Friday 12 June 1953 (cont) Top Camp He is collecting very little and is anxious to get to the lower camps where he will have more material to work on. I don't believe that he realizes that these mountain specimens are much more important than the lowland ones. There is a great deal of micro stuff here but its collecting demands special technique and a good couple of eyes. He could stay within a few yards of camp and make a fine collection; instead he tramps all over the country and finds very little. I am not satisfied that I have all the possible mammals (there are certainly more bats) that live here. But then it sometimes takes months to catch on to the habits of the rarer animals. We have really been very lucky in our catches. 11 P.M. a fairly warm night. Saturday 13 June A dull rainy, misty day with the sun trying to break thru occasionally but soon giving up. Had one Melomys in my line and David 1 Rattus. Our total for the past week 61--one of my best. Grand Total 714. The end of July should see me past our first 1000--I hope. Boys brought in beech forest traps. Had hoped to set in high scrub above camp but due to rain I did not send them up. Set around camp. Kim asked for 6 more and Losima also wanted 6--the fever is spreading. Last night I left the rat bodies at one end of the work fly--on the ground. This A.M. 4 had disappeared! This P.M. set up 7 concealed steels around remaining bodies. Not too optimistic. Wrapped more skins. Gauze wrapped my few formalin specimens. Boys issued with betel nut this P.M. All singing & clapping. Getting dark--time to see if bats are flying. 10:15 P.M. A frustrating 2 hours of jacking. Heard at least 6 Giant Rats but could not shine any. Dropping wild figs all around me. Geoff was nearly beaned by one last night when putting out his light trap in the gully. Found 1 Ring-tail tonight--high in leafy top--shot did not bring him down and he must have scrambled into another tree. Small bats all thru the woods. Sky has cleared. Wet & drippy in forest tonight. The rain this A.M. set off the "peepers". Kim & I finally found one in the loose humus. Small with red belly-- a very striking frog, and new for Geoff's collection. He put his boys on the track, but Losima was the star collector. Much micro life in the humus. Too wet for Len to collect today. Just one more week in this camp. Soup, fish cakes, peas, rice, bread & marmalade, & lemon drink for dinner. Sunday 14 June I have the luck of the Irish! The animal that was stealing bodies came back again last night and promptly caught himself. A beautiful white-spotted "native cat" (Satellus albopunctatus)--our first of the trip. Losima caught 1 Melomys and 2 Rattus in his 6 traps! Also 4 other Rattus (1 a wh.-b.) came in. Jimmy arrived about noon with a pocketful of Pogonomys. Total of 13 for the day. A good start on my 13th collecting week. The collecting part of the trip is now 1/3 finished. 24 weeks more will see us ready to leave for home. Raining off and on today. Losima took 6 more traps & Kim now wants steel traps to put in a Wallaby pad he has found. Weather too poor for boys to trap high scrubs. Will see what tomorrow brings. Len's boys went collecting on their own today and brought in some good plants. We had the last of our oatmeal today, and the ham is almost down to the bone. However, we have plenty of food for this last week and then some. Some excitement tonight. David was jacking in the gully tonight, and spotted a big grey and white cuscus. After the first shot about 5 of us trailed down to help. He started moving thru the treetops with the boys trying to follow him with their flashlights. 2 more shots and David had him. I did not go out tonight.