Typed Copy of Unpublished Field notes of Edwin H. Bryan jr. 
prepared by Roger Clapp, August 3, 1965 
M Paid a fleeting visit to Baker Island going ashore at about 8 AM and reaching 
the ship again, at 9:30. During 45 minutes on shore made a circuit from Sw to 
NE and back across the flat behind the W ridge. Visted the well, which had 
been cleaned out and contained about 10 inches of water, which was too brackish 
to enjoy drinking it. nearby was planted a small garden which was watered from 
the well. Collected several kinds of plants, including Tribulus on the S.E. side, 
VI . Au^tl ^ 
N.W, of the (?) \><- KLo ' n abd (?) west center which I had failed to collect 
before. Also specimens of Boerhaavia showing how the large leaved and small 
leaved species grew in the same clump. Toward the S.E. end, about 100 yards N 
of stone beacon, is a luxuriant patch of Boerhaavia and near it some dead rosettes 
of sticks, which I thoughfat first might be (?) 
associated with old AbutiIon (?) plants. 
but which I later found 
Again saw no terns. Summers reported a bird with forked tail arriving at 
evening. Perhaps it was a wedge-tailed shearwater. He said the (?) P loSli taste 
fishy. He sent on board six kinds of plants pressed, which I thinned out and 
repressed. 
A large fat rat, which we suspected of being a pregnant female proved to be 
a male, bloated with meat, sand, and a little vegetable matter. The meat might 
well have been from the camps tv’aste. 
Underway at 10:30 and off Howland at 12:50. 1st boat ashore at 1 P.M, The 
bird life on Howland is conspicuously more numerous than on Baker, great clouds 
of frigates in the air, also numerous young boobies. Camp looked much the 
same as when we left it. 
(COMMENT - RBC 8/4/65 - From the context of the above this visit must 
have been in 1935 when the Itasca returned to Baker and Hox^land in 
arter establishing the colonists in March.) 
