THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND 



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AN IMAGE ON RANO RARAKU WITH A DISK EAR 



This peculiarity of the lobe is much less common among the Easter Island images than that 



shown on the opposite page. 



what was practically a state of siege, with 

 one man always on guard for fear of 

 attack. 



THE STORY OE A SHIPWRECK 



"My latest guests were a crew of ship- 

 wrecked mariners, Americans, who landed 

 on the island last June. A fortnight 

 earlier the barometer here had been ex- 

 traordinarily low, but we did not get much 

 wind ; further to the south, however, the 

 gale was terrific, and the El Dorado was 

 in the midst of it. 



"The captain, who had been a whaler 

 in his day, said that he had never seen 

 anything approaching it. The sea was 

 simply a seething mass of crested waves. 



"The ship was a schooner, trading be- 

 tween Oregon and a Chilean port; she 

 was a long way from land, as sailing ves- 

 sels make a big semicircle to get the best 

 wind. She had a deck-load of timber, 15 

 feet high, which, of course, shifted in 

 such a sea ; she sprang leaks in every di- 



rection, and it was obvious that she must 

 soon break up. 



"The crew took to their boat, not that 

 they had much hope of saving their lives, 

 but simply because there was nothing else 

 to be done. They got some tins of milk 

 and soup on board, and a box of biscuits, 

 and a cask holding, perhaps, twenty gal- 

 lons of water. The captain managed to 

 secure his sextant, but when he went back 

 for his chronometers the chart-room was 

 too deep in water for him to be able to 

 reach them. 



IN AN OPEN BOAT 700 MIEES PROM EAND 



"They saw by the chart that the nearest 

 land was this island ; it was 700 miles off, 

 and, as they had no chronometer and 

 could take no risks, they would have to 

 go north first in order to get their lati- 

 tude, which would add on another 200. 

 There was nothing for it, however, but to 

 do the best they could ; they had more 

 gales, too, and only saved the boat from 



