Observations by the astronomers on vegetation, birds, 

 insects, reptiles, marine organisms, et cetera were sketch) 

 ( Butler &Strecker, 1884; Dixon, 1884). Dixon, the zoologist, 

 listed such organisms as •'shrimp." "'hermit crabs," "gnat," 

 et cetera. As with Bennett, there was no mention of coconut 

 crabs, even though they were evidently abundant on South 

 Island in 1910 (Young, ca. 1922). 



The Late lVth and 20th Centuries 



In 1875. C. D. Voy. a naturalist from California visited 

 Caroline, collecting mollusks (Pilsbry & Vanatta, 1905a.b) 

 and fish (Fowler, 1901). 



As early as 1885, Arundel began to clear land and plant 

 coconuts, but his planned copra industry was unsuccessful. In 

 I S97 he sold his business to the Pacific Islands Company. Ltd., 

 which also failed. The coconut plantations suffered from 

 disease and poor vitality, and populations of Polynesian rats 

 apparently exploded. By 1904, when the H.M.S. Icarus visited 

 Caroline, only six Polynesians lived there. A few months later 

 they were repatriated to Niue, and Caroline remained 

 uninhabited until 1916. when a new effort was made to develop 

 the coconut plantation by Messrs. S. R. Maxwell & Co., Ltd. 

 During the uninhabited years. South Island"s vegetation 

 and wildlife began to recover from the earlier forest felling 

 ( Pis. 2-4). When Mr. J. L. Young, then managing director for 

 S. R. Maxwell & Co., Ltd. ( Young, ca. 1 922 ), visited the atoll 

 in July 1910, he described it as a wilderness, teeming with sooty 

 terns, fish and coconut crabs: 



The ground was covered with nests of seabirds which 



latter rose like a cloud when disturbed: the noise of their 



shrieking was so great that one had to shout to enable 



oneself to be heard by his companions. Hundreds of great 



Coconut Crabs were seen: 40 large ones were caught by 



the crew of the schooner in an hour. The reef and the 



lagoon swarmed with fish and small sharks. 



From 1 9 1 6 to 1 929. Caroline was altered more than before 



ui since. All the available land on .South was deforested to 



make room for thousands of palms, and laborers demolished 



huge numbers of coconut crabs and seabirds. which were 



thought to damage the palms (Young, ca. 1922). In addition. 



coconuts were planted on all of the main windward islets. 



southern Nake. and on Mannikiba. Plantation workers in great 



part lived oil the land, feasting on fresh fish, seabirds. seabird 



eggs, turtles, and coconut crabs. 



Copra exports averaged around 1 4 tons per year from 1929 

 to 1 934. after which the company ran into debt. Concurrently, 

 the French government forbade further recruitment from Tahiti; 

 b> l936onl> a lew families were left (N.I.D., 1943). In 1941 

 (he atoll earned a price tag of 000 English pounds (Maude, 

 personal communication), but was never purchased. 



Occupation leases for Caroline were canceled in 1943. 

 after which the British Western Pacific High Commission 

 repossessed it (Maude, 1953). However.nev. "queen's leases" 

 were granted to M. P. A. Bainbridge of Papeete. Tahiti 

 ( 1 95 I - 1 964 ) ( Nicholson & Douglas. 1 969), (hen ( 'aplam ( )mer 

 Darr ( 1964-1989) of Moorea. French Polynesia. When the 



British granted independence to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands 

 in 1979, a new country, the Republic of Kiribati (pronounced 

 "Keer-ee-bahss") assumed ownership of Caroline, along with 

 most of the Line and Phoenix Islands. 



Apart from occasional parties of Tahitians cutting copra 

 and a shipw recked sailor in the early 1 880's. the atoll remained 

 uninhabited for over 50 vears. During this time. Caroline's 

 vegetation and w ildlife recovered to such an extent that, were 

 it not for unpublished manuscripts from Maude (Maude, 

 ca. 1938.ca. 1 942a. and no date (.including Young' s(ca. 1922) 

 "Memoranda re Tahitian Business"our detailed vegetation 

 analysis (including tree diameters), and the 1 990 comparisons 

 with Flint and Vostok. we would have been unaware of the 

 actual extent of previous human interference or of the rapidity 

 of forest recovery (the fact that 60<7r of Caroline's motus 

 harbored wholly indigenous vegetation seemed to point to a 

 relatively pristine atoll). 



In 1987. the Office de la Recherche Scientifique et 

 Technique Outre-Mer ( ORSTOM. a French scientific research 

 agency) was requested by the Kiribati government to conduct 

 a short study at Caroline on the feasibility of pearl-shell culture 

 (G. Monet, personal communication). Their results concluded 

 that the atoll would be inappropriate for this type of development. 



Also in 1987, a Scotsman. Ron Falconer, his French wife 

 Anne, and two small children settled on Caroline as volunteer 

 custodians. From October 1989 to November 1990 a new lease 

 was under negotiation by Felix Urima. a French businessman, 

 who planned to blast a channel through the reef, construct an 

 airstrip, build a small hotel, cut timber, and engage in various 

 commercial ventures including fishing, a turtle farm, and pearl- 

 shell culture. In April 1 990. Urima' s workers began commercial 

 fishing, killing turtles and coconut crabs, and clearing land 

 ( Kepler. 1 990a). This w as a major new insult to the atoll which, 

 in spite of its long history of intermittent human occupation, 

 remains to this day "possibly one of the least spoiled o( true 

 atolls in the Pacific" (Stoddart. 1976). Reports from our 

 expeditions to Caroline (Kepler & Kepler. 1989; Kepler. 

 1990a.d) resulted in the short-lived cancellation of Urima' s 

 tentative lease in November 1990. As of this writing. Urima 

 has returned to unlimited fishing at Caroline's reefs. The 

 government of Kiribati appears amenable to negotiations for a 

 wildlife preserve (see Subchapter 1.2 [Conservation section], 

 this volume ). Conservation efforts are presently underway tor 

 Caroline to become part of a triple-island wildlife presen e with 

 Vostok and Flint (see Subchapter 1.2 [Conservation section], 

 this volume). 



20th Century Scientific Studies : In June 1965, afield party 

 from the Smithsonian Institution's Pacific Ocean Biological 

 Survey Program ( POBSP) visited Caroline for 2 days ( Clapp & 

 Sibley. 1971a). Then vsurvej and specimens added much to the 

 pre\ ious botanical and ornithological know ledge of the island. 

 Other quick visits were made b\ the Line Islands Expedition on 

 9-10 September 1974 and by Roger Perry, then Wildlife 

 Warden of the Line and Phoenix Islands, on 12-13 November 

 1977. Eleven years later the present authors surveyed the 

 terrestrial env ironments of Caroline more thoroughly than had 



