on my morning excursions. The boys I have tried are not as good as they might be. Thursday May 31: Completely overcast except for brief spells of sun in afternoons. No rain. Worked up the slopes of a 500-700 ft. (Lionel has the map with him) hill to the S of camp to examine its capping of what, from a distance, looks like primary rain forest. All second growths of a poor development of recent rubbly volcanic soil. A new sweet-potato garden at the edge of the forest being fenced by two young men of Iamelele. A grass fire I lit a few days ago went almost to the top of the hill and scorched the edge of the forest. The burnt country should attract wallaby if any occur in the area. Rus, walking to Fagululu, took a wrong road and ended up in seeing several hamlets of the village group. Only addition to mammal collection was one Nyctimene shot by Rus. New trap sets tonight. Was eating when the councillor of Naiya village brought in two rat traps. Said they had been stolen and that other traps were in possession of villagers who presently were away at their gardens. Gave the old man a stick of tobacco, feeling that he might have brn up to a cunning dodge to get just that. It develops that two of the boys lost traps and said nothing about it, and that Rus himself lost two. Friday June 1: Heavy rain from mid-morning to mid-afternoon; from NE. Most rain in a day since we started field work nearly two months ago. Botanizing up the creek for the usual poor collecting in the prevailing second growth forest; I sheltered from the rain for about an hour before deciding to get thoroughly wet instead of half wet, and returned to camp before the creek had risen more than a few inches. Lionel returned from the mountains shortly before lunch. Trip successful. He has found a camp site on a track crossing the mountains from Agamoa to Aillulua on the south coast. The cam site position is given as almost 4000 ft. on the 1-mile map. Lionel, however, could make it only 650 m )ca. 2800 feet) by aneroid. The aneroid was found to differ widely from the Forest Department instrument on Normanby and no doubt is far out. Would still like an altitude over 4000 ft., but we will have to be satisfied with it. The vegetation would appear to be mossy forest, tall at camp, stunted on the rain crest not far above camp. An Araucaria (we saw the trees from Kedeluma on the way here) in the forest at camp level and below. Propose to start Monday on the 2-day walk to the mountain camp (the range is called Debenelagi) and stay there two weeks. The track into the mountains proper turns south from Agamoa, from which camp should be reached in 3½-4 hours. From Iamelele #1 to Agamoa, via Fagululu and Niubuwo, is a journey of 6½-7 hours. From near Fagululu the road goes up and down and reaches an altitude of about 600 feet in one place. Lionel collected an oak between Niubuwo and Agamoa at about 600 feet. Also brought back a Eurya and what looks like an Ilex, plus a couple of orchids, from near the mountain camp, and branchlets and seedlings of the Araucaria. Had the seedlings planted in time and will try to get them back to Samairai. Following Lionel from a village on Lake Lavu was a native with a live crocodile about three feet in length. Looked like the salt water species of these parts. Asked two pounds for the specimen, which was far too much. Three more stolen rat traps brought in today. Rus, jacking before dawn for a change, shot a Pteromys. Nothing in traps. The event in mammals for the day was a wallaby shot last night at Agamoa by Lionel and sent on this morning by fast carrier. Looks like Protemodon agilis, but darker; has flank stripes (whitish) but no white marks on face or shoulders, as I seem to remember being present in P. agilis. A bat net rigged this evening for the first time on the trip.