FLOATING ISLANDS

Evening Star, Issue 12026, 26 October 1903, Page 6

FLOATING ISLANDS

A recently-formed crevasse on the Mississippi just above New Orleans has been pouring waW into the great Des Allemands Swamp, which, with its network of lakes and waterways, extends for more than 150 miles towards the gulf. The result, according to a recent letter to the New York ' Sun.' has been to multiply the so- | called " floating islands" for which the J swamp has long been noted, until they constitute a menace to the inhabitants and to the railroads. Says the 'Sun' correspondent : '" Most of the swamji is what the Creole swampers call prairies tremblantes (trembling prairies). It is land, but floating land, built up over the water by the accumulation of centuries of logs, branches, leaves, and vegetable mould. It is light enough to float, but strong enough to support men and even cattle. It trembles when walked on. The earth is held to gthor by the intertwining branches of the plants or trees, for frequently very large trees grow on these trembling prairies. Occasionally some of the land is torn away and becomes an island. Such islands are known as flottants. or floaters, by the Creoles, and rre among the most picturesque sights of these Louisiana lakes, sailing upon them, borne hither and thither by the winds or current*. In old days there were dozens of these floating islands, some of them acres in extent. This year the rush of the Mississippi through the Hymelia crevasse has torn up the trembling prairies, and created floating islands by hundreds. They are to be found in all the many lakes and bayous of that region, and are most confusing to visitors and even natives. The landscape changes, not every day, but every hour, and the land and forest "shifts from one side of the river, bayou, or lake to the other in a. night. The natural tendency of the islands is to drift toward the gulf, and when the Hymelia crevasse begins to empty its full force into the Gulf of Mexico ship captains navigating that body of water are likely to be confused by discovering new lands "and tropical islands where the charts show none. For the present, however, the flottants are proving most troubksome to the railroads by threatening their bridges. So manv island's have floated down Bayou Des AJlemands as to endanger the big bridge of the Southern Pacific over that stream. The railroad company have a large force of men near the bridge. They have driven piles and built up A network above it to catch the floating islands, which are blown up, cut up. or otherwise destroyed, so as to prevent them from floating against the bridge and wrecking it. The soil is found to be from six to eight feet deep, with the .intricate entanglements of vines, glasses, and trees, ( and the. islands are very pictur : esque. They would be handsome ornaments m a pleasure lake, and they are attractive even in the Louisiana swamps j but the railroad people and the settlors there say that they are a nuisance, as they frequently run aaroimd in the network of smaller bayous, act as dams in the stream, ttnd help to canse overflow on the nighborlng lands, even when they do not carry sway the railway bridges, j