Evening star., 1928-11-19
RARE FINDS MADE
ON CRUSOE ISLAND
Species Seldom Found in
New World Brought Back
by DR.. Schmitt.
BY the Associated Press.


Part of the setting for many of the
worlds most dramatic true stories of
romance and adventure, Robinson
Crusoe's Island" Juan Fernandez. also
has proved to be one of the happiest
hunting grounds of science.
Although it is only about $40 miles
west of Valparaiso, Chile, its flora
and fauna bear little resemblance to
those of the n3ighboring New World
continent, but are related in the main
to species which are found only in such
distant places as New Zealand. Aus
tralia and South America. Some, in
deed, are the f1ourishing survivals Of
past geological era which have perished
in practically all other parts of the
earth.
Evidence Supports Theory.
The theory is that this island, in
some remote period before the present
rigorous climatic conditions began to
develop on the Antarctic continent, was
part of a more or less continuous reach
of land which probably stretched across
the South Pole and included those dis
tant Old World regions to which it is
most closely related in plant and ami
NAL life. New evidence in support of
this theory, which heret fore has rested
largely on botanical studies, has been
brought back to Washington by DR..
Waldo L. Schmitt of the Smithsonian
Institution, one of the most recent
scientific visitors to the island, in the
form of a crab and a spider which
builds its nest in the safety of rocks
that are periodically submerged by the
tides of the sea.
AS curator of the division of marine
invertebrates of the National Museum,
DR.. Schmitt was drawn to Juan Fer
nandez to collect rare specimens in his
field of science and to investigate the
remarkable lobster industry there, which
supports population of nearly 800 and
provides annually thousands of huge
Crustaceans and feet long that de-
light the epicures of Valparaiso and
Santiago
Apparently Rare Specimen.
The crab he found apparently has
become rare on the island, and he OBJ
tanned only one complete specimen It
has no relatives on the South Ameri-
can continent, but is familiar on the
shores of New Zealand.
The spider was caught by accident
while he was hunting shrimp along a
rocky shore at low tide. Picking up a
piece of rock which contained a hole,
suggesting that it might hold prize
for his collection of marine inverte-
brates, he cracked it open, and the
creature fled from it's webbed nest in
side. Disappointed over finding no
shrimp, he captured the spider instead.
Bringing it home, he learned that he
had discovered species rare to this
side of the world, of a genus never be-
fore found except in South Africa, New
Zealand and Australia, where such ma
rine creatures are more common. Its
nest, he recalls, was woven in a rock
which was probably submerged foot
under water at high tide and was
rArely, if ever, drv.
The island, where Alexander Selkirk' S
self-impoSed exile of four years, from
1704 to 1903, provided Daniel Defoe
with most of the ideas for his master
piece, Robinson CruSoe," is described
by DR.. Schmitt as one of the most
charming places, in climate and natural
torical associations are prominently in
terwoven with the exploits of the early
naVigatorS and circumnavi"ators and
with many great wars, including the
latest, for it was there that the German
cruiser Dresden sought refuge and was
finally sunk after the Falkland Islands
battle in December, 1914. It's naval
Importance was once regarded as Sc
great that, at the time of the negotia-
ton of the treaty of Utrecht in 1712,
the English Parliament actually con-
sidered substituting it for Gibraltar
and fourth of the membership voted
in favor of the plan.