162 [July, 



Leaving Springfield at noon on December 27tli in a coach drawn 

 by a team of five fine Horses, a drive of two hours brought us to the 

 summit of Porter's Pass, 3200 feet above sea level, the highest 

 carriage-road in New Zealand. Here a halt of a few minutes enabled 

 me to take Chri/ soph anus holdenarum and Argyroplienqa antipodum 

 again, the latter being a smaller, paler, and brighter-looking form 

 than that from a lower elevation. The large and powerful dragon-fly 

 Uropetnln carovei, White, was very common up here, and could easily 

 be caught by hand, while the low bushes were swarming with Pyronotn 

 festiva, Fab., and a darker species, P. luguhris, Sharp. The night was 

 spent at Bealey (2140 feet) where I got a few beetles before break- 

 fast, and at 7 a.m. next day we resumed our journey through the 

 celebrated Otira Gorge. 



Crossing the wide shingly bed of the Waimakiriri Eiver. the 

 road enters a deep ravine among steep snow-capped mountains, 

 covered with dense forest on their flanks, and seamed with long 

 glacier-like strips of loose shingle, the home of Erehia pluto, which 

 rarely, if ever, descends below a height of 4000 feet. At " Arthur's 

 Pass," the road ascends to 3080 feet, and here I enjoyed a few 

 minutes in a lovely subalpine meadowy w-aist-deep in showy flowers — 

 Celmisias, like daisies enlarged to the size of a breakfast-cup, 

 beautiful golden-yellow ErechtJiites and other Compositce, and above 

 all the noble Raiiimculus lyallii, or " Mountain Lily," with its great 

 reniform leaves and clusters of pure white flowers two inches in 

 diameter. The steep descent to Otira w^as a truly glorious piece of 

 scenery, though to look from the top of the coach on a narrow shelf- 

 like road unprotected by any fence, down a sheer drop of 600 feet 

 or more to the raging torrent at the bottom of the ravine, required 

 no small amount of nerve, as well as confidence in the driver. From 

 Otira I proceeded by train to Eeefton, making a brief detour to the 

 flourishing seaport of Greymouth, where, on the beach, I picked up 

 a fine pair of Brullcea antarctica. 



I had to wait a day at Reefton, a small mining town prettily 

 situated on the Inangahua River, and here I got a few interesting 

 beetles, the little brown Cicindela pnrryi, White, which flies scarcely 

 at all and unlike most of its congeners may be easily caught by hand, 

 being found here in plenty by me for the first time. Another 

 capture was Panspceus guttatus, Sharp, quite the most minute Elaterid 

 I have ever seen, as it barely reaches 2 mm. in length. Eeefton is 

 built almost entirely of the native "white pine " or Kahikatea {Podo- 

 carpus dacrydioides), and many of the houses are literally falling to 



