aspect of Psycgitria, but with minute flowers. Got in all 15 numbers. These days are too hot for field work between about 11 and 5 o'clock. It was hot indeed in the canoe on the open river. December 16, Sunday: Hor and rainless, though the heat somewhat modified by a fresh to strong SW breeze. More thunder back over Gugu Sari. Spent the morning working on materials on hand. Called the rest of the day Sunday. The boys all attended "prayer meeting" in the village. There was communion , too, ad- ministered by a a middle-aged native Suau teacher visiting from Suau Island. This teacher, Bonono, dropped in to talk with me in the afternoon. He says this cost has much rain in the months of January-September. There is a regular dry season October through December. Like all natives of the far east and he talks of the many Americans who were here during the war. Opinions of the Americans seems generally high. Their friendliness impressed the natives. There was a radio sation on Susu Island, one of a chain along this coast ( radar, too?). Our Gara host of yesterday came down the river with his wife and small boy son today for church. I gave him good presents of food and tobacco. Further on the native opinion of Americans, as amplified by Bonono, is the impression or conviction that they are soft marks. He put it on me first for gun cartridges, then for the trade tobacco (surprisingly for a Protestant missionary, he carried a black old briar pipe). I gave him some aspirin for a head cold, and a mantle for his Coleman lamp. This from a man high enough in his mission to give the sacrament. Monday, December 17: Heat and drought continue . The forest of the slopes is so very dry that the leaves of the smaller trees are now wilting. The vil- lage water supply has gone down alarmingly since my arrival and inpection a few days ago. The water, issuing from the rock, is quite good, however. Am told that the supply some- times gives out, when water has to be carried to the east of the village and a good mile from the resthouse. Botenized along the crest of the high ridge which rises close behind the village to a maximum altitude of 1450 feet, according to the 4-mile map. Only 7 numbers dor five hours in the field. Went through one driedout garden of sweet potatoes and cassava on the lower slopes, and some second growths on the sites od dormer gardens, but most of the vegetation was a poor type pf primary rain forest. Feeling unwell with what must be a "vire complaint". Had mush the same sort of thing on Sudest some months ago. Queer numb feeling in the head, stomach upset in a dull way, some vomiting. Tuesday Dec. 18: Cloudy day with wind almost from the west, (SW yesterday and the day before. A few sprinkles of rain in the afternoon. Spent night hours in an excursion up the Harala-ama River by canoe, Raiga with me, although he had never been far up the river before. Could go only about 5-6 miles. Not enough water above that, and for a couple of miles below the canoe had to be dragged gravelly rapids and the stream was much cluttered with trees that had fallen in from actically eroding banks of reddish yellow soil. The Harala-ama is much smaller than the Gara. I thought it might offer an easy approach to the Cloudy Mountains for some f uture biologist, but from the highest point a canoe can be taken on the tide, it must be a distance of about two hours walk from the foot of the mountains. According to Raiga, there is only (a) small village up the river. He walked through the floodplain forest of the riverbank for the best part of a mile from where the canoe was left, and reached an old village site of a small hillock. The village, according to Raiga, was called Gunaheda. Some coconut palms and crotons there, in surroundings of grass. Co- lected only 13 numbers, the only ones that looked interesting being a rubiaceous shrub of the undergrowth and a Syzygium with big yellow flowers.