Oomsis Now second growths (Macaranys) and young trees of the primary forest. Best plants probably Syzygium sp. with white flowers and a big-leaved Litsea. Had another let down today. The Shansi, with our long delayed cargo, due in Lae today, will not be there until Saturday at the earliest. There is no explanation for the delay. John Womersley sent a message with a Forest Department timber hauler, and drove out in late afternoon, with Mary and the girls, and two lady passengers from a visiting ship (Sinkiang, from Honara), to tell us what he knew. For two days now I have been husbanding botanical driers. Thought this would be my last day of handicapped collecting. Now we can not expect our cargo until Monday 20th. In traps set last night, in the western forest, Van had a young Echymipera and a Melomys. Schultz' caretaker brought in an adult of the bandicoot, for a reward of 4/-. A giant Pteropus neohibernicus was shot in a big sapotaceous tree, where several were feeding on fruits, but could not be recovered. Three pips and two of last nights Hipposideros shot this morning. Later: Two of the "pips" turned out to be Emballonura, new for the collection. Friday, April 17. Overcast day; no sun; heavy shower for 1/2 hour after 9:45 AM. Yesterday I had from Buntings a note which Dusty Miller of Samarai had sent with my 1956 #1 botany boy Edewawa. Characteristically, Buntings sent the letter but not the boy, who could well have arrived at the same time. He came on the Chinampa from Samarai, getting to Lae last Saturday ! Edewawa is as lean as a hunted devil, and possessed only of what a little wooden "suit case" will hold. Gone are the 3 blankets, canvas, etc. he had from me on the last trip. Got ahead of myself in not recording, first, that I sent John to town today to pick up Edewawa, and some further botanical supplies from John Womersley. I also sent three made up bundles of yesterday's plants to go into John's herbarium drier. Fiddling about with numerous bundles of partly dried plants made me late in getting into the field. Then I sheltered from the rain under a banana leaf for 1/2 hour. Numbers collected were only 12, but most of them good subcanopy trees of the primary forest of the beginning of the slopes up main Oomsis Creek on the main branch of the logging road. Something in a stinging Laportea, ? Endiandra, Meliaceae with pendent recesses of white flowers. And from the Creek flat forests: a common big-leaved Pisonia, thorny Capparis 29232 and horizontally branched Amaracarpus from the undergrowth. The Gunns and Bill Smythe came out to visit us late in the afternoon, went bat-shooting with Van in early evening, and now are out with Van jacking west of the road (8:45 PM.). Another small Hipposideros shot (2 spp. for the camp now recognized). Last night a ♂ and a ♀ Pteropus neohibernicus and a Dobsonia were shot in the big sapotaceous tree. Saturday, April 18. Dull, threatening AM., PM. fairly clear. SE cloud movement overhead, and a good breeze up valley in afternoon.