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April, 1937 
Names For Bodies 
of Air—1987 
Fifty years ago there was a quaint old habit of describing 
air-cruises as being over bodies of water and land instead of 
through bodies of air or from one body of air to another. 
There were no names given to bodies of air which, as we 
all know now have characteristics that distinguish them 
definitely from the bodies of land and water that may 
happen to lie beneath them. In this year of 1987, when 
practically all land and water transportation is subordinate 
to that by air, it is interesting to be reminded of those early 
days of air-transportation. Fifty years ago, this month, air- 
pioneers were still breaking an air-trail from Honolulu to the 
Antipodes. Only a few old-timers remain who recall those 
stirring air-days when John Rodgers piloted the first plane 
from the Mainland to Hawaii, when Maitland and Hegen- 
berger made the first non-stop flight over the same route and 
when Kingsford-Smith, McGinnis, Musick, and Earhart 
were making virgin air-furrows. One of these old-timers 
has furnished the map of the year 1937 that is reproduced 
on this page. It represents the initial effort to name bodies 
of air and place them on a chart. Rather crude compared 
to our maps and charts of 1987. The name Kingsford- 
Smith was accorded the extreme honor of designating the 
air over the Pacific Water Ocean. John Rodgers Channel, 
was named in honor of the intrepid naval officer who led 
27 
First Map Showing Names for Air-Bodies 
the way west from the Mainland through Kingsford-Smith 
Air Ocean. That was the first body of. air accorded a 
name—in 1937—and since then locations in the air in¬ 
creased in number as air-travel gradually dominated all 
other kinds of transportation. 
.M 
Phoenix Guano Islands—-Eclipse Mecca 
By E. H. Bryan, Jr. 
T wo LITTLE-KNOWN guano islands in the Phoenix Group 
will be the goal of at least one eclipse expedition this 
June. Canton and Enderbury islands will lie exactly 
in the path of the total eclipse. For this reason, one or 
other will be visited by a party of scientists under the aus¬ 
pices of the U. S. Naval Observatory and the National 
Geographic Society, in order to make extensive observations 
on the eighth of June, weather permitting, during more than 
seven minutes that the sun will be entirely hidden behind 
the moon. The party will assemble in Honolulu and pro¬ 
ceed on a naval vessel to the island selected/ 
These two islands were better known in Hawaii fifty 
to seventy-five years ago than they are today. Then an 
Kou tree 
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[Two 
nut 
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n 
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choked with 
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coral heads 
© 
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, ''iCocoAit P&lms 
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,KoU 
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CANTON 
ENDERBURY 
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Map of Enderbury and Canton Islands —Drawn by £. B. Bryan , Jr. 
occasional stout sailing ship used to put into Honolulu 
from there, loaded with guano. When the bulk of the high- 
grade guano had been shipped, and digging it was no longer 
profitable, these and other similar islands were abandoned. 
Next came the days of the trans-Pacific cable, and in the 
excitement of finding a suitable spot for a relay station, the 
Phoenix Islands, along with all other unoccupied dots in 
the central Pacific were promptly annexed by Great Britain. 
Two southern islands in the Phoenix Group were turned 
into coconut plantations; but despite long leases to British 
companies, the six islands in the north and west of the 
group remained untenanted. Now interest in them is being 
renewed, for they are potential stepping-stones for trans- 
Pacific airways. 
Canton and Enderbury represent two different types of 
coral islands. Canton is all lagoon, with only a narrow 
ridge of land. Enderbury is mostly land, with the lagoon 
reduced to a shallow puddle. Both are low and flat, for the 
most part bare or covered only by prostrate herbs or grass. 
But each has a few clumps of Tournefortia or tree heliotrope, 
a few stunted kou thickets, a noni tree or two, and a few 
very sad looking coconut palms, eight on Canton and about 
sixty on Enderbury, when the writer visited these islands 
in 1924. . 
Although nearly twenty miles around, Canton's rim of 
land is about five to six hundred yards wide and ten to 
Continued on Page Thirty-One 
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