up until all hours of the night, Ham skinning the eagle and I skin- ning the pigeon. We shall have with us at least two birds that Beck will be glad to get, an owl and an eagle. Tulagi in its present state is not without a charm. All the boats are out of the harbor and it is as dead as an Antarctic Ice sheet. The place itself has lapsed into a deep sleep which it will not come out of again until the 'Mataram' turns up on the 20th of October. Wednesday, September 28. (Tulagi). It has seemed that all the melancholy of the tropics settles upon the harbor of Tulagi. We have been here for three weeks always on the tiptoe of expecting transportation out of the place on the day following. At present our hope is on Mr. William Tate who is presumably bound for Gizo on the 'Awa'. He is waiting for the o.k. of his appointment as mate on the 'Ranandie' from Fiji. This is probably a Chinaman's dream. The earliest we will be able to get to Gizo will be undoubtedly when the American gunboat arrives from Bucharest two years from next Thanksgiving. We spent the afternoon cruising about in the bush as usual looking for possums and birds that Beck has not got. We saw nothing that fell into any of these categories. We have covered almost all of the adjacent territory on the island of Florida, and geologi- cally, geographically, philosophically and biologically we are all ready to get the hell out. Thursday, September 29. (Tulagi). It is pretty evident that we will not start for Gizo until next Monday. It is on that day that the 'Ranandie' starts for Santa Cruz and Tate will know definitely one way or the other. The life here in Tulagi continues on in unabated quiescence. We spent the day on Gala looking for