92 Bird - Lore 
ized to land on Laysan Island and conduct 
a business of securing bird plumage. 
The fifteen Japanese who were discovered 
at Laysan Island were informed that their 
acts were in direct violation of the Federal 
laws. They submitted peaceably to the 
mandate of Captain Jacobs that they were 
under arrest, and offered no resistance 
whatever when told to prepare for going 
on board the Thetis. Itrequired two days 
to transfer the Japanese poachers, their 
personal effects, and bales and boxes of 
plumage to the revenue cutter. The Japa- 
nese were well provisioned. Six of the men 
claim to have been residents of the island 
since last April. Nine declared that they 
had arrived at Laysan last August, being 
landed there from the Japanese schooner 
Tempou Maru, which is believed to have 
sailed from Tokio or Yokohama. They 
were told by the officers in charge of the 
big bird hut in Japan that a schooner 
would be sent for them in April, roro. 
The men are, to all intents and purposes, 
mere tools in the employ of the Japanese 
company which is carrying on the work 
of gathering bird-skins in the Pacific 
Ocean. They offered no objections to 
accompanying the American officers to 
the revenue cutter. 
The confiscation on Laysan included 
a lot of bird skins which were undergoing 
a process of curing. These were laid 
under several hundred large Japanese 
mats. The mats were held down by 
rocks in order to prevent the skins from 
being damaged by the wind or the weather. 
These skins were found impossible to 
transfer to the Thetis, it being conceded 
that to bring them to the vessel might 
cause sickness, as many were in a state of 
putrefaction. After the dried and cured 
plumage and skins were taken on board, 
Captain Jacobs took steps to destroy the 
skins in process of curing. This was 
successfully accomplished. 
Lysiansky Island yielded eight Japan- 
ese poachers and a large quantity of dried 
skins. The plumage found on this island 
was practically all in a cured state and 
ready for shipment. A great portion of 
the booty was baled, and evidently pre- 
pared to be loaded aboard the first Japa- 
nese schooner to arrive. One officer and an 
armed crew was sent ashore, and the eight 
Japanese offered no resistance to accom- 
panying the party back to the Thetis. 
The poachers had been occupying four 
buildings. They had an abundance of 
provisions, and in several of the rude 
shelters which had been erected upon 
the island were found large numbers of 
skins and feathers. It was here that the 
Thetis officers found several cases of 
stuffed birds. : 
On both Laysan and Lysiansky islands, 
the Japanese were in possession of a re- 
production of an order issued through 
the President of the United States some 
years ago, which made it a crime against 
the Federal statutes for any one to kill 
birds on the mid-Pacific islands or en- 
gage in the business of poaching or gather- 
ing skins. It was upon the provisions of 
this order, which was translated to the 
Japanese found there, that the arrests 
were made by the Thetis officers. 
The Thetis officers having completed 
their labors at Lysiansky, the revenue 
cutter then proceeded to Pearl or Hermes 
Reefs. The presence of small or calf 
seals was first found at this spot. The 
presence of a large number of birds was 
also discovered as the Thetis neared the 
Hermes Reefs. A boat was sent ashore, 
but there were no signs of human beings 
or their habitation on the reefs. The men 
who manned the boats returned: and re- 
ported to Captain Jacobs that the young 
seals were extremely fierce. There had 
apparently been no depredations from 
bird hunters on the Hermes Reefs, accord- 
ing to the report brought here by the 
Thetis. ' 
From Hermes, the Thetis sailed, with 
the aid of her auxiliary steam plant, to 
Midway Island. Captain Jacobs here 
got into communication with the author- 
ities at Washington through the Midway 
cable station. 
The Thetis did not remain a great 
length of time at Midway, but got under 
way, and Ocean Island was the next 
mid-Pacific isolation visited by the reve- 
