Wednesday, 5 May 1948. This day has been one of packing and preparing for the move tomorrow. Everybody has been flying around in something of a dither, each asking the other where such and such is and if it has been packed. For me the morning was broken abruptly about 11 A.M. by an agonized call from the Holland house. It was Mrs. H. asking me to come quick and bring my gun. A brown snake had traversed the length of their clearing and taken cover under a pile of planks. Both Ginger Dick and young Dick were prancing around and warning me not to go near it and Mrs. H. beat a precipitate retreat into the house. Finally the snake came out and I shot it. It was about five feet or a little more in length, deep brown along the back, shading almost to a purplish color underneath. "It's a taipan", said Dick, so, although it looks very harmless to me and has a very small mouth and fangs, it is a taipan until somebody proves it is not. I have more than a suspicion that it is quite harmless. We shall leave here immediately after breakfast which will be at crack of dawn. Ginger Dick will drive us in his fine Army truck and except for the last three miles, we have the usual cart-rut road. That last three miles we shall travel by pushing our way through though undoubtedly there will be trees and suchlike to be moved from the road part. The heavy guns will go into action there; George has been trying out the 30.30 and I am taking fifty rounds for my .303. Crocs are said to be numerous both in the sea and in Lake Bronto but snakes were said to be plen- tiful also and I have taken only four in the last two weeks. Two we saw and missed, but they cannot be said to be in great quantity. Tonight will be an early night, in preparation for the morning's early activities, so I shall close up now. Thursday, 6 May 1948. I am very doubtful if I can do this day justice on ac- count of the fact that I am nearly out on my feet but the sound of the sea is in my ears and the waves themselves are not fifty yards away. I am writing by the light of a lantern which is swinging from a bough and swaying with the force of the wind. Camp is still not fully established but sleeping quarters are ready for us and we are ready for them. A few mat- ters of arrangement have still to be done and then we shall be ready for work. We left Lockerbir, Ginger Dick driving, at 7.45 and had fairly good tra- vel for the first three miles after which we ran into trouble. The trail, not travelled by anyone for the last [illegible] seven years, consisted only of a cart track in the first place, and the times that all hands had to dismount from the heavy- ly loaded truck and fell trees which leaned over the track, or dismember others which had fallen on the track were countless. Finally Dick remembered a short cut and we left the dimly marked road, only to find ourselves completely hem- ed in by forest. Dick crashed through, pushing trees and foliage out of his way as though he were in a tank while the five of us riding on the top did the best we could to fend off or at least guard ourselves from the branches which sometimes scraped the top of the load as well as us. The worst snakes were the loops of thick vines which hung down in loops: one of them took Van's hat off and barely left him his head. About 12.30 P.M. we reached Lake Bronto, a lagoon said to be crocodile in- fested, where we stopped to stretch our legs and have a drink of water. There was no sign of any saurians though there is no reason to doubt their existence there. A half hour later we broke out of the scrub and saw the Pacific spark spreading in front of us. It was a welcome sight and a camp site was quickly selected. The camp name has not yet been decided but the point of land on which