The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-27
ISLANDS OF ODD TRAITS.
Land That Travels About to Steal
Live stock.

| from the chicago inter ocean.
Il read about the floating Islands off
the mouth of the Mississippi the other
/ day" said the veracious man from Homes
dale, Pa. THAT reminded me that my
own little old county can boast a few
Islands of the sort. What county? Wayne,
young man. You'n find it on the maps
due north of Pike county. You city chaps
have an idea that all of Northeastern
/ Pennsylvania is Pike county in expansion,
but you were never so much mistaken
about anything in your lives. Pike coun-
| ty is all very well in its way, but its
way runs to FISH liars and rattlesnakes.
| Now Wayne has none of the latter, but
of the 'former-well, talk about Pike coun-
ty fishing Young fellow, Pike county isn't
a marker to Wayne when it comes to
| downright, honest, clean-cut piscatoral
sport Pike may lie about it better, but
when you come to sift the facts from the
| fiction before an investigating commits
sion you'n find that Wayne catches the
biggest trout and the fighun'est bass ev-
cry time, and don't you forget il.
But I started to tell you about the
floating islands in the old county. Way
! back in the POS the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company gouged channel in the
face of the earth from Rondout to Homes
dale and called it a canal. For reservoirs
| and feeders to this canal the level of
ponds and lakes along the route was
raised by means of dams from twelve to
twenty feet While the dams We're In
process of building the timber about the
ponds was felled up to the artificial water
line, and in many cases really valuable
lumber was left TO decay where it fell.
These dead trunks formed, when the wa
ter rose to its newer level, the basis of
these floating islands, which may be found
in so many of the lakes of Wayne coun-
ty Intertwining branches and twigs of
the trees themselves and large quantities
of underbrush served TO bind the logs
together in something like a solid mass,
thereby forming RATS of more or less
buoyancy and size. In the course of time
water weeds of various kinds attached
| themselves to the raft and eventually
became a part of it, Gradually light,
thin mold accumulated on the island. ana
in this mold birds planted seeds and grain,
which, sproutng, growing and finally dy-
ing and rotting, did their parts in the
making of the whole. All OF the larger
islands bear from one 20 a score of trees,
many of which have attained consid-
cradle growth, so large, in fact, that they
could scarcely be described as saplings.
You might suppose that to walk upon
or to fish from one of these islands would
be a source of some danger, but, aside
from an occasional wetting of the feet,
no accidents from this cause have ever
occurred, so far as 1 have been able to
learn. The sensation produced by walking
on a floating island is very similar To that
which you and l have both experienced
when, as boys, We ran on thin, young ice,
or thicker old and rotten ice. You re-
member how the ice used to bend under
your weight as you ran across it, some
times sinking nearly foot and then, with
| l. zta pi- 10 act rOIT
bly, throwing you and perhaps giving You
a ducking? Well it's the same way with
the floating islands, but with the element
of danger eliminated 1t has the same fas-
cination.
Strange as it may seem, very few OF
these floating islands have become per-
manently anchored to the bottom of the
lakes. They are as nomadc and as I'M
settled in their habits as the Arab. They
lack what we country people call stick-to-
it-iveness. They are the contrariest cusses
next to Populists-that ever happened.
Sometimes a mere breath of wind will
send one of them scooting from one end
of the lake to the other, and again you
couldn't bulge that same island with a
100-ton, compound freight locomotive and
a political pull. Once thoroughly domesti-
Gated, however, they make excellent
weather. vanes, for they invariably seek
the lee shore of the lake.
81 recall a peculiar thing that happened
years ago to the island in White Oak
pond, near Aldenville, some eight or nine
miles to the north and west of Honesdae
By the way. this particular island is the
largest of the lot; so large, m fact, that
the center rises fully ten feet above the
water line. The farmer owning this ISL
and proposed erecting summer house on
the elevation, but was obliged 20 give it
up, owing to his inability to lay a proper
foundation without driving piles. and TO
do that would result in mailing the island
to the bottom
Well, as I was going to say, this ISL
and one day eloped with a southwest
sephyr, which promptly deserted as soon
as it had got its consort into the middle
OF the lake. There IL fioated in a sultry
summer sun, with no means of motion in
itself, and milking time approachins
Presently the edge of a little breeze from
the northwest struck the wanderer on the
port quarter and things began to look a
little brighter. Unfortunately for the ISL
and, however at about the same momen.
that the first gust landed a wind Of equal
intensity came up from the southeast and
its edge caught the island on the star
board bow In less than minute these
two contrary winds had that island spin
ming around Ike topy You may believe
this or not. as you like. l can show yoI,
TO the old county.
ITS a common thing for one of these
islands to turn sheep or chicken or pig
thief; in fact, it's almost nightly occur
renee on one or another of the lakes Ar
ter an island has stayed by farmer for
month, or, maybe, years. without show
ing any signs Of a restless spirit, or a de-
sire to be up and going, the honest. horny
handed son of the soil comes to place an
abiding confidence in the supposedly re-
formed nomad. In so doing he frequently
buys gold brick. He trustingly allows
his domestic animals and fowls to camp
out at will upon the island TO his later I'M
doing. Some night hen go to bed con-
scious of hard days work well done
only 90 awaken In the morning 70 6nd
that his island has sailed while he Silent
with deck-load of his critters. Put not
your trust in floating islands"
And so saying. the man from HonesdaIe
ate a cherry that only few minutes be-
fore had been reposing peacefully in the
glass in front of him.