The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-02-15
Wants Specimen Of Galapagos
Tortoise Also To Match One
From Hawaii
lAUKEA GAVE ONE AWAY
THOUGHT WORTH FORTUNE
Ocean island Goal Of Scientists
Trip-Nets And Guns
Will Be Used

Crossing the world in an effort TO
| capture comparatively unknown spe.
eies of bat, Professor Enoch Morris is en-
route to Page PagO by the steamer
Samoa, which called at this port yes
terday.
Professor Morris is travelling in the
interests of the Rothschld Scientific
Institute of London, the institution
which sent Professor Girard here last
year to acquire a specimen of the ele-
plant tortoise of the Galapagos, a
creature which is on the verge of ex-
! tinction
Iaukea Gave Away $1,000 Maybe
Girard was presented by Col. G. p.
Iaukea with Alice, the great tortoise
owned by Queen Liliuokalani and the
chelOnian was shipped in due course TO
England, via Victoria.
| John Colburn stated the other day
that there is a possibility of the mat
ter of the giving away of the ex-
queens tortoise being investigated,
| particularly as COlburn recently re-
tortoise is valued as high as $4,000 a
4 specimen. .H.t,
| Morris will disembark at Pago Pago
and win proceed thence by a schooner
1 or nitrate steamer to Ocean Island,
4 which is about 200 miles west of the
Gilberts. He is taking with him elab-
crate Photographic apparatus and an
interesting outfit of traps and nets by
means of which he hopes to be able
to effect the capture of his quarry. He
is also taking along a sixteen-gauge
shotgun, in case he gets a chance at the
great bat on the wing.
Monster Bats Which BAT Birds
Reports of the presence of colony
of monster bats on Ocean Island have
been sent to England by the captain
of a tramp steamer, who enclosed the
remains of one in box and shipped
j il to the British museum, in, which
famous collection it was found TO have
no exact counterpart. The bat was in
very poor condition on arrival, how,
ever, and this added to the difficulty
Of identifying it.
Professor Morris stated yesterday
that he thought that the strange bat,
might be either the lyre-bats Of the
Orient, which are .carnivorous, or the
voraciOus MOlucca bats, which are
chiefly found in the Amboyna and
Celebes Islands. The lyre-bat is dis
tinguished by its enormous lyre-shape(
ears and absence of tail.
; The captain, in his Communication
to the museum, stated that the bait
on Ocean Island frequently attackeC
the seabirds as they were sitting OF
their eggs, and that rather than leav,
their nests tho devoted birds Above
themselves DO be bled to death
was, he said, no uncommon sight, t.
find the husk of a mother bird sitting
on a nest of spoiled eggs.
Ocean Island History
Ocean Island, which belongs T.
Great Britain, is famous for its i'm
mense deposits of high-grade phosphat
Of lime, which are readily converte,
into fertilizer. and are being wOrke
bv the Pacific Phosphate Company
, with headquarters in London.
Long years before Ocean Island wa
inhabited by man, it was an ideal plac
for sea birds and was covered wit
guano. Rain and spray falling upo
this guano dissolved out the sOlubl
phosphate salt and carried it down t
the coral rock, where it gathered SUI
frient lime to become fixed, and it wa
I deposited on the surface and in tn
cavities Of the rock.
u In this state guano has no CONNER
cial value, because it is associate
r with too much carbonate of Fine, whir
!. wastes the sulphuric acid necessary I
the manufacture of artificial manur
? Island Sank Into Sea
n Ocean Island sank, and its surface ha,
I ing been broken bv the wash of tn
i Pacific g long rollers and other disint,
q grating causes, the phosphate of lin
Z being tougher and less soluble than tn
. coral rock, became sorted out an
4 filled up the gullies with phosphOrate
A sand. .
v The island rose again and the par
o icles of sand were sOlidifed by fires
= phosphate into a sandstone.
! Once more the island was "drowned
to speak geOlOgieallv--which resuIte
in the dissolution of the sandstone an
its erosion into pebbles and boulder,
but upon its recurrence these form
were left high and dry.
1t is these which constitute the in
1 pOrtance of Ocean Island
lime were up to the time of the WI
being exported from Ocean Island
Australia, Japan, the United Stat,
y and Europe. for the manufacture
+ suPerphOsphates.