| OCR Text |
Show GREAT BARRIER LURES SAVANTS Vast Submarine Reef of Coral Off Australia. Prepnrpd by National Gpocraphlp Society. Washington. D. C. WNU Sorvtca. IF THE sea went dry along the east coast of Queensland a thou sand miles of coral "maze" would be revealed. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia must not be Imag Ined as a continuous structure, like the Great Wall of China; It is formed by Innumerable reefs, and a map of just one section resembles a complex Jig-saw puzzle. Then there are the Isles, mountainous and forested, of the Inner zone, and the atolls and cays thnt are true coral Islands. For nearly a century the Great Bar rler has Intrigued science bj the prob lems that It presents to geologlsta physiographers and naturalists. It has lured such masters of marine zoology as Alexander Agasslz and A. G Mayer from America, and recently a British expedition broke camp after a year on Captnjn Cook's first coral Island. In all the Seven Sens there Is noth lng so 'wonderful as this vast su'ima rine "curtain" of coral, the largest coral reef In the world, whose nature and origin remain half veiled In mys tery. Tourists from many lands and thon sands of Australians have made the voyage through "Australia's Grand Canal." the area between the mainland, main-land, with Its purple hills and the Outer Barrier. A calm and pleasant trip during a portion of the year. It may be perilous In the cyclone season. Many launches Hnd fishing craft have been wrecked among tbe coral, or gone down In the heart of a storm within the Barrier But navigation Is no longer the nightmare It was to the early voyagers, before the reef mazes had been mapped and routes safe for even large vessels discovered. Danger exists still, but the old fear has gone the haunting fear of disaster dis-aster In the Realm of Coral. Surf Is Amazing Spectacle. Majestic Is the meeting of league-long league-long rollers of the ocean and the Great Barrier. On days when the sun lit water behind the coral bastion Is calm enough for a canoe, mountainous waves pound the reefs unceasingly The surf on the Outer P.arrlet at high tide, when the Oroid reefs crests are bidden, presents an amazing spectacle. A "long line of tiolling surf, springing up In mid-ocean without any apparent cause." Is 'be late Charles He. Hoy's de svriptlon. That tfreat naturalist, whose knowledge of the Barrier was unrl wiled, devoted the last few years of his life tri the sf.ntv of Its problems Swain Reefs far south, marh the beginning of the Great Furrier Outer System. Farther north the linear reefs nre devolop.'a The? are some miles In length unit up to half s mile across, w-lth broad separating etian ni'ls. A lighthouse on I ady Elliot Isle-marks Isle-marks the southern limit of coral formed land, "a broad platform of solid coral half a mile tn clronmfor ence." Then comes nn Archipelago Ihe Bunker griuo. followed by the Capricorn Group, popular resort now of naturalists, nnd almost n picnic ground for holhlaymnkers from the mainland. Within the Tropics, the maze Is mul tlplled. From a till at Cooktown von may see. as Cnptnln Cook did In ITTtl. the shadows of the coral reefs wher ever you look out to sea The n.'ivl gator who explored g.iTno miles of the east const of Australia was Ignorant of the existence of coral In those wn ters when his ship struck on Endeavour Endeav-our reef nt night. Hail the weather been stormy she must have been lost, for coral fangs had pierced her null. Hut culm sea enabled the sapors to patch up the bark by "fotherlng. ami Cook railed her to ttie bench fot careening and re pairs. Meanwhile gazing from the hilltop, he dlscoveirii the coral. With a Renwerth ship again, he won a way out of the maze, gaining open ocean through one ,it the great openings In the Barrier. He escupeit many dnngers only to meet with oth ers n few days inter. The Endeavour, becalmed oft the Outer Harrier, was borne inward the reef. She rose al last on n huge wave anil seemed doomed to Host rm lion with only the breadth or t wave between be-tween her nnd ttie coral. Hut "a light air of wind sprung tip," nnd Ihe ship was saved. Cook Claimed the Coast. Cnplaln Cook sought eagerly Tor nu opening, nnd found his "Provldentlm Channel." He was In the Grand canal once more, and with Inllnl'c care took the bark lo Torres strait. I.nndluk on nn island which br named "Posses Men," he claimed the whole custom coast of Australia for Britain. In the name of King G"oige III. A memorial to Cnplaln Cook has been erected on Possession Island by the feilernl government, gov-ernment, n simple obelisk bearing s tablet of bronze. Bligh, commander of the Bounty, nnd his eighteen men who were faithful, faith-ful, made that memorable open-boat voyage from Tahltian waters to Restoration Res-toration Island, within the Great Barrier, Bar-rier, In 17S!I. The mutineers' victims reached the reef at midnight, or rather rath-er came within sound of the surf, and two days later found a passage to safety. The boat voyage was continued contin-ued along the east coast of Queensland Queens-land and through Torres strait to Timor. These old-time perilous voyages are discussed still In Australia, And round the cnujpfire on a coral Isle the talk may turn from Cook's discoveries and Bligh's amazing boat voyage to the recent loss of a launch, or the fate of a large steamer, sunk In a cyclone within a few miles of the mainland. The Grand canal varies In width from 20 to 80 miles. There are two regions, however. The innei one Is narrow and fairly free from the perils which make the cuter zone impossible for shipping. Only small craft are onvlgated among the reefs of the outer out-er zone-Luggers zone-Luggers are sailed along the chan nels. with coral fangs threatening destruction de-struction sailed often where the reefs are uncharted. In the quest for sea slugs and pearl and trochns shell. Japnnese own many of these venturesome venture-some craft. Many Beautiful Island. The depth of tbe sea outside the Great Barrier Is profound, but In the zone where coastal steamers go safely It varies from about ten fathoms to twenty ; the outer zone Is much deeper, deep-er, up to seventy fathoms. It is between these two zones that the mountainous Islands lie, many of them beautiful and some the homes of happy people. Over hundreds of miles of sea they are strung, close together or with long gaps between. Thousands of folk who make the winter tour 'o Queensland from southern south-ern ports say they have beeD to the Great Barrier reef, whereas tbey have merely sailed s.mong the lofty islands, maybe without landing even on an atoll or a cay. the low coral Isles be-ynnl be-ynnl the high ones of granite. Only the few who go north venture to seek the aclual Barrier, where that long line of thundering surf rises in mid-ocean. mid-ocean. There Is charm In the Grand canal trip, and life Is pleasant on the fa- f" T L ,L.', tt,.' U ' I 1 i. MUTHALIA Sj s-'-'i r ' LA-'-i-L i Y-s,T, II I M r I The Great Barrier Reef. vored Islands, wherv a bungalow may nestle amid tropical fruit trees nnd prims, with a crH-k singing near on Its little Journey to the sen. Men have lived half a lifetime on a Barrier reef isle without desire to wander. Spain has played her part In pi loncer navigation of Australasian seas. In Kk'.'i three ships under Admiral de Qulros sailed for the South Pacific from Cnllao. The captain of one was I. uls Vacs de Torres, whose name lives forever ns that of the strait between Australia and New Guinea. His vessel ves-sel became separated from the other two. nnd Torres was probably the first European to sight Cape York peninsula, penin-sula, the northernmost point of Australia, Aus-tralia, nnd Prince of Wales Island. Explored by Scientists. Scientific Investigation of the Great Barrier reef began when II. M. S. Fly cruised In tbe Coral sea ami other waters. wa-ters. Her voyage extended over several sev-eral years. lSUlSltl. nnd J. Beete Jukes was ttie naturalist on board her, a geologist whose Interests were not routined to rocks. Jukes wrote the tlrsl description of the Great Barrier, which remains one of the best general nccounts we have of this geographical wonder : "The Great Barrier reefs nre thus found to form a long submarine buttress, but-tress, or ,-urtaln, along the northeastern northeast-ern coast of Australia, rising In general gen-eral precipitously from n very great depth, but resting towards the north on the shoaler ground of Torres strait, and Inwards the south on Ihe bank stretching oft from Sandy Cape. "If II were to be In Id dry, this great Barrier would be found to have a considerable con-siderable resemblance to a gigantic and Irregular fortification, a steep glacis gla-cis ciown-u with a broken parapet wall, nnd curried from one rising ground to nnother. The towerliko bastions, of projecting and detached reefs, would Incicasu this resemblance." |
