THE QUEEREST ISLAND IN THE WORLD.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10503, 26 November 1901, Page 3

THE QUEEREST ISLAND IN THE WORLD.

Sable Island, off the Nova Scotia coast is railed by a writer in the London Daily Advertiser (Canada) "the queerest island in the world," and ho goes on to give the following particulars of tho attempt to cover it with trees: —

Away out on the blue bosom of the Atlantic, 100 miles from Halifax and 50 miles from the Clearest point of the Nova Scotian coast, lies a* long, low strip of -bare sand. For centuries it lay thus, - enveloped in fogs and beaten upon by the long North Atlantic swell, its only inhabitants the wild fowl and the dead seamen who from time to time are washed up to bleach on its shores. Three hundred years ago it was an island 40 miles in length; now, so indefatigable a worker is the sea, it is a mere strip of white -land, 20 miles long and two miles wide. On every side of it, as far as the eye can reach, is the dead level of the ocean, overhead is the sky, and for tho greater part of the year the ghastly impenetrable fogs th:it are born of the struggle for supremacy between the Gulf Stream and tho icy water that comes sweeping down from Baffin's Straits. A mare dismal place than Sable Island was never imagined. Yet here, through fog and sunshino, winter and summer, storm and calm, dwells a diminutive colony of brave 'men, who comprise an important part of the Canadian life-saving service. It is to this dreary speck of land that Mr Saunders intends to accompany his father, Professor Saunders, of Ottawa, with the object of making an experiment which, if successful, will be a•' remarkable achievement, and one that will cause the storm-tossed mariner to bless the Dominion Government which authorised it. Owing to its colour the island is almost indistinguishable at a short distance, more especially in heavy weather; and although the Government maintains a lighthouse r-nd a wrecking station at either end of it, and many a good ship has gone to pieces in the yeasty surf that surrounds it. Professor Saunders' plan is to completely cover the island with vegetation so that it will stand out sharp and clear to approaching vessels. To this end a large shipment of hardy evergreen trees is now at Halifax awaiting his arrival. The work of planting will, it is expected, occupy two or three weeks, during" which period Mr Saunders hopes to be able to make some valuable notes on the bird life of the island.

To ornithologists the island is remarkable for being the nesting ground of the Ispwich sparrow, the most conservative bird in existence probably. Tho Ipswich sparrow, migrates in the fall to certain "sections of the Southern States but confines its housekeeping operations exclusively to Sable Island. Indeed, it has never been known to rest in any other spot in the world. By what mysterious power this tiny— -atom of feathers is guided each year through wind and storm to one ribbon of sand out in the Atlantic students of natural history cannot explain.