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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   1271

group arranged by the Navy to check on the conditions after the passage of a year. Dr. Leonard F. Schultz, Curator of Fishes, Dr. J. P. E. Morrison, Associate Curator, Division of Mollusks and Mr. Frederick M. Bauer, Assistant Curator, Division of Marine Invertebrates, were occupied for six weeks on this project. It is interesting to note that fishes were as abundant as ever in the lagoon, and that some of the bottom-dwelling invertebrates were living amid mud and sand deposits still so highly radioactive that the animals themselves could be handled with safety only for a short period of time. It is hoped that periodic check on conditions at the atoll may be continued at intervals.

Arrangements are now complete for field work in Australia, a week place in our investigations and collections, through a cooperative project between the Smithsonian, the National Geographic Society, and the Australian Government. Four men will participate on our behalf, Frank W. Setzler, Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, as anthropologist; David Johnson, Associate Curator, Division of Mammals, as mammologist; Herbert G. Deignan, Associate Curator, Division of Birds, as ornithologist; and Robert Miller, Associate Curator, Division of Fishes, as ichthyologist. Australian scientists will cover other branches of natural history. The Australian Government has arranged for the party to go into Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, an area largely unknown scientifically as it has been held closed to white entry to protect the large aboriginal population. The men will be in the field during the dry season from March to October. 

A cooperative expedition between Yale University and the Institution under Dillon Ripley, formerly of our staff, and now with the Peabody Museum of New

A.W.

Transcription Notes:
The initials AW appear on the lower left side of the page (not transcribed).