87 Pengagl Creek The new traplines yielded the usual big catch of Rattus niobe plus two Melomys. Natives brought several things from lower elevations, including 2 Eudromicia. Saturday, July 11. Max. 15.0, min. 8.0 C. A rosy dawn indicated some change in the weather; except for cloud over Bundi Gap, last night was clear and starry after the light rain stopped (probably before midnight). About 50/50 sun and overcast until 4 p.m., when light rain began from down valley; ending at five. Sent the boys out to collect and spent the whole morning making close-up photos of rhododendrons and orchids. Spent a lot of time waiting for the sun to appear, and shifting the camera and subjects to new backgrounds as the sun shifted; the best sunlight always brought puffs of wind from down the valley. Numerous natives watched the proceedings. A special charge of my boys was the collection of good leaves of the big Pandanus (and only species seen so far) of this area, called Karuka by the natives. On a request of over a week's standing, a native yesterday brought 20 dried seeds of the species, and today another native brought twenty-four. The seeds are prized as food by the natives. Those brought in had been taken from the fibrous pulp of the fruitheads and stored, and smoke-cured, in roofs of the houses. This pandan grows wild in the forest at this general altitude. It is also planted about villages and and on garden lands at the upper levels of cultivation. Have failed to find flowers or fruits on the trees. The natives' expectation that more fruits will be ripe not this Christmas but next Christmas, suggests that the trees may flower and mature fruit every other year. I am trying to get seeds in place in the fruithead, which in other mountain areas I have visited is often split into sections and thus smoke-cured; the arrangement of the seeds (drupes), whether singly or in syncarps, is important in classification. Van last night, jacking in light rain, shot the first arboreal mammal for the the mountain, pretty-faced Pseudocheirus. A big lot of rattus and 5 Melomys (white-bellied) in the new traplines last night. A Melomys-like rat new to the collection brought from "down below" by a native. A stir in camp was caused early in the afternoon by the arrival of an armed constable with a letter from the ADO Kundiawa informing us that District Commissioner H.P. Seale will arrive on Monday by air from Goroka and depart Wednesday morning. Before we left Goroka, "Bill" Seale asked if he could visit our camp about this time. Officially, he will fly to Keglsugl to talk to the people about building a road or roads for motor traffic, while the people are still receptive to talk by Government. He is keenly interested in plants. Has started a reafforestation scheme on the induced grasslands of the extensive Asaro (Goroka) Valley, and has pushed tree-planting in the town of Goroka. Sunday, July 12. Max. 16, min. 8 C. The day dawned red to the east. Soon the sun could be seen shining on Bundi Gap. There was a rainbow up the Pengagl valley, and sun beyond it on the alpine heights. Rain drizzled on the camp from a high cloud drifting over from the north. Good, drying sun most of the day after that. The best weather in the two weeks we have been here.