127. Somewhat to our surprise, since we thought the horses would be given a day to rest, Len arrived up this afternoon with the foregoing report about the missing horse, which had not been recovered up to his time of departure. Moreton had been brought along on a spare horse and had the job of tracking and bringing back the horse that had bolted. As for the fabulous Rocky Scrub, it lives up to its reputation by being a complete fable. I think I could find just as many things for my two or three departments on Times Square as I can here. I have been up and down the trail, up and down the river, and my complete bag so far is about five frogs for the reptile department and five butterflies for the bug department. I am no scientist but I am a remarkably fed-up layman, so far as the Scrub goes. George and Don are doing well with rats and such things and according to my ideas, where there are rats there also are snakes. Now I am beginning to be- lieve that my theory was a mistaken one. The stream is nice and near camp rushes over a fall about four feet high into a small and deep pool. There is nothing in the pool, no fish, no turtles, no nothing, but it is a pleasant spot to sit and is one of the few to which the sun penetrates. I have set t here for the space of one cigarette and enjoyed it thoroughly. But to re- turn to science, I shall have another try tomorrow and if the day is not more productive shall consider returning to the Peach with the pack train that brings the rations up on Tuesday. Monday, 16 August 1948. My comparison of this place with Times Square was not a happy one; there are always some sorts of specimens that are worth watching, but not here. About six very small microbes came to my light last night and I walked about a mile along the trail in the dark and caught only one spider in my head-lamp beam. This morning I was out for two hours and five minutes and never had need to fire a shot, wave the butterfly net or even pick anything up with the forceps. In the afternoon I took my laundry down to the river at the little fall, washed it and my old body and caught two dragonflies. I shall not be able to go out tomorrow as I find that Don has requi- sitioned the transport. He is as fed up with the place as I am but happened to be in camp yesterday when Len arrived and arranged for a horse. As far as anybody can guess, the season is wrong for my departments and, presumably, will get worse, I suppose. Now I at any rate am paying for the delay in Cairns at the beginning. Of course I know very little about it but my companions tell me that some rain would bring out all manner of flying and crawling things. Even leaches do not seem to exist here though we passed through a belt of country on our way up where they abounded. I got through unscathed but George and Don both got them and they even bored a way through Willie's thick, [illegible] chocolate-coloured hide. Our time is now becoming short. We must leave Coen on the 26th, ten days from now, and in between must get back to the Peach River and close up camp there. After leaving Coen we must be in Laura by the 30th to catch the weekly train on the 31st, for Cooktown, and we must leave Cooktown by the 30th of September in order to pack our stuff at Cairns and catch the boat. At the outside there are only six collecting weeks left and while I cannot truth- fully say my soul is in my collecting, I do like to do well whatever job I may be on. So I shall try to get into some place where there is something to be collected as soon as possible. Tuesday, 17 August 1948. In some respects it perhaps is a good thing that there is little doing in any of my departments since I have now had the cooking foisted on me. I am surprised only by the fact that the job has not reached me fix before now. Joe of course is back