Cobb's Island, Virginia
COBB'S ISLAND has been for over fifty years a famous resort for gunners and fishermen, and until late years was a veritable paradise for the zoologist; but between wholesale slaughter of the birds by so-called sportsmen, during the breeding season, and by those taking them for millinery purposes, they have become scarcer and scarcer, so that now very few breed on the island. When I first went to the island about twenty-eight years ago, the Least, Common and Forster's Terns nested there in colonies of thousands, but now few of them breed and the Least is seldom seen. During four days on the island in May, 1891, I only saw one of the latter, and it was as wild as an Oyster-catcher, which is a very wild bird. The Royal Tern also nested on the island at one time.
Cobb's island has many sweet memories for me, and I am very sorry to see that it suffered severely during the hurricane that raged all along the life of the Atlantic coast in October, 1896, and as the prospects are for an early dissolution of the island, which, I presume most of our collectors have heard or read about, but possibly only a few have visited, I think some notice of it will be of interest.
Old Nathan Cobb (Old Nathan as he was familiarly called), came from Cape Cod on a trading expedition some fifty-five or sixty years ago, and was so struck with the surrounding country that on his return home he had a small frame house built, placed it on the deck of his schooner, and returning to Northampton County he set it on the mainland opposite to Cobb's Island and opened a store to trade with the surrounding people. After he had been located there for some time, one day a small colored girl was sent down to make a purchase, but returning with empty hands, "Missus," she said, "there am no store down on the shore," and when her mistress went down to see about it herself she found it to be a fact.
Old Nathan had purchased Cobb's Island, paying therefore $20 in cash and 100 bushels of salt. Then building himself a raft he floated his house out to his newly acquired domain. Here he lived for some time, fishing and shooting for market and shipping to New York and Philadelphia. Later he and others built and opened a hotel, in which part of the lumber used was drift and wreckage picked up on the beach. This finally passed through several hands, and is now controlled by a syndicate from Lynchburg, Va., which paid $20,000 for the hotel, some cottages, and 25 acres of ground about five years ago.
When I first visited the island it was about seven miles long, the lower end, where all the houses are situated, was about a third of a mile wide, and all the upper part was a long strip of narrow beach, low and sandy, and back of which were the marshes.
Now, since the hurricane, I understand that the island at low tide is almost the original length, but much of the beach at lower end being washed away, it is not more than about 100 yards wide and only about 25 acres of solid ground is left.
Originally there were a number of trees, some maples and Lombardy poplars being planted about the lower end. Farther up were some low scrubby cedars. All remaining now, are, as I understand, a small mulberry and a poplar.
The United States government established a life-saving station on the island about the year 1876 or '77. A year or so ago this was moved farther back to the higher ground and was so saved from being washed away during the storm.
Cobb's Island is situated about nine miles out from the coast of Northampton County, and is separated from the mainland by what is called "The Broadwater." Between the island and the mainland are the marshes were most of the shooting is done. Large bags of game used to be made and are now at times. On one tide, in August, 1881, I killed about 20 Curlew (Numenius hudsonicus), 60 Willet (Symphemia semipalmata) and 120 Grayback (Macrorhamphus griseus), besides a number of smaller fry. No license used to be necessary, but I believe the last legislature of Virginia passed a law requiring a person to pay $10 to shoot, and this has kept away some sportsmen. The fishing, as a rule, is fine, large catches of Weak fish (Sea trout) being made.
Amongst the birds that used to regularly breed on the Island and in the vicinity, were the following: Least, Common and Forster's Terns; Flood Gull (Black Skimmer); Willet; Laughing Gull; Oyster-catcher; Wilson's Plover; Clapper Rail; Seaside Sparrow; Sharp-tailed Sparrow; Red-winged Blackbird; Barn Swallow; Green Heron; Nighthawk; Boat-tailed Grackle; Fish Hawk; Great Blue Heron; Snowy Heron; Spotted Sandpiper; Gull-billed Tern, and Caspian Tern.
Capt. C. H. Crumb, an enthusiastic ornithologist who had charge of the life-saving station when I was at the island in May, 1891, gave me the following list of some of the rarer birds that had been taken on the island: Am. Eider; Black Brant; Brown Pelican; Louisiana Heron; Black-crowned Night Heron; Yellow-crowned Night Heron; Black Guillemot; Purple Gallinule; Florida Gallinule; Scissor-tailed Flycatcher; Chuck-will's-widow; Connecticut Warbler, and Prothonotary Warbler. In the Ornithologist and Oologist October, 1891, Mr. Edw. J. Brown records the capture of a young male Red-start, and a friend tells me that he saw a Woodcock on one of the marshes. On my last trip to the island I remarked the absence of the English Sparrow. One of the inhabitants told me it had never made its appearance on the island, further remarking that "if anybody brought them there, that person would be shot."
Cobb's Island has several times been washed over by the ocean, and I was there during an easterly storm in 1868 when the sea washed over nearly all of the island, drowning about twenty or more cows that were grazing on the marshes. After the recent hurricane, a correspondent of The Baltimore Sun visited the island in order to verify the conflicting accounts that had been given of the damage done, and the substance of his report is here attached.
He says, October 19: "After quite an adventurous trip The Sun's correspondent succeeded in reaching Cobb's Island yesterday by means of a small sailboat, in company with several other visitors. * * * Our boat was the first one to carry
a party to the island since the storm, and as yet the seas in the vicinity of Cobb's Island are running so very high that it is really perilous for a boat of small dimensions to attempt the trip. * * *
"We found about twenty persons on the island, including the members of the life-saving station, all of whom were in a very sorrowful mood on account of the almost entire destruction of the island and the property thereon. One of the most prominent citizens of the island took his loss in the most philosophical manner. He believes that this, as well as the previous storms encountered on the island during the past few years, are only Divine warning for them to vacate the island entirely, and he thought it would not be long before Cobb's Island would be many feet under the surface of the broad Atlantic ocean. While only a few of the houses were washed entirely away, all of them suffered more or less damage. The water was fully a foot deep over the entire island, and the seas which rolled were from 40 to 50 feet in height.
"The Baltimore Cottage * * * which was previous to the storm seventy-five yards from the beach, is now a total wreck, being pounded to pieces by the immense seas which swept the island. Several other cottages were about half buried in the sand. * * * The hotel is a complete wreck. * * * About three feet of sand stands in the dancing pavilion on the first floor. The bar room, billiard room, bowling alley and several other small buildings were tumbled down in one heap and broken up so they were of no use whatever. There are several wells of fresh water now covered by ocean that were previously to the storm in the barn-yard of Mr. Cobb, used for watering his stock. The island was reduced fifty acres, leaving only about twenty-five in sight at low water."