The L'Anse sentinel., 1922-10-13
Prosperity and Activity of Early
Days Hastened Decay Of
Once Noted Ports.
NOW ARE DESERTED VILLAGES
Erosion Of Land, Due to Cultivation,
Fills Once NavleabIe Streams and
= Despoils Soil of Its
Fertility.
49,. ssz.sssx & z.sz.i.s.:s.

Washington.-Men have been build
Ing cities and deserving them from
time immemOrial The usual causes
are military and economic. Carthage,
one Of the greatest cities of early
times, was utterly destroyed after the
Punlc wars waged by the Romans. Vir-
Rinia City, New, was deserted because
Che mining industry which made 1t
a substantial municipality lapsed upon
the exhaustion of the lode. But here
In the East Is group OF cities which
have fallen from their previous impor-
lance by the operation of the forces
Of nattife.
United States, being distributed so
widely over the eXpanse Of the new
territory of the West, lacks the envir-
Onment to create a realization of the
antiquity Of the Eastern section. 1t Is
difficult for the man in Chicago to
realize that the eastern Americans
have lived on this soil for as long
period under the British flag as under
the American-that the period extend
ing from the first settlement OF the
eastern seaboard up to the American
Revolution was as long as that from
the Revolution to the present day.
.. Prosperity saps Life.
More than three centuries Of human
occupation bring about curious
changes In the habitations Of men.
When the country was first settled the
soil was virgin and for the most part
covered with dense forests. The pio-
neers built their primitive houses on
the banks Of streams because the
streams were their easiest roadways.
They felled the trees and planted their
corn and tobacco and, In the course Of
years, ports sprang up by the water
side and became thriving cities. The
farms reached farther and farther
back into the wilderness, large areas
being cleared Of timber.
Southern Maryland furnishes an ex-
cellent example Of such development.
It's soil Is loamy and was extremely
fertile. AS, year after year. the gently
rolling hillsides were plowed, the soil
year washed II down into the streams.
Three centuries Of this erosion gradu-
ally have filled up the streams. The
riverside and bayside cities which once
throve on the shipping of the products
Of the farm did not keep up with the
erosion OF the land. The result was
that the streams filled year by year
until the channels were clogged and
what once were noble waterways now
are narrow creeks
Soil and Streams Ruined.
This erosion, which was despoiling
the rivers, the highways Of commerce,
also was washing Off the rich, fertile
top soil. Therefore the land which
produced the crops, the object of com
meree, disappeared In company with
the streams. 1t was inevitable that
the cities should decline with both
their means of commerce and the COM
modities OF commerce taken away by
,his operation of natural forces set In
motion by the plow.
When the Romans took Carthage
they tore down the buildings, sowed
salt upon the site and plowed II under.
The lost cities. Of southern Maryland
no less have been plowed under. There
are three excellent examples Of these
places. Bladensburg, Port Tobacco and
PIscataway.
BIndensburg was a port to the
wharves of which came great mer-
chant ships from England that sailed
up the Potomac and followed its east