42 Gurakor collected for the first time on this expedition: Gironniera, Asplenium, Hymenophyllum, Medinilla, Tecomanthe, Begonia, Lindsaya, Lycopodium, etc. Van last night shot a Pipistrellus, a Hipposideros, a Miniopterus (the sp.) and Dactylopsila. The latter new to the collection. A Melomys (one of the Oomsis spp.) in traps. Joe Havel, Forest Officer of Bulolo, called in about dark this evening on his way back from Lae to tell me that the New Guinea Gold Co. of Wau does not own a house we saw at Edie Creek on our visit a month ago and which we hoped to use for a stay of about three weeks beginning on Saturday (our tents & flies, all but one of each, have been air freighted in to Goroka for Mt. Wilhelm). The house said to belong to one Franklin. Joe has a man going up to Wau tomorrow and will have him see Franklin on our account. He admits that the Department of Forests has a row on with the gold company (which also is in saw- milling in a substantial way), and that the manager of NGG may not have spoken truth. Wednesday, May 6. A day almost completely overcast; one slight shower about 9 am. Mountains round about, and the Finisterres or Saruwagets to the N, cloud capped all day. Weather seems warmer, but I do not have the max. and min. thermometers rigged. A day of outs, for the great part. John has had an earache fpr the past 3 days. I thought it would pass away -- effects of swimming or something like that. But at lunch today it developed that the situation is much more serious. Possibly an abscess. So he has gone up to Mumeng to see the govern- ment doctor there, and will stay the night at Mick Leahy's place at Zenag. Havel expects to get a message to Zenag tomorrow on the results of his man's negotiations at Wau for a house for us at Edie Creek. It also developed, after John had gone, that Horrolt, departing to Bulolo this morning to buy some lumber, left the key of his house with John. John, of course, forgot all about the key when he left, and carried it with him, apparently. Result was not too serious. Horrolt broke through the mosquito screening of the kitchen door. Bare screening of windows and the upper half of doors is common practice in this country. There can not be much serious burglary. My #1 boy Edewawa troubled with a swelling in the groin such as many natives have at times as an after effect of the yaws which almost all of them contract in youth. Therefore planned an easy morning to examine the logged- over area just beyond Pappy's coffee patch up the Bulolo Road and about on the same level at camp. The usual sad wreck of what must have been a magnificent primary forest of the same Anisoptera that is now being logged at Oomsis. The principal large tree remaining is an oak. This is a fair sized tree, but it must have been dwarfed when the dipterocarps were alive. Much timber is re- ported to have been marketed from this small area. A great deal lies slowly rotting on the ground. I walked along two great logs over 4 feet in diameter, and saw others. Actually they were the trees as they fell. Not cut into log lengths. It seemed to me that after felling these giants the exploiters found themselves unable to handle them on the ground, and left them. They lie with the brown, fissured bark still on them, and they are plentifully hacked by natives who have cut out for food the larvae of the big beetle which almost immediately attacks fallen Anisoptera.