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LADRONE ISLANDS.

Due east from the island of Luzon, between latitude 13 deg. 50 min. and 20 deg. 50 min. north, and longitude 145 deg. 50 min. and 147 deg. east, are the Ladrone or Marian group.

There are in all about twenty islands, of which Guajan is the largest, being about 90 miles in circumference. The area of the group is 1,300 square miles, with a population of 8,000.

Discovered by Magellan in 1521, they form a part of the Spanish possessions in the Pacific.

The products are similar to the many islands already described, with an abundance of water, and soil of great fertility.

North by east from the Ladrones are the Jardines group, and north of these, again, Anson's Archipelago. Still further east and south we come to the Nameless group, Volcano, La Mira, Halcyon, Wakes, Cornwallis, and many other islands dotting the great Pacific Sea. In longitude 162 deg. 60 min. west, and 2 deg. north latitude, there is Christmas Island; and north by west from that, and in the same group, we find America, Fanning, Palmyra, Prospect and Samarang Islands.

To the north, again, in latitude 15 deg. 45 min. north, and longitude 169 deg. west, are the Johnston Islands, two in number, and of considerable commercial importance, from the guano found there.

BONIN ISLANDS.

The Bonin group, between 26 deg. 30 min. and 27 deg. 44 min. north latitude, and 142 deg. and 145

[graphic]

VOLCANO OF MT. EREBUS, Victoria Land, South Polar Regions; Lat. 77° 32' S.; Lon. 167° E. Discovered by Capt. James C. Ross, January 27, 1841. P. 249.

deg. east longitude, may be set down as containing seventy islands, with twenty or thirty rocks lying between. There is no definite data at hand giving the area and population of this group, though it would be safe to set the former at 500 square miles, and the latter at 1,000.

The formation is volcanic, the topography rocky and precipitous, with deep water close to shore. They have long been a resort for whalers in these regions, for wood and water supplies.

The islands, at one time, in the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, were used by the Japanese as penal colonies. Pell, Buckland and Stapleton are the largest and bestknown islands.

Their products are unimportant at present. The group is claimed by Great Britain, being taken possession of by that power in 1826.

ANSON AND AUCKLAND ISLANDS.

There are many island groups, atolls and barren isles, hardly as yet of enough commercial importance to require special or particular description. Under this head is the Anson archipelago, lying west of the Hawaiian group; and although but a chain of small islets, with but few products, it would be hard, in this age of discovery and requirements, to predict their

future.

The Auckland Islands, between latitude 50 deg. 24 min. and 51 deg. 4 min. south, and longitude 163 deg. 46 min. and 164 deg. 3 min. east, are of considerable importance. They are about twenty in number, several of them, like the island of Auckland, being

fully 30 miles long by 15 miles wide. They are of volcanic origin, with an abundance of water and timber and fertile soil. Guano of a fine quality is said to be in quantity on some of the islets. Discovered in 1806, they remained for many years almost unknown and unoccupied, up to 1849, when they were granted by Great Britain to a corporation, who used them principally as a whaling station, but were finally abandoned in 1852. The northern portion of the group is sometimes known as the Enderby Islands. The whole group may contain an area of 1,000 square miles, with a population of 500.

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