r* 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Dodson Rhone 



BUADA LAGOON, SHELTERED BY ONE} OF NAURU'S COCONUT GROVES 



The fish-pond partition in this lagoon is used by the natives as their live storage chamber for 

 fish brought from the sea. It is covered with palm leaves. 



sea water is used in the sewerage system 

 and for the fire department. In case of 

 lack of rainfall, and the Line islands are 

 subject to severe droughts, fresh water 

 is furnished by condensing sea water. 



NO HARBOR IN NAURU 



Every bit of wood, steel and brick for 

 building and furnishing, every piece of 

 machinery, all articles of clothing and 

 food, are brought over 2,000 miles in 

 ships from Australia. To the ordinary 

 hazards of ocean cargoes is added the 

 difficulty of unloading from rolling ships 

 into tossing surf-boats. Sometimes the 

 stevedore's gang misses the boat and 

 drops a bulky piece of cargo, such as a 

 piano, into the sea, when, even if it is 

 salvaged, it retains a salt-sea tang on its 

 wires. 



There are low islands, atolls, that have 

 practically no leeward side, but are all 

 windward — that is, the winds blow right 

 over them, and the sea on all sides is 

 agitated so violently that it is not possi- 

 ble to land anywhere on their shores ; 

 there are others which have lagoons 



with one side open to the sea, through 

 which ships can pass into safe harbors. 



Nauru has no harbor, no anchorage, 

 but she has a leeward shore, the western 

 side, where, for the greater part of the 

 year, ships can lie "off and on" sheltered 

 by the bulk of the island from the winds 

 which beat incessantly upon the wind- 

 ward side. 



Formerly ships were obliged to lie "off 

 and on," and some of them came too far 

 on and were wrecked on the reef, but 

 now there are deep-sea moorings pro- 

 vided by the phosphate company. Huge 

 buoys lie on the surface of the sea, at a 

 safe distance outside the edge of the reef, 

 anchored far down beneath the surface 

 and attached to the reef by "bridles" — 

 chains bolted to the surface of the reef. 

 The reef does not break off abruptly, but 

 slopes beneath the sea at an angle of 45 

 degrees, so that 100 yards from the shore 

 the water is 100 yards deep. 



With infinite toil and patience these 

 moorings are laid, as the mooring ship 

 can work only in reasonably calm 

 weather, and as soon as they are com- 



