The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-06-01
SUNK LANDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
The Paradise of Fishermen and
 Hunters

| SUNK LANDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
 The Paradise of Fishermen and Hunters
 ], c. Harris of Lake county is the largest landowner in Tennessee He l has recently undertaken the colossal scheme of draining Reefoot lake, and l every creek and bayon along the Ten | nessee side of the Mississippi river. If | the project proves successful, it will add
 some hundreds of thousands of acres of | land to his holdings. The lands of Lake | county are the richest in the state, the l soil being 10 and 12 feet deep with the 1 rich accretions of ages of overflow. An | idea of their value is conveyed from the i fact that the annual rent per acre is $5, and often more than 9 bale of cotton can be obtained to the acre.
 The hundreds of fishermen who secure their livings from the fishing in the lake and rivers have joined together and se- cured an injunction restraining MT. Harris from the big project of draining the lake, and an important legal battle will result. The fishermen allege that MT. Harris has no title to the lands cov- cred by water, and that the real owners are the Daugherty heirs none of whom can be found When the earthquake of 1911 occurred that land where Reelfoot lake was formed belonged to the Daugh- erty grant, but the heirs Responded of
 ever retaining it, and they have been
 lost to sight for many years. Other
 claimants in recent years sold their
 title to MT. Harris. Reelfoot lake is the
 most noted fishing and hunting resort of
 Tennessee, and thousands annually
 come from all parts of the country to
 enj y it's natural advantages. Years
 ago the body of water, one mile wide
 and IS miles in length forced a passage
 to the Missippi. Along it's shores are
 hotels, hunting lodges of many famous
 sporting clubs of the cities of America, and hundred of tlshermens huts. Tons
 of fish and wild game are shipped
 monthly from there.
 There is no stretch of country more gloomy or desolute than the vast terri tory in northwestern Tennessee, south
 eastern Missouri and Arkansas, known as the Sunk lands. The bottom seemed | to have dropped out at the time of the | big earthquake of 1S11 To a novice in woodcraft or swamp navigation it is | a most hazardous undertaking to pene- ! trate far beyound the borders of this wilderness of cypress, elbow brush and | other specimens of the lowland trees and | tangled vine thickets. It is compara- | lively easy to move about where only the dry season, comes. There are num- erous lakes, large and small, some of | great depth. Most of these areas of open water are dotted with islands, and | in many places fallen trees and great black stumps make hiding places for enormous turtles snakes and other rep tiles in summer, while in winter the rac- coon, otter, mink and muskrat perch up- on them. Hundreds of men spend most of their days in the borders or in the heart of this watered wilderness. They hunt and trap as the seasons come and go.
 Throughout the Sunk land districts are islands from half to 20 acres in di- The larger ones contain oak, hickory and smaller growths of under brush but most of them are covered with small cane, on which deer feed and fatten. The most remarkable of these is Bone island, which covers an area of six acres. This island is q rendezvous for professional hunters. It Is literally covered with bones of animals and birds. Great heaps of them can be seen It different places. The bleaching bones tell of mercless laughter of wild game for their belts and feathers. Men receive good pay for their plumage and luills, The birds are potted in the night. when big guns are used that do deadly work among the fiocks as they est in the open water,-Tennessee Let CT in Chicago Record