The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-25
MYSTERIOUS PACIFIC ISLANDS.
Some of Them So Small They Are Hard
to Locate Second Time.
From the New Zealand Herald

From the New Zealand Herald,
Much attention has been given of late to
what we may call the strange case of
Clipperton island. 1t is not more than
three miles in circumference. and 1t lies
in the Western Pacific something like 500
miles west of Mexico. In the wide ex-
panse of the Pacific ocean it shows like
a mere speck, so small as to be Of no
value, seemingly. save a refuge for
few of the army of beach combers who
have burst all bounds of habit and have
wandered away in the course of their
downward progress. But the ownership OF
Clipperton island has of late been claim
ed by no fewer than four coUntries-Mex-
leo. the United States. France and Great
Britain, and when it is added that the is
land Is a favorite haunt of sea birds and
that many tons of valuable guiana are
waiting to be picked up, the reason for
this unwonted solicitude. even in an era
of land-gra bling. will be apparent.
Clipperton island is of interest in an
other direction. 1t is one of those nu-
merous stretches of land set in the midst
of the seas, sunny and otherwise. which.
after their first discovery. for many years
elude all endeavors to locate them again.
1t has now been as it were, nailed down
in one particular spot in the ocean-that
is to say its exact position has been final
~ determined by Warships sent out for
the express purpose of searching for it
and settling all doubts as to its existence
and the only thing remaining now Is that
the question of ownership should be set
tied. 1t happens that there Is another
island about 400 miles southwest of Clip
perton, and rich in the same deposits that
make that place worth possessing, for
which adventurous mariners are at IS
moment looking.
AS late as July last a vessel named the
Moonlight left Altata, Mexico. on voy-
age in search of this latest mysterious is
land and spent % days of fruftless Labor
! toward this end. Her captain failed to fi1&
the place, and fearing that his provisions
ana water would run short returned home
| to report that either the rough charts of
| old Captain Martin and his associates
| were i'll error or else that some strange
| seismic phenomenon had caused lie lost
| isle to disappear years ago, perhaps, for
! all that mortal soul knows. Spice is auu-
| ed to this romance by the fact that an
! other Frisco captain located the place
/ definitely year or two before and found
small colony there. which colony is still
| on the island, shipping guano in thei" own
| schooners, manned by members of their
| own party, to the leading ports on tae
| Pacific slope of North and South Amer
| lea.
quite number of expeditions have of
late been made with the object of wrest-
| ing this valuable secret from the handful
of men in whose possession it is and of
participa ting in the spoiis. and one of
these days we will no doubt here of a SAN
culinary fight for the supremacy between
the present coonists and party of ma
RAIDERS.
Although the stories told about the ur-
known island vary considerably, they all
agree that it exists somewhere about 400
| or 500 miles southwest of Clipperton, in a
low coral atoll covered with the richest
| If MIR uIl1, 1tAEs