Evening journal., 1921-12-27
MAKING MONEY
OUT OF MOUNTAIN
Fairy Tale of Science Told
BY the Island of
Nauru
AROSE DRIPPING
FROM OCEAN WAVE

Here is the cold geographical fact:
almost contemporaneously with the
issue Of the mandate OF administra-
tion for the Island OF Nauru, fam
Gus for its rich deposits Of phosphate
I Of lime, was the rediscovery Of the
great sulphur mountain OF Vanua
Lava in the Banks group Of the New
Hehrides."
But here also is a fairy tale OF
science, a happy chemical coinc.d-
ence, or a problem in relatively" sug-
gests a bulletin from the Washing
ton, ID. c., headquarters OF the Ma
tional Geographical Society.
Scene one might disclose little
American Polly Smith dropping PEN
nies in a box to take to Sunday
school to give teacher to send mis-
sionaries to the heathen.' Scene two
might portray some waving grain
field OF our fertile west, and a closeup
show Farmer Blank buying fertilizer
at the village store. And the fertil-
izer enriched the soil, which grew
the grain, which sold for the money
which little Polly Smith put into the
box to give teacher to send mission
aries to the heathen.'
Here a second geographical fact
must obtrudei The special agent
needed to change Nauru's phosphate
rock TO a soluble state for sale to
farmers is Vanua Lava's sulphur ."
At Worlds Jumping-Off Place.
Then the bulletin continues with
the following information about the
island Of trees that grow on stills
where missionaries have gone, and
: whore we may get fertilizer infor-
nation extracted from a communi-
! cation TO The Society by Rosamond
Dodson Rhone:
/ "Nauru. or Pleasant Island, Is al
: most at the jumping-off place Of the
5 world: It is not exactly East Of the
/ sun and west Of the moon but 1t Is
b almost the farthest east, being only
thirteen degrees west of the interna-
tionai date line, and Il Is a half de-
gree south of the Equator. II is one
? Of the Line islands
{ Before It fell to Germany II
knew no white rulers. but was gov
! erned by it's own immcmorial laws,
q white influence had impingcd upon
it for many years Whaling ships
+ from New England ports called
I there and traded firearms for drink
I ing cocoanuts and island pigs. 1t
I was rather a poor island in those
3 far-off days. before it's great wealth
e was discovered. II had ma sandal
e. wood or tortoise shell; no pearls OF
beche-de-mer; not even copra, for
e copra was not made in the Pacific
r before 1872 and cocoanut oil was
g not an article OF commerce.
n zone day Nauru, like Aphrodite
10 arose dripping from the sea. The
date Of this emergence cannot be
a more nearly indicated than ages ago
and the term day Is not limited 10
Z twentyfour hours, but Is to be con-
y strued literally, like the days OF
I Genesis. The island may indeed
have been thrust suddenly into the
o. air, with all her lovely polyps gasp
ing and shriveling i'm the tropic sun,
, and scarlet fishes and long armed
!. octopi leaping affrighted out Of the
!. exposed caves TO the safe shelter
, OF the sea, while slow-moving sea-
/, urchins and mollusks perished in
: the pot-holes and labyrinths OF the
coral; or the process of elevation
may have been gradual. life in the
I coral dying gradually at the emerg-
ed top. while It remained in full
vigor just beneath the level of low
g tide.
AT any rate. when the upheava
was complete, when the fairy tow
s ers and pinnacles and the unsunneo
o caverns of the sea had been lifted
into the blaze of the sun. life at II,
base beneath the sea continued un.
abated and the fringing-reef wa,
|. slowly extended around it
h Look Like Aquarium Houses.
AT this period the island mus
@ have looked like those fantastic ar
i tihcial structures which we see il
n aquariums No product Of mans
n construction could be more extrava
u CANT in conception than these pin
nacles, towers bridges, hying but
!. tresses, their shapes always suggest
q ing architectural fantasies uprearel
10 into the air. There It stood bare an
e bald as did the earth on that day il
IS Genesis when the dry land first ap
IS peared.
:. Then came the sea-birds. million
d and millions OF them, feeding on tn
e abundant sea-food. nesting in tn
Ia coral. Matching their young in ever
n increasing multitudes. and deposit
s. ing the waste of their bodies in IN
coral till the lower crevices wer
m filled and a gradually rising body q
In guano attained at length a level wit
is the tops OF the pinnacles, and the
Of rose above them and lay in a lev'
plateau across the island
rd "On the margin the rains, tn
es winds and the breakers, spoutin
We high against the coral, washed ava
er this deposit. so that ramparts
bare pinnacles stood up and sti
o. stand all around the island but n
lg. coral walls back from the shore he
safe the treasure. Came anoth'
day q am aware that l am fiingir
to days about as casually as the auth,
,r Of Genesis). The sea-birds wei
Isl gone; not a keen red eve or swif
NC diving wing was left; gone. immeu
.ef orally gone. How or why is a my
m terry.
nv Then in the alembic OF nature
,ot transformation occurred. Guano
he chiefly phosphoric acid and nitroge
coral Is chleay lime. Somehow.
the close contact. the guano becan
a.