382 THE LESSONS OF GALVESTON 



of the Gulf coast is less confidently known ; but the geologic indica- 

 tions are that it is (at least between Mobile Bay and Galveston Harbor) 

 nearly as rapid as on the New Jersey coast, and more rapid than on 

 the Netherland coast, at least since the building of the dikes ; so 

 that the rate cannot justly be estimated at less than a foot per cen- 

 tur3\ Naturall}' this rapid subsidence has resulted in other catas- 

 trophes it were folly to forget: Witness the swallowing of L'lsle D-er- 

 niere, a health and pleasure resort of New Orleans, with most of 

 its transient population — " the wealth and beauty of tiie Creole 

 parishes " — ^just 44 years before Galveston ; witness, too, the record 

 of personal observation on the Louisiana coast by the brilliant word- 

 painter Lafcadio Hearn : "The sea is devouring the land. Many 

 and man}' a mile of ground has yielded to the tireless charging of 

 Ocean's cavalry. Far out you can see through a good glass the por- 

 poises at play where of old the sugar cane shook out its million ban- 

 nerets, and shark fins now seam deep water above a site where 

 pigeons used to coo. . . . Grand Terre is going ; the sea mines 

 her fort, and will before many 3'ears carry the ramparts b}' storm. 

 Grand Isle is going, slowly but surely ; the Gulf has eaten three 

 miles into her meadowed land. Last Island has gone!" Witness, 

 also, Engineer Corthell, the successor of Eads in some of the most 

 remarkable engineering enterprises of the centur}^ (in this Magazine, 

 volume viir, 1897. page 352) : " On Belize Bayou . . . stands an 

 old Spanish magazine, built over 200 years ago. At the time of 

 building the jetties at the mouth of the South Pass [1877] this mag- 

 azine was . . . standing perfectl}' level, but with the surface of 

 the water stretching across the arch which crowned the entrance 

 door, the sill of which must have been at least 10 feet below the 

 water. . . . Nineteen years later a part of the structure had 

 been removed, but enough of the roof and arches remained to show 

 that the subsidence had continued steadily ... at about the 

 same rate as during the preceding 200 years. It may l)e stated tliat 

 this rate . . . is . . . about one-half of one-tenth of a foot 

 per annum." And let it not be forgotten that of all localities on the 

 Gulf coast Galveston is most exposed; it is the last of the great 

 natural embankments of the west coast remaining unsubmerged, and 

 hence is open to a wider range of gales than any other ; it is the point 

 of contact between opposing forces, the land-subsidence on the one 

 hand and wave-building on the other hand, just as was Sabine Bank 

 in its day — but, like that bank, it is bound to be overwhelmed by 



