S6 INSECT LIFE 



XIII 



acquaintance in the entomological world — Ammo- 

 phila hirsuta, which I had always found isolated on 

 banks along roads in the plain, while here, on the 

 top of Mont Ventoux, were several hundreds heaped 

 under the same shelter. I was trying to find the 

 cause of this agglomeration, when the southern 

 breeze, which had already made us anxious in the 

 course of the morning, suddenly brought up a bevy 

 of clouds melting into rain. Before we had noticed 

 them a thick rain-fog wrapped us round, and we 

 could not see a couple of paces before us. Most 

 unluckily one of us, my excellent friend, Th. 

 Delacour, had wandered away looking for Euphorbia 

 saxatilis, one of the botanical curiosities of these 

 heights. Making a speaking trumpet of our hands 

 we all shouted together. No one replied. Our 

 voices were lost in the dense fog and dull sound of 

 the wind in the whirling mass of cloud. Well, since 

 the wanderer cannot hear us we must seek him. In 

 the darkness of the mist it was impossible to see 

 one another two or three paces off, and I alone of 

 the seven knew the locality. In order to leave no 

 one behind, we took each other's hands, I placing 

 myself at the head of the line. For some minutes 

 we played a game of blindman's buff, which led to 

 nothing. Doubtless, on seeing the clouds coming 

 up, Delacour, well used to Ventoux, had taken 

 advantage of the last gleams of light to hurry to the 

 shelter of Jas. We also must hurry there, for 

 already the rain was running down inside our clothes 

 as well as outside, and our thin white trousers clung 

 like a second skin. A grave difficulty met us : our 

 turnings and goings and comings while we searched 



