layer of the stuff making Mongelap look as though it had been the scene of a freakish szowfall in the middle of the Pacific, only 600 miles nortn of tne equator, Villagers scuffed up the powder as they walked, and some tried to prush it off their hair and bodies. Children, delighted with the unexpected event, played with the snow, Several people, like the Japanese fishermen, tried txsting 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. Lastward, on Utirik, the snowfall began 22 hours after the explosion. It was lighter and described as "mistlike". That evening, fallout ceased. as the sun set and darkness fell over Pongelap, Jhe powder now nad reached a deptau of about one and one ualf incnes and at night gave the island an eerie aspect. rao the afternoon the it rained. and as it increased, Sometime earlier The raindrops spattered the white powder, rivulets of water carried the radioactive ash from leaves to the ground, 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, lit 34 to il + 78 Thirty-four hours after the bom (1i+34) the 28 Americans were safely aboard ship. That same day, according to reports from the 82 1014688