Kimi Creek motor road as far west as our camp, and the forest pretty well wrecked in the process. The young beech trees left will perhaps not have much of a chance to develop under the present open forest conditions and seral growths at this altitude appear slow. The forest gives way to induced grasslands not far below camp level. Besides the beech, the forest contains much Castanopsis, scatter-oaks, and occasional big trees of other kinds. In conifers I have seen only 3 spp. of Podocarpus, all subcanopy and one an undergrowth species; have been told that there were big podocarps but they have been cut out by native pit-sawers who sold their lumber to Goroka people after the road was opened two or three years ago. Have seen and collected two spp. of palms in this beech forest. Have collected one Pandanus sp. and seen at least two more, one of them a great tree a good 100 feet high which bears big edible seeds (the fruitheads of this too immature to collect). Have 1 Freycinetia and have seen only 2 other spp. Have collected one fairly common tree-fern and seen only one other specimen of one other species. The forest is fairly rich in smaller ferns, also low epi-phytic orchids. It is not very mossy except in the deep ravines. The camp has been exceptionally poor in insects. Weather mostly un-favorable for day flying things; have perhaps a dozen spp. of butterflies, 4 of dragonflies and two damselflies. Only one night gave a good catch at the lamp. The big factor against night trapping was perhaps a breeze funnelling along the road from either direction. We had only one foggy night, and that was when the big catch was made. I do not as yet have details of Van's collections for this camp. For the two Mt. Michael camps herps collected were 911 (7 snakes of three spp., 98 lizards of 5-6 spp. (all skinks but one frilled lizard), 806 frogs of between 15 and 20 spp.). Mammals for the two camps total 136 specimens of 24 spp. The mountain yielded 4 mammals (species) new for the trip: Otomops, Antechinus (3rd. sp. for trip), a white tailed Rattus, and a Pogonomys or Pogonamelomys. There are sub-specific differences between the mammal populations of the Bismarck and Mt. Michael ranges. Total specimens collected by Van for the trip: mammals, 1489, herps 2810. The natives of the Kimi Creek area were active in bringing in herps, especially frogs, which were easy to catch. They brought in few mammals other than common rats. I have not in recent years seen a more worthless lot of natives. Loud mouthed, lacking in the decency which allows another person some privacy, devoid of self discipline of any other kind, and stinking with filth. None of us will be sorry to leave this camp. This Sunday and last we have been visited by a Koiari (Port Moresby hinter-land) native who is boxing for gold in the Asaro Gorge below camp. Today he showed me a sample of his gold in the bottom of a small bottle. The gold is dull grayish in color and in curious small smooth thin pieces with rounded edges, as if coarse grains had been hammered flat and then waterworn. Mixed with the gold were a few big specks of a bright silvery metal which I suspect to be osmiridium. The Koiari is working alone and not doing well. He proposes to return soon to his home country, where, he says, demonstrating with the first joint of an index finger, the gold comes in big lumps. White men have never found enough gold in the Koiari country to be worth working for long.