Scientific Survey of South-Eastern Polynesia

Abstract

THE Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, has organised an expedition, to be known as the Mangareva Expedition, for the study of the little-known parts of south-eastern Polynesia. Because other means of transportation are unavailable, the Expedition is provided with two ships. The Islander (Capt. W, G. Anderson), a high-powered sampan, was to leave Honolulu on March 1 and during a six months’ cruise will serve as a ‘master ship’ for scientific workers who will conduct investigations chiefly at Mangareva, Oeno, Pitcairn, Rapa, Tubuai, Rurutu, Raivavae, and Rimitara islands. The second ship, the cutter yacht Tiare Tahiti (Capt. Robert S, Burrell), under charter from May until October, will serve primarily as a ‘transfer ship’ for the ethnologists at work in Mangareva and among the three hundred and sixty islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago. The chief purpose of the Expedition is to record the data regarding native races, flora and land fauna, which are disappearing at a surprisingly rapid rate. Incidental observations on geology, marine zoology and general oceanography will also be made. The scientific staff includes Dr. Peter H. Buck, Kenneth P. Emory and J. Frank Stimson, ethnologists; Prof. Harold St. John and Raymond Fosberg, botanists; Dr. C. Montague Cooke, Jr., and Donald Anderson, malacologists; and E. C. Zimmerman, field entomologist. Dr. C. Montague Cooke, Jr., has been appointed leader of the Expedition.