486 The National Geographic Magazine 



In his report of the cruise of the 

 Tacoma* Commander R. F. Nicholson 

 writes as follows : 



"Leaving Honolulu on May 19, I 

 proceeded to the latitude indicated and, 

 upon the assumption that the latitude 

 was nearly correct, and that the greatest 

 errors in the reported position would be 

 in longitude, commenced search on May 

 24 at longitude 138 west, where, upon 

 an old map seen in Honolulu, an island 

 is shown marked Eclipse. This is one 

 degree to the westward of the position 

 indicated by the department. We ran 

 on that parallel to longitude 136 west, 

 reaching the vicinity of the Albatross'' 's 

 search and soundings of 3,000 fathoms. 

 The atmosphere was clear and the hori- 

 zon well defined. From aloft any land 

 could have been seen at least ten miles 

 on either side of our track. At night 

 the engines were stopped. I then pro- 

 ceeded to visit in order the reported 

 positions of islands as given below and 

 as are shown on the accompanying trac- 

 ing of our track : Bunker's Island, lat. 

 1 5 30' N., long. 136 W., reported 

 by Captain Bunker in 1823 ; Sultan's 

 (American whaler), reported in lat. 15 

 30' N., long. 134 W., prior to 1827 ; 

 Groupe, lat. 16 30' N., long. 134 30' 

 W., authority of Krusenstern, from 

 American whalers, reported prior to 

 1849 ; De Greaves, English resident of 

 Hawaii, asserts having landed on an 

 island (see map) in lat. about 17 40' 

 N., long, about 135 30' W., whilst 

 mate on the British bark General Wool 

 in 1858 ; shoal (see map) reported by 

 Captain Lawless in lat. 18 56' N., 

 longitude 136 10' W., who says he 

 saw discolored water, which he believed 

 to be shoals, but did not stop his ves- 

 sel, the Australia, to sound. 



* By direction of the Secretary of the Navy 

 I joined the Tacoma at Honolulu, for the pur- 

 pose of participating personally in her explora- 

 tion of the doubtful islands region and in seek- 

 ing traces of the lost Levant, whose departure 

 from the same port, on her fatal voyage, I had 

 witnessed forty-four years before. 



' ' Captain Lawless states that he was 

 sure of his position within one mile of 

 latitude and five minutes of longitude. 

 I sounded in given position of Lawless' s 

 shoal and in its vicinity, getting no bot- 

 tom at 280 fathoms During the search, 

 which lasted four days, neither land, 

 shoals, nor signs of land were seen. In 

 fact, the locality was remarkable for the 

 total absence of birds." 



The above- stated result of the Ta- 

 coma's search is absolutely conclusive as 

 far as it concerns the ocean area actually 

 seen from the track line of the ship. 

 The total area thus examined is prob- 

 ably about one- quarter to one-third of 

 the questionable region, assuming that 

 area, as hereinbefore stated, at about 

 30,000 to 40,000 square miles, whereof 

 about 1 0,000 square miles have now been 

 actually seen in searches made by the 

 Tacoma and the Albatross. 



The cruise of the Tacoma has there- 

 fore negatively and conclusively dis- 

 posed of half a dozen or more reported 

 islands as charted in certain defined 

 positions, and it has definitively elim- 

 inated from further consideration of 

 doubtful reports an area of about 10,000 

 square miles, leaving a still questionable 

 region of twice or three times that area 

 open to further search. 



Reference to the map will show that 

 this region, still unexplored and un- 

 visited b3>- any (excepting the Albaiross) 

 of the above-mentioned searching ves- 

 sels, lies in latitude somewhere between 

 1 7 and 20 north and in longitude be- 

 tween the meridians of i33°3o'and 136 

 west, an area of about 30, 000 square miles 

 or more, nearly equivalent, say, for ex- 

 ample, to the area of the State of Maine. 

 It is readily imaginable that such an 

 island as the whalemen have reported 

 may have been observed by them within 

 this field, which lies wholly out of sight 

 of vessels following the sailing tracks 

 shown, further south, in the accom- 

 panying map, and it may be noted that 

 this field of possibilities lies due east of 



