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Show ! - ' ! - " -v ' ' m m "- , -art-; ., Harbor of Juan Fernandas, (Prspsred by the National Oeecraplue) Society, Washington, D. C IF TOO board a "wind Jammer" at Valparaiso, Chile, and sail almost due west, on the eighth day out yon will sight an Island that bas been read about by more people than has any other little Island in tbe world. It Is Juan Fernundes, Robinson Rob-inson Crusoe's Isle. Strangely beautiful Is this Island Climbing 8,000 feet up from the sea. Its woody ridges lie wreathed In fantastic fan-tastic lacy patterns of silvery fog. As one rows ashore, the landscape rolls down like some giant theater's drop curtain, Its green ferns, forests and streams painted by nature's own hand. . Now, where Crusoe bunted, bud. dies a hamlet of Chilean fisher folk, with the bouts and sheds of a lobster-catching lobster-catching Industry. Delicate, delicious lobsters they are, but the men who catch them will clamber over a whole boatload to quarrel about a can of American sulmonl Mus-a-Tlerra (Landward) Is the correct name of this Island on which Alexander Selkirk, reputed hero of Defoe's romance, was put ashore. Near by Is Santa Clara, or Goat Island, Is-land, and about 100 miles westward ties Mas-a-Fuera, or Further Out island. is-land. These three 1 form the Juan Fernandes group, named after the Spaniard who discovered them In 1563. Now tbey belong to Chile in law; but In Imagination every school boy on earth claims a proprietary Interest In-terest here. High up the side of Mas-a-Tierra stands a tablet which reads: In Memory ot Alexander Selkirk, Mariner, A native of Largo, In the county of Fife, Scotland, who lived on this Island In complete solitude for four years and four months. lie was landed from the Cinque Ports galley, gal-ley, 06 tons. 10 guns, A. D. 1704. and was taken off In the Duke, privateer, pri-vateer, 12th Feb., 1700. He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. Weymouth A D. 1723, aged 47 years. This tablet tab-let Is erected near Selkirk's lookout, by Commodore Powell and the officers offi-cers of U. M. S. Topaze, A. D. 1868. To day on this Island one hears much talk about lobsters, but little of Robinson Crusoe, The easy-going, Spanish-speaking Inhabitants, shut off from the world and the scores of books describing their island, do not suspect sus-pect how famous it Is. Nearly all Its 287 people make s living in the lobster lob-ster trade. Huge Lobster Industry. Here Is one of the most extraordinary extraordi-nary shellflsh Industries In the world. In one year 80,000 or more lobsters are caught not counting the small ones thrown back. Time -was when these creatures swarmed the shores in such armies that the Islanders had only to strew bits of meat along the beach, then walk about with a stick and tip tbe lobsters over on tbelr backs. Due to wise conservation methods of the Chilean government, Island waters still abound with lobsters ; but now tbey are caught with hoop nets set off shore and baited with stale fish. Tbe fishermen go out, long before dawn to tend the traps. Over a char-coal char-coal stove astern they make coffee and broil fish for breakfast but nobody ever eats a lobster. To keep the catch alive, buckets of sea water are dashed over the crawling crawl-ing creatures and a tarpaulin Is used to shade them from the sua No lobster lob-ster remains long In good health and spirits out of salt water. So, usually within 24 hours after catching them, the Crusoe Island fishermen try to get their lobsters to port and Into the "live cars." These are scows made of slats, floating half-submerged In Cumberland Cum-berland bay, In which the lobsters are held captive. Twice a month a boat sails from the Island. It carries the scant mall, any passengers, and a load of lobsters, whlcb are often two and a half feet long and weigh as much as from ten to twelve pounds. On the Island the price paid the fishermen Is but nominal; nomi-nal; yet In the market at Valparaiso a live Crusoe Island lobster may bring the equivalent of from three to five dollars. On a cafe table In Buenos Aires the same lobster, after bis trans-Andean trans-Andean trip, sells for more. The lobster of Juan Fernandes (Pallnustus frontalis (Milne Edwards)) Is minus the large claws which distinguish dis-tinguish the lobster of our North At lantic waters (Bomarus amerlcanus). It Is a close relative of the American crawfish known as tbe spiny lobster In Florida. Besides wild goat shooting, fishing around the Island's rocky shores affords af-fords all the amazing luck that anglers' an-glers' tales are spun from. Here are the big morays, or wolf flsh, fierce and voracious; then the fighting vldrlola, or what we would call amber jacks, or yellowtall, which occur all up this coast Around Juan Fernandes the latter often weigh 100 pounds or more. Many kinds of sea bass also abound, with no end of delicate pan fish the furel, corblna, weakflsh or croaker, the pampanlto and palometa, the smelt the Jergullla. Here, too, the flying flab Is eaten. Storehouse of Fiction. There is probably more excuse for Action about Juan Fernandes tbaa about any other place Its size on earth. For 300 years pirates, earthquakes, whalers, penal colonies, battle, and po. Iltlcal storms have swept this now calm and dreamy Island. In the hillside hill-side above Cumberland bay oue sees the tiers of cells, like the Roman catacombs, cat-acombs, dug to bold prisoners wben Chile used' the Island as a penal colony. col-ony. Out in tbe harbor lies the hulk of the German cruiser Dresden, sunk during the World war. Once vast packs of sea lions haunted the Island rocks. Anson, English buccaneer, buc-caneer, wrote home that there were so many of these creatures here that he couldn't move a ship's boat without with-out putting a man in ber bows with an oar to drive them aside. Traders slew them for oil, and wild dogs killed their younj on the beaches; so now the sea lions seldom frequent these waters. To kill off the wild goats, and thus cut off the fresh meat supply for the English and Dutch pirates who plagued tbe coast, Spanish rulers of Chile long ago sent bands of dogs to this island ; but the plan failed. The dogs couldn't catch the goats among the rocks. There may be burled pirate chests on this Island. Qulen sabeT But priceless treasure, Indeed, was left by Anson and other early explorers. They planted vegetables and frnlt seeds, and let loose pigs, cows and horses. It was an unwritten law, tradition says, that every ship calling here In old days, whether merchant whaler, or buccaneer, should leave animals or plants, and thus help stock the Island for the common good. In consequence the variety of useful plant life here Is unparalleled In the Pacific. Cows, pigs and horses are plentiful also. Boys chase wild horses around the grassy canyons where Crusoe and Friday Fri-day hunted goats. In a single gaiuen, a spot of dazzling daz-zling beauty, belonging to a Frenchman French-man shipwrecked here more than thlr. ty years ago, Is an astounding grouping group-ing of exotic and native plants and trees. Here grew, among other things, the botanically famous chants palm, of whlcb highly polished walking sticks are made. The creamy-white wood feels like satin and Is marked with glistening black lines. Many Wrecks on Its Shores. Far np tbe moist Island slopes are giant green ferns, bizarre and outlandish, out-landish, like the fantastic plant life pictured to us as shading the earth In the time of mud and reptiles. Except Ex-cept where trails have been cut or fires have burnt them off, these ferns are so big and thick that It Is hard to walk among them. Juan Fernandes has a few good beaches, but mostly Its shores are rocky, rough, or steep, with swift currents cur-rents whirling past towering volcanic cliffs. Many a stout ship has plied up here as can be seen from moss-grown moss-grown remains of forgotten wrecks. Long ago Captain Shelvocke's Speedwell Speed-well went to pieces on these rocks. At that time cats, multiplied from a few left ashore by earlier ships, fairly overran the island. Shipwrecked sailors sail-ors from the Speedwell lived for weeks on cat meat Tbelr hunger found more substantial relief from one meal of cat meat than from five meals of seal or fish, wrote Shelvocke In his Journal. There are no wheeled vehicles on the Island, and nowhere on Its whole 40 square miles Is a road only paths. There Is a school and a seldom-attended church, but there are no places of amusement No stores ; Just one room in the lobster factory at Cumberland bay, open twice a week, where natives may buy articles from the mainland through an agent of the lobster-catching company. |