layer of the stuff making kongelap look as though it had been the scene of a freakish s:owfall in the middle of the Pacific, only 600 miles nortu of tne equator. Villagers scuffed up the powder as they walked, and some tried to orusn it off their hair and bodies. Children, delighted with the unexpected event, played with the snow. Several people, like the Japanese fishermen, tried tcsting the powder to determine just what it was. Sometime in the early morning the Rongelapese spotted a plane or planes buzzing by the island. Someone conjectured that the snow they iad seen nad been dropped by the planes and that perhaps its purpose was to kill mosquitoes. kastward, on Utirik, the snowfall began 22 hours after the explosion. It was lighter and described as "mistlike”. That evening, as the sun set and darkness fell over Pongelap, fallout ceased. Whe powder now had reached a depti of about one 7 one half inches and at nignt| night gave the island an eerie aspect. oneHattince agat in the afternoon the it rained, Sometime earlier The raindrops spattered the white powder, and as it increased, rivulets of water carried the radioactive ash from leaves to the yround, and from rooftops into water catchment tanks. The fallout of Bikini's pulverized and irradiated coral reef had ended~-but its long lasting effects had just begun to work. tit 34 to il + 78 Thirty-four hours after the boww (li+34) the 28 Americans were safely aboard ship. Tuat sawe day, according to reports from the ee 82