13 Lae Called at the Gunn house in the morning to see their live animals. The prize piece from our point of view was a fine female of the graceful gazelle-faced wallaby of the lowland rain forests, Dorcopsis muelleri. The female had a young in pouch, which we did not see. In 1953 we collected on the Kgaria River in Collingwood Bay the first and only specimen of the species recorded from the north side of the main dividing range of the island. It was not known to occur in the Mandated Territory. Gunn does not own the animal we saw. It belongs to a neighbor, who will not part with it. The animal was bought from a native, and the place of collection is uncertain. The father of the young one was sent to the Melbourne Zoo. Gunn also had in a two-section cage in his back yard shed, at least four species of snakes including 3 or 4 showy green tree pythons and a curious slender gray species between four and five feet long and with conspicuously large scales and pale brown head. This strange snake was watchful, and Gunn was wary of it, though not knowing for sure whether or not it was venomous. With only a straight bit of stick picked up casually in the yard, Gunn poked about in the cage and brought out a green goanna and a young python to give to Van. He needs proper training in handling reptiles. For me, Gunn had an assortment of big beetles, a stick insect, a scorpion, and a heavily built brownish centipede in bottles and vials. Had the Womersleys and Jim Lewis in for drinks, and Lewis for dinner. Lewis quite a raconteur on experiences on U.N. missions. This is his fourth visit to New Guinea. His first was in 1950, when he spent 5 days as a one-man U.N. party at the livestock station of the Department of Agriculture on the Baiyer River, Western Highlands. Porter was in charge of Baiyer then, in the absence of Jock MacGregor. It is at Baiyer River that our John Collins has his coffee plantation, at an elevation of 4400 feet. Both Lewis and John spoke of the extraordinary abundance of death adders on the broad grasslands of this valley (the Baiyer flows to the Jimmi and the Yuat to the Sepik). Recently, John mowed a patch of not more than an acre with his tractor and 17 adders were killed. The livestock station pays a bonus or bounty of 2 shillings each for death adders brought in. Last year over £400 pounds were paid out, which means 4000 adders. The adders are only on the flat lands. They disappear with a rise of only about 50 feet on the slopes of the valley; a nice problem for an ecologist. John has killed death adders on his property up to 4 ft. 6 in. length. Monday, March 30. A very hot day with only fitful breezes from the Markham Valley. The south east season definitely has not begun. Last night a party composed of Van, John Collins, Gunn, and Bill Smythe went out jacklighting in the Land Rover. Got a late start and did not return until 2 AM. Result: 1 Pteropus of a small species, and three small Miniopteris. Three mist nets in the Botanic Gardens yielded the small, spotted Nyctimene sp. of the New Guinea mainland. This morning John and I drove east of Lae about 14 miles to the Bunga River, traveling under the foothills of the Rawlinson Range and crossing the Butebum, Busu and Bupu. A timber lease between the Busu and Bunga is being logged by South Pacific Timbers. Saw two big caterpillar tractors which are used for loading the logs on trucks for transport to a sawmill at Voco Point, close to the east of Lae. An Anisoptera is one of the important trees of the Busu Lease. Little if any original rain forest left between Lae and the Busu; mostly tall grass and second growth forest. Even on the timber lease the forest is broken by extensive areas of grass. Most of the primary forest we saw was on rising to ridgy ground. A forest seemingly of fairly good quality. Many big trees. Conspicuously few palms; saw only some