The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-12

Giobe-Democrat's Washington Letter.
Many persons are Of the belief that
Unole Sam w annexing Hawaii will
come into pos. ession of the first islands
worth mentioning that he has ever
owned. The acquisition of Hawaii,
with the beautiful and picturesque har-
Dor at Honolulu, has been the subject
of wide discussion since the treaty was
signed at Washington. The harbor is,
perhaps, one of the most interesting
of the many attractive features of the
Sandwich group.
The Hawaiians, as their own tradi-
tions clearly state, came from Tonga
in the South Pacific, voyaging 1000
miles over a trackless ocean and col
oniging the Sandwich group 400 years
before Columbus discovered this con-
tinent. All of these are, or soon will
be, under the flag OF the United States
This country is proprietor of a large
number Of scattered pieces of real es-
tate in both the Atlantic and the Paci-
fic. These, indeed, constitute quite an
ocean empire and among their inhab-
itants are numbered several kinds of
savages-some clad in furs and others
attired in little else than their own
brown skins.
Distributed over the mid-Pacific, in
the neighborhood Of the equator, are
quite lot Of small islands that belong
to the United States. Most of them
are from 1000 to 1000 miles to the
south and southwest of Hawaii. Some
OF them are near the Gilbert archipel-
ago, and there is a considerable cluster
just about the lesser distance men,
toned and directly south of the Ha-
nI,,1' ,A,ian
Christmas, Palmyros, and other islands
\ Of large size Christmas Island is
\about thirty-five miles long. 1t OBJ
tanned its name originally from the
fact that the famous Cook stopped
there on a Christmas day for the pur-
pose of observing an eclipse. 1t is a
ring of coral formation, inclosing a la
goon that has become so salt through
evaporation as to be a veritable brine.
Fishes, thrown over the reef by storms,
are picked in it and remain perfectly
preserved and good to eat for months.
SIXTY IN ALL.
These isles of the Pacific belonging
to Uncle Sam number sixty in all.
They have all been annexed to the
United States under an act of congress
which became law Aug Is, 1856. This
law, which remains in f6Jte today, de-
clares that whenever any citizen of the
United States shall discover deposit
of guano on any island, rock or key
not within the lawful jurisdiction of
any other government, he shall be at
liberty to take peaceable possession
thereof, and such island, rock or key
may at the discretion of the president
be cor tdered as appertaining to the
Unite States The discoverer is re-
quire TO give due notice to the De-
part yht of State. with affidavit, de-
scrii ~ the island and showing that
possession of the same has been taken
in the name of this cour try. He is
obliged at the same time to give bond
which is filed in the treasury
TFhe discoverer, at the pleasure of
Congress, enjoys the exclusive right to
occupy his island for the purpose of
obtaining guano, and for this product
he is allowed to charge only a certain
fxed price, namely, $8 a ton for guano
delivered at the ships side or 81 a ton
for the privilege of digging it where
1t lies. Furthermore, he gives guaran-
tee by his bond to deliver the guano
only to citizens of the United States
and TO be used in the United States.
The law also provides, ,curiously enough,
that all offenses and crimes on such
islands by persons who may land there
on, or in waters adjacent, shall be
deemed as committed on the high seas,
on board of a merchant ship of the
United States, and shall be punished
accordingly, The president is author
ICED to use the land and naval forces
OF the United States to protect the
rights of the discoverer or his heirs.
Any adventurous and speculative
person today is at liberty to tramp
about the Pacific or any other ocean
and annex Islands to the United States
in the manner described, under the law
quoted, which appears in the Revised
Statutes as section $50. 1t is merely
necessary TO show that a deposit of
guano exists and that the island in
question is not claimed by any nation.
Now, there are thousands and thou
sands of small islands in the Pacific
that are unclaimed and uninhabited
except by the sea birds which breed
upon them, so that no difficulty lies in
the way of such acquisition of terri
tory. The reason why all of the So
called guano islands in the Pacific that
belong to the United States are located
in the neighborhood of the equator,
and between the Gilberts on the west
and the Marquesas on the east, is that
there is comparatively little rain in
that particular oceanic region. There
are quantities of islands to the north
and south which have guano deposits,
as well as on the Asiatic side of the
Pacific, but the stuff is almost value
less because the rain wash the nitro
genous matter out of 1t.
GUANO BEDS.
AS is well known, the finest guano
In the world is that obtained from the
Chincha Islands, off the coast Of Peru.
Its quality is due to the fact that rain
hardly ever falls there Unfortunate
ly, those deposits are now practically
exhausted. The ancient Peruvians
were accustomed to draw upon them
feS supplies of fertilizer long before
Columbus landed, and so carefully did
they prntecr the beds that nobody was
allowed to land upon the islands dur
ing the breeding season Of the birds
which occupied them. The principal
guano-producing birds are the gannets,
gulls, cormorants, pelicans, and, in hot
latitudes, the beautiful tropic birds
with long tails and exquisite plumage.
In the tropics the other birds above
mentioned do not migrate, and so the
accumulations of their droppings in
crease more rapidly. 1t is known that
more than a century is required to add
one inch in depth to a sheet of guano
When II is considered that deposits of
guano are sometimes as much as &C
and even go feet deep, 1t will be real
lied what an enormous length of time
must have baan naadad n form opIoh