I have sent George a report of collections which comprise the following: Herpetolo gy, 182; Entomology (including light-trap) 5147; Sundry, 34; I consider that a pretty good showing for nine days. The boys have contrived a drum of sorts, probably an empty can of some sort, from which they produce a peculiar rhythm, and to it they sing a Motuan version "You are my sunshine"; there is no doubt about the melody but the words are not too clear. 1 April. Today the collection improved again, with the addition of our first venomous snake, a black, Pseudochesis; of which the book says,in a pleasant way, that its bite is rarely fatal. This one will not give any fatal bites for he has been under water for six hours already and will stay there for the rest of the night. The Govilon has been side-tracked but the MaLaren King is now in Menapi Bay and we are getting mail finished up to go to Samurai on her. Next Tuesday Len and Van will leave here for Dabora, where the caves are; one of us must stay here, and I have been elected, with one of the cooks and my two boys. Len and Van are going on the Ruru, which is going trading and will pick up Ken on her return trip and Van and Len later as it will be a day and a half run after getting Ken before she reaches Dabora again. I think I have not said very much about the Samurai people, but the reason for Bunting's offering his house to us was because when he escaped from the Japs, the Americans treated him very royally and this was a means of paying off part of this debt; it was so with Busty Miller too except that he was entertained in New York, not having been captured. Another character whom we met during Cape York and of whom we formed an unfavorable opinion, is Cap'n Ted Smith; we steered clear of him during the Cairns days and his reputation is not good, but now he is trying to interest capital in the guano up the Dabora and other caves. Since bats, not birds, are the main inhabitants of the caves, he has become known as Batship Bill, so one assumes that the Samurai people have much the same opinion as we. These ships, by the way, the MaLaren King, Gavilon and so on, are not ships as we understand them but most are launches below fifty feet, like the Lochiel, of Cape York days; she is still afloat and living up to her reputation since the man who last bought her drowned while looking for shell. Now I must close up in order to get this mail on board the MaLaren King, which is [illegible] said to be leaving early tomorrow morning. That may mean practically any time, but we do not care to take the chance of missing her. 2 April. Our oracle, Bill Mason, who has a radio schedule with Samarai, informs me on two important matters today. He heard that a boat will be sent out from Samarai directly after Easter (this being British, that means sometime after next Mon- day), and also that the Korean War is somewhere near settlement. We have heard the latter for the last eighteen months, of course. Other than the above there is little to report today. There was a heavy rain storm towards evening, and tomorrow, being Good Friday, we are giving the boys the day off. As their prized soccer football has been burst, I have ordered another for them but that will not come in for some two weeks or so, I expect, unless the mail which went out today gets some special atten- tion. We assume that Ken is somewhere near the top of Maneo just now, either on his last lap going up or his first lap coming down; the weather has not been particularly good for his attempt, but it is likely that at that elevation there will be rain storms any time of the year and Maneo has something of a reputation as a rain-gatherer. I don't think there is much more to write about tonight. 3 April. This being a holiday for the boys there will not be much in the nature of business to write about; we have Bill Mason coming over from his store for supper and intend to try on him some of the new Army rations which we were asked to experiment with. If Bill and the rest of us survive, no doubt the Army will be able to eat them. I have jotted a few things down in my note-book to write about. A pe- culiar thing was started during the mid thirties, a cult known as Kago. Somebody had persuaded the natives that there were Heavenly forces which would look after them; to aid those powers the huts, the men's houses, and dubus were built much higher than was the usual custom, to be a step down for the angels. Of course nothing happened except the war and then came the American forces whose influence is still powerful in the native memory. The natives probably do not realize what the Yanks saved them from,