79. It is now shortly after noon and the day has been bright so far, the first of such events for about two weeks. There is a strong wind blowing and the fleet of pearling luggers anchored in the harbor bobs around like so many corks. Van is suffering from some kind of eye infection and has been treated at the hospital. George has been skinning some bats taken yesterday, I caught up with my mail and visited Burns, Phil and Len came in with the information that we may leave this afternoon, the captain of the Alagna states. However, this is much more of a land of Manana than South America and I still feel that it will not be until tomorrow morning. I am infuriated with Burns Phil in general. Not only were the local man's excuses for not writing flimsy and indifferent but now I find that the Cairns B-P have failed to make our shipment of supplies as ordered. They were to have come up by the Alagna, whose captain said he had no freight for Port- land Roads at all and did not even stop there. Vernon, of the Brisbane Museum, who is to join us for a few weeks during the P.R. period, also was to have come up by the Alagna but did not do so. Drinking in the hotel started right after breakfast and a few minutes ago a total stranger came in to my room and said that probably we would never meet again. I agreed with him, said it was [illegible] nice that we had met at all. He agreed with me and left, murmuring about ships that pass in the night. Saturday, 29 May 1948. Before telling of the opulent comfort and splendor in which I am writing at present, I had better bring yesterday to a proper close. After completing the above entry, we all went up a hill at the north-west end of the island, named Green Hill,. On the summit there was an old fortress, constructed many years ago and revived for use during the 14-18 war. The old gund still mounted there date back much longer than that but I could find no date on them. The cause of their visit there was that the galleries, passages and slots and slits through which ammunition used to be passed have become a community home for thousands of bats. George and Van wanted some as specimens and I wanted to look the old place over. The bats were there and for the first time we found that local opinion did not lie, so far as their numbers go. The flapping of their wings caused a continuous loud hum and draught of cold air. The galleries were really long tunnels with low roofs, only about seven feet high; the bats gathered in large clusters, the underneath ones clinging to inequalities in the roof and the rest haising on to the other bats. George and Van simply picked them off in hand- fuls, examining them and letting [illegible] those which they did not want. In the evening we were invited to the home of Dr. and Mrs. Barnes and there found the Torres Straits pilots gathered again, with Mr. and Mrs. Cad- zow, who had been our hosts the previous night. Again we had a very pleasant time and ended up with a meal containing all the sweet cakes and such things that we shall not now see again until three months at least have passed. Again we got back just before the lights went out and a little later I was aroused by somebody bumping and clawing his way around my room. A mutter was my the only answer to my challenge so I hopped out of bed to find another drunk (the first was the man who said we should never meet again) who had mis- taken the open door of my room for the passage which runs from the back to the front verandah. He had stumbled over my box, completely lost his bearings and was trying to find his way out again. I directed him to the passageway, we agreed that there was a mighty heavy sea running, and so back to bed.