The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-06-25

vegetation appear. Eventually, per
haps, few natives from other islands
settle upon the new atoll and exc out
a scanty subsistence by fishing and by
cultivating the taro and a few other
plants. The soil is capable of yielding
so little naturally that it is helped out
by digging holes in the coral and
throwing into them everything in the
way OF animal aud vegetable refuse
that can be gathered together. This
stuff, mixed with disintegrated coral,
furnishes material for primitive gar
den patches.
Tanning Island is such an atoll. 10
was discovered in 1898 10y an American
ship, the Betsy. II is ten miles long,
four miles wide, and of an oval shape,
inclosing n harbor which could be
made very useful by clearing away
coral heads that have grown up here
and there inside the accomplishing
reef. The latter is half mile wide,
and in no part is more than two or
or three feet above the surface of the
ocean, except on the north and east
sides, where a ridge of ten feet high
serves as a breakwater. Land crabs
are enormously abundant. The human
population consists of white man
named Greig, his wife, his four chill
dren, and sixteen Polynesian natives.
Guano workings were formerly
conducted on the island, but
have been abandoned. There are
pearl oysters in the bay, but
nobody dives for them. Many years
| ago there was a factory for making
| cocoanut oil. The atOll IL covered
thickly with cocoanut trees, so as TO
be visible at distance OF fifteen miles
at sea. On March Is, 1888, Capt. Sir
| w. Wiseman of II. M. s. Caroline
| took formal possession OF Tanning ISL
| and i'm the name OF the queen.
Naturally, much interest attaches
! to this island, on which is to be estab-
| lished a mid-ocean telegraph station.
| Necker Island, which was desired by
the British for the purpose, WAS dis
covered by La Perouse, November |,
| 1856. 1t is a barren rock, three-quar-
| ters of a mile long and $40 yards broad,
having at the ends two peaks, about
| 275 feet high. 1t is situated nearly on
| the Tropic OF Cancer, in 23 degrees and
| 35 minutes north latitude. Not tree
! grows on it, but vegetation is abund-
ant near the heights, on which much
guano is found. The shores are as
steep as walls, and the sea beats
| against them with fury. Necker ISL
and was surveyed ia 1850 by Lieut..
| Brooke, u. =. n. He was at that
| time midshipman, b1t was destined
to achieve celebrity as a submarine
| surveyor. He invented the first prac-
| ticable device for making deep-sea
soundings, and this was employed
with success at the time Of the laying
of the first cable across the Atlantic.
Hawaii a Central Point.
Steps were taken some time ago to-
ward the formation or "a company for
the purpose of laying cable from
California to China by way of Homo
| lulu. The idea is that the wire shall
go to Yokohama, Japan, thence to
| Nagasaki by land, and from Nagasaki
under water 500 miles TO Hong gko9g.
| 1t is estimated that the whole plant
would cost $l0,000.000 A telegram
from Hongkong to New York has now
to travel by way of Europe 1900
miles under water and 700 miles over
land, costing 1925 word. The same
business could be done by the proposed
line at the rate of 81 word.
If you will take a map OF the Pacific
ocean and draw a straight line from
San Francisco to Hongkong you will
find that it passes through the Hawai-
ian group. Draw another line from
Victoria, B. c., to Sydney, Australia,
and it passes through the Hawaiian
Islands. Again, draw straight line
from the Nicaragua canal to China,
and it will pass through the Hawaiian
group. These lines represent the
routes of the present and future com
merce.-RENE BACHE in Washing
ton Star.