Fiji

Danish Research Yacht in Fiji

Suva, May 15.

AN interesting visitor to our port at the present time is the Danish research yacht Monsunen, which is making an 18 months’ scientific and research cruise of the world. She is a sturdy vessel, origin ally built in France, and is fitted with a semi-diesel auxiliary engine.

The owner of the vessel, Mr. Alex Moel ler, is the leader of the expedition. Mr.

Jan Degenkolw, ethnologist, Mr. Stubbe- Teglbjerg, zoologist, and Mr. Hakon Mielche, a newspaperman and photo grapher of Denmark, are also members of the party.

Already they have gathered much data and collected many specimens and to the casual visitor the yacht seems to be a floating museum. Shell specimens and swordfish from the Galapagos Islands, totem poles from Panama, native curios from Bora Bora and Tahiti, and mats from Western Samoa are stacked on deck and in the saloons, while several Galapagos tortoises toddle slowly up and down the deck.

The Monsunen left Denmark in October, 1933, and sailed for the Galapagos Islands via the Panama Canal. After a short while there collecting specimens, the party sailed to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Papeete, and Bora Bora, and arrived in Suva on May 12. From Fiji the vessel will visit New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Solo mons, and New Guinea, and then return to Denmark via the Dutch East Indies and Ceylon.