The daily Alaskan., 1914-08-04
MYSTERY ISLANDS
Some of the Worlds Black Spots
 That Defy White Men.
HAVE NEVER BEEN EXPLORED.

Natives Bar the Way to Those Who
 Would Learn Their Sserets--Fate Of
 Expeditions to TIburon.
 Leaving out ot consideration the still 'meXplOrcd portions of the arctic and antarctic regIOns-and there are mil
 lions of square miles of them-there are many spots on this little globe of ours that have yet to become familiar with the face of a white man and to smile or frOwn upon the fearless and hardy pathfinder.
 New Guinea Is one of the few Coun- ] tries that still present untrodden fields 1 for the explorer. but there are a num- 1 Der of islands that remain a mystery to the world at large and that will proba- bly, so remain for many years to come. One of these Isles of mystery is IT. buron island, where not so long Dgo an 1 explorer met his fate. His name was ] Wayne. and he is snld to have been clever mining expert
 Wayne went across to TlburOn in ! October, and not trace has since been seen nr him. nor is it likely that his | fate will ever be known.
 He was warned of the dangers that were before him In spite of offers of double gny be could not get a soul to accompany him. so he crossed Hell's l passage alone and like all others who have preceded hisI. hns never come burk
 TUurou is no lonely island in savage Mruuesa II lies In the gulf of Cali i foruia, separated from the Mexican mainland by only a few miles of salt ! water
 Yet it remains one Of the worlds black spots It has never yet been ex. nIorcd hy white men It's only inhab- 1 itnmts are a trihe of Indians who, arm ed with bows aud arrows dipped in some unknown but deadly poison, Shout down ull who try to land. The expedition of 1879 vanished into . the interior and was never seen again, and the same fate befeIl the party headed by Professor Mlllies in 1904. There is only one other Island in all the world which can match Tiburon, and that is MaIayta in the SOlomons. Match it-that Is, in the way of say. agery. And even in MaIayta there are white men on the coast Valuable plantations of cocoanuts and other tropical produce have been planted on l the shores of Malayta, but Inland is mountainous country covered with thick bush and inhabited by fierce l tribes of cannibals.
 ! Gold is believed to exist in the in- tcrior of Mulayta, and more than one expedition has been organized to search i for the precious metal. But the bush men. who steal nOlseleSsly as serpents through the tropical forest, have wiped out every one of the explorers, and their smoke dried heads decorate the 1 dark temples in the central mountains. 1 Other islands there are which are as ! impregnable as Tiburon and Malayta' hut for different reasons. One such IS 1 Tromelln, a lonely spot of land thirty miles north of Mauritius. It is sur rounded by a terrific rampant of coral which Is fully 15O yards wide. A mile ont on any side of the Island the sea is from 10000 to 12OOO feet deep. The
 surf. which always breaks on the rocky fence of this submarine noun thin top. makes landing practically | impossible.
 Yet it was here that in 176l a French
 transport was wrecked, and no sur
 vivors out of over 500 aboard got ashore alive. or these, seven, all black
 women. were rescued ln the year 17I6,
 having by some amazing miracle kept
 life in themselves for a space of ht'
 icon months. with no food but she'll
 fish and no drink but brackish water
 In the year 1907 that famous naVt
 gator. Henry Hudson. reported the e1' | istence of a rock island 300 miles eas'
 of Greenland. It was named Jan May
 on. That island was never seen agall
 rn+il the year 1860. when party oI
 English people, among whom was
 IorI Duderln. caught a glimpse Of It.
 Then it vanished for another hfty
 wears, to be seen once more in July 1 1910. by the tourists aboard the yacn0
 Ing liner Oceana.
 No one has ever set foot on Jan
 Maven. No one is ever likely to- foE no navigator would willingly approach
 it. It is the center of the thickest togs
 on the surface of this planet, and from one years end to another usually re mains totally invisible.
 Bouvet Island. ln the antarctic. IS al
 most equally inaccessible. It is the summit of a dead volcano, which rise: stcrDly from immensely deep water
 and 1t has been sighted only tWice
 since its discovery in 1739.
 Once and once only has man set fool mon ii. A boat from the German e1 , pIoring ship valdivia landed, but the . DeoDle found exploration impossible The rocky sides were not only of ap paIlfng steepness, but they were liter oUv coated with smooth ice, making
 climbing a matter of impOssi6iIity'-
 Pearsons Weekly