-28- Spiller's trade store. Prices for native services and produce are enormously inflated as compared with prewar levels. Paid today three sticks of tobacco for a small bunch of bananas which would have been worth one stick before the war. On the advice of Skewes we paid 40 sticks (cost price 23/4) for the erection of our storehouse. (The village is supposed to maintain a resthouse and boy's barracks, but a store is an extra.) Still, prices are not as high so far as we were led to expect from tales told in Samarai. Monday 3/23/52. Collecting started in earnest today. My own morning in the field yielded 21 numbers of plants, mostly from primary rain forest, on the point of land across Menapi Bay to the east of camp. The rain forest I examined is developed on a limestone ridge. A fairly hard-pitted limestone containing marine bivalves (sample collected), and elevated about 100 to 150 ft. The crest of massive blocks of rock separated by fissures and hollows, some of the latter narrow enough to hop over and perhaps 20 ft. deep. Where the top of the ridge widens in places, the forest has been cleared for gardens. The garden lands in various stages of regrowth, or planted to bananas, yams, cassava, pumpkins, corn, etc. Papayas common in young regrowths. Several species of fairly large canopy trees in the forest, but the only one found fertile was a strangling fig (Ficus 21616). Four species of ferns, and Boea 21630 common on the rocks, rooting in pits or in accumulations of soil. An inferior type of rain forest. Rain from the NW came over about 11 o'clock and for half an hour we sheltered under an overhang of limestone in the forest. On call through the village policeman, one Patrick of Banapa, an old guide of Wynn's, reported this evening, carrying a doubtful looking Belgian shotgun, and declared himself willing to go on a reconnaissance of the northern approaches of Mt. Dayman. Pay 5/- a day and food. Tuesday 3/24/53. No rain today or last night. The day somewhat cooled during the middle hours by a breeze from the SE. As long term temperature records are available for Baniara Govt. station, four miles to the west, I am not making temperature records here. Van had no catch from over 100 traps set last night. But later in the day the boys brought in 7 small bats they had caught in holes in coconut palms and forest trees (Pipistrellus?). Geoff had a good catch of butterflies and other insects, a goanna, several skinks, etc. Contributions from the botany dept. included a pretty blue damselfly, 2 spp. of freshwater mollusks, and a small fish from a small stream in rain forest. The fish fairly plentiful in the stream, but darts from cover to cover under stones and leaves on the bottom, and is hard to catch with hands alone (No 1 ). Collected 19 numbers of plants in the relic primary rain forest of the small stream from which we draw our water, directly behind camp. Stream bed rises rather quickly over steps of rock (not limestone), has a stony bottom containing small pools with trickles running between them, and narrows from about 20 to 10 ft. at 50 m. alt., which was as far as I followed it. Primary