Evening star., 1937-02-28

these are constantly replentShed by
rainfall collected on the flaring roofs
Of the colony houses.
Palm Trees Transplanted.
Palm trees have been transplanted
from Palmyra to the new colonies,
and their flourishing condition gives
promises of a future supply Of fresh
coconuts. Other tropical food plants
have been taken to the islands from
Hawaii or elsewhere and are growing
satisfactorily. The colonists supple
ment their supply of canned and
dried foods with fish which they catch
in the surrounding shoal water, lob
sters similarly procured, occasional
sea turtles and eggs and meat OBJ
tained from the thousands of birds
that populate the islands. Miss Ear.
hart should fare very well at How
land, even il weather or other con-
ditions necessitate her remaining
there longer than the one day stay
which she now contemplates.
According to Mr.. Miller, the only
vegetation of any size on Rowland
Island Is thicket Of Kou trees about
a quarter of a mile long and 10c yards
wide in the center Of the island, and
these rise to q height Of less than IL
feet. Both he and Miss Earhart are
little worried, however, over the pros
pect Of the fearless birds which fire.
quent the island flying UP in front of
her airplane on the take-od with
possibly disastrous results to pro-
peller. Consequently. those on the
islands have been instructed to use
shotguns and other noise ex-
pedients to clear the island tempo
rarily of bird life for her when she Is
landing and taking of.
Cutter to Give Aid.
The Coast Guard cutter Roger B.
Taney, which is to stand by at How
land until she passes through on her
trans-Pacific flight, not only will give
the flying laboratory" radio bearings
as it approaches from Honolulu. but
will send up dense clouds of smoke
from its boilers, which should be Wis
ible for nearly 100 miles, about the
time Miss Earhart is due.
Rowland and Baker Islands lie not
only nearly on the equator, but are
close to the international date line
where Miss Earhart and Capt. Man
ming will lose an entire day soon after
taking of for New Guinea. The lat
ter seems to have been discovered in
1882 by Capt. Michael Baker and
subsequently named after him. How
land was first sighted 10 years later
by Capt. George E. Necker of New
Bedford. Mass. and Is years later
the U. S. S. st. Mary's formally laid
claim to both islands for the United
States, chiefly because of their rich
guano deposits which subsequently
were worked for about 20 years
both by American and British COM
panies. England also claiming title to
the islands.
Relics of Polynesians Found.
With the decline Of this industry,
due to more efficient commercial
means Of producing fertilizer, inter.
national interest in the islands
suffered a complete lapse until avia-
ton brought them out Of limbo and
made them once again something more
than pair Of specks on charts Of the
Pacific.
Traces of their earlier occupancy
still remain-two olo fresh-water
cisterns on Rowland that were used
by the guano diggers and not far
away l8 graves of those who either
died in this industry or were brought
ashore and buried by passing ships.
At one point their modern explorers
have even found what they deem to be
traces OF a still earlier Polynesian
Civilizations series of fiat stepping
stones leading out across the fringing
coral reef.
Copyrisht. 1871