32 SMITHSOXIAX MISCELLAXEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 52 



ernor j\Ioore, of Tutuila, would be in waiting to convey the expedi- 

 tion to Flint Island. Owing to a broken steam pipe, the Annapolis 

 was delayed in reaching Tahiti until two days after our arrival, and 

 owing to the making of necessary repairs, the start for Flint Island 

 was deferred until the evening of December 7. About noon of 

 December 9 the island was sighted, and soon a boat was seen to leave 

 its shore to meet us. On near approach it proved to contain the 

 English manager, Mr. Hawk, and a half dozen native boatmen. Our 

 landing w^as immediately begun, as the circumstances were unusually 

 favorable, owing to the complete absence of surf — a condition which 

 J\Ir. Hawk said was not apt to be met with three days in a year. 



Flint Island, a low coral island lying in latitude ii°^2 S., longi- 

 tude 152° W., is about two and a half miles long by half a mile wide, 

 and only 24 feet above sea-level at the highest point. It is sur- 

 rounded by a fringing reef, upon which the surf beats so strongly 

 on the eastern, or windward, side that landing is there impracticable. 

 An opening has been blasted out of the reef on the western, or lee- 

 ward, side to facilitate the shipping of copra, or dried cocoanut pulp, 

 which is the only export. The water becomes deeper so rapidly be- 

 yond the reef that there is no anchorage for ships, although it is safe 

 to cruise back and forth within a quarter of a mile of the shore. 

 Favored by a bright moonlight, the equipment of the expedition, 

 comprising over 300 separate packages and weighing more than 

 25 tons, was all taken ashore by the natives of the island and the 

 Samoans of the Annapolis by 9 o'clock p. m. of December 9. 



Our first night was spent on the veranda of the manager's house, 

 where we slept most comfortably, lulled by the swaying branches of 

 the cocoanut palms and the incessant murmur and croaking of birds. 

 Toward morning the sudden coming of a smart shower made us glad 

 that we had worked late, tired though we were, and had thoroughly 

 secured our equipment. Two days later we learned how fortunate 

 we had been in getting ashore so easily, for without much wind or 

 roughness at sea the surf rose rapidly on the western side of the 

 island and finally reached almost to the highest land of all. At this 

 time our surf-boat was floated away and narrowly escaped loss 

 at sea. 



The Lick Observatory camp was located in an open space of the 

 cocoanut grove near the manager's house, but as the writer desired 

 to make measurements of the brightness of the sky, he preferred to 

 locate the Smithsonian apparatus on the beach. After partly de- 

 ciding upon a place nearly a quarter of a mile south of the main 

 camp, he at length chose a point about 1,000 feet north of the camp 

 and near the landing. As the event proved, the whole fortune of the 



