Uncle Sam acquired some new territory in the Pacific a few weeks ago in a novel manner. It was not acquired by conquest, annexation or purchase, but was a gift from nature herself who pushed it up from the depths of the Pacific ocean and gave it unasked. Geologists say that nature is constantly giving and taking land after this fashion; that some portions of the earth are steadily subsiding and others rising; some coast lines are advancing and others receding. New Jersey is gradually losing territory along the coast, while in other regions new land is being added to the area of the United States. But the usual progress is slow. Once in a while a new island is lifted suddenly out of the sea by volcanic action, and this practically, is what occurred off the coast of California several weeks ago when about 35,000 square yards of rock was added to one of the Santa Barbara islands with a suddenness that surprised the people living on the island. Not only was new land added to the island, but that already existing was moved around in an embarrassing manner. Buildings erected in the shelter of the cliffs, with a seaward exposure, were lifted up forty or fifty feet to the level of the plateau and twisted around so as to face directly inland.
The Santa Barbara group of islands lies about sixty miles off the coast of California, in about the latitude of Los Angles. The island of San Miguel, to which the new land has been added, is one of the smaller islands, and is owned by Capt. W. G. Waters, who has a big sheep ranch on it. The only living people on the island are Capt. Waters and his sheep herders and laborers. Some of the islands of the groups are noted for their scenic beauties, but San Miguel is bleak and comparatively uninteresting. It is plainly of volcanic origin, and it is said that at various times within the last half century stretches of the cliffs along the southern shore of the island have fallen away and been swallowed up in the sea. But no one knows of any land having been given back by the ocean before the event of the second week in March. Capt. Waters was [on?] the island when the earthquake eruption, or whatever it was, occurred. He took the information to the mainland, and the San Francisco Examiner sent a correspondent to San Miguel to get all the facts and some pictures of the new territory of the United States. The picture and information here given are from the Examiner articles.
Capt. Waters lives in his ranch house on the southwest side of the island, a considerable distance from the point where the new land was added. On the night when the disturbance occurred he was sitting in his house reading. He felt the earth shiver, but as earthquakes are not uncommon thereabout he took little notice of the occurrence. The next morning he started out around the beach toward his boathouse to look for his sloop, which was due from the mainland. When he neared the harbor and the place where his boathouse had been he had to rub his eyes because of the remarkable appearance of the surroundings. The beach had disappeared, and where a bay of placid water had been rose a huge mass of broken cliffs. He climbed up on the high ground overlooking the bay, and there on the plateau, forty feet or more above the water line and three hundred feet inland, were the boathouse and sheep corral which the previous evening had been right on the water’s edge. On reaching the boathouse he found another surprise. The building stood as firm as ever, but whereas it had recently faced seaward it was now turned almost completely around and faced almost directly away from the bay. The tracks of the sheep were still plainly visible on the ground, but instead of being on the left side of the boat house, where the path had always been, they were now on the right.
He walked out on the top of the newly formed cliffs toward the water, and found the great mass of rock still trembling and swaying. There was a sound of grinding and churning, and every now and then a chuck of rock would settle a little. The mass was evidently still adjusting itself in its new position. The buoy to which his sloop was moored when in harbor was formerly 400 feet from the sandy beach. Now it was about 100 feet from the abrupt face of the new cliffs. He set up some posts to serve as marks by which to observe any further changes and withdrew to more solid ground. The next morning he found that in its readjustment the land had moved seaward twelve or fifteen feet, and the mass of new land seems quiet and permanently settled. Then Capt. Waters went to the mainland and told of the happenings on San Miguel, and a day or two later some scientific men with surveyors’ instruments and camera went over and verified his story.