103 Kotuni collect in bat caves in the limestone. From Leahy's place to the caves was a hard walk of 3 hours. Rus complained of a stomach ache and stayed at home. Michael and Lionel did the bat hunting. They shot about 25 Dobsonia and five small bats. Spalding reported to be going haywire with his money at Nondugl. Handing out, against Rus' protests, pound notes to natives who bring ina few rats. Shaw Mayer, whom they went to Nondugl to see, apparently was not there. Van's numbers (70-80) for this camp are not large, but so far he has 22 species. The best of all came in today, caught in the roof of one of the boy houses: the small bat Murina, Van thinks. The genus is not known from closer than the East Indies, where very few have been collected. Thursday, August 13. Somewhat cloudy, but the third consecutive day of good weather, without rain. Temperature at my window this a.m. was 48 F -- the lowest observed here. The maximum and minimum thermometers have not been set up in this artificial environment. Whole day spent on the collections made on the mountain yesterday. Have 46 numbers prepared and a few still to do. These plants from about the top of the mountain are being given "L.J. Brass and J.D. Collins" numbers, beginning with #30992. John and the boys spent three hours about the summit yesterday (reached in 3½ hours from camp), but their collection no doubt is far from being complete. It gives, however, an idea of the gross composition of the alpine grasslands and the subalpine forests. Subalpine forests occur, so far as I can make out, between about 3380 and 3460m. (11,100 and 11,360 ft.), the 3460 m. point being in a dip between rounded double peaks on the south side of the mountain. Viewed from my vantage points of yesterday (¼ to ½ mile down the road towards Goroka), a gully strip of subalpine forest, recognizable by emergent Podocarpus compactus trees, extended upwards to this dip or notch, and downwards until screened by a fronting ridge. Clumps of the subalpine would appear to reach higher on the terminating north peak, which is about 100 feet higher than the notched peak and separated by a small grassy valley. P. compactus and another emergent Podocarpus (like P. brassii) occur also on Mt. Wilhelm, as do a few low canopy trees or shrubs (only border plants were collected, apart from the two conifers). But the bulk of the subalpine forest may, on proper examination, prove rather different from that of Wilhelm. The alpine grasslands are heavily grazed and eaten down by "Kapula" (cuscus) according to my boys, wallabies according to John. The droppings described by John as about 3/4 inch long and 3/8 inch diameter and of oval shape. Michael Leahy, who has climbed the mountain with the past two years, remembered the grass as about knee-high and in a dense stand. Now the big-clump dominants (2 Deschampsia (?) spp.) are scattered, and, say my boys, who have botanized the Mt. Wilhelm grasslands pretty throughly, the mammals have eaten out most of the small grasses and herbs. Young Jim Leahy has produced a small photograph which he took on the mountain in July, 1955. It shows clearly the upper limit of the subalpine forest in the notch of the double south peak (about 11,500 ft.); emergent Podocarpus compactus in the forest; big cushions of Astelia on the alpine grassland, also what appears to be large clumps of Coprosma. These three plants were collected by our party. Friday, August 14. Again a lot of hot sun. Clouds drifting from the NW in the afternoon soon settled on the mountains behind us down to about 8500 ft. A little drizzle of rain after dark.