Saturday 24 October 1953 (cont) Top Camp to #2 Camp and tents. A good spring wells out of camp hillside. Ken had most of camp rigged includingout tent so we moved right in. We bought a stone axe from one of the natives. Ken tells me they are supposed to be made on Cape Vogel. Ken also bought a young sugar glider (Petaurus); it is very tame and feeds well on milk with sugar added. He won't let me have it for a specimen! While we were at Top Camp Ken had the good luck to find and buy 2 of the old stone slings-- the making is a lost art now. This is the only place in Papua that they were known to have been used. We paid our hunter off: 1 drum salt, 4 one [illegible] notes, 7 sticks of tobacco and 3 used batteries. He was rich! But he will share it all with his Garuwata villagers. No poor men here in Papua. Ken had a Pogonomys waiting for me. Same type as Top Camp but larger and darker brown. Bats over clearing at dusk. 30 traps out. Sunday 25 October #2 Camp (269) 67 9:00 P.M. Nothing in traps but Niko jacked a new species of Pogonomys ( small, scaled tail, white tail tip, heavy incisors, short hind foot & short ears). Wakonai counselor tells me it lives in holes in ground. Kim was out setting traps this P.M. and found & chopped down another Pogonomys tree--5 in family this time. Counselor hunted this A.M. & brought in a cuscus & 1 Dobsonia which he found in a rock crevice. My boys felled more trees in the clearing to open it up for bat shooting. No luck, however, tonight. Jacking for an hour but no sign of life except Nyctimene. Good view of coast just a few minutes out of camp. Niko brought in a red-bellied snake. Hunter brought in a 4½ ft snake yesterday. Washed the salt off Ken's lowland wallaby & alum & arsenic treated it--in good shape. Skins are all drying well here. Nights are dry & just cool enough for comfort. Took in another notch in my belt today! Monday 26 October #2 Camp (270) 66 105 traps--not a nibble. Made up my 5 Pogonomys, 1 Dobsonia, & 1 Phalanger. Getting short of trays. Sunny morning but high clouds most of P.M. Walked down trail & came out on grass spur. Lovely view of coast. Saw boat going South along coast. Spur is a small one paralleling the 2 main ridges that form our precipitous gorge. Virgin forest except at east or lower ends of ridges where villagers have burned & felled for gardens. Parrots & cockatoos flying & swooping in the gorge. Ken had good collecting today--insects. Almost bat shooting time--5:45. Again, a few shots but none down. A bat that looks like the little sheath-tail at the Peria is the earliest flyer. Jacking along the ridge trail east & back along our spring-fed stream--nothing. To bed at 9 P.M. Tuesday 27 October #2 Camp (271) 65 Up at 4:15 A.M. Used jack light for short time. Saw bat which I believe is Macroglossus. Fine bird chorus in valley. Back to bed at 5:00. Nothing in traps so my boys & I cut track down into the stream gorge. Steep but no obstacles. We came out at a lovely big swimming hole overhung with an orange sprayed Dendrobium. We spent a sunny hour or so scrambling around stream bed. Collected a few plants for Len. With track open we were back in camp in 10 minutes. Collected 2 Honey-eaters in tall flowering tree. Pickled one of them & I was just in the middle of making a skin of the other when the Wakonni counselor, Jack, arrived with 3 batches of mail! 5 letters from Kay (23-27), Dorothy #3, Garry Harned, Rus Peterson, 3 from Mother. All well at home. Letter from Ailsa dated Oct. 14 giving all news about Geoff. He is still in serious condition-- has not left Samarai & will not be able to do so without a companion.