A RECENT REPORT FROM THE "DOUBTFUL 

 ISLAND REGION" 



By James D. Hague 



THE San Francisco Chronicle of 

 February 5, 1907, contained the 

 following item : 



"Captain Maurice Rose, of the French 

 bark Michelet, reports to the branch 

 hydrographic office that at 9 a. m., Jan- 

 uary 18, when in latitude north 22 de- 

 grees 19 minutes, longitude west 131 

 degrees 6 minutes, off the Mexican coast, 

 he passed within 200 yards of a reef 

 over which the sea was breaking for an 

 extent of about fifteen yards. The 

 weather was clear, wind northeast, light, 

 with a light swell. He took no sound- 

 ings. The chronometer was correct upon 

 arrival in port. The observations by 

 wliich the position was fixed were good." 



The locality thus indicated by the 

 above-stated latitude and longitude 

 would be little less than 3J4 degrees of 

 latitude north and about 5 degrees of 

 longitude east of the reported shoal 

 which Captain Lawless thought he saw 

 on the morning of March 17, 1902, in 

 latitude 18 degrees 56 minutes north and 

 longitude 136 degrees 10 minutes west, 

 but which the U. S. S. Tacoina, when 

 searching for it two years later, failed 

 to find in that position or near neigh- 

 borhood. May 28, 1904, as set forth in 

 the National Geographic Magazine 

 for December, 1904. 



The recently reported reef, over which 

 the sea was breaking, as -above stated, 

 would not be far distant (2 or 3 degrees 

 northeasterly) from "Cooper's," one of a 

 number of small islands, of doubtful posi- 

 tion and questionable existence, indicated 

 on the older charts, published 50 years 

 ago or more, and it furnishes one more 

 new item of evidence, certainly indicat- 

 ing the possible existence of a shoal 

 region in this neighborhood, within 

 which there may yet be found and def- 

 initely located one or more of the score 



of reefs and islands, which have been re- 

 ported, mainly by whalemen, from time 

 to time during the past hundred years, 

 but so far never found by any of the ex- 

 ploring vessels sent to look for them. 



On such a reef as this the long-lost 

 Levant may have met her mysterious fate 

 in i860, and in this still unexplored sea 

 there well may be not onl}' similar reefs, 

 but, as reported, larger and higher 

 islands — possibly some habitable island — 

 on which surviving castaways of the ship- 

 wrecked Levant may .«till be watching 

 for a sail. 



This new report is one more call from 

 far midocean for renewed search and 

 thorough survey of this unexplored 

 region, with the purpose either to prove 

 the non-existence of these most dan- 

 gerous menaces to navigation or, if found 

 existing, to locate them correctly on the 

 charts, in the interest of commerce and 

 for the benefit and safety of mariners. 



The brief and only partial search of 

 this region, made by the Tacoma in 1904, 

 occupied only four days in cruising and 

 covered but a comparatively small part, 

 about 8,000 square miles, of this doubt- 

 ful island region, leaving 20,000 to 

 30,000 square miles still unexplored and 

 almost wholly unseen by any of the 

 several vessels sent there for exploration. 

 Every square mile of this region must 

 yet be seen in daylight before it can be 

 certainly known that there are no reefs 

 or islands to be found or feared there by 

 passing navigators. The search of the 

 Tacoma was conclusive only for a part 

 of the field, as above stated, and there 

 are better reasons now for completing 

 the exploration than there were originally 

 for beginning it. 



Although no sign of shoal water was 

 found by the Tacoma at the place in- 

 dicated by Captain Lawless, he still be- 



