LATE SUMMER IN NORWAY. 155 



boggy hollows on the hills wherever the ground was very damp ; often 

 living on nearly naked peat sparsely clad with Krioji/iDnnn and 

 Sphaiinuni. Both sexes were abundant and paired at the end of July ; 

 and the same was true at the end of August. At the latter date the 

 country was much more dried up, and the insect was dispersed even 

 over the driest slopes. The colours are variable and sometimes most 

 beautiful. The insect may be washed with yellow or bright green, or 

 the elytra and top of head and thorax may be magenta, or the whole 

 colour dark and almost inky. Uinocestuit viridnliis {^ s), Mecostethus 

 (irnsuKs, L., Goinphocenis )i)acidatit!i, Thunb., ( ? ), Staiinxlerus bicolor, 

 Charp. (nymph) also occurred, and one specimen of the cockroach 

 Ectobia lappoiiica, L., was taken at 3,000ft. 



II. SURENDAL. 



From August 5th to August 26th we were in Surendal, abont ten 

 miles from the fjord. The flat bottom of the valley is here sometimes 

 as much as a mile broad, and mostly under cultivation. A poor crop 

 of hay is taken off most of this, but there are generally a few patches 

 of potatoes and a good deal of bearded wheat. The valley is well 

 sprinkled with farms and cottages, but these have" no gardens. The 

 river is largely fringed with alders, and these and birches grow here 

 and there in patches among the fields. The sides of the valley are 

 quite steep for the first few hundred feet. Alders soon give way to 

 pines : these go over the first crest of the higher ground, and cover 

 the country rather less thickly as the slope becomes more moderate. 

 There are still some at 1,500 ft., but they no longer form a wood after 

 about 700 ft. in most places. Alders grow at a height of several 

 hundred feet in sheltered places. 



Above the pines, and sometimes among them, there are often groups 

 of birches. The ground under the pines and birches is covered with 

 such plants as one would find in similar places in Scotland. Vacchiitna 

 iiiiirtillua completely covers large areas ; f. ttlif/iiiosnni is less common. 

 There is also a good deal of An-tostap/n/lox and Coniiis si<erica, and in 

 the more exposed places. Erica tetralix, and (Jallnna vahiaru, while Andru- 

 iiieda, Linnaea, Trientalis, Pi/rola, Pnb/podiiiui, etc., grow in suitable 

 corners. 



There are damp spots on most of the hills, where the usual bog-plants 

 grow, e.;/., several species of Droftera, Piuanicida vuh/arift, and a great deal 

 of Narthecimii ot^aifrcKjnm. However, as a whole the hills were surprisingly 

 dry. Betida alba is succeeded on higher ground by B. nana, and this 

 grows to the top of most of the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Moen, the place at which we stayed. It does not reach to the top of 

 Honstadknyken, which rises to 3,600ft. on the south side of the valley. 

 On the north side the hills do not rise above 1,800ft. LoheleHria pro- 

 cioiibenn, Menziesia caerulea and Veronica alpina, and similar Alpine 

 plants grow right to the tops. There Avere small patches of snow still 

 lying in sheltered places on the higher hills. The weather during the 

 first week was cold and very wet. During June and July it had been 

 exceptionally dry and hot. The second and third weeks were much 

 warmer, and it seldom rained. When the sun was out it was almost 

 unpleasantly hot. 



We sugared only in the valley, and there not very frequently. 

 Alders by the side of the rivers, and pines and birches half-a-mile 



