242 TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS OF MID-OCEAN 



as one of the wonders of the bird world. One of the photo- 

 graphs taken prior to 1909 shows a vast plain, apparently a 

 square mile in area, covered and crowded with Laysan alba- 

 trosses. They stand there on the level sand, serene, bulky 

 and immaculate. Thousands of birds appear in one view — a 

 very remarkable sight. 



Naturally, man, the ever-greedy, began to cast about for 

 ways by which to convert some product of that feathered 

 host into money. At first guano and eggs were collected. 

 A tramway was laid down and small box-cars were intro- 

 duced, in which the collected material was piled and pushed 

 down to the packing place. 



For several years this went on, and the birds themselves 

 were not molested. At last, however, a tentacle of the feather- 

 trade octopus reached out to Laysan. In an evil moment in 

 the spring of 1909 a predatory individual of Honolulu and 

 elsewhere, named Max Schlemmer, decided that the wings 

 of those albatrosses, gulls and terns should be torn off and sent 

 to Japan, whence they would undoubtedly be shipped to 

 Paris, the special market for the wings of sea-birds slaughtered 

 in the North Pacific. 



Schlemmer the Slaughterer bought a cheap vessel, hired 

 twenty-three phlegmatic and cold-blooded Japanese laborers, 

 and organized a raid on Laysan. With the utmost secrecy 

 he sailed from Honolulu, landed his bird-killers upon the sea- 

 bird wonderland and turned them loose upon the birds. 



For several months they slaughtered diligently and with- 

 out mercy. Apparently it was the ambition of Schlemmer 

 to kill every bird on the island. 



