216 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



operations ; whole mountain sides are now kept bare of any 

 vegetation whatever by snow slides. In the more sheltered portions 

 and on the plateaus a scanty growth of deciduous trees and shrubbery 

 has replaced the conifers ; thousands of sheep, which are driven through 

 the canyons up the mountain, make annually a complete sweep of the 

 alpine and subalpine lower plants. It is no wonder under these circum- 

 stances that species peculiar to these mountains are now but few in 

 number and rare in specimens, and that there is an undue proportion of 

 species which are evidently immigrants from other regions. Along the 

 base of the mountains irrigation and cultivation have effected a still more 

 radical change and utterly exterminated the native flora and fauna. Even 

 along the old water courses within the irrigated districts the insects have 

 disappeared. Similar conditions prevail all over the West ; in the South- 

 west irrigation and sheep, and in the Northwest the axe of the lumber- 

 man, and forest fires are hard and fast at work destroying the original 

 flora and fauna. Of course, there are in the West many square miles 

 of virgin ground left, but if we are desirous of preserving a record of the 

 original fauna, there is need, as I said, of a speedy exploration. 



There is still very little known of the Coleopterous fauna of Lower 

 California and more especially of the tropical part of this peninsula. 

 How large a proportion of the Coleoptera of Alaska has been described, 

 or is at least available for study in our cabinets I do not know, but 

 judging from the fact that the Swedish Vega expedition brought home 

 from the northwest coast quite a number of species previously unknown, 

 I presume that much still remains to be investigated in the western part 

 of Alaska and in the interior. 



In the country east of the Rocky Mountains the progress of exploration 

 has of course been much more thorough than in the newer west. Since 

 the formation of this Club the faunas of Texas and Florida, hitherto but 

 imperfectly known, have yielded a large number of new forms ; the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire have been very carefully explored, and 

 this mountain range is the only one in North America which may be said 

 to be thoroughly investigated, not only in regard to Coleoptera, but also 

 some other orders. Besides this a large amount of very careful 

 collecting has been done at many points within the Northern, Middle and 

 Western States with a thoroughness which was utterly unknown to the 

 coleopterists of thirty years ago, and which has, I fear, resulted, in some 

 nstances, in the extermination of a few choice species. At any rate, it 



