quarter the France weighed from Gizo on Thursday morning heading for Vella Lavella. In the late afternoon the wind calmed to a flat sea, followed shortly by a stiff squall. In the course of two hours it made two circles through all points of the compass accompanied by heavy rains and thunder. The rate of our progress became so independent that Mr. Beck decided to head into Ganonga. At dusk we managed to make our old familiar anchorage slightly to the north of the small island at Kumbakota. After all the rain and stormy weather of the day it was a pleasure to see the night scatter the clouds and the stars winking over the mountains- the same mountains in which we had lost ourselves only a fortnight before. This time we saw nothing of the native inhabitants, not a canoe putting off to greet us, nor a light signalling to us from on shore. It was a disappointment, for I should have liked to have seen Marco and had a yarn with him again. Friday morning broke fine and clear. We made sail at sunlight and broke down the coast of Ganonga before the wind, wing and wing. It was Mr. Beck's intention to call in at the islet just north of the most northern point of the big island in the hopes of picking up some man-o'-war birds. The wind died down at noon, however, and what with the strong current which was bearing north down the coast it was decided not to waste the time required to beat