ISLANDS THAT FLOAT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 23 February 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

ISLANDS THAT FLOAT.

WHERE MONARCHS MAY FLOURISH

FOR TWO MONTHS ONLY,

Somewhere between here and Cape* town, says the "Daily Mail," there Is a, floating: island which is about to sink in* to the ocean, or it may already have clone so. It was sig-hted a few days ago by a mail steamer, and as these curiositie:3 of the sea have only a short life this srieclmen will probably never be seen again. Floating islands at sea are ortly found in tropical climes, in waters not very far from some big river which ha 3 banks clothed with dense masses of vegetable growth, and which is subjected to overwhelming floods brought on by the heavy rains. After a hurricane the water rushes ! ailong- the course of the river with sufflciet force to dislodge a huge portion of the bank, and, the soil being held together by the matted vegetation, the "island" thus violently created is borne along on the flood and eventually carried many miles away. Sometimes the islands are large enough to build houses upon, but these free plots are not in request, though the builder might be monarch of all he surveyed for about two months. Usually these phenomena have trees, bearing fruit, perhaps, and birds may rest on the branches; animals may be seen prowling about among the undergrowth. More familiar to geographers than the floating islands of the ocean are those oil lakes, for they are much longer lived. Many of the American lakes have specimens, and the great lake of Nicaragua may be specially mentioned in this connection. There the islands, formed in a similar manner to those found on the ocean, are kept whole by the fresh water feeding the vegetation which holds them together, and the soil is formed by the decay of the leaves. Hither and thither they float about, just as the wind directs them, and sometimes they speed along' side by side with sailing boats. Several very remarkable floating islands are on German lakes. Those on Lake Gerdau, for instance, are large enough to carry, and provide pasturage for ONE HUNDRED CATTLE. Anyone who wishes to see a floating island, however, has no occasion to "jpo abroad for the purpose, for thwre <i« small ones on several Soottish and Inr.ih lakes, and a well known one <Jn Lake Windermere. Nearly all these British islands share in one peculiarity — they rise and sink at different times of the year. That at Windermere, which is to be found near the Lodore Falls, remains below the surface during the winter, but in June it rises and continues to be "an island" for four or five months. It is clothed with ordinary marine Dlants, which grow in clayey soil of about a foot in depth, below that being several feet of peet. This rising and falling of the island is caused by gasses which buoy it up and then escape.