The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-02

lofty mountains with rock-hound coasts
 and small, unsafe harbors. Their
 northern ends, facing toward the equa- tor, are we'll wooded, but the southern extremity of Masatrerra is known as Goat Island, from the great number of those animals that are on it. Even the
 goats have history. The first attempt to locate colony here was made by
 the discoverer in the year 1863. He en-
 deavored to obtain a patent for his find from the government at Lima,
 but failing to receive encourag cement in high places, he resolved to form his own
 settlement, and took several families to
 Masatierra, who remained there some
 time. and with them he resided. The
 few goats which they transported from
 Lima soon stocked the island. none hav- ing existed there before. A great many
 years later, but more than a century ago-the boats having multiplied and replenished the earth as only goats can.
 and pirates innumerable were resorting
 there to victual their ships with the
 fiesh-the viceraoy of Chilli and the
 president of Peru laid their two wise
 heads together to concoct some scheme for keeaping those objectionable folk
 away from their distant possession.
 They could hit upon nothing better than to remove the inducement, and to
 that end they sent hither a lot of blood hounds, expecting them to exterminate
 the goats. But the plan did not prove eminently successful, for the dogs
 could not pursue the goats among the mountain fastnesses where they leaped 1 from crag to crag with astonishing agil- ity: and now there are vast numbers of wild dogs as we'll as goats, and the for mer are not pleasant to encounter. The first thing the tourist does on going
 ashore at Juan Fernandez is to start for the famous Lookout, from the top of which-so says the historian--poor Cru
 soc used to watch for a sail, and yet no sail from day to day" But he is likely to be long on the way. though it lis less than mile from the landing place because there are several points
 of interest to be viewed en route. First there are the people-a hundred hands l to be shaken and a thousand eager
 questions answered; for the arrival of a ship is by no means matter of every 1 day, and when one does appear in the harbor every lonesome islander, old and young, troops down to meet her. Though voluntary exiles in this beauti- l full place, where nature has been lavish in providing everything necessary to esustain life without labor, the colonists pine for news from the distant world, whose echoes come to them like angels visits, flew and far between" Though no longer a convict colony, as in days long past, the island is virtually pris-
 on whose bolts and bars are ocean bil- lows, and many modern Crusoe voices his predecessors sentiment:
 "Oh, Solitude! Where are the charms | That sages have seen in thy face?
 Better dwell in the midst of alarms
 Than reign in this horrible place."
 There are about one hundred resi-
 dents to-day on Juan Fernandez, most l ly Germans and Chilians, ranchmen and
 their families, for some years ago the 1 island was leased to a rich cattle com pany, who have now as many os thirty
 thusand head of horned cattle and | twice as many sheep grazing in the narrow valleys and on the green | hllsides. The cottages of the colonists lare mostly with in sight of the land-
 ing, set in the midst of orchards, on a | hillside sloping down to the sea, and the oppressive silence of Selkirk's time has
 given place to the bleating and lowing of f1ocks and herds, the merry shouts of
 children and sounds ofhuman activity. i The houses are extremely picturesque, being made out of the bright yellow straw of the wild oat, woven in and out
 through bamboo wattles and matched
 with the same. Their high-peaked
 roofs project all around far beyond the
 walls, and the doorways are shaded by straw-thatched porched reminding one
 of French-C Canadian cottages along the Lower St. Lawrence or chalets in the valley of the Seine. Each little home is inclosed within a wall of stone and 1 brush-wood, it's rustic gateway overrun with luxuriant vines; and within the enclosure are graneries, store houses
 and other out buildings all set up on piles to keep them out of the water | and August. There is no winter in this latitude, but the wet season, though
 short, is more trying than the northern
 ice and snow.
 Midway between the Lookout and the landing we turned aside to explore some
 remarkable looking caves in hillside, topped by ruined Notifications. These
 are all that remain of the settlement
 founded here by Spain in 1750, and of
 the Chilian penal colony established on
 the same spot in 1919. The Spaniards
 built great fort and town, both of
 which were destroyed the following
 year by violent earthquake. They
 were immediately rebuilt, and were in good order and inhabited when Carteret visited the island in 1767 Earthquakes
 are frequent in this archipelago, and
 several within the memory of people
 now living have done considerable dam- | age. Nothing remains of the ancient
 fort but its foundation and a portion of the ramparts imbedded in reddish clay and oYergroWn with weeds The con-