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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ninety miles to the northwest of Laysan, and 

 we were not disappointed, for we found two 

 specimens on the beach. We killed the fe- 

 male, but the other, presumably a male, es- 

 caped. The kill was a fine specimen, but 

 was so heavy and cumbersome that we found 

 it very difficult to drag it from the shallow 

 water on to the shelving beach. 



We then visited Midway, so well described 

 in Stevenson's The Wrecker. The cablemen 

 on Midway told us that seals occasionally 

 wandered ashore, but that the visits were 

 irregularly timed, and there was likely to be 

 a straggler in summer as well as in winter. 

 We made a survey of the islands, and en- 

 joyed the hospitality of Captain Morrison, 

 the head of the colony of cablemen. The 

 captain took us around the reefs in his 

 power launch, and pointed out the bones of 

 the famed ship, "The Wandering Minstrel." 

 "Wandering Minstrel," — what 

 an appropriate name for a 

 boat cruising in those dreamy, 

 beautiful waters! And the 

 captain showed us the graves 

 of two sailors who had not 

 been able to stand the four- 

 teen months of starvation and 

 thirst that the survivors were 

 forced to endure. We ob- 

 tained additional data on the 

 nesting birds, but no informa- 

 tion relative to the seals. 



We considered that our 

 chances of success rested 

 finally on Pearl and Hermes 

 reefs, for these never had been 

 visited by a scientific party 

 so far as we knew. And there 

 we found the main breeding 

 colony. The place consists of 

 numerous sandspits and shoals, 

 surrounded by extensive barrier 

 reefs, over which combers and 

 white-topped breakers tumble 

 with a continuous roar. These 

 treacherous reefs are exceed- 

 ingly dangerous to navigation, 

 and received their names from 

 the two ships, the "Pearl" and 

 the "Hermes," which were 

 wrecked within a week of each 

 other. Because of storms, it 

 was thought inadvisable to 

 stay in that vicinity longer 

 than necessary, so we decided 

 to spend the one day only. 



]\Ir. Willett visited the largest of the spits 

 w'hile I took another cutter and started for 

 one charted about five miles off. Unfortu- 

 nately, the spit seemed to have disappeared, 

 for we could not find it, although we tacked 

 back and forth through the reefs for several 

 hours. The crystal-like water mirrored the 

 bottom, and the beautiful many-colored coral 

 fishes so characteristic of Hawaiian waters 

 darted to and fro among the head coral, and 

 the small reef sharks slid stealthily from one 

 deep lead to another. A school of porpoises 

 played off our bow and came in so close as 

 almost to splash in the boat as they cut 

 water, and huge loggerhead turtles slept 

 lazily on the sandy keys. Sooty-backed 

 terns winged close to the surface, their white 

 breasts green with reflected light, and their 

 shrill call, "wide-a-wake," seemed entirely 

 out of place in those sleepy tropical seas. 



Photograph bij A. M. Bailey 

 We found two seals asleep on the beach at Lisiansky, and shot 

 one of tliem, a large female. This warm-water seal is a huge, 

 cumbersome creature, and difficult to handle in a tropical coun- 

 try, without adequate instruments 



I'liotoyraijh by A. If. Bailey 

 AVe saw numerous seals flopped out on the beach at Pearl and 

 Hermes reefs, but the number of pups made a pitiful showing 

 when we consider that this is the main breeding colony 



