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Show THE MISSISSUTI MUD ISLANDS. There is nothins more curious on out coast than the mud islands at t he mouth of the Mississippi. They were lilted irom the bottom ol ihe sea; but how, is a mystery. Some have risen or subsided in a single dav. and the gas, coming from them a few feet below the turlace, keeps up a continual turmoil of the water above, while from all of them the gases which ra sed them escape though small but apparently bottomless craters. In some of these springs the water that shoots up is several degrees colder than it is iu the surrounding sea; and the crater of one of them, on Osgood's Island, has a mineral flavor, and is sold in New Orleans diug-stores diug-stores as a specific for rheumatism. Tin se islands never rise in channels of nnyaga-Lion, nnyaga-Lion, but always on their edges. Some have a little vegetation, but tlie greater number are bare, On one of these, near the southeast pass, a brick fort, constructed con-structed by the Spaniards over a century ago, is slowly sinking into the sea. On Gordon's Island still grows a grove ol tig-trees a century old.and near them is a graveyard in which are headstonesbear-ing headstonesbear-ing Spanish names and dates of one and two centimes ago. As the delta strips work seaward, they keep an equal distance dis-tance inadvance; and thus rise wheie formerly for-merly was deep waler.and often bring up fragments of wrecks lost mure than one hundred years ago. |