[R] Matrix operations please help

[Srinivas Iyyer]

Dear Group, 
I am a novice R programmer with little statistical
background. I am a molecular biologist by training. 
 I generated a correlation matrix (157 X 157) for 157
variables. 
 
I want to selection only the unique values (values
that are either side of the diagnol).  I want these
unique correltaion values in a list. 

How can I do this. could any one help me please. 

thank you. 

sr