146 Kassam Climbed the fronting ridge beyond the prison and dropped down to a fair sized stream on the other side, which I followed down to the road a little below our camp. All Castanopsis-oak forest; some of the trees very tall and of big diameter; A small fruited Sloanea perhaps the biggest tree in the forest; an Echinocarpus with small fruits frequent as a smaller tree in the ravine. Collected several smaller trees new to me. Not much moss in this forest. Some matted on the bases of some of the big trees, some on rotting wood on the ground, some on rocks on the stream. Had a proper breakdown this morning with the shoddy big web straps of my plant drying units. One after another, three of the four broke when I was preparing bundles for drying. Found then that we have only about a pint of formalin in camp for all purposes including emergency plant preservation. Van had sent our stock back to Lae. I ordered new straps from Australia by radiogram on Monday. Despatched John to Kainantu (50 miles round trip) to see if the straps had arrived and to send a radiogram to John Womersley to send up formalin from Lae. The straps had not arrived. By sewing together good parts of the one ones I have one pair with which I can dry plants to 50% of capacity. Sunday, November 1. Mostly sunny morning. Black clouds gathered to the N about noon and steady light rain began about four. Rain to after 8 p.m. Have such a backlog of undried plants, and such limited drying capacity until my new straps arrive, that I did no collecting today. Got some letters written. Boys spent most of the day making nets around 8 big Araucaria klinkii cones collected a couple of days ago. Unless contained in some way, the cones fall to pieces in drying. Van has 17 mammal species for the six days we have spent at Kassam. Today's surprise was Philetor, caught in a mist net stretched across a stream in the forest. Insectivorous bats are rarely netted. This is a lowland bat, now collected for the first time on the Highlands. This evening we have a visitor in distress: Cliff , carpenter who does contract building, who went down to Gusep this morning in a wartime truck to bring back a load of 50-gal. fuel drums for the government at Kainantu. The wiring of the truck burnt out on the steep part of the range at about 3000 ft., the brakes were slow to work, and he finished up with the truck across the road and blocking it to all traffic. Walked on in the rain and is with us for the night. Intelligent, active man in early 40's who likes to fish and hunt and obviously is a reader. The fuel drums are wartime empties, used by the government for road culverts, etc. Great numbers still remain at Gusep on the Ramu-Markham Divide and an important air base during the war. Monday, November 2. Day almost entirely overcast after about 9 a.m.; no rain. Botanized over grasslands and through a relic gully strip of Castanopsis-oak forest to a hamlet and new gardens about 500 ft. above camp in about a SE direction. Thence across higher grasslands and through a wider gully forest to a 9-house village called KaioKopa, about 700-800 ft. higher than camp and 1-1 1/2 miles in the direction of Arona (c. South). A number of grassland herbs and the dominant Themeda triandra collected. One of the herbs a Wahlenbergis like the Australian W. gracilis. Last mail brought a request from van Steenis for seeds of the