Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-05-24
4. FEW ODD ISLANDS.
DESCRIBED BY THE WAYNE COUNTY
(PA.l MAN.
They Float Around In n Careless Sort
of Fashion. with an Occasional
Queer Freak, One Being to Spin
Around Like N Monster Top.

/ the mouth of the Mississippi the other
day" said the veracious man from
Honesdale, Pa. That reminded me
that my own little old county can boast
a few islands of the sort. What county
| Wayne, young man. You'll find 1t on
| the maps due north of Pike county.
/ You city chaps have an idea that all of
northern Pennsylvania is Pike county
| in expansion, but You were never so
| much mistaken about anything in Your
lives. Pike county is all very we'll in
| its way, but its way runs to fish liars
| and rattlesnakes. Now, Wayne has
none CT the latter, hut of the former
| well. talk about Pike county fishingl
Young fellow, Pike county isn't a
| marker to Wayne when it comes to
downright, honest, clean cut piscatOrial
sport. Pike may lie about it better, but
when you come to sift the facts f:Om
the fiction before an investigating COM
mission you II find that Wayne catches
| the biggest trout and the fightingest
bass every time. and don't you forget it.
''But | started to tell you about the
| floating islands in the old county.
Way back in the twenties the Delaware
and Hudson Canal company gouged a
channel in the face of the earth from
canal For reservoirs and feeders to this
canal the level of ponds and lakes along
the route was raised by means of dams
from IL to 30 feet. While the dams
were 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,
the basis of these floating islands. which
may be found in so many of the lakes
of Wayne county. INTERVIEWING branch
es and twigs of the trees thC.,,selves and
large quantities of underbrush served
to bind the logs together in something
like IA solid mass. thereby forming RATS
of more o. less buoyancy and size. In
the course of time water weeds of va
riOus kinds attached themselves to the
raft and eventually became part of
it. Gradually light, thin mold ac-
cumulated on the island, and in this
mold birds planted seeds and grain,
which, sprouting, growing and finally
dying and rotting, did their part in the
making of the whole. All of the larger
islands bear from one to a score of trees.
many of which have attained a consid
cradle growth.
You might suppose that to walk
upon or to fish from enc 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 remember how the ice
used to bend under your weight as you
ran across it, sometimes sinking nearly
a foot and then with the next step ris-
ing to meet you. possibly throwing you
and perhaps giving yOu a ducking?
Well, it's the same way with the float
ing islands. but with the element of
danger eliminated. 1t has the same fas-
cination.
F'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 nomadic and as I'M
settled in their habits as the Arab. |
They lack what we country people call
stick-to -itiveness. They are the con
trariest cusses that ever happened. |
Sometimes mere breath of wind Will |
send one of them scootine from one end |
of the lake to the other and again you !
couldn't bulge that same island with !
Il 100 ton, compound freight locomotive !
and political pull. Once thoroughly I
domesticated, however, they make ex- |
cellent weather vanes. for they invaria- |
bly, seek the lee shore of the lake.
II recall a. peculiar thing that hap |
pened years ago to the island in White !
Oak pond, near Aldenville. some eight /
or nine miles to the north and west of .
Honesdale BY the way. this particular |
island Is the largest of the lot; so large,
in fact, that the center rises fully ten /
feet above the water line. The farmer /
owning this island proposed erecting I
summer house on the elevation, but +.
was obliged To give it mp owing TO his |
inability to lay proper foundation
without driving piles, and to do that I
would result in mailing the island to
the bottom.
'.Well. as l was going to say. this is
land one day eloped with a southwest
zephyr. which promptly deserted as
soon as it had got its consort into the
middle of the lake. There it fioated in
n sultry summer sun, with no means of
motion in itself and milking time ap-
preaching. Presently the edge of a lit
tie breeze from the northwest struck
the wanderer on the port quarter and
things began to lcok little brighter
Unfortunately for the island. however,
at about the same moment that the first
gust landed a wind of equal intensity
came up from the southeast and its
edge caught the island on the starboard
bow. In less than a minute these two
contrary winds had that island spin
ming around like a top. You may be-
lieve this or not, as yOu like / can
show you the island any time that
you'll come up to the old county
Chicago Inter Ocean.