Thursday Oct. 11: A very wet day. Heavy showers from before daylight through afternoon. Left Abaleti with Hugh on the "Waei-Waei" at 3 P.M. Calm water except in one piece, probably opposite break in the reef, and mostly very shallow. Intricate piloting. Touched bottom a couple of times. Good small wharf of bush timber at Ginju. Good rest house among cocoanuts and mangoes on the beach, oval in shape, with sawn timber floor, and fan- palm roof. (Were met at the wharf by Brother Centwell of the Catholic Mission. Father Earle was at Abaleti to Meet "Nuniara") who invited us to dinner. Excellent meal nicely served. Had table napkins for the first time in a European house in the Lomisidases. Father Earle and Brother Centwell live in a thatched 3-roomed house with board floor. Three sisters apparently have similar quarters. A convent of permanent construction is now being built. The Mission was established, I think, in 1947. Did some sorting of cargo after dinner. Very heavy rain while we ate. Hugh departed for the next bay east along the coast. He would not have had enough water to get away from Ginju at low tide. The "Waei-wael" needs a good time for the trip between Abaleti & Jinju inside the roof. Friday Oct. 12: A threatening dawn. But as carriers were waiting, decided to leave for the mountain. The usual delays while the carriers assembled — Some from Ginji, some from East Point, some employees of the mission. Got away with 34 loads at 7:25. Crossed a mangrove slough behind the rest house, then began to climb through a small coconut plantation of the Osbornes (pathoglottis flowering among the palm). Primary (also secondary) forest immediately above the plantation. Soon a new garden of good size, being planted mainly to taro, and unfenced. Mostly second growths. Then to DAMBENI hamlet at about 600 ft. and overlooking the Barrier reef and Herod Island. Fairly steep slopes to that point. Rested 15 minutes at Dambeni (35 minutes from Ginju). Then began a long gradual ascent through fine tall forest at round about 1000 ft. forward 2-3 old village sites with coconut and betelnut palms and run-out bananas. Good government road showing evidence of long use. Crossed several small streams, running murky from rain this morning. At 9:15 rested from a point where a saddle in the central mountain ridge could be seen several hundred ft. above us. Some deep rock crevices from which Lionel collected Hipposideros on his survey trip. Heavy rain kept us there till 9:45. Beyond this rest place a little, after crossing a fair sized stream, the track divided, the regular route to Abaleti going right, an old, little-used path to the left. Followed the latter. This soon split again and there was confusion and inde- cision among our people as to which branch to take. The right hand one was followed and it soon ran out to nothing. Made our way back to the other branch and after a long, fairly stiff climb, reached the saddle on the mountain at 10.50. Evidence of a frequent closed blanket some 200-300 ft. from the crest. On the top Lionel had partly opened up a camp site. The ridge was narrow, and rough with rocks, but decided to camp rather than at another possible site about 500 ft. lower down, in tall, gloomy forest. Sent word back to the carriers and Rus, who were waiting at the alternative site, and we had a fly temporarily rigged before more heavy rain began to fall. During the afternoon the clouds lifted for a time and we had views of Loa (Adele) Id on a bearing of 112°, and of the summit of Mt. Rossel rising about half a mile away and 400-500 ft. above us on a bearing of 25°. The summit a peak of very limited scope— like Mt. Riu or Sudast. From camp the main ridge curves SW and W, rises only a couple of hundred ft., and appears to broaden. Our best collecting for plants will probably be in that direction. Our carriers were a pleasant, willing lot. They fell to with knives and axes. They hurried to open up views from camp. Few of them had been here before. We gave them a feed of rice after their 6/- payoff, and they departed about 3 o'clock. Some of them quite tall men for this part of the world. One, a councillor from East