56 in a small cove, just as a group of natives were beginning to cut up a freshly harpooned dugong rolled up on the gravelly beach. Sent messengers back to camp immediately with a note for Richardson who is anxious to get bones of this beast. Sat by the carcas for 1 1/2 hours until R. arrived, then climbed up a steep forested slope of some 100-150 feet and was on the grasslands. Grasslands is a misnomer for this community. So far as I could see only 2 grasses--Eschaemem #8815 and Eriachne # [space] occur. The former can be said to dominate the community in some few places, but Gleichemia 8807 covers most ground. The tall sedge #8802 is also abundant, particularly in widely spread clumps on otherwise bare red laterite soil. It would perhaps be best to call this an open ground fern and small tree community of Gleichemia and the spindly open foliaged small trees Xanthostema 8801, Acacia Simsii and Deplancha 8821. The purple mauve flowering ordhid 8816 is common. I believe the community to be secondary to rain forest. Serpentine rocks stick out above the hard now damp red soil in parts. Will examine the community further at an early opportunity. In his 100 traps Richardson caught only one Melomys last night. Saw no grassland birds. Shot a yellow sun bird feeding on the conspicuous red flowers of Xantho- stema 8801. A fair number of planks delivered by Tabati canoes. June 15th. This morning we flew up to Lake Sentani to enquire about the timber and returned with 21 planks. After circling round the middle part of the lake for a while, we landed at Ifar, where the bestums assistant of the lake district is stationed and f from which point the road leads 10-15 km. inland to Ebeli's sawmill on the slopes of the Cyclops. Ifaar consists of the government establishment and two Chinese --*: situated 1 km. back from the shore of the lake, Several large villages built on piles over the water, are situated on islands nearby, and other smaller ones are scattered along the shores.