Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-12
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
ISLANDS OF HIDDEN GOLD

ISLANDS OF HIDDEN GOLD |
1.-THE Galapagos Islands are being
revisited by scientists because they |
form al Incompatible natural his !
tory museum" says a bulletin from
the Washington, ID. c., headquarters
of the National Geographic Society.
Charles Darwin began their !
scientific exploration and he report
ed on the various species of giant
tortoises, each species confined to a
single islet, and pointed out that
half the flowers and half the birds
of the island are to be found no
where else in the world.
More than 1000 volcanic cones
besprinkle the archipelago, one esti-
mate has it, and the islands volcanic
origin accounts for the peculiar in
terest they hold for science. Darwin
deduced that the group has not been
nearer the mainland, nor have the
islands been closer together, than
now.
How Peculiarities Developed
"Hence the species of flowers and
birds which drifted to the islands
have undergone a development in
their isolated environment very diff
ferent from that in their native hab-
itats. Seldom has nature provided
such a eiear-cut opportunity to study
the processes of evolution.
THE Galapagos hold a different
sort of lure for the modern world.
f! More tales of hidden treasure war
rant many grains of salt, but it
seems certain that the pirates of
| South America hid their loot Of gold
and silver where they had their
headquarters, in these islands. Two
caches have been unearthed, silver
ingots and pieces of eight. The finder
of one built a hotel in Ecuador; the
second drank himself to death.
Equatorial Air Chilly
1.-THE islands lie just under the
equator but the air frequently is
chilly on some of them. One, AL
bemarle, also called Isabella, is 500
feet high. The cold Antarctic cur
rents which fan the coast of Peru
strike seward at Cape Blanco and
surge across the Galapagos group.
Up to 500 feet most of the islands
are barren, above hat level they are
swathed in clouds whose moisture
aides luxuriant vegetation.
wild goats, cattle, cats and dogs,
as well as hidden treasure, bear evil
dence of the rendezvous Of bucca-
neers. In 1892 Ecuador annexed the
islands and since 1885 they have had
a governor. They acquired a stra-
tegie importance with the opening
of the Panama Canal. for they lie on
the canal-to-Australia route,
THE largest island of the group,
the aforementioned Albemarle, is
larger than Long Island, New York;
the entire group has an area cepsid-
erably in excess of thai of Delaware.
The nearest of the islands to main
10 ,,5 fG naor1u SIM n1i1aG ZuaGf nf
Ecuador.
Have Economic Value
Treasure and science to n side,
as a famous humorist would say, the
future of the islands looms large up
on their agricultural merit" Ralph
Stock, in his classic account of 1.-THE
Dream Ship" expedition wrote:
THE soil is a rich, red loan, al
most stoneless, and scarcely touched
by the plow. There are $500 head
of cattle at present on Cristobal Is
land, and it could support $4,000
with ease. There is no disease and
NJ adverse climatic condition with
which to contend, and at three years
old a steer brings 800 (gold, live
wsight), at Guayaquil-When a
steamer can be induced to call and
take 1t there.
There are a few hundred acres
under cultivation when there might
be thousands, and two hundred
bene-lazy poems do the work of fifty
ordinary farm hands.
Looking down on this fertile val
ley it is hard to realize that n is
standing on the lip of a long-extinct
crater, that in reality Cristobal is a
series of these, dour and uninyiting
to a degree, viewed from outside,
but veritable gardens within. And
there are four other islands in the
Galapagos group-some smaller,
some larger, than Cristobal--unin-
habited and exactly similar in char
acter. Nominally, they belong to
Ecuador. Here. surely, is a new field
for enterprise"