A TRIP TO CORSICA AND THE ALPES MARITIME!?. 24? 



A Trip to Corsica and the Alpes Maritimes. 



Part I. — Corsica. 

 By H. ROWLAND-BEOWN, M.A., F.E.S. 

 This year the eccentricities of the British climate prompted an 

 expedition far afield, and the decision to seek the sunny south was 

 fully justified in so far as climatic conditions were concerned. The cold 

 winds and low temperatures, the torrential downpours and leaden skies 

 of early April, extended far beyond the usual northern limits ; the 

 dreary June weather, which put the finishing touches to our entomo- 

 logical hopes at home, played havoc also with winged creatures even 

 as far south as the Mediterranean. The principal effect, however, was 

 to retard species, and it was really remarkable to find in July, both in 

 Corsica and the Alpes Maritimes, butterflies fresh on the wing, which 

 are usually to be looked for at least a month sooner. Five or six hours' 

 rain in a month's travel, compares well with the depressing inches of 

 the British Islands, and it seems, therefore, the more remarkable too, 

 that people, even those who have the misfortune not to collect insects, 

 should persistently take their holidays within the rainy zone, nowhere 

 more marked in a bad season than in the Alps of Central Europe. At 

 least, that is my experience, and I resisted the temptation of more than 

 one pleasant travelling invitation to strike out fresh woods and 

 pastures new, in lands where the sun's "gold complexion" is more 

 often " dimmed " than not. Let me take up the parable somewhere 

 south of Lyons with a glimpse of Goneptcrij.r drnpatra and Pontia 

 dapUdicf, seen from the train window in the neighbourhood of Avignon, 

 on the early morning of July 10th, a morning cloudless and exhilara- 

 ting with the dry, fine heat of the Midi. No time for entomological 

 observations in Marseilles, but a visit to the Universal Provider, who 

 sells white umbrellas for half-a-crown, luncheon at a cool hotel, and a 

 drive to the docks, attended by every attempt at extortion, of which 

 the combined genius of cabby and boatman is capable, even to the 

 extent of swearing the pontoon bridge is broken, and a cockleshell 

 the only means of reaching the Corsican steamer lying upon the 

 opposite side of the basin. I protested a liking for ruins, but needless 

 to add the bridge was sound enough, and eventually I found myself on 

 the good ship "Thibet " — ^an improvement on the little, stuffy tramps 

 that usually ply between Marseilles and Ajaccio — witnessed a gorgeous 

 sunset upon the low red rocks and barren headlands of Provence, and 

 as Mr. Pepys has it, ' so to bed ' and slept so soundly, that they were 

 warping us in at the quay-side when I awoke, to recognise Corsica by 

 the fragrance of her million aromatic flowers. My Baedeker, an 

 ancient edition, contained ample warning against the exactions of the 

 longshore men. Happily I got my impedimenta through the Douane 

 without trouble, and my baggage safely stowed in the railway-station, 

 whence the train for Vizzavona would bear me at noon. The interval 

 I proposed to fill up with my net and pill-boxes, and a large tin collect- 

 ing-case provided for the reception of Lharaxes jasins, and other wide- 

 winged butterflies duly recorded in Kane, and the entomological con- 

 tributions of Messrs. A. H. Jones and Standen. However, C.jasius did 

 not put in an appearance here or anywhere else, and I was soon made 

 aware that, as is the case with most insular faunae, the likeliest look- 

 ing localities are not unseldom unproductive. Following, meanwhile, a 

 October 15tii, 190:!. 



