The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-08-06
IR0QUO|S IS HERE AGAIN
Continued from page one.)

~ done, two officers and a duraghts-
man being engaged in the field work,
while the captain and another
draughtsman kept up the plotting. The
small boat made 12904 soundings inside
the atoll, while the Iroquois made 32SS
outside, a total of 1912. In order to
make these "a total of $50 miles of cast
ing line was used, and the lroquois
took 1864 positions the small boat 1861,
a total of 1855. In order to take a new
position, at least two angles had to be
first found.
1.-The reef enclosing the islands stands
in some places on the eastern end five
feet, and is as wide as twenty feet in
places We were able to walk along
most all of this, although ii is broken
down at the southeast and other
sections. The entrance for vessels
is but 100 feet wide, and great
care has to be taken in going
into the atoll. During our work
we located no less than 100 sections of
coral and rock inside of the harbor, and
these have, of course, been indicated on
our charts.
considerable change has occurred in
Sand Island since the last survey in
1870 made by the Lackawanna. The
eastern end has washed away some
what while the western has enlarged.
As an example of the way in which
these islands are subject to change and
the rapidity that shoaling occurs, we
placed one of our signals on a little
sand island in the north of the atoll.
We left il but short time, yet on our
return we discovered that the signal
was floating i'm the water, while the ISL
and had shifted toward the east. Be
fore we went away the island had shift
ed back to its original position.
zone particular point upon which
great care had to be taken was the To-
cation of an entrance for the cable. An
| ocean cable cannot be carried over
sheer precipice or lifted abruptly from
deep water, for it would break of It's
| own weight, so we had to carefully eX-
| anime the reef surrounding the pro-
posed cable site. The only place which
| will be feasible is through Welles har-
Dor A cable close to shore is, of course,
! heavily armored, but care has to be
| taken that it will not chafe against the
rocks. | think that the sandy bottom
will prevent any such difficulty. If the
station is established ii will require but
a comparatively short time to carry the
cable out of the deep water to the ISL
and. The deep water route was not sur
veyed by us.
THE climate of the islands is very
| healthy and pleasant, slightly cooler
than Honolulu, with frequent rains,
! principally during the night. There are
no reptiles or insects there except flies,
which bothered us considerably. on
Sand Island there is nothing, practically
| nothing but dazzling white sand, with
an occasional dune and a few little
bushes growing on the north and south
! ends. A little coarse grass has begun
! to grow about these bushes. On our
| arrival we found a party of six Jap
anese on Eastern Island, gathering
feathers, for birds in considerable va
| Tiety abound on both islands. This
! ma rtU had hpaT there ahpnt six weeks
and intended to remain several months
more. They reported that the water
| found there was rather salty. BY Dor
ing from four to ten feet water can be
secured on both islands and we found
! that the water secured on Sand Island
was superior to that on Eastern, so this
! was one ofrthe principal reasons for my
! faVoring that island as a cable station
site The water Is al first white, as II
| contains II quantity of lime, but by fill
! tering and letting IL stand 1t is service
able for drinking purposes. our men on
| the island drank it during all of their
residence, and they felt no i'll effects
from it.
I'VE found plenty of good fishing,
while the great variety of birds enabled
us to have good food during most of our
| stay. Plover and curlew, tern and loon
are among the varieties of bird found
on the islands. The birds are quite
! tame. 1t was an easy task to gather
eggs of the loon, for the men would
simply clear a space and the birds
would come and lay the eggs, and we
could return and gather them. The
eggs are a trifle larger than a hens
! egg, and in flavor are very similar to
| that of the tame fowl. Toward the last
OF our stay, however, provisions ran
| pretty short, and we were very glad to
! fall back on the ordinary sea bird for
! food. A peculiar creature on Eastern
| Island is a wingless bird. 1t is a small
| bird, little larger than a wren, and
can travel with great rapidity.
THE gamiest fish is the albicore,