460 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec, 



the steps shelving inwards. It is also in consequence of these steps 

 that stones do not fall to any distance on the north-eastern side ; 

 for it is evident that if any disintegrated fragments do break away 7 

 they must sooner or later he arrested on a ledge, and, indeed, I 

 did not see any fall during the two days which I passed on the 

 mountain. On the other side, on the contrary, the Matterhorn 

 rains down showers, nay, torrents and avalanches of stones, both by 

 day and night. Thus these dips become on one side a source of 

 safety, but on all others a source of great danger. We are enabled 

 by a knowledge of these facts to account for the enormous moraine 

 of the Zmutt glacier, which has attracted the attention and the 

 curiosity of all observers ; for the Zmutt and its tributary, the Tie- 

 fenmatter, sweep round the two faces of the Matterhorn on which 

 we should expect the greatest masses of rock would fall. We find, 

 moreover, that the Furgee glacier, which is below the N. E. face, 

 has scarcely any moraine. The consideration of these facts also 

 suggests naturally that we see nearly the primal form of the Matter- 

 horn on its N. E. side, but that great changes have taken place 

 on the others. We are sure, indeed, of this, for we see the fallen 

 fragments below. We can go a step further. The fallen masses 

 are chiefly of the red rocks, and they must have either come from the 

 upper or the lower of the three divisions. On the side of the Zmutt 

 and the Tiefenmatter glaciers, however, the lower division is almost 

 entirely covered by snow and glaciers. We are forced, therefore, to 

 the conclusion that they came from the upper ; and it is doing no 

 violence to the imagination to suppose that at some early period 

 the now isolated obelisk of the Matterhorn was only the termination 

 and the culminating point of the ridge of which the Dent d'Erin 

 and the mountains to the south of it formed also a part. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



DESCRIPTION OF ALTPIA LANGTONII. 



BY WM. COUPER, QUEBEC. 



The male of the above species* was unknown to me, when I de- 

 scribed and figured the female in the February number of this 

 Journal (p. 64). The former is so different in color and mark- 

 ings, that a description is necessary. 



The upper surface of the wings is not so dark as in the other 



* Exhibited before Quebec Branch, Ent. Soc. of Can., July 5th, 1865. 



