WATER-SUPPLY OF ISLANDS. 44.3 



cactus and mesquite, showing that drought was not of rare occurrence 

 there. 



Our men encamped on Ship Island complained that the water in 

 many of the wells which they dug soon became bad. Perhaps this 

 was owing to the surface-water of the swamps getting into them, or 

 perhaps the drainage of the camps. Those who know the habits of 

 our men in camp cau judge for themselves. 



A glance at the map and profiles of Ship Island will show how ad- 

 mirably the island is adapted to collecting and holding rain-water. 

 The broader parts of the island are completely surrounded by a raised 

 beach, making large basins. The basin west of the lighthouse is com- 

 paratively new. All the islands in that chain grow at their western 

 ends and wash away on the east. The only vegetation in this western 

 basin was, at the time of my sojourn there, a few low, creeping herbs. 

 The beach was so low that a heavy September gale blew the waves 

 over it, and the whole basin became a salt lake, around -which I 

 walked the next day on the beach. The sea having by that time 

 fallen rather below its usual height, there was a difference of sev- 

 eral feet between it and the surface of the lake. Observing that 

 at one place the water was just level with the top of the beach, I 

 scratched a shallow channel across it with a stick. In five minutes a 

 strong brook was running out, and, in ten more, a roaring river. This 

 part of the island being subject to such overflows, of course no wells 

 are sunk in it. The fort depends on cisterns of rain-water; but it 

 would be easy to run a pipe underground to a well above the light- 

 house and get plenty of water. 



The basin east of the lighthouse was a swamp in my time, thickly 

 overgrown with grasses. Afterward, the commandant had it ploughed 

 and made into a garden, said to have been very productive, especially 

 in melons. The neck, of course, was barren, shifting sand, while the 

 large basin beyond was not only swampy, but had a fresh pond in it. 

 The drier parts were covered with a beautiful purple-topped grass, 

 and had some showy flowers ; while the wetter parts, and even the 

 pond, were thickly set with woody shrubs of considerable size, and 

 the wide, shallow mouth of the pond was so obstructed by them that 

 the quiet waters of the Mississippi Sound never penetrated it. Beyond 

 the pond were formerly some live-oaks and pines ; but the oaks had all 

 been cut down, and the pines were rapidly following them, being car- 

 ried off for fuel by the prison-camp near the light-house. All around 

 this end of the island, stumps and dead trees standing far out in the 

 water showed that the sand was being gradually swept away by the 

 waves. 



Santa Rosa is Ship Island on a larger scale. It has several fresh- 

 water ponds, and many bushes and trees. On its barren western end 

 I obtained an abundance of good waiter by sinking a well some four or 

 five feet. The wooden curb was built larger at the bottom, and set in 



