46. Friday, 9 April 1948. Right after breakfast Van and I went down to the wharf to make certain Time was there; she was, her hull red with rust and the gilt letters of her name black with tarnish. A few of the frew were leaning against her rail, throwing bits of meat to stray dogs and looking a bit sheepish though to give credit where due, they did not strike, merely enjoyed a lot of pay and idleness while others struck. Unloading started about 10 A.M., by which time Len and I had called on Dupain, of B-P, and received his promise that everything to hasten things would be done as soon as our stuff showed up. Then we investigated ships leaving for the north and gathered a lot of information, none of which is entirely definite. John Burke's ship, Wendana, is not due to leave Cairns until the 23rd (she is just now at Brisbane and leaves there on the 17th); another Burke ship, Cora, is supposed to leave Cairns for Thursday Island next Tuesday or Wednesday but has no passenger space, though she could carry the cargo; another ship already mentioned, Yalata, is still up the stream and also expects to leave about Thursday Wednesday, a week later than she had previously expected; Len has engaged two plane reservations for next Wednes- day and four for the Wednesday following, in case we are unable to travel with the freight, as would be the case with Cora, though we are all exceed- ingly reluctant to let the stuff out of our hands again. The main thing is to get the freight out of the ship and in our hands and then we can make final plans. There seemed to be quite a bit of work to be done during the day - finishing touches to collections, and of month settlements with the bank and our various accounts, dinner for Gil and Mrs. Bates who are going away on Monday for about two weeks, and so on. We ended up at an exhibition of Queensland wood and timber which bored me so much that I went out to sit on the step of the place and almost fell asleep. I rectified that by getting back to Hides Hotel and sleeping there. Saturday, 10 April 1948. Van watched the docks this morning and came back with the report that never before had he seen such quantities of peas and jam and that no part of our cargo had yet emerged, Of course the wharfies stopped work at noon and do not start again until Monday. George and Len are both suffering somewhat from the leech bites they acquired when climbing Bellenden Kerr and George had medical attention for his this morning. I have had one or two but high boots, laced outside my trousers have kept me pretty free from the loathsome things. They are black, about the size and color of the lead in an ordinary pencil and about an inch long at first. They show a horrid eagerness as they writhe to- wards whatever piece of flesh they think they would like, and if left to their own devices, swell up almost to the size of my little finger. With some of them, you can feel their first puncture but most attach themselves without betraying their presence at all. After being detached, which is best done by applying a lighted cigarette, they leave behind them a hole about a quarter inch in diameter, which bleeds profusely. They seem to inject some form of venom which retards coagulation and Len particularly just streams with blood from one of their bites. In rain forest they are in abundance and will attack the face, neck or any other part that is exposed.