Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-03-16
NATURAL CURIOSITIES
Some of the Geographical 0ddi-
ties of Our Country.
FRANKS OF A LAKE PRAIRIE.
Section of Florida That Plays Hide
nd Seek With ItseIf-The Tickle
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. That Divide the
Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania.

ma seek WIFI btSSit- = nc FICkle
Neutrality-suspicious. That Divide the
Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Some years ago tOpOgrapher was
sent out from Washington to make q
survey of what was then Payne prai
RE, Florida, bit of land about by )
miles in extent. The survey was made
and the prairie described. Three or
four years later new surveying eXpe
dition found that this land had been
transformed into a body of water and
it was put on the map as Lake Ala
chua. It developed that this lake prairie
plays hide and seek game with itself.
This freak is explained by the fact
that a stream loses itself In sink at
the northern part of the prairie, and
when this sewer can carry off all the
water the region is land. When the
sink cannot drain off the water it ac-
cumulates until it becomes q lake.
One of the natural curiosities of this
country is the Hampshire Ice mountain
on the banks of North creek, twenty
six miles from Winchester, Va. For
about a quarter of a mile the west side
of this mountain is covered with loose
powders and stones of light color, the
mass extending all the way down to
the river. By lifting these stones on
any day in the year crystals of ice can
always be found securely hidden in the
crevices beneath.
The Dismal swamp is not a swamp
at all. according to the usual definition
of the term. 1t stands fifteen or TWEEN
ty feet higher than the surrounding
country and instead of receiving drain
age from rivers is itself a source OF
supply to various streams. The eli
mate is said to be pure and healthful.
The northern boundary line of Della
ware is circular in form. This has
been explained by the fact that in CO
lonial days William Penn wanted
enough land along the western bank OF
the Delaware river to give him an out
let to the sea. He procured from the
Duke of York a release of all title and
claim to Newcastle twelve Sailes
around it and to the land between this
tract and the sea-" This survey de-
scribed a Semicircle, and when ills
particular colony became state il sill
retained the old circular boundary line
Because man has never been able to
make the Mississippi Obedient and con
tent to stay in one particular channel
many interesting geographical situa-
tons have arisen. There are innumer-
able old channels threading back and
forth through the forests Of the low
&c
flow or 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 it's chan
mel and transferred Blues Point over
into Arkansas.
Another pastime in which the river
INDUCES is island building. A snag in
the river, the wreck of an old boat or
a submerged tree is all that is needed
for a foundation. Chicken island, near
Mound City, Ark, and just above
Memphis, Tenn, was caused by the
sinking of the Sultana, a Union trans
port which exploded in midstream
while carrying troops home from the
civil war
In Lake county, Ind, there is a strip
of land that has the sinking habit. This
sinking is an annual event, taking
place about December of each year.
The point where it occurs is about
eight miles east of Lake Michigan, near
the northern limits of the region Of
swamp lands. 1t reaches about fftee.-
miles north and south. The Indians
! who lived in that locality in the thir
ties had d 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 vicinity of the
mysterious sinking land.
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 Susquehanna to the
Swatara is twenty-seven miles; also
from the Swatara to the Schuylkill,
from the Schuylzill to the Lehigh, from
the Lehigh to the Delaware and from
the Delaware to the hollow in New
Jersey known as Culver's pond the in
tervals are the same. 1t would be
most difficult to account for such CO.
incidence in the similarity in these dis
| nces.-Philadelph Press.