matter of antivenene for taking to Cape York. I opened the inquiry with Dr. Hanbrit, M.O.i/c, over a week ago. While careful not to ad- vis e against it, Hanbrit is skeptical about the whole thing. We have two deadly snakes to consider - the death adder and the taipan or giant brown. The death adder is all over Australia; the taipan is a north- eastern snake extending south well beyond Cairns, but it is only very rarely that humans get bitten by these or any other kind of snake. Death adder bites are about 50% fatal. Not much is known about the taipan and its venom has never been analyzed. Bites attributed to it have been 100% fatal and death has occurred in a few minutes. In ten years of experience in Cairns Hanbrit has known only one case of snakebite which may have been taipan. This was a Malay girl of Hamble- don, near Cairns. Walking home from the pictures one night, barefooted, she was bitten on the foot and was dead in a minute. The doctor did not say who held the watch! Anyhow, he doubts if any one, especially if alone, could work fast enough to do any good with antivenene injections in the case of a taipan bite. The recommended dosage of tiger snake antivenene, given partly intravenously and partly intramuscularly is 20,000 units. The serum comes in 1500 unit ampules of about 6 cc. A 20 cc syringe is recommended for speedy injection of the initial intravenous doses. This and 13 ampoules of serum (which is supposeden to be kept in refrigeration) would have to be carried by each man at all times if the party is to go into the field fully equipped to ex- periment with tiger snake antivenene for treatment of taipan bites. It seems to me that a simpler and better insurance would be to get a pair of army leggings, and wear them. Saturday, March 6 Strike still on. Army bombers (Dakota "Biscuit Bombers") now flying food to some parts of the country. Strikers at mass meetings yesterday all voted to hold out with the strike. The governmentalls dilly-dallying, knowing well that strong action to break the strike would lead to a general strike throughout the continent. On our itinerary, based on the scheduled running of the boat for Thursday Island, we had until about this time in March to assemble in Cairns and start reorganizing our gear for work on the Peninsula. There are good collecting localities within practical reach of Cairns by road transport, which is not affected by the strike so far, but until our New York cargo arrives we can do only limited work. From now on, we will therefore be losing time owing to the strike. The strike might end in a matter of hours, or it might go on for weeks. However there are reports that the strike leaders are losing the sup- port of the men, and experienced observers predict that the strike will be over soon. Many families have been without a pay check for four weeks, and the unions are said not to have big reserve funds. This morning Geoff and I set out with Gilbert Bates to drive erdam Mossman, 52 miles north of Cairns, in Bates' old Bedford pick-up. About 20 miles from Mossman something went wrong in the gearbox, affecting top gear, so we limped back on second. Found a good locality for limited collecting at Sweet Creek, about 15 miles north of Cairns. Savanna-forest on a widening of the narrow coastal plain; rain-forest along the creek and up the mountain- sides; a summer camp on the beach, called Palm Beach, where we ought to be able to get the use of a cottage to camp in.