Evening journal., 1900-05-09
GRIM SABLE ISLAND.
THIS WRECK STREwN SAND BAR IS
DOOMED BY THE SEA-
bne of the weird Legends of This
Ocean Graveyard "A Woman In
White, n bleeding Forennger and
Ring sold In Halifax.

Ring sold In Halifax.
"sable island belongs to Nova Scotia,
is 145 miles from Halifax and So miles
east Of Cape Canso," writes Gustav
Kobbc in Ainslee's. 1T IS treeless,
shrubless waste. scanned by wind and
wave and Of ever changing aspect. a
cone shaped hill near the east end.
once a mere undulation Of sand, Is now
over 100 feet high and is still growing.
Other hillocks are gradually being
moved away. by storms. The hillocks
are liable TO be undermined so swiftly
and swept out OF existence that they
are carefully watched from the various
stations on the island, there being
no certainty how far an inroad OF the
sea will extend after each successful
attack. Even the coarse grass Of the
island grows in a different manner
from that Of the mainland. 1t does not
bear seed. but shoots up from roots
which run along under the sand Dur
ing the winter the sand is blown over
the grass and buries IT sometimes three
or four feet deep, but the hardy blades
grow up next season, as If the island
sands had protected them from the
cold Of winter In order to make them
all the stronger.
'The island itself is fighting for self
preservation. 1t seems as If it drew
ships into its fatal embrace as rallying
points for its loose and shifting sand.
thus TO protect itself by a bulwark Of
wrecks against annihilatlon by the sea.
Tradition says that when Sable island
was discovered by Cabot in 141T It was
so miles long and 10 miles wide. In
1902. when a rescue station was estab-
lished there. It was only 40 miles long.
Since then It has shrunk TO but little
more than 20 miles in length. and in
width it is only a mile at its widest.
Within % years the western end lost
seven miles. Shoals over which the
ocean now surges are pointed out as
former sites Of lighthouses. One Of
these was so swiftly undermined by
the sea that It had to be abandoned
with the greatest precipitation. The
spot where once stood the superlntend-
ent's house is now under two fathoms
of water
"The island. rapidly diminishing at
its western end, is slightly gaining at
its eastern. Slowly. like a ship drag
cling its anchor it is moving eastward.
VIII it ever reach the edge Of the
shoals. stand tottering on the brink Of
the abyss till it receives its coup de
grace and plunge over the submarine
/ bank forever into the depths? Unfor-
tunately it's end win probably be less
/ dramatic There IS good ground for
I believing that this gray sand bar viii
slowly wear away until It becomes an
other submerged shoal added TO an am
buscade already some GO miles In
I length. for a line of breakers extends
1G miles from one end Of the island and
2S miles from the other.
"In the space of a single year Sable
island claimed more than 22ee iives. Ii
fact, so many wrecks line the shoals
Of this ocean graveyard that the new
pile up on the old, like bodies heaped
in one ditch. The Crofton Hall, an iron
sailing ship wrecked a few years ago
on the northeast bar, broke in two
about amidships. The pieces have
drifted together again, and the island
ers suppose that she struck crOsswise
upon an old submerged wreck and Is
settling over it. which accounts for the
two parts coming together. Nor is the
island satisfied with the awful tribute
which It exRcts from the living. The
same informant who writes me about
the Crofton Hall adds that the bark
John Mcleod, which was wrecked of
Devils island at the entrance TO Hall.
fax harbor. drifted ashore on Sable is
land bottom up. wreck of n wreck
zone Of the grimmest legends of Sa
BILE island dates from the wreck of the
Amelia. and there is enough evidence
Of truth connected with 1t to show
what bloody deeds were added on thai
occasion to the terrors Of shipwrecll
Captain Torrens. who commanded the
gunboat which was dispatched TO Sable
island after the wreck Of the Amelia
was one of the survivors Of the seconC
disaster A passenger on the lost trans
port was Lady Copeland. on her way
to ioin her husband. The captain oi
the gunDOaJ ndu Deeu lutu ludt su'
wore on her forehnger a ring Of pecul
lar artifce.
'sThe story has It that Captain Tor
rens. wandering over the island onl
night in search Of possible survivors
was attracted by the piteous whining
, of his dog in front Of n small, opel
, shelter known TO have existed at tina
, time, but long since toppled to pieces
, Approaching the shelter, he was star
tied to see the figure Of a woman all II
white and holding toward him tn
bleeding stump of forehnger. Whil
he was gazing at the apparition 1t rose
silently glided past him and dived int
t the sea. But time and again thereafte
! the white woman with bleeding fore
r finger was seen wandering over th
J sand hills.
{ 1T is probably only part of the weir
) legend that Captain Torrens, feelin
sure that a shocking crime had bee
r. committed, tracked the guilty pirat
until he discovered his family on th
1 coast of Labrador and learned that th
I ring had been sold in Halifax. 1t is