El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-09

Stretching from mobile 10 the RIO
The Gulf Islands.
Grande is a long fringe of islands diff
fering very little from one another.
Indeed, any of them might pass for
Galveston Island, so alike are they,
the only difference being that some
of the eastern ones have trees, where
as west of the Atchafalaya they are
generally bare and open, and there
fore more dangerous, being exposed to
the waves and wind. They range from
ten to twenty miles long and from n
to two miles wide. They are compos-
ed almost exclusively of sand under
laid by clay or quicksandS, covered in
part with a coarse scraggy sea grass.
They begin at Dauphine Island n
stretch westward as follows: Petit
Bots, Horn, Dear, Ship, Cat, h Chan
deleurs, Breton, Bird Grand. Timba-
lier. Gallon, Last Island Originally
one island, but cut into two by the
great storm of 1850, Marsh, Galveston,
Matagorda, St. Joseph, Mustang n
Sadie. Cheniere, Caminada n In
dianola are in reality islands, although
technically not known as such, being
separated from the mainland by
swampS always under water.
Every One Has Suffered.
At one time or another every m of
tIcSc LII hdo DCSh ~ - W a ha
ricane and depopulated and changed
or modified in shape. They will change
their appearance entirely in a night.
AS a most of them are
without stable population today, as in
the Indian days when, Notwithstanding
the game on them. A few charcoal
burners and cattlemen live or Cat Is
land. The theirs are mainly frequent
ed by. fishermen. for they are fine fish
ing stations. OF the entire lot, per-
haps Chandelier island, as it is called
is the worst. 1t may nave been an is
Ian once; it is an archipelago today.
Facing southeast and acting as a break
water to the country around New Or
leans il catches all the storms and a
been the scene Of more wrecks than
perhaps any other place in h
try. Originally forty or fifty miles long
the storms and the ocean have cut it
up into a score of islands, n its form
changes with every hurricane. 1t a
completely changed its character with
in historical times, and is apparently
being washed away and likely to be-
come in time a mere reef. The wa
ter now pours over it with every storm
and the island disappears completely
from view. buried under the Gulf.
Originally covered with wax myrtles.
from which the Creoles made their
candles. hence its name (Chandeleur)
il now boasts of nothing but marsh
grass and a single palm tree which by
some strange freak of chanc has sur
vived all the hurricanes.
Ominous Warning.
Some years ago the United States
government. on the persistent demands
of the people of Louisiana and Missis-
sippi. established its Gulf quarantine
station on Chandelier Island. in what
,-a- -
In the storm of 1856, which may be
called the Sabine Pass storm. since
it was the Sabine Pass country that
wa overwhelmed that year. the quar-
antine officers had just time to get
away from the station. When the
physicians went back to look for their
station they could not find a trace of
it. The very site had disappeared and
a few battered pieces of wood picked
up on the coast and supposed to be the
wreckage of the quarantine station
were the only remains ever found. The
station was never rebuilt. but moved
to Ship Island. Chandelier Island is
wholly u~ninhabIted today, n it's sole
occupants, except birds. are a species
of wild boars, which seem to have
some way of defying the elements. The
other islands. Errel Bird, etc. stretch
ing to the mouth of the Mississippi.
L u picCcS VI SudHueleuT CndC nave
been separated from the main island
by violent storms which have torn it to
pieces.
Liftte's Stronghold.
West of the Mississippi the islands
which have suffered most in the Gulf
hurricanes, for many attempts have
been made to settle them, Grande Ter
re. the first of these. was of old the
haunt of that famous Louisiana pirate
n it is a curious coincidence
that Lafitte. after being driven from
island by the United States feder-
authorities. should have sought ref
uge in Galveston Island. where he
for several years. the island
then belonging to Spain and being
wholly uninhabited and without the
pale of the law.
Fearful Destruction.
West of Grande Terre is Grande Isle
and Immediately adjacent thereto
Cheniere Caminada. Grande Isle has
been visited by a dozen storms and
severely ravaged by them, but while
nearly all the property on the island
was wrecked in 1893 and many lives
lost, it escaped wholesale destruction
thanks to a grove of oaks planted
many years ago. whose roots act as a
sort of levee Oh protection to the land.
Not so fortunate is Cheniere Caminada
lying just across the channel and only
two miles distant. 1t was the worst
of the hurricane of October ..
1893. At that point alone, in a fishing
village known as Caminadville. no less
than 115O lives were lost and 1878 were
lost in all. every n of the neighbor-
ing islands having suffered. The bod
les of only a few of the dead we're re-
covered. The great majority were
WeDt ont I'm Con and nny arn 49,
by vessels fifty miles distant from the
shore.