20 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



task of seeking fortunes on it for others, this old American 

 sea captain had apparently followed 



" The good old rule, the ancient plan, 

 That he should take who has the power, 

 And he should keep who can." 



At any rate, he had settled on the island with his wife 

 and two sons, and Mr. Parspns, seeing no chance of 

 recovering his goats or his island, returned to the 

 Caymans. 



Such, then, with the exception of a period in which a 

 Guano CJompany exploited the island for phospates, are 

 the " short and simple annals " of our little island. 



Perhaps, with a spice of " insular prejudice," we may 

 feel inclined to spare some of our sympathy for Parsons ; 

 but remembering all the hospitahty we received during 

 our stay on the island, we can only wish " the man in 

 possession" the best of luck. We are, indeed, sometimes 

 tempted, when our thoughts stray back to his beautiful 

 sea-girt home, to envy him ; for Swan Island comes very 

 near to being the coral island of one's dreams. It is ideal 

 not only from the aesthetic point of view, but from the 

 practical — it ought to pay its wa}^ as a fruit-growmg 

 concern. It would make as fine a biological station for 

 the study of pelagic and deep-sea Life as one could wish 

 to have. It has a climate which would not hurt a baby ; 

 and lastly, with, a pretty bungalow erected on the " Idkwa 

 at its west end, it would make an ideal "haven of peace " 

 for a " tired milhonaire " to visit on his yacht for a couple 

 of months or so every winter. 



" Ah ! yes," you say, " delightful, charming, lovely, 

 but. . . after all — a beautiful prison." Not at all|! 

 Eor even allowing that you had no private craft of 

 your own, you could get away from it almost when 

 you hked. You could even have your weekly or 

 monthly magazines or periodicals sent out to you, 

 to say nothing of the latest novels and anything 

 in the way of provisions or groceries that your required. 



