Vashon Island news-record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1919-1954, 1921-10-28

Last week we received in the
same mail two letters, each con
tanning the same clipping from
the N. Y. Sun dated October
18th, about an isle dying out
here in the Sound Of old age. The
matter was at once referred to
S. j. larmeling, expert geOlog-
list, botanist, and natural scient-
list and we are assured by him
that the whole thing is bunk,
bosh, and balderdash. Those
three words are ours, but Mr..
Harmeling assures us there is
nothing to the truth of the re.
port. Such freak "news' deS-
patches do irrcparablc harm, but
despite poor, old parasitic New
York S attempt to throw monkey
wrenchcs into the Puget Sound
machinery = the wheels keep
turning and the prosperity fac
tories keep running out here "a
hours each day. In other words
it would take more than a scare
I'news" story like the one we
reproduce below, to keep people
from New York settling here,
once they have caught our big
vision, our unsounded opportun-
tiles, and treated their starved
and jaded lungs to two breaths
of our balm-laden air. No, dear
N. Y. Sun, we have Travelled up
and down the whole Puget Sound
stretch and there's no such dead
or dying isle. Vashon-Maury
and the whole caboodle are very
much alive-and if you will here
after remember the philosophy of
Josh Billings we'll be glad. He
said" It's better not to know so
much, as to know so much that
amt true" The trouble with
your news item is 1T amt true"
Here are the two letters and
the "news item" attached =
elsie Seems to Die of Old Age"
Heavy Forests on Puget Sound
Tract Believed to Have Sap
ped Strength.
"Vashon, Wash, Oct. ia
freak Of nature, proving of more
than ordinary interest, is a good
sized island in Puget Sound,
which is apparently dying from
old age. 1t was observed last
summer that every fir and cedar
tree on the island was dead,
About the waters edge vegeta-
ton appeared withered and thin
vapor hung over the island dur
ing the day. Never inhabited
and about 100 acres in extent,
the island has for years been
noted for its growth of wonder
full trees.
Fir three feet in diameter
grew so thickly as to make travel
through them almost impossible.
Both cedar and alder fourished.
The ownership of this tract has
been in litigation for years and
the timber could not be logged
Now there is not a living
thing on the island. Death alone
stalks grimly over the trails
worn by former, denizens of this
forest empire. Not crow rests
on the dead tops, and as boats
pass an occasional crash tells Of
the falling Of a great tree.
Scientists who visited the is.
land during the last few months
believe the land has soured, The
growth of trees and vegetation
has been so rapid and dense as
to exhaust the humus in the soil,
Another theory is that the soil
rests on q rock base and the
rootlets of the plants have come
into contact with the brine of
Puget Sound to such an extent
that the salt has burned out the
plant life.
1.-The vapor is caused by de-
caying vegetation. Birds keep
away, as insects are few in dead
timber.
1.-THE question is heard as to
whether other islands in Puget
Sound held intact for the valu-
able timber will also "die. -"
302 Broadway, New York
October 18th 1921.
Vashon Record,
Vashon, Washington.
Gentlemen:
] cut the enclosed clipping out