did. They showed considerable judgment by keeping away from the coast line, which would have meant constant climbing of mountains, and sticking to the level ground. Apart from extreme hunger they had not other trouble. We reached Cairns about 4 P.M., having seen bush fires grow greater and more numerous the further down we travelled; everything is bone dry here and the Barron River, whose fall supplies Cairns with electric power, is so low that electricity is to be rationed. Len met us in with two news items, the first that B-P wants to charge us fifty guineas agency fee and the other that practically all the evenings remaining in Cairns have been filled with invitations. On the latter I shall back out as I have made friends of my own, to whom I want to say goodbye, and on the first it simply confirms the fact that B-P has lost all moral and business sense; to me it is an unheard of thing to charge such a fee to a scientific expedition, and it implies that their work has been a lot more efficient than it has. Hides Hotel has changed ownership but its personnel seems just the same as it was. Marie Brass returned from a three day bus trip and Gil Bates and Mrs. were our guests for dinner; after that Marie brought over five other girls that she had picked up in her wanderings. I pleaded business to do and left the party to write this. Our freight has to be ready for shipment south on the 5th, which does not allow much time, and I think that I shall travel down by train as the Wandana will not get to Brisbane until the 11th or 12th, which would not give me time to get down to Sydney to do the things I want to do there. Now I shall take a stroll around town and then turn in - the bed looks mighty enticing. Friday, 1 October 1948. Work has been at such high pressure and there have been so many invitations that for the first time during the trip I failed to make the usual entry here yesterday. The reason for that was that we were invited to the Bates' place for a last drink together and on our return opened one of the bottles of rum left over and stayed up late. Our freight sent from Coen via Annie River reached Cairns last night; we knew it had not arrive in before and were worried about it but I found it being unloaded from a craft bearing the pleasant name of Lady Jocelyn and took it up to the warehouse. The amount of the collection is surprising; we had shipped from various points during the trip, of course, and none of us realized the quantity of stuff there was altogether. Now it has been picked into crates and will be picked up and put aboard the Wandana on Monday for carriage to Brisbane, where it will be transhipped to the Pioneer Star. Len and Marie leave on Sunday, George on Monday, Van on Tues- day and I on Wednesday. I am going by train, Van on the Wandana and the others flying. I would like to have made the Wandana trip but it would not allow me enough time to get to Sydney and do the things I want to do there. A plane would give me too much time since I plan to stay with Charles Wilmot, so train is the only thing. I have not yet been on an Australian train and am led to believe that it is something of an experience. Tonight we dined with the Stevens' and Brooks families and I think our festivities are over. I have been quite friendly with the refugees, who return to Cooktown on Monday, so shall see them tomorrow.