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THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



A native of Ocean Island in festival dress. 



Photo — T. J. McMahon. 



known extent, and, in places, of great 

 dtpth. Six hundred feet of line have been 

 lowered into one cavity without touching 

 bottom. The network of subterraneati 

 caves has led scientists to declare that 

 the island is built up tier upon tier of 

 coral arches. The caves under the island 

 ]:Hve wonderful shapes, many have wells 

 plentifully supplied with water, useful in 

 drought periods. Tlie native men refuse 

 under all circumstances to enter the 

 ca.ves, and consefjuently the women have 

 become the keepers, and they enter fear- 

 lessly. In drought times the caves sup- 

 plied water to the natives, and it is said 

 the women — who are masterful in man- 

 ner, and not at all subservient to the men 

 — gained tlieir power by doling out the 

 water only as they felt inclined, realising 

 that tlie men, fearing evil spirits, were 



afraid to enter the caves. 

 The women take care to feed 

 the fear of the men, and de- 

 clare the caves are full of 

 evil spirits with a decided 

 objection to men. 



Ocean Island is the seat of 

 the British administration of 

 the Gilbert and Ellice Crown 

 Colony. The British took 

 possession of the Island in 

 the year 1901. Prior to that 

 the "Pacific Islands Com- 

 - ji^-, pany" was engaged in col- 

 ""'■jl lecting the phosphate of the 

 ^ ^ island. In 1902 this com- 

 pany was bought out and a 

 British company formed a 

 remarkal)le industry for the 

 mining and distribution of 

 the ph(»si)hate, now recognis- 

 ed as a magic soil fertiliser. 

 Since the war this company 

 has given way to the British 

 Commission, consisting of 

 Enghmd, Australia, and New 

 Zealand, in administering the 

 affairs of tlie islands of 

 Ocean and Nauru, and man- 

 aging the phosphate indus- 

 tries of the two islands, 160 

 miles apart. 



The phosphate industry 

 is perhaps one of the most 

 interesting in the world. Tlie boun- 

 teousness of Nature is shown in 

 the composition of the magic product. 

 For years — it is impossible to tell how 

 many — countless numbers of sea birds 

 were attracted to Ocean Island, where 

 neither man nor animal disturbed them, 

 and where was found superabundance of 

 fisli usual to deep-sea coral islands. 



The birds subsisted on fish and created 

 vast deposits of guano, rich in phosphate, 

 which, mingling with the coral rock, rich 

 iR lime, by the powerful process of Nature, 

 assisted by periodic and alternate 

 droughts, copious rains and occasional 

 and complete submergings of the island 

 by the sea, were assimilated in one 

 potent, chemical factor, phosphate of 

 lime, a buff-coloured rock containing all 

 the essential qualities of a prime fer- 



