262 THE PLANT WORLD 



Thursday, November 2. — Arrival from Yokohama of theU. S. S. Nero, 

 having finished lines of soundings from Guam to Japan and back. (See 

 entry in Note-book, September 10.) The route surveyed lies to the west 

 of the northern islands of this group and east of the Bonin Islands, For 

 the first 500 geographical miles a level plain 2,100 fathoms deep was 

 found ; then a submarine mountain range was encountered which appa- 

 rently connects the volcanic ridge forming the chain of our islands with 

 the range connecting the Bonin Islands with Japan. In crossing this 

 range the Nero discovered a submarine conical peak resembling in form 

 Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. A trans-Pacific cable is now 

 assured ; but whether or not there will be a connection between Guam 

 and Japan is doubtful. In addition to deciding upon a good route for 

 the cable the Nero has added much to our knowledge of the contour of 

 the ocean's bottom. Her most important discovery has been the great 

 abyss a short distance to the eastward of this island, the deepest thus far 

 known. It will be called the " Nero Deep." Captain Hodges, the com- 

 manding officer of the Nero, has asked me to make an inspection of the 

 harbor of Tarofo, on the east coast of this island, and report to him on its 

 apparent fitness as a landing-place for the cable. 



This day I bought a piece of property from Vicente Herrero y Roberto 

 extending from the Cienega, or great Marsh, in the locality known as 

 Didigui, on the east, up the hill to the Sinahaiia road on the west, and 

 bounded on the south by the property belonging to the heirs of Salome de 

 Torres and on the north by property belonging to Don Jose Herrero y 

 Aguon and the heirs of Salome de Torres. This includes the hill-top, 

 which I have so often visited, overlooking the city of Agana, where I 

 shall build my little cottage. The deed was drawn up by the acting 

 notary, Don Joaquin Leon Guerrero, the nephew of Father Palomo, and 

 signed by Don Vicente and myself in the presence of Don Jose Herrero 

 y Aguon and Don Juan del Rosario y Flores, the alcalde. In accordance 

 with the requirements of the law we were notified by the notary that this 

 deed must be duly registered by the recorder in order that it may be held 

 valid in courts of law. The original was placed by the notary in his files 

 and a certified copy was given tome. Included in the boundaries of my 

 property are two isolated patches of coconut trees claimed by families who 

 planted them. These I shall buy separately, if possible. It has been the 

 case more than once for people to register land in this island including 

 patches of cultivation of others without paying any consideration to the 

 rights of those to whom these patches should in equity belong. Susana 

 can not understand what I can want with so rocky a place as the hill-top ; 

 she says it is fit for neither coffee nor coconuts. 



[to be continued.] 



