ROBERT S. STANDEN 
Enderbury Island Description 
Draft 
Enderbury Island! is situated 3°07 l ® and 171°03 , W f 
just 37 miles ESE of Canton Atoll. This rectangular 
island, slightly wider at the southern end, is 3 
miles long on the north south axis and about 1 mile 
wide. It is low and flat, and has a very small 
lagoon a few hundred yards long with several small 
sand bars in it. There are no people. 
The best landing is near the lighthouse on the 
western shore where a w/ide sandy beach meets the 
coral a t the water-/J?$j?f The shore-line about the 
rest of the island is the usual shingle coral surface 
there being no other sandy beaches on the islands 
The lagoon, which now is only a large pond, shows 
evidence of having been much larger^t^on^ljime. 
Sesuvium that surrounds the present X///// cobers a 
s 
low depression about a mile and a half ling and a 
quarter of a mile wide/. A small water-cut cliff or 
terrace ///// 1-2 feet high marks the old shoreline 
alo^g the south////and western side of this basin. 
The island is covered with low vegetation (Leptiuru s ) 
Boerhavia, Portulaca) with only a few groves 
_ « 
of half dead Cordia and MerscSit^a trees still present 
to break the skyline. These two trees are doing 
poorly but their daed branches standing nearly 20 feet 
m 
high are A home of many roosting birds. There are now 
< i 
only four areas on the island where the trees are 
found. First there are clumps of trees at the extreme 
southern end of, the old lagoon shore-line. Another 
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