Wetmore-Journal 
May 1 —C. Grant, collector of fish for the Bishop Museum, instructed to take one 
specimen (minimum) of each species. Schlemmer instructed to set out the grass brought 
from Ocean and Pearl and Hermes Reef, said that the albatross were very curious 
about and pulled up part of it. Also caught and killed rabbit. 
Trade wind blows steadily at about 20 miles an hour with considerable sand flying. 
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It is decidedly warmer here than farther westward. 
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May 2 —The beach sand is much finer now than on the islands at Pearl and Hermes 
Reef when the shores lay 300 yards or more inside a broad fringe of coral that broke the 
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force of any heavy waves. .Here little of the sand was fine and frequently large 
areas were composed of broken fragments a quarter of an inch across. Here at Laysan 
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the sand is fine enough to drift strongly with the wind. In fact sand here is finer 
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than at Ocean Island in considerable part. 
The Laysan Albatross have decreased at least one third in number since I left April 
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ill-. Turnstones, Golden Plover, Curlew and Tattlers are in migration. Many 
Bulwer's Petrels have come in and we collected a series of fifteen from beneath 
rocks and from crevices in the limestone. Many more could have been taken easily. 
Practically the entire colony of Gygis have lost their eggs and a number have laid 
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afresh. I collected a series of six. 
The ravages of Turnstones and Curlew in the tern colonies are exasperating in the 
extreme. I can see little hope for the bird colonies here until these robbers 
pass on northward. 
The guano formerly worked here was of two kinds, hard and soft. It consists of the 
cofal sand impregnated with excrement and containing many fragments of bane and 
bits of egg shell. Some of it is consolidated to the consistency of soft sandstone. 
More can be crumbled between the fingers and same is simply loose. It varies from 
yellow to almost black in coloreand frequently has a strong odor. Sc h l emm er tells me 
that formerly they found entire eggs beneath the guano rock. 
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