Leeward and Kauo Laysan Island Business & Shopping Hawaii Directory

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Jane s Laysan Island in eList Hawaii Directory

In some ways Laysan Island is the most fascinating and in some ways the most unfortunate of all the tiny dots of land in the little end of Hawaii. In former days it supported the largest albatross rookery of the entire chain. Although at no time during its recorded history did it reach an elevation of more than fifty feet above sea level, still in it once grew groves of sandalwood trees, dense thickets of bushes, and native fan palms, beneath whose shade there evolved five species of land birds, endemic to this island and not known elsewhere. And all this on an area of but two square miles of sand and coral. As a result of all the sea bird life, great beds of valuable guano were deposited. This material was formed by the chemical interaction between coral sand and the droppings of myriads of birds during countless years. Man found that guano was a fine fertiliser for his crops. So when guano deposits were located on Laysan, man soon found the way there to dig and ship it; and, as usual to upset the nicely adjusted balance which Nature had established there. Poachers also were attracted to Laysan by the great numbers of birds, and ruthlessly they slaughtered hundreds of thousands for their feathers. And for food measure, rabbits and guinea pigs were introduced, which so completely are off the remains of the vegetation that the very existence of the birds was threatened, and some kinds became extinct. Laysan is located 790 sea miles to the northwest of Honolulu, in latitude 25 degrees 42 14 North, longitude 171 degrees 44 04 West of Greenwich. Its nearest neighbours are Lisianski, 115 miles to the west; Gardner Pinnacles, 202 miles to the southeast; and Pearl and Hermes Reef, 260 miles to the northwest. The island is shaped like a large Hawaiian poi-pounding board or oval serving dish, about a mile wide by two miles long, north and south. Some authorities have estimated its size as larger. But the careful survey made in April 1923 by the Tanager Expedition made the maximum length 9375 feet and greatest width 5580 feet, which in land miles is one and four-fifths by a trifle over one. The accompanying map is from this survey, after the original by Major Chapman Grant. The surface is composed of loosely packed coral sand, with beds of coral reef and phosphate rock on the south and west sides. The beaches rise abruptly from the waters edge to a height of 15 to 18 feet, then flatten out to a maximum height of 30 to 40 feet, and then slope gradually downward to a central depression, part of which is occupied by a salty lake without connection with the sea. The surface of this lake is somewhat above sea level, and its depth formerly was more than fifteen feet. But so much sand has drifted into this basin, while the island was denuded of vegetation, that now it is probably much shallower. William Alanson Bryan has suggested that Laysan once was a small atoll, the whole of which was elevated with reference to ocean level. It is surrounded by coral reefs, which on the western side are indented to form a snug landing place for small boats, with a safe anchorage off shore, so long as the trade winds blow and this is the lee side. This island is reported to have been an American discovery, but the details are not available. Not knowing of the earlier visit, Captain Stanikowitch, who sited the island on March 12, 1828, named it Moller Island after his ship.

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