-104- Interesting species included a big Orania palm 70-80 ft. high, and a small Ophioglossum with veniform leaves common on the forest path. Every day, by one way or another, I collect one or two of the big trees. Today it was a giant of the Meliaceae vine with which the ground was strewn with fruiting branchlets broken off by feeding hornbills. Every day there are little incidents, biological and otherwise which go unrecorded. This morning the buzz of blow flies drew my attention to a beautiful, stinking veil fungus growing beside the forest path. The flies were attracted by the slimy brown apex of the plant, below which, draped in folds, hung the pure white lacy veil. A color photo without tripod impossible with a light meter reading of 1.8. Back in camp, after lunch, there was a little boy trouble. During the morning Awani people brought food which was bought by Geoff with salt and newspaper. While eating, I noticed four women walking down the bed of the creek, one carrying an axe. Soon they were back with four bundles of split firewood, which the cook reported they wanted to sell. Whether the wood getting was done as a try-out, or at the behest of our boys, I don't know. Approaching the matter indirectly, I called all the boys and asked whose axe the women had used. It was just one of the two camp axes. The women took it while no one was looking. Boys dismissed. Presently there were loud words in the boys' camp. Sigamotu, "the Bull" who did most of the defense talk at the inquiry, had slapped his behind at the cook, picked up a 16-inch knife, and challenged him to combat. Cookie said "No, but I'll take you on with my hands". No fight. I had notice that the two involved were going to ask me to "hold court". They thought better of it and I let the matter drop. At 8 P.M., while I was writing notes, a policeman walked smartly into the lamplight with rifle on shoulder and handed me a radiogram. He had come from Baniara in two days! The radio, from Buntings, advised that Smith's boat would meet us at Baiawa September 10 and transport us to Samara. There was also a short letter from Smith dated Aug. 12, saying he had written me a month ago about the transport and expected a reply. I wrote him June 23 and received no answer. Wrote a reply to the radio and a letter to Smith and by 9:30 the policeman, having cooked and eaten a feed of rice and received a present of tobacco and matches from me, started back along the trail for Baniara. He will probably set a record for the round trip of about 120 miles. Saturday, August 22, 1953: Max. 27.5, Min. 19.5. Clear until late in morning; good shower 2-2:30; clear moonlit night. Collected up the right-hand branch about 3/4 mile. Good visibility and the best day's gathering I have had at this camp. A number of epiphytes from trees on the banks, among them Dendrobium Smilleas, familiar from the Fly River country and NE Australia, and the remarkable Ophioglossum Pendulum with ribbon-like leaves up to long. Geoff and his two boys lost in the forest for several hours somewhere west in the direction of the Rakua River.