Sunday, 19 April. This day started off with the unloading from the Betty Ann of the stores for the next two months, with something of a conse- wuent turmoil as they all had to be checked in, and now have to be repacked inot loads for three or four different camps, all of them within the mountain area, with some trifling discords such as the fact that all the new batch of flour has weevils in it, the dried apricots are still in Sydney, and so on, the checking-in went off according to Hoyle; the repacking offers something more of a problem. The natives in this part of the world have not so far invented any contrivance which will help them in their portorage, such as a back-pack, or the panucu of the South American Indians; their idea is simply to get whatever it is onto their shoulders and then walk. As a result, their walking is somewhat circumscribed, and their weight-carrying[illegible] ability not half of that of other peoples. The method by which we expect to tackle the mountain camps is as follows, and all of the places which I refer to are either on the north side of Cape Vogel or in- land from the head of Collingwood Bay, the next one north of which Cape Vogel forms the southern coast. Some kind of vessel, a motor launch of some description, will take us from Menapi around Cape Vogel and along its northern coast (the south- ern coast of Collingwood Bay) to a place named Biawa. At Biawa we plan to get canoes which will take us up a river as far as a place named Kwagira, and from Kwagira the overland march starts. It is a days walk to the next atking point, another villaged named Biniguni, where we shall change porters, and at Biniguni some of our stuff will be dropped. A new lot of porters will take us up Mt. Maneau, but again certain stores will be dropped off at what we expect will be our second and third camps, after we have finished with the Top Camp, the first. Our Dutch companion has turned out to be more bearable than I expected, but his presence just now is simply a damned nuisance; I think I said that he didn't bring so much as a tent or a chair, he has long legs like a spider and he is in the way of everything. How we are to get him away from here, we do not know, nor does he seem capable of getting himself away. If the worst comes to the worst, we can simply tell him to go back to Baniara and wait there until Peter or Tony get back. And we have heard not a word of the Forest Officer who is sup- posed to accompany us to the top of Mt. Maneau.If he should not show up, we shall be that much more pleased. 20 April. Our day this morning started with a rush on the"small house" which, it developed, was due to the cook bringing in water from the creek where the locals and our boys take their baths. Previously we had drawn on the Mission for our drinking water but Gussie started on his tour of inspection the nearby villages and, with trus Christian thoughtfulness, locked up his water tank and failed to call either to tell us or to say goodbye. Another, purer, source of water is now being used and the rush has stopped. The day has been spent mostly in getting foor and gear packed for the mountain campsand the back of that job has been broken. Niko and Bili went out this morning and brought in the only butterfly which I have seen but not got in the collection; my only means of description was to compare it with Ken's hair and they grought in everything from yellow to black, but in be- tween, there it was. The Dutchman, pleasant enough though he appears to be, is just a damn nuisance and we think he does not even know how inadequately he is equipped. Not a note had he made, and he wanders aroung in the evening in a male (if there be one) Bikini bathing suit and seems to expect us to ask him to sit down and have a rum clad like that; the boys are offended at him, to say nothing of everybody else. With the stores which arrived yesterday, there was the soccer football we had ordered for the boys, and a game started immediately. Today three of the boys were out of action on account of missing skin in various places and sore feet. Bill Mason put to sea, en route for samarai, and stalled for an hour, a few feet from his own dock; after about an hour the Ruru went on from there, and out of sight. We hope that he will reach Samarai because we are counting on the Ruru to take us to the disembarking place for the mountain camps 21 April?2 Again most of the day has been spent in packing for the upland camps and the job is just about over now. There was nothing spectacular about it