Howland Is. Birds and Rats — HOWLAND 
101 
It being now about 10:30 forenoon we all three set forth to test our rat-catching 
instruments and within an hour had a bag full, the forked pole proving effective to 
pin a rat so that it could be lifted alive from the ground and dropped into the bag 
after a sharp blow with a club on the nose as the rat was held over the placket had 
dispatched it without the spilling of blood on the ground. On our return to our 
camp we suspended this bag from the tent poles about two feet above the surface 
of the ground. At noon, after a light repast of ship’s biscuit, the crumbs from which 
we carefully picked up and burned so as to leave no trace of food for our nasty 
neighbors, I directed Handy to take our tarpaulin to a spot some 200 yds. north by 
East from the camp and after slinging it from our sounding rods to empty the bag 
of rats into this suspended cache and then occupy himself with all diligence by 
killing and collecting for the tarpaulin as many rats as he could during his watch. 
The Black and I during this 4 hour period after first slinging two hammocks on our 
tent poles, got some much needed sleep. At four in the afternoon watch, Handy 
reported that he had collected what he considered about 500 rats. I then ordered the 
Black to continue Handy’s work until 6 p.m. when he was to return to prepare supper 
while I would prepare our catch for the night. Cotton Bole must have thoroughly 
enjoyed his work as he came to turn me out with grins of pleasure wrinkling his face. 
Armed with the spades and picks that the blacksmith had cleverly wrought for me 
before we came to thy Island, I set forth to the cache and after two hours hard work, 
I had prepared beneath but a little to one side of the tarpaulin, a trench or hole in 
the ground of sufficient area I judged to accommodate the catch and bury it some 
4 ?/ below the surface. Mortification had, I suspected, begun to taint the air to leeward 
of the cache as I noticed an unusual uneasiness and commotion among the bands 
of rats in this quarter. At, as I judged, a half hour before darkness would fall, we all 
three after clearing every vestige of our supper from the premises, left camp and 
repaired to the cache. We let go two of the guys of the tarpaulin and thereby dumped 
the entire catch into the excavation and promptly covered it loosely with pieces of 
rock and sand, just enough I judged to force the living to work for their horrid 
feast. On top of this grave we spread some scraps of fat pork. It now being near the 
time of my watch, I mounted a rock with a lantern and club, prepared to observe 
what I could of the results of our preparations while Handy and Cotton Bole returned 
to camp to get their rest. Before two hours of my watch was up I judged that most 
of the rats in the vicinity of our camp were busy for at least the best part of the re- 
maining darkness and I returned to the tent to keep watch until my time was up. 
An occasional intruder was found in the tent, but no real invasion such as the night 
before took place and as the weather had settled into its regular course we had a 
peaceful and refreshing night of it. I give this experience with the rats in detail so 
that thee may realize the unconsidered and unexpected difficulties of operations to 
be met with in exploring such out of the way places and so that if thee propose to 
operate the guano beds here thee may take steps to first cope with this vermin which 
is a very vital menace to human life ashore . . . 
My observation of the sea fowl and their habits leads me to believe them to be of 
the same species as those abounding on the guano Islands on the West Coast of 
South America, although of this I am not sure, as I have only read a meagre account 
of these latter that I found among some papers in thy counting room that were 
published in London, 1841, or about the time guano first made its appearance in 
