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Hawaiian islands, on the U. S. S. Tanagtr, in the 
spring of 1923. Many rabbits were killed off on Laysan, 
but when the party reached Lisianski they found the rabbits 
all dead and the vegetation beginning to come back. There 
was a patch of bunch grass (Eragrostis) at the northwest 
corner, and a few scattered plants of pickle weed (Sesuvium), 
purslane (Portulaca ). and a local variety of a low, branch¬ 
ing, native Hawaiian annual (Xa/na.) The late Gerrit P. 
Wilder, honorary warden of the bird reservation, planted 
seeds of Barringtonia trees at that time, but it is not known 
if they survived. 
The remaining important event in Lisianski’s recent his¬ 
tory has to do with the slaughter of birds. The trouble 
began (or rather, first became extensivelv noticed) early in 
1904. when a party of over 75 Japanese landed on the island. 
1 he presence of the party was reported by Captain Niblack 
of the U. S. S. Ironiuns in April, 1904, and the U. S. Reve¬ 
nue Cutter Thetis, Captain O. C. Hamlet, was dispatched 
on May 8, to bring them off. It reached Lisianski June 16, 
and found the party well housed in four thatched-roof shacks, 
but with only a little rice and dried tern meat left, and 
consequently not at all unwilling to leave. Several hundred 
packages of dried bird’s wings could not be removed at the 
time and were left on the island. 
1 he leader of the bird poachers told Acting Governor 
Atkinson that the party had been stranded on the island 
when their schooner, A jit, sank. He said they had put up 
a signal of distress which had been seen by the Taiyo Maru, 
which had spared them some provisions and removed one 
of their party. With such a story, and as no law could be 
found which protected the birds, there was no prosecution. 
Both the Territory and the Federal Government thought 
that they ought to claim the bird feathers, which were valued 
at ^20,000; but before Captain Weisbarth, who had been 
sent to get them, could reach the island, they all had been 
removed, probably by the schooner 7/7/7 Maru, which had 
been active in bird killing, and had been warned away from 
Midway in June. This vessel was later wrecked on Pearl 
and Hermes Reef, part of its crew being found on Lisianski 
in September, 1904. together with part of the crew of the 
Tan zi Maru . 
Such slaughter of bird life, however, stirred up interest in 
bird protection. An appeal was made to Washington, and 
in 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt initiated a joint 
resolution in Congress, which set aside the Hawaiian Islands 
Bird Reservation. So when the Cutter Thetis visited these 
islands again in January, 1910, and found 15 Japanese bird 
killers on Laysan and 8 on Lisianski, they were promptly 
arrested, brought to Honolulu on February* 2, and turned 
over to the Lnited States Marshall, charged with poaching. 
Today, with poaching at an end, the rabbits exterminated, 
and the vegetation again spreading over its low sandy* sur¬ 
face, Lisianski is again becoming a populous bird sanctuary. 
Bull in a Sugar-Cane Field 
“They had very recently brought to this island [Maui] 
one of the bulls that Capt. Vancouver landed at Owhyhee 
[Hawaii].” wrote Captain Amasa Delano of his visit to that 
Island in 1806. “He made a very great destruction amongst 
their sugar canes ami gardens, breaking into them and their 
cane patches, and tearing them to pieces with his horns and 
digging them up with his feet. He would run after and 
frighten the natives, and appeared to have a disposition to 
do all the mischief he could, so much so that he was a pretty 
unwelcome guest among them. There was a white man at 
this village, who told me that they had not killed any* of the 
black cattle that Capt. Vancouver brought there; and that 
they had multiplied very* much. This agreed with what I 
heard when there in 1801. I understood that the bull which 
they now had at Mo wee, was the first of the cattle that had 
been transported from Owhyhee to any other place. I have 
within this year or two been told by several captains who 
have lately been to these Islands, that they have increased 
so much, that they frequently kill them for beef.” 
Marihuana Grows in Hawaii? 
Narcotic agents are said to have discovered two large mar- 
huana bushes growing in Pauoa Valley, near Honolulu. 
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