478 The National Geographic Magazine 



sway of one government. While the 

 motive which brought about this do- 

 minion was mainly mercenary, it has 

 resulted in great good to the human 

 race. He who journeys around the 

 globe is impressed with the mighty 

 power of British rule, but he also sees 

 that its rule is beneficent ; and such is 

 the general, though not the invariable, 

 influence of commerce. It opens na- 

 tions to intercourse, it tends to peace, 

 it enlarges the comforts and aspirations 

 of the people. 



It is fortunate that the interests and 

 the policy of the United States and Great 

 Britain in the Far East so fully harmo- 

 nize. Japan has manifested with equal 

 heartiness its conformity to the same 

 policy. There is no reason why the 

 other commercial nations should not pur- 

 sue the same lire of conduct. Hence, if 

 internal peace is preserved, the ancient 

 Chinese Empire may look forward to an 

 era of unprecedented development and 

 prosperity, and add many more cycles 

 to its unparalleled history. 



A DOUBTFUL ISLAND OF THE PACIFIC 



By James D. Hague 



Data concerning the questionable existence of a reported island or islands in the 

 North Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Pa?iama, with results of the cruise recently 

 made by the U. S. ship Taconia hi search of such islands, with some discission of the 

 reasons for believing that the U. S. sloop-of-war Levant, which disappeared mysteri- 

 ously in i860 071 her voyage from Hawaii to Panama, may have been wrecked on an 

 island in this neighborhood, with the possible survival of some of the ship's compajiy. 



IN the North Pacific Ocean, about 

 1 ,000 to 1 , 200 miles east-southeast 

 from Hawaii, somewhere between 

 the meridians of 133 and 138 degrees of 

 longitude west from Greenwich, and in- 

 cluded within the fifteenth and twentieth 

 parallels of north latitude, substantially 

 in a direct line between the port of Hilo, 

 on the Island of Hawaii, and the Bay of 

 Panama (nearly 4,500 miles distant), 

 there is a mid-ocean area covering about 

 200 miles in latitude by 150 or 200 miles 

 in longitude, equal to 30,000 or 40,000 

 square miles, from which region during 

 the past eighty years or more, from time 

 to time, there have come occasional re- 

 ports of an island or islands said to have 

 been observed by passing navigators. 



Nearly, if not quite, all these reports 

 appear to have come originally, mostly 



more than fifty years ago, from cruising 

 whalemen, who were practically the 

 only voyagers who until lately ever 

 found any occasion or good reason to 

 visit this remote part of the Pacific in 

 pursuit of business. The region lies 

 beyond the usual tracks and sailing 

 routes of commercial voyagers, and very 

 few vessels of other classes excepting 

 whalemen have had any occasion to 

 traverse this unfrequented sea, which, if 

 it contain no island, is not far from the 

 center of the largest landless ocean area 

 on the surface of the globe, while, if 

 there be an island, it is perhaps the 

 most remotely isolated land in the world. 

 The accompanying maps show, first, 

 on the smaller scale, the general rela- 

 tions of this remote region to the Amer- 

 ican coast and to the Hawaiian Islands : 



* Read in part before the Eighth International Geographic Congress at a meeting of the 

 Section of Oceanography, September 13, 1904. 



