71 Piunde-Aunde Friday, June 12. High thin overcast at dawn; day mostly clear and sunny. The second day of good weather since we have been here. Temperature at 6:45 am. 38 F. No rain except a misty drizzle about dark last night. Collected around the S. side of the valley to the west end of the lake; mostly shrubs and herbs of the forest edges (Hebe albiflora, Acaena, Epilobium 2, Cynoglossum? with white flowers, a common shrubby Dimorphantera with red flowers, a common small tree of the Compositae which has the habit of Olearia but is rayless and could be Senecio, etc.). Several ferns including 2 Grammitis and 1 Hymenolepis collected. My Edewawa ill today, the cook still off duty, and the two mammal boys worked only part time. John in the afternoon made an excursion to the second lake (L. Piunde of some maps) the altitude of which he made 12,250 ft. Brought back several plants new to the collection: a purple-flowered Euryam Detzneria, a Quintinia with much reduced inflorescence, and a curious pale yellow orchid growing on a grassland rock. Saturday, June 13. Clear morning with some frost on the grass, but i high thin overcast. Minimum temperature 3.5 C. Started maximum and minimum recordings and relative humidity readings in a grass shed built for the purpose yesterday. Weather generally cloudy and raw after about 9 am.; light rain on and off from 11:45; heavy rain for a while about 4 pm.; valley filled with mist after that (same last evening). Boys very sluggish this morning. Too lazy or disinterested to cook, and began work without breakfast. Have made it John's responsibility to see that the boys have proper meals and take turns at the cooking. In this weather they will crack up unless they eat well. Several of them have bad coughs from the epidemic sickness which went through camp. Botanized up the north slopes to 12,100 feet, paying attention to the forest trees, of which Podocarpus compactus and P. brassii were collected, also a common canopy tree of the Lauraceae, to red Rhododendrons of the borders, and two species of Eurya. In a little grassy valley I found two examples of the smallest of the open ground tree-ferns seen inthis locality, and collected it. The species looks like Cyathea gleichenioides of the Snow Mountains. Much of the grassland of this upper part of the mountain is wet with sepage water. The forest is confined to the drier ground. Stubs of trees out on the grasslands, and isolated Podocarpus compactus trees, indicate that formerly the forests were more extensive. John visited the second lake again this afternoon and shot a Salvadorini duck, which is now in the hands of the cook. Van still struggling to get abreast of preparation of mammals on hand. Worked at it for several hours last night. He is getting less help from his boys than I am from mine. Sunday, June 14. A clear dawn promised a fine day but by 8:30 clouds started coming over from the SE and 10:30 drizzling rain began. There- after mist, drizzle, and occasional short bursts of sun. The high ridges shutting in our valley hidden much of the day.