-74- Wednesday, June 10, 1953: Max. 23°, Min. 7° C. Clear till 10:30 then mist for an hour. Mist again from about 4-5:30. Clear evening. Botanized on NW on a high spur 3400 m. on the crook of the Gwariu Gorge toward Goropu. The spur crest covered with grass and bracken. Poor mossy forest on upper slopes; largely Decaspernum; Libocedrus and Phyllocladus plentiful; smallish Araucaria (80 - 100 ft. high) protruding above the canopy. A second tree composite (Olearia) collected in regrowths where the edge of the forest had been burned. Six more of the Pogonomelomys, or whatever it is, taken from a hollow tree in the forest by David. A small hole in a tree trunk, apparently about 20 ft. from the ground and leading into a sizeable cavity, was their home. Thursday, June 11, 1953: Max. 23, Min. 11 C. A driving drizzle from down valley began some time before last midnight and continued until 2 P.M. today. Clear tonight. Morning too wet for field work other than running trap lines. Gathered a few plants near camp in P.M., including the first Selaginella for the locality. Now its haunts are known, Pogonomelomys (apparently Pogononymus on Mammary formula) is coming in fast. Six more this afternoon, out from a hollow in a tree about 40 ft. above the ground. Heard a rustling of leaves on outskirts of camp while warming my hands in the cookhouse: a Uromys Anak shot by Van. The 200th mammal for the camp. Friday, June 12, 1953: Max. 22°, Min 10 C. Rosy morn. Showers from NE began 12:30 P.M. Set out by "Jimmy's" track down the Atairo ravine but soon turned back. Unable to negotiate the steep slopes with only one arm to balance with and one hand to hang onto trees. Concentrated on small herbs of the grasslands and sent the boys into the forests on their own. Good results from both habitats. My grassland plants included a dwarf scroph. and a dwarf alpine sedge which may prove very interesting. The boy's bag held several new ferns from forest gullies and a subalpine Vaccinium from mossy forest margins. Our first fresh meat in a month (boys have been eating wallaby and cuscus). A megapode caught in a mammal trap. Some sort of big pigeon shot by Jimmie. With rice and onions they made excellent stew. The megapode was of the "scrub-hen" type. Have seen their scratchings in the forest, but not their nesting mounds. Nor have I heard the unmistakable megapode calls. Saturday, June 13, 1953: Max. 21, Min. 10° C. Was awakened at 3 A.M. by rain on the tent. Light rain which had continued intermittently through the day and into the night, drifting at various times from all points of the compass. Rare bursts of sunshine. Normal collecting activities at a standstill for the first full day on the whole trip. Beginning with the new moon on the 11th, this spell of rainy weather is in its third day. Bad weather in the mountains often comes in the "dark of the moon".