El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-07-21
VERY ISLAND. La July q

VERY ISLAND. La. July "a
u Climb into the airplane of your
- - imagination and fly with me to
the northern coast Of the Gulf of Mex
ico. Sight your machine for a point
about I25 miles west of New Orleans
and about eight miles south Of New
Iberia on the Southern Pacific rail-
way Pick out of the marshy plain the
hill known as Avery island and drop
gently down so as not TO brighten the
birds
w are now in LouEfeUow-s Evan
GENE" country, and i'm one Of the
great bird homes Of the world. What
is more important. we are right above
a mountain of the purest rock salt.
It contains enough of the mineral to
salt the tails of all the birds upon
earth. TO preserve all the meat and
fish and other food prouucts we shall
send t. our allies i'm Europe. It con-
tsins enough TO furnish all the salt
we need Tor munitions and fertilizers
and other Industrial uses. and enough
10 make countless millions of statues
like that Of Mrs Lot on the shores
100000 Wild Fowl
We have come here TO invest gate
the salt. but our way to 10 is through
the homes of the birds and we viii
see them On passing one of the own
ers of Avery island IS John a. Nc
Ilhenny, president of the civil SER
vice commission, whose chief hobby
IS the preservation of the game birds
Of the United States He has pre-
serve on the hill known as Avery is
land and 100000 wild fowl come here
every season TO breed. Not far away
IS Marsh island. which Mrs. Russell
q
for the birds. Il has about 10000
acres, and its wild fowl run into the
millions
We leave our sirplaue at NcIIheuny
station and go by great ponds in
closed i'm wire netting on the shores
OF which $1,000 ducks Of many va
rieties are Matching their eggs. The
nests are old cracker boxes covered
with brush We see geese and other
wild fowl as we pass the preserve
and make our way up the mound or
hill TO the tall shafthOuse which
stands over the salt mine.
salt City 500 Feet Under Surface.
Here we enter the elevator and are
dropped down into the darkness,
which is SO thick that IL can almost
be felt We have descended 500 feet.
and all the way has been through
solid rock salt At the bottom we
walk out into galleries walled with
salt and make our way through one
vast cham Der after another. all cut
CUT OF AAANr ~AdA u NaIAH |DN-na ne
galleries are so wide that two Pull
man trains could be run through any
one Of them without touching The
ceilings are so feet high. and each
Of the great rooms has a cubic capac-
fly equal to that Of a five story house.
There are scores of such rooms. and
they are CONNECTED by railroads. upon
which the pure salt. which has been
blasted down with dynamite and
broken UP with picks. chisels and
sIedges, is carried upon cars to the
shaft
There comes a car now tt contains
three tons Of this crystal white rock
The white shows out in contrast with
the bare brown skin Of the half naked
negro who Is driving the mule. More
than 1000 600 tons Of salt have al
ready been taken out OF this nine II
has been blasted out of these mighty
chambers. the roofs Of which are up-
held by posts Of solid salt 90 feet
thick The mine is a vast checker .
board Of such rooms. the squares ol /
which are these chambers with the
posts at the corners
Like A Palace OF silver
Vow stop and look ABOUT You We