The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-05-26


European breeds, and the Cheviot va
riety is the favorite, one fleece averag-
ing twelve pounds under favorable con-
ditions. There are no wild animals
here to kill the sheep, and the complete
absence of burr, or any substance inju-
rious to the fleece, is of course an ad-
vantage, while the many streams and
small fresh water lakes are of great i'm
portance to the sheep and cattle bread
ers.
A few years ago the Falkland Island
Company adopted process of boiling
down whole carcasses into tallow and
the successful result has added another
profitable industry. Before leaving the
subject of indigenous growths, want
to tell you about the ''balsam bog" a
vegetable wonder which l never heard
of in any other part of the world.
Approaching the low grounds in many
of the islands you think they are scat
tered all over with huge gray boulders,
from five to ten feet across. To height
en- the illusion, the blocks are covered
with lichens, and grass is seen growing
in their crevices where dust has col
lected, precisely as it would in riffs of
rocks. Each boulder-like mass is sin
gle plant-the umbelliferous Bolaxgle-
baria-which has been so slow in grow
ing, and the condensation from con-
slant branching SO great that it has be-
come almost as hard as the rocks it re-
sembles-so hard that it is difficult to
cut shaving from it's surface with a
sharp knife. Examine closely lump
of balsam bog and you will find it COW
cred with tiny hexagonal markings,
like the calices of weathered piece of
coral These are the circles of leaves
and leaf-buds, terminating a multitude
of stems, which for centuries have
one on gro wv ing with extreme SLOW
ness, ever since the now enormous
plant started out single shoot from a
tiny seed. When the sun shines warm
the strange plant gives forth a pleasant
aromatic odor and the yellowish, as
tringent gum that exudes from the top
is priced by the shepherds as vulner-
airy.
Less than forty years ago there was
not a single settler on West Falkland,
though it is eighty miles long by twenty
five miles wide, and separated from its
twin island only by narrow sound. 1t
is more hilly than any of the other is
lands and its general appearance is as
forlorn as can we'll be imagined-vast
tracts of somber moorland, unrelieved
by tree or shrub, traversed by rocky
ridges and limited by low coast upon
which surf RACES with continual vio-
lence. Nothing can be more dismal
than the view from any hilltop-black
bog and moorland, far as the eye can
reach, intermixed by innumerable pools
of greenish-brown water. A peculiar
feature of the geology of the country
is that it abounds in streams, not of
water but of stone, which appear to flow
down the hillside. Those queer streams
are often quarter of 4 mile wide and
he stones vary from one to five feet
cube. AS for genuine rivers, there are
none of any consequence on the is
lands. The largest is San Carlos, on
East Falkland, about thirty miles long
and nowhere navigable. Fortunately
for SO cold country, there is a great
deal of peat, which everybody burns
the year around for fuel. Some of the
peat-beds are of great size and depth,
very dense and bituminous, and the
supply is inexhaustible. The settlers
claim that the absence of timber is an
advantage rather than an objection, be-
cause the land requires no clearing ex-
cept from the stones, and the latter
make excellent fencing and building
material. The most interesting village
of West Falkland is Fort Egmont,
where the first British colony was
founded in 1865, after Commodore By
ron had wrested the islands from
Spain. Its sole defense and chief Or
nament is large timber block-house,
which was made in England many
years ago and brought out in pieces,
and would be of about as much value
as an egg-shell against modern imple-
ments of warfare
To pin an old Egmonter down to
an evenings EARNING about his
''hiar breadth 'scapes'' in whaling
and sealing is one of the most
interesting experiences to be met in
this part of the world. At one time
the Falkland Island trade in whale and
seal oil and seal skins was of great
value, but is now almost at an end,
for those big sea animals have about
deserted the neighborhood of the is
lands. Seal hunters pursue their ad-
venturous calling on much the same
plan as miners in our own West used
to 60 prospecting on grub stakes"
That is, they hire boat by agreeing to
pay its owner a certain share of what
they may bring back, employ a crew on
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