Pengagl Creek A bridge of 4 small logs there, on stone abutments. No track up the rocky bed of the stream. Old man took me to the next land owner. Neither knew English or pidgin. The neighbor, also old, was sprightly and intelligent. Seeing my interest in plants, he pointed out this and that and, gave me native names and, by signs, I was able to find out some uses of the plants. Made my way back up to the strip, then by a side track to the main trail leading back to camp, arriving there at 1 p.m. A good lot of plants, the most interesting being trees of cultivation: Nothofagus (grown because they "like it"), paper mulberry for bark fiber, Kingiodendron for its edible young leaves, eaten roasted with pig at feasts, etc. John accompanied me to the bottom end of the air strip, then, with Tobram as guide, set out for the Bundi Gap. He returned to camp at 6:30. Reported magnificent forests of Nothofagus between 8900 and 10,250 ft. (uncorrected) on gentle slopes in the gap. On a badly drained patch of land on the trail the beech gave way to other, lower and smaller trees. The biggest trees in the beech forest estimated at 160 in. in diameter above the spur buttresses, and about 150 ft. high. The planted trees of the area I visited this morning are said to have originated in Bundi Gap, but leaf specimens collected by John appear to belong to a different species. The top of the gap, at 9500 feet (uncorrected) reached in 1 1/2 hours from Keglsugl strip. Thursday, July 30. Max. 18, min. 5.0 C. Threatening early, but fine sunny day; no rain. Both Van and I working on fresh specimens in hand, and on packing collections and gear. Final botanical figures are 606 numbers for the camp; 1010 for the mountain. This I consider a very satisfactory collection. It will put Mt. Wilhelm on the botanical map. The biggest collection before this, that of Hoog- land & Pullen, ran to about 150-160 numbers. Have but 6 boxes of insects plus a few bottles of spiders for the two mountain camps. The weather in general has not been favorable for this kind of collecting, and no doubt the fauna is pretty thin at this altitudes. Had good catches at the light trap on very few nights. Botanical collecting has been made difficult by very poor visibility in the forests, due to the almost constantly cloudy weather, but rain has caused the loss of very few hours in the field. Temperatures have been such that my boys have worn sweaters every day in the field. The only troublesome pests have been "Kamikazi flies" which go mostly for one's forehead and raise welts which last a few hours, and sometimes sandflies, especially along the open bed of the creek. No mites or leeches troublesome to humans. Occasionally at about dawn I heard big mosquitos buzzing in our hut, but they never did any biting. I listened often for the "six o'clock crickets" (cicadas). They sounded off regularly as the day grew light -- about 6:15 - 6:20 -- but were never heard in the evening. Had today from Demkana, owner of the mountain, a complaint about the Papua- cedrus tree I had cut down two or three days ago. The tree had been planted by his father, who was killed later in a fight. Demkana much upset about the tree being cut. Had creid about it, but was not cross with me. As witness, he brought me a stick insect later in the day. Also showed me three seeds he was going to plant. Seeds of Papuacedrus, he said. The seeds belonged to three different plants, only one of them coniferous, and none Papuacedrus. Friday, July 31. Max. 19.5, min. 5.0 C. Another good sunny day for our move down to the air strip in Keglsugl. Had about 100% more carriers than we needed -- men, women, children -- for the short trip from camp. I left at the end of the line at 8:45 and reached the strip about half an hour later.