The Nome daily nugget., 1935-07-09
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
 Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.

| Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington. D. C.-WNU Service. "HE Atlantic's rolling waves
 do not break against the main-
 1 land of Georgia. A startling statement, that. Yet 1t is true, for the surf shatters on the smooth sandy beaches of the islands that stretch like a protecting band off the coast.
 These are the famed Sea Islands of Georgia, the "Golden Isles of Guale" as they were known to Six teenth century Spanish map-mak- CTS.
 The low-lying Jumps of land, spawned by the tides and winds off the 1OO-mile arc of the Georgia coast, were once friendly hunting grounds, where Indians stalked deer, wild turkeys, raccoons, opos- sums, and waterfowl. Today. as subtropic playgrounds and winter retreats of happy isolation, they have again become hunting pre- serves and game sanctuares.
 What history has marched across the savannas and hammocks and beneath the moss-scarfed arms of the mighty live oaks of these Is lands in the nearly four-century span since white men entered this New world theaterl
 Here, in the late sixties of the Sixteenth century. came Spanish grandees and black-frocked friars, from their Florida headquarters at St. Augustine, to plant sword and cross among the Indians to the glory of the king" Here, too, came adventurous French voyagers to trade and to make unsustained colonial claims.
 Bold pirates and buccaneers, such as Argamont (the notorious "Abraham") and Blackboard, after plundering along the Spanish Main. brought into the hidden anchorages of these secluded waterways their treasure galleons and. under cover of the island oaks, found respite from their high adventures.
 Here, in the 1730s, came Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe and his followers, who. within a few years, struck blows that helped preserve for the Anglo-Saxon race a large portion of the continent.
 | Refugee SantO Domingo plant CTS, escaped French royalists. hu- man cargOes from African "slav- ers," wealthy antebellum aristo- crats of the old South, masters of extensive island plantations: then ruin, and, finally, delayed rehabili- tatiOn, mark the succeeding chap ters of the Sea Islands history.
 Five flags have waved over this off-shOre cluster of lands where some of the earliest seeds of Amer ican trade were sown.
 Lesson in Coastal Geography. | However, the unfolding panOra- ma gained from the vantage point of an airplane cockpit is essential ly lesson in coastal geography. not history, even though isolated bits of old Spanish ruins. Ogle- thorpe's Fort Frederick. and rem nants from prosperous colonial days can still be distinguished through the foliage.
 Between the leeward side of the islands and the mainland lie ex- pansive reaches of salt marshes, ranging roughly from two to eight miles in width. Generally wide at the northern end, toward Savan- nah, they narrow at the lower DOT tlon of Cumberland, the southern most member of the Golden Isles.
 As you fly along the chain of Is lands you can trace a continuous serpentine passage in the network of sounds, delta-divided river mouths, and meandering creeks. It is the inside, or Florida, Passage, a portion of that inside water route which extends all the way from New York to the Florida Keys.
 As you swing to a course over the ocean side of the islands, an interesting feature of their forma- tion Is revealed to advantage. Heavenly wooded areas appear in long bands, stretching in a north and-south direction, and are sep arated by slender marshes and ponds,
 Where De AviIes Landed.
 One cannot visit St. Catherines without recalling that April day in 1566 when Menendez de Aviles, one of Spain's ablest pioneers, and his party of 90 men dropped an- chor and came ashore on this is- land. He had established St. Au- gustine, in Florida, only the year before, and was already out to de- stroy the remaining traces of any settlements the French may have founded.
 One writer pointed out that mo- where else had he seen such a de- lightful setting for a great house