The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-21

number of animals that here find pas
 turage. The few cattle and pigs that
 were brought from time to time by the early colonists have gone on increasing,
 whether or nor the islands are occupied by the human species, until now they are countless. There are also at least one hundred. thousand wild horses, sprung from, stocks originally imported. Yet sheep-raising is the main industry of the archipelago, it having proved more profitable than the rearing of cat | tie; and though many of the districts are too swampy for sheep, there are said to be upwards of five hundred thousand of them on the islands. They are all of European breeds, and the Cheviot variety is the favorite, one fleece averaging twelve pounds under favorable conditions. There are no
 wild animals here to kill the sheep, an l. the complete absence of burr. or any substance injurious to the fleece, is of
 course an advantage, while the many streams and small fresh-water lakes are of great importance to the sheep and cattle breeders.
 A few years ago the Falkland Island company adopted a 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" vegetable wonder which I never heard ! of in any other part of the world. Ap preaching the low grounds in many of the islands you think they are scattered all over with huge gray boulders, from l five to ten feet across. To heighten the | illusion, the blocks are covered with 1 Ilichens, and grass is seen growing in their crevices where dust has collected lpreciely as it would in rifts of rocks.
 Each boulder-like mass Is a single lplant-the unbelliferous Bolaxblebaria- which has been so slow in growing, and I the condensation from constant branch ling so great that it is difficult to cut a shaving from its surface with sharp
 knife. Examine closely lump of bal sam bog and you will find 1t covered
 with tiny hexagonal markings, like the calices of a weathered piece of coral.
 These are the circlets of leaves and leaf buds, terminating in a multitude of stems, which for centuries have gone on growing with extreme slowness, ever since the now enormous plant started out single shoot from tiny seed. | When the sun shines warm the strange
 plant gives forth pleasant aromatic
 odor, and the yellowish, astringent gum ho+ Sac T,~n,, a fo-, ic hxr | the shepherds as a vulneazy.
 Less than forty years ago there was not single settler on West Falkland,
 though it is eighty miles long by twen- 1 ty-five miles wide, and separated from 1 it's twin island only by a narrow sound. | It is more hilly than any of the other islands and it's general appearance is as lforlorn as can well be imagined-vast tracts of somber moorland, unrelieved by tree or shrub, traversed by rocky ridges and limited by a low coast upon which surf rages with continual vio- Hence. Nothing can be more dismal l than the view from any hill-top-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 is abounds in streams, not of wa ter, but of stones, which appear to flow down the hill side. Those queer
 streams are often quarter of a mile wide, and the stones vary from one to | five feet cube. As for genuine rivers, there are none of any consequence on the islands. The largest is San Carlos,
 on East Falkland, about thirty miles long and nowhere navigable. F'ortu- lnately for so cold a country, there is a burns the year around for fuel. Some settlers claim that the absence of tim
 Der Is an advantage rather than an ob- ljection, because the land requires no clearing except from the stones, and the latter make excellent fencing and build ling material The most interesting vil- llage of West Falkland is Port Egmont, where the first British colony was founded, In 1765, after Commodore By lnro had wrested the islands from Spain. Its sole defense and chief ornament is a 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 lagainst modern implements of warfare. To pin an old Egmonter down to an evenings yarning about his shair- breadth escapes in whaling and seal | ing is one of the most interesting expe- riences to be met in this part of the world At one time the Falkland IS-