Pogonomys brought in by a native. No shooting this evening. Lance Wilkinson, a Milne Bay trader who has stations on the east coast of Normanby, anchored in Waikaiuna Bay and visited us this evening. He drank much OP rum and did not depart until everyone else, including me, had gone to bed. An interesting chap. A correspondent of PIM and does some other writing, including verse. Performed on the harmonica accompanied by sticks. Sunday April 22: No rain at all, night or day. Hot in afternoon in the buildings. No carriers turned up last night for a start into the mountains this AM, but V.C. Ginger has been here this evening. Nothing in traps. One Pteropus shot this evening by Rus. During the day Lionel took two boys to the coconut plantation and got eight bats of two species from hollows in the trunks of the palms. We don't have with us the means of identifying bats. Botanizing up the coast to the mouth of the Lebudowa River, then down to Izod's plantation. A scattering of big leaning calophyllum along the narrow gray-gravelly beach; strips of grass where gardens have been; a Pandanus common on these grassy patches. The Lebudowa has one sandy mouth in which Izod keeps his launch; good sheltered anchorage for a small vessel. Most interesting plant was a bignoniaceous tree growing gregariously on a small point of land north of the plantation. Bunches of brilliant orange-red flowers 10 cm long. The sea has raised to the point a narrow barrier of gravel immediately behind which is swampy tall rain forest luxuriant with climbing aroids, etc. The red-flowered trees, 40-60 feet high, with light brown trunks conspicuously fluted for some distance up from the ground, grow on this gravel bank, their roots half in salt and half in fresh water. Monday April 23: Light showers beginning about noon. Mist or rain on the mountains late in the afternoon, but apparently clear tonight. The SE season would appear to have begun. At 6:30 AM Lionel and Gray, with Wormersley's boy Michael, Lionel's Tinker, 6 carriers with loads, several spares, the Sibodia VC, etc., started on a second attempt to find a camp site in the higher mountains. Wormersley was to have gone but he developed an attack of malaria last night (on paludrine suppressive medicine). I left in the same direction soon after seven. Found the party had followed the bed of the Lebudowa River, so started to climb the leading spur which parallels the stream to the west and soon got onto an old trail. Trail much overgrown (probably not used since about the outbreak of World War II), not blazed and therefore hard to follow except where the ridge was narrow. Ascended to an estimated 1200 feet; Lionel has my aneroid. The trail must lead to Balantyne's mining camp, and it will offer an alternative all weather route for us if the trail or route up the river is difficult, as I suspect. Another day of cutting past by far point would probably be necessary to open ridge route. From the beginning of the spur to about 1000 feet (by my guess) the forest is spindly and a Casuarina is practically the only tree of any size (up to 20 m or so). A Gordonia also occurs, and a variety of small leaved, spindly little trees provide a usually plentiful undergrowth which took considerable cutting. Soleria, a Gahnia and a flat-leaved large sedge form a ground cover up to 1 m high in the more open parts of the forest on the narrower crests. A Gleichenia came in in one place. Near my top point the forest improved greatly. The Casuarina dropped out and Decrydium glatum appeared in trees up to over 1 ft. in diameter with very dark brown bark. A delicate Selaginella, about knee high, was abundant as ground cover there. A slender soft-stemmed scrambling bamboo fairly plentiful in places between about 500 and 1000 feet.