Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Part 16

Russians, Germans, French, Australians, English, and Scotch, many of whom have ama.s.sed large fortunes in a few years, are engaged in this lucrative business. As in all other sheep-raising countries, the collie is an invaluable aid to the shepherds. Not only are the princ.i.p.al islands chiefly devoted to sheep-raising, but a considerable part of the southern mainland is also devoted to this industry. On the island of Tierra del Fuego alone there are upward of a million sheep.

Most of the land is leased from the government for a long term of years.

Many of the proprietors have enclosed their holdings with wire fences, thereby lessening the expense of caring for their flocks. Some of the holdings range from twenty-five thousand to more than two million acres.

Southern Patagonia has immense numbers of guanacos, or wild llamas.

These animals frequent the Andean slopes and the adjacent pampas. During the winter season they come down to the lowlands to drink in the unfrozen lakes and feed upon the herbage. During severe winters sometimes hundreds are found dead from starvation in the valleys near the frozen lakes.

Thousands of wild cattle are found on the eastern slopes of the Andes, but they are difficult to capture; they are exceedingly wary and can scent a man far off. In agility in climbing the steep, rough places they equal the goat. If one of their number is killed the whole herd deserts the locality at night. When wounded they are fierce fighters, if forced into close quarters.

Punta Arenas, or "Sandy Point," is on the north side of the Strait of Magellan and is Chilean territory. It is a new town cut out of the woods, and even yet many of the streets are diversified by the stumps of big beech trees. The place is an important coaling and provision station and, next to Honolulu, the most important ocean post-office in the world. It has a population of twelve thousand, and is the capital and centre of the great wool industry of the Territory of Magellan, which comprises a majority of the islands south of the mainland, together with the southern part of Patagonia.

A few years ago, in order to encourage the building up of Punta Arenas, the government offered a lot free to any one who would erect a building on it. Many accepted the offer, and to-day some of the lots in the business part of the town are very valuable. Although most of the buildings are constructed with regard to economy rather than beauty, yet some of the business blocks will compare favorably with those of the new cities in the United States.

Like several Australian cities, Punta Arenas was a convict colony. It was founded as such in 1843, and so remained until the European steamships began to thread the strait instead of doubling the Horn. Then it became a coaling station, a supply store, a half-way town, and an ocean post-office. All this business was previously carried on at the Falkland Islands, but the route through the strait settled the business for both places. The Falkland station was abandoned; Punta Arenas became a thriving town. A ticket-of-leave was given to each convict who consented to join the Chilean army.

The town forthwith blossomed into a typical frontier settlement--banks and gambling dens, churches and saloons, schools and bullfights. Every race of people and almost every industry is represented there. The Spanish see to it that the Sunday bullfights are correct; the French insure the proper social functions; the Germans manage the banks; and the Americans take the profits of the railways, telegraph lines, and flour-mills. As to lat.i.tude, Punta Arenas is cold and inhospitable; but for business and social affairs, it is very, very warm, especially in the matter of social affairs.

CHAPTER XVI

RECLAIMABLE SWAMP REGIONS

If only Dame Nature had distributed the rainfall of the United States a bit more evenly, land enough to feed about fifty millions of people would not have required an expenditure of half a century of time and several hundred millions of good, hard dollars. One must bear in mind, however, that if Dame Nature had done otherwise, it is just as likely that the same time and the same amount of money would have been required elsewhere for those same fifty millions of people.

The reclaimable swamp lands of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains aggregate about one hundred and twenty thousand square miles in extent--an area nearly equal to that of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois combined. Of this, Louisiana has about fifteen thousand square miles, a tract about as large as Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined, and Florida has about half her entire area in swamp land. West of the Rocky Mountains, California takes the lead, with enough swamp land to make a state of respectable size.

In the case of California, if the "forty-niners" could have waited about a thousand years they would have found the precious swamp lands all properly filled in for them and ready for use; for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers long since have been working at the task of filling up the big hollow between the mountain ranges. But the rivers are a trifle slow, and Californians are always in a steaming hurry. So Uncle Sam's engineers are driving their reclamation schemes with railroad speed. A few years ago these lands were worth nothing; drain them and they are worth one hundred dollars per acre; improve them according to modern farming science and they are worth ten times as much.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Everglades of Florida]

In many instances even the quick methods of the reclamation authorities are too slow for the California farmer, and so he takes matters into his own hands. First he acquires his land; then he mortgages all his worldly possessions to surround the land with a ditch deep enough and wide enough to make a dike high enough to keep out flood waters. His land after draining is full of the stuff for which he otherwise would pay thousands and thousands of dollars. Phosphates and lime form the coverings of minute swamp life and nitrogen compounds are a part of their bodies. The polders of Holland are not richer than this swamp land; indeed, they are not so rich. One or two crops will pretty nearly extinguish the mortgage and three or four more will put the owner on "Easy Street."

In the bottom-lands of the Sacramento River is an island that for fifty years went a-begging. Then a company with a shrewd head bought it, diked it, and drained it. Now the island has immense celery beds and the largest asparagus farm in the world. The celery and canned asparagus are shipped to the produce markets of New York City.

Another great swamp area covers a large part of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. This swamp was made when the head of the Gulf of Mexico reached half-way up to St. Louis, for the delta of the Mississippi River has been travelling leisurely southward for several thousand years--so leisurely, in fact, that Iberville and Bienville opened the region to settlement fifteen hundred years or more too soon. But Uncle Sam is taking a hand here likewise, and in another fifty years a population half as large as that of New York may not only live comfortably but get rich on the reclaimed lands of this and adjacent coast swamps.

The Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia all have large areas of coast marshes--"pocosons" they call them--only a small part of which has been reclaimed. Formerly these were the property of the general government; then they were given to the States with the understanding that they were to be reclaimed. Large tracts were sold to speculators for a few cents an acre, and there you are! Few States are rich enough to handle extensive reclamation enterprises, and so the general government stepped in again and a.s.sumed the responsibility. That means that the work of reclamation will be skilfully and honestly done. Uncle Sam may play some questionable politics, but he never mixes politics and government business.

Of all the swamp lands of the United States, the region in Florida known as the Everglades is the most interesting and the most romantic.

Ponce de Leon, an aged Spanish governor of Porto Rico, who was seeking the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, discovered--not the long-sought fountain, but a peninsula decked with such a profusion of flowers that he named the country Florida.

From that time until years after it was ceded to the United States Florida was repeatedly baptized in blood. From the first there were encounters between the Spanish and Indians in which no quarter was given on either side. Later, an exterminating warfare broke out between the French and Spanish when a Huguenot colony was ma.s.sacred and not a man, woman, or child spared. In 1586 St. Augustine was burned by Sir Francis Drake, and a century later it was plundered by English buccaneers. Still later, frequent contests were waged between the English colonies and the Spanish in Florida.

Previous to the acquisition of Florida by the United States hostile Indians, together with fugitive whites and renegade negroes who had joined them, made many raids upon the settlements in Georgia, robbing and burning plantations, murdering the whites, and carrying off the slaves. Retaliation to a certain extent was meted out to the blood-thirsty savages until Spain was glad to cede the peninsula to the United States in 1819 for five million dollars. Thereby she ridded herself of her troublesome proteges. The Indian raids still continued after the acquisition, and the United States Government therefore sent troops into Florida to punish the treacherous savages, who gradually retreated southward until they reached the Everglades. There they made their final stand.

In these almost inaccessible sinuous water pa.s.sages and the dense island vegetation for a long time the Indians baffled our ablest military officers. A seven years' contest followed which cost the United States fifteen hundred men and nearly twenty million dollars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Group of Seminole Indians in the Everglades of Florida]

After much negotiation and no end of trouble the Indians--they were the Seminoles--ceded their lands to the United States on the promise of an annuity of twenty-five thousand dollars and suitable lands in the Indian Territory. About four thousand of the Seminoles were then removed to their new homes; a small remnant refusing to emigrate were left behind.

The name Everglades is applied to a vast swamp containing a mult.i.tude of shallow lakes studded with numerous islands. The region embraces most of the southern part of Florida. The water of the lakes, of which Lake Okechobee is the largest, varies in depth from a few inches to ten feet.

The region itself has an area six times that of the State of Rhode Island, and on account of the difficulty in traversing it is but imperfectly known. Countless winding intricate water channels extend in every direction. Many of these are filled with tall sawgra.s.s which, growing from the bottom, greatly impedes the pa.s.sage even of small boats. The average elevation of the Everglades above sea level is scarcely twenty feet. The water is both clear and wholesome, but the surface is so nearly a dead level that the current is imperceptible; it can be distinguished only by noting the position of the gra.s.s.

The islands are covered with a dense growth of oak, pine, cypress, and palmetto trees, together with a jungle of luxuriant tropical vines and shrubs. They range in size from one to one hundred acres and are but slightly elevated above the surrounding waters.

About three hundred Seminole Indians inhabit the interior and live by hunting and fishing. Deer, bears, otters, panthers, wild cats, and snakes frequent the land; alligators, crocodiles, fish of various kinds, and waterfowl dwell in the water. In the western part of the Everglades is Big Cypress Swamp and in the extreme southern part Mangrove Swamp, where myriads of mosquitoes are hatched out. Extending along the eastern side of the Everglades is a long, narrow belt of dry, fertile land which is utilized for farming purposes.

A far-reaching project to reclaim the Everglades has been proposed.

Unlike the Western projects, the problem is to get rid of water and not to supply it. The plans for reclamation include the construction of drainage ca.n.a.ls and the clearing of the jungle growths. It is purposed to use the land thus reclaimed for sugar growing. At the present time the United States is importing annually over two hundred million dollars' worth of sugar; it is estimated that by draining only a part of this vast area and planting it to sugar cane the local demands could not only be supplied but a large surplus for export would result.

The possibilities of this region, when properly drained and cleared of its superfluous vegetation, are almost beyond computation. It has a rich soil, abundant moisture, and almost tropical climate. Reclaimed land of this character is suitable for raising not only sugar cane and subtropical fruits, but a great variety of other crops. It is estimated that the cost of reclaiming the Everglades, so that the land may be made productive, need not exceed one dollar per acre.

A great impetus has been given to southern Florida by that wonderful achievement of engineering, Mr. Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway. This railway stretches in a direct line along the coast from Jacksonville to the southern part of the State, and has been extended along the Florida Keys to Key West. When all arrangements are completed, the trains will be ferried across Florida Strait between Havana and Key West, and freight will be sent from points in Cuba to New York and Chicago without reloading.

The building of the Florida East Coast Railway is one of the great engineering feats of the world. In its construction from key to key thousands of tons of rock and cement were dumped into the water on which ma.s.sive viaducts in fifty-foot spans have been built to carry the road-bed. These solid archways, rising from twenty to thirty feet above the water, defy tides and storm waves. This railway has become one of the chief factors in developing the resources of southern Florida and hastening the reclamation of the Everglades.

CHAPTER XVII

STRANGE ROCK FORMATIONS--NATURAL BRIDGES

Almost any unusual form in nature is apt to attract the eye and interest the beholder; and when such natural objects resemble artificial ones or bear a fanciful resemblance to animals the similarity intensifies the interest and almost always leads one to apply fanciful names to them. In wandering along a rocky sh.o.r.e one instinctively searches for the curious formations carved out by the unceasing action of the waves; and in journeying through rugged sections of mountain country each unusual rock formation rivets the attention at once.

Caves especially have a peculiar attraction of awe and curiosity combined. Such natural objects as Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Luray Cave in Virginia, Calaveras Cave in California, the Garden of the G.o.ds in Colorado, the Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland, and Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa are visited annually by many thousands of people. And no wonder that all mankind, from the savage to the most civilized, is charmed with natural arches spanning great chasms. No cyclopaedia of natural wonders fails to give at least a brief description of the Natural Bridge of Virginia which spans a small stream that flows into the James River. So great a wonder was the structure regarded to be even in colonial times that it then claimed marked attention. Thomas Jefferson became so much interested in this natural wonder that he applied to George III for a reservation of land that should include the bridge, and in 1774 his request was granted. To accommodate distinguished strangers who might visit the bridge, Jefferson built near by a log cabin of two rooms. Concerning it he said: "The bridge will draw the attention of the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Devil's Slide, Weber Canyon, Utah]

Chief-Justice Marshall described it as "G.o.d's greatest miracle in stone." And Henry Clay said it was "the bridge not made with hands, that spans a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one." On the rocky abutments are found carved the names of many persons. Among them is that of Washington. In his youth, laboriously cutting places for his hands and feet, he climbed up the face of one of the steep abutments and cut his name above all others, where for seventy years it stood unsurpa.s.sed in height. In 1818 a daring college student climbed from the foot to the top of the rock, thus outranking all others.

The Natural Bridge is composed of blue limestone; it is two hundred and fifteen feet high, ninety feet wide, and spans a chasm eighty-five feet across. A public highway lined with trees pa.s.ses over the top. The bridge itself is all that remains of the roof of what once was a limestone cavern.

The southeastern part of Utah is overlaid with strata of red and yellow sandstone hundreds of feet deep. Ages ago this whole region was elevated and thereby was distorted by the internal forces which pushed it upward.

Subsequently wonderful transformations were wrought. The flowing streams gradually bored through portions of the soft, uplifted sandstone, forming arches and digging deep canyons, while the air and rain rounded off the rugged parts into graceful shapes.

Wonderful as is the famous Natural Bridge of Virginia, the natural bridges of Utah are still more wonderful. In White Canyon of southeastern Utah are Edwin, Carolyn, and Augusta Bridges--magnificent structures of pink sandstone carved in lines of cla.s.sic symmetry and possessing gigantic proportions. At least half a dozen natural bridges in Utah surpa.s.s that of Virginia, not only in beauty and grandeur, but also in dimensions. They were discovered by cattlemen in 1895, but they did not become known to the outside world until 1909, when the region was explored by the Utah Archaeological Expedition.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Witch Rocks, near Echo Canyon, Utah]

Of these bridges the Edwin easily ranks first in graceful symmetry; its span is one hundred and ninety-four feet, its elevation one hundred and eight feet, its width thirty-five feet. Combining grace and ma.s.siveness, the Augusta stands pre-eminent. It rises in majestic proportions to the height of two hundred and twenty-two feet and has a span between abutments of two hundred and sixteen feet. The width of the road-bed is twenty-eight feet and the thickness of the arch at the keystone is forty-five feet. The height of the Carolyn Bridge is two hundred and five feet and the span one hundred and eighty-six feet.

All these bridges span canyons whose depths correspond to the height of the arched structures. In White Canyon, a few miles below Edwin Bridge, under its overhanging rock walls, are the ruins of numerous cliff-dwellings.