TORONi
LlBRAkY
VOLUME XXXVII
JAN.-JUNE, 1920
NATIONA
GEOGRAPHI
MAGAZIN
INDEX
January to June, 1920
VOLUME XXXVII
PUBLISHED BY THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
HUBBARD MEMORIAL HALL
\VASHINGTON, D.C.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
GEOGRAPHIC ADMINISTRATION BUILDINGS
SIXTEENTH AND M STREETS NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C.
GILBERT GROSVENOR, President HENRY WHITE, Vice-President
JOHN JOY EDSON, Treasurer • O. P. AUSTIN, Secretary
BOYD TAYLOR, Assistant Treasurer GEORGE W. HUTCHISON, Associate Secretary
EDWIN P. GROSVENOR, General Counsel
EXECUTIVE STAFF OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
GILBERT GROSVENOR, EDITOR
JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE, Associate Editor
WILLIAM J. SHOWALTER
Assistant Editor
CHARLES j. BELL
President American Security and
Trust Company
JOHN JOY EDSON
Chairman of the Board, Wash-
ington Loan & Trust Company
DAVID FAIRCHILD
In Charge of Agricultural Ex-
plorations, U. S. Department
of Agriculture
C. HART MERRIAM
Member National Academy of
Sciences
O. P. AUSTIN
Statistician
GEORGE R. PUTNAM
Commissioner U. S. Bureau of
Lighthouses
GEORGE SHIRAS, 30
Formerly Member U. S. Con-
gress, Faunal Naturalist, and
Wild-game Photographer
GRANT SQUIRES
Military Intelligence Division,
General Staff, New York
RALPH A. GRAVES
Assistant Editor
JESSIE L. BURRALL
Chief of School Service
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
C
Star
T. L. MACDONALD
M. D., F. A. C. S.
S. N. D. NORTH
Formerly Director U. S. Bureau
of Census
JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE,
Associate Editor National Geo-
graphic Magazine.
FRANKLIN L. FISHER
Chief of Illustrations Division
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
Inventor of the telephone
J. HOWARD GORE
Prof. Emeritus Mathematics, The
George Washington University
A. W. GREELY
Arctic Explorer, Major General
U. S. Army
GILBERT GROSVENOR
Editor of National Geographic
Magazine
ROBT. E. PEARY (Died Feb. 20)
Discoverer of the North Pole,
Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy
GEORGE OTIS SMITH
Director of U. S. Geological
Survey
O. H. TITTMANN
Formerly Superintendent of U. S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey
HENRY WHITE
Member American Peace Com-
mission, and Recently U. S.
Ambassador to France, Italy,
etc.
ORGANIZED FOR "THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF GEOGRAPHIC KNOWLEDGE"
To carry out the purpose for which it was founded thirty-two years ago, the National Geographic So-
ciety publishes this Magazine. All receipts from the publication are invested in the Magazine itself or ex-
pended directly to promote geographic knowledge and the study of geography. Articles or photographs
from members of the Society, Or other friends, are desired. For material that the Magazine can use, gener-
ous remuneration is made. Contributions should be accompanied by an addressed return envelope and post-
age, and be addressed: Editor, National Geographic Magazine, i6th and M Streets, Washington, D. C.
Important contributions to geographic science are constantly being made through expeditions financed
by funds set aside from the Society's income. For example, immediately after the terrific eruption of the
world's largest crater, Mt. Katmai, in Alaska, a National Geographic Society expedition was sent to make
observations of this remarkable phenomenon. So important was the completion of this work considered
that four expeditions have followed and the extraordinary scientific data resultant given to the world. In
this vicinity an eighth wonder of the world was discovered and explored — "The Valley of Ten Thousand
Smokes," a vast area of steaming, spoilting fissures, evidently formed by nature as a huge safety-valve for
erupting Katmai. By proclamation of the President of the United States, this area has been created a
National Monument. The Society organized and supported a large party, which made a three-year study
of Alaskan glacial fields, the most remarkable in existence. At an expense of over $50,000 it has sent a
notable series of .expeditions into Peru to investigate the traces of the Inca race. The discoveries of these
expeditions form a large share of the world's knowledge of a civilization which was waning when Pizarro
first set foot in Peru. Trained geologists were sent to Mt. Pelee, La Soufriere, and Messina following the
eruptions and earthquakes. The Society also had the honor of subscribing a substantial sum to the historic
expedition of Admiral Peary, who discovered the North Pole April 6, 1909. Not long ago the Society
granted $20,000 to the Federal Government when the congressional appropriation for the purchase was
insufficient, and the finest of the giant sequoia trees of California were thereby saved for the American
people and incorporated into a National Park.
Copyright, 1920, by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Around the World with the Salvation Army. By EVANGELINE BOOTH, Commander
Salvation Army 346
Asia Minor in the Time of the Seven Wise Men. By MARY MILLS PATRICK, President'
of the American College for Girls, Constantinople 47
By Motor Through the East Coast and Batak Highlands of Sumatra. By MELVIN A.
HALL 68
Common Mushrooms of the United States. By LOUIS C. C. KRIEGER 387
Crow, Bird Citizen of Every Land, The: A Feathered Rogue Who Has Many Fascinat-
ing Traits and Many Admirable Qualities Despite His Marauding Propensities. By
E. R. KALMBACH, Assistant Biologist, U. S. Biological Survey 322
Formosa the Beautiful. By ALICE BALLANTINE KIRJASSOFF 246
Hurdle Racing in Canoes : A Thrilling and Spectacular Sport Among the Maoris of
New Zealand. By WALTER BURKE 440
Last Israelitish Blood Sacrifice, The : How the Vanishing Samaritans Celebrate the
Passover on Sacred Mount Gerizim. By JOHN D. WHITING I
Malta: The Halting Place of Nations: First Account of Remarkable Prehistoric Tombs
and Temples Recently Unearthed on the Island. By WILLIAM ARTHUR GRIFFITHS.. 445
Massachusetts— Beehive of Business. By WILLIAM JOSEPH SHOW ALTER 203
Mind's-Eye Map of America, A. By FRANKLIN K. LANE 479
Mushrooms, United States. Color insert. XVI plates 423
National Geographic Society's Notable Year, The 338
Our National Parks. Color insert. VIII plates 511
Peary as a Leader: Incidents from the Life of the Discoverer of the North Pole Told
by One of His Lieutenants on the Expedition Which Reached the Goal. By
DONALD B. MACMILLAN 293
Peary's Explorations in the Far North. By GILBERT GROSVENOR, President of the
National Geographic Society v 319
Peru's Wealth-Producing Birds : Vast Riches in the Guano Deposits of Cormorants,
Pelicans, and Petrels Which Nest on Her Barren, Rainless Coast. By R. E. COKER. 537
Removal of the North Sea Mine Barrage, The. By Lieutenant-Commander NoEL
DAVIS, U. S. Navy . .... 103
Saving the Redwoods. By MADISON GRANT 519
Skiing Over the New Hampshire Hills : A Thrilling and Picturesque Sport Which Has
a Thousand Devotees in the Dartmouth Outing Club. By FRED H. HARRIS 151
When the Father of Waters Goes on a Rampage: An Account of the Salvaging of
Food-Fishes from the Overflowed Lands of the Mississippi River. By HUGH M.
SMITH, United States Commissioner of Fisheries 369
Where the World Gets Its Oil : But Where Will Our Children Get it When American
Wells Cease to Flow? By GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director United States Geological
Survey 181
Winter Rambles in Thoreau's Country. By HERBERT W. GLEASON 165
Winter Scenes. Duotone insert. XVI plates .-...-..•.•.. -.-..; 135
INDEX FOR VOL. XXXVII (JANUARY-JUNE), 1920
AN ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED INDEX
ENTRIES IN CAPITALS REFER TO ARTICLES
Page
Aberdeen, Scotland 303
Abishua Codex: First photograph of ill. 12
Abishua, Great-grandson of Aaron: Reference to
the Abishua Codex 12, 23
Abortive Clitopilus mushroom (Clitopilus aborti-
vtts) ill. 396
Abu el Hassan, Son of the late High Priest
Jacob : Photograph of ill. 1 3
Achin, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 79
Achinese war 79
Acre, Syria: Knights of St. John 453
Acropolis of Samaria, Palestine ill. 5
Adalia, Asia Minor 54
Adams, John : Reference to 209
Adirondack Mountains, N. Y. : Victory Park.. ill. 508
Adriatic 445
^Egean Sea, Islands of 47, 49, 51, 67
Aerial trolley used for conveying guano, Peru
ill. 561; text 564
.fljsop fables 57
Afghan, Persia 101
Afiun-Karahissar, Asia Minor ill. 62; text 58
Africa 51
Africa, South: Salvation Army. .ill. 353, 364; text 363
Africa, South: Salvation Army workers and their
native associates ill. 364
Africa, South: Zulu wards of the Salvation Army
ill. 353
Agassiz Basin, N. H 158
Agriculture, Massachusetts 204-206
Agrippina, Julia: Mention of Plate IX, 423-438
Ahab's palace, Samaria, Palestine: Reburying. .ill. 6
Ai, Palestine 13
Aidin, Asia Minor 50
"Aiyue" (guardsmen) Formosa, Pacific Ocean.... 274
"Akid eh Niyeh" (Samaritan prayer) 33
Ak-Kom-Mo-Ding-Wa : Smith Sound native. .. .ill. 310
Alaska 482-483, 487, 519
Albatrosses, Peru 559
Albert I, King of the Belgians: Mention of.. 498, 504
Albert Hall, London, England: International Con-
gress of the Salvation Army 363, 368
Alcatraz, see Pelicans.
Alcott, Louisa: "Thoreau's Flute" 169
Alert (Steamship) 311
Alkaios, Poet: Reference to 57
Alkman : Choir song for girls 61
Almond groves, Goodnoe Hills, Klickitat Co.,
Wash.: Destruction of by crows 337
Almost a Dog Mountain, Glacier National Park,
Mont 501
Al-Ning-Wa: An Eskimo woman ill. 308
Altar of Seth, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 31
Altar, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
ill. 475; text 474-475
Amanita mushroom species: Underground portions
of the ill. 389
Amazons, Legend of the 66
American Falls, Idaho 496
Americanism 479, 510
Americanization 479
Amherst College, Amherst, Mass 207
Ami savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Dance of
the ill. 291
Amsterdam-Deli Company, Medan, Sumatra, Dutch
East Indies 75, 79, 81
Amundsen, Capt. Roald: National Geographic So-
ciety Banquet, 1913 ill. 320
Anak kajoe (poles for tobacco drying) Sumatra,
Dutch East Indies 69
Anatolia (Asia Minor) 52, 59
Anchobetas, Peru 543, 552-553
Andover, Mass 245
Andrews Glacier, Rocky Mountain Park, Colo. . . 502
Anglo-Bavarian Langues, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea 453
Animals' tracks in the snow, Massachusetts . . ill. 1 76-
177, 179
Animals, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 274-275
Page
Animals, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 74
Antaeus : Strength received from the earth 510
Antigua, Nicaragua: Delegates to Salvation Army
International Congress, London 368
Antiochus II : Reference to 50
Ants as cultivators of mushrooms 399, 401
Apache Indians, Arizona 495-496
Appistoki Mountain, Glacier National Park, Mont. :
Summit of ill. 485
Apples, Washington 487
Arabs 63, 86
Arabs, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 453
Aragon, Spain: Knights of St. John 453
Aratiatia Rapids, North Island, New Zealand 440
"Arbutus": Crow roost near Baltimore, Md 325
Arcata, Calif. : Redwood trees 525
Archaeology, Malta, Mediterranean Sea. 111.466-468,
470-472, 474-478; text 448-450, 455-457, 459, 463,
465-469, 473-475, 477-478
Archilochus: Poems of 61
Arctic Circle 482
Arctic stove: Admiral Peary's 308
Arizona: Vice-President Stevenson's visit to 495
Armington Pond, N. H 158
Armistice, The 104-105
Armstrong Grove, Calif. : Redwood trees 527
Archangel, Russia 340
Arrow Rock Dam, Idaho 496
AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE SALVA-
TION ARMY. BY EVANGELINE BOOTH,
COMMANDER SALVATION ARMY 346
Arctic archipelago 340
Argentina: Delegates to Salvation Army Inter-
national Congress, London - 368
Arkansas: Fishes rescued by government 375
Arlington, Va. : Crow roosts 325-326
Arklio : An Eskimo dog-driver 308
Asia Island, Peru: Guano 559
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN
WISE MEN. BY MARY MILLS PATRICK,
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN COL-
LEGE FOR GIRLS, CONSTANTINOPLE... 47
Asia Minor, Map of 46
Asia Minor market-place, Arriving at an ill. 48
Askar (Ancient Sychar) Palestine, .ill. 16; text 17, 31
Assuan Dam, Nile, Egypt 498
Astronomy: Thales' School of Philosophy, Miletus,
Asia Minor 64
Astrup, Eivind: Mention of 319
Atap, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69
Atayal savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 282;
text 275
Athens, Greece 51
Attleboro, Mass.: Jewelry trade ". . . 242
Audubon, John James: Mention of 331
Augusta Sandstone Bridge, Utah 491
Augustus, Emperor: Presentation of Shechem to
Herod the Great 5, 21
Auckland, New Zealand 440
Auk (Mine-sweeper) 124
Australia 202
Automobile difficulties, Sumatra, Dutch East In-
dies .92-95, 97, 99
Automobiles, United States 187
Awerta, Palestine 31
Axel Heiberg Land, Arctic Region.. 294, 299-300, 314
Ayasoulouk, Asia Minor ill. 59
Baffin Bay, Arctic Region 301
Baffin Land, Canada 307
Baffin, William, British navigator: Discovery of
Hakluyt Island, Greenland 302
Bahria, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 456
Balanced Rock, Colo ill. 503
Bale of cotton, A ill. 206
Bale-breaker, Cotton ill. 207; text 211
Ballestas Islands, Peru ill. 540, 559, 561; text 545,
547, 554, 559, 561-562
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
Page
Baltimore, Md. : Crow roosts 325
Bamboo poles, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Savages
carrying water in ill. 288
Bamboo rafts, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 246;
text 247
Band of the Salvation Army, India ill. 352
Bandar Baroe, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. .. .81, 84
Bandjarese 71, 99
Bandoening, Java, Dutch East Indies: Children's
home established by the Salvation Army 363
Banquets, Ancient 61
Barents, William: Mention of 319
Barnyards, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 78
Baros, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 83
Bartlett, Capt. Robert A.: Reference to.... 296, 305,
309, 314, 3!7
Batak Highlands, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies... 83
Bataks, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 80, 83-86, 89, 94
Batavia, Java: Dutch East Indies 70
Battle Harbor, Labrador 317
Battle of the Nile 454
Battleship, German ill. 112
"Battleship, The," Grand Canyon of the Colorado
ill. (color insert) Plate VIII, 511-518
Bay of Independencia, Peru • -553, 558
Bay of Marsa Scirocco, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
455-456
Bay State, see Massachusetts.
Bears, Polar ill. 312; ill. (duotone insert) Plate
IX, 135-150
Beaufort Sea, Arctic Region 340
Beef-tongue mushroom (Fisttilina hepatica) . . . .ill. 407
Beetles, May: Crows' destruction of 332-333
Begbie, Harold: Mention of 351
Belawan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 73, 102
Belgium 185
Bellevue, Iowa: Fishes rescued by government... 375
Bengalis, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 79
Benihi trees, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 257
Berenger, M. : Quotation 185
Bering Strait, Siberia 340
Berkeley: Quotation on mushrooms 418
Bernadotte, Prince: Mention of 363
Besdeguma, Aidin Vilayet, Asia Minor ill. 52
Bethesda, Md 230
Betrothed ill. 34
Bias of Priene 47, 67
Biblical salutation, Palestine ill. 44
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 67
Big Basin, Calif.: Redwood trees 527
Big Lagoon, Orick, Calif.: Redwood Trees 531
Bigelow, Erastus: Mention of 243
Bingham, Col. Hiram: Life membership in the
National Geographic Society bestowed upon. .342-343
Bird's nest, Massachusetts: "Snowy egg" in a.. ill. 180
Black bass, Mississippi River 375, 383
Black cuer-co de mar, or "Sea crow", Peru 552
Black Hawk (Repair Ship) 114, 129
Blackfeet Indians, Montana ill. 486; text 501
Black-stem rust, United States 399
Black Sea 52
Bladensburg road, District of Columbia: Crows 326-327
Blake (Steamship) 345
Blanchard, Thomas : Reference to 243
Blusher mushroom (Amanita rubescens) .ill. 390
"Bob Townsley" (Dog) ill. 482
Bobolink (Mine-sweeper) 117, 119, 121
Bocche di Cattaro, Austria 96
Boegangan, Java, Dutch East Indies: Leper Hos-
pital maintained by the Salvation Army 359
Boekit Barisan Mountains, Sumatra, Dutch East
Indies 83, 96
Boiling, Col. : Memorial to 534
Booth, Evangeline: Around the World With the
Salvation Army 346
Booth, General William: Addressing a multitude
in Japan ill. 356
Booth, General William: Faith in religion. .. .351, 354
Borg en Nadur, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Mega-
lithic ruin of 456, 459
Borneo, Dutch East Indies 69, 71, 82, 85
Borup, George: Reference to 305, 309
Bosporus Strait, Turkey in Europe 7
Boston, Mass. ...ill. 244; text, 114, 204, 210, 243, 245
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me 319
Boyans, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 80
Bracket-fungus mushroom (Polyporus applanatus)
ill. 409
Page
Brahmin Temple, Grand Canyon of the Colorado
ill. 500
Brick-red Hypholoma mushroom (Hypholoma sub-
lateritium) ill. 40 1
Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite National Park, Calif.
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518
Bridge near Brusa, Asia Minor: Turkish ill. 56
Bridgeboro, N. J. : Crow roosts 325
Bridges, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 276-277, 279
British Mediterranean fleet, Valletta, Malta, Med-
iterranean Sea ill. 446
British Museum, London 53, 67
British North Pole Expedition of 1875-1876. .296, 311
British Red Cross Society 454
British Saluting Battery, Grand Harbor, Malta,
Mediterranean Sea ill. 446
Brockton, Mass.: Shoe manufactures 228-233,
235-236, 245
Bronze Age dwellers, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
449, 469
Brooks, Col. Alfred H.: Life membership in the
National Geographic Society bestowed upon. . . . 342
Brooks, Sidney: Phrase of 197
Brown Gyromitra mushroom (Gyromitra brunnea)
ill. 421
Bruce, Lieut. Frank: Death of 117
Brusa, Asia Minor 56, 58
Bryce Canyon, Utah 498
Bryce, James: National Geographic Society Ban-
quet, 1913 ill. 320
Buffalo cart, Chinese coolie mending a ill. 102
Buffalo farm, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
ill. 490
Buffaloes, Water, Formosa, Pacific Ocean... ill. 253-
254; text 257, 276, 279
Buffalo-fishes, Mississippi River 375
Bull and sow carved in relief on one of the walls
of the Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea ill. 478 ; text 477
Bull Creek Flat, Calif.: Redwood trees.. 525, 527, 531,
533. 536
Buller, Prof.: Investigation of Giant puff-ball
mushrooms 415
Bulletins, National Geographic Society: News.... 343
Bullock carts, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. .. .ill. 74;
text 80
Bulmer, Capt. R. C. : References to in, 124-125
Buoy-laying Squadron, North Sea 121, 127, 129
Buoy markers, North Sea ill. 106;
text 121, 129, 132
Burke, Walter: Hurdle Racing in Canoes 440
Burnt offering, Feast of the Passover, Mount
Gerizim, Palestine ill. 32; text 38-39
Buzzards, Peru 559
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST
AND BATAK HIGHLANDS OF SUMATRA.
BY MELVIN A. HALL 68
Byron, Lord: Reference to Malta, Mediterranean
Sea 445
Cactus, Mount Ebal, Palestine 5, 7. 9
Caesarea, Palestine: Ruins of 31
Caesar's mushroom, or Imperial Agaric (Amanita
Casarea) ill. (color insert) Plate IX, 423-438;
text 391-392, 422
Cagni, Capt. Umberto: Mention of 308
Cairo, 111.: Drainage district under flood waters
ill. 382
Cairo, 111.: Fishes rescued by government 375
Calendars, Jewish 23, 25
Calendars, Samaritan 23, 25
Calico, Manufacture of ill. 207-225; text 211-225
California 203, 487, 489, 495
California Highway Commission 529. 534
California: Redwood trees.. ill. 520, 522-524, 526, 528,
530, 532, 535-536; text 519, 521, 525, 527, 529, 531,
533-534
California: Saving the Redwoods. By Madison
Grant 5*9
California State Highway: Redwood trees along
the 529, 531
California: Yosemite National Park ill. 482-483;
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518
Californiacs 489
Camanaies, see Piqueros.
Cambridge, Mass 244.
VI
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page Page
Camel boy ill. 49 Children learning to swim, Palisades Interstate
Camphor chips, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 268 ; Park ill. 506
text 271-272 Children, Samaritan ' ill. 8, 34-35
Camphor, Germany: Synthetic 265 Chile: Delegates to Salvation Army International
Camphor industry, Formosa, Pacific Ocean . . ill. 263, Congress, London 368
265-270; text 265-267, 271-272 China 63
Camphor stills, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 263, China: Salvation Army 355> 358-359
268-270; text 271-272 Chincha Islands, Peru ill. 539-542, 546, 563;
Camphor trees, Formosa, Pacific Ocean... ill. 263-267; text 545-547, 552, 554, 558-559
text 247, 264-267, 271 Chinese coolie mending the harness of his buffalo
Camphor vats, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 270; cart ill. 102; text 101
text 272 Chinese, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 75, 99, 101
Camphor workers, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 265- Chios Island, -lEgean Sea, Turkey in Asia.. 47, 61, 67
269; text 266-267 Chiquitoys, see Patillos.
Camping Grounds, California ill. 533 Chirotes, Peru 559
Camping party, Palisades Interstate Park ill. 509 Choate, Rufus: Mention of 133
Camps, Dartmouth Outing Club, New Hampshire Chuitas, see Patillos.
ill. 155, 157; text 151, 158 Cinnamon Cortinarius mushroom (Cortinarius cin-
Canada 483, 519 namomeus) . . . ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 423-438 ;
Cannibalism, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 86-87 text 392> 4'4> 4J6
Canoes, Hurdle Racing in. By Walter Burke . . . 440 Citharas 57
Canoes, New Zealand ill. 441-444; text 440 Citta Vecchia, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 450,
Cans of fish being loaded on a truck ill. 374 453, 461, 464
Canton, Mo.: Fishes rescued by government 375 Civil War, United States 183
Canyon of the Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. 501 Clark College, Worcester, Mass 207
Cape Baird, Arctic Region 296 Clarke Institute, Northampton, Mass 207
Cape Chelyuskin, Arctic Region 340 Clarksville, Mo. : Fishes rescued by government. . 375
Cape Columbia, Arctic Region 296 Claudius Caesar: Reference to Plate IX, 423-438
Cape Isabella, Arctic Region ill. 311 Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colo., .ill. 493
Cape Sabine, Arctic Region: Cloud and sun effect Cloth factory, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Na-
over ill. 316 tive ill. 85
Cape Sabine, Arctic Region: Peary's hut ill. 295 Clouds Rest and Half Dome, Yosemite National
Cape Sheridan, Arctic Region 296, 300 Park, Calif ill. 483
Cape York, Greenland: Welcome of Rear- Admiral Coffins of laborers buried in old guano, Peru.. ill. 566
Peary by Eskimos 305 Coin of Cyzicus 53
Capitol, Washington, D. C ill. (duotone insert) Coins, Origin of 53
Plate IV, 135-150 Coker, R. E.: Peru's Wealth-Producing Birds 537
Carafa, Grand Master: Tomb of in St. John's Coker, Prof. W. C. : Report on a variety of Vol-
Church, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean sea . . ill. 454 varia speciosa 407
Carding machine, Delivery end of a ill. 210 Colorado 52, 495, 501, 504
Carelton, John: Reference to 163 Colorado: Balanced Rock ill. 503
Caribbean Sea, Islands of the: Guano beds 538 Colorado Desert, Calif.: Sand-dunes ill. 494
Carpenter, Frank G. : Geographic research work.. 342 Colorado: Mesa Verde National Park, Cliff Palace
Carpenter, Frank G. : Life membership in the Na- ill. 493
tional Geographic Society bestowed upon 342 Colorado National Monument ill. 497
Carps, Mississippi River 375 Colorado River 499
Cars for the transportation of fish, United States Colorado: Rocky Mountain National Park.... ill. 492,
Bureau of Fisheries 383 502, 505; ill. (color insert) Plate I, 511-518; text 501
Carson Woods, Fortuna, Calif 531 Colorado: Rocky Mountain National Park: Long's
Cart ruts, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 449, 455 Peak ill. (color insert) Plate II, 511-518.
Carts, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 255 Colorado: Zigzag road near Denver ill. 498-
Carts, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 74 Columbia River 324, 337, 480, 487
Casal Paula, Malta, Mediterranean Sea.. 459, 469, 476 Columbia River Highway: Multnomah Falls... ill. 480
Cascade Mountains, British Columbia. .Plate X, 135-150 Columbus, Christopher: Mention of 322
Castile, Spain: Knights of St. John 453 Comino, Mediterranean Sea 461
Catalonia, Spain: Knights of St. John 453 Cominotto, Mediterranean Sea 461
Catfishes, Mississippi River 375, 383, 385 Commander King (Destroyer) 126
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite National Park, Calif. Common meadow mushroom (Agaricus campester)
illus. 482; ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518 ill. 400; (color insert) Plate I, 423-438; text 387-
Catholic Church, California 489 388, 392, 401-402
Caves, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Tomb 448, 450 COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED
Celebes, Dutch East Indies: Delegates to Salva- STATES. BY LOUIS C. C. KRIEGER 387
tion Army International Congress, London.... 368 "Common People's Gospel." By Colonel Yamamuro
Cemetery for criminals, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 469 Gunpei 361
Centerton, N. J. : Crow roosts 325 Communal houses, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . .
"Cepe" of Commerce mushroom (Boletus edulis) ill. 87, go-
ill. 406; (color insert) Plate IV, 423-438; text 387, Concord, Mass 245
404-405 Concord, Mass.: Winter Rambles in Thoreau's
Cerro Azul No. 4, Mexico ill. 196-199 Country. By Herbert W. Gleason 165
Cerro Azul, Peru ill. 564; text 559 Condors, Peru 559
Ceylon, India 80, 82 Connecticut 203
Challenger deep-sea expedition 445 Connecticut River, Conn 245
Champion-International Company, Lawrence, Mass. : Connecticut River, N. H 151, 156
Paper mills of the ill. 234-241 Constant, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Na-
Chantrelle mushroom (Cantharellus cibarius) . .ill. tional Park, Wyo Plate VII, 135-150
(color insert) Plate VII, 423-438; text 416 Constantinople 62
Chapel of Bones, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Constitution (Frigate) 455
Sea ill. 456 Cook, Dr. Frederick A.: Reference to 314-315. 317
Charles V of Spain: Grant of the Order of St. Cook, O. F. : Life membership in the National
John of Jerusalem to Malta and Gozo 453 Geographic Society bestowed upon 342
Charters, Eastern Mediterranean schools 64, 66 Coolies, Javanese 7J-73
Chase, Salmon P.: Reference to 133 Coolies packing Oolong tea, Formosa, Pacific
Chelsea, Mass 245 Ocean ill. 250
Chengtingfu, China: Salvation Army 358 Coolies working a foot pump, Formosa, Pacific
Cherokee Indians^ North Carolina 507 Ocean ill. 254 ; text 276
Chestnut trees: Effect of Endothia parasitica upon 399 Copper, Alaska 483
Chicago, 111 504 Copper, Montana 486
Children, Adalia, Asia Minor ill. 54 Coral Hydnum mushroom (Hydnum coralloides)
Children, Eskimo ill. 309 ill. 410
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
VII
Page page
Coral insects, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Founda- Crows, Klickitat County, Wash.: Poisoned almonds
tions laid by 445 fed -,_
Coral mushroom (Clavaria flava) ill. 412; text 407 Crows, Mississippi Valley '.'.'... 323
Coral mushroom (Hydnum laciniatum) : Growth Crows, Newfoundland !!...! 323
on a fallen tree ill. 41 1 Crows, Onago, Kans. : Destruction of grasshoppers
Coral mushroom (Various species of Clavaria) by ,,^
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 423-438; text 407 Crows, Ontario County, N. Y.: Dead .'.'ill. 330
Corfu, Mediterranean Sea 445 Crows, Oregon '. . .' 323
Cormorants, Ballestas and Chincha Islands, Peru Crows, Migration of 323-327
ill- 539, 54°, 542; text 545, 547, 552, 554 Crows, Puget Sound, Wash ........... 323
Cornwall, England 449 Crows, Quebec, Canada 323
Corradino Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea.. 449, "Crows' roost, A" ill. 327
456, 459, 473 Crows, South America ' 322
Costa Rica: Delegates to Salvation Army Inter- Crows, Stomachs of 33!) 333-334
national Congress, London 368 Crows, Manitoba, Canada 323
Costumes, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 33, 84-85 Crows, Ontario, Canada 323
Cotton bale-breaker at work, A ill. 207; text 21 1 Crows, Siberia 322
Cotton being delivered from the tenter treatment Crows, Value of 332-333, 337
ill. 223 Crows, United States: Species 323
Cotton card at work, A ill. 209 Crows, Washington ' ' 323
Cotton cloth, Dyeing of ill. 225 Crows, Washington, D. C ill. 328;
Cotton, Folding the finished print goods ill. 224 text 324-327, 333
Cotton mills, Lawrence, Mass ill. 215-216, 220-221, Crude oil i92, 201
224-225; text 211-225 Cuba: Delegates to Salvation Army International
Cotton mills, Massachusetts, .ill. 206-225; text 209-225 Congress, London 368
Cotton pickers, Intermediate ill. 208; text 212 Cube Mount Cabin, Dartmouth Outing Club, New
Cotton Printing machines, Lawrence, Mass ill. Hampshire ill. 157; text 158
220-221 ; text 223-224 Culture, Ancient 53-55, 57
Cotton, Singeing of ill. 219; text 222 Cup-shaped puff-ball mushroom (Calratia cyathi-
Cotton-spinner, A ill. 214 formis) ill. 4i6
Cotton, Stretching of in a tenter ill. 222 Curlew (Mine-sweeper) I23
Countermining ill. 122; text 112, 115, 123 Curlews, Peru S58
Country schools, see Rural schools. Cyclopean Canyon of the Colorado: Looking east
"Court Group," Colorado National Monument, from Hopi Point. . .ill. (color insert) Plate VIII,
Colo ill. 497 _ 511-518
Cowdray, Lord: Petroleum staff 202 Cyprus, Mediterranean Sea: Knights of St. John 453
Crappies, Mississippi River 375, 385 Cyrus: Reference to 47
Crater Lake National Park, Ore ill. (color in- Cyzicus, Coin of 53
sert) Plate VI, 511-518; text 487
Crete, Mediterranean Sea: Axe worshipers 467
Croesus, King of Lydia: Reference to 47
Crompton, George 243
Crow and a dog, A ill. 336 Daitotei, Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 248,
"Crow and its Relation to Man' : U. S. Depart- 249,258; text 258-262, 264
ment of Agriculture, Bulletin 621 323 Dall, Dr. William H.: Life membership in the Na-
Crow at the nest edge, Mother ill. 325 tional Geographic Society bestowed upon .. . 142
CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND, Dances, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Ami f, ...ill 291
THE: A FEATHERED ROGUE WHO HAS Dardanelles, Turkey in Europe ., 44?
MANY FASCINATING TRAITS AND MANY Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H.:' Skiing Over
ADMIRABLE QUALITIES DESPITE HIS the New Hampshire Hills. By Fred H Harris 151
MARAUDING PROPENSITIES. BY E. R. Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover, N. H.: Camps '
KALMBACH, ASSISTANT BIOLOGIST, Of the .ill. 155, 157; text 151, 158
U. S. BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 322 Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover, N. H.: Mem- '
Crow roosts, Arlington, Va 325-326 bers of the .ill. 133-134, 152-156, 160-164
Crow roosts, Baltimore, Md 325 Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover, N. H. : Skiing
Crow roosts, Bridgeboro, N. J: 325 Over the New Hampshire Hills. By Fred H.
Crow roosts, Centerton, N. J 325 Harris 151
Crow roosts, Delaware Valley 324 Davis, John, English navigator: Mention of. .302, 319
Crow roosts, Hainesport, N. J 325 Davis, Lieut-Commander Noel: Removal of the
Crow roosts, Merchantville, N. J 325 North Sea Mine Barrage, The 103
Crow roosts, Mississippi River 324 Davis, Lieut.-Commander Noel: Photograph of
Crow roosts, Ohio River 324 ill. IO6
Crow roosts, Oklahoma 324, 326 Dayaks, Borneo, Dutch East Indies 272
Crow roosts, Peru, Nebr 325 Dead Sea 9
Crow roosts, Reedy Island, Delaware River 325 Deadly Amanita, or Destroying angel mushroom
Crow roosts, St. Louis, Mo 325 (Amanita phalloides and its varieties) ill. (color
Crow roosts, United States 324-327, 337 insert) Plates V, X, XVI, 423-438; text 388-389,
Crow roosts, Washington, D. C 324, 327 392) 409, 411
Crow roosts, Woodridge, D. C. ...ill. 328; text 326-327 Dearborn, Dr. Ned: Food required to sustain a
Crows, Africa 324 crow 333
Crows, Alaska 323 Dearborn, Dr. Ned: Story of a crow and farmer's
Crows, Anecdotes of, by Nelson Wood 330-331 dog ill. 336; text 329-330
Crows, Australia 322 Deep-level mine, Explosion of ill. 123
Crows, California 323 Deer on a station platform near Yellowstone Na-
Crows, China 322 tional Park, Wyo ill. 504
Crows, Columbia River 324, 337 Deer, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.: Feeding
Crows, Destruction of other birds 334 ill. 489
Crows, Diseases of 327 Del Norte County, Calif.: Redwood trees 527, 531, 533
Crows, Extermination of 337 Delaware Valley: Crow roosts 324
Crows, Fish 323, 334 Deli Company, Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East In-
Crows, Florida 3^3 dies 75, 79, 81
Crows, Food of the ill. 332, 335; text 331-337 Deli River, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69
Crows, Habits of 328-331, 333-337 Deli, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69, 71, 79, 83-84
Crows, Home life of 323-324 Delicious or Orange-milk Lactar mushroom (Lac-
Crows, India 322 tarius deliciostts) . . . ill. (color insert) Plate VII,
Crows, Indiana 333 423-438; text 417-418
Crows, Japan 322 Delphi, Greece 66
Crows, Kansas: Destruction of May beetles by... 333 De Seynes: Quotation on mushrooms 418
VIII
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page
European war: Oil consumed 185
Evening prayers, Mount Gerizim, Palestine. . .ill. 37;
text 39-41
Evgenoff, Lieut.: General Greely's tribute to.... 340
Ewing, Judge: Story of Vice-President Stevenson's
campaign in the West 495
Expedition against savage tribes, Formosa, Pacific
Ocean ill. 278
Explosions, Mine, North Sea.... ill. 109-110, 117-118,
1 120-122, 125
Page
Destroying* Angel, or Deadly Amanita mushroom
(Amanita phalloides var virosa) ill. (color in-
sert) Plate X, 423-438; text 388, 392,, 409, 4'i
Detroit, Mich.: Ice fountain. . .ill. (duotone insert)
Plate XIII, i35-!SO
Devonport, England J'7
Diana, Temple of 55, 59, 67
Dinner call, The »»• 32°
Dionysus, God of Wine 67
Disco, Greenland 3°3
Discovery (Steamship) 392, 311
Doffer girl in a Lawrence cotton mill ill. 215
Dog and a crow A "'• 336
Dog team, Etah, Greenland: MacMillan's ill. 313 Fabre, J. Henri: "The Life of the Fly": Refer-
Dogs Eskimo ill. 3°9, 3I2-3r3 ence to 391
Dogs' Yosemite National Park, Calif ill. 482 Factory, Cloth, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . .ill. 85
Dogwood berries, Massachusetts: Poison ill. 175; Fair Haven Hill, Concord, Mass ill. 170; text 166
text 179 Fairbanks, Alaska i 482
Dolmens, Hagar Kim Temple, Malta, Mediter- Fairfield, Marian: Photograph of ......ill. 159
ranean Sea 459 Fairport, Iowa : United States Fisheries Biological
Dolmens, Mnaidra Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Laboratory near .. . 383
gea 459 Fairy-ring mushroom (Marasmius oreades) .... ill. 397 ;
Donkey and camel boy, Asia Minor ill. 49 text 388
Dragut A Turkish corsair: Siege of Malta, Medi- Faldetta (Headgear of Malta women) ill. 462
terranean Sea 447 Fall River, Mass •••••; • • -204> 244
Drake Edwin L.: Discovery of oil 181-182,201 False Chantrelle, or Jack-o -Lantern mushroom
Drake' oil well near Titusville, Pa 181 (Clitocybe illudens) . .ill. (color insert) Plate III,
Drama, Greek 61 423-438; text 392, 403-404
"Drift Man," Malta, Mediterranean Sea 448 Far East, Castes ............ .354
Ducks, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 251 Farlow, Dr. W. G.: Rules for the guidance of
"Dunes, The," Illinois 504 mushroom-hunters 391
Dungeons, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Mediter- • Farm tractors, United States 187, 189
ranean Sea . ill- 472 Feast Day illumination, Malta, Mediterranean
Dutch East Indies," Sumatra':' By Motor Through Sea: A Church ready for the ill. 458
the East Coast and Batak Highlands of Su- ' Feeding breast (Mount Tacoma) 487
matra By Melvin A. Hall 68 Female porters, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 73
Dyerville Flats, Calif.: Redwood trees ill. 535! Fengchen, China: Salvation Army invasion of 355
text 527, 531, 533 Fern Lake, Colo 503
Ferns, Redwood groves, Calif ill. 522, 524, 526,
"E" 53.2, 536
Field or Horse mushroom (Agaricus arvensis)
Karly Pholiota (Pholiota prcecox) ill. (color in- ill. (color insert) Plate I, 423-438; text 388, 402
sert) Plate VIII, 423-438; text 392 Filfla Island, Mediterranean Sea 457
Earrings, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 77! Finland: Delegates to Salvation Army International
text 85 Congress, London 368
Eastern Shore of Maryland 487, 489 "First and Last Lodging House," Valletta, Malta,
Ebal, Mount, Palestine 1-2, 5, 13, 31 Mediterranean Sea ill. 451
Education, Massachusetts 207-209 Fish killed by mine explosions, North Sea ill. 114
Edwin Span, Natural Bridges National Monument, Fish retaining station, Bellevue, Iowa ill. 383
Utah ill. 491 Fish retaining station, La Crosse, Wis ill. 381 ;
Eel River, Calif.: Redwood trees along 525, 527, 529, text 383
531, 533 Fish-crow 323, 334
Egypt i, 13, 31, 45, 5i, 64, 498 Fishermen's landing place, Valletta, Malta, Medi-
Bider (Flagship) 124 terranean Sea ill. 452
Edible Boletus, the "Cepe" of Commerce mush- Fishes, Mississippi River: When the Father of
room (Boletus edulis).. . .ill. (color insert) Plate Waters goes on a Rampage. By Hugh M. Smith 369
iy, 423-438; text 387, 404-405 Fishes, Mississippi Valley 375, 377, 383
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, Calif. . . ill., 482 ; Fitchburg, Mass 245
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518 Flamingo (Mine-sweeper) 125
El Portal, Calif 482 Flattop Mountain, Rocky Mountain National Park,
Electrical Protective Device 112, 114 Colo ill. 505; ill. (color insert). Plate II, 511-518
Elephans Mnaidrensis. Malta, Mediterranean Sea. 459 Floating mines, North Sea ill. no, 116
Ellesmere Land, Arctic Region 296 Flood refugees, Mississippi River ill. 384-386
Emden (Cruiser) 445 Floods, Mississippi River ill. 382, 384-385 ;
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: Reference to 55 text 369, 373, 385
Emperor of Japan: Annual fund granted the Sal- Florida 334, 342, 507
ration Army 35 J Flowers, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 247
Encampment of the Israelites, Mount Gerizim, Flume, New Hampshire: Icicle formation in the
Palestine 26 ill. (duotone insert) Plate II, 135-150
Endothia parasitica : Effect upon chestnut trees ... 399 Flutes 57
England 51 Fly-mushroom (Amanita muscaria) . .ill. (color in-
English Channel 113 sert) Plate II, XV, 423-438 ; text 403
Ephesus, Asia Minor ill. 66; text 49, 59 Foch, Marshal: Quotation 185
Ephraim, Tribe of, Palestine ._ 23 Fog, Peru 547
Equestrian Tricholoma mushroom (Tricholoma Foot pumps, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 254;
equestre) ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 423-438; text 276
text 392, 417 Forbush, Edward Howe: Food required to sustain
Erebus ( Steamship) 303 a crow 333
Eskimo dogs 309, 312-313 Ford, Rock Creek Park, Washington, D. C., ..ill.
Eskimo eating meat, An ill. 310 (duotone insert) Plate VI, 135-150
Eskimo girls on the main deck of the Roosevelt Ford, Dr. W. W. : Reference to the poisons of
ill. 300 Amanita phalloides 391
Eskimo women 300, 307-308 Forest ghost, Flattop Mountain, Rocky Mountain
Eskimo's high regard for Rear- Admiral Peary National Park, Colo ill. 505
300, 305 Forests, New Hampshire ill. 154, 156
Etah, Greenland .307, 313-315 Formosa, Pacific Ocean : Japanese influence upon
E-Tooka-Shoo: Eskimo dog driver 311, 314 2go, 292
Eudon, Asia Minor 50 Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Map of ill. (map) 262
Euphrates River, Turkey in Asia 498 Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Population of.. 272, 287, 290
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
IX
Page page
Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Size of f 247 Goats, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Milch ill A
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL. BY ALICE Goddess of Life and Fertility, Tarxien Temole
BALLANTINE KIRJASSpFF 246 Malta, Mediterranean Sea. . . . . 47X474
Fort St. Angelo, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 433 "Goedang" of Rice granary, Sumatra, Dutch East
Fortifications, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea Indies :ii g,
ill. 448 Goff oil well, West Virginia'. . .'.'.'. '.'.'.'.'.'.'.' ' 189
Fortuna, Calif.: Redwood trees 531 Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, Glacier National Park
Forum, Samaria, Palestine: Ruins of the ill. 7 Mont _ SOI
Foulke Fiord, Greenland 305 Gold, Alaska '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. ', 483
"Fountain-breast of Milk-white Waters" (Mount Gold, Colorado
Rainier) Plate III, 511-518 Golden Gate, Calif !"!!!!!.' '.527
Fountain scene, Asia Minor ill. 65 Goodnoe Hills, Klickitat Co., Wash.: Almond
Fountain, Washington Boulevard, Detroit, Mich. groves destroyed by crows 3^7
ill. (duotone insert) Plate XIII, 135-150 Goodsell, Dr. J. W.: Mention of ....'.... 309
Fox (Steamship) Wreck of the ill. 303 Gorge of the Rimac, Peru: Terraces on the sides
Fox, Tracks of in the snow, Massachusetts . . . .ill. 176 of the jllt jjg
France 103, 185, 449 Government fish rescue crews 373
Franconia, N. H 158 Gozp, Mediterranean Sea: Temple of Gigantia, 449, 469
Franconia Mountains, N. H.: Icicle formation in Grain, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Pounding, .ill. 91
the Flume ill. (duotone insert) Plate II, 135-150 Grand Canyon National Park, Utah 499
Franconia Notch, N. H. : Skiing in ill. 134 Grand Canyon of the Colorado {11.409-500;
Franklin Polar Expedition of 1845 303 ill. (color insert) Plate VIII, 511-518
Franklin, Benjamin: Birthplace of 244 Grand Harbor, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 446;
Franklin, Lady: Efforts to trace the survivors of text 450, 453, 459
the Franklin Expedition of 1845 303 Grant Land, Arctic Region. .296, 300, 305, 307-308, 314
Franklin, Sir John: Disappearance of 303 Grant, Madison: Saving the Redwoods 519
Freshets, Mississippi River: Destruction of fishes Grasshoppers, Indiana: Destruction of by crows.. 333
369, 373 Grasshoppers, Onago, Kans. : Destruction of by
Fresno, Calif. : Smyrna figs 342 crows 333
Friars Point, Miss.: Fishes rescued by govern- Great Bear Cabin, Dartmouth Outing Club, New
ment 375 ~ Hampshire j5g
Friendliness of tree and snow ill. (duotone in- Great Falls, Potomac River 182
sert) Plate XI, 135-150 Great Lakes jgi
Fries, Elias, Swedish botanist: Study of fungi. . . 410 Greece 49
Fronton, Peru: Guano , 559 Greek colonies 66
Frost crystals, Concord, Mass ill. 167; Greek peasants dancing on the hills near Ephesus,
text 175, 177 Asia Minor ill. 49
Frosty morning, Massachusetts: A ill. 178 ~feek poetry 57
Frosty morning on the open road .... ill. (duotone Sre, P™se • • • 55
insert) Plate XVI, 135-150 freely, Maj.-Gen. A. W ill. 318; text 338
Frozen mist, Massachusetts 175 Greely, Maj.-Gen. A. W. : Tribute to Vilhjalmur
Fruit, Mount Gerizim, Palestine i _ Stefansson 339-340
Fruit, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 98 Gree y Expedition 2g6
Fruit-bearers, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 256 Greely International Polar Expedition of 1881-
Fu-kien, China 290 ^ l8^4 • • 338, 340, 342
Fuel oil, United States 186, 192-193, 195 Greely, Peary, and Stefansson: Photograph of.. ill. 318
Fungi 392, 399 Green Mountains, Vt 1 5g
Fungi, Poisonous: Test of 391 Green-gilled Lepiota mushroom (Lepiota morgani)
Fungi, Yeast 399 ^ • , T> , ,ilL ?93 ; text 391
Greenish Russula mushroom (Russula virescens)
"G" r . , ill- 396
Greenland.. 293-294, 300, 319-321
Galilee, Palestine 21, 31 r^ w°n"tam>* MifSS' ' « ', ^ 2°3' *45
Gannets, Peruvian, see Piqueros. Griffiths, William Arthur: Malta: The Halting
Gaberville, Calif. : Redwood trees 529, 531 r Place °f * at'on.? • • • u • • ••• • • • • • ' • v • • • • 445
Garden of Eden: Location of 498 Gr-i?*s.' P\r Rober.t. P«;: ?<lfe membership in the
• Gardenias, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 264 „ National Geographic Society bestowed upon . . 342-343
Gardiner's Levee Angle, Modoc, Ark 386 Gr\?$s' P™{-t Robert F- = ReP°rt of the sixth expe-
Garlic mushroom (Marasmius scorodonius) ill. _ dltlon to Mount Katmai, Alaska. . . . . 338
(color insert) Plate VI, 423-438; text 413 F^North Peary s Explorations in the
Gate to6 Valletta', 'Malta,' Mediterranean' Sea1. .. !ilL 447 Grosvenor, Gilbert: Ejected President of the Na-
Gemmed puff-ball mushroom (Lycoperdon gemma- r tlo-nal VeI°grJlp £ SocletX • • 345
ium) ill. 414 Guanape Islands, Peru ill. 544-545; text 559
General Sherman tree 522, 525 Guanays see Cormorants.
Genoa, Italy 203 £uano- Ballestas Islands, Peru 555, 559
Geographic explorer building a snow house .... ill. Guano, Cerro Azul, Peru 559
(duotone insert) Plate VIII, 135-150 Guano, Chincha Islands, Peru. ... 547, 552, 559
Geographic Harbor, Alaska 338 Ruan°' feobos de A?,Uera; Lo,b°S I,slands> PeJu' 555, 565
Geofraphic News Bulletins 343 r ' P"" ' P ' ' '' \£ A ^A*'- tCXtn-'6/' 5t4' s66
Geologists 190-191, 195, 202 Gu^n^i %? : U S Wealth-Produclng B'rds. By
Gerizim, Mount, Palestine ill. 18-22, 36-39,42-43; ~ K' \ . ? ,' V> Vi ' V " V'i "J' ' '-ii -\,' 537
text 1-3, 5, 13, i7-i8, 20, 23, 25-26, 29, 31, 34- Guano-bird colony, Ballestas Islands, Peru.... ill. 540
•>•, *e *f* Vjruaiemaia 202
Germany *^g£ g« Sg«™ : Axis of the
£ ^^^^^^«^^ ~
&^^te^^^ 1? ^^^^<~^;A^ I91
Glacier National Park Mont. HI 484.486; G of WHnkled pholiota mushroom g*pl£* ;
Gleason, Herbert wVwIntr^^^^^ «^«ta) "'• <color '"^ Plate ™ 423-438;
County 165 text 392, 439
Glistening Coprinus mushroom (Coprinus micaceus) "H"
ill. 404; ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 423-438;
text 388, 392 Hadley Falls, Mass 245
Gloucester, Mass.: Sail-boats ill. 243 Hagar Kim Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea..
Goats, Asia Minor ill. 53 449, 457, 459, 463, 465, 469
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page Page
Hainesport, N. J.: Crow roosts 325 Homer, Minn.: Fishes rescued by government 375
Hakluyt Island, Greenland: Southern shore... ill. 302 Homer: Odyssey 53-54
Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea.. Homer: Reference to Thessalian legions 399
ill. 467-468, 470-472; text 448-449, 456-457, 459, 463, Homeric poems 61
465, 469 Honey-colored mushroom, or Oak fungus (Armil-
Half Dome and Clouds Rest, Yosemite National laria mellea) . . .ill. 394; (color insert) Plate VI,
Park, Calif il}- 4§3 423-438; text 392, 395, 396, 411, 413
Half-free Morchella mushroom (Morchella semi- Honey merchants, Malta, Mediterranean Sea.. ill. 460
libera) ill- 421 Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Ocean 501
Half-way House, White Mountains, N. H 164 Hoover, Herbert: Reference to 501
Halibut caught near Orkney Islands, Scotland, ill. 115 Hope Natural Gas Company 189
Hall, Melvin A.: By Motor Through the East Hopi Point, Grand Canyon of the Colorado
Coast and Batak Highlands of Sumatra 68 ill. (color insert) Plate VIII, 51 1-518
Hallett Glacier, Rocky Mountain National Park, Horgan, James C. : Bequest of the National Geo-
Colo. : Interior of • • -ill- 5°2 graphic Society 338
Hammond Lumber Company : Redwood trees owned Home, Prof. W. T.: Fungus Pest 411
by 531 Hotel de Boer, Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East In-
Hand looms, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Cloth. . .ill. 288 dies 75, 79
Hand looms, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 86 Houses, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 253, 280-281
Hands outspread to heaven ill. 39 Houses, Kebon Djahe, Sumatra, Dutch East In-
Handsome Volvaria mushroom ( Volvaria speciosa) dies 95-96
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 423-438; text 392, 497 Houses, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Native
Hanover, N. H .151, 158, 161 ill. 78, 87-88, 90
Hapgood, Asa: Reference to 243 Hubbard Gold Medal of the National Geographic
Harangaul, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 96 Society 293, 322
Hardstoft, Derbyshire, England '. 202 Hudson Bay, Canada 307
Hare, Tracks of in the snow, Massachusetts. . . .ill. 177 Hudson, Henry: Mention of 322
Hari-bazar, Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . 75 Hudson River, N. Y 487, 509
Harps • • 57 Huka Falls, North Island, New Zealand 440
Harrill, Lieut. W. K. : Photograph of ill. 106 Humboldt, Alexander, baron von: Introduction of
Harriman Park, Rockland County, N. Y 509 Peruvian guano to Europe 543
Harris, Fred H.: Skiing over the New Hampshire Humboldt County, Calif.: Redwood trees 525,
Hills •••• 151 527. 53i, 533
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass 207, 244 HURDLE RACING IN CANOES: A THRILL-
Hassan Abu -el, Son of the Late High Priest Jacob: ING AND SPECTACULAR SPORT AMONG
Photograph of ill. 13 THE MAORIS OF NEW ZEALAND. BY
Hassan el Suri, Samaritan priest: Reference to.. 33 WALTER BURKE 440
Havasu Canyon, Grand Canyon of the' Colorado: Hurricane, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Na-
Mooney Falls ill. 499 tional Park, Wyo Plate VII, 135-150
Haverhill, Mass.: Slipper manufacturers 229, 245 Hyofupa, Formosa, Pacific Ocean, The 289
Hawaii, Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Ocean 479, 482
Headgear, Formosa, Pacific Ocean... ill. 289
Headgear, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 462
Head-hunters, Formosa, Pacific Ocean Ice, Polar Basin, Arctic Region: Rough ill. 299
266-267, 273, 283-285 "Ice storm," Massachusetts: After an ill. 173;
Hebrew prayer posture, Mount Gerizim, Palestine: text 177, 179
Ancient ill- 22 Icicle formation in the Flume, New Hampshire..
Hebron, Palestine 31 ill. (duotone insert) Plate II, 135-150
Hedgehog mushroom (Various species of Hydnum) , Icicle "organ-pipes," Concord, Mass ill. 167;
ill. 412 (color insert) Plate VI, 423-438; text 414 text 179
Henry VIII, King of England : Interest in the dis- Idaho 496
covery of the North Pole 319 Igloo, Smith Sound, Arctic Region: Rock ill. 306
Henson, Matthew: Rear-Admiral Peary's colored Illinois 203, 495, 501, 504
assistant ill. 304; text 308-310 Imperial Agaric, or Caesar's mushroom (Amanita
Heraclitus of Ephesus: Reference to 55 Ctesarea) ilL (color insert) Plate IX, 423-438;
Hercules Archigetas: Reference to 456 text 391-392, 422
Hertnon, Mount, Palestine 31 Imperial Valley, Calif 489, 495'
Herod, "The Great" 5, 21 Imtarfa barracks and Citta Vecchia railway termi-
Herodotus, Greek historian: lonians 51 nus, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 464
Heron (Mine-sweeper) 119 Inca Garcilasso de la Vega: Account of the guano
Herons, Louisiana: Destruction of by crows 334 industry 541
Herons, Santee, S. C. : Destruction of by crows . . 334 India 63
Herons, White, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 279 India: Delegates to Salvation Army International
Hesiod, Greek poet: Reference to 61 Congress, London 368
Hewett, Sir John: Interest in Salvation Army... 351 India: Hindu version of the bass drum, tambou-
Hicks' Camp, California 529 rine, and trumpet ill. 348
High Priest, Samaritan Passover, Mount Gerizim, India: Salvation Army ill. 346, 348-350, 352;
Palestine ._ ill. 30 text 351, 354, 368
"High Priest's Palace" (Hagar Kim Temple, Malta) 459 India: Salvation Army School for girls ill. 349
Hill of Samaria, Palestine ill. 4 India: Salvation Army worker ill. 350
Hindu recruits of the Salvation Army, India... ill. 352 Indian Harbor, Nova Scotia, Canada 317
Hindu version of the bass drum, tambourine, and Indian oxen 80
trumpet ill. 348 Indian schools, United States 507
Hinoki forests, Mount Arizan, Formosa, Pacific Indians, Oklahoma •. 507
Ocean ill. 273 Industries, Massachusetts ill. 204-241 ; text 204,
Hittite ..'... 59 • 209-233,235-236,239-245
Hokumongai Street, Daitotei, Taihoku, Formosa, Inglefield Gulf, Greenland 294
Pacific Ocean. 262, 264 Ink mushrooms or Ink-caps (Species of Coprinus)
Holland 71, 79, 363 ill. (colored insert) Plate XII, 423-438; text 388, 439
Holmes, William Henry: Life membership in the Inky Coprinus mushroom (Coprinus atramentarius
' National Geographic Society bestowed upon, 342-343 variety) ill. 405
Holy Land, Map of 46 International Congress of the Salvation Army,
"Holy of Holies," Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Albert Hall, London, England 363, 368
Mediterranean Sea ill. 468, 470; text 463, 465 Inverness, Scotland 107-109, in, 113-114, 127
Holy of Holies, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 33 Ionia, Asia Minor 51, 53-55, 61, 64, 66
"Holy of Holies," Tarxien Temple, Malta, Medi- lonians 51
, , terranean Sea 475 Ireland 449
Holy Rock, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 31, 33 Ishmaelite tribes, India: Management of by Salva-
Holyoke College, Holyoke, Mass 207 tion Army 351
Holyoke, Mass 225, 245 Islands of the ^Egean Sea 47, 49, 51, 67
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
XI
Page
Islas Santa, Peru : Guano 559
Israelites, Encampment of, Mount Gerizim, Pales-
tine 26
Italy 185, 363
Jack-o'-Lantern mushroom, or False Chantrelle
(Clitocybe illudens) ill. (colored insert) Plate III,
423-438; text 392, 403-404
Jacob, Son of Aaron ill. 14
Jacob's Well, near Sychar, Palestine ill. 17;
text 13, 31
Jaffa, Palestine 31
Japan, Emperor of: Annual fund granted Salva-
tion Army 351
Japan: General William Booth addressing a multi-
tude ill. 356
Japan: Salvation Army ill. 355-357; text 361, 363
Japanese infantry, Savage district, Formosa, Pacific
Ocean ill. 274
Java, Dutch East Indies 71-73, 79, 84, 101-102
Java, Dutch East Indies: Ants 401
Java, Dutch East Indies: Leper colony 359
Java, Dutch East Indies: Salvation Army
ill. 350, 353-354; text 359, 363
Javanese 71-73, 79
Javanese coolies 71-73
Jehovah, Origin of name 22
Jericho, Palestine , 13
Jerusalem, Palestine i, n, 16, 23, 31
Jerusalem, Palestine: Hospital dedicated to St.
Jqhn 453
Jewelry trade, Attleboro, Mass 242
Jews 23, 25
Jews, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 450
Johnson, Rev. R. E. : Contribution to Dartmouth v
Outing Club 151
Jones Sound, Arctic Region 302, 314
Jordan River, Palestine 21
Jordan Valley, Palestine 31
Joy Farm, Ohio: Number four oil well ill. 185
Jubbie (Outside prayer garment of a Samaritan) . . 33
Judea, Palestine j 21
"June rise" : Mississippi River 369
Junks, Tamsui River, Formosa, Pacific Ocean....
ill. 259; text 264-265
Jusserand, Hon. Jean A. A. J. : National Geographic
Banquet, 1913 ill. 320
Juvenal: Quotation on mushrooms 422
Kaibab Plateau, Grand Canyon of the Colorado, .ill. 500
Ka-Ko-Tchee-A : An Eskimo feeding MacMillan's
dog team at Etah, Greenland ill. 313
Kalmbach, E. R. : Crow, Bird Citizen of Every
Land, The 322
Kampanzan, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 275, 283, 287
Kampanzan savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean... ill. 284
Kampong Kinalang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies:
Communal house ill. 87
Kampongs, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 90
"Kanafie" (pastry), Nablus, Palestine 2, 5
Kansas: Vice-President Stevenson's visit to 495'
Karenko, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 274
Karluk (Steamship) 340
Karo-Batak market, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, .ill. 72
Karo-Batak Plateau, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . 83
Karo-Batak, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Com-
munal house , ill. 90
Karo-Batak women at market, Sumatra, Dutch
East Indies ill. 89
Karo-Bataks, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 86
Karolanden, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 89
Kebon Djahe, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies
ill. 76, 80; text 89-92, 95
Kelung, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 247, 258, 264
Kennedy Channel, Arctic Region 296
Kennan, George: Life membership in the National
Geographic Society bestowed upon 342
Kent, William: Preservation of Redwood trees in
California 527, 533
Kerosene 185-186, 202
Kim Soan: Story of 275,283-285, 287
Kinalang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 95-97
King, Commander Frank R. : Death of 126
King of Sweden : Mention of 363
"King of the Belgians, Albert I: Mention of.. 498, 504
Page
Kingdom of Israel 1 6
Kingdom of Judah 16
"King's Bed" (Stone pillar, Mnaidra Temple,
Malta) 459
"King's Palace" (Mnaidra Temple, Malta) 459
Kirjassoff, Alice Ballantine: Formosa the Beauti-
ful 247
Kirkwall, Scotland ill. 113; text 112-114, 117, 123.
„. ,Ct 127-128, 130-131
Kit e (Steamship) 319
Kites, Mine-sweeping 105, in, 116, 125, 129
Klamath Lake, Calif 489
Klamath River, Calif.: Redwood trees. ..ill. 520, 528;
Klings (Tamils) Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . .71, 78-80
Knights of Malta, Order of the.... 447, 453, 457, 461
Knights of St. John 453-455
Kobe, Japan 247
Konieh, Asia Minor 62
Korea: Salvation Army distributing rice ill. 358;
text 359
Krieger, Louis C. C. : Common Mushrooms of the
United States 387
Kuala Belawan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69
"Kuds el Akdas" (Samaritan Holy of Holies).. 31, 33
La Gorce, John Oliver: Vice-Director of the Na-
tional Geographic Society, elected to Board of
Managers 345
La Honda, Calif. : Redwood trees 527
La Valletta, Jean Parisot de la, see Valette, Jean
Parisot de.
Labor, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 71 -73
La Crosse, Wis. : Fishes rescued by government . . 375
La Crosse, Wis.: Fish retaining station ill. 381;
text 383
Lady Franklin Bay, Arctic Region 296
Lafayette, Mount, N. H 155
Lake Chaugogagogmanchaugagogchau b u na gu n ga-
maug, Mass 203
Lake Chelan, Wash ill. 481
Lake Monomonac, Mass 203
Lake No. i oil well, West Virginia ill. 189
Lake Tahoe, Calif 519
Lake Tarleton Club, New Hampshire 158
Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand 440
Lakeview Gusher, California 191
Lambs, Feast of the Passover, Mount Gerizim,
Palestine ill. 19, 24-25, 27; text 34-35. 37-39
Lancaster Sound, Canada 302
Land grants to American soldiers 507, 509-510
Lane, Franklin K. : Mind's- Eye Map of America,
A 479
Langue d'Angleterre ; 453
Langue de France .. 453-454
Laodicea, Asia Minor: Ruins of ill. 50
Laodiceans 50
Lapwing (Mine-sweeper) 123
Larson, Capt.: Salvation Army officer 359, 361
LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE,
THE: HOW THE VANISHING SAMARI-
TANS CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER ON
SACRED MOUNT GERIZIM. BY JOHN D.
WHITING r
Lawn mushrooms (including Naucoria semiorbi-
cularis and Pholiota prtecox) . . .ill. (color insert)
Plate VIII, 423-438; text 422
Lawrence, Mass 204, 245
Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto,
Calif 501
Lemon-yellow Amanita mushroom (Amanita cit-
rina) ill. (color insert) Plate V, 423-438;
text 392
Leper colony, Java, Dutch East Indies 359-
Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland 113
Lesbos (Mitylene Island) Asia Minor 48, 61
Lexington, Mass 204, 245
Lincoln, President Abraham: Argument of facts 510
Lincoln, President Abraham: Quotation from.... 361
Lion from Miletus, Asia Minor 67
Little duck (patillo) 552-
Little Wheel mushroom (Marasmius rotula) . .ill.
(color insert) Plate VI, 423-438; text 413-414
Littleton, N. H 158
Lobos de Afuera, Lobos Islands, Peru: Guano and
Guano birds of ill. 547-551, 553; text 554-
555, 557-558
XII
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page
Lobos de Tierra, Lobos Islands, Peru ill. 563;
text 554, 5S9-S60, 564, 566
Lobos Islands, Peru: Guano and birds of.. ill. 547-55 1,
553; text 554-555
Long Island, N. Y.: Oil tank i]}. 193
Long's Peak, Rocky Mountain Park, Colo.... .ill.
(color insert) Plate II, 511-518
Looms, Cotton • • • • •• • • • •• • -I11- 2l8
Looms, Primitive, Kinalang, Dutch East Indies
ill. 84-86; text 95
Lost River District, White Mountains, N. H 158
Louisiana : Herons 334
Lowell, Mass o;'V224' 244~245
Lubricating oil ; 186-187, 189-190, 195
Lydia, Asia Minor • 53, 59
Lucca, Ark.: Mississippi River levee i». 3»4
Lynn, Mass.: Shoe Manufactures 229, 245
Lyres •" 7
"M"
M'Clintock, Capt. Leopold: Search for survivors
of the Franklin Expedition of 1845 303
McCormick Bay, Greenland • • • • 3r9
McDermott Lake, Glacier National Park, Mont. ... 4»4
McGill College, Montreal, Canada 160-161
Macabi Island, Peru: Guano 5
Machu Picchu 342-343
Mackenzie Basin, Arctic Region 340
MacMillan, Donald B.: Peary as a Leader...... 293
MacMillan, Donald B. : Dog team, Etah, Greenland
ill. 3!3
Mseander River (Ancient name of Mendere River) 50
Magellan, Ferdinand: Mention of : • • 322
Mail found at Cape Isabella, Arctic Region, by
E-Tooka-Shoo VV V-' ' ' 3I *
Main Altar, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea • • • • - -ill. 477 ; text 474
Main Hall, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea ill- 467; text 463
Maine .:,- 'SO1
Mainsprings, Cutting of *"• 232
Malacca Strait, Dutch East Indies 09
Malay Archipelago 71
Malay States, Malay Peninsula 72
Malayan coast °9
Malays, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 99
Maiden, Mass • •• • • 245
Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Delegates to Salva-
tion Army International Congress, London.... 368
Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Early inhabitants of.. 449
Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Foundation of 445, 44°
Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Goats ill. 460
Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Headgear ill. 462
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
the Citta Vecchia termin
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Malta, Mediterranean Se
ill. 466-468, 470-478; tex
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Honey merchants, .ill. 460
Imtarfa barracks and
us ill- 464
Map of ill. (map) 449
Mortuary ill. 455
Origin of name... 451, 460
; Temples, Prehistoric
t 448-449, 456-457, 459,
46 , 465-469, 473-475, 477-478
Malta, Mediterranean Sea
Valletta ill. 446-448,
450-452, 454, 456-457
.„„..„, — Water wagons ... ..ill. 461
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NA-
TIONS. FIRST ACCOUNT OF REMARK-
ABLE PREHISTORIC TOMBS AND TEM-
PLES RECENTLY UNEARTHED ON THE
ISLAND. BY WILLIAM ARTHUR GRIF-
FITHS 445
Maltese Islands, Mediterranean Sea: Malta. By
William Arthur Griffiths 445
Maltese language • • • • • • • 459
Mangroves, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69
Manila, Philippine Islands, Pacific Ocean 501
Manitoba, Canada: Grouse 334
Manka, Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 248
Manns Hill, N. H 158
Manufactures, Massachusetts 204, 209-243
Maori canoe, New Zealand: Thirty-man-power
dugout •.•••-, • -ill- 443
Maoris, New Zealand: Canoe racing feats of the
ill. 441-444; text 440
Map, Asia Minor ill. (map) 46
Map, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. (map) 262
Map, Holy Land ill. (map) 46
Page
Map, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Sketch ill. (map) 449
Map, Mine groups: North Sea ill. (map) 105
Map, North Sea: Showing location of mine groups
ill. (map) 104
Map of America, A Mind's-Eye. By Franklin K.
Lane 479
Map, Peary's Polar Explorations ill. (map) 297
Map, United States : Showing oil pipe-lines . . . ill.
(map) 183
Map, United States: Showing production of pe-
troleum ill. (map) 187
Map, World: Oil resources ill. (map) 200
Marble blocks, Ephesus, Asia Minor ill. 66
"Mardi Gras of the North," Dartmouth College,
New Hampshire 158-161, 164
Mariposa Grove, California 519
Marker Buoys, North Sea. . .ill. 106; text 121, 129, 132
Markers, Historic, Massachusetts 206-207
Market-place, Asia Minor: Arriving at a ill. 48
Markham, Sir Albert Hastings: Mention of 320
Marl beds, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 445
Marriage customs, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 90
Marsa, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 459
Marsamuscetto Harbor, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 450
Marsh, George P. : Mention of 133
Martial: "Epigrams" 422
Marvin, Prof. Ross G. : Mention of 309
Maryland: Electric power 496
Massachusetts Agricultural College 206
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSI-
NESS. BY WILLIAM JOSEPH SHOWAL-
TER 203
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam-
bridge, Mass 207^ 244
Massachusetts: Population of 203-204, 243
Mather, Stephen T. : Interest in the National Park
System 343
Mather, Stephen T. : Life membership in the Na-
tional Geographic Society bestowed upon. . .342-343
Mather, Stephen T. : Preservation of Redwood
trees in California 533
Matting, Bandjermasin •-. 69
Mausoleum, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Medi-
terranean Sea 466-467
May beetles, United States: Crows' destruction
of 332-333
Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 73, 75, 79, 81,
IOI-IO2
Mediterranean Sea 9, 31, 47, 51-52, 64
Mediterranean Sea: Malta. By William Arthur
Griffiths 445
Medina (Popular name for Citta Vecchia, Malta) 464
Melkarte, Lord of Tyre: Reference to 456
Melville Bay, Greenland 305
Members of the Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover,
N. H ill. 133-134, 152-156, 160-164
Members of the Salvation Army, South America
ill. 368
Memorial Training College, Sweden 363
Memphis, Tenn 210
Men Lou, Shantung, China: Salvation Army 358
Mendocino County, Calif 527
Merced, Calif 527
Merchantville, N. J. : Crow roosts 325
Merriam, Dr. John C. : Executive control of "Save
the Redwoods League." 533
Mesa Verde National Park, Colo.: Cliff Palace, .ill. 493
Meteorite Island, Greenland 305
Methodist minister, Eastern Shore, Maryland :
Story of a 487, 489
Metropolitan Lumber Company: Redwood trees
owned by 531
Mexico 343
Miles Standish State Forest, Plymouth County,
Mass 245
Miletus, Asia Minor 47, 64, 67
Military Garrison, Savage district, Formosa, Pa-
cific Ocean ill. 275
Mills Creek, Calif.: Redwood trees 527
Milton, John : Quotation from -540
MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA, A. BY
FRANKLIN K. LANE 479
Mine Barrage, North Sea : Removal of the. By
Noel Davis 1 03
Mine explosions, North Sea ill. 109-110, 117-118,
120-122, 125
Mine fields, North Sea: Map of ill. (map) 104
Mine groups, North Sea ill. (map) 105; text 115,
117, 119, 122, 127-128, 130
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
XIII
Page Page
Mine-sweepers, North Sea: American ill. 109-110, Mount Tacoma, see Mount Rainier, Wash.
116-119, 123-130, 132; text 111-127, 129-132 Mount Tamalpais, Calif.: Redwood trees 527
Mine-sweepers, North Sea: British 130 Mount Tom, Mass 245
Mine-sweeping kites, North Sea. .105, in, 1 16, 12,, 129 Mount Washington, N. H 151, 161, 164
Mine with its anchor ill. 119 Mount Zion, Palestine 23
Mines, Floating, North Sea ill. no, 116 'Mountain That was God" (Mount Rainier) .. .ill.
Mines, "Horntype" 107 (color insert) Plate III, 511-518
Mines, North Sea: Drawing showing location of Mountains of Gilead, Palestine 31
ill. 1 08 Muir Woods, Mount Tamalpais, Calif.: Redwood
Minidoka, Idaho: Electrical power 496 trees 527
Minnesota 180 Multnomah Falls, Ore .' ill. 480
Minnesota: Fishes rescued by government 375 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass 7
Minute Man, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Museums, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Skull ill.
National Park, Wyo Plate VII, 135-150 286-287; text 273
Mission Fathers, California 489 Mushroom clubs, United States 388,392
Mississippi: Fishes rescued by government 375 Mushroom collectors 388, 391-392
Mississippi River bottom land: Government fish- Mushrooms, Edible ill. 390, 394-398, 400, 402-407,
ing crew going through a section of the ill. 379 410-414, 416, 418-421; (color insert) Plates I,
Mississippi River levee, Lucca, Ark.: Broken.. ill. 384 IV, VI-IX, XII-XIV; text 388, 401-402, 404, 407,
Mississippi River: When the Father of Waters 411, 413-414, 416-418, 422, 439
Goes on a Rampage. By Hugh M. Smith 369 Mushrooms, Edibility doubtful ill. 401, 421;
Mississippi Valley 203, 375, 377, 383 (color insert) Plates V, XI; text 407, 422
Missouri River 496 Mushrooms of the United States, Common. By
Missouri River: Fish conservation 385-386 Louis C. C. Krieger 387
Missouri: Vice-President Stevenson's visit to 495 Mushrooms, Origin of 392
Mitvlene Island, ^Sigean Sea, Turkey in Asia Mushrooms, Poisonous ill. 388, 393; (color in-
47-48, 64, 67 sert) Plates II-III, V, VIII, X, XV-XVI; text
Mizpah, Palestine 3* 388-389, 391-392, 403-404, 409, 411, 418
Mnaidra Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 449, Mushrooms, United States (color insert)
456, 459, 469 XVI plates, 423-438
Modoc, Ark.: Flood refugees ill. 385, 386 Mushrooms, Wild species 387-388
Monarch, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Na- Music, Ancient 57, 61
tional Park, Wyo i Plate VII, 135-150 Musical instruments, Ancient 57
Monarch of the North ill. (duotone insert) Musk-oxen, Canada 483
Plate IX, 135-150 Musk-oxen, Forsheim Peninsula: Herd of ill. 314
Monkeys, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 81-82 Mussels, Mississippi River: Propagation of... 381, 383
Montana 5O1 Mytilene Island, see Mitylene Island, JEgean Sea.
Montana: Glacier National Park ill. 484-486
Montenegrin Pass 96 ,,-vr,,
Monterey, Calif. : Redwood trees 527
Montgomery Grove, Calif.: Redwood trees. . .527, 5' Nablus> Palestine in. 2. text ,.2> s p> 26> 3j 6
Montreal, Canada •••••••; 2I° "Nalegak" (Leader or chief among men) . . . .300, 305
Mooney Falls, Havasu Canyon, Grand Canyon of Nansen, Fridtjof : Mention of...* 308 faS
the Colorado HI. 499 Naples Italy 201
Moose Mountain Cabin New Hampshire ..151,154, 158 Napoleon I : b'c'c'upa'tion' of' Malta', ' Mediterranean
Moreh, Plain of, Palestine 13 gea ...
Morel mushrooms ill. 420-42 1 ; text 388 4 1 7 Napoleon' i'. ' Ref e'r'enc'e to' Chink'. '. ". '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. 355
Morel, or Sponge mushroom (Morchclla cornea) Nareg) Sir George Strong. Mention of 311, 321
,,, llL.4,2,o;Jtert.3 < 4I7 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S NOTA-
Morel, or Sponge mushroom (Morchella delictosa) BLE YEAR THE 338
/*r m;4?o; text 388 417 Nationai parks, United' States.' .'.'.'ill'. '482-486', '488-490,
Morel, or 'Sponge mushroom (Morchellaesculenta) 492-493, 502, 505; (color insert) VIII plates, 511-
ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 423-438; text 388, 417 5Ig. text 501
Moriah, Mount, Jerusalem 31 National Redwoods Park: Plan to provide a.'. .... 533
Mormon Church, Utah 49& Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah ill. 491
Morrison, Mount, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 277 Navarino Battle of 455
Mortuary, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Mural deco- Navarre, 'Spain: Knights of St! 'j'o'hn. ! ! '. '. . . '. . . '. '. 453
rations V •.••;;: !„ 45S Nashawtuc Hill, Concord, Mass ill. 171
Moslem loungers in an Asia Minor town ill. 52 National Geographic Magazine: Circulation of 343
Moslems ,>•'•' 3 National Geographic Magazine: Dog number 343
Mosquito Lake, Wash Plate A, 135-150 National Geographic Magazine: Flag number 343
Mother crow at the nest edge.... ill. 325 National Geographic Magazine: Maps to be pub-
Motion-picture industry, United States 479 lished 343
Motor trucks, United States 187 National Geographic Magazine: Military Insignia
Mount Baker, Wash ill. (duotone insert) number 343
Plate X, 135-150 National Geographic Magazine: Paper material for
Mount Ebal, Palestine 1-2, 5, 13, 31 the ill. 234-241 ; text 204, 245
National Geographic Society: Aim of the 345
Mount Ephraim, Palestine 13 National Geographic Society Banquet, 1913: Photo-
Mount Etna, Sicily 452 graph of ill. 320
Mount Gerizim, Palestine ill. 18-22, 36-39, 42-43; National Geographic Society: Life membership... 342
text 1-3, 5, 13, 17-18, 20, 23, 25-26, 29, 31, 34-37, National Geographic Society: News Bulletins 343
45-46 National Geographic Society: Pictorial Geography 343
Mount Hermon, Palestine 31 National Geographic Society: Sixth expedition to
Mount Katmai, Alaska Plate VI, 511-518 Mount Katmai, Alaska 338
Mount Katmai, Alaska: Sixth expedition of the Natives, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 246, 249-252,
National Geographic Society to 338 254, 256, 260, 265-267, 280-282, 284-286, 288-292;
Mount Lafayette, N. H iSS text 272-273, 275, 287, 290
Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska 483 Navy Cliff, Arctic Region :_ American flag raised at. 295
Mount Mazama, Crater Lake National Park, Ore. Neapolis (Nablus, Palestine) i
Plate VI, 511-518 Near East s6, 65
Mount Moosilauke, N. H 158 Neblett, Miss. : Refugees on a log raft at ill. 384
Mount Moriah, Jerusalem 31 Nelson, Edward W. : Investigations of animal life
Mount Morrison, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 277 published in the National Geographic Magazine. 342
Mount Olympus (Kechish Dagh) Asia Minor... ill. 58 Nelson, Edward W. : Life membership in the Na-
Mount Rainier, Mount Rainier National Park, tional Geographic Society bestowed upon 342
Wash ill. (color insert) Plates III-IV, Nelson, Edward W. : Scientific explorations in
511-518; text 487 Alaska and Mexico 342
Mount Shasta, Calif 489, 521 Nests of patillos, Peru ill. 556
XIV
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page
Nests of white-breast cormorants, Chincha Islands,
Peru ill. 540
New Bedford, Mass 204, 244
New England 203
New England: Winters 169, 172
New Hampshire 203
New Hampshire: Endothia parasitica 399
New Hampshire Hills: Skiing Over the. By Fred
H. Harris 151
New Jersey 509
New Mexico: Vice-President Stevenson's visit to.. 495
New York 487, 501
New York. Adirondack Mountains: Victory Park
ill. 508
New York City: Snowstorm. . .ill. (duotone insert)
Plate XII, 135-150
New Zealand: Hurdle Racing in Canoes. By
Walter Burke 440
Newcastle-on-Tyne, England 125
Newton, Mass 245
Ngaruawahia, North Island, New Zealand: Canoe
races 44O
Niagara Falls, N. Y ill. (duotone insert)
Plate XIV, 135-150; text 180-181
Niagara of the Northwest ill. (color insert)
Plate VII, 511-518
Niacaragua 3°4» 322
Nicholas II Land, Arctic Region 340
Nichols, Lieut. D. A in
Nikolsky, Lieut.: General Greely's tribute to 349
Nile Valley, Egypt '489
Nitrates, Peru 537-539, 547
Nitrogen 538-539, 547
Norfolk, Va 114
Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park,
Wyo ill. (duotone insert) Plate VII, 135-150
North Carolina: Cherokee Indians 507
North Dakota 180
North McGregor, Iowa: Fishes rescued by govern-
ment 375
North Island, New Zealand 440
North Polar Expedition, 1898-1902 321
North Pole: Admiral Peary's photograph of the, ill. 321
North Pole: Attempts to reach the 319
North Pole: Peary as a Leader. By Donald B.
MacMillan 293
North Sea 340
North Sea: Map showing mine fields. .. .ill. (map) 104
North Sea Mine Barrage, Removal of the. By
Noel Davis 103
North Sea, Mine groups: Map of ill. (map) 104
North Woodstock, N. H 158
Northampton, Mass 245
Northrop, John D. : British petroleum investments 201
Norway 103
Notabile, see Citta Vecchia, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea.
Number four oil well, Joy Farm, Ohio ill. 185
Oates, Lawrence Edward Grace: Death of 309-310
Odessa Lake, Colo 503
Ogrim, Commissioner: Mention of 363
Ohio River: Crow roosts 324
Ohio River: Fish conservation 385-386
Oil, Africa 195
Oil, California. .. .ill. 184, 186, 188, 191; text 190, 195
Oil companies, Oklahoma 191
Oil consumed by U. S. Army 186
Oil Creek, Pa.: Site of pioneeer oil well ill. 182
Oil, Crude 192, 201
Oil, England ill. 201 ; text 202
Oil, Far East 195
Oil fields, California, Southern ill. 1X6
•Oil, Fuel: United States 186, 192-193, 195
Oil investments, Great Britain 197, 201
•Oil, Lubricating ..186-187, 189-190, 195
Oil, Mexico ill. 196-199; text 181-182, 195, 197
•Oil, Near East 195
Oil, Ohio ill. 185
• Oil, Oklahoma 190-191
Oil, Pennsylvania ill. 182; text 181, 183
Oil pipe lines, United States. . .ill. (map) 183; text 183
• Oil, Products of 185-186
Oil resources of the world, .ill. (map) 200; text 195, 197
Oil, Rumania 195
Oil, Russia 181
• Oil shales, United States 193
Page
Oil, South America 195
Oil tank farm 192
Oil tank, Long Island, N. Y ill. 193
Oil tank set on fire by lightning ill. 194
Oil tanks, Burning ill. 192, 194
Oil, Texas 191
Oil, United States Army: Consumption of 186
Oil, United States Navy: Consumption of 186-187
Oil, United States: Where the World Gets Its Oil.
By George Otis Smith 181
Oil well, Derbyshire, England. ...... .ill. 202; text 201
Oil wells, Mexico ill. 196-199
Oil wells, Ventura County, Calif ill. 184
Oil, West Virginia ill. 189
Oil, Where the World gets Its. By George Otis
Smith 1 8 1
Oklahoma 324, 326, 507
Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park,
Wyo ill. 488; text, Plate VII, 135-150
"Old Man of the Mountains," New Hampshire.. 158
Old pump, Thawing out the... ill. (duotone insert)
Plate III, 135-150
Old South Church, Boston, Mass ill. 244
Omri, Sixth King of Israel: Samaria, Palestine 4, 21
Onaga, Kans. : Crows 333
Ontario County, N. Y. : Dead crows ill. 330
Open air skull museum, Formosa, Pacific Ocean, .ill. 286
Open road, A frosty morning on the. . . .ill. (duo-
tone insert) Plate XVI, 135-150
Open trail, Glacier National Park, Mont ill. 484
Open-air grocery store, Sumatran ill. 100
Opium, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 251; text 292
Opium Monopoly Bureau, Formosa, Pacific Ocean
ill. 251
Oracle, Delphi, Greece 66-67
Oracle Room, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Medi-
terranean Sea 465
Orange-cap Boletus mushroom (Boletus versipellis)
ill. 406; text 405
Orang-outangs, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 82-83
Orchestra of Chinese "Sing-song" girls, Formosa,
Pacific Ocean ill. 252
Order of St. John of Jerusalem 453-455
Order of the Knights of Malta 447, 453, 457, 461
"Organ-pipes," Concord, Mass.: Icicle ill. 167;
text 179
Oregon 487, 489, 495, 501
Oregon: Crater Lake National Park.... ill. (color
insert) Plate VI, 511-518
Oregon, Multnomah Falls ill. 480
Orick, Calif. : Redwood trees 531
Orkney Islands, Scotland 113, 115
Orphic mysteries 67
Osage Indian lands 191
OUR NATIONAL PARKS. . .Color insert, VIII
plates, 511-518
Oxen, Indian 80
Oyster Bay, N. Y '.' 301
Oyster birds, Peru 558
Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) ...... .ill. 402;
text 388
"P"
Pabellon de Pica, Chile: Guano 559
Pacific Islands: Formosa the Beautiful. By Alice
Ballantine Kirjassoff 246
Pacific Islands, New Zealand: Hurdle Racing in
Canoes. By Walter Burke 440
Pacific Islands, Sumatra: By Motor Through the
East Coast and Batak Highlands of Sumatra.
By Melvin A. Hall 68
Pacific Lumber Company: Redwood trees owned by 531
Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass 221
Packwood Glacier, Goat Mountains, Wash. : Cross-
ing ill. 344
Paiwan savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 289
Pajaro nifios, see Penguins.
Paita, Peru 559
Palaver-house, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Savage, .ill. 280
Palestine: Last Israelitish Blood Sacrifice, The.
By John D. Whiting . • I
Palisades Interstate Park ill. 506, 509
Palominos, Peru: Guano 559
Panxolus mushrooms. .. .ill. (color insert) Plate
VIII, 423-438; text 392, 418
Panama: Delegates to Salvation Army Interna-
tional Congress, London 368
Pandora (Steamship) 311
Panorama of Smyrna, Asia Minor ill. 60
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
xv
Page Page
Panther (Repair ship) 129 Perennial polystictus mushroom (Polystictus per-
Paper Mills, Lawrence, Mass 111.234-241; ennis) ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 423-438;
text 204, 245 text 416
Paracas Peninsula, Peru 557 Peru: Climate 537
Parasol mushroom (Lepiota procera) . . . .ill. (color Peru: Coffins of laborers buried in old guano., ill. 566
insert) Plate XIV, 423-438; 16x1388,392, 439 Peru: Cormorants, .ill. 539-542; text 544-547,552, 554
Paros Island, Greece 61 Peru: Delegates to Salvation Army International
Parry, Sir William Edward: Mention of 320 Congress, London 368
Passover camp, Mount Gerizim, Palestine ill. 18 Peru: Heaping screened guano for transfer to the
Passover, Mount Gerizim, Palestine: Last Israel- mainland ill. 562
itish Blood Sacrifice. By John D. Whiting.... i Peru, Neb.: Crow roosts 325
Passover Services, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 31, Peru: Salvation Army officer in his picturesque
33-35, 37-41, 44-46 costume ill. 367
Passover sacrifice, Mount Gerizim, Palestine: Kill- Peru: Nests of patillos ill. 556
ing of the ill. 24 Peru: Pelicans ill. 548-551, 553-555! text 553-556
Passover sacrifice, Mount Gerizim, Palestine: Sa- Peru: Piqueros ill. 544-547; text 552-553
maritans eating of the ill. 28-29; text 44-45 Peru: Sea-gulls, Scavenger 558
Patapsco (Mine-sweeper) ill. 125; text 108-109, PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS:
in, 123 VAST RICHES IN THE GUANO DEPOSITS
Patillos, Peru: Nests of ill. 556 OF CORMORANTS, PELICANS, AND PET-
Patillos, Peru ill. 557 ; text 552 RELS WHICH NEST ON HER BARREN,
Patrick, Mary Mills: Asia Minor in the Time of RAINLESS COAST. BY R. E. COKER 537
the Seven Wise Men 47 Peruvian Current 537, 543, 560
Patuxent (Mine-sweeper). .. 108-109, i", 114, i?6, 132 Peruvians, Ancient: Agricultural methods of. .ill. 538;
Pear-shaped puff-ball mushroom (Lycoperdon pin- text 541
forme) ill. 418-419; text 388 Peteravik. Arctic Reeion- Snow house ill 208
PEARY AS A LEADER: INCIDENTS FROM Peterhead Scotland IOQ MI
THE LIFE OF THE DISCOVERER OF THE Petrels Peru . .'. .V.VsVV '554 ' 556-557' 550
NORTH POLE TOLD BY ONE OF HIS Petrels San Gallan Island Peru.
^ss^ssB8v^s>^xP^gsE Rasa ??& "•"••^ A— • * »• •-« %
ALD B. MACMILLAN. 293 Phallic symbols of the cone and the ball, Tarxien
Peary, Rear- Admiral Robert E.: Accident on board Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 475
the Kite 319 Phidias: Statues by 529
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E.: Association with Philadelphia (Alasher) Asia Minor 50
the National Geographic Society 322 Phillips, Dr. John C.: Donation for the preser- "
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E.: Awarded Special vation of the Redwood trees, California. .. .533-534
Gold Medal by the National Geographic Society 322 Philosophy, First school of 64
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E- : Awarded the Hub- Phoenicia, Syria 51 64
bard Gold Medal of the National Geographic Phoenicians .'.....'.'....'...'.' ...'.'.'..'.'....' 66
Society . 322 Phoenicians, Malta, Mediterranean Sea. . .449-450, 456
Peary, Rear- Admiral Robert E. : Cabin and record, Phosphates, Idaho 496
Axel Heiberg Land, Arctic Region ill. 294 Phrygian, Asia Minor 59
Peary, Rear- Admiral Robert E.: Explorations in Pictorial Geography, National Geographic Society 343
search of the North Pole 293-296, 300-301, Piermont Mountain, N. H 158
308-311, 314, 320-322 Pigeon-house, Kebon Djahe, Sumatra, Dutch East
Peary, Rear- Admiral Robert E. : Hut, Cape Sabine, Indies ill. 80; text 91
Arctic Region ill. 295 Pigs> Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Transportation
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E. : Map record of of ill. 92
Polar explorations ill. (map) 297 Pikes, Mississippi River 375
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E. : National Geo- Pike's Peak, Colo 501
graphic Society banquet, 1913 ill. 320 Pill-coating room of a Massachusetts drug com-
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E. : Reply to Presi- pany ill. 204
dent Roosevelt upon the presentation of the Pillsbury, Rear- Admiral John Elliot -ill. 341; text 345
Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Pillsbury, Rear- Admiral John Elliot: Obituary no-
Society 293 tice 345
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E.: Traits of char- Pinan, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 274
acter 293, 296, 300-301, 305, 317, 322 Pine foliage after an ice-storm, Concord, Mass... 174
Peary, Rear- Admiral Robert E. : Tribute to Vil- Pineapples, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 256
hjalmur Stefansson 339-34°, 342 Pine-crested ridge, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 272
Peary, Rear-Admiral Robert E. : Trips across Pioneer oil well, Oil Creek, Pa. : Site of ill. 182
Greenland 319-320 Piqueros, Peru ill. 544-547; text 552-553
Peary, Mrs. Robert E. : National Geographic So- Pisco, Peru 539, 545, 552-553, 562
ciety banquet, 1913 ill. 320 Pittakos of Mitylene 47, 55, 67
Peary, Stefansson, and Greely: Photograph of . .ill. 318 Pittier, Henry: Life membership in the National
"Peary-ark-suah" (Big Peary) 305 Geographic Society bestowed upon 342
PEARY'S EXPLORATION IN THE FAR Plain of Moreh, or Sychar, Palestine 31
NORTH. BY GILBERT GROSVENOR, Plants, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 74
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL GEO- • Plato: Mention of 64
GRAPHIC SOCIETY 319 Pleurotus mushroom: Growth on a fallen log,. ill. 403
Peasants, Asia Minor ill. 49, 58 Pliny: Reference to poisonous serpents and fungi 389
Peck, Dr. Charles H. : Quotation on mushrooms. . 418 Plovers, Peru 559
Peking, China: Salvation Army 355, 358 Plymouth, Mass 203
Pematang Rajah, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 97 Plymouth Rock, Mass 245
Pematang Siantar, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. .99, 101 Pneumatic tubes 209
Pelican (Mine-sweeper) ill. 124; text 123-125 Poerba Dolok, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 97
Pelicans, Peru ill. 548-551, 553-555; text 553-556 Poison-dogwood berries, Massachusetts ill. 175;
Penguin (Mine-sweeper) 123 text 179
Penguins, Peru 544, 547, 557-558 Polar Basin, Arctic Region: Rough ice in the. .ill. 299
Penguins, Vieja Island, Bay of Independencia, Polar bear held at bay by dogs ill. 312
Peru 558 Polar Ocean 321
Peninsula of Paracas, Peru 557 Polar Sea 293, 296, 300, 305-309, 314, 321
Pennsylvania: Electric power 496 Polo, Marco: Visit to Sumatra 77
Pentateuch ill. 12, 42; text 23, 33, 40 Polycarp's Tomb, Smyrna, Asia Minor 60
Pepo savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Water- Polyporus frondosus mushroom, Edible ill. 408
bearers of the ill. 291 Ponds, Cleaning up small ill. 376
Perches, Mississippi River 375 Pools, Seining small ill. 376
Pergamos (Bergama) Asia Minor 50 Poppy fields near Afiun-Karahissar, Asia Minor
Periodicals, Salvation Army: Circulation of 347 ill- 63
Page
Port Said, Egypt 445
Portable tubs, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 256;
text 275-276
Porters, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Female.. ill. 73
Portugal 453
Portuguese East Africa: Salvation Army 363
Potomac River 182
Potoyuncos, see Petrels.
Pottery, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea 468-469
Pottery, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea 469, 474
Powell, Maj. J. W. : Memorial altar erected to,
in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado ill.
(color insert) Plate VIII, 511-518
Praxiteles, Statues by 529
Prayer books, Samaritan 15
Presidential Range, White Mountains, N. H 158
Prickly-pear, Mount Ebal, Palestine 5, 7, 9
Priest writing a Samaritan Pentateuch 15
Primus (Arctic stove) 308
Prince Patrick Island, Arctic Region 340
Profile Lake, Franconia Notch, White Mountains,
N. H ill. 153
Profile Notch, White Mountains, N. H 158
Prose, Greek 55
Prostitution, Tokyo, Japan 363
Provincetown, Mass '. 245
Pulp-wood, Lawrence, Mass ill. 234-235
Pump, Thawing out the old... ill. (duotone insert)
Plate III, 135-150
Push-cars, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 260-261;
text 279
Pythagoras: Mention of 66
"Q"
Quincy, 111.: Fishes rescued by government 375
"R"
Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass ......... 207,
Railway bridge, Ako, Formosa, Pacific Ocean, .ill.
Railway terminus and Imtarfa barracks, Citta
Vecchia, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ......... ill.
Ranger oil field, Texas ........................
Ras el Ain, Palestine ..........................
Ravens, South America ........................
Ravens, United States ........................
Red Fern (Sail-boat) .................. 108-109,
Red Mountain, Calif.: Redwood trees ............
Red Rose (Sail-boat) .................. 108-109,
Redwood Creek, Calif.: Redwood trees. . .525, 533,
Redwood trees, Arcata, Calif ....................
Redwood trees, Bull Creek Flat, Calif ....... 525,
531, 533,
Redwood trees, California: Saving the Redwoods.
By Madison Grant ..........................
Redwood trees, Del Norte County, Calif.. .527, 531,
Redwood trees, Dyerville Flat, Calif ......... ill.
text 527, 531,
Redwood trees, Eel River, Calif ........ 525, 527,
Redwood trees, Fortuna, Calif ...................
Redwood trees, Garberville, Calif ............ 529,
Redwood trees, Humboldt County, Calif .........
527, 531,
Redwood trees, Klamath River, Calif ..... ill. 520,
Redwood trees, La Honda, Calif ................ .'
Redwood trees, Mills Creek, Calif ...............
Redwood trees, Monterey, Calif .................
Redwood trees, Mount Tamalpais, Calif ..... ......
Redwood trees, Muir Woods, Mount Tamalpais,
Calif .......................................
Redwood trees, Orick, Calif .....................
Redwood trees, Red Mountains, Calif ............
Redwood trees, Redwood Creek, Calif... 525, 533,
Redwood trees, Santa Cruz Grove, Calif ..........
Redwood trees, Scotia, Calif .....................
Redwood trees, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Calif.
Redwood trees, Smith River, Calif ........... 527,
Redwood trees, Sonoma County, Calif ...........
Redwood trees, South Fork, Eel River, Calif ____ '.'
5^9,
Redwood trees, Ukiah, Calif ................. 527,
244
279
464
191
2
322
323
in
529
m
536
525
527,
536
519
533
535;
533
529,
531
531
525,
533
528;
527
527
525
527
S27
53 1
529
536
527
531
519,
521
533
527
527,
533
529
Page
Redwood trees, Willits, Calif 529
Redwoods League, see Save the Redwoods League.
Reedy Island, Delaware River: Crow roosts 325
Refugees on a log raft, Neblett, Miss ill. 384
Refugees on a mound at Modoc, Ark ill. 386
Reindeer, Alaska 482-483
Relics, Hal Saflieni Temple, Malta, Mediterra-
nean Sea , 466-468
Relics, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
469, 473-474
Religious procession, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
ill. 458
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE
BARRAGE, THE. BY LIEUTENANT-COM-
MANDER NOEL DAVIS, U. S. NAVY 103
Requa, Mr.: Development of oil 193
Revere, Paul : Reference to 203
Rhapsodists, Ancient 61
Rhode Island 203
Rhodes, Mediterranean Sea 454
Rhodes, Mediterranean Sea: Historic crozier. . . . 454
Rhodes, Mediterranean Sea: Knights of St. John 453
Rice fields, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 256;
text 257, 275
Rice granary ("Goedang") Sumatra, Dutch East
Indies ill. 83
Richard Bulkeley (Trawler) 125-126
Richmond, Ensign K. C. : Photograph of ill. 106
Richon: Quotation on mushrooms 418
Ridgway, Robert: Plant-pulling proclivities of crows 329
River Channel, Massachusetts: Opening of the. .ill. 166
Road leading to Citta Vecchia, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea ill. 461
Roads, Colorado: Zigzag ill. 498
Roads, Massachusetts 206
Roads, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 80, 92-95, 97, 101
Robeson Channel, Arctic Region ill. 301; text 296
Rock bass, Mississippi River 375
Rock Creek Park, Washington, D. C. : Ford in...
ill. (duotone insert) Plate VI, 135-150
Rock portals of the Yosemite Valley, Yosemite
National Park, Calif ill. (color insert)
Plate V, 511-518
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo ill. 492, 502,
505; ill. (color insert) Plate I. 51 1-518: text 501
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo.: Flattop
Mountain ill. 505
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo.: Hallett
Glacier ill. 502
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo. : Long's
Peak ill. (color insert) Plate II, 511-518
Roger, Grand Count of Sicily: Reference to 453
Roman forum, Samaria, Palestine: Ruins of.. . .ill. 7
Rome, Italy: Catacomb days of 467
Rome, Italy : Fall of 451
Roof of the Continent in Rocky Mountain National
Park, Colo ill. (color insert) Plate I, 511-518
Roosevelt Dam, Ariz 495
Roosevelt Park 495
Roosevelt (Steamship) ill. 300-301; text 296, 305,
;>o;. 114, 321
Roosevelt, President Theodore: Belief in Rear-
Admiral Peary 301
Roosevelt, President Theodore: Presentation of
the Hubbard Gold Medal of the National Geo-
graphic Society to Admiral Peary 292, 322
Rooted collybia mushroom (Collybia radicata) . .ill. 398
Roving frames in a Massachusetts cotton mill. .ill. 213
Roze: Quotation on mushrooms ,418
Rubber plantations, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 101-102
Ruins, Laodicea, Asia Minor ill. 50
Ruins of the Roman forum, Samaria, Palestine, .ill. 7
Rural schools, United States 504
Russia 340, 359, 3°i
Sabbir (Arabic name for the Prickly-pear) 9
Sacred scroll, Samaritan ill. 12, 42, 45
Sacred sites, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 29, 31
Sail-boats, Gloucester, Mass ill. 243
St. Andrews Bay, Scotland in
St. Francis Xavier: Reference to China 355
St. Helena Island, Atlantic Ocean: Salvation Army 363
St. John's Church, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea ill. 454, 457 ; text 453-454
St. John's Ambulance Society 454
St. Louis, Mo. : Crow roosts 325
St. Lucia, British West Indies: Delegates to Sal-
vation Army International Congress, London... 368
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
XVII
Page Page
St. Mary's Lake, Glacier National Park, Mont. .ill. 486; Savage children, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Schools
text 501 for ill 28o; text 287
St. Patrick's Day, New Zealand: Canoe races on 440-441 Savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 280-282,
St. Paul: Reference to his stay in Malta, Mediter- 284-286, 288-292; 16x1272-275
ranean Sea 450-451, 464 Savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Expedition against
"Salat el Dabih" (Sacrificial prayers) 41 ill. 278
"Salat el Garub" (Sunset prayers) 41 Save the Redwoods League 495, 533-534
"Salat el Jismeet" (Scalding prayers) 41 SAVING THE REDWOODS. BY MADISON
Salem, Mass 245 GRANT 519
Salisbury, Mass 203 Scapa Flow, Scotland 112, 117, 125
Salt Covenant, Mount Gerizim, Palestine ill. 27 "Scarecrow," Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 91
Salt Lake City, Utah 498 School for savage children, Kampanzan, Formosa,
Salt River project, Arizona 495 ( Pacific Ocean ill. 280; text 287
Salvation Army, Around the World with the. By School of Sappho, Mitylene Island, ^Egean Sea,
Evangeline Booth 346 Turkey in Asia 64
Salvation Army, China ill. 355; text 355, 358-359 Schools, Eastern Mediterranean: Charter of 64
Salvation Army Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan.. ill. 355 Schools, United States 504-505, 507
Salvation Army, Holland 363 Scotia, Calif.: Redwood trees 531
Salvation Army home for native boys, Java, Dutch Scotland 103
East Indies ill. 353 Scott, Capt. Robert F. : Mention of 310
Salvation Army, India ill. 346, 348-35°. 352'. Scurvy, Arctic Region: Treatment of 307
text 351, 354, 368 Sea-lions: Guano of 564
Salvation Army, International Congress: Albert Sea of Marmora, Turkey in Europe 58
Hall, London, England 363, 368 Sea-gulls, Peru: Scavenger ill. 558
Salvation Army, Italy 363 Seal Islands, Peru, see Lobos Islands, Peru.
Salvation Army, Japan ill. 355-357! text 361, 363 Seattle, Wash 487
Salvation Army, Java, Dutch East Indies.. ill. 350, 354; Sebaste, Name of Samaria, Palestine after the time
text 359, 363 of Herod the Great ill. 9; text 5, 21
Salvation Army, Korea ill. 358; text 359 Seine haul on the shore of a large lake ill. 371
Salvation Army Jenny Lind leading a street meet- Seines set by the use of a boat ill. 374
ing in Sweden, A ill. 366 Seines, Washing of in a shallow bayou ill. 377
Salvation Army lassies ill. 360-362 Seining crew on the march ill. 380
Salvation Army, Peking, China 355, 358 Seining under thin ice ill. 372
Salvation Army: Periodicals of the 347 Seminole Indians, Florida 507
Salvation Army, Peru: An officer of the ill. 367 Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park, Calif. ..ill 482
Salvation Army, Petrograd, Russia: Work of the Seoul, Korea: Salvation Army school for girls... 359
ill. 365 Sepulchers, Mount Ebal, Palestine 5, 7
Salvation Army, Portuguese East Africa 363 Sequoia gigantea, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Calif.
Salvation Army, Russia 359, 361 521, 525
Salvation Army, St. Helena Island, Atlantic Ocean 363 Sequoia National Park, Calif 495
Salvation Army school for girls, India ill. 349 Sequoia National Park, Calif. : Forests 521
Salvation Army, Serbia 363 Sequoia National Park, Calif.: Preservation of big
Salvation Army, South Africa ill. 368; text 363 trees by National Geographic Society 338
Salvation Army, Switzerland 363 Sequoia trees, California 489, 495, 519, 521, 525
Salvation Army: Training schools 347 Sequoia trees, Sequoia National Park, Calif 521
Salvation Army work in the World War 363 Serbia: Salvation Army 363
Samaria, Palestine ill. 4; text 21 Ser-mik-suah (Arctic Region) 293
Samaritan high priest ill. 30 Seth, Altar of, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 31
Samaritan High Priest Jacob leading the Passover Seven Cabiri of the Phoenicians, Hagar Kim Tem-
service, Mount Gerizim, Palestine ill. 20 pie, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 459
Samaritan Holy of Holies ("Kuds el Akdas")..3i, 33 Seven Wise Men of Ancient Greece 47, 49, 51,
Samaritan Passover Camp, Mount Gerizim, Pales- 53-55, 61, 64, 67
tine • ill. 1 8 Seward Peninsula, Alaska 482
Samaritan Pentateuch. .. .ill. 12, 42; text 15, 23, 33, 40 Shaggy-mane mushroom (Coprinus comatus) . . . .
Samaritan Pentateuch, Priest writing a ill. 15 ill. (color insert) Plate XII, 423-438; text 388, 439
Samaritan pilgrims at prayer, Holy Rock, Mount Shanghai, China: Salvation Army 368
Gerizim, Palestine ill. 43 Shansi Province, China 358
Samaritan prayer books 15 Shechem (Nablus, Palestine) i, 4-5, 9, 13, 16, 21, 23, 31
Samaritan prayer service, Mount Gerizim, Pales- Shechem Valley, Palestine 13
tine: Costume of 3^-33 Sheep, Packwood Glacier, Goat Mountains, Wash.
Samaritan sacred scroll. . .ill. 12, 42, 45; text 23, 33, 40 ill. 344
Samaritan synagogue, The ill. 10 Sheffield, Mass 203
Samaritans ill. ?6; text 1-46 Sheik Ghanim, Mount Gerizim, Palestine 29
Samaritans, Passover of the: Last Israelitish Blood Shelley, Percy Bysshe: Quotation on Ink Mush-
Sacrifice. By John D. Whiting i rooms 439
Samos Island, .djgean Sea 47 Shoes, Manufacture of, Brockton, Mass 228-233,
Sampans, Formosa, Pacific Ocean. .. .ill. 248; text 271 235-236
Samuels, E. A.: Food required to sustain a crow 333 Shoes, Manufacture of, Lynn, Mass 229
San Francisco, Calif 495, 519, 527, 529 Shoes, Manufacture of, Massachusetts ill. 230-231;
San Gallan Island, Peru: Petrels 554, 557 text 227-233, 235-236, 239
San Lorenzo Island, Peru 559 Shoo-E-Ging-Wa: An Eskimo child ill. 309
Sandy Island, Scotland 131 Showalter, William Joseph: Massachusetts — Bee-
Sand-dunes, Colorado Desert, Calif ill. 494 hive of Business 203
Sanderling (Mine-sweeper) 119 Shumway, Franklin P.: Reference to 151
Sandpipers, Peru 559 Sibajak Mountain, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. .
Santa Barbara County, Calif.: Summerland oil ill. 68; text 83
field ill. 188 Siberia: Sequoia trees, Fossil remains of 519
Santa Cruz Grove, Calif. : Redwood trees 527 Sicily 448-449, 453, 456
Santa Rosa Island, Bay of Independencia, Peru.. Sierra Nevada Mountains, Calif.: Redwood trees..
Santee, S. C.: Herons 334 Sikhs, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 80, 99
Santiago, Siege of •. 345 Silk, Manufacture of, Holyoke, Mass 225
Sappho: Reference to -. . . . .47, 61, 64, 67 Silk, Manufacture of, Massachusetts 225-227
Sappho, School of: Mitylene Island, ^gean Sea.. 64 Silver gates, St. John's Church, Valletta, Malta,
Sardinia, Mediterranean Sea 449 Mediterranean Sea ill. 457; text 454
Sardis (Sart) Asia Minor ...-47, 50 Simelungen, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 89
Sariboe Dolok, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 89, 92-93 Sinaboeng, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 83
Sarongs, Kinalang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Singapore, Malay Peninsula 69, 72, 102
Weaving of the ill. 84; text 95, 99 "Sing-song" girls, Formosa, Pacific Ocean. .. .ill. 252;
Saskatchewan, Canada: Ducks 334 text 259
XVIII
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Page
Sintian, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 271
Sketch, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea ill. 473; text 473-475, 477-47%
Ski dash, Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover, N. H.
ill. 1 60
Ski junipers, Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover,
N. H ill. 133, 161-164; text 159-161
Ski Runner, Dartmouth Outing Club, Hanover,
N. H ill. (duotone insert) Plate I, 135-150
Skiing, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H ill. 133-
134, 159. 161-164; text 158-161, 164
Skiing, Franconia Notch, N. H ill. 134
Skiing, Mount Washington, N. H ill. 153; text 164
SKIING OVER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE
HILLS: A THRILLING AND PICTUR-
ESQUE SPORT WHICH HAS A THOU-
SAND DEVOTEES IN THE DARTMOUTH
OUTING CLUB. BY FRED H. HARRIS... 151
Skip-jacks, Mississippi River 383
Skull, or Brain-shaped puff-ball mushroom (Cal-
vatia craniiformis) ill. 419
Skyline Farm, New Hampshire 158
Slippers, Manufacture of, Haverhill, Mass 229
Slivers, Cotton ill. 210-211; text 213-216
"Slubber" machines at work in a cotton mill,
Massachusetts ill. 212
Smith College, Northampton, Mass 207
Smith, George Otis: Where the World Gets Its
Oil 181
Smith, Hugh M.: When the Father of Waters
Goes on a Rampage 369
Smith River, Calif.: Redwood trees 527, 533
Smith, Sir James: Opinion of the Delicious, or
Orange-milk Lactar mushroom 417
Smith, Miss Jane M. : Endowment fund bequeathed
National Geographic Society 342
Smith Sound, Arctic Region 298, 302, 305-306,
309. 3iS
Smyrna, Asia Minor ill. 56, 60; text 50, 56, 61-62
Smyrna figs, California: Walter T. Swingle's de-
velopment of the 342
Snake River, Idaho 496
Snoqualmie Falls, Wash ill. (color insert)
Plate VII, 511-518
Snow drifts, Concord, Mass ill. 168
Snow house, Geographic explorer building. . (duo-
tone insert) Plate VIII, 135-150
Snow house, Peteravik, Arctic Region ill. 298
Snow record, Massachusetts ill. 179
Soan, Kim: Story of 275,283-285, 287
Soap, Nablus, Palestine i
Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire
Forests: Club-house of the 158
Soil, Formation of 392, 399
Soldier eating a doughnut ill. 362
Soldiers, United States: Land grants to. .507, 509-510
Solomon : Temple of 16
Solon of Athens: Quotation from 47, 55, 67
Somerville, Mass 245
Sonoma County, Calif.: Redwood trees 527
Sonoma Flat, Calif.: Redwood trees 525
Sooty Lactar mushroom (Lactarius ligniotus) ill.
(color insert) Plate XI, 423-438; text 422
Sound-magnifying chamber, Hal Saflieni Temple,
Malta, Mediterranean Sea 465
South America: Ants 401
South America: Members of the Salvation Army
ill. 368
South Fork, Eel River, Calif.: Redwood trees... 527,
529, 533
South Wales 449
Spain 51, 449
Sparassis herbstii mushroom ill. 413
Sperry Camp, Glacier National Park, Mont ill.
(duotone insert) Plate XV, 135-150
Spinning-room in a Lawrence cotton mill ill. 216
Spitzbergen, Arctic Region: Sequoia trees, Fossil
remains of 519
Sprague's Glacier, Rocky Mountain National Park,
Colo 502
Springfield, Mass 245
S. S. Vedic (British transport) 131
"Standing Stones" (Hagar Kim Temple, Malta) 457
State forests, Massachusetts 245
Stavanger, Norway 128
Stefansson, Peary, and Greely: Photograph of . .ill. 318
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur ill. 318;; text 322, 338-340
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur: Admiral Peary's tribute
to 339-340, 342
Page
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur: Awarded the Hubbard
Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society 338
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur: General Greely 's tribute
to 339-340, 342
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur: Musk-oxen in Canada. .482-483
Stephenson, Captain : Mention of 311
Stern's Camp, California: Redwood trees 529
Stevens, Thaddeus: Mention of 133
Stevenson, Vice-President Adlai: Ewing's Story
of his success as a campaigner in the West... 495
Stone Age Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea:
Sacrificial tables ill. 466; text 457
Stone blocks, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea 473
Stone pillar, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea: Mystic ill. 474; text 474-475
Stone, Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean
Sea : Curious ill. 476 ; text 473
Stoves, Arctic 308
Strada Santa Lucia, Valletta, Malta, Mediter-
ranean Sea ill. 450
Strait of Malacca, Dutch East Indies 69
Strauss, Rear-Admiral Joseph ill. 106; text 107,
IH-II2, 114-115, 119, 130-131, 133
Strauss, Rear- Admiral Joseph: Life membership
in the National Geographic Society bestowed
upon 342
Street, Samaritan Ghetto, Nablus, Palestine. . .ill. 3
Street scene, Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific Ocean... 249
Streets, Nablus, Palestine 2-3
Streets, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea... ill. 450
Stump Lake, N. D. : Waterfowl 334
Sub-chasers ill. 127, 130; text 113, 123, 127
Submarines, German 103-105, 107, 115
Sugar-cane, Formosa, Pacific Ocean: Fields of . .ill. 255;
text 279
Sumatra, By Motor Through the East Coast and
Batak Highlands of. By Melvin A. Hall 68
Sumatra, Dutch East Indies: Delegates to Salva-
tion Army International Congress, London.... 368
Sumatra, Putch East Indies: Women of.... ill. 72-73,
77-78, 84-86, 91, 93-94, 98, too
Sumatran freight train ill. 68
Sumatran open-air grocery store ill. 100
Summerland oil field, Santa Barbara County, Calif.
ill. 1 88
Sun River irrigation project, Montana 501
Sundas, Dutch East Indies 99
Sunfishes, Mississippi River 375
Sunrise Point, Arctic Region 305
Sunset from the Tamsui River, Formosa, Pacific
Ocean ill. 258 ; text 264
Suez Canal: Effect on Malta, Mediterranean Sea 455
Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan: Siege of Malta,
Mediterranean Sea 447
Sverdrup, Otto: Mention of 308
Sweden: Salvation Army lassie leading a street
meeting ill. 366
Sweep-wire 105, 107, 109, 111-113, 119
Swimming hole near Moose Mountain Cabin,
New Hampshire 154
Swingle, Walter T. : Development of the Smyrna
figs in California 342
Swingle, Walter T. : Life membership in the Na-
tional Geographic Society bestowed upon 342
Switzerland : Salvation Army 363
Sychar, Palestine ill. 16; text 17, 31
Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada: Welcome to Rear-
Admiral Peary 317
Synagogue curtains, Palestine: One of the ill. n
Syria i
'T"
Tacoma, Wash Plate III, 511-518
Taft, President William Howard: Order safe-
guarding America's oil supply 193-194
Tahosa Valley, Colo ill. 492
Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 249, 258;
text 257-258, 263, 271
Taipeh, Formosa, Pacific Ocean, see Taihoku,
Formosa, Pacific Ocean.
Taiwan, Pacific Ocean, see Formosa, Pacific Ocean.
Tamils, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.. 71, 79-80, 84, 99
Tamsui, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 264
Tamsui River, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 258-259;
text 264
"Tank" farm, A ill. 192
INDEX FOR VOLUME XXXVII, 1920
XIX
Page Page
Tanoor, or Ground oven, Mount Gerizim, Pales- Tucker, Judge F. de Latour Booth: Interest in
tine 25-26 Salvation Army . 351
Tarshish: Ships of 45° Tuckerman's Ravine, New Hampshire 161
Tarxien Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 473- £ufts Colle.ge, Massachusetts 207
478; text 449, 456-457, 465, 469, 473-475, 477-478 Tunis, Africa 445, 448
Tattooing, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 282, 292 Turkey 50
Tatungfu, China: Salvation Army invasion of . .355, 358 Turkish peasants gathering opium in the poppy
Tea Formosa, Pacific Ocean, Shipment of 262 fields near Afiun-Karahissar, Asia Minor ill. 63
Tea, Formosa, Pacific Ocean., ill. 250; text 25?. 261-262 Two Medicine Valley, Glacier National Park,
Tea-pickers, Daitotei, Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific j^V r>V •" " D "i " 'A' •" ' 'XT' ' •" ' V VI 'I1' 48s
Ocean ill- 250; text 261 Tyndall Glacier, Rocky Mountain National Park,
Tea, Pouchong, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 262 c°lc) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5°2
Teachers, United States . 504-505, 5°7 TyPh°°n wall, Taihoku, Formosa, Pacific Ocean . . 249
Teakwood, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, .ill. 70; text 102 ,,^,,
Teal (Mine-sweeper) 124
Tebing Tinggi, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 101 Uk{ah> Calif . Redwood trees
T6k-pai or Bamboo raft, Formosa, Pacific Ocean. . Unbleached muslin, Manufacture of. . . . .211-221
. ill. 246; text 247 United States 51
Temples, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Prehistoric. . United States Army: Oil consumed by the 186
ill. 466-468, 470-478; text 448-449, 456-457, 459, 463, United States Bureau of Education: Geographic
465-469, 473-475, 477-478 Bulletins 343
Tepees, St. Mary's Lake, Glacier National Park, United States Bureau of Fisheries: Biological
Mont ill- 486 Laboratory, Mississippi River 383
Terns, Peru 55$ United States Bureau of Fisheries: Cars for fish
Terpander : Reference to 6 1 transportation 383
Terraces on the sides of the gorge of the Rimac, United States Bureau of Fisheries: Fish rescue
Peru ill- 538 work, Mississippi River. .369, 377, 381, 383, 385-386
Terror (Steamship) 303 United States Bureau of Fisheries: Mussel propa-
Textile industries, Massachusetts ill. 206-229; gation 383
text 209-216, 218-227 United States Bureau of Mines 186-187, 19l
Thales of Miletus, Asia Minor 47, 64, 67 United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin
Thales' School of Philosophy, Miletus, Asia Minor 64 621: "The Crow and Its Relation to Man" 323
Themistocles: Reference to 66 United States Department of the Interior 504
Thiasos, Eastern Mediterranean schools 64, 66 United States Department of the Interior, Bureau
Thirty-man-power dugout Maori canoe, New Zea- of Education: Geographic News Bulletins 343
land HI. 443 United States Geological Survey 190
ThoreauY Henry 'bavidY.YsY.'i 65,' "169, 170, 172, 175, United States: Massachusetts— Beehive of Business.
i 77, 179-180 By William Joseph Showalter 203
Thoreau's Country, Winter Rambles in. By Her- United States: Mind's-Eye Map of America. By
bert W. Gleason 165 Franklin K. Lane.... ;v'-V •*%>
Three-mile Hill, New Hampshire 158 United States Navy: Oil consumed by the. . . 186-187
Thyatria (Akhissar) Asia Minor 50 U«lted States Navy : Removal of the North Sea
Ticknor, George: Mention of .33 TT M'n,e ^rrage By>oel Davis ... 103
Tientsin, China: Salvation Army 358 United |tates: Oj1 P'l* hnes' • •.1»- <ma") l83.= text 183
Tigers, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 99 United States: Map showing oil pipe lines in the
Tigris River, Turkey in Asia 498 TT ... , Ct „ ,, , , . IIK (maP' I83
Timur the Lame : Reference to 5° Unlted States : Map showing production of petro-
T 1M T fPirnlnsiv^ IDS 108 Icuminthe ill. (map) 187
U\£^±m*D^''M'&K:::v..£ $ Kn^ *&** Sh^ng ooard;h--N--- *•
95 97 99 United States: Skiing Over the New Hampshire
Tob, Meer called Se, of Toba (Job, Lake) ' ™». s»J.f!&£ £?%& « Wa^s Goes '*'
rSS"^$ffi-^.«™*K Un— S-E^.E-fcSi Sfobn." * 3"
Tokio, Japan, see Tokyo, Japan. Cporo-p Otis Smith 181
Tokyo, Japan: Salvation Army headquarters. . .ill. 355 TTnlted StateV Wint'eY ' Rambles ' 'in' ' Thore'au'i
M \_ c r*- j •»*• i /-* £ OJ.TU* /"*u u U niLcQ oiatcs . vv inicr jxdirmics in i norctiu s
Tomb of Grand Master Caraf a, St. John s Church, Country. By Herbert W. Gleason 165
Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ... ... -ill. 454 University of Minnesota: Redwood trees in Cali-
Tooth paste filling room of a Massachusetts drug fofnia -Qwned by the $3I
company . . . . . .... . . . ...... . . ill. 205 University of Washington. . : 487
Torgnak (Evil spirit of the North) 296 Unleavened bread, Samaritan ill. 40; text 35
Tower of Babel: Reference to the 445 Upper-level mines, North Sea: Explosion of. ...
Toyen, Formosa, Pacific Ocean 275 ;jj I2_. text IJ5
Tracks of a fox in the snow, Massachusetts. . .ill. 176 Ura^ Formosat pacific Ocean.... . 271
Tracks of a hare in the snow, Massachusetts, .ill. 177 Uruguay: Delegates to Salvation Army Interna-
Tractors, Farm, United States. ..... ... . . ... .187-188 tional Congress, London 368
Trail of the Dartmouth Outing Club, New Hamp- Utah 495-496, 498-499, 501
shire 158 Utah : Natural Bridges National Monument, Edwin
Training schools, Salvation Army 347 Span ill. 491
Tralles, Asia Minor: Ruins of ill. 50
Transportation, Primitive, Sumatra, Dutch East "V"
Indies ill. 74
Trawlers 126-127 Vallette, lean Parisot de la: Reference to 447, 453
Trees, California: Saving the Redwoods. By Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea 111.446-448,
Madison Grant 519 450-452, 454, 456-467
Trees, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 257, 263-267, Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska: Study
272-273; text 247, 265-267, 271 made of by the National Geographic Society... 338
Trench-altar, Feast of the Passover, Mount Geri- Vats, Camphor, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 270;
zim, Palestine ill. 21 ; text 26 text 272
Tresness Bay, Scotland 125 Veatch, A. C. : Mention of 202
Tribe of Ephraim, Palestine 23 Vegetables, Sumatra, Dutch Indies 98
Tripoli, Africa 445 Vegetation, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies ill. 96;
Tsalisen savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 292 text 81
Tschudi, Johann Jakob von: Guano produced by Velvet-stemmed Collybia mushroom (Collybia ve-
piqueros 553 lutipes) ill. 398
Tsuo savages. Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 289 Ventura County, Calif.: Oil wells ill. 184
Tube-fungi, Poisonous fleshy 404 Vermont 158
Tubs, Portable, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 256; Vesuvius (Cruiser) 345
text 275-276 Victoria Island, Canada 340
XX
Page
Victory Park, Adirondack Mountains, N. Y. : Scene
in ill. 508
Vieja Island, Bay of Independencia, Peru.... 558-559
Vilkitsky, Captain: General Greely's tribute to.... 340
Virginia 203, 399
"Vishnu Temple," Grand Canyon of the Colorado
ill. (color insert) Plate VIII, 51 1-518
Volcanoes, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 69, 83
Von der Weide, Dutch planter: Quotation from... 95
Vonum savages, Formosa, Pacific Ocean. ..... .ill. 290
Waikato River, North Island, New Zealand: Canoe
races 44°
Walden Pond, Concord, Mass ill. 166
Walrus, Bull, Etah, Greenland: Head of a ill. 3*5
"War Cry" of the Salvation Army, China 359
"War Cry" of the Salvation Army, japan 363
Warp thread, Making of . . .• 216-220
Warping machine in a textile factory ill. 217
Washburn, Ichabod: Reference to 243
Washington 487
Washington, D. C 181, 507
Washington, D. C. : Crow roosts 324-327
Washington, D. C. : Green-gilled Lepiota mush-
rooms ill- 393
Washington, George: Mention of 207
Washington: Lake Chelan ill. 481
Washington, Mount, N. H 151
Washington: Mount Rainier National Park, Mount
Rainier ill. (color insert) Plates III-IV, 511-518
Washington, Snoqualmie Falls... ill. (color insert)
Plate VII, 511-518
Watch chains, Attleboro, Mass. : Making of 242
Watch factory, Massachusetts: Cutting main-
springs ill. 232
Watch factory, Massachusetts: Repairing balance-
wheels ill. 233
Watch making, Massachusetts ill. 232-233;
text 239-242
Water-carriers, Asia Minor ill. 65
Water-carriers, Formosa, Pacific Ocean ill. 291
Waterfalls, United States, Grand Canyon of the
Colorado : Mooney Falls ill. 499
Waterfalls, United States, Oregon: Multnomah
Falls ill. 480
Waterfalls, United States, Washington: Snoqual-
mie Falls ill. (color insert) Plate VII, 511-518
Waterfowl, Stump Lake, N. D 334
Water wagons, Malta, Mediterranean Sea ill. 461
Waterfront, Valletta, Malta, Mediterranean Sea
ill. 446
Webster, Daniel: Mention of 133
Webster Slide, New Hampshire 158
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass 207
Wells, Malta, Mediterranean Sea: Bottle-necked.. 456
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES
ON A RAMPAGE: AN ACCOUNT OF THE
SALVAGING OF FOOD-FISHES FROM THE
OVERFLOWED LANDS OF THE MISSIS-
SIPPI RIVER. BY HUGH M. SMITH,
UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF
FISHERIES
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL: BUT
WHERE WILL OUR CHILDREN GET IT
WHEN AMERICAN WELLS CEASE TO
FLOW? BY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DI-
RECTOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY
White bass, Mississippi River
White House, Washington, D. C ill. (duotone
.,;•. • insert) Plate V, 135-150
White Mountains, N. H 151, 158, 161
White pine blister rust, United States 399
White Sea, Russia 340
Whiting, John D.: Last Israelitish Blood Sacrifice . i
Whitney, Eli: Reference to • 243
Willcocks, Sir William: Garden of Eden 498
369
375
Page
Willamette Valley, Ore 501
Willits, Calif.: Redwood trees 529
Wildwood, N. H .. 158
William Darnold (Mine-sweeper) 123
Williams College, Williamstown,. Mass 207
Wilmington, Del 210
Wilson, Brig.-Gen. John M.: Obituary notice.... 345
Winchendon, Mass 245
Windward (Steamship) Deck-house of the ill. 295
Winter carnival, Dartmouth Outing Club, New
Hampshire 158-161
Winter home of the Smith Sound native ill. 306
Winter, New England 169, 172
WINTER RAMBLES IN THOREAU'S
COUNTRY. BY HERBERT W. GLEASON.. 165
WINTER SCENES (duotone insert)
XVI plates, 135-150
Winter sunset from Fair Haven Hill, Concord,-
Mass ill. 170
Wire entanglements, Formosa, Pacific Ocean : Live 274
Wisconsin: Fishes rescued by government 375
Wise Men of Ancient Greece, Seven
47, 49, 5i, 53-55, 61, 64, 67
Wizard Island, Crater Lake National Park, Ore. . .
ill. (color insert) Plate VI, 51 1-518
Women, Eskimo ill. 300, 307-308
Women, Mount Gerizim, Palestine: Feast of the
Passover 41
Women, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. . .ill. -72-73, 77-78,
84-86, 91, 93-94, 98, 100
Wonder-workers ill. 190
Wood, Nelson: Anecdotes of crows 330-331
Woodridge, D. C. : Crow roosts. . . .ill. 328; text 326-327
Wool carded in a Massachusetts factory ill. 226
Wool-combing machine ill. 227
Woolen industry, Massachusetts 225
Woolen mills, Lawrence: Drawing wool ill. 228
Woolen mills, Massachusetts ill. 226-229; text 225
Worcester, Mass 243
World War: Salvation Army work in the 363
World's greatest oil well: Cerro Azul, No. 4,
Mexico ill. 1 96- 1 99
"Wotan's Throne," Grand Canyon of the Colo. . .
ill. (color insert) Plate VIII, 511-518
Wrangell Island, Arctic Region 340
Wrinkled Pholiota, or The Gypsy mushroom (Pho-
liota caperata) . . . .ill. (color insert) Plate XIII,
423-438; text 392, 439
Wyoming 495, 501
Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park ill. 488-490
Yahweh, The unpronounced Hebrew name for
God 13, 22, 33
Yamamuro, Col. Gunpsi: "Common People's
Gospel" 361
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo ill. 488-490
Yosemite Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Calif.. 519
Yosemite National Park, Calif ill. 482-483;
ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518
Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, Calif.
ill. 482 ; ill. (color insert) Plate V, 511-518;
text 489, 495, 527
Young, Sir Allen : Mention of 311
Young, Brigham: Reference to 496, 498
Youth and old age ill. 292
Yuma, Ariz 495
Zambesi, Rhodesia, Africa: Salvation Army 363
Zammit, Prof. T. : Excavation of the Hal Tarxien
Temple, Malta, Mediterranean Sea.. 469, 473
Zigzag mountain road near Denver, Colo ill. 498
Zion, Mount, Palestine 23
Zoroaster Temple, Grand Canyon of the Colorado
ill. 500
Zulu wards of the South African branch of the
Salvation Army ill. 353
PRESS OF JUDD & DETWEILER, INC., WASHINGTON, D. C.
VOL. XXXVII, No. 1 WASHINGTON
JANUARY, 1920
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
How the Vanishing Samaritans Celebrate the Passover
on Sacred Mount Gerizim
BY JOHN D. WHITING
ArTHrR rp "FROM JERUSALEM TO ALEPPO," "VILLAGE LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND," AMD
"JERUSALEM'S LOCUST PLAGUE," IN THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Illustrated with the only set of night photographs ever taken of this ancient cere-
mony, and numerous other unique pictures, by the American
Colony Photographers, Jerusalem, Palestine
SHECHEM, Samaria, and Neapolis
were once great cities of the ancient
civilized world. Today their glory
and importance are no more, save in his-
tory. Here alone we find a dying and al-
most extinct community of Samaritans,
the remnant of a once numerous sect,
whose persistent continuation and literal
performance of the Passover Sacrifice
have attracted the attention of students
for more than three centuries.
Nablus, the modern Shechem, the only
home of the Samaritans of today, is a
town of about 27,000 inhabitants, lying
some forty miles north of Jerusalem. The
population is chiefly Moslem, the remain-
der being composed of various Christian
sects, together with a mere handful of
Samaritans. But as yet no Jew has set-
tled there, the Biblical axiom still holding
good, "for the Jews have no dealings with
the Samaritans."
Besides being a center of trade, Nablus
has gained a little fame for its soap, made
of pure olive oil, a variety which, though
crudely manufactured, is used almost ex-
clusively by the people of the city, and is
much prized by the natives of Syria and
Egypt.
The town nests in a confined valley run-
ning east and west, between twin moun-
tains— Ebal, some 3,000 feet above sea-
level, which looms up on the north, and
the lesser Gerizim, about 150 feet lower,
which closes in on the south, with its base
in places only a few hundred yards from
that of its mate.
From the lower slopes of Gerizim issue
numerous and copious springs. The mod-
ern town has therefore crept up in their
direction. These waters, after filling the
demand made upon them by the city, find
their way into extensive gardens to the
west, where flourish fig trees, laden with
delicious fruit, pomegranates hung with
scarlet bloom and fruit, yellow quinces,
walnuts, mulberries, olives, and occasional
bitter-orange trees raised for the perfume
extracted from the flowers. Among the
trees many varieties of vegetables grow in
abundance.
The houses of the town are dome-
roofed and lattice-windowed, constructed
from the soft, white limestone of Mount
NAHUJS (THE MODERN SHECHEM), THE ONLY HOME OF THE SAMARITANS TODAY
The town nestles in the valley which lies between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.
The picture is taken from the lower slopes of Gerizim, near Ras el Ain, while Mount Rhal
is seen in the background (see map, page 46).
Ebal. The streets are picturesquely nar-
row and most of them are paved with
cobble-stones, with here and there an arch
thrown across and supporting a room
above.
THE HOME CITY OE THE SAMARITANS
In the "souks," or markets, as in most
Syrian towns, the stores are so small that
the customer stands outside to examine
the meager display of European and na-
tive (Damascene) wares. Here are rows
of silversmith shops, where the artisans
work cross-legged, producing from crude
silver elaborate ornaments for the peasant
women. Here are the coffee shops, the
street in front blockaded with men sitting
upon low stools, sipping the thick, hot
beverage from tiny cups and smoking the
long, red-piped, bubbling narghile as they
gossip and play a game of "tawla."
Next are the sweetmeat venders, from
whose stalls large trays of "kanafie" pro-
trude into the street. This pastry dish,
for which Nablus is noted, has a filling of
fresh, sweet cheese. After it is baked,
A STREET IN THE SAMARITAN GHETTO OF NABUJS
From the main market-place, long, dark, tunnel-like lanes lead to the Samaritan Quarter, at
the foot of the sacred Mount Gerizim.
THE HILL OF SAMARIA
Omri, the sixth king of Israel, in the ninth century B. C., bought an isolated hill a few
miles west of Shechem, where he built his capital and named it Samaria, after its original
owner.
THE ACROPOLIS Of SAMARIA
The city of Samaria from its inception overshadowed its riva», Shechem, and perhaps
under Roman rule attained the pinnacle of its glory. The Emperor Augustus presented
it to Herod the Great, who rebuilt and embellished it after the Roman style and renamed
it Sebaste.
melted butter and thick syrup are poured
over it until it is literally soaked with the
mixture.
From the chief market-place the Sa-
maritan Quarter of Nablus is approached
from the north through long, tunnel-like
lanes which lead to the very foot of the
sacred mountain.
Just above the city, Gerizim is steep
and rocky, and the trees disappear. In
summer the mountain side is gray and
barren, but in winter even the smallest
patches of earth are scratched with
primitive plows and sown with wheat or
barley.
THE FRIENDLY CACTUS
Across from the town the slopes of
Ebal present a very different picture.
Equally rocky, they are still perennially
green with cactus bushes planted among
the rock ledges, which are curiously stud-
ded with ancient sepulchers, whose open
doors from a distance reveal only the
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RUINS OF THE ROMAN FORUM AT SAMARIA
Note the weather-beaten tops of the columns, while the lower parts retain their original
whiteness, showing how deep these ruins were covered by debris when the work of excava-
tion was undertaken, with the aid of American research funds, under the auspices of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
darkness within. Some of these tombs
were rifled centuries ago; others have
come to light within the past few years.
Many have stone doors and stone hinges,
with stone locks still in working condition
if the keys, probably of bronze, could be
found.
But the modern inhabitants do not
pride themselves on this interesting ceme-
tery, as did the peoples of bygone times.
To the Arabs of today antique relics are
of no import ; but they feel justly proud
of the cactus or prickly-pear bushes, which
present a weird spectacle and cover every
available space in this oriental God's
Acre. The fame of these bushes reaches
as far as the Bosporus, where the much-
prized fruit is a favorite gift among the
notables of Constantinople.
The prickly-pear cactus was first intro-
duced into Palestine by the Crusaders ;
today it is grown throughout the length
and breadth of the land, being valuable
not only for its fruit, but also as an ex-
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A VIEW OF MODERN" SEBASTE AND THE SURROUNDING HILLS
After climbing to the zenith of might, Sebaste slowly relapsed into insignificance. Today,
amid the ruins of a splendid past, a squalid mud village occupies the site and retains the
name.
cellent hedge. The natives, however, do
not yet appreciate its great value as forage
for cattle. The camels help themselves
to it whenever they get a chance, their
mouths being so tough that, regardless of
the spines, they devour the leaves with
unmistakable relish. The Ebal cactus'
superiority lies in the extra large size of
its fruit, the tenderness of its seeds, and
its sweet and luscious flavor, due both to
the peculiar soil and to the protection af-
forded from the cold north winds. The
Arabic name for the pear, sabbir (pa-
tience), seems eminently appropriate to
one who has innocently handled the un-
pealed fruit and had his hands filled with
the microscopic spines, which can be ex-
tracted only by painful laboriousness.
SHECHEM, WHERE THE BIBLE INTRODUCES
ABRAHAM
The first city built in this valley was
Shechem, which occupied a site a short
distance to the east of Nablus. Here, at
the highest point of the valley, where the
rains to the east find their way to the
Dead Sea and those to the west to the
Mediterranean, is a small artificial hill.
Recent excavations by archeologists have
revealed a city wall encircling the re-
THE SAMARITAN SVNAGOGU1
This, the only house of worship which the Samaritans possess, is a very plain building
and only a few hundred years old. In the recess to the left, behind ornamented curtains, are
primitive safes and cupboards containing many parchments and Pentateuchs, among them
the noted Abishua Codex (see illustration, page 12).
ONE: OF THE SYNAGOGUE CURTAINS
This silken curtain, heavily embroidered in gold, is used in the synagogue to hang in front
of the scroll chests. The designs represent the cup of manna, ark of the covenant, Aaron's
rod blossoming, the seven-branched candlestick, the table of shew-bread, the golden censer,
and other temple furnishings such as existed in the temple at Jerusalem.
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mains of houses and have laid bare numer-
ous ancient earthenware vessels.
As we look upon these primitive habi-
tations, more than 3,000 years old, it is
hard to realize that we are not actually
looking on the oldest city built here, but
upon a town that, at this early date, had
already had a long existence.
It is at Shechem, then called "Sichem,"
and the plain of Moreh, into which the
Shechem gorge opens at its eastern ex-
tremity, that Biblical history introduces
.. Abraham, the father of the Hebrews, in
Canaan. Likewise Jacob made this lo-
cality his first halt on returning from his
sojourn with Laban in Haran. Here he
purchased the parcel of ground whither,
at a later date, Joseph's bones were
brought from Egypt to be buried, and
where today Jacob's well is pointed out
as the spot at which Jesus and the Sa-
maritan woman met (see map, page 46).
Immediately following the Israelitish
invasion of Canaan and the taking of
Jericho and Ai, Joshua built upon Ebal
the first altar of sacrifice erected by his
people in the new land.
The Shechem Valley now became the
theater of the first general convocation,
and, according to the Mosaic injunction,
the whole congregation was assembled,
"half of them over against Mount Geri-
zim and half of them over against Mount
Ebal." From Ebal were to be proclaimed
the curses against those who should for-
sake the law of their God, and from
Gerizim the blessings that would result
in the following of Yahweh (the unpro-
nounced Hebrew name for God).
Here also, just before his death, Joshua
addressed the last assembly of the people,
making a covenant with them.
We HOW come to the broader period of
its history. Ephraim, destined to figure
as the leading tribe of the Northern King-
dom, had the lot of jts possession fall to
the district wherein Shechem lay. This
territory was then known as "Mount
Ephraim."
The town of Shechem itself was appor-
tioned to the Levites, since they, being
a tribe of priests, received no inheritance
except cities and their suburbs in which
to dwell throughout all the tribes. She-
chem was also selected as one of the cities
of refuge, and throughout the Hebraic
occupation held an important place.
ABU EL HASSAN, SON OF THE LATE HIGH
PRIEST JACOB
All the Samaritan priests wear long hair,
which they wind under their dome-shaped
fezzes. "And the Lord said unto Moses, speak
unto the priests and say unto them that they
shall not make baldness upon their heads ; nor
shall they shave off the corner of their beards"
(Lev. 21 : 1-5).
JACOB, SON OF AARON, LATE SAMARITAN HIGH PRIEST
Members of the present priestly family trace their ancestry to the tribe of Levi. The direct
Aaronic line that existed till modern times has now failed.
A YOUNG PRIEST WRITING A SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH
All the Samaritan Pentateuchs and prayer books, as well as the books used by the school
children, are hand-written. Parchment was used up to two centuries ago; since then paper
has come into vogue. Aside from the fact that the poverty of the modern Samaritan com-
mends the use of paper, which is much cheaper, the orthodox scholar will not write on
leather unless the hide from which it is prepared has been taken from an animal slaughtered
l>y a priest.
'5
THE VILLAGE OF ASKAR, ANCIENT SYCHAR
Just behind the village is Jacob's well. The mountain in the background is Gerizim,
while the mosque on its summit marks the site of the Samaritan temple to which, no doubt,
the Samaritan woman pointed when conversing with Jesus.
During the period of the Judges little of
importance is heard of Mount Ephraim,
except that Abimelech, son of Gideon by
a Shechemite concubine, was made "King"
of Shechem, and ruled three years.
With the advent of David came the
Golden Age of the Hebrews. The capi-
tal was moved to Jerusalem, where, upon
his succession, Solomon built the re-
nowned Temple and established thereby
a center of worship.
But this unified kingdom was short-
lived, and with the death of Solomon, his
son, Rehoboam, proceeded to Shechem,
where all Israel was gathered to make him
king. Instead of this being consummated,
ten tribes revolted and made Jeroboam,
an attache of Solomon's court, king. Jero-
boam selected Shechem as his home.
Thus the northern ten tribes established
the Kingdom of Israel, now forever rent
from the Kingdom of Judah, which was
composed of the two remaining tribes,
Judah and Benjamin.
16
NEAR SYCHAR IS JACOBUS WKLL ; ITS DEPTH IS INDICATED BY THE LENGTH OF
THE ROPE
To the east, towering above the encampment, is the loftiest of Gerizim's peaks, crowned with
ruins — a spot where once temples stood.
THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER CAMP, THE ONLY REMAINING ISRAEUTISH CAMP IN
THE WORLD
To the east, towering above the encampment, is the loftiest of Gerizim's peaks, crowned with
ruins — a spot where once temples stood.
LAMBS SELECTED FOR THE SACRIFICE OF THE PASSOVER
THE CONGREGATION GATHERING FOR THE SACRIFICIAL CEREMONY
As they assemble one by one they spread small prayer cloths upon the ground. Upon these
they stand with bare feet, having dropped their prayer slippers behind them.
THE; SAMARITAN HIGH PRIEST JACOB LEADING THE PASSOVER SERVICE
Note the prayer cloth on which he stands. Some of these have the prayer-niche design
identical with those of the Moslems. The Samaritans always face their Holy of Holies (the
holy rock on the crest of Mount Gerizim) when worshiping.
THE TRENCH-ALTAR PREPARED FOR THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER
Two large copper kettles filled with water are placed over this altar. At a short dis-
tance, and higher than the altar level, is the tanoor, or ground oven, for the sheep-roasting.
The men in the right background are tending the oven.
Omri, the sixth king of Israel, in the
ninth century B. C., bought an isolated
hill a few miles west of Shechem, on the
north side of the valley, and there built
his capital, naming it Samaria, after its
original owner. At the time of the First
Captivity the Kingdom of Israel lost its
northernmost tribes and its possessions
beyond the Jordan. From them Galilee
was then created, while the remaining
southern part inherited the name of its
once important capital, Samaria, and be-
came a State subject to Assyria. Thus
was the land cut up into three districts —
Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.
SEBASTE, CITY OF HEROD
The city of Samaria, from its incep-
tion, overshadowed its rival, Shechem,
and probably attained the height of its
glory under Roman rule; for the Em-
peror Augustus presented it to his pro-
curator, Herod the Great, who rebuilt
and embellished it after the Roman style,
and renamed it Sebaste (Greek for Au-
gusta).. Much of Herod's work still re-
mains, notably a double colonnade en-
circling the hill's crest.
An Arab proverb says, "Beyond every
mountain ascent there is a descent." And
Sebaste, after climbing to the zenith of
power, slowly relapsed into insignifi-
cance; so that today, amid the ruins of
its splendid past, a squalid mud village
bears the once grand title (the name in
Arabic being slightly altered to "Sebas-
tieh"). Here is a rare instance, possibly
the only one in Palestine, where the
Greek name has outlived the older Se-
mitic form.
Sebaste had become a place of no im-
portance more than four centuries before
the Emperor Vespasian founded Neap-
olis (New City) in the Shechem vale,
west of the older town, in 67 A. D. This
"New City" soon outstripped the older
Shechem, and in the fourth century be-
came one of the foremost cities of Pales-
tine— a distinction which it still enjoys
under its Arabic name of Nablus.
21
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THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
23
The Samaritan religion is closely akin
to that of the Jews, the chief differences
being that the cult of the former centers
about Gerizim, while that of the Jews
centers about Zion, and that the Samari-
tan canon of Scripture is restricted to the
Pentateuch, or "Five Books of Moses."
The later writings, including the Prophets
and Psalms, the Samaritans repudiate as
uninspired.
In view of the similarity in their be-
liefs and practices, it seems strange that
there exists and always has existed the
fiercest animosity between Jew and Sa-
maritan, but it is the animosity that in-
variably exists between an original and a
schism.
The Samaritans maintain that they are
the remnants and descendants of the once
great tribe of Ephraim, and that the split
between them and the Jews came about
through the maladministration of the
priesthood by Eli's sons. Followers of
the Jewish Church are looked upon as
dissenters from the pure faith of Israel,
and the forming of a center of worship
in Jerusalem by Judah is condemned
upon the ground that the land of Eph-
raim, with Shechem and its mountains,
figured in the earliest history of the He-
brews ; that here the first Israelitish altars
were erected, and that these were the only
specific parts of the Land of Promise
mentioned by Moses in the wilderness.
THE RENOWNED SAMARITAN SCROLL
PHOTOGRAPHED AT LAST
The most precious document of this
sect is the renowned Samaritan scroll
Pentateuch. This scroll is some seventy
feet long, and toward the end its columns
are divided vertically by a small gap.
often occurring between the letters of
the same word. Into this gap is carried
and written any letter that occurs in the
lines which fits into the writing of the
date, so that when reading the text it fills
its place, while on the other hand these
separated letters when read collectively
from the top of the column to the bot-
tom, like the Chinese, spell out the name
and date of the writer, etc., thus making
it impossible for the date to have been of
a later writing than that of the scroll
itself.
The Samaritans assert that the scroll
was written by Abishua, the great-grand-
son of Aaron, in the early years of the
entrance into Canaan, but no impartial
student will allow it this very remote ori-
gin, although it is believed to be the most
ancient copy of the Pentateuch in exist-
ence.
So jealously guarded is this scroll that
few non-Samaritans have ever seen it,
and many of the Samaritans themselves
have not seen it except as it is exhibited
on rare occasions at feasts, rolled up and
covered with a silken cloth and with but
one column exposed.
The scroll has recently been photo-
graphed from end to end, and will soon
be published for the benefit of Hebrew
scholars.
It is, of course, impracticable to display
this very fragile parchment continually,
but it is unfortunate that the modern
Samaritans impose uoon their guests by
showing them a scroll of much later date
than the one which all so covet to see.
The imposition has gone further, for all
photographs made heretofore supposedly
of the original Abishua scroll, as it is
called, have in reality been of the later
copy.
While the Jews have scattered all over
the "world since the captivities and have
absorbed much that is foreign, in many
instances adapting their religious prac-
tices to their new environment, the Sa-
maritans have during the same lapse of
time lived in the land of their fore-
fathers, among Semitic peoples akin to
the Hebrews, and because of this fact
have handed down to the twentieth cen-
tury a glimpse of the old Jewish Church
almost in its purity. A notable instance
of the survival of an ancient religious
ceremony is the celebration of the Pass-
over Sacrifice.
One of the distinctive differences be-
tween the Samaritan and the Jew lies in
their methods of computing the calendar.
Instead of adopting the lunar year solely.
the Samaritans base their calculations on
the moon but they are at the same time
also governed by the movement of the
sun. The system is so complicated as
to form one of the chief studies of the
young priests. Basing their authority on
the first chapter of Genesis for thus dif-
ferentiating from the Hebrew calendar,
KILLING THE PASSOVER SACRIFICE
The caldrons of water are already boiling. "Then shall all the convocation of the as-
sembly of Israel slay it between the two evenings." As these words are read, with one deft
stroke downward, each of the three slaughterers cuts the throat of one lamb and jumps to
the next.
24
THE; SPITTED SACRIFICIAL LAMBS
On oaken spits slightly longer than the depth of the ground oven, the dressed lambs are
placed lengthwise, the heads hanging down. "Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water;
his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof."
they point out that, in the history of crea-
tion, when the sun and moon are intro-
duced, it is said of them jointly, "Let
them be for signs, and for seasons, and
for days and years" (Gen. I : 14). For
the above reasons the Samaritans some
years celebrate their Passover with, or
nearly with, the Jews, while at other
times their fourteenth of Abib comes a
month behind.
PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF THE
PASSOVER
A few days before the Passover the
Samaritan ghetlo becomes the scene of
much activity. Mules and donkeys are
loaded with tents and other necessities,
while young and old, sick and well, quit
their homes to make the pilgrimage to
Gerizim, in obedience to the command,
''Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover
within any of thine own gates, but in the
place which Yahweh thy God shall choose
to make a habitation for His name."
Often, persons seriously ill are carried in
their sick beds to the camp, and here not
infrequently babes are born.
Prior to the date appointed, much time
is spent in arranging the camp, rebuild-
ing the tanoor, or ground oven, used in
2G
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
roasting the sacrifice, and in procuring
the necessary wood and brush for fuel.
The ascent to the camp spot on Geri-
zim requires usually an hour, whether
mounted or on foot. Nablus is left be-
hind by a path leading up from its west-
ern suburbs, and passing the Samaritan
cemetery, an open field, its rocky and
stone-strewn surface overgrown with
weeds on which donkeys and cattle may
be seen browsing. The trail leads up in
short, stiff, winding courses through a
slight depression where olives and other
trees grow vigorously. The way soon
becomes so steep that beasts as well as
pedestrians are forced to halt at intervals
for breath. But the time is not wasted,
for the view of the town in its glaring
whiteness below, fringed with verdant
gardens and nestling between the twin
mountains, is a scene truly beautiful.
ENCAMPMENT Of THE ISRAELITES
Once up this steep ascent, the ridge is
gained. Along it the path, now fairly
level, leads to a slight depression in the
saddle, where suddenly the visitor sees
before him more than forty white Egyp-
tian and Damascus tents, the only ver-
itable Israelitish encampment of religious
significance in the world.
A pity it is that these more modern
tents are used instead of the primitive
goat-hair ones of the Bedouins, which
would more nearly, if not entirely, re-
semble those used during the Exodus.
To the east, towering above the en-
campment, is the loftiest of Gerizim's
peaks, crowned with ruins, a spot where
once temples stood.
It is Passover eve. Selected sacrificial
lambs are contentedly wandering about,
unconscious of their impending fate.
They have been purchased some days in
advance of the Passover, in obedience to
the law, "in the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a
lamb. . . . Your lamb shall be with-
out blemish, a male of the first year. . . .
And ye shall keep it up until the four-
teenth day of the same month."
But the scene is not quiet. Scores of
people, non-Samaritan, young and old,
have come up to "smell the air," for to
the Nablus people, and especially for the
lads, it is a day of excitement not to be
missed.
The camp ground is a small, elongated
field, the property of the Samaritans.
No special system is observed in pitching
the tents, beyond leaving a path between
the two uneven rows. Each family has
one tent ; a few have two.
At the eastern extremity of the camp
is the kiniseh (synagogue), where the re-
ligious rites are observed while in camp.
It is a small, oblong plot surrounded by
a low rubble wall except to the east,
where terrace above terrace, now much
dilapidated, rises in step form to the
mountain crest beyond.
THE TRENCH-ALf AR
At the northern end .of this space, or
prayer inclosure, a trench has been dug
and lined with uncut stone. "An altar of
earth shalt thou make unto me. .
And if thou wilt make an altar of stone,
thou shalt not build it of hewn stone ; for
if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast
polluted it."
Across this altar two large copper ket-
tles, filled with water, are placed. Beyond
the northeastern end of the inclosure,
and higher than its level, is the tanoor,
or ground oven, for the sheep- roasting.
It is a pit, the depth equal to a man's
height, from five to six spans in diam-
eter, and lined in a circular form, like a
well, with rough stones. Here the rock
crops out so near the surface that, in
order to get the tanoor deep enough, it
has to be built partly above the surface
and a terrace filled in about it, thus of
necessity elevating it above the rest of
the space devoted to the Passover ob-
servances.
It is about three hours before dark as
we arrive, and since the Samaritan time
starts its count from sunset, let us forget
our Western watches while we remain on
Gerizim's heights.
On approaching the camp, one of the
first things to attract our attention is the
cloud of smoke pouring forth from the
tanoor and curling skyward from beneath
the kettles, for five hours of steady heat
produced by burning "saris" brush and
thorn bushes are required before the
oven is ready for fleecing the sheep.
THE; SALT COVENANT
As the preparation of each lamb is completed much salt is rubbed into the flesh. "And
every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the
salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering."
27
"NEITHER SHALL YE BREAK A BONE THEREOF
No forks, knives, or spoons are used at the feast and great care is observed not to break
a bone. The fingers are the Samaritan's only eating utensils on this occasion.
28
EATING THE PASSOVER
The members of the six families collect, each around one of the lambs — men, women, chil-
dren, and nursing babies.
To escape the confusion caused by the
swarms of sight-seers, boys galloping
about on their horses or urging on lazy
donkeys, hawkers calling out in loud
voices as they peddle small cakes,
oranges, or sweetmeats, we follow a
friend, one of the priests, up to the crest
of Gerizim. This, to the Samaritan, is
the holiest part of the earth and crowded
with sacred spots and associations.
THE SACRED SITES OF GERIZIM
Here one is shown the place where
Joshua built the first altar of sacrifice
with twelve stones taken from the Jor-
dan. Just above it are the foundations
of St. Mary's Church, built by the Em-
peror Zeno and restored by Justinian.
Adjoining these ruins is a small domed
mosque, Sheik Ghanim, now in a neg-
lected condition. A Moslem shrine and a
Christian church each in succession built
on the site from materials supplied by
the remains of a Roman temple !
Proceeding southward along the out-
most ledge of the plateau, the priests
point to spots where tradition says the
altars of Adam and of Noah stood. Be-
29
YE SHAIJ, LET NOTHING OF IT REMAIN UNTIL THE) MORNING
The feast itself is of short duration. After the meat has been eaten the high priest,
leaning picturesquely upon his staff, recites a short prayer. Every bit of bone remaining is
now collected and taken to the altar. "And that which remaineth until the morning ye shall
burn with fire." Note the two crouching figures in the foreground busily engaged in col-
lecting and eating fragments of the roasted meat.
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
31
low is the path by which Adam was ex-
pelled from Paradise, after having been
created from the dust of Gerizim.
Beyond is the altar of Seth, a stone
circle with a pavement of large uncut
stones (probably of megalithic origin).
Just beyond Seth's shrine, farther
south, is a ditch sunk into a rock protrud-
ing boldly from the mountain side. It is
the Samaritan rival to Mount Moriah, in
Jerusalem. Here the Samaritans believe
that Abraham prepared to offer up in
sacrifice his only son, and just behind
is the place where the ram was found
caught in the thicket.
Almost at our feet, far below, in the
plain of Askar (Sychar), lay Jacob's
well, concealed beneath an uncompleted
church erected upon Crusader founda-
tions. Under the spell of the hour and
the scene, one could almost picture the
Samaritan woman pointing to Gerizim
and saying to Jesus, "Our fathers wor-
shiped in this mountain, and ye say that
in Jerusalem is the place where men
ought to worship" (John 4:20).
THE SAMARITAN HOLY OF HOLIES
In the center of the plateau is a large
flat rock which the Samaritans call
"Kuds el Akdas" ; for, according to their
tradition, it formed the Holy of Holies
of their temple. They approach it only
on certain festal occasions and with bared
feet. This rock at once calls to mem-
ory the rival Rock Moriah lying beneath
the gorgeous Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem.
Although less extensive than that from
its taller mate, Mt. Ebal, which cuts off
the distant Galilee view northward, the
scene from Gerizim is broad and grand.
In the spring the Plain of Moreh, or
Sychar, just at its feet, is a patchwork of
small fields in different stages of growth.
Near the village of Askar (Sychar),
watered from a copious spring, large
patches of onions and garlic flourish,
their green varying with that of the wav-
ing barley and wheat beyond and con-
trasting with the bare and rocky sur-
rounding hills. The elevations are dotted
with villages, and among them, to the
southward, is Awerta, where, under the
shade of a great tree, the tombs of
Aaron's son and grandson, Eleazer and
Phinehas, lie.
Directly to the east, separated from the
foreground by the deep Jordan chasm, rise
the Mountains of Gilead. Like Moab, of
which fhey are a continuation northward,
they ar.e suffused with a mysterious and
fascinating translucent blue, resembling
some precious stone, and never cease to
captivate the vision, especially upon clear
days. The highest peak, Jebel Osha,
crowned by the reputed tomb of Hosea,
stands out conspicuously. Towering at
the head of the Jordan Valley, Hermon,
with its perennial snow-cap, closes the
northern limit of this eastern view.
At the foot of Mt. Ebal and bordering
upon the plain directly below us are the
excavations of ancient Shechem. Near
them a small white dome marks the tra-
ditional site of the tomb of Joseph.
Southward the view stretches over the
long mountain range which is the back-
bone of Palestine, rising between the
Phoenician plain and the deep Jordan
chasm. When viewed from the Mediter-
ranean, the only break seen in the range
is this Valley of Nablus, while its rivals
in historic importance, Jerusalem and
Hebron, are hidden from view. Mizpah
is easily visible, but no glimpse of Jeru-
salem save a little of its suburbs under
favorable conditions.
Turning westward, the mountains and
hill country, dotted with villages, drop off
gently into a plain which extends to the
blue Mediterranean. The ruins of Csesa-
rea, which under Roman rule became the
most important city and seaport in Pales-
tine, and often connected with the history
of the Apostles and the early Church, are
visible under favorable conditions; also
the orange groves of Jaffa.
Now the sun is soon setting, and we
shall have to hurry back to camp if we
are to see all the service which com-
memorates the Exodus from Egypt.
PRAYER POSTURE AND ROBES SIMILAR
TO MOSLEMS
As we descend, white-robed figures are
seen collecting about the smoking trench-
altar. As they slowly gather one by one
they spread on the ground small prayer
cloths, upon which they stand with bare
THE BURNT OFFERING
All the viscera are emptied of undigested food and then thoroughly salted and with the
fat from the inwards and kidneys are placed upon cloven pieces of wood laid across one end
of the trench-altar. The burning goes on slowly till the early morning hours.
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
33
feet, having discarded their prayer slip-
pers.
While witnessing this ceremony we
were impressed by the striking resem-
blance to the Moslem garb and posture
during prayer. The clothing of the Sa-
maritan on this occasion is, in the main,,
white, the outside garment being a jubbie
made of muslin, identical in cut with that
worn by Mohammedan religious sheiks
and by the old-style city Moslems, who
happily are not adopting western ideas
and modes of clothing. Around a dome-
shaped fez the priest winds a white tur-
ban, sometimes embroidered in amber
silk.
The older men of the laity use the same
turban, with the customary flat-topped
fez, while the young men and boys,
like the Mohammedan youths, wear no
turbans and are usually clad in white
shirts and drawers. The Samaritans, ex-
cept when in prayer, wear deep wine-
colored turbans, as the result of an edict
of one of the caliphs, to distinguish them
'from their Mohammedan neighbors, for
originally they wore white and were often
mistaken for Moslem sheiks learned in
the Koran. Similarly, the Jews formerly
used black as a distinguishing hue.
Before all prayers, the Samaritan goes
through prescribed ablutions, washing
with water three times each the hands,
mouth, nose, face, ears, and feet, in this
order, and, like the Moslem, he spreads
the prayer cloth, which in some instances
has the mihrab design.
FACING THE HOLY OF HOLIES
Now all have congregated. The vener-
able high priest, Yakoub (Jacob), feeble
and infirm, clad in a pale-green jubbie,
takes his place in front of the congrega-
tion. The two second priests, Ishak
(Isaac) and Tewfik, stand slightly behind
the high priest. Then come in rows the
elders according to rank. Now all the
males of the community are present, the
smallest boys lining up at right angles to
the foremost ranks.
On every hand the walls and terraces
are jammed with onlookers, mostly boys
and youths of Nablus.
Facing the holy rock on the crest east-
ward, the worshipers now bow to the
earth in prayer, for the Samaritans al-
ways face their Holy of Holies wherever
they are.
The service begins with a prayer writ-
ten some seven centuries ago by the priest
Hassan el Suri. As it is repeated in con-
cert, the rows of the older men and the
priests kneel, or rather sit upon their
heels, with hands on the knees or out-
stretched to heaven whenever any peti-
tion is asked. They bow their heads in
unison, touching their foreheads to the
ground. Some of the younger men stand-
ing behind, also with outstretched hands,
join in the prayer. Throughout the serv-
ice it is most interesting to watch the tiny
little fellows,, each beside his parent, while
all follow in the repetition with as much
earnestness as the grown-ups and entirely
unconscious of their surroundings.
Simultaneously with the beginning of
the service the sacrificial lambs have been
driven into the inclosure and wander
about at will, grazing upon the few tufts
of green or treading upon the high priest's
prayer rug till driven orT.
The prayer is ended with a loud Amen !
Whereupon all rise and remain perfectly
erect, while in silence they repeat another
prayer, called "Akid el Niyeh," a medi-
tation which denotes the consecration of
their souls to prayer. It consists of re-
peating the five articles of their creed —
belief in God, in Moses, the Pentateuch,
Mount Gerizim, and the Day of Judg-
ment.
This and the story of creation precede
all prayers. When ended a hymn is sung
in praise of Yahweh, the little fellows
stretching their mouths to their utmost
capacity, while the older leaders, turning
about from time to time, prompt and en-
courage the others to more fervent utter-
ances. All these prayers, readings, and
hymns are, of course, in the Samaritan
Hebrew, the oldest form of that language
in use.
Next, from the hand-written Penta-
teuch which each carries, they read in
unison 21 selections, in which Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned ("in mem-
ory of the fathers"). During the read-
ing each time God's name is mentioned
the men stroke their beards downward
thrice. Likewise whenever passages are
recounted enjoining them to remember
their God, they bow, swinging the body
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
BETROTHED
Among the Samaritans, as with most Ori-
entals, the parents of the children arrange the
matches. The betrothal often takes place when
the bride and bridegroom are mere infants,
while early marriages are the rule.
forward from the hips, in token of rever-
ence and submission.
The high priest, who has been facing
the crest of Gerizim with the congrega-
tion, now turns about and repeats an anti-
phon, to which the leading men reply, and
in conclusion a psalm is sung.
The aged high priest now mounts the
fragment of an ancient column and in a
low, quavering voice sings a short hymn.
With his eyes upon the setting sun, he
reads the first twelve verses of the twelfth
chapter of Exodus, wherein are given the
first commands regarding the observance
of the Passover.
KILLING THE SACRIFICE
In the meantime the youths and boys
have carried out the lambs and are hold-
ing them in a circle about the trench-
altar, where the caldrons of water are al-
ready boiling.
Over the lambs stand three slaughterers
with glistening knives of razor sharpness,
for, like the Jews, only those recognized
as knowing the laws regarding kosher and
taraf (ritually clean and unclean meat)
are allowed to do the killing. As the
reading proceeds, it is so arranged that,
as the passage "then shall all the convo-
cation of the assembly of Israel slay it be-
tween the two evenings" is spoken, at
the word "slay," with one deft stroke
downward, each of the three slaughterers
cuts one throat and jumps to the next.
In a few seconds all have been sacri-
ficed, the white clothing of the boys hold-
ing the struggling lambs being much be-
spattered with blood. Thus the passage
"between the evenings" the Samaritans
translate to mean between sunset and
dark, the twilight hour in these lands be-
ing very short. "Thou shalt sacrifice the
Passover in the evening, at the going in
of the sun, at the very time thou earnest
forth out of Egypt."
As the slaying commences the great
throngs of Samaritans and Gentiles cease
to crowd about the priest who is reciting
and press around the altar. All is a
veritable Babel, with prayers repeated,
shouting, singing, and clapping of hands.
The joy exhibited is akin to that of
our children on Christmas morning or
when around the blazing tree, and re-
minds one of the light-heartedness of the
Jews when celebrating the feast of Purim,
commemorating as it does the destruction
of their enemy, Haman. During all this
excitement some of the little Samaritan
girls and boys make their way amonjf the
sacrifices, and the latter with their finger
ends dot their faces with daubs of the
paschal blood.
One of the young priests collects a
quantity of the fresh blood in a basin and
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
35
with a bunch cf wild thyme vigorously
stirs it ; then rushes away to put a dab of
it above each tent door. Upon returning
he empties the remainder into the fiery
ditch. "And ye shall take a bunch of hys-
sop, and dip it in the blood that is in the
basin and strike the lintel, . . . for
the Lord will pass through to smite the
Egyptians ; and when he seeth the blood
upon the lintel the Lord will pass over
(Passover) the door, and will not suffer
the destroyer to come unto your houses to
smite you" (Ex. 12:22, 23).
Incidentally it is of great interest that
the thyme is used. Botanists have differed
as to what herb the hyssop might be.
Here we learn that this wild thyme has
properties which keep the blood from
coagulating. Besides, this custom having
been handed down in unbroken succes-
sion, little if any room is left for doubt
as to its identity with hyssop.
UNLEAVENED BREAD AND BITTER HERBS
While the lambs are giving their last
life struggle, youths pass among the peo-
ple bearing large trays piled high with
bitter herbs, a sort of wild Isttuce that
grows on Gerizim, rolled in thin sheets of
unleavened bread. Rolls are distributed
among non-Samaritans as a token of
friendship.
As the killing of the lambs commemo-
rates the sacrifice that saved the first-born
of the Hebrews from the fate of their
Egyptian neighbors, so here also the eat-
ing of the bitter herbs and unleavened
bread is, a reminder of the bitterness of
the Egyptian tyranny and the haste with
which Israel left the land of the Pha-
raohs. "And they baked unleavened bread
of the dough they brought forth out of
Egypt, for it was not leavened ; because
they were thrust out of Egypt and could
not tarry, neither had they prepared for
themselves any victuals" (Ex. 12 :39).
The bread is identical with that used
by the Bedouin and journeying peasants,
since the baking apparatus is simple and
portable, and quite likely is akin to that
used during the Exodus. The loaf re-
sembles a gigantic but very thin pancake,
being pliable and not crisp like the "mot-
sis," or unleavened bread used by the
Jews at Passover.
At the sacrificial altar the older men
A SAMARITAN BABY
When photographed, this child was the pic-
ture of health. Shortly after, he became ill and
the mother always attributed the misfortune
to the "evil eye" of the camera or of the
photographer.
and some of the priests, who now stand
about those to whom is delegated the
task of dressing the lambs, have kept up
the reading of the story of the Exodus
as far as to Miriam's song of triumph.
Meanwhile, as soon as the lambs have
become lifeless, boiling water from the
caldrons is poured over them, while sev-
eral boys and men crowd about in the
semi-darkness and pluck off the wool in-
stead of skinning the victims, the object
being to protect the flesh while roasting
in the ground oven.
THE RITUAL INSPECTION
Next the ritual inspection takes place,
for as each lamb is fleeced it is suspended
SAMARITANS AT PRAYER ON THE EVE OF THE PILGRIMAGE
During the entire week following the Feast of the Passover, the Samaritans remain en-
camped upon Mount Gerizim. On the last day of the encampment they begin at dawn a
pilgrimage to the crest of the sacred mount. Before setting forth on this pilgrimage, how-
ever, the men spread their prayer cloths and repeat the creed and the story of the creation
in silence, after which, in a loud voice, they read in unison the Book of Genesis and the
first quarter of the Book of Exodus, ending with the story of the Passover and the flight
from Egypt.
COLLECTING FOR EVENING PRAYERS ON GERIZIM
Before all prayers the Samaritan observes prescribed ablutions, almost identical with the
present customs of the Moslems, and like them he now spreads his prayer cloth.
by its hind legs on a long pole resting on
the shoulders of two of the men. The
work of removing the offal, the heart,
liver, and lungs is done by lantern light.
Great care is taken throughout this in-
spection not to mutilate a bone, for the
command "neither shall ye break a bone
thereof" is strictly observed. Any car-
cass found ritually unfit is put on the
burning altar and consumed with the
offal. This, however, is a rare exception.
The last time it happened was some five
years ago, when a lamb was found minus
a kidney.
Unlike the Jews, who will not eat of
the hind quarters of any animal until all
the sinews have been entirely removed,
the Samaritans claim to know exactly the
cord the angel touched while wrestling
with Jacob at the ford of the Jabbok, and
now a deep incision is made in the flank
and it is taken out. "And Jacob was left
alone; and there wrestled a man with
him. And when he saw that he prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow
of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's
thigh was out of joint. . . . There-
fore the children of Israel eat not of the
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
TII1C SACRED ROCK
A few of the devout members of the congregation do not dare advance to the rock itself
because of certain scruples regarding their ablutions. These individuals may be descried
in the background kneeling like their brothers on the rock, their faces turned toward the
holy spot.
sinew which shrank, which is upon the
hollow of the thigh, unto this day" (Gen.
32:24-32).
Deep gashes are made in the fleshy parts
in order that the salt may penetrate,
while the right shoulder is cut off to be
roasted on a separate spit, being a priestly
portion. Pieces of the head are also re-
served for the priests. Only the males
of the priestly family and women of the
same blood, if unmarried into other fam-
ilies, may partake of them. "And this
shall be the priest's due from the people,
from them that offer a sacrifice, whether
it be ox or sheep ; and they shall give
unto the priests the shoulder and the two
cheeks."
Now an oaken spit, the length being
slightly greater than the depth of the
ground oven, is thrust through each
dressed lamb lengthwise, the head hang-
ing downward. To prevent the meat slip-
ping off, a wooden pin is driven through
the spit three or four spans above the
lower end, and on it rests a cross-board.
As the preparation of each lamb is
completed, much salt is rubbed into the
flesh. "And every oblation of thy meat
offering shalt thou season with salt, nei-
ther shalt thou suffer the salt of the cove-
nant of thy God to be lacking from thy
meat offering: and with all thy offerings
thou shalt offer salt" (Lev. 2: 13).
THE BURNT OFFERING
This mandate is also closely observed
in the matter of the burnt offering, for
the viscera as collected are emptied of
undigested food and then thoroughly
salted, and, with the fat from the inwards
and the kidneys are placed upon cloven
pieces of wood laid across one end of the
ditch-altar, and the fuel under it now is
ignited from the fire beneath the cal-
drons. The burning goes on slowly till
the early morning hours.
But long before these preparations have
been completed the readings have come
to an end, while all those at work and the
onlookers shout incessantly, "We call and
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
HANDS OUTSPREAD TO HEAVEN
"And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying r.ll this prayer and sup-
plication unto the Lord, he rose from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to
heaven." It was then the custom with the Hebrew nation, as still with the small remnant
of the Samaritans, to spread forth the hands toward heaven. One object entirely out of
harmony with the picturesqueness of this scene is the 20th century steamer chair in the
center of the group of worshipers. It appealed to the Samaritans, however, as a convenient
resting place for the sacred scroll in preference to the quaint but clumsy wooden stands of
the synagogue.
we affirm, there is no God but God." In
fact, they aim to keep this up all night,
but there are numerous interruptions.
Once the service has come to an end,
all those not engaged bow forward and
kiss the hand of the high priest, saying
in Hebrew, "Every year may you have
peace." He in turn gives each his bene-
diction and retires to his tent.
HOW THE MEAT IS COOKED
It is now only about four hours before
midnight and the sides of the ground
oven are glowing with heat. The white-
robed figures, with much shouting and
commotion, bring the spits forward,
holding them in a circle about the fiery
pit. With loud voices they repeat, "Hear
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,"
and passages of Scripture in which they
are admonished to observe diligently the
law.
Suddenly the spits are simultaneously
lowered into the oven and a wickerwork
lid made of sticks placed over the top,
the spits protruding slightly and so held
in place. Grass, sod, and mud, previ-
ously collected for the purpose, are placed
over this, closely sealing the lid, so that
no smoke or steam can escape, and thus
extinguishing the fire ; but the heat of the
stones is sufficient to roast the tender
mutton. "Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
at all with water, but roast with fire ; his
head with his legs, and with the purte-
nance thereof" (Ex. 12:9).
THE EVENING PRAYER
Once these duties are over the men
again collect for prayer. It is now well
into the night. Beginning, as usual, in
silence, with their creed and the repeti-
tion of the story of creation, Pentateuch
selections pertaining to the Passover and
40
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SAMARITANS BAKING UNI&W£N£D BREAD
The bread is made with flour quickly kneaded with water only and baked on a convex
disk of sheet-iron. It is identical with that used by the Bedouin and journeying peasants.
Since the baking apparatus is so simple and portable, the bread probably is much the same as
that used during the Exodus. The loaf resembles a gigantic but very thin pancake.
the patriarchs are read. Between the
first selections hymns are sung.
A lengthy rotation now takes place :
Joshua's prayer, one that Samaritan tra-
dition asserts he was in the habit of
using ; singing the song of Moses at the
Red Sea, and the "Angel's Song." The
main feature, however, is the clothing of
the high priest or his representative with
a silken cloth. The priest now presents
to view one of the ancient Pentateuchs,
one in book form, written on parchment.
It is an impressive sight when these
white figures in the bright moonlight,
kneeling thrice and prostrating them-
selves to the ground, always toward their
Holy of Holies, repeat in unison, "It is a
night to be much observed unto the Lord
for bringing them out of the land of
Egypt; this is that night of the Lord to
THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE
41
be observed of all the children of Israel
in their generations."
Thus the three Passover services are
ended. The first, before the lambs are
slaughtered, is called "Salat el Dabih"
(Sacrificial prayers) ; the next, while the
fleecing is taking place, "Salat el Jismeet"
(Scalding prayers), and "Salat el Garub"
(Sunset prayers). Under ordinary cir-
cumstances prayers are always said at
even, but since the Passover service is
the more important, the evening prayer
is unavoidably delayed.
ARE THE WOMEN?
During the afternoon and the early
evening the women have played no role
in the scene. They have kept to their
tents, while those unable to make their
ablutions, and therefore prohibited from
eating the Passover, are confined in one
tent.
Like the older but now passing Jewish
and native Christian custom, the Samari-
tan women do not strictly hide from men,
but only veil when on the street and
keep out of the way when strangers are
present.
The present paper is written after hav-
ing witnessed the Passover ceremony
four times — twice before the great world
conflict and twice during it. The first
occasion was when the author was a
youth, the second in 1914.
On both of those occasions the women
were hardly seen, eating their portion of
the sacrifice in the tents, some of the little
girls alone showing themselves. During
the years of the war this phase of the
scene materially changed. There were no
tourists or professors, with large cork
hats and western clothing; no note books
and pencils ; no inquisitive questions to
embarrass the women or to mar the an-
cient atmosphere of the spectacle.
Once the sacrifice had been slain, the
crowds from Nablus, smaller these years
than usual, descended and the Samaritans
were left alone. In the moonlight there
was no sight nor sound foreign to the
surroundings to distract one's attention,
and the imagination was given rein. The
conception wandered back thousands of
years, and one only awoke with a start to
the reality of living in the twentieth cen-
tury when a sudden flash of magnesium
powder lit up the sky and then left all in
deep darkness.
The evening prayers over, some retire
to rest in their tents, some pray or read
to keep awake, while not a few sit around
the smouldering altar watching that every
scrap is burned.
No sooner are we left alone with the
Samaritans than the women begin to ap-
pear. They whose lives are so immersed
in small things that they seldom leave
their homes, the older women having no
education at all, find great pleasure in the
freedom of sitting around the sacrificial
altar, conversing in their native tongue
with Mrs. Whiting, and enthusiastically
displaying their babies, awake or asleep,
at this late hour.
OPENING THE ROASTING PIT
Thus the three to four hours between
putting the lambs to roast and the time
of the feast roll quickly by. Incidentally
we retire to our tent and dine on roast
lamb, killed and prepared by peasants of
the neighboring villages in identically the
same style as the paschal lambs, except
that the skin is removed, for no non-
Samarit'an is ever allowed to partake of
the sacrifice. "And the Lord said to
Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance
of the Passover : There shall no stranger
eat thereof."
It is because of this injunction that the
Samaritans so scrupulously collect and
burn any scraps cut away during the in-
spection, and that the burning altar is so
rigorously guarded.
Even after the ceremony is at an end,
the ditch and oven are filled with stones
lest any remaining charred bone or frag-
ment fall into the possession of a Gentile.
As the midnight hour approaches, the
sleepers are awakened by callers and sud-
denly the camp is again astir. The youths
with hands and hoe remove the seal from
the oven, and clouds of steam pour out;
so that, even with the aid of a lantern,
little can be seen. It is interesting to no-
tice the air of hurry, although time is of
no consequence. The cover is now lifted
with much shouting and screaming, and
the same prayer said as when the lambs
were placed in the oven. At once the
spits are withdrawn and closely guarded
while the meat is slipped off, each lamb
WAVING THE SACRED SCROLL, ONE OF THE CEREMONIES DURING THE SAMARITAN
PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY ROCK, WHICH FOLLOWS THE
CELEBRATION OE THE PASSOVER
The high priest, taking the sacred scroll from its resting place, holds it in his arms.
Then he raises it over his head and the copper case is unfolded, so that the parchment is
exposed toward the devotees, who stroke their faces and beards in reverence.
SAMARITAN PILGRIMS AT PRAYER IN FRONT OF THE HOLY ROCK
During the greater part of the service the high priest with staff in hand stands facing
the sacred scroll, which has been placed before the Rock. He leads the congregation in
reading.
43
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE BIBLICAL SALUTATION : PALESTINE
Embracing one another, the head is put on the other's shoulder or neck, the latter being
bent forward, and in doing so the cheek or neck is kissed, alternating from one shoulder to
the other. "And Esau ran to meet him (Jacob) and embraced him, and fell upon his neck,
and kissed him." The Samaritans are the tallest people in Palestine.
into one of the great copper pans, the
shoulders being put with the portion for
the priestly family and taken to the
prayer inclosure, just beyond the still
burning altar.
EATING THE MEATS OF THE PASSOVER
Some of the flesh, being overdone, falls
from the spits, and one of the men volun-
teers to rescue it. Winding bits of sack-
ing about his hands to prevent blister-
ing them, he is lowered into the oven.
Quickly the meat is collected in a basket.
Only two men have remained near the
pit, and they become so engrossed with
the meat basket that the man in the pit is
temporarily forgotten. The heat is more
than anyone can endure longer than a
few seconds, but the shouts of the unfor-
tunate go unheeded until a Gentile sends
his fellows to the rescue.
The members of the six Samaritan
families have now collected each around
one of the lambs — men, women, children,
and nursing babies. The elders and the
priests arrive, each girded about his
THE LAST 1SRAELIT1SH BLOOD SACRIFICE
45
Outer clothing, shod
and bearing a staff
or cane in imitation
of the equipment on
the flight from Egypt.
Now the meat is
sprinkled with minced
bitter herbs, and straw
trays of unleavened
bread are placed at
hand. The high priest,
in the midst, in qua-
vering tones, says :
"In the name of God
I call, 'Hear O Israel,
our God is one God,' "
etc., while all voices
join in singing an an-
cient Exodus hymn in
which mention is made
of the multitudes of
Israel that left Egypt
as the issue of only
seventy souls who
went down into that
land in the days of
Joseph.
Every one now be-
gins to eat ravenously,
pulling the meat from
the bones with the
fingers. No forks or
knives are used, and
great care is observed
not to break a bone.
The flesh is consumed
quickly, for the de-
vout are truly hungry,
having eaten little sub-
stantial food during
the previous day.
"And they shall eat
the flesh in that night,
roast with fire, and unleavened bread ;
and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
And thus shall ye eat it : with your loins
girdled, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand : and ye shall eat
it in haste : it is the Lord's Passover"
(Ex. 12 : 8 and n).
Those who are unable to leave their
tents because of sickness have a portion
sent to them, and, no matter how ill,
they always partake of a little. Even the
nursing babies have their lips touched with
a morsel, all in literal compliance with
THE SACRED SCROLL OF THE SAMARITANS USED ON GERIZIM
(REAR VIEW)
The scroll is contained in a copper case inlaid with silver and
gold, with designs representing the temple sacrificial altar, table of
shewbread, the golden censer, cup of manna, and other temple
furnishings.
the command that any one refraining
from eating it shall be cut off from Israel.
Within a few minutes the meal is over
and the high priest, leaning picturesquely
upon his staff, recites a short prayer.
Every bit and bone remaining is now col-
lected and taken to the altar. Across the
end where the offal has been burned the
wickerwork oven cover is now thrown,
and upon it all the spits are piled, to-
gether with the bones and leavings. A
fire is lighted under them. Every person
now washes with hot water from the ket-
Drawn by A. H. Bumstead
A MAP OF ASIA MINOR AND THE HOLY LAND
Showing the home cities of the Seven Wise Men of ancient Greece (see the succeeding
article) and the land of the Samaritans. (Note, in the small inset map, the relative location
of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and the historic cities, ancient and modern, which
have clung to their slopes — see text, pages 1-21}.
lies, pouring it over his hands from
ewers, so that it also flows into the ditch-
altar, lest even this infinitesimal quan-
tity of the sacrifice should fail to be
destroyed by fire. . "And ye shall let
nothing of it remain until the morning;
and that which remaineth until the morn-
ing, ye shall burn with fire" (Ex. 12 : 10).
Thus the sacrifice and ceremony com-
memorating the Exodus are ended.
Each celebrant now goes to his tent
for a few hours' sleep. Early the next
morning the congregation again gathers
for prayers, the day being observed as a
Sabbath ; the first day of the feast of un-
leavened bread.
As the onlooker retires to his tent or
descends the path to Nablus in the hush
of early morning, the scene, brightly lit
by the moon, is one not to bs forgotten.
From beyond the camp a great white
cloud of smoke curls skyward. Now
and then a red flame licks the sky or a
white, ghost-like figure adds some fuel.
It is a picture which cannot bs repro-
duced with the camera ; only to the mind's
eye can it be painted. The wood-cuts
and steel-engravings found in our old
family Bibles, where the Israelitish camps
are shown with the pillar of cloud and
fire, come nearest the present reality, but
are lacking in color and atmosphere.
As we turn for one last glance at the
moon-lit camp and the redder glow of
the flame with the pillar of smoke, we
cannot but realize that here we have seen
the eating and burning of the last Hebrew
blood sacrifice, and there comes the
thought that it may never be seen again,
for the Samaritans are a dying people.
46
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN
WISE MEN
BY MARY MILLS PATRICK
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE FOR GIRLS, CONSTANTINOPLE
A~IA MINOR was the home of the
Seven Wise Men, with some ex-
ceptions. There is great disagree-
ment among ancient authorities as to who
all of the Seven Wise Men really were,
and only four of them are the same in
all the lists given.
The four about whom we,, are sure are
Bias of Priene, Pittakos of Mitylene,
Thales of Miletus, and Solon of Athens,
and three of these four were from places
on the eastern Mediterranean. (See map
of Asia Minor on opposite page.) '
Even if we take the whole list of the
seven as they are sometimes given, four
of them were. .from Asia Minor or the
JEgean Islands, and only three from
Greece proper. Furthermore, Solon of
Athens, the most important of those
from Greece, appears to have greatly en-
joyed traveling in the provinces of Asia
Minor, for in regard to his journeys in
the East we have many stories, both true
and false.
One familiar story concerns his visit
to Croesus, the richest of the kings of
Sardis. After his royal host had shown
him all the glory of the court and the
treasures of silver and gold, Solon was
asked whom he considered the most for-
tunate man in the world, the expectation,
of course, being that the Wise Man
would name the great and powerful
Croesus as the most fortunate individual
who had ever existed.
Solon, to the king's surprise, however,
named certain obscure people who had
done their duty and were loved by their
neighbors and afterward died the death
of simple but honored citizens.
A TAI.E DESTROYED BY HISTORICAL
CRITICISM
The noble words of Solon had a great
effect on Croesus, and were remembered
at the tragic moment when Cyrus was
just about to burn him to death, and
were the means of saving his life.
We all know this story, but,: unfortu-
nately, it can not be true, for Solon would
have been too old and Croesus too young
for any time of meeting to have been
possible; and so we must yield this de-
lightful tale, with many others, to the
destruction of historical criticism.
Another story which connects Solon
with the East may be genuine, as far as
its chronology is concerned. It is said
that the great law giver, hearing his
nephew singing one day, asked him who
was the author of the song. The youth
replied that it was one of Sappho's
poems ; and Solon was so much impressed
with its beauty that he exclaimed, with
admiration, "Let me not die before I
have learned it."
PICTURING THE HOME LIFE OF ASIA
MINOR 2,5OO YEARS AGO
The centers of interest and activity
among the Greeks at the time of the
Seven Wise Men were in 'Asia Minor,
and such familiar names as Samos, Chios,
Miletus, Mitylene, Smyrna, and many
others were connected with the great
events that occupied the minds of the
people in that era.
All who are familiar with the scenes
of the eastern Mediterranean love them
and enjoy reproducing the history of
their past, reviving the descriptions of
the busy life that came and went from
one generation to another in those sur-
roundings.
We may study with interes^. Asia
Minor under the Roman occupation, at
the time of St. Paul ; or we may go far-
ther back, to the period of the Kings of
Pergamus ; or we may try to picture the
life of the eastern Mediterranean in the
47
ARRIVING AT AN ASIA MINOR MARKET-PLACE
Why it should be considered an insult to call a man a donkey cannot be understood by
those who know life in the Near East, for the patient, sure-footed, dependable little beast
of burden has as many virtues as he has duties. Though the ways in which they are em-
ployed differ greatly, the caravan master would feel as much at a loss without his donkey as
would the Scotch shepherd without his collie.
I
Photographs from Mary Mills Patrick
THE CITY OF MITYLENE HAS GIVEN ITS NAME TO THE ISLAND WHICH WAS THE
HOME OF SAPPHO
Lesbos, as the little island of Mitylene was called until the Middle Ages, was the home
of the JEolian school of lyric poetry. Beauty and profligacy were the main attributes of the
Lesbian women, but neither characterizes the present inhabitants.
GREEK PEASANTS DANCING ON THE HILLS NEAR EPHESUS
These lineal descendants of the Greeks of ancient days have retained much of the grace
and appreciation of rhythm which distinguished the race in the time of the Seven Wise Men,
when a knowledge of music and poetry was universal in Greece, the islands of the yEgean,
and the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor.
Photographs by Cass Arthur Reed
DONKEY AND CAMEL BOY ARE THE PACE-SETTERS FOR THE NEAR EASTERN CARAVAN
The camel is too dull a creature to be without a leader, so the donkey leads the long
line of patient beasts of burden. The paving here seen is exceptionally fine for Asia Minor,
but when wet and slippery it offers an insecure footing.
RUINS AT LAODICEA, CITY OF ONE OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF THE APOCALYPSE
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea are well
known to students of Revelation. The Laodiceans were lukewarm in their belief and were
so self-satisfied in their material wealth that Paul censured them severely. This fine city,
named for the wife of Antiochus II, suffered at the hands of Timur the Lame and was re-
peatedly damaged by earthquakes.
Photographs from Mary Mills Patrick
GUZELHISSAR, MEANING BEAUTIFUL TOWERS, IS THE TURKISH NAME FOR ANCIENT
TRALLES, WHOSE RUINS ARE TO BE FOUND EIGHT MILES FROM
THE BANKS OF THE M/EANDER RIVER
The town, which is found on English maps as Aidin, sits astride the Eudon, an affluent
of the historic Mscander. The tanning of morocco leather and the export of cotton and figs
are the chief industries, but to the epicure of Turkey the city is famous for its sweetmeats.
Tralles was once the strongest fortress in the broad valley of the winding river from which
we derive the word "meander."
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN
51
even earlier period of the Seven Wise
Men, which was from 650-550 B. C. It
was a time of unique interest in history,
for much of our present thought-life
owes its origin to movements which be-
gan in the days of the Wise Men.
Can we put ourselves back in that far-
away time and picture something of the
homely, every-day life of the people?
Can we find out how they thought and
felt?
What we wish is not the historical facts
about that age, nor the translation of the
writings that have come down to us from
it, but the human living, which was the
cause of the history and of the litera-
ture, — something which books cannot give
us — a comprehension of the throbbing,
pulsing life that was strong and vivid
enough to make itself felt, even to the
present time.
THE CHARM OF ISLAND LIFE IN THE
The outward surroundings we can re-
produce, for they are still practically the
same. The eastern Mediterranean is one
of the gardens of the world. The sea is
bluer than other seas; the tints of the
skies are softer, the violet and rose blend
more marvelously in the sunsets, the
mountains have a sensuous attraction,
and the sails on the horizon allure.
There is a wonderful charm also in
the island life of the yEgean, and that
charm must be in many ways the same
at the present time as it was in the dis-
tant age of which we are speaking.
Other parts of the world have changed
under the transforming power of modern
enterprise, but the shores and islands of
of the vEgean have thus far largely es-
caped the influence of modern business
life. As yet, no sky-scrapers nor com-
mercial storehouses, few railroads, auto-
mobiles. and electric trolleys mar the ef-
fect with their harsh lines and shrill
sounds.
The calm and peace of country scenes
have remained, and in their natural fea-
tures we may still find the surroundings
of the old life, for the environment of
the new scenes gives us the probable set-
ting of the old.
The shipping also has not wholly lost
its ancient form. It is true that the pic-
turesque warships, with their banks of
oars each side, have disappeared; but
the craft which lazily sail from one port
to another today may well remind us
of the descriptions of the old merchant
vessels.
ALWAYS THE SEA FOR REFUGE
A great wave of colonization had
passed over that part of the world just
before the time of the Wise Men, and
the colonies, after the struggle for ex-
istence of the eirly years in new sur-
roundings, had emerged into a larger life.
In finding larger life the sea always
helped them ; for, in political strife within
and the need of protection from without,
there was always the sea for refuge.
People who can sail away from trouble
at home always find resources, and the
sea was the source of many treasures.
The growth of the colonies was rapid,
for other reasons. How could it be
otherwise in such beautiful and fruitful
surroundings ! As Herodotus says, "The
lonians built their cities under the finest
sky and in the finest climate in the world,
for neither the regions above nor below
nor the parts to the East or West are at
all equal to Ionia."
IONIA THE CENTER OF THE WORLD'S
COMMERCIAL LIFE
People of the twentieth century look to
England and the United States as among
the countries where the comforts of liv-
ing and opportunities of learning how to
do things are very great, but men went
to Ionia, in Asia Minor, for these ad-
vantages in the age of the Wise Men.
To be up to date at that time one had
to live in Ionia, where life was luxurious.
There, things were produced richly with
little effort ; grapes were abundant and
the wine the best in the world, and ships
laden with olives and wine and oil sailed
to all ports of the Mediterranean — Egypt
and Phoenicia, Italy and Northern Africa,
and even as far west as Spain — bringing
back the luxuries of other lands.
Long before Athens joined the circle
of commercial cities, the riches of the
entire eastern world were represented in
Ionia. The market-place in both large
and small towns was the central point
and constituted a kind of bourse — in fact,
MOSLEM LOUNGERS IN FRONT OF A COFFEE-HOUSE IN AN ASIA MINOR TOWN
Since the Turks took possession of Asia Minor, in the fifteenth century, it has been
known as Anatolia, a word derived from the Greek meaning "rising" or "East." It com-
prises the entire peninsula which forms the western extremity of Asia lying between the
Black Sea on the north and the Mediterranean on the south. Its total area is about twice
that of the State of Colorado.
Photographs by Cass Arthur Reed
BESDEGUMA, A VILLAGE IN THE AIDIN VILAYET OF ASIA MINOR, WHICH is SELDOM
VISITED BY STRANGERS
Even in remote districts the camera is recognized and the ordinary business of the town
is suspended while the strutting braves "have their picture took." The coffee-house is the
Turk's cafe and club, and even in the busy season muleteers and laborers take time to gossip
and drink the thick black coffee which takes the place of alcoholic beverages.
Photograph from Mary Mills Patrick
MILKING A GOAT OUTSIDE A CUSTOMER'S HOUSE
A goat can thrive where cattle would starve and sheep would hunger. Europeans be-
lieve that goat milk, if used unboiled, will cause Malta fever, but the Asia Minor natives
drink it fresh and warm.
was the Wall Street of the town — where
the excitement of trade ran so high that
a market-master was necessary to con-
trol it.
THE FIRST COINS
The question naturally arises: "How
was business carried on, by barter or by
some primitive kind of banking system?''
Our chief testimony on this point is
furnished by the coins of the period, for
coinage originated in Asia Minor, and as
early as the time of the Wise Men coins
were in common use. There are very
few specimens of that age now in ex-
istence, yet some are preserved in the
British Museum and in other collections.
The first coins were made of electrum,
which is a mixture of gold and silver and
which was found in natural form in the
mountains of Lydia. There were no in-
scriptions on them, but emblems of re-
ligious worship and also of trade. The
connection of the coins with religion may
have been because everything in that time
was associated with religion. Possibly
the priests in the temples were the first
to invent coins. On the other hand, the
association may simply indicate that the
two things about which the people cared
most were religion and trade.
Of this type the coin of Cyzicus, on
the Marmora, is well known. It bsars
the figure of a tunny fish decorated with
a sacrificial fillet. The great trade of
Cyzicus at that time was in tunny fish,
which belongs to the mackerel family
and is found in the Sea of Marmora.
The fillet expressed the religious ac-
knowledgment.
The coins were very primitive in ap-
pearance and irregular in shape, some
round and some oblong, and all of them
much thicker than coins of a later day.
HOW THE CULTURE OF A PAST AGE IS
STUDIED
The age of the Wise Men was an age
of a certain type of culture. There are
two conditions necessary for culture : one
is freedom, and the other is a fair degree
of material comfort. As Homer says in
the Odyssey:
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Ernest L. Harris
FOUR YOUNG ADAIJANS AND THEIR PLAYMATE
Just as Smyrna is the center of Greek hopes for influence in Asia Minor, Adalia is the
city where Italian ambitions find expression. Adalia is the most picturesque city on the
southern coast of Anatolia and many of its buildings are richly ornamented. There is a
small inner harbor and a larger outer harbor, both of which at one time could be closed
with chains.
The heaven-taught poet and the enchanting
strain,
These are the products of a peaceful reign.
For some of the successful people of
Ionia, pleasure consisted in the possession
of objects of oriental luxury, in pomp
and in the lazy idleness to which the
Eastern climate always tempts us ; but
for those who cared to attain to higher
things, the opportunity came in the
spirit being free from sordid care and
from the pressure of daily need, with
leisure to think.
The culture of the age depended, how-
ever, not only upon economic causes, but
also to a large degree upon the inspira-
tion given by intercourse with other na-
tions, bringing about exchange of ideas
and increased knowledge.
The age of the Wise Men was before
ASIA MINOR IX THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN
the time of Greek history, and there are
few records from which o reproduce it.
In trying to describe the culture of an
age wholly different from anything which
we have ever known, the chief authority
is from internal evidence of writings of
the time, largely poetry, which now exist
for the most part in fragments, quoted
by later writers, and also from pictures
or vases belonging to that period.
The pictorial representations on the
vases of the stories of the gods renroduce
the ordinarv customs of daily life in re-
gard to religious worship, dress, use of
chariots and horses, weapons of war.
varieties of musical instruments, habits
of sitting and standing, wedding and
funeral ceremonies, and many other
things.
Are we justified in calling the period a
cultured one?
It seems to me that we are justified in
attributing culture to people who could
produce and enioy the best lyric poetry
which the world has ever known, and
who could originate lines of thinking that
have had a permanent significance in the
development of the intellectual life of
later times.
Emerson says that the flower of civili-
zation is the finished man, the man of
sense, of grace, of accomplishment and
social power, and of such there were
many in that age.
We find in the late seventh and sixth
centuries B. C. the beginning of modern
systematic knowledge, and a careful study
of the thought of the time will give us an
insight into the origin of modern science
and philosophy, for our present use of
language and our ideas of the world are
permeated with the results of that ancient
thinking.
Even the emancipation from traditions
and the desire for independent individual
thought, which characterize modern
ideals, find their counterparts in the age
of the Wise Men.
ANCIENT CULTURE WAS ADDRESSED TO
THE EARS
The culture that arose in Ionia was
very different in its form, however, from
any development of later times, and most
difficult for us to understand.
It was, first of all, addressed to the ears'
and not to the eyes. We are now essen-'
tially an eye-minded people, and measure
our learning by the books that we read
and write and collect in libraries 'and by
other things that we can see with our
eyes, but the sixth century B. C. was an
age without any free distribution of writ-
ten records and only the beginnings of
libraries, which were mostly collections
of wooden tablets. Some of the great
men of the latter part of the period each
wrote a book, but it was a laborious
process.
Heraclitus of Ephesus was one of
those who wrote a book which was kept
for safety in the Temple of Diana at
Ephesus ; for a book was not a thing to
be lightly regarded, and the process of
writing was so difficult that it was far
easier to remember what one had written
than to decipher it from the book.
Solon and Pittakos wrote their laws on
wooden tablets. However, they did not
write them for general circulation among
their friends, but rather to preserve the
laws that they had promulgated.
LABORIOUS TO WRITE, WRITING DIFFICULT
TO READ
Greek writing at the time of the Wise
Men was not easy to read, for neither the
words nor the sentences were divided
from each other, and the lines ran both
from right to left and from left to right.
The length of time which archeologists.
even when they are good Greek scholars,
give to puzzling out insertions which
belong to that period would not lead us
to suppose that any writing of the time
would form easy reading for an evening
by the fireside or an afternoon siesta.
During the t>eriod of the Wise Men.
however, writing was becoming more
common, as it was in that age that we
had the beginning of Greek prose; and
while it is easy to conceive of poetry be-
ing communicated from one generation
to another by constant repetition, it would
not be the same with prose, at least in the
case of prose that followed any consecu-
tive train of thought.
There were certain forms of prose,
however, in the age of the Wise Men that
could be easily remembered, such as the
so-called gnomic sayings, which were
Photograph from Mary Mills Patrick
AN OLD TURKISH BRIDGE NEAR BRUSA
The silting up of the river beds in the Near East shows the deplorable effects of deforestation.
• Photograph by Cass Arthur Reed
THE CARRIAGE, THE CAMEL TRAIN, THE GREEK PRIEST SEATED SERENELY ASTRIDE
A DIMINUTIVE DONKEY, AND THE PEDESTRIANS ARE ALL
TYPICAL OF MODERN SMYRNA
This city, like six others of Greece, the ^Egean archipelago, and Asia Minor, lays claim
to the distinction of being Homer's birthplace. The poet was once worshiped here in a
magnificent building known as the Homereum.
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN
57
mostly proverbs, and also fables.
and his fables belong to that era, although
JEsop himself, who is one of our most
precious literary heroes, is, I regret to
say, tottering somewhat under the attacks
of historical criticism.
HOW GREEK POETRY WAS PRESERVED
Culture was certainly not measured by
book-learning, but every educated man or
woman had to be ready with his lyre,
when called upon after dinner, to accom-
pany an improvisation,, which might be
good or bad, according to his ability. If
he could not improvise, he repeated some
of the wonderful poetry which was the
inheritance of the age, for the highest
expression of the culture of the time was
in its poetry.
The older epic poetry and the lyric
poetry of the era of the Wise Men would
furnish the means of culture to any age.
There was a freshness in the thought and
delicacy in the use of words in the Greek
lyrics different from anything found in
later literature, and it is in the poetry that
we find the real soul of the age. Many
fragments of it have been preserved, not
by any special effort at the time, but be-
cause it was a part of the life of the
people and must live.
Greek lyrics were the result of many
generations of poetical and musical ex-
pression, and they show the real creative
work of the era and furnish us with the
most subtle refinement of word pictures
that the world has ever known.
Musical and poetical contests were
common, in which the music and poetry
were given together and depended on
each other for the complete effect desired,
and it is difficult to know which was the
more important, the music or the poetry.
We are familiar in classic study with
the names of many of the great lyric
poets of that period, but they themselves
were as frequently called musicians as
poets. For instance, the poet Alkalos had
the reputation of being one of the great-
est musicians who had ever lived.
A profound moral and physical influ-
ence was attributed to music. Good
music was considered to have the power
to reform the character and to heal dis-
ease, and to interpret poetry and make it
intelligible to the inner nature. The art
of music was, therefore, one of the finest
things in the education of that time. It
was much simpler than the music of mod-
ern times and was entirely subordinate to
the words sung or repeated.
The charm of the music of this age
seems to have been partly in the extreme
precision of rhythmic treatment and in a
protracted dwelling of the voice on one
syllable. When . the words which the
music accompanied were improvised, the
improvising took place under definite
rules, and the learning of these rules
formed the most important part of the
education of a poet.
To the reciting and the music there was
also added a rhythmic motion of the body,
so that the entire personality of the per-
former was absorbed in the attempt to
express the thought of the poem. The
music was constant though subordinate,
and the whole performance produced
effects of which the most melodious of
modern poets could never dream.
MANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
There were many kinds of musical in-
struments, but the cithara and the lyre
were the ones commonly used in accom-
panying poetry, while the flute was played
by both men and women, in furnishing
martial music to the soldiers in time of
war. Musical bands marched to war with
the soldiers and played on flutes, pipes,
and harps.
For private use, the lyre and the harp
were preferred, for it was thought that
they did not prevent one from remaining
master of himself — a free and thinking
man or woman — while the flute, pipe, or
clarinet put the man beside himself and
obscured reason.
There is a story of a harpist which
might belong to any age. He started a
school in which to teach harp-playing.
He had in his school nine statues of the
nine muses and one of Apollo, but only
two pupils. When some one asked him,
however, how many pupils he had, he
said : "Gods and all, twelve !"
There were extensive choirs, whose
music was distinctly connected with the
religious life of the people. These choirs
were composed of both men and women
60
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN
61
•rand w^er^teg^^^for public and private
religious l£sTivaTs: — to celebrate, perhaps,
a victory, a death, a holy day, a birth, or
a marriage. We are told that Alkman,
who lived as early as 650 B. C., wrote a
choir song for girls which was a dramatic
part song.
RHAPSODISTS PRECEDED DRAMATISTS AND
ACTORS
There was, however, no drama strictly
speaking ; the place which the drama sub-
sequently occupied was filled by the rhap-
sodists. A rhapsodist was one who sang
professionally or intoned to music the
poems of his age and of earlier ages.
For this purpose some part of the so-
called Homeric poems was usually se-
lected, an introduction and some closing
words added, and it was presented to
companies of people in private houses.
A professional rhapsodist would nat-
urally choose the most popular parts of
Homer; but if he were a man of some
thought power, he might present his own
compositions, although that would hap-
pen more rarely.
Whenever a banquet was given, the
best rhapsodist to be procured was en-
gaged, one who could recite not only
Homeric poems, but those of Hesiod and
Archilochus, not neglecting the lyric com-
posers of his own time.
In this way the best of the world's
poetry became a part of the familiar
thinking of the common people, and it
was surely a much easier and pleasanter
way of learning than through studying
from books. There were so many rhap-
sodists in the latter part of the period
that they were organized into guilds and
schools.
PREPARATIONS FOR A BANQUET
The room in the house which was used
for entertaining was usually rather large,
with an earthen floor, which was care-
fully swept before a feast was given.
Before the guests arrived, the hosts and
hostesses washed their hands and the
goblets were all rinsed. In the center of
the room stood an altar, which was cov-
ered with wreaths of flowers. The large
wine bowl was filled to the brim.
The guests arrived wearing crowns of
flowers, and the wine-cup, with wine and
water, usually mixed half and half, was
passed around, but not before libations
were poured upon the ground for the
gods.
There was very free use of many kinds
of ointments and perfumes, some of
which were very costly, made from all
kinds of flowers. As a poet of the age
writes :
From the slender vase
A willing youth presents to each in turn
A sweet and costly perfume.
Honey and cheese were given the place
of honor among the refreshments. The
house resounded with music and song.
Now the rhapsodist enters, wearing his
white robe and golden crown. There is a
man or woman with him who also wears
a crown and who sings or plays a low
accompaniment to the poetry which the
rhapsodist recites.
He begins, perhaps, with selections
from Homer, whose poems always had
first place in the literary life of the day,
and then follow some of the lyric poems
of Terpander and Archilochos, Sappho,
and others. He naturally selects the poet
that belongs to the place where the feast
is given.
In Lesbos one would sing of Terpan-
der, Alkaios, or Sappho, and in Paros of
Archilochos, and in Smyrna or Chios of
Homer.
WOMEN SHARED IN A1X CIVIC ACTIVITIES
Social life in Ionia and the islands was
the life of men and women together, for
women were free in that age to share in
all the activities, even in public athletic
exercises in the gymnasium of the town,
as we read of their doing in the Island of
Chios.
There were, to be sure, no suffragettes,
for formal voting by citizens of any class
was a thing of later times, but the life of
all was free and open and natural, and
the standards of morality were much
higher than in subsequent periods of
Greek history. It is to the corruption of
later times that we owe the calumnies
that injured the fame of Sappho, for the
free life of the era of the Seven Wise
Men was not appreciated by succeeding
ages.
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Celebrations, whether public or pri-
vate, to be sufficiently distinguished, de-
manded something new — a new poem,
new music, new dance motions. Thus
arose the professional schools of the time,
where girls and women were taught to
write poetry and music. The best known
of these was the School of Sappho at
Mitylene, although there were many
others — two others even in Mitylene.
Sappho's school was in a house in the
city, and young women came from all
that part of the world to attend it. We
know the name of one girl who came
from Greece itself to join this school.
They were taught the rules of poetry, and
to compose music and poetry, for the life
of the people called for new music and
new poetry almost every day.
There was a great demand also for new
hymns to the gods, as each town wished
to surpass the others in its festivals, and
each great victory in war or celebration
of some local event depended for success
on the poetry and music of the occasion.
In time of peace, wedding songs were
constantly needed, as every bridegroom
then, doubtless, as at the present time,
considered his own bride the most beau-
tiful of all living women, and desired to
provide the newest and the best poetry
for the nuptial ceremony. Thus it came
about that the wedding songs written by
Sappho were among the most beautiful
of her poems.
These early schools for music and
poetry, which provided for the artistic
needs of the people, seem to have existed
before any school of philosophy was
known.
THE FIRST SCHOOL, OF PHILOSOPHY
The first school of philosophy was es-
tablished in Miletus by Thales, one of
the Wise Men, and was quite a remark-
able institution, exerting an influence for
more than a century.
Thales seems to have given himself
more entirely to this school than to any of
his other undertakings. There is a legend
that he never married, and when his
mother pressed him to do so he said : "It
is not yet time." After his youth was
passed she again urged him to marry and
he said : "It is no longer time."
Many of the subjects taught in his
school, such as astronomy, geometry, and
geography, show the influence of Egypt
and Phoenicia; but the philosophy was
probably an original product, for while
some of the sciences were somewhat ad-
vanced, the philosophy was apparently a
first attempt at an explanation of the
origin of the world. It originated a
movement which culminated more than
a century later in the idealism of Plato.
We may perhaps understand something
of the attitude of the common people to-
ward Thales' School of Philosophy from
the story of the old woman who laughed
when the master fell backward into a
ditch after gazing too long at the stars.
The old woman not only laughed, but
she is said to have called after him: "If
you cannot see what is under your feet,
how can you understand what is in
heaven ?"
GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY WERE THEN
PRIMITIVE STUDIES
The geography and astronomy taught
in this school were very primitive: The
earth was flat ; the sun circled around it
horizontally, being concealed at night by
high hills. One writer of the time de-
scribes the world in the following poeti-
cal way : "God makes a mantle, large and
fair, and embroiders on it earth and
ocean and ocean's dwellings."
It is probable that the schools of the
eastern Mediterranean possessed an an-
cient form of charter which consecrated
them to the purpose of learning and pre-
vented interference in their activities by
the city.
In their charter, some god was selected
for the patron deity, and his statue would
be the first thing seen on entering the
school building or the grounds. Sacrifices
were offered to this particular deity, and
processions and banquets were made in
his honor and holidays were given on his
feast days. Frequently some of the god-
desses or muses were selected, for one of
the poets says : "Loud crying is not fitting
in a house dedicated to the muses."
This form of charter was called a
thiasos, and is fully described in later
times in connection with the schools of
Athens. The strongest reason for be-^
Photograph by George M. Kyrpie
WATER-CARRYING HAS ITS COMPENSATIONS IN THE NEAR EAST, FOR IT FOSTERS
SOCIAL INTERCOURSE AMONG THE WOMEN
.At times thirty or forty women may be seen discussing for hours the news of the day
at such a fountain.
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Cass Arthur Reed
THE GREAT MARBLE BLOCKS JUST OUTSIDE
THE THEATER AT EPHESUS SHOW HOW
SPLENDIDLY THE CITY WAS BUILT
At Ephesus the Phoenicians introduced the
religious cult of their moon goddess, protect-
ress of trade. The temple was defended by
armed virgins, and when the Greeks under
Androclus met the fierce resistance of these
women warriors the world gained the legend
of the Amazons. The supremacy of the heathen
goddess was unchallenged until Paul preached
the gospel which caused Demetrius, the idol-
maker, to fear that his profession would be
harmed by such doctrines.
lieving that the custom of the thiasos ex-
isted in such an early age is the subtlety
and force with which religious thought
penetrated all the life of the period.
There seems to have been a shrine at
almost every turn of the mountain path
and a religious ceremony for every act
of daily life. There were spirits in every
wood and stream and spring.
The people thought oj their religion
in connection with every event and al-
ways consulted the oracle whenever they
undertook anything new. The oracle that
they honored most was far away at
Delphi, in Greece, and before going to
war, or building a town, or forming an
alliance, a messenger was sent there to
ask advice of the oracle.
Delphi held the imagination as the
place where the gods spoke to men, in-
spiring the priestesses with divine words.
Yet I fancy that when feeling ran high
the people did not always wait to send a
messenger to Delphi, which would be a
matter of several weeks at least. Prob-
ably they often acted without the au-
thority of the oracle and then secured it
afterward.
People visited Delphi, however, from
all parts of the Grecian world to get ad-
vice, and the place became not only a
kind of inspiration bureau, but also a
bureau of information, for the priestesses
saw and talked with people from many
places and became very wise in the politi-
cal affairs of their time and often were
able to give extremely good advice.
Their influence was felt all through
the Greek colonies, and one of them,
Themistoclea, is said to have been the
teacher of Pythagoras.
THE DELPHIC ORACLE AS A GREAT DEPOSI-
TORY OF WEALTH
The oracle did not, however, send ad-
vice free of payment. Rich presents were
expected in return, and Delphi became
a kind of national banking-house for the
cities of Ionia, with different treasuries
to contain offerings from the different
places. Gifts of every form and degree
of value were sent there — iron spits on
which to roast oxen used in the sacrifices ;
bowls of gold and silver, and all kinds
of the choicest treasures of the richest
cities.
When the sayings of the oracle failed
to prove true, however, complaints were
sometimes made, and the priestess would
be obliged to justify herself. So it was
usually found wiser to be rather non-
committal and to give commands that
ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN
67
could be carried out in more than one
way; to send an inscrutable answer, that
sounded deep and wise and would allow
those who sent to consult the oracle the
privilege of doing their own way.
Yet the power of the oracle was almost
unlimited and controlled even the rights
of kings in the most distant parts of the
Grecian world.
There was, however, another side to
the religious life of that time more diffi-
cult to understand. During the sixth
century B. C. there arose a great wave
of religious emotions, affecting every
oracle and popular temple and influenc-
ing even some of the philosophical teach-
ing. It seemed to appear first as an out-
burst of personal miracle-working in con-
nection with the worship of Dionysus
and was especially strong in Asia Minor.
It taught the purging of sin by sacri-
fice, the immortality and divinity of the
soul, eternal reward to the pure, beyond
the grave, and retribution to the impure,
the pure being those initiated into these
teachings. This was the religion of the
common people and was closely connected
with the Orphic mysteries which were
practiced in secret, took the form of secret
societies, and therefore are almost impos-
sible to investigate.
THE BELIEF IN INCARNATION
Certain of these cults believed in the
incarnation and suffering of Dionysus
Zagreus. Zagreus was a god who was
born again as a man, yet was a god, was
received into heaven, and became the
highest and, in a sense, the only god. An
individual who worshiped Dionysus Zag-
reus could himself develop his potential
divinity.
Dionysus was explained in the Orphic
mysteries as the god within the spirit of
worship, as inexplicable joy, as the per-
sonification of the spirit of ecstacy, and
the impulse above reason that lifts man
out of himself and gives him power and
blessedness. These mysteries were in
part dependent upon the singing and
playing of sacred music.
In the time of the Wise Men many of
the old temples were rising on the coast
of Asia Minor. The Temple of Diana
of Ephesus, one column of which is now
in the British Museum, was begun.
There is also to be seen in the British
Museum a lion of colossal size from
Miletus, carved in marble, on which the
name of Thales, the Wise Man, is in-
scribed.
Sculpture had been for some time an
acknowledged art and figures were made
of gold and silver as well as of marble.
Iron also was sometimes used for orna-
ments, as soldering in iron was discov-
ered in that age by a man in Chios.
The pottery was perhaps the most
artistic product of the time, and the
earliest known vase bearing a Greek in-
scription, now in the British Museum,
was from one of the ^Egean Islands. It
is ascribed to the early part of the period
of the Wise Men.
THE HALLS OF FAME AND HOSPITALITY
The social life was first of all religious,
as the worship of the gods and goddesses
involved many public and private cere-
monies, but there was also public politi-
cal life in various forms.
In every large city there was a pry-
taneum, where national heroes were hon-
ored and where public feasts were given.
Among the cupbearers who served the
wine were sons of most noble families.
One of Sappho's brothers was a cup-
bearer in the prytaneum in Mitylene.
The prytaneum was the state hearth,
where the sacred fire was ever burning,
and there was the center of the life of
the whole city and of the colonies sent
out from that city.
Of the details of the lives of the Wise
Men we know very little, and the stories
told about them are probably mythical.
Bias of Priene is sometimes placed at
their head, but Thales and Solon are the
best known. Pittakos was a wise re-
former and king in Mitylene, and there
is one figure of his head in existence
which is found in the Bibliotheque Na-
tionale, in Paris, on a coin of later date
from Mitylene.
The life of each one of them "was
doubtless thrilling with interest, but the
utmost that we can do to revive their ac-
tivities is to associate the few events that
are known with the places which were the
theater of their actions and which are also
a part of our own surroundings.
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BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST AND
BATAK HIGHLANDS OF SUMATRA
BY MELVIN A. HALL
With Photographs by the Author
A FEW low islands, eventually to be
gathered to the shores of the im-
mense mother-island by steadily
encroaching alluvial deposit, appeared
and dropped from sight in the sultry haze
of mid-afternoon as we steamed up the
Straits of Malacca. Sumatra itself was
never visible, although on the other side
of the Straits, to the northeast, the palm-
fringed Malayan coast and blue dorsal
range of the interior remained all day in
view.
But the Sumatran east coast is so low
and flat that its long, dark-green out-
line can seldom be distinguished above
the black water before the ship actually
approaches its harbor.
It is a swampy, unhealthy coast, formed
by the deposits of silt washed down from
the mountains in the periodic inundations
of an enormous annual rainfall. In this
way the whole of the broad plain be-
tween mountains and sea, which, behind
its mangrove fringe, forms the splendidly
rich lands of rubber and tobacco estates,
has gradually been built up and is steadily
being extended.
The mangrove plays a considerable
part in this extension because of its re-
markable powers of reproduction. Grow-
ing partly in the shallow water of the
littoral, these trees spread out a labyrinth
of surface roots that act as a framework
for the accumulating mud, which in the
course of time rises above the surface
and forms land.
CURIOUS SIGHTS ON THE RIVER
The ripe seeds of the mangrove do not
fall off, but germinate upon the parent
tree, growing downward in long, straight
shoots. Eventually these drop from their
own weight, and, falling upright in the
shoal water, sink to the muddy bottom
and there take root. Many fall beyond
the outer edge of the swamp, and as the
process continues more land is formed
and the coast-line is gradually pushed
farther out into the sea.
The morning after leaving Singapore
we sighted the thin, dark line of the
shore as the ship steamed in between
the closely set bamboo-and-string nets
of the Malay coast fishermen. Then the
water became the color of pea soup from
the river-brought silt of volcanic moun-
tains, and shortly after the first glimpse
of Sumatra we crept into Kuala Belawan,
one of the mouths of the Deli River, the
screw churning up the dirty yellow mud
into a frothy trail.
The shallow water and shifting mud-
banks of the coast make the location of
ports unreliable and frequently necessi-
tate their removal or abandonment after
they have once been established.
Although large steamers now dock in
the port of Deli, like most other Sumatran
ports it is but a broad, mud-colored
stream, winding sluggishly through dense
equatorial swamps.
The ship ploughed over the bar into
the midst of scenery typical of low rivers
near the line. Dripping mangroves, with
black, snake-like roots, shut in the river's
edge, only here and there grudgingly
yielding a little space to tiny coconut
groves where palm-thatched huts roosted
high on piles above the oily water.
A few sampans and narrow dug-out
canoes idled along the banks, the fierce
rays of the sun reflected from the ripples
in their wake and glistening on the bare
brown backs of their oarsmen.
Farther up-river a line of high-sterned
praus from Borneo, gayly colored and
carved, regarded the steamer with mis-
trustful, painted eyes. Their cargoes of
Bandjermasin matting for tobacco bales,
and anak kajoe (poles for tobacco dry-
ingf), and atap for thatchine roofs lay
piled high around their curious masts,
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
DRIVING THROUGH A TEAK FOREST NEAR MEDAN, AN IMPORTANT SEAPORT ON THE
NORTHEAST COAST OF SUMATRA
Of all the timbers of the world, teak is the most valuable. Its durability is remarkable,
rafters in some of the temples of India having served their purpose for more than a thou-
sand years. It is used for shipbuilding and interior paneling and in the manufacture of
furniture. It can be easily worked and is susceptible of a high polish. When properly sea-
soned, it neither cracks, shrinks, nor alters its shape. The teak is not one of the giants of
the jungle, however, for it seldom attains a height greater than 150 feet.
one rising upright amidships, the other
with a weird forward rake near the
sharp-pointed bow. Beyond, the steamer
rounded a bend in the river and tied up
to the dock, where groups of men in
immaculate white suits and white topees
awaited its arrival.
LANDING LABOR FOR SUMATRA
While waiting to supervise the unload-
ing of my automobile, I watched all the
fourth-class passengers as they were
counted, checked off, and landed.
The latter process, however, was so
interesting that I did not begrudge the
time it required.
All the deck space not reserved for
first-cabin passengers was packed with
coolies from Batavia and littered with
their effects. A considerable number of
them had camped in, on, and under my
motor — chattering, smoking, combing
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
71
• &, : ' •' ' ,,M . ^ , if"
DRYING-SHEDS FOR CURING THE FAMOUS SUMATRAN TOBACCO
These atap-thatched buildings are no longer used for tobacco, however, for this plain has
been given over to rubber trees, which are being extensively planted nowadays.
each other's hair, tending their babies,
and munching little packages of strange
food folded up in plantain leaves.
They were contract coolies on their
way to labor on the tobacco and rubber
estates of Deli and were chiefly Javanese,
though a few Bandjarese from Borneo,
Klings of southern Indian origin, Malays,
and other nationalities appeared among
them.
SUMATRA is THIRTEEN TIMES THE SIZE
OF HOIXAND
Sumatra is an immense island, nearly
four times the size of Java and thirteen
times larger than Holland itself, but its
war-decimated population amounts to less
than 3,200,000, most of which, for vari-
ous reasons, is not available for labor.
Because of this the island is barely be-
ginning to attract attention, although
more favorably situated than Java and
richer in natural resources.
'~>/VtJava is a country of magnificent reali-
zation, Sumatra one of great future."
In the development of that future practi-
cally all the labor has to be imported on
short-term contracts. Chiefly it is Chinese,
which is expensive ; Kling, which is
viewed with disfavor by the British In-
dian Government, or Javanese, which is
unwilling to come and does not thrive in
the climate.
The tribulations of a labor contractor
from the time of collecting his gang to
their final safe delivery in Sumatra are
legion and, to one disinterested, very
amusing.
The Javanese is tractable and physi-
cally a fair laborer, but neither very am-
bitious nor reliable. He likes his feast
days, his rice harvesting, his little com-
forts and luxuries, and is not eager to
forego them for the uncertain induce-
ments of foreign lands. But his mind
is receptive, and the clever contractor,
fortifying it with well-chosen stories of
fortunes easily made, belittling the coolie's
fears and objections, is often able to se-
cure his contract by the timely offer of a
new sarong (the chief article of dress
worn in the Malay Archipelago) and
perhaps a month's wages in advance.
But here the contractor's troubles be-
gin. Unless carefully guarded, the cool-
ie's enthusiasm is very apt to wane, and
the moment for departure arrives with
72
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A UTTLE GOSSIP NOW AND THEN IS RELISHED EVEN BY PRIMITIVE WOMEN: AT A
KARO-BATAK MARKET
coolie, new sarong, and month's wages
unaccounted for.
LURING THE JAVANESE COOLIE FROM THE
CONTRACTOR
Even when safely gathered on board
ship and the coast of Java has been sunk,
there remains still to be cleared the inter-
vening port of Singapore. There, in dis-
guise, wily touts for the Malayan coolie
brokers smuggle themselves aboard, no
matter how vigilant the ship's officers
may be, for labor is everywhere in de-
mand. With much astuteness they pro-
ceed to poison the minds of the already-
frightened Sumatra-bound Javanese.
"Sumatra? A country of tigers and
ferocious savages who eat nothing but
coolies; a cold land, where there is no
sun, no rice ; where laborers are unpaid,
cruelly treated, and whence they rarely
return !"
So the tout whispers on, adding terror
to their own premonitions, refuting all
that the contractor had said, and in the
end offering to aid in their immediate
escape from the horrible fate in store, to
the tempting security of fortune and hap-
piness in the Malay States.
Strict watch is kept over the ship while
in Singapore, but scarcely a trip is taken
that a few of those under contract are
not among the missing when the final
count is made. For every one lost the
first mate is personally fined, I think
about fifty gulden ; but if he brings a cer-
tain percentage safely to their destination
he receives a liberal bonus. Consequently
the final checking off is fraught with deep
anxiety for all concerned.
STRIKING COLOR EFFECTS IN WOMEN'S
ADORNMENTS
Single file, as I watched, the ship-load
of coolies passed before me and down the
gangway between two officers and a con-
tractor's agent, who checked them as they
went — men, women, boys, and girls, with
folded mats under their arms and their
possessions tied up in long cloths slung
around their necks and resting on their
hips. Only those with babies were kept
apart and counted last, lest one tiny head
should be overlooked.
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
73
THESE FEMALE PORTERS ARE NOT AS HEAVILY BURDENED AS THEY APPEAR TO BE |
THEIR HEAD PACKS CONSIST OF FINE MATTING
They were a picturesque lot in their
gay-colored clothes. Most of the women
were bareheaded, their black hair brushed
back and knotted behind, with strings of
coral beads hanging around their necks
and big buttons of gold and silver, jade,
amber, or ebony extending their pierced
ear-lobes. Brilliant scarves half-con-
cealed their fresh white corsages, and
leather belts with massive silver buckles
encircled sarongs of many hues.
Around the heads of nearly all the men
were twisted the universal brown ker-
chiefs of Java flaunting starched corners ;
and, in addition to their sarongs and a
few short coats and pajama tops, there
was a noticeable partiality for white un-
dershirts and long pink drawers.
Following the others came a tall Pun-
jabi Mohammedan with a long gray
beard. His dignified bearing and the
striking eyes of the Indian Mussulman,
which looked straight out from under an
enormous turban, marked him at once as
a very different type from his casual Ma-
lay brethren.
Two hours more elapsed before the
next landing party, ourselves and the car.
finally left the ship. The dock was many
feet below the deck and the spaces in
which the car had to be turned were all
shorter than its length.
A mathematician might have amused
himself by figuring out the possible com-
binations in which that car could have
been jammed — I am sure we missed
none — and when finally it was disentan-
gled from the forest of stanchions, rail-
ings, projecting corners, and other checks
to its progress, the crew and I breathed
deep sighs of relief.
But as Belawan is isolated in the man-
grove swamps, except for the long new
bridge of the Deli Railway, one further
struggle was necessary before the motor
was really "landed" in Sumatra, and we
toilsomely manipulated it onto an under-
sized railway truck. Then I relaxed into
a seat and made faces back at the silver-
gray monkeys which derided me from the
trees, as the train took us up to Medan,
fourteen miles inland.
The capital of the Government of the
East Coast of Sumatra and headquarters
EVEN THE CARTS IN SUMATRA ARE THATCH-ROOFED
Central Africa has not a greater variety of animal life than Sumatra. Elephants, tigers,
myriad apes and monkeys, two-horned rhinoceroses, and the most gorgeous butterflies in the
world are to be found in the magnificent jungles of the island. The plant life is amazing
in its luxuriance. Some varieties of bamboo shoot up like giant stalks of asparagus, at the
rate of a foot or more a day, and in three or four months are waving their fronded tops
above centuries-old monarchs of the forest.
PRIMITIVE TRANSPORTATION AND MODERN COMMUNICATION SIDE BY SIDE IN
SUMATRA. NOTE THE TELEPHONE WIRES
74
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
75
of the Amsterdam-Deli Company, the
most important tobacco company of the
Indies, is a modern town, created by the
Dutch and laid out in a very attractive
manner.
MEDAN A CITY OF MANY MIXED RACES
There is an airy appearance and a cheer-
ful, "white-man's" atmosphere about the
official buildings around its spacious
square and the cool, shaded streets of its
European quarter.
The white bungalows are extremely
attractive in their green and well-kept
grounds, shaded by tall royal palms, rub-
ber trees, bamboo, banyans, "flames of
the forest," travelers' trees, and other
tropical growth.
The huge buildings of the Deli Com-
pany, with a European hospital and a
well-appointed asylum for native immi-
grants, are almost hidden in the dense
verdure of a park filled with beautiful
shade trees.
Farther out are the native compounds
and various Asiatic quarters, having each
its own characteristics.
The Chinese compound, with its elab-
orate temple, bears the unmistakable
mark of the Celestial Republic, with adap-
tations to East Indian conditions. Its
houses, joined together in even-fronted
rows, faced with cement or white and
tinted plaster, with carved and colored
decorations and roofs flaring slightly up-
ward at the corners, are much the same
as are found in Malayan towns. Many
of the stores and a large part of the trade
of Medan are in the hands of Chinese,
who, as usual, are extremely prosperous.
Medan's prosperity and importance are
due to its location in the center of the
rich tobacco lands; and owing to this,
with the consequent demand for labor
and to the scarcity of native Sumatrese,
its population of about 14,000 is a very
mixed one.
THE "BIG DAY," SUBSTITUTE FOR SUNDAY
We had arrived in the midst of hari-
basar and so were immediately intro-
duced to this interesting feature of Su-
matran life.
The tobacco, rubber, and various other
estates of the east coast are spread over
such a vast amount of territory, with so
comparatively small a number of white
men in their administration, that the
Dutch planters and managers outside of
the head office and shipping ports are apt
to be more or less isolated from the so-
ciety of their own kind. Since it is quite
without significance to the Asiatic labor-
ers, Sunday is not recognized as a holiday
on the estates, but in its place a substitute
has been instituted in the fortnightly
hari-basar, occurring about the first and
fifteenth of each month and literally
meaning "big day" or "holiday." Both
are pertinent.
On these days all the planters — the
general term for white men in any capac-
ity on an estate, either their own or a
company's — who are able to do so, flock
in from their estates to the towns, those
within reach of Medan naturally seeking
the capital.
Very few are free to celebrate every
hari-bazar, and when they do come into
town, usually arriving the night before
the "big day" with weeks of silence and
loneliness to make up for, they waste very
little of their time in sleep. Neither does
any one else whose room happens to be
in the vicinity of their gathering places.
The club and hotels are filled, as they
were the night we arrived, with ruddy,
healthy-looking Dutchmen in fresh white
suits, sitting around big tables in unre-
mitting conversation, while vast quanti-
ties of gin and bitters and other beverages
are consumed, but with very little effect
on these hardy men of the open air.
COMFORT AND PRIVACY IN A MEDAN
HOT-EL
Among its other advantages, Medan
possesses one of the best hotels in the
Netherlands Indies. The Hotel de Boer
is built upon the plan largely used
throughout Farther India — the dining-
room, cafe, office, and kitchen by them-
selves in one single-story building, open
on all sides to the air and shaded by large
covered verandas and splendid big trees.
Around this, forming three sides of a
square separated by a driveway from the
central building, the bed-rooms occupy
the entire depth of a second single-story
structure.
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77
DWELLING IN SUMATRA IS ITS OWN BARNYARD
Contrary to the custom, the floor of this porch is made of whole bamboo poles rather
than the split pieces. The floors of most of the houses sag in the middle. The roofs are
of thatch, made of the leaves of the atap palm.
78
79
Each room has its own covered veranda
in front, cool and shady and screened
from view, and its own bath in the rear.
The comfort and privacy of this style of
construction is unequaled for warm cli-
mates.
With the aid of the proprietor of the
hotel, I procured a servant, a Malay-
speaking Kling, to take with us into the
interior. Kling is the term used in Malay
countries for Tamils and occasionally for
other races of Southern India who come
to these countries as settlers or for trade.
(All other continental Indians are called
Bengalis.) Joseph was a Tamil, a Cath-
olic from French Pondicherry, and a very
good servant.
THE WHITE) MAN'S ADVENT RESISTED
WITH FANATICAL COURAGE
The whole of Sumatra has presented
a very different problem to Dutch coloni-
zation from the organization of Java,
with ten times its population. The in-
habitants of the larger island, though
few in numbers, have resisted foreign
interference with the most stubborn and
fanatical courage. Each one of its nu-
merous tribes and principalities has had
to be subdued in turn, a long and difficult
process, as there was none of the almost
docile submission of the Javanese.
Sumatra is immense in area and be-
tween its different sections there is little
inland communication, that which exists
being of a treacherous and warlike char-
acter. Much of the island remains un-
explored ; other parts, as the whole of
Achin, in the north, are still in a state of
protracted warfare, which seems destined
to end only with the eventual extermina-
tion of the resisting tribes.
The Achinese war alone has cost over
200.000 lives and been an expense to Hol-
land of $200.000,000. The first hostili-
ties date back to 1599, but for the last
forty years fighting has been continuous,
a guerrilla warfare of surprises and am-
bushes in the jungles, in which the deter-
mined resistance of the Achinese contin-
ues undiscouraged, although their gov-
ernment has been deposed and all their
towns and strategic positions occupied by
Dutch troops.
Leaving the capital, our road at first led
through some miles of country dense and
green with vegetation, with tiny thatched
native huts making picturesque brown
spots in the midst of fruit trees and coco
palms. As we approached nearer to the
hills, this gave way to open plains cov-
ered with high grass and low bushes, the
characteristic tobacco land of Deli.
THROUGH THE FAMOUS TOBACCO LANDS
The larger estates, especially those of
the Deli Company, are divided into sec-
tions under the administration of assist-
ant managers. Each year only one-tenth
to a fifth of their enormous area is under
cultivation, since to maintain the high
quality of the tobacco grown the land is
left fallow for from five to ten years after
each crop. During the first year the na-
tives are permitted to grow rice upon the
fallow fields ; then the soil is left to itself
and to the bushes and rank grass which
soon cover it.
The tobacco crop is a rich one, but the
demands it makes upon the land and upon
labor are such that it is npt surprising to
find the newer estates annually devoting
more and more of their attention and ter-
ritories to rubber and other less exacting
products.
Gradually ascending in altitude, we
passed through many miles of these mon-
otonous, fallow-lying plains, their deso-
late appearance only increased by an oc-
casional row of unused drying-sheds
and a few fire-blackened trunks of huge
toealang trees, solitary survivors of the
primeval forest.
The sections actually in cultivation,
however, were extremely interesting, with
many acres of magnificent tobacco plants
growing to a height of five or six feet in
closely planted parallel ridges. Frequently
they hedged the road on both sides and
extended in unbroken rows as far as the
eye could follow over the rolling fields.
EACH RACE TO ITS OWN TASK
The work of the plantation is many-
sided and the various nationalities em-
ployed are usually engaged in their own
distinctive branches of labor. Thus, al-
though sometimes replaced by other races,
Chinese predominate in the actual work
on the1 tobacco plants ; the bullock-cart
80
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
AN ELABORATE PIGEON-HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE OF
KEBON DJAHE
Sumatra has an area exceeding the combined areas of the
New England States, New York, and Pennsylvania. If it
were superimposed on this continent, it would extend from
St. Louis to Boston.
drivers are Klings ; the carpenters are
Boyans ; the Javanese are woodmen,
road-builders, and gardeners ; and the
Bataks and Sumatra Malays, who are not
obtainable in large numbers nor reliable
for sustained labor, clear the land pre-
paratory to planting, and build roads and
sheds.
The ubiquitous Sikh is often found in
his favorite capacity of guard or police-
man.
At the time of our trip the tobacco
plants were half to three-quarters grown
and the drying-sheds were
being prepared to receive
them. Upon some of the
more advanced estates the
lower leaves of the plants
had already been picked
and were hanging in the
sheds, threaded on long
strings and labeled, while
wood fires smouldered at
intervals on the ground.
Lines of two - wheeled
bullock carts with loose
roofs of thatched palm
leaves, matting, or even
sheet tin, rumbled slowly
up and down the roads,
hauling supplies and ma-
terial for the estates. Many
of the slow-plodding Indian
oxen were magnificent big
Guzerat animals, with large
humps and long silky dew-
laps, and, with their red-
turbaned Tamil drivers sit-
ting on the floor of the
open- fronted carts, were
strongly reminiscent of the
tea plantations of Ceylon.
THE HIGHWAYS OF
SUMATRA
The road was very good,
wide, well made, and much
better than I had expected.
There is practically no rock
in this part of the island,
and the metaling for the
roads must be imported ;
nevertheless, the chief high-
ways of the coastal plains
and the pass over the moun-
tains are all macadamized.
In the highlands, where metaling has
not yet been attempted, such roads as
exist are of a very different type. These
are of dirt or clay, well built and main-
tained, and said to be very good in dry
weather.
Unfortunately, we were there when
seventeen days of continuous rainfall had
reduced them to an almost impassable
state of soft mud and slippery clay, and,
while our experience is perhaps hardly
a fair criterion, I can scarcely believe that
with the enormous annual rainfall of
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
Sumatra such is not the condition a large
part of the time.
The road from Medan to the interior,
however, gave no warning of what was
to follow. Leaving the plains and the
tobacco plantations, it gradually ascended
through wilder country, and presently,
with well-engineered zigzags, began to
climb into the mountains.
At 3,000 feet altitude we came to the
tiny sanatorium of Bandar Baroe, a re-
cuperating station in the clearer atmos-
phere of the hills for Europeans of the
Deli Company enervated by the un-
healthy life of the lowlands. It was a
wee bungalow of three or four rooms
with a wide, pointed roof of thatch, and
from its perch on top of the usual piles
it looked out between tall tree-ferns
over the plain below.
Here we spent the night, having first
applied to the Controleur for permis-
sion. The native in charge had no sup-
plies, so we had recourse to our own for
the first of a series of "tinned meals"
that continued without interruption until
we returned to Medan.
A WAGON TRAIN OF SHIFTING SHADOWS
In the evening, stretched out in com-
fortable wicker chairs on the bungalow's
little veranda, we watched a train of
loaded buffalo carts winding stiffly up
the hill in a heavy rain. The air was so
fresh and cool it was difficult to think
of the hot, sultry coast less than forty
miles away. The rain pattered gently
on the ground and rolled off the over-
hanging thatch of the eaves in big drops,
while the creaking of wheels and soft
cries of the drivers drifted up from the
laboring freighters on the road.
For more than an hour the train crept
slowly past in a single file of vague, in-
determinable shapes, with swaying lan-
terns casting dim circles of light and
queer shifting shadows in the misty
darkness. We watched in fascination
while the tiny spots appeared out of the
jungle below and lengthened into a twink-
ling line which wound up past the bunga-
low and disappeared one by one above us
into the night and the forest.
Early the next morning we continued
our climb over the pnss. The semi-
tropical vegetation which had succeeded
the coarse grass of the denuded plains
gave way in turn to magnificent virgin
forests, unbroken except for the narrow,
winding path of the road.
THE SUMATRAN JUNGLE
The enormous straight-trunked trees,
ensnared by giant creepers, vines, and
huge air plants, made so thick a canopy
overhead that only a dim twilight filtered
in, and that failed to reach the ground
through the dense, impenetrable tangle of
vegetation.
Little brooks of clear water rushed
steeply down the mountainside, hurrying
along to the sluggish yellow rivers of the
plains their tiny contributions for the ex-
tension of Sumatra's coast. Butterflies
flitted in the blue-black shadows ; jungle
fowl, their brilliance all subdued in the
obscure half light, vanished silently from
the edges of the road as we approached,
and other little creeping and fugitive
things sought the security of the unbe-
traying jungle.
Insects with voices out of all propor-
tion to their probable size screamed
shrilly from the branches, and the occa-
sional whistle of a bird or the dull boom
of a falling tree echoed through the
silent, dark recesses of the wood.
Much of the life of the jungle we saw
along this little frequented road which
opened up the very heart of the virgin
forest, but infinitely more were we our-
selves observed. Sometimes the crack
of a broken branch betrayed the hurried
withdrawal of a larger animal, or a
whirr of wings that of some startled
bird ; but only one's own sixth sense told
of the hidden watchers who silently fol-
lowed our progress with wondering, un-
friendly eyes.
PURSUED BY HOSTS OF CURIOUS MONKEYS
The swaying of branches overhead as
we zigzagged up the pass did not mean
wind in the quiet forest ; it meant mon-
keys, and their antics were an unfailing
amusement, whether we kept on or stop-
ped to watch them. Some waited in
silence until we drew near, then plunged
back into the forest with a crash of
branches which inevitably produced on
us the shock they seemed to have de-
signed. Some tore furiously along be-
82
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
side us through the trees in a desperate
attempt to cross in front of the car be-
fore we could catch up to them.
When they did cross, far overhead, in
a stream of small gray bodies flying
through the air between the treetops,
they as furiously raced along on the other
side and crossed back again. Others
clung to swaying branches and bounded
up and down in a frenzy of excitement,
shrieking gibes in sharp crescendo as we
passed.
Often in the midst of their agitation
they suddenly lost all interest and forth-
with paid no more attention to us ; or sat
in silence with weazened, whiskered
faces peering solemnly down from the
trees.
As in Ceylon, it would have been dis-
astrous to leave the motor unguarded
anywhere in a Sumatra forest, for every-
thing that prying fingers could unscrew
or remove would soon be reposing merrily
in the tree-tops.
There were many tribes of the monkey
people : little black fellows with very long
tails ; troops of impudent brown ones ;
shy black-and-white monkeys with fine
silky coats ; and hordes of big gray beasts
who chased and tweaked each other,
evoking shrieks of protest.
Near by, yet aloof from the bands that
fed and gamboled together, were a few
enormous black bulks which from the
distance might have been curious vegeta-
ble formations in the trees. But they
moved, and I stopped to examine one
through the glasses, when my mother
suddenly called my attention to some-
thing on the other side.
From a leafy branch less than forty
feet away a great round head protruded
and a solemn black face, comically like a
sulky old savage, gazed out upon us. For
a few minutes it stared in silence ; then
with unhurried, deliberate movements re-
turned to a leisurely search for food.
WATCHING THE POWERFUL ORANG-
OUTANG
"Orang-outang," I whispered. "Only
found here and in Borneo. There are
two more on the other side. . . . See
him pull that branch down !" He reached
up one tremendous, sinewy arm and with
the greatest ease drew down a branch that
would scarcely have bent beneath the
weight of a heavy man. Holding it with
one hand, he pawed idly over it with the
other, occasionally transferring some
morsel to his mouth and promptly spitting
it out if it displeased him.
When the branch was duly inspected
he released it, and the swish! of leaves
as it flew back through the air gave some
idea of the strength that had bent it.
There was no need of whispering, for
although we watched this one for half an
hour with the glasses he ignored our pres-
ence completely, and except for the first
brief inspection not one of the big apes
showed a sign of consciousness of our
proximity. They were very well aware
of it, but were too powerful for fear, and
the orang-outang rarely troubles those
who do not bother him. We were not
inclined to regret this indifference, how-
ever, for the "old man of the forest"
can be extremely disagreeable when he
chooses.
AN UNSOCIABLE JUNGLE BEAST
The other monkeys and apes all moved
in troops, but the orang-outangs went
alone — severely alone — for their smaller
relations seemed to give them a wide
berth.
Unlike the monkeys, they appeared con-
servative of energy, and every movement
was carried out with a careful delibera-
tion most amusing to watch. Their huge
black bodies were very conspicuous in the
trees ; their trunks thicker than a man's,
with short, heavy legs and arms of extra-
ordinary length and power.
Apparently quite satisfied with the food
within reach, the great apes moved lazily
along the branches, holding on with their
feet and scarcely changing their positions
while we watched them. One eventually
decided to transfer his operations else-
where and sauntered off through the
trees, swinging his upright body from
branch to branch with powerful, far-
reaching arms. His movements were still
slow and deliberate, but the progress he
made was astonishing, though now and
then interrupted as he stopped to investi-
gate some delicacy.
The last we saw of him he was hang-
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
83
IN FRONT OF EACH SUMATRAN DWELLING THERE STANDS A SMALL SQUARE BUILDING
WHICH IS USED FOR A "GOEDANG," OR RICE GRANARY
ing serenely by one long arm, indolently
exploring a branch with both feet and his
other hand.
The Boekit Barisan, a series of moun-
tain ranges running the whole length of
the island near the western coast, splits
in the north into parallel chains which en-
circle the broad Karo-Batak plateau and
the vast area of Toba Lake. In these
partially explored ranges there have al-
ready been discovered ninety volcanoes,
twelve of which are now active, the con-
structive and destructive forces of Su-
matra's formation.
The road from Deli crosses over the
northeastern part of the parallel chains
into the Batak Highlands, as the plateau
is called, by a pass between the mountains
Sibajak and Baros.
As we neared the summit of the pass a
narrow break in the forest revealed a
superb view through the trees, over the
blue ravine and densely timbered moun-
tainside, to the wide coastal plain shim-
mering in the heat-haze below ; then the
foliage again closed in until we reached
the height-of-land and looked out on the
other side.
A dull, treeless expanse, scarcely lower
than the top of the pass, stretched out
before us in limitless brown waves, a
desolate tangle of grass broken only by
detached volcanic heights. Two active
volcanoes, the northernmost of the range,
towered threateningly above the others —
Sibajak guarding the entrance through
which crept the highland road ; Sinaboeng
rising from the plateau in majestic isola-
tion, its smoke-crowned peak and deep
purple sides outlined against the heavy
white clouds that hung behind it.
A LAND THAT NEEDS PEOPLE
The first strong impression of loneli-
ness and monotonous solitude that the
highlands gave was little changed by the
few scattered compounds and occasional
patches of cultivation later revealed as
we progressed.
In common with the greater part of
Sumatra, which could easily support
twenty-five times its present population,
this section is sparsely inhabited and the
villages are small and far apart.
The Batak tribes lead a communistic
life, and outside of the hedged confines
84
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE SUMATRAN MOTHER IS NEVER PREVENTED FROM DOING HER DAILY STINT
WEAVING BY HER LATEST BORN, WHO IS STRAPPED ACROSS HER BACK
of their compounds — each a little cluster
of huts around a large central house —
very few buildings are found. The Ba-
taks are mostly peaceful and industrious,
occupying themselves with agriculture
and farming as well as in hunting and
fishing. Their agriculture depends upon
the rainfall, which, however, rarely fails ;
but it consists only of little patches of
rice and other grain struggling weakly
against the all-encompassing rank growth
and is barely sufficient to supply their own
modest needs.
Not far from the top of the pass we
overhauled the long train of freighters
which we had watched in the rain of
the evening before creeping up the moun-
tain side past Bandar Baroe. The two-
wheeled carts, with low, roughly thatched
roofs of branches, extended in a close
single file far out across the plain, with
the thin legs of their red-turbaned Tamil
drivers dangling between the shafts.
The buffaloes were dry and dusty, and
by the discouraged droop of their heads
seemed to express deep discontent with
the wallowless uplands. Among the slate-
gray backs of the slow-plodding line, half
a dozen light pink albinos — an absurd
color on an animal of that size — regarded
us suspiciously out of curious white eyes.
THE SIMPLICITY OE THE WOMEN'S ATTIRE
Except for this train, we saw no vehi-
cles in the highlands, but several times
passed little groups of pedestrians walk-
ing single file along the roadside, on their
way to or from one of the markets that
are held at intervals in the different
Batak villages. Some were even tramp-
ing from the other side of the mountain,
for since the building of the road the
Bataks frequently trade with the nearer
compounds of the Deli plain.
Almost all were women, balancing
heavily packed baskets of fine matting on
their heads, with babies astride their hips,
supported by a long scarf tied over one
shoulder. The simplicity and similarity
of their dress was striking, after the
variegated colors favored in Java and
Malaya, ope dark blue garment — a long
sarong hung loose from under the arms
or around the waist — sufficing in the ma-
jority of cases.
Their turban-like head-dresses were of
the same dark - blue cloth, peculiarly
folded, with drooping corners sometimes
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
85
A NATIVE CLOTH FACTORY
Evidently "industrial employment" does not tend to race suicide in Sumatra.
used to support part of the weight of
enormous coiled silver earrings.
We rarely saw men on the road ; the
few that accompanied the women strolled
along behind, quite unencumbered with
either baggage or babies, and saluted us
with a friendly courtesy rather unex-
pected in a tribe once so notorious for
cannibalism. Their garments were quite
similar to those of the women, with a
shorter sarong tied around the waist, and
often a coat or short pair of breeches in
addition.
Both men and women were barefoot,
as usual, and although a stripe or a plaid
occasionally varied the dark blue of their
clothes, exceptions to the general style
were very rare.
The earrings worn by many of the
women were of extraordinary dimen-
sions. Only the wealthier could afford
them, for each pair was worth about one
hundred and fifty gulden and must have
represented a considerable part of the
family treasure. They consisted of long
circular rods of solid silver, about three-
eighths of an inch in diameter, passed
through the upper part of the ear and
bent back into the form of double, re-
versed coils, the coils projecting far for-
ward on the left side, to the rear on the
right. Their weight would have torn
them from the ears had they not been
partially supported by the corners of the
headdresses, and there was apparently no
way of removal without first uncoiling
one side.
THE BATAKS, KINDRED OF THE HEAD-
HUNTING DAYAKS
The Batak people are in many ways
the most interesting and remarkable of
all the tribes of Sumatra, although as yet
comparatively little is known of them.
Ethnologically they are related to the
head-hunting Dayaks of Borneo.* Their
type has not been modified by contact
with the outside world, nor even with
the more advanced peoples of the coast,
and their state of civilization and de-
velopment is still quite rudimentary, al-
*See "Sarawak, the Land of the White
Rajahs," by Harrison W. Smith, in THE GEO-
GRAPHIC for February, 1919.
86
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
AS A SOCIAL CENTER THE HAND LOOM AND THE YARN REEL IN SUMATRA TAKE THE
PLACE OF THE VILLAGE FOUNTAIN IN THE NEAR EAST
Many of the sarongs made by the natives are elaborately interwoven with gold threads.
They are lacking in originality of pattern, however. The silver filigree-work of the men is
much more artistic.
though it is thought that they were once
more advanced than they are today.
The reports of early Arabs trading
with the Sumatran coast gave the Bataks
their evil notoriety as cannibals, eaters
of captives, foreigners, and their own
aged and decrepit relatives.
The half million Bataks scattered
throughout the mountains and uplands
of northern and central Sumatra are
roughly divided into groups according to
differences in dialect. Over a fifth pro-
fess Mohammedanism and about half
that number Christianity ; but in both
cases the faith amounts to little more
than a form of superstition, showing only
vague traces of those beliefs and hardly
affecting the village law of racial customs
and traditions.
The remainder, including the Kara-
Bataks and the tribes of Toba Lake, are
animistic pagans, and the circumcision
practiced by the former, although doubt-
less due to some forgotten Mohammedan
influences, is not a religious rite.
It is now general in the case of most of
these tribes to refer to cannibalism as a
practice of the past and at present non-
existent.
CHEATING DEATH BY GIVING ONE'S BODY
TO BE EATEN
As to whether or not any tribes con-
tinue the practice of eating their aged
and decrepit relatives I found a diverg-
ence of opinion among the European
residents of Sumatra. This form of
cannibalism is by no means rare, and
usually consists of the ritual killing and
consumption of old and infirm males by
the younger members of their own tribe.
When the aging warrior feels the wan-
ing of his powers, he climbs into a tree
encircled by his relations, who dance and
chant below. The old man presently
drops to the ground, symbolic of the fall
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
87
THE COMMUNAL HOUSE AT KAMPONG KINALANG, SUMATRA
Note the means by which the thatched roof is anchored, awakening recollections of the
stone-weighted chalets of Switzerland. Many of the houses in Sumatran villages are com-
munal in character, three or four families living in the same dwelling. In places where the
natives have come in contact with the Dutch, the interiors of their homes are not without
modern conveniences, such as beds, pillows, and canopies. These houses are more comfort-
able than those of any other people in the Dutch East Indies-
.of a ripe fruit, and is knocked on the
head and promptly eaten. In this both
parties are mutually benefited: the con-
sumers in partaking of the wisdom of
their late progenitor; the eaten ancestor
by finding immortality as a dimly con-
scious member of the bodies of his strong,
young descendants.
To an animistic form of religion which
regards the decay of a body in the ground
as the end of all existence, this method
of cheating death is welcomed alike by
the failing tribesman and his younger re-
lations. Not infrequently the practice is
extended to the unfortunate strangers
falling into the hands of such tribes, who
are devoured that their capturers may
receive the benefit of whatever wisdom
they happen to embody. To this, rather
than to a mere partiality for human
flesh, cannibalism as practiced by many
tribes may probably be attributed.
Dark clouds presaging the usual rain
of afternoon had already appeared on
the horizon when we stopped for a hasty
tiffin by the roadside. The rains of many
afternoons had reduced the road to a
bottomless morass of mud and clay, for
we had left behind the last traces of
metaling a few miles after clearing the
mountains.
While the average altitude of the plains
is about four thousand feet, the level of
the rolling surface varies more than a
thousand, and the steep clay hills become
appallingly slippery when wet. Up these
the car barely crawled, moving crab-
fashion, with the rear wheels revolving
furiously in spite of "non-skid" tire
chains, and flinging unbroken streams of
clay-mud in all directions, which my boy
Joseph vainly tried to dodge while he
threw armfuls of cut grass under our
track.
On the down grades we tobogganed
with hair-raising speed, wheels locked,
and the whole road surface sliding with
us, frequently finishing up in the ditch
if there happened to be curves on the
descent. Fortunately the ditches were
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BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
89
not very deep, but they were quite
enough, in their saturated condition, to
call out the shovel before the car could
be extricated.
Near the mud-hole in which we elected
to stop for tiffin, fifty or sixty Batak
women were holding a market, all squat-
ting about on the ground, surrounded by
piles of dried palm leaves, rattan, and
big woven baskets full of grain, dried
fish, and various other comestibles.
As seemed generally to be the case
throughout the highlands wherever work
was in progress, men were conspicuously
absent, and the women bargained and
gossiped or waited for some one to come
and bargain with them, paying little heed
to my intrusion in search of photographs.
A few were young and not uncomely in
feature, but the vast majority appeared
old and hideous, the inevitable results of
early jnarriage, overwork, and, above all,
the custom of filing the teeth.
THE PRACTICE OF FILING THE TEETH
This practice is quite common among
the tribes of Sumatra, and with the
Bataks it is invariable among both sexes.
The operation, an extremely painful one,
is begun at an early age and continued
until maturity, when both sets of teeth
have been completely filed away down to
the jawbone. Although the Bataks' usual
food of rice, syrup, and finely chopped
meat and fish is soft and easily digested,
their inability to chew must be a serious
physical disadvantage.
The custom originated as a form of
personal adornment, no more strange
than many similar practices among other
wild tribes of the tropics ; but the reasons
for it do not seem to have been inherited
with the practice itself. To my repeated
inquiries the answer was always the same,
the usual native explanation for native
customs — "Batak people have always
done so."
The afternoon rain came up earlier
than usual and caught us on a winding
ascent to one of the higher levels of the
plain. Our doubts of ever reaching the
top grew very acute, but after many
futile attempts and the burial of a great
deal of grass in the deep ruts made by
the whirling rear wheels, the car strug-
gled up and we were saved from another
night in the open.
The rain was falling in floods when we
finally splashed and skidded into the lit-
tle compound of Sariboe Dolok and
sought the meager protection of a tiny
rest-house. It had two dark little rooms
with a kitchen house in the rear, and as I
groped my way inside I sprawled over
the body of a large tiger. It was quite
dead, but the encounter was somewhat
startling.
The house boasted of little in the way
of furniture or supplies and the night
was very cold, but we were comparatively
dry and were offered the luxury of a
chicken for supper.
"Luxury" is perhaps a trifle eulogistic
for the rubber-like fowl that was set be-
fore us. Had we been able to eat him,
we might, like the Batak cannibals, have
absorbed the wisdom of his hardy ex-
perience; but life had been too long and
death too recent to admit of any such
liberties with the corpse. ,
Sariboe Dolok, the capital of Simelun-
gen and Karolanden, is not of the impor-
tance that its official title might suggest.
It is a lonely settlement of eight or ten
native houses, an opium store, the guest-
house, and the bungalow of the Assistant
Resident, whose life there must be any-
thing but socially gay. This courteous
official spoke excellent English, as do the
majority of Dutch in the colonies, and,
besides affording a great deal of informa-
tion, made us a present of six eggs — a
welcome addition to our tinned supplies,
as we had found eggs an unprocurable
commodity, even where chickens were
to be had.
I also learned from him that the Kam-
pong Kebon Djahe, architecturally the
most interesting of the Karo-Batak vil-
lages and the one I was most anxious to
see, lay about twenty-five miles back by
the way we had come, on a hill nearly a
mile off, and not visible from, the main
road.
So the following morning we retraced
our way over the fearful clay-mud track,
by no means improved by the evening's
downpour, until we came to a half-oblit-
erated trail leading westward toward two
isolated little white houses. These formed
90
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A COMMUNAL HOUSE IN THE KARO-BATAK COUNTRY
The independence of the native women impresses European trav-
elers as most unusual for an Oriental country. This independence
may be the outgrowth of curious marriage customs. For instance,
among some tribes a man and woman do not establish a home of
their own. The husband remains among his own circle of relations
and resides only temporarily with his wife. The children remain in
the mother's custody and inherit all of her property, as well as half
of that earned by the father and mother together. The remaining
half goes to the father's sisters or to the children of those sisters.
the "Government Center," or "European
Quarter," of Kebon Djahe, and half a
mile beyond, perched on the top of a
steep clay bank above a small river, the
remarkable buildings of the native kam-
pong lay hidden away in a clump of trees.
A REMARKABLE BATAK COMMUNITY
In their chief features, all Batak kani-
pongs are more or less alike, but in ar-
chitectural elabora-
tion Kebon Djahe is
unique. Confined, as
usual, within a rect-
angular space of
smooth -trodden clay
hedged by a bamboo
thicket, the buildings
were all raised on
wooden piles, their
immense thatched
roofs and extraordi-
nary decorations com-
pletely dwarfing the
low, windowless sides.
Clumps of plantains,
encircled by fences of
woven bamboo, sprung
like oases from the
hard clay ground, and
innumerable evil-look-
ing dogs, chickens, and
black pigs scratched
or rooted in the rub-
bish beneath the
houses. The build-
ings ranged in size
from little granaries
and storehouses of
quaint and graceful
design to the huge
communal house,
where the men delib-
erate and banquet and
where the fetishistic
treasures of the vil-
lage are kept and
friendly strangers en-
tertained (see illustra-
tion on this page and
on page 76).
Each end of the
larger houses termi-
nated in a narrow
veranda of bamboo
poles, with a bamboo
ladder or a notched log leading up to
the small opening which it gave into the
dark interior.
The immense roofs sloped uniformly
on the sides from widely flaring ridges to
low, overhanging eaves, but the ends were
broken in about half way down, forming
great gables beneath the jutting ridge-
poles. Brilliantly colored matting woven
into artistic designs filled these triangular
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
91
AN ELABORATE "SCARECROW" ERECTED TO
PROTECT SUMATRAN GRAIN FIELDS
This lookout is made of bamboo, and from
the numerous poles long strings are run to all
parts of the field. On these strings are tied
bits of cloth, which are made to dance as the
boy watchman strikes the pole whenever feath-
ered marauders appear.
spaces and closed the similar ends of
huge dormer-like projections thrown out
from the roofs of the more pretentious
buildings.
On the communal house and a few
others, the vast roofs had a double over-
hang, with gigantic, top-heavy cupolas
towering above them, thatched and
shaped in miniature of the dormered
roofs below. From their corners, and
from the ends of all the ridge-poles and
the blind dormers carved wooden buffalo
heads with arched, white-painted necks
and savagely lowered horns, looked
fiercely down to challenge the intruder.
The cupolas were surmounted by curi-
ous wooden figures, some on foot, some
riding Batak ponies, but all, brilliantly
POUNDING GRAIN : IN SUMATRA THE
MILLER IS THE DAUGHTER
The European traveling in this island fre-
quently finds it difficult to get food, especially
in the season when vegetables are scarce. Dur-
ing the wet season the natives live almost ex-
clusively on rice. The cereal is cooked very
dry and eaten with salt and peppers.
colored, facing out over the treetops, with
hands raised in supplication toward the
little white house of the Dutch Con-
troleur on the plain.
A PIGEON-HOUSE AND A TOMB
Beside the communal house stood two
remarkable structures quite similar in de-
sign, both gay with colored carving and
decoration. One was a pigeon-house;
the other a tomb, from within which the
upright body of the last head-man looked
out on the village he had once directed.
Under the thatched roof of an open
building near by, a group of women with
long poles were pounding grain in hol-
lowed-out wooden logs, while other blue-
garbed figures, bearing flat trays or
92
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
*•
TWO LITTLE PIGS WENT TO MARKET
The live-stock market of a Sumatran village is a lively scene,
with its excellent cattle, closely resembling the Alderney type, its
porkers, wiry little ponies, goats, and Indian buffalo.
with deepest suspicion
and not infrequently
thwarted. With the ad-
ditional limitations of
low-hanging clouds and
lack of direct sunlight,
and the penetrating
moisture so disastrous to
films, photographic re-
sults in the Batak coun-
try were never wholly
dependable.
Kebon Djahe was un-
like any other village I
have ever seen. For sev-
eral hours we roamed
around, exploring the
compound, fascinated by
all its singular pictur-
esoueness — the remark-
able sky-line of the roofs
and their fantastic dec-
orations, the blue - clad
figures grouped at their
divers tasks below, and
the effective blending of
brilliant colors with the
green of bamboo leaves
and grayish brown of
the moss-covered thatch.
THE AUTOMOBILE DROWNS
IN MUD
The sun had gone
down unobserved in the
clouds and the early twi-
light had fallen before
we left Kebon Djahe.
woven baskets on their heads, moved
about the inclosure at their various occu-
pations. A few men idled around, but
showed little interest in any work more
strenuous than chewing sirih or follow-
ing the various strategies I had to employ
to obtain the photographs I wanted.
STRENUOUS OBJECTION RAISED TO THE
CAMERA
As was often the case in the highlands,
the natives, especially the women, were
averse to having a one-eyed devil-box
aimed at them, and even my disguised
efforts in this direction were regarded
Vaeue misgivings of the
road from there to Sari-
boe Dolok in the dark
had begun to assail my mind, when the
car, which had bsen rocking and skid-
ding over the rain-soaked trail, suddenly
plunged deeper into the mud, stopped
short, and began to sink.
There was a little hole in the center of
the track, no bigger than a man's hand,
which on the way up had scarcely been
noticeable, but in passing over it in re-
turning, the whole road seemed to open
up and engulf us. A furious effort to
clear the chasm, whatever it might be,
only succeeded in hastening our doom.
When we stopped settling the car was so
deep that a list to the right brought the
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
93
top, which was up, to the
level of the road surface,
while between the top and
the ground on the other
side there was barely
enough space left to crawl
through.
Any further sinking of
the car might have perma-
nently imprisoned us, so we
hastily crept out on our,
stomachs through the sticky
clay-mud and viewed the
catastrophe. It was not en-
couraging. A careful sur-
vey of the car showed it to
be hopelessly buried, be-
yond any possibility of my
disinterring it unaided.
The chain falls, in the
equipment box on the rear,
were completely out of
sight some four feet un-
derground; but even had I
dug them out there was
nothing to which to attach
them, and in any case the
car was too thoroughly in
the grip of the mud to have
yielded to single-handed ef-
forts.
With some difficulty I
discovered the cause of the
accident. A bamboo cul-
vert far under the road,
which had rotted peacefully
and undisturbed since it
had been laid, had finally
collapsed from our weight,
after being weakened by our first pas-
sage over it.
To extricate the car was a task for a
first-class train-wrecking crew, and I felt
little confidence of being able to raise
half a dozen helpers in that country,
especially as I had left Joseph in Sariboe
Dolok and would be unable to explain
our predicament to any natives I might
meet.
Kebon Djahe seemed the one light on
the situation; but night was falling rap-
idly, and as my speedometer cable had
broken in the morning and there were
no noticeable landmarks, I had only a
dim idea how far away the compound
might be.
EVERY MOTHER IS HER OWN PERAMBULATOR
IN SUMATRA
For my mother to be left alone at night
in the wilds of a country until recently
addicted to cannibalism, while I set out
on an indeterminate search for help was
an unpleasant prospect; but as Kebon
Djahe might have been eight or ten
miles away — a nasty walk in the mud and
the dark — that seemed the only solution.
NATIVE PRISONERS MARCH TO THE RESCUE
For over an hour I walked, or rather
waded, down the road in the utter still-
ness of the desolate highlands. Then a
few barely audible shouts drifted up
from across the plain, and I struggled
through the grass in their direction to a
tiny paddy field on the top of a low hill.
94
THE NATIONAL. GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
WOMEN Of CERTAIN SUMATRAN TRIBES ARE NOTED THROUGHOUT THE DUTCH
INDIES FOR THEIR BEAUTY
On "Passar," or market days, wonderful arrays of strange fruits and vegetables are
displayed for sale, and on special occasions children's toys, ornaments for head-dresses,
cooking utensils, and cloth of gay colors may be purchased. Among the tempting edibles
are peanut cheese and pineapple sauces. The palm wine of Sumatra is most refreshing on
a hot day — and all days are hot in the lowlands.
Through the dusk I could see a little
bamboo lookout, such as is erected in
every grain field, and, squatting on its
platform, two blue - clad figures, who
stopped their shouting as I approached.
But to my weak efforts in Malay they
merely stared in silence and continued to
jerk on the strings which, tied with flut-
tering bits of cloth, intersected the field
to frighten away feathered marauders.
From the hill, however, I discovered
in the twilight two solitary little white
houses about a mile away and struck off
to investigate. Soon a tiny light sprang
out of the darkness, and when I arrived
in its cheery glow I found the Dutch
Controleur just returning from inspect-
ing a jail which was in course of con-
struction, and I accosted him with my
tale of disaster and appeal for help.
"Certainly," he promptly said, as if
foreign motorists mired in the interior
of Sumatra came to him everv day with
requests to be dug out, "I will lend you
my prisoners."
Although his jail was not yet built, he
had a fine collection — thirty-eight Bataks
and Achinese in whom respect for Dutch
control had not been sufficiently evident.
This was my wrecking crew, and joined
by a Dutch planter, who was recuperat-
ing in the higher altitude of the Batak
lands from an assault made on him by
two coolies, we marched as if on a night
attack back to the buried motor, with two
armed native soldiers as a guard.
A "SHIVERY" EXPERIENCE FOR A WOMAN
I had been absent several hours before
the lanterns picked out ahead of us the
dark outline of the sunken car blocking
the road. As we approached I saw the
figure of my mother apparently seated
in the clay mire of the roadside, with a
dozen motionless forms standing in a
shadowy row on the bank behind her.
She struggled stiffly to her feet, reveal-
ing one of the mud-soaked seat cushions
that she had succeeded in dragging from
the car, and the silent row melted back
into the darkness.
"Who are your friends?" I asked,
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
95
after ascertaining that she had suffered
nothing more than an unpleasant wait.
"I don't know," she replied, "but I'm
very glad to have you back. I've felt
rather 'shivery' ; first watching them ap-
pear out of the dark, one or two at a
time ; then hearing them talk in low
voices. I didn't know whether they were
planning to eat me or simply discussing
why I chose this particular place to sit
in. But for the last half hour they have
stood like a row of vultures and haven't
made a sound, and that was the worst
of all !"
"These are not bad people around
here," said Mr. von der Weide, the Dutch
planter; "but they are not always to be
trusted. I do not think it well to be alone
in the highlands at night."
Armed with native spades, shaped
somewhat like a wide-bladed adze, and a
small forest of strong cut poles which
we had fortunately discovered piled by
the roadside, the crew attacked the motor.
The prisoners were strong and willing ;
my training in the recovery of automo-
biles from strange places had been varied
and thorough, and, aided by the untiring
efforts of Mr. von der Weide, we soon
had a wide excavation made around the
car, supporting it meanwhile with shores
to prevent further sinking.
Then with the poles as huge levers we
pried up each end of the machine a little
at a time, filling the chasm underneath
with a cob-house of other poles cut into
various lengths, until the car, resting on
a wooden pier, rose to the road level
and was dragged to comparatively firm
ground. I scraped off the worst of the
clinging mud from those parts that were
completely choked with it, and coaxed
the motor into starting.
There seemed to be no damage except
for twisted mudguards, and we ran back
to Kebon Djahe accompanied by Mr. von
der Weide, who insisted on our spending
the night there — we did not require
much urging — while our army was
marched ceremoniously back to jail.
The night was extremely cold, at least
for within three degrees of the equator,
but we had been spared the usual evening
storm and although plastered from head
to foot with clay mud when we came in,
we were very comfortable.
In the morning, after a very early
breakfast of Dutch cheese, brown bread,
and delicious cocoa, and another hour or
more spent in wandering about the fasci-
nating buildings of the native compound,
we ran back to Sariboe Dolok. The
road, although still in a wretched con-
dition, had dried considerably, as there
had been no rain the previous day, and
we reached Sariboe Dolok without diffi-
culty, picked up Joseph, and kept on to-
ward Toba Lake.
HOW THE NATIVE MOTHERS WEAVE
Not far beyond the Assistant Resi-
dency was the small compound of Kina-
lang where we made another long stop.
It was concealed by the customary
thicket of bamboo, and although the
houses were smaller, poorer, and not
nearly so elaborate in design as those of
Kebon Djahe, the native life was even
more interesting.
Scattered about the inclosure were
crude bamboo frames, attached to the
piles of the houses or to poles driven
into the ground and fastened at the cor-
ners with straw rope. At these the
women of the village were seated — their
legs stretched out on the ground before
them and one end of the frame in their
laps — and with the most primitive kind
of equipment were producing the sarongs
for which Kinalang is noted throughout
the highlands (see illustration, page 84).
Their movements seemed in nowise
hampered by the babies tied on their
backs, nor were the babies themselves in
the least disconcerted at having their
small heads almost snapped off as their
mothers worked.
Large bamboo reels held the yarn to
be transferred to the spindles, and in lit-
tle bamboo pails beside each frame were
the strong vegetable dyes which the
weavers applied on their work, spreading
the color with bunches of chicken feath-
ers, while they kept shooting the spindles
from side to side between the separated
strands of the warp.
In spite of its thriving industry in
sarongs, the houses of Kinalang showed
none of the neatness and decorative fea-
tures of those of Kebon Djahe. All, ex-
cept the huge, oddly shaped communal
building, were loosely thrown together,
96
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SUMATRA PROBABLY HAS THE MOST REMARKABLE VEGETATION IN THE WORLD
Here are seen the giant "elephant ears" and other characteristic plants and vines which
the jungle sends out to recover the land stolen from it. One plant, the tjindawanmatahara,
has a blossom more than three feet in diameter.
sided with strips of split bamboo or rat-
tan, carelessly thatched, and appearing as
if the first strong wind would blow them
to pieces.
The interiors were dingy, littered with
utensils, and filled with smoke and soot
from the open fires that burned in the
center of their bamboo floors, while dogs
and chickens shared with the owners what
little space was left.
SUMATRA'S LARGEST LAKE
About two miles from Kinalang the
road descended in a sharp curve, plunged
through a narrow cut, and, emerging
abruptly on the sheer edge of the plateau,
revealed a superb view of Toba Lake,
over a thousand feet below.
Toba Meer — the Sea of Toba, as it
is called — is the largest inland body of
water in the Dutch Indies. It covers an
area of nearly eight hundred square miles,
entirely hemmed in by the mountains
of the Boekit Barisan, at an altitude of
about 3,100 feet, and it averages nearly
1,400 feet in depth.
We followed the uncompleted road to
its sudden end, about two miles below,
and then stopped to eat our tiffin and en-
joy the magnificent view. The rugged
mountains rising precipitously from the
dark water, and the narrow, fjord-like
recesses of its winding arms, gave an
extraordinary beauty to the great high-
land lake, which from that point was not
unlike the Bocche di Cattaro seen from
the Montenegrin Pass.
A cataract tumbled down the mountain
side opposite ; far below us the fantastic
roofs of the village of Harangaul showed
picturesquely above a grove of fruit trees
in the midst of the green paddy fields of
the rich ravine, while out in the lake the
long, narrow canoes of the Batak fisher-
men slipped through the blue shadows,
with an occasional glint of wet paddles
and dripping nets.
We left reluctantly to return to where
the road had branched off, backing up to
the plateau again because the unprotected
trail was too narrow to enable us to turn
the car, then continued down the lake.
The road had dried off rapidly and for
more than half the distance was vastly
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
better than above, as well as traversing
a more wooded and much prettier coun-
try. There were, to be sure, two narrow
rain-soaked cuts where the water had not
run off, through which the car barely
succeeded in struggling; but the high-
land roads had made us indifferent to
anything short of being permanently
mired.
A MEETING Of BATAK AND MALAY
HEADMEN
We made further stops at two other
diminutive compounds. In Poerba Dolok,
as at Kinalang, the women were weaving
sarongs and pounding rice ; at Pematang
Rajah there was a market, and a meeting
of Batak and Malay headmen — gor-
geously dressed, with huge golden but-
tons in their jackets, finely wrought
bracelets around their arms, and kris
with beautifully carved hilts stuck into
the brilliant sashes at their waists.
As we left this picturesque group and
drove slowly on, a bamboo chair swung
high on the shoulders of four bearers
appeared hurriedly up the road, and from
it, as we passed, a wife of one of the
chiefs gazed curiously down at our un-
familiar equipage.
Shortly behind her, preceded by dire
shrieks, three men in equal haste to reach
the market came trotting around a cor-
ner, each carrying two live black pigs
tightly bound in split bamboo and pro-
testing volubly, as they were swung at
the ends of the shoulder poles.
We ran over a swampy road, gradually
working upward, across a desolate, grass-
covered plain. Only a few mountains
dim in the distance gave any sense of
limit to the rolling plateau, and except
for the swift-flying wild pigeons, a few
of which I shot to add variety to our
larder, there was nowhere any sign of
life.
Dark, ominous clouds bore down upon
us as we splashed over the soft level
stretches, skidded down short, slippery
descents, and labored on the upgrades
among the holes and crevasses of deep
washouts.
In one place the road was evidently
being lowered, and for several hundred
yards more than half of it had been cut
away, leaving a shelf on one side too nar-
row to drive on, and on the other a six-
foot trench which was simply a morass
of mud and water. As the shelf was
quite impossible, I chose the trench,
started up it with a rush, and promptly
stuck fast.
No efforts could move the car in either
direction. The sticky clay formed solid
disks about the flying wheels, completely
hiding tire-chains and rope under its
smooth yellow coating.
After an hour of unavailing labor,
Joseph and I abandoned the effort to
extricate the machine, and as darkness
was rapidly falling we held a hurried
consultation to determine what should be
done. It was finally decided to desert
the car and attempt to flounder through
the mud to the nearest native village. It
was a desperate: decision, but the only
alternative was a night in the car.
Detaching one of the side lamps,
whose fitful rays would enable us to
avoid the deepest pools of water, the
three of us began the sliding, splashing
tramp.
About a mile beyond where the car
was entombed we came to a cut, and at
its edge the dull rays of another lantern
showed half a dozen natives putting away
some tools in a little shed. Joseph and I
immediately scrambled over to question
them. Only one spoke Malay ; the others
were part of his gang of road laborers —
an evil-looking lot.
I was surprised at finding human be-
ings there, and, feeling consequent mis-
givings over the security of our aban-
doned car and luggage, I asked the man
in charge if he or one of his men would,
for a suitable consideration, spend the
night in an automobile about a mile down
the road, to guard it from being molested
during my absence. To my astonishment
he promptly refused, and, asking the
question in turn of his men, met with,
immediate negatives.
THE NATIVES* DREAD OF TIGERS
I could not account for their unwilling-
ness. The cushions of the tonneau would,
surely afford as comfortable quarters as
any they were accustomed to; it could
not be the storm of which men of the
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BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
99
highlands were afraid; and the reward I
had offered, though small enough, was
probably equivalent to about a week's
income.
Then it occurred to me that they were
afraid of the automobile itself, and I
hastened to assure them that it was not
only dry and comfortable, but quite safe ;
that I had locked it up, and that it could
not move until I myself released it.
"Oh, it is not that," said the spokes-
man, with an air of having slept in auto-
mobiles most of his life.
"Well, what is it then?" I was both
•curious and a trifle annoyed.
"Tigers."
"Tigers?"
"Yes, indeed," said Joseph nervously,
translating. "He say plenty of tigers
here come down sure and eat him up !"
"But not in the automobile," I objected.
"Oh, no ; tiger first take him out."
I readily persuaded the men to help
•carry our luggage to the village, five
miles as he estimated it, but nothing
would induce any of those natives to
spend the night within reach of the great
prowling beasts.
A walk down the mountain to the rest-
house on the lake was quite as arduous
as we had feared. The trail descended
some 1,500 feet in long zigzags. When
we finally reached our destination, my
mother was nearly exhausted, and we
were both too grateful for the shelter
to be critical of what we found. But
even so, one could hardly have called
the accommodations luxurious. The
whole building leaked ; it was overrun
"with toads, lizards, spiders, cockroaches,
and various other pests.
We rose stiff and unrested in the
morning, but when the early mists had
lifted from the green island facing us,
the beauty of the clear highland lake
"banished every thought of weariness and
discomfort.
Few lakes in all the world can offer
such a setting as the Toba Meer. The
•encircling mountains of the Barisan chain
rise sheer from the water's edge, their
guttered sides white - flecked with the
foam of many rain- fed cataracts.
In the purple shadows along this som-
ber rim, indistinct little villages cling pre-
cariously to the steep slopes, checkered
with the tiny squares of a few light green
or yellow paddy fields.
Overhead the winds of the monsoon
may moan and whistle about the peaks,
but the deep blue surface of the lake is
seldom ruffled, save by the V-shaped
wakes of the dug-out canoes, which skim
about like tiny water-bugs in the vast di-
mensions of the silent mountain amphi-
theater.
Amid such surroundings we lost all
count of 'time until hunger necessitated
our return to the motor, car, which was
salvaged from the mud only with great
difficulty.
Many trials and adventures were en-
countered in making our way down from
the heights, but when we reached Pema-
tang Siantar we were out of the high-
lands and back again on the coastal plain,
although still at a considerable elevation
and a long distance inland. The moun-
tains from this point sloped quite grad-
ually toward the sea. It was again warm
at night, warm and soggy, and we re-
turned to sleeping on the bedclothes, after
the unaccustomed treat in the highlands
of sleeping under them.
A MALAY COSMOPOLIS
Siantar forms a trade link between the
highlands and the coastal regions, and at
its market half the nationalities of the
Sundas may be found, beside many from
the rest of Malaysia, from India proper,
and from the extreme East. There in
the morning I wandered for over an hour
between rows of women and boys who
squatted on their heels behind their trays
and baskets, while the stream of different
tribes flowed steadily past.
Mostly they were Bataks, hideous with
red-stained, toothless mouths ; Sumatra
Malays in brilliantly flowered sarongs;
and blue-trousered Chinese wearing the
typical broad brown topees, or straw af-
fairs woven in the form of baskets and
filled with a kind of lacquer.
Others bargained, gossiped, or wan-
dered aimlessly among them — Malays
from far corners of the archipelago;
pretty Sundanese girls with white jackets
and smoothly combed hair ; Tamil women
in scarlet sari, and Tamil men with white
dhoti and red turbans ; Bandjarese,
Sikhs, and even wandering Pathan, trad-
SALESGIRLS IN THEIR SUMATRAN OPEN-AIR GROCERY STORE
The young woman standing in the central background is wearing the curious coiled
silver earrings peculiar to the island. The preparation for the reception of these earrings
begins in babyhood, when the lobe of the ear is pierced and a bit of tightly coiled banana
leaf is inserted. The puncture is gradually expanded by the pressure of the unrolling leaf.
BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA
101
ers from the Afghan frontier, long-
haired and dirty, with heavy, boat-shaped
shoes and Inngi trailing from their rak-
ishly set caps.
THE CHINESE COOUE's GROWING POWER
There were many more, but of every
five two were Chinese. Some were nearly
naked, half-starved new arrivals peddling
trays of small nicknacks hung from poles
across their calloused, sweating shoul-
ders. Others, laborers earning high
wages on the plantations, squatted about
a native restaurant in one corner of the
market, talking at high speed with their
mouths full of rice or sundry delicacies
that no one else would eat.
And there were many, sleek, well
dressed, and bejeweled, who had passed
in a brief time through both these first
stages and now showed the result of in-
difference to privation and an infinite
capacity for overwork, the only assets
brought with them from the Middle
Kingdom.
The irrepressible Chinese immigrant
coolie seems destined to become the
financial power of Sumatra, as he already
is in Malaya, Java, and elsewhere in the
East Indies.
From Siantar we ran back to Medan.
The road was hard and dry, a trifle
rough at first, but such a transition from
the soft ditches we had been following
through the highlands that the very
steadiness of our progress began to alarm
us.
After the conditions of Batak high-
ways, an uninterrupted run of thirty-five
miles makes one gravely expectant of
dire things to follow ; but the road grew
better instead of wrorse, and we drove
into Medan early in the afternoon with a
ninety-mile run behind us — our longest
in Sumatra.
Before we reached Medan we passed
a heavy, two-wheeled transport cart on
its way to some estate, drawn by the
most enormous buffalo I had even seen.
A thin, sweating Chinese coolie walked
beside it, wearing a battered pair of blue
trousers and a round, peaked hat of
bamboo, undoubtedly the aggregate of his
worldly possessions. Just as we drew
alongside, the buffalo got wind of a
near-by wallow, stretched his neck, and
snapped the extremely simple harness — a
piece of rope holding the wooden collar
to the shafts.
While the huge beast ambled off to
enjoy his mud bath the coolie repaired
the harness by unraveling a few lengths
of thread from some burlap sacking in
the cart, plaiting it into a cord, and then
splicing the broken rope. This done, he
extracted from the waistband of his
trousers what appeared to be a handful
of dried peas — probably counted down to
the last grain that would support life —
ate his meal, and set out to recover his
cumbersome charge. But the buffalo was
otherwise minded.
For thirty-five minutes the patient
Chinaman vainly tried to make the huge
animal leave the mud-hole, himself get-
ting plastered with slime and deeply
scratched on some dead branches.
At last the relentless yanking on his
nose-rope spoiled the buffalo's repose,
and he followed his driver to the cart
with a fine effect of being very bored.
When the collar was again fitted over his
neck the oversized animal swung his
head fretfully and the harness promptly
snapped once more. Without a change
in expression the coolie started to make
a new repair, and the last we saw of him
was a patient figure squatting on the
road, laboriously sawing off with his
teeth the end of the buffalo's nose-rope.
From Siantar to Tebing Tinggi the
road had passed through dense forest,
the edges of the right of way choked
with wild plantains, "elephant ears," and
all the quick-growing plants and vines
that the jungle sends out to recover the
land stolen from it.
Only a few ambitious tobacco estates
broke in on the ranks of the vine-en-
tangled, straight-trunked trees ; but from
Tebing Tinggi the run to Medan took us
through some of the most thriving estates
in Sumatra. In that fertile section was
represented nearly every variety of plan-
tation found on the island.
THE RUBBER PLANTATIONS OF SUMATRA
Second in extent and in importance to
the vast tobacco fields — surpassing them
in many cases — were the acres devoted to
rubber, both indigenous Ficus clastica,
nany branched and buttress-rooted like a
102
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A CHINESE COOLIE: MENDING THE HARNESS OF HIS BUFFALO CART
In the meantime the buffalo is taking his daily noonday bath and siesta in a near-by mud-hole.
"banyan, and Hc\pca brazilicnsis, enor-
mously popular in Malaya.
Siberian coffee thrived in the shade of
the hc\vca or under the protection of
vast coco-palm groves ; ten-foot pepper
Tines climbed thickly up the trunks of
small trees, clumps of tall areca palms
waved their graceful fronds high in the
air, and dense forests of teakwood,
planted in even rows, overhung and
shaded the road.
Other things without end grew in like
profusion, and all helped prove what the
planter enthusiasts had told of the is-
land's future. With rich alluvial soil,
.unfailing rainfall, and tremendous nat-
ural resources, only the lack of labor
and the deterrent influence of warring
tribes has held Sumatra practically at a
standstill while its sister island, Java, has
flourished so greatly.
Sumatra's exploitation has been carried
on very slowly and cautiously, it is true,
but without the aid of the severe though
wonderfully beneficial methods of the
Java culture system ; and before the close
of many years its economic development
and wealth will astonish even those fa-
miliar with the statistics of Java.
We reached Medan early in the after-
noon, and the next morning ran down
ten miles to the end of the road and took
the Deli railway for two or three miles
to the port of Belawan, in the mangrove
swamps.
A wearying two-hour struggle ensued
in the moist, oppressive heat of the low
coast — a contest against heavy odds in
the shape of booms that were too short,
planks that were too weak, spaces too
narrow, and stanchions that interfered,
and all the other things that make a
nightmare of loading and unloading
motor cars on ships unprepared to handle
them.
But we wron in the end, with the help
of a placid Dutch officer, who showed
no anxiety over the disruption I was
causing the company's sailing schedule ;
and when the car was at last on board,
the Rnmphius dropped down the river to
the Straits, swung southeast for Singa-
pore, and shortly sunk the low east coast
of Sumatra in the haze of late afternoon.
VOL. XXXVII, No. 2 WASHINGTON
FEBRUARY, 1920
BY LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER NOEL DAVIS, U. S, NAVY
Photographs from the U. S. Navy Department
For an account of the extraordinary feat of the U. S. Navy in planting
56,611 mines in the North Sea, the reader is referred to ''The North Sea Mine
Barrage," printed in THE GEOGRAPHIC, February, /p/p. The removal of the
mines zvas perhaps an even more remarkable achievement, and was under the direct
command of Rear-Admiral Joseph Strauss, who also had command of the expe-
dition that laid the mines. — THE EDITOR.
WHEN time and study have en-
abled an accurate history of the
World War to be written, it is
not at all unlikely we shall read that the
North Sea Mine Barrage was primarily
responsible for the collapse of Germany.
The inconceivably great task of closing
the exits of the North Sea had been ac-
complished ; an impregnable wall of mines
stretching from Scotland to Norway, a
distance of 240 miles, had become a re-
ality, and that deadly weapon, the sub-
marine, which had daily brought us
nearer to inevitable defeat, regardless of
the gallant efforts on the battlefields of
France, at last was bottled up within the
North Sea, no longer free to carry on its
depredations.
The construction of the barrage was a
magnificent achievement, typically Amer-
ican, demanding the concentrated efforts
of many of our largest manufacturing
establishments to produce the countless
complicated parts which make a mine ;
the building of huge assembly plants in
Scotland ; a special fleet of mine-layers ;
and then, in the face of the enemy, the
laying of these thousands upon thousands
of delicately adjusted spheres, one at a
time, each in its predetermined position
in the North Sea.
The hitherto intrepid submarines were
conquered, because they would not risk a
passage across the barrage. Several tried
and were destroyed ; others, critically
damaged, managed to reach port and told
of this new danger which confronted
them. And here it was that the barrage
became most fruitful.
As long as the submarines had an even
chance in battle, they were willing to con-
tinue. Now the realization was forced
upon them that they faced an intangible
foe, an ever-present foe, always waiting
and ready to explode upon the slightest
contact. Realization grew into fear, the
fear to mutiny ; new crews could not be
mustered, and so the U-boat menace was
ended.
WHEN GERMANY'S ONLY CHANCE otf
VICTORY FADED
With the collapse of the submarine
campaign, Germany's only chance of vie-
104
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE MINE) FIELDS
The narrow Straits of Dover had been closed previously by mines and nets. With the
completion of the North Sea Barrage, stretching from Norway to the Orkney Islands, the
fate of the German submarine was sealed. .
tory faded. She knew it better than we,
and at once circuitously sent forth her
first proposals for peace, which developed
with such remarkable rapidity that a few
weeks later the Armistice was signed and
the war was over.
Then came the period of reconstruc-
tion, with tasks almost as great as those
of the war itself. The havoc and devas-
tation had been frightful. Cities and
farms without number must be rebuilt,
millions of starving people had to be fed,
and, perhaps most immediately serious of
all, the thousands upon thousands of
mines which had been laid must now be
cleared away, in order that the countless
vessels loaded with food and troops might
navigate in safety the long-obstructed
ocean highways.
Concentrated in the North Sea Barrage
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MIXK BARRAGE
105
DETAIL MAP OF THE MINE GROUPS
The mines laid by the United States Xavy are represented by full lines, and are further
distinguished by group numbers. The broken lines indicate the mines laid by Great
Britain.
were more than 70,000 mines — more than
had been laid during the entire war in all
the other waterways combined — and of
these slightly better than 80 per cent had
been laid by the United States Navy dur-
ing the six months preceding the Armis-
tice. Now, with the arrival of peace, we
had accepted the responsibility of remov-
ing every mine that we had laid.
Think what it meant. Here was a death
trap containing more than 21,000,000
pounds of TNT and extending over an
area of approximately 6,000 square
miles ! This mighty belt of destruction
had plucked from Germany her only hope
of victory, because the crews of her sub-
marines, after losing their comrades, who
tried in vain to cross it, mutinied and re-
fused to risk their lives in what appeared
a certain death (see maps, pages 104
and 105).
Although the Germans had learned the
secret of our mines within a month after
the first one was laid, they were unable
to devise any means of safeguarding their
ships to prevent them from exploding
these delicate weapons — we?oons which
now confronted us with all the potential
destruction that had been designed to
subdue an enemy.
We had veritably sown our wild oats,
and now we had to reap them ; for the
only means of removing the mines was to
cross and recross the mine fields, time
after time, until we were sure that not a
single mine was left.
HOW MINES ARE SWEPT
Sweeping mines, for by such name is
the process of removing them called, is
not a particularly intricate art. It con-
sists essentially in dragging a heavy wire
between two vessels. In order to bury
the wire to a sufficient depth beneath the
surface to insure catching the mines,
"kites" are attached to the sweep-wire
just astern of each vessel. These kites
fly down in the water in much the same
manner that an ordinary kite flies up in
the air (see page 108).
When a mine is caught in the sweep-
wire, it is dragged along until the slender
wire which holds it to its anchor breaks,
allowing the mine to rise to the surface,
where it is destroyed. This is ordinarily
done by puncturing it with rifle-shots, so
that it sinks and becomes innocuous. No
REAR-ADMIRAL JOSEPH STRAUSS AND HIS STAFF ON BOARD HIS FLAGSHIP, THE
"BLACK HAWK"
Left to right: Lieut.-Commander Noel Davis, Rear- Admiral Joseph Strauss, Lieut. W. K.
Harrill, arid Ensign K. C. Richmond.
MARKER BUOYS TO INDICATE THE POSITIONS OF THE LINES OF MINES WERE PLACED
AT INTERVALS OF THREE MILES THROUGHOUT THE LENGTH OF EACH GROUP
Besides a differently arranged flag, each buoy was painted to show which line of mines
it marked and its position in the group, in much the same manner that the signs on the
street corners indicate the streets. The buoys were assembled on board, using the sphero-
cylindrical cans which are seen on the stern of the ship.
106
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
attempt is made to recover the mines, for
the risk involved is far greater than the
mine is worth (see pictures, pages no
and 116).
During the war the German submarines
laid hundreds of mines in the entrances
to European harbors, and toward the end
had scattered some along our own At-
lantic coast. Permanent sweeping forces
were required to keep the channels
cleared, and, while vessels so engaged
were occasionally lost, our chief concern
was from a totally different source.
These mines which Germany had laid,
likewise the British mines, were what is
known as the "horn type." Leaden horns
project from the mine and must be struck
and broken before the mine explodes.
Our mine was different. Invented
shortly after the United States had en-
tered the war, it had made the construc-
tion of the North Sea Barrage possible.
A piece of metal the size of a nail was
sufficient to explode it. Furthermore, a
long antenna stretching up above the mine
enormously increased its radius of action.
Vessels built of anything but wood could
not survive in such a field. Even the
sweep-wire was sufficient to detonate the
mine, and, worse, one mine frequently
caused other mines to countermine, and
if one of these should be beneath a
sweeper !
THE MAN CHOSEN FOR THE INTRICATE
TASK
The task before us indeed was deli-
cate. It called for concentrated genius
and iron-handed resolution to tackle such
a problem, and Rear-Admiral Joseph
Strauss, United States Navy, was selected
for the job. Possessing an intricate
knowledge of explosives and their ca-
prices, a knowledge derived from long
periods of duty in the Bureau of Ord-
nance, and having personally directed the
actual construction of .the barrage, he
was, without qualification, the one man
in the Navy best suited for such an ex-
acting undertaking. But even he didn't
have the faintest idea what the ultimate
method of sweeping would be.
Every possible scheme must be tried
with the hope of finding a solution — a so-
lution not only for clearing the mines in
the shortest possible time, so that ship-
ping might resume its normal routes, but,
primarily, one which would afford the
maximum safety to the men who were to
be engaged in this hazardous work, for
human life had at last returned to par.
The first thing to be done was to ascer-
tain the then existing condition of the
barrage.
It was now December. The mines had
been laid from three to six months. In
order to limit the depredations of the U-
boats as quickly as possible, it had been
necessary to lay these newly developed
mines without subjecting them to the ex-
haustive tests so essential to the logical
development of all intricate and delicate
mechanisms. Perhaps the firing batteries
had become exhausted or some other un-
foreseen defect had rendered them inac-
tive. This we must know at once ; for,
aside from the shortness of the winter
days in such high latitudes (60 degrees
north), gale follows gale with such ra-
pidity that small craft are scarcely ever
safe, and sweeping during the winter
would be impossible.
If we were to complete our task dur-
ing the coming summer, everything must
be in readiness to begin active operations
at the first break of spring.
MAKING SAILING-SMACKS MINE-PROOF
Steel vessels could not, of course, be
used for this first experiment, and self-
propelled wooden vessels invariably have
so many iron fittings about their hulls
that they, too, would be in constant dan-
ger. Admiral Strauss therefore borrowed
from the British two of the only type
of vessels left — wooden sail-boats sixty-
nine feet long.
Sweep mines with these ? The idea was
discouraged from the beginning. How
could two small fishing-smacks, with their
sterns tied together by a heavy sweep-
wire, keep position on each other, pass
sweep, and maneuver back and forth
across the mine field? Ridiculous as the
idea seemed, it was our only chance to
gain the information that was needed.
The first step was to make them mine-
proof, as far as such a thing were possi-
ble. They were hauled out upon the
ways at Inverness, the hulls inspected,
nail-heads driven in and plugged, and
other metal fittings sheathed with wood.
108
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
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They then were given a
heavy coating of tar.
Manned with volunteer
crews, these little vessels,
the Red Rose and the Red
Fern, got under way from
Inverness with the two
tugs, Patapsco and Patitx-
ent, at sundown, December
22, 1918.
The Patuxcnt and Patap-
sco were to escort them as
far as the mine fields, stand
by while the experiments
were being made, and then
give them assistance, if re-
quired, when they again
were off the field.
THE FIRST MINE EXPLODES
The next morning found
the Red Rose and Red Fern
on the southern edge of the
barrage. There was a
threat in the air as the little
vessels stood up to each
other, passed the sweep,
and headed across the lines
of mines; low-flying black
clouds scudded rapidly
across the gray sky, while
the barometer went down
with alarming rapidity.
Then, grr-ung!
A towering column of
white water impelled by the
explosion of 300 pounds of
TNT sprang high above the
masts of the Red Rose.
Separated by only a short
length of manila rope,
which insulated the sweep-
wire from the ship, the ex-
plosion virtually lifted the
little vessel from the water,
shaking her until it seemed
as if the timbers in her hull
would fly apart. When she
settled down again the sea
gushed in between the
planks until the pump could
scarcely keep the vessel dry.
This was the first mine.
Five others followed, most
of them, fortunately, fur-
ther astern. .It was indeed
a pretty sight to see these
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
109
tiny vessels tacking and wearing
in perfect unison, keeping sta-
tion on each other by furling top-
sails or streaming sea anchors.
But the experiments were cut
short by the gale foretold by the
morning's sky, which broke with
the fury of a hurricane in the
early part of the afternoon. The
sweep was cut adrift, sails reefed,
and course set to pick up the
Patapsco and Patuxent, who by
now had been left out of sight
beyond the horizon.
EXPERIENCING ONE OF THE GALES
THAT MAKE THE NORTH
SEA NOTORIOUS
By 3 o'clock the sun had set
and the oncoming darkness added
to the difficulties. Shortly be-
fore midnight the tugs were over-
taken, but they were suffering
equally in the gale, and a few
minutes later were again out of
sight.
How it blew ! The Red Rose
was hove to under storm- jib and
staysail forward and triple-reefed
mizzen aft. First, the jib went,
followed by the topmast, then
but a bare pole. A few hours
later the mizzen-boom snapped,
and for the next 36 hours the
Red Rose wallowed in the North
Sea waves — vicious waves, that
seemed to come at once from all
directions.
The Patuxent's rudder was
carried away, and she had to re-
turn to port.
Not knowing whether the Red
Rose and Red Fern were safe, a
number of British men-of-war
were sent out to join the search,
but most of the would-be rescue
ships had to return to port, for
they could not weather the gale.
Then followed days of anxiety
at Inverness. Had it been ask-
ing too much of such fragile
craft to undertake this expedition
at this period of the year? The
North Sea is notorious the world
over for its violent weather. But,
when hope had almost ebbed
away, word came from Peter-
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
111
head that the Red Rose had reached
port on Christmas morning. The next
day the Red Fern anchored in St. An-
drews Bay, blown 200 miles from her
destination.
So ended the first experiment on the
mine fields. Six mines out of 56,000 had
been destroyed — a negligible number, of
course ; but we had found what we had
set out to find — the mines were still
there, waiting for us now, as they had
waited for the enemy's submarines previ-
ously.
To clear the whole barrage by means
of sail-boats was, of course, impossible.
From the outset Admiral Strauss realized
that rugged, powerful vessels, able to
keep the sea in practically all weather,
would be required to do this work.
Furthermore, the United States Navy at
last possessed an ample fleet of vessels
of this type, for almost every week one
of the new mine-sweepers was being com-
pleted and placed in commission.
But here, again, we were confronted
with that ever-baffling problem : How
could we protect these vessels so that
they could cross the mine fields and
strike the mines without exploding them ?
Sheathe them with wood? It would
take a year to fit out the necessary ships,
if it could be done at all. Paint them
heavily writh tar or other non-conductor?
Not sufficient protection.
THE MIRACULOUS HAPPENS
It began to look as if the task were
impossible of accomplishment. Then the
miraculous happened. I can remember
it as if it were yesterday. A timid knock
at the Admiral's door and Ensign D. A.
Nichols (now lieutenant) hesitated and
came in.
"I have a scheme, sir," he addressed
the Admiral, "for protecting ships against
the mines ; but it is so simple that I'm
almost ashamed to suggest it."
It was simple, too, but one of those
simple things which require the mind of
a genius to discover. Fifteen minutes
later the necessary gear to test the scheme
was being assembled, and that same aft-
ernoon the tests were carried out — and
were successful !
Our greatest handicap was now re-
moved and we were free to use steel
ships for sweeping the barrage as soon
as they could be fitted with the Electrical
Protective Device !
More exhaustive tests were carried
out — rigid to a detail — to find if there
were any points which had been over-
looked ; but every test proved even more
conclusively the effectiveness of the de-
vice. Specifications for its construction
were cabled to Washington and the actual
manufacture began a few days later.
OUTFITTING THE MINE-SWEEPERS
Our most pressing task now was to
get the new mine-sweepers, which were
still scattered among the various ports
on the Atlantic coast, equipped with this
device, fitted with sweep-gear, provis-
ioned for a long period away from home,
and then get them started for the North
Sea to begin actual work at the break of
spring.
Admiral Strauss returned to the United
States to supervise this work, leaving
Captain R. C. Bulmer, U. S. N., in com-
mand of the mine-sweeping detachment
at Inverness, to make the necessary ar-
rangements preliminary to the arrival of
the mine-sweepers.
A base for operations had to be se-
lected ; fuel and water facilities provided ;
suitable sweep-gear must be developed,
and, if possible, further experiments car-
ried out to gain some definite knowledge
of the behavior of the mines.
It was March before the Patuxent's
rudder had been replaced, and while this
was being done both she and the Patap-
sco were equipped with home-made elec-
trical protective devices, so they might
cruise in safety through the fields of
mines.
Newly developed kites, capable of at-
taining the great depth at which we were
required to sweep, were borrowed from
the British Admiralty, together with a
few lengths of serrated sweep-wire, so
called because of its peculiar lay, which
enables it to saw the mooring of a mine,
and the Patapsco and Patuxent set out
for the barrage to experiment with this
equipment, which was later to be used
by the vessels fitting out at home.
The sweep was passed and sounding
tubes were slid down to the kites to
measure the depths at which they were
112
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
ONCE A MIGHTY UNIT OF GERMANY'S PROUD HIGH SEAS FLEET
Kirkwall, the base of the American mine-sweepers, is separated from Scapa Flow by
only a narrow neck of land. When it was known that the interned German fleet was being
scuttled by the men on board, Admiral Strauss ordered all his fleet then in harbor to pro-
ceed at full speed to Scapa, hoping that they might succeed in beaching some of the vessels
before they had filled and sunk. But the work of destruction was so complete that our
vessels were of no assistance.
flying; then the course was altered to
head across the mine field.
The first few explosions were well
astern and in the center of the sweep,
and although the terrific concussion shook
the ships from end to end, the men
quickly became used to the novel sensa-
tion and apparently enjoyed it. Mines,
too, kept popping up behind the sweep,
having been cut from their moorings be-
fore the sweep-wire could reach the mines
and cause them to explode.
A MINE EXPLODES BENEATH THE
"PATUXENT"
Then suddenly it seemed as if all bed-
lam had broken loose. Towering col-
umns of water were belched up on every
side ! The Patuxent seemed to stop for
a moment as if stunned, and then, as the
spray and water settled back again, great
clouds of black smoke, mingled with
flame, poured from her funnel.
The lights below decks dimmed and
went out; the floor plates in the fire-
rooms had been hurled from the decks ;
an ever-widening circle of brown, dis-
colored water spread out around the ship.
The vessel had been countermined.
Luckily, the mine which had exploded
below her had been planted at the deep-
est level, and, aside from minor damages,
which could be repaired in a few hours,
she had not been injured. A mine fired
by the sweep-wire had caused these others
to explode sympathetically.
We had sampled a danger with which
we were to be faced constantly in the
coming months — a danger that no human
effort could avert.
Many of the supersensitive mines had
exploded prematurely shortly after the
barrage was laid, and we had hoped that
only those possessing normal stability
now were left ; but such was not the
case. The Electrical Protective Device
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINK BARRAGE
113
THE LITTLE TOWN of KIRKWALL, SCOTLAND, WITH ITS BARREN, WIND-SWEPT HILLS,
HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN AMERICAN NAVAL
LIFE DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS
Hundreds of patrol craft engaged in hunting submarines and in escort work were based
here until the Armistice. Four months later the Mine-Sweeping' Force made this its base
while clearing the North Sea Barrage.
would prevent mines from exploding
when in contact with the ship, but against
these countermines it was of no avail —
and an upper-level countermine beneath
sweeper would undoubtedly destroy her.
KIRKWALL, AMERICA'S MINE-SWEEPING
BASE IN THE ORKNEYS
The next mine encountered in the
sweep exploded, shattering the sweep-
wire, and before the break was mended
a blinding snow-storm cut short further
experiments. The two ships then pro-
ceeded to Lerwick, a drowsy little town
in the Shetland Islands, and later to
Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, choosing the
latter place as our base for the coming
operations.
During this experimental trip twenty-
five mines were exploded and fourteen
were cut adrift. As many of these float-
ing mines as possible were sunk by rifle
fire, but it was difficult to find them after
they had once been lost to sight. It was
evident that special ships would be re-
quired to follow up each pair of sweepers
and sink the mines as fast as they ap-
peared. The only vessels then available
were the little sub-chasers, which had
been doing patrol duty in the English
Channel, and twenty of them were ob-
tained and sent to Inverness.
By the middle of April all arrange-
ments were completed and we were ready
to begin actual sweeping the moment that
the mine-sweepers arrived. Oil-ships,
colliers, gasoline, and water boats had
been borrowed from the British Admi-
ralty ; the sub-chasers had been drilled in
their new duties: special buoys had been
obtained for marking the barrage, and the
sweepers were by then halfway across
the Atlantic.
THE SWEEPERS ARRIVE FOR THE BIG TASK
On April 20, 1918, the first twelve of
these sturdy little vessels arrived in In-
verness. What a weird future confronted
them!
A veil of mystery surrounded every-
thing, even more than in the silent oper-
ations of the war. Those who manned
114
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FISH
WERE KILLED BY THE EXPLOSIONS
OF THE MINES
The sub-chasers kept the larger ships con-
stantly supplied with cod, pollack, and herring,
which are most abundant in the North Sea.
Occasionally a curious specimen, such as shown
above, was picked up by a vessel.
the sweepers only knew that they had
been selected to sweep the hitherto invin-
cible barrage. The ships had suddenly
been ordered to the navy yards at Boston
and Norfolk, where curious appliances of
every description had been placed on
board. Workmen invaded the ships and
began stringing wires and installing elab-
orate electrical panels. Some one said
these were to keep the mines from ex-
ploding when their vessels struck them.
Then, too, rumors had reached home that
the Patuxent had narrowly escaped de-
struction while experimenting in the bar-
rage.
The day following the arrival of the
sweepers Rear-Admiral Strauss returned
to Inverness and hoisted his flag on the
Black Hawk, the flag and repair ship of
the force.
Not a moment was to be lost. If
humanly possible, the barrage must be
cleared away during the year, and that
meant by October, for from then on the
short days and severe storms would make
our efforts futile.
As soon as the necessary overhaul inci-
dent to a transatlantic voyage had been
completed, the mine force got under way ;
the sweepers and six chasers headed for
the barrage ; the Black Hawk and other
chasers for their new base at Kirkwall.
THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST TRIP
No attempt was to be made on this
first operation to clear a definite area of
mines. The object was experimental.
Several appliances remained to be tested,
chiefly an amplification of the Electrical
Protective Device whereby the mines
would all be exploded by an electrical
connection to the sweep-wire ; also, we
must know more definitely the present
condition of the field — what percentage
of the mines remained, and were they
still in the positions in which originally
planted, or had the storms and currents
scattered them about.
At the end of two days the ships re-
turned to port, having accounted for 221
mines — less than half of I per cent of
the total number we had laid. The elec-
trical scheme for exploding the mines
was not successful, and, even worse, it
had a most alarming effect on the mag-
netic compasses. The powerful solenoids
caused by the current in the insulated
sweep-wire wound around the drums had
made the compasses point as much as
ninety degrees from the magnetic me-
ridian ; and the navigators found their
ships actually going east or west when
they were thought to be headed north.
The mines, as far as could be told,
were still in place and had not dragged
from their original positions.
REMOVAL OF THE XORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
115
None of the ships had been damaged,
although numerous instances of counter-
mining had occurred.
From the results of these first two days
it was obvious that at the present rate of
sweeping it would be impossible to com-
plete the work within the year; so Ad-
miral Strauss cabled a request to Wash-
ington that sixteen additional sweepers
be fitted out and dispatched as expedi-
tiously as possible. He also made ar-
rangements to charter from the British
Admiralty twenty newly built steam
trawlers and man them with our own
crews, these vessels being required as
marker boats to enable the sweepers to
maintain their positions while maneuver-
ing upon the field.
A BARRIER 260 FEET DEEP IMPENETRABLE
FOR SUBMARINES
By the loth of May the sweepers were
ready to go out again. This time a
definite area was to be cleared.
The barrage was composed of thirteen
separate groups of American mines.
Each group consisted of from two to six
parallel rows of mines, and the mines in
each row were laid at one of three
levels — upper, middle, or lower — the
three forming a complete barrier in a
vertical plane to a depth of 260 feet.
The average group contained five rows,
and of these three were laid at the upper
level to give the surface barrage the
greatest density. The reason was psy-
chological : Submarines, knowing the bar-
rage was there, would prefer to risk
crossing on the surface, even if they
knew their chances were less.
The upper-level mines were now our
gravest concern, for the damage done a
sweeper by the explosion of one of these
would, of course, be far more serious
than from a lower-level mine.
Group 12 (see chart, page 105) was
selected to be cleared on this coming op-
eration, since it consisted of only three
rows of mines, only one of which was
laid at the upper level.
With the danger from countermining
reduced to the minimum, the experience
gained in sweeping this group might pro-
vide a further means of safeguarding
the ships before the more dangerous
groups were undertaken.
A GIANT HALIBUT, WEIGHING MORE THAN
4OO POUNDS, CAUGHT NEAR THE
ORKNEY ISLANDS
In order to reduce the possible effects
of countermining still further, each pair
of sweepers was to work independently
of the others, so that all pairs should be
evenly spaced along the length of the
field. Then, if an exploding mine should
cause others in its vicinity to countermine,
the possibility of damaging other sweep-
ers than the one pair was very remote.
The method of sweeping to be used
was what is called transverse sweeping —
that is, the sweepers were to cross the
lines of mines perpendicular to their di-
rection, then turn, recross, and so on.
This method is much more laborious than
attempting to keep a line of mines be-
110
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A MINE; FOUL OF THE "PATUXENT'S" KITE;
In less than a minute after the picture was taken the mine exploded, blowing several
men overboard and slightly injuring the commanding officer. Most of the force of the
explosion was expended in the air, however, and the damage to the ship was not extensive
(see text on this page).
tween the pair of sweepers and steaming
longitudinally down its length (longi-
tudinal sweeping), but was deemed to be
safer, since the possibility of being above
a mine when it exploded was considered
less.
THE; CASUALTIES BEGIN
No sooner had the sweepers reached
the field than the casualties began, and,
curiously, the cause was from an. en-
tirely unexpected source. From now on
this same thing happened so frequently
that it seemed almost incredible that it
had not occurred before.
The Patuxent was the first victim.
Her sweep had been severed by the ex-
plosion of a mine and had to be hauled
on board to be repaired. By the time the
kite was within sight (it can be seen only
a few feet below the surface), a mine
could be seen floating near it. Evidently
its mooring had fouled the kite and it
was necessary, of course, to clear it be-
fore the kite could be lifted.
The commanding officer, realizing the
danger, sent all hands forward and went
aft himself to do the work, assisted by
one man.
The mine was within four or five feet
of the ship's side when, suddenly, with-
out warning or apparent cause, it ex-
ploded.
For an instant the entire ship was
obscured in the mass of flying spray, and
when it had subsided four of the crew
could be seen struggling in the water.
Fortunately, all of them were rescued by
their comrades. The captain was, per-
haps, the luckiest of all; standing only
a few feet from the mine when it had
detonated, the only injury he sustained
was the loss of his right thumb, which
had been amputated by a flying frag-
ment.
Since the mine was not submerged, the
force of the explosion was largely spent
in the air, and consequently the damage
to the ship was not serious. A few days
in dry-dock were sufficient to repair her.
Up to the time of this accident, when
mines were found foul of the kites or the
sweep they had been regarded more or
less as curios. Many had been hauled on
board ; for, according to design, they were
supposed to be quite safe when on the
surface. Xow no one trusted them. One
REMOVAL OF TIIF. XORTH SEA MTXE BARRAGE
117
A CURIOUS EXPLOSION
While a sweeper was going alongside her mate to pass the sweep, a mine, from some
unknown cause, exploded between them. The entire after part of this vessel was drenched,
but the damage, fortunately, was not serious.
ship which at the time had a mine on
board even went so far as to double the
risk by throwing it back into the sea.
Infinite care, however, could not en-
tirely eliminate this particular danger. In
the first place, the mine could never be
seen until it was dangerously close to the
ship; then the course of action that was
chosen might or might not prove the
proper one.
A TRAGIC MISHAP
Two days after the Patuxent was dam-
aged an identical casualty befell the Bob-
olink, but with far more serious conse-
quences. The captain, as in the Patit.v-
ent's case, went aft to clear the mine
himself, sending all hands forward to a
place of safety except those actually re-
quired to assist him.
The towing engine had been stopped as
soon as the mine was sighted, leaving it
somewhat submerged. It exploded be-
fore anything could be done to clear it.
The commanding officer, Lieutenant
Frank Bruce, U. S. N., was killed. The
first lieutenant and several men were
blown into the water, the first lieutenant
falling 100 feet from the ship. The men
who plunged in after them succeeded in
saving all, even though the first lieuten-
ant had been rendered unconscious by the
fall.
The Bobolink was critically damaged
by the explosion. The entire after body
had been distorted, parts of the plating
being driven in two to three feet by the
concussion. The rudder was gone, the
engine disabled, and the ship was leaking
badly. Her boilers, which are well for-
ward, were not injured and enabled the
powerful wrecking pumps to take care of
the water.
Two other sweepers towed the dam-
aged vessel to Scapa Flow, near Kirk-
wall, where she was docked and tempo-
rary repairs made. Later she was towed
to Devonport, where she still remained in
dock when the Mine Force sailed for
home, five months later.
Seventeen days after the operation be-
gan, Group 12 was completed and the
vessels returned to port. Several other
accidents had happened, two of which
118
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
DUE; TO AN ELECTRICAL PROTECTIVE DEVICE, THE LAPWING SUCCEEDED IN PASSING
SAFELY OVER THIS MINE, WHICH EXPLODED AS SOON AS IT WAS OUTSIDE THE
RADIUS OF IMMUNITY ESTABLISHED BY THAT REMARKABLE CONTRIVANCE
Aside from shaking the vessel severely and breaking such articles as chinaware and lamp
globes, no damage was ordinarily incurred by an explosion so far astern.
necessitated docking the sweepers to stop
the leaks caused by explosions.
The rate of sweeping had been far be-
low our expectations, but we were learn-
ing.
VAST QUANTITIES OF SWEEPING GEAR
BLOWN AWAY
The most serious factor, aside from
the loss of life, was the expenditure of
sweeping gear. Thousands upon thou-
sands of fathoms of serrated sweep-wire,
together with more than fifty plunger
kites, had been blown away by the ex-
ploding mines. Our original estimates
had not anticipated so large a loss for the
entire barrage as had been expended by
this single operation. Moreover, both of
these articles were exceedingly difficult to
obtain.
Our present rate of work was far too
slow to complete the barrage within the
year, and even the thought of the. idle
winter days in that miserable climate,
while we waited again for spring weather
to resume operations, was most disheart-
ening.
WORKING EIGHTEEN HOURS A DAY
Every minute on the mine fields was
being utilized. In that high latitude,
where the summer days are so unusually
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
119
long, the sweepers worked
from four in the morning
until ten, and sometimes
even later, at night.
The days in port were
equally busy. Fuel, water,
provisions, and new sweep
gear had to be obtained ;
boilers had to be cleaned
and many repairs were al-
ways required. The ma-
chine-shops on the two re-
pair-ships buzzed inces-
santly, and as soon as
everything could be finished
the ships were under way
once more for the barrage.
Group 9, the largest
group of mines that has
ever been laid, was selected
for the next operation.
Five thousand five hun-
dred and twenty mines had
been laid within its bound-
aries. The same method of
sweeping was to be used as
on the previous operation,
except that the three pairs
of sweepers were to work
together, sweeping their
section of the field longi-
tudinally instead of trans-
versely. It was a bold ex-
periment, but if they could
demonstrate that the danger
was no greater than in the
other form of sweeping
(this largely depended on
their ability to keep be-
tween the invisible lines of
mines), then there might
yet be a possibility of finishing the task
before winter.
Admiral Strauss spent several days on
one of these sweepers in order personally
to judge the relative merits of the two
methods.
A SUBMARINE WRECK CAUGHT IN THE
SWEEP-WIRE
An interesting indication of the success
of the barrage was encountered while
sweeping in the central portion of this
group. The Heron and Sanderling, while
crossing the lines of mines, were suddenly
brought almost to a standstill ; then their
A MINE WITH ITS ANCHOR, WHICH FOULED THE SWEEP
AND WAS HAULED ON BOARD
This extremely dangerous practice was automatically discon-
tinued after the Bobolink's disaster (see page 117).
sweep-wire snapped. A few minutes later
a huge patch of oil rose to the surface
and spread out astern of them. The
sweep had fouled the wreck of a subma-
rine which had been sunk in the barrage.
Curiously, the mining squadron, when
passing close to this same spot a few days
after they had laid the field, sighted the
dead body of a German sailor floating in
the water.
From the records of the Admiralty the
wreck was presumed to be the U. B. 127.
The sweeping progressed slowly. The
weather, although it was now June, was
almost as violent as it had been during
120
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
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the winter months. Not until 27
days after the operation had be-
gun was the group finally com-
pleted. Some improvement had
been made. No ships had been
seriously damaged, although
many minor accidents had hap-
pened.
There was some consolation
that our rate of sweeping was
slightly better than that of the
two British detachments engaged
in clearing their portions of the
barrage ; but it was far from
satisfactory; the rate had to be
tripled if we were to finish in
1919!
THE CHIEF CAUSES FOR SLOW
PROGRESS
The principal losses of time
were due to the frequency that
sweeps parted, with the conse-
quent delay in repairing them,
and to the difficulty in navigat-
ing with sufficient accuracy to
insure that every square foot
of the field had been covered.
This latter difficulty necessitated
sweeping the same area over and
over again to make sure no mines
were left.
The first cause offered little
room for improvement; with
practice, the sweeper crews be-
came more dexterous in mending
sweeps and repassing them, but
the explosions which parted the
wires could not be avoided.
The second cause of loss of
time presented many possibilities
for improvement : First, by plac-
ing all the vessels in formation,
so that all the ground could be
definitely covered ; then have
them steam longitudinally down
the field. The experiment made
by the three pairs of sweepers
on the previous operation showed
that this was practical ; they had
suffered no greater losses than
the other sweepers, and, although
their rate of sweeping was no
faster than the others, it was
plainly due to the difficulty of
telling where they were.
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
121
The second possibility for im-
provement lay in defining accu-
rately each row of mines with
suitable buoys before the sweep-
ers were sent out. Some doubt
existed if such a thing were pos-
sible, for it had appeared in
previous sweeping that the mines
exploded or rose to the surface
in such apparent disorder that
to place marker buoys in exact
positions relative to the individ-
ual rows of mines was almost
out of the question. But we at
least could try.
The Admiral directed that a
Buoy-laying Squadron should be
fitted out at once, in order to
have the new fields marked by
the time the overhaul and refit
of the sweepers was completed.
THE BUOY-LAYING SQUADRON
BEGINS WORK
Since the Buoy-laying Squad-
ron automatically took over the
duties which the trawlers had, in
a lesser way, been performing, it
was decided to fit out ten of these
vessels for sweeping (they had
been built expressly for that pur-
pose by the Admiralty), using
them astern of the regular sweep-
ers to catch any mines which
might have escaped the initial
sweep. This would give a large,
compact formation, with suffi-
cient breadth to cover the entire
width of the group.
In order to reduce as much as
possible the loss of time due to
parted sweeps, three pairs of
sweepers were to steam in col-
umn along each row of mines ;
then, when the sweep of the lead-
ing pair was broken, they should
drop out of formation, repass,
and take position as the last pair.
In this manner it was hoped that
the sweepers as a unit might
sweep continuously the full
length of the field, keeping at
least one pair in action on each
line of mines, so as not to lose
track of its position.
Five days after the ships re-
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122
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A COUNTERMINE (SEE PAGE 112)
When least expected, the sea, with a mighty roar, would oftentimes belch up a pillar of
white, shattered water. The cause of countermining could never be determined. Occurring
always when least expected, this was a constant source of danger to the vessels in the field.
turned to port they were under way again
for the mine field. Not much rest after
27 days at sea, where Sundays and holi-
days were omitted from the calendars.
The buoying of the little Group 12 A
had been successfully completed, and
seven hours- and forty minutes after the
sweepers began not a single mine re-
mained.
It seemed incredible, impossible, that
this could be true ! Ordinarily it would
have taken us five times that long.
Here indeed was real cause for jubila-
tion. The enthusiasm of the force was
unbounded, and for the first time it be-
came possible to foresee the end of our
task.
AN IMPRESSIVE SIGHT
By this time the buoying of the large
Group ii was far enough advanced for
the sweeping to begin immediately.
On they came, 24 sweepers, 10 trawl-
ers, and an equal number of the little
sub-chasers.
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
123
EXPLOSION OF A DEEP-LEVEL MINE
Due to the tremendous pressure of the water on top of the mines which were planted at
the lowest level, the force of the explosion was not sufficient to throw the water high into
the air, as is done by the upper-level mines. The shock of the explosion was felt immedi-
ately. The ''slick" did not appear until approximately thirty seconds later.
It was an impressive sight to see that
armada, formed for sweeping, standing
up the mine field, the air reverberating
with the continuous roar of the explod-
ing mines, and simultaneously the glis-
tening pillars of white water springing
up behind the sweepers, poising for an
instant, and then disappearing.
Still farther astern the fainter plop-
plop of the rifles and machine-guns could
be heard, as the chasers filled the floating
mines with holes.
A SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH
The triumph of the day was contagious.
No casualties had occurred to mar the
inauguration of this new method of
sweeping, and it began to look as if the
solution of our difficulties had been ac-
complished.
But the morrow held in store a flood
of catastrophes of every kind — the worst
day we should have to face during the
entire operations.
The first victim was the Curlew, which
was crippled by the explosion of a mine
fouled in her kite and was forced to re-
turn to Kirkwall for repairs. A few
minutes later three mines were counter-
mined beneath the Patapsco; but fortu-
nately the damage was not serious.
The Penguin followed, with numerous
minor damages from a mine foul of her
kite, and the same thing befell the Wil-
liam Darnold almost at the same time.
Both ships were able to make temporary
repairs on the field and continued opera-
tions.
The Lapwing was next. She was
seriously countermined and had to return
to port.
Sub-chaser 46 exploded a mine while
sinking it, and was injured so badly she
could not remain at sea.
A BATTLE WITH THE ELEMENTS
As if such havoc were not sufficient
for a single day, six upper-level mines
were countermined beneath or close
aboard the Pelican. When the mass of
water had subsided and the vessel could
again be seen, she was sinking. Then
began one of the most remarkable strug-
124
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
r
SAVING THE PELICAN
Seventeen minutes after the hull of the Pelican had been shattered by a series of suc-
cessive countermines, the Auk on one side and the Eider on the other had made fast and,
with their wrecking hoses spanning the intervals between them, were pumping to their maxi-
mum capacity to keep the vessel, whose high bow was then but two feet above the water,
afloat until they could reach port.
gles of will power against the elements
ever recorded.
Seventeen minutes after the explosions,
Captain Bulmer, who had gone out to
direct personally the sweeping operation,
had placed his flagship, the Auk, along-
side the Pelican, and her powerful wreck-
ing pumps were throbbing to their full
capacity to keep the riddled ship afloat.
A few moments later the Eider had made
fast on the other side, and her pumps
were doing likewise. The Teal then
passed her towline to the Pelican, and
the four vessels, lashed together, headed
slowly for port.
At that time the weather was good,
and the Auk and Eider were able to keep
the Pelican fairly well afloat ; but when
they were still 50 miles from land a head
sea began to rise and the situation grew
rapidly worse.
As the vessels were tossed about by
the sea, the pump-lines parted, and be-
fore they could be repaired the water
had gained until the Pelican's bow was
practically submerged, while her stern
projected high above the water. To add
to the difficulties, nightfall had overtaken
them.
The Pelican sank lower and lower ; her
forward fire-room bulkhead, which alone
kept her afloat, was buckled and distorted
by the pressure of the water on the for-
ward side. As the water crept higher
and higher, the bulkhead was expected to
burst at any moment. The crews on the
Auk and Eider worked desperately to
get the pumps started again.
Since the vessel was in danger of sink-
ing at any moment, it was unwise to keep
unnecessary men aboard ; so Captain Bul-
mer asked for twelve volunteers to re-
main to do the necessary work.
Every man stepped forward !
The twelve strongest were chosen and
the rest had to be ordered off their ship
against their will. It was a sight that
dimmed the eyes, to see these twelve men,
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
125
. J
THE EXPLOSION OF AN UPPER-LEVEL MINE ASTERN OF THE PATAPSCO
The darker central portion of the upheaval which rises after the first white spouts of water
break the surface is discolored by the gases of the TNT.
when nothing- further could be done,
grouped together on the stern, high out
of water, singing old-fashioned melodies
throughout the night.
Then at last, after nineteen hours of
struggling, this cortege of ships suc-
ceeded in reaching the sheltered waters
of Tresness Bay with the Pelican still
afloat. The dogged determination and
skillful seamanship of Captain Bulmer
alone had saved her.
Such holes as could be stopped were
plugged, and the following day the ships
proceeded to Scapa Flow, where the Peli-
can was docked and sufficiently patched
to permit her being towed to Newcastle-
on-Tyne, where extensive repairs were
undertaken.
The morning following the Pelican ac-
cident a curious mishap befell the Fla-
mingo. After the day's sweeping was
completed the vessels used to anchor near
the mine fields in order that all hands
might get as much rest as was possible in
the few short hours of darkness. The
deep water and the soft bottom of the
open sea do not, however, make an ideal
harbor, and on this occasion the Flamingo
found herself at daybreak several miles
south of the spot where she had anchored
the night before. While weighing her
anchor, which was secured to the end of
her sweep-wire, her stern was virtually
lifted from the water by the shock of an
exploding mine. She had dragged during
the night until she was in another group
of mines. The damage done by the ex-
plosion necessitated docking before she
could resume her operations.
AN OFFICER AND SIX MEN SINK WITH
THE "BULKELEY"
On the 1 2th of July, two days after the
Flamingo was damaged, our most serious
accident occurred. Again it was due to
a mine fouling a kite. Before the trawler
Richard Bulkcley could take any steps to
remedy the situation, the mine exploded
and her hull collapsed under the terrific
concussion.
Within seven minutes the vessel had
gone down. The other vessels in the
126
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
•B
THE FEW DAYS IN PORT BETWEEN THE SWEEPING OPERATIONS WERE EQUALLY AS
BUSY AS THE DAYS AT SEA
Besides fueling, watering, and filling up again with stores, the sweeping gear had to be
overhauled and repaired, the boilers cleaned, and as many of the leaks stopped as was possi-
ble without docking the ship.
vicinity had cut their sweeps, rushed to
her assistance, and succeeded in rescuing
all except one officer and six men.
AN INSPIRING ACT Of HEROISM
A moment or two before the Bulkcley
had disappeared from sight, one of those
inspiring deeds occurred which live for-
ever in our memories and glorify the
noblest traditions of the service. A man,
dazed by the shock of the explosion,
struggled to the deck. Seeing that he had
no life-belt, Commander Frank R. King,
U. S. N., took off his own, and, quickly
buckling it about the man, helped him to
get clear of the ship before she took her
final plunge. A moment later the Bulke-
ley had disappeared, carrying down with
her, in the vortex of swirling water, this
gallant officer, who gave his life that an-
other might live. (To perpetuate his
memory, the Secretary of the Navy, a
few months later, named a new destroyer
in honor of Commander King.)
The remainder of the operation was
completed without further serious acci-
dent.
From a standpoint of time, the results
had been splendid; our rate of sweeping
had actually been tripled. On the other
hand, the casualties had been enormous —
one ship sunk, one permanently disabled,
three damaged so badly that docking was
necessary, three forced to return to port
for repairs, while three had been able to
complete repairs on the mine field.
A careful review of the accidents, how-
ever, showed that the majority had been
due to causes independent of the method
of sweeping, and the rapidity with which
they had occurred had been proportional
to the number of mines destroyed per
day; so, evidently the ultimate losses
would be equal, and the preference lay
decidedly with the more rapid method.
One thing, however, was apparent ; it
was not safe to sweep with trawlers. Al-
though the British had successfully used
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
127
A FLOTILLA OF SUB-CHASERS AT REST
When these small but active war craft were in port they tied up alongside the repair
ships in order to facilitate repairs, replenish their stores, and to give their crews as much
relaxation as possible.
them for years, their structural strength
was far too light to withstand the ex-
plosions of the American-made mines.
Arrangements were therefore made to
return thirteen of these vessels to the
Admiralty, six being retained for trans-
porting gear and supplies from Inver-
ness to Kirkwall and for the delivery of
sweeping material to the vessels on the
mine field.
The new sweepers which the Admiral
had requested in May now began to ar-
rive, fortunately just in time to replace
the vacancies caused by turning back the
trawlers and the absence of the ships
which had been crippled by explosions.
Eight had reached Kirkwall within the
week, so that now the total force con-
sisted of 32 sweepers, 24. sub-chasers, and
6 trawlers, besides the two repair ships.
SWEEPERS SET NEW RECORDS
When all the vessels were in port the
little harbor of Kirkwall bristled with
activities, resembling more the busy har-
bor of New York than that isolated little
village bordering on the Frigid Zone.
After five days in port the sweepers
headed once more for the mine fields.
The two groups designated to be cleared
were finished in such record-breaking
time that the sweepers asked permission
to try to do two more before going back
to port.
The Buoy-laying Squadron was rushed
out to mark the new fields, but were no
longer able to keep ahead of the sweep-
ers, and another pair of vessels had to
be added to their force.
At the end of sixteen days Groups 3,
5, 6, and 7 were all swept. The casualties
had been remarkably light. Fifty-five per
cent of the barrage was now cleared, and
although it was the middle of August,
with the best part of the summer gone
and the days rapidly growing shorter,
every officer and man was determined
he would not give up until the last mine
in the North Sea had been destroyed.
Of the remaining six groups, five were
128
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
CLEARING THE MINES BORDERING THE NORWEGIAN COAST THE SWEEPERS
PUT INTO STAVANGER
This is a bustling little town, made prosperous by the war. The American mine-sweepers
came here to obtain fresh water and redistribute their sweep-gear.
at the extreme eastern side of the bar-
rage. The other, Group 8, began just
off the entrance to Kirkwall, but could
not be undertaken until the British had
removed their line of mines, laid closely
parallel to ours ; for theirs, which were
only six feet below the surface, were
more dangerous to us than ours to them,
and consequently should be undertaken
first.
Four days sufficed this time for repairs
and overhaul in port. To a man aboard
a sweeper it seemed as if he lived con-
tinuously at sea ; and for such small
ships, too, it was indeed an enviable en-
durance record they were making.
Even the routine affairs of administra-
tion, which almost invariably take place
in port, had to be conducted on the mine
field. An interesting example of this
occurred when the annual examination
of enlisted men for promotion to war-
rant officers fell due.
A storm was raging at the time, mak-
ing it impossible to sweep and equally
impossible to transfer the candidates
from their various vessels in order that
they might appear before the examining
board on the flagship ; so that most valu-
able invention, the radio-telephone, was
resorted to, and by this means each candi-
date was simultaneously asked the suc-
cessive questions of the examination
while he sat at a desk on his own ship.
A SHORTAGE OF KITES THREATENS THE
WORK
Aside from the delays caused by the
gales, which now came on in greater vio-
lence and frequency, the sweeping pro-
gressed without interruption or serious
casualty. The speed at which we now
were working, however, introduced a fac-
tor which threatened daily to delay us.
Sweep-wire and kites — essential imple-
ments— were being used up faster than
we could obtain them. Besides the steady
shipments from the United States, British
manufacturers were producing at their
maximum capacity. We had already
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
129
BY SETTING THE STAYSAILS, IT FREQUENTLY WAS POSSIBLE TO ADD A KNOT OR TWO
TO THE SPEED MADE GOOD IN EVEN THE WORST OF WEATHER
drained the Admiralty of all that they
could spare, and still the supply was in-
sufficient.
The two repair ships, Black Hawk and
Panther, therefore, had to lay aside the
construction and repair work for the
sweepers and chasers and devote their
energy to the manufacture of kites, to
enable the sweepers to continue operat-
ing.
Throughout the entire sweeping of the
barrage we never had sufficient gear at
any time to equip fully all sweepers for
their contemplated stay at sea, and so it
frequently was necessary after the day's
work was over for one vessel, whose ex-
penditures had been comparatively light,
to go alongside one less fortunate and
divide the supply of kites and sweep-wire
that remained.
A TASK FOR IRON CONSTITUTIONS
Buoys, too, for marking the new fields
were equally in demand, and, in order
not to lose any of the valuable hours of
daylight which could be used for locating
the positions of the markers, it frequently
was necessary for the Buoy-laying Squad-
ron to spend the entire night in going
from one sweeper to another to gather
up the buoys which had been weighed
after the sweeping of a group had been
completed.
Think of the physical endurance this
130
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
LIFE ON BOARD THE SUB-CHASERS WAS CONCENTRATED HARDSHIP
With the ships rolling and pitching incessantly, the crews lived largely on cold canned
foods, slept in wet bunks, in unheated compartments, and sank mines as fast as the sweepers
cut them up. Small as they are, the sub-chasers are marvelous sea boats and were able to
stay out in weather that would have driven far larger vessels into port.
work required ! The sweeping itself was
fatiguing enough ; it was an all-hands'
job. But, after it was finished for the
day, to spend a part, sometimes all, of
the night in getting ready for the next
day's work was a task for nothing less
than iron constitutions.
Nothing could have been more mag-
nificent than the splendid manner in
which the officers and men stood up
under the terrific strain. With never a
murmur, never a complaint, sometimes
going for months without setting foot on
shore, these officers and men toiled on
day after day.
A comparison of the British mine-
sweepers with our own is interesting.
Their crews consisted entirely of volun-
teers and were given nearly double pay,
as well as a large bonus for each mine
that they destroyed. We had no volun-
teers ; it was the work of the Navy and
we took it as such. We received no extra
compensation nor any bonus for the
mines that we destroyed.
On the 1 3th of September, 32 days
after leaving Kirk wall, the fleet returned
to port. Five and a half out of the six
remaining groups had been completed.
The British sweepers had not yet com-
pleted clearing their single line of mines
to the southward of Group 8, and there-
fore only the northern half of our group
could be cleared at that time. The Brit-
ish were expected to finish any day, after
which we would be free to sweep the
remainder of our group. When that was
done Admiral Strauss desired to make a
general test sweep of a large portion of
the barrage to prove definitely that our
work had been thoroughly done.
It was now the critical season of the
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
131
THE LAST TWO WEEKS OF MINE-SWEEPING WERE ACCOMPLISHED UNDER ALMOST
SUPERHUMAN DIFFICULTIES
Storm followed storm with steadily increasing frequency and violence, until it seemed
impossible that ships could actually be operating. The foremast of a sweeper can be seen
in the center of the picture, while in the upper left-hand corner, perching on the crest of the
wave, is the silhouette of a tiny sub-chaser.
year. A careful analysis of the meteoro-
logical records covering years of obser-
vation showed that in all probability the
equinoctial storms could be expected
within the next few days, and after they
had broken the winter weather would set
in with such fury that further operations
would be practically impossible.
THE SWEEPERS ENCOUNTER A NORTH SEA
STORM
Every minute must be saved. As soon
as the ships had anchored the Admiral
made a signal, asking how many could
go out again at the end of three days.
After 32 days at sea, it was asking a
lot — more than could be expected, even
of battleships — but in less than half an
hour 23 of the sweepers reported that
they would be ready! Actually, 28 of
them managed to sail at the end of the
third day.
Group 8 was finished in two days, but
before the test sweep could be started the
equinoctial storms bore down upon us
with the violence of a hurricane. For
three days the storm continued. The
sweepers had sought shelter in the lee of
Sanday Island, where the anchor chains
of many snapped as if they had been
made of cordage. In Kirkwall two of
the ships were blown ashore and rescued
only with the greatest difficulty. A large
British transport, the S. S. Vcdic, was
driven on a reef a few miles north of
where the sweepers lay and four of them
were sent to her assistance.
DAYS OF MISERY
The following days were days of mis-
ery for the sweepers. Storm followed
storm with such rapidity that the seas
seemed ever to climb higher under the in-
termittent acceleration of the succeeding
gales.
As long as it was possible to run be-
fore the seas, those sturdy little vessels
would manage by one means or another
132
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
EVEN IN THE ROUGHEST WEATHER IT CONSTANTLY WAS NECESSARY FOR THE SHIPS
TO GO ALONGSIDE EACH OTHER AT SEA TO TRANSFER
SWEEP-GEAR OR BUOY MATERIAL
All hands were required to wear life-preservers, on account of the danger of being washed
overboard by a mine explosion.
to rig out their sweeps. It seemed incred-
ible that they could actually be working,
as they perched for a moment on the crest
of a wave, then disappeared almost from
sight, as they slid into the hollows of the
seas, pitching and rolling sometimes as
much as fifty degrees each side of the
vertical.
Still the work continued. The nights
were even worse than the days, for then
it was necessary to lie to, trying, some-
times vainly, to keep a tiny marker buoy
in sight by playing a flickering search-
light on it, as the ship lurched to and
fro, for it was imperative we should know
our position in the morning.
THE DAY OF DAYS
But at last our efforts were rewarded.
That day of days came — the day which
had at first seemed almost beyond attain-
ment. And what a sight it was ! The
Patuxent had planted the last buoy, mark-
ing the goal of our ambition; and as the
sweepers, pair by pair, steamed past it
and slipped sweep for the last time, the
exultation of the victorious conquest of
an invisible enemy burst forth in whole-
hearted cheers from every officer and
man.
Whistles and sirens, too, were opened
wide, while a wireless operator with a
humorous turn coupled a phonograph to
the radio-telephone and regaled the fleet
with the welcome strains of "Home,
Sweet Home !"
During the last two weeks 864 square
miles of the barrage had been reswept to
make absolutely certain that the work had
been thoroughly done. Where approxi-
mately 35,000 mines had been anchored a
few months prior, not a single one could
now be found, except in one small pocket
which had been skipped and was marked
by buoys to enable it to be cleared on this
final operation.
REMOVAL OF THE NORTH SEA MINE BARRAGE
133
The test sweep was conclusive that the
work had been thorough. The sagacious
judgment of the Admiral in driving the
force to the limit of physical endurance,
coupled with the unparalleled loyalty of
the officers and men, had enabled that
gigantic task to be completed just as the
violent winter storms were making fur-
ther operations throughout the North Sea
impossible.
The mighty wall of mines which had
confined the enemy's submarines and
barred the commerce of the seas for bet-
ter than a year had been destroyed, and
the Xavy's obligation to humanity, to the
freedom of the seas, had been fulfilled.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
A MEMBER OF THE DARTMOUTH OUTING CLUB SOARING ON SKIS : HANOVER,
NEW HAMPSHIRE
For an account of this thrilling winter sport, fostered by the famous New England
College, alma mater of Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, George Ticknor, George P. Marsh,
Thaddeus Stevens, and "Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, see article on page 151.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
SKIING IN FRANCONIA NOTCH, NEW HAMPSHIRE;
Three student members of the Dartmouth Outing Club starting for a long excursion over the
frozen trail.
I.-U
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
A LONE SKI RUNNER ON A WINDING TRAIL
The coming of winter does not drive the college man indoors. Rather it gives him a chance
to exchange his football letter for the white badge of the Dartmouth Outing Club, which means long
hikes to lovely scenes and long swift sweeps on skis down open fields of snow.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
ICICLE FORMATION IN THE FLUME: NEW HAMPSHIRE
At this spot in the Franconia Mountains, a small stream flows between precipitous rocky walls,
and the cold winds create wonderful ice formations from the water which filters down into this shadowy
rift from the sunny slopes above.
II
Photograph by R. R. Sallows
THAWING OUT THE OLD PUMP
To the philosophic country-dweller, thawing out the pump whose throat has suffered from a night
of exposure is as much a part of the day's work as " breaking out the roads " or blanketing the family
Dobbin.
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Photograph from Detroit News
DETROIT'S WEDDING-CAKE ICE FOUNTAIN
In Washington Boulevard at Michigan Avenue, Jack Frost and the Detroit City Water Works
collaborate in the erection of this towering crystal confection, the beauty of which ii as unstudied as if
it were some natural geyser transfixed by the breath of Boreas in some remote wilderness instead of in a
city park.
XIII
Photograph hy Ernest Fox
NIAGARA FALLS IN ITS WINTER ARMOR
Impressive as Niagara is when its rush of waters appals the beholder and clouds of spray rise from
the chaos, in the midst of which a cockle-shell boat impudently noses the flood, it does not surpass the
view in winter when the Frost King has spanned the river with heaving masses of ice and concealed
behind alabaster columns the mighty torrent as it thunders toward the sea.
XIV
Photograph by A. J.
SPERRY CAMP IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
What is more beautiful than a distant mountain peak poised majestically on a " throne of rocks,
in a robe of clouds, with a diadem of snow" ? In winter, when the mass of driven white stretches un-
broken from the lofty summit to the timber line, there is a grandeur that no other mood of the moun-
tain conveys.
XV
Photograph by A. B. Wilse
A FROSTY MORNING ON THE OPEN ROAD
What Spanish moss is to the trees of the far South, the frosty touch of winter is to the roadside
trees of the colder North. Shiny trails which bright steel runners make and hard pressed lumps of
snow, thrown from the flying feet of man's best friend, mark the journey past such lovely scenes to
warmth and comfort by the blazing fire within the home.
XVI
SKIING OVER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HILLS
A Thrilling and Picturesque Sport Which Has a Thou-
sand Devotees in the Dartmouth Outing Club
BY FRED H. HARRIS
CLIMATE and geography mold the
sports of colleges as well as of
nations.
The fact that Dartmouth College is
situated in the sequestered town of Han-
over, New Hampshire, among the foot-
hills of the White Mountains, where the
hand of winter lies heavy on the land dur-
ing a large part of the scholastic year, is
responsible for the organization of an
athletic association unique in the annals
of student life in America.
Unlike football, baseball, hockey, and
basket-ball teams, each of which in its
ultimate development enlists the active
efforts at play of a limited number of
athletes, the Dartmouth Outing Club is
composed of more than a thousand mem-
bers— nearly two-thirds of the entire stu-
dent body.
The long months of cold and the deep
snows that serve to isolate this college
community have, through the Outing
Club, been converted into an asset rather
than a liability, and today Dartmouth is
a pioneer institution in the movement to
enlist the entire student body in healthful
sport, instead of offering the colleg?
"letter" only to those whose physical
prowess is proved.
In the Outing Club all who love the
wide spaces, all who delight in the still-
ness of the winter woods, all who feel the
lure of the frozen trail, are welcomed as
of the elect.
THE CLUB'S EARLY EXCURSIONS
Beginning modestly, with sixty mem-
bers a few years ago, the Club in its in-
cipiency confined its excursions to Satur-
day afternoon jaunts on skis and snow-
shoes. Toward the end of the afternoon
a halt would be called and coffee made
over a crackling fire, under the shelter of
snow-laden trees. The trips grew in fre-
quency and the parties grew in number.
By the end of the first season scores of
students had become interested in the ex-
cursions, and, as Thoreau said of his
Concord, the members "had traveled a
great deal in the vicinity of Hanover."
Today the Saturday afternoon trips of
old have expanded into week-end jour-
neys ; the radius of the excursions has in-
creased from a few miles to tens of miles,
and instead of confining their explora-
tions to the foothills along the banks of
the frozen Connecticut, the enthusiasts
now make Mount Washington, the high-
est peak of the North Atlantic States,
their furthest objective. The camp-fire
of crackling twigs under the trees has
been superseded by the cheerful glow of
logs in the open fireplaces of comfortable
cabins, which shelter those who wish to
extend their outing overnight.
BUILDING A CHAIN Of CABINS
The first of the chain of cabins for the
week-end devotees of the Outing Club
was established on the site of an old lum-
ber camp at the base of Moose Mountain,
seven miles from the college. Built
through the efforts of a dozen club mem-
bers who elected to spend their Easter
vacation as carpenters, and through the
material assistance of a Boston alumnus,
Franklin P. Shumway, its immediate
popularity was so pronounced that no
propaganda was necessary to insure the
enthusiastic support of the student body
for the movement subsequently inaugu-
rated by another alumnus, the Rev. J. E.
Johnson, of Philadelphia.
Mr. Johnson has raised an endowment
fund of $40,000 for the construction and
maintenance of these combination rest-
cabins and rustic club-houses which ex-
tend, at intervals of a day's trip apart,
from the college campus to the slopes of
the White Mountains.
Close beside Moose Mountain Cabin
flows a brook which has been dammed to
form a deep pool, and the fact that this
151
Photograph by Fred H. Harris
COMING THROUGH WOODS WITHOUT CAPS OR SHIRTS
Not only has the Outing Club improved the physical well-being of Dartmouth's student
body, but faculty statistics show that scholarship has profited by the week-end excursions
of skiing parties.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
SHOOTING THE SNOW CHUTES ON A SHOVEL
A novel way of traversing the skiing course to the landing stage of the big jump at Hanover.
• v ,>*'"-
Photograph by Fred II. Harris
READY FOR THE WINTER ASCENT OF THE TAUJvST PEAK IN THE NORTH
ATLANTIC STATES
Until the feat was actually accomplished by Dartmouth students, a ski climb to the summit
of Mount Washington was considered impossible.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
'THE BEST DRINK ON EARTH"
After skiing for fifteen or twenty miles without drinking, one appreciates water. Drinking
out of Profile Lake, in Franconia Notch, White Mountains.
153
WHEN THE HOLLOWS OF THE WOOD ARE COVERED WITH WINTER'S CARPET
Photographs by Fred H. Harris
THE OLD SWIMMIN'-HOLE IN A NEW MOOD
Here is a test of bodily vigor which few city dwellers would care to undergo. Near the
Moose Mount Cabin of the Dartmouth Outing Club the members have dammed a small brook
to make this winter open-air bath. It is usually necessary to break a sheet of ice before the
bather can take his plunge.
154
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
MEMBERS OF THE DARTMOUTH OUTING CLUB ON TOP OF MOUNT LAFAYETTE: ONE OF
THE ANNUAL WINTER PILGRIMAGES OF THE TRAIL-FOLLOWERS
Photographs by Fred H. Harris
SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR OF ONE OF THE CABINS
Gathered about the roaring logs of an open fireplace, these Dartmonth Outing Club enthusi-
asts do not even demand the comfort of bunks.
•55
156
157
158
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
open-air bath, available only after the
thick crust of ice is broken, is in use
throughout the severest winter weather
needs no commentary to prove the hardi-
hood which the Outing Club engenders in
some of its members.
THE M PANDERINGS OF THE TRAIL,
An Outing Club trail from Hanover to
the White Mountains is a skiway leading
through grandeurs of winter scenery
wholly unknown to those who nestle be-
side steam radiators and gaze out upon a
world blanketed in white, or who gain
their sole idea of a snowclad landscape
through the windows of automobile or
swift-flying train.
Sometimes the trail, in companionable
fashion, follows some meandering back-
country road; then it dips off suddenly
into the forest to seek solitude in the sol-
emnity of Nature's cathedral trees. It
descends into deep ravines, it mounts bil-
lowing slopes of white ; sometimes it
skirts the edge of a logging camp deso-
late in its evidences of former habitation.
Now it runs straight over hedge and
copse, now it sinuously mounts a gleam-
ing summit from whose eminence the
winter world unfolds in all its splendor.
Twenty-three miles beyond Moose
Mountain Cabin stands the Cube Mount
Station, tucked away in a grove of white
birches, with the evergreen slopes of the
mountain rising as a background for the
picture. To the west the noble panorama
of the Green Mountains unfolds along
the Vermont skyline.
Sheltered by a cluster of whispering
pines on the eastern shore of Armington
Pond, a third cabin is built in the shadow
of Piermont Mountain, which rises ab-
ruptly on the opposite shore. . A short
walk from the cabin is the famous Lake
Tarleton Club, and some distance further
along the trail which winds through Web-
ster Slide is the Great Bear Cabin, deriv-
ing its name from the fact that students
who were prospecting for the site found
the tracks of a black bear in the neighbor-
hood.
A FIVE-MILE SUDE
Over the shoulder of Mount Moosilauke
goes the traveler after he leaves Great
Bear Cabin, and from this eminence the
ski sportsman has one of the most de-
lightful experiences of his excursion, as
he slides almost without effort for a dis-
tance of five miles to the picturesque
hamlet of Wildwood.
One of the most popular camps of the
Dartmouth Club is located in the famous
Agassiz Basin, ever to be associated with
the great naturalist's elaboration of his
theory of glaciers. Here is the Lost
River District, little known to the average
White Mountain tourist of the summer
season, but one of the most interesting
regions of the New England States.
Lost River is important for what it has
beqn rather than for what it is. In the
distant past great torrents of water from
a melting glacier flowed here, and once
an earthquake shattered the mountain-
side, hurling huge boulders into the bed
of the rnrer, practically burying the
stream. Immense "potholes" were carved
in the rocks by the action of the water,
enabling the student of geology to read
aright the sermbns which that mystic,
Nature, has written in the stones.
Near the point where the river disap-
pears for its journey of a quarter of a
mile underground is the cosy club-house
of the Society for the Preservation of
New Hampshire Forests.
THE PAGEANT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL,
RANGE
After passing North Woodstock, which
lies beyond Agassiz Basin, the Outing
clubman comes to Profile Notch, with its
famous "Old Man of the Mountains."
Then for a swift slide down Three-mile
Hill to Franconia, north to Littleton, to
Manns Hill, and finally to Skyline Farm,
where ends the trail. Here the whole
pageant of the Presidential Range of
mountains is spread before the view of
the winter visitor — a matchless picture
of serrated summits and tree-clad slopes
wrapped in an Arctic mantle of iridescent
beauty.
But hiking is not the be-all and the end-
all of the Dartmouth Outing Club. There
is the spectacular Winter Carnival, staged
for the delight of the friends of the stu-
dents as well as for their own pleasure.
During this "Mardi Gras of the North"
SKIING OVER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HILLS
159
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
MARIAN FAIRFIELD, OF HANOVER, AT THE MOMENT OF LANDING FROM A SKI JUMP
This young miss has just gone over the "big jump" of the Dartmouth College skiing course —
a feat which many experienced athletes have refused to attempt.
there is a succession of spirited races —
ski and snowshoe sprints, cross-country
ski races, testing the stamina of the con-
testants as do few other college sports,
and obstacle races.
The crowning event of the carnival,
however, is the ski-jumping contest,
which is to the occasion what the chariot
race of the Olympic games was to the
ancients. Thousands of spectators can
be accommodated on the slopes surround-
ing Dartmouth's great ski-jumping
course.
THE SKI-JUMPING COURSE
The approach of the ski-jump is down
a steep 300- foot pathway cut through a
pine forest. At the top is a wooden
trestle, which enables the contestant to
acquire a tremendous initial momentum
for his rush down the course to the
"jump" itself,, which is a level platform
160
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
fifty feet long, with a "take-off" eight
feet above the slope.
The steep slopes of the hill have been
so terraced that the spectators are en-
abled to get a close view of the jumper
from the moment he begins his spectac-
ular slide.
Poised 150 feet above the heads of the
onlookers, the contestant hesitates for a
moment, breathes deeply, and then waits
with every muscle taut and every nerve
atingle for the signal. It is given. In-
stantly he tips over the brink of the
trestle, at the same time assuming the
crouching position which offers the least
possible wind resistance to his flight.
As he sweeps down the glassy incline
he keeps his body in perfect balance, his
skis together and parallel. As he gains
impetus he resembles a human missile
shot from some gigantic catapult.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN HE HITS?
Out upon the jumping platform he
slides with lightning speed, and at the
critical moment, with all the strength of
his lithe body concentrated in his knees,
he springs. Like a soaring bird, he
launches upward and out into space. For
a moment he seems to pause in midair,
then quickly describing an arc, down,
down, down, he swoops with the speed of
thought.
What will happen when he hits? This
is the harrowing question which comes
to the mind of every spectator who is
watching the thrilling sport for the first
time. But he does not hit; he seems
merely to meet the snow track at the bot-
tom of the jump. And that is exactly
what does happen; for, as the jumper
rushes through space, he is describing a
curve of thirty degrees, and the track is
so arranged that at the point where he
alights the slope also inclines at an angle
of thirty degrees, and the moment of con-
tact is thus robbed of all its shock.
The jumper, provided he alights with
his skis together and at the correct angle,
simply glides on, at terrific speed, until,
with a perfectly executed telemark swing,
he brings himself to a halt in a whirl of
snow.
These contests do not take place among
the students of Dartmouth only. McGill
College, of Montreal, Canada, frequently
SKIING OVER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HILLS
161
sends a team of jumpers to the carnival,
when the struggle for supremacy assumes
an intercollegiate and an international
flavor.
EXECUTING A SOMERSAULT ON SKIS
Every jump brings a thrill to spectator
as well as to participant, but the supreme
moment of the carnival conies when a
master of the skis executes some such
spectacular antic in the air as a forward
somersault.
As the stellar performer prepares for
the jump, a hush sweeps over the spec-
tators, for every one knows that unless
his timing is accurate to the fraction of
a second and his spring from the plat-
form is perfect, contusions and broken
bones will be his reward.
Down he rushes to the platform. A
sudden contraction of all the muscles of
the body, a magnificent leap into the air,
a somersault completed at the instant of
landing — all in the time of a held breath !
There is wild applause from the relieved
spectators, as they realize that the sensa-
tional "stunt" is successfully accom-
plished.
In many respects ski jumping is an
even more exhilarating sport than flying.
As one shoots out and down through the
keen, bracing air with no windshield to
protect him, the sensation is beyond de-
scription. Unlike the aviator, the ski
jumper has no ailerons, no rudder, no
"flippers" to aid him. The whole success
of the venture depends solely upon the
human machine, upon the proper co-
ordination of the muscles and upon the
ability of the jumper to judge with abso-
lute accuracy the precise moment for the
spring.
SKIING UP AND DOWN MT. WASHINGTON
When the snows begin to melt around
Hanover in the spring the Outing Club
gives its final winter party — a three days'
trip into the White Mountains. From
headquarters at the foot of Mount Wash-
ington, the sportsmen climb the moun-
tain, plunge into Tuckerman's Ravine,
and see aspects of the outdoors which
are never revealed to summer visitors.
The snows have begun to disappear in
the southern portion of the State, but
drifts to a depth of 100 feet in the ravines
are still to be found here.
Photograph by Kenneth D. Smith
FRONT VIEW OF A SKI JUMPER IN FLIGHT
Not even aviation can provide more thrilling
sport than that afforded the expert on skis.
© K. G. Dewey
SOMERSAULTING THROUGH SPACE ON SKIS
The first of a remarkable series of photographs illustrating one of the most thrilling ex-
hibitions of the mid-winter carnival at Hanover, New Hampshire.
THE SOMERSAULT HALF COMPLETED
© K. O. Dewey
This spectacular test of skill is accomplished in a few seconds, but it provides the thousands
of spectators a topic of conversation for months.
162
THE THIRD EVOLUTION OF THE SOMERSAULT
One of America's foremost adepts in the performance of this "stunt de luxe" is a Dartmouth
sophomore, John Carelton.
© E. G. Dewey
HE WILL BE HEAD-UP WHEN HIS SKIS TOUCH THE SLOPE
The ability to judge the exact moment for the leap into the air while traveling at the
rate cf forty miles an hour is an essential factor in the successful accomplishment of
this feat. The knees act as shock-absorbers.
16?
164
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Dr. Iceland Griggs
ALT, OFI- TOGETHER
A ski threesome lakes the air for the downward drop at the Dartmouth "Mardi Gras of
the North."
On several occasions members of tbe
Club have succeeded in climbing on skis
to the summit of Mount Washington, a
feat which, until accomplished by these
Dartmouth students, was deemed impos-
sible.
The difficulty of the ascent is not to l:e
discounted by its accomplishment, how-
ever ; and the descent, especially down
the icy, wind-driven slopes above the tree
line, is an even more hazardous test of
skill.
Usually the ski men rope themselves
together like the sealers of Alpine crags ;
but, once over the dangerous part of the
course, the .stalwart mountaineers find
rare ddight^ in the long glide down the
carriage road from Half- way House.
The start for this last fascinating stage
of the trip is usually made in the late
afternoon, when the light is fading and
the snow particles come hissing down
from the heights, bringing with them a
penetrating cold.
Now there is no inclination on the part
of the travelers to tarry. With a vigor-
ous push of the ski poles, the rush
begins.
On the steep slope the speed is quickly
accelerated to forty miles an hour, as the
skis sing and whistle over the snow. On
through the woods, at ever-quickening
pace, the hikers go, sometimes forced
from the path by the rapidity with which
they take the curves in the road. Not
infrequently there is a spill in the snow,
as the moon casts deceptive shadows
along the way.
Now and again the incline flattens out
almost to a plane and the pace slackens
instantly, but in another hundred yards
the traveler is again speeding before his
shadow.
It is a wonderful course, 21,120 feet
in length, with a drop of 2,000 feet, and
a member of the Dartmouth Outing
Club has set a record of twelve and a
half minutes for the journey!
WINTER RAMBLES IN THOREAU'S COUNTRY
BY HERBERT W.
AUTHOR OF "THROUGH THE YEAR WITH THOREAU"
With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author
"I have traveled a great deal in Concord." — THOREAU.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGA-
ZINE being pre-eminently a maga-
zine of travel, it is not inappro-
priate to call the attention of its readers
to the journeyings of one of the most
original, observant, and wholly entertain-
ing travelers whom the continent of
America has produced. To be sure, his
travels did not cover a very wide field,
geographically : they consisted chiefly of
daily walks afield or boating trips on
the river to various points in his imme-
diate neighborhood ; yet they resulted in
giving to his name a higher place in the
temple of fame than that of many an-
other who has roamed the seven seas and
encompassed the ends of the earth.
Henry David Thoreau was born in
Concord, Massachusetts, a little more
than a century ago, and, with the excep-
tion of a few brief and unimportant ex-
cursions away from home, his entire life
of forty-five years was spent within the
confines of his native town.
So far, however, from lamenting this
as a misfortune, he actually gloried in the
supposed limitation. "It takes a man of
genius," he declared, "to travel in his own
country, in his native village; to make
any progress between his door and his
gate. If a man is rich and strong any-
where," he confided to his journal, "it
must be on his native soil. Here I have
been these forty years, learning the lan-
guage of these fields that I may the better
express myself.
PREFERRED HIS OWN VILLAGE TO THE
PROUDEST PARIS
"If I should travel to the prairies, I
should much less understand them, and
my past life would serve me but ill to de-
scribe them. Many a weed here stands
for more of life to me than the big trees
of California would if I should go there."
Somebody once suggested to him a trip
to Paris. But why should he go to Paris ?
"It would be a wretched bargain to ac-
cept the proudest Paris in exchange for
my native village. At best, Paris could
only be a school in which to learn to live
here, a stepping-stone to Concord, a
school in which to fit for this university."
"THE ONLY TRAVEL THAT is GOOD"
And so he records his solemn convic-
tion: "If these fields and streams and
woods, the phenomena of nature here,
and the simple occupations of the inhab-
itants should cease to interest and inspire
me, no culture or wealth would atone for
the loss."
"My feet forever stand
On Concord fields,
And I must live the life
Which their soil yields."
Now, all this, of course, is at a wide
remove from commonly accepted ideas,
and many a Cook's tourist will smile
superciliously on reading this pronuncia-
mento of a confirmed stay-at-home. Yet
Thoreau never meant to disparage for-
eign travel, as such. Indeed, from his
own account it may fairly be assumed
that his familiarity with the best books
of travel far exceeded that of most peo-
ple of his time, and certainly few people
of any time have possessed, both by na-
ture and training, a keener appreciation
of the advantages which travel brings.
He was simply trying to enforce, in
somewhat vigorous fashion, the truth that
to a man with receptive mind and studi-
ous purpose there is to be found in his
immediate environment a richness of ex-
perience and a depth of satisfaction which
cannot" be had in diffuse wanderings,
however extended. "Only that travel is
good," he claimed, "which reveals to me
the value of home and enables me to en-
joy it better."
165
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FANTASTIC SNOW-DRIFTS
Tn the ice of open stone walls, the wind, blowing through the chinks, carves the snow into
many novel and picturesque forms. "This is the architecture of the snow."
168
WINTER RAMBLES IX THOREAU'S COUNTRY
169
Thoreau found such endless charm in
the mystery and beauty of Concord fields
and woods, so many fascinating problems
requiring solution, such infinite variety in
flower and bird and butterfly, such fresh
delight in watching the progress of the
seasons, as well as so much food for
thought and inspiration in the human life
around him, that he had no time for for-
eign travel. And for this he is sincerely
grateful.
"I cannot but regard it," he says, "as a
kindness in those who have the steering
of me that, by the want of pecuniary
wealth. I have been nailed down to this
my native region so long and steadily, and
made to study and love this spot of earth
more and more. What would signify in
comparison a thin and diffused love and
knowledge of the whole earth instead, got
by wandering?"
And there was a providence in this for
others besides Thoreau. With his rare
powers of observation, his innate sym-
pathy with Nature, his keen sensitiveness
to beauty wherever found, and his won-
derful gift of verbal description, he has
given us an unsurpassed picture of New
England outdoor life which is destined
to afford enjoyment and inspiration to
thousands of people through all the years
to come. It goes without saying that he
never could have drawn this picture had
he given much of his time to travel
abroad.
Louisa Alcott, in her beautiful poem
on "Thoreau's Flute," put the matter
concisely :
"Above man's aims his nature rose.
The wisdom of a just content
Made one small spot a continent.
And tuned to poetry life's prose."
FOLLOWING THOREAU'S FOOTPATHS
It has been the writer's esteemed privi-
lege during the past fifteen years and
more to make many rambling trips to
Concord, lured thither by Thoreau's vivid
descriptions of Nature's beauty in his
home surroundings. Without purposely
attempting to repeat Thoreau's "travels,"
there has been found a peculiar pleasure
in seeking out his favorite haunts, identi-
fying places with which he was closely
associated and which he named after a
fashion of his own, and at the same time
securing photographs of a great number
of the actual scenes and phenomena in
which he delighted.
These trips have been undertaken in all
seasons of the year, coinciding so far as
possible with Thoreau's own records and
duplicating to a large degree many of his
most enjoyable experiences. Especially
has the winter season, which to many
people is so burdensome and even repel-
lant, proved wonderfully fruitful in sub-
jects of interest and beauty.
DAYS OF NEW OPPORTUNITY
Thoreau was an enthusiast over the
New England winter. He hailed its ad-
vent, noted every step of its progress,
and found much of interest even in its
lingering departure. At the close of the
long, cold winter of 1855-56, with its
record of ninety-nine consecutive days
of sleighing in Concord — a period, one
would think, long enough to upset the
complacency of a man like Thoreau — he
wrote, under date of April 10: "I look
with more than respect, if not with regret,
on its last dissolving traces."
There was something in winter's bare-
ness and ruggedness, its simplicity and
severity, its imperative challenge and its
unexplored grandeur, which appealed
irresistibly to his stalwart soul. And
even stronger was the appeal to his es-
thetic sense. He never ceased to adore
the spotless purity of the snow. Every
snowstorm was a fresh revelation to him
of Nature's inexhaustible beauty.
Days of intense cold were days of new
opportunity to him. He was abroad in
all kinds of weather, in all degrees of
frost. The ice of the ponds and river he
was diligent in exploring, both superfi-
cially and in its interior structure, and he
was rewarded with exquisite displays of
crystallization which very few people are
ever privileged to see. Indeed, so ex-
tended and minute were his studies of
winter's varying aspects that he could say
on one occasion, as Emerson pleasantly
relates, when returning a copy of Kane's
"Arctic Explorations" which had been
loaned to him, that "most of the phe-
nomena noted might be observed in Con-
cord !"
The winter climate of New England
has been much reviled on account of its
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
being so capricious. Sleet, slush, snow,
hail, rain, freezing, thawing, blizzards,
and sunshine make up a program which
certainly does not lack in point of variety.
Yet to this very fact is due much of the
beauty of the New England winter.
Were the cold uniform, did the snow
which falls in December remain until
April — conditions which obtain in certain
other parts of the continent — the winter
would lose a good part of its charm.
The winters in Concord today are just
as changeful as in Thoreau's time, and
one finds the same succession of varied
phenomena which compelled his wonder
and admiration.
WONDER IN THE WEAVING OF THE SNOW
BLANKET
First of all, of course, there is the snow
"blanket" enwrapping the earth, which to
Thoreau was so suggestive both of utility
and beauty — "a pure garment, as of white
watered satin, over all the fields." There
is wonderful fascination in the weaving
of this blanket. The falling snow — what
an incredible spectacle to one who has
never seen it ! And how the mystery and
witchery of it persist even after one has
seen it a thousand times !
To go abroad in Concord fields and
woods during a snow storm is a memora-
ble experience, especially if the snow is
a little damp and clings to the trees and
bushes in masses. Thoreau devotes many
pages of enthusiastic description to a
"lodging snow" :
"The woods were incredibly fair, white
as alabaster. Indeed, the young pines
reminded you of the purest statuary, and
the full-grown ones towering around af-
fected you as if you stood in a titanic
sculptor's studio, so purely and delicately
white, transmitting the light. . . .
"Imagine the innumerable twigs and
boughs of the forest crossing each other
at every conceivable angle on every side,
from the ground to thirty feet in height,
with each its zigzag wall of snow four or
five inches high, so innumerable at differ-
ent distances one behind another that
they completely close up the view, like a
loose-woven downy screen."
And then, after the snow has fallen and
the sun shines once more, the wind takes
up the snow and whirls it into drifts,
burying the fences and choking the high-
ways. In the lee of open stone walls
these drifts become curiously fantastic,
the snow being carved by the wind, which
whistles through the chinks in the wall
into many novel and picturesque forms.
"It builds up a fantastic wall behind the
first — a snowy sierra. Astonishingly
sharp and thin overhanging eaves it
builds, even this dry snow, where it has
the least suggestion from a wall or
bank — less than a mason ever springs his
brick from. This is the architecture of
the snow."
With the coming of the sun, too, there
appear those exquisite blue shadows on
the snow. Given the right conditions of
atmosphere and temperature, these shad-
ows are captivating to every one who
possesses the least sense of color values.
What makes them so blue — "celestial
blue" ? "I think I never saw," says
Thoreau, "a more Elysian blue than my
shadow. I am turned into a tall blue
Persian from my cap to my boots, such
as no mortal can produce, with an ame-
thystine hatchet in my hand. I am in
raptures at my own shadow. What if
the substance were of as ethereal a na-
ture ?"
READING THE SECRETS OF THE WILD
In his tramps afield after every fresh
snowfall Thoreau took keen delight in
reading the story of the wild life of the
woods found in the tracks of fox and
otter, squirrel and rabbit, crow and par-
tridge, mouse and mink. The snow, he
declared, is the great revealer, and he
learned many secrets of the wild in these
footprint studies.
Of all the denizens of the woods, how-
ever, Reynard held for him the greatest
interest, and more than once he would
spend a large portion of the day follow-
ing the tracks of a fox and unraveling
the record of its wanderings. Concord
is so far from being wholly urbanized in
these days that the wood-folk still linger
within its precincts, and judging from
the snowy tale of their gambols and jour-
neyings they are scarcely less numerous
than in Thoreau's time.
But Thoreau held that we may find in
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AFTER AN ICE-STORM : MASSACHUSETTS
"Seen at the right angle, each ice-encrusted stubble shines like a prism with some color of
the rainbow. What a crash of jewels as you walk!"
173
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PINE FOLIAGE AFTER AN ICE-STORM
"The pines are as white as a counterpane, with raised embroidery and white tassels and
fringes. Each fascicle of leaves or needles is held apart by an icy club surmounted by a
little snowy or icy ball."
1/4
the snow the footprint of a life superior
to anything of which zoology takes cog-
nizance. "Why do the vast plains give
us pleasure," he asks, "the twilight of the
bent and half-buried woods? Is not all
there consonant with virtue, justice,
purity, courage, magnanimity? Are we
not cheered by the sight? And does not
all this amount to the track of a higher
life than the otter's, a life which has not
gone by and left a footprint merely, but
is there with its beauty, its music, its per-
fume, its sweetness, to exhilarate and
recreate us?
"Did this great snow, come to reveal
the track merely of some timorous hare,
or of the Great Hare whose track no
hunter has seen?"
A SPECTACLE OF ENCHANTMENT
Apart from the phenomena of the
snow, there occurs at rare intervals dur-
ing the winter what Thoreau speaks of
as a "frozen mist," when the trees and all
other outdoor objects are covered in the
early morning with a delicate hoar frost.
This, of course, soon melts under the rays
of the sun ; but while it lingers the spec-
tacle is one of enchantment.
"No snow has fallen, but, as it were,
the vapor has been caught by the trees
like a cobweb. The trees are bright,
hoary forms, the ghosts of trees. Closely
examined or at a distance, it is just like
the sheaf-like forms of vegetation and
the diverging crystals on the window-
panes. You look up and behold the
hugest pine, as tall as a steeple, all frosted
over. Nature has now gone into her
winter palace."
Akin to this phenomenon are the crys-
tallized "rosettes," as Thoreau calls them,
which are found sprinkling the surface
of the ice after a night of severe cold.
"They look like a loose web of small
white feathers springing from a tuft of
down, as if a feather bed had been shaken
over the ice. They are, on a close exami-
nation, surprisingly perfect leaves, like
ferns."
Frequently accompanying these feath-
ery crystals, which are "so thin and frag-
ile that they melt under your breath while
looking closely at them," there is another
form of needle-shaped crystals in bun-
POISON-DOGWOOD BERRIES: MASSA-
CHUSETTS
Thoreau has numerous references in his
winter notes to the novelty and beauty of the
fruit of the poison-dogwood, which hangs in
clustered panicles from the leafless stems of
the shrub.
1 75
-
FOX TRACKS IN THE SNOW I MASSACHUSETTS
Thoreau took keen delight in reading the story of wild life in the woods as shown by
the tracks in the snow, especially those of the fox. The foreground of the picture shows
where the fox was digging for mice.
176
dies, or "as if oats
had been spilled, like
fibers of asbestos
rolled." Both forms,
he thinks, result
from vapor congeal-
ing as it finds its way
through interstices in
the ice, and both are
uniquely beautiful.
THE ICE-STORM
Rarest and most
beautiful of all, how-
ever, are the phe-
nomena attendant
upon an "ice-storm" —
something which does
not occur every win-
ter. In fact, it was
only after several
years of patient wait-
ing that the writer
was able to secure
photographs illustrat-
ing this striking event.
The necessary con-
ditions are : a gently
falling rain, a stratum
of air next the earth
with temperature be-
low the freezing point,
and this overlaid with
warmer strata from
which the rain pro-
ceeds. Thus the rain
freezes as fast as it
falls, and there is
gradually built up
around every object
a coating of ice. Then,
when the sun comes
world is turned into a veritable crystal
palace.
"All objects, even the apple trees and
the rails, are to the eye polished silver.
It is a perfect land of fairy.
"Seen at the right angle, each ice-en-
crusted stubble shines like a prism with
some color of the rainbow — intense blue,
or violet, and red.
"What a crash of jewels, as you walk!
"The fine spray of a myriad of bushes
on the edge of the bank sparkles like
silver.
"The drooping birches along the edges
of the woods are the most feathery,
./
"Did this great
timorous hare, or
seen?"
out, the whole
TRACKS OF A HARE
snow come to reveal the track merely of some
of the Great Hare, whose track no hunter has
fairy-like ostrich plumes of the trees.
The pines are as white as a counterpane,
with raised embroidery and white tassels
and fringes. Each fascicle of leaves or
needles is held apart by an icy club sur-
mounted by a little snowy or icy ball.
Finer than the Saxon arch is this path
running under the pines, roofed, not with
crossing boughs, but drooping ice-cov-
ered twigs in irregular confusion.
"God exhibits himself to the walker in
a frosted bush today, as much as in a
burning one to Moses of old."
Thus, for page after page, Thoreau at-
tempts to convey some idea of the beauty
of this icy wonderland. But no words
A FROSTY MORNING: MASSACHUSETTS
Occasionally during the winter there occurs what Thoreau speaks of as a "frozen mist,"
when the trees and all other outdoor objects are covered in the early morning with a deli-
cate hoar-frost.
THE SNOW RECORD
From left to right: I. Tracks of a pheasant retreating hastily. 2. The same pheasant
approaching cautiously from cover. 3. Tracks of a rabbit, also probably alarmed. 4. Tracks
of a partridge. Tracks of a fox coursing along the edge of the swamp are also discernible.
and no photograph can do more than
merely hint at the reality. Whoever has
once witnessed the phenomenon of a New
England ice-storm can never forget its
ravishing beauty.
THE ORGAN-PIPES OF ICE
Another icy spectacle which Thoreau
always took pains to observe on its an-
nual recurrence was the formation of
icicle "organ-pipes" on the face of a cer-
tain cliff in Concord, and one can find the
same process in operation, under suitable
conditions, in exactly the same spot today.
The water from melting snow trickles
down over the perpendicular rock- face,
and "its constant drip at night builds
great organ-pipes of a ringed structure,
which run together, buttressing the rock.
"Behind these perpendicular pipes, or
congregated pillars, or colonnades run
together are formed the prettiest little
aisles or triangular alcoves with lichen-
clad sides. The shadow of the water
flowing or pulsating behind this trans-
parent icy crust or these stalactites in the
sun imparts a semblance of life to the
whole."
This suggestion of life, by the way,
was always a most welcome feature of
Thoreau's winter walks. Any reminder
of the past summer, such as a bird's nest
with its "snowy egg," or the persistent
panicles of poison - dogwood berries,
"beautiful as Satan," or the scarlet fruit
of the black alder, gave him keen
pleasure.
Likewise the least promise of the com-
ing spring, like the opening of the river
channel, or the breaking up of the ice in
the ponds, or a distant bluebird's warble.
Even so simple a thing as a running
brook called forth his enthusiasm. "Per-
haps what most moves us in winter," he
wrote, "is some reminiscence of far-off
summer. How we leap by the side of the
open brooks ! What beauty in the run-
ning brooks ! What life ! What society !
The cold is merely superficial ; it is sum-
mer still at the core, far, far within."
INTERPRETING THE "GRAND OLD POEM
WINTER" EVERYWHERE
Thoreau made all his observations of
winter phenomena in Concord, but it by
no means follows that one need make a
180
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A BIRD'S NEST WITH ITS "SNOWY EGG"
During his winter walks Thoreau always
took keen delight in discovering any reminder
of the past summer, even if it was only a
deserted bird's nest filled with snow.
journey to Concord to witness and enjoy
the same phenomena. All through the
northern portion of the United States, ex-
cept upon the Pacific coast, there is an-
nually staged upon the platform of winter
the same drama of wonder and beauty
which so aroused his admiration.
Indeed, in certain sections there some-
times occur spectacular effects of which
Thoreau never witnessed anything more
than the merest suggestion, such as the
brilliant "sun-dogs," "inverted rainbows,"
and kindred atmospheric phenomena
which frequently accompany days of in-
tense cold in Minnesota and North Da-
kota. Also, in connection with many of
the higher waterfalls of the northern
States, there are superb displays of frost
magic, such as that which annually draws
a throng of visitors to Niagara, far tran-
scending in magnitude and beauty any-
thing which Thoreau ever saw on his
winter visits to the tiny waterfalls of
Concord.
But the ordinary aspects of winter, so
familiar to all who dwell in regions peri-
odically visited by the Ice King, Thoreau
has made the subject of graphic descrip-
tion. The snow crystals falling upon his
coat sleeve, the icy fretwork on the pud-
dle by the roadside, the "booming" of the
pond on cold evenings, the snow-encased
pump, the farmer piloting his ox-sled
through the drifts, the lisping of chick-
adees among the snow-laden hemlocks,
the fisherman with his string of pickerel
caught through the ice, the close-wrapped
buds of trees and shrubs, the humming
of the telegraph "harp," the snow-bunt-
ings and tree-sparrows — "true spirits of
the snowstorm," the red alder catkins
"switching in the face of winter and
bragging for all creation," the woodchop-
per and his noonday lunch, the scream of
the blue-jay — "a sort of wintry trumpet,"
the snow-fleas in the wheel-ruts, the
frost-tracery on the window pane — all
these and many other incidents and phe-
nomena of the winter are faithfully and
lovingly recorded.
Trivial matters ? Yes, and yet they are
so charmingly treated in Thoreau's inter-
pretation of "that grand old poem called
winter" that we forget their trivial and
commonplace character and are made to
see how much they contribute toward the
beauty and the harmony of the whole.
NEW PICTURES PAINTED AT EACH SUNSET
There is one very common phenome-
non of the winter time — a daily occur-
rence, in fact — which Thoreau dwells
upon with marked frequency and always
in a mood of special exaltation. To him,
in all seasons of the year, the holiest
hour of the day was the hour of the set-
ting sun, and in the winter season its ap-
peal was most potent.
Under date of January 7, 1852, he
wrote : "I go forth each afternoon and
look into the west a quarter of an hour
before sunset, with fresh curiosity, to see
what new picture will be painted there,
what new panorama exhibited, what new
dissolving views. Can Washington Street
or Broadway show anything as good ?
Every day a new picture is painted and
framed, held up for half an hour, in such
lights as the Great Artist chooses, and
then withdrawn, and the curtain falls."
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL
But Where Will Our Children Get It When American
• Wells Cease to Flow?
BY GEORGE OTIS SMITH
DIRECTOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
IN THE course of the centuries the
raw-material 'issue changes. In the
long-bow epoch of England's mili-
tary strength the conservationist feared
a depletion of the yew wood which might
give the Teuton, backed up by his larger
forests, an obvious advantage in light
ordnance. Later, when Great Britain's
naval power depended upon her wooden
ships of war, the anxious naval chief
foresaw a possible shortage of the oak
which made the walls that stood between
England and her enemies.
The yew and the oak are no longer es-
sential to national defense, for steel has
proved the substitute in both arms and
armor plate. Yet today those who plan
for the future prosperity of their nation
realize the extent to which other raw ma-
terials are essential to the general well-
being, and for some of these we can see
no adequate substitutes.
Foremost among these most useful and
least abundant, if not, indeed, irreplace-
able, commodities stands mineral oil, or
petroleum, and not only the conservative
Briton, but the most optimistic American,
may well ask himself. Where will my
children and children's children get the
oil that they may need in ever-increasing
amounts ?
THE WORLD'S GREATEST OIL PRODUCER
AND CONSUMER
The leadership of the United States as
an oil producer and consumer is spectac-
ular enough to satisfy our American love
of doing things on a big scale. For sixty
years, except in 1898 to 1901, when Rus-
sia reached the peak of its past petroleum
production, the United States has led the
rest of the world with its steadily increas-
ing flow of oil.
But while we have contributed far
more than half (61 per cent) of the oil
that the world has used in all these years,
we have already reached the point where
we are consuming more oil than we pro-
duce. Is this position of the world's
greatest user of petroleum as safe as it is
spectacular ?
The story of the petroleum industry in
the United States extends back only sixty
years. On August 28, 1859, oil was struck
in the Drake well, near Titusville, in
northwestern Pennsylvania, and when
the pumping began the oil flowed in a tiny
stream of 40, and later only 15, barrels a
day ; but since that day of small things
the tide of oil has mounted higher and
higher: 5 million barrels were produced
in 1870, 26 million in 1880, 45 million in
1890, 63 million in 1900, 209 million in
1910, and 356 million barrels in 1918,
with the output last year perhaps 20, or
even 30, million barrels in excess of that
record. The crest of this flood of oil
must surely soon be reached.
A NIAGARA OP OIL
We are the world's greatest consumers
of petroleum ; but, impressive as are the
1918 figures of consumption — 413,-
077,113 barrels — no mind can easily
grasp the idea of that quantity. Truly it
is a flood of oil ; for, if spread over the
60 square miles of the District of Colum-
bia, these 413 million barrels would cover
the area to a depth of nearly a foot and
a half.
Or perhaps the eye can better visualize
the torrent of oil that flows each year
from the 203,400 wells, is pumped
through the long pipe lines, and is
brought up from Mexico in huge tankers,
if we figure that a year's supply of oil
equals the flow7 of the waters from the
Great Lakes and their vast drainage
basin over Niagara Falls for three hours
and four minutes ; or, in terms of the
181
182
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Dr. D. T. Day
THE SITU OF AMERICA'S PIONEER OIL wEu,
A new chapter in industrial history began sixty years ago with the flow of petroleum
from this 6o.-foot bore-hole on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. Edwin L,. Drake did not strike it
rich, receiving only an annuity from the Keystone State and a monument from the industry
he founded.
smaller stream flowing past the Nation's
Capital, if the Potomac at Great Falls
were a river of crude oil, the nation's an-
nual requirements could be met only with
the flow at the summer rate for nearly
four days and a half.
So it is that while in 1918 our "home
fires" in power plant, blast furnace, loco-
motive, and residence consumed a moun-
tain of coal a mile and a third in diameter
and nearly 2.000 feet high, we also used
a river of oil.
Credit is often due to the silent partner
in a business, and the marvelous growth
of our oil industry owes much to its own
transportation system, unseen and un-
known by most citizens, yet far more
efficient than the railroad lines of which
we are so proud.
Beginning with four miles of iron pipe
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL
183
'ARKANSAS./ " V \ X
kv>?±. A
A SKKTCII MAP SHOWING THE ELABORATE OH, PIPE-LINE SYSTEM WHICH FORMS A
NETWORK BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THE EASTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES
There are enough oil pipe lines in the United States to girdle the earth at the equator and
have 5,coo miles to spare.
laid down in western Pennsylvania at the
close of the Civil War, this system now
embraces a huge network of buried pipes
from four to eight inches in diameter,
trunk lines and laterals, aggregating
nearly 30,000 miles (see map above).
A VAST NETWORK OF OIL PIPE LINES
Along these hidden transportation lines
there are pumping stations every 40 miles
or so, but the daily circulation of oil in
these long arteries is appreciated only by
the oil operators who sell their product
at one end and the refiners or shippers
who receive it at the other end.
Another measure of this pipe-line sys-
tem is given in the fact that it would
take approximately two days' flow from
the 200,000 wells of the country simply
to fill these pipes.
Petroleum's rank among the minerals is
won not by attractive appearance, but by
sheer usefulness. Few of us fully appre-
ciate how essential this mineral oil is in
Photograph from U. S. Geological Survey
OIL WELLS IN VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
The topography and the locality suggest "nothing venture, nothing have," which is one of the
rules in hunting oil.
184
Photograph from U. S. Geological Survey
NUMBER FOUR WELL AT JOY FARM, OHIO, DRILLED IN 1864 AND STILL
PRODUCING OIL
the world economy or realize all the
changes that have come about in its use
within a decade or two.
OIL NO LONGER OUR LIGHT BY NIGHT, BUT
PREMIER POWER SOURCE
When most of us were in school, "oil"
meant kerosene, and gasoline or benzine
was something to be bought in a bottle at
the drug-store or the paint shop. In
those earlier days the oil refiner put as
much gasoline in his kerosene product as
the traffic would allow ; today the auto-
mobilist complains that his gasoline con-
tains too much kerosene. The refiner
simply robs his less marketable kerosene
of the more inflammable content; so
that, as has been suggested, if Widow
O'Leary's cow again kicked over the
lamp, in all probability the spilt oil would
not set Chicago or any other city on fire.
In those earlier days, too, fuel oil
played no part in industry. Then, petro-
leum's future mission seemed to be to
light up the dark corners of the world —
to be the handmaiden of Minerva ; today,
oil has become the premier motive power,
not only on land and sea, but even in the
heavens above and the depths below —
truly the best servant of Mars and Mer-
cury.
Marshal Foch is quoted as saying that
"a drop of gasoline was worth in war a
drop of blood," and M. Berenger, the
French Commissioner-General of Petro-
leum, expressed the same idea when he
called attention to the fact that victory on
the battlefields of Belgium, France, and
Italy "could not have been gained with-
out that other blood of the earth which
is called oil."
"And if petroleum has been the life
blood of the war, it will be still more the
life-blood of peace." The strategy of
peace should, however, lead us so to plan
for wise use of this precious fluid that
Mother Earth will not too soon be "bled
white."
MORE THAN 300 PRODUCTS oF
PETROLEUM
The number and variety of uses of pe-
troleum and its products are continually
increasing, but even more striking is our
increased dependence upon a few of the
products of the oil refinery, notably gaso-
185
1.86
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
line, kerosene, the many types of
lubricating oils, and fuel oil.
There are said to be 300 or
more products of petroleum, each
with its own use. Some of these
products serve merely our con-
venience, such as the artificial
"vanilla" flavoring or the cover
of paraffine on the jar of jelly or
marmalade; others were found
during the war period to be ab-
solutely essential to industry on
a large scale — for example, the
heavy oil used in tempering steel
plates.
One picture of the demand for
the principal petroleum products
can be seen in a recent statement
of United States Army peace-
time requirements, which in-
cluded 74 million gallons of fuel
oil, 1 1 million gallons of gasoline,
two million gallons each of lubri-
cating oil and grease, and one
million gallons of kerosene. Not
only will the size of this single
order open some eyes, but its
make-up is significant and dis-
concerting.
Taking the figures of the Bu-
reau of Mines on refinery pro-
duction last year, we find that
the output of gasoline was not
quite double that of kerosene,
and the output of lubricants was
less than half that of kerosene,
and here the army wants eleven
times as much gasoline as kero-
sene, and twice as much lubri-
cating oil. The discord between
demand and supply in this one
order is even worse for fuel oil,
of which the output last year
was about five times that of kero-
sene; and yet the army wants
74 times as much.
LUBRICANTS ARS THE BAROMETER
OF BUSINESS
Too broad an inference from
any one set of figures is unwise,
but other statistics point in the
same direction: Fuel oil is used
on 357 vessels of our navy, and
the Shipping Board has an-
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL
187
From "World Atlas of Commercial Geology," U. S. Geological Survey
MAP SHOWING PRODUCTION OF PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED STATES IN IQlS, AND
THE OUTLINES OE THE PETROLEUM AREAS
Each black dot represents one per cent of the total production of petroleum in the United
States. The dotted lines surround oil-producing areas. Where the production is less than
one per cent, the area is indicated by the cross.
nounced that there will soon be 1,731
oil-burning vessels of the merchant ma-
rine under the American flag ; gasoline is
now sold at every cross-roads, and we
know that the use of this fuel in auto-
motive engines has more than quadrupled
during the present decade ; and the coun-
try's demand for lubricating oil, which
is an essential in every phase of modern
civilization, increases so rapidly that we
must agree with the Bureau of Mines in
the belief that the current consumption
of lubricants is an excellent barometer
of business and industrial conditions.
SIX MILLION PLEASURE CARS IN THE
UNITED STATES
Inventive genius and economic neces-
sity may from time to time change the
relative demands for this or that petro-
leum derivative, but the sum total of
these demands must increase as the num-
ber of swiftly turning wheels in the
world increases.
It is when we think of the marvelous
growth of the automotive industry that
we realize a future demand for lubri-
cation that staggers even the prophetic
statistician. With more than six million
pleasure automobiles operated in the
United States alone, we have an annual
consumption estimated, by the officials of
the foremost company manufacturing
high-grade lubricants, at 120 million gal-
lons of lubricating oil, where twenty
years ago the demand for this purpose
was practically nothing.
Moreover, today a fleet of half a mil-
lion motor trucks travel up and down
our city streets and State roads, deliver-
ing every kind of commodity from eggs
to pianos, and these powerful motors
furnish a market for 37*^ million gal-
lons of lubricating oil. But while we
may expect the demand for oil by auto-
mobiles to continue to increase rapidly
and the requirement by trucks may possi-
bly double within a few years — indeed, a
tire company estimates that even now a
million trucks are in service — who can
even guess at the number of tractors that
may be operating on our farms within
•
Photograph from Hope Natural Gas Company
THE DEEPEST HOLE IN THE WORLD
America leads in courage and skill in exploring the earth's crust in the search for oil
and gas. The Lake No. I well in West Virginia had reached a depth of 7,589 feet, or 240
feet deeper than the deepest well in Europe, when the steel cable parted nearly three-fourths
of a mile below the surface. This is the second world record established by the Hope
Natural Gas Company, the Goff well being 7,386 feet deep, but neither of these West Vir-
ginia wells has yielded anything but facts for the geologist.
the next five years ? Already the number
of tractors in operation is estimated as a
third of a million, and they consume
about 35 million gallons of lubricating
oil.
We have, then, a total of fully 200
million gallons of lubricating oil already
required to keep the automotive equip-
ment of our country running smoothly,
and we must not shut our eyes to the
fact that millions and millions of gallons
more will be needed each year.
HOW OIL SAVES POWER
The steady growth of industrial
America is observed by all, but we need
the help of census statistics to realize the
rate of that growth. The power used in
our manufacturing has about doubled in
the past sixteen years ; the kilowatt-hours
turned out by our public-utility stations
have increased eight or nine fold in that
same period. Indeed, the single State of
New York will use far more electric
power this year than the whole country
did in 1902.
And so the demand for lubricants be-
comes stronger on the road, on the farm,
and in the mill. Still, while we think of
this rapid development of power as using
increased amounts of oil, it is equally
true that oil saves power; so that if ma-
190
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from D. A. McDannald, Orange, Calif.
THE WONDER- WORKERS
Drillers whose skill taps the oil-sands half a mile or more beneath the surface.
chinery multiplies man-power, lubricat-
ing oil is a good and faithful servant that
deserves more than a passing thought.
With all these demands for fuel and
lubricants, who can venture an estimate
of our needs even ten years hence?
Whence will the petroleum come to meet
these needs? That river of oil repre-
senting our 1918 consumption drew from
the ground more than one-twentieth of
the quantity estimated by the United
States Geological Survey geologists as
the content of our unrecovered under-
ground reserve, and it also took nearly
one-fifth of the oil stored above ground.
The estimate of about 6]/2 billion bar-
rels as now available is far less impressive
when we realize how fast we are using
it up and that while we have burned
and wasted less than i per cent of the
coal resources of the United States in
the last 100 years we have apparently-
used up 40 per cent of our available oil
supply in only 60 years.
This is why the hunt for oil has become
world-wide and suggests a compelling
reason for Americans to lead in that
hunt.
A HUNTER WHOSE WEAPON IS THE DRILL
The geologist has lately come into his
own. as a money-saver in the employ of
oil companies. Today not less than 750
geologists are in the employ of corpora-
tions, large and small, selecting the most
promising fields for oil exploration and
sites for new oil wells. Where it costs
from $8 to $20 a foot to drill a well and
the oil sands are 3,000 to 4,500 feet be-
neath the surface, as in California; or
450 to 3,600 feet, as in Oklahoma; or
possibly as much as 3,600 feet, as in the
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL
191
THE; LAKEVIEW GUSHER
Photograph from Mining Review, Los Angeles
OF CALIFORNIA
In its day a record-breaker, but not comparable to the Mexican "gushers." The spectators
on the sand-bag embankment later discovered their linen to be spotted with oil-mist.
new Ranger field in Texas, the expense
attending the drilling of a single well is
something to be considered in the econ-
omy of the business, especially when, as
the Bureau of Mines states, oil wells, like
everything else, cost about twice as much
as they did before the war.
The geologist simply applies his science
to the problem of making as many wells
as possible successful and of preventing
drilling where oil cannot be found. Every
"dry hole" is, in the last analysis, a tax
on the consumer, that patient Atlas of
the world's ever-mounting load of high
costs.
A recent study of the results of ex-
tensive geologic examinations on the
Osage Indian lands shows conclusively
that in this region, which rather favors
the Government geologist in his effort to
locate oil, his geology was right 87 per
cent of the time, when tested by the drill.
Business can ask of science no better
percentage of success than that, and the
money and labor and supplies that can
thus be saved to the nation constitute no
small item.
A BIG LEAK — THE STOCK PROMOTION GAME
One of the leaks in the nation's task
of finding oil is nearer home to many of
us. The stock-promotion game attracts
too many dollars to no useful purpose.
It has been stated that two years ago
these much-advertised oil companies,
with more assets on paper than on the
ground or under the ground, were to be
credited with a very small fraction of
i per cent of the oil yield of Oklahoma ;
indeed, the issue of stock certificates
reached the point where for every $555
of ill-advised investment only one dollar's
worth of oil was produced. Thus does
the combination of unscrupulous stock-
peddler and ignorant investor undo much
that the conscientious oil-producer is
striving to accomplish in getting the
most oil out of the ground at lowest cost.
192
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Bureau ot Mines
TANK FARM
Where one of the group of huge storage tanks has. been set on fire by lightning. In our
automobiles we also use the electric spark for ignition, but to better purpose.
Conservation touches petroleum at
many points. There is need for a coun-
try-wide thrift campaign looking to the
saving of this essential resource. Man-
power and oil ought to be conserved at
all stages of production and consumption
by better methods in the discovery, drill-
ing, recovery, transportation, refining,
and use of petroleum and its products.
The price of crude oil has just reached
a new level, and eventually this must in-
fluence the price of the refinery products,
a fact that ought to give impetus to thrift
among users of every petroleum product.
THE WASTE BEGINS
Unwarranted optimism, which seems
indigenous in most parts of the United
States, has led both the oil industry and
the public to waste this best of fuels.
The program of wastage begins below
the ground with only partial recovery,
goes on above the ground with leakage
and evaporation, and continues all along
the line to the indiscriminate burning of
fuel oil under boilers with regard for
convenience rather than for efficiency, or
to the even less defensible use of pe-
troleum for oiling our roads.
In oil-field operation, in refinery prac-
tice, and in the use of oil everywhere, too
often the dollar test of economy is the
only one applied. The situation, how-
ever, is critical enough to demand an-
other rule — that of taking thought of the
morrow and of weighing the questions
of ultimate supply and demand.
But. with those early forest conserva-
tionists of old England in mind, the ques-
tion may be asked, Are there no practical
substitutes or other adequate sources?
The obvious answer is in terms of pres-
ent prices ; the real answer is in terms
of cost in man-power.
THE ADVANTAGES Of OIL, OVER COAL
Whether on land or sea, fuel oil is
preferred to coal because it requires less
WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL
193
© Underwood & Underwood
WORKING NEAR THE FIRING-LINE
The lineman repairing wires close to the huge oil tank, which the firemen are trying to
keep below the explosion temperature. This $2,000,000 fire on Long Island caused the greatest
call for fire apparatus that New York City has ever known.
bunker space and fewer firemen; and,
back of that, in the man-power required
in its mining, preparation, and transpor-
tation, the advantage on the side of oil is
even greater. So, too, the substitute for
gasoline in internal-combustion engines,
whether alcohol or benzol, means higher
cost and larger expenditure of labor in
its production. Moreover, for alcohol
agricultural land would be required, and
for benzol in the quantities needed a far
greater coal consumption than is now
necessary.
Again, while we fortunately have our
great reserve of oil shales as an inde-
pendent source at some future date, we
do well to consider the practical contin-
gency suggested by Mr. Requa, that to
develop this source on a scale comparable
in output with our present oil supply
"would require an industrial organization
greater than our entire coal mining or-
ganization." Plainly, our country can not
afford to support another such army of
workers until we reach another stage in
our industrial development.
The question of safeguarding Amer-
ica's oil supply has been prominently be-
fore the American people for more than
ten years. In September, 1909, President
Photograph from Bureau of Mines
AN OIIv TANK SET ON FIRE BY LIGHTNING
A pillar of smoke by day that represents a total loss to the world that needs oil.
194
Taft ordered that all pub-
lic lands believed to contain
petroleum should be re-
served from disposition un-
til a law could be passed
that might assure an ade-
quate supply of fuel oil and
lubricating oil for our navy
and in some degree check
the wasteful overproduc-
tion in the rich oil fields of
California. Such a law is
now under consideration by
the conference committee
of the two Houses of Con-
gress.
WHERE WE SHALL GET OUR
OIL IN FUTURE
Ten years is a long
period for these "tempor-
ary" withdrawals to run
pending the enactment of
suitable legislation, and in
that time the country's need
of oil, as measured by its
consumption, has doubled.
If in 1909 our Chief Ex-
ecutive had reason to plan
the safe and sane disposal
of the petroleum still in
public ownership, in 1920
we surely need to look even
further and see if possible
where our children will get
the oil they will require in
increased amount.
On the accompanying
map of the world (see
page 200) , are indicated the
regions from which, ac-
cording to present information, the oil
supplies of the future are to be drawn.
The diagrammatic representation of the
relative abundance of the oil resources in
the ground in different countries is at
best highly speculative. Most of the other
countries outside of Europe have not
been covered so thoroughly by geologic
examinations as the United States. In
fact, some of the oldest and most highly
civilized countries have not been studied
by geologists specially trained in the geol-
ogy of oil and gas, as is shown by the fact
that it remained for an American expert
to bring to the attention of the British
the probabilities of the occurrence of oil
fields in old England itself.
Photograph from M. L> Alexander
ENGINEERING EXPERTS BRINGING UNDER CONTROL A
"WILD WELL" IN LOUISIANA
A glance at the map shows that outside
of the United States the great oil supplies
of the future, so far as now known, are
centralized mainly in the Near East, in
South America, and in Mexico. Accord-
ing to reports, there may be great reserves
of oil in Africa, and it is also possible
that eventually considerable supplies may
be discovered in the Far East.
In general, the regions developed first
and drawn on most heavily are, of course,
likely to be soonest exhausted. There-
fore it is practically certain that, as the
oil resources of the United States and
Rumania diminish and the reserves of
Mexico also yield under the pressure of
rapidly increasing exploitation, the world
Photograph from Mexican Petroleum Co.
THE WORLD'S GREATEST OIL WELL
A well in Mexico named Cerro Azul No. 4 shot a column of oil higher than our Wash-
ington Monument and drenched the country with a rain of oil for two miles around. Engi-
neer measurements showed the column to be 600 feet high and the flow to have been more
than a million barrels in the week before man harnessed this great force.
196
will have to look for its
oil supplies to those re-
gions where inaccessi-
bilities and lack of de-
mand, due to the social
and industrial backward-
ness of the peoples, have
hitherto retarded ex-
ploration and production.
HOW MEXICO'S OIL HAS
BEEN EXPLOITED
The rapidity with
which a region of rela-
tively recent develop-
ment may be exploited
is illustrated in Mexico,
whose petroleum output
has risen since 1910 until
it is second only to the
United States, having
doubled in the last five
years. Mexico has been
a land of oil-gushers and
big wells, and with less
than 300 producing wells
the potential daily pro-
duction has been esti-
mated as about one and
a half million barrels,
but the actual output is
not much more than 10
per cent of that.
The increases in pro-
duction in the United
States and Mexico for
the year 1918, as com-
pared with 1917, are re-
spectively twenty mil-
lion and eight million
barrels. This shows how
large a responsibility for
the world's oil supply
Mexico is already assuming.
What is to happen when, following the
United States, Mexico must reduce her
output with the progressive exhaustion
of her oil resources, and what are to be
the competitive conditions in the United
States when the other great nations of
the world, whose use of petroleum is now
relatively insignificant, awaken to the
realization of the unique and almost
priceless advantages of this great natural
resource ?
The United States, though the largest
producer and consumer of oil, has given
Photograph from Mexican Petroleum Co.
THE CERRO AZUL NO. 4 IN FULL FORCE
The great volume of gas and oil completely wrecked the der-
rick, and in the first blast of gas threw the 2-ton drill-bit high in
the air, landing 125 feet from the well and within three yards of
a "movie" photographer. Photographing a wild well is not with-
out discomfort and danger.
too little heed to the future ; Great Brit-
ain, almost the smallest producer, has
been the first to foresee petroleum's
"transcendental importance to the world's
industrial future," and, following up vis-
ion with action, has been the most active
in providing for that future.
BRITAIN'S METHOD OF CONTROLLING OIL
SUPPLIES
Sidney Brooks's phrase, "commercial
statesmanship," may be the transatlantic
term for "dollar diplomacy," but it aptly
describes the British method of seeking
197
to c
198
Photograph from Mexican Petroleum Co.
THE VICTORY WON: THE WORLD'S PREMIER OIL GUSHER HARNESSED
The successful issue of a week's campaign, for which there had been months of prepara-
tion. The valve is in position and ready to close. All of the flow now passes through the
pipe, and the great reservoir of oil, 1,752 feet below the surface, is thus connected up with
the 8-inch pipe lines running down to Tampico, where tankers load to supply the oil-hungry
world (see other photographs of the Cerro Azul well on pages 196, 197, and 198, constituting
a pictorial history of the great Mexican gusher).
199
o ~
w
M 0s
ENGLAND'S DISCOVERY WELL
Photograph from Arthur C. Veatch
Located in Derbyshire by an American geologist, drilled by American engineers and
skilled workmen, with American machinery and well supplies, this all-American well struck
oil in England almost exactly 60 years after Drake discovered oil in Pennsylvania.
control of an oil supply adequate for the
nation's needs. John D. Northrop, in a
review of the political and commercial
control of the petroleum resources of the
world, thus sums up the British position :
"The strength of Great Britain's present
position in the world's petroleum affairs
lies in a strong governmental policy in the
matter and in the wide scope of British
petroleum investments, embracing practi-
cally every country of which petroleum is
an important product and nearly every
country of which it is a product of poten-
tial importance."
Not only do the British oil companies
rejoice in such suggestive names as "Brit-
ish Controlled Oilfields," but at the stock-
holders' meetings the policy is stated in
plain language as providing the safeguard
of a voting trust so that no financial con-
trol "can divert even a single barrel of
oil from national or imperial require-
ments."
It is easy to see that Great Britain's
world-trade policy has given oil this "im-
perial" recognition ; and when we picture
the return of the American flag to the
seven seas, we too must plan for an oil
supply available wherever needed. Any
nation which today aspires to a large part
in world commerce imposes upon itself
an oil problem, for the future freedom of
both the sea and the air will be defined
in terms of oil supply.
AMERICAN SHIPS AND THEIR APPETITE
FOR OIL
The new demand of our shipping pro-
gram alone involves fuel oil in quantities
equivalent to nearly one-half of the pres-
ent domestic output, and, unless tliere is
some corresponding decrease in other de-
mands, this new requirement must be met
with an increase in production of crude
oil of nearly 200 million barrels.
The United States shipping program
further calls for a chain of oil stations en-
circling the globe. The Shipping Board
has already announced that the first steps
have been taken to establish fuel stations
along the trade lanes as well as at the
world's cross-roads, and thus to assure
unrestricted operation of our ships in the
world's trade.
201
202
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
But economy on a large scale will mean
that not only must the oil supply be put
where it is needed, but the oil must come,
if possible, from near-by sources. Amer-
ican tankers encircling the world with
cargoes of Texas cr California oil appeal
to the imagination, but involve too high
a transportation cost; better, some con-
trol of oil supply on other continents.
America's experience on the world
scale has been gained as an oil merchant
more than as an oil-producer. The illu-
mination of the Orient with American
kerosene has been followed by the lubri-
cation of the whole world with special
oils from American refineries ; and now
we hear of a garage in Guatemala 7,000
feet above the sea, or another in far-off
Australia using American gasoline and
lubricants exclusively.
This commercial campaign has been a
worthy one, especially in its far-seeing
outlook ; but do we look far enough ?
We have been draining our own oil pools
in part to supply the needs of the rest of
the world, but we hive made little effort
to render the rest of the world self-sup-
porting in oil production. Whether such
a national policy is to be characterized
as that of a spendthrift or that of an
altruist, it is certainly too short-sighted.
NEED FOR OIL, PIONEERS
The facts of the present situation call
for some new pioneering by the United
States. This appeal to American brains
and American dollars is made for the
patriotic purpose of providing for the
future well-being of our own country.
Already American geologists have helped
to develop the oil resources of every con-
tinent', the latest contribution being that
of A. C. Veatch, who as chief geologist
for Lord Cowdray located the discoverv
well at Hardstoft, Derbyshire, England.
This pioneer well struck oil at a depth of
3,078 feet, and since June has been flow-
ing at the rate of 12 barrels of high-grade
oil a day.
Central England has thus been shown
to be of importance as a source of pe-
troleum ; and it is gratifying to note that
American geologists, American engineers
and drillers, American rigs, and Ameri-
can oil-well supplies thus all "did their
bit" for Great Britain at the time when
the submarine menace led Lord Cowdray
to place his petroleum staff at the dis-
posal of the nation.
This pioneering spirit should now lead
American capital and American engineer-
ing to seek new sources of petroleum
supplies in foreign fields for the benefit
of the America of tomorrow. Nor can
this be done without popular support, in-
spired by general appreciation of oil as
our servant, a servant that works 24
hours a day and 7 days a week.
The "open-door" policy is best for
America and the world ; encourage
Amercan capital to enter foreign fields
and protect foreign capital wherever in-
vested in our country. However, the
spirit of reciprocity does not require that
the United States shall always keep its
own door of opportunity open to the
nationals of all nations, irrespective of
their attitude to Americans in the other
parts of the world.
The part our Government should take
in planning to meet our future needs is
to give moral support to every effort of
American business to expand its circle
of activity in oil production, so that it
will be coextensive with the new field of
American shipping.
This may mean world-wide explora-
tion, development, and producing com-
panies, financed by United States capital,
guided by American engineering, and
safeguarded in policy because protected
by the United States Government.
Thus only can our general welfare be
promoted and the future supply of oil be
assured for the United States.
INDEX FOR JULY-DECEMBER, 1919, VOLUME READY
Index for Volume XXXVI (July-December, 1919) will be mailed to members upon request
VOL. XXXVII, No. 3 WASHINGTON
MARCH, 1920
T
COPYRIGHT, 1920. 1
MASSACHUSETTS-BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
BY WILLIAM JOSEPH SHOWALTER
E XI PUT in area, Brobdingnag in
industry; forced to get its bread
elsewhere, but helping to clothe na-
tions ; longest American, except Virginia,
in the span of its history, yet least Amer-
ican, except Rhode Island and the Can-
ada-bordering States of the Mississippi
Valley, in the ancestral stock of its pres-
ent inhabitants ; losing half of its im-
proved farm lands in thirty years, while
doubling its population — Massachusetts
rewards the investigator of its twentieth
century status with manv contrasts and
not a few paradoxes.
Everybody knows that the Bay State is
one of the smallest of the Commonwealths
that compose the United States of Amer-
ica, but who realizes that it takes as many
Massachusetts to make a United States
as it takes days to make a leap year ? Or
who appreciates the fact that in area there
are as many Bay States in California as
there are holes in a full golf course.
A GIANT IN AU, SAVE SIZE
The crow needs to fly only 135 miles in
going from Sheffield to Salisbury, or only
180 miles in winging its way from Grey-
lock's summit to Chatham's sands, while
the distance between Lake Monomonac,
which spans the New Hampshire bound-
ary, and Lake Chaugogagogmanchaugag-
ogchaubunagungamaug, which touches
Connecticut, is only a little longer than
the name of the latter.
But this midget in domain is a giant in
power. Measured by the products of its
factories, by its financial contributions to
the Federal Government, it occupies fifth
place in the sisterhood ; measured by the
money it annually appropriates for its
own betterment, it attains fourth place
from the top, and is a lively disputant
with Illinois for third ; measured by the
debt it has dared to incur in order to pro-
mote the welfare of its people, it takes
second place, despite the fact that there
are seven States that surpass it in wealth.
This year Plymouth, Massachusetts,
plans to entertain the country in honor of
the 300 years that will have passed since
New England was born. There are citi-
zens in the Bay State who have ten gen-
erations or more of American blood in
their veins. Yet two-thirds of the people
of the Commonwealth have sprung from
parents one or both of whom were born
under alien flags.
Where Paul Revere lived in Revolu-
tionary times is now Little Italy, almost
as foreign in the tongue spoken as Naples
or Genoa. With only a third of the
State's population born of parents who
first saw the light in America, how small
must be the percentage born of full
colonial lineage !
But is Massachusetts less American for
its tremendous foreign stock? Look at
the recruiting records — holding sixth
place in population, but fifth in voluntary
enlistments for the World War. Look
at the Liberty Loan records — third place
in the first and second loans and fourth
place in the other three.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by L,eon H. Abdalian
THE PIUv- COATING ROOM OF A MASSACHUSETTS DRUG COMPANY
As these huge containers revolve they sugar-coat pills at the rate of 12,000,000 in 24 hours.
Eight people out of nine in Fall River
may have foreign blood in their veins, but
Fall River never failed to go over the top
with every drive. Seven out of eight of
the inhabitants of Lawrence, where the
paper for THE GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE is
made (see also pages 234-238), may have
grandparents born under alien flags, but
in the Third Liberty Loan drive only six
of the major cities of the United States
showed a greater proportion of sub-
scribers.
MANUFACTURES THRIVE AT THE EXPENSE
OF AGRICULTURE
Manufacturing thrives in Massachu-
setts, but it does so at the expense of agri-
culture. No other State in the American
Union has such a small proportion of its
people engaged in the oldest of civilized
vocations. Only one breadwinner in a
score finds his food in farming, forestry,
animal husbandry, and fishing.
What pathos there is in the thought
that more than half of the ground the
Pilgrim people for two centuries fought
so hard to wrest from forest and stone
should have been surrendered to weed
and brush during the last three decades !
Motor out from Boston to Lexington,
and thence by Bedford to Lowell. Did
ever a hardy and spirited race leave a
greater monument to its determination in
combating inhospitable Nature than the
farmers of bygone generations left in the
thousands of miles of stone walls one
sees in this part of Massachusetts?
Not only did they have to clear the
ground of a stumpage that yielded little
as lumber bv way of compensation, but
also of a vast amount of loose rock that
occurs so frequently where the soil is
best.
The result was that fences were built,
not with reference to the needs of height
and width in field boundaries, but rather
of dimensions sufficient to provide a stor-
age place for the vast amount of rock that
had to be removed before the plow and
the harrow could make ready the soil or
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
205
Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian
FILLING TUBES WITH TOOTH PASTE: MASSACHUSETTS
The big containers are full of paste. Each girl can fill 10,000 tubes a day. Everywhere
one goes in the Bay State labor-saving machinery is in evidence. Yet everywhere the more
labor is saved the more work there is for labor to do.
the corn and wheat find a place to grow.
Some of these stone fences are so thick
that a carriage and pair could drive along
the tops.
THE FARMER'S LOSING BATTLE
For more than two centuries the sturdy
yeomen of Massachusetts waged an ag-
gressive battle against the forests to ob-
tain room for their crops. Then, in 1850,
came a stalemate, and for thirty years
the battle line between the field and the
forest showed a little wavering, but no
real change.
But when it seemed that a draw was
the inevitable end of the struggle a new
ally appeared on the side of the forest.
High Wages and short hours for labor in
urban industries began to cause whole-
sale desertion from the forces of the
farm.
Then the line wavered and broke; in
206
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
COTTON AS IT COMES INTO THE FACTORY
When cotton reaches the factory in the bale the fibers are kinky
and tangled, like a bunch of snarled hair. One pound out of
every four of the bale's weight is due to the dirt, sand, and other
foreign substances in it. Massachusetts annually spins a million
bales like the one shown here.
the thirty years, 1880-1910, that followed,
the forest was able to retake from the
field half of the territory the hardy
farmer had won, and has left the State
only a little more than a million acres of
improved land where formerly it had
considerably more than two million.
Nor is it to be doubted that this year's
census will show even larger losses in
improved land. One has only to motor
through the better farming communities
to see thousands of acres that have been
abandoned recently, and to find "For
Sale" signs along every highway; for
how few farmers can withstand the lure
of $40 a week for himself, $30 for his
wife, and $25 for his daughter, with
eight hours a day for everybody !
This tremendous
slump in agriculture has
taken place in spite of
the fact that, acre for
acre, the value of Mas-
sachusetts crops is prob-
ably higher than that of
any other State in the
American Union. Fur-
thermore, it is in spite
of the fact that some of
the most fertile farming
land in America is to be
found in the Bay State
adapted for the growth
of specialties, seeds, on-
ions, etc.
The Massachusetts
Agricultural College is
intelligently striving to
offset the sweep of the
tide that is carrying peo-
ple from the farm to the
factory. The task is a
hard one and the odds
against its accomplish-
ment are tremendous,
but much good is being
done.
Massachusetts was one
of the first to appreciate
the advantage of good
roads and to undertake
a State-wide program of
highway construction.
Many millions of dol-
lars have been spent in
perfecting a system of trunk lines. The
result is that the whole State is a paradise
for the summer motorist, and tens of
thousands of Americans gather in this
vacation land, which can suit every taste
and pocketbook.
A statistician has estimated that sum-
mertime visitors swell the population by
one-fourth. That is probably an over-
estimate, but it gives some idea as to the
influx of folk on vacation bent.
HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS PRESERVED
Just as Massachusetts was a pioneer
in recognizing the advantage of good
automobile roads, it was also the first
State to appreciate the development of
its historic resources. There are mark-
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
207
THE BALE-BREAKER AT WORK
After the bale of cotton has been opened, the workmen feed it into the machine shown
here. This machine loosens the mass and delivers it to an endless belt (shown on the right),
which carries it to the feeders (see page 211).
ers from mountain to sea, telling in brief
outline the history of hallowed spots.
Only those who have traveled through
the State can appreciate the extent of
this work or realize how much it adds to
a pilgrim's pleasure and stirs anew the
Americanism within him.
The irreverent outsider may be dis-
posed to smile at the fact that there is
not an elm tree under which George
Washington is known to have stood that
does not bear a distinguishing legend.
He may even think that the Bay State
overplays its history.
MASSACHUSETTS THE PATRON Of
EDUCATION
But it were more nearly the truth to
say that other States have underplayed
theirs, and that every American would
be a better American if all the States
followed the example of Massachusetts
in perpetuating the shrines of history in
a way that would permit every passerby
to read and reflect upon the nation's
glorious, heritages.
From its earliest days the State has led
the nation in matters educational. Here
the first colonial grammar school was
established, the first college, the first ele-
mentary free school, the first academy,
the first high school, and the first normal
school.
Call the roll of the higher institutions
of learning — Harvard and Holyoke, Am-
herst and Williams, Smith and Wellesley,
Tufts and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Clark and Radcliffe, Clarke
Institute of Northampton, and many
others — and most of them will be found
to have been pioneers in their respective
fields and to stand today each for some
special ideal.
But Massachusetts is entirely demo-
cratic in her educational activities. The
unfavored many have as much right to
their opportunity for training as the
fortunate few. High schools of excep-
208
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE INTERMEDIATE; PICKER, WHICH CONTINUES THE WORK OF CLEANING
RAW COTTON
From the bale-breaker the raw cotton goes through the feeder to the opener, and thence
to the three "pickers," which still further loosen it and release each fiber from the grasp of
its neighboring fibers. The four "laps" (the round cotton mass) of cotton on the machine
are being combined into one lap (see picture on opposite page).
tional merit are to be found in every
community and technical schools in the
larger industrial centers.
In 1913 a law was enacted requiring
every town without a high school of its
own to pay tuition in other towns for its
high-school pupils, and to pay their trans-
portation back and forth, up to $1.50 a
week, thus guaranteeing to every boy
and girl in the Commonwealth who de-
sires it a free high-school education. In
1918 another law was enacted granting
State aid to struggling high schools.
As in so many other directions in the
educational world, Massachusetts was a
pioneer in exchanging the little red
school-house on the hill, with its un-
graded course of studies, its untrained
teacher, and its poor facilities, for the
consolidated school, with its fewer and
better teachers, its carefully planned
courses of study, etc. It did so on the
basis that four good teachers in one con-
solidated school could teach twice as
many children twice as much as eight
poor teachers in eight little red school-
houses.
Latterly the children at distant points
have been conveyed to and from school
at State expense. It costs half a million
dollars a year to convey to school those
children who do not live within walking
distance, but that is only a trifle com-
pared to the advantages which result
from educating the 20,000 children af-
fected. Of this number nearly half go
by trolley, nearly a third by horse-drawn
vehicles, and a fifth by motor busses.
The figures indicate that it costs less to
take the children to school in motor cars
than in horse-drawn vehicles.
But with all the progress which Massa-
chusetts has made educationally, there
are still 600 teachers in the State with
salaries of less than $550 a year. Ade-
quate pay for teachers is recognized as
one of the first requirements in any cam-
paign for an improved education pro-
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
209
gram, and the Bay State is moving in
that direction.
THE HOME OF THE CONVEYING MACHINE
Massachusetts has long been preemi-
nent in the development and introduction
of labor-saving devices, but in no field
more so than in the evolution of auto-
matic conveying machines.
Go into a chain drug store, a large de-
partment store, or a big business office,
and the pneumatic tubes and cash-carriers
installed there probably came from Mas-
sachusetts. Very probably your sterilized
milk is handled in the dairy on Massa-
chusetts-made gravity conveyers.
Indeed, at every turn one comes into
contact with something that has been car-
ried by these Massachusetts step-savers —
mail, shoes, hats, watches, money, books,
hotel food.
Mechanical messengers "made in Mas-
sachusetts," which are as fast as their
human prototypes are slow, are found in
every State. Some of them seem to act
with even more intelligence than the lead-
shod messenger of flesh. In one type
there may be a dozen or more receiving
stations along its route, but it unfailingly
carries its burden to the one to which it
is directed by the sender.
In a big bank the paying tellers cannot
always tell the status of certain accounts
when checks are presented ; but down be-
neath the counter of their cages they have
pneumatic tubes. Into one of these the
teller puts the check in question ; it is
conveyed to the bookkeeper, who scrib-
bles his initials of approval upon it, and
before the patron at the window has time
to suspect that the drawer's account is
being examined, the check has been re-
turned to the teller and payment is made.
MASSACHUSETTS ANNUALLY MAKES A
SHOE FOR EVERY FOOT IN THE
UNITED STATES
Space forbids even the enumeration of
the many services, performed by gravity,
pneumatic and electric belt carriers, but
millions of hours of labor, millions of
dollars' worth of customers' time are
saved every day in America by "made in
Massachusetts" automatic messengers
and merchandise movers.
A COTTON CARD AT WORK
Here the big rolls of "Inp" are fed between
two cylinders which are covered with leather
or cloth, studded with tens of thousands of
tiny spikes. These barely miss each other, but
they comb out the fibers of cotton until they
all lie parallel to one another (see page 212).
The story of the factories of the Bay
State is a narrative of an astonishing
concentration of human endeavor.
In quantity no less than in value do the
manufactures of Massachusetts amaze.
A boot, shoe, or slipper for every human
foot in the United States; more cotton
goods than the whole world produced
when John Adams was President ; enough
hosiery to cover 40,000 miles of feet and
legs ; sufficient woolen goods to put a
twenty-foot bandage around the waist of
Mother Earth — these are some of the
yardsticks that measure the annual ac-
tivities of this beehive of industry.
Of course, when one thinks of Massa-
chusetts industry, the manufacture of tex-
tiles comes immediately to mind.
Think of twelve million flying spindles
converting fiber into yarn and thread,
each of them dancing around its own axis
at rates varying from 5,000 to 10,000
210
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE DELIVERY END OF A CARDING-MACHINE
Here we see the "lap" spread out in gossamer-like thinness over the card cloth. The
filmy sheet is then gathered into the "sliver" ; the sliver is the white streamer clearly pictured
on the extreme left. The second stage in the conversion of raw cotton into plain yarn now
begins.
turns a minute. Placed end to end, these
dancing dervishes of the textile industry
would reach from Montreal, Canada, to
Memphis, Tenn.
EIGHT MILES OF COTTON CLOTH MADE
EVERY MINUTE
Then there are the looms, a quarter of
a million of them. Put these cloth-mak-
ing1 machines together, end to end, with
no aisles between them, and the weaving
shed required to house them would begin
at Boston, Mass., and end at Wilmington,
Del. Every third spindle and loom in the
United States is humming away in the
cities and towns of the Bay State.
Of the textiles, cotton is first, some
two billion yards of woven goods leaving
the cotton looms every year. That means
cloth flowing from machines at the rate
of nearly eight miles a minute ! It is suffi-
cient piece goods to make a woven belt
long enough to hitch the moon to the
earth and more than six feet wide! Of
sheetings, shirtings, and muslins Massa-
chusetts produces about thirteen yards
for every person in the United States ; of
fancy woven material, nearly four yards ;
of napped fabrics, more than one yard;
of velvets, corduroys, etc., nearly a yard.
THE STORY OF A YARD OF CALICO
A piece of simple calico seems a mere
trifle; but the story of its manufacture is
an epic of genius. Followed from the
raw cotton in the bale to the bolt of cloth
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
211
DRAWING
SLIVERS IN A COTTON MILL, ONE OF THE STEPS PRELIMINARY
TO SPINNING
When the sliver comes from the card, as shown in the preceding picture, it is received
into one of the cans shown here. Six of these slivers pass through the drawing frame, as
explained on page 214, and are combined into one, as long as the combined length of the six,
but of the diameter of one of the originals. Each sliver passes through a number of drawing-
machines, each time entering as six and coming out united into one, and correspondingly
lengthened.
in the warehouse, it leads one a merry
chase up and down countless flights of
stairs and keeps the mind busy enumerat-
ing the processes involved.
Lawrence has one of the largest cotton
mills in the world and, connected with it,
the largest print works in existence. Let
us there follow the processes of convert-
ing cotton into calico. We shall appre-
ciate the clothes we wear the more when
the journey's end is reached.
When the cotton comes to the miU it is
in the familiar bales of commerce, 500
pounds to the bale. After being opened,
the cotton is fed to a machine known as
the bale-breaker. Here the matted cotton
is loosened and torn into small bunches,
which are delivered to an endless belt that
carries them to the "feeder" (see page
207).
The feeder is a machine containing a
series of pin-studded slats which carry
the bunches of cotton in regular quantity
into the next machine, known as the
"opener."
The opener gives the cotton a warm
reception — a terrific beating, indeed. It
has a shaft on which there are mounted
two rows of arms. This shaft revolves
at from i ,200 to 1 ,800 times a minute, so
that the cotton gets from forty to sixty
slaps a second. The result is that the
212
THK NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
StUBBER MACHINES AT WORK IN A COTTON
In this picture we see the slivers being drawn out of the cans on the right. As they
pass through the slubber they are given a twist which makes each fiber take hold of its
neighbor, and here they begin to acquire tensile strength. They emerge from the machine
on bobbins as "roving." The cotton in the cans is "sliver," while that on the bobbins in the
foreground is "roving" (see text, page 215)..
sand and other foreign matter in the
cotton lose hold. The opener then con-
tinues the work of picking the cotton to
pieces. When the task is completed the
staple is in tiny tufts. These are caught
up by air suction, the dirt being left be-
hind, and carried to the fourth machine,
a "breaker picker."
The breaker picker gives the tiny tufts
another beating, to remove persistent
dirt, and then rolls them together in a
great downy sheet on a rod. This sheet
is known as "lap" (see page 208).
Four of these laps are fed simultane-
ously into a fifth machine, known as the
"intermediate picker." Still another
beater plies its flails upon the cotton as it
comes in. The four laps that go into this
machine come out as one.
In turn, four of these laps are fed into
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
THE FINE ROVING FRAMES IN A MASSACHUSETTS COTTON
Here we see another step in the long process of converting cotton first into "lap" (pages
212 and 213), then into "roving" (page 215), and then into yarn. The machines in this
picture give the roving the final stretching and twisting before it goes to the spinning frames,
where it is converted into yarn (see text, page 216).
the sixth machine, known as the "finisher
picker." It beats the cotton some more,
and the four laps come out a further puri-
fied single lap, which looks like cotton
batting — sixteen original laps condensed
into one (see page 209).
After all these several and sundry beat-
ings, one might think that no dirt would
remain, but there are still some particles
of leaf, seed pods, etc., clinging fast.
Moreover, the fibers, which in ordinary
cotton are about an inch long, are more
or less matted.
So a seventh machine, known as the
"card," is assigned the task of removing
the remaining impurities, and of loosen-
ing or separating the fibers, so that they
can be drawn parallel with each other.
The card has two big drums, each cov-
ered with a wire-studded cloth and re-
volving so as barely to miss touching one
another. There are some 72,000 of these
projecting wires to every square foot and
no fiber has a chance to escape its comb-
ing.
PREPARING TO MAKE THE THREAD
As it leaves the big drums the loose
cotton is beautiful to behold. Perhaps
forty inches wide, it is as thin as the skift
of snow that falls on a late autumn morn-
ing. But promptly it passes through a
set of reducing rolls which convert it into
a rope about an inch in diameter, known
as a sliver. This is coiled in a large can
about three feet high and a foot in diam-
eter (see page 210).
One might well think that, with such a
great array of manhandling as this, the
cotton would be ready for weaving; but
in point of fact the process of reducing it
to yarn is only barely begun.
214
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A COTTON-SPINNER KEEPING THE THREADS OF ROVING RUNNING PROPERLY FROM
BOBBIN TO BOBBIN
In spinning, the roving from the bobbin on top of the frame is fed through a little trum-
pet, and then through drawing1 rolls which further stretch the strand and make it smaller.
After this it goes through a whirling piece of steel called the traveler, which winds it on
another bobbin and gives it another twist. In the process of converting raw cotton to thread,
the cotton fibers pass through six to twelve twisting-machines, depending on the quality of
the thread to be produced.
The next step is to put the sliver
through the drawing frames. Six slivers
as they come from the card are combined
into one in the first frame, which consists
of a series of rolls, the last pair of which
revolve six times as fast as the first pair,
thus making the sliver that comes out of
the frame six times as long, but of the
same diameter, as the ones that went in.
Six of these latter slivers, in their turn,
are fed into the second drawing frame
and transformed into one. The final
frame takes six of these, in turn, and
transforms them into one (see page 211).
In other words, just as the final lap is
composed of sixteen original laps, so the
MASSACHUSETTS-BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
215
A DOFFER GIRL IN A LAWRENCE COTTON MILL
This young lady takes the bobbins from the spinning frame as they become full of yarn.
Acres and acres of fast-flying spindles and whirling bobbins are found in Massachusetts.
All the bobbins, placed end to end, would reach from Montreal, Canada, to Memphis,
Tennessee.
final sliver is made up of' 216 original
slivers ; but it has gained in length all that
has been lost in diameter.
But up to date the sliver is only a mass
of parallel fibers and has no strength
whatever. The succeeding three opera-
tions are intended to give it a certain
amount of twist, so that the fibers will
cling together, while the size is reduced.
In the first of these operations final
slivers from the drawing machine are fed
into a machine known as a "slubber." It
takes these and simultaneously twists and
stretches them into one strand, much
longer, but with a diameter reduced to
that of a clothes-line ; this it winds on a
headless - spool bobbin. This resulting
material is called "roving" (see p. 212).
Two strands of this roving from the
slubber are next twisted and stretched
210
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A SPINNING-ROOM IN A LAWRENCE COTTON MILL
The cross-threads, 'or woof, of cotton goods are not twisted as much as the lengthwise,
or warp, threads. The function of spinning is to twist the fibers together tight enough to
give the yarn or thread the desired strength. If a thread be completely untwisted, it will be
found to be nothing more than a series of fibers an inch or an inch and a half long.
into one, which is wound on bobbins of
the "intermediate frames."
Two of 'these intermediate rovings in
their turn are twisted and stretched into
a final roving, which has about the diam-
eter of the string which the grocer uses
in tying packages.
Sixteen laps to a sliver, 216 slivers to a
roving, 8 rovings to a strand of yarn —
27,648 doublings from original lap to
unspun yarn !
The bobbins containing the final roving
are now set up on the creels in the spin-
ning frame. A strand of the roving goes
through a trumpet and then through a set
of three rolls running at different speeds,
which still further stretch it, until it be-
comes the size of yarn wanted. Next it
passes through a small rounded piece of
steel, called the "traveler," which runs at
a very high speed — sometimes fifty miles
an hour — on a ring, in the center of
which is the fast revolving spindle. From
the traveler the yarn is wound on the
bobbin on the spindle and gets the re-
quired twist.
If the yarn is intended for "woof," or
across-the-goods thread, it is wound on
appropriate bobbins and is ready for the
loom. The cotton has passed through
fourteen machines to reach the woof
stage — seven, up to and including the
carding machine, three drawing machines,
three roving machines, and the spinning
frame.
MAKING THE; WARP THREAD
But if it is to become "warp" thread,
that which runs lengthwise of the goods,
the yarn has yet to go a considerable
journey.
The bobbins of warp are taken from
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
ii
217
© Underwood & Underwood
A WARPING-MACHINE IN AN UP-TO-DATE TEXTILE FACTORY
Here is shown the process of assembling the warp threads on the "loom beam" ready
for weaving cloth. After the yarn has been sufficiently twisted to give it the required strength
for warp, it is wound on spools. The contents of these spools, in turn, are wound upon the
large rolls seen in the foreground, some 400 threads to the roll. These rolls are placed in the
creel, or frame shown at the left in this picture, perhaps six at a time. There the threads
are unwound from them, and, passing through a "slasher," or stretching and drying machine,
they are consolidated on one great roll known as the loom beam. The loom beam may be
seen on the right. With its load of thread, perhaps 2,400 individual strands, this- loom beam
is put into the loom (see next page, 218), and each thread through its particular '"eye" in
the loom harness, and then the conversion of thread into cloth — weaving — is ready to begin
(see text, page 220).
218
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
American Woolen Mills
A GROUP OF LOOMS IN A MASSACHUSETTS
These are the machines that receive the loom beams shown in the preceding picture and
convert the yarn into cloth, weaving the warp and the woof together. In the simplest woven
goods the shuttles containing the woof ply back and forth across the loom, passing under
each alternate warp thread and over the others. In the fancy weaves the warp may go
through half a dozen or more harnesses, instead of the two used in simple weaves.
the spinning frame and put on the
"spooler." Here the yarn is wound upon
large spools that hold about a mile of
thread. For tying the ends together, the
girl in charge of the spooler has a novel
knot-maker that fits in the palm of her
left hand. She takes the two ends, places
them across a little hook, shuts her hand
and opens it again, when, presto! the
knot is neatly tied and the ends cut off !
After the warp is wound on the spools,
three or four hundred of the latter are
set in a frame known as the "warper
creel." These threads are all tightly
wound, side by side, on a big reel, known
as a "warper beam."
To make an average piece of goods
forty inches wide requires about two to
three thousand warp threads; if 2,000,
five warper beams, each containing 400
threads, are put into a machine known
as the "slasher." Their yarn is un-
wound and passed through a box of hot
starch and then around two copper cylin-
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
219
SINGEING CLOTH PREPARATORY TO PRINTING
Before cloth can be printed, all the little knots and threads and fuzz must be eliminated.
A machine working on the principle of a lawn-mower first passes over it and eliminates all
the knots and threads. Then the cloth goes through a singeing-machine, passing over a gas
flame at a speed which permits all the fuzz to be burned off, but which saves the cloth from
being scorched.
ders filled with live steam. Thus starched
and dried — a process serving to make the
yarn less apt to tangle and less liable to
injury by the friction of the shuttle — it
is wound around the "loom beam."
When the housewife uses her sewing-
machine she has to "thread" it first. So,
also, in weaving, the loom must be
threaded with the warp. For plain weav-
ing there are only two sets of "needles"
to be threaded. These are known as
harness, and consist of wires or twine
cords, each with an "eye" in the middle.
Each alternate thread goes through an
"eye" of one harness, and the others
through the corresponding "eyes" of the
other harness.
Fancy weaves require more harnesses
220
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC .MAGAZINE
A CLOTH-PRINTING MACHINE): LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS
To see white cloth entering one of these big presses and coming out at a speed of thou-
sands of yards an hour, with a dozen different colors, every one in perfect register, is to
realize how much science has done to give us attractive clothes.
and complicated threading, but they need
not be described here.
HOW THE CLOTH IS WOVEN
In the weaving process for plain cloth
the one harness goes up as the other goes
down, so that the shuttle with the woof
passes under every other thread and over
the alternate ones. Next trip through it
passes over the ones it went under before
and under those it passed over.
When a new lot of identical warp is
to be put into the loom, the slow process
of threading the harness is not resorted
to ; rather the ends of the old are knotted
to the ends of the new.
To tie 2,000 knots is no mean job. It
is performed by a little machine that can
tie 240 knots a minute — four a second.
The ends of the threads of the old warp
are placed alongside those of the new
and the tying mechanism set in motion.
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
221
A BATTERY OF FORTY-EIGHT PRINTING-MACHINES AT WORK: LAWRENCE,
MASSACHUSETTS
One Massachusetts cotton mill produces five hundred miles of cloth a day, and a large
percentage of this passes through the printing-machines here shown, said to be the largest
group of its kind in the world.
It rattles off the knots about as fast as a
machine-gun pumps out bullets. If it
fails to get both ends properly in its
grasp, it makes a second effort. If this
be not successful, it tries a third, a fourth,
and even a fifth time. If it still fails, it
stops and refuses to budge until the at-
tendant gives it the missing thread.
With 24 miles of looms and 62 miles
of whirling spinning-frame bobbins, to
say nothing of pickers, drawing frames,
rovers, and spoolers, and with an output
of five hundred miles of cloth every
working day, it is but natural that the
Pacific Mills of Lawrence should require
every device to prevent defective work.
If a drawing frame did not stop as soon
as a break in the sliver occurred, or a
warper as soon as a thread pulled apart,
or a loom as soon as a thread in the warp
snapped, there would be defective ma-
terial at every stage of the proceeding. So
every strand passes through its own little
guide, which consists of a tiny lever. The
moment the thread breaks this lever is
released, and by its own weight shuts
off the power and stops the machine.
Our cloth is now woven. It is known
as "gray" cloth in the mills, but at the
dry-goods stores is called unbleached
muslin. After careful inspection to lo-
cate imperfections, it is sent to the print
works.
REMOVING THE Fuzz FROM CLOTH
Here it goes through another long
series of operations. In the first place,
it must be made into great rolls, like the
paper for a newspaper press, so the ends
of many pieces are sewed together. This
makes possible the handling of many
yards in one length. Many operations
222
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
STRETCHING CLOTH IN THE TENTER IN A MASSACHUSETTS PRINT WORKS
After the cloth has been printed, it is thoroughly dried, and then filled with steam, so as
to make the colors "fast," or, paradoxically, to prevent them from "running." After that it
is washed and dried again, then starched. Following the starching, it is put into the tenter
frames. These are about one hundred feet long and have an endless chain on each side and
steam pipes underneath. In them the cloth is dried and stretched to a uniform width.
are continuous, and to stop often means
waste.
As the cloth comes from the looms it
has a loose fuzz all over the surface, and
if the operators tried to print on it in that
condition, they would get about the same
result that is secured when trying to
write on coarse, rough paper with a
sharp-pointed pen — the lint adhering to
the pen causes the ink to spread and
make blotches. To overcome this the
cloth is first put into a machine called
the "cotton shear." This acts like a lawn-
mower, clipping off all loose threads and
knots and trimming the edges.
But still the lint adheres, and it must be
removed before the cloth is in condition
for printing. Whoever has watched a
housewife singeing a chicken after pick-
ing it can understand both the reason for
and the method of singeing the cloth. It
is passed around rollers and through a
gas flame at just such a speed that will
allow the flames to burn off all the lint,
but will not let it scorch the cloth.
From the singeing machine the cloth
next goes to the bleaching kettles — kiers,
as they are known in the print works.
Here it is boiled for about twelve hours
in a solution of caustic soda. Then it is
washed and soaked for several hours in
bins containing dilute acid, which takes
out iron rust, stains, etc. It next gets
another twelve hours of boiling, another
washing, and another trip through a so-
lution of bleaching powder. After that
it is put into a pit and allowed to steep
for several hours.
The effect is similar to the sun-bleach-
ing on the grass out in the door yards of
our grandmothers. It becomes pure white
instead of dirty yellow, and more readily
absorbs the dye when it goes through the
printing machine. Once more it is washed
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
223
CLOTH BEING DELIVERED FROM THE TENTER TREATMENT
The cloth is laid out in neat folds by the swinging arm of this machine, vibrating back
and forth. It is then taken to the presses, where it passes between heavy polished steel rollers
and receives its ironing (see text, page 225).
and then dried by being drawn over cop-
per drums filled with hot steam, after
which it is wound into big rolls about the
diameter of a large bass drum. It is now
ready for printing.
Suppose our piece of calico is to be
printed with a design of eight colors.
Eight rollers are etched, and the eight
pots of dye, or "color," mixed, the mix-
tures consisting of gums from Asia and
Africa, starches from Iowa, and dye-
stuffs from everywhere, boiled and re-
duced to the consistency of glue.
The printing-machine is a large iron
frame supporting a cylinder four or five
feet wide. Arranged around it are the
copper rollers, each ready to put on its
color as the cylinder revolves, bearing
the cloth to each in turn.
Each of the eight rollers runs in its
own particular pan of color. A revolv-
ing brush spreads the color on the rollers,
224
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
FOLDING FINISHED PRINT GOODS: LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS
Here the cloth is folded in layers a yard long. Forty yards make a bolt, and this is cut off
and folded by hand. It is then ready for market.
and a sharp knife scrapes off all except
that which is left in the little groove
etched for the part in the pattern. As
the roller comes into contact with the
cloth the color is transferred to its proper
place.
From roller to roller the cloth passes,
until it has received its full assortment of
colors, each in its exact place, and with
the base coloi* added last.
The color must be dried in the cloth, so
it is passed over a series of steam-filled
drums, then put into iron boxes filled
with live steam.
But even now your handful of cotton
has not become your yard of calico. The
cloth must be washed and dried and
passed through boxes of hot starch.
It is put into a tenter- frame and
stretched and dried. This frame is about
a hundred feet long, underlaid with
steam-pipes. On each side is an endless
chain having clips which grip the edges
and stretch the cloth to a uniform width.
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
225
I
Then follows the
ironing process. To
iron four or five mil-
lion yards of cloth a
week would be too
much of a task for
even a regiment of
laundresses ; so great
presses having pol-
ished steel rollers are
employed. They put
a tremendous amount
of mechanical "elbow
grease" on the fab-
ric, and as it comes
through this fi n a 1
stage it is ready to
make its bow as "fin-
ished" calico.
Finally, it is me-
chanically measured
and cut into forty-
yard lengths, after
which it is folded into
the shape one sees it
in the dry-goods
stores.
A long story, this
converting cotton into
calico ! Forty differ-
ent machines to pass
through, for a kind of
cloth that before the
war became so cheap
as to lose caste as
dress goods.
The processes of
spinning yarn and
weaving goods in the
wool industry are not
dissimilar to those
employed in the cot-
ton mills, though the
preparation of the wool is different in
that before it can be used it must first be
scoured to get the grease out of it.
The total output of the looms of Mas-
sachusetts, in pure woolens, amounts to
about 115,000,000 square yards a year —
enough to make a blanket a mile wide and
thirty-seven miles long. This is more
than a third of all the woolens made in
the United States. In addition, the State
produces almost as much more goods that
are either a mixture of cotton and wool
or have cotton warp and wool filling.
DYEING CLOTH IN A LAWRENCE if ILL
Goods are given their color in three ways: Some goods are dyed
in the yarn, so that fancy patterns can be made by the weaving
process. Others are dyed in the piece; these are solid color goods.
Still others are printed by processes explained elsewhere in this
article (see text, page 223).
Silk differs from cotton and wool in its
preparation, in that it is a long thread and
not a short fiber. In the article entitled
"The Industrial Titan of America," in
the May, 1919, number of THE; GEO-
GRAPHIC, the story of silk up to the weav-
ing stage was told.
MASSACHUSETTS SILKS
Holyoke, Massachusetts, is the home
of what is perhaps the purest silk goods
made in America. Though the prices of
raw silk have risen from $4 to $12 a
226
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
CARDED WOOL IN A MASSACHUSETTS WOOLEN FACTORY
There are two objects in combing wool: first, to straighten the fibers and lay them parallel
to one another, and, second, to eliminate the short fibers. The long fibers are used in the
higher-grade yarns.
pound, and the temptation everywhere is
to "load" it with tin, so that much of the
silk goods one buys today has more metal
than fiber in it, and consequently "cuts"
and wilts away in a manner very disap-
pointing to the wearer, a few manufac-
turers still adhere to the production of
"unweighted" silks.
Pure silk is one of the most durable of
all cloths. One may judge of its lasting
qualities from the experience of a Massa-
chusetts manufacturer whose silks are
known everywhere. A half century ago
his little mill, nestling close to the eastern
slope of the Berkshire Hills, was caught
in a flood that carried it away. To this
day little bobbins of the silk from that
mill are sometimes upturned by the plows
of the farmers in the valley below. The
wood of the bobbin has rotted away, but
the silk fiber remains as strong as the day
it was wound.
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
227
Photograph from American Woolen Company
A WOOL-COMBING MACHINE IN OPERATION
Here the fibers are being combed out and placed parallel, ready for the twisting that
converts wool into yarn.
Do pure silks cost much in these days
of skyrocketing prices? With the raw
silk at $12 a pound and the throwing,
dyeing, and weaving all done by wage-
earners who command the best wages
paid in the entire textile industry, it could
hardly be otherwise. But the woman who
demands the silk as the worm spun it
never knows what it is to have silk "cut."
She can distinguish the pure from the
"loaded" silk by the simple test of putting
a match to a tiny piece of it. If it burns
quickly and cleanly, leaving a soft, gray-
ish-black ash, it is pure silk. If it smoul-
ders like punk, leaving a red, gritty ash,
it is "loaded" with tin.
ENOUGH SHOES TO COVER 1,000 ACRES
The American people would either be a
very poorly shod folk or else would have
to import vast quantities of footwear, if
it were not for Massachusetts. Two out
of every five Americans one meets are
shod with Bay State shoe leather. The
men of the nation wear more shoes than
the women, and the factories of the Pil-
grim Commonwealth produce propor-
tionately more shoes for men. If all the
shoes manufactured in the Bay State
every year were set side by side and end
to end, they would cover nearly a thou-
sand acres of ground.
To satisfy the demands for footwear,
Massachusetts has to make heavy drafts
upon the animal world. The shoe manu-
facturers of the State usually carry in
stock the skins of more than 135,000
kangaroos and wallabies and a third of a
million high-grade sheepskins. Nearly
3,000,000 goats and kids go to the slaugh-
228
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
DRAWING WOOL IN A LAWRENCE WOOLEN MILL
In the transformation of combed wool into unspun yarn it is passed through from six to
nine machines, each of which unites- many slivers of its predecessor into one of its own.
For instance, in the first machine six slivers are united into one, stretching one yard into
eight yards. In each drawing that follows a number of the next preceding slivers are con-
solidated into one and drawn out, so it often happens that a single strand of worsted yarn
is the consolidated and drawn-out product of hundreds of thousands of original slivers as
they came from the wool-combing machine. One inch of original sliver may share in the
making of several miles of thread.
ter pen every twelve months to give
milady shoes for her dainty feet. A mil-
lion ordinary sheep and lamb skins and as
many more calfskins represent the nor-
mal stock of Massachusetts manufac-
turers, to say nothing of the thousands of
hides that come from cattle and horses.
It is a far cry from the village cobbler
who pegged his life away over his lasts to
the Massachusetts factory with its thou-
sands of hands, its scores of processes, its
dozens of kinds of machines, and its mil-
lions of shoes.
At Brockton one may see more shoes
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
229
Photograph from American Woolen Company
INSPECTING THE FINISHED CLOTH IN A WOOLEN MILL
In weaving it is inevitable that threads occasionally break and that knots appear. Expert
menders go over the cloth yard by yard and mile by mile, with eagle eyes, for defects that
they mend with astonishing speed and skill.
being made than in any other city on the
globe. It is interesting to journey there
and see how modern men are shod.
First of all, it will be discovered that
Brockton is preeminently the man's shoe
town. Lynn claims first place in the
manufacture of woman's shoes, and
Haverhill prides itself upon being the
slipper city of the world.
Being the greatest shoe-wearing as well
as the leading shoe-producing country in
the world, the American market is such a
large one that not only do cities specialize
in types of shoes, but manufacturers
carry the specialization even further.
Massachusetts makes more shoes than
Great Britain or Germany and has an ex-
port trade that reaches ninety countries
and colonies.
Following a stream of shoes through a
factory from uncut leather to ready-to-
wear product may be rather a long ram-
230
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian
CUTTING "UPPERS" SHOE LEATHER IX A MASSACHUSETTS FACTORY
The average American wears three pairs of shoes a year. Massachusetts makes nearly half
of them. For the pedigree of a shoe see text below.
ble, but the trip shows to what perfection
the Yankee shoemaker has carried the art
of quantity production.
FOLLOWING A SHOE THROUGH A BROCKTON
; FACTQRY
Before going on this pilgrimage, which
is in a factory making a specialty of welt
shoes, it must be remembered that there
are four general types of footwear, ac-
cording to the manner in which the soles
are attached to the "uppers." The lead-
ing type is the welt. It has a small strip
of leather sewed fast, first to the upper,
and then to the sole, so that upper and
sole are not joined directly. Welt soles
are used mainly in higher-grade men's
and boys' shoes and in women's walking
shoes.
The McKay sewed shoe is the second
type. In it the sole is sewed directly to
the upper. The cheaper grades of stiff-
soled sewed shoes are made by this
method.
The turned shoe is the third type. In
it the sole is joined to the upper with the
whole shoe inside out, then turned.
Women's pliable-soled shoes are made in
this fashion.
The nailed, pegged, or screwed-on <sole
represents the fourth type and goes
with cheaper grades of shoes.
A merchant in Bethesda, Maryland,
say, has sent to the factory we are to
visit an order for ten dozen pairs of
shoes. After the order is entered upon
the records four sets of tags are made
out. One set goes to the uppers ma-
terial department, another to the uppers
stitching department, the third to the
sole-leather department, and the fourth
to the making department.
A MASTER HIDE-MEASURING MACHINE
As uppers leather comes into the fac-
tory it has the irregular outlines of a hide
or skin, as indented as the coast of Maine,
and by hand could be measured only by
a master of trigonometry, through a long
process of calculations, but a machine
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
il / f / ^
231
Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian
WHERE "UPPERS" MEET AND ARE JOINED TO THEIR "SOLE-MATES" IN A
SHOE FACTORY
If all the American people wore hand-made shoes, as they did in Washington's time, at least
two million men would be required to keep the nation shod.
has been invented that can calculate
more areas in half a minute than a
mathematician could in half a day. The
hide or skin is fed through this device
as cloth through a clothes-wringer, and
a hand on a dial above points to the
number of square feet in it, just as the
hand on a catch-penny weighing-machine
points to the number of pounds the per-
son on the platform weighs.
"How much leather does this skin con-
tain?" queries the operator, in effect.
"Zip, zip, zip," it answers, as its pointer
turns to 9.9 feet. Saying "Jack Robin-
son" takes longer than measuring a hide
in this factory. The machine is so deli-
cate that it has to be adjusted to tem-
perature every day.
It would be tedious to note every person
engaged, every machine, and every proc-
ess in the making of a fur o* shoes, for
that would introduce ntty machines, a
232
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Waltham Watch Company
CUTTING MAINSPRINGS IN A MASSACHUSETTS WATCH FACTORY
A single Massachusetts factory makes fourteen tons of these tiny springs a year. The
variation. of even 1/500 of an inch in the thickness of the mainspring will affect the time-
keeping qualities of a good watch.
hundred people, and two hundred proc-
esses, and serve to confuse the most pa-
tient reader, so only the salient features
of the shoe's journey through the factory
will claim attention.
In the linings department are big ma-
chines that cut uppers cloth, twenty to
forty thicknesses at a clip, as easily as a
cake-cutter cuts dough.
Beyond is the uppers leather depart-
ment. Here a trained man, with stubby
bladed, razor-edge knife, takes the skin,
lays it on his cutting board, and, running
his knife around his several aluminum
patterns, cuts out vamp and quarter and
toe piece with accomplished art in getting
the maximum of pieces out of the mini-
mum of skins. When he has finished
with a skin it looks like shapeless strings
bordering a series of irregular holes.
In cheaper grades of shoes the leather
also is cut by "dinking" machines — me-
chanical cake-cutters applied to shoe-
making. Only one ply is cut at a time,
but there are series of dies for the dif-
ferent parts.
After, the quarters, vampSj toe caps,
«tc., have been cut the leather must be
"skived," so as to prevent any raw edges
showing in the finished shoe. The edges
are fed through a machine that shaves
the unfinished side down to a bevel. This
is then covered with cement and the thin
edges folded over, much as a seamstress
lays a hem.
There are some twenty-odd parts in
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
232
Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian
REPAIRING BALANCE-WHEELS IN A MASSACHUSETTS WATCH FACTORY
The balance-wheel must divide time correctly, to the infinitesimal fraction of a second.
It plies back and forth nearly half a million times a day. To make one of these wheels re-
quires some six hundred detailed operations.
the upper of a button shoe and more in
a lace shoe. To have each bit of lining
and each piece of leather meet its respect-
ice seam-fellow and counterpart, at the
proper moment, in the stitching depart-
ment, is a task for the organizer.
The linings go from the assembly
room to be transformed from individual
pieces into the canvas counterpart of the
leather upper. The quarters are joined
at the back and stayed with a reinforce-
ment. The vamps are cemented into
shape ready for inclusion in the finished
upper.
The tips go to the toe-cap room, where
they are perforated at the edge to give
them a pleasing appearance on the foot
of the wearer. Fourteen different proc-
esses are required to transform a piece
of tip leather into a finished cap, with
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MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
235
GEOGRAPHIC PAPER MATERIAL READY FOR CONVERSION INTO PULP
The wood from which THE GEOGRAPHIC paper is made is first converted into chips. It
is then put into huge steel digesters, where, with the use of chemicals and under a high
steam pressure, it is converted into pulp, much as the juices of the stomach digest food. The
digesters are directly under these bins, and are filled by pulling a slide at the bottom of the
bins. Both acids and alkalis are used in converting wood into pulp. In general practice,
sulphurous acid is used in treating the long-leaf, coniferous woods, having the longer fibers,
such as spruce, hemlock, and fir, and caustic soda in treating the broad-leaf woods, such
as poplar and chestnut, having the shorter fibers.
its box to hold the shape of the shoe
and canvas lining to protect the hose of
the wearer.
It is interesting to pause in the button-
hole department and there watch a ma-
chine cutting and working buttonholes in
one operation, and another putting the
eyelets and hooks in a shoe more quickly
than one can tell about it.
The next step in the journey is that
of joining the quarters and vamp. This
must be done with great care, so that
there is neither unevenness nor rough-
ness. It is the most difficult task in the
making of the upper of a shoe. Judg-
ment and care are required and much
strength of hand-. .. Other minor processes
follow, and presently the finished upper
fares forth to meet its sole-mate in the
making department. Before it goes, if
it be a laced upper, a girl puts it through
a machine that laces it up and ties it in
the twinkling of an eye — a machine that
would be a glorious aid to a fat man.
JOINING THE UPPER TO THE SOLE
Preparatory to its alliance with the
sole, the upper is lasted. The insole has
been tacked on the last, and the upper is
now pulled tightly over the last with a
machine that has pincers which act like
human fingers. They draw the whole
upper in tightly over the last, so that
there is not a wrinkle left, and tack it
down on the bottom. The toe and heel
236
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A CORNER OF THE BEATER-ROOM, WHERE THE DIGESTED WOOD IS FURTHER TREATED
BEFORE BECOMING READY FOR CONVERSION INTO PAPER
In this room digested spruce wood, treated with sulphur fumes, and digested poplar
wood, treated with caustic soda, are mixed — the one to give strength and the other bulk to
the paper, long-fibered wood making strong paper just as long-staple cotton makes strong
cloth. Clay, used for filler, and other materials are then added, and the mass is thoroughly
beaten and mixed and brought to a proper consistency for use in the paper-making machines.
require a little extra attention and are
held down by a piece of fine wire.
The lasted shoe next goes through a
trimming machine that removes all sur-
plus leather, while a mechanical hammer
pounds the leather smooth. Then it goes
to another machine, where the toes and
heels are beaten smooth, making the shoe
ready for welting.
The welt is so prepared that it can be
sewed to the insole and the upper in one
sewing, and later have the outsole sewed
to it. After the joining of insole and up-
per to the welt, the shoe is passed through
the inseam trimming-machine. Next it
goes to a machine where a small hammer
gives the welt a terrific beating. The
insole and welt are then covered with
rubber cement, as is the waiting sole.
When this has dried slightly, the sole is
laid on and the shoe is put into a press-
ing-machine, where the cement dries.
Next it goes to the rough rounding-
machine, which rounds sole and welt,
allowing them to extend out from the
upper at all points. Looking at the shoe
on your foot, you will see that this ex-
tension is less at the shank than at the
ball, and less on the outer side than on
the inner side of the foot. The rough
rounding-machine also cuts a little groove
around the bottom of the sole for the
purpose of receiving and covering the
stitching, to follow. The welt extends
back only to the heel. The latter has no
welt, but is stitched directly and has its
own special treatment.
One could write much more, telling of
the preparation of the soles ; how they
are rolled under tremendous pressure to
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238
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
IN THE COATING-ROOM
This picture shows the rolls of paper made on the machine shown on page 237, just
starting on the coating-machines. The paper passes through a bath of coating material ; then
through felt-covered rolls ; then between vibrating brushes, which lay the coating material
evenly and smoothly on the paper. It then passes out at the left into the drying-room (see
following illustration).
THE DRYING-ROOM IN THE COATING MILL AT LAWRENCE, MASS.
After the paper has received its coating from the coating-machine shown in the previous
picture, it passes in a continuous web to the drying-room. Blasts of hot air coming out of
galvanized ducts beneath support it for a distance of 100 feet, until it reaches the drying-
chamber in the rear of the room. Here it hangs in festoons much like those of cotton cloth
shown on page 219. In the picture the paper is passing from right to left. After leaving the
drying-room it is wound on rolls, as shown in the next picture.
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
239
PAPER READY FOR THE CALENDER PRESSES ,
This picture shows the paper after it has been coated and dried, as shown on page 238,
and is being rolled at the end of the coating-machine. It is now ready to be sent to the big
presses which calender it (or iron it, as popular parlance would have it). The pictures
on pages 238 and 239 show a continuous process over a single machine ; but, on account of
the length of the machine, the process is illustrated in sections.
solidify the leather, just as the village
cobbler beats them under his wide-faced
hammer; or of the heeling-machine, that
sets the heel in place and drives all of
the nails at one operation; or 'of the
counter-making machines, that give stiff-
ness to the spur piece of the heel.
One shoe factory in Massachusetts has
a daily output of 14,000 pairs, each pair
marching through the factory in four-
teen days in ordinary times.
THE PECULIAR LANGUAGE OF THE SHOE
FACTORY
The industry has its own peculiar par-
lance. A "cripple girl" is not crippled at
all. Rather she looks after the "cripples,"
as defective parts of a shoe are known.
"Vamping" has nothing whatever to -do
with the activities of sirens, but is only
the process of joining the vamps and
quarters to the shoe. "Blackball" doesn't
relate to club proceedings, but rather to
a mixture of grease and lampblack for
blacking the edges of shoe soles. A
"cack" is an infant's shoe, and a "pac" a
duplicate of an Indian moccasin. An
"iron" is a unit of thickness in sole
leather, and a "lift" is one thickness of
leather in the heel. A "nullifier" is a
shoe for house wearj having a high vamp
and quarter, dropping low at the. sides,
with a short rubber goring.
It would be idle to attempt in a few
paragraphs to describe the hundreds of
processes and the scores of intricate
240
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A BATTERY OF CALENDER PRESSES AT WORK FINISHING MAGAZINE PAPER
After the coated paper has been dried and put into rolls, as shown in the preceding pic-
tures, it is brought to the room shown here. A roll is put in the reel at the man's shoulder
in the foreground and started through the machine. It passes between the two top rollers,
and then in and out between the succeeding rollers, until it reaches the bottom. Many tons'
pressure have ironed it before it comes out and is rolled up again. This process gives it the
finish that the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC must have to maintain its high standard.
machines employed in the making of
watches ; but to visit a great Massa-
chusetts watch factory and there to see
some of the operations of making a good
timepiece is to behold the highest de-
velopment in mechanical accuracy and
quantity production.
STEEL HAIRSPRINGS WORTH $49,OOO A
POUND
Here one sees alloy steel wire worth
five dollars a pound being converted into
hairsprings, some so delicate that they
are worth $49,000 a pound. There a
machine is taking in steel wire and turn-
ing out microscopic screws with perfect
heads and threads and slots, yet so small
that the ordinary eye wants a magnifying
glass to perceive that they are aught but
specks of steel. In another place is a
machine which transforms bare blanks
into completely bored movement plates
without the interposition of a human
hand.
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
241
THE ASSORTING-ROOM IX THE PAPER MILL
After the paper has been calendered, the big rolls are put into a cutting-machine that
cuts the continuous roll into sheets of the desired size. These are then examined, sheet by
sheet, by the women shown in the picture. All perfect sheets are put into one pile and the
imperfect ones are placed in another pile. The perfect sheets are then ready, after trimming,
for the presses of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.
To see a skilled hairspring-maker take
three little pieces of flat wire and coil
them together with the aid of a pencil-
like rod slotted at the end, putting the
coil into a tiny copper case just large
enough for the reception of the untem-
pered spring, looks so easy that one
thinks that anybody could do it; but on
the day that a GEOGRAPHIC representative
was studying the factory in question the
foreman of the department in charge of
hairsprings said to the secretary of the
establishment, "I took two new girls on
yesterday. One of them got one spring
wound yesterday and one today, but the
other has not succeeded in getting a single
spring into the tempering box." Yet so
skilled do the women spring-winders be-
come that an expert can finish one every
few minutes.
There are three slots in the end of the
winder. Into one of these goes the alloy
steel wire that is to constitute the hair-
spring. Into the others go soft steel
wires of corresponding dimensions. Be-
tween the steel wires is sandwiched the
one of alloy.
The little copper .boxes are then sent
to the annealing furnace and heat-treated.
When this process is finished the soft
wires are thrown away, leaving the alloy
wire a perfectly wrought hairspring, the
price of the smallest of which is seven
dollars a dozen, or more than a hundred
times their weight in gold.
SCREWS SO SMALL THAT 5O,OOO MAKE A
THIMBLEFUL
But, tiny as they are, these infinitesimal
springs must impart to the balance-wheels
of the watches they regulate 432,000 im-
pulses a day, and must measure time cor-
rectly, down to an astonishingly small
fraction.
242
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
The machine that makes the tiny watch
screw is a marvel of mechanism. In the
morning it is given a long steel rod of
small diameter, and is then left to its
own resources. Now a tiny section is
turned into the shape of a finished screw ;
then the thread is cut ; next the slot is
cut in the head, and finally a mechanical
hand deposits it in a bath of oil, where it
stays until fished out with a tiny steel
net like a tea-strainer. A sharp eye is
required to recognize it as a screw. It
would take 50,000 of them to make a
thimbleful.
A WIZARD OF MACHINERY
j
The most dramatic machine in this ;
veritable maze of intricate and wonder-
working mechanisms is that which makes
the lower movement plates.
On one side is a magnified dime savings
bank, mounted so that the "blanks" it
contains will present themselves one by
one at the bottom. A mechanical hand
reaches over, and, taking one of these
blanks, gives it to the first part of the
mechanism, which grasps the blank and
bores several holes. Then another me-
chanical hand takes the blank and pre-
sents it to the second section, which doss
its "stint" in the process of plate-making.
A third hand next takes the blank and
presents it to the third section of the ma-
chine, which contributes its share in the
conversion. These three operations finish
one side of the plate.
Thereupon comes a fourth hand and
passes the plate to a fourth part of the
mechanism ; but in doing so it turns the
plate over and presents the unfinished
part to the drills. A fifth hand, a sixth,
and a seventh pass the plate on to the
several remaining sections of the ma-
chine, and a final presents it, completed,
to the reservoir beyond.
One hundred and forty-one operations
on one little disk of metal, all without
the aid of a human hand and each per-
formed with an accuracy of a fraction of
an inch that reaches to the fourth decimal
place !
A CITY FAMOUS FOR ITS JEWELRY
One who wanders around the Bay State
looking for startling applications of ma-
chinery to the making of articles useful
and ornamental will find things that
amaze in almost every town.
Think of ten thousand different kinds
of watch-chain links produced in a single
establishment ! Or of a machine that
converts gold wire into watch chain by
the hour without let or hindrance from
any man ! Such machines are busy
throughout the year in Attleboro.
Rolled jewelry is finding a tremendous
sale all over the world, and the Attleboro
factories are months behind in filling
their orders.
In one plant the first step in making
a filled watch chain is to prepare an ingot
of copper and zinc alloy about a foot
Jong; and 'an inch and a half in diameter.
Over this is put a sleeve of, say, I4~carat
gold, 'cast to a perfect fit. This gold-
filled ingot is then put into a machine
which hammers it, reducing its diameter
and increasing its length. The process
is repeated by other machines until finally
it becomes small enough to be drawn
through dies as wire, each time growing
thinner and longer until it has the di-
ameter of the wire in the chain link.
From this stage the wire may be fash-
ioned into links and chains either by hand
or by machinery. In the latter case the
wire is automatically fed into the chain
machine. A small knife comes out and
cuts off the length required to form a
link. Two little jaws close and the bit
of wire becomes the shape of a capital U.
Then a tiny hammer taps the open U in
such a way that it becomes an O, which,
with another movement, has its position
switched from horizontal to upright.
Then the wire is fed through the finished
link and the process repeated, the chain
growing longer at the rate of many feet
an hour.
MASSACHUSETTS MAKES EVERYTHING,
FROM SUSPENDERS TO SILVERWARE
There are many lines of manufacture
in which Massachusetts is the nation's
leader other than those already noted.
The State makes seven-eighths of the na-
tion's whips; more than two-fifths of its
gum shoes, rubber boots, and linen goods ;
one-third of its leather belting, bicycles,
and motorcycles ; a fourth of its en-
velopes, fireworks, silverware, sporting
and athletic goods, stationery, suspenders
MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS
243
Photograph by Herbert B. Turner
DRYING SAILS AFTER THE STORM : GLOUCESTER, MASS.
One gets a vivid idea of the wealth of the sea at Gloucester. Cod and mackerel, haddock,
herring, and halibut; tautog and quahog; scup and sculpin; swordfish and spikefish ; tinkers,
cusk, and eels ; blue fish and butterfish ; flounder, perch, and sea trout ; oysters, lobsters, and
clams — one must tax his fishing lore to enumerate the species that are brought into port daily.
and garters ; and in all these lines sur-
passes every other State.
With such a vast concentration of light
manufactures, it is only natural that Mas-
sachusetts should have many cities and
towns ; but one is hardly prepared to be-
lieve that this small Commonwealth has
32 cities of 20.000 population and up-
ward, more than any other State of the
Union. More than 100 of its smaller
municipalities have populations above the
5,000 mark.
"THE HEART OF THE COMMONWEALTH"
About each of the principal cities a
word must suffice. As Boston will later
be described in the "Big City" series of
articles appearing from time to time in
THE GEOGRAPHIC, no mention of it need
be made here.
The second city of the State is Worces-
ter, which calls itself the "Heart of the
Commonwealth." A busy metropolis, it
has been a cradle of invention and is a
center of industry. Within a radius of
fifteen miles of its central square were
born Eli Whitney, whose gin made cotton
the fabric of civilization ; Ichabod Wash-
burn, who drew the first piano wire in
America ; Erastus Bigelow, the inventor
of the carpet machine ; Thomas Blanch-
ard, who designed a machine for making
tacks and a lathe for turning irregu-
lar shapes ; George Crompton, the in-
ventor of the power loom for weaving
fancy cottons ; and Asa Hapgood, in-
ventor of the upper berth in sleeping cars.
Worcester has drawn enough wire to
girdle the globe a thousand times. It has
made enough corsets to fit out every fem-
inine form on the earth. It has facilities
for producing enough envelopes to carry
244
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian
IN THE SHADOW OF THE OLD SOUTH
CHURCH, BOSTON
Erected in 1729, Old South Church has lived
through the vicissitudes of war and peace for
nearly two centuries. Diagonally across the
street from it, Benjamin Franklin was born.
Within its walls were held many of the town
meetings that crystallized the purposes of the
colonists to be free. Not many years ago
commerce would have razed its walls and
reared on its site an office building. But the
people of Boston raised $.!Oo,ooo to keep it
as a shrine of our national beginnings.
the correspondence of the world. It has
the largest belt factory, the largest loom
works, the largest grindstone plant, and
the largest automobile crank-shaft forg-
ing plant in existence.
AMERICA'S FOREMOST MILL TOWN
Fall River, third in population among
the cities of Massachusetts, h America's
foremost "mill town." It has 148 textile
mills and employs 40,000 operatives.
That it can bring coal for power from
Pennsylvania and cotton from the South,
paying the high freight rates, and still
compete with the South in the manufac-
ture of cotton goods is a proof of its
energy and efficient organization. Every
day the city weaves enough cloth a
yard wide to reach from New York to
Panama. It produces more goods than
any State in the Union except its own.
A close competitor of Fall River is
New Bedford, making fewer yards of
cloth than its rival, but specializing in
finer grades, which it produces at the
rate of a. mile a minute. New Bedford
has a twentieth-century prosperity based
on cotton as great as that in the seven-
teenth century based on the whaling in-
dustry.
AMERICA'S CAPITAL OF EDUCATION
Cambridge is so nearly part and parcel
of the New England metropolis that it
seems to have lost its identity in almost
every way except legally. When one is
reminded that this city, with its popula-
tion of 113,000, is without a daily news-
paper, or a good hotel, or a modern
theater, one can readily see that its
identity, except for purposes of taxation
and local law, has been thoroughly welded
into that of Boston.
But in education it can almost claim to
be the nation's capital. With Harvard
and Radcliffe and Technology, its influ-
ence reaches wherever religion, philoso-
phy, science, and engineering extend.
But Cambridge is more than a univer-
sity town. It is one of the principal
manufacturing centers of the Common-
wealth.
"THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD"
Lowell proudly calls itself the "work-
shop of the world." It is a busy town,
245
possessing the. world's largest hosiery
and underwear mills, as well as its most
extensive sail-cloth factory, upper shoe-
leather tannery, cash-carrier and pneu-
matic-tube factories. It also has what is
considered the highest type of textile
school to be found anywhere.
SPRINGFIELD, LYNN, AND LAWRENCE), A
THRIVING TRIO
Admirably situated in the Connecticut
Valley, at the cross-roads of east and
west and north and south trade, Spring-
field is a thriving municipality, its in-
dustries alive to the possibilities of the
future, and its civic spirit a contagion
that infects resident and visitor alike.
The city claims that its municipal build-
ings constitute the finest civic group in
the United States. In one of these build-
ings is an auditorium with a seating ca-
pacity of 4,500.
Lynn and Lawrence are such close
rivals in point of population that it will
require this year's census to decide their
relative rank. Lynn is the woman's shoe
capital of the world, and Lawrence is a
great mill town, with textiles and paper
its principal products. It is at Lawrence
that the paper for THE GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE is manufactured (see pictures,
pages 234-241).
CITIES FAMOUS FOR MEN'S SHOES, GUM
SHOES, AND SLIPPERS
Following in order of population are
Somerville, part and parcel of the Boston
community, but still as independent of
the Hub, governmentally speaking, as if
it were at the other end of the State ;
Brockton, where men's shoes are pro-
duced by the millions of pairs ; Holyoke,
where the Connecticut River surrenders
its power at Hadley Falls for paper
mills, silk factories, and similar indus-
tries operated by water power at only a
fifth the cost of steam power; Maiden,
the "gum-shoe" city; Salem, once the
witch city, but now a staid and solid
commercial community ; Haverhill, the
"slipper city" ; Chelsea, industrial bor-
ough of Boston ; and Newton.
Fitchburg brings up the rear of the
line of cities with 40,000 population and
upward. It reminds the world that it
makes three revolvers a minute, five pairs
of shoes, four cans of axle grease, three
shirts, eight miles of yarn, ten paper
boxes, fifty paper bags, fifteen pounds
of brass, and other things in proportion.
One passes by with regret a hundred
other splendid cities and towns, for in
their history, their achievements, and
their beauty each of them challenges at-
tention.
Likewise Plymouth Rock and Prov-
incetown, Lexington and Concord, and
a score of such places are shrines that
live in the hearts of all Americans.
MASSACHUSETTS' PARKS AND FOREST
RESERVATIONS
In the establishment of public parks
Massachusetts has displayed the same
appreciation of esthetic and humanitarian
values that has characterized her in
other fields. Greylock, the State's high-
est peak, has been set aside for the pub-
lic, a reservation of 9,000 acres around
its summit having been created.
Mount Tom, which rises like a sentinel
lookout guarding the cities of Northamp-
ton, Holyoke, and Springfield, is another
place under State jurisdiction where one
may go and commune with nature.
A number of State forests have also
been established. One in Plymouth
County, covering 7,000 acres, is appro-
priately named the Miles Standish State
Forest. Another, in the vicinity of An-
dover, contains 1,200 acres, while a third,
in the vicinity of Winchendon, contains
1,700 acres. There are two in the Berk-
shire Hills aggregating 2,200 acres. The
most modern forestry methods are prac-
ticed in these areas, and the State is
striving energetically to remedy the loss
of her timber at the hands of an un-
restrained commercialism in bygone dec-
ades.
In her verdict of November 4, 1919,
Massachusetts earned the gratitude of
the country and showed that the spirit
that founded the greatest republic and
won a world to liberty still survives and
stands committed to law and order. No
praise is too high for this new declara-
tion against class tyranny, this -new stand
for the ideals that have always made
Massachusetts great.
246
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
TEK PAI IS THE NAME GI\7EN THIS BAMBOO RAFT IN FORMOSA
The craft is characteristically Formosan. Although there is a type of bamboo raft found
along the China coast, it is not nearly so large as that of Formosa, since the bamboos on the
mainland cannot compare in size with those growing on this island. There is a round wooden
tub in the center for luggage, and when the sea is rough the passengers sit in it, too.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
BY ALICE BALLANTINE KIRJASSOFF
Illustrated u'ith photographs by the official photographer of the Government of
Tavwan and from the Chief of the Camphor Department
I
"TLHA FORMOSA," beautiful isle,
early Portuguese voyagers called
the island now owned by Japan
and known to them as Taiwan. The
Portuguese name has clung to it in all
European countries, and never was a
more appropriate name given to an isle
of the sea.
If you care to confirm this in one of
several pleasant ways, sail along the west
coast of Formosa in a tek pai (or bamboo
raft, see page 246) on a clear clay, and
you will witness a pageant of mountain
scenery that will haunt the memory for
many a day.
Beyond the fertile plain, with its emer-
ald paddy-fields and its picturesque lit-
tle villages dotted here and there on
the banks of meandering streams, foot-
hills with unending variations of con-
tour silhouette their tree-fringed sum-
mits against the paler screen of more
distant mountains. Of these, sometimes
five and sometimes even six parallel
ranges are visible at once, each a separate
ribbon of color, shading from the deepest
sapphire to the palest azure and extend-
ing in an unbroken chain of beauty from
north to south.
On the east of the island you can see
the highest coastal cliffs known, at some
places rising abruptly to an elevation of
about 6.000 feet, and affording an im-
pregnable wall of defense to the wild
aboriginal tribes living in the mountains
back of them.
AN ISLAND OF AMAZING VARIETY OF
VEGETATION
Formosan scenery is unusual in its
diversity of vegetation within such nar-
row confines — the greatest length of the
island from north to south is about
264 miles and 80 miles is its greatest
width.
From the palms and tropical fruit-trees
of the western plain it is only a short
step to the slopes of the lower mountains,
with their exuberant jungles of various
growths — the bearded banyans, the grace-
ful tree-ferns, which in sheltered nooks
attain the height of palms, and the
ubiquitous bamboo grass.
Here, among moss-strung trees, is
found growing the beautiful butterfly
orchid, while in exposed spaces, nestling
among the rocks, rose-pink azaleas flaunt
their gay blooms. A little higher are
plateaus covered with camphor laurel,
the largest tracts of these valuable trees
in the world, while still higher grow the
forests of coniferous trees — the giant
benihi, similar to the redwoods of Cali-
fornia, the largest trees in the East and
the second largest in the world; the val-
uable hinoki, or Japanese cypress, and
the pine, cedar, and spruce of the New
England States ; and higher yet the
craggy peaks of the tallest mountains, but
sparsely covered with vegetation of any
sort, where eagles build their nests, and
which for the greater part of the year
lie beneath a mantle of snow.
"THE SECOND WETTEST PORT IN T>HE
WORLD"
The usual approach to the island is the
port of Kelung, in the extreme north. It
was here that the author of this paper
landed after a four days' steamer journey
from Kobe. The rain was coming down
in sheets, obscuring the hill-crested har-
bor, and all looked gloomy except for
one bright patch of sky, where the sun
was struggling to come through.
I remember reading in my old gram-
mar-school geography that Kelung is the
second 'wettest port in the world, and I
have no trouble in believing it. I have
been there manv times, and each time it
has rained. Without showers, Kelung
would wear an unrecognizable face, like
a person without spectacles who was ac-
customed to wearing them.
After disposing of the numerous por-
ters who escorted me from the steamer,
247
248
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SAMPANS NEARING THE BUND: TAIHOKU, FORMOSA
d •
DAITOTEI IS UNNATURALLY CLEAN FOR A CHINESE CITY
Formerly Manka, Daitotei, and Taihoku proper (within the castle walls) were three
independent cities, but with the establishment of the Governor General's Office in the castle
and the principal administration offices around it, the three sections became amalgamated
into Taihoku. Daitotei is the Chinese section of Formosa's busy capital.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
249
THIS IS NOT CHINATOWN IN VENICE; ONLY A STREET SCENE IN THE CHINESE
QUARTER OF TAIHOKU AFTER A TYPHOON
VIEW OF THE DAITOTEI BUND SHOWING THE TYPHOON WALL: TAKEN FROM THE
EXTREME SOUTHERN END OF TAIHOKU
Formosa is frequently swept by violent storms, the sea immediately to the south of the
island being known as the "birthplace" of typhoons. In an easterly storm which visited
Taihoku 22 years ago the wind attained a velocity of 97 miles an hour.
250
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
TEA-PICKING GIRLS IN DAITOTEl : FORMOSA
"Seated on low stools before wide wicker trays, these bright-eyed maids in their peacock-
blue smocks, their front hair clipped in bangs, and with a gay posy or two stuck in the
braided knots at the backs of their necks, were in animated contrast to their rather drab
surroundings."
COOLIES PACKING OOLONG TEA
Nine-tenths of Formosa's Oolong tea finds its way to the United States. It is shipped
in lead-lined boxes to protect the sensitive leaves from tlie salt air of the sea voyage and from
contamination with the odors of other freight. Even this precaution cannot safeguard
Oolong from some cargoes — copra, for example. If an Asiatic disease makes its appearance
on board and the vessel is subjected to fumigation, the cargo of the tea ship is practically
ruined.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
251
A DUCK-TENDER GIVING HIS BROODS A SWIM
Formosans are extremely fond of ducks. On a walk through country districts the
traveler frequently encounters a youth with a long pole acting as tender for two or three
hundred, sometimes a thousand, birds which have no special feeding ground, but wander over
the countryside, eating and drinking wherever they choose.
SCENE IN FORMOSA'S OPIUM MONOPOLY BUREAU : THE ROUND BALLS oF CRUDE
OPIUM ARE IMPORTED FROM INDIA AND THE FLAT
PARCELS COME FROM PERSIA
Opium smoking is controlled by license. About 2 per cent of the Chinese in Formosa
are still addicted to the habit, but year by year the practice is being checked. The island has
a population of more than 3,600,000, more than 92 per cent of whom are classified as
"Formosans," mainly people of Chinese blood ; a little more than 3 per cent are Japanese, and
ZVz per cent are aborigines ("ripe" and "raw" savages; see text, page 272).
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
COOLIES WORKING A FOOT-PUMP AND A BUFFALO PLOWING IN THF,
BACKGROUND: FORMOSA
Very picturesque are these foot-pumps, worked by three and sometimes four coolies, which
raise water from one field to another.
A WATER BUFFALO WITH HIS SMALL CHINESE DRIVER
No rural Formosan landscape is complete without at least one of these hulking creatures,
with its threatening horns and great staring eyes. Most of the plowing on the island is
done with these animals. They are strong and can endure much hard work, provided they
have plenty of water, which must be poured over their backs as well as given them to drink.
They may be seen on the outskirts of any large town, standing in tanks six or seven feet
square while their drivers administer "shower baths."
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
255
THE TYPE OF CART USED IN THE SUGAR-CANE DISTRICTS OF FORMOSA
As the axles of the wheels are never greased, the approach of these sugar-cane-laden carts
is heralded from afar by strident squeakings.
FIELDS OF FORMOSAN SUGAR-CANE
For the first time in its history, Formosa exported sugar to the United States in 1917-
The other principal exports to America are Oolong tea and camphor. Although the island
is world-famous for its camphor, the value of its sugar exports during one year of the
World War was fourteen times greater than that of the camphor-tree product.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
FRUIT-BEARERS RESTING ON THEIR WAY TO MARKET
Formosan pineapples are smaller than the Hawaiian varieties, but they make up in flavor
what they lack in size. The smaller fruit are longans. From the green leaves of the pine-
apple the Formosans get a fiber which they convert into a cool summer cloth. The island is
no less famous for its flowers than for its fruit.
I
LABORERS THRESHING RICE
The portable tubs constituting the Formosan's threshing apparatus look for all the world
like sails, in the wake of which follow the threshers with their bundles of grain. These they
rap smartly against the corrugated boards affixed to the tubs, to separate the rice from the
blade.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
257
I boarded a train for
Taihoku, the capital
city, which on most
maps still bears its
old Chinese name of
Taipeh.
In about ten min-
utes we passed
through a long tun-
nel, and when we
came out on the other
side of the mountain
gap the landscape was
flooded with sunshine.
Rain seemed as out
of place in this new
world as stars in the
broad daylight.
The lush green rice-
fields, with the denser
green hills and purp-
ling mountain back of
them, lay glancing in
the sunlight with a
brilliancy that con-
trasted sharply with
objects but so re-
cently viewed through
the rain.
Here and there we
passed the low, mud,
thatched dwelling of
some Chinese home-
steader with a pool of
water by way of front
yard, where huge
slate - colored buffa-
loes were taking their
noonday siesta, a
goodly number of
ducks and geese keep-
ing patrol as they slept, while on the
brink would waddle a black sow or two,
of an elongated variety, with backs that
sagged in the middle, their numerous off-
spring following grunting at their heels.
I looked about in vain for a barn of
some sort to house these creatures by
night, but was told to my surprise that
they were all dearly beloved members of
one household and lived together most
amicably under the same roof with their
owner.
At length we arrived at Taihoku, cov-
ering the distance of twenty miles in a
A BENIHI TREE (Cham&citaris formosensis MATS.)
The giant benihi of Formosa, similar to the redwood of Cali-
fornia, is the largest tree in the East and the second largest in the
world.
little more than an hour. I was amazed
at the westernized appearance of the
city — the broad streets, the beautiful
parks, and the imposing public buildings.
A JAPANESE HOUSE-CLEANING TWICE A
YEAR
Japanese cities, which I had so recently
visited, possessed the picturesqueness of
the Orient, and I had expected even more
of this quality in what I had looked upon
as a most out-of-the-way corner of the
globe. Only the gateways of the old wall,
which surrounded the ancient Chinese
258
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SUNSET FROM THE BUND, THE WATERFRONT IN DAITOTEI, THE CHINESE SECTION
OF TAIHOKU, CAPITAL OF FORMOSA
At sunset dusky ghosts of sampans, laden with families living up the river, glide home-
ward against a jonquil sky. Taihoku, a city the size of Lowell, Mass., is situated 20 miles
southeast of the port of Tamsui, at the mouth of the Tamsui River, and 18 miles southwest
of Kelung, the seaport possessing the best harbor of the island (see map, page 262).
city, remain, looking as out of place in
their rejuvenated setting as the Egyptian
obelisk in Central Park.
I found more of the quality I had
looked for in Daitotei, the Chinese sec-
tion of Taihoku; but even Daitotei was
unnaturally clean for a Chinese city.
The Japanese insist upon two official
house-cleanings a year, and as they are
executed under a policeman's vigilant eye,
you may be sure that there is nothing
slipshod in the undertaking. All a man's
chattels, his Lares and Penates, his wives
and children (I say wives advisedly, for
if a Chinaman can afford it you can count
on his having more than one), even to his
cherished opium pipe, all are heaped un-
ceremoniously in front of his dwelling,
and the work of scouring begins.
Everything he owns is washed, within
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
2-59
A JUNK ON THE TAMSUI RIVER
The antique sails, patched and repatched, speed the oarsmen when sailing down-stream
with the wind.
and without, except his wives and chil-
dren, and this additional sanitary measure
would round out a very good beginning
toward that attribute which is attested as
next to godliness.
MUSIC TO SAVE THE DYING FROM EVIIy
SPIRITS
However, in respect to noise, Daitotei
is characteristically Chinese. There is
never an hour of the day without some
puppet show and its accompaniment of
drums and cymbals, or a marriage pro-
cession, or a funeral procession, or, at
best, a few bunches of fire-crackers to
celebrate the birthday of some indulged
urchin, the apple of his father's eye.
If any of the sounds attendant on these
rites are lacking, there can always be
heard the piercing music of "sing-song"
girls, entertaining tea-house habitues, the
far-reaching cries of push-cart vendors,
the high-pitched, unintelligible chatter of
the passers-by, and, at the risk of intro-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
to,
Photograph by B. Boning
PASSENGER PUSH-CARS IN FORMOSA
ducing an anti-climax, I might add the
cackle of hens ; for so numerous are these
denizens of the barnyard that it seems to
the nervous onlooker as" if some one has
either just stepped on one or just avoided
stepping on one.
I shall never forget my first night in
Daitotei. I was tired out by an arduous
day, but my determination to retire early
was dealt a sudden blow by the outbreak
of a Chinese orchestra in the narrow
alley at the back of our house. Its irritat-
ing discordances, repeated fortissimo in
rapid, monotonous succession, not only
drove away all idea of sleep, but inci-
dentally nearly drove me mad.
Our servant, upon being questioned, in-
formed us — but not in just these words —
that our next-door neighbor, a wealthy
Chinese money-lender, was about to give
up the ghost. After repeated objections
on my part as to the advisability of ac-
celerating his end in this violent manner,
I was assured that the music was intended
only to drive off such evil spirits as might
be lurking about the house.
There is no doubt that the music was
admirably adapted for this objective, and
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
261
PUSH-CARS BEARING IMPERIAL JAPANESE MAIL,
All the baggage push-cars are third class. The passenger cars are first class and have
the right of way. The third-class cars have to be derailed to allow the first-class cars to
pass, although it would be far more convenient if the first-class cars were derailed, as the
others are usually heavily loaded.
seeing that there was no hope of relief, I
resigned myself to the rather meager con-
solation of playing the innocent's role in
suffering for the guilty. However, when
I was told that the Japanese have insti-
tuted a ruling whereby all music of this
nature must cease at midnight, I felt a
more substantial basis for thankfulness.
THE TEA-PICKING GIRLS AT WORK
During the summer months Daitotei
presents its busiest face, for it is then that
the tea season is in full swing. The col-
onnades of the tea hongs, if such an im-
posing architectural term as colonnades
can be fittingly applied to such unimpos-
ing structures, are ahum with the stac-
cato accents of chattering tea-pickers.
These are generally young girls, as old
hands are too numb for the deft manipu-
lation of the tea leaves.
Seated on low stools before wide wicker
trays, these bright-eyed maids, in their
peacock-blue smocks, their front hair
clipped in bangs, and with a gay posy or
two stuck in the braided knots at the
backs of their necks, are in animated con-
trast to their rather drab surroundings.
With flying wisps of fingers, at least
one of which on each hand has a long,
carefully trained nail, a rather inconven-
ient concession to a fashion which origi-
nally spelled leisure, they separate the
coarser twigs from the partially fired tea
leaves ; and, just as in all probability well-
bred western matrons will exchange a few
words of gossip over their cups of tea,
these cheerful tea-picking girls start the
ball a-rolling on this side of the globe.
Not so many years ago the tea-chests
were decorated by lightning artists with
tropical-looking birds and beasts, but now
designs are stenciled on sheets of paper,
which are pasted on the boxes and glossed
over with varnish.
Everywhere we saw coolies packing
these gaily-flowered, lead-lined boxes that
carry their sensitive freight of tea to
America. I say America, for about QO
per cent of Formosa Oolong goes to the
202
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
CHIN
F U - K I E N
±
I \ (TAIWAN)
'
A MAP OF FORMOSA (TAIWAN) SHOWING ITS GEOGRAPHICAL, RELATION TO JAPAN,
CHINA, AND THE PHILIPPINES
United States. The little that goes to Eng-
land is generally used in making choice
blends in combination with other teas.
GUARDING TEA FROM OBNOXIOUS FREIGHT
As an additional protective measure,
each chest is sewn up in reed matting.
So sensitive is tea to other freight that a
tea merchant, before he loads his cargo,
has to find out what goods a ship is
carrying in her hold. Tea and copra,
for instance, cannot travel together with
anything approaching congeniality. More-
over, if it so happens that some Asiatic
disease breaks out on the ship and the
hold is fumigated, the tea might just as
well have caught the disease and died,
for its commercial life is at an end.
Besides the Oolong tea, whose natural
fragrance is of the sort to commend it-
self to the most fastidious tea-bibber,
there is an artificially scented tea, called
Pouchong, produced in Formosa. This
is exported chiefly to the Philippines and
the Straits Settlements for Chinese con-
sumption.
Four kinds of flowers are used in the
process of scenting Pouchong — two va-
rieties of jasmine, white oleanders, and
gardenias. These flowers are grown in
great quantities outside the city of Tai-
hoku for this purpose, and are bartered
on a certain street corner in Daitotei.
I shall always recall this street corner
as the abode of Perfume — an oasis of
Fragrance in a hostile desert. Coming
down Hokumongai, the principal street
in Daitotei, the sensitive western nose is
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
263
A NATIVE CAMPHOR STIU, IN THE HEART OF A CAMPHOR FOREST
Native stills are scattered here and there throughout the camphor districts, where crude
camphor is collected, packed in tins, and carried down precipitous mountain paths on coolies'
backs to the nearest railway line, whence it goes to the refinery in Taihoku.
264
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A CAMPHOR TREE
The camphor trees are unusually beautiful, with shapely trunks
and wide-spreading branches profusely covered with graceful
leaves of a soft green. According to an article appearing recently
in a semi-official publication of Formosa, the camphor produced
in the island at the present time is obtained entirely from natural-
grown camphor trees, the supply of which, it is anticipated, will
be exhausted within ten years. For more than a decade, however,
the camphor monopoly bureau has been planting camphor trees
at the rate of more than 3,000 acres a year. In 1919 its program
was expanded to more than 12,000 acres, and this will be the
annual acreage planted in future.
regaled by a thousand conglomerate
Chinese odors — Chinese joss-sticks -and
Chinese fire-crackers. Chinese clothes
and Chinese food. Chinese shops and
Chinese houses, Chinese men and Chinese
women. Then of a sudden comes this
flower mart.
The handkerchief drops to the lap and
the owner of the sensitive nose "sits up
and takes notice." Are
these white waxen blos-
soms really the gardenias
we were wont to revere
on account of their ex-
pensiveness ? Let us try
to imagine the qualms of
some Fifth Avenue flor-
ist if he could but see
so many potential bou-
tonnieres, at a dollar
apiece, so carelessly
heaped up in baskets, lin-
ing the dingy pavement.
SEARCHING FOR SMUG-
GLERS
However, it is to the
waterfront of the Tam-
sui River, commonly
called the Bund, that we
must go if we wish to
see the most picturesque
part of Daitotei. Here
it is that junks, with
great eyes painted on
the sides of the bow,
bring cargoes from the
ports of Tarnsui and
Kelung. Their antique
sails, patched and re-
patched, speed the oars-
men when sailing down-
stream with the wind,
but against both wind
and the tide the prog-
ress of these clumsy
craft is slow indeed.
The custom's jetty is
the scene of the most
animated discussions, for
the customs officials are
very thorough in their
search for smuggled
goods, and the junk-
owners, many of whom
bring wares from the
China coast, are just as eager to as-
sert their innocence. More often the
barter is merely in local products, such
as charcoal from some hillside kiln a few
miles upstream, or sweet potatoes, which
with the soaring price of rice are a chief
staple of diet among the poor.
A junk's crew has no regular meal
hours. At almost any time, while the
265
A CHINESE FAMILY WORKING A CAMPHOR TREE
Few trees can rival the camphor in value. An average tree, twelve feet in circum-
ference at its base, will yield about fifty piculs of camphor (approximately 6,660 pounds),
which at the present market price is worth about $5,000.
boats weigh anchor, a small party can be
seen in the stern, clustering about a char-
coal brazier — a woman busy dishing out
bowls of soup and macaroni, and men in
palm-leaf hats, their bronzed bodies
stripped to the waist, hurriedly scooping
up steaming threads with the aid of long
wooden chop-sticks.
Every hour of the day the river is
aglow with life — women washing their
clothes ; the footsore washing their feet ;
duck-tenders giving their broods a swim ;
fishermen trying their luck ; housewives
cleaning their vegetables and strips of
pork ; cattle and their owners fording
the stream at low tide ; and, at sunset,
dusky ghosts of sampans, laden with
families living up the river, gliding home-
ward against a jonquil sky.
FORMOSA THE HOME OF CAMPHOR
The population of Formosa is mainly
agricultural. The cultivation of rice, and
more especially sugar-cane, is encour-
aged by the government, and these are
grown in great quantities.
However, the most interesting indus-
try is the production of camphor, and
it can truly be said to be peculiar to the
island, when it is remembered that For-
mosa holds a practical monopoly in the
world's market of this valuable drug.
Before the war, Germany, by a secret
process, succeeded in manufacturing
some synthetic camphor, but so expensive
was the labor entailed that the artificial
product could not compete with the
natural camphor, nor is it likely to do so
for some time to come.
Shortly after the Japanese came to
Formosa, 25 years ago, the camphor in-
dustry became a government monopoly.
Before that time there had been a great
deal of ruthless waste, both in the cut-
ting down of trees and in extracting
camphor from them.
At first the Japanese, too, were care-
less in this respect, for the supply of
camphor trees seemed practically limit-
less, but the great increase in the demand
for the product in late years has made
scientific afforestation necessary. Now
266
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
IN MANY DISTRICTS CAMPHOR WORKERS REQUIRE THE PROTECTION OF
ARMED GUARDS
Tales of the camphor workers recall the days of our pioneer fathers, who constantly faced
the dangers of tomahawk and scalping-knife.
large tracts of land are given over to the
cultivation of the camphor laurel. The
oldest of these cultivated trees are now
twenty years of age, and these, I am in-
formed, are to be cut down next year.
Paradoxical as it may seem at first
glance, the savage head-hunters of For-
mosa have been both an impediment and
a boon to the camphor industry.
As the forests are cut down, the head-
hunters have to be driven further back
into the mountains. These expeditions
against the savages are never very suc-
cessful, encountering as they do heavy
obstacles in the way of dense forests,
rapid streams without bridges, steep
mountains without trails, and, above all,
the danger of sudden attack.
The life of a camphor worker is in-
deed an adventurous one ; he is never
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
267
GOUGING CHIPS FROM A CAMPHOR
The adz is used in reducing the camphor tree to chips, which can be placed into retorts for
the distillation process (see illustration on the next page).
safe. Although a woodsman with an axe
never moves except in the company of
an armed guard, there is always danger
of an ambush.
Tales of the camphor workers recall
the days of our pioneer fathers in the
times of the tomahawk, the poisoned
arrow, and the scalping-knife. And yet
if this menace had not existed, the cam-
phor forests would have disappeared
long ago. Thanks to the head-hunters,
there are 'still large tracts of virgin cam-
phor forests in Formosa.
Camphor trees grow best on moderate,
well-drained slopes, not over 4,000 feet
in elevation, where the sun's rays can
reach them.
Nowhere else in the world have these
trees attained such height and girth. In
the past, trees with a basal circumfer-
ence of from 35 to 40 feet have been
noted, but these have inevitablv fallen
268
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
PLACING CAMPHOR CHIPS IN THE CHIP RETORT
The retort is above boiling water. Beneath is a furnace. To the right a man is removing
the chips from which the camphor has been extracted.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
269
DRAINING OFF THE OIL FROM THE CAMPHOR: FORMOSA
Here \ve see the camphor placed on wooden troughs, and whatever free oil it contains drains
off into tin pails.
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FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
271
victims to the woodsman's axe. Perhaps
in the uncharted forests, where the savage
still holds sway, more of these noble
specimens still grow unscathed. At
present a camphor tree with a basal cir-
cumference of 20 feet is considered a
very ample specimen.
A SINGLE: TREE PRODUCES $5,000 WORTH
OF CAMPHOR
In point of view of value, few trees
can rival the camphor. An average tree,
say with a basal circumference of 12 feet,
will yield about 50 piculs of camphor
(approximately 6,660 pounds), which, at
the present market price, is worth about
$5,000.
Strictly speaking, there are no cam-
phor forests, as the camphor laurel is
only one of a number of trees growing
together. The camphor trees are un-
usually beautiful, with shapely trunks
and wide-spreading branches profusely
covered with graceful leaves of a soft
green.
Native stills are scattered here and
there throughout the districts where
crude camphor is collected, packed in
tins, and carried down precipitous moun-
tain paths on coolies' backs to the "near-
est railway line, whence it goes to the
refinery at Taihoku.
It was my good fortune to visit one of
these native stills in the district about ten
miles beyond Urai, the first savage vil-
lage with a police garrison to the south
of Taihoku.
We motored as far as Sintian. and
from there the stronger members of the
party "hiked," while the rest alternately
\valked and rode in sedan chairs.
We had to cross many streams and we
always found a Chinese ferryman with a
sampan awaiting us on the bank, for our
route had been kindly prearranged by the
Japanese official from whom we obtained
permission to enter the savage zone.
There seemed to be no fixed fare, and the
sampan owner accepted, as a matter of
course, the few coins we tossed him on
alighting.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH A "BROTHER"
FORMOSAN
The ferryman at the last stream we
crossed was an old "ripe" savage, with a
face seared and seamy. A veritable
Charon he looked, and this resemblance
was heightened by a dark-colored shawl
thrown over his head, for the poor fellow
suffered from ague.
He regarded us with much solemnity,
and I for one was trying to fathom his
thoughts, when quite unexpectedly he
spoke. "You and I are- brothers. We are
not like these," and he indicated the few
Japanese and Chinese passengers at the
rear of the sampan.
I was somewhat surprised, but found
that all the Formosan savages have this
idea. Besides themselves the world con-
tains for them but two groups, the Chi-
nese and the Japanese ; so when they meet
persons belonging to neither of these, by
a process of elimination they claim them
as relations.
At Urai we stopped for luncheon at a
Japanese inn, and the entire savage popu-
lation turned out to watch us eat. It hap-
pened that we had some caviar sand-
wiches* in our lunch baskets, and when
we had finished eating, as I had one left
I gave it to an old savage chief. He ate
it with great relish, and when he was
through he signified his desire for more.
Then I gave him a plain bread-and-butter
sandwich, and his disgust was amusing
to behold.
Whenever I hear of savages assimilat-
ing most eagerly the evils rather than the
more substantial benefits of civilization,
I think in particular of this born epicure.
I am sure he would have preferred cham-
pagne to beer at first draught.
THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CAMPHOR STILL
The still we visited, was operated by
the members of one Chinese family.
When our party approached, some of the
men were gouging chips from the trunks
of camphor trees with adzes, while others
were in the still feeding the fires.
Adjoining the still was a shanty, where
the workers lived, and in front of the
door was a woman preparing the after-
noon meal, while beside her a little boy
was busy playing blocks with chips from
which the camphor had been extracted.
The stills are operated in a very simple
manner. Camphor chips are placed in a
chip retort over boiling water, and as the
camphor vaporizes it passes through
272
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A PINE-CRESTED RIDGE
This photograph might have been taken in New England except for the "ripe" savages carry-
ing guns. The border savages are often employed to assist the police guard.
pipes into submerged vats, which are so
arranged that cool water from a moun-
tain stream can run over them to acceler-
ate crystallization. After the camphor
has crystallized the vats are opened, and
the product is placed on wooden troughs
to allow whatever free oil there may be
to drain off. This oil will yield 90 per
cent of crude camphor in the process of
refining.
THE PEOPLE; OF FORMOSA
Ever since we have any authentic rec-
ord, Formosa has been peopled with wild
tribes of probably Malayan and Polyne-
sian origin. They are nearest in point of
resemblance to the Dayaks of Borneo,
and although their origin has never been
proved beyond a doubt, they are suffi-
ciently like certain of the South Sea
tribes to justify us in ascribing to them a
common ancestry.
They are found on the island today in
all stages of development. The "raw"
savages, as the Chinese term them, live
much as their ancestors did centuries ago,
while the "ripe" savages, living on the
borderland between their wild kin and
Chinese settlers, have more or less as-
similated Chinese ways of life.
The savage population of Formosa is
estimated at about 150,000. There are
eight main groups of savage tribes on the
island, each group with fairly well-de-
fined differences of dress, speech, and
customs, and in many cases the tribes
that make up a group display minor dif-
ferences among themselves.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
273
LUMBERING OPERATIONS IN THE HINOKI FORESTS ON MOUNT ARIZAN
Next to the camphor laurel, the hinoki, or sun trees, are the most valuable trees in
Formosa. The tallest specimens attain a height of 130 feet and are of such girth as to enable
a dozen people to stand on the stump of a tree that has been felled.
Although in most instances the simi-
larities are more striking than the differ-
ences in the various groups, still they are
sufficiently unlike to lead us to suppose
that they migrated to Formosa at differ-
ent times and perhaps from different
places.
A PASSION FOR HEAD-HUNTING
There is one trait that all the "raw"
savages possess in common, and that is
their passion for head-hunting. With
some of the groups the practice is closely
bound up with their religious and social
life, while with others it is more espe-
cially a question of prowess, and the
brave who can display the greatest array
of skulls is regarded as the greatest hero.
The "ripe" savages have, of course,
abandoned the practice altogether, but
they still cherish a sneaking affection for
it, as is shown by their adherence to the
old dances which originated in the fes-
tivities over the capture of heads.
In every savage village the open-air
skull museum is a matter of civic pride,
and most chiefs have their private collec-
tion of skulls as well.
At the time that the Chinese army of
occupation left Formosa and the Japanese
entered their new domain, guns were at
a premium. As the Chinese residents
were not allowed to retain fire-arms,
nearly all the rifles belonging to the de-
parting army, numbering about 20,000,
were sold by Chinese traders to the sav-
ages. It is this possession of fire-arms
that makes the head-hunters particularly
dangerous to cope with.
THE LIVE-WIRE BARRIER
It is so common for some Chinaman
living near the savage border to lose his
head that not much attention is paid to
the incident, unless his relatives band to-
gether to avenge the murder. But if
some Japanese policeman, official, or sol-
dier falls a victim, there is always an ex-
pedition to avenge his death. A village
is forewarned, and if the culprit is sur-
rendered all are spared except the guilty
one, who pays the death penalty.
274
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
JAPANESE INFANTRY DESCENDING A MOUNTAIN IN THE
SAVAGE DISTRICT : FORMOSA
The men employed to safeguard the camphor workers are known
as "Aiyue" (Guardsmen), and their outpost line as "Aiyu-sen"
(Guard-line). The line is established by cutting a path along the
crest of mountains, after which the jungle is cleared away for 18
or 20 feet on both sides : guard-houses are established at strategic
points and wire entanglements charged with electricity are con-
structed.
At present Formosa enjoys greater
freedom from savage attacks than ever
before in her history. This is due to the
fact that the Japanese have installed a
live-wire barrier from Karenko, about
midway on the east coast, to Pinan, in
the south, a distance of- about a hundred
miles, to serve as a protection against
savage raids.
The trees for twenty feet on both sides
of the barrier have been cleared awav to
prevent the savages
from crossing the
wire by felling trees
on it.
At distances of
every half mile along
the route blockhouses
are stationed, and a
sentry paces the beat
between two posts all
day long to see that
the wire has not been
tampered with or any
holes burrowed un-
derneath.
At first the electric
current was turned
on only at night, the
usual time for a sav-
age raid, but the wily
head-hunters soon dis-
covered this, as they
noticed that no smoke
issued from the
power-house by day.
Then, as they turned
their night raids into
daylight expeditions,
the Japanese were ob-
liged to turn on the
current by day as well.
This device, al-
though not exactly a
cheap one, has done
much to develop the
fertile plain to the
west of the barricade,
as many Japanese
agriculturists have
been attracted to this
region, now that they
can live there in com-
parative safety.
Even now traders,
who go as far as the barricade to ex-
change small wares for deer horns and
tortoise shell, occasionally lose their lives,
when they venture singly or are careless
about going unarmed.
There are two kinds of deer, Formosa
spotted deer and Swinhoe's rusa deer,
that roam in large numbers on the moun-
tains occupied by the savages, and. on the
seacoast back of them are found enor-
mous turtles, varying from three to five
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
275
A MILITAKV GARRISON ON THE BORDER OF THE SAVAGE DISTRICT I FORMOSA
These temporary structures serve as the headquarters of the commanding officer during an
expedition against the savages.
feet in length and from 200 to 400 pounds
in weight.
DIFFICULT TO STUDY THE SAVAGES
It is through a study of some newly
conquered tribe that we come to know
the characteristics of the Formosan
savage.
Even though the ardent student of
anthropology cared to risk his life among
the "raw" savag'es, permission to enter
the danger zone could not be obtained
from the Japanese authorities. In fact,
the Japanese are so careful in this respect
that even when foreigners want to visit a
village of "ripe" savages they must al-
ways be accompanied by a police escort.
It is not my purpose here to write a
descriptive history of the savage tribes
on this island, having no first-hand
knowledge on the subject, but I wish to
relate the story of a trip I took to Kam-
panzan, a little savage village in the north
of the island, and of an interesting en-
counter with Kim Scan, a savage, which
throws some new sidelights on the life
of his tribe, the Atayals of North For-
mosa.
We started out by train to Toyen, a
two hours' ride, on a beautiful day last
autumn. It was the time of the second
rice harvest, and in the paddy-fields were
scattered little groups of laborers in their
broad palm-leaf hats, some reaping the
grain with sickles, others threshing, and
still others plowing the fields for the new
seedlings.
Sunny blue skies overhead and the
soft browns of the ripened grain, inter-
spersed with vivid green patches of the
young seedlings, formed the color scheme
of the picture before us, and the frame
was the encircling mountains.
WESTERN INVENTIONS BECOME ORIENTAL
COMMONPLACES
Very picturesque were the portable
tubs with their canvas awnings, looking
for all the world like sails, in the wake
of which followed the threshers with
their bundles of grain, which they rapped
smartly against the corrugated board
276
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A BRIDGE CONSTRUCTED BY THE SAVAGES
Of course, when the heavy rains come, this bridge will be carried down-stream.
affixed to the tub, to separate the rice
from the blade.
Picturesque, too, were the foot pumps,
worked by three and sometimes four
coolies, in pumping water from one field
to another. These were the invention of
a Spanish missionary and are used in
China as well.
It would be interesting indeed to find
out how many of the inventions of which
we think as typically Oriental have origi-
nated in Western brains. I call to mind
the tonga, a vehicle used all over Central
India, the invention of an American
missionary; and more especially -the jin-
rikisha, the first one of which was con-
structed by an American missionary in
Japan for his lame wife, and which is
now used all over the East.
EVERY BUFFALO HAS ITS FRIENDLY HERON
The plowing is done by water buffa-
loes, which are brought down from their
mountain pastures, where they return to
graze when their work is finished. No
rural Formosan landscape is complete
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
277
A RATTAN SUSPENSION BRIDGE CONSTRUCTED BY THE JAPANESE IN THE
SAVAGE COUNTRY
The longest structure of this kind in the island is more than 400 feet in length. Even in flood
times this footbridge swings safely above the foaming waters.
MOUNT MORRISON, 13,075 FEET IN ELEVATION, THE HIGHEST PEAK IN THE
JAPANESE EMPIRE
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FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
279
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without at least one of these hulking
creatures, with its lowering horns and
great staring eyes. Their hides are just
the shade of weathered rock, and so
motionless do they stand for hours while
grazing on some grassy slope that they
look, even from a short distance away,
as if they were carved from stone.
Wherever there are buffaloes, graceful
white herons are seen perched on their
backs. It seems, indeed, that each buffalo
has a particular heron for a pal. who
takes care to rid him of smaller friends,
just as devoted, perhaps, but less de-
sirable.
At Toyen we took push-cars. These
are small, wicker-covered chariots on
narrow-gauge rails. The seats are just
large enough to accommodate two pas-
sengers, and there is a small platform
behind, where the two coolies who push
the car on the upgrade can stand and
ride when the route lies down hill.
The confirmed motorist would find
these push-cars a bit tedious on the level
or upgrade, but going down mountains
they leave nothing to be desired in the
way of thrills.
Our route lay for the first hour through
level country. We passed through fields
of sugar-cane, with occasional patches of
sweet potatoes, cabbages, and pumpkins.
And now and then we came upon some
Chinese village near a stream, where our
approach was heralded by the shouts of
children.
Women tugging small babies would
hobble out of their doorways as fast as
their bound feet would permit and ex-
change laughing comments on our ap-
pearance. Young men would frankly
jeer at us, and only the old men, like
figures in ivory yellow with age, gazed
upon us with imperturbable calm.
A JOURNEY WITH EVERY VISTA A PICTURE
At length we started the ascent. At
first our way lay through terraced tea
gardens and groves of pineapples, ba-
nanas, and citrus fruits ; but as we
progressed the mountain sides became
covered with Nature's own rich mantle.
Ornamental grasses fringed our path,
while through the bracken and lichened
rocks projecting overhead little bubbling
freshets trickled down at our feet.
280
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE SCHOOL FOR SAVAGE CHILDREN AT KAMPANZAN, A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE IN
NORTHERN FORMOSA
£
A SAVAGE PALAVER-HOUSE
Most of the savage groups have these dwellings, which serve the double purpose of club-
houses and bachelor dormitories.
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
281
A THATCHED-ROOF TYPE OF SAVAGE DWELLING
These natives are displaying some of their hand-made pottery.
A SAVAGE DWELLING WITH SKULLS HANGING FROM THE RAFTERS
Whenever savages live in the vicinity of slate quarries they construct their homes from
slabs of slate.
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FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
283
Every bend in the path brought to
view some new slope more exquisitely
arrayed than the last — a profusion of
tropical foliage plants, elephants' ears,
plantains, and tree-ferns intermingled
with flowering shrubs of many varieties,
wild hydrangeas, morning-glories, pink
oleanders, hibiscus, and the lovely gold-
banded lilies of Japan.
Kampanzan itself is not over 2,000 feet
in elevation, but the mountains surround-
ing it form a splendid setting, the lower
hills densely wooded and the higher
veiled in clouds and snow.
Toward dusk we arrived at the savage
village, tucked away in a valley between
two mountains. Smoke clouded the door-
ways of the mud, grass-roofed huts, for
within savage mothers were boiling their
evening meal of sweet potatoes over
wood fires in the center of the floor.
Children ran out at our approach, their
eyes quite wet and streaming tears from
their recent smoke bath, while their
sires, one-time braves, but now mere
blear-eyed phantoms of savagery, squat-
ted in front of their houses and blinked
at us, as we passed, between puffs from
long thin pipes.
THE STORY OF KIM SOAN
We went to a small Japanese inn, and
it was here that we met Kim Soan, after
we had finished supper and were wonder-
ing how to spend the hour before bed-
time.
He came as the messenger from the
chief police official to inquire wrhether
we had everything we needed for our
comfort. A member of our party, who
has lived many years in Formosa and
speaks fluent Chinese, requested him to
convey our thanks to the police official,
and then return to us for a talk. After
he had gone our friend said, "I know
that man ; his face comes back to me,"
and he told us what he knew of Kim
Soan's history.
When the Chinese were still in posses-
sion of Formosa — a period of gross mis-
rule, from all accounts — there seems to
have been one governor with a few ad-
vanced ideas. He conceived the scheme
of educating the young boys of conquered
savage tribes and sending them back as
apostles of light to their people. But he
reckoned without the volition of his
pupils, as in the case of Kim Soan, who
was one of these boys, and who after he
had become attached to the amenities of
civilization refused to return to savagery.
Later, when the Japanese came to the
island, Kim Soan was commissioned to
accompany two Japanese officials who
were going to enter the savage territory
to take the census. The three set out. all
dressed alike in Japanese garb, and they
had not proceeded very far when they
were attacked by some savages, who
killed the two Japanese, but spared Kim
Soan.
He returned to report the murders to
the authorities, and they, in turn, con-
demned him to die, deeming him respon-
sible for the two deaths. He managed to
escape, however, and fled to the moun-
tains, where he stayed for eight years.
Then he received his pardon, returned to
the plains, and was made an instructor in
the school for savage children at Kam-
panzan.
"lIOW MANY HEADS DID YOU CUT OFF?"
Our companion had hardly finished this
narrative when Kim Soan himself reap-
peared. The conversation which took
place between the two follows :
"Don't you remember me, Kim Soan,
and the little school at Tamsui that you
used to attend ?"
"Oh, sir, that is a long time ago — so
long that it seems like a dream."
"So you became a savage again. How
many heads did you cut off?"
This remark had the effect of a bomb.
Instantly Kim Soan leaped to his feet,
and raising his hand, his voice choking
with emotion, said very solemnly, "I
swear by the heavens above and the earth
below my feet that I have never been
guilty of taking any human life."
"But you have the tattoo-marks on
your forehead that indicate that you have
been admitted into the council of the men
of your tribe. Surely you must have pro-
cured at least one head to enable you to
accomplish that?"
Again he asserted his innocence with
the same impressive solemnity.
"Then you must have accompanied the
others on some head-hunting raid. You
couldn't refuse to go, could you?"
284
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by T. MacGregor
A GROUP Of KAMPANZAN SAVAGES
The savages in the northern half of the island are distinguished from the southern
natives by their tattooing. The southern savages are not given to this practice. Of the
northern tribes the one scattered over the largest area is the Atayal group, to which the
Kampanzan savages belong. They live in mountain recesses, are among the least civilized
of all the inhabitants of Formosa, and are especially partial to head-hunting.
"Xo, I couldn't refuse. I always tried
to find some excuse, but finally our chief
said, 'Tomorrow you go.' Then we shook
a tree full of birds to read the omens
from their flight, and the old woman of
our tribe said, 'It is well ; you will be suc-
cessful.'
THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION
"That night I went to bed with a heavy
heart, and when I slept I dreamed that
we would meet a woodsman with an axe
and a guardsman with a rifle.
"On the next day it turned out even as
I dreamed. My companions shot the
guardsman through the heart from an
ambush ten feet distant, and the woods-
man threw up his hands and begged for
mercy.
"I pleaded with my companions to spare
his life, and they said, 'Fie! shame upon
you ! You have a Chinese heart.' Then
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
285
they turned upon me
to kill me as well, so
I withdrew my peti-
tion. After that they
cut off the woods-
man's head, and we
returned home."
"And didn't you
take part- in any more
raids after that?"
"Yes, one more.
Once we lay in am-
bush in some tall
grass as some Jap-
anese infantry were
coming along. They
were very brave,
those men, for though
we shot down the first
ones, the others kept
right on coming. Soon,
however, we were
forced to make our
escape, for they far
outnumbered us. We
respect the courage of
the Japanese soldiers,
but the Japanese po-
licemen — bah ! they
scuttle away like mice
at the first glimpse of
us."
WOODEN
EXPLODE
Then we asked Kim
Soan many questions,
and he gave us many
interesting answers.
He told us of the
blacksmiths of every tribe who kept the
guns in good condition. He contradicted
the rumor that arms and ammunition
are still smuggled into the savage terri-
tory.
He related to us how the savages make
bullets from the heart of a very hard
wood cured by a special process. These
bullets are only effectual when fired from
a short range, and when they lodge in the
flesh they explode like dumdum bullets.
He also explained to us the ingenious
way in which the men of his tribe make
caps. Two small disks are cut from the
striking side of a safety match-box, the
tip of a match is placed between, and then
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET US IN THE DARK?
An old savage chief and his wife. The former was told to dress up
as he would to go on a head-hunting raid.
the disks are glued together. He told us
that they were always able to buy as
many matches as they wanted from Chi-
nese traders.
For hunting birds and beasts, he stated,
bows and arrows were used, and all their
ammunition was saved to hunt men.
THE BLOODY HAND A PASSPORT TO THE
SAVAGE HEAVEN
"But why do your people hunt heads?
Is it true that a man must procure a head
before he can claim a bride?"
"No, it isn't that; but, of course, the
women prefer the men that have brought
back the most heads. But it's this way:
286
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE HOME OF A SAVAGE CHIEF: FORMOSA
In nearly all the savage groups the home of the chief is distinguished by the crude carvings
of human figures ove'r the doorways. Note the skull on the shelf at the left.
AN OPEN-AIR SKULL MUSEUM
"In every savage village the open-air skull museum is a matter of civic pride."
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
2S7
all my people believe
that when we die we
all must walk up the
rainbow to the Land-
of-After-Death.
"At the end of the
rainbow the gateman
stands, and when we
come he will say to
us, 'Show me your
hand.' And he will
look at our hand, and
if he finds it clean he
will say, 'Go to the
right,' and he will
kick us into the dark
nothingnes s below;
Taut if he looks at our
hand and finds it
stained he will say,
'You may enter,' and
he will allow us to
pass within."
JAPANESE SCHOOL FOR
SAVAGE CHILDREN
Before we left
Kampanzan we visited
the savage school in
which Kim Scan was
a teacher. The chil-
dren sang the Japan-
ese national anthem
for us with very
pleasing voices. I
"have never heard Jap-
anese or Chinese chil-
dren sing half so well.
Then several of
the children made
speeches, which were very amusing, as
they were so obviously the product of the
teacher's pen. Each speech started some-
what as follows : "I am a poor little sav-
age boy. Before the kind Japanese came
here, I was very ignorant. Now my kind
teacher is teaching me many things," and
more of the same sort.
The Japanese are taking steps to train
the savages in certain manual arts, chiefly
cloth-weaving on hand-looms, so that
they can earn their living, now that they
can no longer follow the more exciting
life of the chase.
I left Kampanzan with a feeling of
depression. There is something poig-
"ALAS, POOR YORICK, i KNEW HIM WELL!"
A nearer view of a skull museum, showing the trophies placed on
bamboo poles.
nantly pathetic in the spectacle of these
wild creatures of the forest tied down to
a dull domesticity, even as wild beasts
captive in cages.
FORMOSA ONCE THE STRONGHOLD OF JAP-
ANESE AND CHINESE PIRATES
The bulk of the population of Formosa
is, of course, Chinese. Several centuries
ago the island used to be the stronghold
of both Chinese and Japanese pirates,
who found it a very convenient base
from which to intercept vessels follow-
ing the trade routes between Japan and
the rest of the Orient.
It was not until the fourteenth century
288
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SAVAGES CARRYING WATER IN BAMBOO POLES
This practice is only one of many points of resemblance between Formosan savages and
South Sea tribes.
A SAVAGE WOMAN WEAVING CLOTH ON A HAND-LOOM
FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL
289
BLACK TEETH AND FLAT, ROUND BAMBOO EARRINGS ARE HIGHLY PRIZED AMONG THE
SAVAGES OF THE TAIWAN GROUP OCCUPYING SOUTHERN FORMOSA
It was upon the Paiwan savages that the Japanese wreaked a bitter vengeance in 1872, follow-
ing the massacre of a crew of shipwrecked Japanese sailors.
FANTASTIC EFFECTS IN MILLINERY DISTINGUISH THE ORNAMENTATION OF BOTH
MEN AND WOMEN OF THE TSUO GROUP
This tribe has a unique organization. All the land is owned by one clan, the Hyoft'pa,
to whom every tribesman gives a tithe of his annual harvest. A public council hall, called
the Kutsuba, is used as a lodging place for all unmarried youths more than 12 years of age.
These boys are subjected to Spartan hardships in training to foster discipline, courage, and
virtue.
290
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE BELL-SHAPED EARRINGS AND CHAPLETS OF BONE AND BEADS INDICATE THAT
THESE SAVAGES BELONG TO THE VONUM GROUP
According to a tribal legend, the Vonum Group of Formosan mountain savages lived in
the plains until the misfortune of an all-destroying deluge befell them. With the flood came
a huge serpent, which swam through the stormy waters toward the terrorized people. They
owed their deliverance from the great snake to the timely appearance of a monster crab,
which, after a terrific battle, succeeded in killing the reptile.
that the first industrial class of Chinese,
the agriculturist Hakkas, who were out-
casts in their own country, came to settle
in Formosa. After that, at the time of
the Tatar invasion, several thousand
Ming loyalists sought refuge on the
island.
Then there has always been more or
less of an influx of immigration from the
overpopulated province of Fu-kien, just
across the Formosa Straits. These Chi-
nese from Fu-kien far outnumber the
others, and their speech, known as the
"Amoy dialect," is the vernacular of the
island.
When the Japanese came into control
of the island after the Chino-Japanese
War, in 1895, a third element was added
to the population.
THE WORK OF THE JAPANESE
The Japanese have instituted great ma-
terial improvements in Formosa. The
most important, of course, are the mod-
ern courts of justice in lieu of the old
mandarin courts, where the man with the
greatest "pull," which, needless to say,
spelled money, invariably won out. There
is also greater security to life and limb
now, for not only is the Japanese police
system a most thorough and efficient or-
ganization, but the sanitary measures
that they have adopted have practically
eradicated such diseases as malaria and
bubonic plague.
AN ERA OF PROSPERITY
Harbor improvements, railways, and
bridges have greatly facilitated traffic,
but the road systems, as yet, outside the
city of Taihoku, leave much to be de-
sired.
Education, too, has been advanced,
but, owing to the policy of assimilation,
native schools are not encouraeed, and
the percentage of Chinese children at-
FORMOSA THE BE.U'TIFUL
291
A DANCE OF THE AMI GROUP : FORMOSA
The Amis have discontinued head-hunting, but they still adhere to the old dances, which
originated in the festivities over the capture of heads.
WOMEN WATER-BEARERS OF THE PEPO GROUP
The members of this group are scattered over the broad tracts of level land in the
western parts of Formosa. They long had intercourse both with the Dutch and the Chinese.
Today they are scarcely distinguishable from the Chinese.
292
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
YOUTH AND OLD AGE
This tattooed design is peculiar to the Tsalisen Group, whose members ceased to hunt
heads more than a century ago. They are now good farmers, and through their frequent
intercourse with the Chinese have become skillful blacksmiths and carvers. Many of the
women of this tribe wear dresses with long trailing skirts.
tending public schools is only a little over
13 as against a rate of over 95 for the
Japanese children of the island. Opium
smoking is controlled by license. About
2. per cent of the Chinese at present
smoke opium, but eventually this will
stop entirely.
The future of Formosa under its pres-
ent benevolent paternal government looks
bright, indeed. Never before has this
island, so beautiful to the eye, enjoyed
such a degree of prosperity. Old in-
dustries are thriving, new industries are
cropping forth, foreign trade increases
yearly, and the general welfare of the
Formosan people is steadily improving.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY NOTICE
The Board of Managers of THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY report to the members
the following proposed changes in the By-Laws of the Society :
That Section 2. of Article VII of the By-Laws be amended to read as follows :
''The annual dues of members shall be $2.50, payable in January.
"This amendment shall be effective as of January i, 1920, but shall not apply to
members who have paid their dues prior to its adoption."
That article XII be amended to read as follows :
"These By-Laws may be amended at any meeting of the Board of Managers by a
two-thirds vote of the members present ; provided, however, that notice of intention
to amend said By-Laws has been sent to all members of said Board not less than
thirty days prior to such meeting."
A special meeting of the members of the Society is hereby called and will be held on the
I5th day of March, 1920, at Hubbard Memorial Hall, Washington, D. C., at two o'clock p. m.,
for the purpose of voting on the above amendments.
By order of the Board of Managers: O. P. AUSTIN, Secretary.
VOL. XXXVII, No. 4 WASHINGTON
APRIL, 1920
PEARY AS A LEADER
Incidents from the Life of the Discoverer of the North
Pole Told by One of His Lieutenants on the
Expedition Which Reached the Goal
BY DONALD B. MACMILLAN
«/^TARS AND STRIPES nailed to
W the Pole!"
k^J Tne accomplishment of that
which had been declared repeatedly to be
the impossible, that which our strongest
nations had striven to do for more than
three hundred years, at the cost of many
lives and the expenditure of millions of
dollars, demanded great leadership.
What manner of man was this who
persuaded the polar Eskimos to penetrate
to the interior of the great ser-mik-suah,
the abode of evil spirits; induced them
to leave their homes and journey seven
hundred miles due north ; to travel out
over the drift-ice of the Polar Sea so
far that they declared that they would
never again see their wives and children?
What was the secret of that power
which he possessed over his white men
that, had he wished, they would have
followed him through broken ice, would
have crossed treacherous thin leads, sur-
mounted pressure ridges, and clung to
him until the last ounce of food was gone
and the last dog eaten ?
We find the key to Rear Admiral Rob-
ert E. Peary's character in his reply to
the late ex-President Roosevelt upon the
presentation of the Hubbard Medal of
the National Geographic Society upon
the explorer's return in 1906 from the
world's record of "Farthest North," when
he said :
"The true explorer does his work not
for any hopes of reward or honor, but
because the thing which he has set him-
self to do is a part of his being and must
be accomplished for the sake of its ac-
complishment.
"To me the final and complete solution
of the polar mystery, which has engaged
the best thought and interests of some of
the best men of the most vigorous and
enlightened nations of the world for
more than three centuries, and which to-
day stirs the heart of every man or
woman whose veins hold red blood, is
the thing which should be done for the
honor and credit of this country, the
thing which it is intended that I should
do, and the thing that I must do."
Here we have energy, purpose, de-
termination, and love of country — some
of the essentials of a great leader, and
as such we who had the honor of serving
under him like to think of him, and such
we know he was.
DEFYING THE GODS OF THE FROZEN
SAHARA
On the 1 5th of July, 1886, far in on
the back of the great ice-cap of Green-
land, at an altitude of 7,525 feet, lay two
294
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
A MEMBER OF THE MAC MILLAN EXPEDITION FINDING PEARY'S CABIN AND RECORD
AT THE NORTHERN END OF AXEL HEIBERG LAND, MAY, 1914
The Arctic explorer reached this point in June, 1906, on his return from "Farthest North,"
87° 6', reached in April of that year (see map, page 297, and text, page 300).
forms huddled in the snow. For forty-
eight hours they listened to the sullen
roar of wind and drifting snow across
their bodies.
The jealous gods of that great frozen
Sahara, guarding its secrets down through
the ages, were justly alarmed at this in-
vasion and looked in wonder at these
pioneers who had the temerity to leave
the comforts of civilization and flower-
bedecked slopes of the Warm Greenland
fiords and advance into the great white
unknown, with its attendant severity of
cutting winds and drifting snows.
These same gods must have laughed
aloud five years later upon seeing a man
lashed to a plank and landed upon their
shores with a broken leg, far up at the
head of Inglefield Gulf. This American
explorer would not go home; he would
do what he came to do!
And when the ship steamed out through
PEARY AS A LEADER
295
*".
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
PEARY'S HUT AT CAPE SABINE, FROM WHICH THE EXPLORER MADE HIS DASH TOWARD
THE POLE IN 1900
This refuge was formerly the deck-house of the steamship Windward, used by Peary in his,
1898-1902 Expedition.
the broken fields of ice and disappeared
over the southern horizon, these gods
knew that here in the little tent on the
beach was a man against whom immedi-
ate warfare must be declared and their
strongest forces united (see also p. 319).
"MAN WAS NOT BORN TO DIE BENEATH
SUCH A SKY"
At the first peep of dawn of the long
Arctic day we find Peary accepting the
challenge and assembling his forces at
the edge of the ice-cap. On Independ-
ence Day the American flag was unfurled
at Navy Cliff, some six hundred miles to
the north.
When, weeks later, he struggles to-
ward home over that apparently endless
white waste, with inflamed eyes, frost-
bitten and sunburnt face, dropping dogs,
and food nearly gone, he looks up into
the clear heavens and declares that
296
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
"man was not born to die beneath such
a sky."
Here was belief in self, hope, optimism.
Six years later, contrary to all Arctic
precedent, he dared to harness his dogs,
leave his ship frozen in the ice, and sledge
northward in the middle of the big Arctic
night.
With the thermometer at fifty and
sixty below zero, not a particle of food
in his sledges, he groped his way along
the eastern shores of Ellesmere Land,
around Cape Baird, and into Lady
Franklin Bay, searching for the head-
quarters of the Greely Expedition, aban-
doned sixteen years before.
He stumbled through the door with
both feet frozen to the ankles. Nothing
could be done here to relieve his suffer-
ing. Toe after toe sloughed off. Finally
he was lashed to a sledge and carried
through the broken ice of bays and in-
lets and along the ice foot back to his
ship, two hundred miles to the south.
And with him, to aid in the amputation
of the stumps of eight toes, went a can
of anesthetic, found there in the house
and brought into the Arctic regions in
1881.
Now a cripple? Within thirty-seven
days following the final amputation he
was headed north again, equipped with
crutches !
The antagonistic elements of the North-
land should have submitted meekly and
bowed humbly, as this plucky litt)e cara-
van wound its way up through Kennedy
and Robeson channels with the great
unknown as its objective point.
FIGHTING FOR THE; LIVES OF HIS NATIVES
Two years later we find this intrepid
man encamped on the bleak shores of
Cape Sabine, surrounded by his loyal
Eskimos, patiently perfecting his equip-
ment and preparing for that hazardous
trip of eight hundred miles to the top of
the earth.
Every attack had been made upon him
that Torgnak, the evil spirit of the North,
could devise — bitter cold, cutting winds,
blinding drift, treacherous thin ice, rough
ice, pressure ridges, crevasses, piblocto
among his dogs, frost-bitten face, fingers,
feet, and starvation ; yet his will was
adamant, his body strong, his purpose
unshaken.
And now a new mode of attack to
thwart his plans, one cunningly devised
and relentlessly executed — deprive him
of the valuable services of his loyal
Eskimos! Those were the darkest days
of Peary's career, fighting not for the
Pole, but for the lives of his natives, and
with the same energy and determination
which characterize all of his work. Six
mounds of rock within a few yards of
his wooden shack testify to his losing
fight.
THE "ROOSEVELT" BEGINS HER CAREER
Four years he remained in the North,
and returned scarred and temporarily
beaten, but with a knowledge of why he
was beaten — the secret of final success.
His staunch friends believed in him and
gathered around him, and in the fall of
1904 they saw the sturdy Roosevelt be-
ginning to take shape under the skillful
hands of Maine shipbuilders.
With engines throbbing under high
pressure and smoke belching from her
funnel, Peary and Bartlett fairly hurled
this first American-built Polar ship
around Cape Sheridan and into the Polar
Sea, farther north than any other ship
had ever steamed. She had done what
she was planned to do ; she had justified
her existence ; and there she lay, on the
northern shore of Grant Land, panting
like an athlete at the end of the race.
The sun dropped below the hills, dark-
ness crept over the land, and in that great
white expanse of snow and ice one thing
alone betokened that man lived in what
was apparently a world long dead or one
unfinished by the hand of the Creator — a
warm beam of light from the cabin of
the ship.
Long before the sun returned the
ninety-mile trail to Cape Columbia was
patted down with the feet of more than
two hundred dogs. From that point to
the Pole the course lay straight out over
the drift-ice of the Polar Sea for 413
miles.
"Impossible !" was the word brought
back to the British Government by the
British North Pole Expedition of 1875-
76. Peary never recognized this word in
connection with his life's work.
PEARY AS A LEADER
297
Paary, arrived April 6, 1SO9
North * Pole
ViPeary, left April 7, 19O9
Continual Day
March nffo September 23
\\
The inhabUaofeeoaat of Greenland
is under the juimdhtion of the
Government^exeept Cape York
region
ERIOR is entirely covered
to W.OUOf
d its, 924 feet; Peary,
than a,ooo feet.
A MAP RECORD OF REAR ADMIRAL PEARY'S 2O YEARS OF POLAR EXPLORATION,
FINALLY CROWNED WITH SUCCESS APRIL 6, IQCX)
298
2Q9
300
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary
AN ESKIMO SEXTET ON THE MAIN DECK OF PEARY'S ARCTIC SHIP "ROOSEVELT"
"Let there be no doubt as to Peary's popularity in the Far North. Absolutely square
and honest in all his dealings with these black-haired children of the Arctic, firm but ever just
and kind in all his relations, he remains to them as the great 'Nalegak,' a leader or chief
among men" (see text, page 305).
With the ever-repeated "FJuk! Huk!"
and the snapping of whips, men, dogs,
and sledges were swallowed up in the
rough sea ice. And again silence reigned
along the shore, along the face of the
cliff, and in and about the deserted snow
village.
PEARY WITHIN 174 MILES OF HIS GOAL
All went well for a few days, which is
but a friendly ruse of the Arctic to in-
spire confidence, and then it happened —
a six-day blizzard, obliterating the trail,
smashing up the ice of the Polar Sea,
scattering and destroying caches of food,
and driving all natives, white men, and
dogs 60 miles to the east (see map, p. 297) .
One by one the various divisions strug-
gled shoreward ; but Peary and his men,
although knowing that no relief could be
expected from the rear, that all food sup-
plies were gone, deliberately turned their
backs toward home and their faces to-
ward their objective point and plodded
on until they stood at the world's record
of "Farthest North," 174 miles from the
Pole.
Weeks later that tired little band
climbed feebly up over the ice foot on
the northern coast of Greenland, burned
their last sledge for fuel, ate one of three
dogs, and began their long walk back to
the ship, frozen in the ice at Cape Sher-
idan. Within two weeks this indomita-
ble man was heading west along the
northern shores of Grant Land, in a
thousand-mile trip to the northern shores
of Axel Heiberg Island !
Such a journey immediately following
such an experience in the Polar Sea was
so improbable and apparently impossible
so late in the year that many were in-
clined to doubt Peary's claim to have
reached that distant point. Our finding
of his record there in 1914* removes all
doubt as to his achievement.
* See the records of the Donald B. MacMillan
Arctic Expedition, 1913-1917.
PEARY AS A LEADER
301
Photograph from Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary
PEARY'S ARCTIC SHIP "ROOSEVELT" ICE-BOUND IN ROBESON CHANNEL
The Roosevelt was 184 feet long, 35.5 /feet broad, 16.2 feet deep, with a gross registered
tonnage of 614 tons. The frames of the hull were of oak; the planking was double, yellow
pine inside and oak outside. Its engines developed 1,000 horse-power, driving a single eleven-
foot propeller. In addition, it carried 14 sails, with a sail area somewhat less than that of a
three-masted coasting schooner of the same size.
In 1906 Peary arrived in America, re-
porting that he had failed to reach the
Pole, but declaring that he would make
another and last attempt.
NO MISUNDERSTANDING ON THE PART OF
PEARY'S ASSOCIATES
What young man with red blood
wouldn't follow such a man and spend
every ounce of his energy to help place
him at the goal of his ambition? Not
one who signed his contract in the old
Grand Union Hotel in New York ex-
pected to go to the Pole ; not a man went
north for that purpose. Each wanted to
do his little and that little his best to
place Peary there. Such was our admi-
ration for this great explorer. I write
this in answer to the oft-repeated state-
ment that Peary's men were very much
disappointed in not being permitted to
accompany their commander to his last
camp.
We entered upon this enterprise with
no misunderstanding. We knew what
we were facing, for we had followed him
in our reading for years. We knew that
this was probably his last attempt, and
that he might go beyond the limit of
safety, but, if so, then we all wanted to
be with him and were eager for the start.
As we steamed along the Labrador
coast and out into the ice of Baffin Bay,
we began to know our commander and
were drawn strangely toward the man
whom we recognized as one thoroughly
versed in ice technique — a master of his
profession. We often recalled the part-
ing words of President Roosevelt at
Oyster Bay: "Peary, I believe in you,
and if it is possible for man to get there.
I know you'll do it !"
We all had this same faith in the man,
and now that we saw him in action, that
faith was even strengthened.
Decks were cleared for our battle in
J=J5
302
303
304
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE; ONLY MAN BESIDES ADMIRAL PEARY AND FOUR ESKIMOS WHO STOOD AT THE
TOP OF THE WORLD
Matthew Henson, the expert colored assistant, had been with Peary since his second
expedition to Nicaragua, in 1887, and on all his Arctic expeditions except the first, in 1886.
The leader considered him the best dog-driver living, except some of the best of the Eskimo
hunters themselves (see page 310).
PEARY AS A LEADER
805
Melville Bay. Holds were carefully re-
stored; necessary food and equipment
made readily accessible ; boats supplied
with provisions, rifles, and ammunition
for a retreat following a possible loss of
our ship, and all without a single order
from the man who has been called tyrant
and martinet. To us, his assistants, it
was always : "I would like to have you
do this"; "Some time today"; "Tomor-
row will do," etc. We were amazed, for
we did not expect such consideration.
Kindness toward his men was apparent
at every stage of our voyage.
Borup was summoned to Peary's cabin
from the after hold, where he was mis-
erably seasick but pluckily sticking to his
job of packing away skins, with now and
then a dash to the rail. He returned an
hour later, enthusiastic over his visit and
over the kindness shown him by the
leader of the expedition.
PEARY REVERED BY THE ESKIMOS
Those happy days of wending our way
northward in and out between floes and
icebergs passed all too quickly. Finally
that day arrived when we passed in under
the big hills of Meteorite Island and
heard the glad cry of those Far North
natives upon beholding "Peary-ark-suah"
(Big Peary) back again.
Let there be no doubt as to Peary's
popularity in the Far North. Absolutely
honest and square in all his dealings with
these black-haired children of the Arctic,
firm but ever just and kind in all his re-
lations, he remains to them as the great
"Nalegak," a leader or chief among men.
We can never forget this reception at
Cape York — kayaks darting about the
ship, the shouts of his former dog drivers,
men who had starved with him on the
Polar Sea, others on the shore standing
at the water's edge ready to grasp the
bow of our boat, women laughing, babies
crying, and half-grown children with that
look of mingled fear and animal curiosity.
How happy they were to see him back
and how eagerly and how impatiently
they awaited the word to pack their
world's goods and transfer all to the deck
of the Roosevelt for the long voyage
northward.
And so it was at every village ; the best
men in the whole tribe awaited his call —
a fact not without significance, in view
of oft-repeated statements that Peary was
unkind to his native help.
INTO THE HEAVY ICE
Some three weeks later, with decks al-
most awash and black and fuzzy with
dogs and Eskimos, the saucy - looking
Roosevelt swung around Sunrise Point
and into the heavy ice of Smith Sound,
her destination the northern shores of
Grant Land, far up at the edge of the
Polar Sea.
Behind us, upon the shores of Foulke
Fiord, was a reserve of coal and food, to
which Peary and his men could retreat
if their ship was crushed. Such wise
precaution was the result of his years of
labor in the North and his repeated fail-
ures.
The successful negotiation of this last
dangerous stretch Peary considered as
the crucial link in the long chain of suc-
cess. That no opportunity for advance
should be lost was very evident from his
almost constant vigil on the bridge, in the
main rigging, or in the crow's nest.
Bartlett and Commander were a per-
fect team ; the former young, intensely
energetic, courageous ; the latter experi-
enced, cautious, of excellent judgment,
constantly advising and holding his cap-
tain in check.
No braver man ever trod the quarter-
deck than Bartlett. I sometimes think
that Bob would rather lose his ship for
the pure love of the fight southward in
the drift-ice or in open boats than sail
into port with his charge staunch, trim,
and unscarred.
FARTHER NORTHWARD THAN ANY OTHER
SHIP EVER STEAMED
Together they drove their ship farther
northward than any other ship ever
steamed. Boats were ready for immedi-
ate launching ; food lined the rail ; emer-
gency bags were packed.
Once in our winter quarters, Peary
again displayed his qualities of leadership
by removing from the ship everything
absolutely needed for the attainment of
the Pole and the retreat southward, if the
vessel should be crushed, carried away by
the ice, or burned.
In spite of the loss of the Roosevelt,
306
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
THE WINTER HOME OF THE SMITH SOUND NATIVE, THE ROCK IGLOO
The sides ar4 banked with sod, the roof is covered with grass and the summer tent, and
lastly with snow, making a very comfortable habitation. Access is gained by a tunnel,
some twelve feet in length, which leads to a hole in the floor. The window, which has the
appearance of a large striped flag hung against the rocks, is made of the intestines of the
seal or walrus. It is translucent, not transparent.
the work would have been carried out as
planned. Even houses were built to shel-
ter the large contingent of seventy-five
men, women, and children.
MEN CONSTANTLY ON THE MOVE
THROUGHOUT THE WINTER
With the Arctic night now coming on,
the problem presented itself of how to
preserve the health and happiness and
good spirits until the time of our depar-
ture out over the ice of the Polar Sea,
five months later.
At this stage of the battle many a
leader has failed because he has not ap-
preciated the full value of work, and nec-
essarily out-of-door work, as shown by
oft-repeated statement in books on the
Arctic, such as : "No work can be done
during the darkness of the Arctic win-
PEARY AS A LEADER
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
ESKIMO WOMEN AT ETAH CHEWING SKINS
The one on the left is chewing sealskin out of which she will make a pair of mittens.
The one on the right is chewing a boot sole in order that she may pass the needle through
it more readily and that it may be more comfortable to the foot.
ter" ; "It is positively suicide to sledge
during the winter," etc.
Peary laughed at such ideas. His men
were away with crack of whip and
laughter and enthusiasm almost as soon
as our keel touched bottom at the edge
of the Polar Sea, and they continued to
come and go throughout the year, far
into the interior of Grant Land, in quest
of musk-oxen, caribou, and Arctic hare ;
for Peary, who never had a single case
of scurvy on any of his expeditions,
fully appreciated the value of fresh meat
as an antiscorbutic.
Fresh vegetables, acids, and fruits are
not necessary. This fact we have known
for at least a half century, having ac-
quired it from the experience of the
American whaling captains when winter-
ing on the shores of Baffin Land and
Hudson Bay. Scurvy-stricken patients
were always dispatched by them immedi-
ately to the igloos of the Eskimos, there
to be restored to health by consuming
raw frozen meat.
These excursions were not merely J:o
keep us in good health and contentment ;
every move was directe'd toward the suc-
cess of the expedition, geographically
and scientifically. There were no schools
between decks for the men, as in olden
days ; no weeks of preparation for farce
or drama ; no weekly or monthly periodi-
cal published ; no roped promenade from
berg to berg; no long hours in bed be-
tween meals.
We were either away with our dog
teams among the mountains of Grant
Land hunting reindeer, musk-oxen, or
Arctic hare or were one hundred miles
up or down the coast, living in snow
houses, engaged in taking tidal observa-
tions, or at the ship working upon our
equipment for the Polar dash.
If one word was written large upon
the face of every man and upon the
walls of every little stateroom in the
steamship Roosevelt, it was the word
enthusiasm, which may be translated into
good leadership ; for we felt our strength
308
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Donald B. MacMUlan
AL-NING-WA, AGED TWENTY-TWO, WIFE OE ARKUO, A DOG-
DRIVER OE THE MAC MILLAN EXPEDITION,
DRESSED IN BLUE-EOX SKINS
and our knowledge in Arctic matters in-
creasing day by day and beheld an equip-
ment being perfected which we knew
must win.
Certain items were so far superior to
anything yet devised for Arctic work
that their value, even to a novice, was
obvious. Such were perfected by Peary
following years of repeated struggle.
PEARY DEVISED A NEW ARCTIC STOVE
Do not forget the great word experi-
ence. As an illustration, previous to the
1908 trip the most satisfactory stove for
Arctic sledge-work was the so-called
Primus, which con-
verts cracked ice at
60 below zero into a
gallon of tea in about
20 minutes. Peary
reasoned that the
more rapid his stove,
the more sleep for
his men at the end of
the long march. He
thereupon devised a
stove which is so eco-
nomical in fuel con-
sumption and so quick
in its action that many
are almost inclined to
doubt the fact that
we had our gallon of
tea in nine minutes
from the time that the
match was applied.
Our clothing, that
of the Smith Sound
Eskimo, could not be
improved upon. Our
food was amply suffi-
cient for the mainte-
nance of health and
strength. Our sledges
were modeled by
Peary for the rough
ice of the Polar Sea
and skillfully fash-
ioned by our master
mechanic, Matt Hen-
son. Our equipment
was without a doubt
the most nearly per-
fect yet devised for
Polar work.
Peary's plan for advance and attack
upon the Pole, based upon his experience
and failure in 1906, was unique and a
large factor in his final success.
From the time when one leaves the
northern shores of Grant Land or Green-
land, one must depend wholly upon the
food on the sledges for sustenance of
men and dogs. An occasional bear or
seal might be secured, but such would
be the exception, as proved by the ex-
perience of Nansen, Sverdrup, Captain
Cagni, Peary, and every man who has
been north of 84°.
To feed Peary and his men until he
PEARY AS A LEADKR
309
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
SHOO-E-GING-WA, A UTTLE ESKIMO GIRL OF ETAH, AGED SEVEN
The Eskimo puppy-dogs are the common playthings of the Smith Sound children.
was within striking distance of the Pole
and selfsupporting for the five hundred
miles of the return trip was the work
assigned to the so-called supporting par-
ties under the command of Henson, Bart-
lett. Marvin, Borup, Goodsell, and my-
self.
Every five days a white man and his
Eskimos were to return to land with an
amount of food equal to one-half con-
sumed in the outward trip, with orders
to double march, and if held up by open
water to eat the dogs. The work of this
division was done ; it was no longer
needed in a task where one's life might
depend upon ounces, not pounds ; where
every additional particle of food is a
synonym for miles of travel, and where
the last ounce might mean the last mile
and success in one's life-work.
AN INSTANCE OF HEROIC SACRIFICE
In general, the American people have
minimized the dangers of travel on the
Polar Sea and have overestimated the
narrow margin of safety of even a small
party five hundred miles from land.
The presence of one man not absolutely
needed in the work endangers the lives
of all, for that man must be fed and must
receive an equal amount of the last bite.
Do you remember the brave Gates, of
310
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
AK-KOM-MO-DING-WA EATING MEAT IN THE USUAI, MANNER OF THE SMITH
SOUND NATIVE
There are no plates and no forks ; consequently the meat is grasped in the hand, shoved into
the mouth, and cut off at the lips.
the Scott starvation party, who, realizing
that his presence meant the loss of all,
calmly remarked to his commander, "I
am going out for a little while; I may.
not come back" ?
With the dropping of the tent flap and
the disappearing of that stumbling frost-
bitten form into the swirling snows of
the Antarctic ice-cap, there ended the
most pathetic and the most heart-stirring
scene ever enacted upon the stage of
Polar work. All honor to such a hero !
Every white man realized what the
success of this trip meant to Peary, and
each man knew that the sooner he re-
turned to land after he had finished his
work, the better the chances of Peary
reaching his goal.
When we heard the words, "You are
to go back tomorrow," let me emphasize
the fact that every man did so cheerfully
and willingly, knowing that it was for the
best interests of the expedition. No man
expected to go at the start and no man
complained at the finish.
Peary owed it to himself, to his friends,
to his country, to rid himself of all en-
cumbrances, of all superfluous material,
and strip for action. It was his fight
now, not ours ; ours only just as long as
we were needed.
And the negro ? He was indispensable
to Peary and of more real value than the
combined services of all four white men.
With years of experience equal to that
of Peary himself, an expert dog-driver.
PEARY AS A LEADER
31.1
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
E-TOOKA-SHOO FINDING, AT CAPE ISABELLA, IN APRIL, IQI/, THE MAIL LEFT BY
SIR ALLEN YOUNG, OF THE "PANDORA," FOR THE BRITISH
NORTH POLE EXPEDITION OF
The packet contained two letters for Captain Nares, of the Alert, and one letter for Captain
Stephenson, of the Discovery.
a master mechanic, physically strong,
most popular with the Eskimos, talking
the language like a native, clean full of
grit, he went to the Pole with Peary be-
cause he was easily the most efficient of
all Peary's assistants (see page 304).
UNREASONABLE DOUBT CAUSED BY PEARY'S
SPEED
Weeks later the little band of six re-
turned, clearly revealing the terrible
strain and anxiety during that rapid
dash to land over ice fields which threat-
ened to be rent asunder by the high tides
of the approaching full moon. In fact,
the work was too well done, as many a
doubt as to Peary's achievement was
based upon the time of his return.
During the days of that most unfortu-
nate controversy enough consideration
was not given by the public to the fol-
lowing all-important facts:
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First. Peary's supporting par-
ties placed him at nearly the 88th
parallel.
Second. The observations at this
point were taken and signed by
Captain Bartlett, of the Roosevelt.
Third. From this point on Peary
had five well-provisioned sledges,
five of the best men of 25, 48 o'f
the best dogs of 250, and only 120
miles to go.
Fourth. The trail to land was
well marked and broken ends knit
together by the retreat of the vari-
ous divisions.
Fifth. All expeditions for a
half century have double-marched
and even triple-marched on the
return trip.
How often have I heard the as-
se"rtion that Peary told none of his
men that he had reached the Pole
until he learned of Dr. Cook's
attainment ! Far up on the north-
ern shores of Grant Land, at the
edge of the Polar Sea, there stands
a cairn, Peary's announcement of
the attainment of his life's work,
built there twelve weeks before we
reached civilization. He did not
forget his men. The names not
only of his assistants, but of every
man on board the Roosevelt, are
written there and placed under
glass as a protection against the
weather.
PEARY DELAYS NEWS OF HIS
TRIUMPH IN ORDER TO
HELP ESKIMOS
Upon our arrival at Etah, sev-
eral weeks later, Dr. Cook's two
Eskimo dog drivers, E-took-a-
shoo and Ah-pellah, came on
board and told us that in company
with Cook they had been living
down in Jones Sound for nearly
a year, and that at no time had
they been farther north than a
spot which they indicated on the
map close to the northern shores
of Axel Heiberg Land, distant
500 miles from the Pole. -
Naturally eager to steam south-
ward to proclaim to the world the
news of his discovery after so
PEARY AS A LEADER
315
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
THE HEAD OF A BULL WALRUS KILLED AT ETAH, GREENLAND
The Atlantic walrus is not as large as the Pacific, but specimens have been secured in
Smith Sound weighing 3,000 pounds. On a walrus hunt, which is the most dangerous sport
in the Arctic regions, the whale-boats are painted white to resemble pieces of ice, and the
rowlocks are muffled, to enable the hunters to steal upon their quarry without detection.
many years of hardship, yet Peary felt
that his first duty was toward his Eski-
mos, those natives who made it possible
for him to win out. And there we re-
mained, killing walrus and supplying
them with food for the long winter night
to come, while Cook was wearing roses
and being feted by kings and queens.
Peary's attitude upon reaching the
Labrador coast has been grossly misun-
derstood. Not only did he not mention
his rival's name in his first telegrams, but
expressly requested us to refrain from
doing so ; and this in view of the fact that
he knew that an impostor was being pro-
claimed as the real discoverer. He was
not, however, to be permitted to retain
this role of stoic.
3i6
PEARY AS A LEADER
317
We steamed southward from Indian
Harbor, and upon our arrival at Battle
Harbor our Commander was met by a
flood of telegrams from the press and
from various geographical and scientific
societies at home and abroad, all request-
ing that he give them his honest opinion
as to Dr. Cook's achievement.
What should he do?
At this crucial point in his career the
average man believes that Peary failed.
But the average man has not slept with
his back against a sledge at fifty and sixty
degrees below zero, with biting winds
whipping the snow over his body, dead
tired with the day's work ; has not crossed
treacherous black ice on snow-shoes ; has
not staggered back beaten to his little hut,
followed by one shadow — of a dog ; has
not returned to home, family, and friends
year after year with the one word failure
on his lips ; has not in the flush of victory
seen an impostor bowing to the plaudits
of the multitude.
Was his one public telegram in answer
to urgent requests too severe in condem-
nation of one whose claims have since
been discredited by every scientific so-
ciety in the world : "Dr. Cook has handed
the people a gold brick. When he claims
to have discovered the Pole over his own
signature, I shall have something de-
cidedly interesting to say" ?
Peary could have shifted the responsi-
bility for that answer upon Captain Bart-
lett or any of his assistants ; but all who
know Peary know that the thought of
doing so never entered his mind, as he
restlessly paced the floor of his little cabin
in that northern port.
That bitter controversy is dismissed
today with "most unfortunate" !
As we steamed southward on our last
lap with this great explorer, we often
reviewed the year that had gone so
quickly, and our relations with our
leader, all so pleasant.
Ever kind and thoughtful and consid-
erate of his young and inexperienced
men, he treated them as a father would
treat his sons. He helped us lash and
pack our sledges, untangled and repaired
our frozen and knotted traces.
When struggling along far in the rear,
with refractory dogs and heavy loads, an
Eskimo would often be detailed to re-
lieve us of a part of our load and pilot
us safely across an open lead, and if we
arrived with frost-bitten face, it was
often the Commander's warm hand that
brought the blood back to the surface.
SOLICITUDE) FOR HIS ASSOCIATES' WELFARE
ONE OE PEARY'S NOTEWORTHY TRAITS
I well remember falling through the ice
at 59 below zero. With sealskin boots
filled with water and rapidly stiffening
clothes, I arrived at our encampment of
snow houses. He beat the ice from my
bearskin pants, pulled off my boots, and
wiped my feet and legs with the inside of
his warm shirt. And when covered with
blood, a heavy 40-82 bullet having passed
through my arm, into my shoulder, and
out through the back, and clipping the
side of one finger, he remarked : "I would
much rather had that thing happen to me
than to you !"
This does not sound like "martinet" or
"tyrant" or "unkind to-; his men." His
last words to Marvin, lost on the return,
"Be careful of the leads, my boy," is
characteristic of the man.
Is it any wonder, then, that we as as-
sistants, when we heard the blowing of
the whistles of Sydney, N. S. ; beheld the
line of craft circling out to escort us into
the harbor; saw waving flags and docks
black with people, should be almost sorry
that he had won out ?
We knew that never again would we
have the honor and the pleasure of serv-
ing under such a leader.
Photograph by Charles Martin
PEARY, STEFANSSON, AND GREELY, A TRIUMVIRATE IN POLAR EXPLORATION
ACHIEVEMENT
This photograph, made at the Washington headquarters of the National Geographic
Society in January, 1919, was the last taken of Rear-Admiral Peary, discoverer of the North
Pole, who stands at the left. In the center is Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who had just been
awarded The Society's Hubbard Gold Medal for his work in adding 100,000 square miles to
the mapped Polar regions of the Western Hemisphere. At the right is Major-General A. W.
Greely, leader of the Greely International Polar Expedition of i88i-'84.
BY GILBERT GROSVENOR
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
THE struggle for the North Pole
began nearly one hundred years
before the landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers at Plymouth Rock, being inaugu-
rated (1527) by that king of many dis-
tinctions, Henry VIII of England.
Scores of hardy navigators — British,
French, Dutch, German, Scandinavian,
and Russian — followed Davis, all seek-
ing to hew across the Pole the much-
coveted short route to China and the In-
dies. The rivalry was keen and costly in
lives, ships, and treasures; but from the
time of Henry VIII for three and one-
haW centuries, or until 1882 (with the
exception of 1594-1606, when, through
"William Barents, the Dutch held the rec-
ord). Great Britain's flag was always
waving nearest the top of the globe.*
Immense treasures of money and lives
were expended by the nations to explore
the northern ice world and to attain the
apex of the earth ; but all efforts to reach
the Pole had failed, notwithstanding the
unlimited sacrifice of gold and energy
and blood which had been poured out
without stint for nearly four centuries.
PEARY'S INTEREST IN THE ARCTIC
AWAKENED IN l886
A brief summer excursion to Green-
land in 1886 aroused Robert E. Peary, a
civil engineer in the United States Navy,
to an interest in the Polar problem.
Peary a few years previously had been
graduated from Bowdoin College second
in his class — a position which means un-
usual mental vigor in an institution which
is noted for the fine scholarship and in-
tellect of its alumni. He realized at once
that the goal which had eluded so many
hundreds of ambitious and dauntless men
could be won only by a new method of
attack.
The first Arctic problem with which
Peary grappled was considered at that
* In 1882 Lockwood and Brainard, of Greely's
expedition, won the record of Farthest North
for the United States, and we held it until
Nansen's feat of 1896.
time in importance second only to the
conquest of the Pole, namely, to deter-
mine the insularity of Greenland and the
extent of its projection northward. At
the very beginning of his first expedition
to Greenland, in 1891, he suffered an ac-
cident which sorely taxed his patience as
well as his body, and which is mentioned
here as it illustrates the grit and stamina
of his moral and physical make-up.
As his ship, the Kite, was working its
way through the ice fields off the Green-
land shore, a cake of ice became wedged
in the rudder, causing the wheel to re-
verse. One of the spokes jammed Peary's
leg against the casement, making it im-
possible to extricate himself until both
bones of the leg were broken.
The party urged him to return to the
United States for the winter and to re-
sume his exploration the following year ;
but Peary insisted on being landed, as
originally planned, at McCormick Bay,
stating that the money of his friends had
been invested in the project, and that he
must "make good" to them.
The assiduous nursing of Mrs. Peary,
aided by the bracing air, so speedily re-
stored his strength that at the ensuing
Christmas festivities which were ar-
ranged for the Eskimos he outraced on
snowshoes all the natives and his own
men!
HE ASCENDS THE GREENLAND ICE-CAP
In the following May, with one com-
panion, Astrup, he ascended to the sum-
mit of the great ice-cap which covers the
interior of Greenland, 5,000 to 8,000 feet
in elevation, and pushed northward for
500 miles over a region where the foot
of man had never trod before, in tem-
peratures ranging from 10 degrees to 50
degrees below zero. Imagine his sur-
prise on descending from the table-land
to enter a little valley radiant with gor-
geous flowers and alive with murmur-
ing bees, where musk-oxen were lazily
browsing.
This sledding journey, which he dupli-
319
320
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
© Harris and Ewing
THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE GREETING THE DISCOVERER OE THE SOUTH
POLE AT A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY BANQUET
It was upon this occasion that Rear-Admiral Peary, on behalf of The Society, presented-
to Captain Roald Amundsen a special gold medal for his Antarctic achievement resulting in
the attainment of the South Pole. Mrs. Peary at extreme left, Ambassador James Bryce at
right of Peary, and Ambassador Jusserand at extreme right.
cated by another equally remarkable,
crossing of the ice-cap, three years later,
defined the northern extension of Green-
land and conclusively proved that it is an
island instead of a continent extending
to the Pole. In boldness of conception
and brilliancy of results, these two cross-
ings of Greenland are unsurpassed in
Arctic history. The magnitude of Peary's
feat is better appreciated when it is re-
called that Nansen's historic crossing of
the island was below the Arctic Circle,
1,000 miles south of Peary's latitude,
where Greenland is some 250 miles wide.
HE TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO THE POLE
Peary now turned his attention to the
Pole, which lay 396 geographical miles
farther north than any man had pene-
trated on the Western Hemisphere. To
get there by the American route he must
break a virgin trail every mile north from
Greely's 83° 24'. No one had pioneered
so great a distance northward. Mark-
ham and others had attained enduring
fame by advancing the flag considerably
less than 100 miles, Parry had pioneered
150 miles, and Nansen 128 from his ship.
His experiences in Greenland had con-
vinced Peary, if possible more firmly than
before, that the only way of surmounting
this last and most formidable barrier was
to adopt the manner of life, the food, the
snow houses, and the clothing of the
Eskimos, who by centuries of experience
had learned the most effective method of
combating the rigors of Arctic weather;
to utilize the game of the Northland, the
PEARY'S EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH
321
Arctic reindeer, musk-ox, etc., which his
explorations had proved comparatively
abundant, thus with fresh meat keeping
his men fit and good-tempered through
the depressing winter night ; and, lastly,
to train the Eskimo to become his sledg-
ing crew.
In his first North Polar expedition,
which lasted for four years, 1898-1902,
Peary failed to get nearer than 343 miles
to the Pole. Each successive year dense
packs of ice blocked the passage to the
Polar Ocean, compelling him to make his
base approximately 700 miles from the
Pole, or 200 miles south of the head-
quarters of Nares, too great a distance
from the goal to be overcome in one
short season. During this trying period,
by sledging feats which in distance and
physical obstacles overcome exceeded
the extraordinary records made in Green-
land, he explored and mapped thousands
of miles of coast line of Greenland and
of the islands west and north of Green-
land.
PEARY LED HUNDREDS INTO THE ARCTIC
WITH ONLY TWO TRAGIC ACCIDENTS
On the next attempt Peary insured
reaching the Polar Ocean by designing
and constructing the Roosevelt, whose
resistless frame crushed its way to the
desired haven on the shores of the Polar
sea. From here he made that wonderful
march of 1906 to 87° 6', a new world's
record. Winds of unusual fury, by open-
ing big leads, robbed him of the Pole and
nearly of his life.
The last Peary expedition, 1908-1909,
resulted in the discovery of the Pole and
of the deep ocean surrounding it. The
396 miles from Greely's farthest had
been vanquished as follows: 1900. 30
miles; 1902, 23 miles; 1906, 169 miles;
1909, 174 miles.
No better proof of the minute care
with which every campaign was prear-
ranged can be given than the fact that,
though Peary has taken hundreds of men
north with him on his various expedi-
tions, he has brought them all back, and
in good health, with the exception of
two, who lost their lives in accidents for
which the leader was in no wise respon-
sible. What a contrast this record is to
the long list of fatalities from disease,
ADMIRAL PEARY'S PHOTOGRAPH o£ THE
NORTH POLE
The northern axis of the globe is in the midst
of a vast Polar Sea, and the mound of the
photograph is a mere mass of snow and ice
utilized by Peary as a pinnacle for the Amer-
ican flag which floats at the top. On his re-
turn journey, five miles from the Pole, the ex-
plorer came upon a narrow crack in the ice,
through which he attempted a sounding. The
length of his apparatus was 9,000 feet, but the
lead did not strike bottom. So, the depth of
the sea at the Pole is still undetermined.
frost, shipwreck, and starvation which in
the popular mind has made the word
arctic synonymous Avith tragedy and
death.
THE PRIZE OE FOUR CENTURIES IS HIS
REWARD
Thus Robert E. Peary crowned a life
devoted to the exploration of the icy
North and to the advancement of science
by the hard-won discovery of the North
Pole. The prize of four centuries of
striving yielded at last to the most per-
sistent and scientific attack ever waged
against it. Peary's success was made
possible by long experience, which gave
him a thorough knowledge of the diffi-
culties to be overcome, and by an un-
usual combination of mental and phy-
322
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
sical power — a resourcefulness which en-
abled him to find a way to surmount all
obstacles, a tenacity and courage which
knew no defeat, and a physical endow-
ment such as Nature gives to few men.
It has been well said that the glory of
Peary's achievement belongs to the world
and is shared by all mankind. But we,
his fellow-countrymen, who have known
how he struggled those many years
against discouragement and scoffing and
how he persevered under financial bur-
dens that would have crushed less stal-
wart shoulders, especially rejoice that he
"made good at last," and that an Ameri-
can has become the peer of Hudson,
Magellan, and Columbus.*
PEARY'S ASSOCIATION WITH THE NA-
TIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Peary's first address to the National
Geographic Society was in the fall of
1888, when The Society was only a few
months old. He then described an ex-
pedition which he had led across Nica-
ragua. He was actively associated with
its. work ever since those early days,
and on his return from each of his ex-
peditions to the Far North, his first pub-
lic address was to the National Geo-
graphic Society. His last public -appear-
ance was on the platform of the National
Geographic Society when in January,
1919, he introduced Stefansson, who had
just returned from the Canadian North.
It was at a National Geographic So-
ciety meeting in 1907 that he was pre-
sented the Hubbard Gold Medal of The
Society by President Roosevelt, and in
1909 a Special Gold Medal for his dis-
covery of the North Pole, and later he
became a member of its Board of Man-
agers.
It was my privilege to know Admiral
Peary intimately for twenty years, and
I find it difficult to express my admira-
tion and affection for his personal quali-
ties, the bigness of his heart and per-
sonality, his loyal devotion to his friends,
his generous enthusiasm at real 'accom-
plishment by others in any field, his
rugged integrity, and his love for every-
thing American.
As long as the National Geographic
Society lives, its members can take pride
in the fact that the organization did its
utmost to help Peary "nail the Stars and
Stripes to the Pole."
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
A Feathered Rogue Who Has Many Fascinating Traits
and Many Admirable Qualities Despite
His Marauding Propensities
BY E.R. KALMBACH
ASSISTANT BIOLOGIST, U. S. BIOLOGICAL SURVEY
OUR American crows, with all
their thousands, comprise but a
small contingent of the corvine
hordes that are to be found in one form
or another in almost every inhabitable
land. Crows are present throughout a
large part of the North American Conti-
nent, the tundras of Siberia, in the thickly
settled valleys of central Europe, along
the shores of the Mediterranean, in Af-
rica, India, China, Japan, throughout
many of the islands of the Eastern archi-
pelagoes, as well as on that biologically
unique continent of Australia.
South America alone seems to be de-
void of representatives of that group of
birds classified as crows and ravens.
It is true this host is composed of a
great number of different species, mainly
black fellows, and frequently with repu-
tations appropriately associated with such
a garb ; but, with all its species, this group
of birds is a wonderfully distinct one.
These royal rogues, like clannish races
* The preceding paragraphs are extracted from a brief history of North Polar explorations
written by Gilbert Grosvenor for the Foreword of Admiral Peary's book, "The North Pole"
(F. A. Stokes Company).
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY I. A. XI)
328
or certain religious sects, have to a re-
markable degree preserved their odd
mannerisms through many ages. Their
bold sagacity and. above all, their ability
to eke out a living in environments that
Nature seems to have neglected have
stood them in good stead in their strug-
gle for existence. Be it a raven, or jack-
daw, chough, rook, or crow, its corvine
attributes are at once recognizable.
Each of the species has peculiarities all
its own, but the characteristics that are
common to all, the family marks of rec-
ognition, are the ones that readily appeal
to any one, and have resulted in the crows
and ravens holding a distinctive place in
bird lore.
A SUBJECT FOR POETS, FABULISTS, AND
MEN OF SCIENCE
Probably more has been written of
crows and ravens than any other group of
birds. From ancient myth and fable to the
poetry and prose of modern times, litera-
ture is replete with allusions to them.
In this article the author will endeavor
to present, in a way understandable to all,
some of the principal findings of his in-
vestigation of the food habits of our
crows, the full results of which were pub-
lished as Department Bulletin 621 of the
U. S. Department of Agriculture — "The
Crow and its Relation to Alan."
The preparation of this bulletin en-
tailed the examination of the stomachs of
more than 2,100 crows from all parts of
the bird's range, supplemented by field
observations of many able ornithologists
and practical farmers. A period of about
five years, with some interruptions, was
consumed in stomach examinations alone,
using the best of laboratory equipment,
including extensive collections of insects,
crustaceans, mollusks, vertebrates, seeds,
and other possible food items for com-
parison, and with the collaboration of
specialists in the different groups.
Future days may bring about changes
in the relative abundance of crows, in the
character of crops raised, or even in the
feeding habits of the birds themselves,
but while present conditions prevail the
results of this investigation must be
looked upon as authentic (see page 331).
To most people a crow is a crow, and
few realize that within the borders of the
United States there are no less than nine
different forms of corvine birds. Three
of these are ravens and six are crows.
At least four of the six recognized
forms of crows present in the United
States are simply geographical races of
the one species, the common crow, differ-
ing chiefly in the dimensions of the wing,
tail, and bill, and in any treatment of the
subject outside of the naturalist's cloister
may well be considered as one. In food
habits, and hence in economic signifi-
cance, the members of these four races
are as much alike as the varying food in
their respective ranges permits. Another
form, inhabiting the coastal region from
Puget Sound to Alaska, is by some au-
thorities also considered a geographic
race, but in food habits this bird, the
northwest crow, is quite distinctive.
The combined breeding ranges of these
five races give a distribution to the com-
mon crow that extends to the North
nearly to the Arctic Circle, throughout
northern Manitoba, Ontario, central Que-
bec, and eastward into Newfoundland.
It is found all along our Atlantic sea-
board, well down into the peninsula of
Florida, and throughout the Mississippi
Valley, south to the Gulf coast. In the
West crows are found locally in Califor-
nia and abundantly in Washington and
Oregon — in diminishing numbers north
to Alaska. Throughout the Rocky Moun-
tain area and the arid regions of the
Southwest they are not common.
In addition to the widely distributed
common crow, there is one other form,
quite distinct from it in food habits and
economic influence, the fish-crow of the
South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. While
something is known of the food prefer-
ences of this odd maritime species, a full
appreciation of its economic influence is
dependent on more extensive laboratory
and field work.
CROWS ARE MODEL PARENTS
The home life of crows is very orderly
and need hardly be mentioned. As par-
ents, they are models in the avian world.
The nest, which is well concealed from
below during the breeding season, is
placed at heights varying from 20 to 60
feet. Here are laid from three to seven
eggs, which in our Southern States may
324
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by William L,. Finley and H. T. Bohlman
THE THEME OF POETS, FABULISTS, AND ME,N OF SCIENCE
The crow is equally at home throughout the continent of North America, in the tundras
of Siberia, along the shores of the Mediterranean, in Africa, India, China, Japan, and on
many of the islands of the Eastern archipelagoes. South America alone knows him not.
be found as early as the end of February.
Young crows may be found from the
middle of March, in the South, to as late
as July along our northern border.
The voracious young remain in the nest
for about three weeks, and even after
they learn to fly are fed to some extent
by their parents. Throughout July and
August crows may be found in family
parties or in small flocks, living comfort-
ably on a commendable diet into which
enters a variety of insects, though the
annual crop of grain furnishes a portion
of the subsistence.
MIGRATION BEGINS IN SEPTEMBER
By September, however, begins the fall
migration, and associated with it the es-
tablishing of crow roosts, by all odds the
most interesting phenomena connected
with these birds.
From September to March of each year
the migratory habits of these birds bring
together in two comparatively small areas
the bulk of the crow population of North
America. One of these nuclei is located
east of the Alleghanies, with its center in
the lower Delaware Valley; the other
centers about the junction of the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers. The western con-
centration, however, covers a much larger
area, and roosts of enormous size may be
found as far south as Oklahoma.
In the Far West there is also a con-
densation of the crow population in the
winter months, particularly along the
Columbia River and near the coast, but
the number of birds involved is in no
way comparable to the mammoth gath-
erings farther east.
While these clannish birds may be
noted gathering in colonies of as many
as several hundred in northern localities
in August and September, it is not until
about the first of October that the large
conclaves in the latitude of Washington,
D. C., begin to take on the aspect of their
winter popularity. There is considerable
fluctuation in numbers from day to day,
and in periods of mild weather a roost
previously established may wholly dis-
appear.
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
325
Photograph by William L,. Finley and H. T. Bohlman
A MOTHER CROW AT THE NEST EDGE
The nestling crow is one of the most voracious members of the animal kingdom. Most
of its "growing pains" are in its stomach, and one baby bird consumes from eight to ten
ounces of food every day (see chart, page 335 ).
In late January these nightly congre-
gations reach their greatest size, and by
the first of March the birds are well on
the northward journey to their breeding
grounds.
REMARKABLE CROW CITIES IN WINTER
Words fail to describe adequately to
one who has never witnessed it the
nightly gathering at a large winter roost
of crows. I consider such congregations
the most remarkable ornithological phe-
nomena that in this day and age can still
be witnessed in the thickly settled sec-
tions of our country (see page 328).
And, strange to relate, an extremely
small part of the populace realizes the
significance of those seemingly endless
streams of black forms passing twice
daily to and from the roosts, sometimes
directly over thickly settled metropolitan
sections. Fewer still have any conception
of the countless thousands that gather
at the hub of the converging streams.
Mention of the numbers estimated at
several of the better-known roosts may
give some impression of the immensity
of these conclaves.
One of the most notable roosts was that
formerly located at Arlington, Va., where
at the height of its occupancy from 150,-
ooo to 200,000 crows gathered nightly.
The so-called "Arbutus" roost, near
Baltimore, Md., contained in 1888 about
200,000 birds. At about the same time
one or more roosts in the vicinity of St.
Louis, Mo., harbored from 70,000 to
90,000 crows, and the one at Peru, Nebr.,
had from 100,000 to 200,000. Other
roosts in which it was estimated the in-
dividuals aggregated more than 100,000
were formerly located at Hainesport,
Merchantville, Bridgeboro, and Center-
ton, N. J., and on Reedy Island, in the
Delaware River.
Some of these roosts, or their suc-
cessors near by, still shelter many thou-
sands of birds, although I am inclined to
believe that in the East the crow roosts
are becoming smaller. But the total num-
326
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Crow roosts are
usually located in
sparsely settled sec-
tions, but with the
constant encroach-
ment of man on virgin
tracts the bird has
found it increasingly
difficult to find its
former seclusion.
Even in face of this,
the crow maintains its
interesting roosting
habit, with the result
that now we may wit-
ness this phenomenon
in places readily ac-
cessible.
FAMOUS CROW COLO-
NIES NEAR WASH-
INGTON
In the winter of
1912-1913 several
thousand crows es-
tablished a roost
northwest of Wash-
ington within a few
hundred feet of the
Connecticut Avenue
Boulevard, where trol-
ley cars and automo-
biles passed every few
minutes throughout
the night.
The former location
of the Woodridge
ber of these birds appears to be about roost, northeast of the National Capital,
the same. In the winter of 1910-1911 a was in a small strip of Virginia pines
roost near Woodridge, D. C., which ap- near the station of Rives, on the Balti-
pears to have been the successor to the more and Ohio Railroad. The passing
Arlington roost, was estimated to con- trains caused no end of uproar while the
tain 270,000, while in 1914 only about clans were assembling, but when dark-
Photograph by William L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman
THE DINNER CALL
Grasshoppers, mice, May beetles, mollusks, frogs, caterpillars, and
a score of other crow dainties are required to sate the appetite of
this inordinate young feaster.
30,000 birds could be accounted for.
ness came they paid little attention to
There is evidence that leads one to the noise,
think that in parts of Oklahoma some The present location of the Woodridge
of the roosts have increased materially roost, while in a more secluded place than
within recent years — a situation that may formerly, is still readily accessible and
have been brought about by the increas- forms an important attraction to the bird-
ing acreage of sorghum in that section, lovers of Washington. Just south of the
as this grain serves as an admirable Bladensburg road and at a point about
winter food for these birds. Absolutely one-third of a mile northeast of the
no credence, however, need be given to Pennsylvania Railroad bridge lies a tract
reports, which at times have had wide of woodland that extends in a long nar-
circulation, of roosts totaling "millions row strip to the south.
of birds."
At the southern end there is still much
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
327
of the virgin stand left, but throughout
most of this stretch a more or less muti-
lated second growth furnishes the nightly
abode for many thousands of crows.
Here, thanks to regulations prohibiting
hunting in this part of the District of
Columbia, the birds have found a fair
measure of safety, though at times ad-
venturous boys or thoughtless adults can-
not resist the temptation to shoot up the
roost.
Time will come when the clearing of
this land will drive the birds away, but
until then let us hope the Woodridge
crows may continue unmolested their
wonderful winter performance.
BIRD ASSASSINS RAID THE ROOSTS
At the roosts, where some conclude
crows gather for mutual protection from
enemies, the mortality is often high.
Here the great horned owl wreaks cruel
vengeance for the mobbing it receives at
their hands in daylight hours, and the
gaunt specter of disease at times stalks
through their ranks.
A malady that has been erroneously
termed roup leaves in its wake a certain
toll every winter, and, when it appears in
virulent form, the occupants of large
roosts may be practically exterminated.
This disease, affecting the mucous mem-
branes of the throat and nostrils, also
causes a whitish, translucent film to form
over the eyes. Blindness follows, and I
have seen hapless victims groping along
the branch upon which they stood, ap-
parently in a vain search for food.
Under the rigors of the disease, with
gradual starvation sapping their strength,
and with the relentless elements making
suffering more intense, these unfortu-
nates may succumb by the thousands in
the course of a few weeks (see p. 330).
HOW THE MIGHTY FLOCK ASSEMB'LES
The assemblage of one of these mighty
concourses is a sight that will move even
the least impressionable, and it never
loses its grandeur by repetition. Scores
of times have I watched the gathering
hosts at the Woodridge roost ; but the
sight is no less appealing today than it
was on the occasion when I first observed
it. Essentially the procedure is the same
from day to day, but, like a crackling
Photograph from H. M. Stowe
"A CROWS' ROOST"
As a pet the crow provides endless enter-
tainment and not a little worry, for the bird is
mischievous, ubiquitous, and resourceful,
fire or the battle of the surf, never be-
comes monotonous.
Like a human rabble, these mighty
flocks always seem to have their moods.
There are clear days, with the birds fly-
ing high, when all appear festive bound ;
there are short days with leaden skies,
when sullenness pervades ; and there are
tragic days — days with deep snow and
high winds, when the spirit of grim de-
termination alone brings back to the roost
those that the elements have spared.
The battle for existence in the short
days of January and February is indeed
a cruel one for the crow ; and when I
see it in endless thousands engaged in a
life-and-death struggle against the ele-
ments, starvation, disease, and even man
himself, and it persists in fighting the
battle on the same lines as its ancestors
328
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Official photograph U. S. Biological Survey
ROOSTING CROWS (SEE PAGE 325)
Few sights in the bird world equal in impressiveness the assem-
blage of a large crow roost. This photograph was taken after sun-
down, with an exposure of several minutes, at the Wopdridge roost,
near Washington, D. C. The air was filled with flying birds, but
only those that remained stationary for the greater part of the ex-
posure made a conspicuous photographic impression.
fought centuries before, that black specter
ceases to be a mere bird. It becomes the
embodiment of a courageous spirit, living
true to a cherished tradition. It is then
that I admire the bird.
THE PERSONALITY OF THE CROW
The old adage, that familarity breeds
contempt, has no place in a consideration
of the relation between the crow and
man. Undue familiarity with crops, wild
birds, and poultry on the part of the
crow has resulted in
opinions regarding it
that are far from com-
plimentary ; but I have
never heard any one,
even a confirmed ene-
my of the bird, refer
to it in words of utter
contempt. More inti-
mate acquaintance
may increase antago-
nism, but with it
grows apace a greater
appreciation of the
crow's resourceful-
ness.
Notwithstanding
that in the wild state
it constantly avoids
close association with
man, the crow, when
captured as a nestling,
readily lends itself to
domestication and, as
a pet, reveals many
fascinating traits.
I know of no bird
that will furnish such
an endless variety of
entertainment, and, I
may add, as much
trouble, as a pet crow.
They may be taught
to utter a few words
of articulate speech,
but this is frequently
interspersed with a
choice assortment of
ordinary corvine jar-
gon that at times bor-
ders on the ridiculous.
To perfect a crow in
this respect, continu-
ous association with
the bird and infinite patience are neces-
sary. The splitting of the tongue, so
frequently recommended, adds nothing to
the crow's ability as a linguist.
The intensity of corvine curiosity is
almost feminine, and, if given a few
trinkets, a pet crow will find no end of
amusement.
Above all, crows are notorious thieves
and hoarders, and if permitted the free-
dom of the dooryard will establish numer-
ous caches of treasure.
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
329
I distinctly recall a
friend's pet crow that,
by its confiding na-
ture, had earned an
affectionate place in
the household. The
bird was always in-
terested in garden op-
erations, and when
work was being done
in the flower beds was
sure to be present.
One summer morning
found its mistress
busily engaged in
weeding an aster bed.
The refuse had been
carefully raked into
neat piles between the
rows when a telephone
call took her away for
a moment, and in the
brief absence the crow,
that no doubt had been
paying some attention
to the operations, com-
pleted the job by pull-
ing up the asters and
depositing them in
equally neat piles be-
side the refuse.
Another crow,
whose plant-pulling
proclivities had been
developed almost to
the point of an ob-
session with respect
to a certain potted ge-
ranium, is the subject
of a story once told
by Mr. Robert Ridg-
way, the eminent or-
nithologist. This crow
Official photograph U. S. Biological Survey
THE GAUNT SPECTEJR OF DISEASE AT TIMES STALKS THROUGH
THE RANKS OF CROW ASSEMBLAGES
This disease, affecting the mucous membranes of the throat and
nostrils, also causes a whitish, translucent film to form over the
eyes. Blindness follows ; then these hapless creatures may be seen
groping along the branches of trees, apparently in a vain search for
food (see page 330).
persisted in removing a particular plant,
despite all that Mrs. Ridgway could do
to keep it growing.
On one occasion the bird was observed
busily engaged in grubbing for insects
in the garden. It suddenly ceased its
diligent search, paused for a moment
with its head alert, then proceeded, half
hopping, half flying, through the garden,
the gate, and up the back stairs, di-
rectly to the doomed geranium, which
was straightway pulled up and deposited
neatly beside the pot. This done, the
bird returned to its place in the garden
and continued its methodical search for
grubs.
DOG AND CROW, BOON PLAYMATES
Dr. Ned Dearborn has related an in-
teresting story of a crow and a farmer's
dog that grew up together. The dog en-
joyed chasing sticks and stones, and it
remained for the observant * crow to
evolve a plan for mutual amusement.
The fracas would usually start whenever
the crow found the dog enjoying a noon-
330
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Prof. E. H. Eaton
THE DEATH TOLL OF A SINGLE NIGHT AT A CROW'S ROOST
In December, 1901, the crows of Ontario County, New York, suffered severely from a
malady erroneously termed roup. In the illustration are the bodies of 73 dead crows, photo-
graphed where they fell, in an area about 150 feet in diameter (see page 327).
day snooze. Finding a stick of con-
venient size, the bird would approach the
dog, lay it down within easy reach, and
then give its canine friend a nip or two
on the heels.
As the startled dog awoke, the crow
would grasp the stick in its bill and, fly-
ing about four feet from the ground,
would start across the fields with the dog
in hot pursuit. This continued until both
had reached the point of exhaustion ;
whereupon each would return to its
respective place of rest, the dog on the
door-step and the bird on a nearby shed.
Mr. Nelson Wood, of the U. S. Na-
tional Museum, who has had extensive
experience with domesticated crows, sev-
eral of which developed the power of
speech to a remarkable degree, tells many
interesting anecdotes of these birds. One,
whose cage extended over the top of an
inclined cellar door, once discovered that
the cover of a baking-powder can with
which it had been playing would readily
slide down this incline. After experi-
menting with this toy for some time in
various ways, it accidentally stepped into
it while at the top of the incline. That
was enough. Thereafter this avian
"shoot-the-chute" furnished no end of
amusement for both bird and spectators.
A CROW'S REVENGE
Another pet, whose linguistic powers
were above the average, would increase
its range of tone by thrusting its head
into a tin can and there give vent to its
thoughts. The activities of this same
bird form the basis of an incident which
I hesitate to construe as a manifestation
of corvine strategy and desire for re-
venge, but an imaginative mind might so
interpret the circumstances. It neverthe-
less makes a good story.
"Jack" had been severely reprimanded
and, I believe, punished for alleged of-
fenses in a neighbor's cabbage patch.
These cabbages were choice plants — a
fact that even "Jack" seemed to appreci-
ate after he had been taken to task, as
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAXD
331
thereafter an overhanging tree was his
nearest approach to the patch.
For a week or more the cabbages pros-
pered wonderfully, but one day, as the
neighbor was busily engaged in his cellar,
he heard coming from the patch a "swish,
swish" that strongly suggested the tear-
ing of cabbage leaves. On rushing to the
door he beheld "Jack," flying a few feet
from the ground and with leisurely wing
beats traveling up and down the rows.
Behind him, in mad pursuit and with
utter disregard for his master's prize cab-
bages, was the neighbor's own dog.
Another exasperating trick, but one
that seems to reveal the crow's love of
pure devilment, is related by Mr. Wood,
and I believe the account of a similar in-
cident has appeared in literature. In
these cases the crows amused themselves
by pulling all the clothes-pins off the line
just after the week's washing had been
put out.
THOUSANDS OF BIRDS' STOMACHS MUST BE
STUDIED
Two underlying factors make the crow,
economically speaking, one of our most
important birds. It is abundant and it is
large. Birds, on the whole, require a vol-
ume of food in direct ratio to the size of
their bodies, and no one has yet advanced
the theory that crows are modest or re-
strained when dining. It follows, then,
that what facts are determined regarding
the character of the crow's food habits
must be given more than ordinary con-
sideration. Even a minor food habit of
a bird so voracious and numerous as the
one under discussion may have most im-
portant influences for good or harm.
How, then, it is asked, can one know to
the point of exactness the food prefer-
ences of the crow? This is a most log-
ical question. Ornithological literature is
burdened with generalities regarding the
food of birds — yes, and, I may add, inac-
curacies— copied verbatim from some
earlier writer, who in turn has simply
served to pass the word along, so that
today one can find many of Audubon's
statements still doing overtime duty.
No element of disparagement of Au-
dubon's work, which when published was
the most exact of its kind, is implied by
this statement ; but modern necessity de-
mands, and is rapidly securing, results
far more accurate than the data secured
by the field ornithologists of the early
days.
The method employed involves exten-
sive and intensive examination of the
stomach contents of the birds under in-
vestigation. In this work the United
States, through the agency of the U. S.
Biological Survey, now leads the world.
Xo one, however, has ever looked upon
economic ornithology, even in its most
modern form, as one of the exact sci-
ences. In dealing with birds we are deal-
ing with living creatures — vivacious,
whimsical, often erratic creatures — that
sometimes seem never to do the same
thing twice. But experience has shown
that the benevolent law of averages, when
applied even to a series of examined bird
stomachs, produces results that are so
close an approximation to the truth that
the addition of large quantities of ma-
terial fails to affect appreciably the result.
Thus the greater the material, the more
accurate the result.
In the case of the crow 2,118 stomachs,
collected in 39 of our States, the District
of Columbia, and some of the Canadian
provinces, were available, and of these
778 were of nestling birds. This is the
third largest quantity of stomach material
ever used in the study of the food habits
of a single species of bird.
THE CROW ENJOYS A VARIED MENU
The crow is primarily a terrestrial
feeder and a most resourceful one. More
than 625 specifically different items are
at present known to furnish it sustenance.
Herein lies the reason that it can survive
the rigors of winter, and, when the hal-
cyon days of early summer arrive, it
knows also how to live and rear its young
in true avian opulence. And the young,
let me assure you, never languish for
want of proper food, either in kind or
quantity.
About 28 per cent of the animal food
of the adult crow is secured from the
animal kingdom and from fully a dozen
different groups in that kingdom. In ad-
dition to such lowly organized creatures
as earthworms, it secures nourishment
also from crustaceans, all the common
orders of insects, spiders, snails, and
332
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Chart from E. R. Kalmbach
A GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE CROW'S FOOD, MONTH BY MONTH
The relative proportions of the principal food items are shown throughout the yearly
cycle. The varying width of the bands representing the several items corresponds to the
quantity of each food taken in successive months. The crow, like most birds, eats that which
is most abundant and hence easiest to get. May beetles are taken mainly in May and June,
grasshoppers from July to November, and other insect life is present throughout the warmer
months. Corn constitutes the largest part of the crow's annual sustenance, but most of this
is waste grain. The broken line dividing the corn sector separates that which is secured
from the sprouting crop, in April, May, and June, and the ripening crop, in September, Octo-
ber, and November, from corn which is evidently waste.
numerous vertebrates, including fish, am-
phibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
It is in the consumption of certain of
its animal food items that the crow ren-
ders man its greatest service, and in feed-
ing on others has brought upon its head
condemnation without end.
In its choice of insect food, which forms
a little less than a fifth of the yearly sus-
tenance, the crow leaves little to be de-
sired. In this portion of the diet are
found some of the worst pests with which
the farmer has to contend — wireworms,
cutworms, white grubs, and grasshoppers.
From the beginning of May until well
into September, over a third of the crow's
food is derived from insects alone, and
were these creatures available the year
around, the crow would be found doing
yeoman duty throughout the seasons.
AN ENVIOUS RECORD IN THE DESTRUCTION
OF INSECTS
As an effective enemy of May beetles,
the parents of the destructive white grub,
and of grasshoppers, no bird in the east-
ern United States is the equal of the crow
in the point of numbers consumed. In
May the beetles mentioned above consti-
tute more than a fifth of the food of adult
crows, while in August and September
grasshoppers constitute nearly an equal
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
333
portion. Nestling crows also are fed
large quantities of each of these insects.
A better idea of the avidity with which
crows seek and devour such insect prey
can be gained from the following presen-
tation :
Of 197 adult crows collected in the
month of May in many different States,
156 had fed to some extent on May bee-
tles, and in several of the stomachs these
pests formed more than 90 per cent of
the contents.
A brood of three partly grown nestlings
secured in Wisconsin had been fed on
nothing else. Another brood of five from
the District of Columbia had subsisted to
the extent of nearly three-fourths of their
food on these insects, an aggregate of
about 70 individuals being consumed.
It remained, however, for 12 nestlings
(three broods) raised in Kansas to carry
off the honors as destroyers of May bee-
tles. These 12 birds had at their last
meal cared for 301 individuals, one tak-
ing as high as 53.
As grasshopper destroyers crows do
even better. One wise old bird from
southern Indiana had reduced the grass-
hopper population by 123, but among the
young crows the laurel must again be be-
stowed upon the Kansas delegation. The
most noteworthy work of grasshopper
destruction by crows of which I have
knowledge was performed by a half-
grown brood of four secured at Onaga.
These birds had consumed 133, 106, 105,
and 74 respectively — a total of 418, or an
average of about 104 apiece. Another
nestling had eaten the surprisingly large
number of 143 !
It is noteworthy that these birds were
all collected in years of normal grasshop-
per abundance, and what the crows would
do during periods of grasshopper out-
break is an interesting subject for con-
jecture.
Aside from their war on May beetles
and grasshoppers, the latter of which
alone is charged with inflicting damage to
the crops of American farmers totaling
$50,000,000 annually, the crow renders
invaluable service in other directions.
The cotton-worm, the army-worm, the
fall army-worm, the tussock moth, the
spring canker-worm, the tent caterpillar,
the gypsy and brown-tail moths, and the
chinch-bug — what a rogues' gallery of
the insect, world! — all must attribute a
part of their struggle for existence to the
vigilance of the crow.
HOW MUCH DO CROWS
Some experiments have been made to
determine the quantity of insect and other
food required to sustain a crow. Mr.
E. A. Samuels has stated that captive
birds in his possession ate as much as
eight ounces of animal food daily, while
Forbush in working on young crows
found "that when they were fed less than
eight ounces per day they either did not
increase in weight or fell off, and it was
not until each crow was fed ten or more
ounces that their weight increased." Dr.
Ned Dearborn informs me that an adult
crow in his possession ate an average of
4.83 ounces of animal food in a day.
Consider for a moment, then, the daily
grasshopper consumption of a family of
six crows, two old and four young, lo-
cated, we will say, at Onaga, Kans.,
where in 1913 crows were found subsist-
ing on grasshoppers to the extent of
about 42 per cent of their food.
Allowing each of the young ten ounces
of food a day and each of the adults five,
it would take a daily ration of 50 ounces
to supply their wants. Interpreting 42
per cent of this into terms of medium-
sized grasshoppers, at the rate of about
87 per ounce, we find that such a corvine
household under normal conditions would
destroy over 1,827 of these pests every
day the young were in the nest, and for
the entire nestling period of about three
weeks the surprising total of 38,367 hop-
pers would have been cared for !
AS A PREDACIOUS BIRD
Bird-lovers generally and sportsmen,
game-keepers, and poultrymen in par-
ticular are vitally concerned with the
crow's relation to other wild or domestic
birds. There is no question that in part,
at least, their apprehension, frequently
expressed, is warranted. While the crea-
tion of game farms and preserves has
served to bring this subject to the fore in
recent years, the predatory habits of the
crow are by no means recently acquired.
The egg-stealing and bird-killing crow
was present under primeval conditions,
334
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
and today is simply living true to its in-
herited instincts.
In the heronries along the out-of-the-
way watercourses of Louisiana, under
conditions wholly unaltered by the hand
of man, I have seen these black marau-
ders taking their toll ; and again among
the herons of the lower Santee, in South
Carolina.
The anhingas and egrets of central
Florida, the gulls and other waterfowl
at Stump Lake, N. Dak., the sharp-tailed
grouse of Manitoba, and the ducks of
Saskatchewan are in these years fighting
the same battles their ancestors fought
centuries before. Are they fighting a los-
ing battle, and does all of this mean that
in the end the crow, not man, shall decree
which of our birds posterity shall enjoy
and which are to go?
Stomach examination in this case lends
valuable but not complete information.
The albumen of an egg or the soft body
of a nestling bird soon disappears under
the powerful digestive juices, and, even
with the most careful work, items of this
kind may be overlooked. The laboratory,
however, has indicted the egg-stealing
and bird-killing crow, but at the same
time it conclusively refutes the exagger-
ated statements of extremists.
THE; CROW is NOT OFTEN A CANNIBAL
Wild birds and their eggs constitute
only about one-third of i per cent of the
annual food of the 1,340 adult crows ex-
amined. This resort to cannibalism oc-
curred chiefly in the months of May,
June, and July, the period in which the
crow has to provide a copious animal diet
for its young.
Under normal conditions about \y2 per
cent of the food given to nestling crows
also is secured at the expense of other
birds. About I in every 28 adult crows
and i in every u of the nestlings ex-
amined had partaken of the forbidden
food.
Such incriminating evidence cannot be
turned aside lightly. But there are miti-
gating circumstances that must be taken
in consideration. In the first place, most
of this destruction takes place during the
nesting season of the crow, sufficiently
early in the year to permit those species
that have lost a first setting of eggs to
lay and incubate a second clutch at a time
when they will be little molested by the
crow.
A goodly portion of the adult birds
which the crow secures no doubt are
cripples or weaklings, their elimination
increasing the virility of the species
preyed upon. And then, too, it must be
borne in mind that crows habitually pass
to each of their nestlings a portion of so
dainty a meal as another bird's egg or
young, with the result that, when stom-
achs are examined, a single act of vandal-
ism may be recorded in each of four or
five stomachs.
Distinction also should be made be-
tween the common crow and the fish-
crow, which is notoriously a worse pil-
ferer of nests.
In summing up the evidence that has
come to hand, I am forced to the con-
clusion that in the vicinity of game farms
and preserves, where it is the desire to
foster certain species in an abundance
greater than that decreed by Nature, the
crow must be held in check.
Under natural conditions, game and
insectivorous birds will hold their own,
regardless of the crow, if furnished the
necessary cover and not shot too close.
Consequently, I doubt the wisdom of ex-
tensive crow campaigns, conducted with
the sole object of improving game con-
ditions over a large area.
Poultry furnishes about as much food
for the crow as does wild-bird life; but
most of this loss can be prevented by
more careful housing. The shift-for-
itself method of poultry-raising will al-
ways pay its toll to crows, hawks, and
owls.
Chicken-stealing appears to be largely
the trait of individual birds, which, by
reason of the proximity of their nests or
the accessibility of the poultry yard, have
been afforded an easy means of getting
a plentiful supply of nourishing food.
The killing of one or two engaged in the
practice will usually put a stop to such
raids.
As a ravager of certain other forms
of animal life, the crow exerts influences,
some good and some bad. In feeding on
mollusks and fish, nothing of great eco-
nomic significance is involved. The frogs,
salamanders, and toads it consumes are
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
335
From E. R. Kalmbach
WHAT IT TAKES TO RAISE A CROW
The nestling crow requires about 10 ounces of food per day, or about 13^5 pounds for its
nestling life of three weeks. At the end of that time it will weigh about a pound. During
this period it will have eaten two and a quarter times its own weight of May beetles. The
grasshoppers it has eaten would, if combined, form a mammoth insect about twice the size of
the bird. Wild birds and poultry would each form a mass about a fifth of the crow's weight
and corn about one and one-half times its mass. Here are pictured a fully fledged young
crow and its principal food items. These include small mammals, spiders, caterpillars, May
beetles, poultry, wild birds, miscellaneous beetles, carrion, corn, amphibians, crustaceans, and
grasshoppers. These are all drawn to a scale that approximately represents the aggregate
mass of the different items consumed during the nestling life, compared with the bird that ate
them.
mainly insectivorous, and their loss is to
be deplored, but in the destruction of
mice of various kinds the crow serves
the best interests of the farmer.
THE CROW IN THE CORN-FIELD
The crow and the corn crop are in-
separable. Corn is the crow's staff of
life, though much of what it takes is
eaten more from dire necessity than from
choice. Corn forms over 38 per cent of
the adult crow's food; but by far the
largest portion is consumed from the
middle of November to the end of March,
a time when there is no sprouting grain
to be had and when the crop of the year
should be securely housed. It appears,
then, that waste grain forms the greater
portion of the crow's corn diet.
This fact, however, does not absolve the
336
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Dr. J. B. Pardoe
BLACK AND WHITE, A STUDY IN CONTRASTS
A dog and a crow would seem to be strange playmates, but a student of bird life tells of
two such comrades who were raised on a farm. The chief sport of the crow consisted in
laying a stick within easy reach of the dog while the latter slept, then waking him with a nip
on the heels. Whereupon, the bird would seize the stick and fly across the field with the dog
in hot pursuit. The chase would continue until both play-fellows were exhausted (see text,
page 329).
crow from all blame in connection with
the damage inflicted on sprouting corn
or on the harvest before it has been re-
moved from the fields. It is one case
where stomach examination is hardly
necessary; but stomach examination has
been made and it has convicted the bird.
The court of last appeal has returned an
adverse verdict, with, however, a recom-
mendation for clemency.
In the Middle West, where fields of
corn reach to the horizon and beyond, the
crow is an unimportant factor, though it
is present in considerable numbers. The
birds, no doubt, take their toll, but the
crop is so great that their depredations
are insignificant.
In smaller fields — for instance, in the
hilly sections of northern New Jersey —
damage is often severe. But even here
one can resort to measures that in the
main will frustrate the crow's intentions.
That same shrewdness that stands the
crow in such good stead in its struggle
for existence may be used by man to ac-
complish his own ends. No bird detects
danger and remembers unfortunate ad-
ventures more readily than the crow.'
Even the use of coal-tar, with its gassy
smell, applied to seed grain has brought
relief from the corn-pulling crow, and
the killing of a few birds, either by shoot-
ing or by the use of poisoned grain, will
usually secure immunity for small fields.
THE; CROW LEARNS HIS LESSON IN WASH-
INGTON STATE;
While poison should be used spar-
ingly and judiciously, so as not seriously
to endanger other wild life, there is no
question of its efficacy against crows.
This fact was never more forcefully
THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND
337
demonstrated than during the past sea-
son, when the crows of Klickitat County,
Washington, were attempting to repeat
their annual feast in the groves of green
almonds at Goodnoe Hills. For several
years these birds, roosting in thousands
in the hilly country bordering the Colum-
bia River, had been growing increasingly
bold in their sorties.
The loss to some growers was .100 per
cent, for when a flock of 10,000 or more
crows settled in a grove of fifteen acres
a few hours' feast would strip the trees.
Scare-crows had availed nothing and
shooting brought only temporary relief.
Even sporadic efforts at poisoning, in
which carcasses and grain had been used
as bait, failed to serve the purpose. A
few crows were killed, with the result
that the rest studiously avoided the car-
casses and the grain, but kept on eating
the nuts.
It was not until some one conceived the
idea of feeding the marauders poisoned
almonds that relief was gained. Only a
few crows were killed by this method,
but their comrades had witnessed their
fall. Abject despair seemed to seize the
mighty host. The flock rose from the
grove as a monstrous black cloud, and,
with a deafening roar of protesting
voices that could be heard for miles, it
left Goodnoe Hills. Some almond groves
of the Hills were severely damaged, even
this year, but in those where a few
poisoned almonds had been placed crow
damage had been reduced from a possible
loo to about 2 per cent.
A WAR OF CROW EXTERMINATION NOT
WARRANTED
Our enormous corn crop has greatly
simplified the crow's winter task of mak-
ing a living, as the other vegetable food
items of the crow constitute by no means
a highly nutritious assortment.
The hardened fruits of dogwood, sour-
gum, greenbrier, smilax, Virginia creeper,
sumac, poke-weed, a few acorns, and the
wax-covered seeds of bayberry, poison
ivy, and poison oak constituted the chief
sources of food for the North American
crows in pre-Columbian times. Today
they still get a portion of their suste-
nance from these sources, and at their
winter roosts may be found heavy de-
posits of the indigestible portions of
these fruits.
When all is said and done, one is forced
to the conclusion that legislation which
permits the killing of crows whenever
they are doing damage is necessary. Such
permission is now granted under the laws
of all States in which crows are numer-
ous.
On the other hand, bounty laws that
result in the killing of crows in places and
at times when they may be doing great
good are reactionary. Only in rare cases
is it conceivable that drastic control meas-
ures for the protection of crops are war-
ranted for areas as large as an average
State. Misguided efforts that at times
gain impetus for nation-wide crow cam-
paigns on the pretext that a near or com-
plete extermination of the bird would
benefit the American farmer cannot be
justified if all the evidence is fairly pre-
sented.
THE HUMAN ATTRIBUTES OF THE ROBIN
HOODS OF THE BIRD WORLD
Aside from any economic considera-
tions which are sufficient in themselves,
the passing of the crow would leave a dis-
tinct void in our attractive bird life. Its
crimes are many, but its virtues must not
be overlooked (see also page 334).
Who can deny that our Robin Hoods
and other adventurous spirits have left
us in the story of their lives, though
checkered, much that is good and much
to be admired? The world would have
been poorer without them. To one whose
association with the crow has been at all
intimate, there comes a bit of the same
feeling.
There is much of human character —
fear and boldness, affection and hate, in-
genuity, perseverence, and revenge — to be
found in the life habits of this interesting
bird. Let those who would actually ex-
terminate it pause long enough in their
efforts to learn more of the crow's real
and potential powers in the control of
certain pests. Then, and only then, will
the general attitude toward the bird be-
come an intelligent one.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S
NOTABLE YEAR
NOTABLE advance in usefulness
and growth in membership have
marked the history of the Na-
tional Geographic Society during the
past year. Its accomplishments in the
increase and diffusion of geographic
knowledge are the occasion for cordial
congratulation of the more than 750,000
individual members ; it is their faith and
their support of the organization's aims
that have heartened and encouraged those
to whom has been entrusted the direction
of The Society's activities.
In recognition of The Society's service
to geography, and particularly in appre-
ciation of its grant of funds which saved
some of the Big Trees of the Sequoia
National Park, California, from destruc-
tion at the hands of commercial interests,
James C. Horgan, of Los Angeles, made
a bequest during the year of $8,000, the
income from which is to be used for The
Society's work.
THE SOCIETY ADDS TO THE) WORLD'S
KNOWLEDGE OF VOLCANIC ACTION
Foremost among the achievements of
The Society during the past few months
was the splendid success of the sixth
expedition dispatched to the region of
Mount Katmai, the world's largest active
volcano. There an exhaustive study was
made of the now famous "Valley of Ten
Thousand Smokes," discovered by an
earlier Geographic expedition and recog-
nized today as perhaps the most remark-
able natural phenomenon on the face
of the globe — an area where chemists,
physicists, geologists, and petrographers
may actually study the processes by
which the earth has evolved through the
ages from a seething mass of matter
into a habitable planet.
A SPLENDID HARBOR DISCOVERED
The 1919 expedition, which sailed from
Seattle eleven months ago and which
completed its work late in the autumn,
was equipped at a cost of more than
$30,000, but the treasure of knowledge
which it brought back to The Society's
members and which is to be given to
the scientific world represents inestimable
dividends in the form of facts.
One of the most significant accomplish-
ments of this expedition was the dis-
covery of a magnificent harbor, christ-
ened Geographic Harbor in honor of
The Society, near the entrance to the
valley. This find will result inevitably
in the opening of this region to tourist
travel, and it requires no prophetic vision
to see Mount Katmai and its surround-
ing wonderland, already a national monu-
ment by presidential proclamation, ele-
vated in the near future to the impor-
tance of a national park, in which all
America may enjoy the marvels of its
awesome majesty, the beauty of its fairy
flowerland in summer, the charm of its
woodlands, and the fascination of its
wild life.
The findings of the sixth expedition
were recorded by both motion picture
and color photography. The films of
the former have been shown to the mem-
bers in the National Capital, and it is
hoped that arrangements can be made to
exhibit them to Geographic members
throughout the United States. The offi-
cial report of the leader of the expedi-
tion, Prof. R. F. Griggs, will, as in the
case of all previous expeditions organized
by The Society, be told, with a wealth of
illustrations, in an early number of the
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
HUBBARD MEDAL AWARDED TO
STEFANSSON
Supplementing its own achievements
in the world of exploration, the National
Geographic Society saw fit to pay tribute
to the services of a distinguished ex-
plorer who has added more than 100,000
square miles to the mapped area of the
Western Hemisphere. This explorer,
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, was awarded the
Hubbard Gold Medal of The Society,
and upon that occasion the recipient of
the honor was introduced to the members
present by two of the foremost figures
in the history of Polar exploration —
Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, dis-
coverer of the North Pole, and Major-
General A. W. Greely, leader of the
Greely International Polar Expedition of
i88i-'84, and for 14 years holder of the
record for the Farthest North.
338
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S NOTABLE YEAR
339
ADMIRAL PEARY S LAST PUBLIC APPEAR-
ANCE;
It was at this meeting of The Society
that Admiral Peary made his last public
appearance to pay the following tribute
to his fellow-explorer:
"Fellow-members of the National Geo-
graphic Society:
"Today we add another to the long list
of Polar explorers, both north and south,
whom our Society has welcomed and to
whom our members have listened with
absorbing interest.
"Six years ago, in the parlor of a hotel
in Rome, I said good-bye to another con-
fident young friend of mine who was
starting then for home in order to begin
one of our latest Polar quests. I met
him here today for the first time since
then. How much has happened to him
in those six years I need not attempt to
relate. Five and one-half years of those
six this man has been there in the Arctic
regions adding to the sum of the world's
knowledge. Five and one-half years !
A NEW TYPE OF EXPLORER COMING
"It is not my intent to go into a resume
of his work. He is going to tell you that
himself, but I can note very briefly that
within that time Stefansson has added
more than 100,000 square miles to the
maps of that region — the greatest single
addition made for years in Arctic regions.
He has outlined three islands that were
entirely unknown before, and his obser-
vations in other directions, the elimina-
tion of the continental shelf, filling in of
unknown gaps in the Arctic archipelago,
and his help in summing up our knowl-
edge of those regions are in fact invalu-
able.
"Stefansson is perhaps the last of the
old school, the old regime of Arctic and
Antarctic explorers, the worker with the
dog and the sledge, among whom he
easily holds a place in the first rank.
Coming Polar explorers, both north and
south, are quite likely to use modern
means which have sprung into existence
within the last few years.
"According to my own personal im-
pressions— aerial flights ; according to
Stefansson, he would like to try his
chances with a submarine ; but whether
it be aeroplane or submarine, it will mean
the end of the old-time method with the
dog and the sledge and man trudging
alongside or behind them.
"What Stefansson stands for is this:
he has grasped the meaning of Polar
work and has pursued his task in the
Arctic regions section by section. He
has profited by experience piled upon
experience until he knows how to face
and overcome every problem of the
North. His method of work is to take
the white man's brains and intelligence
and the white man's persistence and
will-power into the Arctic, and sup-
plement these forces with the wood-craft,
or, I should say, polar-craft, of the
Eskimo — the ability to live off the land
itself, the ability to use every one of
the few possibilities of those frozen
regions — and concentrate on his work.
"Stefansson has evolved a way to make
himself absolutely self-sustaining. He
could have lived in the Arctic fifteen and
a half years just as easily as five and a
half years. By combining great natural,
physical, and mental ability with hard,
practical, common sense, he has made an
absolute record.
"Stefansson has not only fought and
overcome those ever-present contingen-
cies of the Arctic region — cold and hun-
ger, wet and starvation, and all that goes
with them — but he has fought and over-
come sickness — first, typhoid ; then pneu-
monia, and then pleurisy — up in those
forbidding regions, and then has been
obliged to go by sled four hundred miles
before finding the shelter of a hospital
and the care of a physician."
GENERAL GREELY'S TRIBUTE TO
STEEANSSON -
Major General Greely likewise paid a
memorable tribute to the Hubbard Gold
Medalist :
"At this meeting of the members of
the National Geographic Society to do
honor to an American explorer, there
rises in my mind a throng of memories
of that three years of Arctic service, so
far buried in the past, when it was ac-
tion, action, always action, and not, as
now, the uttering of a word.
"The Bible tells us that Isaiah saw a
340
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
word — that is, a vision over the Holy
Land centering in known Jerusalem.
We, too, had visions which were over the
vast expanse of the white north, unseen
by human eye since the dawn of creation.
Though barren, desolate, unknown, and
strangely mysterious, it has been a goal
for the adventurous of all nations.
"Among such seekers we are honored
tonight by the presence of two officers of
the Russian navy, Lieutenants Nikolsky
and Evgenoff. With Captain Vilkitsky,
they were the first to navigate from east
to west the Siberian ocean, from Bering
Strait to the North Sea. They also gave
to the world a new Arctic archipelago,
Nicholas II Land, north of Cape Chely-
uskin, the promontory that projects far-
thest into that ice-encumbered sea. They
were brought near in sympathy and help-
fulness to the speaker of the evening, for
they tried, though in vain, defeated by the
pack, to rescue the survivors of the Kar-
luk, then marooned on Wrangell Land.
"We come together especially to wel-
come back Vilhjalmur Stefansson, whose
published obituary you have read, but
who insists with Mark Twain that the
account of his death has been greatly ex-
aggerated. However, it told indirectly
the tale of his dangers and hardships.
"THE WORLD'S RECORD FOR CONTINUOUS
POLAR SERVICE"
"Stefansson has several unique Arctic
records. His five and a half years is the
world's record for continuous Polar serv-
ice. A pioneer in living on the game of
the region, whether on the ice-covered
sea or on the northern lands, he also
initiated distant journeys on the ice-floes
of an unknown sea, which carried him
hundreds of miles from the nearest land.
"The contributions of his expeditions
are important and extensive. Besides the
natural history and geologic knowledge,
he has made inroads into the million
square miles of unknown Arctic regions,
the largest for many years. His hydro-
graphic work is specially important, in
surveys and in magnetic declinations.
His numerous soundings not only outline
the continental shelf from Alaska to
Prince Patrick Island, but also disclose
the submarine mountains and valleys of
the bed of Beaufort Sea.
"From the unknown regions of Arctic
land and sea he has withdrawn areas
amounting to approximately 100,000
square miles. These discoveries com-
prise about 65,000 square miles of Beau-
fort Sea to the north of the Mackenzie
basin, 10,000 square miles of the Arctic
Ocean west of Prince Patrick Island,
over 3,000 square miles along the north-
east coast of Victoria Island, and over
15,000 square miles of land and sea to
the northeast of Prince Patrick Island.
In the last-named region three large and
other small islands were discovered be-
tween latitude 73 degrees and 80.2 de-
grees north and between longitude 98 de-
grees west and 115 degrees west.
"These new islands unquestionably fill
in the last gap in the hitherto-unknown
seaward limits of the great Arctic archi-
pelago to the north of the continent of
America.
"The spirit as well as the material re-
sults of exploration should be recognized.
Tonight the borderland of the White Sea
is in the thoughts and hearts of many,
for there, in the gloom of Arctic twilight,
and in the cold of a Polar winter, the
heroic men of this great nation are en-
during fearful hardships and periling
their young lives to restore peace and
give freedom to unfortunate Russia.
"Recall that in the dawn of that na-
tion's history, through this sea and the
port of Archangel only could Russia be
reached. More than three and a half cen-
turies ago, the first great maritime expe-
dition of England sailed to the White
Sea, and Chancellor's visit had potent
results in the development of both Eng-
land and Russia.
"Of this great voyage Milton said: 'It
was an enterprise almost heroic were it
not for gain.' Stefansson's explorations
are untainted by motives of materialism.
"WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE HIM"
"In recognition both of the idealistic
spirit and of the geographic importance
of the discoveries made by Vilhjalmur
Stefansson, the Board of Managers of
the National Geographic Society unani-
mously direct me to present to him the
Hubbard Medal.
"It is to be added that the three sur-
vivors of the so-called Greely Interna-
© Harris & Ewing
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN ELLIOTT PILLSBURY, U. S. N., LATE PRESIDENT OF THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
The distinguished naval officer and authority on the Gulf Stream, who died December
30, 1919, had been a member of the National Geographic Society's Board of Managers for
more than ten years, and had served as its Vice-President from 1915 until his election to the
Presidency of the organization, April 16, 1919.
341
342
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
tional Polar Expedition are too far ad-
vanced in years again to hazard Polar
work; but as explorers of the igth cen-
tury who first wrested from England a
record held for three hundred years —
that of the farthest north — they wish to
honor the explorer of the 2Oth century
who surpasses them.
"Appreciative of Stefansson's endur-
ance of hardships, recognizing his ability
in devising new methods, his courage in
testing such methods, and his standing
as a typical Arctic explorer, the members
of the Greely Expedition, who are about
to die, salute him." *
EIGHT GEOGRAPHERS AWARDED JANE M.
SMITH LIFE MEMBERSHIPS
The Society also recognized the achieve-
ments of eight other distinguished geog-
raphers by electing them to life member-
ship under the terms governing the en-
dowment fund of $5,000 bequeathed by
the late Miss Jane M. Smith, of Pitts-
burgh. The men thus honored were :
Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss, U. S. N. ;
E. W. Nelson, Frank G. Carpenter, Prof.
Robert F. Griggs, Walter T. Swingle,
O. F. Cook, William H. Holmes, and
Stephen T. Mather.f
Reasons underlying the choice of these
men of science reveal a fascinating story
of geographic achievement.
Checking Germany's U-boat warfare
by the North Sea mine barrage is univer-
sally accounted to have been a major
factor in the Allied victory. Preliminary
to this gigantic task a needful element to
the success of the operation was a study
of the geography of the North Sea re-
gion— a study made by Rear Admiral
Joseph Strauss, who was in command of
the expeditions that laid and removed the
mines.J
*A most interesting article, "The Develop-
ment of Northern Canada," by Mr. Stefansson,
will appear in an early number of THE GEO-
GRAPHIC.
t Only five other life memberships have been
awarded previously under the provisions of
Miss Smith's bequest, those being to Colonel
Hiram Bingham, Colonel Alfred H. Brooks,
Dr. William H. Dall, George Kennan, explorer
and first Secretary of the National Geographic
Society, and Henry Pittier.
$ See NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, Feb-
ruary, 1920, and February, 1919.
Beside this recent mark of distinction,
Admiral Strauss already was known for
his invention of the superposed turret
system of mounting guns on battleships,
for his part in the blockade of the Cuban
coast, for his experimental work in tor-
pedoes, and for his writings on ordnance
and ballistics.
Walter T. Swingle's name is associ-
ated with the American raising of
Smyrna figs; for until he introduced the
insect necessary for fertilization of this
variety, at Fresno, California, in 1899,
the imported fig trees grew, but bore no
fruit. Mr. Swingle has also devised
numerous improvements to microscopes,
made agricultural explorations in many
lands, originated "citranges" by hybridi-
zation, in Florida, and introduced the
date palm, pistachio nut, and other plants
of Mediterranean origin into the United
States.
Known to every student of animal life
is the work of Edward W. Nelson, Chief
of the U. S. Biological Survey, who has
contributed notably to the information
concerning animal life of North America,
from the time when he conducted pioneer
scientific explorations in Alaska, forty
years ago, to his more recent expeditions
to examine the zoology and botany of
Mexico. Results of a major line of his
investigations have been published by the
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE and
later by the Society in a volume entitled
"Wild Animals of North America."
No less important than the increase
of geographic knowledge, the National
Geographic Society has always held, is
its diffusion, and on this basis, especially,
recognition was accorded Frank G. Car-
penter. First as a newspaper corre-
spondent, later as a travel writer, and
also as an author of some admirable
school geographies, Mr. Carpenter has
stimulated interest in geographic knowl-
edge and made intelligible to the general
public a vast amount of informative
data.
O. F. Cook was honored for his studies
of Machu Picchu, the lost city of the
Incas, which was found by Colonel Hiram
Bingham, leader of the National Geo-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S NOTABLE YEAR
343
graphic Society's Peruvian expeditions.
In the vicinity of Machu Picchu were
discovered many remarkable ruins of a
pre-Columbian civilization, including the
wonderful hanging gardens, where it is
thought that great food resource, the
potato, originated.*
Prof. Robert F. Griggs was honored
for service rendered to science while at
the head of National Geographic Society
expeditions to Mount Katmai (see page
338), .
William Henry Holmes, now Head
Curator of Anthropology, National Mu-
seum, has left his impress both in science
and art. In the former field his original
work in ethnology, archeology, and geol-
ogy have valuable geographic significance.
In recognition of his substantial serv-
ice in the upbuilding of the national park
system, of the marked impetus he has
given to interest in America's natural
beauties and wonders, and his success in
making these national play places acces-
sible, Stephen T. Mather, Director of the
National Park Service, was elected a
Jane M. Smith life member.
THE GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE GOES TO
75O,OOO HOMES
Month by month The Society's official
organ, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGA-
ZINE, with a steadily increasing number
of readers, has been instrumental in
diffusing geographic information in 75<V
ooo homes by removing the padlock of
technicality from the most inclusive of
all sciences — that which "treats of the
earth and its life, the description of land,
sea, and air, the distribution of plant and
animal life, including man and his in-
dustries, with reference to the mutual
relations of these diverse elements."
The Society has a warehouse full of
map paper, representing an investment
of $50,000, and as soon as the various
commissions have defined the new fron-
tiers of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is
the intention of the Magazine to print a
complete set of maps.
Two recent numbers have been espe-
cially noteworthy contributions to knowl-
edge— the Dog Number, with color por-
* See "Staircase Farms of the Ancients" by
O. F. Cook, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE,
May, 1916.
traits of 73 species of man's historic and
best-loved animal friend, and the Mili-
tary Insignia Number, of special value
and interest to the 4,000,000 Americans
who were in the uniformed service of
their country during the World War,
and to their relatives and friends. The
latter number, superbly illustrated in
colors, gave an epitomized history of the
medals, decorations, ribbons, and organi-
zation shoulder insignia authorized by
the United States Government, and
proved an especially valuable sequel to
The Society's famous Flag Number of
October, 1917.
GEOGRAPHIC BULLETINS REACH TWELVE
MILLION READERS
Through the columns of more than
550 of the leading American newspapers,
The Society's daily Geographic News
Bulletins are reaching twelve million
readers. By means of these bulletins,
which are furnished to the daily press
without charge, The Society is enabled
to interpret the historic and geographic
backgrounds which give significance to
news dispatches from every corner of
the globe.
So important have these bulletins
proved as an educational force, that
through the co-operation of the United
States Department of the Interior, Bu-
reau of Education, the urgent appeals of
more than 60.000 school teachers have
been met and this geographic informa-
tion, in attractive illustrated form, is
now being issued weekly for class-room
use. Thus educators in every State of
the Union are receiving the assistance of
The Society in vivifying and vitalizing
for their pupils the mere names of places
into communities where human beings
live and move and have their being.
A further educational activity inaugu-
rated by The Society in recent months is
its PICTORIAL GEOGRAPHY. By means of
this series of loose-leaf geographic text
and pictures, the bewildering "dots and
dashes" of the average map and the tech-
nical phraseology of physical geography
are deciphered into mental pictures of
busy places, living peoples, beautiful
landscapes. Nature's moods and proc-
esses, for America's millions of school
children.
344
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S NOTABLE YEAR
345
DEATH REMOVES THREE DISTINGUISHED
LEADERS
Unhappily, The Society's most success-
ful year has been saddened by the death
of three of its leaders — Brigadier-Gen-
eral John M. Wilson, Rear Admiral
John E. Pillsbury, and Rear Admiral
Robert E. Peary.
General Wilson, who had been a mem-
ber of The Society's Board of Managers
for fourteen years, had a distinguished
military career. He was at one time
Superintendent of the United States
Military Academy at West Point, was
Chief of Engineers of the Army during
the Spanish-American War, and, to quote
from the resolutions passed by his col-
leagues on The Society's Board, follow-
ing his death, "It is a noteworthy' co-
incidence that the Washington Monu-
ment, ideal symbol of the character of
the first President of the Republic, was
completed under the direction of General
Wilson, thus serving as a memorial to an
officer and public servant of similar in-
tegrity of character and unselfish service
to his fellow-men."
THE LATE PRESIDENT ADMIRAL PILLSBURY
In the death of Admiral Pillsbury, on
December 30, 1919, The Society lost its
President and a distinguished contributor
to its magazine. As a naval officer he
served with distinction during the Span-
ish-American War, being in command of
the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius at the
siege of Santiago, but it is on account
of his notable work in studying the Gulf
Stream that Admiral Pillsbury's name
is written largest in the history of his
country.
As commander of the Coast Survey
steamer Blake, he employed a device of
his own invention to anchor that vessel
in depths of more than two miles, and
studied currents there by means of con-
trivances also of his own making. Thus,
after seven years of study, he established
the position of the axis of the Gulf
Stream and determined many of the laws
by which its flow is governed.
A digest of his work in this important
field of oceanography was written for
the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
and published in August, 1912. Admiral
Pillsbury became a member of The So-
ciety's Board of Managers in 1909, was
elected Vice-President in 1915, and be-
came President April 16, 1919.
An outline of the career of Rear
Admiral Peary, the third member of the
Board of Managers to be removed by
death within recent months (February
19, 1920), is given in the preceding pages
of this number of THE GEOGRAPHIC.
THE NEW PRESIDENT
Upon the death of Admiral Pillsbury,
the Board of Managers of The Society
elected as his successor to the Presidency
Gilbert Grosvenor, for twenty-one years
the Editor of THE GEOGRAPHIC MAGA-
ZINE and the Director of The Society.
Under Mr. Grosvenor's direction, the
membership of The Society has increased
from 900, in 1899, to more than 750,000.
Mr. Grosvenor continues as the Editor.
John Oliver La Gorce, Vice-Director
of The Society and Associate Editor of
the magazine, was elected to succeed to
the place on the Board of Managers left
vacant by Admiral Pillsbury's death.
In the history of civilization, there is
no other instance of a vast cooperative
educational and scientific association or-
ganized and developed like the National
Geographic Society and commanding such
widespread public support.
It is not a commercial enterprise but
an altruistic institution, and the only
dividend which it pays is the geographic
knowledge it disburses primarily to all
its members and secondarily to the world
at large.
In The Society's constructive service
to humanity in a wounded and distrust-
ful world, its members have cause for
pride and personal satisfaction. As their
agency, The Society is one of the most
effective forces in bringing about a better
understanding among the nations of the
world. To millions of Americans, The
Society's pictures and descriptive articles
have made foreign races and their lands
human realities rather than mere dots
on maps or political boundary lines.
The Society has grown because it
ministers to the basic desire of intelligent
citizens to understand other peoples and
to know better the earth whence they
derive their livelihood.
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BY EVANGELINE BOOTH
COMMANDER SALVATION ARMY
FOR more than half a century the
historic banner of the Salvation
Army has been raised over the bat-
tered towers and broken gates of despair-
ing, wounded humanity, but half of the
world never knew about it. It took the
blood and agony of a great war to dem-
onstrate the fire of a faith which has
planted its standards in every country on
the earth.
"Around the world with the Salvation
Army" is not a challenge or a prophecy;
it is an accomplished fact.
The Army is working in sixty-three
countries and colonies, preaching the
gospel in forty languages. Our periodi-
cals, printed in thirty-nine different lan-
guages, reach a circulation of 1,184,000
a week. More than 23,000 officers and
cadets plan and execute our strategy
against insidious foes — poverty, sin, sick-
ness, and despair. It was for that we
were called an army.
Wherever there is an earthquake, a
fire, a world war, or any great human
need, there you will find the Salvation
Army. It seems quite natural to report
that more than 105,000 Salvationists
fought in the different armies on the Al-
lied fronts.
So, step by step, the Army is marching
on. It has crossed lances with Buddha
and Confucius. Offering ministration to
the forgotten ones in desolate places,
Salvation Army lassies and men have
gone into leper colonies and planted the
Cross on pagan soil.
INTENSIVE TRAINING FOR SALVATION
ARMY OFFICERS
Few have even a remote idea of the
extensive training given to all Salvation
Army officers by our military system of
education, that covers all the tactics of
the particular warfare to which they
have consecrated their lives — the service
of humanity. We have in the Salvation
Army thirty-nine training schools in
which our men and women, both for our
missionary and home fields, receive intel-
ligent tuition and practical training in the
minutest details of their service.
They are trained in the finest and most
intricate of all the arts, the art of dealing
ably with human life.
It is a wonderful art which transfig-
ures a sheet of cold, gray canvas into a
throbbing vitality, and on its inanimate
spread visualizes a living picture.
It is a wonderful art which takes a
rugged block of marble, standing upon a
wooden bench, and cuts out of its un-
comely crudeness — as I saw it done — the
face of my father, \vith its every feature
illumined with prophetic light, so true to
life that I felt that to my touch it surely
must respond.
But even such arts as these crumble:
they are as dust under our feet compared
with that much greater art, the art of
dealing ably until human life in all its
varying conditions and phases.
It is in this art that we seek by a most
careful culture and training to perfect
our officers.
They are trained in those expert meas-
ures which enable them to handle satis-
factorily those who cannot handle them-
selves ; those who have lost their grip on
things, and who, if unaided, go down
under the high, rough tides.
Trained to meet emergencies of every
character ; to leap into the breach ; to span
the gulf; to do it without waiting to be
told how.
Trained to press at every cost for the
desired end.
Trained to obey orders willingly and
gladly and wholly, not in part.
Trained to give no quarter to the
enemy, no matter what the character, nor
in what form he may present himself.
Trained in the art of the winsome, at-
tractive coquetries of the round, brown
doughnut ! And all her kindred.
347
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THE SALVATION ARMY
351
Trained, if needs-be, to seal their serv-
ices with their life blood.
One of our women officers on being
told by the colonel of a regiment that
she would be killed if she persisted in
serving her doughnuts and cocoa to the
men while under heavy fire, and that she
must get back to safety, replied : "Colo-
nel, we can die with the men, but we
cannot leave them."
SEVENTY-ONE: NATIONALITIES UNDER ONE
BANNER
By imperial decree the Emperor of
Japan recently granted an annual fund
for the work of the Salvation Army in
his kingdom. India has turned over to
the Army the management of its great
criminal tribes and the problems of its
poor.
As the work has grown, it has been in-
creasingly apparent that the faith which
regenerates men recognizes no barrier of
nationality or geographical limitation.
Seventy-one nationalities are now mar-
shaled under the banner of blood and fire,
working to destroy old idols of wood and
stone and turning the temples of the
gods, after due cleansing, into Christian
meeting-places.
The work in India will be forever
linked with the name of its pioneer com-
missioner, F. de Latour Booth Tucker.
Judge Tucker was greatly interested in
the Salvation Army while in the service
of the British Crown in India in the early
days of the movement. There came a
time when he gladly resigned his govern-
ment position, with all that it meant to
him personally in the way of official suc-
cess, and came into the Army to wear the
flowing robes of the natives and to ex-
tend the work in the very heart of the
continent.
Salvation Army settlements for crim-
inal tribes are unique in the annals of
social work throughout the world. Out
in the hill country there are entire tribes
of criminals for which the prevailing
caste system is largely responsible. They
marry and intermarry, and their children,
born outcasts, are doomed to go through
life branded as criminals.
For years these Ishmaelites have been
a source of constant worry to the British
Government. Finally, in an effort to
reach a practical solution and meet the
growing need, the government turned
over the management of these tribes to
the Salvation Army.
Sir John Hewett came to terms with
General Booth. The British Govern-
ment agreed to provide the territory and
the Salvation Army undertook to pro-
vide the men. The criminal tribes were
to be brought into a certain territory and
the Salvationists were to be responsible
for their regeneration.
It was Harold Begbie who first re-
ported the historic meeting of Sir John
Hewett, then Lieutenant-Governor of the
United (Indian) Provinces, with my
father, the late General and founder of
our organization.
Sir John had heard of the Army's
work in salvaging men, and it struck him
at once that similar methods might be
successful with the wandering tribes
which roamed the hills, a menace to the
people and a vexing political problem.
He visited General Booth and together
these two, so unlike in many ways, dis-
cussed methods of reclaiming men, of
making them over into useful citizens.
"YOU CANNOT MAKE A MAN CLEAN BY
WASHING HIS SHIRT"
The old patriarch brought to the mind
of the statesman one of the great funda-
mental truths of human experience, too
often neglected by legislators and some-
times conveniently ignored by the ene-
mies of religion:
"You cannot make a man clean by
washing his shirt," General Booth ex-
claimed. "If you have a bad man to deal
with, you must first seek to alter the set
and current of his soul. I will tell you
the secret of governing tribes and nations
of evil-doers. It is religion.
"Give them religion. If you alter the
circumstances of a man's life, and set
him in conditions where his liability to
vice is small, and where he knows his
sins will be most surely punished, you
will not go far, if that is all you have to
give him.
"You cannot deal with the body of a
man when it is his soul that is the cause
of all the trouble ; that is to encounter
352
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
HINDU RECRUITS OF THE SALVATION ARMY IN INDIA
Note the Mohammedan woman, who, despite her adoption of the Christian faith, adheres to
the practice of her people in shielding her face from the eye of the camera.
A HOME-MADE SALVATION ARMY BAND IN INDIA
The Salvation Army workers in the Far East are no respecters of the man-created caste
system which has blighted oriental life for centuries.
THE SALVATION ARMY
353
ZULU WARDS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BRANCH OF THE SALVATION ARMY
'We look through the exterior, look through the shell, look through the coat, and
find the man."
A SALVATION ARMY HOME) FOR NATIVE BOYS IN JAVA
This organization now has 21,000 commanding officers who voice their doctrine of deeds in
forty tongues.
354
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
WITH THE SALVATION ARMY IN JAVA
The man at the reader's right is wearing the regulation Salvation Army uniform of the
Javanese branch of this world-wide organization.
inevitable failure. Only one power is
known in all the long experience of hu-
man history by which a bad man can be-
come a good man, and that power is
religion."
Years passed and the work of the Sal-
vation Army strengthened and grew.
There was just one way to success, and
that was to remake men into some sem-
blance of law-abiding, useful citizens. It
was the human equation which counted
and by this test must the work of the
Salvation Army be gauged in India, as
elsewhere.
"Boom marches" constitute a phase of
the work conducted in India. Groups of
four or five Salvationists in native dress
tramp the roads that lead into the in-
terior. From the roadside in heathen
villages and towns they proclaim with
simplicity and force the unsearchable
riches of Christianity. In careful detail
to the
they explain what it all means
head man of the village tribe.
Very often the villagers keep the
marchers with them and ask them for
songs and music, and very frequently
they ask for instruction in the Christian
religion.
These marchers go far afield, reaching
out to all classes in India, irrespective of
the man-created caste system which has
brought about conditions in the Far East
not easy to overcome.
THE SALVATIONISTS AMONG THE CHINESE
Long before Christian missionaries
went forth to fulfill the divine behest,
"Preach the gospel to every creature,"
there existed a Chinese nation, with its
vast possibilities for happiness and for
good. Only the Egyptians, the Assyrians,
and the Jews were their contemporaries.
Three and a half centuries have passed
THE SALVATION ARMY
355
f
ORGANIZATION'S HEADQUARTERS IN TOKYO: THE SALVATIONIST'S COUNTRY is
THE WORLD
"We recognize our brother in all the families of the earth."
since Saint Francis Xavier, in his dying
hour, exclaimed in an agony of despair
over his supreme discouragement in try-
ing to evangelize China, "Oh, rock, rock,
when wilt thou open ?"
Years have passed since Napoleon, with
far different motives, looked on the an-
cient century-defying nation and said,
"The giant is asleep. Do not awake
him."
But now the rock has opened, the giant
is awake.
For years these people lay heavily on
my father's heart. Their needs were con-
tinually discussed ; they were the founda-
tion of some of his most burning public
utterances. He saw them in his dreams
by night and thought and planned for
them by day. Somehow I feel he still
waits and watches for their salvation
from the battlements of glory.
Our present General's deep and pas-
sionate interest in China is well known.
All during the war the Army's blood-and-
fire flag was raised beside that of the new
Chinese Republic, while the work was
steadily carried on by heroic men and
women who labored as pioneers.
A new corps was recently opened in
Peking. The hall is situated in the north-
eastern part of the South City, in the
busiest commercial district. The build-
ing was formerly used as an old food
shop. It has been remodeled until it can
now care for about 250 people.
A VENTURE OP FAITH
Beyond the great wall, to the north of
Tatungfu, lies Fengchen. Back in this
robber-infested district the Army made
its first venture of faith into the interior
of China. No part of the earth is too
far . removed for the truth to reach it,
and the Salvationists, unarmed and unes-
corted, trailed their way into the moun-
tains to preach to brigands and robbers.
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358
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
One of the few policewomen
in China lives at Tatungfu,
in the northern part of the
Shansi Province. The Salva-
tion Army made its first visit
to Tatungfu a year ago, and
now the town boasts this very
progressive guardian of the
peace, who delights in wear-
ing a brass badge on her arm
and in carrying a cane. It is
her duty to see that small
girls in the vicinity are not
subiected to foot-binding.
Fifteen or twenty young
girls from a near-by govern-
ment school recently called
upon the Salvation Army offi-
cers, who sang for them and
tiught them to sing a few
choruses of simple hymns.
They were greatly impressed.
One of the girls admitted that
she was interested, but she
had alwavs imagined that God
loved only foreigners !
The territorial leader for
northern China arrived in
Peking early in 1918. He
found 30 officers, who had
been wrestling with the diffi-
culties of the Chinese lan-
guage for nearly a year, able
to lead meetings and to give
simple talks which could be
understood by the people.
They were eagerly waiting
their appointments in the
country of their adoption.
Very often our officers and
cadets carry their beds with
them, as the Chinese do when
traveling. A thin mattress
filled with cotton and a small
coverlet and pillow are rolled
into a case and carried as lug-
gage.
Tientsin, the commercial
capital of North China, re-
cently opened three corps,
with a contingent of nine offi-
cers, while Chengtingfu, a
large walled city, and Men
Lou, in the Shantung Prov-
ince, have received officers
and cadets.
THE SALVATION ARMY
359
The War Cry, issued by the Army
press in China, is as popular over there
as it is here. A song book has also been
published containing translations of well-
known popular Army songs.
THE ARMY TEACHES THE CHINESE
TO SING
According to Western standards, the
Chinese are not musical, but the Salva-
tion Army has found a way to teach
them to sing. A beginning is made by
teaching songs to the children when a
congregation does not seem to get the
idea. Very soon the little ones are heard
singing the favorite tunes of the Salva-
tionists in the streets and lanes, and in
this way they eventually have their elders
singing with them.
During the winter of 1918 the Army
did trencher duty for flood sufferers at
Tientsin.
Korea is now receiving assistance from
Salvationists sent especially for work in
that country. Last winter rice was very
high and the poor suffered greatly. The
Army immediately established a free
meal department and a station where rice
and fuel could be purchased cheaply.
On account of the conversion of men
who were formerly great drunkards, the
wine shops in some of the villages of
Korea lost so much trade that they were
compelled to move to other places.
We started our operations in Korea in
1908. There are now 69 corps and out-
posts in that country, 106 officers, cadets
and employees, and 175 local officers. At
Seoul, in addition to the headquarters,
there is a training garrison, citadel, and
a school for girls.
In the East the translation of Salvation
Army is "Army to Save the World."
LENDING A HAND TO THE LEPERS
It has often been said that the mass of
men lead lives of quiet desperation ; that
what is called resignation is in reality
"confirmed desperation." In its work
around the world the Salvation Army
has always thought first of the men who
go about the day's business lost in the
hopelessness of confirmed desperation.
There are men like that in the leper
colony in Java, men who wait with grim
certainty for the dark, dreadful, still
years to pass. We have gone out to help
them in order that these years may not
be full of pitiful things. The men and
lassies who go to these Jeper colonies can
never come out.
They lay down their lives for those
they go out to save.
Recently I received a report from a
Salvation Army lassie who has spent
four years in Java. The institution main-
tained by the Army at Boegangan cares
for more than 360 patients, all native
Javanese.
One Salvationist has already been smit-
ten with the dread disease. Only by per-
sonal report can one visualize the need
of these people. Last Christmas time we
received this message from the officer in
charge :
"We had a Christmas tree for them
and they all received presents. Clothing
was especially needed, as most of them
have only one set of clothes, and when
they wash these few rags they must wait
for them to dry before dressing. Many
of their clothes are in such a condition
they are afraid to wash them, for fear
there will be nothing left to put on.
"Of course, we have the poorest of the
poor here at Boegangan ; yet, with it all,
I love my work."
When a lassie can face the world with
such courage as that, in the midst of the
greatest grief and loneliness human
hearts can bear, where men live as out-
casts, alone and forgotten by the world,
we feel that our efforts are bearing fruit
of untold value.
Even the Red Terror and Bolshevism
could not keep the Salvation Army out
of Russia.
Within three months after the open-
ing of our work twelve outposts were
established in various cities in Russia and
several hundred soldiers and recruits, as
well as thirty officers, were enlisted.
A training center for officers was
started, two homes for. refugee women and
children were established, and a shelter
for aged women opened. Since then our
workers have installed five more corps.
Captain Larson, a Swedish officer,
working from headquarters in Finland,
was instrumental in forming the nucleus
360
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
WAITING AND WATCHING AT THE FRONT
Two Salvation Army girls standing at the door of their hut ready to cheer and minister to
the World War soldier, whether wounded, weary, or homesick.
THE SALVATION ARMY
361
DOUGH FOR THE DOUGHBOY
It was not the Salvation Army doughnuts and pies themselves which won the hearts of
American soldiers in France, but the spirit of geod cheer with which the Salvation Army
lassies rendered their every service.
of the Salvation Army in Russia at the
time when its very existence was out-
lawed by the authorities.
In Petrograd our people are free to
conduct meetings at the corners of the
streets and in the parks.
FACING BOLSHEVISM IN RUSSIA
Unafraid of flying bullets, the Girl
with the Tambourine sings and prays in
the midst of street-fighting in Russia
today.
One of our chief difficulties is that of
traveling. Train service is unspeakable.
Much of our work has been accomplished
by traveling in sleighs in the winter time.
Recently one of the lassies wrote to our
headquarters in this country that a sleigh-
driver informed her on one of these trips
that all town lights must be out at 10.30,
as that was the time set for the plunder-
ing to begin.
Trains so crowded that passengers had
to cling to car couplings and precarious
footholds on locomotives were a com-
mon sight. To spend the night thus,
traveling in the bitter cold, in addition to
other dangers, gives one some idea of the
divine courage which it takes to carry the
message through Russia during these
dark days of fear and wild revolution.
In the early days of the Army in Japan,
Colonel Gunpei Yamamuro, a native
Japanese, wrote a book entitled "The
Common People's Gospel." It was printed
in native characters and had a phenom-
enal circulation among the masses, who
thus learned, in the most direct sort of
way, the first news of the gospel.
THE ARMY'S CRUSADE IN JAPAN
This book simply brought out once
again the truth of Abraham Lincoln's
assertion, that the Lord must have had a
great love for the common people of the
earth, otherwise He would not have
created so many of them.
One of the first important accomplish-
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THE SALVATION ARMY
363
ments in the land of cherry blossoms was
the definite crusade against prostitution
in Tokyo.
In the ultra-conservative Orient, for
years prostitution had been looked upon
as a social necessity. When Colonel
Yamamuro understood what the Army
had been doing for the protection of
women all around the world, he decided
that he would enlist its aid for the women
of his own country.
He made a special appeal to the moral
sense of the community. Then he pre-
pared a special Rescue Edition of the
Japanese War Cry and secured its entree
by thousands of copies into the segre-
gated districts of the city. In the mean-
time homes were prepared for girls who
might wish to change their mode of
living.
A BITTER STRUGGLE AGAINST TRADITIONS
OF THE EAST
Then began that long and bitter strug-
gle against the traditions and customs of
the East; but in the end the Army tri-
umphed, with the help of the best ele-
ments in the ancient city. Today what-
ever of the "social evil" exists in Tokyo
certainly exists as a voluntary and not a
compulsory system.
Many of the prominent men in Japan
are sponsoring the Army and all that it
stands for.
For a period of ten years the Emperor
has promised annual funds as an im-
perial contribution to further the work
of the Army.
Relief-work was organized by the Sal-
vation Army in Switzerland and in Italy
for the benefit of the thousands of ref-
ugees who fled before the invading Aus-
trians during the World War.
Officers were dispatched to Serbia to
conduct relief-work, and when the Ser-
bians began streaming into Italy, as early
as January, 1916, the Army homes were
crowded to their capacity. In connection
with other work in the war zone, the
Army organized to care for interned
prisoners of war in Holland. This work
later received special mention by the
Dutch Government.
A new field recently entered by the
Salvation Army is that opened in Portu-
guese East Africa.
At Bandoenig, Java, a new children's
home has just been opened under the
auspices of the Governor General's wife.
In connection with the Memorial Train-
ing College in Sweden, Commissioner
Ogrim was successful in raising an en-
dowment fund, to which the King of
Sweden and Prince Bernadotte were
among the principal contributors.
A WORLD CONGRESS OF SALVATION ARMY
WORKERS
It was in 1883 that the Salvation Army
first opened fire in South Africa. Now
our organization is working in Zambesi,
Rhodesia, and the desolate island of St.
Helena. Seven industrial homes for
women are now in operation in South
Africa.
The story of the Salvation Army must
be told as the history of a world-wide
organization. Upon its flag the sun never
goes down. There is a picture in my
memory which illustrates this in a mar-
velous way. It is a picture full of won-
derful color and brings back the gather-
ing of our last international congress in
Albert Hall, London.
There, under one great roof, 14,000
people were gathered from the ends of
the earth, dressed as they were when the
Salvation Army found them. The Zulu
was there, with his shining brown shoul-
ders and his loins girded\with the skin
of some wild beast of the snake-infested
jungles; there was the yellow-skinned
Chinaman, \vith the colors of his univer-
sity, royal blue and dark yellow ; there
were the glossy-haired East Indians, with
their scarlet cotton coats and yellow tur-
bans ; and Maori girls dressed in rainbow
colors. The East Indians expressed all
the Anglo-Saxon language they knew in
the three words, "Salvation Army, halle-
luiah !"
DELEGATES IN WHITE FROM JAVA'S LEPER
COLONY
In this picturesque gathering there
were one or two who wore clinging snow-
white garments. They came from the
sad little island of Java, where Salvation
•Army men and lassies give their lives to
help the lepers.
There were picturesque mountain-
climbers from the Alps, with their staffs
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A SALVATION ARMY JENNY LIND LEADING A STREET MEETING IN A SWEDISH CITY
No organization believes more strongly in the potency of song than the Salvation Army.
THE SALVATION ARMY
367
A SALVATION ARMY OFFICER OF PERU IN HIS PICTURESQUE UNIFORM
"Trained to obey orders willingly and gladly and wholly, not in part."
368
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
MEMBERS OF THE SALVATION ARMY IN SOUTH AMERICA WEAR RESPLENDENT REGALIA
But their service to their fellow-men is as simple, as earnest, and as self-sacrificing as is
that of their brother workers in the slums of Shanghai and in the hills of Hindustan. The
Salvation Army has been picturesquely described as a great empire — an empire without a
frontier, an empire composed of fragments separated by vast stretches of land and immense
sweeps of sea, but all bound together by the common cause of service to mankind.
and horns and their yodels, mingling
their songs with the Germans, French,
Italians, Scandinavians, South Ameri-
cans, Canadians, Britishers, and 850
Americans.
Delegates were in that hall who came
from Celebes, Sumatra, Costa Rica, Ar-
gentina, Cuba, Malta, Uruguay, Panama,
Chile, Peru, Saint Lucia, Finland, and
Antigua.
Out of this great mass of humanity our
beloved General called to the front six
little girls from the Criminal Tribes of
India. They made a pathetic picture,
with their little feet and legs bare, their
slender forms wrapped in pieces of yel-
low cotton. As they stood before that
vast audience they lifted up their dusky
little faces and told the reason for it all
in the song which they sang in broken
English :
"Tell it again, tell it again,
Salvation's story repeat o'er and o'er,
Till none can say of the children of men,
Nobody ever has told it before."
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES
ON A RAMPAGE
An Account of the Salvaging of Food-fishes from the
Overflowed Lands of the Mississippi River
BY HUGH M. SMITH
UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OP FISHERIES
Photographs from the Bureau of Fisheries
ONE of the most important of the
varied functions of the United
States Bureau of Fisheries is a
mighty effort to undo one of Nature's
apparent blunders and mitigate the dam-
age done annually to the prospective food
supply of the country by a cataclysm in-
volving untold millions of the best fishes
in the Mississippi River and its tribu-
taries.
This effort, yielding large practical re-
sults and coming at a period when there
is most urgent demand for the preven-
tion of waste and the maintenance of re-
sources, must be rated as of great public
importance and as worthy of general
recognition and support.
The Father of Waters is a serious
offender against the host of food and
game fishes which populate its turbulent
course, and exhibits marked disregard
for the welfare of the entire fish tribe.
Every year, and several times a year, it
overflows its banks, wanders far from its
proper haunts, and then subsides, leaving
behind temporary pools, ponds, and lakes
in which are myriads of young fishes
whose destruction is inevitable unless
human agency comes to their aid. Inas-
much as these fishes represent a large
part of the future adult supply of all the
leading species, their rescue and return
to the main stream is a matter of the
utmost importance.
For many years there has been a reali-
zation of this stupendous annual waste
of food-fishes, and steps have been taken
to repair some of that waste. It was only
recently, however, that the efforts bore
an adequate ratio to the magnitude of
the task, and it was not until 1919 that
the operations assumed a scope and
yielded results that could be regarded as
fairly commensurate with the need.
The annual freshet in the Mississippi
River of greatest importance to the fish-
eries is the one known as the "June rise,"
which usually occurs about the time when
most of the river fishes are ready to
spawn. It is somewhat later than the
freshet caused by the melting snows, but
is usually of equal volume and represents
surplus rainfall that is seeking a south-
ern outlet.
PREHISTORIC GLACIERS CUT A WIDE
VALLEY
In prehistoric times great glaciers,
moving down from the north, seem to
have cut a wide, deep valley through the
upper reaches of the river, and through
this passage frequent floods have for
ages brought down and deposited silt and
drift in such quantities that the main
channel has been crowded from the cen-
ter toward one of the precipitous banks
on either side, while the remainder of
what formerly constituted the river bed
is now a low table-land, with a gradual
ascent toward the hills.
It would appear that at one time the
main river flowed unhindered through
what is nowr wooded, lake-covered terri-
tory, and that great drifts graduallv
formed and divided the old bed into land-
locked ponds, many parts of it with the
lapse of time becoming so completely
filled in as to provide secure anchorage
for trees and other vegetation.
As the river rises it first submerges the
adjacent lowlands, making ponds and
lakes on the nearest levels ; with its con-
tinued rise, lakes are formed at higher
levels, and so on until the flood stage has
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been reached, when depressions are often
filled quite remote from the main channel.
Pursuing their natural instincts, the
adult fishes at flood time leave the main
channel and seek quiet back-waters in
which to deposit their eggs. The eggs
are laid under conditions that appear to
be favorable for their development and
for the hatching and growth of the
young, and the latter may attain a length
of several inches before the freshet be-
gins to subside. With the recession of
the flood waters, the adults turn their
noses in the direction of safety and most
of them ultimately reach the main stream.
The young, however, fail to react
promptly to the falling waters, and a very
large proportion of them sooner or later
are cut off and become permanently
landlocked.
The temporary pools, ponds, lakes, and
canals left by the subsiding flood waters
are of various shapes, sizes, and depths.
Some of them become dry in a few days ;
others may persist for weeks or months,
while their water is gradually lost by
evaporation and seepage ; others, in
smaller number, continue until winter,
when they soon become solidly frozen.
YOUNG FISHES DOOMED TO DIE
The larger pools that survive the sum-
mer are often rich feeding grounds for
the young fish, which grow with such
amazing rapidity that many of them may
attain a length of 8 to 10 inches by early
November.
In any event, the fish contained in the
landlocked waters necessarily die. The
mortality may ensue quickly, as when a
small pool becomes completely dry in a
few days, or it may be gradual and long
drawn .out, as in a pond or lake of some
acres area.
The frightful conditions that prevail
as the water becomes reduced and the
fishes more and more concentrated can
well be imagined. The fishes' suffering
from lack of water and air is usually
aggravated by starvation, by the daily
heating of the water by the sun's rays to
a point that is almost intolerable and
often fatal, by cannibalism, and by wad-
ing birds, snakes, turtles, mammals, and
other fish-eating creatures from which
there is no escape. The pools that per-
sist until winter are so shallow that the
fishes are killed by smothering, even if
the water does not freeze to the bottom.
HOW THE FISHES ARE RESCUED
The work of salvaging food-fishes is
simple, direct, and effective. It consists
of netting the fishes from their unfavor-
able environment and depositing them in
the open water of the Mississippi, and is
accomplished by properly equipped res-
cue parties dispatched to the flooded dis-
tricts from conveniently located bases or
headquarters.
A government fish rescue crew con-
sists of six to eight men, who employ a
small launch in going to their field of
operations and in returning to their base.
The necessary equipment comprises fine-
mesh seines of various lengths, small dip-
nets, galvanized iron washtubs of one-
and-a-half bushels capacity, tin dippers,
and a flat-bottom rowboat.
The seining crews begin their work
each season as soon as the floods subside
sufficiently to disclose conditions. The
active operations, as a rule, begin in July
and continue in a given section until the
allotted task is accomplished or the
waters freeze, usually early in December.
The size and depth of given waters de-
termine whether the men shall set their
seines by wading or from a boat. As the
net is carefully hauled and bunted, the
fish are sorted into tubs, then carried as
soon as practicable to the nearest point
at which open water may be reached and
there liberated.
The cut-off waters are for the most
part in the bottom lands on both banks,
usually within a few hundred yards of
the river. In some sections, however,
where the surface configuration permits
a wide lateral dispersal of the flood
waters, the temporary ponds that demand
attention may be several miles back. It
therefore happens that, while under ordi-
nary circumstances the seining crew can
easily carry the tubs of fish to the place
of deposit, sometimes teams and motor
trucks are employed.
Some of the landlocked waters are
veritable lakes in which many seine hauls
may be required to secure all or most of
the fishes ; others are so small that they
may be thoroughly fished with a single
374
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE
375
haul of a short seine; and others are so
extensive at the time of the first visit that
they may properly be left for future at-
tention when their size shall have become
reduced to a point where thorough sein-
ing is possible.
156,657,000 FOOD-FISHES WERE RESCUED
LAST SEASON
It may not appear to be a matter of
great practical importance to know how
many fishes of the different species are
saved in the course of a season's work,
but it is at least a matter of considerable
interest to have, such a record for each
of the various sections of the river and
for a series of years. Accordingly, the
seining parties are under orders to make
a count of the number of each species
taken from each body of water.
The counting is done at the time the
fish are lifted from the seines into the
tubs with dip-nets. The tubs are half-
filled with pure water, and fish of given
sizes and species are counted into the
tubs until the water level rises to a ring
six inches below the top.
Subsequently, actual counting may not
be necessary, but the number may be de-
termined with sufficient accuracy by not-
ing the water displacement. Frequent
test countings are made in the course of
the season, and a definite ratio of num-
ber to bulk is established for each aver-
age size of fish and each species.
When the weather is warm or the dis-
tance to the planting place is consider-
able, the welfare of the fishes densely
crowded in the tubs requires that the
water be kept well aerated. This is ac-
complished by dipping up a little water
at a time and letting it fall back from a
height of several feet, and is always aided
by the squirming of the mass of fish,
which keeps the surface water agitated
and often frothy. Under the care of the
vigilant and skilled fish men, the mor-
tality among the rescued waifs while in
transit is negligible, and when released
the fish are healthy and active.
Throughout the entire length of the
Mississippi River, except where the
banks are protected by levees or where
bluffs occur in proximity to the shores,
the annual floods leave temporary lakes,
ponds, and pools that contain food-fishes
whose salvage is demanded.
The territory covered by the govern-
ment's rescue operations in 1919 ex-
tended from Minnesota and Wisconsin
to Arkansas and Mississippi. The places
that were headquarters for rescue parties
were Homer, Minn. ; La Crosse, Wis. ;
Bellevue and North McGregor, Iowa;
Quincy and Cairo, 111. : Clarksville and
Canton, Mo. ; and Friars Point, Miss.
The record-making efforts in 1919 re-
sulted in the saving of about 156,657,000
food-fishes. All parts of the river are
not equally productive and all sections
were not covered with the same degree
of thoroughness. The territory reached
from the base stations in Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and Iowa yielded by far the
largest returns in rescued fishes. There
the conditions are especially favorable for
an enormous annual destruction, and .the
need for salvage work is most pressing.
All the major and many of the minor
food-fishes of the river are represented
on the lists of those saved. Predominat-
ing in numbers are the staple fishes,
which support commercial fishing and
contribute largely to the food supply of
the region, notably the buffalo-fishes,
carps, catfishes, pikes, crappies, sunfishes,
and perches.
Among the rescued game fishes the
large-mouth black bass holds an impor-
tant position, and with it may be classed
also the crappies, rock bass, white bass,
and various other excellent fishes which,
while taken for market, are much sought
by anglers throughout the Mississippi
Valley.
THE FOOD-FISHES SAVED ARE WORTH MIL-
LIONS OF DOLLARS
The young fishes that are salvaged and
replanted in the parent stream are of
rapid growth. A few of them may at-
tain marketable size in the year after
their rescue, and all of them are likely to
be available for human use in two or
three years.
The most critical period in the life of
fishes is during a few weeks immediately
after hatching. For most of the fishes
rescued the principal danger from nat-
ural enemies and physical catastrophes
376
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
CLEANING UP A SMALL POND
Just as millions of dollars of taxes are made up of the pennies collected on small pur-
chases of soda water and movie tickets, so 156,657,000 fishes were rescued from landlocked
ponds, many of them, like this one, little more than puddles after the waters subside. Thrift
in such little things makes national wealth.
SEINING A SMALL POOL, POSSIBLY SIXTY FEET WIDE; FOUR MONTHS BEFORE IT
COVERED ABOUT TWELVE ACRES
When visited by a rescue party in November the pond had seeped and evaporated until it
was 14 inches deep, and was easily handled with a 25-foot seine. Ten kinds of fish, aggre-
gating 150,000, were saved. (See NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for June, 1916, page 572.)
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES OX A RAMPAGE
377
'
WASHING A MUD-CLOGGED SEINE IN A SHALLOW BAYOU
Some of the landlocked pools and bayous have soft, muddy bottoms, and when the seine
is hauled in, fish and mud are mingled in a dense mass. By lifting the lead line and moving
the seine away from the shore, a gentle rocking motion of the net easily rids the seine of mud
has passed, the degree of safety depend-
ing largely on the size attained.
In the opinion of State and Federal
fish culturists familiar with conditions in
the Mississippi Valley and experienced
in the rearing of the local fishes, at least
25 per cent of the fishes rescued may be
expected to survive to a marketable or
legal size, and will reach an average
weight of not less than one and a half
pounds in two or three years. Assuming
that all the surviving fishes will then be
caught for market and sold by the fisher-
men at the prices prevailing for the re-
spective species in the local markets in
December, 1919, the fishes salvaged by
the Bureau in 1919 are estimated to have
a prospective value of $6,527,000.
THE COST OE THE WORK IS SURPRISINGLY
SMALL
The fish-rescue work, however bene-
ficial from the standpoint of fish conser-
vation, would hardly be justified if the
378
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SORTING AND COUNTING A SMALL S3INIC HAUL
It is a matter of interest to know the relative abundance of the different kinds of food-
fishes in different parts of the Mississippi Valley and to be able to determine the unit cost of
operations. In 1919 the actual outlay for saving this valuable food supply was about 1/50 of
a cent per fish.
expense were disproportionate to the
value of the results. It is therefore
proper to note that the unit cost is only
nominal, and even the total money outlay
for operations of the magnitude of those
in 1919 is surprisingly small.
Five years ago, when this work was
undertaken on a limited scale and in-
volved the salvaging of less than 2,500,-
ooo fishes, the average cost per thousand
fish saved was $3.18. In 1919, owing
partly to the magnitude of the operations
and partly to increased efficiency and
better organization, the average cost per
thousand was reduced to less than 20
cents. The cost in some of the less pro-
ductive fields, where fixed overhead
charges were applied to a comparatively
small output, was somewhat higher, but
75 to 80 per cent of the fish were rescued
and replanted at a cost of only 13 cents
per thousand.
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE
379
PLANTING RESCUED FISHES IN THE RIVER
At least one-fourth of the fishes rescued may be expected to survive to a marketable or
legal size, and will reach an average weight of not less than one and a half pounds in two
or three years.
IN A MISSISSIPPI RIVER JUNGLE
A government fishing crew going through a dense section of Mississippi River bottom
land with their tubs full of rescued fishes, to be planted as soon as the river is reached.
Only six of these rescued fish in a thousand are planted outside of the Mississippi basin.
380
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
^dKUKV*! v
V^!3fc>»t '• : •
A SEINING CREW ON THE MARCH
The party is proceeding in late autumn between two isolated lakes in a wooded bottom
In summer the small ditch was full of water and the lakes were connected with the river.
The crew is here seen hauling a small boat from one lake to another.
Throughout the Mississippi Valley —
in the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Ken-
tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas,
and Mississippi — as well as in various
other States, there are Federal establish-
ments known as pond-culture stations, at
which are reared some of the same fishes
that are rescued in the salvage operations
along the river, the principal species
handled being the black basses, crappies,
sunfishes, and catfishes.
The peculiarity which distinguishes
these stations from the ordinary hatch-
eries is that the ripe eggs are not taken
"from the fishes by the fish-culturist, as in
the case of trout, salmon, whitefish, shad,
etc., but the fishes are allowed to spawn
naturally.
Most of the pond fishes make nests
and guard their eggs and young. It is
therefore usually the case at these sta-
tions that a relatively large proportion
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE
381
RETAINING STATION AT LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN
At this little adjunct of the rescue work, on the Mississippi River in southwestern Wis-
consin, 150,000 salvaged fishes may be held for hardening, pending shipment to interior waters.
When first rescued from landlocked waters the young fish cannot undergo the strain of a
long railway journey.
of the progeny of a given pair of fishes
is reared to a stage where the young are
able to take fairly good care of them-
selves, although the actual number pro-
duced is small.
The results of the operation of pond
stations are of interest because of their
bearing on the value of the rescue work.
It may therefore be noted that the com-
mon practice among both Federal and
State fish-culturists is to distribute pond
fishes after they have been reared to a
"fingerling" size. A fingerling is less
than one year old, and may be from one
to six inches long when planted.
The average length of the pond fishes
sent out from the nurseries is two to
three inches. A government pond sta-
tion may produce, rear, and plant from
250,000 to 1,000,000 such fishes in a sea-
son, and the combined output of six
typical stations in 1919 may be placed at
2,725,000 — a cost of $5.50 per thousand.
From these figures it appears that the
number of fishes rescued in 1919, if they
had been produced and reared in the
ordinary way at established plants, would
have required 345 pond stations and the
actual cost of production would have
been about $860,000. To this sum, how-
ever, should be added the year's cost of
the regular station staffs and general
charges for maintenance, which would
have been over $2,000,000.
There should also be taken into con-
sideration the initial cost of construction
of the pond stations, estimated at not
less than $12,000,000. Against these
large hypothetical charges is to be placed
the actual aggregate cost of the salvage
operations in 1919, namely, $31,000.
THE PEARL BUTTON INDUSTRY EMPLOYS
2O,OOO PEOPLE
The perpetuation of the fish supply in
the Mississippi and its tributaries in-
volves a very important industry besides
fishing. Investigations conducted for the
Bureau of Fisheries years ago showed an
intimate relation between certain kinds
of fishes and the mussels, which yield
valuable pearls and support a pearl-but-
ton industry which gives employment to
about 20,000 persons and has a product
worth from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 an-
nually.
The young mussels, of microscopic
size when thrown off by their parents in
382
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE
383
myriads, need to pass the first few weeks
of their independent existence on the
gills of fishes. If the fishes are not pres-
ent at the proper time, the mussels can-
not survive. Furthermore — and this is
a most interesting feature of the co-rela-
tion of fishes and mussels — the young of
particular kinds of mussels require the
gills of particular kinds of fishes as
nurseries.
The black bass is host for several sorts
of mussels, the crappies for several
others, the catfishes for others. The
skip-jack, a kind of herring, is the only
known host for the best of all mussels;
and as this fish is not by any means abun-
dant, its maintenance is of prime impor-
tance to the welfare of the button indus-
try. In 1919 more than one and a half
million skip- jacks were rescued.
AN IMPROVEMENT ON NATURE
The peculiar requirements of the
young mussels having been carefully de-
termined, the Bureau of Fisheries has
gone extensively into the business of arti-
ficial propagation of pearly mussels by a
method which is a vast improvement on
nature. The spawning mussels, held in
ponds, are at the critical period provided
with the special fishes needed for the at-
tachment of the young. The fishes ob-
tained in the rescue operations are turned
into the ponds at the time the mussels
are spawning and become thickly inocu-
lated. They are then liberated in the
open water and distribute themselves and
the mussels throughout a wide stretch
of river. Thus two important branches
of the Bureau's work go hand in hand.
The artificial propagation of fresh-
water mussels is one of the functions of
the United States Fisheries Biological
Laboratory located on the Mississippi
River near Fairport, Iowa. Each year
from 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 young
mussels are thus brought in contact with
the gills of rescued fishes and given a
proper start in life. The maintenance
of the mussel supply is thus being greatly
aided.
That this work is not a mere experi-
ment, but is yielding practical results, is
shown by various pieces of evidence. For
instance, pearl buttons have been made
from Mississippi River mussels grown
from larvae that had been artificially im-
planted on the gills of a black bass less
than two years before and had been
under constant observation. These mus-
sels would have attained full commercial
size at the age of four and a half years.
DISTRIBUTION OF FISHES TO OUTSIDE
WATERS
This, account of the rescue work would
be incomplete if no reference were made
to the sending of small numbers of
salvaged fishes to waters more or less re-
mote from the Mississippi. These fishes
serve the same purpose as do the product
of the hatcheries. They are intended for
replenishing depleted waters or for stock-
ing newly formed lakes and ponds that
may have no fish life or no suitable sup-
ply of food or game fishes.
Fishes as taken from the landlocked
waters of the Mississippi Valley are not
in a condition to stand distant shipment.
It is therefore necessary to subject them
to a hardening process before it is :safe
or wise to send them on a long railway
journey. The hardening is done at sev-
eral depots along the river, notably at
La Crosse, Wis., and Bellevue, Iowa.
At these and several other points are
small buildings containing tanks in which
the fish are kept, without food, in cool,
clear, running water for several days.
The fish, then ready for shipment, are
placed in large cans and loaded into
railway cars, in which they make their
journey in safety and comfort. Minor
shipments for short distances may be
made in baggage cars, with an attendant.
The new all-steel distributing cars of
the Bureau of Fisheries embody the very
latest ideas in fish transportation. These
cars, with their permanent crews and
with all modern improvements for keep-
ing fish supplied with water and air, are
hauled on fast passenger trains and have
been used for forwarding from the Mis-
sissippi the special lots of rescued fishes
designed for planting in adjoining States.
Sometimes a car-load of fish may be
taken in its entirety to a single point of
deposit, but more frequently detachments
are delivered en route to applicants who
have been notified in advance, by mail
or telegraph, to meet a given train with
receptacles for taking their fish away.
384
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A BROKEN MISSISSIPPI RIVER LEVEE AT LUCCA, ARKANSAS
Not only Holland and the Acadian home of Evangeline have protected themselves by dikes,
but scores of the great rivers of the world are paralleled by earthen or stone embankments.
Photograph from H. C. Frankenfield
REFUGEES ON LOG RAFT AT NEBLETT, MISSISSIPPI, WAITING FOR A STEAMER
Face to face with a common peril, the people of the flooded districts unite in building
log rafts that, with the arrival of more refugees, come to have as many necessaries and such
luxuries as the Swiss Family Robinson salvaged from the wreck.
WHEN THE FATHER OF WATERS GOES ON A RAMPAGE
385
Photograph from H. C. Frankenfield
FAMILY ARKS IN WHICH REFUGEES FROM A MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLOOD SEEK SAFETY
AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOME: MODOC, ARKANSAS
Lest there may be created the impres-
sion that large numbers of salvaged
fishes that should be returned to the
parent stream are being diverted to out-
side waters, it may be stated that in 1919
less than six-tenths of I per cent of the
fishes saved from the Mississippi floods
were consigned to outside waters. This
altogether negligible number consisted
chiefly of catfishes, sunfishes, crappies,
and basses.
From what has already been stated, it
must be apparent that this work on which
the fisheries service of the Federal Gov-
ernment has voluntarily embarked is of
very great value, not only to the States
immediately concerned, but also to dis-
tant parts of the country, for the food-
fishes of the Mississippi basin receive a
wide distribution in the trade. As a
matter of fact, the importance of this
effort as a means of maintaining and in-
creasing the food supply of the country
can hardly be equaled in any other field
when cost, certain results, and quick re-
turns are taken into consideration.
In most of the States bordering on the
Mississippi there is a growing public in-
terest in and urgent demand for a con-
tinuation and extension of the rescue
work ; and along the Ohio, Missouri, and
other tributaries of the Mississippi,
386
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from H. C. Frankenfield
REFUGEES ON A MOUND AT MODOC, ARKANSAS, JUST BELOW THE SCENE OF A
CREVASSE IN GARDINER'S LEVEE ANGLE
where there prevail essentially the same
conditions as in the main stream, the de-
sirability of this form of food conserva-
tion is being- seriously considered.
In the districts now only partly cov-
ered and in the sections where up to this
time it has been impossible to undertake
any operations, there exists an opportu-
nity for very productive work. There
are unbroken stretches of river 500 miles
in length, where the floods are yearly
causing large sacrifice of food-fishes, on
which no attempts at rescue have here-
tofore been made because of lack of
funds and personnel, and the major trib-
utaries of the Mississippi present a virgin
field of unknown possibilities.
It should be understood that Congress
does not appropriate funds especially for
this particular Work, and that the money
now employed is in reality part of a gen-
eral appropriation for fish culture, and
the persons and equipment detailed for
the rescue operations are temporarily
drawn from other branches of the serv-
ice.
What is needed, in order that this serv-
ice may be conducted in a manner and on
a scale that its Importance justifies, is
specific recognition by Congress through
the providing of special funds and per-
sonnel, so that the work may not be con-
tingent on the' necessities of other duly
established activities.
VOL. XXXVII, No. 5 WASHINGTON
MAY, 1920
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED
STATES
BY Louis C. C. KRIEGER
Continuing its policy of presenting to its readers comprehensive and especially
timely articles and illustrations in color which stimulate a keener interest in and
a more satisfying enjoyment of the glories and wonders of Nature's forests, plains,
and hills, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE publishes the accompanying series
of matchless mushroom paintings and intimate descriptions by L. C. C. Kriegcr,
who is associated with Dr. Hov:ard A. Kelly, of Baltimore.
The delicacy of coloring and variety of hues, the curious forms and astound-
ing fertility of mushrooms, will amaze the reader. It is believed that Geographic
members will take the same delight in their ''Mushrooms" Number that they have
expressed previously in such Nature-study numbers as "Birds of Town and
Country," "American Game Birds," "Mankind's Best Friend — The Dog," "Our
State Flowers,'' "Wild Animals of North America" etcetera.
The reader is especially cautioned, hoivever, that the illustrations and text
MUST NOT be used as final authority in deciding whether a particular specimen is
an edible or a poisonous fungus, because no treatise within the limits of a single
number of even THE GEOGRAPHIC could be sufficiently detailed and complete to
protect the novice against the deadly species, which are very numerous. For those
who desire more detailed description of mushrooms, this article is being amplified
with much technical data and can be obtained separately, bound in cloth, at $3.00
per copy, postpaid.
MORE than thirty-eight million
pounds of edible mushrooms
were imported into our country
during the five years immediately pre-
ceding the World War. In addition to
this vast amount, we consumed not only
the large output of our own growers, but
quantities of wild species besides.
The species imported from France
comprise the cultivated variety of the
common meadow or pasture mushroom,
Agaricus cam pester (for illustrations see
Plate I and page 400) ; the expensive
truffle; the cepe (B. edulis, illustrated
in Plate IV and on page 406).
China sends us certain species largely
for the use of her own people resident
among us. Our own producers limit
themselves to the cultivated variety of
the meadow mushroom.
The names of the wild species mar-
keted cannot be ascertained definitely,
since there is with us no such legal con-
trol of the sale of mushrooms as obtains
in most cities in continental Europe.
Gatherers in the United States either eat
their finds themselves or sell them pro-
miscuously to any mushroom-hungry in-
dividual who lias the temerity or the
knowledge to venture purchasing.
388
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. L,eeper
ONE OF THE POISONOUS MEMBERS OF THE AMANITA MUSHROOM FAMILY
The top view of the specimen on the right shows that the deadly Amanitas peel as readily as
the edible mushrooms. "Peeling" is, therefore, no sign of edibility.
From personal observation, however,
and from a perusal of the popular litera-
ture which advises the consumption of
certain species, we may judge that the
following species most frequently find
their way into the kitchen: Agaricus
campester, Agaricus arvensis (see Plate
I), the Parasol mushroom (Lcpiota pro-
ccra, see Plate XIV), certain species that
grow on trees (Pleurotus ostreatus, etc.,
see page 402), ink-caps (species of Cop-
rinus, see Plates VIII and XII), "fairy-
ring" mushrooms (see page 397), puff-
balls (pages 414-419), and, of course,
Morels (Plate VII and pages 420, 421).
Since the establishment of mushroom
or mycological clubs in some of our large
cities, considerable interest has been
aroused, with the result that members
and their friends have learned to recog-
nize many of the lesser known, yet
equally safe and good species. The war,
too, has had its effect. Food is scarce
and high-priced, and people, following
suggestions offered in the public prints,
are turning to hitherto unknown or dis-
regarded sources of food supply, includ-
ing the spontaneously growing crop of
wild mushrooms.
RATTLESNAKE DENS VERSUS POISONOUS
MUSHROOMS
But those who, unadvised or ill-advised,
would gather wild species for the table
should remember that they are embark-
ing upon an adventure that may lead to
a sudden and horrible death.
To ask a person to gather his own
mushrooms for the table, without previ-
ous instruction that will enable him to
avoid the deadly kinds, is equivalent to,
if not worse than, inviting him to put his
unprotected hand into a den of rattle-
snakes. Indeed, of the two risky per-
formances, the latter would be the safer;
for there are at least two known anti-
dotes for rattlesnake venom, whereas
there is none for the poison or poisons
of the exceedingly common Amanita
phalloidcs (see Plates X and XVI) and
its multitudinous forms- and varieties.
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
389
SPRETA PHALLOIDES
. VERNA
PHALLO/DES
THE; DANGER SIGNALS, OR DEATH-CUPS, WHICH NATURE PLACES ON THE BASES OR
UNDERGROUND PORTIONS OF THE AM ANITA SPECIES
The death-cup is technically knowu as the volva and at first encloses the entire plant
just as the egg-shell does the egg. As the plant grows the stem lengthens, and in doing this
ruptures the bag. The illustration shows how the death-cup, or volva, differs in structure
with the various species of Amanita. There are two distinct types of death-cups, the bag-like
type (Nos. 10 and n), and the more or less fragile, crumbling, or scaly type (Nos. i, 2, and
3). Both types are subject to variation, the variations being characteristic for different
species or groups of species. Number 7 represents a diabolical attempt on the part of one
Amanita to camouflage its identity, both bulb and bag-like volva being difficult to discern.
A reduction of the "friable" (crumbling) type of volva is seen in No. I, only a few grains
being left to tell the tale, and sometimes even these are absent. When absent from the bulb,
however, they are usually to be found on the ground, leaves, twigs, or needles immediately
surrounding the base, or on top of the cap, where they form warts, provided rain has not
washed them away. The beautiful Amanita casarea, Plate IX, and the Blusher (page 390)
are two exceptions in the dangerous Amanita family, being edible though possessing death-cups.
In this connection it is of interest to
note that poisonous serpents and fungi
were associated in the mind of man from
early times.
Pliny writes : "Noxious kinds must be
entirely condemned ; for if there be near
them a hobnail or a bit of rusty iron or
a piece of rotten cloth, forthwith the
plant, as it grows, elaborates the foreign
juice and flavors into poison ; and coun-
try-folk and those who gather them are
alone able to discern the different kinds.
"Moreover, they imbibe other noxious
qualities besides; if, for instance, the
hole of a venomous serpent be near and
the serpent breathe upon them as they
open, from their natural affinity with poi-
sonous substances, they are readily dis-
posed to imbibe such poison. Therefore
one must notice the time before the ser-
pents have retired into their holes."
Were it not that the subject is such a
serious one, we should feel inclined to
laugh at the simplicity of the ancients.
390
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE BLUSHER (Amanita rubescens) is EDIBLE
There are many thousands of species of mushrooms and many strange forms, as the
succeeding photographs show. The collector observes especially variations in the cap (i),
gills (2), ring (3), stem (4), volva (see page 389), and color of the spores (for an account
of these marvelous reproductive bodies, see pages 392, 402, 415).
Though edible, the Blusher is a member of the dangerous genus Amanita, and should
therefore be eaten only by those who are thoroughly familiar with a large number oi
Amanitas. Its volva has disappeared into warts on the cap, see description of figure i,
page 389. It may be yellowish, entirely white, and often very much deformed or aborted in
shape, and quite frequently specimens are found that refuse to "blush." The Blusher is
found in thin and dense woods, solitary or scattered ; time, July to September ; distribution,
United States, east of the Mississippi, and in Europe. About natural size. For color figures
of Amanitas, see Plates- II, V, IX, X, XV, and XVI.
COMMON* MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATICS
391
Curiously enough, some of the ancient
beliefs as to the origin of poisonous fungi
persist at the present time in Italy. A
Sicilian laborer whom the writer inter-
rogated on the "funghi," vouchsafed the
""information" that the poisonous kinds
grow from rusty iron (nails, etc.) in the
ground, but that they are easily to be dis-
tinguished from the wholesome kinds in
the process of cooking by simply drop-
ping a piece of bright silver (a new coin
or the like) into the stew: if the fungi
.are poisonous, the silver will blacken ; if
not, it will retain its luster. The efficacy
of this "test" is believed in by an aston-
ishing number of people.
But not only tradition is active in pro-
mulgating error in this life-and-death
matter. Newspapers occasionally and in-
advertently publish "general rules" that
are often misleading. For example, an
article in a representative daily in one of
our large cities, after assuring the reader
that there are but six poisonous kinds
among more than a thousand, adds :
"No poisonous mushroom is ever found
growing in cluster form."
In refutation of such a generality, the
reader is referred to the symptom pro-
duced by Olitocybe illudens, a poisonous,
though not a deadly poisonous, agaric
that grows in dense clusters (see Plate
III and text, page 403).
GENERAL RULES FOR BEGINNERS
General rules for the guidance of
-mushroom-hunters are trustworthy and
serviceable only when formulated by ex-
perienced botanists. The following six
rules* by the late Dr. W. G. Farlow, Pro-
fessor of Cryptogamic Botany in Har-
vard University, will prevent, if scrupu-
lously observed, the eating of notoriously
-poisonous species :
"(i) Avoid fungi when in the button
•or unexpanded stage ; also those in which
the flesh has begun to decay, even if only
slightly.
"(2) Avofd all fungi which have death
cups, stalks with a swollen base sur-
rounded by a sac-like or scaly envelop,
especially if the gills are white. (Study
the Amanitas and diagram, page 389.)
"(3) Avoid fungi having a milky juice,
unless the milk is reddish.
* Published in Bulletin No. 15, U. S. Dept.
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
"(4) Avoid fungi in which the cap. or
pileus, is thin in proportion to the gills,
and in which the gills are nearly all of
equal length, especially if the pileus is
bright-colored.
"(5) Avoid all tube-bearing fungi in
which the flesh changes color when cut
or broken or where the mouths of the
tubes are reddish, and in the case of
other tube-bearing fungi experiment with
caution.
"(6) Fungi which have a sort of
spider web or flocculent ring round the
upper part of the stalk should in general
be avoided."
Professor Farlow adds that "Rules I,
2, and 5 may for the beginner be re-
garded as absolute, with the exception to
Rule 2, Amanita Cfcsarca (Plate IX), the
gills of which are yellow. Rules 3, 4,
and 6 have more numerous exceptions,
but these rules should be followed in all
cases unless the collector is content to
experiment first with very small quanti-
ties and learn the practical result."
Other rules that will help to protect
from serious poisoning are :
Do not collect mushrooms in or near
wooded areas except for study purposes.
This rule is very general, as it does
not protect against the green-gilled Le-
piota (see illustration on page 393), nor
against an occasional Amanita and some
others ; but it does prevent the beginner
from entering the very "lair" pf the man-
killers.
Do not accept mushrooms from a self-
styled expert, even if you have to dis-
oblige a dear friend. Learn the subject
yourself.
That an animal (insect, squirrel, turtle,
etc.) has eaten of a mushroom is no cri-
terion of the edibility of that mushroom
for man. Insect larvae thrive and grow
fat on the violently poisonous Amanita
phalloides (Plates X and XVI).
Soaking or boiling in water does not
render a poisonous species edible.* The
poisons of Amanita phalloides are de-
stroyed only by continued boiling in pow-
erful acids. (Dr. W. W. Ford.)
* J. Henri Fabre, in his "The Life of the Fly,"
relates that the peasants of Serignan, in the
south of France, render such notoriously
poisonous species as Amanita fianthcrina and
Amanita citrina (Plate V) edible by parboiling
in water. Other reliable evidence speaks
against this practice, however.
392
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
The truth is that inviting any one to
become a mushroom-eater is tantamount
to asking that person to become some-
what of a botanist, assuming, of course,
that one has no ulterior motives on his
or her life.
HOW WE; MAY ACQUIRE THIS KNOWLEDGE
The preceding paragraphs are likely to
dampen the ardor of those who would
be pleased to learn how to collect and
select their own mushrooms, but who are
not sufficiently interested to go to the
length of acquiring the necessary knowl-
edge that will enable them to do this with
safety. Those who are so affected had
better do without mushrooms for the rest
of their lives, bearing in mind that, so
far, there is no "player attachment" to
the study of mushrooms.
The most expeditious way of acquir-
ing this knowledge is to join a mushroom
club, if there happens to be such an or-
ganization in the city of one's residence.
Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and
Detroit have, or have had, such clubs.
MUSHROOMS ARE THE FRUIT OF FUNGI
The removal of the bark from a rotting
tree-trunk or the disturbance of the dense
mat of decaying leaves on the floor of the
forest will reveal fine threads, usually
white in color. These threads may be
loosely scattered and mould-like, com-
pacted into a dense meshwork of cords,
or spread out in flat sheets of the texture
of white kid leather. In old mines the
timbers ,are often festooned with long
streamers of this soft substance, which
to botanists is known as "mycelium," to
mushroom growers as "spawn."
As every one who has cultivated these
plants knows, mushrooms grow from
these threads, not, however, as the apple
tree grows from its roots, but rather as the
apple grows on the tree, for the mycelium
is the olant, the mushroom the fruit.
THE MARVELOUS SPORES
Every mushroom species arises from a
mycelium of its own ; yet, to distinguish
between species, students rely exclusively
on the forms, colors, and microscopic
characters of the fruit-body (the mush-
room), the mycelium rarely presenting
characters sufficiently distinct for identi-
fication purposes.
The forms of mushrooms are ex-
tremely varied, but all have in common
the ripening and liberation of the micro-
scopic spores ("seeds" or reproductive
bodies), by means of which the species
are enabled to spread over wide areas.
Some of the remarkable qualities of these
spores are told on pages 402 and 415.
The mushroom collector can make
some interesting experiments with the
spores, as follows :
If the expanded cap of the common
pasture mushroom (Agaricus campester}
(see Plate I) be removed from its stem
and placed upon a sheet of white paper,
gill side downward, and left there under
cover of a finger-bowl for an hour or
two, there will be formed a beautiful de-
posit ("spore-print") of the microscopic,
purple-brown spores.
If an Amanita (Plates II, V, IX, X,
XV, and XVI), a Lepiota (Plate XIV),
a Tricholoma (Plate VII), a Clitocybe
(Plate III), or an Armillaria (Plate VI)
be treated in the same way, a white spore-
print will result. With a Volvaria (Plate
V) the deposit will be reddish or pink-
ish. Pholiotas (Plates VIII and XIII)
and Cordnarii (Plate VII) will throw
down spores of some shade of brownish
yellow, rusty brown, or cinnamon. Cop-
rinus (Plates VIII and XII) and Panae-
olus (Plate VIII) species precipitate
black or blackish spores.
Similar experiments may be made with
other varieties.
FUNGI IN NATURE'S ECONOMY
The Fungi, a class of plants of which
mushrooms are the most familiar exam-
ples, play an important role in their influ-
ence on the higher forms of life. As
parasites on plants, animals, and man,
they cause destruction on an almost in-
calculable scale. As scavengers and as
rock-disintegrators, on the other hand,
they accomplish work that is basic for
the very existence of all life.
Rock is the raw material of the farmer's
soil ; but before the farmer can have this
soil it must first be made. How is it
made ?
Violent weather changes — heat, cold,
rain, snow, and ice — start the breaking-
up process. Associated with these agen-
cies, the lichens begin their work. Dry,
crusty things, these plants produce an
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
393
Photograph by C. Cramer
THIS GREEN-GILDED LEPIOTA (Lepiota Jiwrgani) is POISONOUS
Beware of this false Parasol mushroom. It differs from the true edible Parasol mush-
room (Plate XIV and page 439) in its greenish gills, coarser scales, and larger size. These
two young specimens were photographed on a lawn in Washington, D. C. Approximately
natural size. This Goliath of Mushrooms, the green-gilled Lepiota, is especially plentiful in
the Mississippi Valley, but it also occurs in the Middle and South Atlantic States, in South
America, in the West Indies, and probably in Bohemia and in the Philippines. Its habitat is
in rich pastures, cultivated ground, in open woods, and on lawns in cities; time, June to
October.
394
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
THE; EDIBLE HONEY-MUSHROOM (Armillaria mellea) "FINISHING" A
This mushroom is the bane of the orchardist. The growth extended eight feet up the
maple tree and four feet at the base (see text, page 411, and Color Plate VI, upper figure,
and opposite page).
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
395
Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
"A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST"
Armillaria mcllea is here shown at its destructive work. This tree is doomed. This
species of fungus is also shown as the upper figure of Color Plate VI and on opposite page.
If you chop off the mushrooms, others will soon replace them, for they are simply the fruit
of a parasite infesting the tree (see page 392 and the bracket fungus, page 409).
THE ABORTIVE CLITOPILUS (Clltopilus dbortiviis) AND ABORTIVE FORMS, THE LATTER
SHOWN ON THE RIGHT. EDIBLE. ONE-HALF NATURAL SIZE
The eye that is sensitive to subtle color arrangements always meets with pleasure the
unobtrusive habitant of our woodlands, known as the Abortive Clitopilus. When specimens
are found, they are almost invariably accompanied by the odd, puff-ball-like masses, 1^4 to
2^2 inches in diameter, irregular in shape, and of a whitish tint, shown in the right of the
photograph. It would be interesting to ascertain whether these queer masses are caused by
insects or by some parasitic fungus. An inspection of the interior will show that there is no
differentiation of tissues into cap, stem, and gills. Similar masses are found accompanying
the Honey mushroom (see Color Plate VI) and other species. Both the perfectly developed
and the aborted forms are edible. They should be thoroughly cooked to bring out the flavor.
Photographs by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE GREENISH RUSSULA (Russula vircscens) . EDIBLE
The various Russulas are difficult to distinguish from each other. This species, however,
is sufficiently well marked to be recognized by the layman. Painted with the hues of the
rainbow, the Russulas bring a touch of brightness into the gloomy depth of the forest.
Vivid reds, greens, purples, violets, and yellows predominating, these conspicuously colored
agarics are at the same time the joy of the painter and the despair of the student who at-
tempts their classification. The Greenish Russula grows in thin woods and in grassy,
open places ; time, July and August : distribution. Maine to Virginia, and west to Ohio and
Michigan; also in Europe. About one-half natural size.
THE FAIRY-RING MUSHROOM (Marasiimis orcadcs). EDIBLE
The specimens shown grew in the grounds of the White House, Washington, D. C. Approxi-
mately one-half natural size.
Photographs courtesy of U. S. Department of Agriculture
A "FAIRY-RING" FORMED BY Marasmhts or cades, ONE OF THE BEST EDIBLE
MUSHROOMS
The beginning of a "fairy-ring" may be a single mushroom which drops its spores or
seeds in a circle about the base. The next season the small ring of mushrooms drops a
larger ring of spores, and so the circle expands, year by year, exactly as the ripples spread
out on the surface of a millponcl when a rock is cast into the water. Fairy-rings, formed in
Colorado, have been estimated to be about 600 years old. Legend informs us that these rings
are the magic circles within which elves and other nimble fairy folk hold their revels at mid-
night on our lawns. There is another superstition that the rings mark the spots where bolts of
lightning have struck the ground. Marasmius oreades is found in grassy places (lawns,
pastures, and by the roadside) from May to October, being widely distributed in both the
Xorth and South Temperate zones.
398
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE VELVET-STEMMED COLL YBIA (Collybia velutipes} . EDIBLE
In winter time the mushroom lover yearns for a taste of wild species. This he may
have if he will be on the lookout for this tree-inhabiting Collybia. About one-half natural
size. With its stem encased in a suit of dark-brown velvet, its rich yellow cap protected by
a mucilaginous covering, the plant is admirably adapted to stand the rigors of the boreal
season. This mushroom is gathered in the spring, autumn, and winter; distribution, eastern
United States as far west as Kansas and Iowa; probably in the Pacific Coast States; also in
Europe and Mexico; a variety (spongiosa) in Alaska.
Photographs by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE ROOTED COLLYBIA (Collybia radicata) . EDIBLE
With its yellow-brown, wrinkled caps perched on a tall stem, this Collvbia is met with almost
immediately one enters a beech or pine forest. About one-half natural size.
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
399
acid that crumbles the hardest rock.
Rains wash the disintegrated particles
into cracks, crevices, and crannies down a
slope. The remains of the dead lichens
are added to the debris to form the first
beginnings of soil in which other lichens,
small ferns, and seed plants find a place
to thrive and eventually die, each plant
leaving behind some small particles of
matter. Gradually, with infinite patience,
Nature thus deposits soil in the valleys.
Ages of this slow but cumulative work,
in which soil bacteria and other fungi
play an essential role, and we have rich,
virgin soil ready to receive the precious
grains of wheat. Then the eye of hungry
man is gladdened by the sight of acres
of the golden crop.
FUNGI RAISE THE DOUGH
Bread made from unleavened dough is
not to the taste of most of us. It must
be light and spongy to be palatable. To
obtain these qualities we are again de-
pendent on the fungi. The good house-
wife buys yeast, dissolves it in water, and
adds the fluid to the heavy dough, which
is then thoroughly kneaded and set aside
overnight in a suitable temperature. The
next morning she is pleased to note that
the dough has risen. After further
kneading, it is placed in the oven and
baked into appetizing loaves. On being
cut, the bread exhibits a multitude of
small bubbles of nearly equal size.
The little Brownies that labored^while
others slept are microscopic fungus cells
that were introduced with the yeast.
Given sugar, starch, moisture, and warmth,
these cells multiply with incredible ra-
pidity, at the same time giving off carbon-
dioxide and another product. The car-
bon-dioxide gas collects in bubbles, and
thus distends and lightens the dough.
If bread be left in a moist place it will
mould. Here, too, we have fungous ac- -
tion.
Moulds, like bacteria and yeast fungi,
are ever present and ready to alight and
feed upon organic substances suitable to
their taste. Roquefort cheese owes its
flavor to a certain mould. Another is
known to plug up the human ear.
Some of the industries in which the
action of the ferment fungi is essential
are: The making of buttermilk and
cheese, the tanning of leather, tobacco-
curing, the fermentation of vegetables
(sauerkraut, fodder in silos, etc.), all
bread-making where yeast is used, and all
fermentation processes in which alcohol
is produced.
FUNGI DESTROY WHEAT, TREES, AND WOOD
In 1916 the black-stem rust destroyed
in the United States and Canada 280,-
000,000 bushels of wheat. Add*to this a
15 to 25 per cent reduction of the barley
and oats crops, and we become aware of
the appalling destruction that a single
fungous disease can cause.
One of these, Endothia parasitica,
threatens with extinction the glorious
chestnut trees of our eastern coast. The
disease caused by this fungus fiend, the
chestnut bark disease, starting in the vi-
cinity of New York City about 1904,
spread rapidly as far north as New
Hampshire and south to Virginia. In its
devastating march it has destroyed tim-
ber valued at more than two hundred
million dollars, and the end is not yet.
Another disease, the white pine blister
rust, though not yet as widely known
as the chestnut disease, is likely to be-
come so unless preventive measures are
adopted and cooperatively carried out by
the States concerned.
While the destruction of living woody
tissues is steadily going on in the forests,
dead wood, including that used in build-
ings, railroad ties, etc., is likewise being
destroyed by species that specialize in
saprophytism or scavenger-work.
ANTS "CULTIVATE" MUSHROOMS
The almost human sagacity of the ant
has interested man from earliest times.
Isn't it possible that Homer called the
Thessalian legions "myrmidons" because
they swarmed like ants and fought with
the cunning and bravery of these insect
warriors ? The foresight exhibited by the
ant in storing its food, furnished ^sop
with the theme for one of his most de-
lightful fables. Later, upon closer obser-
vation, we were startled to learn that
Mr. Ant is also a good "dairyman,"*
milking his "cows" whenever he wants
"milk" ; but it was not until recently that
* See "Notes About Ants and Their Resem-
blance to Man," by Dr. William Morton
Wheeler, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGA-
ZINE, August, 1912.
400
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photographs by A. G. and B. Lecper
THE COMMON MEADOW MUSHROOM (Agaricits canipcstcr). EDIBLE
Brownish, scaly variety above; white, smooth variety below. Before the war America
imported annually millions of pounds of this delicacy from France, and our own producers
and bountiful Nature have assisted materially in meeting the ever-increasing demand. Do
not attempt to gather this or any ether mushroom for eating purposes unless you have a
competent authority with you (see Color Plate I and text, page 401). When picked they will
fruit again as a continuous crop when cultivated in special mushroom cellars, and out-of-
doors as long as the weather is propitious.
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
401
Photograph by A. G. and B. keeper
THE BRICK-RED HYPHOLOMA (H\pholoina sublateritium) . EDIBILITY DOUBTFUL
Few mushrooms are commoner than the Brick-top. It grows in dense clusters at the base
of old chestnut and oak trees. About one-half natural size.
we were apprised of the fact that mush-
room-growing" is also one of his accom-
plishments.
Scientific travelers in Java and South
America record that some of the larger
species, the termites, construct veritable
mushroom-cellars, in which they "culti-
vate" (on the mycelium of some large
fungi) little globular bodies as food for
themse'ives.
Mushroom-growing is a most uncertain
business unless conditions favorable to
the growth of the spawn are rigidly
maintained. The ants know this, too, and
take precautions necessary to insure a
good "crop."
THE COMMON MEADOW MUSH-
ROOM (Agaricus campester)
(See Color Plate I)
When the average person uses the word
"mushroom" the common Meadow mushroom,
or Pink Gill (Agaricus campester) is meant
(see Color Plate I and photographs on page
400). Imported from France in enormous
quantities before the war ; cultivated by our
own growers with ever-increasing zeal, and
gathered in the wild state as soon as it makes
its appearance in the fall, it is so well known
that even the most timid feel no hesitation in
ordering their juicy tenderloin "smothered
with mushrooms."
The records, however, show that not infre-
quently other deleterious species are eaten
along with, or in the place of, the common
mushroom. It therefore behooves the eater of
mushrooms to be as cautious with this species
as he would be with one less well known.
Of course, only the most careless or unin-
formed would mistake the poisonous Amanitas
for the Agaricus; but there are other poison-
ous species, not necessarily deadly, that are
apt to get by the eye and into the mouth if one
is unaware of, or neglects to observe, the
botanical characters that distinguish the good
from the bad. Species that are likely to be
mistaken for the common mushroom are dis-
cussed further on.
Remarks on the preparation of the Meadow
mushroom for the table are superfluous, as any
cook-book will give full directions.
The common Meadow mushroom is at home
in grassy places, lawns, pastures ; never in
thick woods; also (when cultivated) in cellars,
caves, abandoned mines, and in other places
where the temperature can be held between
50° and 65° F. and where moisture conditions
can be controlled ; time, when growing wild, in
August and September, occasionally in the
spring; when cultivated under suitable condi-
tions, throughout the year; distribution, cos-
mopolitan.
402
' THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. L,eeper
THE OYSTER MUSHROOM (PleUrOtltS OStrCCltlls) . EDIBLE
The name of the luscious bivalve was given this species because of a fancied similarity
in appearance. The plants may be found from June until late in the Autumn, growing on
deciduous trees. About one-third natural size.
If one has discovered one or more trees that bear Pleuroti, it is a good plan to water the
spots from which specimens have been taken. In this way the plants may be "cultivated," as
new "fruit" will appear in a week or two.
When specimens are brought indoors and placed in a sunny nook, away from drafts, the.
interesting phenomenon of spore-discharge may be watched. Like twisting, curling spirals
of smoke from the burning end of a cigar, the fine spore-rain drifts off into space in quest
of tree wounds where it may lodge and start a mycelium that in turn will produce more
Pleuroti.
Related species and poisonous species are
sometimes eaten in place of it, though Agari-
cus campester is so well marked that it is in-
conceivable how poisonous species, especially
Amanitas, can be eaten by mistake.
A mere glance at the illustrations of the
common mushroom and those of the Amanitas
(see Plates II, V, X, XV, and XVI) ought to
prove instructive, even to the most superficially
observing, and, if in addition the descriptions
be compared, wide differences will at once be-
come apparent. To call attention to a few :
Agaricus camficster has a squattier appear-
ance ; lacks a bag, or volva ; has pink gills that
turn to a chocolate brown, and never grows
in woods or forests, preferring rich, well-ma-
nured ground, such as old pastures, where
horses are turned loose.
The Amanitas rarely occur anywhere except
in woods, or in places where woods have re-
cently stood, such as lawns in new suburbs ;
throw down from their gills a white spore-
powder, and have, in addition to the ring, a
more or less pronounced volva at the usually
bulbous base of the stem (for figures of the
various forms of the Volva, or Death-cup, see
Nature's Danger Signals, page 389).
THE FIELD, OR HORSE MUSHROOM
(Agaricus arvensis). Edible
(Sec Color Plate I)
This coarse and heavy species is edible only
when young and tender. Some epicures object
to its anise-like odor. The distinguishing fea-
tures are: its large size (breadth of cap some-
times more than a foot) ; peculiar ashy-pink
tint of the young gills ; large, thick, double
ring (the lower one split radiately) ; the bulb-
ous stem, and the tendency to turn yellow on
the slightest bruise.
It is not so choice in its habitats as the com-
mon mushroom, growing in cultivated fields,
grassy pastures, in waste places, under old
hedges, and occasionally near trees, and in
the borders of thin woods. It should be sought
from July to September. Occasionally it forms
huge fairy-rings (see page 397).
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
403
THE FLY MUSHROOM (Amanita
muscaria and its varieties).
Deadly poisonous !
(See Color Plate II for mature plant
and Color Plate XV for
young specimens)
Beauty, though attractive, is often
deceptive. This is admirably illus-
trated in Amanita muscaria, the
''most splendid chief of the agaricoid
tribe," as Greville, an eminent Scotch
botanist, describes it.
"In the highlands of Scotland," he
continues, "it is impossible not to ad-
mire it, as seen in long perspective,
between the trunks of the straight fir
trees ; and should a sunbeam pene-
trate through the dark and dense foli-
age and rest on its vivid surface, an
effect is produced by this chief of a
humble race which might lower the
pride of many a patrician vegetable."
Contrast with this the dire effects
of its .poisons on the human system.
Very shortly after eating the fungi
(from one to six hours, depending
upon the amount eaten) the victim
exhibits excessive salivation, perspira-
tion, flow of tears, nausea, retching,
vomiting, and diarrhea. The pulse is
irregular and respiration accelerated.
Giddiness and confusion of ideas are
also present.
Delirium, violent convulsions, and
loss of consciousness develop in rapid
succession when large quantities have
been eaten, the patient sinking into
a coma that is followed by death.
In light cases the patient, after an at-
tack of vomiting and diarrhea, falls
into a deep sleep, from which he
awakes several hours later profoundly
prostrate, but on the road to recov-
ery. Within two or three days, in
such cases, complete recovery takes
place.
Atropin is the perfect physiological
antidote for muscarin, one of the
poisons present. However, being a
poison itself, it should not be ad-
ministered except by a physician. The
early appearance of the symptoms is
characteristic of poisoning by this
species, those caused by Amanita phalloides
presenting themselves much later (see this
species, .Plates V. X, and XVI).
The AtiTanita muscaria is very common in
woods, thickets, in open places, and sometimes
in pastures, from June until the first frosts.
THE JACK-O'LANTERN MUSHROOM,
OR FALSE CHAJSITRELLE (Clito-
cybe illudens). Poisonous
(See Color Plate III)
To see light emanating from a mushroom
is at least a novel experience that is possible
if one views perfectly fresh specimens of the
Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
A SPECIES OF PLEUROTUS MUSHROOM GROWING
FROM A FALLEN LOG
A sight such as this is calculated to make the mush-
room-hunter's mouth water. Note that the central, ec-
centric, or lateral attachment of the stem to the cap is
a matter of position of growth ; the caps on the side of
the log have lateral stems, those on the top central, or
very nearly central, ones (see illustration, page 402).
Jack-o'-Lantern by night ; but this is the limit
of its interest for us. As an edible species, it
is not to be thought of ; for, though pleasant
enough to the taste and enjoyed without in-
convenience by some, it acts as a powerful
emetic with most people. Moreover, recent
chemical investigation of the plant has demon-
strated the presence of muscarin in its tissues,
the same substance that plays such an impor-
tant role in poisoning by Amanita muscaria
(see text on this page).
Dense clusters of this Clitocybe may often
be seen growing on or about old stumps of
chestnuts, oaks, and other deciduous trees.
Occasionally, such clusters contain hundreds
404
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE GLISTENING COPRINUS (Coprinus micoceus} . EDIBLE
Soon after the first showers in April this tiny ink-cap emerges from the ground in
clusters of hundreds of individuals. The best harvesting implement is a pair of scissors.
It grows at the base of old trees, stumps, and from buried wood in lawns. Caps tawny, and
glistening with minute, mica-like particles; stems white. About natural size (see figure,
lower left, Color Plate VIII).
of individuals. It should be looked for in the
autumn.
The caps often measure as much as ten
inches across, the stems being proportionately
long.
Pleurotus olearius, another phosphorescent
mushroom that parasitizes the olive tree in
southern Europe and is also poisonous to hu-
man beings, is closely related to, if not iden-
ical with, this plant.
EDIBLE AND POISONOUS FLESHY
TUBE-FUNGI (Various species
of Boletus)
(See Color Plate IF)
Though similar in shape, the fleshy tube-
fungi differ in one important point from the
gill-fungi; instead of gills, the under side of
the cap exhibits a layer of small, vertically
placed tubes, on the inside of which the spores
are borne.
The Boleti are fairly safe; yet the beginner
ought to be forewarned against certain species
that are likely to cause illness when eaten.
Chief among these is a group collectively
known as the Luridi. The prime distinguish-
ing mark of species belonging to this group is
the more or less bright red, orange-red, or
maroon coloring of the tube-mouths ; also, all
Boleti that show the slightest tendency to as-
sume some shade of blue when broken or
bruised should be avoided. Bitter species, too,
should not be eaten, especially B. fclleus, a
somewhat robust plant with pinkish flesh-
colored tubes.
The edible Boletus, the cepe of commerce
(Boletus edulis}, Plate IV, is the well known
and much sought cepe of the French. Before
the war, a regular article of commerce, one
could purchase it, either dried or canned, at
the little delicatessen shop "around the corner."
Now we are dependent upon our own supply,
which is none too plentiful. In the coast coun-
ties of California, however, it seems to be
fairly abundant, for the writer has seen Italian
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
405
Photograph by Roland McKee
THE INKY COPRINUS (Coprinus atraiiiciitarius VARIETY). EDIBLE
This variety lacks the fine scales on the top of the cap, which are prominent in the typical
form. The very delicate silvery gray luster of the cap vanishes with the slightest touch.
The "ink" from this mushroom makes a forgery-proof writing fluid (see page 439). Natural
size.
residents there return from collecting trips
with their automobiles laden with them.
In preparing it, either for immediate use or
for pickling or canning, the layer of tubes and
the tough portion of the stems should be re-
moved. When used fresh, the cooking should
be rapid over a brisk fire. Frying or broiling
with butter or olive oil, with the usual spices
added, seems best adapted for this fungus.
When pickled, add cloves, bay leaves, and other
spices.
Except for the stem, which is at times much
shorter, and club- or pestle-shaped, the illus-
tration shows a fully matured plant. When
young, the tubes are pale, creamy white, but
as the plant develops they become greenish,
and when touched or bruised change to a
greenish-ocher color, not to blue.
The species is extremely variable, both as to
shape* and color, some specimens showing a
brownish-lilac color on both cap and stem.
The constant features, however, are the colors
and color changes of the tube layer, and the
fine mesh of white lines on the stem, usually
but not always confined to the upper part.
The edible Orange-cap Boletus (Boletus
versipcllis) is much coarser and larger than
the cepe and not so desirable. Still, in the ab-
sence of something better, it is eaten by those
who must have their mushrooms (see page
406).
It is quite common and easily recognized by
the numerous rough, blackish points on the
stem and by the overlapping margin of the red-
dish- or orange-colored cap. Its flesh changes
color to a neutral, reddish gray.
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406
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
407
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE EDIBLE BEEF-TONGUE MUSHROOM (Ftstnliiia hepatita)
Cap blood-red, pores (on under side of cap) creamy pink, flesh streaked with red and
pink, this fungus grows on chestnut and oak stumps from July to October. The plant is so
distinct that it is not easily confounded with other species. The illustration is about one-half
natural size.
THE HANDSOME VOLVARIA (Volva-
ria speciosa). Edibility doubtful
(See Color Plate V)
Opinion as to the edible qualities of the
Handsome Volvaria diverges considerably.
While some speak of it as ''a fine edible agaric,"
others pronounce it "watery and unpleasant to
the taste," or even poisonous. - Since the plant
is somewhat variable, and therefore not clearly
separated, except by spore characters, from
the very poisonous Voh'aria gloiocephala, it is
advisable to let it alone.
Only recently Prof. W. C. Coker, of the
University of Xorth Carolina, reported a
variety of V . speciosa from the sand dunes
of Smith Island, North Carolina. His plant
had spores larger than those of the type and
differed in other characters.
In the eastern United States it is of infre-
quent occurrence, but on the Pacific coast,
especially in California, it is so abundant dur-
ing April and May that one finds it wherever
the soil is rich with decaying vegetable matter.
The odor of the fresh plant is repellent, re-
sembling verv markedly that of rancid lard.
The Handsome Volvaria is gathered from
April to October ; distribution, temperate
North America, Europe, and North Africa.
CORAL MUSHROOMS (Various species
of Clavaria). Edible
(Sec Color Plate V}
"But that is not a mushroom !" exclaims the
tyro, seeing his first Clavaria. "Why, it looks
like coral."
It is true that these plants show no differen-
tiation into cap, gills, tubes, or teeth, but they
are, nevertheless, true fungi, the spores being
borne on the exterior of the branches.
With the exception of a single species, all,
so far as known, are good to eat, provided the
taste is agreeable and the specimens are fresh
and free from insect attack. The exception is
a species (C. dichotoma) in which the branches
are rather thin, flaccid, whitish, and divided
regularly into twos.
Clavaria fiisifonuis (see Color Plate V) is
long, bright orange-yellow with a delicate
bloom, dark-tipped, and usually grows in tufts.
The interior is solid at first, then hollow. Oc-
casionally specimens are found that are vari-
ously bent, twisted, or malformed.
Clavarias may be sought in both deciduous
and coniferous woods from July to September
(see illustration, page 412).
Other edible species are Clavaria flava and
Clavaria botr\tes.
408
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
409
Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
A BRACKKT-FUNGUS (Polyponis applaiiatiis}
Note the concentric zones marked with match-sticks. Each zone indicates the limit of
a year's growth. The under side of this woody fungus makes an admirable sketching sur-
face. A sharp twig will do for a pencil. The bracket fungus is the fruit-body of a destructive
parasite very common in our forests (see page 417). You do not rid the infected tree of its
fungus parasite by removing the fruit-bodies. The disease is produced by the mycelium (or
spawn) threads, which (more or less compacted into tissues) permeate the wood of the
tree. This particular species has a whitish, porous surface, which is easily embrowned on the
slightest touch — hence its use as a sketching surface.
THE DEADLY AMANITA, OR DE-
STROYING ANGEL (Amanita phal-
loides and its varieties). Deadly poison-
ous !
(Sec Color Plates V, X, and XVI)
"Do not eat mushrooms and you will not be
killed by them."
If every one followed this injunction, fur-
ther advice would be superfluous. That it is
not universally followed is certain, for each
year brings new records of poisoning cases,
most of which are caused by species of Aman-
ita. The first duty of those who insist on eat-
ing mushrooms is, therefore, to become thor-
oughly familiar with the botanical features of
this genus. These once impressed upon the
mind, the danger from Amanita poisoning will
be much reduced if not entirely eliminated.
The following characterization of Amanitas
should be memorized by the beginner as he
would memorize a theorem in geometry :
Any white-scored, more or less free-gilled
fungus that possesses both ring and rolra is a
member of the rery dangerous genus Amanita
(see chart, page 389).
Extremely common in all parts of the coun-
try from June until the first frosts, the deadly
Amanita grows singly or scattered, in and
near both deciduous and coniferous woods, in
the soil, among leaves, particularly where the
ground is low, wet, and not too sandy ; also in
places where woods have recently been cut
down, such as lawns, pastures, and fields in
new suburbs.
The symptoms of poisoning from this fungus
appear much later than those due to Amanita
muscana. The unfortunate victim remains
quite well until seized suddenly with violent
abdominal pain, in from six to fifteen hours
after eating the fungi. Excessive vomiting,
thirst, and either diarrhea or constipation ac-
company the abdominal pain.
The paroxysms of pain may be so severe
that the face becomes drawn, pinched, and of
a livid color (Hippocratic face). The attacks
of pain and vomiting come on periodically, the
patient loses strength rapidly, jaundice fre-
quently sets in, and coma finally develops, fol-
410
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
411
Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
AN UNUSUALLY BEAUTIFUL CORAL MUSHROOM (Hydnitin laciniatuni) GROWING ON
A PROSTRATE TREE
The species is closely related to H. coralloides, shown on page 410. It is edible when white
and fresh. Size : Individual clumps up to 10 inches.
lowed by death. Convulsions may or may not
occur toward the end.
The duration of the illness is from three to
eight daj-s, depending upon the age of the
patient and upon the amount of fungus eaten.
There is no known antidote for the poisons,
and the death-rate is, therefore, very high,
ranging from 60 to 100 per cent.
A description of Atnanita fhalloldes and its
varieties : Cap 2 to 6 inches broad, fleshy, at
first egg-shaped to bell-shaped, then obtusely
convex, finally plane or depressed (concave
when old and overexpanded), usually a little
elevated in the center, but not umbonate, white
(in the spring form, A. t-erna, and in A. ivrosa,
the latter illustrated in Plate X), light yellow-
ish-white, dull yellow or light brown, grayish,
grayish-brown or olive-brown (livid purplish-
brown in A. porfhyria), the disk frequently
darker in some individuals, approaching black
(see Plate XVI), citron-yellow (A. citrina,
illustrated by the figure on the extreme right
in Plate V), greenish yellow, green or olive-
green, occasionally streaked with darker shades
of the prevailing color or with dull reds.
THE HONEY-COLORED MUSHROOM,
OR OAK FUNGUS (Armillaria
mellea). Edible
(Upper figure, Color Plate ^7)
Tete de Medusc is a French common name
for this agaric, the appearance of which in an
orchard is as much feared by the owner of the
trees as was the Gorgon head of old.
Its appetite for living, ligneous substance is
truly astounding. With equal zest it feeds
upon oaks, chestnuts, pines, larches, hemlocks,
and white cedars, reserving for dessert the
grapevine and most fruit trees. When times
are hard and "pickins' -slim," it turns upon
the humble potato. Once, so far as we know,
its attack was met, and this by an orchid.
After a battle for supremacy, the two finally
came to an understanding and decided to work
together for their mutual benefit.
Like most successful organisms, it has a
great capacity for adapting itself. Equally
at home on plains, mountain peaks, and in
mines, it pursues its prey relentlessly, its rapid
propagation being aided by blackish cords
(rhizomorphs) that do reconnoitering duty
under the ground and under the bark of trees.
Even the orchardist plowing over the site
of a tree killed by the Armillaria unwittingly
assists in its distribution by scattering frag-
ments of these rhizomorphs over new feeding
ground.
Much work has been done to combat this
fungus pest, latest among which is that by
Prof. W. T. Home, of the University of Cali-
fornia.
As might be expected in so widely dis-
tributed and adaptable a plant, its tendency
to vary, both in color and in structure, is al-
most limitless (see pages 394 and 395).
412
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE HEDGEHOG HYDNUM (Hydnum erinaceus). EDIBLE
Not infrequently the assiduous mushroom-hunter, "new to the game," finds specimens
that do not tally with his conception of what a mushroom should be like. This is one of
those surprises. Whitish to creamy-white when fresh. Somewhat under natural size.
Photographs by A. G. and B. Leeper
A CORAL MUSHROOM (Clavaria flava). EDIBLE
The novice seeing this remarkable growth for the first time finds it difficult to believe
that it is a mushroom. Branches pale yellow ; base and main stems white. Common in woods
from July to September. .Somewhat under natural size. (For another Clavaria, see Color
Plate V, middle figure.)
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
413
A HUGE, CONSPICUOUS MUSHROOM SOMETIMES FOUND IN FORESTS
herbstii). EDIBLE
This rare and beautiful fungus should be looked for in oak woods. About one-half
natural size.
Because of the acrid taste that is usually
present in the raw plant, it is not rated very
high as an edible species.
This mushroom grows wherever there is
wood to be attacked in the open, commonly in
woods, on the ground, or on decaying stumps
and trunks of trees, singly, scattered, or in
dense clusters; time, mainly in the autumn,
though it may occur as early as June; distri-
bution, cosmopolitan.
THE GARLIC MUSHROOM (Marasmius
scorodonius). Edible
(See Color Plate VI)
Some people enjoy the flavor of garlic. To
these it will be interesting news that they may
have their garlic in mushroom form if they
will enter a pine or spruce forest. Here, in
vast hordes, covering the fallen twigs, sticks,
and needles, grows the little Marasmius. One
cannot mistake the plant, for the odor is so
pronounced that the "nose knows" it before
the eye sees it.
It may be used like garlic, in dressings, and
as a flavor for roasts, etc. Since it occurs in
great abundance and dries readily, it can be
stored for use in the winter, when it will also
prove a reminder of the pleasant days spent
in mushroom-hunting. The dried plants must
be steeped in water before they are employed
in the kitchen.
The. Garlic mushroom grows in woods, espe-
cially of pines, on needles, twigs, etc.; time,
July to October, very plentiful after heavy
rains ; distribution, temperate North America
and Europe ; also in Siberia.
THE LITTLE WHEEL MUSHROOM
(Marasmius rotula). Edible
(See Color Plate VI)
After a summer shower it pays to scrutinize
closely the decaying debris of a near-by wood.
Almost certainly one will see on bark, roots,
and old leaves tufts of this delicate and mar-
velously made little agaric.
Note particularly the manner in which the
hair-like stem is set into the tiny socket, the
sparsity of the gill development, and the fine
furrows and scallopings of the margin of the
cap. A Swiss watchmaker could not excel
such workmanship.
During dry weather the plants shrivel into
invisibility, but, like all members of the genus
Marasmius, they regain their pristine freshness
with the return of rain. Sometimes, as if fa-
tigued from the production of so much minute
workmanship, the plants fail to produce caps,
and the stems, too, are often abnormally grown
together in a branching manner.
For culinary purposes this species is used as
an addition to gravies. When garnishing veni-
414
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE; GEMMED PUFF-BALL (Lycopcrdon gemmatum) FOUXD EVERYWHERE
Though small, this "gem-studded" species is much sought by mushroom-eaters and may be dis-
covered growing scattered or in tufts, usually on the ground. About one-half natural size.
son, it adds the appropriate touch of the wild
woodlands.
This species grows on decaying wood (bark,
roots, and stumps) and on old leaves in woods
of maple, beech, etc. ; time, June to Septem-
ber; distribution, temperate North America,
Europe, and South Africa.
HEDGEHOG MUSHROOMS (Various
species of Hydnum)
(Sec Color Plate VI}
Not infrequently the assiduous mushroom-
hunter, "new to the game," finds specimens
that do not tally at all with his conception of
what a mushroom should be like. He has soon
learned, of course, to recognize the gill tribes
(see page 390), and the Boleti (see page 406),
and perhaps the Clavarias (see page 412), but
should he encounter a toadstool with "teeth,"
he will be nonplussed, until assured by his
mycological mentor that there are such "ani-
mals," and that they go by the name of Hedge-
hog mushrooms.
They are not as frequent as the others, and
therefore all the more of a surprise when met
with. Some are conspicuously beautiful, and
the story that the great Swedish mycologist,
Elias Fries, was attracted to the study of the
fungi on beholding in his youth a specimen of
the snowy-white coral Hydnum may well be
believed (see illustration, page 410).
The teeth, varying in size and color in dif-
ferent species, clothe the lower side of the
fruit-bodies, which may be cap-like, as in
agarics and boleti, branched, solidly formed
into tuberous, fleshy masses, or spread out in
a flat layer. No poisonous species are known,
though many are tough, bitter, or malodorous,
and thus naturally unattractive to the my-
cophagist.
Hydnum fennicuin, the Finnish Hydnum (see
Color Plate VI), is too bitter to be eaten,
but its general aspect gives some idea of the
appearance of the edible H. imbricattim. The
latter species has a more umber-colored, less
reddish cap, no blue discoloration in the flesh
of the stem, a less bitterish taste, and coarser
teeth. Deer are said to be fond of it.
THE CINNAMON CORTINARIUS
(Cortinarius cinnamomeus). Edible
Plants belonging to the bulky genus Corti-
narius are very numerous in our forests dur-
ing the autumn months ; yet. except for a few
well-characterized species, one and all are left
severely alone by the average student of mush-
rooms; this not because of any fear from poi-
soning— the genus is a fairly safe one — but
because of the difficulties attending their study.
It is easy enough to say that one has found a
"Cort" — the term of endearment for members
of this "offish" genus. To determine the plant
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
415
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
GIANT PUFF-BALL (Calvatid gigantea)
The best-known of all puff-balls. A single specimen will suffice for the largest family.
Diameter often fourteen inches and over.
As children, we have all squeezed the puff-ball to make it "puff," little realizing that in
doing this we were liberating billions of spores, which — if everything went well with them —
would produce in turn billions of puff-balls. But there is "many a slip" in the life of a puff-
ball spore. Were this not so, the whole country at the proper season, would be paved with
puff-balls.
A recent investigator, Professor Buller, computing the number of spores in a single
good-sized specimen of the giant puff-ball, found that it contained about seven trillions
(7,000,000,000,000) ; and yet this species is by no means as common as those who know its
delicious flavor would like it to be. One is inclined to ask — as we do about the fate of pins —
what becomes of them all? . . . The plant grows in grassy places, in August and Sep-
tember, sometimes in "fairy-rings." It is not very common, we regret to say.
To escape acceptance of the theory of the spontaneous generation of life, it has been
suggested that extraordinarily minute organisms (bacteria, for example), or their spores,
propelled alive through space, might be capable of carrying life to planets. When it is con-
sidered that the vitality of some spores remains unimpaired after prolonged exposure to
liquid air and even liquid hydrogen, the suggestion seems plausible.
See also pages 392 and 402.
416
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE CUP-SHAPED PUFF-BALL (Calvatio. cyathiformis) COMMON IN FIELDS
The purplish-brown surface, cracked like an alligator's skin, is the distinguishing feature
of this much-hunted species, which grows in pastures and in cultivated lands during August
and September. Less than one-half natural size.
specifically, however, is a different problem,
largely for the reason that it is essential to
have more than one specimen, preferably a
whole series, covering the development from
extreme youth to full maturity.
If such a series is at one's disposal, impor-
tant notes can be made — first, on the difference
in the gill-color of young and old specimens ;
second, on the color of the cobweb-like veil,
present in all true Cortinarii, and on the pres-
ence or absence of a secondary or universal
veil ; third, on the shape, color, and general
surface characters (including degree of sticki-
ness) of the plants.
The species included here and figured in
its natural colors is sometimes found. The
change in the color of the gills is shown, as is
also the difference in the general aspect due
to growth. The amateur would scarcely con-
sider the two plants as belonging to one spe-
cies. To complicate the situation further, this
species has several varieties, one of which, with
blood-red gills, is quite common.
Many species of Cortinarius exhibit beauti-
ful coloration, the light lavender, blue, and
violet-colored ones being noted in this respect.
A few have bright red bands encircling their
stems, as in the common C. armillatus.
THE CHANTRELLE (Cantharellus
cibarius). Edible
(See Color Plate VII)
On special state occasions the golden Chan-
trelle graces the festive board, yet there is no
reason in the world why it should not be on
every man's table throughout the land and
throughout the year. Abundant and easily
recognized, any one may gather it in quantity
and without fear of being poisoned.
Its natural habitat is in forests of spruce,
pine, hemlock, beech, and other trees ; com-
monly found growing in troops, from June to
October. Long cooking over a slow fire, in
a covered vessel, improves both flavor and
consistency. The dressing may be simple or
very elaborate. It dries readily.
Though a somewhat variable fungus, both as
to shape and color, its characteristic, dull-
edged, irregularly forked gills render identifi-
cation easy,
It is a cosmopolitan species, but limited, as
are most fleshy fungi, to the more temperate
regions of the earth (see Clitocybe illudens, the
False Chantrelle, Plate III).
THE PERENNIAL POLYSTICTUS
(Polystictus perennis)
(See Color Plate VII)
When in the woods, "stalking" the edible
fungi, the hunter, sensitive to the beautiful as
well as the useful, cannot but stop to admire
the little cinnamon-colored cups of various
Polystictus species that stud his pathway. The
present species is one of the commonest. A
West African species, the magnificent Poly-
stictus sacer is an object of religious worship
with the natives. Let us hope that it is merely
a worship at the shrine of beauty.
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
417
The genus Polystictus is a member of a
large family, the Polyporaceap. Some of the
bracket- or hoof -shaped species of the poly-
pores are familiar objects to the forest ram-
bler. Unfortunately, they are only too familiar
to the forester, many being very destructive
to our trees. Polypoms applanatus, a common
bracket fungus, deserves notice because of the
use to which it is put by the collector who
combines artistic proclivities with his myco-
logic ones. The under, or hymenial, surface
of this fungus is almost white. Upon the
slightest scratch, however, the white is re-
moved and a dark line appears.
Provided with nothing more than a good
fresh specimen of this fungus and a stylus
in the form of a sharp-pointed branchlet, con-
veniently picked up at his feet, the artist-
mycologist may proceed to sketch the land-
scape. If he has the ability of a Seymour
Hayden or a Pennell, the result will compare
favorably with a good etching. After the fun-
gus is thoroughly dry, the picture is perma-
nently fixed, and it mav then be set up in the
summer bungalow to recall a day pleasantly
and profitably spent (see page 409 for illustra-
tion of P. applanatus}.
THE EQUESTRIAN TRICHOLOMA
(Tricholoma equastre). Edible
{Lower left figure, Color Plate VII)
The Tricholomata are attractive agarics.
Clean, trim, often of elegant stature and beau-
tiful coloring, they have become known in some
countries under the attractive name of Knightly
mushrooms. The time for their appearance
is rather late in the autumn, when the air is
a little chill and the forest foliage is beginning
to glow with Titian's tints.
The present species, the Equestrian tricho-
loma, is one of the better-known examples of
the genus. It is edible and therefore eagerly
sought as soon as the weather is propitious.
The taste is apt to be a little unpleasant in
uncooked plants, but this is true of a number
of edible species, notably of Armillaria mellea
( Plate VI) and of Lactarius piperatus, a very
large, coarse, white, "milk"-exuding species,
common in woods. Conversely, some of the
deadliest species of Amanita give no forewarn-
ing at all through the sense of taste.
The Equestrian tricholoma is found in pine
woods; time, September to November; distri-
bution, North America and Europe.
MORELS. (Edible)
(See Color Plate VII)
The Morel, or Sponge mushroom, belongs
with the Ascomycetes, fungi quite distinct
from those which bear gills, tubes, teeth, etc.
Not only is there a marked departure in the
external form, but the microscopic features,
likewise, show a fundamental difference (see
pages 420-421).
The normal time for Morels to appear is in
spring, though they have been known to occur
in autumn. After a gentle April shower, the
fungus-hunter, betaking himself to the nearest
apple or peach "'orchard, or to recently burnt-
over wooded areas, searches for the light
brownish, fawn-colored, or olive gray, pitted
heads. If luck is with him he doesn't search
long, for he soon finds enough of the coveted
'sponges" to give him his first taste of fresh
mushrooms of the year.
For centuries the Morels have been favorites
with the fungus-epicures. Indeed, so highly
were they regarded by some European peoples
that forests were burned down by them to ob-
tain the substratum best suited to their de-
velopment— a method of procedure that recalls
Ho-ti's way of roasting pigs. In recent years
efforts have been made by French investigators
to grow the plants artificially.
Before proceeding to cook them, the plants
should be washed to remove any earth that
may be lodged in the pits of the cap. Then,
cutting off as little of the stems as possible, the
hollow interior must be thoroughly rinsed with
hot water. Having further assured one's self
that the plants are perfectly fresh, crisp, and
clean, cooking can begin.
The methods of preparation for the table are
various. Stuffed with veal, chicken, or ancho-
vies, and garnished as elaborately as one
pleases, they are especially delicious. But they
lend themselves to any mode of cooking. Penn-
sylvania farmers, who know them as "Mer-
kels," prefer them in a pot-pie.
Different species have been distinguished,
but they are one and all edible when in first-
class condition. Some, like M. esculenta (Color
Plate VII), have a more or less rounded cap;
others are conical in shape (M. conica, page
420), and one, which is said to be better than
the rest, has a somewhat oblong, cylindrical,
olive-gray cap, which is often a little curved
(M. deliciosa, page 420). The species M. semi-
libera is shown in the illustration on page 421.
THE DELICIOUS, OR ORANGE-MILK,
LACTAR (Lactarius deliciosus). Edible
(See Color Plate VII)
When injured, certain fungi have the pecu-
liarity of exuding a colored, uncolored, or
color-changing juice, called "milk," or latex.
Among the larger gill-fungi that have this
property are the members of the genus Lac-
tarius.
Of the numerous edible species, the Orange-
Milk Lactar — so named because of its orange-
colored milk — is the most generally known,
its reputation extending back to the 'old herb-
alists of the sixteenth century, and possibly to
ancient Roman days, for a picture of this spe-
cies, said to be the earliest representation of a
fungus extant, was discovered on a wall in
ill-fated Pompeii.
The following quotations will convey some
idea of the esteem in which it was and is still
held.
Sowerby says: "It is very luscious eating,
full of rich gravy, with a little of the flavour of
mussels." Sir James Smith pronounces it "the
most delicious mushroom known." Other
418
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Natural size or a
Photograph by A. G. and B. lyeeper
THE PEAR-SHAPED PUFF-BALL (Lycoperdon piriformc}
This small, edible species may be found on almost any rotting
stump or log from July to late in the autumn,
little under (see also picture on opposite page).
commendatory comments are : "Good, pre-
served in vinegar" (Richon and Roze) ; "Most
excellent" (Berkeley) ; "Fried with butter and
salt, it has a taste like lamb" (De Seynes).
Dr. Peck, our own more recent authority,
says, it is "one of our most valuable mush-
rooms, but scarcely equal to the best. Doubt-
less differences of opinion concerning it may be
due in part to different methods in cooking,"
With regard to tastes, it is always well to
remember that they are individual; "other-
wise moths would not eat cloth."
When eaten in the raw state, the Orange-
Milk Lactar develops an acrid taste, and when
old its bright-orange coloring changes to dull,
grayish-greenish, unattractive hues. It is,
therefore, inadvisable to eat uncooked or old
specimens. Pickled in vinegar, however, it
is very appetizing when
served as a relish with
cold meats.
This desirable species
is found in moist, mossy
woods of pine, tamarack,
hemlock, etc. : time. July
to October: distribution.
North America and
Europe.
PANJEOLUS Species
Poisonous
(See Color Plate VIII)
Every collector of edi-
ble species should learn
to distinguish the Pan-
aeoli from Agaricus cam-
pcstcr and the Coprini.
Because of the dark,
blackish coloring of their
gills, they are very apt
to get into a mess of
either of these species,
and when this happens
the eater is almost sure
to experience symptoms
of poisoning. The differ-
entiation of the species
is an extremely difficult
matter, but, generically,
they are easily recog-
nized by their slender
stems, grayish or reddish-
brown (sometimes hy-
grophanous), commonly
bell-shaped or obtusely
expanded caps, and — most
important — by the black,
or very nearly black,
spores that are borne on
non-deliquescent gills,
generally in spot-like
areas, causing the gills
to appear mottled with
black.
The symptoms from
Panaeolus poisoning ap-
pear very soon after the
fungi have been eaten, sometimes within fifteen
minutes. They seem to vary slightly, depending,
presumably, upon the species and the amount
consumed. The following have been recorded :
failure of muscular coordination, giddiness,
difficulty in standing, inability to walk, drowsi-
ness, lack of control of the emotions (inordi-
nate hilarity), incoherent or inappropriate
speech. The sight is usually affected, causing
the furniture to appear bent, pliable, and in
motion; and there are visions of beautiful
colors. Temporary paralysis of a limb may
occur.
The effects of the intoxication are said to
pass off within a few hours ; still, it would seem
that emetics ought to be administered without
delay to prevent the complete absorption of
the poisons.
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
419
.Photograph by George Shiras, 3d
THE PEAR-SHAPED PUEE-BALL (Lycopcrdon piriforme)
It is seen growing on and about the base of a tree (for another illustration of this species, see
page 418). The plants are edible as long as the "flesh" is white.
Photograph by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE SKULL- OR BRAIN-SHAPED PUEE-BALL (Cdlvatia craniiformis)
One of the best, so long as the interior is white. Once the color changes, it is very
bitter. Should be looked for in the autumn, in thickets by roadsides. About one-third
natural size.
420
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photographs by A. G. and B. Leeper
MORELS: UPPER FIGURE, Morchella ddiciosa; LOWER FIGURE, MorchcUa cornea.
EDIBLE
After a gentle April shower the fungus-hunter will find these delectable mushroom
morsels growing in old apple and peach orchards or in recently burnt-over wooded areas.
The plants vary m height from two to six inches (see figure, lower right, Color Plate VII
and text, page 417).
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
421
THE BROWX GYROMITRA (Gyromitra brunnca}. EDIBILITY DOUBTFUL
Since one species of Gyromitra is known to be poisonous, it is perhaps just as well to let
them all alone. G. bntnnea reaches a height of seven inches.
Photographs by A. G. and B. Leeper
THE HALF-FREE MORCHELLA (Morchclla scmi-libera). EDIBLE
This morel is small and not as sapid as the larger species. The term "half-free" refers
to the attachment of the cap to the stem. The sectional view on the extreme right shows that
the cap is only half-attached, or half-free. (For other Morels, see page 420 and figure in
lower right, Color Plate, VII.)
422
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
LAWN MUSHROOMS (including Nau-
coria semiorbicularis, edibility doubtful,
and Pholiota praecox, edible)
(Sec Color Plate VIII)
Some one has said that he who wishes to
explore the world should begin at his own
doorstep. Addressed to the incipient mush-
room collector, this maxim imparts wholesome
advice, for without stirring far from home —
yes, within eyeshot of his front door — he can
collect enough species to make a respectable
list, and not a few that will give him some-
thing more substantial in the way of a de-
licious snack of mushrooms; also, he is likely
to encounter some that are poisonous.
Among the species to be looked for on lawns
and other grassy places are :
Naticoria semiorbicularis (see Color Plate
VIII, the small cluster and single figure in
upper right), is very common on lawns. The
caps are somewhat sticky in wet weather and
the stems have a characteristic, easily removed,
pale pith within. Edibility doubtful.
Pholiota frcccox, the early Pholiota (see
Color Plate VIII, showing two plants, young
and old, lower right). This is another com-
mon, edible, mushroom of our lawns. Appears
early in the spring. The young plant shows
the ring before it becomes detached from the
edge of the cap ; the older one shows this
tissue hanging down and covered with a dense
deposit of the rusty-brown spores. The cap
of the early Pholiota varies in color from
darkish ochcr and brownish to a creamy white
more or less pale. Occasionally the surface is
finely cracked into little areas. The variety
shown here grows in thin woods. In young
plants the gills are colored a beautiful warm
gray.
THE GLISTENING COPRINUS
(Coprinus micaceus)
(See Color Plate VIII)
The Glistening Coprinus (Cof>rinus mica-
ceus), illustrated on page 404, is familiar
to ever}' one. It is one of the first mushrooms
to respond to the showers of early spring. Al-
most any stump will yield hundreds of speci-
mens. To save trouble, the abundant crop
should be "harvested" with a pair of shears.
When simmered down they make an excellent
ketchup.
The minute glistening particles on the cap
and the fine, long grooves on the margin of
the same at once mark the species.
THE IMPERIAL AGARIC, OR CAE-
SAR'S MUSHROOM (Amanita
caesarea). Edible
(See Color Plate IX)
This brilliantly colored, stately agaric is the
famed "boletus" served at the feasts of the
emperors of ancient Rome, and lauded in prose
and verse by the writers of that period. So
highly was it esteemed by epicures that they
prepared and cooked the plants themselves, per-
forming these operations with utensils of am-
ber and gold. Special vessels, "boletaria," were
used in cooking the boleti, though in some
households they doubtless got mixed occasion-
ally with other pots and pans. Martial, in his
"Epigrams," lets one that was so treated bewail
its fate :
"Although boleti have given me
so noble a name, I am now
used, I am ashamed to say, for
Brussels sprouts."
From Juvenal we learn that the preparing of
boleti by the young patricians themselves was
regarded as a sign of the mollycoddle, for he
writes :
''Nor will that youth allow any
relative to hope better of him
who has learnt to peel truffles
and to pickle boleti."
Caesar's mushroom grows with us today, its
distribution being limited, however, to the
States east of Ohio. It is especially abundant
in the South, and occurs sparingly as far north
as Nova Scotia. If there is much showery
weather, it may be looked for in open conif-
erous and deciduous woods from July to Octo-
ber. Occasionally it forms huge "fairy-rings."
Except for the very real danger of confound-
ing it with the deadly Anton ft a uniscana
(Color Plates II and XV, and chart, page
389), there is no reason why it should not
again become a favorite with those who, like
the old Romans, are fond of rare delicacies.
But those who wish to try it should postpone
the pleasure until they are thoroughly familiar
with a considerable number of Amanitas, as
an error in observation may mean death, pre-
ceded by horrible agonies (see the symptoms
of poisoning by Amanita nuiscaria, on page
403).
No difficulty will be experienced in avoiding
the citron-colored variety of the deadly Amanita
phalloides (see figure at extreme right of Plate
V). The cap in that variety is never orange,
the gills and stem are never clear yellow, and
the volva is composed of short, thick segments
surrounding the upper part of the large, globu-
lar base of the stem.
[For Color Plate X, see the Deadly Ama-
nita, page 409).
THE SOOTY LACTAR (Lactarius lig-
niotus). Edibility doubtful
(See Color Plate XI)
To the city dweller, who through lorce of
circumstances is allowed a limited number of
cubic feet of air in which he must "live, move,
and have his being," it must be tantalizing to
read that this attractive lactar leads its life in
the cool, mossy depths of the vast fir forests.
In the hot months of July and August, the time
of its occurrence, it is well to have ready this
excuse for an outing: "I am going in quest
of the sooty lactar."
THE FIELD, OR HORSE MUSHROOM (AGARICUS ARVENSIS): Edible
The large plant and sectional view. Somewhat reduced in size.
The strong, sweetish odor given off by this agaric is objectionable to some.
THE COMMON MEADOW-MUSHROOM (AGARICUS CAMPESTER): Edible
Figure at lower right. Under natural size.
When the average person says " mushroom," it is this species that is meant.
THE FLY-MUSHROOM (AMANITA MUSCARIA): Deadly poisonous
Mature specimen. Somewhat under natural size.
This species and Amanit.a phalloides (see Nos. X and XVI) are the common causes of serious mushroom-
poisoning (for figures of young plants, see No. XV).
JACK-O'-LANTERN (CLITOCYBE ILLUDENS): Poisonous
About four-fifths natural size.
A conspicuous object by daylight, this Clitocybe is also visible in the profoundest darkness, the phos-
phorescent light which it emits betraying its presence. Should not be confounded with the edible Chantrelle
(see No. VII, figure at upper right).
Ill
I
THE EDIBLE BOLETUS, THE "CEPE" OF COMMERCE (BOLETUS EDULIS)
Somewhat under natural size.
The mushroom connoisseur should cultivate the acquaintance of this most excellent species.
IV
Upper figure: THE HONEY MUSHROOM, OR OAK FUNGUS (ARMILLARIA MELLEA) :
Edible. This common agaric is the bane of the orchardist (see also photographs and text). Figure in the
middle on the left: THE GARLIC MUSHROOM (MARASMIUS SCORODONIUS) : Edible. The
odor of garlic is so pronounced in this little species that the " nose knows " it before the eye sees it. Figure
in the middle on the right : THE LITTLE WHEEL MUSHROOM (MARASMIUS ROTULA): Edible.
When garnishing venison, this dainty Marasmius adds the appropriate touch of the wild woodlands. Lower
figure: THE FINNISH HYDNUM (HYDNUM FENNICUM). This species is too bitter to be eaten,
but the nearly related H. imbricatum is a great favorite with European peoples. All figures about two-thirds
natural size.
Upper left: THE CINNAMON CORTINAR1US (CORTINARIUS CINNAMOMEVS). The Cin-
namon Cortinarius is not highly recommended as an edible species. Upper right : THE CHANTRELLE
(CANTHARELLUS C1BARIUS): Edible. (See Clitocybe illudens, No. Hi.) Upper middle: THE PER-
ENNIAL POLYSTICTUS (POLYSTICTUS PERENNIS). "Stalking" fungi, the hunter, sensitive to
beauty as well as usefulness, must stop to admire this species. Lower left : THE EQUESTRIAN TRI-
CHOLOMA (TRICHOLOMA EQUESTRE): Edible. They appear in our forests late in autumn. Lower
right: THE MOREL (MORCHELLA ESCULENT A): Edible. Esteemed by epicures. Lower middle:
THE DELICIOUS, OR ORANGE-MILK LACTAR (LACTARIUS DELICIOSUS) : Edible. " It is
very luscious eating, full of rich gravy, with a little of the flavour of mussels." All figures about two-
thirds natural size.
Upper left : A species of PAN^OLUS (poisonous). Upper right : NAUCORIA SEMI-ORBICU-
LARIS (edible qualities doubtful). Lower left : THE GLISTENING COPRINUS (COPRINUS MICA-
CEUS): Edible. Lower right: THE EARLY PHOLIOTA (PHOL1OTA PR&COX): Edible. All
figures about two-thirds natural size.
VIII
•.
• 8'
CESAR'S MUSHROOM (AMANITA CJESAREA): Edible
Somewhat under natural size.
History tells us that a dish of this mushroom, "seasoned" with mineral poisons, constituted the last
meal of the Roman Emperor, Claudius Caesar. His wife, Agrippina, did the seasoning.
IX
I
THE DESTROYING ANGEL (AMANITA PHALLOIDES VAR. VIROSA).
Deadly poisonous. About four-fifths natural size.
One of the worst of the man-killing mushrooms. Note the "death-cup" at the base of the stem (see
No. XVI ; and No. V, figure oh right).
X
THE SOOTY LACTAR (LACTARIUS LIGNIOTUS): Edibility doubtful
Somewhat under natural size.
The play of light on the velvety coat of this species attracts the artist who delights in texture rendering.
XI
THE SHAGGY-MANE (COPRINUS COMATUS): Edible
About four-fifths natural size.
The oval caps of the Shaggy-mane, poised on end, like Columbus' egg, are familiar objects on lawns
and other rich grounds. Note the " cord " suspended in the hollow of the stem.
XII
THE GYPSY (PHOLIOTA CAPERATA)-. Edible
Somewhat under natural size.
Though commonly known as Pholiota caperata, this species has been so much thrown about, from genus
to genus, that, like the gypsies, it may be said to be quite homeless ; whether this is the reason for its com-
mon name has not been ascertained.
XIII
•"~~
THE PARASOL MUSHROOM (LEPIOTA PROCERA) -. Edible
About four-fifths natural size.
The Parasol is a prime favorite with mushroom eaters — so much so, that one shares a mess of it only with
one's best friend.
XIV
THE FLY-MUSHROOM (AMANITA MUSCARIA): Deadly poisonous
Young specimens. Natural size.
A mature specimen is shown in No. II.
XV
THE DEADLY AMANITA (AMANITA PHALLOIDES)
Somewhat under natural size.
The avoidance of Amanita Phalloides and A. muscaria (see No. II) should be the first concern of the
mycophagist.
XVI
COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES
439
Fully to appreciate its beauty, one should see
the plant in Nature's own setting, as it reposes
upon a fresh, green, mossy bank at the foot
of a great fir, with the crystalline drops of the
morning dew still studding the smooth, velvety
coat, with birds singing overhead and squirrels
scolding us for calling at such an unseasonable
hour in the morning.
THE INK MUSHROOMS, OR INK-
CAPS (Species of Coprinus)
(See Color Plate XII)
The Ink-caps need no formal introduction,
for every one has seen the "Shaggy-mane"
(Coprinus comatus) (Color Plate XII) stand-
ing on end, like Columbus' egg, in lawns and
other grassy places. If one returns later one
may behold
"Their mass rotted off them flake by flake,
Till the thick stalk stuck like a murderer's
stake.
Where rags of loose flesh yet tremble on high,
Infecting the winds that wander by."
Shelley's lurid lines allude to the liquefaction
of the caps, a feature which at once distin-
guishes the Coprini from other black-spored
agarics. It is, however, not a process of putre-
faction, as the poet would have us believe, but
a natural physiological one.
Shaggy-manes are rapid growers, and, com-
ing up in dense masses, as they sometimes do,
thej' are capable of producing considerable
pressure upon objects that obstruct their
growth. The writer knows of a case where a
thick, newly laid concrete walk was broken up
for some distance by a colony of these large,
yet tender, mushrooms.
The black "ink" into which the caps of Cop-
rini dissolve can be employed for writing. In-
deed, in France, during the war, it was pro-
posed that Coprinus ink be used in place of the
regular article, which was becoming more and
more expensive. But even in peace times the
mushroom ink would prove valuable, as it
could be used in legal documents or in any
important papers that are apt to be fraudu-
lently imitated.
Ink from some especially rare species with
well-marked spore characters would be well-
nigh impossible to imitate, as the microscope
would divulge instantly and beyond peradven-
ture whether the fluid was obtained from the
rare Coprinus. To make matters still more
difficult for forgers, characteristic, easily rec-
ognized spores from other rare species — not
necessarily black-spored nor from agarics —
could be added to this forgery-proof and in-
delible writing fluid. Small amounts of gum
arabic and essence of cloves in the ink will
give adhesiveness and a pleasant odor.
The edibility of the Coprini (see also Glis-
tening Coprinus, Color Plate VIII) is unques-
tioned by most writers, but care should be ex-
ercised that only fresh specimens are utilized,
and that they be cooked without delay, as
deliquescence sets in very soon.
THE WRINKLED PHOLIOTA, OR
THE GYPSY (Pholiota caperata).
Edible
(See Color Plate XIII)
The ocher-colored cap with whitish, fleecy,
silky fibrils scattered over the central portion,
the brownish-yellow, longitudinally wrinkled,
saw-edged gills, together with the slightly vol-
vate, whitish stem that bears a double-edged
ring about midway of its length, make the
Wrinkled Pholiota one of the most easily
recognized species.
It is quite common, growing scattered or
gregariously in woods (especially of pine), in
mossy swamps, and in open places, from July
to October. Its edibility is unquestioned.
THE PARASOL MUSHROOM (Lepiota
procera). Edible
(See Color Plate XIV)
Happy is the mushroom-hunter if, after a
foray, his "bag" includes many Parasols, for it
is not often that he encounters this most de-
sirable species in sufficient quantity to satisfy
his appetite.
Though pretty effectually camouflaged in
coloring, its great height makes it a conspicu-
ous object. A giant specimen once reported to
the writer measured seven inches across the
cap and twenty-two inches in stem length.
This monster mushroom was found growing
among low blueberry bushes — a fact that would
seem to indicate an acid food requirement for
the species.
Successful efforts have been made in France
to cultivate the plant from its spores, and Pro-
fessor Duggar, in this country, has demon-
strated that it responds vigorously to the
tissue-culture method. It is to be hoped that
some of our pure-culture spawn-producers will
take up the problem and produce the spawn on
a commercial scale, so that it may be bought
by growers. Lepiota rhacodes, a near relative
and just as desirable, might prove even more
responsive to culture methods.
In the opinion of gourmets, the Parasol
mushroom is at its best when quickly broiled
over the live embers of a camp-fire, with just
enough basting with hot butter to keep it from
burning. Then, properly seasoned and served
with a partridge or two, the gustatory appara-
tus experiences sensations not readily for-
gotten.
Such an eventuality as an oversupply almost
never happens, but if by rare chance more
specimens should be collected than can be at
once disposed of, it is well to remember that
dry they are even better than fresh.
The habitat of the Parasol mushroom is
meadows, pastures, and open, thin woods;
time, summer and early autumn; distribution,
cosmopolitan.
[For Color Plate XV, see the Fly Mush-
room, page 403.]
[For Color Plate XVI, see the Deadly Ama-
nita, page 409.]
HURDLE RACING IN CANOES
A Thrilling and Spectacular Sport Among the Maoris
of New Zealand
BY WALTER BURKE
THE title of this article sounds like
a fairy tale; yet hurdle racing in
canoes is a highly developed sport
among the Xe\v Zealand Maoris.
Two or three things are necessary for
the sport: First, the canoes must be dug-
outs. The dainty canoes so popular on
the American lakes and rivers and the
beautiful birch-barks of the Canadian
voyageurs would be too fragile, crump-
ling up like matchwood at the first hurdle.
A swift-running river is also desirable,
in order that the crews may have the help
of the increased speed given by the cur-
rent to carry the centers of the canoes
over the hurdle. This is an important
consideration, as can be seen from the
photographs. And the contestants must
be good swimmers. As every Maori —
man. woman, or child — is, there is no risk
of drowning, even in the roughest water.
One sees the game at its very best at
Ngaruawahia, a village in the North
Island, a little south of Auckland, on the
seventeenth of March in any year — St.
Patrick's Day.
At this point the Waikato. one of the
finest rivers in the Dominion, widens out
and sweeps round a bend to meet another
branch. The river carries a great volume
of water, draining an enormous water-
shed in the center of the island, including
Lake Taupo, into which some thirty
streams discharge. The Waikato plunges
over the Huka Falls, a miniature Ni-
agara, below which are the Aratiatia
Rapids, quite impassable for any boat.
It is at this point that it is proposed to
generate sufficient electricity to run the
railway system of the North Island.
Prior to the day, the Maoris collect
from all the adjacent territory, bringing
with them their prize canoes, each dug
out of the trunk of a tree. Some of these
boats are large enough to carry a crewr of
from thirty to more than forty paddlers.
These are not for hurdling, however!
The secret — more or less — trials pro-
ceed : training is keen and hard ; the bet-
ting heavy, for most Maoris are well-to-
do and are keen sportsmen, willing to
gamble on anything, from "fly loo" to a
horse-race ! The excitement progresses
till the eventful day. when special trains
bring immense numbers of Maoris and
Pakehas (white people) from far and
near.
The program includes many and varied
events, but the great attraction is the
hurdle racing, just as the steeplechase
attracts the eager crowd at a turf event.
Of course, in saying this, I am not belit-
tling the excitement over the big canoe
races. There is not the fun in these,
however, as there are no accidents, while
the hurdle racing is one continuous series
of them — a spill at practically each hur-
dle, of which there are usually three or
four.
Unless the bow of the canoe is well out
of the water, it cannot take the hurdle,
which is from twelve to eighteen inches
above the surface. The object is to get
up such speed that when the bow slides
on to the hurdle the smooth and well-
greased bottom will continue to glide till
past the center of gravity, when the mem-
bers of the crew run forward and their
weight causes the bow to go down with a
"flop" and the stern slides off. The bow
usually dips under and partly fills the
canoe with water, which is removed by
rocking or is splashed out with the aid
of the flat of the paddle.
This is the program when all goes well !
And it will probably happen when one
canoe can shoot away from the others
and negotiate the first hurdle alone. But
usually about four or five canoes come
down almost simultaneously, the crews
yelling like fiends, and there is a thrilling
mix up, from which the brainiest crew,
with the best of luck, gets out of the ruck
and away.
HURDLE RACING IX CANOES
441
© Walter Burke
MAORI WOMEN ARE SKILLFUL PARTICIPANTS IN THESE CONTESTS: THIS IS A RACE
FOR MATRONS
One boat has upset. The Maori women, like the men, are expert swimmers and a spill in
the water is not fraught with danger.
:r Burke
NINETY PADDLES CHURNING THE WATER
Note the uniformity of stroke and the level keels. The use of a hollowed log as a canoe
makes skill a necessity. The principal races among the Maoris of New Zealand take place
on St. Patrick's Day.
442
443
444
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
First Account of Remarkable Prehistoric Tombs and
Temples Recently Unearthed on the Island
/
BY WILLIAM ARTHUR GRIFFITHS
Original photographs by courtesy of R. Ellis and Lieutenant Tickle
MALTA is but a tiny island, less
than a hundred square miles in
area, with no special beauty of
hill or dale, almost without tree or stream,
yet by the inscrutable decree of Destiny
it has been called to fill a great role in
the history of the world.
Situated in the narrowest part of the
Mediterranean, it lies in the direct route
from Gibraltar to Port Said or the Dar-
danelles, midway from Italy to its turbu-
lent colony of Tripoli and from the
French territory of Tunis to their watch-
tower at Corfu, at the mouth of the
Adriatic (see map, page 449).
Nature has thus ordained that Malta,
by reason of its position, should form a
center from which naval activity in this
sea can be controlled.
"Some are born great . . . and
some have greatness thrust upon them."
It is to the latter class that Malta be-
longs.
Since the outbreak of the World War,
Malta has resembled the Tower of Babel
after the confusion of tongues. In its
harbors transport after transport has
anchored, each crowded with troops of
varied race — English, Scot, Irish, Welsh,
Australian, New Zealander, French, Ital-
ian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese ma-
rine, Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek, Cre-
tan, Hindu, Bengali, Gurkha, Pathan,
men from Ceylon and the Straits, Maori,
Chinese, Annamite, Tonquinese, Egyp-
tian, Moor, Arab, Tunisian, Congolese,
Senegalese, Zouave and Chasseur d'Af ric,
gay Bersaglieri — in seemingly unending
procession.
Here also came, as prisoners, Aus-
trians, Bulgars, Turks, and Germans,
some from the famous Emdcn.
Malta was indeed a Haven of -Refuge,
and all too soon they passed onward,
some to .find a watery grave, many more
to die by murderous poison gas, by fiery
burning oil, or by more merciful shot and
shell.
Soon Malta became the Island of Hos-
pitals, where the sick and maimed, the
fever-stricken and blind, found such rest
and comfort as this world can give. Ere
long this privilege was denied, as the
enemy submarine spared neither hospital
nor passenger ship, woman nor child.
"A PLACE OF CURSED STEPS"
Malta has thus been the halting place
of many nations, and one wonders what
thought or message it has given to them.
"A place of cursed steps," was Byron's
unpoetic tribute. "Bells, yells, and
smells" is the terse but graphic descrip-
tion of the British bluejacket, while to
the majority of visitors it is merely a
treeless waste of arid stone, almost in-
candescent in the blinding glare of the
summer sun.
In each of these descriptive phrases
there is much truth ; yet to those who
peer below the surface Malta is one of
the treasure-houses of the world, where
the history of mankind can be read in
lasting tables of stone.
Untold ages ago coral insects laid the
early foundations of Malta, their work
being afterward submerged to a great
depth. Memorials of the latter period
are found in the beautifully enameled
teeth, about six inches long, of sharks
now extinct, identical with those dredged
up in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean
by the Challenger deep-sea expedition.
Slowly the land rose again, receiving
the soil and debris from the fresh-water
river of some continent now unknown.
Thus were formed the marl beds to which
Malta owes her means of maintaining
life, as without this layer of clay the rain
would sink and be lost. Next came a
layer of sand, and again the coral insect
brought the land to the surface of the
445
446
448
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Helene Philippe
THE FORTIFICATIONS OF VALLETTA ARE PARTLY HEWN IN THE ROCK
Enthroned above its harbors, the chief seaport of the Maltese group of islands is one of the
most picturesque cities of the Mediterranean.
sea. Many changes occurred, until Malta
emerged as part of a mighty continent.
Dimly is seen Africa joined to Spain,
Tunis, Sicily, Malta, and Italy, their
shores washed by fresh-water lakes in
which disported elephant, hippopotamus,
crocodile, and land tortoise, until the
floods descended and the earth was
moved, turning the lakes into salt seas
and forming the island of Malta.
PREHISTORIC MEN OF MALTA LEFT THEIR
MARK IN CART RUTS
In the caves of Malta, notably that of
Ghar Dalam, are to be found the rolled
fossil teeth and bones of the great and
pigmy elephant, two species of hippo,
petrified remains of stag, bear, and wolf,
all wielded into a solid mass.
As the vertical section of these de-
posits is examined, there appears toward,
the top the first signs of man-worked
flints, sling-stones, neolithic pottery, and
human bones. Thus is found the first
trace of man in Malta.
Whether "Drift Man" was ever an in-
habitant of Malta is a moot point for
academic discussion. In a hilltop exca-
vation, the underground galleries of Hal
Saflieni, the ceilings of some of the rooms
are covered with red clay paintings of
spiral design suggesting a connection
with the period of the painted caves of
the Pyrenees (see also page 471). It is
MALTA: THE HALTINT, PLACE OF NATIONS
449
A SKETCH MAP OF MALTA, A TINY ISLAND WHICH HAS PLAYED A GREAT ROLE IN
WORLD HISTORY (SEE PAGES 450-454)
established beyond doubt, however, that
Malta was inhabited by man before it
assumed its present shape.
In many parts of the island where the
bare rock is exposed there can be seen
deep parallel lines — cart ruts — winding
their way quite irrespective of the pres-
ent centers of abode. Some of the cart
ruts lead direct to the cliffs, while others
can be traced under an arm of the sea,
coming up again on the opposite shore.
In other cases the tracks are broken by
a geological fault, the ruts continuing on
a different level. Many ruts are now
covered by several feet of earth, fields
having been formed on their sites (see
page 455).
In later Stone Age times Malta pos-
sessed a considerable population, judging
from the wonderful buildings erected in
those days. Some have been investigated,
but the majority are still untouched.
Beside the magnificent temple of Gi-
gantia in Gozo, Malta possesses the un-
rivaled erections of Hagar Kim (page
457) , Mnaidra ( page 459) , Corradino, Hal
Saflieni Hypogeum (page 459), and Hal
Tarxien (page 469), as well as numerous
rough stone monuments and altars techni-
cally known as menhirs and dolmens.
The extent of some of the prehistoric
buildings and the wonderful skill dis-
played in their erection show that man
had reached a high state of knowledge
even in the far-off days of B. C. 5000.
From an examination of the skeletons
of the polished-stone age, it appears that
the early inhabitants of Malta were a
race of long-skulled people of lower
medium height, akin to the early people
of Egypt, who spread westward along
the north coast of Africa, whence some
went to Malta and Sicily and others to
Sardinia and Spain.
There appears little doubt but that the
early Maltese belonged to the same stock
as the Iberians of Spain, the Basques of
the Pyrenees, the Gauls of France, and
the small, dark men of Cornwall, South
Wales, and Ireland.'"
THE ARRIVAL OF THE PHOENICIANS
The Bronze Age dwellers in Malta left
behind many interesting relics, a burial
place having been found on the site of
the Stone Age temple of Hal Tarxien,
whose ruined walls doubtless provided
good shelter for their funeral fires. Nu-
merous urns containing human ashes
were found, together with many personal
ornaments, the whole providing a very
good insight into their belief that the
departed were not dead, but merely re-
moved into another sphere, where they
required the same food and other neces-
saries as in this life.
History proper starts in Malta with
* See "The Races of Europe," by Edwin A.
Grosvenor, in the NATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGA-
2 INK for December, 1918.
450
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by S. I*. Cassar
MANY OF THE THOROUGHFARES OF VALLETTA, MALTA'S
PRINCIPAL CITY, CONSIST OF FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.
THIS IS THE STRADA SANTA LUCIA
Perched high upon a peninsula a mile and a half long and a half
mile wide, Valletta looks down on the Grand Harbor on the east
and on the Marsamuscetto Harbor to the west.
the visits of the Phoenician traders, about
B. C. 1500. On the Gigantia at Gozo is
an inscription in Phoenician lettering, the
usual script in the Mediterranean until
the advent of Greek or Latin characters.
The ships of Tarshish found Malta a
valuable port of call, and in this fact lay
Malta's fate. In common with all islands,
its whole prosperity has depended on the
good-will of the ruling sea power, from
the days of Tyre to the very present
hour. Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans,
Vandals, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards,
Turks — all in succes-
sion held power in
Malta by reason of
their fleets.
It is doubtful if the
Punic domination af-
fected the character-
istics of the Maltese
race, as this was
probably only a rul-
ing and trading caste,
few in number. It is
likely that during this
time or in early Ro-
man days the custom
of burial in hillside
caves was adopted.
Thousands of these
tomb caves exist. In
them is generally
found an urn full of
broken human bones,
with a flat plate placed
over the mouth and a
clay lamp on the plate.
Bottles of food and
water were also
placed in the tomb.
Beautiful glass ves-
sels of iridescent blue,
purple, and green are
also frequently found
in these graves.
The capital of Malta
was situated far from
the coast — about six
miles — on the highest
land, the present No-
tabile. Here, outside
the city walls, were
excavated the cata-
combs which extend
to a considerable dis-
tance. The fact that the sign of the
seven-branch candlestick is carved over
some of the entrances would suggest a
Jewish ownership, but this is open to
doubt, as the Jews have rarely thrived
in Malta.
WHERE ST. PAUL WAS SHIPWRECKED
At Notabile was the seat of the Roman
governor. His residence has been re-
cently excavated and many interesting
relics found. In A. D. 60 St. Paul was
shipwrecked in the bay now known by
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
451
his name, and in the
Acts of the Apostles
is this account of his
stay in the island:
"And when they
were escaped, then
they knew that the
island was called Me-
lita.
"And the barbar-
ous people shewed us
no little kindness :
for they kindled a
fire, and received us
every one, because of
the present rain, and
because of the cold.
"And when Paul
had gathered a bun-
dle of sticks, and laid
them on the fire, there
came a viper out of
the heat, and fastened
on his hand.
"And when the bar-
barians saw the ven-
omous beast hang1 on
his hand, they said
among themselves. No
doubt this man is a
murderer, whom,
though he hath es-
caped the sea, yet ven-
geance suffereth not
to live.
"And he shook off
the beast into the fire,
and felt no harm.
"H o w b e i t they
looked when he
should have swollen,
or fallen down dead
suddenly: but after they had looked a
great while, and saw no harm come to
him, they changed their minds, and said
that he was a god.
"In the same quarters were possessions
of the chief man of the island, whose
name was Publius : who received us, and
lodged us three days courteously.
"And it came to pass, that the father
of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a
bloody flux : to whom Paul entered in,
and prayed, and laid his hands on him,
and healed him.
"So when this was done, others also,
Photograph by A. W. Cutler
A FAMILIAR NAME IN A FOREIGN PORT
''The First and Last Lodging House" may be seen at Valletta.
Malta, the name suggesting those inns and road-houses on the out-
skirts of American cities which formerly intimated by the name
"First and Last Chance" that liquid refreshment might be had inside.
which had diseases in the island, came,
and were healed :
"Who also honoured us with many
honours ; and when we departed, they
laded us with such things as were neces-
sary.
"And after three months we departed
in a ship of Alexandria." . . .
St. Paulo and St. Publio are very
prominent names in the ecclesiastical his-
tory of the island, and to this day the
activities of St. Paul in Malta are recited
in great detail.
After the fall of Rome Malta became
4.V2
THE XAT1OXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
FISHING IN THE HARP.OR: VALLETTA, MALTA
Malta is only 60 miles from Sicily, 140 miles from the mainland of Italy, and 180 miles
from Africa. The cool evening breeze which comes from snow-capped Mount Etna is one
of the delightful climatic features of the island.
Photographs by S. L. Cassar
A FISHERMEN'S LANDING PLACE AT VALLETTA
The Maltese are famous throughout the Mediterranean as fishermen, merchants, and
mariners. According to a recent census, the fishing industry employed about 3,000 persons
operating 900 boats.
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF XATIOXS
453
subject to various powers, until finally
the Arabs, who also ruled Sicily, took
possession. While excavating the Roman
governor's villa at Xotabile several Arab
graves were found, all pointing east-
ward. Their Semitic inscriptions seemed
strangely out of place in a Roman ruin.
The Arabs built the fortress of St. An-
gelo. which guards the entrance to the
Grand Harbor, on a site formerly occu-
pied by a Roman temple dedicated to
Juno.
In A. D. 1090 Count Roger of Nor-
mandy, having conquered Sicily, landed
at Malta and exacted tribute from the
Arabs. An inscribed stone over the en-
trance to Fort St. Angelo records the
Norman victory, and several beautiful
Norman buildings are still to be seen at
Notabile.
The Arabs finally left Malta about A.
D. 1250, having exercised rule over the
island for nearly 400 years, doubtless fa-
cilitated by their language, which is
closely akin to Maltese.
During the next three centuries Malta
did not figure largely in history. It
lacked agricultural resources and was
periodically ravaged by the commanders
of Turkish fleets, who dragged the un-
fortunate inhabitants into slavery, while
famine and plague often followed in
their wake.
In 1530 the population of the island
did not exceed 25,000 and was probably
considerably less.
THE BIRTH OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
In that year a great change occurred.
Charles V of Spain granted the islands
of Malta and Gozo, together with the
town of Tripoli, in Africa, to the Order
of St. John of Jerusalem, afterward
known as the Knights of Malta.
In the early nth century a pilgrimage
to the holy places at Jerusalem was a
very arduous and dangerous undertaking
and many pilgrims died from exhaustion.
A hospital was founded about 1085 at
Jerusalem for the use of pilgrims and
was dedicated to St. John. To meet
various requirements, the hospital was
reorganized and an Order instituted, con-
sisting of ecclesiastics, to administer to
the spiritual wants of the pilgrims, lay
brothers for secular duty, and knights
for defense and protection.
After the capture of Jerusalem by the
Saracens, Crusaders from all kingdoms
of Christendom hastened eastward and
the Knights of St. John, then installed
at Acre, added members of many nation-
alities to their number. In 1252 the
Pope granted the title of Grand Master
to the head of the Knights.
For general convenience, the Order
was divided into subdivisions according
to the principal languages spoken by its
members. The sections of the Order
were the "Langues" of Provence, Au-
vergne, France, Italy, Aragon, Catalonia,
Navarre, England, Germany, Castile,
Leon, and Portugal. The Langue d'An-
gleterre was dissolved in 1540, at the
Reformation. An Anglo-Bavarian Lan-
gue was reinstituted in the i8th century.
Each Langue had its own headquarters,
or "Auberge," and those built at Malta
are monuments of architectural beauty.
They are now used chiefly as government
offices and during the World War were
scenes of intense activity.
THE TURKS DEFEATED BY LA VALLETTE
The Order removed from Acre to
Cyprus and thence to Rhodes, where its
headquarters remained until the island's
fall, in 1522.* The old bond between
Rhodes and Malta was commeiporated
by the Pope, who gave the Bishop of
Malta the title of Archbishop of Rhodes.
In 1565 the Turkish fleets made a
powerful attack on Malta, but were
finally defeated by Grand Master La Val-
lette, who built the city of Valletta in
memory of the victory. The Cathedral
of St. John, in Valletta, was also built as
a burial place for the Grand Masters, the
remains of those previously interred in
the Chapel of Fort St. Angelo being
transferred.
In the latter part of the i8th century
the Langue de France was the richest
and most powerful section of the Order.
Lack of military enterprise and luxurious
living, however, sapped the power and
prestige of the Knights, who were cordi-
ally hated by the Maltese. The French
Revolution at one blow deprived this
* See "Historic Islands and Shores of the
JEgean Sea." by Ernest Lloyd Harris, in the
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, Sept., 1915.
454
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by W. A. Griffiths
TOMB OF GRAND MASTER CARAFA IX ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
VALLETTA : MALTA
Tliis cathedral. was built in 1573-77. The interior was elaborately
decorated as the Temple of Fame for the Order of the Knights of
St. John. The chapels were dedicated to the nine nations of the
order (see page 453).
poleon, profiting by
the temporary absence
of the British fleet
from the Mediterra-
nean, seized the island
on his way to Egypt.
He expelled all mem-
bers of the Order,
confiscating f'h e i r
property and also that
of the Church.
It is related that
the solid silver gates
of the Sacramental
Chapel of the Cathe-
dral of St. John were
hastily painted over,
in the hope of escap-
ing notice, but in vain.
They were, however,
redeemed at a great
price, together with
the twelve silver stat-
ues of the Apostles.
HOW THE HISTORIC
CROZIER WAS SAVED
The historic crozier
that had been brought
from Rhodes escaped
the enemy by being
thrown into a cistern
by the verger. The
priests afterward ac-
cused the verger of
having stolen it, re-
fusing to believe his
statement ; but even
on his deathbed he
Langue of most of its revenue, and a
similar fate soon befell the other sec-
tions.
In the course of the next few years
the Order sank and for a time dwindled
into oblivion. The Order still exists in
England and works in conjunction with
the St. John's Ambulance Society and
British Red Cross Society, all of which
rendered magnificent service during the
World War.
In 1798 the wheel of Fate again
brought Malta into prominence. Na-
persisted in his story,
and so the cistern
was drained and the
crozier found.
After Napoleon's departure a governor
was appointed to rule on behalf of the
French Republic. Soon afterward the
British fleet returned and won the Battle
of the Nile over the French. Then
the Maltese arose against the French gar-
sison, which was blockaded by the Brit-
ish. After a gallant defense, lasting two
years, the garrison finally was forced by
famine to surrender.
After peace came Britain proposed to
restore the island to the Order of St.
John, but the piteous appeals of the Mai-
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
455
tese at last prevailed
and Malta became in-
corporated into the
British Empire — • a
very happy decision
for its inhabitants.
Year in, year out,
fresh trade has flowed
through Malta, at last
secure from every
foe. The ships of the
world soon thronged
its harbors.
In 1825 the famous
American frigate
Constitution anchored
at Malta, while after
the battle of Nava-
rino, in 1827, the Brit-
ish. French, and Rus-
sian fleets returned
there also.
The change from
sail to steam necessi-
tated the provision of
greater 'dockyard fa-
cilities for the British
fleet in the Mediter-
ranean, and millions
of dollars have since
been spent in Malta
for this purpose,
bringing employment
and trade to the Mal-
tese such as they had
never known before.
The opening of the
Suez Canal brought
still further prosper-
ity, while the in-
creased size of war-
ships necessitated further new docks and
workshops, providing still more employ-
ment for the skillful and industrious in-
habitants of the island.
BAFFLING EVIDENCE OF A REMOTE
CIVILIZATION
Reference has been made in the pre-
ceding pages to the wonderful prehistoric
remains in Malta. These are extremely
abundant and afford much tangible evi-
dence of the civilization of a past so re-
mote as to be prior to the age of hiero-
glyphics and inscriptions and even of oral
tradition. Their study, therefore, af-
Photograph by A. W. Cutler
THIS MALTA MORTUARY HAS FOR ITS MURAL DECORATIONS
MORE THAN 2,OOO HUMAN SKULLS
These grim relics belonged to the defenders of the island who were
killed by the Turks in the l6th century.
fords wide scope for theory, but the lack
of absolute knowledge renders it a most
tantalizing, though fascinating, pursuit.
Possibly the oldest existing evidences
of civilization in Malta are the cart ruts
previously mentioned. These exist in
nearly every part of the island, cutting
and intersecting each other to such an
extent as to make the student almost
despair of ever unraveling their mystery.
If all the old tracks were traced and in-
serted on a map, the sites of the centers
of habitation in prehistoric times would
doubtless be revealed (see page 449).
In an arm of the Bay of Marsa Sci-
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by S. I*. Cassar
THE CHAPEL OF BONES IX VALLETTA: MALTA
Malta not only has ruins in which prehistoric man buried his thousands, as at Hal Saflieni,
where the remains of 33,000 persons were found, but also such chapels as this, where the
bones of the knights of the Middle Ages are preserved.
rocco. at the southeast end of the island,
there are about sixty round, bottle-necked
pits or wells cut out of the foreshore rock.
A number of these are now under the sea.
Directly over the mouths of some of them
run two deep ruts, which lead into the sea
and reappear on the opposite shore about
a quarter of a mile away.
STORAGE WELLS EOR OIL OR WATER
The original purpose of these wells is
not known, but it has been suggested
they were intended for storing fresh
water, grain or oil and were built at the
edge of the water for convenience of
shipment, thus suggesting evidence of
foreign trade.
Black tufa stone rubbers were im-
ported from Sicily and obsidian from
the Greek islands has also been found.
Similar pits, however, are found at the
top of the high cliffs near a prehistoric
village called Bahria.
Near this site is a megalithic ruin
called Borg en Nadur, which recalls in
shape those curious Sardinian towers, the
nuraghi,* and the cart tracks appear to
lead from that place to another neolithic
erection on the opposite shore.
Possibly the Phoenicians utilized the
Stone Age erections for their own sacri-
ficial purposes, as a votive pillar was
found in this neighborhood having an
inscription in two languages, recording
in Phoenician a vow to Melkarte, Lord
of Tyre, and one to Hercules Archigetas
in Greek.
The prehistoric remains consist chiefly
of temples, villages, dolmens, menhirs,
storage places, and tombs.
The best-known temples are Gigantia.
in Gozo, the small island four miles
northwest of Malta, and Hagar Kim,
Mnaidra, »Corradino, and Tarxien, in
Malta (see also page 473). The last
*See "Little-known Sardinia," by Helen
Dunstan Wright in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE for August. 1916.
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
457
Photograph by W. A. Griffiths
THE SOLID SILVER GATES OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH: MALTA
When Napoleon stopped at the island on his way to Egypt he expelled the Knights of
Malta, confiscating their property and that of the Church. These silver gates were hastily
painted, in the hope that they would escape notice, but in vain. They were subsequently
redeemed at a great price.
named was discovered very recently and
is only partly excavated. The unique
underground temple of Hal Saflieni be-
longs in a class to itself.
THE GENERAL DESIGN OF MALTA'S PRE-
HISTORIC TEMPLES
The general design of the temples con-
sists of two oval or elliptical apses con-
nected along the lesser axes by passages,
at the far end of which is generally
found the principal altar or object of
worship.
The passageways appear to have been
covered over with flat slabs and the oval
chambers on each side domed, the corbel-
ing of the walls being very strongly
marked.
The compass direction of the passages
leading to the principal altar varies in
each temple, which was built to suit local
topography. There does not appear to
be any evidence of orientation or sugges-
tion that the altars faced any special
heavenly body. The majority face south
or southeast.
The ruins of Hagar Kim ("Standing
Stones") crown a barren, rocky hill on
the south side of Malta, about a mile
from the shore. The little islet of Filfla
alone breaks the wide expanse of deep
Mediterranean blue.
Large numbers of massive stones, some
weighing several tons, were placed on
end, side by side, each being joined to
the next with great skill. On top of
these were placed horizontal layers of
flat stones, mortised together with great
accuracy.
One pillar rises conspicuously above
the ruined walls. Near it, on the out-
side, is an altar erected before a sacred
stone, while a small hole pierces the wall
to communicate with an inner sanctuary
and through which the priest or priestess
possibly consulted the oracle.
The top of the tall pillar is hollow and
shaped like a grave, and theorists sug-
gest that possibly here infants were sac-
458
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A CHURCH IN MALTA READY FOR ITS FEAST DAY ILLUMINATION
Note the hundreds of electric-light bulbs in elaborate design on the fagade.
Photographs by S. L. Cassar
A RELIGIOUS PROCESSION IN MALTA
The Maltese are deeply attached to the Church of Rome, and it is said that in no other
community of equal size are the religious edifices so numerous and so beautifully decorated.
The first Christian bishop, of the island, legend tells us, was Publius, whom Paul converted.
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
459
rificed or the dead exposed to birds of
prey, as is done in the Indian Towers of
Silence.*
STONE FIGURES WITH PLAITED SKIRTS
When Hagar Kim was explored vari-
ous interesting relics were found. One
was a four-sided pillar with a flat, round
top, possibly a sacramental altar. Each
side is decorated with pittings at the
edges, while the centers contain carvings
of a many-leafed plant growing out of a
vase. This decoration may represent the
Tree of Life.
The most remarkable find consisted of
seven stone carved figures of steatopy-
gous females, some draped with plaited
skirts and others apparently nude. Pos-
sibly they were originally painted en-
tirely red, as red ocher paint is stilt
largely visible.
One figure has a sort of pigtail behind.
which might also have served as a handle
to permit the image to be carried in a
procession. None of them had heads,
although sockets were found into which
detachable heads could be fixed.
These figures suggest that they were
worshiped as the Mother Giver of Life.
They are sometimes described as the
Seven Cabiri of the Phoenicians, to which
nation all Maltese antiquities and even the
race itself were until recently ascribed.
Subsequent discoveries have proved be-
yond doubt, however, that these images
were of neolithic age.
THE MAI/TESE LANGUAGE HAS NO WORD
"FATHER"
In connection with the worship of
Matriarchy, it is curious to note that the
Maltese language contains no word for
"father" which conveys the idea of a
head of a family. Their word "missier"
literally means "instrument of genera-
tion" and suggests the time when descent
was reckoned maternally rather than pa-
ternally.
About half-way between Hagar Kim
and the shore is the neolithic ruin of
Mnaidra. This resembles in general plan
Hagar Kim, but is rather more ornate
* See "The Parsees and the Towers of
Silence at Bombay," by William Thomas Fee,
in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, De-
cember, 1005.
and better preserved. Many of the door-
ways and altar stones are decorated with
pittings or are finely polished. This
doubtless accounts for its local name of
the "King's Palace," Hagar Kim being
called the "High Priest's Palace."
A special feature of Mnaidra is the
double-table altars. These are flat rubbed
stones a yard or two square, supported
under the center by a stone pillar. The
largest is called the "King's Bed," cer-
tainly a couch stony enough to insure an
uneasy royal head.
Both at Hagar Kim and Mnaidra it is
evident that dolmens were regarded as
objects of special veneration. They may
have represented the gates from this
world to the next, through which all must
pass, or they may have typified the abodes
of the departed spirits.
A dolmen grave at Borg en Nadur has
the lintel or upper cross-stone pierced in
the center by a round hole, used perhaps
in a sacrificial ceremony, so that the blood
of the victim might fall on the occupant
of the grave. Dolmen graves with a hole
in the side wall-stone are much more
common.
Near Mnaidra is a cave in which the
remains of a peculiar kind of elephant
were found, to which the name Elephans
Mnaidrensis was given.
WELL-DIGGERS FIND A TEMPLE
The Corradino neolithic station stands
on a broad plateau overlooking the Grand
Harbor. The ruins are very extensive,
consisting of several temples and a vil-
lage. The ruins of the latter are dis-
tinguishable by being square instead of
oval in shape, like the temples.
On the southern boundary of Corra-
dino is the village of Casal Paula, which
overlooks the broad, flat plain of the
Marsa. In 1902 a well was being bored
for some newly erected houses, when
suddenly the foundations gave way and
the whole disappeared into a dark pit.
Investigation resulted in the discovery of
an underground habitation which is with-
out equal in the world.
This hypogeum, or subterranean struc-
ture, now known as Hal Saflieni. consists
of three series of chambers excavated
out of the solid rock, on three levels. It
stood in the midst of a neolithic village.
460
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
MALTA CLAIMS A MILCH-GOAT POPULATION OF IO,OOO
Since Mediterranean, or Malta, fever has been traced to a micro-organism to be found
in the milk of these perambulating "dairies," the goat boy is not as popular with visitors as
he was in olden days.
HOXEY MERCHANTS OF MALTA
Photograph b
The island was famous for its honey in ancient times, the name itself coming from the
Greek word "Melita," meaning honey. In the Biblical account of Paul's shipwreck the name
of the island is given as Melita (see text, page 451).
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OK NATIONS
461
THE COUNTRY ROAD LEADING TO CITTA VECCHIA, THE FIRST CITY REBUILT BY THE
KNIGHTS OF MALTA
Malta and the neighboring islands of Gozo, Comino, and Cominotto have a combined
area of 118 miles, with a teeming population of 225,000. The fields of the islands are small
and consist largely of terraces, the soil being walled up along the slopes of hills.
Photographs by S. L. Cassar
THE WATER-WAGONS OF MALTA HAVE TAIL-LIKE APPENDAGES
The operator walks in the rear of the cart and waves the sprinkler back and forth, thus
covering the space between the curbs.
462
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE SOLE RELIC OF THE OLD NATIVE COSTUME IS THE PECULIAR BLACK HEAD-
DRESS OF THE WOMEN, CALLED THE "FALDETTAM
The Maltese are a thrifty, industrious people. The women are noted for their black eyes,
fine hair, and graceful carriage.
Photographs by S. L. Cassar
A REAR VIEW OF THE MALTESE EASTER BONNET
While farming is the principal industry in Malta, more than 5,000 women and children are
engaged in producing the famous Maltese lace.
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
463
Two large upright stones mark the en-
trance below ground and near by was
found a large quantity of heavy sling-
stones, conveniently ready for use in case
of emergency.
Drilled in the threshold floor are two
holes the bottoms of which connect.
Through the loop thus formed was passed
a rope to tether the animal chosen for
sacrifice. A large cave near at hand ap-
parently was used as a pen for animals,
the top being so low that a man could
not stand erect in it.
Proceeding down the entrance passage,
which is of course absolutely dark unless
lit artificially, we notice on the left a
round, well-like excavation. At first it
appears to be an ordinary pit, but on
closer examination a second inner well is
seen, the top of the latter being closed
by a tightly fitting lid. This was evi-
dently used for special security. In it
were found two stone figures of steatopy-
gous figures similar to those found at
Hagar Kim. The figures also had de-
tachable heads, both of which, fortu-
nately, were found.
Continuing, we pass a side cave now
packed with human bones. At the en-
trance is a circular stone basin with a
hole bored in its center and covering an-
other pit which would form an ideal
dungeon.
The passage finally narrows to a large
dolmen-shaped doorway, and through
this we pass to a lower floor, with a sud-
den drop of several feet. The absence
of steps to the different compartments is
puzzling, as it is open to doubt whether
perishable wooden ones were provided
when stone was available.
THE MYSTERIOUS MAIN HALL OF THE
TEMPLE
We have now reached a long, silent
cave which must have looked very weird
when lit by a few hanging pottery lamps.
In the center is a large upright stone.
Proceeding to the left, we climb a stone
wall a yard high, also without steps, and
pass through a doorway into a large cir-
cular cave which appears to be the main
hall of the temple. At once the attention
of the eye is called to a doorway carved
out of the end of the cave at a height of
several vards from the floor.
The doorway leads to a small oval cave
at the back. On both sides are niches
each of which probably contained a sacred
pillar or other object of worship. Here
the carving is beautifully worked and
polished. Four other doorways lead to
caves on the level of the floor. The gen-
eral appearance of the niches suggests
that the lower ones were excavated later
and less carefully than the upper ones.
The ceiling of the room is decorated
with ocher paint, partly in plain red and
partly in squares alternately black and
white.
THE HOLY OF HOLIES
Passing out of this room through a
doorway erected on a step a yard above
the floor, we come to what is called the
"Holy of Holies," the upper portion of
the room being carved and polished very
ornately (see page 468).
A small room to the rear contains a
stone table, over the middle of which is
carved a stone hook from which some
sacred object or sacrifice or possibly a
lamp was suspended. The doorway of
this little room has grooves for fitting a
closing slab, but this would also shut out
the air and the occupant would soon die
of suffocation. It is remarkable that the
"Holy of Holies" is the only room not
decorated with paint.
In the illustration (see page 468) may
be noticed a hole in the right-hand curved
support, while another is near" its foot.
The left-hand upright of the entrance is
also bored with a tie-hole. From these
three places it is supposed a curtain or
screen was hung to hide the holy place
from the sight of persons using the steps
leading down to the lowermost rooms.
In the floor, in front of the left niche,
are two holes closed with plugs flush with
the ground. In the right hole two pairs
of ram's horns were discovered, doubt-
less having some religious significance.
Retracing our way from the Holy of
Holies through the main hall to the room
containing the large upright stone, or
menhir, and turning to the left, we pro-
ceed toward another set of caves. It will
be noticed that in this passage the rock,
instead of sounding solid to the tread,
suddenly sounds very hollow, as if there
were a well or room not yet opened.
IBS::.-'
464
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
465
What wonderful store of archaeological
wealth is perhaps here awaiting that
opening !
The walls along the right of this pas-
sage are full of drill-holes an inch or less
in diameter. This shows the method of
excavation employed. Holes were drilled
with flint points and the intermediate
portions chipped away with stone ham-
mers or chisels, several fine specimens of
which were found. '
Continuing along this passage, we come
to another room, into which we enter
with a sudden drop of a yard. Looking
through the entrance doorway, the wall
on the left appears quite straight at first,
curving round at the end, while the right
wall is very much sloped.
Descending some modern stone steps,
a round recess on the left is seen. In
this place a person could stand without
being observed by any one approaching
along the passage, while a spy-hole is
provided for the use of the occupant of
the recess. Two holes are also bored in
the walls of the recess to spy into the
adjoining cave.
AN ORACLE CAVE) AND A SOUND-MAGNIFY-
ING CHAMBER
Passing the recess, we come to a square
entrance into a small round cave a yard
or two in diameter. Possibly the oracle
was kept here. A little farther in the
cave, at about the level of a man's mouth,
is a hemispherical hole in the side wall
about two feet in diameter. Here it was
noticed only a few months ago that any
word spoken into this place was magni-
fied a hundred-fold and audible through-
out the entire underground structure.
A curved projection is specially carved
out of the back of the cave near this hole
and acts as a sounding-board, showing
that the designers had a good practical
knowledge of sound-wave motion. The
impression upon the credulous can be
imagined when the oracle spoke and the
words came thundering forth through
the dark and mysterious places with
terrifying impressiveness.
Before leaving the oracle room, special
notice must be taken of the wonderful
ceiling paintings, which are the finest in
the temple. Possibly the design of the
spirals and disks may have some mystic
meaning in connection with the passing
of the human soul through various cycles.
THE PIT OF SERPENTS?
Proceeding to the next room, a dis-
tant view of the Holy of Holies is ob-
tained. This anteroom has several curi-
ous features. The roof is supported —
quite unnecessarily for structural re-
quirements— by two menhirs differing in
design. The one to the right is similar to
the sacred pillars at Hagar Kim (see page
457) and to the high altar of Tarxien
(see page 477 );
On the left is a mysterious pit. The
low stone wall on the left is grooved to
receive an upper stone, thus increasing
its height. The pit is shaped like a fun-
nel, with a curious slip- way worn out just
below the hole in the opposite wall which
communicates with the main hall.
After sloping downward and inward,
the pit widens considerably and is suffi-
ciently deep to prevent even a tall man
from climbing out. It has been thought
that sacred serpents were kept in this pit,
the curving sides of which would pre-
vent t their escape. Possibly after the
serpent had been lifted up, as was done
by Moses in the wilderness, and due wor-
ship made, it would be returned to its
lair through the hole in the wall. The
larger entrance on the opposite side
would permit of a man or woman being
cast among the serpents to be stung to
death.*
Passing to the right of the pillar and
then sharply turning to the left, we de-
scend a very finely worked series of seven
steps into the lowest and innermost
rooms. These steps are erected on the
lintel of a huge dolmen. Opposite the
lowest step and isolated by a deep moat-
like trench is a small inner cave wherein
a priest or vestal might have sat and
communed.
There are no steps to this small room
and it is difficult to reach. On its right
hand is a small spy-hole, through which
all persons at work in the moat can be
seen. Adjoining the moat and divided
only by another doorway are several
* See also an account of the serpent pits in
the temples of the Incas, in "The Wonderland
of Peru," by Hiram Bingham, NATIONAL GEO-
GRAPHIC MAGAZINE, April, 1913.
466
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A STONE AGE TEMPLE SHOWING SACRIFICIAL TABLES IN THE FOREGROUND: MALTA
Massive stones, some weighing several tons, are placed on end side by side, each being
joined to the next with great skill. On top of some of these are horizontal layers of flat
stones accurately mortised together (siee text, page 457).
similar compartments, the last being situ-
ated almost directly under the serpent
pit. The innermost room of all has four
openings about a foot square leading to
four tiny caves, which might have been
used as places for the deposit of treasure.
This completes the itinerary of the
temple, which is so complex that one can
only speculate as to the use or signifi-
cance of its many extraordinary features'!
A MAUSOLEUM FOR 33,OOO PERSONS
In 1906 the work of exploration was
begun. Most of the rooms were found
to be half-filled with earth, human bones,
and broken pottery. It has been esti-
mated that the ruins contained the bones
of 33,000 persons, mostly adults. Prac-
tically all were found in the greatest dis-
order, and there had evidently been no
regular burial of a complete body.
With regard to the original use of the
hypogeum, opinions vary. It may be that
it was a temple carved underground for
the use of spirits who had left this world,
providing them with' the same type of
temple as that in which they had been
accustomed to worship above ground ; or
it may have been a sacred college, wherein
the priesthood were initiated into the
mysterious beliefs of those days.
CURIOUS FINDS AMONG THE BONES
Whatever may have been the original
.use, there is no doubt that it was used in
part as a burial place for the bones of
the dead after a previous burial above
ground.
A large number of personal ornaments
and votive offerings were found mixed
with the bones, and these afford much
insight into prehistoric beliefs and cus-
toms. Besides the large stone female
figures already mentioned, several tiny
alabaster replicas were found.
A small carving was also found of a
woman with a small head and large lower
figure, lying on her side asleep on a four-
legged couch. Her head is placed on a
shaped neck-rest. The figure is clad in
quite fashionable flounces and plaitings
and was evidently painted red.
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
467
THE MAIN HALL OF THE TEMPLE OF HAL SAFLIENI : MALTA
Four doorways lead from this chamber to caves on the level of the floor (see text, page 463).
Another carving shows a woman, simi-
larly clad and proportioned, lying face
downward on her couch, her hands
stretched forward on either side. It is
suggested that the former represents a
priestess dreaming near the sacred places
in the hope of obtaining inspiration to
declare the words of the holy oracle,
while the second figure represents her in
the act of worship.
A large number of axe-shaped pendants
of jade or polished stone were found,
suggesting some connection with the sym-
bolic axe worshipers of Crete. Two ob-
jects representing fish were found, one
being placed on a plate. Doubtless the
fish was venerated as an emblem of the
Giver of Life, and possibly the adoption
of a fish as the sign of a fellow-Chris-
tian in the Catacomb days of Rome was
the survival of an old belief. Today in
Malta fish is usually eaten on the first
night spent in a new house, to bring good
luck.
Symbolic stones carved into the shape
of sea shells, votive lamps, real sea shells,
vertebrae of fish, artificial seeds, cones,
tiny pillars, large spheres, and holed
468
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE; FAMOUS HOLY OF HOLIES IN THE SUBTERRANEAN STRUCTURE KNOWN AS THE.
HYPOGEUM OF UAL, SAFUENI : MALTA
One of the remarkable features of this great chamber is the entire absence of any mural
designs. This is the only room not decorated with paint. A curtain or screen is supposed
to have hung before this holy place to conceal it from persons using the. steps leading to
lower chambers (see text, page 463).
stones were found in abundance, doubt-
less all having some special significance.
BEAUTIFUL POTTERY, IN EVERY INSTANCE
SHATTERED
Much beautiful pottery was found,
practically all broken. This may have
been intentional, as typifying the snap-
ping of the thread of life. The pottery
varied in kind from rough clay vessels to
finely polished and glazed ware, orna-
mented with spirals worked with flints.
Some bore bright lines of red ocher of
artistic design.
Perhaps the most interesting piece of
pottery found was a black polished plate,
on which was drawn with flint the figures
of several large horned bulls of mottled
color, all instinct with life. The species
of animal was identical with that carved
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
469
in high relief in the "bull sanctuary" of
the latest and most wonderful discovery
of all, the Stone Age Temple of Tarxien.
A CEMETERY FOR CRIMINALS LEADS TO AN
ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY
Tarxien is a continuation of the village
of Casal Paula, where the hypogeum of
Hal Saflieni is situated. It owes its dis-
covery to the following circumstances :
A few years ago it was necessary to
find a new burial place for criminals, and
a site was selected on the plateau over-
looking the dockyard from the southeast.
"While digging the foundations for the
cemetery chapel the earth was found to
have been artificially deposited, as it con-
tained blocks of hand-wrought masonry.
The workmen, talking among themselves,
elicited the fact that in the adjoining field
large blocks of stones had also been
struck a few feet below the level of the
soil.
As the work of excavating the hypo-
geum in the village was still fresh in their
minds, the laborers thought possibly a
similar structure might exist here.
The facts were reported in 1913 to
Prof. T. Zammit, C. M. G., who had
supervised the final excavation of the
hypogeum. In July, 1915. he caused the
blocks to be cleared of soil. They were
found to be the tops of the walls of a
prehistoric temple of the same shape as
those of Gigantia, in Gozo, and Hagar
Kim and Mnaidra, in Malta.
WAR PAILS TO STOP RESEARCH
The work of excavation was carried
out during the hottest months of 1915
and 1916, when the soil was driest, so
that it could be carefully sifted to pre-
vent the loss of the smallest objects
which might be of interest.
Here, despite the tropical sun, a small
band of students, among whom was the
writer of this article, labored under the
able and genial guidance of Professor
Zammit.
The drain of war expense on the funds
of the Malta civil government permitted
only a very small expenditure of money
on this work during 1917 and 1918, but
it was sufficient to show that the temple
and its precincts extended beyond its
present known limits and where secrets
unknown as yet to the world may still lie
hidden.
The examination of the upper layers of
earth over the site of the temple brought
to light quantities of Roman and Punic
pottery, practically all in fragments.
A lower layer revealed a new type of
pottery, among which were found small
heaps of burnt human bones. Beads,
necklaces, clay objects representing birds,
fishes, &c., small figures, bone ornaments,
and a bronze dagger were found in this
same layer. The dagger gave the clue to
the mystery — a Bronze Age depository
of funeral urns had been found.
This was very valuable, from the light
it shed on the life and customs of the
Mediterranean Bronze Age people, who
probably flourished about 2000 or 3000
B. C.
Inside the cinerary urns were also
found foods — wheat, beans, etc. — for the
journey in the next world, as well as
small objects and ornaments which had
been very dear to the departed in their
lifetime.
Doubtless the Bronze Age dwellers in
Malta had heard the tradition that the
tall stones standing, abandoned, deserted,
and overgrown with weeds, had once
been a sacred place, while in any case
such high walls as were still standing
formed a good shelter for thei^ funeral
fires. Hence the Bronze Age cemetery
on this spot.
The Bronze Age layer was strongly
marked with charcoal and ashes. Below
this came several feet of fine sand, con-
taining no stones or broken fragments of
rock and no traces of any Bronze Age
pottery or metal, clearly showing that
this layer had been deposited by centu-
ries of wind and rain, untouched by the
hand of man.
All these layers were removed by the
excavators with careful and reverent
hands, as was due those far-off and for-
gotten worshipers of the Unknown God.
Finally the floor of the temple was
reached and cleared as perfectly as pos-
sible.
A TOUR OF THE TEMPLE
The length of the buildings from end
to end is about 50 yards, while the level
of the temple floor is about 7 feet below
that of the field.
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470
4/1
472
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
LOWEST DUNGEONS OF THE HAL SAFLIENI RUINS
This innermost room of the subterranean galleries has four openings leading to small caves,
where the temple's treasures may have been secreted (see text, page 466).
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
473
Let us make a tour through
the temple, following the rough
plan reproduced on this page.
\Ye stand first on a semicir-
cular stone, A in the plan, in
which are drilled two holes con-
nected at the lower ends. This
is the ordinary tie-hole of Stone
Age times and may have been
used to tether sacrificial animals
outside the temple. On each side
can be traced large horizontal
blocks of stone extending in a
semicircular direction, doubtless
the fore-court, or public place in
which the people assembled be-
fore divine service.
These large blocks apparently
served as foot-stones to support
large upright masses of masonry
forming the outer wall of the
temple. One of the blocks has
a conical hole in it, besides sev-
eral small circles engraved on it
(A1), all doubtless having some
religious significance or used in
the public worship or sacrifice.
A few yards farther on is a stone
(A2), about two yards square, in
which are five holes, some of
oval shape and some round.
For what purpose this stone
was used is not known. Possi-
bly it was employed in the cere-
mony of ablution, as a somewhat
similar contrivance was found in
the Stone Age temple a mile
away, at Corradino, shown on
page 476. It has been suggested
that this was the altar of sacri-
fice, and that the holes were to
catch the blood of the victim.
This is possible, but the sacrificial victim
must have been killed first, as no tie-holes
exist in these stones.
After the temple had fallen out of use
prehistoric boys may have found that
this formed an excellent bagatelle board,
and by using rounded stones and possibly
numbering the holes quite a good game
could be played. A quantity of round
stone balls was found on this site.
Returning to position i on the plan, we
enter the passage A C and arrive in the
building marked B E. Facing to the
right, there is a beautiful carved dado
A SKETCH SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE
CHAMBERS OF THE STONE AGE
TEMPLE OF TARXIEN
These ruins have been unearthed by a band of students
working under the direction of Prof. T. Zammit, C. M.
G. The work proceeded throughout the stressful period
of the World War, despite limited government appro-
priations.
round the room. In the center is the
broken lower portion of a huge female
figure, of which only the feet, fat calves,
and fluted skirt now remain. When
complete the figure was probably seven
feet high. It stands on a slab of stone
ornamented with egg-shaped symbols and
would lead to the inference that it was
the image of the Goddess of Life and
Fertility. Carefully placed near her feet
was found a sacred cone, possibly repre-
senting the male element.
Standing in position C of the plan,
which is a spot worn away by innumer-
474
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A MYSTIC STONE PILLAR MARKING THE) BEGINNING OF THE
INNER SANCTUARY OF THE TEMPLE AT TARXIEN
On top of the pillar is a second stone on which is carved a circle
surrounded by pit-marks. Some students surmise that the circle
represents the sun and the pit-marks the stars (see text below).
able fires, and turning our back on the
goddess, we see beautifully carved altar
tables and an altar, in front of which is a
small font decorated with pit-markings,
an ornamentation noticed in other pre-
historic temples.
Apparently this font had been painted
red with ocher, from which it might be
inferred that the ceremony of sprinkling
blood for cleansing from evil was carried
out even in those far-off days.
Behind these pillars is a small side
chapel very beautifully decorated. One
slab contains a frieze of eleven goats,
while another has
four goats, a fat pig,
and a horned ram or
buck.
Looking again from
position C to G in the
plan, we see a large
carved stone table or
chest in front of an
altar or oracle place
of the dolmen type so
noticeable in all neo-
lithic temples. The
large altar stone is
hollow, with a detach-
able semicircular fit-
ting. ^
Inside was found a
very fine curved flint
knife, as well as frag-
ments of beautifully
polished Stone Age
pottery. It might be
observed here that
possibly all votive ves-
sels were broken af-
ter the sacrifice, to
denote the completion
of the ceremony, as
practically none were
found complete.
Proceeding through
position C to I, we
reach the principal
altar of the temple.
The curved facade of
the floor of the "chan-
cel" cannot but arouse
admiration for the
wonderful skill o f
those ancient workers,
whose only tool was a
flint. On the left corner of the carved
stone can be seen a round tie-hole. The
stone a little to its right and standing
back two yards from it marks the begin-
ning of the inner sanctuary, which con-
sists of a semicircular building with five
stone seats on each side of the altar.
These possibly were either for images or
for the officiating priests.
On top of the stone at the left entrance
to the inner sanctuary is another lying
horizontally with a square end on which
is carved a circle surrounded by pit-
marks (see illustration on this page).
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
Without doubt this
had some reference
to their religious be-
liefs, but the stone on
the opposite side is
missing.
It has been sug-
gested that the circle
represented the sun
and the pit-marks the
stars, while others
suggest a phallic solu-
tion. A stone was
found carved with
two phallic pillars
standing on a base
decorated with pit-
marks. When the two
designs are consid-
ered together, possi-
bly a key to their cere-
monies and beliefs
may be found.
The corbeling, very
noticeable in the right
wall of the inner
sanctuary, would
show that this build-
ing was domed over.
Entering room H,
which is very badly
damaged, we see a
tiny dolmen - shaped
altar marked H1 in
the plan. The top of
the altar table has a
hole in it, fitted with
a plug. Through this
a memento, such as a
small bone for each
sacrifice, was possibly placed for tempo-
rary custody.
Returning to position I, we enter a
new and earlier temple, in which the
decoration is less ornate. We first notice
a small side chapel, K1 in the plan. En-
trance is gained through the doorway,
which is so low that one is required to
bow in passing.
Immediately opposite is a sacred stone
of worship, broader at the top than at
the bottom. Its significance is not known,
but stones of this design • appear in the
"Holy of Holies" at other temples. On
the left of this stone is a corner seat for
the priest, while on the right is the altar
475
-P-M
AN ALTAR IN THE TARXIEN TEMPLE, BENEATH WHICH APPEAR
THE FAMILIAR PHALLIC SYMBOLS OF THE CONE
AND THE BALL (SEE TEXT BELOW ).
(see illustration above), with its familiar
phallic symbols of the cone and the ball.
In the passage leading from position
K to O, the investigator sees holes in
the masonry on each side, indicating that
barriers and curtains were hung here.
A straight view can be obtained down
the aisle leading to the Holy of Holies,
where the sacred stone faces the visitor.
In the center is a much-burnt stone fire-
place full of ash, M in the plan.
Looking toward the northern end of
this oval-shaped building, we see at the
far end an entrance, afterward closed
by a huge block of stone.
Near the Sacred Stone is a round stone
476
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A CORNER OF THE) TARXIEN STONE AGE TEMPLE, SHOWING THE CARVED ALTARS, TWO
SACRED CONES, AND A TOMB : MALTA
The dark patch on the right of the photograph marks the site of funeral pvres. Tarxien
is a continuation of the village of Casal Paula, where the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni was
situated (see page 459).
A CURIOUS STONE WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN USED BY THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS
OF MALTA IN THE CEREMONY OF ABLUTION
A quantity of stone balls was found near this slab, which suggest the possibility that at a
later period it may have been used for games (see text, page 473).
MALTA: THE HALTING PLACE OF NATIONS
477
THE MAIN ALTAR OF THE TEMPLE AT TARXIEN : MALTA
The graceful carving awakens admiration for the prehistoric stone-cutters, whose only imple-
ments were sharpened flints (see page 474).
plug. Here, it may be imagined, the sac-
rificial ox was brought in and tethere'd.
Armed with a heavy stone axe, the priest
felled the animal, completing the sacri-
fice with a sharp flint or obsidian knife.
A huge basin or laver was used in the
ceremony of purification.
The sacrifice was cut up on a large
stone between the laver and the fireplace.
This stone has a deep, round hole into
which the blood of the sacrifice drained.
The portions to become the burnt sacri-
fice were there cut off and placed on the
sacred hearth. A large stone table on
the right contained no drainage hole and
doubtless was the place where the burnt
offerings and oblations were dedicated to
the gods.
Opposite this table of oblation is a
passage leading to a small side chapel,
marked M1. This contains a small altar,
while on the walls are carved in bold re-
lief three animals — a bull, a sow, and a
second bull facing the first (see illustra-
tion on page 478). These carvings are
among the earliest known of this type.
Two large bull's horns were found
carefully hidden under the entrance to
this sanctuary. It appears, therefore,
that the worship of the sacred bull, so
widely spread and still existing, was car-
ried on in Malta just as the -Minotaur
was worshiped in Crete.
Two doorways on the ground level,
about two feet square, lead from two
small rooms M2 and M3, where possibly
goats or lambs were kept ready for sac-
rifice.
Returning to room L M, we mount a
long horizontal slab just beyond the
round hearth. Here we are much struck
with a beautifully carved barrier about a
yard high. This evidently marked the
part of the temple dedicated to the uses
of the priests.
Between the' spirals are carved two
cones. Mounting over this and again
noting the various curtain and door sling-
holes in the side walls of the passage, we
come to another oval building, P Q in
the plan. This has similar features to the
previous room, but is smaller and en-
tirely without carved work except a stone
screen on each side, finely decorated.
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A BULL AND A SOW CARVED IN BOLD RELIEF ON THE WALL OF ONE OF THE
CHAMBERS IN THE TEMPLE OF TARXIEN (SEE PAGE 477)
These are among the earliest carvings of this type known. Near by, carefully hidden
under the entrance to the sanctuary, were found two large bull's horns, suggesting that this
animal was worshiped in Malta as the Minotaur was worshiped in Crete (see "The Sea Kings
of Crete," by James Baikie, in THE GEOGRAPHIC for January, 1912).
Between the screens and the entrance
rose two huge pillars, now broken off at
ground level. In the center of the room
is a sacred hearth, while apse P contains
a well-preserved altar and a font, the
latter being pit-marked and still bearing
traces of red ocher. In a tall slab oppo-
site the carved screen is a black spot on
the edge near the floor. When excavated
tHe bottom of this pillar was found to be
adorned with five pebbles let into the
stone, three in the top row and two below
-at the ends. No convincing explanation
has been suggested for these stones.
We now come to the last and final
room, R S T U. Here no stone barrier
bars the way, but the holes for the screens
can still be seen;
The last apse is the smallest of all, and
the inward inclination of the stones indi-
cates that the rooms were domed over.
With feelings of awe we retrace our
steps down the main aisle, and, having
arrived at Room L-N, we turn to the left
and find an exit marked N in the plan.
On each side is a sort of pulpit on which
the priest might have stood to address the
worshipers.
Possibly an image or round stone ball,
of which several two feet in diameter
were found, was placed on this pedestal.
The exit leads to a much more roughly
built series of rooms, marked W-X and
Y-Z. Outside exit N and on the left is
a flight of steps, V.
Beyond these apses sufficient soil has
been removed to show that the prehis-
toric buildings extended for a consider-
able distance into the next field, and that
the walls are those of square, and not
oval, buildings. Here it seems likely that
the laity lived, and it is hoped that when
funds are once more available further
research may be carried out to delve into
the secrets of the long-forgotten past.
Here we may find one more clue in our
attempt to solve the question whence
man came, in the hope that we may find
whither man goeth.
VOL. XXXVII, No. 6 WASHINGTON
JUNE, 1920
•IONAL GEOGi;
A MIND\S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
Bv FRANKLIN K. LANE
FORMERLY SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
AUTHOR OF "A CITY OF REALIZED DREAMS," "FROM THE WARPATH TO THE PLOW," "Tin: MAKERS OF Tin
FLAG." "Tin: NATION'S PRIDE," ETC., IN THE GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
AMERICANIZATION is a very
broad and inclusive term. The
first part of it is that we should
know what America is. I find in deal-
ing with this problem of making the
foreign-born understand what Ameri-
canization is that the first great difficulty
is to make the American-born realize
fully and be conscious of America in all
its various senses and moods and spirits.
And one of the things that I should like
to conduct, if I were free to do so and
had the means, would be a real geogra-
phy class.
We are all fascinated by pictures. Re-
cently I have induced the motion-picture
industry of the United States to enlist
itself in this cause and produce Ameri-
canization pictures, and give upon its
screens slogans and suggestions and
apothegms that will stimulate the Ameri-
can ideal, because I have the notion that
there is something in the United States
that we call Americanism that is distinc-
tive, that no other country has, and that
it is expressed in the lives of our people,
in their work, in their philosophy, in their
tradition and history.
One of the pictures that T have sug-
gested is a map of the United States,
with which I find many are not familiar.
Visualize the map of our country, and it
will become apparent how large in ma-
terial resource and how large in activity,
intellectual and spiritual, the United
States is.
As I say, we are all fond of pictures.
We love some because of their color,
some because of line, some because of
depth of background, some because of
their historical significance, some because
of the story in the picture. To me the
most fascinating of all pictures is the
map of the United States. Let us look
for a moment at some of the remote parts
of this map. and learn what is and what
may be. Then we will have renewed
confidence in our future.
FROM TROPIC TO ARCTIC INT HAWAII
If you go to Hawaii you will find that
all of the land grants which were made
originally to the chiefs, the favorites of
the kings, ran from points upon the shore-
line up to the top of the mountain.
You will see here a point of land run-
ning out into the sea, and there a point
of land : and because they did not know
the science of surveying and had to take
these natural points, they drew the line
straight up from these two points to the
crater that was the summit of the moun-
tain.
A year and a half ago T took a trip on
one of those islands, and I started at the
bottom, on the very edge of the sea,
where the rice grows, and then went into
sugar-cane, and then above into orange
orchard, and then into coffee plantations,
and then, all the time ascending, into
fruit lands — peaches and other fruits —
and then up into wheat lands, and then
480
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Lloyd W. McDowell
MUI/TNOMAH FALLS, ON THE COLUMBIA RIV£R HIGHWAY
This recently completed scenic route of the Northwest parallels the picturesque Columbia
River. Nearly all motor cars stop on this arching bridge, which affords a view of both stages
of Multnomah Falls, with a total height of 740 feet, making this the second highest cataract
in the United States.
A MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
481
Photograph by L. D. Lindsley
WHEN TIIK WATERS OF LAKE CHELAN ARE ASLEEP: WASHINGTON
This mountain gem, more than 50 miles long and from one to two miles wide, is guarded by
peaks which tower from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above its waters, by turns placid and restless.
482
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Ansel F. Hall
THE GATES TO YOSEMITE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. FROM THE SLOPE OF SENTINEL
DOME, NEAR GLACIER POINT
Snowshoes are better than skis on such a slope as this, more than four thousand feet
above the valley floor. To the1 right is the flat face of El Capitan. Cathedral Rocks close
the view to the left. Far below is the road to the railway terminus at El Portal, ten miles
down the valley of the Merced. The dog in the picture is a famous character in the Yosemite,
where all other dogs are excluded. He is "Bob Townsley," the National Park Service lion
tracker, and "as good a ranger as any man in the service."
into grazing lands, until I came to the
snow on the top of the mountain. So
that in that small tract of land, "driving
in an hour's time from the sea < to:, the
summit of the mountain, one sees eve;r-y--
thing that can be produced, from the
tropics to the Arctic Circle.
That segment of that island gives a
picture of the United States, because we
have capacity in this country to produce
all of those things which man requires,
either in the temperate or the semi-trop-
ical zones or even in the eternal snows of
the north.
ALASKA'S NEW RAILWAY
In Alaska we are building a railroad ;
it is almost built ; five hundred miles long,
running from the sea straight north to
Fairbanks and into the Arctic Circle.
That is a government enterprise. The
road is as well laid as the Pennsylvania.
It has been built, without graft and with-
out pull, out of government funds for the
benefit of that territory, so that it may
be opened up.
The very far end of Alaska is Seward
Peninsula. Worthless? It looks so. Yet
a woman came in to see me some time
ago carrying a receipt for forty thousand
dollars' worth of tin that she had got out
of a river bed there.
THE REINDEER AND THE MUSK-OX
, This side of Seward Peninsula we have
the great grazing grounds of the reindeer.
Twenty years ago a man conceived the
idea that the Alaskan moss would sup-
port Siberian reindeer. He brought 1,200
animals over; that herd has multiplied
until it is now 165,000. They feed on
moss all the year round. Eskimos guard
them.
The other day Stefansson, who made
that great swing around North America,
and added one hundred thousand square
A MIND'S-KYK MAP OF AMERICA
4S3
Photograph by Ansel F. Hall
HALF DOME) AND CLOUDS REST, VOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK: CALIFORNIA.
The photograph was made December 13. Note the chief ranger's winter costume — bare
head, short sleeves, no coat or gloves. Snowshoeing with fifty pounds of weather instruments
is more zt'ork than art.
miles to the world's known area in the
Canadian Arctic, while living for five and
a half years on the resources of the
frozen north, called upon me and said
that in the northern part of Canada the
musk-ox flourishes.
The musk-ox is valuable for its hide,
its superb wool, and its meat, which is
very much like beef. It costs nothing to
support, because it feeds on the grass
that grows in between the moss through-
out tens of thousands of square miles of
northernmost North America.
MEAT SUPPLY FOR THE FUTURE FROM
ALASKA'S EMPTY SPACES
Stefansson urged me to procure a ship,
load it with musk-oxen, and carry those
musk-oxen over into Alaska and let them
feed with the reindeer, because they are
not competitors but co-operators, feeding
off different things. He emphasized the
fact that the musk-ox and the reindeer
are not enemies, for they learned to live
together long centuries ago ; and if we
could fill up the empty spaces of Alaska
with these two species we would have a
supply of meat that would provide for
the whole Pacific coast.
OTHER ALASKAN TREASURES
Copper ! The second greatest copper
mine in the world is in Alaska.
Mount McKinley National Park! The
greatest protected area in the world for
the mountain sheep and the caribou.
Gold ! Once mined abundantly, but
gold cannot be mined in Alaska now.
Although thousands of miles are under-
laid with gold, the mines are closed for
a very singular reason. It does not pay
to mine gold. Labor is so high, material
is so high, that when you get the gold
from the ground at the standard price
fixed by the Treasury, you do not get
your money back. I suppose this is the
first time in the history of the world
when mines of gold have been closed
down because it does not pay to operate
them.
As you come down out of Alaska you
find the fishing industry, which will be
484
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Gilbert Grosvenor
THE OPEN TRAIL IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: MONTANA
A transcontinental railway parallels the southern boundary of Glacier and an automobile
highway connects the outside world with beautiful McDermott Lake, but the main attractions
of this great playground are the trails that lead from one group of comfortable chalets to
another, thus opening to the traveler on foot and on horseback unsurpassed views of moun-
tain and waterfall, lake and glacier.
A MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
485
Photograph by Fred H. Riser
SUMMIT OF APPISTOKI MOUNTAIN, WITH TWO MEDICINE VALLEY 3,OOO FEET
BELOW, GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: MONTANA
Although this national park still has 60 small glaciers at their painstaking task of sculp-
turing the mountains, Two Medicine Valley represents the completed product. High
precipices and irregular lakes occupying the deeply carved portions of the valley distinguish
the impressive landscape.
486
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
15LACKFKET INDIAN TEPEES ON Till-; SHORE OF ST. MAKY's LAKE, WITH RED EAGLE
MOUNTAIN LOOMING IN THE BACKGROUND, GLACIER NATIONAL
PARK: MONTANA (SEE PAGE 501)
Not many years ago this region was the favorite hunting ground of the Blackfeet tribe.
Copper was discovered here in 1890, and there was a great rush of prospectors. Six years
later Congress bought the land from the Indians, but as a copper region it proved disappoint-
ing. In 1910 it was set aside as a national park. The variety and majesty of its scenery and
its ready accessibility, owing to its situation adjacent to one of the great transcontinental
railway lines, have resulted in its ever-increasing popularity with the American people
A MTXD'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
487
supplemented in time by another great
industry, the vegetable-canning industry.
I should not be surprised to find the peas
of the future raised in that snowbound
country and canned there. The finest
turnips that I have ever eaten and the
largest and crispest celery came from
Alaska. And there is a territory of 600.-
000,000 acres almost untouched that be-
longs to your Uncle Sam.
THE WONDERFUL STATE OF WASHINGTON*
You come on down the coast to the
State of Washington. There we have at
one point the largest rainfall of any point
in the United States — 150 inches. And
on the other side of the State is or was
the great desert of the Columbia basin.
Land that I could have bought for $1.25
an acre is today selling for $1,000 an
acre. Why? Because we have invested
a little money in taking the waters that
Mowed down from Mount Tacoma (or
Mount Rainier) and. turning them upon
that land, have planted apples. One of
the apples planted here comes from the
Hudson River. The people of New York
State did not care for and love this fruit
as those people did out there. They have
taken the Delicious apple as you know it.
pruned it. watered it, sorted it, cared for
it, until now it makes that land worth
$1,500 to $2,000 an acre.
The dominant feature in the landscape
in the State of Washington is Mount
Rainier. I like the name Tacoma be-
cause it is an Indian name. Rainier was
the name of an admiral who saw this
splendid place. Tacoma was the Indian
name and means "The feeding breast" ;
and when you see the mountain you will
realize where the Indians got that name,
because from every side come down
rivers which make for the strength, the
beauty, and the wealth of the country.
Here is one of our great parks ; and I
have stood therein with the snow of the
glacier in one hand, and touched with the
other the blossoming wild flowers.
THE STATE'S GREATEST TREASURE
That State is rich in mines, rich in agri-
cultural land, rich in power possibilities.
It has hundreds of thousands of acres of
land that are practically desert and that
can be reclaimed and brought into use-
fulness by use of the water of the Colum-
bia River.
And yet the most significant thing in
that State is the State University. I saw
Seattle when it was a frontier town, and
there was little thought then of its pos-
sessing a great university; but there are
6,000 students in the University of Wash-
ington today, and that State is only 30
years old. This fact indicates better than
anything else can the trend of American
life. America has in her mind the pur-
pose to do things that make for a richer
country not only materially but also in-
tellectually.
You come down from Washington to
Oregon, with its long line of mountains,
its majestic river, its vast forests. There
is one outstanding scenic feature of nov-
elty. Crater Lake. The top was blown
off a volcano, and in the center of that
crater we find the most exquisite bit of
water — a thing without parallel in color
in this country, perhaps in the world.
And there is abundant land yet to be
had "where rolls the Oregon." We have
recently brought back to the United
States a strip of land ten miles wide and
300 miles long which was granted to the
Oregon and California Railroad, and that
land has been thrown open to home-
steaders.
WHY THERE ARE "CALIFORNIACS"
Go farther south and you come to
California. Being a Californian, I must
speak with some degree of modesty re-
garding that State, though that is said
not to be characteristic of the Cali-
fornian.
Let me tell you a story: I went over
to Baltimore to speak to a Methodist con-
ference some time ago. I met there a
splendid-looking man, with a long, flow-
ing, white beard, and I said to him, "Do
you preach in this section of the coun-
try?'' He said. "Yes, sir; I eome from
the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Have
you ever been on the Eastern Shore?"
I said. "No ; I am sorry to say that I
have seen every other beauty spot in this
country. I believe, but I never have seen
that."
"Well." he said to me, "we love that
country. I have been preaching there for
66 years. We are a strange people and
we have some strange legends, and one of
them is that a long, long time ago, when
Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of
488
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph by Albert Schlechten
"OLD FAITHFUL" GEYSER, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: WYOMING
That dependability in Nature is not without its reward is proved by the love of the
farmer for his fertile fields and by the age-old worship of the never-failing sun. In the
greatest geyser field in the world, one has won greater honor than the rest. They do not call
this one ''The Brilliant" or "The Giant," but "Old Faithful." For many years it played with
great regularity every seventy minutes, but during the summer of 1915 the interval lengthened
to eighty-five minutes, owing, it is supposed, to the smaller snowfall and consequent lessened
water supply of the preceding winter.
A. MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
489
Photograph from Horace M. Albright
FEEDING TWO DEER IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: WYOMING
Last winter many of the wild animals in America's largest national park suffered severely.
Here one of the rangers is feeding two of the shy, graceful deer which, under the protection
of the government, have become partly domesticated.
Eden, they fell sick, and the Lord was
very much disturbed about them, and he
called a council of his angels and wanted
to know where they should be taken for
a change of air, so that they might im-
prove.
"The Angel Gabriel suggested that they
should be taken to the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, and the Lord said, 'No, no;
that would not be sufficient change !' "
It is somewhat in that same spirit that
every Galifornian speaks of California,
and that is the reason why one of us has
given the name of Californiacs to all
those who are expatriated like myself.
THE ROLE OF THE PADRES IN DEVELOPING
CALIFORNIA
California was peopled by the Indians
first and followed by the padres, and it is a
strange thing that wherever the Catholic
Church has gone in that State you will
find a most fertile spot. The rich centers
of California are all gathered around
those exquisite missions which those be-
loved fathers taught the Indians to build.
The Mission Fathers brought with them
the art of irrigation, which was a new art
to this country; and they brought their
sprigs of vine and of orange and of fig
and laid the foundation for the wondrous
productions of that State. So that to-
day you will find from the very northern-
most part — from Klamath Lake, on the
edge of Oregon — down to the Imperial
Valley, in the south, the lands of Cali-
fornia watered and made as fertile as
the valley of the Nile.
As you journey down the State you
see some of those superb things that God
has made for the delight of his people —
Mount Shasta, the Yosemite Valley — yes,
and the great redwood trees, the oldest
living things on this or any other conti-
nent. They were there, those great se-
quoias, when Christ came upon earth;
they were there when Moses brought
down from the mountain the tables of
stone — five thousand, six thousand and
more years old. And because of com-
mercial reasons — out of the mere desire
for railroad ties — people are cutting
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A MIXD'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
clown those trees and have been doing so
for years until now we have organized
what we call a Save - the - Redwoods
League, and we hope to raise enough
money to save a strip of redwood along
the great highway that leads from San
Francisco up to the Oregon border, prob-
ably, when it is developed, the finest sin-
gle bit of coast scenery in the United
States, perhaps anywhere, bordered on
both sides by these magnificent trees.
The destruction of these forest giants
is a cruel thing. I cannot speak of it
without some degree of emotion. Com-
mercialism has its benefits, but commer-
cialism can be a curse when it destroys
things of beauty and things that cannot
be replaced. We have saved Yosemite
Valley. We have a park called the
Sequoia National Park, in which the
greatest redwood trees are preserved, and
we want to expand that park and give it
a new name — make it larger and call it
Roosevelt Park.
THE MOST PRODUCTIVE LAND IN AMERICA'
You go down farther to the edge of
Mexico and you will find the Imperial
Valley, which was once an inland sea and
came very near being an inland sea again
ten years ago, when the waters of the
Colorado broke through the protecting
barriers and flowed down into the valley.
Here are 300,000 acres of desert land
that now is the most productive single
piece of land in this country, because the
waters of the Colorado, rising in Wyo-
ming and Utah and Colorado, have been
brought and turned on to that land.
Across the way, in Arizona, is another
irrigation project — Yuma. Yuma has
been noted for but one thing, its heat and
the piercing quality of its sand, which
drives into your face ; but Yuma is being
turned now into one great garden.
The government recently offered for
sale some of the public lands on what is
called the Yuma Mesa, and men offered
$250 and $260 an acre for that land,
barren as it is, but with the water right
promised for the future.
A CAMPAIGNER IN THE WEST
I knew Vice-President Stevenson some-
what, and talking one day to a cousin,
Judge Evving, about the success that Ste-
venson had made as a campaigner in the
West, how cleverly he adapted himself
to every situation, Ewing told me this
story :
The Vice-President and Judge Ewing
had started out from Illinois on a car at-
tached to the rear end of a train, and
when they reached Missouri Mr. Steven-
son came to the back platform, met the
multitude, and said ; "My friends, since
coming into Missouri and looking into
your most intelligent faces and seeing the
prosperity that you enjoy, I have de-
termined that if I ever change my place
of residence I shall adopt yours."
Ewing continued : "We went over into
Kansas, and there the Vice-Preside.nt
said : 'Since coming into Kansas and look-
ing at your fields of waving grain and
the happiness that is depicted in your
faces, I have said to myself, "If I ever
change my place of residence I will adopt
yours" ' ; and he came into Colorado, and
it was the same story there ; and then into
New Mexico, and at last to Yuma, Ari-
zona; and in Yuma there was nothing to
be seen in the landscape except cactus and
sand, and there was nobody to meet us
but a group of Indians, and all they wore
was a blanket thrown . over their shoul-
ders, as they huddled in the shade of the
depot, and it was 130 degrees in the
shade. I thought that the old man would
fail there, but he came right to the front,
looked down at these Indians with their
blankets, and said : 'My friends, since
coming to Yuma, and looking upon you,
I have decided that if I ever change my
style of dress I will adopt yours.' ':
And yet that spot — Yuma. the hot, and
Yuma, the home of the desert Indians —
is a very successful, prosperous business
center, surrounded by land that grows
oranges and lemons and, to my taste, the
best grapefruit grown in the United
States.
THE APACHE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN
Up above there we have the Salt River
project, known because of the Roosevelt
Dam ; and that dam was largely built by
the Apache Indians. The best Indian
(and there are lots of them in all this
country of which I am talking) is the
Indian that fought us the hardest. He
had gimp, he had stuff, he had the con-
ception of himself which did not permit
him to be conquered, even by the white
496
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
man ; but when he had to yield to the
inevitable he turned to work, and work
has become his salvation.
There is no better illustration in the
world of the fact that work is our salva-
tion than the Indian. Where he has
abundance of money, where he is cared
for as in an orphan asylum, where he is
paternalized, where he is treated, as many
would have him treated, as a baby in
arms, he does not grow, he does not
flourish, he does not become a man. But
where he is made, like the New England
fathers, to struggle for his own living,
and finds that he cannot live unless he is
forced to struggle, he comes through and
makes a man of himself.
THE CHANGE THAT HAS COME OVER IDAHO
Now we start at the northern bound-
ary again, at Idaho. There is a State
which a few years ago was thought to be
an almost worthless piece of land, good
for forests and with a few minerals. I
was on a piece of land along the Snake
River, in Idaho, two years ago which
raised 575 bushels of potatoes to the acre.
We have there the highest dam in the
world, the Arrow Rock Dam, built by
our own people. The government is now
projecting an enterprise to water, per-
haps, several hundred thousand acres of
Idaho land. The undertaking will in-
volve the moving of a city, the town of
American Falls, taking that town up on
wheels and carrying it a mile or two
back, so that we can flood the land where
it»now stands.
Seven years ago I visited the Minidoka
project, in that State, and found the peo-
ple discontented. Today they are, I sup-
pose, among the happiest farmers and the
most contented people in our country.
Here I saw a town where there never
had been a fire lighted, houses with fire-
places and with chimneys, and some
houses without fireplaces and without
chimneys. No fires were necessary be-
cause at the dam above the town the
water had been stored to irrigate the
land, and at the dam electric power was
generated for use as heat, light, and for
cooking. The women churned with elec-
tricity and the sewing-machines were run
with electricity. I suppose they had a
sort of paddling machine for the naughty
children that they ran by electricity. It
was an electric city.
THE ELECTRIC AGE OX THE, FARM
And that is not an impossibility in any
section of our country. One of the things
that women can do (and women do love
a precise and definite job) is to try to
make the life of the woman on the farm
more happy. There is no one group of
people deserving more sympathy, more
of support, more positive aid, than the
woman who lives on the isolated farm;
and for her electricity, if it can be
brought to her house, is invaluable.
For the woman farmer in Maryland,
Virginia, and Pennsylvania electricity is
just as necessary and just as possible.
Why can't we take our coal at the mouth
of the mine or down in the mine, turn it
into electricity, and send that power by
wire over every farm of the country?
We do it where we have water power,
and you can generate electricity with nat-
ural gas and with coal.
We are a wasteful people, for we do
not know the possibilities in our re-
sources ; but some time the engineering
mind will get to work upon such practical
problems as this, and then life will be-
come less complex and the woman on the
farm will have more time to herself to
think of the things that she ought to have
some chance to think of.
Idaho is a rich State and is growing
rapidly. It has a bed of phosphates.
practically inexhaustible, to fertilize that
whole Western country; and it has for-
ests, mines, a fine State university, and
an excellent school system.
WHAT THE MORMONS HAVE DONE
UTAH
Crossing the border you come down
into Utah.
Never speak disrespectfully of the
Mormon Church. It has as law-abiding,
steady, hard-working, kindly a group of
people in Utah as will be found any-
where this round globe over. Brigham
Young may not have been a prophet of
Almighty God, but he worked a miracle
when he crossed from the Missouri River
over that desert, leading his band of a
few hundred followers with 'their push-
carts, going out into that unknown waste,
A MIXD'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
497
Photograph by George L. Beam
COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT: WESTERN COLORADO
"The Court group" is one of many highly colored, fantastic formations in this reserva-
tion. As a standard for comparison, note the minute figure of the man who is standing half-
way between the camera and the rock, shown at right of center.
498
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AiAGAZTXE
A ZIGZAG MOUNTAIN ROAD NEAR DENVER, COLORADO
and turned the land that lies around Salt
Lake City into a garden.
I brought from Egypt several years
ago the greatest irrigation expert in the
world, perhaps, the man who built the
Assuan Dam upon the Nile — Sir William
Willcocks, the man who claims to have
discovered where the Garden of Eden
was located, at the junction of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers — and I sent him to
look over the irrigation enterprises of the
United States, and he said: "Nowhere
else have I seen people who understand
so wisely how to apply water to land as
around Salt Lake Citv."
Utah has wonderful beauty in it as well
as great stretches of desert that are to be
reclaimed. We have just discovered a
new beauty spot there, Bryce Canyon.
A PROSPECT FOR THE FUTURE
When the King of Belgium was here I
gave him a picture of a new beauty spot
in the United States that we had found
within a canyon. Just think of a land in
which after 100 years or more of occu-
pation men can go out and discover a
great canyon filled with wonderful stalag-
mites, great pillars of rock which rise up
hundreds of feet from the bottom of the
A MIND'S- KVK MAP OF AMERICA
499
Photograph by Kolb Brothers
MOONEY FALLS, A CATARACT WHOSE NAME PERPETUATES THE MEMORY OF A
DARING MINER, WHO LOST HIS LIFE WHILE I'.EING LOWERED
TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PRECIPICE, l8o FEET
The Indians have given the name of Havasu to this canyon, and they call themselves the
Havasupai — the People of the Bine Water. The Havasu is one of the most beautiful of the
lateral canyons of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
canyon in colors like those of pastel. I
hope we shall soon turn this into another
of 'our national parks.
Just below this spot is the Colorado
River, where we already have the Grand
Canyon National Park. And some day
some one will put a stick of dynamite
into the bank of the Colorado River and
blow it out and throw a dam across and
store those waters, and then we shall
have power enough to run the railroads
of that section and power enough to lift
the waters of that river up on to the
mesa lands and turn that desert into
orchard.
Those are the thiqgs that fill your mind
when you are in that Western country:
A mountain in Utah being cut down at
the rate of 50,000 tons a day, and every
ton of it yielding copper ; going out in the
9-8
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c be
5 bo
500
A MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
501
desert in southern Utah and sticking
down a probe into the earth and striking
oil flowing at the rate of a thousand bar-
rels a day !
And better things than oil or fruit or
copper come from those Western lands.
Take that land over in Oregon, to which
I have referred. In that valley was raised
a boy who walked from the Willamette
Valley do-wn to Stanford University that
he might have an education as a mining
engineer — Mr. Herbert Hoover. Those
are the great, great things that we are
producing. There is hardly a State that
is not known by some one individual's
name ; and there are some of them that
are already knowrn by the names of a
dozen men who have given distinction to
the States from which they come.
THE) NOBLEST VIEW IX AMERICA
Now let us go up north again, into
Montana. You are at Glacier Park. I
have not seen all of the grand places of
the world ; but if I were to be asked w-hat
one thing in nature had most impressed
me I would not say the Canyon of the
Yellowstone, beautiful and rich in color
as it is, or the Grand Canyon of the Colo-
rado, overwhelming in majesty and in-
spiring as it is ; but I would say that when
you stand at the edge of Saint Mary's
Lake and look across and up to the two
mountains — one named by the Indians
"Going to the Sun" and the other "Al-
most a Dog'' — you would find probably
the one thing on the North American
Continent that would inspire you most
and make you feel most properly humble.
Glacier Park, with glaciers and lakes,
alongside of the Blackfeet Indians, and
down south of them the Sun River irri-
gation project.
Six years ago I was petitioned by a
'great body of people on that project to
release them from their obligation to
take water. I went out to see them. We
held a mass meeting of all the people on
the project, and all begged that they
might be allowed to continue their life
as farmers by the dry- farming method.
They said there was no danger of drouth
coming ; that they were doing splendidly,
and that they did not wish to be obli-
gated to pay $60 or $70 an acre for water
rights.
I protested, I urged, I begged them to
look further ahead ; I held out to them
the prospect of sure crops, larger crops;
but my voice was not listened to.
The only person on my side was a girl,
a girl, I suppose, 19 or 20 years of age,
who had been a school teacher in the
East. She saw what that country could
be with irrigation and what it would be
without irrigation. She made a capital
speech, but she did not succeed; so I
said, "We will abandon this project be-
cause you wish it."
A few weeks before I relinquished the
duties of Secretary of the Interior I re-
ceived a petition, signed by every man
that was left on that project, asking that
we again take it up and develop irriga-
tion upon it, thus testifying that the girl
was the one true prophet of the w^hole
group.
Come down out of Montana, with its
beauties and its Indians and mines, into
Wyoming — irrigation there, Indians
there, mines there, oil there — and into
Colorado. In Colorado we have a park
where you can stand at one spot and see
twelve mountains, each one 12,000 feet
high. I want to see that park extended
along the east side of the Rocky Moun-
tains, so that it wrill include everything
from the Rocky Mountain Park down to
Pike's Peak. Already one hundred and
fifty thousand people visit this section
with their automobiles every year — car
licenses from New York and Maine,
from Manila and Honolulu.
HE TREATED HIS TREES LIKE CHILDREN
In Colorado, too, we have irrigation
projects. I \vas on one of these projects
some years ago, and I met a man who
had gone there to combat tuberculosis.
He had left Illinois, where he had been
a railroad man. He had a little money,
bought about five acres of land, and put
it into peaches. He told me that the year
before he had made $2,500 off those five
acres of peaches.
I asked him the secret of his success,
and he said. "Because I love every tree.
Each morning when I get up I go out
among the trees and treat them as if they
were my children. I look at them, I pat
them ; I look at the soil ; I look up at the
leaves to see if any leaf has turned yel-
low, and if there is I discover the cause
of it. I love each of those trees, and the
Till-; NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
© F. P. Clatworthy
INTERIOR OF HALLETT GLACIER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK : COLORADO
Not only is Rocky Mountain Park famous for its beautiful glaciers — Hallett, Tyndall,
Andrews, and Spragtie's — but more especially for its glacial records of millenniums past.
Here in truth "the mountains, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," reveal to the eye of in-
quisitive man the story o-f the world in its making.
A MIXD'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
BALANCED ROCK ON THE TRAIL TO FERX AND ODESSA LAKES: COLORADO
Everywhere in the great West one encounters the unexpected. Many are the balanced
rocks weighing hundreds of tons, yet so delicately poised that it would seem a mere gust of
wind could unbalance them. But neither storm nor stress, through countless centuries, has
been able to shake them from their apparently insecure foundations.
o04
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from National Park Service
SLAIN DEER ON A STATION PLATFORM NEAR YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
A national park is a modern counterpart for the ancient city of refuge, and within its
boundaries game is safe from the hunter ; but the heavy snows sometimes cause famine, and
the wild animals leave the park in search of food only to be shot down by those who are
waiting for them beyond the limits of the preserve.
result is that they give something back
to me and I am an independent man."
There is a secret in that too. It has
its application pretty much through life.
AN ANSWER TO STRANGE PHILOSOPHIES
Colorado, one-third of it forest ; and
yet when the King of the Belgians was
here the other month there was a dinner
given to him in one of our fine houses,
and he was served upon gold plates that
were literally dug out of the soil of the
State by a man who was a miner, the
husband of the woman in whose house
this dinner was given.
If all Europe knew that a man by will
.and skill and hard work could dig into
the soil of the United States and bring
out the gold, bring out that which makes
men rich, there would not be much feel-
ing there that any of these strange phi-
losophies that are being preached would
make great progress in America.
I could go on and on and take each
individual State and show how intimately
it touches the Department of Interior.
Take Illinois. You would not suppose
that there was much in Illinois that
might interest this Department, which is
primarily a department of development.
But outside of Chicago there is an ex-
quisite place, called "The Dunes," down
by the lakeside — a lovely place made by
the shifting sands — that some day we
ought to have for a park.
A PLEA FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOL
Just outside of Chicago, also, there is
a model country school.. Do you know
that we do not give the children in the
country districts a fair chance ? I wanted
several years ago to get Congress to ap-
propriate $300,000 that I might get a
representative teacher from each district
in the United States to spend a month at
that school in Illinois, where they could
find out how country children should be
taught, how each boy and each girl in
the school could be made to articulate
with father and mother on the farm. I
could not get the money. But some day
we will dignify the country school and
still more dignify the country school
teacher.
Talk about being underpaid and not
being able to live, not being treated with
respect and having no dignity given to
you ! No one has as justifiable a com-
A MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
505
A FOREST GHOST ON FLATTOP MOUNTAIN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL,
PARK: COLORADO
.Wind, snow, and flying particles of rock have reduced this old spruce tree to a skeleton of its
former self.
plaint as the school teacher of the United
States. In that one State two or three
years ago the ordinary farm laborer was
paid more than the school teacher.
WHAT DO WE DO FOR THE TEACHER?
If your Americanism is founded upon
intelligence (and it must be if it is going
to live), you must have somebody who
can bring out of the young what is in
them. It is not a question of pouring;
it is a question of drawing. You cannot
expect that from a girl who gets $40 a
month. Moreover, you have got to treat
people with respect and with dignity if
you are going to get the best out of them.
What recognition do we give to the
teacher? What social status does she
have? We talk of Americanism, and
there is the person who is at the very
heart and center of Americanism. Upon
her depends our future. She can be
made the greatest instrumentality for
building up the right spirit within the boy
and girl in America — the greatest of all
instrumentalities for Americanization.
506
A MIXD'S-EYE MAP OK AAIKKICA
507
I had rather have the school teacher
than to have all the newspapers and mov-
ing pictures and organizations and con-
gresses and all else combined, because
she can sow the seed in ground that is
fallow. And what status do we give to
her ? With what dignity do we treat her ?
What deference do we pay to her? So-
cially, where is she?
If you love this country, if you believe
that you are a good American, see that
the teacher gets an adequate salary, see
that she gets proper recognition ! For
all of life is not money. The intangible
things are the things for which most
people fight and that are of most value.
And there is no better illustration of that
than the city of Washington, to which
people are drawn largely because of
those intangible things, not the least of
which is our vanity, our love of dis-
tinction.
OUR INDIAN" SCHOOLS
I sometimes think that our Indian
schools in places are better than some of
our schools nearer home. We teach the
Indian boy to raise four kinds of grain
upon a plot of ground, to shoe a horse,
to build a shack, and he comes out of
that school not only knowing a little read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic, but knowing
how to make his living. He is not called
away and told to fight for himself with-
out any tools, without a sword in his
hand.
We have Indian schools in which we
teach the girls how to care for them-
selves and others. We have little cot-
tages. We put two girls in a cottage.
Those girls each month must produce a
hat and a dress and do all their own
cooking ; and they must cultivate a garden
patch and learn how to care for a sick
baby and a sick woman.
In Oklahoma we have a group of In-
dians who are the richest people in all
this world, with an income of $20,000 a
year per family. They are not the very
best Indians that we have. I don't like
to say that ; but it is true, because they
have too much money and they don't
have to work.
But down here in North Carolina we
have a group of Cherokees for whom
nothing has ever been done, and I hope
nothing will ever be done for them.
There has not been an illegitimate birth
for forty years in that reservation. It
has fine upstanding, self-respecting, well
educated farmers and herders.
Way down in Florida are the Semi-
noles, who fought us 100 years ago. To-
day they raise cattle and are contented.
I was offered a million acres of land by
the State of Florida if I would drain it,
and I wanted it badly, because I wanted
it for the soldier boys. I had the thought
that when this war was over we could
make great use of those lands. And we
could, if we had acted in time and had a
bit of foresight; if there was not so
much politics in this world, and it did not
take so many men so much time to realize
what ought to be done.
THE CHALLENGE TO WOMAN
We are not going to be happy cluttered
together in houses banked up against
each other in cities. That is not the nor-
mal, natural life for us. We are not to
have cities made of apartments and
boarding-houses and hotels and produce
the good, husky Americanism that has
fought our wars and made this country
and developed those lands that I have
been talking about. The thing that is big
within us is the creative instinct, and the
challenge that is up to woman is to stimu-
late and develop that in man.
Every man feels the desire to get down
into the soil and wrestle with it and make
it yield to him. It is a part of the instinct
that God implanted at the time when He
ousted man from the luxury of the Gar-
den of Eden ; and he has been marching
round the globe making that conquest
ever since.
Now, because of the lure of pleasure,
because of the moving-picture shows,
and because of the desire to get close to-
gether, man is deserting the farm. When
I was born, 70 per cent of our people
lived in the country ; now not more
than 50.
THE PLAN FOR THE BOYS I-ROM THE
OTHER SIDE
If that movement goes on, we are not
going to have the America that we have
had — that has been vibrant, fibrous,
strong, self-dependent, resourceful.
So I wanted those boys when they
came back from the other side to have a
508
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Famous Players-L,asky Corporation
A SCENE IN THE PROPOSED VICTORY PARK, ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS: NEW YORK
Only two of the national parks antedate our Centennial and only three others are thirty
years old. The national park is the democratic equivalent for the vast estates of the nobility
of Europe; yet no noble has such playgrounds. The first parks were centered around more
or less inaccessible natural wonders, but a movement is on foot to provide the thickly popu-
lated parts of America with playgrounds which, while lacking some of the phenomenal fea-
tures of Yellowstone or Yosemite, still will meet with the universal demand for lovely scenes
and places of wholesome outdoor recreation.
A MIND'S-EYE MAP OF AMERICA
509
A CAMPING PARTY IN PALISADES INTERSTATE PARK : NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
There is no joy limit to the ride along the Palisades of the Hudson River and the
speed of a smile a mile is here being largely exceeded. This beautiful playground comprises
many thousands of acres along the west bank of the Hudson, in the States of New York
and New Jersey, including what is known as Harriman Park, in Rockland County.
piece of land allotted to each of them,
where they could live in communities to
which they could bring their brides —
land that would have a little cottage on
it and be fenced and broken, so that the
boy could go upon it at once and make
his living; borrow a few hundred dollars
from the government and put stock on
the land; having a modern house and a
community center around which this
colony would gather.
I wanted one of those communities in
every State, so that all might see what an
ideal farm life should be, for I thought
that the gospel would spread.
We could have had this. There is
abundant vacant land, land that can be
had for almost nothing. Between the
National Capital and the Gulf of Mexico
there are 32,000,000 acres of unused
lands. We could support the entire
United States, if need be, on that body
of land.
I wanted these boys to be given that
510
THK XATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZTXK
chance ; but it would have cost some
money. That is the hard thing to get,
especially if it involves vision. But we
must come to it; we must come to it if
we are going to have the kind of men in
the future that we have had in the past.
We must keep the boy in love with the
soil. He must feel as the French peasant
felt who was fighting because that soil
that he loved was his. There is some-
thing in the old story of Achilles. You
reach down and touch the soil and you
get strength from it ; you do not get it
from asphalt streets. One hundred and
fifty thousand boys have written asking
that they might have a chance at such a
farm, and we cannot give it to them.
POWER ! POWER ! POWlvR !
Power ! Power ! We must have more
power! I want all our streams that have
possibilities for power, from the James
all up to the Saint Lawrence River, con-
nected, the power developed in them, and
then a great channel, a stream of power,
circulated through those States. It can
be done ; it will be done some day.
I make the appeal to women that they
fire the men with the ambition to make
this country what it can be. We have
done gloriously, but we must not stand
still. The way to stand off Bolshevism
is not to talk about it ; it is to do things
which show that in this nation there is
hope : that we have possibilities ; that this
land is the best of all lands.
Why? Because it is filled with a peo-
ple who have imagination and willingness
to work. We must stimulate those im-
aginations and keep at work. We can
stand off ideas of any kind, because we
can meet them with the one solid argu-
ment that Lincoln was so fond of ; he
always spoke of the argument of facts.
These things that I have enumerated
are in America. And if a man has his
best chance here, then that man will be
proud of the traditions and the institu-
tions and the character of the people that
have made this country. That is true
Americanism.
TO KNOW AMERICA IS TO LOVE IT
Then, too, we must show to the people
around us that the principles that have
guided our fathers, the love of liberty
and the love of right and the sense of
mercy and kindliness, are things that a
nation may express occasionally, but that
every one of us must express constantly.
You cannot take the man from the
Balkans and the woman from Norway
and interpret America to them in strict
terms of abstract law, or in terms of
mountains of copper, or of miles of rail-
roads. Yon must interpret America to
them in terms of American life — the
beauty of American life, its dignity, the
generosity of our natures, our willingness
to be fair, our desire to help, our knight-
like qualities.
To know America is to love it. For it
is a thing of life; it is growing, strug-
gling, climbing, stumbling. It is thinking
through its problems, groping through
them, living through them. Out of its
wealth in tilings of the earth and its
greater wealth in things of the spirit it is
making a new society, different from any
that is or that has been.
We do not see what is going on. We
see but a phase, the tiniest segment of a
great circle.
Under liberty and order men are stim-
ulated to their best, challenged to create.
The inhibitions of long-settled static so-
cieties are lifted and the possible man is
having his day.
MEN DREAMING DREAMS
So everywhere throughout this land,
away off in those remoter sections which
I have mentioned, as well as nearer by,
men are dreaming dreams. Some write
those dreams on paper, and some write
them on the mountain side in orchards,
or within the mountains in mining shafts,
or in the tall buildings of the cities, or in
safe docks for ships.
Everywhere this new people in this
new land is doing something that is a
service. Boys in the sage-brush colleges
are writing poems, men are planning
books or novel mechanical devices. Girls
are preparing themselves for the study
of the sciences. Painters and sculptors
and chemists are proving themselves.
They have the world to draw on; all
its richness is theirs by inheritance — the
color and warmth of the Mediterranean
peoples and the sterner, colder, more
steadfast stuff of the North.
This is to be a new picture in the world
gallery.
F. P. Clatworthy
THE ROOF OF THE CONTINENT IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
Astride the Continental Divide, Rocky Mountain National Park not only contains a noble company of
great peaks rising from flower-clad valleys, but through the variety and legibility of its glacial records, it
forms the people's Rosetta Stone of glacial geology and reveals to the nature student intelligible evidence
concerning the remote past.
THE SQUARE. CROWNED HEAD OF LONG'S PEAK FROM THE
FROST-CARVED FLANK OF FLATTOP
Beloved monarch of all he surveys, this king of Colorado summits rises almost in the center of the four
hundred square miles of mountain grandeur constituting Rocky Mountain National Park. Here glaciers
whose irresistible power is combined with a laggard advance are building up moraines and illustrating to con-
temporary man the forces that shaped our continent in the past.
xl
© Asahel Curtis
"THE MOUNTAIN THAT WAS GOD": MOUNT RAINIER
This mountain of Indian mythology constitutes the Kohinoor of Mount Rainier National Park, fifty-
seven miles from Tacoma. With an unconscious insight into the service rendered by mountain peaks, the
red men of the Northwest called this great snow-peak the " Fountain-breast of Milk-white Waters."
Fred H. Kiser
THE GLORIOUS GRAVE OF A FALLEN MONARCH : CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK
Kings of nature, like their human counterparts, sometimes pass away in a spectacular fashion. Mount
Katmai blew off its head, but its mighty mass still dominates the view. Mount Mazama, wasted away by
internal disorders, collapsed into the seething mass above which it once raised its proud head. .There was i
reaction and the internal forces tried to raise another monarch. But the coup failed and tiny Wizard Island,
almost drowned in blue spring water of surprising clearness, stands as the impotent heir of a blustering sire.
-
© Asahel Curtis
THE NIAGARA OF THE NORTHWEST
Not far from Seattle, Washington, Snoqualmie Falls, more than half again as high as Niagara, furnish
the rapidly growing city with immense power. Beauty and modernity co-operate rather than compete along
the Pacific Coast and the cities have unsurpassed mountain panoramas.
Ko!b Brothers
THE CYCLOPEAN CANYON OF THE COLORADO: LOOKING EAST FROM HOPI POINT
Tinted with the camouflage coloring of the Supreme Artist, "The Battleship" occupies the lower
Foreground. Beyond rise the heights that have been named the "Vishnu Temple" and "Wotan's Throne."
High above them, on the precipice to the right, the ceremonial fires flare forth upon the memorial altar erected
;n honor of Major J. W. Powell, who first traversed the Grand Canyon by water.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
BY MADISON GRANT
Mr. Grant's recital of the inroads which are being made upon some of the
oldest and most magnificent forests of the nation will be read with keen interest
by every member of the National Geographic Society, which was largely respon-
sible for rescuing the finest group of Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea, or Washing-
toniana) of the Sequoia National Park from the fate which now threatens the Red-
woods of northern California. The members of the National Geographic Society
will recall that at a time ^vhen, through a failure of Congress to appropriate a sum
sufficient to present the Big Trees of the Giant Forest from falling into the hands
of private lumber interests, the Society supplemented Congress' appropriation by
a subscription of $20,000 in order that these age-old monarchs might be preserved
in perpetuity (see "Our Big Trees Saved" in THE GEOGRAPHIC for January, 1017).
THE eastern tourist visiting Cali-
fornia feels that he has explored
the State when he has crossed the
Sierra and the central valley, with per-
haps a side trip to Lake Tahoe and to
the Yosemite Canyon, with its Mariposa
grove of big trees, and has completed a
leisurely trip down the southern coast.
After a journey of this character,
which is all that is accomplished by nine
out of ten visitors, he carries away an
impression of a golden brown, semiarid
countryside, waterless stream beds, end-
less fruit orchards, entire absence of turf
and grass, abundant flowers, a rainless
sky, and a pitiless sunlight.
There is, however, another and differ-
ent California on the coast from San
Francisco north to the Oregon line. This
region is heavily wooded, with running
streams and abundant moisture, fogs tak-
ing the place of rainfall during the sum-
mer months.
Much of the immediate coast is an old
Pleistocene strand, elevated about 1,000
feet above the sea and cut through at
various points by rivers and streams.
The new boulevard runs along this ele-
vated beach-line for many miles, and
when completed will be one of the finest
motor highways in the world.
With high mountains to the east, the
traveler looks out over the ,vast expanse
of the Pacific toward the setting sun.
It is along this northwestern coast that
the great redwoods of California are
found, and it is here that the photographs
accompanying this article were taken.
The impending destruction of these
forests is the most serious question con-
fronting California in the effort tor the
preservation of some portion of her vast
inheritance. It has been stated officially
that all of the old stand of forests in the
United States will be cut off within the
next sixty years, but this period will be
materially shortened by the new methods
of logging.
Before describing these groves, it may
be well to say a few words about the
genus Sequoia, as there is much confu-
sion regarding the big trees of the Sierra
and the redwoods of the coast.
SEQUOIAS WERE FLOURISHING WHEN
DINOSAURS ROAMED THE EARTH
The genus Sequoia, to which the two
surviving species of the great trees of
California belong, stands widely sepa-
rated from other living trees. Together
with closely related groups, it once spread
over the entire Northern Hemisphere,
and fossil remains of Sequoia and kin-
dred genera have been found in Europe,
Spitzbergen, Siberia, Alaska, Canada,
and Greenland.
Changes in climate and other causes
have led to their gradual extinction, until
the sole survivors of the genus are con-
fined to California — one to high altitudes
in the Sierra Mountains and the other to
the western slope of the Coast Range.
Fossil leaves and cones of genera
closely related to Sequoia occur in the
rocks of the Jurassic and of the Trias,
and the members of the genus Sequoia
were common and characteristic trees in
California throughout the Cretaceous.
To give some idea of what this bald
statement means, these trees, virtually
520
SAVING THE REDWOODS
521
in their present form, flourished in Cali-
fornia before the mammals developed
from their humble, insectivorous ances-
tors in the Mesozoic, and while the dino-
saurs* were the most advanced form of
land animals.
The mountains upon which these trees
now stand contain fossil records of early
Sequoia-like trees, proving that this
group abounded before the rocks that
constitute the present Sierra and Coast
Ranges were laid down in shallow seas,
to be upheaved later and eroded into
their present shapes. In the base of
Mount Shasta and under its lava flows,
the ancient rocks are marked with im-
prints of their leaves and cones. Such
antiquity is to be measured not by hun-
dreds of thousands, but by millions of
years.
THE BIG TREES OCCUR IN ISOLATED GROVES
While the duration of the family, of
the genus and even the existing species,
or species so closely allied as to be al-
most indistinguishable, extends through
such an immense portion of the earth's
history, the life of the living trees is cor-
respondingly great.
The Sequoia is not only the oldest liv-
ing thing on earth, but it is the tallest
tree in the Western Hemisphere, and we
have no reason, so far as our paleobo-
tanical studies have gone, to believe that
there ever existed on earth either indi-
vidual trees or forests that surpassed in
size, in girth, in height, or in grandeur
the Sequoias of California. And these
are the trees that are being cut for grape
stakes, for railroad ties, and for shingles.
While the purpose of this article is to
deal with the redwoods of the coast
rather than the big trees of the Sierra,
both of the genus Sequoia, a description
of the redwood should be preceded by a
few words on the big tree.
The big trees, Sequoia gigantea, are
found on the western slope of the Sierra
Xevadas, in California, at an altitude of
from five to eight thousand feet above
the sea, with a north and south range of
about 250 miles. They do not constitute
a solid stand, but occur in more or less
isolated groves, and growing with them
* See "Hunting Big Game of Other Days,"
by Barnum Brown, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE for May, 1919.
are other huge trees, chiefly white fir,
incense cedar, sugar and yellow pine.
These groves are about thirty-two in
number and are m.uch scattered and iso-
lated in the northern part of their range,
while in the south they are larger and
closer together. This distribution shows
that the big tree is on the decline, the
various groves having long since lost
touch with each other, while in the north
the reproduction is very poor. They all
grow in spots sheltered by surrounding
forests, and the slopes of the Sierra are
more or less windless, but now that the
white man has taken the land they would
soon be destroyed for their valuable lum-
ber, unless artificially protected in na-
tional parks.
They have suffered throughout the
ages from ground fires. Their extraor-
dinarily thick bark, which is from one-
half to two feet through, is a great pro-
tection, and although its heart has been
burned out, a tree lives on so long as
this bark and its underlying cambium
layer can reach the earth.
If protected by human care, the big
tree has remarkable recuperative power,
and many specimens in the Giant Forest
of the Sequoia National Park show an
accelerated growth, owing to their im-
munity from fire even for a few decades.
These trees are from five to twenty-
five feet in diameter at shoulder height
above the ground, and in the Giant For-
est alone there are said to be 5,000 trees
of more than ten feet in diameter.
The height varies from 150 to much
more than 225 feet, and as they are
without taproots, they stand absolutely
straight, often without branches from
the ground to a height of 175 feet.
WHY THE TREES' CROWNS ARE DEAD
The crown usually is dead ; not blasted
by lightning, as has been often asserted,
but because ancient fires have eaten in
at the base, so that the flow of sap to the
top has been checked.
When connection with the ground and
the life-giving water supply has been
strongly re-established, growth takes
place from the topmost uninjured
branches and forms a new, but false,
crown.
It is estimated that if these trees had
escaped upsetting by the wind, and had
522
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
ONE CLUMP OF REDWOODS CONTAINING 250,000 FEET OF LUMBER; THIS GROUP OF
TREES IS GRAFTED TOGETHER AT THE TOP (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PAGE 523)
The age of the redwood is about half that of the Sierra Big Tree, and the life of the
mature specimens ranges from 500 to 1,300 years. Some of the Big Tree specimens when
felled have been found to be more than 3,250 years old, and the General Sherman Tree
undoubtedly exceeds these in antiquity.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
523
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
A SKYWARD VIEW OF THE CLUMP OF TREES, GRAFTED TOGETHER AT THE TOP, SHOWN
IN THE ILLUSTRATION ON PRECEDING PAGE
The redwood has an unusually thick bark, but this serves as only partial protection
from forest fires. In lumbering operations it sometimes happens that a loss of 30 per cent
in timber results from the fires started to destroy the debris — brush, shattered branches, and
fallen trunks.
524
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
NO HEAVIER STANDS OF REDWOOD THAN SHOWN IN THIS ILLUSTRATION CAN BE
FOUND IN THE REDWOOD BELT
The tree in the left foreground is 18 feet in diameter and contains 100,000 feet of mer-
chantable lumber. These trees if preserved will soon produce more profit each year for the
State than can be obtained temporarily by their destruction, and they will prove a source of
increasing wealth to the State with each passing generation.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
525
been allowed to grow entirely free from
fire throughout their age-long existence,
and had carried their proportionate
growth (calculated from the tapering of
the trunk) to their uttermost limits, they
would be 600 feet high.
This is mere speculation, as is the theo-
retical age of some of the more ancient
trees. The known age of trees which have
been cut is from 1,100 to 3,250 years, but
there is little doubt that this long period
is much exceeded in such cases as the
General Sherman tree or the Grizzly
Giant. The life of these giants can be
computed only by comparison with the
measured trunks of lumbered trees, the
actual age of which has been ascertained
from the rings of growth.
There is always a factor of uncertainty
in the size of trees, depending on their
rate of growth and supply of water. In
exposed positions, with poor water and
soil, development may be greatly retarded,
and a tree may be very ancient although
relatively small in size. On the other
hand, a favorable location, such as a
pocket in the rock or access to underly-
ing water, might greatly accelerate the
growth of a tree within the same grove.
REDWOODS OF THE COAST
The redwood of the coast, Sequoia
sempervirens — the immortal Sequoia — far
from being a battered remnant, like its
cousin of the Sierra, whose shattered
ranks remind one of massive Roman
ruins, is a beautiful, cheerful, and in-
domitable tree. Burned and hacked and
butchered, it sprouts up again with a
vitality truly amazing.
It is this marvelous capacity for new
growth from trunk or from root sap-
lings which is, perhaps, the most inter-
esting character of the redwood in con-
trast with the big tree, which has no
such means of regeneration and must de-
pend on its cones for reproduction.
All the redwood forests have been
more or less injured by fire, sometimes
of ancient origin, but more often delib-
erately started by the lumbermen to
clear away the slash, and it is a wonder-
ful sight to see a charred trunk throw out
a spray of new growth twenty or thirty
feet above the ground, or a new tree
standing on top of an ancient bole and
sending its roots, like tentacles, down into
the ground around the mother stump.
Other trees stand athwart the fallen bod-
ies of their parents and continually re-
adjust their root systems to the decaying
trunks beneath it.
The vitality of the second growth
throws up a circular ring of new and
beautiful redwoods around the parent
stump, and these little trees come up
again and again if cut. If, however, they
are buried several times in succession,
this capacity of shoot reproduction ap-
pears to be lost, and there are cases,
notably about fifteen miles north of Ar-
cata, in Humboldt County, where the
highway passes through three or four
miles of very large and thickly set burned
stumps that show little or no signs of
reforestation, proving that there are con-
ditions where human greed and human
carelessness make it impossible for even
the redwood to survive.
REDWOODS ARE YOUNGSTERS FROM 5OO TO
I,30O YEARS OLD
The age of the redwood is about half
that of the Sierra big tree, and the life of
a mature redwood runs from 500 to 1,300
years, in many cases probably more.
The diameter of the larger redwoods
is sixteen feet and more and the height
runs from 100 to 340 feet. Thus, while
its diameter is less, its height is far greater
than its cousin, the big tree, with the re-
sult and effect of a graceful beauty rather
than impressive solidity. It is probable
that trees will be found which will exceed
this maximum altitude, and it is quite
possible that an ultimate height of 350
feet may be recorded. One would an-
ticipate the discovery of this tallest tree
on earth either in Bull Creek Flat or
along Redwood Creek.
Of course, in discussing the present
redwoods, one must always bear in mind
that many of the finest groves have fallen
to the axe, judging from the silent rec-
ords of gigantic stumps along the Eel
River, especially at Sonoma Flat, only
recently destroyed.
It is probable that the existing groves,
with few exceptions, such as Bull Creek
Flat, do not represent the finest groves
of redwoods of fifty years ago. How
needless all this sacrifice of Humboldt
redwoods has been may be measured by
526
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
© Freeman Art Company
ONE OF THE MOST CONSPICUOUS FEATURES OF THE REDWOOD GROVES IS THE PRO-
FUSION OF FERNS CARPETING THE GROUND BENEATH THE FOREST MONARCHS
Some thirty species of fern have been found in the forests of Del Norte and Humboldt
counties, California.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
527
the fact that few, if any, of the lumber
companies have proved profitable invest-
ments, if their failure to pay dividends is
a test of their commercial success.
THE REDWOOD RANGE IS 450 MILES LONG
The original range of the redwoods
extended from Monterey north along the
California coast to a point a few miles
over the Oregon line, embracing an area
with a length of about 450 miles and a
width not exceeding 40 miles. The nar-
rowness of this range seems to be de-
termined by the fog which sweeps in
from the Pacific, and the writer has seen
the edge of the fog-bank clinging closely
to the inland limit of the redwood belt.
Many natives believe that the redwoods
attract fog, but of course it is the mois-
ture of the fog deposited on the tops of
the trees that determines their inland dis-
tribution. These forests are sometimes
so wet that the dripping from the high
crowns is like a thin rain, and at Red-
wood Creek in summer it is hard often-
times to tell whether it is raining or not,
so saturated with moisture are the foli-
age and the trunks when the fog darkens
the forest.
In the southern and larger half of their
range, the redwoods are somewhat broken
up in more or less isolated groves, and
the axe of the lumberman has now
separated these groves still more widely.
In the north there is an almost continu-
ous series of solid stands of redwoods,
constituting the most magnificent forests
in the world, not even excepting the great
Douglas firs and pines that adjoin them
in Oregon.
The redwoods in the south seem to
show a marked variation from those of
the north, being generally redder in color,
and their growth in rings or circles is
much more frequent than in the groves
of Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
THE VALUE OF A LIVING TREE FAR EXCEEDS
THE VALUE OF ITS TIMBER
South of San Francisco the redwoods
are now found chiefly in the Big Basin,
which has been wisely made into a State
park, and in the famous Santa Cruz grove.
Intermediate spots along the Coast Range,
notably at La Honda, are interesting
chiefly as showing the pathetic solicitude
with which the owners of surviving
trees care for the battered remnants amid
the charred stumps of former giants.
Here at least the owners have learned
that the value of a living tree at a public
resort or along a highway far exceeds
the value of its lumber. All these south-
ern groves are mere reminders of the
forests that are gone, but the surviving
trees will be carefully protected.
North of San Francisco the Muir
Woods, on the slopes of Mount Tamal-
pais, are easily accessible and show some-
thing of the forest grandeur formerly
found in the region of the Golden Gate.
The preservation of this grove is entirely
due to the wise munificence of Mr. Wil-
Jiam Kent, who presented it to the nation.
To the north, Sonoma County has pur-
chased for public use the Armstrong
Grove, and Mendocino County probably
will be impelled to buy the Montgomery
Grove. These last trees are situated near
the highway to the north of Ukiah and
will be the first grove visited by the north-
bound tourist. If they are purchased by
the town or county, Ukiah will become
the entrance to the Redwood Park series,
and, like Merced, at the entrance to the
Yosemite Valley, will derive a large rev-
enue from motor tourists.
After leaving Mendocino County one
enters the great groves of Humboldt and
Del Norte counties. Here are solid stands
of redwoods, and the observer finds it
difficult to distinguish between one grove
and the next.
Four great forests stand out promi-
nently: They are (ist) the groves along
the South Fork of the Eel River and
the west bank of the main Eel, culminat-
ing in the Bull Creek Flat and the Dyer-
ville Flat; (2d) the immense Redwood
Creek grove; (3d) the Klamath River
groves, and (4th) the Smith River groves
at Mills Creek, in Del Norte County. Each
has its peculiar beauty, and it is difficult
to choose among them, but it is the trees
of Humboldt County, along the South
Fork of the Eel River, that at the pres-
ent moment are most in peril.
ITS VIRTUES IMPERIL THE REDWOOD
The groves along the South Fork of
the Eel River are traversed by the State
highway, now in the process of construc-
tion. The building of this highway made
the timber accessible, and the immediate
528
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
A CAMPING SITE; AMONG THE KLAMATH RIVER REDWOODS : CALIFORNIA
"The inhabitants of Del Norte and Humboldt counties have scarcely awakened to the possi-
bilities of fabulous wealth in their redwoods as an attraction for visitors."
SAVING THE REDWOODS
529
result was the establishment of small
lumber camps that are destroying the
trees along its edge. Not only are the
trees along the road cut down, but the
highway itself in many cases has been
injured.
These great trees, with their hundreds
of feet of clear timber, have, among other
valuable qualities, the unfortunate char-
acteristic of easy cleavage or splitting,
and so they are in special demand for rail-
road ties, for shakes or shingles, and for
grape stakes. These superb trees are
sacrificed to supply the stakes to support
vines because of the practically inde-
structible character of the wood, which
will stand in the ground almost indefi-
nitely without rotting.
THE CALIFORNIA STATE HIGHWAY RUNS
THROUGH THE REDWOOD
DISTRICT
In going to the redwood country from
San Francisco, the first important group
of trees encountered is the Montgomery
grove, which lies a few miles west of the
highway north of Ukiah, but about fifty
miles north of Willits the redwoods be-
gin to appear along the highway in small
and scattered groups.
The beauty of the roadway could be
greatly enhanced by saving these small
groves and scattered trees. Their ulti-
mate preservation, however, will depend
entirely on the ability of the California
Highway Commission to secure a right
of way of sufficient width. This has not
been done as yet, and farther north, in
an effort to avoid expense, the Commis-
sion actually purchased a right of way
subject to the condition that the owners
should remove the timber from it. In
other words, a highway was planned
through the redwoods to carry visitors
to see the trees, and then arrangements
were made to have the timber removed.
This action was largely taken owing to the
widespread, but mistaken, belief that it is
impossible to save a strip of timber if the
protecting trees on either side are re-
moved. However, California is awaken-
ing to the necessity of employing land-
scape engineers, who will prevent all
unnecessary vandalism.
The first important redwood groves
are at Hicks' Camp and about twelve
miles south of Garberville, at the Stern's
Camp grove, the latter comprising some
ten acres on a fine level bottom about
300 yards wide. At this point one is
forced to recognize the fact that any
State park in connection with the high-
way must include the entire erosion val-
ley of the South Fork of the Eel from
crest to crest. The skyline, with its su-
perb trees, is as essential as the bottom
flat and much more important than the
intermediate area.
The river valley is narrow — in fact,
little more than a wide gorge with a level
bottom — and the timber on the slopes has
less commercial value than that upon the
flat. If the timber along the highway is
to be preserved, a relatively small amount
of additional cost would protect the en-
tire valley.
At Red Mountain there is a fine grove
of redwoods, and to the north of that the
first cutting was made in 1919. From
this point on it becomes evident that the
right of way, 100 yards wide, acquired
by the California Highway Commission,
is not only insufficient, but has actually
served to invite logging operations.
^ The contour of the South Fork of the
Eel is such that the highway, with a
strip of timber on each side, can be pre-
served easily without danger of destruc-
tion from winds, if due consideration is
given to the topography of the ground.
THE WORK OF CENTURIES DESTROYED FOR
GRAPE STAKES
It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the
need to put an end to the destruction of
the oldest and tallest trees on earth.
The cutting of a Sequoia for grape stakes
or railroad ties (and an eighteen-foot
tree along the new State highway was
cut a few months ago for that purpose)
is like breaking up one's grandfather's
clock for kindling to save the trouble of
splitting logs at the woodpile, or lighting
one's pipe with a Greek manuscript to
save the trouble of reaching for the
matches.
After the fall of the Roman Empire
the priceless works of classic art were
"needed" for lime, and statues by Phidias
and Praxiteles were slaked down for
this purpose ; but the men who did it are
today rightly regarded as "vandals and
barbarians."
530
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
WHEREVER THE REDWOOD IS FOUND AT ITS BEST ONE MAY BE SURE OF A
DAILY FOG BATH
This photograph shows the sunbeams breaking through the fog as it begins to lift and
dissolve. This usually occurs about 9 or 10 o'clock each day during the summer season.
Sometimes the forests are so wet that the dripping of water from the high crowns is like a
thin ram.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
531
North of Garberville there was much
lumbering for railroad ties and grape
stakes during the summer of 1919. The
cutting was in every case done along the
east bank of the South Fork of the Eel
River and on the very edge of the high-
way, and while the devastation was ap-
palling, the damage, if stopped now, can
ultimately be minimized..
Farther north the cutting begins to ap-
pear at scattered points, but one of the
finest groves, a tract of 700 acres be-
longing to the Hammond Lumber Com-
pany, has been left untouched.
A little farther north there is a fine
stand of timber owned by the University
of Minnesota, and it is to be hoped that
this educational institution will cooperate
in preserving these trees. From here on
there has been much destruction at vari-
ous points along the road.
After these scenes of devastation and
threats of worse, the traveler reaches
Bull Creek Flat, perhaps the finest forest
in the world. Bull Creek enters the South
Fork of the Eel just above Dyerville,
and here is a magnificent stand of trees,
some 10,000 acres in extent.
If all the forested area needed in con-
nection with the State highway be taken
from the upper reaches of the South Fork
down to the mouth of Bull Creek, the res-
ervation will contain about 10,000 acres.
Bull Creek Flat, with the grove opposite,
at Dyerville, will add 10.000 acres, mak-
ing a total of from 20,000 to 25,000 acres,
the minimum for a State park, which in
point of fact should be larger and extend
northward along the west bank of the
main Eel River.
Bull Creek Flat belongs to the Pacific
Lumber Company, except two sections
in the upper part, which are the property
of the Metropolitan Lumber Company.
The officials of both these companies
have expressed their sympathy with the
park project, so far as it relates to Bull
Creek Flat. This tract is said to contain
one enormous tree, possibly the largest
redwood and the tallest tree in the world.
STATE AND NATION MUST BUY BACK
THEIR GIFTS
The fundamental tragedy of the whole
redwood situation lies in the fact that
the great trees are nearly all in the hands
of private owners, who cannot reasonably
be expected to sacrifice their holdings for
public benefit. The State and nation,
having given away these lands in the past,
must now buy back at least a large por-
tion of them.
On the east bank of the Eel River, for
many miles below the forks, there are
very few redwoods within sight of the
highway except at Fortuna, where 2,300
acres of fine trees have been preserved
temporarily and are known as the Carson
Woods. This grove is a mile or so east
of the highway and should be preserved
as a local park.
. ^ •}
SPROUTING SAPLINGS HAVE BEEN
DESTROYED
Along the lower stretches of the Eel
River below Scotia a lumber company is
said to have checked reforestation by cut-
ting, during successive years, the sprout-
ing saplings which bravely tried to lift
their heads around the old stumps. This
was done under the impression that the
land could, be made available for pastur-
age. It has proved a failure, and the
only result has been to destroy in many
places the chance of the forest recovering.
Below therforks, on the left bank, there
is a magnificent stand of trees, extending
from the water's edge to the crest of the
main slope, nearly all of which belongs
to the Pacific Lumber Company. This
area is some 20,000 acres in extent, and
the highway runs through it. It should
be preserved, although the cost would be
great beca'use of the size of the tract and
the fine quality and thickness of the tim-
ber. Below this forest the timber on
both sides of the river has been almost
entirely destroyed.
At Orick, on the Big Lagoon, the high-
way passes through the lower end of the
Redwood Creek grove, one of the very
best stands of redwood in Humboldt
County, approximately 50,000 acres in
extent. The redwoods are largely mixed
with spruce and the' ground is carpeted
with ferns of great abundance and va-
riety. This stand is as yet untouched
and should be saved for a national park,
because the timber, being inaccessible,
can be acquired at a relatively small cost.
One of the most conspicuous features
of these redwood forests, especially in
Del Norte County and the northern por-
tions of Humboldt, is the profusion of
532
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
A BEAUTIFUL CAMPING GROUND
There are hundreds of beautiful camping grounds in the timbered regions of the Cali-
fornia coast. The owner of this tract has cleared off a number of spots and put them in
shape for the use of visitors. June, July, August, September, and the greater part of October
are splendid months for c-amping. The Interstate highway passes along this tract about two
miles to the westward.
SAVING THE REDWOODS
533
ferns, of which there are said to be some
thirty species.
The protection of the California red-
woods is now the subject of anxious
solicitude on the part of many citizens,
but the practical means of achieving this
result are in the hands of the Redwoods
League. There are two distinct move-
ments on foot. First and of instant need
are the efforts made by Humboldt County
and by the Redwoods League to stop the
cutting along the highway on the South
Fork of the Eel River.
OPTIONS PURCHASED BY TWO LOVERS OF
THE REDWOODS
This has been substantially accom-
plished, and since August, 1919, all the
cutting has been stopped by the purchase
of the land on which lumbering opera-
tions were here carried on. This was
made possible through the munificence of
Mr. Stephen T. Mather and Mr. William
Kent, each of whom donated $30,000 to
be used in the purchase of options on the
threatened areas.
These options have since been taken
up by the Supervisors of Humboldt
County, a body of men having rare fore-
sight. Humboldt County expects to pro-
vide a bond issue on a large scale, which
will secure the preservation of the groves
most in danger, but the bulk of the money
needed must be provided by the State of
California. The necessary bond issue
will shortly be brought before the people.
It has been sponsored by the Governor
and has the active support of the most
influential men in the State.
In addition to this, the Redwoods
League has succeeded in enlisting the
support of many public-spirited lumber-
men and owners of timber, who propose
to donate at least a portion of their hold-
ings for park purposes, especially along
the highway.
The extent of this redwoods park has
been definitely determined as the entire
valley of the South Fork of the Eel
River from the point where the redwoods
begin down to and including Bull Creek
Flat and Dyerville Flat. If, in addition,
funds can be provided to purchase any
or all of the 20,000 acres of redwoods on
the left bank of the main Eel farther
down stream, a superb reserve would be
established.
The Eel River redwoods constitute the
most immediate problem, but there is also
a very definitely formulated plan to pro-
vide a National Redwoods Park. A na-
tional park requires a large area, with
sufficient isolation and compactness to
admit of proper administration. There
are three such areas available: ist, the
grove along Redwood Creek, of about
50,000 acres in extent and peculiarly
adapted for a national park; 2d, the
groves along the Klamath River, as yet
untouched and of great beauty; 3d, the
Smith River groves, in Del Norte County.
A complete survey, such as is now being
undertaken by the Redwoods League,
will be necessary to determine the rela-
tive suitability of these three groves for
a national park.
THE REDWOODS LEAGUE
The "Save the Redwoods League" was
formally organized in San Francisco in
July, 1919.
The league is under the executive con-
trol of Dr. John C. Merriam, of the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, Calif.,
and its purposes are:
(1) To purchase redwood groves by
private subscriptions and by county bond
issues.
(2) To secure a State bond issue to
buy the finest redwood groves along
State highways.
(3) To establish, through Federal aid,
a National Redwoods Park.
(4) To obtain, through State and
county aid, the protection of timber along
the scenic highways now in course of
construction throughout California.
(5) To encourage the State to pur-
chase cut-over redwood areas for refor-
estation by natural means or by replant-
ing where repeated fires have made
sprout reproduction impossible.
Committees have been formed also to
study the subjects of redwood distribu-
tion, variation, and the most efficient
commercial use of redwood products, in
the belief that nearly all the purposes for
which this lumber is now used can be
adequately served by second - growth
trees.
REDWOOD GROVES IDEAL MEMORIALS
One of the first results of the activities
of the league has been the donation by
534
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Dr. John C. Phillips, of Boston, of a
large sum of money for the purchase of
a redwood grove as a memorial to his
brother-in-law, the late Colonel Boiling,
who fell under circumstances of great
heroism in the late war. No more beau-
tiful or effective memorial can be imag-
ined than a grove of these trees, the very
name of which, sempervirens, is redolent
of the idea of immortality.
If those who desire to preserve in a
permanent form the memory of their
dead would join in a movement to set
aside memorial groves, the whole prob-
lem of the preservation of the redwoods
on a very large scale would be solved.
If a tithe of the gold now squandered in
ugly and costly monuments, which dese-
crate the cemeteries throughout the land,
were spent on trees, the world would be
fuller of beauty and possibly more grate-
ful to those who supplied the money.
In addition to donations of money and
trees for such memorial purposes, the
league expects to find sympathetic and
cordial support for the park among the
lumbermen. They know only too well
the value of the timber. The timber is
their property, and their business is to
cut and to realize on it.
It is not fair for a community to ask
them to hold this timber, to pay taxes on
it, and then to sacrifice their financial in-
terests for the public welfare. It is the
duty of the county, the State, and the
nation to purchase their holdings at the
proper value.
The question involved is not local; it
is a State, a national — in fact, an inter-
national— concern, as the benefit derived
from the preservation of the redwoods
will be for the people of the nation and
the -world at large. There is no reason
why the lumbermen should abandon
their interests without adequate remuner-
ation, although in many cases individuals
and companies will donate a certain por-
tion of their timber or sell at low figures.
If the State, before building the high-
ways, which made the timber accessible,
had approached the lumbermen and made
it a condition precedent that a strip of
timber on each side of the road should
be donated, no doubt in many cases the
lumbermen would have found it greatly
to their interest to accept the proposal.
The fact that this was not done was the
fault of the State, its .highway commis-
sion, and its legislature, and not the fault
of the lumbermen.
Experience has shown that the only
effective, persistent, and intelligent con-
servators of wild game have been sports-
men who have evolved from game-killers
into game protectors, and personally the
writer believes that the lumber owners
themselves, who are among the finest
men on the coast, will be found to be
most generous and helpful in any scheme
looking to the preservation of the timber.
It will cost money to preserve the red-
woods— many millions of dollars ; but
California has no choice. Either the
amount needed to save the groves must
be supplied today or else a far greater
sum will be required ten years hence to
purchase a butchered and isolated tenth
part of the forests.
REDWOODS NEVER CAN BE REPLACED
If the groves are bought in their pres-
ent condition and at relatively small cost,
it will be a great innovation, because
heretofore Americans have followed the
wasteful policy of recklessly exploiting
wild life, forests, and streams, and then,
as soon as the destruction is complete, the
policy is changed, game is reintroduced,
and attempts are made to reforest the
mountains at vast cost. But redwoods
never can be replaced.
Of course, lumbering must go on ; but
most of the purposes for which redwood
is now being used can be served from
second-growth timber, and there are vast
areas of denuded, devastated, and lum-
bered-over lands which can be made in
a few years to supply all the timber
needed.
It probably would not be desirable,
even if possible, to preserve all the red-
wood timber now standing, although as
standing timber it is perhaps worth to the
State many times its value as lumber.
This is true, even from an investment
point of view, because the value of the
timber is increasing by leaps and bounds.
All this is entirely aside from the sen-
timental considerations against destroy-
ing trees of such great age, size, and
beauty. No one who has seen these
groves can fail to love them. Nature has
been so bountiful to California that the
Californians are trustees, for the rest of
the world, of many of these priceless
heirlooms from a distant past.
SAVIXG THE REDWOODS
535
O Freeman Art Company
HAYS OF SUNSHINE FILTERING THROUGH REDWOODS NEAR DYERVILLE, CALIFORNIA
The telegraph pole in the middle distance serves as a "yardstick" with which to measure
the height of these splendid trees. The redwoods are evergreens, the leaves remaining three
or four years after they develop. One of the admirable qualities of this species is its impervi-
ousness to decay, a fact which makes it extremely desirable for the foundations of buildings.
536
THE XATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
Photograph from Charles Willis Ward
THE REDWOOD IN THE CENTER OF THIS ILLUSTRATION HAS A DIAMETER OF
TWENTY-TWO FEET
This species, the Sequoia scnipervircns — immortal Sequoia — not infrequently attains a
height of more than 300 feet. Some specimens have been found which tower aloft 340 feet,
and it is predicted by lovers of these giants that the tallest tree on earth will be found either
in Bull Creek Flat or along Redwood Creek, California.
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
Vast Riches in the Guano Deposits of Cormorants,
Pelicans, and Petrels which Nest on Her
Barren, Rainless Coast
BY R. E. COKER
With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author
PERU is preeminently a land of con-
trasts. A visitor standing upon
some moderate eminence by the sea
may gaze alternately upon the broadest
extension of ocean's smooth surface and
the highest and most battlemented moun-
tains of the continent.
If his vision weary of the barren desert
stretching between sea and snow-clad
peaks, he has but to turn in his tracks to
refresh his eyes with the beauty of a ver-
dant tropical valley, where brightly col-
ored birds flit among trees and shrubbery
and tropical fruits are watered by melted
snows.
The daylight about him is perhaps as
brilliant, as dazzling, as sunlight may be
upon earth, while he breathes deeply the
moderately cool sea breeze blowing fresh
from the mighty Humboldt Stream.
He will become enervated by the rays
of the tropical sun pouring direct from
the zenith, but he may stroll down to the
beach and plunge into a surf as cool and
invigorating as that of Martha's Vine-
yard or Monterey.
The paradoxes of Peru might be multi-
plied, but our interest lies not immedi-
ately in these. Rather we are concerned
with other links in the chain of circum-
stances arising from the same funda-
mental geographical causes.
WHY PERU'S COAST IS RAINLESS
The Humboldt, or Peruvian. Current,
supplemented no doubt by the upturning
of cold bottom waters, maintains its
steady course for thousands of miles,
from icy Antarctic latitudes to the Equa-
tor. Thus it is that tropical shores are
bathed by cold ocean waters, and. with
this fundamental contrast, the stage is set
for an array of phenomena not fully
paralleled in any other part of the world.
Only two events in. that interesting
series command our present attention.
These are the absence of rainfall and the
consequent accumulation, through centu-
ries untold, of a mine of wealth which
might have been dissipated by a few sea-
sons of rain.
The cause of rain, of course, is the
cooling and contraction of a moisture-
laden atmosphere. \Ye may think of a
wet sponge that is squeezed and forced
to give up its water ; but when a moist,
cool breeze is warmed over sunny lands,
it is as if a compressed damp sponge
were allowed to expand ; instead of giv-
ing up water, the sponge is drier than
before.
So, when the winds blowing cool from
the surface of the Peruvian Current
touch the lands that are warmed beneath
a tropical sun, expansion or rarefaction
occurs, rainfall is prevented, and the at-
mosphere is dry.
PERU'S DRY ATMOSPHERE PRESERVES ITS
GUANO WEALTH
The significance of this, with respect
to the famed guano deposits of Peru,
easily becomes apparent. In climates of
common atmospheric humidity, however
numerous the sea-fowl that nest or rest
upon islands or mainland, the nitrates of
the guano give rise to ammonia and are
wasted by evaporation or seepage ; but
when, as in Peru, year after year guano
is laid down beneath a clear, dry atmos-
phere, the deposit hake's in the sun and
its most valuable components are im-
prisoned for an indefinite period.
Guano, it will be understood, is pri-
marily the deposit of fish-eating birds,
into which may be mixed and incorpo-
rated— in greater or less proportion — a
variety of other substances, such as the
537
538
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
OLD TERRACES ON THE STEEP SIDES OF THE GORGE OF THE RIMAC, WHICH THE
PERUVIAN FARMERS OF AN EARLY CIVILIZATION ENRICHED WITH
THE GUANO GATHERED ON THE RAINLESS COAST
The ancient Peruvians developed the practice of irrigation to a remarkable degree.
Under modern conditions, only the bottom, showing dark in the photograph, is under culti-
vation. Guano was conveyed from the islands to fertilize such interior farms (see text,
page 541).
eggs and bodies of birds and the deposits
and the bodies of sea-lions. It may be
found mixed with gravel and sand in
very small proportion or sometimes to an
extent rendering it unprofitable to ex-
tract.
Great beds of guano have been formed
upon islands of the Caribbean Sea ; upon
others off the coast of Africa ; and upon
still others of the southern and far Pa-
cific ; yet these guanos are scarcely com-
parable to Peruvian guano, for in the
moist climate prevailing upon such shores
the nitrogen is soon lost in the form of
ammonia, while the insoluble phosphates
remain to form a far less valuable "phos-
phatic guano."
"Peruvian guano" is practically synony-
mous with nitrogenous guano and has
long been recognized as the best nitrog-
enous fertilizer — that is, as a fertilizer
of generally high nitrogen value in which
the nitrogen compounds are found in a
condition most readily assimilable by our
plants.
PERU'S BIRDS HELP TO SUPPORT HUMANITY
Nitrogen is a primary necessity to the
farmer. Whatever may be the impor-
tance of adding to the soil potash and
other mineral components of our food
and our clothing, there never exists a
doubt as to the fundamental importance
of nitrogen.
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
530
THIS FLOCK OF CORMORANTS FORMED NEARLY ONE THOUSAND TONS OF HIGHEST-
GRADE GUANO IN ONE YEAR (SEE TEXT, PAGE 546)
This is the most important guano-producing bird of the rainless coast, and the native
Peruvians long ago recognized this fact, giving it the name of guanay, meaning, apparently,
"the guano bird." Guanays occur on the Peruvian coast from near the northern to the ex-
treme southern boundary, but the principal habitat is the double group of islands off the port
of Pisco — the Chinchas and the Ballestas.
Neither is there a doubt as to the criti-
cal nature of the practical problem of
maintaining a supply of this element in
a form available for agricultural uses.
Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere
above and about us in almost incalculable
quantities, but the problem of supply
arises from the limited means and agen-
cies for its fixation in a form in which it
can be utilized. There is always a tend-
ency, too, for this elusive element to re-
turn to Nature's great store, and it
can be recovered again only by slow
natural processes or expensive industrial
methods. So often as the odor of am-
monia arises from wastes or decaying
substances, so often is nitrogen being
lost — for the time — to further useful
service.
Only within recent years have mechan-
ical methods been devised to supplement
the natural agencies upon which we have
hitherto depended to make a small por-
tion of the nitrogen of the world serve
the purposes of man. But such methods
are expensive, and doubtless for a long
time we will continue to depend princi-
pally upon the utilization of organic
wastes for nitrogen.
Consequently a peculiar interest at-
taches to birds of the Peruvian islands,
which have long served to aid the world's
agriculture and which, given due protec-
tion, may continue indefinitely to contrib-
ute materially to the support of humanity.
THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS PROTECTED
GUANO-PRODUCING BIRDS
Peruvian guano has been imported
largely into Great Britain, Europe, and
the United States for many decades. Its
employment as a fertilizer on the South
American continent is far more ancient.
Centuries before the beginning of mod-
540
THE XAT1OXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A GENTLE SLOPE DOTTKD WITH THE NESTS OF WHITE-BREAST CORMORANTS:
CHINCHA ISLANDS
After the nests had been occupied for three years, an acre of the ground was covered with
guano worth $60,000 or more. This rookery comprised about fifteen acres.
A GUANO-BIRD COLONY ON ONE OF THE BALLESTAS ISLANDS
The guanays well deserve their name. Their gregarious habits, their choice of level
ground and gentle slopes for their nesting places, and their custom of remaining on land a
large part of the time combine to result in the formation of enormous deposits of guano.
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
541
THE; AIR AS WELL AS TIIK CLIFI'-TOP is ALIVE WITH GUAXAVS
When walking, these birds suggest penguins, with their erect, waddling gait; in flight, they
form long, black clouds, miles in length.
ern American agriculture, there existed
on the west coast of South America a
civilization of high attainments in agri-
culture, in textile industries, and in archi-
tecture. - .
The ancient Peruvians found their
westward land a vast desert in its natural
condition, except for a few narrow and
fertile valleys traversed by inconstant
streams. They might have confined their
farming operations to the shores of these
natural water-courses, but, as an aggres-
sive and intelligent people, they extended
their cultivated fields far over the natu-
rally arid wastes.
This they accomplished by developing
a science of agricultural engineering
marked by extensive irrigation works,
with canals and ditches that followed the
contours of hillsides, tier after tier, or
pierced sharp ridges with remarkable
tunnels.*
* See "The Staircase Farms of the Ancients."
by O. F. Cook, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
MAGAZINE for May, 1916.
The great obstacle Nature had, placed
in the way of their agriculture being
overcome, they found upon the coast and
islands a unique compensation for their
difficulties. The same conditions which
made the lands naturally arid had also
conserved to them the best of agricultural
aids in Peruvian guano.
They took fertilizer from the islands
to enrich the lands, even in the high
altitudes of the montaiia. two or three
miles above sea-level. Incidentally they
left in the kitchen-middens of the camps
upon the islands relics of pottery and
metal- ware suggestive of an origin of the
guano industry dating back at least to
an early period in our Christian area.
These early Americans appreciated the
value of the producing birds, and they
not only enacted most rigorous edicts
for the protection of their feathered
benefactors, but, according to the account
of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, they
so administered the industry of guano
extraction, as to make possible the effect-
542
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING HIKDS
ive conservation of the resources with
which Nature had endowed them.
GUANO INTRODUCED IN EUROPE
With the Spanish conquest and the
consequent decline of agricultural and
industrial life, the guano industry fell
away to a condition of insignificance until
near the middle of the last century.
Humboldt, about 1804, brought samples
of Peruvian guano to Europe and advo-
cated its commercial importation.
This great scientist and traveler is
usually, but erroneously, given credit for
the introduction of guano to Europe.
He was indeed responsible for errors of
statement that may have been deplorable
in effect upon the future conduct of the
industry of guano extraction. He at-
tributed the guano to birds of land rather
than marine habit and he supposed that
current deposits were of the slightest im-
portance. His statement furnished no
incentive to the protection of the useful
birds.
Up to about 1840, however, the beds
remained virtually undiscovered to the
foreign world. Existing then in practi-
cally undiminished quantity, the deposits
represented the accumulation of thou-
sands of years, lying in thick beds, ex-
posed or deeply buried, and waiting only
to be shoveled up and loaded into ships
for conveyance to the markets of the
world.
After guano was actually introduced
to the foreign markets, about 1843, there
began an era of extraction on a scale
hitherto unknown. Islands were sur-
rounded by vessels, fifty or more at a
time, and each year saw the disappear-
ance of hundreds of thousands of tons.
DEPOSITS MORE THAN 100 FEET DEEP
It is stated that more than ten million
tons were extracted between 1851 and
1872 from one small group of islands,
representing an average annual exporta-
tion to the value of twenty or thirty mil-
lions of dollars. A single island, it is
said, was lowered more than a hundred
feet by the removal of its thick crown of
guano.
The possibility of exhaustion of the de-
posits was not then contemplated, and no
thought was given to conserving the birds.
While private fortunes were being
gained, the government was making and
executing great plans for public improve-
ments, and the future of the guano in-
dustry was heavily mortgaged to defray
the expense. Cries of warning came
from the country's creditors, as rumors
of probable exhaustion spread abroad and
threatened the security of foreign-held
bonds.
On all sides there appeared a mass of
literature in the form of notes, pam-
phlets, and books that dealt almost as
much in invective, charges, and counter-
charges as in actual analysis of the situ-
ation. A readjustment was finally made
in the last decade of the century and the
industry has continued both for home
agriculture and for export, but in a regu-
larly declining condition as regards the
export trade.
THE SEA SUPPLIES THE FOOD FOR THE
GUA-XO-PRODUCING BIRDS
The innocent agents in the production
of the mines of wealth that were the
basis of this world-wide commotion were
the numerous sea-fowl of the coast,
which found their abundant food in the
ocean and made their nests upon the
islands or points of shore.
The peculiar climatic conditions pre-
viously mentioned offered merely the
proper environmental conditions for the
preservation of the product. The pri-
mary requisite for abundant bird life is
the existence of a plentiful food supply,
aiid this is found in the schools of small
fish, called anchobetas, that swarm in the
Peruvian Current. There "shoals" of
fish, acres in extent, are often pursued
in the water by bonitoes and other large
fish, while beset from the air by thou-
sands of birds.
Billions of pounds of fish must be con-
sumed each year by the birds, besides the
incalculable quantity devoured by other
fishes ; but the fecundity of the ancho-
betas is such that their numbers are still
maintained. At times great areas of the
sea are made red by myriads of small,
brightly colored shrimp-like Crustacea :
and these, too, play a part of importance
as food for the fishes and birds.
Xot all of the birds are of equal im-
portance from the commercial point of
view. Indeed, three species virtually
support the guano industry at the present
544
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
PIQUEROS COVERING THEIR YOUNG: GUANAPE ISLANDS
The piqueros are the most abundant of Peru's sea-fowl and would rank first among
guano-producers were it not for the fact that they build their nests on cliffs and in places
inaccessible to guano-gatherers.
time — the white-breast cormorant (gna-
Hrtv), the big gray pelican (alcatraz},
and the white-head gannet (piqncro}.
"THE GUANO BIRD"
Of less present significance are the
cave-dwelling penguin and the small div-
ing and burrowing petrel, the latter flying
back and forth by night from the high
seas to their subterranean homes. All
the birds, however, so far as they use the
islands for breeding or for resting, con-
tribute in some measure to the general
supply of guano.
Three species of cormorant are nu-
merous on the mainland coast and islands
of Peru. They are pronouncedly distinct
in plumage and in habit and of equal in-
terest to the naturalist, but only one is of
particular economic significance. The
white-breast cormorant is the most im-
portant guano - producing bird of the
coast, and the native Peruvians, having
long recognized it as such, have called it
giianay, meaning, apparentlv, "the guano
bird.""
Strangely enough, many writers have
net recognized this bird as the principal
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
545
guano-producer, possibly becavise,
in spite of its abundance, it is
less familiar than many others.
One may not visit a pier without
hearing the grunts of black cor-
morants, one may hardly take
the briefest trip on the water
without seeing the scarlet- foot
cormorant scurrying low over the
surface ; yet a visitor may re-
main in ignorance of the most
abundant species of cormorant,
the guanay. unless by chance his
boat pass near a cloud of thou-
sands or hundreds of thousands,
or unless the solid black crest of
some islet be pointed out as a
rookery. Not infrequently, in-
deed, they form small rookeries,
but it is typical to find them in
immense aggregations.
Guanays occur on the Peruvian
coast from near the northern to
the extreme southern boundary,
but their preeminent home is the
double group of islands opposite
Pisco, in the south, the Chinchas,
and the Ballestas.
NEARLY I4,OOO NESTS IN AN AREA
OF 5,5OO SQUARE YARDS
When the Ballestas were visited
by the writer, in May. each of
the three islands had large flocks
of guanays. all of which, how-
ever, had been disturbed since
the opening of the season for
guano extraction.
The smallest of the three flocks
had occupied the southwest cor-
ner of the north island on com-
paratively level ground beyond a bluff.
The main part of the rookery was bounded
by straight lines, being 93 yards in length,
with an average width of 59 yards. The
area was. therefore, approximately 5,500
square yards, within which were nearly
14.000 nests.
The south island of this group is some
300 feet in height and difficult of ascent.
Its small top was nearly half covered
with birds in a compact rookery of be-
tween eleven and thirteen thousand
square yards. The middle island main-
tained a rookery of nearly equal size. In
all, about 150,000 birds had nested upon
A DISTANT VIEW OF THE PIQUERO ROOKERY SHOWN
ON THE PRECEDING PAGE
The foam from the surf, in the distance, is seen
streaming away to the north, in the Htimboldt, or
Peruvian, Current.
these three islands during the preceding
season.
These flocks seemed large, and where
the casual observer immediately says
"millions" one is almost reluctant to ap-
ply the cold criteria of tape-line measure-
ment, nest-counting, and simple arith-
metic : yet. upon visiting the Chincha
Islands in the following month, the rook-
eries hitherto observed seemed insignifi-
cant.
Upon the south island of the Chinchas,
a small and generally triangular body of
land between twenty and thirty acres in
area, there was a rookery which for size
546
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A TYPICAL NESTING PLACE OF PIOUEKOS
The piquero, or Peruvian gannet, is much more pleasing to the
eye than the pelicans or the guano-producing cormorants. The adult
bird is distinguished by snow-white head, neck, and breast and
variegated back. It is swift and graceful in flight.
and compactness can scarcely be rivaled
in any part of the world. Two illus-
trations herewith (pages 539 and 542)
show small portions of the flock without
duplication. Taken together they show
considerably less than half of the entire
aggregation.
The nesting ground occupied about
two-thirds of the surface of the island,
embracing the crown and the gentle
slopes of the hill that surmounted its low
bluff walls. The nests were very uni-
formly spaced, averaging nearly three to
the square yard, and not a yard of ground
within the outside limits of the rookery
was unoccupied. In
form and arrangement
the nests appear as
heavy rolled-rim ba-
sins stuck into the
hillside (see p. 540).
GUAXAYS GRUMBLE AT
VISITORS
W hen one a p-
proaches the rookery
the gu a n ays crowd
away with much
grumbling, and when
once a few birds arise
in flight the movement
i? liable to spread
through the entire
flock, until hundreds
of thousands are on
the wing, even most
of those that were too
remote from the in-
truder to know the
cause of the disturb-
ance.
If one awaits mo-
tionless and with much
patience, the birds,
after a while, will re-
turn to the nests and
gradually close in
around the observer,
until at last only a
circle with a radius of
three or four feet is
left vacant.
While in every di-
rection one is sur-
rounded by acres of
birds of the same spe-
cies, the scene is pe-
culiarly variegated. In one direction the
birds face toward the intruder watch-
fully, and the thousands of snowy breasts
make a glistening white ground spotted
with black heads. In another direction
they are all turned away, and the ground
appears almost solidly black ; or a thou-
sand birds are seen in side view and the
breasts show only as white streaks.
Other effects are presented, according
as the birds are more or less compactly
grouped. Near at hand the metallic
green reflections from the heads, the
green-lustered backs, sides, and legs, the
showy white under sides and the him-
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
54:
x.
IMMATURK PTOUKROS TX A ROOKKRV OX OXK OF TTlE LOHOS DR AFUKRA ISLANDS
There is scarcely an island or a high point of shore along the Peruvian seacoast whose
steeper walls are not clotted with the nests of piqueros, also known as Peruvian gannets and
camanays.
clreds of intent green eyes may well hold
the attention.
The confused sound of countless croak-
ing voices that rise or fall with the state
of alarm in the multitude makes an effect
comparable to the sullen mutterings of a
disgruntled mob of human beings.
While some cormorants, when not
nesting, seem to know the land only as a
place from which to dive, guanays in
multitudes will rest for hours upon the
level ground. They generally walk more
than their near relatives, and as an in-
dividual bird strolls about in its small
circle, the erect, waddling gait inevitably
suggests the penguin. At a casual glance
the birds shown in one of the illustra-
tions (page 542) might well be mistaken
for penguins. In flight they form long,
black clouds miles in length, streaming
low over the water until they settle down
to form a large, black blotch on the sur-
face* of the sea.
The guanay well deserves its common
name. Its gregarious habit, its choice of
the level places or more gentle slopes for
nesting grounds, and its custom of re-
maining on the islands a great part of
the time, all combine to cause the forma-
tion of enormous deposits of guano, from
which there is little natural waste. The
guano is also of exceedingly high value
in nitrogen compounds.
In the region where this bird was most
abundant, about the Chinchas and Bal-
lestas Islands, the climatic conditions
were most favorable to the preservation
of the nitrates. It is doubtful if the
guano of the Chincha and Ballestas
Islands is ever wet from atmospheric
moisture.
Even though these islands were visited
by the writer during the winter months,
when the garua, or Peruvian fog. pre-
vailed upon the coast, the atmosphere
was invariably dry and clear. Conse-
quently the nitrates are effectively pre-
served, and 14 to 1 6 per cent and more
of nitrogen may be found regularly in
the comparatively new guanos, while
even the ancient deposits showed nitro-
gen in proportion of 12 and 14 per cent.
When the islands were closed by the
government, in 1906, from the period of^
A
ir.n rainless coast. There are ten species of
Id. Most species nest in communities and
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551
552
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
November to March, inclusive, it was
determined'1 that the south island of the
Chinchas should not be reopened for a
period of years. The following summer,
1907, the island was visited, and it was
estimated that about 5,000 tons had ac-
cumulated. The island 'was revisited in
July, 1908, when" the deposit was esti-
mated at 12,000 to 15,000 tons. Extrac-
tion of guano was resumed in March,
1910 (after closure for three and one-
third years), and the amount of guano
taken amounted to more than 22,000 Eng-
lish tons.
BIRDS WORTH $15 A PAIR
It is evident that a pair of guanays,
with their offspring, produce nearly one
dollar and fifty cents' worth of guano per
year, besides leaving their progeny to
continue the service in future years.
Since they produce this income without
expense except for protection, the fowl
may be conservatively appraised as hav-
ing a value of $15 per pair; and though
this may seem a fancy value for common
cormorants, yet the commercial returns
justify such an appraisal.
It was found that the deposits accumu-
lated on the south island at the rate of
about 41/2 inches per year, or nearly 300
pounds per square yard. A few acres of
such rookeries constitute a fortune in-
deed.
Two other species of cormorant are
familiar residents of the coast. The black
cuervo de mar, or "sea crow," is compar-
able in habit to our eastern American
fish cormorants. They haunt the shores
and the piers, whence they make short
dives after fish, taking into their expan-
sive throats even comparatively large
fish. The nests are found on the rougher
outlying rocks.
The patillo, or "little duck," is peculiar
among the cormorants of the coast in
living in isolated pairs, with homes on
the cliffs or in the caverns ; in construct-
ing strong and heavy nests of seaweed,
straw, or other accessible materials, and
in having a high-pitched, cheeping note.
It is sometimes known as the "chiquitoy,"
or "chuita," names probably referring to
its voice, which is suggestive of a small
song-bird.
It is a notable illustration of the adapt-
ability of nature that -three species of
birds, so closely related as these three
Peruvian cormorants should in the same
general environment manifest such strik-
ing contrasts in habit.
THE GRACEFUL PERUVIAN GANNET IS
FOUND ON EVERY ISLAND
More pleasing to the eye than any
cormorant is the common Peruvian gan-
net, the "piquero," or "camanay," with
its snow-white head, neck, and breast and
variegated back, its clean, elegant form,
and swift, graceful flight. Everywhere
present on the coast, it undoubtedly is
the most abundant of the sea-fowl.
There is scarcely an island or a high
point of shore but its steeper walls are
dotted with nests of piqueros. Were it
not for this habit of choosing for its
nesting place the cliffs and more inacces-
sible places, the piquero would, perhaps,
take first rank as a commercial bird.
Doubtless in time, when 'the industry
is better organized, practicable arrange-
ments may tie made for conserving a
large proportion of the fertilizer which is
now wasted from the abrupt cliffs. At
the present time the piquero ranks third
in commercial importance.
WHEN THE AIR "RAINED BIRDS"
It is always a striking sight when a
single gannet, after circling over the
water until its prey is seen, turns head
down and falls precipitately into the sea,
to disappear beneath the surface ; but on
one occasion the writer had a rare ex-
perience while passing from the Chincha
Islands to the port of Pisco in a fisher-
man's rowboat.
An actual cloud of thousands of pique-
ros was seen flying over a large school
of anchobetas. Suddenly, as if at a given
signal, they began to fall into the water,
hundreds at every moment, until within
a few seconds practically the whole cloud
had emptied itself into the ocean.
The air was almost clear of birds be-
fore the first had risen from their brief
rest after emerging from beneath the
surface. These were soon up again, and
the repeated plunges then continued with-
out interruption. Changing a little the
course of our boat, we soon rowed di-
rectly through this downpour of birds.
One can scarcely imagine a more inter-
esting or bewildering situation. The at-
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
A SMALL INDEPENDENT PELICAN ROOKERY ON ONE OF THE LOBOS DE AFUERA ISLANDS
The food of the pelican consists almost entirely of fish.
mosphere was actually cloudy with many
thousands of fowls that were raining in-
cessantly into the water ; the whole sur-
face of the sea was broken and spattering
from the fall of animate drops and
speckled with the glossy white of the
reappearing birds, while the air was filled
with the whirling of wings and the sounds
of hundreds of splashes at every instant.
One of the accompanying illustrations
(see page 546) shows a high cliff, at the
Chincha Islands, dotted with nests. Al-
most universally the nests were found
either upon cliffs or upon very steep and
rugged slopes high above the water,
where approach could be made only with
considerable difficulty. Every day in the
year one may find eggs and all stages of
young at the nesting places, for the
piquero has no favored season of breed-
ing.
The naturalist and traveler, von Tschudi,
who supposed this species to be the bird
of chief importance, found that a single
specimen would produce 3^ to 5 ounces
of guano per day. Assuming that one
ounce of this was deposited at the island
each day (a low estimate), it is evident
that a million piqueros would produce
356,000,000 ounces per year, or 11,400
tons — guano to the actual value of a half
million dollars. Beyond question, the
gannets of the Peruvian coast would far
exceed a million in number, but in the
present condition the product is practi-
cally all wasted.
THE HOMES OF THE PERUVIAN PELICANS
HAVE BEEN DEVASTATED
Most conspicuous of all the birds of
the Peruvian islands is the large pelican,
or "alcatraz," which is seen along the
entire coast. It was observed to be much
more abundant in the north, but this
probably was due not so much to climatic
conditions as to the fact that the larger
islands of the north afforded more con-
genial environment for nesting.
Residents of Pisco, and others whose
connection with the guano industry has
taken them into that region during past
years, tell of the former great abundance
of pelicans in the southern region, from
the Chincha Islands to the Santn Rosa,
in the Bay of Independencia. If such
had been the condition, and many evi-
dences supported the personal statements,
a great change had occurred. Only a
554
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
BIZARRE AS THE; ADULT PELICAN APPEARS, IT is A
GRACEFUL AND ELEGANT BIRD COMPARED
WITH THE GROTESQUE NESTLING
At first naked and purple-skinned, then covered with
white down, the nestling's Awkwardness seems to in-
crease withrage. It attains a large size before develop-
ing its second plumage. Even when only slightly feath-
ered, it may exceed its parents in stature and weight.
very few pelican nesting grounds could
be found during the writer's visit.
The Chincha and Ballestas Islands were
largely given over to the cormorants, San
Gallan to the little petrel, and the Santa
Rosas to small terns. Upon the Lobos
Islands, however, the pelican was the bird
of paramount importance. In March it
was estimated that one rookery comprised
upward of forty thousand pelicans nest-
ing or rearing young and fully as many
more of nestlings and flying, birds in im-
mature plumage. The eastward island
of Lobos de Afuera, with its out-
lying islet to the north, contained
close to, if not exceeding, one
hundred thousand pelicans.
Such an array of pelicans
makes a more showy effect than
a vastly greater number of
smaller birds.
Unfortunately, this great and
valuable rookery, unmolested for
several years, was not permitted
to remain further undisturbed.
Following the writer's visit the
nesting grounds were invaded by
extractors and were stripped of
guano and nests. When the
islands were revisited in Decem-
ber scarcely any birds were near
the old rookery and only a cou-
ple of thousand nests were any-
where upon this island.
Upon the north point of the
westward island the largest rook-
eries were found, including be-
tween twenty and forty thousand
birds. Still other nesting grounds
had become established upon the
Lobos de Tierra Islands, thirty
miles farther north, at a point
on the island well removed from
the scene of guano extraction.
It is one of the tragedies of
the guano industry that this im-
portant bird has received so little
proper consideration that its
numbers are now greatly re-
duced.
There exists a peculiar belief
among many persons that the
pelican is unaffected by disturb-
ance, since the adults will often
stand by their eggs or nestlings
when molested. Every fact
known regarding the movements,
migration, and gradual extermination of
the pelican confirms the belief that the
species suffers more detriment from the
molestation of its homes than perhaps
any other bird found on the coast. The
time may arrive when the pelican will
have become so depleted as to be of com-
paratively slight significance.
The subordinate economic importance
of the pelican relative to the guanay is
told, not only by comparison of the num-
bers of birds of the two species, but also
by analysis of the guanos. To some ex-
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
555
tent, however, and perhaps entirely,
the inferiority of recent pelican
guano is attributable to climatic con-
ditions prevailing on the particular
islands where the birds have found
safe harbor.
As far north as the Lobos Islands,
atmospheric humidity becomes ap-
preciable and, indeed, light showers,
though extremely rare, are not un-
known. Fresh pelican guano from
the Lobos de Afuera Islands gave,
by analysis, more than 21 per cent
of nitrogen, while random samples of
dry guano from the surface of the
rookery yielded less than 8^/2 per
cent. Comparison of these 'analyses
reveals the deleterious effect of at-
mospheric conditions in this locality.
Comparison of the last analysis
with the guanay guano of the Balles-
tas Islands, with its 12 to 16 per cent
of nitrogen, shows the inferiority of
northern pelican guano to southern
guanay guano, although this com-
parison tells no story of the relative
merits of the birds when subjected
to the same climatic conditions.
THE PELICAN YOUNG ARE NAKED AND
AND PURPLE-SKINNED
Regardless of its economic rank,
the pelican yields to no other bird of
the Peruvian islands in interest to
the observer or in the problems it
presents for study.
When one first visits an island in-
habited by great numbers of these
large birds, the bewildering variety
of color phases may well suggest the
presence of several species. Longer
acquaintance, however, shows that
there is but one common Peruvian
pelican, which at various ages and
seasons displays itself in a diversity of
dress. There are patterns corresponding
to particular stages, and, since the peri-
odic changes of costume take place some-
what gradually, there are various com-
binations of the several patterns.
It is interesting, too, to observe the
young birds at various stages of growth.
Bizarre as an adult pelican may appear
alone, it loses by comparison all sugges-
tion of grotesqueness when in company
with its nestling young. At first naked
and purple-skinned, then covered with
AN OLD PELICAN WHOSE PLUMAGE HAS BE-
COME ALMOST COMPLETELY GRAY
The bill in one species of pelican sometimes
measures 18 inches in length. They are strong
fliers, their wingspread often reaching ten feet.
On the Peruvian coast both the adult birds and the
nestlings are beset by parasites, which attach them-
selves by scores within the pouches.
white down, their awkward and uncouth
appearance seems for a time only to in-
crease with age.
Attaining a large size before develop-
ing their second plumage, they may even
exceed their parents in stature and in
weight while only slightly feathered.
Great down-covered giants they then ap-
pear, while still requiring to be fed from
mouth to mouth by their parents. The
bill, though relatively short and nonde-
script in appearance, gives indication of
its future style, and the expansive throat
556
THE XATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A PERILOUS CLIMB TO REACH THE HOME OF A PATILLO, A
SPECIES OF CORMORANT WHICH BUILDS ITS NEST
ON PRECIPITOUS CLIFFS OR IN CAVERNS
Unlike the white-breast cormorants, the patillos ("little ducks")
live in isolated pairs. The nests are strong and heavy, being con-
structed of seaweed, straw, and other accessible materials.
is fully capable of engulfing the long
beak of the parent to receive the food
which the latter disgorges into the infan-
tile interior, according to the well-known
practice of the pelican and its relatives.
Both old and young are beset by para-
sites. The nesting grounds are made
rather disagreeable by the large number
of these that not only infest the birds,
but swarm upon the ground and extend
their explorations to the observer.
These insects attach themselves by
scores within the pouches of the pelicans.
In fact, the writer found that it was com-
paratively easy to rid
himself completely of
these pests by brush-
ing them off as they
passed the neck, for
they never delay their
steady march toward
the supposed position
of a bill. It is not
surprising that the
pelicans spend much
time bathing and
splashing in the water
in any quiet cove
along the shores of
their islands.
THE STRANGE HABITS
OF THE DIVING
PETREL
Turning from the
largest to the smallest
of Peruvian guano
birds, the little diving
petrel commands at-
tention. Though com-
paratively abundant,
it is rarely seen.
No other marine
bird has developed so
effective a habit of
retirement. By day,
while one of the pair
is brooding on a sub-
terranean nest, the
other is usually far
out on the ocean, rest-
ing quietly or making
short dives for prey
beneath the surface.
On sea or land,
there is scarcely a
movement to attract
attention to the bird. With the fall of
darkness, all is different. From beneath
the ground come the soft repeated calls,
bewildering to an observer who is unac-
quainted with the cause. The air be-
comes filled with the sound of quick
wings and gentle croaking voices, as little
dark objects flit batlike back and forth.
THE PETREL RESEMBLES A FEATHERED
TERRAPIN
A ball of feathers emerges from an
unnoticed opening in the ground, seems
to roll rapidly a short distance, and then
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
557
rises in flight direct
for the sea; another,
coming from the
ocean, disappears
mysteriously into the
ground to replace a
complaining mate.
When taken from
the burrows, the little
bird is found to meas-
ure ten inches in
length and to weigh
half a pound. The
general color is black
above and white be-
low, while beneath the
feathers is found a
thick, gray down. The
dense coat gives an
appearance of large
size to the body, while
the little wings and
short, stout neck
seem disproportion-
ately small append-
ages. When its body
is flattened out on the
ground, this diving
petrel strangely sug-
gests a feathered ter-
rapin.
Off the Peninsula
of Paracas, near Pisco
and just across the
"Narrows," is the
lofty San Gallan,
marked by several
peaks that reach an
altitude of 1,200 to
1,400 feet. The tops
of these hills are more
or less concealed by
clouds, which serve as
Nature's weather signals to the local
mariner. "When San Gallan puts on its
cap" of heavy clouds, the prudent sailor
avoids the Narrows and delays his south-
ward trip. Here was the preeminent
home of these diving petrels, or "poto-
yuncos," as the Peruvians euphoniously
call them. From the lower desert slopes
of San Gallan's hills to the verdant cloud-
bathed peaks, everywhere were large
patches of ground undermined by short
burrows.
Small as the "potoyunco" is, the guano
from its nests is valued for its high
THE YOUNG PATILLOS IN IMMATURE PLUMAGE ARE WELL
CONCEALED AGAINST THE GRAY BACK-
GROUND OF THE ROCKS
Because of its high-pitched, cheeping note, this species of cormo-
rant is sometimes called "chiquitoy," or "chuita," suggesting a song-
bird.
quality. Unfortunately, the meat is like-
wise esteemed by the native fishermen
and laborers, and the array of discarded
wings strewn about many of their nesting
places reveals the occurrence of ruthless
depredations. Unless effective measures
be taken to prevent, the potoyunco will
gradually but surely incur the fate of the
penguin and other birds whose habits
and defenselessness lay them open to de-
struction.
A tropical penguin may seem another
Peruvian paradox. Nevertheless, pen-
guins are quite common on the coast of
558
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
s
O
W
P-l
w
a
0
W
u
<
w
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W
Peru, occurring even as far north as the
Lobos de Afuera Islands, which are
within a few hundred miles of the Equa-
tor. This, of course, is because the ocean
off Peru is not tropical, but is constantly
chilled by waters that stream from Ant-
arctic regions to the Equator.
Penguins are naturally more numerous
toward the south. Almost every cavern
beneath the Chincha and Ballestas Islands
reveals its quota of nests. The largest
number of penguins seen at one time
was grouped upon a beach of the Isla
Vieja, in the Bay of Independencia, a
little more than 14 degrees south. They
were about sixty in number, a few of
them showing plumage of an immature
stage.
The Peruvians have given penguins
the suggestive name of "pajaro ninos"
or "baby birds," in reference to their in-
fantile, waddling gait when walking with
the reduced wings held stiffly from the
body like the helpless arms of an infant.
The guano of penguins is limited in
quantity and liable to be moistened by the
spray from the waves dashing into the
caverns they prefer to frequent. Never-
theless, when obtainable in good preser-
vation, it is highly esteemed.
Penguins are also valued for the oil,
and the fishermen seek them for their
skins, while sailors kill them "for fun."
Close, hairlike feathering makes the skins
adapted for the fashioning of "fur" caps.
BIRDS OF DIFFERENT FEATHERS THAT
IXOCK TOGETHER
There are many other interesting birds
of the Peruvian islands. Petulant blue
Inca terns, with white curled "mous-
tache," dart excitedly into your very face
almost, but nest prudently in the rougher
places, where the homes may be protected
under shelving portions of guano or in
rudimentary burrows.
Pearly gray terns practically coyer the
south Santa Rosa Island with nests
which are so indistinguishable amidst the
gravel and guano that one unavoidably
crushes the eggs in walking about; the
nestling birds, however, are never tram-
pled, for they are too quick and clever at
concealment.
Noisy gulls of several species nest
scatteringly on various islands. Shore
birds, such as curlews, oyster birds,
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
559
plovers, and sandpipers, frequent the
margins of the islands, especially where
sandy beaches are available.
Scavenger buzzards, or "gallinazos,"
profiting by the experience of other birds,
upon whose eggs and young they love to
prey, conceal their own nests in caverns
or beneath overhanging rocks.
Large condors are occasionally seen
posing silently on some high hillside, and
a lonely species of perching bird, the
little "chirote," also has found its way
from Andean slopes to the barren sea
islands, where it flies back and forth
from cliff to beach or runs along the
water's edge in search of tiny prey.
Sailing from island to island or back
and forth from mainland to island, one
may meet typical birds of the high seas :
dull-colored shearwaters, little petrels
that hover over the waves or seem to
dance upon the surface of the sea, and,
more conspicuous than these, the beauti-
ful Peruvian albatross. The last, though
smaller than the great southern alba-
tross,— its body, indeed, scarcely larger
than that of a gull — has yet a wing ex-
panse of eight feet.
ALL THE; GUANO ISLANDS LIE NEAR THE
MAINLAND
To mention the places where guano
deposits have been found would be al-
most to list the islands, islets, and points
of shore from near Paita, at 5 degrees
south, to the southernmost limit of pres-
ent Peruvian territory, at 18 degrees
south — a distance corresponding to that
between New York and Cuba, or about
1,300 miles.
The commercial guano situations com-
prise some hundreds of points, but chief
among these, for their historical impor-
tance, are the Chincha and Ballestas
Islands, the islands of Guaiiape and
Macabi, and the larger Lobos Islands of
the two groups, de Afuera and de Tierra.
Pabellon de Pica, now beyond the terri-
tory of Peru, was also an important
point at an earlier time. Among places
of second importance are the Islas Santa,
Fronton, Palominos, Asia, Santa Rosa,
Vieja, and Cerro Azul.
From year to year the scene of the in-
dustry may shift from island to island,
as the deposits accumulate or become
exhausted, but the Chincha and Ballestas
and the Lobos Islands are rarely aban-
doned for a complete twelve months.
None of the islands are very large or
far removed from the coast. The nearest
islet is so close to the main shore as to be
reached conveniently by an aerial trolley,
while most of the islands are not more
than ten or twelve miles removed. The
only group at all remote is the Lobos de
Afuera, which is about 33 nautical miles
from the nearest point of mainland.
The largest island is that of Lobos de
Tierra, with its length of nearly six
miles and a width varying from one-sixth
of a mile to two miles.
The Lobos de Afuera Islands, com-
bined, are slightly smaller, while each of
the two larger Chincha Islands will not
average a half mile in diameter. The
south and smallest island of the latter
group, and recently the most important,
has an extent of less than 30 acres, and
on the occasion of the writer's visits the
greater part of its surface was carpeted
with the nests of guanays.
The islands of Ballestas, a sister group
of the Chinchas, and, like it, composed
of three principal units, are each approxi-
mately equal to the smallest of the Chin-
chas. They are bolder and higher and
must be gained by climbing from the
water, being without beaches except at
the bases of unscalable cliffs. These
islands of Ballestas are from one to three
hundred feet in height.
PRACTICALLY NO VEGETATION ON MOST OF
THE ISLANDS
All of the islands are more or less bold,
rocky, and barren. Generally, vegetation
is entirely absent, except where the higher
points reach such an altitude (about 1,200
feet) as to derive moisture from the
clouds. The higher peaks of desert
islands may therefore support luxuriant,
but entirely isolated, gardens of vegeta-
tion. These are found only upon such
lofty islands as San Gallan, La Isla Vieja,
or San Lorenzo.
A small amount of vegetation was seen
on the sandy shores of Lobos de Tierra,
but this was exceptional. Even if the
want of atmospheric or soil moisture did
not exclude the possibility of plant
growth, the rocky nature of the ground
and the general presence of too strongly
concentrated fertilizer would render con-
560
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
DIGGING AND SACKING RECENT GUANO
The tropical sun bakes the guano into a hard, dry crust, and the fresh, dry breezes seldom
carry a trace of odor. Where the material is comparatively recent, the only implements
required are picks, shovels, a screen, and a supply of sacks.
ditions generally unfavorable for vegeta-
tion.
Naturally the only native land-dwell-
ing inhabitants of such islands, besides
the birds and sea lions, are parasitic in-
sects and their enemies — the spiders,
scorpions, lizards, and bats — except that
on the green-capped peaks colonies of
land snails have been introduced, perhaps
by the condors, which visit back and
forth from mainland to island.
Escaped cats live freely on at least one
of the islands, sustaining themselves, no
doubt, upon the birds and the shellfish
that are easily found upon the exposed
rocks between tides. Evidently fresh
water is not essential for feline health
and prosperity.
There is a distinct difference in the
atmospheric conditions of the islands of
the north and the south. Nearer the
Equator the sea breeze becomes some-
what warmer, and probably in exceptional
years the course of the Peruvian Cur--
rent swings westward a little sooner,
permitting the warm equatorial waters to
flow southward to the Lobos Islands.
Light rains are not unknown on Lobos
de Tierra, and this undoubtedly accounts
for the presence of small patches of vege-
tation and the inferior quality of the
mineral guano. The typical conditions
of the coast apply fully in the Chincha
region, and it is doubtful if a shower has
ever fallen upon these islands.
MANY ISLANDS DIFFICULT OF ASCENT
Contrary to expectation, life upon
these arid islands has few unpleasant
features and a wealth of compensatory
interests. Some of the shores are bold
and difficult of access, but everywhere
that work has been pursued some practi-
cable method of access has been devised.
One may have to make the landing
from a small boat, skillfully handled in
a plunging surf, by an opportune leap to
a bare foothold on the ragged shore rocks.
At another island one must take the
chance to grasp the lower end of a rope
ladder which dangles from an improvised
pier hanging out from the side of the
island. In other places a smooth cove
and an easy beach are at hand.
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
561
H^» «PU-
GUANO BEING CONVEYED FROM MIDDLE ISLAND OF THE BALLESTAS BY AN
AERIAL TROLLEY
The trolley is simple in construction, consisting of two stout wire cables suspended
from a frame (see illustration on preceding page) at the top of the island and running to a
convenient rock near the shore. A lighter is rowed to a point beneath the lower end of the
cables to receive the guano, which is lowered by means of pulleys and windlass.
Some small islands are inaccessible in
very rough weather, and the writer has
passed entirely around islets that rose
out of the surf like big chimneys, with
sheer walls of some hundreds of feet,
without finding a single place of access
by available means. One of these ap-
parently had never been scaled; but, if
its small table top contains a few hundred
tons of the valuable guano, the eager
and intrepid workers will find a means
of ascending its walls, and, this once
done, the embarkation of the guano will
present no extraordinary difficulty.
Once on the islands, the guano is found
to be baked into a hard, dry crust under
the tropical sun, and the fresh, dry breeze
rarely carries the trace of an odor.
Unless one is enslaved to the fresh-
water bath and other "comforts of civili-
zation," a camping experience upon any
one of the Peruvian islands is never to
be regretted. The dependable breeze
keeps the air fresh and sweet. By day
there are hills to climb, cliffs to descend,
and perhaps caverns to explore ; there
are fish to capture, and the bird-life to
study is always too varied for the at-
tention to weary. The night brings its
own peculiar charms. Let us cite a par-
ticular instance.
A NIGHT SCENE
Lodged upon the side of the North
Ballestas Island about 100 feet above the
water, the open front of our tent looked
directly down upon the silvery glaze of
the rising moon, showing broadly and
brilliantly on the sea for many miles.
Yet there was no stillness to the night.
About us and beneath us were the
varied sounds of the surf, roaring against
562
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
HEAPING SCREENED GUANO FOR TRANSFER TO THE MAINLAND
the rocky shore, the peculiar resounding
crash of a great swell breaking on a bit
of shingle beach of the island just oppo-
site, or the fierce boom of a wave that
ended a thundering course through a long
cavern deep into the heart of the island
beneath us.
A short distance away the other, loftier
islands of the group were outlined against
the sky, while the light of guano camps
shone from the tops or from some scant
perch on the precipitous sides. The
situation was picturesque enough, and
measurably isolated, but the dim beacon
light of Pisco, ten miles away, and the
Danish vessel, rolling near by, gave a
sense of contact with the rest of the
world.
With the peons engaged in extracting
guano it was, perhaps, another story.
The camps of the workers were simple
indeed. Skeleton frames of wood with
covering and walls of burlap or old guano
sacks constituted the barracks. They
seemed adequate, however, for the cli-
matic conditions.
The foreman's camp was often only a
somewhat larger tent of the same con-
struction, though the exporting company
usually made some better provision for
an officer.
The workers were practically all Peru-
vians of the ancient stock, and many of
them came down from the mountains to
engage in this work. Often there were
few in the camp who could speak Spanish
and the foreman could communicate with
the employees only by signs or through
an interpreter.
THE GATHERING OF GUANO IS A SIMPLE
PROCESS
The extraction of guano, as observed,
was a very simple process. Where the
material was comparatively recent, the
only implements required were the pick
and the shovel, a screen, and a few sacks.
The surface cake was first broken up
and thrown into small heaps. Where
several contractors had a concession from
the government covering the same island,
there was much rivalry in getting the
best guano mounded, for this was the
only recognized method of establishing a
claim to a particular field.
The guano was subsequently pitched
through slanting wire screens to remove
the gravel, and then sacked for embarka-
tion by lanchas, which are strongly con-
structed lighters in the form of rowboats,
adapted for use in the heavy swell liable
to prevail about the islands.
PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS
563
DMMIirt'f
• •»••"
A CAMP OF FISHERMEN AND GUANO-GATHERERS: LOBOS DE TIERRA
The large house in right background is the office and residence of an American firm, con-
tractor for the Peruvian Corporation. The smaller houses are offices for minor officials.
A DESERTED CAMP OF GUANO-WORKERS : CHIXCHA ISLANDS
The workers in the guano deposits are practically all Peruvians of the ancient stock.
Their camps are extremely simple, the huts consisting of skeleton frames of wood covered
with burlap or old guano sacks.
504
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
A very common method of
conveying the guano to the
lighter 'was by means of the
andarivel, an aerial trolley, con-
sisting of two stout wire cables
suspended between a frame at
the top of the island and some
convenient rock somewhat re-
moved from the shore.
The boat would be rowed be-
neath the lower part of the cable
to receive the guano, lowered by
pulleys and windlass. Both ends
of the line being attached to
traveling pulleys, the sacks of
guano, descending by gravity,
drew the empty sacks back. Xo
power w7as applied to the wind-
lass except to prevent the too-
rapid descent of the guano.
When the lancha was loaded
it was rowed out to the vessel,
where the sacks were hoisted
into the hold.
HALF-HOUR SHIFTS FOR WORK-
MEN LOADING GUANO SHIPS
The stowing of the guano was
the one phase of the work which
put a severe test upon human
endurance. If the guano was
particularly strong, the foreign
crews could not be utilized for
the task. Native laborers were
then relied upon, and even these
could remain in the ship's hold
for only half an hour or an hour
at a time.
A much more extensive equip-
ment was employed on the larger
islands of the north. An Amer-
ican company, contracting for
the Peruvian exporters, had laid
lines of track for conveying the
guano by tram-cars, and the
screening was done from trestles
over a lower-level track. A
bridge of some length had" even
been constructed between the
main Lobos de Tierra Island
and a smaller island near by.
One could see upon this island
several permanent buildings, be-
sides the usual laborers' and
fishermen's camps. The largest
of these contained the offices and
565
566
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
SOMETIMES LABORERS DYING OX THE ISLANDS ARE BURIED IN OLD GUANO
Subsequent excavations bring the coffins to the surface. Some of the bodies are almost per-
fectly mummified, as a result of the dry atmosphere and the effect of the guano.
store of the company, while two smaller
buildings housed the representatives of
the government and the exporting cor-
poration respectively.
By far the greatest portion of the
guano that has been exported consisted
of the ancient deposits, called "mineral"
guano, which in places covered the islands
to great depths. This has been simply
stripped away until scarcely any of the
old guano remains except some of the
lowest grades that scarcely justify expor-
tation.
It is an interesting fact that many de-
posits were found deeply buried beneath
layers of sand and broken rock, and such
beds have led some to suppose that the
guano could not be of animal origin.
The blowing sand and falling rocks from
the weathering hills would readily ex-
plain the covering of old beds.
MILLIONS OF TONS OF GUANO LOST
When one watches the present accu-
mulation of guano at the rate of more
than four inches per year in some places,
or at the probable rate of twenty to thirty
thousand tons per year along the entire
coast, the wonder is, not that the great
beds should have accumulated, but that
so few millions of tons should have been
found. In past times, undoubtedly, great
losses must have occurred from the fall-
ing of cliffs undermined by the surf,
from the breaking up of the islands by
the slow, wearing action of the waves,
and perhaps from slight subsidence due
to seismic disturbances.
It is within the bounds of possibility
that additional deposits, buried beneath
the surface, may yet be located. Unless
this be the case, the industry is perma-
nently reduced to the annual deposits,
which scarcely exceed the demands of
Peruvian agriculture in its present con-
dition, without providing for the great
future developments in land cultivation
in that country that must follow sooner
or later with the adoption of more elab-
orate systems of irrigation.
Since the important birds have been
greatly reduced in numbers, it is reason-
able to expect a substantial increase
under natural conditions, if interference
with the breeding be reduced to the mini-
mum consistent with the utilization of
the deposits. The future of Peruvian
agriculture and industrial life seems
rather closely linked with the protection
of the guano birds.
It is a fortunate thing to have such an-
appealing commercial reason for the fos-
tering of the birds. Government, mort-
gagees, and agriculturists must sooner or
later combine effectively to obstruct the
extermination of these resources and to
promote an increase to the maximum
number of birds permitted by Nature.
The National geographic
v.37
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