1883.] 275 



of the 27th, which I spent for the most part m fighting mosquitoes and sand-flies. 

 These blood-thirsty wretches swarmed to an extent which I could scarcely have 

 believed possible, rising up off the bushes like thin clouds of smoke, as I walked 

 along the paths in the thickets outside the town. It was not very easy to devote any 

 attention to other insects, but I noticed a good many of the Acapulco butterflies, and 

 was especially pleased to come across the huge satiny-white MorpTio Polyphemus, of 

 which I secured a splendid pair. This beautiful creature flies with a slow, undulating 

 motion over the tops of the tall brushwood, and has a noble appearance on the wing : 

 but the horribly tangled and thorny nature of the places it frequents, renders it 

 anything but an easy prey. Deilephila Daucus, Gonepterjjx Clorinde, and other 

 useful things, were taken on board the ship. 



We passed Cape St. Lucas on the evening of the 29th, immediately experiencing 

 a fall of 20° in the temperature of the sea and air — a most welcome change after the 

 excessive heat of Acapulco and San Bias. The appearance of the coast of Lower 

 California was not less different, as it was as barren and desolate as the worst part 

 of the Peruvian seaboard, being a waste of naked rocks and yellow sand-hills, with- 

 out a scrap of vegetation of any sort, and rising, in the background, into rugged 

 mountains, 4000 or 5000 feet high. The wind was in our teeth all the way, com- 

 pelling us to use steam, and on the night of the 8th July, we had to put into San 

 Francisco to replenish our coal. We stayed here only two days, during which time, 

 being very busy, I was able to see but very little of this great city. Leaving again 

 on the 11th, and encountering a strong and northerly gale during the greater part 

 of the following week, we were all very glad to find ourselves safely anchored in the 

 beautiful little harbour of Esquimalt, in Yancouver Island, by midnight on the 18th. 



As the "Kingfisher" remained at this port for more than three months, I had 

 a good opportunity of investigating the local insect-fauna ; and, although I was too 

 late for some of the best things, my success was, on the whole, very satisfactory. I 

 was fortunate enough to meet with a brother collector, Mr. W. Taylor, of Derby, and 

 together we worked hard at the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. The country for six 

 or eight miles round Victoria (the capital of British Columbia, about three miles 

 distant from Esquimalt), is exceedingly pretty and varied, being covered with fine 

 timber down to the sea-shore, alternating with wide stretches of open meadow and 

 corn-land, dotted with large oak-trees, and gradually merging into the dense forest 

 ■which clothes nearly the whole of Vancouver Island. The trees are for the most 

 part the Douglas Fir {Abies Douglasi), which attains very large dimensions, and 

 yields valuable timber : with a sprinkle of maple, alder, willow, aspen, cedar, arbutus, 

 &c. : the undergrowth consists of two or three species of wild-rose, brambles, snow- 

 berry {Symplioricarpus racemosus) , and "Sallal" {Oualtheria shaUon),&\\ evergreen 

 rather like our bilberry, and producing an edible fruit : wild cherries, raspberries, and 

 gooseberries also abound. The woods are intersected in all directions by narrow 

 paths or " trails," in which it is by no means diflicult to lose oneself, as I found more 

 than once to my cost. About five miles from Esquimalt is a series of lakes abounding 

 in trout, and surrounded by wide marshy borders, where many good insects occur. 



We enjoyed exceedingly fine weather up to the middle of October, when it 

 became cold and rainy : the nights were unusually still, cool, and cloudless, and to 

 this circumstance I attribute the entire failure of sugar, which I tried on a good 

 many evenings without attracting half-a-dozen moths in all. 



