FLOATING ISLANDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19261, 27 August 1924, Page 5

FLOATING ISLANDS.

MONKEY-LADEN AND ADRIFT IN THE PACIFIC.

Borneo, the mysterious island-continent lying between Southern Asia and Australia, and, according to the late P. T, Barnum, the original habitat of the famous “Wild Man,” lias produced another marvel, a real one, fourteen of them, in fact. Floating Islands! Recent telegraphic advices from the Far East, reporting the existence of the nomadio isles, wandering about in the Oriental Pacific, bearing loftly coconut palm trees and the palm trees carrying hordes of chattering monkeys, were received with some scepticism in scientific circles, and loss cultured commentators voiced an opinion that the glasses the islands were soon through were gin tumblers. But substance to the reports was provided recently, says the San Francisco Chronicle, with the arrival of the globe-circling liner President Adams, bringing photographs of the floating islands and the solemn testimony of their existence from Captain Jonas Pendlebury and scores of passengers and members of the crew. “They were there, and they floated, and they had coconut trees and monkeys in the trees wore harvesting the nuis for a hard winter,” declared pretty Miss Margctla De Moglio, one of the many tourists who saw the islands. “The monkeys were throwing coconuts to the ground, but as the ship stood off some distance we were in no danger of a bombardment We counted 14 islands, all in cue group, ranging in size, according to the ca ita’n, who made a careful observation of hem, from seven acres down. There were several of three or four acres. The largest cue had a hill on it, as shown by the photographs.” This is the explanation of the floating islands as set forth by scientists, who say that similar phenomena have been reported by doepsea skippers of many years ago. Currents in the great rivers of Western Asia undercut and separate from shore huge slices of tropical yingle, the heavy, farreaching roots of the trees and dense vegetation binding the “islands” together and holding considerable quantities of soil as they are carried out to sea for hundreds of miles.