504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



larger than a moderate-sized earthworm. Geckos (nocturnal lizards 

 with adhesive toe pads that aid in climbing) of several kinds abound 

 in the trees and on window screens of buildings where they catch in- 

 sects attracted to electric lights at night. The toad is extremely 

 abundant in the vicinity of Koror, and two kinds of frog seem to 

 be widespread throughout the islands. The monitor lizard is not 

 especially common but may be encountered on Babelthuap. The 

 collections and notes of Dr. Masamitsu Oshima, who studied the rep- 

 tiles of Palau, were unfortunately destroyed during the course of the 

 war before they could be published. Our collections will therefore 

 fill an important gap in our knowledge of the terrestrial fauna of the 

 Palaus. 



HOMEWARD BOUND 



By the time November rolled around and Project Coral Fish had 

 been active in Palau for four months, we began to make plans for 

 the homeward journey. On November 4 we made our last marine 

 collecting station, and on the following day the dismantling of the 

 laboratory began. All equipment had to be either packed for ship- 

 ment or stored for use by Project Coral Fish II. Outboard motors 

 were cleaned and boxed, the Lenore was stripped and crated ; collec- 

 tions were packed in tins, drums, and boxes, labeled, and stacked up 

 to await the next freighter to Guam. In a few days the laboratory 

 was starkly in order and deserted. Arrangements were made for 

 the transportation of the live cargo of sea snakes and dugong. "Plane 

 Day" on November 15 was a typical rainy-season day in Koror. Rikrik 

 and Sumang Y. went early to the dock and caught the dugong, and 

 it was difficult to say if it was wetter in the pool or on the dock. 

 Dugong, snakes, other precious collections, and ourselves were loaded 

 on the Albatross amphibian in the still-pouring rain, and we were 

 off, it seemed after having scarcely arrived, so swiftly did the months 

 pass on these coral-fringed islands and broad lagoons. Only yester- 

 day, so it seemed, we had made our way up one of Babelthuap's 

 rivers as the crocodiles slid off the banks into the dark water, 

 or had been listening to the little bird with a "pipe sweet as a 

 flageolet" as we collected in some forest-bound coral bay. Perhaps 

 nowhere else in the world are reefs and jungles so intimately asso- 

 ciated that one can stand among living corals and at the same time 

 collect many different kinds of orchids from overhanging branches. 

 It will be many a year before the complexities of this multifarious 

 habitat are thoroughly understood, but we think that Project Coral 

 Fish is making a long stride toward that understanding and, there- 

 fore, toward a better understanding of life in the seas as a whole. 



During the 1055 expedition to Palau, Project Coral Fish assembled 

 thousands of specimens from 276 collecting stations extending from 



