Piunde-Aunde 70 Wednesday, June 10. A little cloud in early morning and a temperature of 35 F and a light frost on the grass. A beautiful sunny day followed. Four of our five boys unfit for work. Some of the locals unwell too. I was distinctly below par yesterday and attributed it to delayed effects of altitude. No improvement today; I have a temperature of 101, and now think all the sickness in camp is from the epidemic wog. A kitchen, latrines for ourselves and boys, a work bench for me, and various smaller jobs done today. Thought I would start collecting but did not feel equal to it. Four Rattus niobe in a few traps set last night near camp. The locals have brought in a number of these common rats caught in snares. One Eudromicia cought by hand in an old bird's nest in the forest. John spent a good part of the day wandering in the neighborhood. Went up to the second lake in the morning. In the afternoon he climbed the few hundred feet to the Ramu Divide; reported the Ramu slopes forested almost to the top. Thursday, June 11. A gray dawn, clear overhead but with Wilhelm's peaks under mist; tops of high mountains to east also under mist clouds. An unpleasant, cold, windy, almost sunless day. No rain to 5 pm. Still feeling unwell (temp. 102 last night) but started collecting on the longgrass slopes and in a small relic patch of subalpine forest between camp and the lake. Two (Agrostis and Hierochloe?) of several grasses collected, also the dwarf Aulacolepsis (2-4 cm) of the short-grass community of the alpine grassland. Common shrub associates of the long grasses are Stypelia, Diplycosia, a big Haloragis, and on wetter ground, a widespread Kelleria (K. papuana). Hypericum macgregori also there. Only forest edge shrubs and small trees collected: 2 Olearia spp., 2 Vaccinium, a pretty Rhododendron with nodding dark red flowers, and a rather big-leaved Coprosma. A Coprosma with smaller leaves is abundant on the grasslands. In all, 24 species collected. A great pile of food brought up the mountain by the Chimbu women this morning. We asked that food be brought for us to buy on Mondays and Thursdays. If it will keep, we should now have enough on hand to last the rest of our stay at Piunde-Aunde. Van, contrary to my ideas, has been buying numerous common Rattus niobe from natives camped here. Price began at sixpence, and has dropped to threepence. But mixed in with the Rattus this morning were two terrestrial Pogonomolmys. In steel traps set last night by Wak was a fine big dark gray Hyomys; another was brought in by a visiting native. Caught in forest acrosss the valley was a blackish Pseudocheirus, and brought up from somewhere lower down by a man accompanying the food transport were two Peroryctes ornatus. A very good day for Van, but both his boys are off duty. John is helping with the skinning. In late afternoon John climbed to a rocky crest in the direction of the main peaks on which a bomber was wrecked during the war. Wreck at 13,400 feet. Evidence of an explosion. Story of the wreck we have from the natives is that the plane hit the mountain and exploded about 10 o'clock one night. Next morning the present luluai, Kindua, led a party up the mountain and brought the bodies (or remains) down to Keglsugl airstrip where they were buried. Later the bodies were exhumed (American bodies?) and taken to Kundiawa.