AUGUST COLLECTING IN THE VAL d'aNNIVIKRS. 283 



aucl Aporla crataeyl, the yellow hawkweeds. Ili^-lier up, again, iu the 

 piiie forests opposite Ziual itself, a few days later 1 made the aeipuun- 

 taiiee of B. mo, a <;'ay little iusect couiiuou enough where it oeeurred, 

 but very local. There also, by the stream, I took (jne or two /'. optikie, 

 but they were iu better eouditu)n nearer the Durand glaeier at the head of 

 the valley, where, on a saxifrage-covered slope, through which a stream of 

 black spring water rushed to the dreary moraine, was, perhaps, the 

 finest collecting ground of all. Coming over the Roc de la Vache, true 

 to its name, and swarming with unwelcome kiuc, I chanced upon this 

 quiet corner. Above on the wind-swept, sun-burnt sides of the Cow 

 liock, I had that day heated myself iu pursuit of my lirst (and only) 

 Cldonuhas acl/o, and disported on the shadier slopes, among the arnica 

 daisies aud edelweiss, with J/, cynlhia, I'ieris callidice, M. aurlnia var. 

 merope, and, among myriads of its kind, one splendid J), pales 

 var. napaea. Pleasant it was, then, to throw myself down on 

 the lush gTecu moss and drink long draughts of the pure water, 

 by which the great white Varnassius delius was lazily dancing, as it 

 were, with the nodding cotton-grass. CoenoHi/mpha salijrlon, m 

 every degi'ee of puzzling affinity with var. darwiniana, JSLdanqrias 

 epipliron var. nelamus, M. melampus, with Syridhidi, innumerable 

 and indistinguishable, formed the more sober setting in which the 

 jewelled Lycicnids scintillated. For here I found L\ pheretes literally 

 in hundreds, a novel experienee, and among them I was fortunate enough 

 to catch a single beautiful female, properly (in my experience) designated 

 in the manuals " very rare. ' ' The net was soon busy among such of these 

 as I required, aud to the day's bag (August 1st) 1 added E. styyne and 

 three l^airAnthocharis belia var. siDiplonia, which I should have accoimted 

 late had I not noticed as well Jvuchloe cardamines — surely somewhat 

 above its accustomed altitude, for this could not be less than (J,500 ft. up, 

 and might have been more. When I returned, however, ten days later, 

 nearly everything had disappeared, except 7'. optilde, and again a single 

 A. var. simplonia, whose first cousin, A. bdia, I had also met at Hyeres 

 in March. In the space at my disposal I can only touch on the delights 

 of the higher alps ; how we walked up the Besso (12,000 ft.), noting 

 E. ylacialis near the summit, aud lower down K. lappona, E. gov ye, 

 E. ty)idarus and Colias phicomone, in search of which insects my 

 guide assured me the circling crows haunted the highest ranges — 

 though I had my suspieions that the birds in (piestiou preferred the 

 fragmentary sardines and saudwiciies left by the climbers to the more 

 ethereal fare provided by nature. The number of butterflies actually 

 met with upon the snows and the glaciers is really surprising. Under 

 the Mountet hut, where it is rumoured that the casual lodger may 

 discover genera of other orders of insects than those included in the lepi- 

 doptera, at an altitude of !>,oOO ft., I was continually finding strcmg- 

 winged species like Pyrameis car did and Colias edusa, with less able- 

 bodied A. lafhouia, while the greener summits, the Point de Sorrebois 

 (9,210 ft.), I for instance, teemed with /•;. laj)pona, P. callidice, M. 

 cynthia, and less commonly (J. phicomone, with the ubiquitous Aglais 

 wr/icac, whieh in its wanderings seems as mueh at home "upon the 

 misty mountain toj) " as iu the nettle beds of British fenland. But it 

 is useless cataloguing my August captures at length — even Homer 

 becomes tedious when he sets to work on the intermiuable muster of the 

 Greek navy — aud no good purpose would be served thereby. Suffice it to 



