Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-18
LAND AND WATER FREAKS
FROM the BNIti more American.

more American.
Mound city, Ark, and Just above
Memphis Tenn, was caused by the
sinking Of the Sultana, q Union trans"
port which exploded in midstream
while carrying troops home from the
Civil War. All islands formed In mid.
stream are government property until
some squatter takes possession. Should
the island build toward the mainland
and connect, II is promptly claimed
by the farmer owning the shore, and a
crop OF lawsuits always follows.
Twenty-seven Their Number
A popularity of the Blue Mountains
of Pennsylvania is that they are divid
ed by rivers that break through the
walls at intervals of twenty-seven
miles. From the Susduehanna to the
Swatara is twenty-seven miles; also
from the Swatara to the Schuylkill,
from the Schuykill to the Lehigh, from
the Lehigh to the Delaware, and from
the Delaware to the hollow in New
Jersey known as Culvers pond. the in
tervals are the same. 1t would be most
difficult to account for such n coinci-
dence in the similarity in these dis
tances.
Has an Annual Drop
In Lake county. Ind. there Is q strip
Of land that has caused much worry
and expense to the management of the
three railroads which cross 1t. Where
the Erie line traVerses the strip there
has recently appeared n crevice that
refuses to be filed, although hundreds
of thousands of tons of gravel have
been dumped into It. The depression
continues for twenty feet on either
side of the track. and has entirely
baffed the engineering department.
This sinking is an annual event, tax
inC place about December of each
year. The point where It occurs Is
about eight miles east of Lake Michi-
gan, near the northern limits of the
region of swamp lands. 1t reaches
about fifteen miles north and south.
The Indians who lived in that locality
in the thirties had legend that In the
swamp there was an entrance to the
center of the earth, and laid out their
trails so they widely skirted the vi
| cinity of the mysterious sinking land.
Tucson the First City
An old, old vellum document bearing
the signature of their Catholic majes-
J ties, Ferdinand and Isabella, and
countersigned by the viceroy of Mexico
and General Coronado, has been dis
| covered recently. This document
proves to historians that st. Angus
tine was not the first permanent city
in the United States, but that Tucson,
Arz., has that distinction, having been
founded in 1852. 1t seems that Tucson
was a pueblo of some size when the
first pillar in the old stockade was set
| in the soil at st. Augustine.
Washington Pretty Clean
It is claimed that Washington is
the cleanest city in the United states.
If they were so disposed the ladies
might wear their best afternoon gowns
on the street without having them
soiled. The general cleanliness of
Washington is due to the noticeable
absence of factories, with their soft
coal smoke, and the asphalt streets
are kept so clean that there is little
dust or dirt in the air. There are It's
miles of asphalt pavements in the
capital city. An almost forgotten fact
is that Washington was first called
Rome. and a creek which flowed
through the site of the city was spoken
of as the Tiber. Oddly enough, the
first owner of the land upon which
the capital is now located was named
Pope.
Water Peculiarities
Green lake. Colo, is not only noted
as the highest lake in the United
States being 10252 feet above the level
of the sea, but also for the fact that
| it's water has peculiar faculty for
petrifying substances that are placed
in it. The water of Medicine lake, in
the southern part of the state of
Washington, on the Columbia plateau,
possesses such unusual qualities that
| no vegetation ever grows on or near
I it's banks. owens lake, in Cali
fornia, is so rich in soda ash that
10000 tons were taken out last year.
The soda is taken from the water by
the process of evaporation. This lake,
like the Great Salt lake, is gradually
disappearing.
At Summerland, Cal, a few miles
south of Santa Barbara, travellers may
see the novel spectacle of oil wells
standing out in the ocean, many of
them being several hundred feet from
the shore. Although many of these
are now exhausted they once flowed
| freely.