A FLOATING ISLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7815, 7 June 1909, Page 1

A FLOATING ISLAND.

«r-%.-Unitedl.-States cruiser out destroying derelicts found its .water'supply running short.. The water-tanks are usually filled at Corn .Island, but the ship was too far from it to sail there without losing precious' time, which it could not afford to then, as it was hot on the track of a particularly dangerous derelict, and the chase had led pretty well, down the coast of Honduras. , | So, when a, low bank of purple that might be a cloud or might be land, was seen low down on the eastern horizon,- it was decided to make for it m the hope that it might turn put to be! a small coral island yet uncharted. It proved to be a little island about three quarters of a mile long' and, a quarter wide. In shape it was long and narrow,, with a thick grbwth of vines and bushes' reaching down to the water's edge." Three: talll cocoa-nut palms grew m ,-the middle :of it. No life of any kind was on the island, nor was there any water, though instead-of .being sandy and rocky,' as such islands usually are, the soil was rich, dark, and very moist. After gathering the cocoanuts the sailors .returned to. the cruiser, which, oddly enough\seemed much ". further off, and considerably .more 'to the south-west' than ; when they left her. Then it just dawned upon them that they had been visiting one of the floating islands so often heard about but seldom seen m the South' Atlantic. . : These floating islands aio part 'cf other islands torn aawy by hurricanes or some great seismic upheaval. They drift about for months, moving slowly with- the winds and currents, held together by the matted roots of trees and 'plants until they either att4ch themselves again to solid land or are disintegrated and eaten away by the action of the waves. . ■ '