The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-04-04
AMERICAS Widest SPOT
OUR MOST OESoLATE REGION WITHIN
SIGHT OF NEW ORLEANS.
Part of the Gulf Coast which is Neither
Land Nor Water-A Labyrinth of Float
ing Islands, Mud Volcanoes and Quick
sands-Its wild Inhabitants.

The loss of the yacht Paul Jones off
the Louisiana marsh has called atten-
tion to the fact that that region, with
In sight of New Orleans, the largest
city i'll the South, is perhaps the wild
est and most desolate part of the
United States. 1t is like a world in
process of formation. The coast line
is constantly charging, islands are
arising and disappearing, bays are
altering their outlines, and it is almost
impossible TO tell what is land and
what is water.
The dozen or so parties of friends,
amateur yachtsmen and others who
assisted in the search for the lost
yacht, returned to New Orleans thor
oughly impressed with the wildness
and desolation of the region they
visited, and they all agreed that
nothing like it exists anywhere
else on the American coast, relates
the Sun. Around the mouth of
the Mississippi. from the fringe
OF islands facing the Mississippi
coast to Grand Isle, a distance of
200 or 300 miles, is a region of which
1t is difficult to say whether it is land
or water, marsh or island. There are
times when it is all under water.
times when it is mud, and times
again when it is land. It's configura-
ton is constantly changing. Here in
countless centuries the Mississippi
has poured its millions of tons of mud
carried from the upper valley, and
80 filling up the Gulf bottom that the
entire coast is shallow sound. In
this sound what are called mud Jumps
arise from time to time. They are
young volcanoes due to the gas pro-
duced by the fermenting matter in
the mud, which forces up the mud in
the form of cones above the sea level
The mud is baked hard in the trop-
ical sun, and a few reeds or a little
marsh grass grow on it-and it is
then dubbed an island. But it is a
most dangerous island. Sometimes it
is called prairie tremblante. With the
water still lying beneath it, it is n
mere superstructure of debris, wood.
canes, etc, upon which the earth
rests, floating raft, as it were, an
chored by the roots of the marsh
grass. Sometimes it is mere quick
sand, sometimes a pile of sticky mud,
giving out foul, intoxicating gases.
10 be lost on one of these islands
means death, not the death that
threatens a castaway from starvation,
but death from being swallowed up in
the quicksands or poisoned by the
gases. And even a boat will avail little.
The land Is too soft to walk on, the water
too shallow to row in. More than one
amateur fisherman who has been
caught in his boat in the chaotic land
has had to wait hours for favoring
tide to enable him to escape. He dared
not leave his boat and the water was
too shallow to allow the skiff TO move.
Then, too, no maze was ever in
vented more labyrinthian than the
bayous and islands of the st. Bernard
coast. All the islands are Identical
mud and sand spits with saw grass
growing on them. All the bayous are
as much alike as two peas. You may
wander for weeks and never get out of
the labyrinth unless some fisherman
gives you the clue. Many have been
the lives lost in this swamp; many the
people who have gone into it with con
iidence never to find their way out.
The story that castaway from the
Paul Jones was seen on one of these
islands is generally credited. He was
seen by two fishermen at different
times, and his footprints were clearly
traced by the officers of the relief boat
Heta, but neither the man nor his BODY
could be found when the island was
searched. The verdict is that he was
swallowed up in one of the many auag-
mires or quicksands.
Such is the condition of the country
under the most favorable conditions.
1T appears at its worst when Gulf
hurricane blows from the southeast.
Then the waters of the Gulf are piled
mp, and all the land disappears com
pletely from view-it is the Gulf then.
and a most tempestuous Gulf, in
which no ordinary vessel can live.
How many vessels have been wrecked
off the coast of the Chandelier Isl
ands, the outer islands of the group,
1t is impossible to say. In a single
storm, that of March, 1875, as many
rs thirty eight were stranded, wrecked
or destroyed there. This feet of
wrecks is being constantly added to.
The fishermen and trappers who live
IN that region, or rather who visit it.
for no one lives there, have become so
accustomed 10 wrecks that they &c.
cept them as natural and utilize them
like the wreckers Of the Bahamas
They are quiet, taciturn people.
living away from the world and having
little to do with it., seeing no papers.
knowing absolutely nothing of what
is going on in the world Arabs of the
marshes Those Of the St. Bernard
swamp, which is nearest New Orleans.
are Filipinos, Manilamen, as they are
called here, Of nearly pure Malay
origin, and speaking Spanish or
Tagal. Those of the Plaquemines
swamp, further south, where the
Paul Jones was lost, are "Austrians,"
that is. Slavs, from the Dalmatian
coast Of Austria, speaking Italian,
lingua France-the pigeon English of
the Levant or some Slavonic dialect.
They visit the coast in luQgers Of
levantine build and shape, with sails
stained red and brown, and are as
piratical-looking as they we'll can be.
but they are quiet, peaceable fisher