276 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [November, 



THE SEASON ON MT. WASHINGTON. 



By ANNIE TRUMBULL SLOSSON. 



I have made three trips to Mt. Washington this Summer. My 

 first was in July. On the afternoon of the 4th I went from 

 Franconia with a companion to Fabyan's, where we met our 

 good friend, the sphagnostic, and with him a learned judge and 

 botanist from Massachusetts. We took the 4.40 train up the 

 mountain. This was the first visit for many years of the legal 

 plant collector, and his excitemeut and enthusiasm were un- 

 bounded. He flew from side to side of the car, looking eagerly 

 out and uttering strange exclamations, such as " Geum!" " Le- 

 dum!" " Potentilla tridentata!" and "Vaccinium vitis-idaea!" 

 In the brief stops at tanks or wood-stations he sprang from the 

 train to the intense amazement and amusement of the unscientific 

 passengers; coming back at the last instant, breathless but happy, 

 with hands and pockets full of weedy-looking treasure. 



It was a warm and pleasant day, but grew cold as we neared 

 the summit. As the train stopped in front of the hotel I went 

 at once to investigate the sun-warmed walls of the house. Alas! 

 what a cruel sight met my gaze. Insect life! no, it was insect 

 death. The house had been painted a few days before, during a 

 spell of very warm, still weather, and on that surface of dazzling 

 white, tempting and treacherous, thousands on thousands of in- 

 sects had met their fate. The walls were peppered, or to use 

 the expression of a frivolous and punning young friend stuccoed 

 with Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and other orders. The 

 greater part of these victims were utter wrecks and unrecogniza- 

 ble, and I was glad it was so; I did not want to know what I had 

 lost. I rescued some beetles which were so strangely maculated 

 with the white paint as to look like new and wonderful species. 

 The painters and carpenters who had been working on the house 

 in June told me that the weather had been very warm in that 

 month and the insects numerous and annoying, swarming and 

 buzzing about their heads and lighting on their faces and hands. 

 There was little collecting that first evening. It was cold and we 

 were glad to sit around the big stove in the hall and talk of what 

 we should do next day. I searched the house, examined windows 

 and walls, and took a few insects of no great interest. 



The next day opened well, with sunshine and warm, soft air, 



