54 [August, 



Only twice was I able to get off on entomological excursions, the 

 first time was early in the summer just after the change of the 

 monsoon. I managed to snatch a day or two before the tea market was 

 opened, and availed myself of it to take a run to the hills in the next 

 province (Chekiang) ; I was only there three days, but was positively 

 astounded at the richness of the country in zoological specimens of all 

 sorts. It was some years before I could go again, but at last I managed 

 to obtain another short holiday in May, and went down better pre- 

 pared this time. Leaving Shanghai in the afternoon in a large and 

 comfortable American-built steamer, the cuisine of which, as well 

 as the handsome and spaciovis saloons, offer no sort of comparison to 

 any boats I have seen leaving London either for the continent or 

 Scotland, we arrived in the Ningpo river at daylight next morning, 

 where we, three in number, chartered a little boat furnished with 

 bunks, cooking apparatiis, &c. Having seen all the provisions, &c., 

 shipped, we started on the tide in the afternoon, and went as far as 

 we could go, till we reached in the middle of the night the foot of 

 the long-wished-f or hills. At daylight next morning, we despatched the 

 provisions on the backs of a train of forty coolies, in charge of one of 

 our boys, to our destination, and, with another boy, we started to walk 

 round by some waterfalls, twenty miles off, where we intended to hire 

 mountain chairs in which to be carried the rest of our journey to the 

 Snowy Valley. The first part of the programme went off all right; very 

 tired, but iu good spirits we arrived at, and dul}^ admired, the falls ; and 

 then, to our horror, found there were no chairs to be had, so had to walk 

 the remaining fifteen miles, principally up hill, and through the rain 

 as well. The commonest butterfly was one of the Sniyridce, which 

 subsequently turned out to be not only a new species, but a new 

 genus, Pahc'onympha opalina ; the country was quite alive W'ith 

 Lepido])tera, mau}^ of them fresh to me, nearly all of them rare in 

 European cabinets ; the next commonest one to P. opalina was a 

 Neptis, also a new species, which has not in fact yet been described. 

 AVe were tired enough on arriving at the temple where our baggage 

 w^as awaiting us ; but the next morning, after a refreshing bath under 

 a cascade, thirty feet high, just at the back of the temple, we sallied 

 out to view the land. To give anything like a proper description, 

 either of the country or of its fauna, would be simply impossible ; 

 suflice it to say, I have never seen anything in all my wanderings to 

 come up to the beauty of the scenery, or to approach the number and 

 variety of the insects of all orders ; with one sweep of my net, I caiight 

 nineteen oF tlie rare Arr/ynnis Ella, and half-a-dozcn different species 



