We had a fifteen-mile drive from Belawan to Medan, mostly 
through cultivated land. Native houses lined most of the road, 
built on piles shove the low flat land, end with walls of woven 
nepi palm, and roofs of thatch. The zebu is the favorite beast 
of burden, and most of the vehicles that we passed were like 
little houses built on two high wheels, with a pitched roof of 
thatch, and drawn bv zebus. We also saw our first water buffalo, 
grazing in a farmyard, and admired the tremendous horns, much 
longer than the horns one sees on water buffalo in Zoos. 
Our first greeting when we reached the De Boer Hotel was 
an air mail letter from the Goth?/sites. Our other mail had gone 
to the Consul? te, but Pep and Deb knew we would be at the De Boer 
and had written to us there. 
We have fine quarters at the hotel - a big, high-ceilinged 
tile-floored room, with a mosquito-room in one corner of it - 
fine screen around the beds, a much cooler, airier arrangement 
than the moscuito nets common in other parts of the Tropics. We 
have a large bath, and a sitting room - g most luxurious amount 
of space after so many weeks in ship's cabins. So I started to 
unpack, having, as I thought, arrived at last; and sent all our 
clothes to the laundry. 
Ts/e called immediately on the Consul, confidently expecting 
that he would have the permits that we need from the Dutch govern- 
ment to start collecting animals. Mr. Sidney Browne, the Consul, 
said there were no permits here, but probably they were in Batavia, 
and he cabled to the Consul General therms. 
We spent the afternoon at the little Zoo on the Deli 
road, talking to Mr. Berthold, the head keeper, who is also an 
animal dealer. He had eight orangs, including one enormous one 
that he calls King Kong, two fresh-caught Sumatran tigers that 
were collected recently from a drain pipe just outside of town, 
a Sumatra gibbon, a loris, some rare lor.ikeets, two young horn- 
bills of different species, and a most' talkative mynah who said 
"Tabe, Tuan,'' all afternoon. 
In the evening we went out to the Brownes' for drinks 
before dinner, and had a pleasant time. Mrs. Browne is little 
and red-haired and very nice. People keep curious hours out here. 
We were invited for cocktails at seven o'clock, and stayed until 
nine-thirty. We came b;: ck to the hotel wondering if we were too 
late for dinner, but dinner is served from eight to ten. 
March ? - 
Bill went over to the Consulate in the morning and came 
back in a raging temper. Foote, the Consul General in Batavia, 
had telephoned that the Government didn't know anything about our 
expedition, except that we were not to catch any Komodo dragons 
(which we had not intended to do), and insisted that we come to 
Java in person to explain our mission. Ps any amount of corres- 
pondence had passed back and forth between our government and that 
of Netherlands India before we left home, this was annoying. 
However, the Consul thought we ought to go, so I started to pack 
up all the things that I had unpacked yesterday, and put in a 
most hot and uncomfortable morning. .About one 'clock there was a 
