Thursday, July 8: In camp all day preparing specimens from the range. The trip yielded me 42 species all told. Van and Moreton with about 150 traps out got but one mammal (Uromys) last night. Mammal results at this camp have been most meager. A fine male spotted cus-cus shot by Moreton today brings total mammal take for the camp to 35 specimens for 10 days. Mammal signs, especially small rootings as of bandicott, are abundant in the rainforests, but the creature that makes them has not been caught. Not a single mammal has been taken by jacking. Like Moreton, who says "Plenty mark all about, but trap can't take 'im," I find it hard to understand. Friday, July 9: Sent Willie to the top camp with Geoff to help carry everything back to the base and myself collected mainly "turkey bush" elements west along the Wenlock road about 1½ miles. My gatherings mainly things of which I need series or records for the locality Only two plants new to the collection — an Acacia with very large flat pods recalling A. Peuce, and a vine of the Meniapermaceae. The latter (19504) has slender brown stems thin and almost as tough as wire, and it is an awful curse, entangling one's feet, in the turkey bush of the range and in the bastard rainforest of the slopes. George, for his two nights of trapping at about 1300 ft. on the range, caught 6 Melomys of the small species already taken here and at Iron Range. These rats were taken at the Pandamus gully in the turkey bush. Last night his traps were raided by crickets, as were Van's last week. Last night was rainy on the range. Wednesday night was without rain and the crickets did not appear. The sum of all our observations points to a relationship between wet nights and the appearance of large numbers of crickets on the range. Between us we have camped five nights on top of the range. Three nights were rainy, and white-kneed crickets (not true crickets — they have an erect ovipositor) swarmed on the ground. On two fine nights, no crickets were seen. Observations of both Van and George indicate that the crickets eat their own kind. Traps set by George were milested by crickets only in rainforest and in turkey bush up to about 20 yards from rainforest. In the Pandamus gully, far out in the turkey bush, at the foot of Mt. Tozer, there was no evidence of activity by crickets and the only traps sprung were those that caught mammals. George devised a guard of metal to protect the bait on his traps, but of course the guards could not prevent the crickets from springing the traps in efforts to get at the bait. The return of George today ends our work on the top of Tozer Range. Extended trapping in good weather might yield mammals that have not been taken at the lower elevations, but the weather remains unsettled and overcast with mist and showers up top, and may well continue so for months throughout this extraordinary southeast season. On the range Roy the blackboy picked up a few leeches on his bare legs, and others of us found them on our clothing. George has a slight infection from leech bites on one of his legs. This is the first time that leeches have been at all troublesome on the Peninsula. Only a very few were noticed at Iron Range, where most of our work was in rainforest, in showery weather. We saw none at all north of the Jardine. Scrub itch (Trebicula) is entirely absent from these northern parts of the Peninsula, as far as we know. These two pests, leeches and scrub itch, make life miserable in the rainforests father south in Queensland, and throughout New Guinea. Sat. July 10: A fine day with strong southeast wind and broken high cloud. All clothes lines in camp — and it has been necessary for every man to rig one — full of trousers and shirts and mundries, as well as blankets and sleeping bags. Cameras have been clicking too. The weather has been bad for photography and for cameras. Camera cases and gun slings have rotted with the constant moisture in the tents and frequent wetting in the field.