PHŒNIX GROUP AND OTHER ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8300, 5 July 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

PHŒNIX GROUP AND OTHER ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

NO. I. [BY JOHN' T. ARUNDEL, F.R.O.S.]

Tiie following piper was read some time ago by Mr. Arundel before the Geographical Society of the Pacific in San Francisco. Mr. Arundel is a life member of the society. Its list of fellows includes some of the best known scientific men on the Pacific Coast, among others Professor Davidson, head of the Pacific Coast Geological Survey, Pro-

fessor Holden, etc. The notes added by Mr. Arundel bring the information up to the latest date : —

REACHING ST ATI BUCK ISLAND.

It is many years ago since, one bright, sunny afternoon, on board a small brig belonging to Auckland, New Zealand, I was drawing near to S barb nek, a low coral island in the South Pacific. For some time past we had been greeted by the shrieking cries of seabirds, which showed that we were in the vicinity of their home, and at last "Land, ho!" was shouted by the man at the masthead, for which we all felt vory thankful, being anxious to pick up the island before night, as, once passed (and this might be done very easily), and set away in the great westerly equatorial current, it might bo days before we got back again. It was pretty well an hour before the island could be made out from the deck, and I shall never forget the curious appearance ib presented. At first nothing bub a strong white glare in the western sky, painfully bright and shining, even at the distance of four miles or so ; then, as the vessel rose on the tops of the waves, a long, low line of white sand became visible; then, as we gradually got. nearer, we could see wrecks of ships at intervals, strewn along the coast, and clusters of white seabirds resting upon them ; anil, as we got to the western end, a few houses, of which wo had come to take possession, and, towering high above all, the remains of the French transport Euryale, which had been sailed ashore about twelve months previously, while on the passage from Tahiti to San Francisco. I certainly thought Starbuck a lively-looking place, especially when, shortly after anchoring, 1 went ashore through a passage in the reef, and narrowly escaped a capsize in passing through the surf, which at times rolls in on the beach in great magnificence. Of course at such times it is impossible to land or go oil from these islands, and I was once at. Starbuck for fourteen days, during which we were as much prisoners as if we were shut up in San Quentin(l) —perhaps more so, as we do hear now and then of people escaping from there, either by pardon or otherwise; but with us it was impossible, and we could only hold communicetion by signals with two ships lying at the moorings, only about an eighth of a mile away. I ought to mention in regard to the number of wrecks, of which I counted seven on the island, that the place was at that time very incorrectly laid down ; in fact, on one chart it was placed in three separate positions, neither of which, I believe, was right, and the lease by which we hold it from Her Majesty's Government described it as miles away from where it really was. It was also known under various names, viz., Starbuck, Hero, Coral Queen, and Starve Island. As in clear weather, and

in the daytime, it could only be seen about four miles from a small vessel's deck, it can be easily understood that it was a dangerous place to come across 011 a dark night. One of the conditions which Her .Majesty imposes on 'those of her subjects to whom she graciously grants leases of these low islands is that thoy shall erect a beacon of about 60 feet in height, or else plant cocoanut or other conspicuous trees in commanding positions ; and thus, I doubt not, Scar buck and many other islands have been rendered much less dangerous than they would otherwise have been and than they were before. THE BIRDS. iMy first night ashore was not a peaceful one, as I could not sleep on account of the noise the birds kept up. A small bird called the wide-awake, or tern, is distinguished for its loud voice, and its name is taken, I believe, from its cry, which rather resembles the words, " wide-awake, wide-

awake probably also from its habits or state of mind, which these words correctly describe. It is found 011 all these low

islands, and also at .sfen, and I fancy id more wide-awake at night than in the day —certainly they kept my friend and myself so during that night. These birds visit, Starbuck and many other islands about twice a year for the purpose of laying their eggs, which they do about four o'clock in each afternoon for about three weeks. The

egg is simply deposited oil the ground, and the parent bird sits on it. It is about an inch long, speckled, and is uncommonly good eating, especially when boiled hard and curried. It has not the slightest taste of fish about it.

A day or two afterwards I went up the island, and the noise made by these wideawakes was simply deafening. They occupied the western end, and were engaged in sitting on their eggs, and, of course, as our path lay right through the midst of them, they did not appreciate our disturbance, and rose in hundreds, swooping down on us every now and then. Being only a small bird, about the size of a dove, they did not hurt us, but if was impossible to hear ourselves spe.ik until we were clear of the encampment. If much disturbed in one place they will shift to another p;irt of the island, but always ait and lay all together. Further up the island other birds had their quarters, never trenching upon each other's preserves, but all living in separate districts, the man-of-war hawks, or frigate birds, boobies, boatswains, or tropic birds, &c. The two former generally, however, live next door to each other, and for the best of all reasons as far as the man-of war hawk is concerned, because he and his family are dependent upon their neighbours, the boobies, for their sustenance, the booby going out every day and fishing, the man-of-war hawk spending his time leisurely sailing about in the clouds, at a wonderful height, and in the evening intercepting the returning booby, and robbing him of his hard-earned food. It is a pretty sight to see the boobies returning 111 an afternoon, full of fish. .Perhaps one, and often two, men-of-war hawks are lying in wait for one booby. They swoop down upon him with harsh cries ; the booby flies to and fro, crying also, sometimes rushing up to avoid his pursuers, sometimes darting down towards the earth, but it is generally in vain; the man-of-war hawk keeps on attacking his victim, and at last, wearied with the struggle, the poor booby disgorges the fish' it has been catching tor its own food and for its young. The man-of-war hawk swoops cleverly down, and catches the fish in its descent to the earth, then Hies home rejoicing, and the poor booby has to go out to sea to do its fishing all over again. It is very curious that when you come on a booby sitting on its egg or nest, and it cannot rise and fly away, it utters very harsh cries, pecks vigorously at you with its long, sharp-pointed beak, and then, if you do not go away, it at last disgorges the fish it has recently caught.at your feet, as much as to say, "There; you are 110 better than the man of-war hawk, my natural enemy. Now, I have given you all I can give you, and L hope you will go away." It does not appear to enter into its head that you can want anything with it except its fish. The frigate birds, or man-of-war hawks, have very pretty dark green feathers at the back of their necks ; and, as an instance of their tamencss, I would mention that on

one occasion, wishing to send some homo

to England for some of my lady friends, 1 paid a visit to the camp of these pirates, and saw about six of them, each quietly

seated on the top of his nest, composed of twigs and leaves, piled up about two feet from the ground, preening 11i- feathers, with his eyes nearly closed. 1 commenced operations with the nearest bird, got, what I wanted from him (about six" leathers), when he (lew away, remonstrating against the robbery. I afterwards visited each of the other live with similar results. Not one attempted to move or lly away while the others were being plucked or in consequence of their remonstrances, and so 1 considered they richly deserved their fate. These feathers are said to be worth CI Is per lb, but I should nob like to earn my living in getting many pounds weight of feathers per day. They were used for

(1) San Qnentin is tho State prison of San Francisco, and about the time the (iovenior of California had been rather liberal in the exercise of his prerogative of mercy, and had incurred a good deal of criticism thereby.

plumes in riflemen's helmets in the German army. Some of the birds (the mutton birds) burrow in the ground, and it is very difficult walking where they live, as you sometimes sink down knee deep, and got covcred with the dust, and often put your foot into it, the " it" being a black bird and its family, which, of course, struggle out half-blinded, and make a terrible nois?» - THE ISLAND. With a brief description of Starbuck Island itself I will proceed to other places. The island is about (>.\ miles long by about 3 miles wide at its widest part. It is shaped very much like a shoulder of mutton, the knuckle being the western end, and the part where our shipping operations are carried on. At the eastern end are some large salt lagoons (most weird-looking places), where thousands of tons of the purest kind of salt are found in various forms, coarse and fine. It has evidently been a large lagoon at one time, and either from partial upheaval or by the process of evaporation has become a series of small lakes and ponds, now nearly dry, and at certain seasons of the year and parts of the day exhibiting nearly all the colours of the rainbow ; generally toward sundown they become a beautiful rose pink. It is dangerous to approach very near some of them. One of my boys on one occasion went in nearly up to his shoulders, and might have gone in altogether had not assistance been at hand to drag him out. At tho western end of the island I often used to climb up to the maintop of our flagstaff to watch its annular formation, Ridge upon ridge of old black coral enclosed the guano beds, apparently formed one after the other by the action of the sea.

The vegetation of Starbuck is very scanty ; about six varieties of plants, tho largest a shrub of only about four feet in height at the most, and nothing of this can be seen from the sea.

The island may be compared to a dish, sloping down, however, from the outer edge to the ocean. I had a capital way of judging the height of the great tidal wavy of ISGS as it swept across the Pacific from the South American to the New Zealand

and Australian coasts, as follows :—About two years before I arrived a large vessel was wrecked on the northern coast of Starbuck. She was loaded with lumber from Burrard's Inlet to the colonies, and the wood, which was strewn along the beach for over half-a-mile, had been washed up to the crown of this ridge—say, about -0 feet above the sea level. Had tho wave been higher it would have washed it over and into the middle of the island. CAROLINA.

The next island I became acquainted with was Caroline, a low island also, but one of a totally different character. It is about '100 miles from Tahiti, and 420 miles from Starbuck as the crow flies. We had a long passage ('2l days), as it was a dead beat against wind and current, and our vessel was a small and not very weatherly

one, belonging to Honolulu. About two o'clock one morning the captain called me, and said, " We are under the lee of Caroline, sir, and can just see it." I, of course, gladly went on deck, and was well rewarded by a most pretty sight. The moon was shining on tho placid waters of the lagoon, the different islands studding the outer reef were covered with trees of various kinds, and a most aromatic fragrance was wafted off by the gentle trade wind blowing over the island.

Daylight showed an island of an entirely different kind to the one we had left. Starbuck was a barren, burnt-up, glaring sandbank ; Caroline a perfect gem of bright green waving foliage, relieved by the darker leaves of the cocoanut palm, and set in the midst of the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean.

It is about seven miles long by one mile wide—that is, the entire island mass. It consists of a lagoon encircled by a coral reef, studded at intervals with 38 small islets, the space on the reef between each of these beiny covered with water at high tide, and dry enough to walk over at low tide —in fact, a true atoll. The lagoon is studded with reefs of growing coral, and it is a most beautiful amusement to pull out into the middle of it, let the boat drift, and with tho aid of a water glass look down

into the depths of the gigantic aquarium, it quite cures you of ever wishing to see an artificial one again. The forests of coral of all shapes and sizes, great branches, like petrified trees, masses of brain coral, im crustations of coralline of all colours, and those of the brightest ; also studded with numbers of the half-opened shells of tho pahua or tridacua, each convolution fringed with various colours—green, blue, orange, &c. —while darting in and out among the foliage, as it were, instead of bright coloured birds are most gorgeously coloured fishes of all shapes and sizes. On the north-west end of Caroline are some curious old native remains, whether places of burial or of sacrifice I cannot determine. I opened one of these, but could find no indication whatever to guide me in a decision.

Caroline Island has recently been brought into notice as being about the only spot on the earth from which the eclipse of the sun on May (>, 1883, was visible in its totality. Expeditions were consequently sent there by the United States Government in the Hartford, under the care of Professor E. S. i [olden, of Washburn Observatory, University of Wisconsin ; by the French Government, in the L'Eclaireur, consisting of M. Janssen, M. Trouvelot, and M. Pasteur, from the Moudon Observatory,

accompanied by Sr. Cacchini, director of the observatory of the Roman College, and Sr. Palisa, astronomer of the Imperial Observatory at Vienna. Last, but not least, two English gentlemen, Messrs. Lawrence and Woods, were sent out by the Royal Society of London, who joined the Hartford at Colon, and went down with Professor J olden (2) and his party. The observations were, I believe, very successful, and a very interesting account of the island has been issued by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, in conjunction with the report of the astronomical work itself. Some very accurate meteorological observations were made by the Eclipse Expedition. For air temperature, the highest reading noted was S'.K! on April '2S, the lowest 7*2-4, during the heavy rain storm of May 'Ith. B.iuom ktkk. — From a table that was carefully kept by the astronomical party, it was seen that a barometric maximum occurred on each day at about nine a.m., and a minimum about throe p.m. No regular barometric observations were made at

night after nine p.m., but Messrs. Preston and 13row in connection with their observations, read a mercurial barometer occasionally during the night. From these observations it is learned that a second maximum occurred about nine ji.m., and a second minimum at. about three a.m. The table also shows indications of a barometric period covering several days, a minimum occurring April 2!), and a maximum May 4. The latter was accompanied by the heavy rainstorm elsewhere mentioned." —- (From page 43 of Report of Eclipse Expedition).

(■_!) Professor Holden is now the head of the <"»;!<;- brated tick Observatory, California, which at the present time possesses the largest telescope in the world. About two years since I bad the pleasure of jfoinj; over it- with Professor lloldeii, with whom i had corresponded frequently since hi-; stay oil Caroline Island, and who retains most pleasant and vivid remembrances of his visit.