Kenneth Ryan, age 14, of Burlington, Vt., for his question:

WHERE IS DESOLATION ISLAND?

Desolation Island is located in the south Indian Ocean in a group of about 300 islands and islets of volcanic origin called the Kerguelen Islands. Discovered in 1772 by a French navigator named Yves Joseph de Kerguelen, the largest island in the group was named Desolation Island by the famous British explorer Captain James Cook when he visited in 1776. The "Desolation" name, however, didn't stick.

Today the only island of importance in the group is called Kerguelen. It is deeply indented by fiords. Although the island is 100 miles long and 79 miles wide, because of the fiords no point on the island is more than 12 miles from the sea.

Penguins and other seabirds frequent the island, but no fauna is indigenous to Kerguelen. The native flora dates ancient times and is thought possibly to have reached the island from distant South America rather than from comparatively nearby Africa.

France annexed Kerguelen in 1893 and has established permanent scientific research stations here. The only inhabitants of the island are the personnel at the stations.

Area of the Kerguelen Islands is about 2,700 square miles.