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-83- washed by the water that comes gushing out between the rocks, and had an indescribable crystalline, coolness and purity about it. A new Polyrachus and a variety of other insects made the morning memorable, and all our discoveries were capped by Beirne's finding Vermilio in Ayer Putih Canyon. The little worm has habits like the ant lions of North America, but has never been found before in Sumatra. It was one of the things they were most anxious to get - if it occurred here; and it does. Beirne found it in some sand under an overhanging rock. Before we reached Ayer Putih we crossed the high mountain pass of Pintoe Angin, from which the view is simply superb. On a clear day, such as this, one can look right across the island and see a faint blue line that marks the Straits of Malacca. Crossing the Equator for the third time on this trip we met Williams, headed in the opposite direction - going to Bangkinang and Pakan Baroe - and of course both cars stopped and some more photographing was done by all. When we stopped to collect in Ayer Putih, where we spent a couple of hours, Williams caught up with us again, to our great astonishment. He told us that just beyond Kota Baroe, where we spent last night, there had been a big landslide, and the way was thoroughly blocked with debris. We were lucky to get out when we did, for nice as Moeara Mahat was we had no desire to spend several more days there, but we wondered what had become of our Dutch friends, including Mr. Bante of Batavai,and whether or not they got through to the coast after they left us. Incidentally we were collecting on the exact spot where our Moeara Mahat friend saw his tiger night before last. The road through this canyon is wonderfully and fearfully made. We got out of the car at one place, and walked down the "nine bends" in order to photograph them You can get [[strikethrough]] nine [[/strikethrough]] five of the nine bends in your camera at one time, they wind so close together. The country is beautiful, dense jungle, waterfalls, rushing torrents, palms and ferns, ground orchids and begonias, lianas and huge giants of untouched trees. The collecting was good all day. I caught a new Polyrachus, a click beetle right on the Equator monu ment and many metallic little blue bettles that were mating on roadside plants. Bill got in addition to his horn flies a Stigmatoma and other ants. The horn flies are always low down, sitting on leaves either on the ground on close to it, and always in little hollws where the stream comes out near the road. In one place he caught a dozen or more on the same leaf, one at a time, with perhaps five minutes wait between specimens. [[strikethrough]] The [[/strikethrough]] The things are so delicate that they have to be handled very carefully, and once [[strikethrough]] when [[/strikethrough]] Bill found that he had broken off one of the long-stalked eyes in his butterfly net. We had a very late lunch in Pajacombo. Bill raided the kitchen cabinet, and we ate up its entire contents - three tins of pea soup. Again we got home just before the storm - back to the Hotel Centrum in Fort de Kock.