existence we very much doubt, country, but so far, in spite of our fairly large party, there has been no sign or trace whatever. In the evening George went out, returning with a brown snake, now in formalin, which I must look over when I finish this, but no native striped cat. Alf Reed and I drew the assignment of dimmer orderlies and turned out a very tasty dish of canned beef stew and celery, plus bananas, bread, butter and cheese, and tea. Sleeping accommodations very somewhat; Len is spending the night on a cot, under the house, George has his South American hammock slung on the veran- dah, Van is sleeping on the verandah floor and the others are draped around the place in various positions. I have the best of the lot. One of Mr. Beaver's possessions is an operating table, the first to grace the town of Cairns and dating back about seventy years, whose legs have been cut down; it has been converted into a cotch but the jointed part which in those days was elevated and propped up much as a deck chair is, remains and works. I have issued an ultimatum that if anybody gets any surgical ideas, he is in danger of my club, which at the moment forms my whole collecting equipment. Saturday, 27 March 1948. This turned out to be a somewhat mixed sort of a day with some of us, including myself, suffering various minor troubles. To start Van complained of a pain in his lower abdo- men and was off his feed. However, his traps turned in a fair collection, which did him a lot of good. George got through the day without any mishap, so far as the rest of us know, and has been rather patronizing. Len, Ernie and Gordon started up-stream to a junction named Stony Creek but got bushed and were away for about seven or eight hours, arriving back in a state of near-collapse. My own trouble came after dark; I had no light and got tangled up with some barbed wire, incurring two gashes across my chest and a deep puncture between my right thumb and forefinger. The original plan this morning was that I should return to Cairns with Ernie and Gordon, get what information I could on the subject of Tiem and cargo and radio a message out to the rest at Speewah. It turns out however that George does not like the place as a hunting ground, so Ernie will come out to get us some time on Monday afternoon and we shall all be on hand when and if there is any particular news. Gordon, oddly enough, is working on the installation of a motor in Yalate, which ship, we hope, will carry us up to Thursday Island at the end of next week. Saw my first cassowary in the open forest this morning but having only a stick and a butterfly net, there was not much I could do about it. Not that I would anyway because we do not want any birds. Sunday, 28 March 1948. Out at 6 A. M. with George this morning; he had set a new trap line yesterday afternoon and we went to- gather to the point where the line started, separating there, and I worked my way back until I struck the trail back from the hill I had climbed yester- day morning. My bad consisted of one centipede, one green spider and one damsel fly and to my mind that does not justify getting up at 5.45. Van got a smaller catch in his line, five assorted rats, and George picked up nothing in his new line. In some respects, I suppose, it is worthwhile getting everything in sight as it will all be new to the Bug Dept. but it also seems rather a waste of time, in that we are not where we are supposed to be. Once we reach our proper area, I surmise that collecting will be faster and more furious and everybody except Jetty Joe, if he has not by then taken another job, will put in very full days and nights.