terns and shearwaters.I recognized the fairy tern.Nothing on the island except a few palms and an old deserted hut.The blue lagoon enclosed by the atoll is about 3 miles wide.A large fringing reef to the northwest along the shore.There were many large birds but not albatrosses,mollymawks probab- ly.In crossing the prime meridian we lose one day.Many of the birds stayed with the ship until quite late at night. August 8 Lat.8-15 S. Long.174-48 W. Run 413 Passed the Horne Islands this morning,volcanic forma- tions thickly wooded and uninhabited.Not many marine birds in evidence.Some shearwaters. August 9 Lat.14-30 S. Long.178-45 W. Run 403 G.R.wins a prize at the fancy dress party as the"most sustained character".This enhances our chance of meeting some of the select passengers.We have met one man from the Solomons, a missionary of the C of E- R.C.Rudgard of Pawa on the island called Ugi,a little one located off the NW of Guadalcanar. August 10 This day does not exist as far as we are concerned. August 11 Lat. and Long. at 9:30 Suva,Fiji. The approach is not as beautiful as that of Hawaii, and particularly because the natives were burning sugar cane stalks.The harbor is well protected by barrier reefs,having a rather narrow entrance channel.It is actually a bay due to a promontory that extends out to sea quite a ways on the south. The natives impress one immediately by their wonderful phy- siques and rugged appearance;many of them do stevedore work on the pier.The only thing to do in Suva is to ride about;very interesting if you can keep awake,very dull if you cannot,and very expensive either way.About three hours and you are finish- ed if the ride is not.The driver never goes over 15 miles an hour,murmuring something about traffic regulations in reply to protest;at least ten cars passed us.The idea is to draw out th time.Well,we saw a native village whose picturesqueness had been dissipated by tourist exhibitionism.The young people are lazy and have lost their powers of vigor because of the white mores.We called on the chief who was busy making poi,but who raised his head to say,"Samboda"(evidently"good-day;good-bye- "Samboida").The location of the village was pretty- on the top of a bluff overlooking the harbor.The aboriginal natives would be expected to have difficulty in maintaining their culture,bei- ing outnumbered by Orientals and Indians.Very interesting was the government bird sanctuary well up in the interior;there was also a botanical garden,all this at an altitude of about 700 feet.We crossed the Nausori river,pictured below and visi- ted a sugar refinery.The chief produce of the islands consists of bananas,sugar,and pineapple. Foolishly we had lunch at the Grand Pacific Hotel (Gr. Terrific Hotel),which was just bad.The Aorangi was cleared by 2:30.We left native coin-divers waving farewell from their dug-outs and singing"Show Me the Way to Go Home",first in Eng- lisht and then in Fijian.About 7:30 we passed close to the out- lying island in our course,lying under a full moon,a light- house on the reef and a cloud on the mountain.The Solomons are only a few days run to the west.Gulls and shearwaters were in evidence until midnight when G.R.and I have a half hour ses- sion on the forepeak.