Wed. Oct. 24: Very heavy rain from daylight (5 o'clock) to after 6 in the morning; 162 points at the mission. More rain during the morning interrupted by fieldwork. Afternoon fine and hot. Went up the mountain trail as far as a new garden at approximately 50 m. Collected 10 members in second growths and primary forest (have 43 for three days at the camp). A curious pinnate substage tree with red cauliflorous flowers. Freak condition of thousands of short pendant (ca. 1 m) adventitious leafy shoots from a big canopy tree whose branches had been entirely stripped off by falling trees when the garden was cleared. These shoots in flower. The hospital boy caught two more ruber in his two traps. A Pteropus conspicillatus shot by Rus. Bait changed to sweet potato and coconut today. We have daily contact with the mission. Rus drops in there often. Today Lionel fixed their broken-down lighting plant (small Lister Diesel with injector trouble). The mission small launch "Bambino" was sent around to Abeleti with an injector for cleaning. Brought back for us a tin of flour. Thursday Oct. 25: A rainless 24 hours. Today mostly with little cloud, and bright and hot. The evenings are warmer here I notice than at Abeleti. And every morning close to dawn I wake and have to get half our from under my blanket. Sandflies are here, but in numbers too small to be troublesome. A few usually appear, and bite, towards sundown. Went up Wabu Creek about a mile, to where it narrowed and the hills began to close in. Tall forest broken by a new small garden clearing or two, and second growths (Piptadenia novoguineensis) plentiful where gardens had been. Sago here and there on wet ground. Taro the principal crop planted in the gardens. A fair number of bananas, some cassava, and odd plants of corn, hibiscus, etc. Have not seen any yams in this area. This seems to be a general season for burning off and planting the gardens. Trees usually clear felled. Sometimes the bigger trees are left standing, killed by fire, in the old Rossel fashion. Again nothing in departmental traps. The hospital brought in three more ruber from his two traps. Rus has not as yet inquired as to what the boy uses for bait. Three bats shot last night by Lionel: Pteropus conspicillatus, Nyctimene, and Macroglossus. Brother Grantwell came after dinner to play native songs for our Gosiagos on the accordion and mouth organ. Only one of the boys came out to listen. Something went wrong. It might be the local feeling pf Protestants versus Catholics and suspicion of the brother's motives. Grantwell once got as far as an audition in a national harmonics contest in Australia. Friday Oct. 26: Weather returned to strong SE. Rain threatened much of the day. A thunderstorm in the evening. Day cooler than lately. Botanized up the mountain road again to about 80-100 m. Got only 11 numbers but these were mainly good trees of the primary forest. An Erythroxylon, the first on the trip, among them. The usual report on traps, two rats from the hospital traps. Kim, out shooting last night, got a cuscus and five Macroglossus. Previous to this, only one Macroglossus was shot - by Lionel. They are difficult on the wing. Kim waited for them to settle in a fruiting tree. To dinner with Brother Grantwell this evening. We provided the blue pigeons for the meal. The mission has an excellent cook, but our Kim knows more about doing up pigeons. A game of scrabble filled in the evening. The game seems popular in this country.