plants (many ferns, orchids, palms, etc.). A memo re export permits and royalties will be drawn up and filed for information of officers administering the Act. If we ship from Cairns, S. E. Stephens, senior agricultural inspector there, will issue ex- port permits. Knowledge of treatment of such collectors as Wilkins and Raven in earlier years, and the very severely limiting restrictions placed on them in Queensland, coupled with the gloomy predictions of Mack last week, had me a bit doubtful as to what to expect for our expedition. As it turns out we are writing our own ticket. In return for all this, we (1) Give Queensland Museum paratypes of new mammals we may discover; (2) Take a Queensland Museum man with us in the field for a month or two (museum paying his expense); (3) Give Queensland Herbarium a full set of the plants col- lected, and types of new species which may be described by White or his staff; (4) Col- lect cuttings of Saccharum spontaneum for Qld. Dept. of Agriculture, or if this not practicable, pinpoint locations where this wild sugarcane occurs so that Govt. will be able to send an officer to the Peninsula to collect it later. Saccharum spontaneum is wanted for sugarcane breeding experiments. An abundant grass in New Guinea; not yet recorded for eastern Australia, though Stan Blake found it on the Daly River, Northern Territory, last year. Called at Dept. of Lands to pay for some maps they sent us last year. Grenning, Director of Forests, from whom I want permission to collect on forest reserves, was out of his office. Talked with W. M. McLean, Under Secretary; F. Matthews, Secretary, Land Administration Board; and John Connolly, Asst. Sec. Land Admin. Board. Department offi- cers in the North will cooperate in every way possible. A surprising percentage of senior gov. officers were born in the North. They are much interested in what goes on there. They like to talk about it, and as my calls often coincide with the recess for morning or afternoon tea, a good deal of time is taken up in making official contacts. At the Tourist Bureau, where I inquired re rail and air reservations for Cairns, I came across a man whose father was a policeman at Coen, and came with a bag full of gift publications on the State. At the Immigration Dept. was given my alien registration card, numbered "Q.l," the first to be issued in Queensland under the new Act requiring the registration of all aliens. Saturday Jan. 17: On correspondence. Letters to Marie; Geoff Tate; Rev. H. M. R. Rupp, the Australian orchid specialist; R. A. Hunt, who has sent a copy of his recently published Key to the Identification of Australian Snakes; Rev. H. F. Johnson of Lockhart River Mission; and the agents of a 150-ton vessel, the "Yalata", trading between Cairns and Thursday Island. The ggents of the Yalata wrote about our transportation up the Peninsula Coast, and offered to divert the vessel from its regular run to meet our requirements. The "Yalata" gives us a second string to work on if the John Burke steamers should fail us. Hunt's key, published in the Victorian Naturalist last month, includes notes on the venomousness, color, scalation and distribution of 79 spp. and 7 varieties of Australian snakes. Of these only six are non-venomous. It is reassuring to note that many of the venomous ones are considered harmless or not dangerous. Seven are called deadly. The Commonwealth Laboratories produce a Tiger Snake Anti-venene that is effective against most or all of the venomous species. We will have some of this on Cape York.