The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13
THE LONELY CABLE STATION in MID-PACTFIC

sail between each of these islands
when you get the trade wind fair, and
two days west-northwest OF Laysan is
Lisiansl1i. and that's as far as | have
been, further than | care to 90 again,
for it's long beat back"
But as the cruise was made despite
the cold water which the Hawaiian
Admiral threw upon it, and it was
made in more comfort than could have
been possible in the cockroach schoon.
iers of the island trade, the informa.
! ton can be extended along the line.
Two days beyond LisiansH lies the
Pearl and Hermes Bank, its name con.
tanning the memorial of the wreck Of
two ships in 1922, a ten mile lagoon
surrounded by banks of glistenng
sand with five small islets of coarse
grass. One days sail beyond this
bank lies Midway and its companion
Ocean Island a little further west.
This long line of uninhabited is
lands from Nihoa to Ocean has been
set aside by executive order as ma
tional seabird preserve and is patrol
led by the revenue cutter Thetis to
keep off poachers. On but one of the
islands have remains of former habita.
ton been discovered. This is Necker
Island, the limit of former Hawaiian
knowledge, famous in their annals as
a fishing bank; it is possible at several
spots on this island where villages
seem to have stood long ages ago to
dig up carved stone figures of gods
hnd deified ancestors and many work.
ed stones used to sink the nets.
From Nihoa to Ocean the national
park extends over 1900 miles Of sea,
and the Thetis is kept busy rounding
up the Japanese poachers on this
great preserve. Laysan, which really
does not smell as bad as might be
imagined, is well worth visiting at
certain seasons of the year when the
albatross are dancing, a clumsy bird
become graceful under a seasonal in
spiration and setting mops and mows
IN amending rhythm of bird minuets.
Almost at the end of this great bird
park lies Midway. In the years which
have passed since Admiral Beckley
sat at the foot of Alakea street and
discouraged the voyage to that remote
island the name Midway has come sc
J generally into use that it is almost
forgotten that the Islands were origin
= ally named by Capt N. c. Brooks o.
the Gambia and were named after
= himself, for he discovered them OF
July 3, 1859. There is here an evidence
, of the loneliness, the very desolation
of these seas, for Ocean Island is only
sixty miles beyond, and that had beer
/ known since its discovery by Capt
! Brown in 1887,
When Capt. Reynolds of the Lacka
: wanna assigned the name of Midway
. Islands at the time of annexation il
| September, 1867, he designed it to in
! clude the Pearl and Hermes Bank, tine
' Brooks Islands and Ocean Island. As
5 used at present Midway is practically
S restricted to the former Brooks Is
lands. On a careful study of the
, charts it is seen that Capt Brooks
, was not the original discogerer.
Earlier navigators in those seas had
found and named Philadelphia, Bunker
) Middleton and Massachusetts Islands
) in that vicinity; islands which have
I never been found again in the assign
ed positions. The latitude of each Of
these lost discoveries, these uneXisting
islands, corresponds with the latitude
. of Brooks Islands; and the early geo
graphy of the Pacific is clouded by
great uncertainty Of longitude. It is
safe, then, to rest upon the latitude
and leave to Brooks of the Gambia the
credit of establishing the discovery
, the least that can be allowed him
since we nave shorn his renown OF
the vainglory of giving these waste
, lands his own name.
; Brooks Island is a roughly pear
( shaped lagoon atol entirely surround
ned by a barrier reef of coral, with two
| passages sufficiently wide to permit
/ vessels of considerable draught to en-
) ter the lagoon. The Gtoll is about two
1 and a half miles long and varies il
/. width from half mile to two and q
2 half miles, the greatest breadth being
4 toward the southwest. The passages
4 through the reef lie on the west anC
E northwest sides. The lagoon is fully
= mile and a half wide at its wides
p and completely surrounds what littlt
4 land there is; il is thickly sown Will
. patches of coral, which in many larg,
masses reaches close to the surface
= but boat channels may be found b,
f careful steering and there is no dan
= ger, since the water is always still
p The land il found at the east sid
( of the lagoon, two islands each littl
C more than a mile long. Middle Brooks
or Eastern Island, rises to a height O
A about RftaaD foot coral qand thin1