104 Kotnni Had John drive me about 1\frac{1}{2} miles along the old (high level) Goroka road. The southernmost limit of logging on the Kotuni lease is here, at 100 ft. greater elevation than the sawmill. Followed a very steep logging road, corduroyed in places, up the slopes another c. 500 ft. The road ended there in undisturbed forest which probably should be called mixed rain forest. Saw no canopy tree in flower or fruit. A little lower on the slopes were what looked like two species of oaks, one with grayish leaves, the other with brown young leaves. John tells me that from the road level up the middle slopes (to 8000 ft. or more) two species of oaks were cut in great quantity in the early stages of exploitation of the lease and were the principal trees of these levels. Exploitation has been very thorough - destructive is a better word. Not enough is left on the middle slopes to indicate what the forest may have been. Most striking feature now are very numerous relic treeferns of large size (#31059). The effects of disturbance by lumbering is doubtless more severe at these fairly high altitudes than on the sweltering coasts of the country. The sun has greater drying powers here. Damage to the forests is therefore more permanent. Regrowths seem much slower to establish themselves than on the lowlands. Saturday, August 15. A thick mist settled in the valley sometime during the night and did not clear off until late in the morning. Steady rain began around 2 o'clock and at 6:15 is still falling (thunder behind Mt. Otto). We hear that very heavy rains have fallen (yesterday?) in the Wahgi Valley and that all air strips are closed to traffic. Drove down the road to 900 ft. below camp (6900 ft. on today's aneroid) to examine a relic strip of mid-mountain Castanopsis forest in a gully on the east side of Lamahagi stream. Visibility was so poor in the beginning, and most of the time, that, finding Castanopsis plentiful on the west side of the rocky creek, I prospected there rather profitably, and spotted things on the other side and sent my boys across for them. The creek flows there in a narrow, almost gorge-like ravine, the stream from about 12 to 30 feet wide. Common trees subsidiary to the Castanopsis were a Schizomeria and a Randia with big fragrant yellow flowers. I found a single plant of Astilbe on the rocky edge of the stream; Tecoma back a bit in a mixture of relic scraps of original forest and regrowths on garden lands. In about a thousand feet of altitude the flora changed almost completely except for mosses and a few ferns. Equisetum was plentiful on wet sandy banks of the stream; Coriaria grew here and there on streamside rocks; these being among the few vascular plants which occur also at camp level and above. Sunday, August 16. The rain of last evening continued through the night and until about 11 this morning; light rain for the most part; the creek swollen but not high. Occasional short spells of sun in afternoon; black cloud filling Asaro Valley; thunder to NW in late afternoon. Return to SE weather ? Left three electric lights burning and a door of the house open through the night and got a great haul of insects -- nearly all moths. Several striking big species; one specimen of the great, windowed hercules moth. The fluttering of this around the lights in the next room wakened me at 4:45 and I caught it in a net. A remarkable green leaf insect was brought in yesterday by a Chimbu and bought for about 1\frac{1}{2} inches of trade tobacco; the imitation of a leaf complete to three brown, asymetrical, fungus-like spots.