ahh! much better thank you Ric, as suspected it appears that they have at least done a cursory survey of the wooded areas of the island. having labeled the western side of the islands flora roughly down to the south eastern tip and around the northwest side of the island to just across from the southern lagoon access point. How closely they looked into these areas is unknown, but given the western side seems to be more detailed I would guess they walked those areas probably in search of good places for a well. the eastern shore that is labeled is done so more generically so I would think it possible they looked less closely there.
Remember also that the map was compiled with information from both the ground survey and the aerial survey. The different types of vegetation are easily seen in the aerial photos. No need to go bashing about in the bush.
it also seems they made sure to label the areas with large trees and were less concerned with the scrub areas. do we have any other anecdotes that lists forestation?? the fact that they added "valuable" to the kanawa tree forest is interesting.
Kanawa was well-known as a valuable hard wood. The labels on the map are interesting. The names of places, areas, and vegetation are a mixture of English, Gilbertese, and Tokelau.
• "Henderson Bay" was obviously named for J.A. Henderson, the expedition's leader who had to be evacuated the first day due to illness.
• "Wreck Point," "S.W. Point," "Kanawa Point,"etc. are also obvious.
• "Petro Point" is named for Jack Petro, the half-Gilbertese, half-Portugese overseer in charge of the Gilbertese laborers.
• "Point Pensive" and "Point Cowan" are probably named for some memorable incident.
• "Mao" (scaevola) and "Ren" (Tornafortia argentia) are Gilbertese names.
• "Puka" is the same is the Gilbertese word "Buka" (Pisonia grandis).
• The early Gilbertese village is labeled "Keresoma" which is Tokelau for Jerome, but there is no other record of the village having that name or any name.
• The atoll is made up of three islands, each of which is named on the map, but the names are different from the names later given them by the Gilbertese laborers. The names on the map are in Tokelau. "Moto Oonga" means "Island of the Coconut Crab". "Fanua Matutu" means "Land of the Red-tailed Tropic Bird" ( Red-tailed Tropics nest under the beachfront scaevola all along that shoreline). I forget what "Whenua Amokura" means (My Tokelau is rusty).
In any case, none of the names on the New Zealand map stuck.