Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-09-24


ciety, Washington, d. CO.
A falling off in production from the
famous North sea fisheries that made
Great Britain largely a nation Of
mariners and so contributed to the
building up of the worlds greatest
navy, has set Englishmen to speculat-
ing on the possibility of developing
another great fishing region about the
Falkland islands.
This island group and its dependen-
cies constitute Great Britain's south
ernmost possession. The Falklands
lie in the South Atlantic 300 miles off
the coast of Argentina. They are
farther north than Cape Horn, oppo-
site the eastern entrance to the Strait
of Magellan. Port Stanley, capital of
the far southern colony, has a south
ern latitude exactly the same as the
northern latitude of London, but it
has a far different climate from that
of the British metropolis for no friend
ly, warm Gulf stream bathes the Falk-
lands to rescue it from the natural
cold temperatures of its position.
More to the point, the Falklands
have both a latitude and a longitude
corresponding to that of Newfound-
land in the northern hemisphere. Be
tween the islands and South America
are banks where cool and warm ocean
currents come together as they do on
the Newfoundland banks. Such
meeting of waters of strikingly differ
ent temperatures furnishes an ideal
environment for fish life: and 1t is on
these banks westward from the Falk-
lands that certain far-seeing Britons
hope to build up fisheries that will
make good the waning fish supply
from the North sea.
The difficulties in the way of estab-
fishing second North sea or New
foundland banks fishery near the
Falklands are the long haul and adj
verse climatic conditions for curing
fish. Whale fishing has already
proved profitable in spite of the is
lands remOteness, and it is believed
that canning or freezing will elm
mate the other difficulty.
The Falkland group is composed of
two large islands, East Falkland and
West Falkland, and about 100 smaller
islets. Altogether they cover an area
Of about $500 miles, being thus about
the size of the Hawaiian group. East
Falkland is nearly as large as Porto
Rico. The area of West Falkland is
slightly less than that of the state
of Delaware.
Not Very Cold, but Cherries.
Though the climate of the Falklands
is relatively mild-far warmer than
Newfoundland in a corresponding lati-
tude-it is cheerless. On two days
out of three on an average rain falls
or it Is foggy. Though the thermome-
ter never sinks very low. it never rises
very high; the annual mean is 43 de-
grees Fahrenheit. The ground never
dries, a fact which prevents the use
of the large quantities of peat in the
islands, and has necessitated the
breeding of a hardy type of sheep
whose hoofs will not become diseased.
The islands are treeless and largely
of rolling contour, with a backbone
of exposed rocky ranges On the
mOors, which resemble those of the
Scottish West Highlands, a coarse
grass grows which has so far largely
determined the economic activities of
the Falklands, for it makes excellent
grazing for sheep. Practically every
square foot of the islands that is put
to any use at all is used as sheep
range, and there are now between
100000 and 100000 sheep in the col
ony. a hybrid type has been devel-
oped that is admirably adapted to con-
ditions. The wool has distinctive
properties, especially a fine texture
which makes 1t particularly we'll fitted
for making hosiery and gloves.
The concentration of sheep on some
of the islands has greatly injured the
grass and in late years it has been
necessary to reduce the flocks. Lately
factories have appeared to can NUT
ton products. The ranching is done
mostly by large companies who may
own entire islands. AS many as 2OO,-
UUO sheep are Kept on single ranch.
The shepherds who maintain this far
southern live stock industry are most
~ from the British Isles, largely from
Scotland.
Little Overland Travel.
Because Of the bogs and the rough
ridges there is little overland travel
in the sFalklands. No roads exist, and
what little movement takes place on
land is by horseback or on foot. The
coasts are deeply indented and most
ranch headquarters are on some tiny