Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-10-05
MALTA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES
Coco, Comino and cominotto.



and villages, and Insignificant Coco has
ten--some OF them large and prosper
Gus, Others merely q group OF stone
cottages around the inevitable church
and English board" school. One mar
wells that these limestone rocks can
support so many people, particularly as
there Is not river, lake or
TINY sTREAMLET
on any OF the Islands, and in many
places the thin soil had TO be eked out
for gardening by earth brought from
Sicily. However copious rains supply
plenty OF moisture, and carbonate of
lime Is wonderful fertilizer The
Maltese are excellent agrlculturlsts and
make the best possible use Of every
Inch OF ground, even the hills being
terraced 10 their SUBMITS. In recent
years Malta has become to London
what Florida used to be TO New York
In the line of a market garden for sup
plying early fruits and vegetables. To-
day the islands are as famous for DO
tatoes az In ancient times for roses; 10
say nothing Of tomatoes and straw
berries, and melons that sometimes
weigh hundred pounds apiece. Aro-
matte honey tx another speciality, the
pees that produce II feeding upon a
kind OF red clover known as sulla.
which has largely taken the place Of
cotton. Before the time Of Christ you
know, Malta was celebrated for its fine
cotton, which the Romans called vestls
melitensis and wanted for their royul
purple. Strange to say while the best
mules In the world are bred here and
goats are raised for the milk they give,
there are no cows or other cattle 10 fat
ten on the sulla, all the butchers meat
being imported from Barbery.
Several days may be pleasantly spent
In Coco especially In spring time when
the whole island is carpeted with wild
flowers and every house overrun with
blossomns creepers, During the quail
shooting season the
PEACEFUL FIELDS
are infested with Engllshmen, who
seem never so happy as when engaged
In killing. There is an important
Jesuit college at Rabato, and several
Franciscan and Augustine converts
and monasteries scattered about the
Island Communication Is kept up reg
ularly between Malta and Coco by
steamers which ply two and fro, twice
every day,
Not far from Coco lies the small
Island of Comino; and off the latter,
the still smaller island Of Cominotto,
Other rocky islets stud the sea i'm all
directions each sustaining a few fish
ermen and affording pasturage for
goats, Some of them are named, such
as Filfa, with Its venerable church,
Pictro Negro, ("Blaok Rock"). Scogllo,
Mario, Salbonetto and Fungus Reef, on
whose otherwise barren rocks Is found
the celebrated Fungus melitensis,
once In high repute for supposed medi-
cinal virtues. It springs up from crew
ices In the stone, and grows five or six
Inches, OF q blood-red color in April
and May but turning black az summer
advances. Comino is worth visiting for
Its stalagmite caverns, believed to be
the Identical grottos OF Calypso, who
delayed Ulysses. One OF the most
beautiful Of these caverns, named Ia
Ninu, runs Inland long distance and
has yet been only partially explored.
The main room now visited Is OF magni-
hcent proportions, roof, floor and sides
thickiy covered with stalactites and
stalagmites. Of yellowish cream -color
or translucent white. OF great variety
size and beauty. All the islands are
rich In building material. having ex-
haustless quarrles Of marble and ala
baster, besides the limestone, which
takes on beautiful luster. About one
fifth Of the land is owned by the Brit
ish government, the rest being about
equally divided between the Romish
church and private individuals.
No wonder that Londoners flock to
Malta TO escape the detestlble winter
climate Of the mother country Here
the thermometer ranges between fifty
and seventy degrees,
FROST AND SNOW
being OF course unknown and the hot
test midsummer a perfect paradise OF
GOODNESS compared with New York and
washington But there are drawbacks.
even here. Ones sense Of heat depends
more upcn the way Of the wind than
the actual temperature. The worst
thing one has to contend with Is the
slrocoo, or southeast wind from the
African deserts. which take up the salt
sea mists on their way and become al
most uni earable. Happily, they occur
onlysin August and September, and sell
dom last long, dry ing down as unex-
pectedly as they came. The heavy
rains Of winter are sometimes varied
by disagreeeble hall-stones, and north
east gales have the bad habit OF de-
melishlng stone walls and landing ships,
and making II impossible 20 cross the