- a shed by the water thrt 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 morn:ng 
memorable, and all our discoveries were capped by Beirne f s finding 
Vermilio in Pyer Putih Canyon. This little motm ftas hrbits 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. Eeirne found it in some sand under 
•an overhanging r o ck # . .. - || ; f vf^i §Sitl il - IS W$ tp 
Before we reached Ayer Putih we crossed the high mountain 
pass of Pintoe Ahgift, 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 photo- 
graphing was done by all. When we stopped to collect in Ayer 
Putih, where we spent a couple of hours, Wllii&m s caught up with 
us again, to our great astonishment. e told us that just beyond 
Kota Baroe, where we spent last night* there had bfeen a big land- 
slide, and the wyy was thoroughly blocked with debris. We were 
lucky to get out when we did, for nice as Mo ear a Mahat m s 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 wo derfully and fearfully 
made. We got out of the car at one place, and waited down the 
"nine bends ff in order to photograph them. You can get m±m& 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 menu ent, and many metallic 
little blue bettles that were mating on roadside plants. Bill got 
in additionto his horn flies a Etigmatoma and other ants. The horn 
flies are always low down, sitting on leaves either Qu the ground 
on close to it*, and always In little hoilws where the stream comes 
out near the road. In one place he caught a dozen or more on the 
same leaf, one at a tine, with perhaps five minutes wait between 
specimens. Sk^The things are so delicate that they have to be 
handled very carefully, and once jriaBH 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 contensts - three tins of pea soup. 
Again we got hoL e just before the storm - back to trie Hotel Centrum 
in Fort de KocK^^i^ : Vr; 
