Arau 142 Friday, October 23. Max. 28.0, min 10.5 C. Clear at sunrise except for white clouds cutting off the mountain tops. Half cloudy day with strong wind. No rain. The ground is drying out and there is some dust on the roads -- and cracking of the yellow clay of the steeper ridges. Had John drive me about 2 miles west along the Kainantu road to what I think is Ebaina Creek, a tributary of the Wanton. Botanized up the creek with good results. Rocky stream strewn with loose boulders; small silty patches on the flood banks. Travel easy from stone to stone, but footing chancy on the waterworn surfaces. Mixture of granitic and limestone in the transported boulders. Still in Castanopsis-oak forest; a large Echinocarpus occasional along the stream. Interesting plants were a giant (2 m) Elatostema gregarious on a silty bank, a big Calyptrocalyx, the first menispermaceous vine seen on the Highlands, and one of the brilliant orange-red Mucunas known as D'Albertis Creeper in Papua. This Mucuna seems practically restricted to the creekbanks and falts and is not as floriferous as most of the red species. Things are slowing down in the mammal department. Van's boys out this afternoon with axes in search of arboreal Pogonomys. We will stay on until Monday a.m. in the hope that local weekend hunters will bring in something good, then return to Kainantu. Special effort being made to get Tachyglossus. Saturday, October 24. Max. 27.5, min. 16 C. Mist and drizzling rain at 6 a.m. Most of morning continued mist and rain. Steady rain from 7 p.m. until about midnight. Weather from c. North. My day spent on plants in hand, and getting some letters written. Boys out in afternoon after oaks and collected a common Pasania with cupules up to c. 55 mm in diameter. This the 3rd or 4th sp. of oak collected here, and there is another with flat acorns and shallow cupule 55 mm in diameter. Having serious trouble with another item of shoddy equipment. One of the four 1 1/2 inch web straps used in my plant drying outfits has broken. Bought at a high price in New York, the straps have merely an outer covering of good quality fiber over a core of some rubbishly fiber. All the straps have perished with the the heat of the drying lamps and will break up at any moment. This has never happened to me before on the six expeditions on which I have used this type of equipment. Will radio Australia for more on Monday, when we return to Kainantu. Van, having very little from traps in the limestone area, moved to Ebaina Ck. this afternoon. This locality in the Sasaura village area. Dinner in the evening with the Larners -- cormorant cooked elaborately in wine, and very good too. Sunday, October 25. Max. 25.5, min. 17 C. About 50/50 cloud and sunshine. No rain to mid-afternoon, when these notes are being written. Morning spent on collections, photographing various spp. of acorns, choosing one of Wally Larner's stone mortars for the Museum, etc. Afternoon on correspondence and packing up. Arau, occupied for nearly three weeks, has been the third longest camp on the trip and comes third in number of botanical collections -- 381 numbers including 37 bryophytes, 1895 herbarium sheets. The area has been weak in canopy trees and for that matter all types of trees, the dominant oaks and Castanopsis supplying the great bulk of the tree stocking. It has been rich in herbaceous undergrowth, inuding ferns, rather poor in epiphytes.