Cb. VIII.] DESCENT OF THE PEXA BLAXCA, 149 



it very cold and bleak, for there was no shelter of any 

 kind on the summit. Such a night was not a favourable 

 one for insects, but I got a few beetles that were new to 

 me on the very top of the rock, where only a few rushes 

 are growing. They appeared to be travelling with the 

 north-east trade wind, and were sifted out by the rushes 

 as they passed over. On a finer night I have no doubt 

 many species might be obtained. I suppose that the 

 wind was moving at the rate of not less than thirty 

 miles an hour, so that the beetles, when they got up to 

 it from the forest below, where it was comparatively 

 calm, mistfit easily be carried hundreds of miles without 



O *t 



much labour to themselves. I added two fine new 

 Carabidse to my collection ; and about eleven o'clock 

 started back again, having many a fall on the slippery 

 steep before I reached the place where I had left my 

 mule. It was a very dark night, and the oil of my 

 small bull's eye lanthorn was exhausted, but the mule 

 knew every step of the way, and, though slipping often, 

 never fell, but carried me safclv home. 



