Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania

Jewett C. (Jewett Castello) Gilson

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• Publié par: zuej
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania, by Jewett Castello Gilson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Author: Jewett Castello Gilson Release Date: November 19, 2007 [eBook #23546] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES AND OCEANIA***

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The great Rainbow natural bridge of southern Utah From the National Geographic Magazine, copyright 1911 The great Rainbow natural bridge of southern Utah LINK TO IMAGE

REDWAY'S GEOGRAPHICAL READERS

WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES AND OCEANIA

BY JEWETT C. GILSON

FORMER SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

ILLUSTRATED

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK :::::::::::::::::: 1913

Copyright, 1913, by JEWETT C. GILSON

PREFACE

Although the term "Waste Places" carries an implied meaning of "worthless," yet, interpreted in the light of Nature's methods, each region described, useless as it may apparently seem, possesses a definite relation to the rest of the world, and therefore to the well-being of man. The Sahara is the track of the winds whose moisture fertilizes the flood- plains of the Nile. The Himalaya Mountains condense the rain that gives life to India. From the inhospitable polar regions come the winds and currents that temper the heat of the tropics. Nature has secreted many of her most useful treasures in most forbidding places. The nitrates which fertilize so much of Europe are drawn from the fiercest of South American deserts, and the gold which measures American commerce is mined in the arctic wilds of Alaska or in the almost inaccessible scarps of the western highlands. The description of these regions and the portrayal of their relation to the rest of the world is the purpose of Part I of this book. Part II of the book deals with Oceania—more especially with our island possessions in the Pacific Ocean. It presents the salient features of the ocean grand division in the light of most recent knowledge. The author wishes to give credit to Mr. Jacques W. Redway, F.R.G.S., for suggesting the subject of Part I and for the inspiration he received from the distinguished geographer in developing the subject. J. C. G. Oakland, California,  December 25, 1912.

CONTENTS PART I WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES

Introduction CHAPTER I. II. III. IV.

V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII.

The Wealth of the Arid Southwest The Grand Canyon of the Colorado Yellowstone Park Two Prehistoric Cemeteries—Giant Reptiles and Giant Trees Death Valley The Mineral Wealth of the Andes The Czar's Greater Domain The Mystic Highlands of Asia The Primal Home of the Saracen The Sahara Polar Regions—the Conquest of the Arctic Polar Regions—Antarctica Iceland, the Maid of the North Greenland Where the Two Great Oceans Meet Reclaimable Swamp Regions Strange Rock Formations—Natural Bridges

PAGE 1

4 27 35 51

58 67 82 97 105 115 128 147 160 170 175 183 190

XVIII.

XIX. XX. XXI.

XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV.

Strange Rock Formations—Table Mountain of California Strange Rock Formations—Gibraltar The Baku Oil Fields The South African Diamond Fields

PART II OCEANIA The Islands of the Pacific Australia The Great Barrier Reef The Gold Fields of Australia Tasmania New Zealand Samoa and Fiji The Hawaiian Islands Guam The Philippine Islands The Dutch East Indies—Java The Dutch East Indies—Sumatra and Celebes Borneo and Papua

195

199 206 211

226 233 244 250 258 262 270 277 285 289 301 311 319

Illustrations

The Great Rainbow Natural Bridge of Southern Utah

Map of Islands of the Pacific Mohave Desert, California. Buzzards' Roost Gila monsters A giant cactus in Arizona The Roosevelt Dam, Arizona, showing south bridge and spillway Shoshone Project, Wyoming The Grand Canyon of the Colorado Grand View Trail The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, looking down canyon from Grand Point The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Mammoth Hot Springs, Summit Pools The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Beehive Geyser The Brontosaurus The Allosaurus Twenty mule borax team The Oroya Railroad, Peru, showing four sections of the road Llamas resting Silver-smelting works at Cassapalca, on the Oroya Railroad, Peru, 13,600 feet high Fishing for sturgeon through the ice of the Ural River. Catching the material for caviare Gathering salt at the mouth of the Ural River Driving over the tundra in winter Train on the steppes of Russia Dunkar Spiti, Himalaya Mountains, India The yak not only serves as a beast of burden, but furnishes milk, butter, and meat Khaibar Pass, the gateway to India A group of Arabs with their dromedaries On the sands of the desert A caravan crossing the desert on the road to Jaffa Peary's ship, theRoosevelt Commander Robert E. Peary and three of his eskimo dogs on theRoosevelt Musk ox An antarctic summer scene The penguin defies the cold Street in Reykjavik, Iceland North Cape, Iceland Stone igloos on the bleak coast of Greenland A large iceberg A group of Eskimos in south Greenland The Straits of Magellan. Cape Pilar is the extreme western end Fuegians The Everglades of Florida Group of Seminole Indians in the Everglades of Florida The Devil's Slide, Weber Canyon, Utah Witch Rocks, near Echo Canyon, Utah

Frontispiece PAGE Facing1 6 9 12 17

25 29 33 37

45

47

53 55 61 73

77 79

83

87 91 95 99 103

107 111 117 125 137 141

144 149 153 163 167 171 173 174 177

179 184 187 191 193

This strong and impregnable place is the Rock of Gibraltar, and the city nestling at its base, Gibraltar Landing-place for commerce on the Caspian Sea Open workings of the diamond mine, Kimberley Sorting gravel for diamonds in the Kimberley Mine A Malay girl A Malay boy A giant fig-tree, 140 feet in circumference A mother kangaroo with a young kangaroo in her pocket An Australian emeu Homestead and station in Young District, Australia The Great Barrier Reef of Australia, the most remarkable animal structure in the world Melbourne is the largest city of australia and contains nearly half a million people Maori pa, or village The Petrifying Geyser, New Zealand Native canoe, Fiji Islands General view of Volcano House, Kilauea, Hawaii A lake of white-hot molten lava. the volcano of Mauna- Loá, Hawaii Native ploughing in rice-field, Guam. One may find rice- farms as skilfully cultivated as those of Japan or China The carabao, harnessed to a dray or wagon, shuffles along The harbor of the city. scene on the Pasig River, Manila Extracting indigo in Ilocos Province, Philippine Islands Manila hemp as it is brought in from the country A breadfruit tree in Java Coffee-drying in Java Natives in the jungle, Sumatra A jungle, scene in sumatra

WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES AND OCEANIA

Islands of the Pacific. Islands of the Pacific. LINK TO IMAGE

201

209 219 223 229 231 235 237 239 243 247

257

263 265 275 279 281

287

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295 297 299 303 309 313 316

PART I

WEALTH OF THE WORLD'S WASTE PLACES

INTRODUCTION

There is a great wealth of literature about what we call the world's productive lands—that is, the densely peopled lands that yield grain, meat, sugar, fruit, and all the various foodstuffs. In any well-equipped library we may find great numbers of useful books that will tell us all about the places where cotton, wool, and silk are grown, or where coal and iron are mined. All these lands are the dwelling places of many people. Networks of railways connect the various cities and villages, and probably a majority of the people living in them have travelled in and about much of the area of these lands. A large part of the earth's surface is commonly called "unproductive." As a rule this is only another way of saying that such parts of the world produce little foodstuffs. We must not take the word "unproductive" either too literally or too seriously, however, for Dame Nature has a way of secreting some of her choice treasures in places so forbidding and so desolate that only the most resolute and daring men even search for them. For instance, the mineral once much used by the makers of carbonated or "soda" water comes from a part of Greenland that is so bleak, cold, and inhospitable that no human beings can long exist there unless food and fuel are brought them from afar off. The famous "nitrates" of Chile are obtained in the fiercest part of the Andean desert. Not only the food but the water consumed must be carried to the miners, who are but little better than slaves. Most of the gold and silver is obtained in regions that are unfit for human habitation. The largest diamond fields in the world are in a region that will not produce even grass without irrigation—a region that would not be inhabited were there no diamonds. From the most inhospitable highlands of Asia comes a very considerable part of the precious mineral, jade. Death Valley, in the southern part of the United States, on account of its terrific heat, is perhaps the most unhabitable region in the world, but the borax which it produces is used in every civilized country. And so we might name regions by the score that are practically unhabitable, which nevertheless produce things necessary to civilized man. We call them "waste places," but this is far from true. For the greater part they are quite as necessary as the places we call fertile. Of foodstuffs, for instance, the greater part of the Rocky Mountain highland produces not much more than the State of New York. Yet the presence of this great mountain wall diverts the moist warm air from the Gulf of Mexico northward, making the Mississippi basin one of the foremost granaries of the world. The absence of rain in the west slope of the Peruvian Andes makes much of the western part of Chile and Peru a desert. But that same absence of rain makes the nitrate beds possible; for had there been yearly rains, the nitrates long since would have been leached out. So, the lands the nitrates now fertilize are far greater in area than that of the region of the nitrates. Then, perhaps, we turn our eyes oceanward. What! wealth in these great wastes? Most certainly, and indispensable wealth at that. Let us forget for a moment that the oceans produce about as much meatstuffs as the land; this is really the least important feature about them. The oceans produce one thing that is absolutely necessary for every living thing almost every hour of the day, and that is fresh water. Every drop of fresh water that falls on the land is born of the ocean. Even the cold, polar oceans are indispensable to life, for their waters are constantly flowing out into the warmer oceans, thereby tempering the water of the latter and preventing it from being too warm for living things. Thus we see that, after all, Dame Nature is not very unkind to her subjects. Compensation is her great law; if her supplies are "short" in one direction they are "long" in another. And when we take the broader view we must conclude that there are no waste places. It is only when we take the extreme and narrow view that we voice the persiflage of the poet Pope:

"While man exclaims: 'See all things for my use'— 'See man for mine,' replies a pampered goose."

Now, these waste places are of various kinds and in pretty nearly every locality. Some are deserts pure and simple; some are very dry and, to avoid hurting our national feelings, we politely refer to them as "arid regions"; some are so rugged and inaccessible that nothing short of dirigible balloons and aeroplanes could open a general communication with them; still others are in polar regions and too bleak and desolate to produce foodstuffs or support human life. The purpose of these chapters is to present the characteristics of these waste places. Most of them have been conquered by man, and their resources have been opened wide to the world. Possibly others yet remain to be conquered, but "what man has done, man can do."