-52- Saw and photographed at Baniara, two wallabies which had been brought from somewhere on the mainland and were running free on the island. Of slender build, short-haired, grey rather than brown, and with blackish forepaws and heavy blackish stripe from eye forward to mouth or nose, they looked different from any other wallabies I have seen. Visited the native hospital at Baniara and tried to learn from European Medical Assistant Peters something of his work and charges. Peters a bit troppo, or otherwise queer, and a hard man to pin down to answering questions. He has 71 in-patients and 14 out-patients (maladies??). Living with the patients in the wards are 24 relatives or "guardians." The same system that one sees in West Africa. When someone enters hospital, the immediate family goes along too. All expect to be fed, and usually are provided for. Recently, however, this government has put an end to the free feeding. Guardians must now bring their own food, or work for it. A few specimens are being added to the collections, for there is always something left to collect after weeks of work in almost any locality. But our work here may be said to be ended. Van has 478 mammals, including about 250 bats from the caves. Geoff's catch is 362 herps, 35 freshwater fishes, and including light trap material about 27,000 insects. The take in plants is 482 numbers, 2260 sheets (34 Bryophytes included in the numbers). Not a bad start. This is the poorest country we expect to be in during our 9 months of field work. Apart from one or two, who are not too satisfactory, the boys are shaping well. All the party in excellent health and spirits. Sunday 5/3/53: A sharp shower woke me at three this morning. Strone SE after that, moderating about 8 in the evening. Weather threatening, but no further rain. Barometer normal. Gave all the boys a day off after the cooks had washed the clothes in the morning. But Losima, the chef No. 2, a faithful lad, insisted on coming in to wash up after lunch. He would have been ashamed otherwise. It is all right for taubadas to cook their own food if they feel that way and like a change. But washing dishes is boy's work. For breakfast we had eggs bartered from the native wife of the local trader for two cans of tobacco (worth 8 shillings locally) and well-fried by Geoff - six between four of us. Ken got away with a lunch of cold fried sausages left over from breakfast, bread and jam and papaya. I was concocting a stew for the evening meal when someone shouted sail-ho above the moise of surf and wind and the "Jessie" came into the bay, 24 hours before ETA. We were all summoned to dinner of roast chicken, jmk jelly and homemade icecream by the trader's wife - a feast previously arranged to take place before our departure. Present at the dinner were Norman Evennett, skipper and part owner of the Jessie, and Noel Chapman, a traveler on the boat. Evnemt,a high type half-or quarter-caste White-Papuan, of good bearing, quiet speech, and evidently well educated. Chapman another kind: I learn from Ken, an ex-staff man of the War Production Board who left under a cloud and is now practically on the beach. Both spick and span in starched light clothes, in contrast to our unironed khaki.