Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-03-14
A LONELY ISLAND.
IT IS A BRITISH POSSESSION IN THE
 ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Known as RockaiI, and No Human Be-
 ing Has Ever Landed Uron It-Prob-
 ably the Cause of Many Disasters--Loolks
 Like Ship Under Full Sail.
 Perhaps the loneliest4 island in the Atlantic Ocean is a British possession known on the map as Rockall. Where is tt2 Roekall is a lonely pyramidal rock, some 70 feet in height and 250 feet in circumference, rising sheer out of the wild Atlantic waves, about 184 miles west-half-south from St. Kilda, in the outer Hebrides. 29o miles from the nearest point of the Scottish main- land and 260 miles northwest from the nearest point on the Irish coast.
 More exactly. it's position-at least, as nearly as this has been ascertained -is latitude 57 deg. 50 min. north, longitude 13 deg. 42 min. west. There is neither soil upcG 1t nor sandy beach round it, the depth of water close up to it being twenty or thirty fathoms.
 rock, therefore 1t must be called rather than an island, or even an islet; and of all the rocks and islands, great and small, surrounding our shores it is at once the most remote, the most desolate, the least known, and in many respects the most remarkable.
 Not only has it never boasted hu- man inhabitant, but nc holiday tripper or sportsman has ever set foot on it's shores, and only on one or two oeca- siqns is 1t even known to have been landed upon. Only n the finest wealth CT is it possible to land upon it; in Winter the ocean waves far oyertop it's summit. This summit can only be reached, even when q landing has been effected, by an ascent On the north eastern face of the rock, so precipitous are it's. othen sides.
 Close to the main rock, and with deep water between them. lies a dan- gerous reef, exposed at low tide, known as Hazlewood Rock; while a mile and a half southeast lies another similar rock known as Helen's Reef. from a vessel of that name whose wreck upon it first made it known.
 To the mariner Rockal1 presents it. self as serious danger. Neither the main rock nor the surrounding reef has even been either lighted, belled or buoyed. Yet, though not in the main line of cross-Atlantic traffic, there can be no doubt that they have frequently proved fatal to vessels. There are several actual records of wrecks upon them5 the earliest being in 1686, and it is probable that they are partly ac- countable for some of the disappear anees of well-found vessels which arg reported annually from the Atlantic Even in broad daylight the main rock is a menace, for, with it's steep, tall sides. and it's pointed top, always whit ened by the deposits of sea birds, it is invariably at first sight taken for ship in full sail.
 Mr@J. A. Harvie-Brown, an eminent Scottish naturalist; Mr R. M. Bar rington, leading Irish naturalist, and two other gentlemen, undertook not long ago a scientific expedition to Rockall, under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. Twice was the rock approached, but on each oeca- sion the swell around it rendered landing impossible. and the expedition had at last to return, baked of it's main object. Nevertheless 1t brought back some very interesting results, ob- tained chiefly by dredging on the bank and by. observing the birds flying around the rock. 5t
 Ornithologists have long awaited with keenest interest information re- lating to the bird population of the rock, and have imagined 1t possible breeding place of several interesting sea birds. But the recent expedition, during which no fewer than twenty species were observed round the, rock, proved that in all probability no spe- cfes breeds upon it except the common guillemot.
 Tn many ether ways the rock is of much scientific interest, and any yachtsman or others who may hereaf- ter be fortunate enough to effect landing upon Rockall will certainly obtain results of much interest to nat uralists.
 victorIn's Servants.
 Queen Victoria showed from the earliest part of her reign a determina- ton to keep in her own hands the ap-