NO. 1488. BUTTERFLIES OF BRITISH AMERICA— CARY. 429 



James W. Ta^dor, for some years United States consul at Winnipeg, 

 traveled down the Athabaska, Slave, and Mackenzie rivers, going- as far 

 north as Fort McPherson, A collection of eighteen species of butter- 

 flies secured by Miss Taylor at various points along the route was 

 deposited in the British Museum, and has been reviewed bv A. G. 

 Butler/' 



Frank Russell, of the University of Iowa, made a zoological explo- 

 ration in portions of the far north in 1893-94. Appended to his 

 report'^ is a list of the insects collected, furnished by H. F. Wickham. 

 Two species of diurnals were taken by Mr. Russell at Fort Rae. 



I am informed by Francis A. Heron that the British Museum con- 

 tains several species collected in the Great Slave Lake region in 1S94 

 by W. G. Cumming, an English traveler. 



In 1902, David T. Hanbury, the well-known English explorer, crossed 

 the Barren Grounds from Chestertield Inlet to Great Bear Lake. 

 Assisted by his companion, Hubert Darrell, a small but highl}' inter- 

 esting collection of Arctic butterflies was obtained at various points 

 along the Arctic coast between Chapman Island and the mouth of the 

 Coppermine River during June and the early part of July. Several 

 species were also secured b}^ Mr. Hanbury later in July on the traverse 

 between Coppermine River and Great Bear Lake. H. J. Elwes has 

 reviewed this collection in the Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London for 1903. 



The Government collections in Ottawa contain seven species of but- 

 terflies collected by James M. Macoun, of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey, in the vicinity of Dunvegan, on the upper Peace River, Atha- 

 baska, during the summer of 1903. Mr. Macoun writes me that his 

 collecting was done on the bench back from Peace River, at an altitude 

 of about 2,500 feet. Dr. James Fletcher has kindly furnished me 

 with determinations of this collection. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE REGION. 



The scope of country treated in the present paper is that part of 

 northwestern British America known as the districts of Athabaska 

 and Mackenzie. This territory lies between Keewatin on the east and 

 the main range of the Rocky Mountains. The flft3^-tiftli parallel is 

 the southern boundar}^, and it extends northward to the Arctic Ocean. 

 The southern portion of the region is but slightly diversified. The 

 monotony of seemingh' endless spruce forest is relieved onl}" by the 

 numerous streams and chains of lakes. Muskegs and swales abound. 

 Similar conditions ol)tain in the Mackenzie Basin almost to the delta, 

 but the forest of spruce and poplar is less luxuriant north of latitude 



« Annals Nat. Hist. (6), XII, 1893, pp. 12-14. 

 ''Explorations in the Far North, 1898. 



