174 



taken from the bole. In buttress-rooted trees this 

 means erecting a staging, for both wood and bark of 

 the buttresses differs from the main trunk, and samples 

 ot them are, therefore, not satisfactory. The axe cut 

 is made deep enough to make sure that the timber 

 has differentiated heart wood or not. In some trees 

 with very deep sap woods this means cutting a large 

 piece out of the bole. In any case, the sample should 

 be a deep one, and if the carriage of material is 

 difficult, which is often the case, it can be cut down 

 so as to include those portions only that are necessary 

 for later examination. The bark must be tied on, as 

 it usually detaches itself when the wood dries out. 

 While the axe cut is being obtained, twigs, leaves, and 

 if possible, flowers and fresh fruits are obtained frcm 

 the crown of the tree by the climber, or, if, as often 

 occurs, the tree is unclimbable except at the expense 

 of much time in building ladders of cane, by means 

 of a .44 rifle with — in my case — much cost of ammuni- 

 tion. Dry or half -decayed fruits can often be picked 

 up en the ground ; these are a help in identifying the 

 tree. As full a description of the tree is written as 

 is possible, on the spot. Examples will be found in 



section C. With the exception of the macroscopiral 

 details of the wood, the information included in the 

 descriptions was taken in the field. At the beginning, 

 before I quite understood the Papuan's breadth of 

 intelligence, I made errors, with the result that the 



enough to take the material in its folios of 

 newspapers comfortably, viz., 12. X 18, and high 

 enough to take several hundred specimens, viz., 2 feet; 

 round this, another galvanized iron box is fixed so 

 that there is an intervening space of 2 inches. There 

 is a hole to enable this jacket to be partially filled with 

 water, otherwise it is joined up to the inner box at 

 the top. A lid fits down over the inner compartment. 

 This drier, elevated on two logs with a fire under- 

 neath, will dry out a day's collection of material, 

 however wet it may be, in the course of 24 to 36 

 hours. This system has proved very satisfactory after 

 a year's trial. The drier looks cumbersome, but is 

 really light, and when filled with 20 lb. of newspaper 

 and material makes a load for two hoys, carried in 

 the usual manner on their shoulders from a supporting 

 pole. It has accompanied me throughout my (ravel, 

 even when traversing the very mountainous country 

 from Kokoda to Port Moresby, and from Mt. Obree 

 to Kaiji, up Sarawakrt and to the Ramu. When cut- 

 ting tracks in unexplored country in the mountains 

 there is this objection to the drier: that it is some- 

 what broad, and it is, therefore, necessary lo cm the 

 track a little wider than usual. To obviate this, which 

 is a serious objection, I had a second drier made which 

 is only 10 inches high, and can therefore be tinned 

 on edge for carrying through pathless country. When 

 dry, the material is transferred to the usual herbarium 



descriptions of some of the earlier trees met with had iprem and this is carried m a painted canvas bag to 



to be greatly revised. Particularly was this the case 



regarding leaf measurements when leaves were brought 



to me by the climber from a younger tree of the same 



species. Such leaves, if they approach to the juvenile 



at all, may, in certain species, be five to ten times the 



size of those of 



vvieage of his trees, com- 



ture trees. It was found necessary, 

 therefore, always to obtain the material frcm the 

 crown of the same tree from which the axe cut was taken, 



and to do the whole collecting and write the descrip- 

 tion on the spot. The details of measurements are 

 entered in a separate field book, the species being 

 given a number, with the local native name or names 

 against it. The description is recorded in another note 

 book, which is continually being referred to from day 

 to day to prevent duplication or entering a new species 

 under the old number and name. The bush native 

 has a really wonderful knowled_ 



pared with which the ordinary white man in his Aus- 

 tralian forest is an ignorant person. But the Papuan 

 is not infallible, and is prone to give you an answer 

 which will please you, instead of contradicting you, 

 as he should, when you guess a tree's name wrong. 

 The full written description, at any rate of the less 

 common species, is necessary in any case. After 



months of continuous field work, even with this, and 

 the help of the 



material of the same species from different regions. 

 The material thus collected is chalked with the same 

 number as that recorded in the books. The leaf, 

 twigs and flowers go at once between newspapers in 

 the herbarium box; this is a light ilimo box 6 inches 



painted 



protect it from damp. Even so, and to prevent the 

 attacks of insects, I found it advisable to put all the 

 material through the drier from time to time until it 

 could be poisoned and housed in iron boxes at head- 

 quarters. The data collected regarding stands of 

 timber, the measurements of trees and all other in- 

 formation relative to them which is not descriptive, 

 is transferred to* sheets so that the computation of 

 cubic contents and other necessary figures 



may 



be 



mad 



e. 



If I have gone into detail regarding the method of 



animation, it is because, in the first 



conducting my 



place, I wish to make 



the limitations of the system 

 quite clear; in the second place, I hope that my 

 method, at any rate as far as collecting is concerned, 

 may be of assistance to other foresters who may ex- 

 plore the forests I have strip-surveyed. 



The limitations of a system of survey which is based 

 on the measurement of strips of forest 2 chains wide, 

 taken 



a. 



even with this, anc 

 natives, I brought back duplicate 



high and 18 



x 



with 



a 



12 square, 

 canvas, ship-shape cover tacked on the lid to keep out 

 the wet. Material in such a box keeps in good condi- 

 tion and can be transferred quickly to the drier on 

 getting into camp. The box is usually not so crowded 



pole to be 



but that note books, pencils, foot-rule, lense, and 

 other necessaries can be fitted in, and kept dry when 

 net being used. A grummet at each end enables a 



run through along the top of the closed 

 lid; and thus the two boys carry it, together with 

 axes and knives, from tree to tree and camp to camp. 

 Instead of the usual herbarium press for drying botani- 

 cal material, a method which entails continual changing 

 of papers and which, even with every care, is too 



slow to prevent the attacks of moulds, 

 tropical climate. I had a drier made which con- 

 sists essentially of a galvanized 



in • a 



iron box, large 



in as many directions, and therefore through 

 many different parts of the forest as possible, must 

 necessarily depend on the relation between the area of 

 euch strips when added together and the area of the 

 forest under investigation. Unfortunately, time did 

 not permit nie to make as many travei^ses as I should 

 have liked in any of the forests, except, perhaps, in 

 the Delta division. I give the percentage of strips to 

 the total area of the forest embraced in the survey in 

 each case, so that an estimate may be made of the re- 

 lative value of the survey. Ten per cent, may be taken 

 as the relation to be aimed at, and the efficacy of the 

 survey is greater or less as it approaches or recedes 

 from that figure. 



In the matter of computations of volume, a " form 

 factor n of 0.5 was taken. Most erf the trees that com- 

 prise the rain forests have a lower taper than half the 

 volume of a cylinder of the same basal area. On the 

 other hand, the results approximate to the quantity of 

 sawn timber that a well- worked mill would recover. 

 When the forests came to be carefully examined, it will 

 be possible, perhaps, to apply the correct form factor, 

 and to do this the present use of 0.5 will be found to be 

 a convenient factor to alter. In the meantime, it may 

 be taken as an estimate of the sawn timber. The fol- 



comparative computations make the matter 

 clear, I think : 



Given an even tapering Octomeles tree with a 

 12 feet girth above the buttresses, and a length 



lowing 



