riVE DAYS IN THE HOSPENTHAL DISTRICT. / 



shower of cold rain, so that I was glad to avail myself of the hospit- 

 able shelter of the Ober Alp Inn, a little wayside place to which has 

 recently been added a "dependence," where I am told visitors are made 

 very comfortable in an inexpensive way. Here I stayed till the shower 

 was over, and having had a short saunter beside the lake and enjoyed 

 the view, the time had come to retrace my steps to Andermatt. 

 Hardly was dinner finished before Dr. Chapman rang me up on the 

 "phone" to know whether I had arrived and if so whether we could 

 arrange to meet the next day at Hospenthal; this was soon settled, 

 and before the following mid-day I was safely housed at the Meyerhof , 

 and from my bed-room window I recognised the Doctor in the valley 

 catching something on his way back to the hotel, and it was not long 

 before I was on my way to meet him. An afternoon's walk on the 

 St. Gotthard hillside produced nothing worth recountmg, for the sun 

 had retired from view and therefore it was cold. A quiet morning 

 the next day produced a short series of PieriH rapae of an unusually 

 large size in both sexes and an occasional L'olias phicovione. Mdampias 

 vielmiipus and K. lappona were not uncommon, and I netted a single 

 specimen of K. stytjne. Among the Lyctenids roli/o)H}iiatiis icarus 

 and L'ljuniiis semarnns ran neck and neck as to which should be 

 the commoner, of the former besides the usual female, I took two 

 nicely irrorated with blue, not to so great an extent as is to be found 

 at home, but very pretty specimens. Cnpiilo )iriniiinis was flying and 

 its emergence was not yet over for I took one or two that were quite 

 fresh. It varied a good deal in size, one specimen equalling if not 

 excelling the largest Engadine specimens that I have seen ; a single 

 specimen of Aricia astran-he and also of 1'. In/las fell to my net, the 

 latter being unusually dark grey beneath. We walked one day to the 

 Realp and Dr. Chapman noticed Arctoun/scis nnjricae at rest on one of the 

 granite road stumps and as he did not trouble to box it I did, whilst 

 the same evening a Lencania co)iiiiia came in to light and made a great 

 fuss in its excitement. Parascutia {Psodos) alpinata and P. quadrifaria 

 were also taken, together with several species of Vrconbus and Boti/s, of 

 the latter the pretty little B. cimndata was always welcome, whilst 

 of the former, a single C. radiellns and several C coidonellus of both 

 sexes fell to my net, and lower down two large and dark C. dnme- 

 telliis were taken. Of Ari^i/nnidae I saw but one, which turned out to 

 be a typical Brentlds pales, whilst Coen(ini/iiip/ia arcania var. dar- 

 u'imana was, as usual, common. This is a meagre list for two days' 

 work or more, but the weather was not ideal for insects, and the 

 valley struck me more forcibly than it has done before as not being at 

 all prolific in insect life. My birthday was spent in a delightful walk 

 with the two Miss Chapmans and the Doctor to Airolo over the St. 

 Gotthard Pass, delightful except for the return from Goschenen to 

 Hospenthal, for in the absence of an omnibus we all, including the 

 ladies, had to walk home in torrents of rain, and splendidly they did 

 it, looking as well at dinner time as if they had only been out for a 

 short promenade. To us men's mind, however, the walk had its 

 value, for the Reuss was magnificent, tossing and roaring as I have 

 never seen it before. I have been over the Devil's Bridge many times 

 in all states of weather, but never had I seen it like this. The stream 

 seethed and boiled in its turmoil; furious at being confined to so 

 narrow a bed, it seemed to foam with rage, tossing its spray right over 



