no
lack of fresh meat 10 wary their stores
of provisions from the mainland
In the wreck register ekeptl.on Sable
Island are the names of nearly 200 vesI
sells that have left their shattered frag-
ments upon the fatal sands An in
teresting chart was made fourteen or
fifteen years ago, at Halifax, indicating
the locality and date of each of the
wrecks known up to that time, as well
as the kind of vessel lost in each case
There are about $50 on the chart. and
they may be seen to encircle the island
completely, being a trifle more numer-
Gus just south of the eastern and west
ern ends of the crescent 1t need
scarcely be said that the number of re-
corded wrecks on the island falls far
short of telling the whole truth It is
believed that for every one known an
other may be added, of which nobody
ever hears. After storms all sorts of
debris is washed ashore-not seldom
indeed, human body-with nothing to
indicate the ship from which it came
On the distant submerged bars many a
wreck might occur without even such
tokens of it's presence coming to the
knowledge of the life-savers, so that
the island is undoubtedly the grave of
scores of ships marked missing on
the maritime registers.
RAPID CHANGE OF SHAPE
Perhaps the most remarka BILE feature
of all about Sable Island is the rapidity
with which it's size and position have
been and still are changing. On the
French, it was laid down as being
forty-four miles long and two and a
quarter miles wide In 1916 it had
shrunk to thirty-on miles by two. and
had moved several miles to the east
ward. Other charts made at intervals
since have shown the same steady
shrinkage and eastward movement, I'M
TIL according to the one made about
fifteen years ago. it is now TWENTY-FIVE
miles by one, and is in latitude A de-
grees north by longitude 80 degrees
west. Briefly, it is travelling eastward
so fast that topographers must revise
their work often to keep track of it.
The latest charts are always some miles
out of the way Within 100 years it
has not only increased about one-third
in length and breadth, but has also been
leveled down from nearly two hundred
feet to about eighty feet, while the
west end has changed its position by
ings of the life saver to be moved fire.
quently to escape from the encroaching
seas. If the process of shrinkage con-
tinues, the time is gradually coming
when Sable Island the meeting place of
the Arctic current, the Gulf Stream
and the current of the Gulf of st.
Lawrence, will succumb entirely to the
terrific whirlpool in which it exists.
and the waves will wash over the last
spot of dry sand in the Graveyard of
the Atlantic. IN. Y. Tribune