Lehner, P. 1964 Nov. 16 - continued 3 we were to see tall white flagpoles on Kuria and Aranuka atolls later, but we never did see a flag; while Binion was explaining our purpose and that we had hoped to spend the night, I examined the well and found the water table to be 10 feet below the grounds surface - it also appeared as though they had to penetrate a foot thick layer of sedimentary rock to reach the water; dogs and cats ran all around the huts; after all was said that could be said we returned to the raft: Roger and Ken went off collecting birds, Binion set mouse trans, Dave and Jim set up insect traps and George and I sat around talking to the natives; Larry had remained aboard ship to skin birds; among the things I learned from the local schoolteacher are the following: they teach twelve grades of school on each of the Gilbert islands and then the student is eligible to take an exam to qualify to go to Tarawa to school for four more years - there are three Cooperative Society stores on the island and the people in the community can sell their copra to the store and then buy goods- copra sells for 6¢/lb. and the island produces about 100 tons/year - to keep their homes in repair they must replace the pillars once a year and the thatching every three years - they use Pandanus for the pillars as it is much stronger than coconut and more resistant to termites; the Magistrate returned to the village just before dusk and talked with Binion; he wanted to try shooting the shotgun - and did so twice, much to the delight of the other natives; they asked that we stay in their transient hut, we accepted, gathered our gear and walked up the graveled path towards it; one native wanted to buy my diving knife and when I refused he (over)