indicus is abundant, its yellow flowers scenting the air and strewing the ground in the damp shade. A tall marantaceous herb the principal undergrowth. Monday Sept. 9: Heavy, driving rain from a thunderstorm during last night. Wind NE today; fitful today this morning; we feel the heat here when the wind drops. Went west along the coast to Callanan's small (70 acres) coconut plantation, better than a mile from camp. Very poor botanizing. Barringtonia quadrangularis is the most striking feature of the littoral vegetation. Forms great, heavy branched trees spreading low over the water and bearing an abundance of Dischidia, Asplenium nidue, Cyclophorus as epiphytes. Three or four hamlets along the coast. Foreshore rocky; dead coral shelf; bits of sandy beaches at the villages. One big built-up cano seen, two smaller ones. They use mat sails here. Got a guide at one of the hamlets, and he put me on a faint track which took me into primary forest on the ridges. Very poor forest of small trees. Saw nothing to collect, but did not go far into it. Late in the afternoon I walked to the last hamlet west, where the VC of the vil- lage group, Labadi, was holding a death feast for his father (dead at least some months). In the morning I was shown into a small house in which quantities of dona- tions of food were being "scaled"; much cooking activity; in a special covered shed a covered oven was being loaded with root foods amongst banana leaves. The after- noon a small affair with perhaps 50 people present. Food had been eaten by the time I arrived (4:15). A start was being made to produce New Guinea money in the form of big stone axes (some or most of them of the striped Woodlark stamen Id. stone) and small orange neck ornaments, each of the latter in a braided holder. Big, crescent- shaped limsticks; some of them of tortoise shell and all inlaid with bagi (shell money), were another form of money. The policeman, who is head man of the community, had an assistant receiving most of the money. The two sat at the opposite ends of a mat. The first axes were received by the policeman, each being touched against the one of his upper arms. He removed the orange ornaments from their bag and laid them on the blade of an axe, the ornaments on top of a bag. The helper arrived supported by several women. He wore a ludicrously colored green and purple basketlike object as a hat. When he sat down, women tucked green skirts around his waist. One by one, as they were handed to women sitting by, or to the policeman himself, crescent limsticks were stuck into his armbands, stone axes were left (sic) against him, orange ornaments (in their bags) tucked under his upper arms. There must have been at least 20 stone axes. Made color flashgun photos without disturbing the proceedings (children and some of the men rushed the spent blue bulbs). Five Rattus ruber in traps last night; a flying-fox and a silasila shot by Rus. A ruber brought in by a local native; 2 Pogonomys by one of our boys. Tuesday Sept. 11: Wind back in the SE; blowing all day but sea unusually calm on the reef outs de Bamboo; showers in the hills but none on the cost. Went inland about 2 miles along a track which starts at the mission village (Velevela) and is said to cross the island to Rewa Bay (6 hours). reached an ele- vation of perhaps 500-600 feet. First mile or better was through mangroves on on the catwalk, through the village on its hill, then up through garden lands fallow and cultivated. Cool through the forest but when I came back across the gardens just before noon the sun was very hot there. The hard yellowish clayey soil of the cultivated sloped would seem to need to produce good crops. Noticed only one thriving bit of garden, and it was shaded in part by bananas and young coconuts. Sweet pota- toes the principal crop, with taro a close second. Quite a lot of sugarcane grown.