mouse was found by Geoff [illegible] under a sheet of galvanized in an abandoned camp on the Batavia River. George and Van collected in the following localities in the Cocktown area after leaving the base camp at Shipton's Flat: 1. Helenvale, Annan River. Sept. 16-17-18-19. 2. Bowie's Spring, Black Mountain. Sept. 20-21. 3. Alderbury Station, Cooktown-Laura Railway (25 miles from Cooktown). Sept. 23-24. 4. Segren's Farm, Endeavour River, 10 miles west of Cooktown. Sep.25-26-27. Thursday Sept.30: Much activity in the corner of the large warehouse of Burns Philp & Co. which we have used for storage purposes and in which we are now packing collections and gear for shipment to the U.S. Our Coen cargo was delivered from the "Lady Jocelyn" early this morning. So far as can be seen without opening boxes and cartons for detailed inspection, the materials shipped from various parts of the Peninsula by sea and air freight, and stored in Cairns, are in perfect condition. There was no damage to containers in transit, and the contents of containers which have been opened for re-packing are in first class shape. On this trip, my herbarium specimens have been packed in cartons, with napthaline, and the cartons sealed with gummed paper tape. Not one carton has been damaged in transit from collecting camp to the warehouse in Cairns, although nearly all of them were shipped loose, without wrapping, boxing or crating. George and Van have been very careful about drying and packing their mammal specimens. Skins have been treated with a dry mixture of arsenic and alum, and packed in the "Black boxes" and 3-ply knockdown boxes which we used on our New Guinea trips. Napthaline and paradichlorobenzene were used as insect repellants in the boxes of dried skins. Skulls, after being thoroughly dried (in my plant drying equipment), were packed in ordinary [illegible] ford cans - not friction-top cans, but the hermatically sealed kind - and secured by roughly crimping the top of the can over the partly severed top. This pack allows good ventilation for the skulls, and saves the necessity of carrying special cans for the purpose. All snakes and other reptiles, and amphibians, were preserved in formalin, and the solution poured off before final packing for shipment to the U.S. Geoff's insects are in a heterogeneous lot of containers, some of them not as good as could be desired. Except in glassine envelopes, requirements were greatly under estimated and under supplied by the Insect Dept. at the Museum. Don Vernon has not shared our apparent good fortune in regard to condition of collections. Many of his bird and mammal skins which were collected in the Iron Range area and shipped from Portland Roads, were in a pretty bad condition with mold, and some of the mammal skins were beginning to slip, or had slipped, when they arrived in Brisbane. Don used borax or borax and alum on his made-up skins, salt on his large skins. He was under a strict prohibition from Mack against the use of poison on skins, and naphthaline or di paradichlor. for packing. I am unable to say how well Don dried his skins, but both George and I did our best to advise him on the importance of this, as well as other matters in regard to his collecting, and he was always keen to learn. Mack would not admit that his methods could be at fault when the Iron Range skins reached the Museum in bad condition. None of Mack's rather meager field experience has been in the tropics, but, stubborn Scotchman that he is, he insisted that Don carry on with methods which serve well enough in drier and cooler parts of Australia but are risky indeed on the Cape York Peninsula. It is understandable that Mack is nervous about the condition of Don's