History Of Islands Research Articles

Age and rate of diversification of the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Compositae).

Comparisons between insular and continental radiations have been hindered by a lack of reliable estimates of absolute diversification rates in island lineages. We took advantage of rate-constant rDNA sequence evolution and an "external" calibration using paleoclimatic and fossil data to determine the maximum age and minimum diversification rate of the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Compositae), a textbook example of insular adaptive radiation in plants. Our maximum-age estimate of 5.2 +/- 0.8 million years ago for the most recent common ancestor of the silversword alliance is much younger than ages calculated by other means for the Hawaiian drosophilids, lobelioids, and honeycreepers and falls approximately within the history of the modern high islands (</=5.1 +/- 0.2 million years ago). By using a statistically efficient estimator that reduces error variance by incorporating clock-based estimates of divergence times, a minimum diversification rate for the silversword alliance was estimated to be 0.56 +/- 0.17 species per million years. This exceeds average rates of more ancient continental radiations and is comparable to peak rates in taxa with sufficiently rich fossil records that changes in diversification rate can be reconstructed.

Abstract: Plate Tectonic History of the Transverse Ranges and Channel Islands, Southern California.&amp;nbsp;

Abstract: Plate Tectonic History of the Transverse Ranges and Channel Islands, Southern California.&amp;nbsp;

Late Quaternary environmental changes on Pacific islands: controversy, certainty and conjecture

The late Quaternary history of the Pacific islands is poorly known. Most details about Pleistocene history come from studies of ocean-floor sediments, although a few insular pollen records extend back into the last glacial stage. There is limited evidence for Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) aridity and a rise in LGM–early Holocene precipitation associated with strengthening of the Southern Oscillation. The middle Holocene warming is best represented by sea-level records, which, from all parts of the Pacific, now show a contemporary maximum ca. 5000–3000 yr BP. Late Holocene cooling and precipitation increase were probably more widespread than available data suggest. The advent of humans into Pacific island environments, mostly during the late Holocene, is critically reviewed. Vegetation change may have, at least in part, been the result of climate change. Many Pacific island grasslands may be climatogenic rather than anthropogenic. Fires may have occurred naturally long before people arrived on Pacific islands. Ideas about early human impacts on Pacific island enviroments need to be critically reviewed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Neftegorsk, Sakhalin Island, earthquake of 27 May 1995

Abstract Past seismic catastrophes were unknown in Sakhalin Island before 1995 except those suggested from findings of paleoseismodislocations. The first time that dwellers have experienced such a catastrophe in the Sakhalin Island history was on 27 May 1995. The devastating Neftegorsk earthquake occurred in Northern Sakhalin (ϕ= 52.8° north; δ= 143.2° east; H = 18 km; Ms= 7.2), killed almost 2000 people in the small city of Neftegorsk, caused damage and destruction of buildings, bridges, railways and roads, breakage of oil and gas pipelines, electric and communication lines, and was accompanied by large‐scale surface phenomena within a source area. It was felt all over the Sakhalin Island, as well as over the closest part of the Eurasian continent. Surface fracturing was the most impressive effect of the Neftegorsk earthquake. The 37‐km long, right‐lateral strike‐slip fault, with a strike of north 15° east and a horizontal displacement up to a maximum of 8 m, has been observed from Taxon Mountain at the south to the junction of the Cadylanye and Keniga Rivers at the north. According to the results of a detailed geological survey and study of the aftershocks, the total extent of the source area was ‐ 80 km. Various secondary phenomena have been observed at the Earth's surface, such as landslides, falls, soil liquefaction, mud volcanoes etc. The earthquake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks within the following 1‐2 months. Spatially, the earthquake fault coincides with the pre‐existing Upper Piltun fault, known earlier from geological studies. Recent high activity of the latter fault has been recognized only after the Neftegorsk event because of findings of traces of significant past dislocations within the fault zone. From a tectonic viewpoint it can be suggested that the Upper Piltun fault is a Riedel‐type shear fracture located between two main regional faults: the Gyrgylanye‐Dagy fault at the west and the Piltun‐Ekhaby fault at the east. Therefore, its present activity, expressed by the destructive Neftegorsk earthquake, seems to be explained by a long strain accumulation within a broad zone of regional right‐lateral shear faulting.

The Vaitupu Company Revisited: Reflections and Second Thoughts on Methodology and Mindset

It has been said that “Old movies seen again after many years seem different not because they have altered but because we have.” For the same reason, a rereading of older historical texts will convey different meanings, and reveal deficiencies and perhaps even profundities that were not initially apparent. In this paper, these observations are applied to a piece of research that was special to me at the time. I now see more clearly the extent to which my methods and mindset were a product of time, of place, and of my own training and preferences. So I will retrace my footsteps—insofar as is possible after all these years—and consider how the preconceptions and expectations of the moment affected the outcome. In other words, to reflect on the nature of thinking and writing.My research was not concerned with African but Pacific Islands history. From the mid 1970s through to the early 1980s I engaged in dissertation work in the nineteenth-century history of Tuvalu, formerly the Ellice Islands. Older maps will identify Tuvalu as the southern portion of a British dependency, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (astride the equator and just east of the International Date Line). The nine Tuvalu islands are tiny even by the standards of coral atolls; by far the largest is Vaitupu at about six square kilometers, and the group remains economically unimportant and strategically insignificant. During the nineteenth century Tuvalu was incorporated into the world economy through the whaling industry and the copra trade, and further exposed to Western influences by missionization. The paucity of exploitable resources, however, coupled with an inhospitable environment and smallness of scale, rendered the islands unsuitable for large-scale European settlement and muted the potential disruptions of outside contacts. But there were aberrant events, such as the Vaitupu Company, which placed individual island communities under strain from time to time.

Pacific Island history at the Australian national university:The place and the people∗

This article describes the context in which Pacific Island history developed at ANU. It suggests ways in which its agenda and methods were influenced by its loction in the Australian capital in 194...

Natural history of central topographic islands following excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy

Purpose: To assess the incidence and natural history of central corneal topographic islands following excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and photoastigmatic refractive keratectomy (PARK).Setting: A dedicated corneal diseases and refractive surgery unit within a National Health Service Trust ophthalmology unit in the United Kingdom.Methods: Corneal topographic analysis was performed in a prospective study of 100 eyes of 75 consecutive patients who had PRK. All PRK/PARK excimer laser photorefractive procedures were performed by two surgeons observing a standardized protocol using a VISX 20/20 excimer laser. Mean preoperative myopic error was 5.54 diopters (D) ± 3.44 (SD). Corneal topographic analysis was performed on all eyes preoperatively, 1 week postoperatively, and monthly thereafter for a minimum of 6 months or until central islands, if present, resolved. All patients had a minimum 12 months follow-up.Results: Postoperatively, 29 eyes (29%) demonstrated central corneal topographic islands of greater than 3.00 D topographic power by computerized videokeratography (CVK). All central islands were identified in the first 4 weeks postoperatively. In all cases the differential dioptric power, created by the central islands within the ablation zone, decreased rapidly; within 6 months, 26 (90%) central islands had fully resolved without further treatment, and the remaining 3 (10%) resolved within 1 year of photorefractive surgery. The occurrence of central islands was related to higher preoperative myopic spherical equivalent (P = .01), greater attempted laser correction (P = .01), and greater projected depth of ablation (P = .01) (Student's two-tailed t-test).Conclusions: Central corneal topographic islands occurred in a significantly higher proportion of eyes having excimer laser photorefractive surgery than previously believed. The islands were associated with decreased unaided vision, reduced best spectacle-corrected acuity, and other troublesome visual symptoms; however, the central islands, along with their associated visual effects, usually resolved without surgical intervention within 6 months postoperatively.

陸橋とヒトと生物の渡来 遺伝子からみたイリオモテヤマネコとツシマヤマネコの渡来と進化起源

The richness of fauna diversity is seen on the Japanese Islands, which range through 3, 000 km. When and from where have theanimals immigrated to Japan? Also, for understanding natural history of the Japanese Islands, it is very importantto investigate evolutinary history and origin of animals distributed on each island. While the evolutionary questions have been paleontologically and geologically examined so far, some of them are still unclear. Recent development of molecular phylogenetic study provides a reliable sight to understanding evolutionary history and origin of species. Advantageously, molecular study can analyze phylogeny of living species without fossil data.In Japan, two wildcats, the Iriomote cat and the Tsushima cat, live on the Iriomote Island and the Tsushima Island, respectively, where land bridges between the Asian continent and the Japanese Islands were present in the past time. To know evolution of these wildcats gives us useful information for better understanding of natural history of the Japanese Islands. Moreover, because both the wildcats are now endangered, it is now strongly needed to understand phylogenetic status of them for conservation and management. For the reason, we investigated molecular phylongeny of the two wildcats based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, and revealed that both the wildcats are very closely related to the leopard cat Felis bengalensis, which is widespread throughout Asia. Furthermore, from the DNA data, the Iriomote cat and the Tsushima cat were estimated to have diverged from the continental leopard cat approximately 200, 000 and 100, 000 years before present, respectively. The dates estimated by molecular data were in concordance with formation dates of the Ryukyu Arc and the Tsushima Island, respectively. These results suggest that geographic barrier has led fixation of some unique morphological characters into each cat population, while the two Japanese wildcats are still genetically close to the continental leopard cat.

Processes of island colonization by terrestrial organisms

BIOGEOGRAPHIA — vol. XVIII - 1995 (Pubblicato il 31 ottobre 7996) Le piccole [sole Circumsarde e il loro significato Biogeografico Processes of island colonization by terrestrial organisms AUGUSTO AZZAROLI Um&#39;verrz’tri diFz&#39;re71ze - Dipartz&#39;772eIzt0 di Scienze dellrz Term Key words: Island Biogeography, Palaeogeography SUMMARY Colonization of islands by terrestrial organisms may have taken place through three main models of dispersal: a) vicariance, in case a part of a continent split off and became an island, with its endemic animals and plants; b) migration through land bridges, continuous or formed by discontinous, temporarily emerged islands and «stepping stones»; c) migration by swimming, or by passive transport on natural rafts. It is argued that in the majority of cases colonizations took place through models a) and b). Contrary to a current opinion, model c) may have occurrend only in restricted, favourable areas and in exceptional cases. Geological history and present conditions of several islands are analyzed in order to show how even far away oceanic islands may have been invaded through overland migrations, and cases are discussed in which migra- tions according to model c) are to be ruled out. Examples are brought forward from New Zealand, Madagascar, the Canary and Azores islands, the Western Mediterranean islands, the Antilles, the Galapagos and Indonesian islands. If correctly understood, island biogeography may become a highly useful tool for reconstruction of palaeogeography. crustal movements and geological processes of our planet. Colonization of islands by terrestrial organisms is a problem of primary interest not only for its biological implications on evolution of endemic animals and plants but also for the highly valuable information it may provide in the field of palaeogeography and geological processes in general. The problem is not always easy to solve. In fact, the dilemma of colonization by active, or pas- sive overseas transport versus migration through temporarily emerged land bridges may not always be decided on the basis of physical evidence: in most cases argument turns necessarily on speculations about the possiblity, or impossiblity of an assumed way of migration. There is geological evidence that land bridges were formed between Northern Africa, Southern Europe and several islands during the Messinian dessiccation of the Mediterranean, but there is no positive evidence that such bridges were actually used by organisms to migrate between continents and islands: this will necessarily remain a reasonable assumption and nomore. On the other hand, it is impossible to demonstrate, at least at the present state of knowledge, that no land connections were formed between, say, Corsica or Crete and the mainland during the Pleistocene, so that there was no possible way of migration except overseas transport. 33

The Pitcairn Islands, South Pacific Ocean: plate tectonic and climatic contexts

Abstract The remote Pitcairn Group in the South Pacific Ocean comprises a volcanic island (Pitcairn Island), two low coral atolls (Oeno, Ducie) and a raised coralline island (Henderson Island). The geological history of these islands, on anomalously thin oceanic lithosphere, is related to the development of two subparallel island chains (Oeno-Henderson-Ducie; Pitcairn) associated with intra-Pacific plate `hotspot' activity; the surface manifestation of this activity has been partly determined by structural lineations in the plate inherited from past plate history. The climate of the Pitcairn Islands is determined by the position of the subtropical high pressure system and the South Pacific Convergence Zone. Variations in the strength of this atmospheric circulation system, measured by changes in the Southern Oscillation index of pressure difference, provide a partial explanation of the long-term variability of mean annual rainfall at Pitcairn Island. Knowledge of past climates in the Pitcairn Group remains speculative. Maps of the Pitcairn Islands and a report of climate at Henderson Island (2/91–1/92) are included in the paper.

Lithospheric flexure in southeast Fiji consistent with the tectonic history of islands in the Yasayasa Moala

The islands of the Yasayasa Moala (Moala, Totoya and Matuku) in southeast Fiji (southwest Pacific) are all oceanic central volcanoes active 8.4–3.5 Ma with contrasting post‐volcanic histories. Moala exhibits a series of three contrasting fault systems; the two earliest (Pliocene?) are associated with cross‐island rifts, the youngest (Pleistocene?) is strike‐slip. One low‐level emerged shoreline (averaging 1.2 m above mean sea level) is visible on Moala; traces of higher ones occur. Totoya has a well‐developed low‐level shoreline that emerges a similar amount. While Moala and Totoya are comprised solely of subaerial volcanics, Matuku has pillow lavas which indicate about 120 m of emergence relative to Moala and Totoya. The Yasayasa Moala borders a prominent ocean trench, believed to have been a plate boundary which actively accommodated convergence of the Indo‐Australian and Fiji (?) plates during most of the Late Cenozoic. The diverse tectonic history of the associated islands may be associated with litho...

REVIEW

Pacific Islands History: Journeys and Transformations Edited By Brij Lal Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. 1992. Pp. xiii + 255.

Insularity of the British Isles 250 000–30 000 years ago: the mammalian, including human, evidence

Abstract During the Middle-Late Quaternary the British Isles have alternately been part of the Continent of Europe and separated from it by the sea. Comparison of mammalian faunas from sites on both sides of the present English Channel can contribute to the reconstruction of Britain’s island history. The most suitable chronological framework for this study is discussed. Attention is drawn to problems of applying the 1973 scheme of the Geological Society of London, which is used here only in conjunction with the more straightforward chronology of the deep-sea oxygen isotope record. Special attention is directed to events during the period of time c. 250 000 to 30 000 years bp . The chalk land-bridge that had previously joined the British Isles to the Continent of Europe had by this time been breached, and any further changes in the land connection are likely to have been the result of eustatic changes of sea-level, associated with glacial-interglacial fluctuations of climate. Whether the British Isles became isolated from the Continent during the high sea-level phase that occurred during isotope stage 7 is uncertain from the mammalian evidence. The occurrence of human artefacts and remains of pond tortoise Emys orbicularis , which is unlikely to have tolerated salt-water, in deposits representing the earliest part of this stage, suggests a land connection then or not very long previously. Human presence continues into isotope stage 6, characterized also by the arrival of steppe rodents from eastern Europe; evidence of a further episode of low sea-level. During the Last Interglacial, oxygen isotope stage 5e, sea-level rose once more, isolating the British Isles from the Continent. Remarkably, humans, horses and the mollusc Corbicula fluminalis , so common previously, fail to reappear, a consequence, perhaps, of being cut off by rapidly rising sea-level at the end of stage 6. A very characteristic fauna, including hippopotamus, straight-tusked elephant, narrow-nosed rhinoceros, fallow deer and abundant carnivores, did nevertheless manage to become established throughout England and Wales at this time, some as far north as Durham. Falling sea-level associated with the Devensian (isotope stages 5d-2) re-established the land connection. Hippopotamus had by this time disappeared and been replaced with a fauna including woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and reindeer. Humans and horses returned once more. It was not until sea-level rose again during the Holocene that the British Isles became finally isolated from the Continent, as they are today.

Effects of isolation, logging and dispersal on woody-species richness of islands

Isolation effects on species richness of woody plants were investigated in a system of islands that were created by the filling of the Clarks Hill Reservoir, Georgia. This reservoir was built between 1946–1954. Some islands were logged and cleared of woody plants prior to the filling of the reservoir and others were not logged. The presence of logged versus unlogged islands in the same system allowed us to test whether and how geographical isolation interacts with island history and species-specific dispersal properties in determining patterns of among-island variation in species number. Thirty-six years after the islands were created, logged islands had significantly fewer species of woody plants than unlogged ones. On logged islands, total number of woody species was negatively correlated with distance to the closest mainland (r=−0.95). On unlogged islands, variation in species number was very low (CV=4.9%) and was not correlated with distance to the mainland. These results indicate that the studied system as a whole has not yet reached equilibrium. However, the mean number of species on unlogged islands was very close to the intercept of the regression obtained for logged islands, suggesting that islands close to the mainland have already reached their equilibrium species richness. This conclusion is consistent with predictions of island biogeography theory. When species representing different dispersal properties were analyzed separately, statistically significant distance effects were obtained for bird-dispersed species (r=0.88) and for species with no adaptations to bird or wind dispersal (r=0.81). Wind-dispersed species did not show a decrease in species number with increasing isolation, but their relative frequency was positively and significantly correlated with distance to the mainland (r=0.94). Historical factors, as well as differences among species in dispersal properties, are important in explaining patterns of among-island variation in species number.

Cultural Accounting in Small Economies∗

COLE S. (1993) Cultural accounting in small economies, Reg. Studies 27, 121–136. This paper presents a method for describing the cultural division of labour in multi-cultural societies, and analysing its implications. The paper begins by explaining the idea of the cultural accounting approach as a derivative of social accounting. The approach is then applied to the small Caribbean island of Aruba. A precis of the island's history describes how the present-day cultural division of labour has arisen. A set of cultural accounts for the island is presented, and then used to show how the cultural–economic structure determines the relative strength of trickle-up and trickle-down processes between four types of household. This has implications for social policy and grass roots initiatives, and the consequences of all economic events on the island. Lastly, the potential of two socially-targeted economic initiatives are considered. COLE S. (1993) La comptabilite dans les petites economies, Reg. Studies 27, 121–136...

The construction of understanding in a sixth-grade bilingual classroom

In this article, teaching and studenting ore conceived of as performances defined both institutionally and interactionally. Schools are viewed as providing an institutional framework and an organizational definition for teacher and student roles, whereas the actual roles experienced by teachers and students are viewed as interactionally constituted. From this perspective, each school and classroom is a particular kind of setting with particular opportunities for interacting and learning, even though schools and classrooms, as a general class of institutional entity, may share certain common organizational patterns. I present an analysis of how members of a bilingual sixth-grade classroom construct knowledge as they interact within a particular event of a social science history project. This analysis shows how theory informs analysis, and conversely, how analysis informs theory. Data are presented to illustrate ways in which knowledge is constructed by members through interactions in a local event (i.e., the presentation and defense of their island history) and over time (a 2 1 2 -month period). Ways in which positions (institutional definitions) and positionings (interactionally constructed definitions) are established by bilingual and Spanish or English dominant students through their actions and interactions are discussed along with related issues of language use.

From Centre to Periphery Main Lines of North Atlantic Cultural Development from Medieval to Modern Times

Hitherto, most ethnological and anthropological research on society and culture in North Atlantic islands has assumed, explicitly or implicitly, a very long, almost unbroken continuity (the traditional community or the old peasant culture) which was superseded in nineteenth century by a period of transformation and modernization. This article argues that history of islands since their settlement in c. 700-900 has been marked by considerable changes in ecological and economic conditions, and that small island communities cannot be studied as isolated entities, but should be analysed in terms of their shifting relationships with rest of Europe. One main thesis is that their development can be described as a movement from an economically and culturally central position in early middle ages through increasing marginalization to peripheral status that was typical of these communities in centuries of Absolutism. The article seeks to demonstrate that changes in these centreperiphery relations have been of great significance for society and culture of islands.

Contrasting styles and rates of tectonic uplift of coral reef terraces in the Ryukyu and Daito Islands, southwestern Japan

Coral reef terraces on Kikai, Hateruma and Yonaguni in the Ryukyu Islands on the Eurasian lithospheric Plate and those of Kita-Daito and Minami-Daito Islands on the Philippine Sea Plate indicate three distinct patterns of coral reef terrace formation and preservation, primarily reflecting different uplift rates. The Kikai-type, which includes many terraces from Oxygen Isotope Stages 5e to 1, is a result of high uplift rate of ca. 1.8 m/kyr on the fore-arc rise of a Chilean-type subduction zone. Arcward (westward) tilting and faulting are also characteristic of the Kikai-type. The Hateruma-type is characterized by two coral reef terraces younger than the Stage 5e terrace and they are arranged in a concentric annular pattern. Slow uplift rate of ca. 0.3 m/kyr, adjacent to a Mariana-type subduction margin is typical of the Hateruma-type. The emergence of Kikai and Hateruma Islands is recent, younger than Isotope Stage 5e and 7, respectively, reflecting the active deformations of the leading edge at the overriding Eurasian Plate. In the Daito-type, atolls surrounded by fringing reefs have been uplifted very slowly (less than 0.05 m/kyr), but over a time period of at least several million years. Slow uplift and long history of Daito-type islands is the result of up-bulging of the Philippine Sea Plate as it migrates toward the Ryukyu Trench.

The use of mineral magnetic analyses as an aid in investigating the recent volcanic disturbance history of the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia

The recent disturbance of vegetation on islands within the Krakatau group, Indonesia, by a succession of ash falls from Anak Krakatau, has complicated studies of tropical ecosystem recovery since the major eruption of 1883 provided a 'clean slate'. Mineral magnetic analyses are applied to a series of ash/soil profiles from Sertung, Panjang and Rakata Islands to determine whether the technique can provide a means of stratigraphic correlation of horizons both between sites and between islands (and in particular, correlation and separation of ash layers). The initial results suggest that the technique is sensitive enough to distinguish between particular horizon types (as identified in the field) such as contemporary top-soils, post-1927 ash layers and material of 1883 age. Good agreement is found between the mineral magnetic and traditional geochemical data. The former appear to hold further potential for the separation of (geologically) very close eruptive events from the same magma chamber. The results indicate considerable potential for the approach in the Krakatau context and warrant further investigation of these mineral magnetic properties. If successful, the technique could also find application in other localities where multiple volcanic disturbance events characterize Holocene sediments.

Indios con Levita, and: Paredón, and: Mulata, and: Boleros, and: The Cloud

INDIOS CON LEVITA /Ricardo Pau-Llosa When she returned home, The Divine Sarah Bernhardt caUed them "Indians in frock coats," the Cuban bourgeoisie that had partied her to boredom in hot and primitive Havana, and who knows anything there about theatre anyway? The rich had tried so hard to please, and just three words were enough to ravage the spectacle, the memories. I remember the looted house of the batistiano down the street in 1959. Outside, a queue of neighbors was quietly waiting to tour the plundered mansion, a museum of disaster. We gazed at the masterpieces of rage, the singed curtains, the stabbed paintings, books toppled from shelves that rose to the ceüing, shit smeared on the Persian rugs slashed because they were to big to roU and carry, chandeUers battered Uke piñatas. We got into the whispering Une and slowly we entered as if we had tickets, Uke sheep into a cyclop's mouth. "Cubans making an orderly Une, this is a revolution!" recited an old man with snide arms. Ropes had been put up to guide the crowd along a cleared pathway through the punitive rubble. Green milicianos were posted in each room, armed with rifles, sUence, and a sneer luce teachers. The crowd moved naturaUy in waves stopping here and there where the damage seemed particularly imaginative or cruel or inimitable, and they compared the methods Uke connoisseurs. "Inimitable" was the one word I took with me. A fat weU-coiffed lady in red ahead of us repeated it several times, and I asked my elders what it meant. "It can't happen again," my grandmother said, just Uke 1933 when Machado feU, not again, not again, over and over. One room in the mansion looked pristine 128 · The Missouri Review after the looting, or I thought it was a room because it was so large, but later she told me it was a closet. The elegant clothes were exorcised. A few hangers were tossed on the floor and strangely flattened Uke trampled birds but more Uke flowers in an old lady's book. "You'U see those gowns and frocks in the carnival this year," my grandmother said scornfuUy so that a miliciano could hear her. Carnival would soon be outlawed. This time the show needed no stage. Ricardo Pau-Llosa The Missouri Review · 229 PAREDÓN / Ricardo Pau-Llosa Staring down the mountainous waU, I imagine my ear against the suicidal waves as if the sea itself were a sheU against my cheek. The wall hoists the sound of the waves to the parapet. A tourist atop el Morro in San Juan, I squint across the harbor entrance to see a tiny ruined house, half a stone shelter once still lumbering among the surf-singed rocks. It is called Isla de Cabras, the Island of Goats. It was a leper colony during colonial times, and now, nesting among the blackened flanks and crannies, facing down the cobalt horizon and the colossus who partners the bay, it merely marks a torn page of island history. Who among the heavy with pain, the ragged in moment had heard of glory? How did they ponder the flagging galleons and the Dutch voUeys, the native fears and the pirates' rage? The goats were guarded by their sores. No one's plunder or slaves, not even to themselves treasure, they must have sat atop these rocks that shine Uke dropped jewels to watch the comedy of battles and trade, owning the world the only way it can be owned, in unlosable distance. They were free to stalk the Isla's narrow ceU much as inmates in Havana's Morro have always done. Across the bay from that castle is the capital, waUed and briUiant, unlike San Juan, a hub for flotas and armies, cathedrals and books, aU of which mattered Uttle. Cuba's lepers are the free. They are sent to the Morro 220 · The Missouri Review to rot or to be lined against its wet, green waUs and rehearse their executions before finaUy being shot. For centuries the scene has not changed. The famUies wait to visit what's left of the Uving inside the Morro...