145 Kassam Thursday, October 29. Clear day throughout. Strong wind down the valley in afternoon; this no doubt deflected SE trades coming from the NE here. Worked again in the Kassam Gap. A good bit of time spent in the collection of a giant banana Ensete calosperma fide Womersley (Musa 32310) which grows commonly in the road clearing in the upper part of the gap, on the Highlands side. Stems up to 9-10 m tall by nearly 2 m circumference at the base. Seems to be the species seen at Arau, but here it is in fruit; the fruits 3-angled and the seeds very big. This may be a big sp. which Womersley and Brandeis are reported to have collected recently at Aiyura; Womers;ey pronounced it new, according to Barrett; but I seem to remember that a giant banana was named by the Germans long ago, and this could be it. Not much doing in the mammal line. Only a brown Melomys in traps. But Nyctimene (smaller than geminus?) was netted last night, and Emballonura and Pipistrellus shot. Maa works hard at his insects, using a beating net for everything. Says he has not collected more than ten butterflies in two years. This evening he has a few traps out for mammals, and a mist net set. He carries no gun, though collecting ectoparasites of birds. Maa sorts the larger stuff into cellucotton sheets in cigar boxes; a mass of very small things is sent to Formosa to be sorted with the cheap labor available there. Says that under the big Pacific insect scheme, the Bishop Museum is about a year behind in mounting specimens. Friday, October 30. Sunny, hot day with the usual downwind in the afternoon and upwind toward evening. Still no rain. Maa, John and I drove down to Lowe's Ford on the road to Water Rice in the Markham Valley; distance 7 miles, altitude at the ford 2000 ft. (uncorrected). Midmountain type of forest persists to about 2700 ft., where an oak was plenti- ful but no Castanopsis was recognized. The lower one goes the more admixture there is of rain forest elements. At the ferry a fair sized bouldery creek with grassy bottom flows through gallery forest and open gallery growths in which a prominent tree is Aleurites moluccanus, now in flower. Quite a lot of flowering at the lower levels, and from top to bottom in the mid-mountain the oaks are in flower or bud. This flowering of the oaks is said on Goodenough Island to indicate the beginning of the rains and the time for planting gardens. Araucaria klinkii appears on the slopes at about 4200 ft. (uncorrected) and persists down to about 2400-2500 ft. Made my first collection of this splendid conifer, together with photos of the various parts. Cones are ripening and seeds falling, but the percentage of fertile scales is small. The sun was hot in the valley and I had a little sunburn. The road emerges from forest cover at round about 3000 ft. although forest runs down the ravines to about 2000 ft. Coming on somewhat above the Araucaria, and in evidence down to about 3500 ft., is a big Maniltoa unfortunately in sterile condition. Saturday, October 31. A good bit of cloud but still no rain; wind somewhat modified. We have had no mist or fog in the camp locality for some days.