Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-21

s;Gss you dontr'
| So sayeth Prestidig-
| itateur Neptune. For, alas, this new pos
session is an island one day, another a
| treacherous reef hidden beneath an entic-
| ing sea. Needless to say it has never been
Inhabited by human beings, at least not
| within the memory of mariners or explor-
| ers. How, then, can any one dwell there
| for the protection and preservation of
| Uncle Sans interests? That is the aues-
| ton which only Yankee ingenuity can
solve. To make human habitation possible.
| not to say comfortable upon this lonely
| spot tnere must be a sort of reversion to
| the primitive state of affairs which Dr.
| Gushing lately found to have once existed
| down in the Florida keys. The extinct in
habitants of the keys We're pile dwelers
Little Known About IT.
| When 1t was announced the other day
| that we would claim Wake Island there
was to be found in Washington no one who
| could venture any information as to its
| history. The photographic office. the gov
| eminent bureau of information concerning
Islands, had naught save few lines giving
| iatitude, longitude and sailing directions
ha. .nei' however, your correspondent
| mas persistently ransacke.l libraries and
! old records with some success In -, Ia
| Soiuihe Oh charts kept in the Library of
| oohsress was found a map of the disap-
bearing island. Moreover, the War De
partment contained among it's records
brief description of it In a letter writtan
by Brlsadler General F. v Greene who
planted an American flag there last Fourtb
| VI July; accompanying this letter is a
| fough sketch of the southern mart Of ~
| island drawn from a compass survey mode
| by Two army officers. Compared with tho
chart in the Congressional Library tbiS
shetch suggests that Father Time must
| ma -l,,l,,
| of the dot of land 90 '''iieS
| wake Island was first discovered from,
me I4 deck OF the British ship Prince William
Ileliry IN go. There is a tradition that if
was chrlstened Wake in honor of a british
naval officer Of that naale. bur All tn
! wakes in the official list of the ritisb
| navy hourished generation or more sIrh-
Fey sbau f-n 10 me dats of discovery In 1s41
1he ohited states exploring, expedition mn
der Captain Wilkes sighted the 1ittie ~ III
| NIL ana explored it. The old French chor+s
Ill 1t Ecuei, which means rock" while
9 1'it Ensllsh charts label it "HaIcvon,"
put according to some. authorities Hal,
| cSon was discovered, by an American 80
| IAN yet the two seem to be identical sinca
| WHkes and subsequent explorers stale that
f w ah9 island Is the only spot of land to be
| i0u'lu near lfalcyons assigned position
| Work of Coral insects.
| IN tact' there would never have b,en anv
| punt oi lahd IN this lonely spot had ma
uui original intentions been carried out.
inT .oiai insect Is responsible for the up
ui,us Vi the sea bottom there. The very
| hlghest point is only fifteen feet above COO
| ie'ei.. mus Is required only a moderately
rough sea to submerga it, Therefore orr
ne" cdoie station will have to be mounted
upon d structure similar to the skeleton
| !isht mousse towers erected upon more
coast ir,, shoals along our Atlantic
| coast: Those in charge of the edifice will
ii;u IL SAFE to venture below, on shore
| when the sea Is normal; but when IT rises
they Will nave to climb to the ton of their
s si'dl1 pe s. Here they must SLEEP lest
suuueh storm brew in the night and enpulf
tnem Ihat the sea has this habit was
| hoted When capt. Wilkes made his explora-
| tion; He found the vegetation and coral
e eaoths an inclined uniformly toward the
| east, showing that the rush of water had
| peen from the west. Gen. Greene's original
| purpose IN exploring the island this wear
| vas TO discover whether it might be a
suitable situation for a coaling station He
says that coal bins and the necessary
| aoJacent buildings may be readily built up
above the highest possible tide level
FROM BIRDS point of view Wake Island
| looks IKE huge, irregular letter "V'' with
| Two detached, parallel nes-subislands-in-
| Gllning from the upper ends of the fork
| Inc whole is surrounded by a shaggy coral
| reef The surface above water consists Of
| coral sand, pebbles and powders. Stunted
! trees line the shore, while further above
are few of the shrubs usually found upon
| th7 low islands of the Pacific, especially
| the tournefortia, which bears a small,
feshy fruit The inclination % the entire
island Is from northwest to southeast
while it Is but five miles long by two and a
nan miles wide. Deep water exists imme-
| diately off the lining reefs, there being no
SHALLOW anchorage off shore.
Great Lagoon.
To one who lands and walks half mile
! inland, Wake Island appears to have been
| built by the
harbor for vessels fatigued by their long
journeys over the Pacific. Indeed, practi-
| cally all of the dry land visible is no more
than a mere rim or lining to a great in
| terror basin or lagoon, containing possibly
| thousand acres of clear water, which,
| Judging from its color, may be twenty
| tathoms deep. This may be improved for
harbor and coaling station, not only for
our war vessels, but our transpacific pas
| senger steamers and merchantmen. The
| d1ihculty, as now presented, is that there is
| no natural channel, large enough for any
craft heavier than a r9wboat TO enter.
lhefe are three Openings into which the
sea water pour but all are guarded by
| outlying reefs. One Of these inlets, at the
extreme northwest end isabout 1900 yards
| wide but the obstrueting reef is continuous
and surf from six to ten feet high breaks
upon it.
The prospects of finding a natural chan
| mel here are believed to DE very good. Of
| Sou Sc lH5 army enSlDeeTs coulu make snort
| work of the coral obstrqc tons at any of
these inlets, and the expense would be but
snght The western reef could be easily
| blasted through, as was done at Honolulu.
| The location is equally advantageous for a
| cable station, harbogs or eealing station.
If you look upon your chart which you
| have at home you will mot find this little
] dot of coral, too insignificant for notice
when our maps, published before the war,
| were made But if you will draw straight
| line connecting Honolulu and Guam it will
| represent distance of 3,311 miles. This
| line Is the great circle course between
| those two points, and Wake Island lies
| only thirty miles north of it at distance
| Of zoos miles from Honolulu and 1,3O6
| miles from Guam.
Lack of Fresh Water.
| Not only its occasional submergence be-
| meath the sea, but its utter lack of fresh
water emphasizes the impossibility of any
| previous existence of human life upon
| Wake Island. How will the government
| agents Installed there find life possible I'M
der this condition? When the army engi-
| neers improve the harbor, how can they
| install a complete harbor plant? Where can
| they get fresh water for steam purposes?
| When these questions are nut them they