THE LOW ISLANDS.
The Ocean Islands are the most remote of the group, touching longitude 178° 3o', being very nearly the antipodes of Green wich. It is a small sandy area about one mile square inside of and nearly touching the coralline rim of about sixteen miles cir cuit. On the west side there is a gap of a mile, but the water is too shallow at the entrance and the interior to permit of the gress of seagoing vessels. The area must be about thirty-eight square miles. Another name is Cure ; also the inside island is called Green. The shrubbery is better developed than upon Midway. There are also inconspicuous bare, sandy islands in the lagoon, ten feet in height. Upon the "Sand Island" the Lackawanna party found the trunk and roots of a large tree, prob ably coniferous, drifted from the American continent. Both Ocean and Midway Islands afford convenient conditions for the es tablishment of rookeries by numerous albatross, tropic birds, man of-war hawks and gulls, and a few curlew and plover. Turtle, seal and fish also abounded.
The Midway Islands closely resemble the Ocean. There are the same two kinds, the one shrubby and the other sandy, with a larger coralline rim. Originally they were called Brooks Islands, from their discoverer, Captain N. C. Brooks of the Hawaiian bark Gambia, in 1859. The coral rim is eighteen miles in circuit, with a gap of four miles upon the west side, where several breakers remain. The rim is a compact coral wall, five feet high, and from six to twenty feet in width. The entrance to the harbor is about a mile wide, with a depth of three fathoms. To the north of the two islands is a lagoon from four to eight fathoms in depth, con nected with the harbor by shallow water a mile wide. The total area of the atoll is about forty square miles. The most important feature is the presence of two islands within the rim, named Sand and Eastern. The one composed of sand adjoins the harbor, one and a half miles long, three-quarters of a mile wide, chiefly com posed of broken coral, shells and sand, and reaches an altitude of fifty-seven feet. Occasional clumps of shrubs and a few patches
of grass were to be seen at the first, but must now have partly dis appeared since its occupation as a cable station. The other island nearly touches the outer rim, is one and a quarter miles long, one-half mile wide, of uniform elevation from six to fifteen feet, covered with small shrubs, a few vines and coarse grass. The beach is of dazzling brightness. Water is found at the depth of four to seven feet upon both islands, which is free from organic impurities, hut contains enough lime to place it in the category of "hard water," besides more than the average content of salt than is seen upon the upland. Considerable labor has been ex pended in the erection of the buildings necessary for a cable sta tion and the improvement of the harbor. It was first occupied for this purpose in 1902.
There are four or five main buildings of reinforced concrete consisting of the plant necessary for the cable service, the house of the superintendent, the quarters for the staff, apartments for general use, and buildings for employees. Everything necessary for the comfort of the men living in such an isolated locality is abundantly supplied by the Cable Company. Plate iB is a map of the several Midway Islands from the latest Government surveys. The large ring is a typical coral atoll with a harbor upon the west side and deeper water in the central part than near the out side. Except the larger Sand Island the other islets may be swept by the ocean when the unusual storms prevail.
In 1885 a sixty ton schooner, Captain Bohn, left Yokohama in August and was driven far away from its course by storms, and reached Midway Island in November considerably damaged. There were twenty-seven persons aboard, and they remained here till March 8, i886, the island furnishing plenty of food, as was said, enough for a three years cruise. The drifted logs must have furnished material for the needed repairs to the schooner. The vessel landed at Niihau May 12th, and reached Honolulu May 24th.