Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-31

fauna. Almost all Australian animals are
marsupials and almost all the marsu-
pals OF the world are in Australia. The
marsup1als are non-belligerent, with
great powers of locomotion and small
powers of destruction, with natural
pockets in their bodies where their
young may hide.
The kangaroo and wide range OF cousins
with strange names represent the family
in Australia Our opossum Is the only mar
supial outside Of Australia. The marsupials
do not bite or claw. but kick for offense or
defense. They do not stop to fight, but
put their children in their pockets and
run Tor rather hop) away. There are no
lions, tigers or their like in Australia,
and the absence of life destroyers among
the beasts has resulted, as already indi-
Gated. in Australia becoming sort of
international preserve OF non-belligerent
types. whose strength is not for destruc-
ton or even, as recorded in the Scrip
lures ito sit STILL" but in their hind legs
and in getting away in amazing leaps.
AS result the Australian tiger Is
a harmless, if bad tempered, marSupiai
and the Tasmanian devil is of the NOM
diabolic order. carnivorOus marsupial
little more irritable than his associates.
Carrying out the original idea of Aus
tralia as natural sanitarlum for weak
and helpless types, defenseless animals
like the sheep flourish there today. Aus
tralia is the greatest sheep and wool
country in the world. In the absence of
lions, tigers. wOlves-animals that would
ordinarily prey on sheep-a parrot the
kea) develops, which tafter the fashion of
the vutures of Prometheus) tears the
kidney fat from the living sheep and
Stays hundreds. Thus a parrot is the
substitute for the wolf, just as the To-
cal tiger and the local devil are merely
bad-tempered marsupials.
Not only are these groups characterized
by paucity of animal life and a preva-
lence of non-aggressive types, but by
curious confusion of species. Contrasts
and contradictions result.
This is land where bird (the laugh
ing jackass) instead of singing laughs like
man: where a fish has the beak and
colOrs of the parrot: where parrot kills
sheep like a wolf; where winged fish
flies and wingless birds Qike the kiwi
and the extinct giant moa) cannot; where
there are crabs that climb trees for
cOcoanuts; where nOntigerish tigers
neither bite nor claw, and where. finally,
the platypus f1ourishes. combining and con-
fusing all speces-a fish, a bird, man.
mall living anywhere, in the water. on land
or alternating in the mud; eating any
thing-carnivorOus. insectivorous herbiv-
orous: which has the bill and webbed
feet of a duck, and lays and matches eggs;
which has the aquatic habits of a fish,
and the trowel-tail and fur of the beaver.
Australia has. moreover. flowers with
out OdOr, white eagles and black Opals,
black swans and white bituminous coal.
Coral, Volcanic South Sea Islands.
!; The Pacifics tropical islands are unsur-
passed in attractiveness and are worthy
in themselves of prolonged and thorough
study. In.going to Tahiti one passes near
the French Marquesas Islands, described
in letters and in fiction by Robert Louis
Stevenson, who lived both there and at
Samoa, where he is buried. Tahiti, Rara-
tonga and VIII Levu Of the Fiji group,
which I visited, are entirely satisfactory
samples of the thousand and one South
Sea Islands, among which there is a strik-
ingly close resemblance. In general they
are the volcanic mountain peaks of SUBJ
merged continent The mountains of our
sample islands are of varying heights
ard differ in nearness to the sea. Tahiti's
peaks 5000 feet high. seem to rise from
the ocean itself. Raratongas hills. 900
feet high. are clad in verdure and ascend
by easier grade. VIII Lewis mountains.
1900 feet high. are farthest distant
approached by steamer in the early morn
ing, and seen at sunrise each presented
picture like some poets dream. Tahiti
seemed to me to be the most strikingly
impressive in form and most fascinating
in color, presenting. as viewed from the
ocean, as enchanting a scene to the
artists eye as the world can supply.
The island mountains are clad in YER
dure below and in opalescent cloud above,
often with shimmering haze over ALL
The peaks and cliffs and buttresses as
sumo shapes curious, extraordinary, in
pinnacled. serrated-
forms suggesting granite diadem (as
in Tahiti, fortress, an altar, saddle,
a gigantic finger. There is the same d.
versty in color effects. Against a back
ground of blue sky and opal-tinted clouds
are the gray-green mountains, touched
with saffron, rose and olive. In the fore
ground are the blue and green waters Of
the ocean, the whole picture flooded with
a haze of misty light that gives to it
effect.
With closer approach to the island the
details of sea, reef, lagoon, beach, native
village, foot hills, mountains and clouds
evolve. In this more elaborated picture
the immediate foreground is composed of
the deep blue ocean, the white line of surf
curling over a coral reef. the blue and
green of the shallow lagoon in
side the reef. In the middle ground are
the yellow curving beach, graceful
fringe of cocoa and other palms crOWding
the beach and climbing the sides of hills
and mountains. and palms. bananas and
mass of tropical vegetation showing green
Of divers shades and tnts, with touches
Of scarlet from the flowers of the fam
bOyant tree, and with white, red-roofed
cottages and brown matched huts of the
native village picturesquely diversifying
the color effect. In the background are
edged, cloud bedecked mountains
Coral Reef and Sea Gardens.
The encircling coral reef of the vol
canic South Sea island-of Tahiti, Rara-
tonga. Viii Lew and a countless multi
tude besides-s natural breakwater TO.
the sheltered harbor to which some open
ing in the barrier reef gives entrance.
Where a river or torrent descends
through a break in the mountains to the
ocean there is corresponding break in
the encircling coral reefs, for the coral
insects cannot live and work in fresh or
freshened water. Through this break
marked by a blue pathway across the
wilderness of the fringe Of surf on the
reef-the ship passes from the boisterous,
dangerous ocean to the haven of calm
and shallow water within the reef. Green
waves break over the reef in dazzling
white fringe Of surf and spray. curling
over the coral in lazy swell Or dashing
angrly at the reef in great rolling break
ers, beautiful to the eye of the artist, a
danger signal to the sailor.
Inside the coral barrier reef are Won
derfully beautiful sea gardens, with beds
of myriad-hued coral, seaweed and white