50 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Managing a boat through the surf over a reef and landing on the 

 beach of a coral island, such as Enderbury is attended with consid- 

 erable danger even on the calmest days (fig. 50). 



Storms break off portions of the outer edge of the reef and roll 

 these chunks inward, some of them measuring 10 to 15 feet long, and 

 5 to 8 feet in width and height, and around the bases of these boulders 

 occasionally occur small depressions filled with water. Pools left at 

 low tide are uncommon on the coral reefs because of their almost 

 complete drainage by channels. 



The slope and height of the beach depends upon the force of the 

 wave action (fig. 51). Gently sloping beaches, composed of coral 

 gravel and sand, occur in protected areas, but those composed of 

 large rubble are very steep because of the terrific wave action. Some 

 islands have the conglomerate coral-shell rock (solidified beach coral- 

 shell debris) exposed by wave action. 



Fish life is abundant on the reef and in those lagoons actively con- 

 nected with the sea by large channels. Spiny lobsters, crabs, and 

 shellfish, mostly Tridacna, occur in numbers on the reefs. Practi- 

 cally all these marine animals are edible. 



Many species of birds nest on the ground or in the low trees. 

 The sooty tern, the most abundant bird on the coral atolls, lays its 

 eggs on the ground in great numbers. If a small portion of the 

 nesting area is cleared of eggs at night, the terns lay more the next 

 day, and fresh eggs are thus made available. Their rookeries are 

 easily located by the thousands of sooty terns flying about and utter- 

 ing their call night and day. When disturbed, they fly about in such 

 numbers that the sky seems filled with sooty terns (fig. 52). The tern 

 eggs, when boiled or scrambled, are palatable, as I can personally 

 testify after eating them at Enderbury Island. 



On July 27 I was again at Pearl Harbor and spent the next few 

 days examining fishes at the Bishop Museum, through the courtesy 

 of the curator, E. H. Bryan. Leaving there August 4, I arrived in 

 Washington August 18. 



The expedition, besides offering me much worthwhile experience, 

 resulted in the capture and preservation of about 14,000 fishes and 

 many hundreds of specimens of mollusks, crustaceans, insects, echino- 

 derms, and corals, as well as several lizards, plants, and bird skins. 



