Arizona republican., 1922-01-02
"EAST Of SUN,
WEST Of. moon"
IN SOUTH SEA
The Almost Unknown ISL
and of Nauru, AT the
End of the World-How
1t Grew and Acquired
It's Wealth

for it's rich deposits Of phosphate of
lime, vas the rediscovery of the great
sulphur mountain of Vanua Lava In
the Banks group of the New He
brides"
But here also Is fairy tale of
science, happy chemical coincidence,
or problem in relatively suggests
bulletin from the Washington, d. c.,
headquarters OF the National Geo
graphic 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 missionaries
to the heathen.' Scene two might
portray some waving grain field of
our fertile west, and closeup show
Farmer Blank buying fertilizer at the
village store. And the fertilizer en-
riched the soil, which grew the grain,
which sold for the money, which lit
tie Polly Smith put into the box T.
give teacher to send missionaries 10
the heathen.'
Here a second geographical fact
must obtrude: The special agent
needed to change Nauru's phosphate
rock to a soluble state for sale to
farmers is Vauna Lava's sulphur"
AT Worlds Jumpinc-cf Place
Then the bulletin continues with
the following information aDout the
island of trees that grow on stills
where missionaries have gone, and
where we may get fertilizer-infor-
nation extracted from a communica-
tlon to The Society by Rosamond
Dodson Rhone:
'Naaru, or Pleasant Island, is al
most at the jumping-cff place of the
world: 1t is not exactly East of the
sun and west of the moon, but it is
almost the farthest east, being only
thirteen degrees west Of the inter-
national date line, and 1t Is half a
degree south of the equator. 1t is
one of the Line islands.
Before 1t fell to Germany 1t knew
no white rulers, but was governed by
it's own immemorial laws, enforced by
its own chiefs; but white influence
had impinged upon it for many years.
Whaling ships from New England
ports called there and traded fire
arms for drinking cocoanuts and is
land pigs. 1t was rather a poor is
land in those faroff days, before its
great wealth was discovered. 1t had
no sandalwood or tortoise shell; no
pearls or beche-de- -mer; not even
copra, for copra was not made In the
Pacific before 1872 and cocoanut oil
was not an article of commerce.
Arose Dripping From the Sea
"One day Nauru, like Aphrodite,
arose dripping from the sea. The date
of this emergence cannot be more
nearly indicated than ages ago, and
the term day is not limited to "a
hours, but is to be construed liber-
ally, like the days of Genesis. The
island may indeed have been thrust
suddenly into the air, with all her
lovely polyps gasping and shriveling
in the tropic sun, and scarlet fishes
and long armed octopi leaping af-
frighted out Of the exposed caves to
the safe shelter of the sea, while
slow moving sea -urchins and mol
lusks perished in the pot-holes and
labyrinths Of the coral; or the pro-
cess CT elevation may have been
gradual, life in the coral dying grad
ually at the emerged top, while it re-
mained in full vigor just beneath the
level Of low tide.
"At any rate, when the upheaval
was complete, when the fairy towers
and pinnacles and the unsunned cav
erns jf the sea had been lifted into
the blaze of the sun, life at its base
beneath the sea continued unabated
and the fringing reef was slowly ex-
tended around it.
Look Like Aquarium Houses
AT this period the island must
have II oked like those fantastic arti-
ficial structures which we see in
aquariums No product Of mans
construction could be more extrava-
CANT in conception than these pin
nacles, towers. bridges, flying but
tresses, their shapes always suggest
ing architectural fantasies upreared
into the air. There it stood bare
and baid as did the earth on that day
in Genesis when the dry land first
appeared.
Then came the birds, millions
and millions Of them, feeding on the
abundant food nesting in the
coral, Matching their young in ever
increasing multitudes, and depositing
the waste OF their bodies in the coral
till the lower crevices were filled and
a gradually rising body of guano at
tanned at length level with the tops
OF the pinnacles, and then rose above
them and lay in level plateau across
the island.
Ramparts Surround island
"On tie margin the rains, the winds
against the coral washed away this
deposit, so that ramparts Of bare pin
nacles stood up and still stand all
aroun tn island: but the coral walls
back from the shore held safe the
treasure. Came another day Il am
aware that / am flinging days agout
as casually as the author of Genesis).
The seabirds were gone, not a keen
red eye or swift diving wing was left
gone, immemorially gone. How or
whv is a mystery.
Then in the alembic of Nature a
Transformation occurred. Guano Is
chiefly phosphoric acid and nitrogen;
coral is chiefly lime. Somehow, by
the close contact. the guano became
changed into phosphate of lime
which Is guano raised into the nth
power 1t had now become a hard
rock. odorless and generally colorless
although some specimens show fine
dark qualification and take a high
polish.
"Another day-perhaps the same
day - Gt is startling to sec how
closely this follows the Genesis story
of creation) --vegeta appeared
narrowly limited in species, but abun-
dant in specimens; and finally man
the brown people of the South Sea
This must have been the order. foi
where there is no vegetation there is
no population.
The vegetation owed nothing tc
the wealth OF phosphate beneath II
Phosphate is not soluble in water.
IT needs treatment with sulphuric
acid, which converts it into super
phosphate to let loose its treasure OF
stimulation for plants"
Many men who have never seer
the ocean will tell YOU pirates got