Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-05-25

there are many small British islands,
which are peopled at some periods of
the year and deserted at others.
Again, there are various isolated
points of rock, which are crowned with
lighthouses in which human beings
dwell, thereby making the places III
habited.
Excluding these two classes, it is
believed that the tiniest inhabi
British possession is inaccessible is
land, lonely, windswept rock in the
South Atlantic. 1t we'll deserves its
name, for its precipitous sides are I'M
broken by a single inlet, and the
jewellers upon the plateau which con-
sItutes its summit have to ascend and
descend by means Of a ladder of twist
ed walrus hide sixty fathons in length.
There are four persons on the island,
man named Collins, his wife and two
groWn-up sons, and they gain their
living by happening seals and sea ele-
plants that visit the surrounding wa
ters in schools at certain seasons.
inaccessible island is some 800
miles from the nearest mainland, but
little way to the westward. although
out OF sight, is Tristan da Cunha, an
other remarkable island possession.
For a little while during the Napo-
leonic wars England kept a garrison
there and when it was Withdrawn a
corporal, two privates and their wives
elected to remian behind. Their de-
scendants, recruited by few ship
wrecked mariners, now number about
seventy persons. They live in thirty
huts, clustered round a well-built little
church, built of stone, plastered with
mud and containing small altar, an
organ and pulpit-gifts from Queen
Victoria. The people are described as
intelligent, but they are clothed in the
most primitive fashion in garments
made from albatross skin and goats
hide. Their principal food is goats
flesh, fish and potatoes, and once a
year British man-of-war calls to sup
ply flour, sugar, tea and other neces.
stiles.
About as far to the eastward of the
Cape of Good Hope as Tristan da Cum
ha is to the westward, but many hum
dreds Of miles nearer to the antarctic
circle is Kerguelen Land, or the Is
land of Desolation." 1t is a COMPARE
lively large place, possessing an area
of about $500 square miles, and is in
habited by one solitary Individual.
He is the representative of a sealing
syndicate, with headquarters at the
cape, and is relieved every six months.
Were it otherwise his position would
be intOlerable. MacQuarie island, a
mountainous, but weli-wooded spot,
although still further south is not
nearly so bleak as Kerguelen, and is
cOlonized by three Englishmen and
some twenty coolies, who are all en-
gagged in the whale-fshing industry.
Great Britain's sway extends over
many tiny ISLANDS in the Pacific ocean,
the best known of which is Pitcairn is
land, a lonely rock lying about mid
way between New Zealand and South
America. When the emerald isle is
mentioned most everybody thinks of
Ireland. Few know that England
owns another emerald isle, a lonely,
sea-girt, windswept rock in the Ant
arctic ocean. No one could live there,
as it is covered eternally with snow
and ice. But the British navy main
tains a relief station there for ship
wrecked mariners, and sends a man
of-war once each year to renew the
store of pr DIVISIONS New York Press.