288 
it could reach them. Unable to return in person, 
Yamashina had sent his assistant, Mr. Nobuo 
Yamada, there in 1932 and 1933 to observe 
conditions for him. Yamashina writes of those 
last days as follows ( 1942: 2 44) : 
On this remote island the policy of protecting 
the albatross was not strong enough to prevent 
the collecting of their feathers, which continued 
undiminished. When I visited the island in Feb- 
ruary 1929 there were only about 2,000 alba- 
trosses there. When Yamada went there in April 
1932, he observed only a few hundred. On his 
visit in April 1933, he counted less than 100. 
This may have been partly the result of pastur- 
ing cattle on the breeding grounds after 1932, 
but the fatal cause was the last great massacre 
perpetrated by the inhabitants in December 
1932. None of the inhabitants ever refer to this 
slaughter but attribute the disappearance of 
birds to a storm in November 1932. But Mr. 
Fujisawa, the elementary school-teacher on the 
island, told Yamada in April 1933 that in De- 
cember 1932 and January 1933 over 3,000 alba- 
trosses were killed. This last great slaughter was 
undoubtedly perpetrated by the inhabitants in 
anticipation of the island’s soon becoming a 
bird sanctuary. 
To determine the status of the species at sea, 
Yamashina asked the Japanese Marine Labora- 
tories and the boats of the Yaizu Fishing Com- 
pany to collect albatrosses for him on the open 
ocean between 1933 and 1936. He noted 
(1942: 248) that the only Steller’s Albatross 
they found was an immature bird taken near 
Morell, Hawaii, on February 28, 1936. On re- 
cent examination of this specimen, however, it 
proves to be a mature Diomedea nigripes. 
Torishima also had small colonies of Black- 
footed and Laysan Albatrosses. According to 
Yamashina the Black-footed Albatross was al- 
ways far less numerous on the island than Stel- 
ler’s. He states (1942: 246), "It owes its sur- 
vival until recent years to the relative un- 
attractiveness of its plumage, and to its nesting 
sites, which were on the grassy spots on the 
inaccessible cliffs on the island. Yamada found 
a colony of about 200 in April 1932, but could 
find only a few birds in April 1933.” Concerning 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. Ill, October, 1949 
the Laysan Albatross, the same authority (loc. 
cit. ) says, "This species seems to have become a 
resident of Torishima comparatively recently. 
The inhabitants told me in 1930 that it first 
appeared on the island about a dozen years 
previously. In 1930, the population reached 50, 
but had decreased to only a couple of birds in 
1933.” 
During Yamada’s visit to Torishima in 1932 
he banded 22 Steller’s Albatrosses on April 9. 
Eleven of these birds were reported to the Tokyo 
Government from the same place in November, 
1932, and five more on June 30, 1933. Although 
no details are available, it is assumed these re- 
turns were from birds killed by the inhabitants. 
This is the last unquestionable evidence we 
have of Steller’s Albatross existing in the flesh. 
Whether any Steller’s Albatrosses ever re- 
turned to Torishima after 1933 is not known. 
If they did, and were not slaughtered by the 
settlers, who then had to turn from feathers to 
fish for their livelihood, the island was soon to 
be made even more untenable for them by 
another catastrophe. The volcano erupted again 
in 1939, even more violently than in 1903. The 
inhabitants were able to escape, but extensive 
flows buried the birds’ former breeding grounds 
under 30 to 100 feet of fresh lava making them 
uninhabitable for any albatross which might 
have survived the massacre. 
The main crater overflowed again in 1941. 
One river of lava flowed down over the cliff 
into Chitose Bay, the little cove on the north- 
west corner, which was formerly the island’s only 
anchorage and which gave protection in the old 
days to the ships as they loaded feathers. This 
flow filled the little cove completely and the 
partly sheltered landing place it once afforded 
is now a forbidding, jagged rampart of black, 
volcanic rock. Thus Torishima is now more dif- 
ficult of access than ever before. Except in the 
calmest weather, the perpetual ocean swells 
break entirely around its unbroken shore line, 
regardless of the wind direction. 
During World War II, the Japanese main- 
tained on the island an observation and aircraft 
