Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-07-11
CHAPTER III.
OA4A4 L LIZ LIZ
A GREAT STEP TAKEN

GREAT STEP TAKEN.
| In the midst of the Antarctic ocean, q little
off the route from New York to Australia,
there lies large island named Kerguelen's
Land, or-as Capt. Cook called 1.-THE Island
of Desolatfon.
1t was discovered just hundred years ago
Gin IT'D, by the French naval officer whose
name it bears. 1t was uninhabited then, and
Is to day as deserted as ever.
The smallest school-boy among our readers
can find it upon his map of the world, about
midway between the south end of Africa and
Australia, well up toward the SouthPole
1t is hundred miles in length by fifty in
breadth, and is consequently three or four
times as large as Rhode Island.
Its coasts are so wild and dangerous that its
discoverer, during the two expeditions that
he made to it, did not once bring his ships to
anchor in any of its bays and harbors.
Its shape is very irregular, but something
like that of an hour-glass, in being nearly cut
IN two by couple of large bays but those
two divisions are unequal in size, the northern
peninsula being much larger than the south
ern.
Its coast line is wildly broken and jagged, its
innumerable CULTS being long and narrow, and
its promontories are correspondingly sharp
and slender, reaching out into the ocean like
fingers.
The body of the island indeed resembles
that of some huge monster of the antediluvian
world, even as its capes and headlands re-
semble such monsters unsightly limbs and
claws.
more terrific solitude than this isle of
Desolatlon does not exist upon our wrecked
planet.
Neither the SHOWS of Himaaya nor the sands
of Sahara can outvie it's terrors.
No lnhabitant is there, not even a savage
no house, no tree, no fence nor road, no field
nor garden, no horse. no dog-not even a
snake or a wolf.
Lone blasted and barren, it looks like the
skeleton of land that has persisted.
1t may indeed be that Desolation is the relic
"a surviving fragment-of continent that
went down here countless ages ago, with hosts
of inhabitants in some vast CONFUSION of
nature.
1t has certainly undergone dreadful vista
tons been rent by earthquakes, pulverized
by frosts, lashed and wasted by fierce tenn
pests.
Its mountains are only of moderate height,
but are capped eternally with snow.
Its vegetation is limited to few dwarfsh
plants, including some mosses, a species of
hchen, coarse grass, a plant resembling
small cabbage, and sort of cress.
Its winds are raw and piercing, its summers
cold and frosty, its winters those of the Polar
Circles.
The interior of the Island is occupied by i'm
mense Doggy swamps, where the ground sinks
at every step.
Lie TdlIlS III DeSOlaIlOn are almost mceSSant,
IN their season, and the island is accordingly
yeined with numerous torrents of fresh water,
some of which have worn out of the solid rock
tremendous cavities and gullies. The only
other season than that of the rains is one of
almost constant snow.
The fogs of that CHASTITY region are well
worthy of the rains being of a cloud-like den
sity, and lowering almost continually over the
whole face of the island
The sun of Desolation is usually hidden by
canopy of lead-colored Clouds and appears. on
the rare occasions when it is visible, scarcely
brighter than the moon in other ATTITUDES. AS
to the moon itself and the stars, the clouds
and fogs rarely permit them to betray their
existence.
No fish worthy of note, not even fishes of
prey, abound in the adjacent waters, by rea-
son, perhaps, of their containing poisonous
minerals, or deadly exhalations from the vol
canic fires beneath them.
Yet the dark grim sea inclosing Desolation
has done something to repair the sterility of
the island
Penguins, ducks, gulls, cormorants and
other marine birds are plentiful in some of its
harbors.
Seals also abound
Strange and terrible land
Not single human being, so far as is known,
has ever lived there. save as is now to be re-
corded in these pages.
Mean the middle of dull, dismal afternoon,
oOIAO c1cfcu weeks later IQan the QaIe OF the
preceding events, the good ship Flying Chtlders
drew near to the island of Desolaton, shaping
her course toward its northernmost bay, called
by Capt. Cook Christmas Harbor.
A fair breeze was blowing from the north,
and the ship was carrying every stitch of her
canvas, il Guiding studding-sails.
Her crew-both watches-were busy about
the deck, and her passengers-a score in num-
ber-had gathered in--groups. mostly forward,
and were gazing with great interest upon the
Wild, rugged shores before them, so far as the
fog suspended upon those shores permitted
them to become visible.
The ship had come here for water, nearly all
her water casks having been stove or started
during squall ten days previously, and every
soul aboard of her having been since that date
upon short allowance.
Upon the quarterback stood Capt. Luke
Pedder, looking unusually happy, with Will.
Hawley beside HIM.
L mean to get our water aboard before dark,
Capt. Pedder, and so avoid losing night here
said the young executive, totally unconscious
of the plot to leave him alone Oh the desolate
island, and of the extraordinary adventures
which were before him The strange events
that happened there, and indeed the whole of
of this thrilling story, will be found only in the
New York Ledger, which is now ready and for
sale at all the bookstores and news-depots.
Ask for the number dated July 10, and in it
Aou will get the continuation of the story from
the place where it leaves off here.