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June 6 -

Nonetheless, we were sorry to leave this nice little pasanggrahan, with its swallow nest in the dining room, and its high view over the forest and river.

We collected nearby, and Bill found another Echinopla, and I got the three forms of the huge Camponotus worker - minor, major and media.  Beirne found a gorgeous liana that has clusters of purple, wistaria-like flowers, and pale green grape-like fruit.  We all got termite nests, and spent a long time by the road looking for termitophiles.  In the jungle reserve known as Batang Mahat II we found another termite nest, which was we cut it open, was promptly raided by an ant (Pheidole?).  At noon we were near another trail into the same jungle, and stopped by the roadside to have a picnic lunch before we started working again.  The only place where we could sit down, off the road and out of the swamp, was a gravel pit, so there we sat, in the broiling heat, only a few miles from the Equator and almost at sea level, and wondered why so many of our tinned supplies and cheeses had gone bad.  Anything that rides on the back of our car must be simply cooked and re-cooked long before we get it.  We had our canteens filled, fortunately, and divided the drinking water.  Also we had two coconuts to drink, for we were all more thirsty than hungry.

Going into the jungle later the Brues found an amazing termite nest, a chimney of hard carton, about  30 inches long and perhaps 4 inches in diameter.

The afternoon clouded over, and we got to P. Kota Baroe just before the deluge began.  There was no drinking water available, so we caught big pitchers full of rain water after we decided that the roof had been washed thoroughly.  We had a good dinner of rice and chicken, and just as we were finishing it three Dutchmen arrived.  I know they had planned to stay the night in Kota Baroe, but again we had the only rooms, so after a good deal of telephoning they moved on, still in the rain, headed for Bangkinang.  They sat and talked with us for an hour, however, and one of them turned out to be the former director of the Zoo in Batavia, and of course he knew all about us, and about our exchanges with the Batavia Zoo.  He is in this part of the world collecting animals now.  It seemed a strange coincidence to have one Zoo director meet another in that remote little town.  I hated to see them go, in the rain and the dark, over roads that are none too good, but they want to catch a plane to-morrow, and they hurried off through the tiger-infested land, to do so.

June 7 -

Still no drinking water in the resthouse, so we filled our canteens with what was left of the rainwater, after being offered some water that had been warmed, but not boiled, by the Mandoer's wife.

The road goes straight up into the mountains again from here, and we stopped high in the hills first to get the view, and then to collect.  There was a lovely little trail that led alongside a forest stream, where Bill got a bottle full of his much-loved horn flies.  The air was wonderful - so different from yesterday's stifling heat.  All through the canyons the air was actually

Transcription Notes:
Edited for consistency w. rest of project and fixed minor error (typo).