Wetmore—Journal 
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The amount of bird bones present here in the sand is tremendous. When the wind sweeps 
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the loose sand from the surface entire bones and bits of others dot the sounds...The ma¬ 
jority of the bits are fragments of long bones. Occasional humeri, tarsi, tibio-tarsi, 
and femora persist with extremities more or less worn. Metacarpi wear well as do 
culmae and broken radii. Coracoids and sterna and pilves are usually much broken. 
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Bits of crania or upper mandibles are less frequent. All are very fragile. I am 
struck by the comparison with what we find in fossil deposits. 
In the Frigate colony Schlemmer caught two males and after killing them I inflated 
them and ligated the trachea. The throat sacs were dissected out in the afternoon. 
...Our little harbor had a sand beach with no coral. The bottom goes off steeply so 
that twenty feet out it is six feet deep. The shallow water to the reef is a 
beautiful clear green, but the deeper water is a deep purple. 
May 5—Scaevola lobilia is found along the crest of the hill above the outer beach in 
same abundance, the shrubs projecting as little points of apparently dead limbs 
that rise from four to ten inches above the sand. In spite of their dry dead 
appearance these twigs carry life and are producing little leaves. Many of which have 
been blighted. 
Reno killed a rabbit here last night. 
On the slope immediately above the lagoon were innumerable little plants starting from 
unsuspected seeds. Unless weather conditions prove unfavorable again the vegetation 
should be fairly extensive here in a month or two. 
The albatross have pulled up much of the sand that we have planted. 
Two turtles along the beach: One had crawled out to sleep and let me walk up within 
ten feet to photograph it, though it moved its eyes and finally raised its head. 
It did not offer to bite though we touched its head. When turned over its front flippers 
waved wildly for a few minutes and thehr it settled down to an attempt to turn over. 
