72 Piunde-Aunde at Botanized across the valley/about camp level, paying particular attention to the forest patches. Forest there consists of a canopy layer 30-40 ft. tall in which a Pittosporum (P. pullifolium?) is very plentiful. No emergent trees. A Drimys frequent in woody undergrowth, also a Coprosma. Two spp. of treefern (Cyathea) found and collected in the deep forest; both stout, and one producing fronds from the apex of the stem as do the grassland tree-ferns. Two tree species - Evodia? and an ericoid Rapanea-- added to the collection, and good fruiting material of Podocarpus brassii (discovered by me on Mt. Albert Edward in 1933). Trigonotis abata climbs commonly on the mossy bases of trees; a very prickly narrow-leaved raspberry occurs on the ground. Van has caught up with bought and trapped mammals. Has 48 traps set at the lake edge and along the outlet stream tonight. Weather notwithstanding, Van and John went mountain climbing after lunch and reached an altitude of 13,500 feet along the trail towards the summit. They brought back several interesting plants, including Papuapteris, Detzneria, and a velvety brown Andrea ? cushioned on a stone. With these collections, and some of my today's gathering still unprepared owing to shortage of driers, I have 108 numbers for 4 days' collecting. Things are drying slowly. The ground was wet when we rigged camp, and moisture keeps rising through the grass with which the ground in the botany tent is covered. Monday, June 15. A very high thin overcast at dawn. Clouded over before mid- morning. In afternoon the cloud drift changed from SE to about NW, bringing sunny weather and that peculiar blackness of landscape characteristic of New Guinea high mountains. Peaks clear until nearly dark, when patches of gray mist floated over them from the NW. Clear at 8 pm. My boy Soni and the other Finschhafen sick today. They have colds, but their trouble is mainly lack of guts. The latest development in my battle to maintain some morale in the boys is that eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, and presumably the other fresh foods of which we have abundance makes them sick. Therefore they are subsisting on the one-meal issue of rice they get per day. Have instructed John to personally supervise each meal until the boys get on their feet. Their miserable state is not entirely their fault. For several days I have asked John to have more grass put on their draughty hut. It took a showdown this morning to get action. The boys themselves could easily have done what was necessary to their hut in half an hour. But their courage has gone, and they have to be bossed and nursed. Having only one boy, I decided to botanize down the valley, where the weather was likely to be sunnier than up the mountain. Got down to the 11,100 ft. level and started to botanize when I discovered I had lost my spectacles, carried in a shirt pocket. Retraced my steps, searching every foot of the track, and found the lost specs in the door of my work tent. That lost me a good part of the morning. Went down to 11,100 ft. again, but I did not have enough of the morning left for thorough botanizing. Species included two of Gleichenia from the grass- lands, a common Plagiogyria from grassy forest edges, a gregarious Blechnum (B. archboldii?) from forest edges, and a small Humata from a grassland tree-fern trunk. Also from the grasslands 2 Gentiana spp., and common daisy-like Keysseria, and a rubiaceous mat plant which I do not know. A new tree for the collection was a Symplocos from the forest edges. Am running a night shift with the dryer to get abreast of collecting.