Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-07-04
CHAPTER III.
A GREAT STEP TAKEN,

In the midst of the Antarctic ocean, a little
off the route from New York to Australia,
there lies a large island named Kcrguelen's
Land, or-as Capt. Cook called 1.-THE Island
of DcsOiatiOn.
1t was discovered just a hundred years ago,
Tin 1772,) by the French naval officer whose
name 1t 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
Australia, well up toward the South Pole.
1t is a hundred miles in length by fifty in
breadth, and il consequently three or four
times MS large as Rhode island.
Its coasts arc SO wild and dangerous that it's
discoverer, during the two expeditions that he
made to it, did not once bring his ships to IN i.
| Choir i'll any OF its bays and harbors.
It's shape is very irregular, but something
| like that Of an hUur-glass, it being nearly cut
| in two by couple Of large bays but there
| two divisions arc unequal in size, the northern
peninsula being much larger than the south
| crn.
Its coast line is widely broken ana Jagged,
its innumerable CULTS being long and narrow,
and its prOm0ntorios are cOrrespondingy sharil
and slender, reaching out into tho ocean like
fingers %s ,o1r ., .,,o ;.,.,,, ;.,
that Of some huge monster Of the ante: iiiuvian
| world, even as its capes and headlands re.
semble such monsters unsightly limbs and
claws.
A more terrific solitude than this isle O,
Desolaton does not exist upon our wrecked
planet.
Neithcrthc SHOWS Of Himalaya nor the sands
| OF Sahara can Outvie its terrors.
NO lnhabltant IL there, not even q savage
no house, no tree, no shrub, no fence nor road,
no teld nor garden no horse, no dog, moi
| even snake or a wolf.
! LOno, blasted and barren, it looks like the
skeleton OF q land that has persisted,
| 1t may indeed be that Desolation ia the
rellc-lhe surviving fragMent-of a continent
that went down here countless ages ago, with
hosts OF inhabitants, in some vast convulsion
| Of nature.
1t has certainly undergone dreadful vista.
lions been rent by earthquakes. pulverizcd
by frosts, lashed and wasted by fierce .mpcsts.
Its mountains are only Of moderate height,
but are capped etcrnaily with snow.
| lts vegetation is limited to a few dwarfish
| pIahts, including some moses, Il species OF
hclien. q coarse grass, plant resembling a
| small abbage, and O sort Of crcss.
| It's winds arc raw and piercing, it's summers
cold and frosty, its winters those OF the Polar
Circles.
! The interior of tho island is occupied by i'm
nlcnsc DOGGY swamps, where the ground sinks
at every step.
The rains III Dcsnlation arc almost uccs-
SAINT, III thsir season, and the island is accord
ingly vcined with numerous torrents Of frcsl,
| "
solid rock tremendous cavities and sullcs.
The ohly other season than that of tho rains
| is ono of almost constant SNOW.
The fogs Ut that gl'as ly region arc we'll
worthy OF the rains, being OF q cloud-likc dem
sity and lowering almost continually over
| the whole face OF tho island.
The sun Of Desulaton is usually hidden by a
canopy of lead-colorel clouds. and appears on
; the rare occasions when il Is visible, scarcely
brighter than tho NOON III other latlt,ltlos. AS
to tho moon itself, and the stars, the clouds
and fogs rarely permit them tc bc,ray their cx-
| lstcnco.
No fish worthy OF note, not even fishes of
prey, abound i'll tho adjacent wators, by rea-
son, perhaps, Of their containing poisonous
minerals, or deadly exhalations from the vol
canic fires beneath them.
| Yet Tho dark grim sea incIosing Dosolation
has done something to rcpair the sterility of
| tho and.
lenguins, ducks, gnils, cormorants and
other marine birds are plentiful in some Of its
| llarbOrs.
! SeaIs also abound.
Strange and terrible land!
| Not a. single human being, so fur as il
known, has over lived there, save az is now to
! DC recorded i'll these pages.'