The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-11-22
NEW ISLANDS.
Bountiful Nature Providing New Lands fos
Man to Conquer.

Man to Conquer.
Geographers complain that soon there
will be no more worlds for them to con-
quer, and the Danes have ever since the
loss of the duchies, looked forward with
doleful forebodings to the time when
their country will be still further shorn
of its fair proportions. Nature is, how
ever, bountiful, and now, by throwing
up new island off the shores of Ice
land, it has added in an appreciate de-
gree to the territories of King Christian
and to the regions which still await the
explorations of the traveller. 1t is true
that the new land is only volcanic
cone, and as it was the result of subter-
ranean fire, may, like so many of its
predecessors born of the throes OF
mother earth, sink again into the ocean
from whence it sprang. At various
times, especially after some severe dis
turbance of Hekla, similar islets have
for a brief period shown themselves
above the waves, but generally, with
the exception of Nyoe, which was
thrown up last century, have been worn
away by the action of the surf before
biologists could accurately examine the
volcanic scoria and ashes of which they
were composed. In 1911 Captain Til
lard of II. M. S. Sabrina, witnessed
such an islet arise during volcanic
outburst in the Azores and proudly
named it after his ship. But when he
returned a few weeks later to survey
and annex his acquisition not a trace Of
Sabrina Island was visible. The sea
had reclaimed it. In the volcanic
region of the Mediterranean several
similar births of land have been re-
corded by ancient and modern writers.
But the most notorious of them was
Graham Island, which arose in the
year 1881, some thirty miles off the
southwest coast of Sicily For few
weeks much ink was shed over it, and
at one time it was feared that gunpow-
| der would be burnt in the assertion of
the angry claims which were made for
this wretched $500 yards of Etnaic Gin
ders. The names of Sciacca, Julia,
| Hotham, Graham and Corrac were sue
cessively given to it by the fiery mari
ners who cruised around it ready to
land and hoist their countries flags the
| moment the scoria cooled. But before
Europe was cl1DIOlleu III wal dpoot ~
| Graham Island vanished and so settled
the dispute in its own simple way. Aft
er the destruction of Krakatoa by the
great Java earthquake in 1888 twenty
one new islets appeared in the Sunda
Strait, and only last year one hitherto UNI
known rose above the sea off the shores
of Alaska In all of these cases vol
canic action has been the ostensible
| cause of the formation of these specks
| in the ocean. But in 1871 Captains
| Lllzen and Mack discovered to the north
of Nova Zembla group of islets just
| above the sea, on the very spot where,
| in 1894, William Barents had found
soundings. On the two largest, which
were named Brown and Hellwald' s
Islands, tropical fruits were picked up,
tossed thither by the northern extension
of the gulf stream. Hence the group
was named the Gulf Stream Islands;
and as the land in this portion of the
polar basin is undergoing slow secular
elevation, just as in other places it is
sinking, in the course of a century OF
two the Arctic navigator may find in
that direction something worthy OF a
flag and an entry on his chart.--London
Standard.