49 Thursday, 15 April 1948. Before shifting from the Cairns scene, I wish to re- cord an amusing incident which happened during the Bellenden Kerr period. George had been much plagued by leeches and sewed on the bottom of his trousers a strap to pass under his instep, thus holding his trousers well down inside his boots. The straps worked so well that when he stooped, his trousers split from crotch to top, up the back, and had to be fast- ened together with some safety pins from the medical kit. That was not too bad but on the return from the mountain top, wringing wet as he was, Deogge decided to change his clothes. Shortly there was a yell from him and he was found tied up in an almost inextricable knot. His clothes had not been off for three days and it was not found out, until he was almost completely dislocated, that his trousers had been pinned together with his underwear. Last evening we entertained Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, the dentist, and Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, the Govt. Horticulturalist, all four of them ardent naturalists, and all of them having been of great help and assistance to us. The morning passed quickly, odds and ends having accumulated and sundry jobs having to be rushed through in time for sailing. That hour was indefinite until the last minute, the crew, about 5 P.M., being almost in a state of mutiny over a deckload of four tons of ice and two tons of salt which arrived at the last minute. Dupain came in for drinks shortly after 5 P.M. and a small party started, carrying on through dinner and continuing after when Henderson, the manager of Hides Hotel, took over the programme. It was not until about 10 P.M. that we were informed that there was a man at the door wearing only a pair of shorts, who wanted to see Len. To let a person clad so lightly into the hotel would have been a major infraction of the rules governing this miniature Waldorf (have I stated that on the wall of the elevator there is a sign which reads "Guests will wear coats for all meals and ties for dinner - signed The Management") so Len went down and brought the man up to the lounge muffled in his, Len's, coat. Henderson and his wife came down to the dock to see us depart and were horror- struck at the Lochiel. Our sleeping quarters are in the forecastle, which on- tains bunks (4) and is possibly eight feet square. Roaches in their thousands were scampering over everything and practically stood up and cheered when they realised that there were to be four sets of eyebrows for them to chew on dur- ing the hours of darkness. Loading had just started finished when we arrived on board and the crew were having their first meal of the day, steaks and eggs; one or two of them were quite well oiled but we were also and formalities were not observed fo any great extent. The boys of the crew are an interesting lot but I shall do more in the way of description of them and the ship tomorrow. Let me sign off tonight by describing my last conversation, which took place with the one black member of the crew. He informed me that his name was Koko and he was the son of Jerry Koko. He told me further of the death of his father and of his effort to buy a headstone costing L180 but the protector would not let him pay more than L75, the money coming from the fortune of L300 left by Jerry at his de- cease. At this point poor Koko Junior was taken with a fearful attack of hic- coughs, fell from the coil of rope on which he had been seated, and was piloted to whatever place he sleeps. I crawled down to the forecastle, myself fortified against roaches or anything else and slept as soundly as Koko. Friday, 16 April 1948. I do not know whether or not I can give an adequate description of Lochiel or whether I shall have to try my hand at drawing. Perhaps both, but I shall try words first. She is