The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express CompanySmyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
History
The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company
Smyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
Plant family; Plant, Henry Bradley, 1819-1899
It was destroyed during the French and Indian War, and the inhabitants
dispersed, but Nature had herself ordained its abandonment. The rock on
which the brave General Wolfe landed has nearly disappeared. The sea now
flows within the walls of the city, and sites once inhabited have become
the ocean’s bed. In 1822, the entire coast of Chili was elevated to a
height varying from two to seven feet, an area equal to that of New
England and New York, having been lifted up bodily. In 1831, an island,
since called Graham’s Island, sprang from the bed of the Mediterranean
between Sicily and the site of ancient Carthage. The island is now but a
sunken reef. Another island, as recently as 1866, rose from the bottom
of the Grecian Archipelago, before the very eyes of the American Consul,
Mr. Chanfield, bearing upon its slimy back fragments of wrecks that had
been sunken in the little harbor of Santorin.
“An island in the Missouri River, broken into fragments and washed away,
was the unusual spectacle witnessed by the people of Atchison, Kansas.
For years an island of 600 or 700 acres has been one of the attractions
of Atchison. It was as fertile as a garden, and was known all over the
West for the excellence of the celery, asparagus, sweet potatoes and
melons it produced. It had the appearance of a veritable oasis in a
desert, and its green shrubbery, generous shade trees, velvet lawns, and
cool spring, were a perpetual joy. Upon this island a shooting club had
a home, and the base-ball enthusiasts had their grounds, and grandstand.
Altogether, it was a most pleasant resort. In a single night this island
was dissolved into fragments.
“The big June rise in the Missouri River struck it, and to-day it is
only a reminiscence. What was Kansas’s loss, however, was Missouri’s
gain. With the obliteration of the island the current left the Missouri
shore and struck hard against the Kansas bluffs. The result of this is
that the Missouri banner has been planted a mile westward, and hundreds
of acres of rich bottom land have been added to its domain, while Kansas
mourns the loss of its green island and pleasant park.”
The wonderful changes going on in the configuration of England are
recorded in a well-known London paper (_Tit-Bits_) in the following
words:
“Is England disappearing? Readers may pucker up their lips and ejaculate
‘Absurd!’ but facts, nevertheless, remain and show pretty clearly that
England is positively disappearing, and may in years to come be marked
on the map as a vanished isle.
“On the coast the sea is encroaching upon the land at an astonishing
rate. Seaside towns and villages, holiday resorts, are gradually being
eaten up and the inhabitants driven inland. In many parts the sea runs
up on a beach which was once far inland. In other cases churches which
were at one time far from the sea now stand at the edge of cliffs and
have the sea lapping almost at their doors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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