592 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



as a result of the Challenger expedition, that its value was 

 realised. He was instrumental in persuading the British 

 Government to take the Island over and formed a company 

 for working the phosphate, which secured the lease of the 

 Island. This company, known as the Christmas Island Phos- 

 phate Co., has in the twenty-five years or so of its existence 

 developed the Island very considerably. The European mem- 

 bers of the staff have comfortable bungalows, with electric 

 light, and a good water supply which is pumped along a pipe- 

 line from the other side of the Island. There is a small ice 

 plant, a cold storage plant has just been installed, and a wire- 

 less telegraph plant for communication with Singapore and 

 the Cocos Islands is now in course of erection. The Company's 

 own steamer, the Islander, runs monthly between the Island 

 and Singapore carrying mails, food supplies, stores of all 

 sorts, members of the staff going on or coming from leave, 

 and Chinese coolies from time to time. The labour force is 

 almost entirely Chinese, with the exception of a few Malays 

 who attend to the shipping. The phosphate is exported in its 

 raw state, and does not receive treatment for its conversion 

 into superphosphate. In the face of considerable disadvan- 

 tages, two piers for ships have been put up, so that loading is 

 a comparatively simple process, a ship of 6,000 tons being 

 loaded in about four days. The phosphate is exceptionally 

 pure ; the extent of the deposits is not known with any cer- 

 tainty, but there are at least some millions of tons. 



The Island does not, unfortunately, possess a sheltered 

 roadstead. The steeply shelving sea bottom renders it im- 

 possible to construct any sort of breakwater. Ships approach- 

 ing the land drop a long length of cable and gradually 

 approach the pier. The anchor catches against the steep 

 bottom, and mooring lines are then put out to hold the vessel 

 to mooring buoys which are anchored to the sea bottom. 

 The Company possesses its own pilots, and has a diver for 

 attending to the moorings. In general the prevailing wind is 

 from the south-east, and as the settlement at Flying Fish Cove 

 is on the north of the Island, ships can usually lie at the piers 

 in perfect safety, though as a measure of precaution steam is 

 always kept up. But in the rainy season, from about Novem- 

 ber to April, spells of northerly winds, accompanied by squally 

 weather and a heavy swell, are not uncommon. On such 

 occasions, ships have to lie off the land until there is a change 

 of wind and the swell dies down. During these winter months, 

 ships rarely call for phosphate, the export being arranged for 

 the summer months, when unsettled weather is the exception. 

 It so happened that the expedition arrived. just .at,.: the 

 commencement of one of these spells of unsettled weather. 



