92 



Bird - Lore 



ized lo land on Laysan Island and conduct 

 a business of securing bird plumage. 



The fifteen Japanese who were discovered 

 at Laysan Island were informed that their 

 acts were in direct violation of the F"ederal 

 laws. They submitted peaceably to the 

 mandate of Captain Jacobs that they were 

 under arrest, and offered no resistance 

 whatever when told to prepare for going 

 on board the Thetis. It required two days 

 to transfer the Japanese poachers, their 

 personal effects, and bales and bo.xes of 

 plumage to the revenue cutter. The Japa- 

 nese were well provisioned. Si.\ of the men 

 claim to have been residents of the island 

 since last .\pril. Nine declared that they 

 had arrived at Laysan last August, being 

 landed there from the Japanese schooner 

 Tempou Maru, which is believed to have 

 sailed from Tokio or Yokohama. They 

 were told by the officers in charge of the 

 big bird liui in Japan that a schooner 

 would be sent for them in April, 1910. 

 The men are, to all intents and purposes, 

 mere tools in the employ of the Japanese 

 company which is carrying on the work 

 of gathering bird-skins in the Pacific 

 Ocean. They offered no objections to 

 accompanying the .\merican officers to 

 the revenue cutter. 



The confiscation on Laysan included 

 a lot of bird skins which were undergoing 

 a process of curing. These were laid 

 under several hundred large Japanese 

 mats. The mats were held down by 

 rocks in order to prevent the skins from 

 being damaged by the wind or the weather. 

 These skins were found impossible to 

 transfer to the Thetis, it being conceded 

 that to bring them to the vessel might 

 cause sickness, as many were in a state of 

 putrefaction. After the dried and cured 

 plumage and skins were taken on board. 

 Captain Jacobs took steps to destroy the 

 skins in process of curing. This was 

 successfully accomplished. 



Lysiansky Island yielded eight Japan- 

 ese poachers and a large quantity of dried 

 skins. The plumage found on this island 

 was practically all in a cured state and 

 ready for shipment. A great portion of 

 the lK)oty was baled, and evidently pre- 



pared to be loaded aboard the first Japa- 

 nese schooner to arrive. One officer and an 

 armed crew was sent ashore, and the eight 

 Japanese offered no resistance to accom- 

 panying the party back to the Thetis. 

 The poachers had been occupying four 

 buildings. They had an abundance of 



provisions, an 



d in several of the rude 



shelters which had been erected upon 

 the island were found large numbers of 

 skins and feathers. It was here that the 

 Thetis officers found several cases of 

 stuffed birds. 



On both Laysan and Lysiansky islands, 

 the Japanese were in possession of a re- 

 production of an order issued through 

 the President of the United States some 

 years ago, which made it a crime against 

 the Federal statutes for any one to kill 

 birds on the mid-Pacific islands or en- 

 gage in the business of poaching or gather- 

 ing skins. It was upon the provisions of 

 this order, which was translated to the 

 Japanese found there, that the arrests 

 were made by the Thetis officers. 



The Thetis officers having completed 

 their labors at Lysiansky, the revenue 

 cutter then proceeded to Pearl or Hermes 

 Reefs. The presence of small or calf 

 seals was first found at this spot. The 

 presence of a large number of birds was 

 also discovered as the Thetis neared the 

 Hermes Reefs. A boat was sent ashore, 

 but there were no signs of human beings 

 or their habitation on the reefs. The men 

 who manned the boats returned and re- 

 ported to Captain Jacobs that the young 

 seals were extremely fierce. There had 

 apparently been no depredations from 

 bird hunters on the Hermes Reefs, accord- 

 ing to the report brought here by the 

 Thetis. 



From Hermes, the Thetis sailed, with 

 the aid of her auxiliary steam plant, to 

 Midway Island. Captain Jacobs here 

 got into communication with the author- 

 ities at Washington through the Midway 

 cable station. 



The Thetis did not remain a great 

 length of time at Midway, but got under 

 way, and Ocean Island was the next 

 mid-Pacific isolation visited by the reve- 



