years ago that has never gone to sea at all. Spent the evening very pleasantly with the Cruikshank family, Captain and Mrs. Cruikshank. We had a very fine dinner in the dining room of their thatch house near the prison and occupied ourselves at bridge until midnight. Tales of the war were the over- tone of the conversation and innuendoes on the utter helplessness of the government of the Solomons to do anything they wanted to do even when all hands were agreeable to it. Sunday, October 2. (Tilagi). Today was the most strenuous that we have had so far. We went to a new landing place on the island of Gala and walked around to the clearing in which we have had so much luck previously. There were fewer birds than usual but as we were occupied in covering the long distance from where we had moored the boat back again it was just as well that we hadn't anything to distract us. We must have covered eight or nine miles through the bush. Distinguished among the birds we saw today was a parrot of many colors, blue, purple, green and red, and an exact copy of the one in the captivity of Mrs. D. on Guadalcanal. We rowed over and rowed back. This brought us the condemnation of Scrymager and Heritage whom we joined after supper for bridge. They contended that a man should not exert himself in the heat anywhere in the region of noon. This is not a bad conten- tion if one is not accustomed to it or to any kind of exertion at all, especially in their case, which is one of perpetually sitting. It is remarkable to consider the passage of time in a place whose climate remains eternally the same month in and month out. It goes very quickly. Each day seems like its predecessor; a day, a week, a month is nothing. There is no break, no mark, no event to look forward to at all. It is a place for a man with a