A Recollection of the Falkland Islands. 169 
INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY. 
10. Referring to the industrial prosperity of the Islands Mr. Allardyce says, 
“Since 1885 the colony has been entirely self-supporting, has paid back all 
advances made by the Imperial Government, and been able to establish a re- 
serve fund of over £60,000.’ And in another place we are told that “the 
deposits in the Government Savings Bank amount to nearly £27 per head of the 
population.” Speaking from my own experience, I know that on the “ West,” 
and the smaller islands adjoining, there are no poor people; there is employment 
for each family, and each seems to live in comfort, at least, if not in luxury. 
There is no poor house there, nor a prison,—there are no occupants for them ! 
I speak here of the “ West ”’ only. There is a prison in Port Stanley on the 
East, and also some poverty no doubt. The two seem to go hand-in-hand, 
though the exact relation between them in any particular case might be rather 
difficult to establish. Before leaving this part of my subject, however, I would 
point out that the fairly prosperous condition of these remote, and thinly peopled 
islands does not seem to accord with the view that a teeming population is a 
necessary condition of material prosperity. Even where there are vast natural 
resources, something surely must depend on the quality no less than on the 
quantity of your population. Yet, I think, one often hears the question stated 
in such a way as to lay all the emphasis upon the quantity alone. 
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD, AND WITH EACH OTHER. 
11. There is no cable communication with the Falklards, and communica- 
tion by steamship, though regular, is not frequent—only once a month. 
The P.S.N. Company, lately bought over by the R.M.S.P. Company, have, or 
had, the mail contract between the United Kingdom and the Falklands. Then 
between the islards themselves there is a schooner service. The method of 
communication between the main islands and the outlying islards is very 
primitive. The islanders signal to each other by lghtirg a fire in some con- 
venient spot. A fire lit on the main island is a signal to those on the smaller 
island that some one wishes to come off, and wants a boat. Nature aids the- 
islanders here, for though there is no wocd, yet there is a shrub that grows 
plentifully on the hil! sides, and burns well even in wet weather, and it 1s this 
they use for their fire. There was one island, called Pebble Island, I used to 
visit regularly in this way. 
Port STANLEY AS A Port oF CALL. 
12. Port Stanley, on the East Falkland, 1s the only town, and ‘‘seat of 
Government, ’ to use a form of expression common in books on Geography. It 
is, of course, a very small town, but possesses a very fine natural harbour, 
which is, however, rather dangerous to enter. As an instance of this I might 
refer to the loss of the “‘ Philadelphia,’ a large American sailing ship, in June, 
1896, while trying to make the harbour at night. She struck a sunken rock 
near the entrance to the harbour, ard sank with every soul on board. Yet 
from the position of the islards, Port Stanley is a convenient harbour of 
refuge for ships disabled off Cape Horn. The autumn of 1899 (sprirg in the 
southern hemisphere,) seems to have been an exceptionally bed one for ships 
