MOST of the coast of Maine is thickly strewn with islands. The
largest is _Mount Desert_, on the west side of Frenchman’s Bay; it
is fifteen miles long, and twelve broad. Many fine islands lie in
Penobscot Bay, as _Long Island_, on which is the town of Islesborough;
the _Fox Islands_, containing the town of Vinalhaven; and _Deer Isle_,
on the east side of the bay, about eight miles from Castine.
The _Isles of Shoals_ belong partly to New Hampshire, and partly to
Maine. They lie about eight miles out at sea, between Portsmouth and
Newburyport, and are hardly more than a cluster of rocks rising above
the waters; but they are, on many accounts, worthy of notice. They have
but a thin and barren appearance, yet for more than a century previous
to the revolution they were quite populous, containing at one time
six hundred inhabitants, who found there an advantageous situation
for carrying on fisheries. To this day the best cod in the world are
those which are known in the market as _Isle of Shoals dun fish_.
These islands were discovered by the celebrated Captain Smith in
1614, and called at first Smith’s Isles. The New Hampshire portion
now constitutes the town of Gosport.
In all of them are chasms in the rocks apparently caused by
earthquakes. There is a remarkable chasm on Star Island, where one of
the female inhabitants secreted herself when the islands were invaded,
and the people carried into captivity by the Indians. The largest is
named Hog Island, and contains three hundred and fifty acres; Star
Island has one hundred and fifty, Hayley’s one hundred; they are in
all seven. The inhabitants are about one hundred; they live solely by
fishing, and in connection with those of the shore in their immediate
neighborhood, who follow the same mode of life, are the most rude and
uncivilized beings in New England, except the Indians. They supply the
markets of Newburyport with fish, and have long been known there by the
name of _Algerines_. Efforts have recently been made to improve their
social condition.
In the northern part of Massachusetts, at the mouth of the Merrimack,
lies _Plum Island_, nine miles long and one wide. On the side towards
the ocean it consists of sand hills twenty or thirty feet high, thrown
into a thousand fantastic shapes like snow drifts in a storm. These
hills are covered with low bushes bearing the beach plum, a fruit about
the size of a musket ball, and of a pleasant taste; wild cherries and
grapes also grow in different parts. In autumn it is much frequented
by parties of pleasure from the neighborhood. At the northern extremity
are two lighthouses and a hotel.
_Nantucket_, twenty miles south of the main land at Cape Cod, is an
island of triangular form, about fifteen miles long and eleven broad
in the widest part, containing twenty-nine thousand three hundred and
eighty acres. It is removed at least twenty miles from the nearest
land, and, during some parts of the winter, the water is frozen around
it as far as the eye can reach, for a number of weeks. The climate is
comparatively of an equal temperature. Springs of water on the island
below a certain level have a peculiar taste, and are disagreeable
to those unused to them. The frequency of dense and heavy fogs has
frustrated the attempts made here, to manufacture salt by evaporation
from sea-water.
The inhabitants of this island are a robust and enterprising race,
chiefly seamen and mechanics; and those employed in the whale fishery
are said to be superior to all others; the island, being sandy and
barren, is calculated only for such people as are willing to depend
almost entirely on the ocean for subsistence.[24] The people are mostly
of the society of Friends, and are warmly attached to their island; few
wishing to remove to a more desirable situation.
There is a sand-bar at the entrance of the harbor of Nantucket,
which effectually excludes large vessels, deeply laden. Some attempts
have been recently made to remove this bank, and an appropriation of
twenty-eight thousand dollars was made by government for this purpose;
but the sand removed in summer was more than supplied in winter, and
the project was abandoned. Ships now unlade at Edgartown, Martha’s
Vineyard, and their cargoes are taken in small vessels to the island.
Some months in the year, they can unload at the bar. South-east of the
island, and out of sight of land, lie Nantucket Shoals, a dangerous
reef of sand, fifty miles in extent.
_Martha’s Vineyard_, west of Nantucket, and lying nearer the
continent, is twenty miles long, and ten broad. This island has a
good soil, and in the western part is somewhat elevated; it has many
productive farms, and contains the town of Edgartown, which has a good
harbor. Holmes’s Hole is a safe and commodious harbor in the north
part of the island, much frequented during the winter by inward bound
vessels. The _Elizabeth Islands_ are a chain of sixteen small islands
lying north-west of Martha’s Vineyard, and forming the south-east
side of Buzzard’s Bay; a part of them only are inhabited. They were
discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602. A multitude of islands
lie in Boston Bay, many of them very beautiful, but none of sufficient
importance to merit particular description.
_Rhode Island_, in Narraganset Bay, is fifteen miles long from
north-east to south-west, and averages two and a half in width. In its
most flourishing state it was called by travellers the Eden of America.
It has a good soil well cultivated, and an agreeably varied surface,
but it is destitute of trees, the whole island having been laid waste
by the British in the revolutionary war. A mine of anthracite coal has
been wrought to some extent in the north part of the island, but is not
now much esteemed. The town of Newport, in the south-west part, is a
fashionable summer resort.
_Conanicut_ is an island lying on the west side of Rhode Island;
it is eight miles long and about one in breadth. This is also a
beautiful island, and has a fertile soil. At the southern extremity
is a lighthouse. In the same part may be seen the ruins of an ancient
circular fortification, which once defended the passage of the bay.
_Prudence Island_, farther up Narraganset Bay, is six miles in length.
_Block Island_ lies ten miles out at sea, and is eight miles long and
from two to four broad; it has an uneven surface, but produces maize
and other grain. A lighthouse stands upon it. Among the other islands
in Narraganset Bay are Patience, Hope, Dyers’ and Hog Island.
_Long Island_ extends along the coast of Connecticut, but belongs
wholly to New-York. It is one hundred and forty miles long from east
to west, and its average breadth is about ten miles. It is of alluvial
formation, but there is a rocky ridge or spine, extending lengthwise
through it, which presents summits of considerable elevation. On the
south side of the island is Hempstead Plain, an extensive tract of
wild savanna, fifteen miles in length and four in breadth. In favorable
years, the best parts of the island have yielded thirty or forty
bushels of wheat to the acre. In the western parts are many fine
orchards. Deer are found in great numbers in the centre of the island;
the shores abound with the finest oysters.
_Shelter Island_ lies off the east end of Long Island. It contains
about eight thousand acres of varied surface, with a soil generally
light and sandy, but in some parts rich, level, and well cultivated.
_Fisher’s Island_ lies near the east extremity of Long Island; it is
twelve miles long and one wide; the surface is broken, but it affords
a good farm, and its dairies are very fine. _Gardiner’s Island_ is on
the north side of Long Island, and contains about three thousand acres
of valuable land.
_Staten Island_ lies at the mouth of New-York harbor; it is about
eighteen miles long, and eight wide. The surface is generally rough
and hilly, but on the south is a level tract of good land. This island
forms the county of Richmond.[25]
_Manhattan Island_, the seat of the city of New York, is fifteen
miles long, and one and a half in its average breadth. It is washed
on the western side by the Hudson, and separated from the continent
and Long Island on the east by narrow channels. It is generally level
in the lower part, and the soil here rests upon a granite rock. At
the northern extremity, the granite is succeeded by limestone, which
affords excellent marble, and extends for some distance into the
country. In the northern part, the shores are rocky, and the face
of the island strongly marked by abrupt crags and ravines, hills and
valleys, insulated rocks and marshy inlets. The gneiss rock, which is
much used for side-walk pavements and the foundations of buildings, is
found in abundance here. Small quantities of porcelain clay have also
been found upon the island.
The Bay of Chesapeak contains many islands within the limits of
Maryland. _Kent Island_, on the east side of the bay, opposite
Annapolis, is twelve miles long. The _Tangier Islands_ lie farther
down the bay. On the seacoast is the island of _Assatiegue_, twenty
miles long and two broad.
The coast of North Carolina is skirted by a range of low, sandy
islands, thrown up by the sea. They are long and narrow, and inclose
several bays or sounds. They are generally barren. The southern part
of South Carolina exhibits a similar range, separated from the main
land by narrow channels, which afford a steam-boat navigation. These
islands, like the neighboring continent, are low and flat, but are
covered with forests of live oak, pine, and palmetto. Before the
cultivation of cotton, many of them were the haunts of alligators, and
their thick woods and rank weeds rendered them impenetrable to man.
At present, they are under cultivation and well inhabited; and as the
voyager glides along their shores in a steam-boat, he is enchanted with
the prospect of their lively verdure, interspersed with thick clumps of
palmettoes, live oak, and laurel, and flowering groves of orange trees.
The long sandy beaches which border these islands towards the sea, are
covered with thousands of water-fowl. Georgia is also bordered with a
range of small islands and marshy tracts, intersected by channels and
rivulets which are navigable for small vessels. These islands consist
of a rich gray soil called _hammoc land_. In their natural state,
they are covered with forests of live oak, pine, and hickory, but
under cultivation they produce the best cotton in the world, called
_Sea-Island_ cotton. There are many small islands scattered along the
coast of Florida; and off the southern extremity, at some distance from
the land, lies a cluster, on one of which, Key West, the United States
have established a naval station.
The _Chandeleur Islands_ lie on the eastern coast of Louisiana; they
are little more than heaps of sand, covered with pine forests. West of
the Mississippi are many others scattered along the coast. Here is the
island of _Barataria_, formerly noted as a nest of pirates. It lies in
a bay which receives the waters of a lake of the same name. The soil of
these islands is generally rich; most of them are low and level. There
are some very fertile islands in the _Mississippi_,[26] and in the
Great Lakes.
The Island of _Michilimackinac_, in the strait connecting Lake Huron
and Lake Michigan, is important in a political point of view, being the
Gibraltar of the north-west. It is of an elliptical form, about seven
miles in circumference, rising gradually to the centre; its figure
suggested to the mind of the Indians its appropriate name, _Michi
Mackina_,[27] (Great Turtle.) The greater part of the island is almost
an impenetrable thicket of underwood and small trees, which contribute
materially to the defence of the garrison. Fort Holmes stands on a
summit of the island, several hundred feet above the level of Lake
Huron, and is now one of the most formidable positions in the western
country. The French were the first settlers, and their descendants, to
a considerable number, reside near the Fort.
_Maniton Island_ is situated near the eastern coast of Lake Michigan;
it is six miles long and four wide, and is held sacred by the Indians.
The _Castor Islands_ are a chain of islets, extending from Grand
Traverse Bay nearly across the lake; they are low and sandy, but afford
a shelter for light boats in their passage to Green Bay. _Grosse Isle_
is a valuable alluvion of several thousand acres, being five miles
long, and from one to two wide.
GENERAL REMARKS ON ISLANDS.
It has been well observed, that a large island is a continent in
miniature, with its chains of mountains, its lakes, rivers, and
not unfrequently its surrounding islets. The smaller islands are
found single, or in groups. Among the low or flat islands, there
are some which are only banks of sand, scarcely raised above the
surface of the water; sometimes they consist of masses of shells
or petrifactions, as the Isles of Lachof to the north of Siberia,
which are nothing but masses of ice, sand, and the bones of the
mammoth. The Pacific contains a great many islands formed of
coral reefs, which are sometimes covered with sand, and afford
nourishment to a few plants.
Among the more elevated islands we find very many which owe their
foundation, in a great measure, to volcanic agencies. Submarine
islands, as they have been sometimes called, or immense sand-banks,
covered with shoal water, are not unfrequent. Chains of islands
in the neighborhood of continents seem to be often formed by the
action of the waters washing away the less solid parts, which
once occupied the spaces between the mountains and rocks. In this
manner were probably formed the islands along the coast of the
United States, which still appear above the surface of the waves.
One of the chief advantages that islands derive from their
situation is, that the climate is generally rendered mild and
salubrious, from the vapors of the surrounding sea, which
generally moderate the violence of heat and cold, both of which
are sensibly less than on the continent in the same latitude.
Another advantage is found in their accessibility on every side,
by which islands are open to receive and export commodities, and
at times when the ports of the continent are closed. An island
has on all sides the most extensive and effectual frontier,
subsisting forever without repairs and without expense; and, which
is still more, derives from this very frontier, a great part of
the subsistence of its inhabitants, and a valuable article in its
commerce, from fisheries.
The island of Acroteri, famous in ancient history, is represented
to have risen from the sea, in a violent earthquake; its surface
is composed of pumice-stone incrusted with a covering of fertile
earth. Four neighboring islands have been attributed to a similar
cause, and yet the sea about them cannot be fathomed by any
sounding line. These have risen at different periods, the last in
1573, the first long before the birth of Christ. Similar eruptions
of islands have occurred in the group of the Azores. Thus in
December, 1720, a violent shock of an earthquake was felt at
Tercera. During the night, the top of a new island appeared, which
ejected a huge column of smoke. The pilot of a ship who attempted
to approach it sounded on one side of the new formed island,
but could not reach bottom with a line of sixty fathoms. On the
opposite side, the sea was deeply tinged with various colors,
white, blue and green, and was very shallow. This island gradually
diminished in size, and finally altogether disappeared.
History abounds with accounts of floating islands, but they are
either false or much exaggerated. These islands are generally
found in lakes, and are composed of the light matter floating
on the surface of the water in cakes, forming, with the roots of
plants, collections of different sizes, which, not being fixed
in any part to the shore, are driven about by the winds. In the
course of time, some of them arrive at considerable size. The
floating islands, however, mentioned by the old writers, have now
disappeared or become fixed.