The Monk Seal of the Southern Pacific' 



DISCOVEKY OF ITS BREEDING GROUNDS AMID THE TREACHEROUS 



SHOALS OF PEARL AND HERMES REEFS, 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



By A L F R ED :\L B A I L E Y 



(Louisiana State Museum) 



DURING the winter of 1912-13, I had 

 I the pleasure of being one of a party 

 from the Biological Survey, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, to visit 

 the leeward group of the Hawaiian Islands. 

 We made as complete a survey as possible of 

 the different rocks, sandspits, and shoals 

 which extend northwest from Honolulu, a 

 distance of about fifteen hundred miles. Our 

 party, under the leadership of Commodore 

 G. E. Salisbury of the United States Navy, 

 was taken among the islands on the revenue 

 cutter "Thetis." Mr. G. E. Freer, the Gov- 

 ernor of the Hawaiians, and Judge Lindsay, 

 the Attorney General, accompanied us on the 

 trip. 



On the outgoing voyage, we stood off the 

 volcanic bluffs of Necker and Bird Islands, 

 but the huge swells that frothed against the 

 steep walls prevented our making a landing. 

 Mr. G. Willett, the ornithologist, succeeded 

 in gaining shore by swimming, a somewhat 

 hazardous feat, considering the nature of 

 those waters. 



We made a careful study of French Frig- 

 ate Shoals, so named from the schooner-like 

 appearance of the rock that stands sentinel 

 over the crescent-shaped string of small 

 sandspits gleaming a few feet above high- 

 tide mark. All these little islands and shoals 

 are famed for their stories of shipwrecked 

 sailors. We landed on a small grass-crowned 

 spit by wading among the beautiful head 

 corals left partly exposed by the outgoing 

 tide. On the highest point of land, sur- 

 rounded by a colony of albatrosses, scream- 

 ing boobies, and graceful terns, was a little 

 excavation; four pegs with tattered canvas 

 flapping listlessly marked the remains of a 



shelter, and the numerous bleaching turtle 

 bones told plainly the main source of food. 

 A half -rotted turtle shell turned liottom to 

 the sky seemed still to ask for rain, and a 

 broken oar blade lay half buried in the coral 

 sand. The most unimaginative could read 

 those few lines. 



The "Thetis" landed our party on Laysan 

 Island and went back to Honolulu, returning 

 for us three months later. We had an enjoy- 

 able time during those three months, for 

 Laysan is justly famed for her wealth of 

 bird life, in spite of inroads made by feather 

 hunters. The wonderful colony of alba- 

 trosses, the thousands of trim-rigged man 

 o' war birds, terns, tropic birds, and waders 

 make Laysan a real bird paradise. CTnfortu- 

 nately, rabbits have been introduced there, 

 and the destruction of the grasses has al- 

 lowed the sand to drift, so that thousands 

 of young birds are smothered by the shifting 

 dunes. We killed more than five thousand 

 rabbits and, unless something more is done 

 to exterminate them, I fear for the results. 

 A strict watch was kept at all times for 

 rare or new forms, and most of all, we 

 wanted to take the Laysan seal. We pa- 

 trolled the beach every day, and our efforts 

 were finally rewarded by the taking of a 

 large male specimen. We made careful notes 

 and preserved the skin and skeleton for 

 mounting. 



We looked forward to our visit on Lisi- 

 ansky with high hopes for, after taking one 

 specimen on Laysan, and having reason to 

 believe that Palmer had killed two on Lisi- 

 ansky, we considered our chances were good 

 of finding stragglers there. The "Thetis" 

 took us directly to the island, which is only 



* A species of seal was reported as inhabiting the warm waters of the Pacific near the Hawaiian 

 leeward group, and although nine specimens had been collected on Laysan Island in fourteen years' time, 

 none of the skins or skeletons had been saved for scientific purposes. This warm-water seal was 

 described by Dr. Matschie as Monachns schauinslandi (Sitz. Ber. Gcs. Naft/rf. Freunde, Berlin, p. 254, 

 1905). I believe that a Mr. Palmer collecting in that region for Rothschild, obtained two specimens on 

 Lisiansky, but these were reported as lost overboard. As I have had experience in trying to cure a 

 large seal without adequate instruments, in a tropical climate, I can readily understand the reason 

 these skins were lost. — The Author. 



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