Day 1: All is going well. The gear is packed and were flying to our destinies! Much excitement and reward awaits us. As we cross the water, I'm currently enjoying a cocktail and marveling at man's brilliance at mastering flight.

Day 2: We crash landed. I just came to about an hour ago. Everyone made it, there are only a few bumps and bruises among the crew. Most of our equipment is ruined due to the fire. We believe we are deep within a jungle somewhere on Borneo. We must find civilization. I remain hopeful.

Day 3: We're hopelessly lost. It seems that we've been walking for miles with no sign of civilization. There is heavy cloud cover veiling the sun and stars thus disrupting navigation. However there is a treasure trove of animal life here. The beauty and splendor of it all is almost overwhelming. As we trudge on, I think I could possibly live here forever.

Day 4: These stupid animals won't shut up! I didn't get any sleep last night with all the hooting and howling going on. Apparently every single animal on this God-forsaken island is nocturnal. Couldn't evolution have created a few less night dwellers?! I must remain calm for the crew.

Day 7: Apparently I went berserk and ran into a tree. That is why there are no entries for days 5 and 6. I just couldn't take the mosquitoes any more. I am beginning to like nature less and less. The crew gave me back my journal. At least we could have found a transitional fossil or two by now.

Day 8: We have cured the mosquito problem. We rubbed mud all over our bodies and it appears to be working. Also we have fashioned spears and bows out of tree branches and rocks found laying about. I am going to have to start writing fewer entries as I fear running out of ink.

Day 16: We are no closer to civilization than day 1. Our clothes have pretty much rotted and rubbed off due to the constant application of mud to ward off mosquito, so we have fashioned skirts out of long grass blades. We still haven't found a transitional fossil.

Day 32: There are some large animals rustling around in the bushes. We're not sure if they're carnivorous or not. But just in case, we have found discarded antlers and attached them to our heads to scare them off. It appears to be working.

Day 33: I was attacked by a large animal sporting a huge rack of antlers today. Some of the crew scared it off by pounding sticks, making a lot of noise and throwing dirt clods at it. Apparently it's mating season on the island of Borneo.

Day 75: We had a bit of excitement today. In the ground we noticed an object that seemed out of place. At first we thought it might be our first transitional fossil. However it turned out to be a cup of some kind. On it was transcribed in Hebrew - "The cup from which our Lord Jesus Christ drank out of when he commanded Communion." Obviously we don't believe in such fairy tales as gods, so we threw it away.

Day 117: The mud we use to protect ourselves from mosquitoes has had an unusual side-effect. As it has hardened around our face, our jaw bone muscles have become transfixed causing very little mouth movement for us to talk. We speak a jumbled English that I'm sure only we can understand, but it works so we keep the mud on for mosquito protection. Still no transitional fossil.

Day 287: We noticed an airplane overhead today. It must have been a search party for us. We are headed in that direction. Still no transitional fossil.

Day 364: We can see where the search party has set up base camp. It is about a day's walk from here. We head out with much excitement. I couldn't care less about finding a transitional fossil now, and we are all optimistic about finally going home.

Day 366: All is doomed. As we got closer to the camp yesterday we started to run as we were excited. The search party became alarmed and trapped us in nets and tied us up to trees. We kept talking to them but Apparently they couldn't understand our garbled dialect.

There was a so-called native interpreter there that was told by the captain of the search party that if he couldn't tell him what we were saying, he was going to fire him without any pay. Obvious the interpreter couldn't understand us, so he just started making stuff up.

He told the captain long fanciful stories, supposedly from us, about how some white-skinned people fell from the sky and were swallowed by the great mouth of Mount Kinabalu. But then it spit them out into the ocean where they turned into fish, then into clams and then into sea weed where they provide sustenance to all sea creatures.

Then he told of a big flood which really has no relevance to the mythical story.

The captain then looked at us and said, "Good grief, what savages! Obviously these "people" are far far down on the evolutionary line of homo sapiens.

Get these worthless animals out of my sight. It's obvious that the plane crashed into the mountain and there are no survivors"

I was shocked! I am not just an animal, I have a Ph.D for crying out loud! And I'm a scholar! How could he call me just an animal just because of how I looked or acted?!

Then the captain exclaimed, "I can't take these mosquitoes any more! And since none of the other search parties found them either, we're leaving. Let those savages go and let's get outta here."

So they packed up camp, untied us and flew away. We all just stood there in a mild state of shock. After a while we started discussing our options.

We realized that we really didn't have any options. So we decided to to keep moving on and surviving; I just hope we are all fit enough to do so.

Since we have made it a year, we should be able to make it for quite a long time. And our search for civilization continues.

As for me, I could live without civilization if the captain's view is what they have of their fellow man. In fact, I kinda like "roughing it" out here.

Thus far, our search for transitional fossils has been a bust. But I'm sure it won't be too long before someone does discover some with many to follow.

We have seen some regular fossils, and some actual living fossils which remains a bit of an enigma since it appears that they haven't changed at all for millions of years.

I must bring this to a close since my ink is just about gone. I will leave this journal in a cave where someone might find it some day.

Sincerely,
I. M. Hopeful