-33- all the rain forest I have examined in this area, most of the plants are wi flowers or fruits.) A plentiful substage layer is formed by the slump palm Cyrtoachys? 21769, and a slender Pandanus. Two large aroids, one with entire leaves, the other with leaves perforated as in Monstera, abound as root-climbers on tree trunks to a height of 20 ft. or more. A moss ([illegible]) sometimes makes green patches on the bases of the trees. There is no ground cover, herbaceous or woody. Today we have tomatoes, bought from a native. Misshapen things at most 2 inches in diameter, and without much flavor, but still good fresh food. We have pineapples and papayas in camp, and at other times have had bananas and sweet potatoes, to say nothing of the big lot of English potatoes brought in by mountain people a few days. The boys have had cooking bananas for a few meals, and we buy, at 2d. a piece, a dozen coconuts a week for them. They pick up odds and ends of fresh food on their own account. The boys are putting on condition, and their skin is beginning to shine. They will need to be in good shape for the mountain work ahead. Only two cases on sick parade so far. Losima, the No. 2 cook, has an ul- cerated shin which is cleaning up nicely with applications of sulfanilimide powder, plastered over to keep the flies away. Yesterday Van reported one of his boys sick with malaria. Examination showed a swelling in the left groin, sympathetic with what appears to be a stone bruise under the ball of his big toe. Today, after resting yesterday, and soaking in hot water, he is getting around well enough. We Europeans are taking preventive, or suppressive, doses of aralen 2 x 25 gr. tabs thrice weekly. This on the recommendation of Dr. Berkowitz of New York. The makers recommend 2 tabs weekly. Dr. Bill Smythe, chief medical officer for the Milne Bay Division recommends 4 tabs a week. So far the 6-tab dosage has produced no side effects. I have been on the routine since mid- February. Wednesday 4/1/53. Another fine day. Breeze from the SE, continuing into the night. Temperature this morning at 6, 76 F - the lowest observed here. Collected east along to the coast to a village on the edge of a mangrove creek about 1[illegible] miles from Menapi. Got as much stuff as I could handle from beach and mangrove communities and rain forest close to the sea. Vegetation there relatively undisturbed on immediate coastal fringe. Tall forest of Barringtonia, Cerbera, Hernandia, Terminalia, and Erythrina. The latter the largest tree, fully 30 m tall at times, and a meter or more through the trunk. Beach fringing low trees largely Pemphis and Scaevola. Dolichandrone plentiful in inner mangroves, where Stenochlaena is massed on tree trunks, and scrambling Caesalpinia nuga scents the air. Geoff's boys specialized in dragonflies and had a good catch in the vicin- ity or sago swamps on the Mukawa trail, where there are permanent pools in a small creek. Van, after a couple of lean days, picked up with 8 rodents trapped in primary rain forest - a new lot of sets on the Mukawa trail (Rattus sp. (spiny hair), Melomys, and what seems to be a Pogonomys). Last night he found a fig tree at which small bats were feeding - nibbling the outer parts of the fruits. Fired some shots, but could not pick up anything. Today while rigging a net beside the tree he heard the bozz of blowflies and, investigating, found a pygmy fruit bat (Macroglossus or Sychonicteres) he had shot. The cook