but this year there are many new shoots up to 1.5 m tall. Clump D2, on the west side of the road, was alive and well in spite of the fact that last year it was practically standing in water. Many of the nearby coihue trees were dead, presumably drowned. But this year the ground is dry. Saw a giant bumble bee feeding on blackberry flowers. The count of flowering clumps of bamboo between the camping meadow and El Abuelo was 2 on the river side of the road and 5 on the other side = total of 7. This does not include one blooming across the road from the middle of the camping meadow, which is not quite on our traditional transect. It drizzled much of the afternoon. The little Museum has four Bettinelli paintings of habitats with numerous mice, birds, frogs, etc. We heard no Darwin's frogs during the census, although a few other frogs were calling. One informant said that the bamboo had bloomed last year. When I expressed surprise, he said it must have bloomed because there were a lot mice! This illustrates how thoroughly the local people are tuned in to bamboo story. Stayed overnight in the Hotel at Puerto Blest. I think we were the only guests. The Hotel has a splendid display of color photos of local trees and flowers, done by Maria Belen and Gimenez Gowland of Bariloche. December 11- Morning almost clear at Puerto Blest. Returned on the 9 oclock boat; sunny after only a few miles travel to the east. It was 40°C yesterday in the "Upper Valley" of the Rio Negro, 37.5° at Neuquen, but the high at our apartment in Bariloche was only 77°F. The tour guide on the bus on the way to Puerto Panuelo yesterday asked if I were related to the biologist named Pearson in San Martin de los Andes. The guide had been to the Park Guard School and apparently they had used my key. He just had the town wrong. Dinner with the Fluecks. They are going to store our stuff at their house on Lago Gutierrez. They have never seen turtles in this area. December 12- Overnight minimum 49*; clear. Paper says that the Rio Bio Bio in Chile is at the lowest level ever. All of northern Patagponia seems to be on fire alert. Duncan and Bruce found a juvenile dead Geoxus along a trail. I have also found dead ones along trails. That is another similarity with shrews: scent glands in the skin make them distasteful to carnivores. A fax from Carol Ralph in New Zealand raves about the kiwi/predation work being done by John McLennan. In a forest of Nothofagus, Podocarps, and understory of ferns instead of bamboo.The Nothofagus masts every so often, rats and mice increase and eat kiwi eggs, then stoats increase in number and eat rats and mice and then eat kiwis. An additional