179. Ministerial permission for the export of our collections has not yet come from the Customs Department at Canberra. My formal application for permission was sent through the Collector of Customs in Brisbane, who wrote Canberra that he would clear the collections unless instructed not to do so. We have the clearance. A final surprise from Burns Philp came with their bill for handling the shipment of our cargo. They have charged us with an insurance rate of 2½% on our cargo being shipped on the Pioneer Star, as against the rate of 1½% which we paid on our cargo from New York to Brisbane. The route, through the Panama Canal, is the same. If rates for this route have been increased, owing to supposed war risk, or for any other reason, I have not heard of it. Thursday Oct. 28: After a succession of day to day delays, only vaguely explained by the agents, our ship finished loading about 4 o'clock this afternoon and cast off her lines half an hour later. Geoff and Van have been living aboard since yesterday. Marie and I came on board this afternoon. The ship did her loading at Burt's Wharf, on the Hamilton reach of the river. Our baggage was cleared by Customs without inspection. Since our arrival in the country, we have had favored treatment by Customs. One of their head men even looked us up on the ship to say goodbye. Everywhere we have been asked, "When are you coming back?" Tuesday Nov.16: An eventful day in a restful though rather monotonous voyage. Crossed the equator (without ceremony), passed within about 15 miles of one of the northern small islands of the Galapagos Group, and saw a ship. Our only previous sight of land was a small low-lying sandy island of the Tuamotu Group, near the middle of the Pacific. Today's ship was the first seen on the voyage - a small, rusty, powerdriven vessel of perhaps 100 tons, steering an erratic course, and followed by a big flock of gulls, about 10 miles east of the island. Evidently a fishing boat. Am informed by our first mate that tuna fishing is quite an industry in Galapagos waters. Modern boats, specially built for the job, come down from the Californian coast. The boat we saw today did not look American. The small island of the Galapagos was barely a mile across and rose from the water in sheer cliffs perhaps 200-300 feet high. Grassy on top. A mass of dark objects on the highest elevation (ca.750-1000 ft.) may have been trees, but had more the appearance of rocks. The cliffs of flat-bedded strata, showing whitish bands of rock. We did not see the main islands of the Galapagos Group. Friday Nov.19: About daylight we dropped anchor in the island-protected roadstead off the entrance to the Panama Canal to await quarantine clearance and a pilot. A hilly, forested coast, looking much like any other part of the wet tropics. The steep contours and sharp crestlines are those of a rapid- erosion topography. Entered Miraflores Locks between 8.30 and 9 o'clock, cleared the last step of Gatum Locks about 5.30, and docked at Cristobal half an hour later. Our pilot had with him a canal official, whose functions no one knew. Before entering the first lock we picked up about a dozen negroes to handle the towlines by which the ship was towed through the locks by powerful electric "mules," three on each side. Impressive efficiency was shown in handling our ship, and in the regulation of traffic. Our pilot (Capt. Smith - on the job since 1926) controlled the mules