was Macroglossus. Mammal boys, out this afternoon for Pogonomys, found nothing. Rus, out for lizards, brought back nothing. Rus complains of a headache, ate a good dinner and went to bed. Lionel out jacking, and will set a bat net at a likely place he saw last night. My boys brought in sticks for a bat net at camp; Rus set the net. Spare boys cutting track towards the west. We ate today two blue pigeons, shot by Lionel, who considers them the same as the D'Entrecasteaux bird. Kim always achieves an excellent soup from a bird. This evening there was fresh bread, too, A meat pie, mashed potatoes and canned sauerkraut . Some sort of custard pie made without eggs or fresh milk (a bit too much pie for one meal). Lionel had a touch of malaria this morning. He had not taken the prophylactics three camoquin pills for two weeks. Apparently one has to keep up the dosage quite regularly, in that strength, in malarial country. Thursday July 19: Light showers from some time after midnight until about 8:30 AM. SE weather. Still a snap in the air in the evening. Botanized this morning down a track which Lionel has opened in the past two days in roughly a NW direction towards the mouth of Ara Creek. My farthest point probably about a mile from camp. First 1/3 mile or thereabouts was diagonally up the N slopes of Mt. Sisa past Alexander's claim to the crest of a lateral northerly spur which for a short distance separates Ara Creek waters from Kobel Creek headwaters. (Mt. Sisa is the head of all the main streams of this part of the island.) These slopes all denuded long ago by mining operations; covered mostly with Gleichenia and other ferns. Good view from the ridge crest (late morning) of Mt. Koitau and the western end of the island. Photographed this, and found later that my lens may have been fogged. A number of prospecting pits, costeens, and one deep shaft were exposed in the track cutting operations. (Sipoma fell into the deep shaft but saved himself by clinging to the fern). These all in the fern except two or three trenches which looked more like races than prospecting trenches. Below the fern an area of polewood second growth forest. Then a patch of primary mid-mountain forest on a ridge point of yellowish clay. This forest practically a pure stand of Castanopsis. Characteristically open, or at least easy to get about in, under the canopy. Most abundant undergrowth elements a dwarf Pandanus with subglobose fruitheads, and a very slender Cyathea, plus several stiff ground ferns. Two epiphytic Dendrobium collected in the forest, one a very fine whitish species which I have still to examine in detail and photograph, the other recalling Iris. The Castanopsis was in flower. A good day, bringing my numbers for two days to over 50. The bald-headed north coast boy still comes up in the morning and acts as guide for the track cutting operations, which by this time must be fairly close to the main Ara. Looking west from the high spur today, I was struck by the great expanse of primary forest on ridges and in valleys. The only disturbance by man was where a timber road went about NW into the Kobel valley from Cuthbert's Mine. One Rattus, apparently allied to the mountain species of the D'Entrecasteaux, in Rus's own traps this morning; nothing in other traps; all traps moved today. Last night Lionel shot a Pteropus, and his net produced two Macroglossus. No other mammals taken. Rus and Lionel in afternoon visited a drive drive by which Dick Gladstone drained his lake claim; saw two bats which got away. Friday July 20: Sharp shower about 4 am; drizzly dawn. No rain after that, though frequent dark clouds drifting over from SE. In sunshine the air or atmosphere here has a sparkling quality, probably from the glint of the generally smooth and smallish leaves of the forest canopy trees. Spent the first hour of the morning after breakfast in photographing two good Dendrobiums collected yesterday (#27411 and #27412, the former later painted in watercolors by Rus). Then botanized down the road to the NE corner of the mountain, where several old coconut palms (bearing well) of a flat shelf below the road mark the site of the camp of a half caste miner (George Brett) who was shot by the Japs at Finschhafen. A nice lot of plants including a Weinmannia and another tree of the family, a fine red Loranthum (photographed in color), a common regrowth Cyathea, etc, Have 73 spp. for three days. A good break after the mostly hard going for plants on Fergusson.