Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-18

from Nne hNAAh
some years ago topographer was
sent out from washington to make q
survey Of what was then Payne
Prairie, Fla, bit of land about by
miles in extent. The survey was made
and the prairie described. Three or
four years later q new surveying ex-
pedition found that this land had been
transformed into body of water, and
Il was put on the map as Lake Alach-
ua 1t developed that this lake-prairie
plays a Or. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde game
with itself. sometimes appearing as one
and sometimes as the ither. This freak
is explained by the fact that stream
loses itself in q sink at the northern
end of the prairie. and when this sewer
can carry off all the water the region
is level land. When the sink cannot
drain off the water 1t accumulates un-
I'll Il becomes a lake. People living near
and desiring to neighbor with the resi-
dents on the other side of the lake
prairie are driven to the necessity OF
keeping canoe at the front door ana
a horse i'm the stable ready for what
ever conditions may arise. If n steady
rain comes the face Of the landscape
is fable to change any minute. ..
one of the natural Curiosities OF TINS
country is the Hampshire Ice Noun
miles from winchester, Va. For about
n quarter Of mile the west side of
this mountain is covered with loose
boulders and stones of light color. the
mass extending all the way down TO
the river by lifting these stones on
any day i'm the year crystals OF ice can
always be found securely hidden IN
the Crevices beneath
The shortest street in the United
states Is Hague street in New YORK. II
is only long enough to accommodate
two houses.
Not a Dismal Swamp
The Dismal swamp is not swamp
ot all. according to the usual detlm-
tion of the term. 1t stands fifteen OF
twenty feet higher than the surround
ing country. and instead of receiving
drainage from rivers is itself source
of supply to various streams, giving
them the water its spongy soil catches
and holds after rains. There is no de-
cav of vegetable matter of any kind'
logs and falling leaves being trans
formed into peat by the pure water
The purity of the water causes 1t TO
keen Indefinitely, and it was in great
demand in bygone days for the casks
of seagoing vessels. The cillnate Is
said to be pure and healthtul' ana on
this account planters In olden tllhes
were anxious to hire their slaves TO
lumber contractors WorAillS ii
swamp.
The northern boundary line or Dela-
ware Is circular in form. This has been
explained by the fact that in colohlal
days William Penn wanted enough
land along the western bank of the
Delaware river to give him an outlet
to the sea- He procured from the duke
of York a release of all title and clalm
TO Newcastle, twelve miles around II,
and to the land between this tract ana
the sea" This survey described
semi circle. and when this particular
COLONY became a state it still retained
the old circular boundary line
The Crooked Mississippi
A humorist has said that the Mis-
sissippi river is so crooked III places
that a steamer going south has peen
known to meet itself coming north, give
nassing signals and narrowly escape
a collision with itself" Because man
has never been able to make the Mis-
sissippi obedient and content to stay
in one particular channel many inter-
esting geographical situations have
arisen. There are innumerable old
channels treading back and forth
through the forests of the loWlands,
and whenever there Is an oNeIloW vi
a particularly heavy freshet, the river
is quite liable to wander off down one
of these old channels and leave some
shipping point high and dry. The
town of Delta used to be three
miles below Vicksburg, but cutoff
changed things so it is now two miles
above that point. Another little place
called Blues Point was formerly located
in Mississippi, but one spring when
times were dull and the river needed
a diversion, it changed its channel and
transferred Blues Point over into
Arkensas. If the big river had taken
such a twist between Missouri and
Illinois before the war, 1t could have
removed slaves from one state to an
other and thus set them free.
Another pastime in which the river
indulges is island building. A snag in
the river, the wreck of an old boat or
a submerged tree, is all that it needed
for a foundation for the brush and silt
to settle upon. Chicken island, near