at the base of the Peach River, where Don has joined him today. I am remaining here until the camp closes, presumably because I am such a good cook. The missing pack horse, chased by hornets, has not been found, and we have now lost two out of six. That may in turn make a difference in our der- tion here as there is a lot of equipment to be moved and one horse less than we had planned and felt we needed, to do the job. So far, George and Van Will leave on the 19th for a place called Camp-Oven Pocket, a clearing in the scrub on the western side of the dividing range, through which we passed on the trail in here. Len and I will remain here until the 21st and then return to the Peach and George and Van will come in from Camp-Oven Pocket on the 22nd. That should allow time for all necessary packing at the base and our departure from Peach River on the 23rd or 24th. Reptiles woke up a trifle today as George brought in three Goannas, taken in his steel traps. Each was over four feet in length and skinning was necessary in each case. It is a long and tedious job, skinning a goanna, which is a large, lizard-like creature. Those I got up at Lackerbie were over five feet but even a four footer takes a lot of time. I am writing this by daylight as George and Len want to go out and set a net with which to catch bats. That means they want an early supper and I had better watch them or else they will eat tomorrow's breakfast as well. Wednesday, 18 August 1943. Today was another bust from the point of view of my collecting. I am to remain here until the 21st or 22nd and there is no reason to expect that things will improve within that space of time so I begin to feel that, excepting the four weeks at Cooktown, my organized collecting is about done. Of course there is the journey south from Coen and unexpected things and specimens sometimes appear; those I shall mention if they are worth it but I think for the present I can drop that sub- ject and turn to things of more general nature. This afternoon I went to the waterfall and later Roy joined me, first of all, I think, to enlist my help in the matter of their return home. The idea was conveyed, after suitable expressions of appreciation of the good things that have come to them, that they would prefer to return overland rather than by ship from Cooktown to Thursday Island. They want to buy horses and ride, which, since horses cost about the equivalent of $3.00, is not out of the way. As far as I can see, we must pay their return trip anyway and we might save money by buying them horses rather than steamer tickets. They Roy went on with his war experiences, as follows, "I be in big ship going New Guinea. Plane him bomb too much. Beeg, beeg bomb, like that rock, fall this side, fall that side. I cry." Then he got into family relationships, which are hard to decipher at times as they all claim to be related and it is not rare for a gin to point to another, younger than herself, and say "That gin my mother." Roy spoke of his brother-in-law and explained "Him marry my aunt's daughter. Him my brother-in-law." I have just finished splitting the rations we have in camp with George for his Camp-Oven Pocket; we do not have too much on hand but at the outside there is only four days to go before we all meet at the Peach base. I shall be glad when we get back to Coen as there will be an accumulation of two planes mail and another one arriving the day after we get there. I am hoping that some of our missing bills will by now have been sent to us and I shall be able to make up a complete list of expenditures to date. It has been cold here although the elevation is only 1,500 feet; when we rose this morning the thermometer read 58 and the water of the stream is so cold that one does not bathe just for pleasure. Down at Peach Camp both water and temperature are more comfortable.