Hi-yi-yi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hi-yi-yi (or Hi-Iay) was a fictitious small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean supposedly destroyed by the secret nuclear test of the US military in the 1950s. It was created by Gerolf Steiner, a zoology professor at the University of Heidelberg, to be the habitat of his equally fictitious Rhinogradentia.

Description

The tropical archipelago measured some 1,690 km² (650 sq mi), and the highest peak (2230 m or 7316 feet) was on the main island, Hiddudify (Hy-dud-dye-fee). The islands were

Annoorussawubbissy
Osovitissy
Owsuddowsa
Noorubbissy
Miroovilly
Towteng-Awko
Nawissy
Hiddudify
Naty
Ownavussa
Lownunnoia
Mittuddinna
Vinsy
Shanelukha
Mara
Lowlukha
Koavussa
Awkoavussa

Each island was home to a distinctive fauna, dominated by many species of Rhinogradentia or Snouters – the only mammals in the archipelago, besides humans.

History

Hiddudify was inhabited by the Huacha-Hatchis. The first description of the archipelago published in Europe was provided by Swedish explorer Einar Pettersson-Skämtkvist, who arrived in Hiddudify in 1941, after escaping from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. In the late 1950s, as a consequence of atomic bomb testing, the islands suddenly sank into the ocean, destroying all traces of the snouters.

References

Harald Stümpke, The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades. Translated by Leigh Chadwick. University of Chicago Press (1967).

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