L.12, S.2 Tues., Mar. 17, 1936. A fair morning without rain during the night. Yesterday 's morning rain brought the temperature down to 77; it had been between 91 and 94 through most of the day. This afternoon (5 p. m.) after unbroken sunshine all day it is 90. Went out early to examine my new line; not a thing in it, though traces of four skinks were to be seen. The catch from the other line was four: 3 Melomys and 1 Rattus. Am getting enough data on the breeding periods of this species R. brachyrhinus to enable me to put together a very fair table (for 1936) covering the months of March and February. We had to build an open pole platform for drying the bones of the dugong this morning. The platform stands four feet abo ve ground and the skeletal parts are spread out on it after which a fire is kindled on the ground beneath. This afternoon I took the boys out to show me where their trap lines now are. They change them about once in a while and I have to keep track of where they put them. Last night on the short wave radio set we could hear various U. S. stations: New Brunswick, N. J. Pasadena, Calif., some place in Indiana. We also picked up a station in the Belgian Congo calling some other local station. Tomorrow morning we are going to try to get the Kono at Prot Moresby and find out when she is due back here. Trapping here on the island is extremely poor. It averages a daily catch of between 1 and 2 % of rats to traps. The boys are shaping up very well however, and they get a little skinning practice daily as well as plenty of exercise at setting traps. I intend to demonstrate steel traps before very long. But I take them along pretty slowly on purpose. The tide here is extraordinarily erratic. It ought to work out at fifty odd minutes later daily. Yet some days it stays in for hours and others it hardly comes in at all. The facts are complicated: First of all we have a tidal wave crammed in between New Guinea, the Solomons, and North Australia; next we are situated on an island whose channel opens at each end to the sea and may thus be held to experience two waves of tide; finally upon the direction and strength of the wind depends the question whether those waves reach Daru (where we are) at the same time or not. Wed. Mar. 18. Male and female Rattus brachyrhinus and a fine adult nearly perfect specimen of a male Melomys muscalis. A strongly defined rufous patch appears on the nape and between the ears of this individual. A fair day. Probably will get hot later. Looking for radio news from the Kono this morning. Worked radio all morning: could talk to Port Moresby all time and could hear Rogers on the ship, but he could not get us. Kono arrived at 12.20. It had left Moresby at 9.30. First mail received from the States. Champion who has been over from the Fly to the Sepik came back on the Kono to show us the route taken by his party, this time from the air. The new transport man Willis was the other passenger. In the afternoon Rogers took the plane up once more for a short flight in order for us to give the radio a further test. And last night Champion brought out his new map on which he shows the newly discovered Lake Marguerite and the Leonard Murray mountains as interpreted through a recent flight made by him from the Leahy Brothers' airport near Mt. Hagen, across the main range in a southwesterly direction and back again. Thur. Mar. 19. One Rattus brachyrhinus and two female Melomys muscalis. I shall be glad when we can get to some station where trapping will be more productive and more varied. We tried to raise VIG (Port Moresby) at ten ock. as agreed but could not get him. Perhaps he had too much work on hand to be able to spare us the time.