The Five Islands, Louisiana

The Five Islands, so called, are in reality large, symmetrical hills, or rounded eminences, rising to an elevation of 100 feet or more from a flat, marshy plain in southwestern Louisiana. They are distributed at irregular intervals along a straight line which runs about northwest. They have aroused interest and published comment from scientists for more than a hundred years, and for a long time it has been generally known that these hills are underlain by immense bodies of salt and are the surface expression of recent upthrusting of salt plugs. Each of the islands is described in detail as to its geology, its record as a source of salt (several of the Islands have for years been the site of extensive salt-mining), and its possibilities for oil production. The evidence The evidence which these occurrences affords as to the origin of salt domes is analyzed. An extensive Bibliography is appended.