Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-12-03
A CORAL ISLAND.
Diego Garcia, . British Coaling Station In
Mid-Ocean.

1 a COHAl tSLANO.
] Diego Garcia, . British Coaling Station In
Mid-Ocean.
People who have never seen coral
islands talk as if they all resemble an
earthly paradise. From Cape Guardafui
to Cape Leewin, from Lisbon to Rio,
one may pass without meeting anything
in the way of scenery more solid than a
rain-cloud or mountainous sea. OF
late some steamers, both of the royal
navy and of the Orient line, touch at the
southern most island of the Chagos
Archipelago, where coaling station has
been established, and, in spite of the
difficulty which might be anticipated in
making an island in mid-ocean the high
est peak of which is only seven feet
above high water, navigation has been
reduced to such a scientific certainty that
steamer can run in at Diego Garcia,
without deviating mile from the set
course. The island is as nearly as posi-
BILE in the longitude of Bombay, but
more than seven degrees south of the
equator.
It is thus situated in one of the hotties,
places in the world, being just on the
edge of the comparatively temperate
and cloudy belt which lies on either side
of the line. Fierce sunshine alternates
daily with heavy showers, the tempera-
ture between eighty and ninety degrees
all the year round, equal day and night,
or nearly so, all seasons almost alike, ex-
cept that there is little more wind in June
than January-such is the climate For
scenery are the 3, ZOO, 900 cocoanut palms
and the varying blue of the inland sea-
There are mo walks, no roads, no towns,
no shops, no amusements. Early in the
morning of the day on which the steamer
expects to ssmake Diego" the passenger
hears the usual cry of LAND in sight -
On the port bow he can make, through
binding shower, what looks like the
ghost of a waving wood, and as the rain
clears off and the equally binding sun
shine bursts forth, he describes row of
palm trees, all inclined one way by the
wind, growing from a green bank few
feet only above the white break
ers These are the Six Islands.
They lie in a ring, being linked to-
gether by coral reefs which approach
the surface of the sea, but do not rise
above it. Though no one inhabits
them, each islet has its name; Egmont,
for instance, and rIsle DIES Rats, and
Sipaille, Lubine, Carrepate or Tat
tamucca. A trading brig or two comes
once or twice a year from Mauritius
and gathers cargo of cocoanuts. The
anchorage is good within the ring,
and the entrance on the western side is
about seven fathoms in depth. A little
further south is another of these strange
rings-scientific people call them
''atslls' '-the very dangerous Pitt bank,
which nowhere rises above high-water
mark. A little further north there are
some thirty islands, and at least an
equal number of banks and rocks and
shoals and reefs, all of the same coral
formation. Here the prevailing nomen-
clature is Spanish rather than French
Chagos and Peros Banhos, for example;
but English surveyors have identified
Speakers Bank, Blenheim Reef, the
Ganges, the Centurion, the Victory, the
Eagle and the Two Brothers, each
probably named after the
ship by which it was first
visited, and in some cases after the ship
Reef, for years terror to navigators,
has lately been proved not to exist; for
volcanic action, and other causes which |
confguratiOn of the oceans bed in these |
acteristics are the same. A ring of coral |
surrounds a lagoon; there is an en-
trance foot or two above the tide, !
thick, green robe of clematis covers the |
rock, and tall palms flourish overhead. |
Outside the sea is, in most cases, two |
hundred fathoms deep, and inside it |
varies from three fathoms in some |
atolls to an almost unfathomable depth |
in others. In the Pacific the rising or |
sinking of atolls or other islands has |
long formed subject of careful Obser-
walton. The FIJI Islands, for example,
are believed to. be going down in the
world, not figuratively, but really,
while the New Hebrides are slowly |
going up. Diego Garcia is as good
an example as can be found of the
atol type. 1t is fully thirty miles in
If we could imagine
all the Isle of Wight sunk in the sea ex-
cept its sandy beach we might form
some idea of Diego. It is lake with
shore and nothing else. The shore, in
some places few feet, at others q few
yards, but never so much as a quarter of
a mile wide, is entirely covered with
trees. They are chiefly cocoanuts, but
there are various kinds of tree fern, and
a few towering shrubs. Near some OF
the houses of the creole settlers from
Mauritius there are orange trees: but
the whole product of the island consists
of cocoanuts and little else. One En-
glish family stationed at Diego lives on
a little isle east of the entrance. 1t rains
every day. The mosquitoes are
for size and ferocity. The
only food is an occasional fresh fish,
with timed meat and vegetables from
England. The stray visitor goes away
with life ON a coral island
and ready to prefer the hscomforts OF
Observation-Disclosures Standard.