Friday May 15: Left camp at Newcastle Bay about 9:45 and were back at Lockerbie soon after 1 o'clock. Water from heavy rains had run in under our stor- age fly but our boxes, stacked well above the ground, were dry, and a rack of mammal skins left hanging under the peak of the roof were in good condition. The beef boat being due at RIP in the evening, we wrote hurried letters after fixing camp and send them down with Holland, who had to meet the boat. Holland returned with a good batch of mail from the U.S. Saturday May 15: Drying and packing specimens. Van, with Moreton, to the sawmill to trap and hunt in the Big Scrub. Geoff to the carrier station on the tele- graph line, in Holland's truck, to check on the shipping situation by calling up Thursday Island. According to Asang, John Burke's agent, the Alagna should sail south from T.I. on the 27h or 28th. Thought of trying to hire a vessel to take us to Portland Roads, but the Alagna sailing will suit us well. We will have to cross to T.I. the day before the Alagna sails. Arrangements be- ing made by B.P.'s for Wriford's barge to meet us at RIP on the 25th or 26th. Planning to leave for Sanamere Lagoon on Tuesday. Van will remain at the sawmill if results are good there in the next two nights. George has a line of steel traps out in the rain-forest. With not much more than a week left for work on the tip of the Peninsula, it is more than ever plain that an expedition with time limits like ours cannot do much more than sample an area so large, and varied as to habitat conditions. For mammals, another month north of the Jar- dine River should be profitable. I could stay on for two months for plants. Sunday May 16: Collected in the rain forest on the ironstone plateau along the Back Road. A few big trees, but poor rain-forest, and the presence of Bombax malabaricum is an assurance of a dryish climate. The forest notably weak in herbaceous undergrowth (only Eranthemum variable and ec or two small ferns). The only epiphyte seen (without felling big rys, in the tops of which some may have been hidden from the ground) was an occasional shield fern. Among a dozen spp. gathered were the black palm (Caryota), and another palm which could be Cyrtostachys, but is very small and slender for the genus. Found a Melomys in the top of the black palm. Dazed by the fall when the palm was cut down, it sat on top of a flowering spadix until I smacked it with the flat of my knife. Made my first photos with the 4x5 stand camera. Monday May 17: Drying and packing specimens, and sorting gear for the Sanamere efund. We leave early in the morning and will not come back to Lockerbie. The two or three days of free time after Sanamere will be spent at RIP, where we will be handy to the boat and will be able to do a little col- lecting in a somewhat different type of country. Van will collect at the sawmill in the Big Scrub until Friday, move down to Lockerbie that morning, and go on to RIP when Holland goes that way to pick us up at Sanamere Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. 98