The Blyth Standard, 1930-02-20, Page 2Vanishing Isles
Write Romance
For Men of Sea
Volcanic Masses Rise From
Deep Only to Disappear,
or Perhaps to Float
Again
Ily Lawrence G. Green
Cape Town,' --"These admiralty sail-
ing dh'ecttons contain some of the fin-
est literature of the sea," said the
master of the coasting steamer,
"Why, there to not a novelist living
with imagination enough to give you,
in one volume, all this romauco and
adventure, And it is true, as exact as
ratan can make it, set down In the pre-
cise laugunge of the sea."
The old captain's 0yee 0110110 he
tapped Lite thick blue cover of the
"Africa Pilot; Affectionately he turn-
ed the pages and handed the book
to me. "Facts, all facts down to the
last detail; he declared. "Now read
about the island that vanished in
Wolfish Bay,"
On .111110 1, 1900 (so the statement
ran) a toed or clay island, 150 feet
long, 30 feet wide and 12 feet above
high water mark, was formed off the
northeast coiner of Pelican Point,
Steam wet; observed rising from the
clay composing the island, \Within
three months of the date of the up-
heaval the island disappeared,
Reappears Once or Twice
"That island has broken surface
once or twice since then," said the
captain. "I have steamed past it, a I1I
weird little place, smelling of sulphur4
nud covered with dead 1sh, Millions
of fish were flung onto the beaches of
that part of the southwest African
coast every time the 101011(1 rose.
They even found a fes' dead whales,
The submarine cable broke, acid
et Swakopmund, farther north. Au
uncanny affair!
'But you hear of islands rising and
vanishing like that all over the world;
in the cyclone -ridden China Sen, the ,
Indian cent, U1^ Pac111e and the
Caribbean, I could tell you about doz-
en5 of .them—a queer trade, naviga-
iteml"
The captain pulled down a 1011 of
charts, and selected one on which
sprawled Ole tin half-moon of the
West Indies. "Now here is Trinidad,
where 1 used to load pitch—this large
1011011 Close to the Venezuela coast,
Near the island you see there Is a
wtgia, a warning o? possible (auger.
This particular - speck represeut0 au
101011(1 born one clay, visited by Trini-
day harbor people and claimed for
Britain. A few days lafor tine island
sank back again, leaving only this
mark 011 the chart.
"Other islands in the West Indies
have,snifered great 1110est010 as a re-
sult of 0ubnlarjae earthquakes. There
was the tragedy of fort Royal, Jat-
malea, 'l'lie whole town sank beneath
the bay, drowning a good mato, rum -
swigging pirates and hundreds of
honest folie 110 well.
Sees City Buried in Deep
'Nevis met the sante fate, I was ill
11e'0 Willa a fruit steamer years ago,
and saw the streets and houses of the
old town through the clear green
water.
You find vlgias on every chart, Al-
most everything afloat has been mis-
taken for an islet or a rock at one
time or another—derelict ships, trees,
icebergs. 'When I was in the whaling
trade I saw $onle enormous ice -is-
lands hundreds of feet high, twenty
or thirty miles long, and strewn with
rocks and earth from the Antarctic
Continent, R Was hard to believe
that they were afloat. Tho early ex-
plorers thought they were 101011113,
and fixed their positions as well as
they could;
Ships. Fast on Ice Island
"There was an emigrant ship, the
Guiding Star, that sighted a tools.
scraped ice -island sixty miles Mug.
She was trapped in the bay, drifted
there when the wind failed. All
hands lost. Two other ships saw ler
go, and clawed off to wincl'ard in
time.
'Then there was the ice -island re-
ported by Captain Coward of the brig
11enovalion in 1851 — nn ice -island
with field -ice attached, and a couple
of three -masted ships high and dry
on it. Some thought they were Frank-
liu'o Erebus and Terror, but the des-
criptions did not tally. You will thud
it all described in 100010oks on nauti-
cal meteorology, Facts!"
To the ships of rho British Navy
often falls the task of placing new
islands on the chart or, after a lolig
search, reporting as non-existent is-
lands "sighted" years before and
11e801' seen again. The caplal0 opens
ed the "010(1 Sea Pilot," with 113 nP-
propriate rets cover, and showed ine
the brief Iln'ee lines dealing with
Avocet Rock, a small coral patch
with at least depth of two nud 8 iutlf
fathoms and from twenty-eight to
thirty Winona close round. Not
touch use -heaving the lead there.
"Those three lines cost two ships
and thousands of pounds spent in
verifying the position of the rock," Ito
said. "rho crew made port in their
boats; but Boar.l of Trade OMeta11 at
the Inquiry could hardly believe that
there was an uncharted rock in that
neighborhood. So 11,111.5, h9ylog 1'130
steamed to the spot, took soundings
and reported deep water.
"The captain of the Avocet stuck to
Ole story, but the adtuiriiliy decided
against making another 0ea:ch. Then
the Teddington rimmed the. Sallte
rock and sank. Asearch by taro
men -o' -war followed, and aft e- hot
weeks of weary draggling with wires
the boats of 1LIti.11. Stork found the
rock. I would like to know whether
the owners of the Avocet gave the un-
lucky master another ship; but that
is one of the gaps in the sailing (thee -
lions you have to Lilt in for yourself."
Charted, Expunged, Recharted
The sheds used to 001011 a group of
dots on the lonely sea -track to the
south of Australia—the Royal Com-
pany Islands. After many years a
liner posed right over their supposed
position. They were officially wined
out and they have not reappeared. la
the Aleutian Islands, hotseser, i0luuds
well knowa to mariners, like Ship
hock Island, have vanished only to
rise again years afterward in new
shapes, The Bogoslav Islands in
those sena have been charted, ex-
punged and charted again, a puzzling
task for the liydrogroplters.
Falcon 101005 in the South Pacific
Ma irritated the chart -makers often
since it wa0 first observed by ship-
masters in 1S85. The cliffs of the is-
land were them 150 feet high, and it
was placed definitely on the Map.
Down it went and stayed down for
several years, only to come up pipfug
hot with a voloano in eruption.
Falcon Islands Jack -in -Box
In 1900 it was six feet above bleb
water manic, rain and triad having
broken up the lava; but in 1921, when
American geologists landed, it had
grown again, and the volcano was
throwing out a cloud of alms and
st_8nl. Stoehr,, cocmnl0 and even bot•
Iles had been washed up on the
beaches, and a solitary bosh h had
taken root, No doubt Fake a lsimtd
will continuo to 110 a 12811111 -the -box,
and remain on the chart ae a right.
Submarine volcanoes have been re-
sponsible for maty of these new-born
islands. There was Brahnn0's Island,
a solid 11111 of dust, sand and lash,
emitting fire and smoke, explored by
British naval sennet soon after its
appearance in the Mediterranean near
Sicily. New chaste gave its exact
position; 110 sooner had they been
Diluted than the whole island dropped
bade to the troubled sea floor.
Levant Swallowed Up
The American corvette Levalit, call-
ing at H00010111 on the way to Pan-
ama in 1SG0, was nnstrneted to leave
her course and search for an 10100d
which was much in doubt. It had
been described by a whaling shipper
as a low-lying coral atoll, a little ring
marked by tall palms and 0 lagoon re-
flecting its light upwards like a mir-
ror. No one knows wletier the Le-
vant, over made that island; she was
never seen again. Perhaps her bones
Ile rotting on the reefs of an island
so far from all the trade routes that
no ship has ever called.
Whaling eapt0i00 ventured into
many corners of the world where no
other ;Mips would have found Car-
goes; but their reports were usually
looked upon with suspicion. They
did not navigate; they merely follow-
ed the whales until their holds -Wore
filled with oil, and then steered for
home,
Dougherty Island Disappears
Dougherty Island is sail sought by
occasional deep-sea exploration yes -
sets 1011een'New Zealand and Cape
Horn, It was described by Captain
Dougherty in 1841 as a great rocky
ridge seven miles long and 300 feet
high. Twenty years later another
shipmaster supplied similar details. Cunha and other lonely 101011ds are
Yet, when Captain Scott's famous end lite last vestiges of an enormous At -
barque Discovery searched for it ear- Mitten continent whioh disappeared
Valiant Soldier and Boys' Hero
ittt
Latool portrait of Sir Rohe; l BadenPowell.
ay t.hi.a center? sonudiogo ;pore a long before Columbus wiled ori Into
depth of three miles.
Did Dougherty see an ice Island an
mistake it for solid land? 1f so, it I
extraordinary That a second vessel
twenty years later, should have 011
countered another ice island in ih
same place and tvith the same al?
Pear0uoe.
In the fascinating maze of til
South Sea Isles there are many marla
on the chart represeuling islands 1110 -
covered a (canny ago or more and
nei-e8 visited since then by respons-
ible shipmaster's. These are "0. I)."
one is Walker Island, placed Provi-
sionally just north of the line, but
never verieed /duce its discovery in
the days of prates. A find place 1'or
burled treasure,
t010 ay' of the setting stn.
Scientists Study Problem
a
s Naturalists, geologists and yeeleut-
, ism of a (100011 different professions
• have studied the problem and decided
o in favor of a lost continent, 'thus one
- find:; lizards on the Atlauttc islands
which vest have been at home in
Europe, and butterflies that really be -
s long to the Mediterranean. Most, mys-
terious view's of all were discovered
by the Spaniards--lhe Guaneh00 of
the Canary Islnds—that extinct race
of humans which may have been the
hast of the Atlante000, survivors 'trim
clung to their great mountain peaks
when the continent sank almost be-
neaththe surface of the sea.—New
Fork Herald 'I'ribuile.
1 had seen, floating Islands in alae
Congo ((01110 y, and photographed
theist .with a eine-camera so that my
friends would believe the tale. 'She
captain had sect thorn, too -01011(10
moving steadily down the Amazon
with the current; some of thele with
trees and hints and people living on
the buoyant natural raft of jungle
vegetation. Fortunately few of these
(istoundiog islands drift far out to
sea to mystify seamen.
Where is Seventh Azores Island?
From fact We turned to legend, and
the 'captain talked of the seventh is-
land of the Abores, 'Those gloriously
illustrated charts of the early navi-
gators always showed seven islands
in the Azores group—the very edge
of the western world. Yet there are
only six fates. 018111811 000 rovers in
the sixteenth century wrote in their
log -books of "(enate flitting islands
which have been often-times 5000,
and when 1e11 approached nein' them
they vanished,"
A Portuguese Pilot named Pedro
Vello said he had landed on lite
508011111 island, and that be found the
pilots of groat human feet in the
sands and a cross nailed to a tree,
To this day hundreds of islanders in
the Azores describe the ghost island,
with its lonely white house set in
green bush. 1s it myth or mirage?
Filially there is the greatest yan-
i;hing 101[11(5 of all—rho lost Atlantis.
Chains of soundings made by steam-
ers laying and repairing the deep-sea
cables in 'recent years hare proved
that new mountains are constantly
being created 00 the bed of the At-
lantic, that great depths may become
Hutch shallower, and vice versa.
These discoveries give strong support
to those who believe that the peaks
of Tenerife, Ascension, - Tristan da
HOW TO ARRIVE
When Socrates was once asked how
lo got to Olympus lie replied, "By _do.
iug all your 0.olkiug in, that direction."
Men 1810) have accomplished anything
worth while in ill world have followed
tlo advice of this ancient Greek phil-
osopher, either consciously or uncon-
sciously. David Livingstone in the
African wilderness did all his walling
fn the dtrectiol,l of Opening up that
vast continent to trade and to gospel
of Christ. He could not ine lured into
a by -way, hilt kept steadily on the
track which he laid down for himself.
Let us determine.to take the way of
the upward calling and keep walking
in that direction. When an invitation
Former Wilds
Rapidly Grow
African Oasis that Interested
Cecil Rhodes is Now
Busy Town
'ruched away in an almost inaccess-
ible part of the Kalahari is the little-
known settlement of i{001101, an oasis
surrounded by uninhabitable desert,
Clhauzllunil, as the teritory is called,
is unknown even to the majority of
South Africans, yet 11 is a flourishing
little 8011111,ry to -day and was des-
cribed when 11181 it w110 discovered by
Europeans as a "laud tlowhng with
mills and honey,"
It was in Mafelting in 1894 that a
group of farmers met together to dis-
cuss the mission o1 one Izak Bozman,
who had carried tidings of the Gospel
to Chief Moroni of the Datawana in
Southwest Africa.
"There is a land 111 the l(araban,"
old Irak told limn, "which is a laud
flowing with milk and honey."
"Ifow so, in the Kalahari" those
skeptical farmers said. "Crass for
cattle there? Green things growing
in that waste of hot sand? No!"
"But it is so," Boman insisted.
"Wild honey 00 plentiful there, and the
grass to the finest for stook in the'
whole of Africa. Trek north and see
for yourselves it you do not believe
1110."
Cecil Rhodes Interested
A few of theist thought there might,
perhaps, be something in it. After
weighty consultations, they said that
u settlement ntielit be established
there, Many 'kneeled the idea; "Fort
will not stay there long„' said the Van
Zlys, who hod trekked through the
Kalahari and found it quite untenable,
1110'01(1011g those whose imaginations
wore fired by that phrase of golden
promise, '11 land of mill( and honey,”
was Cull Rhodes. He sent his agent
north to prepare the way, and now,
in the valley which old Izak Bozman
had likened to that of Canaan, there is
a community of farms tooth town call-
ed 0110112E
The people are descended from
farmers, Dutch and Jang11o11, who trek-
ked 111 00(111 from the 'Transvaal and
the Free State. 501110 of the English-
men hailed from Australia, England
and New Zealand as well. All were in
fair circumstance bcforse coming; in-
deed, the country could not carry a
large population as yet, nor could it
offer scope for those of slender means.
Mining hidustrles may spring up some
clay, but so far prospecting ]las not.
met with any great success. The
chief occupation at present is with
cattle. For agriculture on a payable
scale there is little chance until irri-
gation facilities are better attainable,
The soils are rich -red, chocolate -
brown and black—and many small
crops are grown in the gardens in fa-
vorable years.
There is a minimum of rain, but the
trees and bustles and the grass are al-
ways refreshingiy green, for breezes
are constantly, veering on -the high
plateau. Light gusts blow over from
both Atlantic and Indian Oceans, or
zephyrs from rho veld in the south.
The ,sun's heat is dispersed in wind
before 11 beats down on the earth.
Cyclones and storms do not come to
Chant, though sometimes black
clouds with lightning playing through
them from the western liorizon; but
they gradually retire, or split up into
a31, lr'e ('an single cumuli, which let fall showers
afford to any, No." There nye 004' here and lhore—but gentle ones,
ons rewards at tie end of the road,
_T Hard Pioneers
The man of Ghanzi are hardy. They
have need to be, Never since their
coming has a Kafir or a 110011ntann been
able to get the better of them, and
what they do not know of the country
thereabouts is negligible. When not
out traveling to trade with the Bata-
waua, or on a quest for food, the
Gannet farmer is busy with building
operations, or putting a new ' well
down, or with any other of the multi-
farious jobs the pioneer has to be
able to do, Lions still abound it the
district, and wild dogs and leopards,
but not at all butes of the year ado
they go far from their river haunts.
Then entre is always the lure of
the Kalahari. It has been conquered,
but it 81111 calls. One Sutherland Mc-
Tavish was engaged to go, and wont,
from Ghanzi to Illoiopopole and back
with a wagon and 19 oxen and two
Bushman stades, and started to dig
wells; but the Great War sent its
menage to 11m, and he answered it.
Since then several have chanced it.
Two Wren named Riley and Lewis
went through only two or three
"A girl who has a ring in each ear
110w-11.503'0 is a eavag0 queen,"
MEMORIAL SCULPTOR
W. S. Alward, noted Canadian scuba'
tor, who is now at work on giant war
memorial Canada is building on \imy
Ridge, 'Pro !ice. ,
m000115 ago in their motorlorry, with
two breakdowns of two days each, iu
the ntftldle of the desert,
Romance of Obscurity
The old hunters of many years ago,
returning hotuo, used to leave totters
at the "Lotterboom" at 13otletle
River, or scud their servants hack to
the "Schansos" with them. These'
trees have history, thrilling with the
1om5110e of obscurity, on their trunks
in the form of carved names half a
century old.
The social conditions of Ghana' are
delightful, Society as understood
elsewhere does not exist. Your
neighbor is your equal there, The peo-
ple aro all of tho farming class, the
community is a thriving one; man-
ners are pleasant—there is a total ab -
settee of boorishness The Dutch Re-
formed Church sends up Its teachers
from time to time to give schooling
to the children, They live a happy,
outdoor life, those children. They will
call you to come and take a clutch of
wild bees that are swarming in an
acacia, to glimpse alto elands on the
"bull" They will shout to you that
the Bushman Goomai must bring in
the goats and sheep to kraal, and
(lalste must chase the fowls out of the
garden, w-1lere they are pecking at the
young melodeons and pumpkins. They
aro brought up with a knowledge of
the open laud in which they live,
Theirs is the splendid heritage of the
Pioneer.—Christian Science Monitor.
Canada's Independence
Sydney Morning Herald; A great
ileal of cant is talked about tho inde-
pendence which the D0111111 IOU enjoy
by virtue of their "new" status, They
are wanting in mu011 that stakes In-
dependence a reality. They rely on
Britain for many important services.
The test of true nationhood is the
ability of la unitary to take measure
for the protection of the interests of
its citizens at home and abroad, Two
years ago in China a Canadian mis-
sionary and his daughter were mur-
dered, 01181 his wife and son were car-
ried off into captivity by bandits. The
Canadian Government was helpless,
yet the power to act in such circum-
stancos is an essential attribute of a
nation that counts for anything in In-
ternational affairs, All that Ottawa
could do was to appeal to the British
Government, thanks to whose firm re-
presentations the prisoners were re-
leased and the delinquents punished,
The Singapore Base
Calcu0a Englishman: Hitherto the
British taxpayer has borne a neglig-
ible share of the cost of the Singa-
pore 13000, the taxpoye• of New Zea-
land, the :Malay States, the Straits
Settlements and hong Kong has
borne the burden. That he should do
so is not inoquitablo, for he gains
greatly from the establishment of a
powerful bgse in the Far East, while
the Brltisti taxpayer is entitled to
what relief he can secure from naval
estimates 01011 totalling over £57,.
000,000. Nevertheless, In view of the
fact that most of the expenditure on
the Base has come elsewhere than
from Great Britain, it would have
been more courteous on the part of
Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and nils col-
leagues to have consulted the Do-
minions and Colotles concerned in-
stead of merely notifying them of the
Government's 010(101011 to clow down
and to suspend work pooling the eon,
elusion of the Five -Power Naval Con.
Terence.
S'MATTER POP—The Biggest Kind of Favor.
By C. M. PAYNE
1'3> Ci l_1. r+1 AT
tvl f°‘ 6 1a' -Pa iv l M U q7,
e SU`24P'A•SS IN 6
M )<I MU N1 US
Rj Clpe S1•DE