Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Smithsonian Institution Archives.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Hoeman, Vincent D.
1964
FIELD NOTES
January 29
Flew over the moonlit, cloud-decked Pacific by jet from Los
Angeles this evening, finding the distance impressive and fully comparable
to our spanning the North American continent earlier today. As we approached
the islands the lights on Oahu were visible through breaks in the clouds,
but Molokai, as we passed over, seemed as dark and barren as when the
lava pushed out of the sea. The lights of Honolulu, a city of over
300,000 are spread far up and down the coast from Pearl Harbor to
Diamond Head. Here is a chain of islands with almost exactly the same
land area as the Aleutian chain 2000 miles to the north but so different
in the terrestrial life it supports.
Touch down at 2137 hours (HST) and leave the plane into air that
seems liquid at 75° F. The "tropical smell" is the same as Central
America - perhaps the flowers.
We are met by J. P. Ludwig and Roger Clapp who take us to the Hawaiian
King Hotel in Waikiki. There we all ten get together in one of the
rooms to exchange information and celebrate the coming work. There is
much to be done, but, after the "celebration" and a shower, my body said
no to be typewriter. Everyone was in agreement though that this day,
in which we'd gained five hours was finished.
January 30
All night the gentle tradewind blew, and the steady stream of my
thoughts kept sleep from reaching me. At 0540 hours the predawn cries
of the Indian Myna, Acridotheres tristis, got me up and about 0600 in
the nearby International Market I could see those noisy birds beginning