Show N NEW NAVAL STATION port rt stanley falkland islands nov 1 I have come to the falkland ands because they promise to be one the news centers of 0 the world in Q near future their governor tells is that it is true that great ari eat britain H 1 probably establish a naval and ling aling station at port fort stanley the surveys have been made and nin in a few years at the farthest john gunboats gun boats will command the pas around cape horn and the ene ace to the straits of Mag magelen elUn distance betge between en cape virgins last point we saw of the south continent and the falklands Falk lands three hundred miles or less than a ys a steam for one of jenola Engl aads fast r vessels the falklands Falk lands lie even per er the track of the sailing ships ut lut cape horn so ao that these great oe ie routes over which hundreds ot of lons ions of dor dollars lars worth of freight s every year will practically be at mercy of england outside punta alnas 0 nas which is midway through the bellans gel lans there is no chance for cor coal stations within a thousand miles of t stanley montevideo Mont evidio is a thou miles north and the cape of d hope miles away to the theart east punta arenas belongs to e and by the neutrality laws it lid id not furnish coal except in peace even then it will charge exorbitant oes es as it did in the case of the gion on the establishment of a naval ton ion here will bring a protest from argentine republic it has tor for re s claimed the falklands Falk lands as a part its territory so that altogether the aspect for trouble diplomatic and berwise ier wise is refreshing and the falklands Falk lands interesting they among the little known islands of atlantic travelers gerdom visit in their only connection with the aide aside world is by a german steam p line which is under a subsidy in the english government to call every three weeks to parry carry tile the I 1 these ships come here on their to and from hamburg and the it t coast of south america so that i Fal klander has a chance every six cs s to go to europe via montevideo on alternate six weeks to the alc e via the Str straits alts now and then baler aler or seal hunter comes to the is ds and occasionally ot of late the sh ish gunboats gun boats have been visiting in the summer aw was as in one of the kosmos steamers t I 1 came from thib the e strait of magel to port stanley we sailed one lle e night along the north coast of k islands for they extend from east went about two hundred miles re are are two hundred of them con ig of two large islands and many lal that they do not mot even make a n the map some of the smaller is s are inhabited only by penguins being so many of gf these curious that the governor of the falk has been een called the king of the ins jalanda altogether ther baye abo about ut two thirds as much land as the state of massachusetts and east and west falkland the two larger islands are about five times as big as rhode island all of the larger islands are covered with sheep farms of such immense size that twenty seven meo med it I 1 is said own the whole country count rv the rhe total population is about two thousand and over nineteen hundred of these work in one way or another for these twenty seven men the inhabitants are nearly all Scotch men and the islands are a little slice of scotland in the south atlantic the pasturage of the lands acres upon them more than three quartets quarters of a million ot of the finest sheep of the world ate feeding and from them halt half a million dollars worth of wool is exported every year one company alone has sheep and the man who owns less leas than sm sheep heep is considered ft a very small farmer indeed outside of sheep raising there are no other industries there are only fifty pigs in the whole territory and although the grass is good for cattle there are but few int in the falklands Falk lands not enough wheat is raised to make a maryland biscuit and the only sign of agriculture is the little garden of cabbages potatoes which you see back of each of the houses of the shepherds shep herda on the moors sit art the capital port stanley and at the other small settlements scattered here land and there the falklands Falk lands are a very cave of aeolus the cold winds blow almost all day and every day they sometimes sometime blow it is said the vegetables out of the ground they blow so ao hard that not a tree ean can live and today there are not enough bushes here to furnish the gw switches itches for a country school ol the pasture however grows luxury antly and the sheep keep tat fat it if the land is not overstocked over stocked they breed so fast that tens of thousands are killed and thrown into the sea every year their skins only being saved there Is ie a curious grass here which acts as a tonic as well as a food for the animals eating it it is to sheep cheep and cattle a sort of vegetable coc it to te called tussock grass it has a stalk from four to six feet high and its blades are about seven feet long the plants grow in bunches close together as many as roots springing from one plant animals eat the roots as well as the leaves and feeding upon them speedily become fat the roots are even eaten by men and it is said that two americans once lived for fourteen months upon them on one of the smaller islands the roots decay in the old plants and raise the grass upward so BO that it grows upon a cushion of manure as it were some of these cushions are six feet high and five feet in diameter so eo that the grass springing from them makes them look in the distance like a grove of low palm trees this tussock aock grass grows along the coast even down to high water mark it to Is fast disappearing bo however wever DA aa the sheep cheep are so fond of it that thea they eat it far down into the roots another curious plant grown growa in the bogs this looks like a stone it forms forma in bunches as hard as a rook rock and from three to eight feet tall it te in ao 60 hard that you cannot cut it with a sharp knife on hot days a pale yellow gum comes out on its surface and a rich aromatic odor fills the surrounding air it to is known here as the balsam bog it is always cloudy in the falklands Wands Falk Fa lands the air Is moist and the aspect of nature is dreary in the extreme imagine a dull leaden sky hanging losover low over reddish brown moor sout of which here and there jut the ragged teeth of white rock masses and you have general idea of the falkland island landscape the islands are gently rolling with here and there a ragged hill the land band is as black as your hat full of peat and here and there streaked with little streams and spotted with treacherous bogs bags in which horses and men are sometimes lost the ground is so soggy in fact that wagons cannot be used there Is not a four wheeled vehicle in the whole country carts can be used only in port stanley all travel is on horse horseback backs and a stranger dare not go from one sheep farm to another without a guide such hauling as aa is done is by the shepherds on sledges dragged over ever the wet but bat snowless ground by horses all herding of sheep is done upon horses and with shep shepherd herdt dogs which are raised and aad trained tor for the purpose all this the islands are excellent for cattle and sheep the latitude here is about that of holland and the animals feed out all the year round before sheep was introduced the islands fairly swarmed with wild years ago it is estimated that there were wild cattle on the island now these have all disappeared and almost that many sheep have taken their places the wild cattle were the list li st cause of the settlement of the island A rich cattle and hides dealer of xon MOB zevedeo named lafone bought thi the right to the southern part of east falkland and all the wild cattle on the islands in 1844 for downs down and aad thit he promise to pay additional in ten years from 1852 in this deal he got over acres of land wid and the skins of the wild cattle in 1862 1852 he sold out his property to the falland falkland islands company for and since then this company has baen the leading power in the falklands Falk lands it has bought more land and it now probably has more than a million acres it has about sheep and it has a sailing vessel which goes to london once a year to carry its wool and bring back the canned goods s clothes farming implements and other things required by the islands it has a line of boats which periodically make the round of the islands carrying the farmers such goods as they order sand and bringing their wool to stanley tor for shipment to europe the wool is put up in bales just as we bale cotton much of it goes to the markets by the regular steamers that on which I 1 came is now loading in the harbor it win will take on an 1200 bales of pounds each which at 10 cents a pound the price it will bring in london will make a cargo worth it does not take many shepherds to care for these large flocks of sheep the farms are divided up into fields of several everal thousand acres each and fenced with wire fences so that all the shepherd herd has to do ds do to ride about among the sheep his life Is spent upon horseback each shepherd being supplied with six elx horses the shepherd watches wa the flock he takes the sheep out ot of the bogs when they tall fall in and turns them over it if they tall fall down the sheep here as in patagonia are large and tat fat some dome of the we others weighing from 80 to pounds when such sheep roll upon their backs they cannot get up if left lef t alone in this condition they would lie and kick until they died were it not that they are killed long bea before bre by the birds the buzzards here hover over the sheep they watch them day and night and the moment a sheep is on its back they swoop down upon it and pick out Us its eyes eyel they keep picking at it until it dies in agony an hour or so later they have ripped tto its skin open and torn the flesh from its bones the shepherds tell me it is inconceivable how the buzzards find the sheep almost the moment they fall and that they attack them even in the night the sheep also fall into holes of which there are many adl over the islands it is the shepherds bu business blaness to get them out they have to be clipped to keep off the scab and at shearing hearing fi time which lasts for two months they aire aare driven to the wood shed and shorn they are not washed as are our sheep before sk shearing earing the wool Is carefully cut cult off put into bales of to pounds covered with bagging with iron and shipped thus to london for sale most of the sheep are of the cheviot and australian breeds they give heavy fleeces the average being from 8 to 10 pounds and running from that up to 21 pounds which was the actual weight ot of a fleece cut aut oft off this season tado life of the shepherds must be a lonely one they are you know all Scotch men who have been brought out here from scotland for the purpose most moat of them are married and all have large families their thedr houses are scattered over the barms arms from fifteen to twenty miles apart they are usually built near a little inlet where the com banys boat can cam bring their supplies and near a peat bed the proprietor pays each shepherd from 25 to 36 35 a month and furnishes his meat and fuel the meat is quitton which he can take from the flock and the fuel is peat which he must dig out himself in addition to this he has a garden patch and with mutton and vegetables he does very well I ido his do flour and other things he must buy his home Is a little cottage of two rooms and a leanto lean to roofed with corrugated iron one room serves as a kitchen and living room and in the other ot herthe the family sleeps if there is an overflow oveT flow or a guest the loft or attic is also used as a bedroom the cooking is done in a curious curl cius oven like pot which Is 29 shelved under a grate set in the tone stone wall of a chimney or fireplace replace fl the fuel to is peat and the hot ashes fax fall down clown upon the pot around it the pot Is tightly closed at the top and it serves for bou ing baking and stewing the shepherd has mutton as a steady diet he has mutton chops for breakfast roa roast st mutton for dinner and a slice of cold mutton for supper or lunch the shepherds seldom leave their farms and the women almost never I 1 heard of one woman who has not been to town for eighteen years her last visit viat was when she bhe cameto came to port stanley to be married think of living away out on the deearl est eat under the dreariest dreamiest drea riest sky in a 91 towo tomed romed cottage with no neighbor within fifteen miles and of coming 1140 no town only once in eighteen yeara year you would think the children brought up under such conditions would be wild and uneducated they are not they are as intelligent and wellman well man children as you would find in any country community they have a peculiar institution in the falklands Falk lands known as the traveling school schoolmaster miLster he is paid by the government receiving about a year to go irom one shepherd family to another and teach the children the time allotted to each family is a fortnight and it if three families can bring their heir children together they thus get six beeks of school the schoolmaster lives two weeks with each family and at the end of the time having laid out a course of home study for the children chil dien is sent on horseback by the shepherd shep heid to the next family which may be living twenty miles away tn in the course of time he gets back to his old pupils examines them in what they have gone over with their parents and sisters and then takes them as much further on the road to learning as his two weeks stay will permit the bl bishop shop and parson of port stanley who are also paid by the government make a tour of the island once or twice a year to examine exam line the children of each family not only on their catechism but on then their secular studies during a recent tour of the islands the governor gover nr sir grey wilson did the same he tells me he was much surprised at the advancement van cement ement shown by these little scotch cb children Ildren away down nere on the lonely of the falklands Falk lands these children are however from the best stock of the highlands of scotland their anc ancestors esters are among the thriftiest thrift iest people of the world indeed many of the shepherds save money and not a few lew have taken their savings to patagonia and have there become sheep farmers themselves there is today not a beg bogar in the falkland islands still the chances for the poor man inan here are not great all of the good lands are now taken up and nothing is for sale or rent many of the lands are held under twenty one year leases from the english government govin ment the lards are leased in blocks of acres at the rate of a year it will be years before such leases will run out and the value of the land is now so well known that the renewal of the leases will be at such prices as to loave leave battle profit to the outsider there is a very limited labor market in the falk lands those who ire are employed get good pay but the coming in f a hundred new hands would necessarily result in the discharge of that many men who now have work wark the shepherds themselves have large fa families milis and some of thedr children will have to go elsewhere to find work but let us take a look at port stanley the capital of these islands it has only citizens including the governor and all his officials but it has more thrift and business than many towns of five times its size at is as perhaps the richest capital of the world for every one of its inhabitants has all he can eat and to op spare are port santalee San taley Is sit baited on stanley harbor just juat beyond cape pembroke at the eastern end of ea east t Fal falkland klond its |