Turned back from somewhere inside the lagoon with a big green turtle they had caught. We had some of the meat and liver for luncheon. Liver has a peculiar texture and I did not eat it. Sunday Oct. 7: No rain last night, one heavy shower about mid-morning. Cloud drift from about NE in early morning. Had the use of Osborne's small launch "Pani-pani" (meaning every village in Rossel talk) as far as the head of tidewater in the river, then walked the best part of the way a mile upstream on the righthand bank. Cattle track on quaggy grass near the river. Collected twenty numbers, my best day on Rossel so far, but nothing very exciting There was a rheophytic Ficus lily like a species on Sudest. A nutmeg had great orange fruits 5 cm in diameter. Found a single plant of an orchid like Dendrobium undulatum, but the flowers were evenly colored brownish-yellow, with straight segments and pseudobulb distinctly swollen. Nothing in traps. Three Macroglossus in two nets now set. A phylanger and a Nyctimene shot last night by Kim. Lionel returned from Adele Id. with 26 Rattus ruber. A very heavy infestation of these rats he says. Caught most of his take in one trap, placed a few feet in front of him, and shielded from light by momentarily placing a hand over his jacklamp. About thirty acres of overcrowded coconut plantation on Loa and Adele. Osbornes work it with Rossel labor on a 15/- a ton piecework basis. The party returned with a fine blue parrotfish, a travjy, and a good kingfish. Also the flesh of several giant clams, of which the boys made soup. We dined with the Osbornes. Eric says that cannibalism was practiced on Rossel to as late as about 1910. to his knowledge. It was the regular thing after the deatj of a chief. Certain people were destined at birth for this purpose. Borrowed from Mrs. Osborne "Rossel Island, An ethnological study", W.E. Armstrong, Cambridge University Press, 1928. Armstrong, of Cambridge, spent about two months on the island in 1921. Eric tells me he had a cork leg, which fell to pieces when he visited a camp Eric and his family near the summit of Mt. Rossel. Monday Oct. 8: Light showers in afternoon; apparently heavier ones out at sea. Mist or rain on tops of the higher mountains in afternoon and late morning. SE cloud drift but little wind here, and the day was uncomfortably hot in the field. Went up the river again. collecting two species of tree-fern on banks nearly barely above the tide, then climbed a ridge off the east bank past a hamlet of two houses (where the VC lives). Oaks there at only about 100 feet above the river. Much of the very clayey wet ground had been cleared and has grown to rather head- wooded trees (Achrochilus etc.) and in places overrun with a scrambling Gleichenia. Stone platforms at the hamlet, and the top of the ridge appeared to have been levelled at some time, perhaps long ago. Not a thing in traps. A Dobsonia and a Nyctimene shot by Rus (the Osbornes with him) last night, a cuscus by Liklik. In the morning Rus and Lionel went on a du- gong hunt in the "Pani-pani" with Hugh and Ron. A very big female (not measured) shot by the Osbornes with a .303 rifle. One of three of the animals seen off the point of land just west of Abeleti (a big herd said to be there, coming in to feed on the shallows behind the reef with the rising tide). The dugong carried a fully developed foetus about four feet long. The skull of the female, her genital parts, and the head and genital parts of the young one (male) kept. Steaks eaten for the evening meal were better than I expected. Tuesday Oct. 9: No rain; mountains clear most of the day; light SE wind. The driest spell of weather since we have been here. For once our track down to the landing is not muddy. Hugh tells me that a change of tides from night to day highs indicates that the SE season is over. There are two tides