39. In connection with Jetty Joe, a telegram came from about two weeks ago, asking if everything was still as arranged. He was somewhat disturbed by our delay probably, but Len replied explaining the trouble with Time, etc., so we still expect to find Joe waiting when we reach T. I. Since yesterday's was the first cassowary I have ever seen in the flesh it might be an idea to put in a little bit of description of it. It was in scrub and didn't wait for me to make any close examination but looks very much like a cross between a very large turkey and an emu. The long neck is a metallic blue, the crest or comb and wattles bright red and the rest of the bird almost sooty black. Len tells me that the young are very good eating, and that will be about our only interest in them, for the pot. George, in desperation, spent the time from 5.30 until 9 P. M. in the bush searching for at least a sign of the native cat. There was none, though he did return with a bandicoot and something else which I do not remember. For myself, the daughter of the house rendered a concert for her boy friend and me, playing a long series of old songs and tunes on the piano by the light of a hurricane lampern. There is no other form of light available. She was taught to play by a cousin and does very well. The nearest neighbors are about eight miles away, a journey of several hours through the scrub on horseback. Monday, 29 March 1948. This will be our last day at Speewah as we are expecting Ernie Stevens to arrive for us somewhere about 3 P. M. I listened to the radio news, hoping for some word of Time but could learn nothing but the fact that Russia can make two atomic bombs whereas the U. S. can produce them in the necessary military quantity, and that the striking men at Rockhampton have decided to hold a meeting next Wednesday to decide when they will return to work. George and Van were away early on their traps, Len has just gone out and I have finished my specimen packing, both bugs and reptiles, must have a bit of a wash and then must go out and procure enough to fill a partly filled box so must close this up for the present. As we had prepared rations for six men for five days and it turned out to be four men for three and a half days, there is quite a lot of food to be packed and taken back. I notice that the only time I have referred to our hosts, I spoke of Mr. Beavers. That is wrong, the name is Veivers, there is a Mrs. as well as a Mr., a son, a daughter and a cousin all living there, in addition to whom the daughter, Ivy, had her boy friend staying for the Easter holidays. As might have been inferred from the description of their farm, they are definitely backwoods people, whose travel and horizon is limited to the village of Ku- renda, which may contain two hundred souls. But they all have a good control of English and speak well and with good accents. Their attitude towards the war is one of indifference, I find; it is generally regarded as something which interfered with their running of the farm and none of them were in any branch of the service. They found a mild resentment to an Australian who was found concealed at the bottom of a well with a wireless transmitter, by which means he was communicating with the Japs, but I think they would not have lynched him or taken any very stringent action. Ivy, the daughter, had found the farm too quiet and had tasted the joys of Cairns, but had come back to relieve her mother of some of the work around the place. They treated us with great courtesy and consideration and seemed sorry when we left this afternoon. A present of some kind for Mrs. Veivers is in order. Van seemed rather under the weather still on our return, Len has tick bites, George seems all right, and I have my barbed scratches. Now I must close to get these sheets mailed.