The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-04-05

One day last week we went
down and cranked up the motor
boat just to see if il would still
run-and almost before we were
aware of it, she was setting a
course for Round Island. The
wind vas out of the southwest
blowing mild and soft, and the
waves had the green, alive look
of mid-summeffime.
There is an approach to the is
land, in the lee Of the westward
sand spit. where a shallow-draft
boat can go almost to the beach.
We came in slowly, feeling the
way, throwing the propeller in
gear for ten feet or so, then drift
ing on the momentum, so as not
to Il too hard aground. A few
Yards from the beach the keel
touched on the clean sand bottom
and we heaved over the anchor
and waded ashore. The water
in the lagoon was still and clear,
though just across this narrow
end of the island the surf was
breaking on the beach. Large
flocks of gulls and black water
turkeys flew up squawking from
the spit as we came ashore.
Looking back to the mainland,
three miles across the open wa
ter, the woods had become a thin
margin of green, with here and
there a miniature water tank
thrusting up to mark the town;
and the huge red hulls in the
shipvard diminished TO a hazv
scene in miniature, like a detail
worked with a few suggestive
stitches into a tremendous tap
estry. On the island there was
no man-made noise, no mark OF
civilization. save only the aban-
doned lighthouse shining white
in the sun, the light house, the
pines, the long foaming beach,
and fields alive with blackberry
blossoms and other flowers. 9
Under a big pine on a small ele-
walton above the beach, I found
the traces of an old camp site
where | had spent a fine day with
the family last summer-almost
a year ago. All that was left to
mark the place were a few char
red logs, and a cloth sandal lack
ing a heel, and now half buried
in the sand. A year rolls by so
swiftly. I found myself wonder
ing how many countless thous-
ands of times spring and summer
had come to light up this little
patch of land with life and color.
How MANY hundreds Of thousands
Of years have the wild birds come
trailing across the autumn sky
to settle in the shelter of these
islands? Round Island is NOV
ing O few feet westward every
year, washing away on the east
end where it is exposed to the
prevailing winds and surf, and
rising slowly on the other What
was this little square mile of
land IN the beginning? Perhaps
il was a part of Petit Bots island,
eight miles southeastward in the
open gulf. The whole chain of
coastal islands from Louisiana
to Florida were probably once
a part of the mainland, a ridge
of clay hills. perhaps, or perhaps
a line of wasted sand-dunes.
Ages ago, this fringe of coast
line apparently settled some ten
or fifteen feet below the sea,
leaving only the sandy pine-cov-
cred ridges thrusting out Of the
water to form the sheltering IS
lands which now enclose the
shallow sound from the open gulf.
How long have these coastal
islands been in existence? A mil
lion wears? It is quite possible.
Scientists count periods of the
earth's history in scores of mil
lions of years.
Out on little Round Island, the
blackberry vines and purple
spiderworts have been blooming
riotously each spring, mallards
and black ducks have fed and
gabhled in the lagoon since an
cient times. Long before the Dark
Ages closed over Europe, long
before the Crusades, before the
birth of Christ, long before
Greeks battled Persians on the
plains of Samos-long before
mankind had a written or a spo-
ken history, these green islands
have existed in the Gulf of Mex
leo, haunt of seabirds, spawning
shadows for the crabs and fish,
habitat of possums and snakes
and lizards and small life cut off
for a million years from the MAIN
land.
Every hunter or fisherman
and everyone who has ever
walked in the woods has his
W particular story about the
memorable time when he al
most stepped on a snake-The
snake which seems invariably
TO have only one size "as big
,rouul ar x1o,,r f;ef" Thai han-