1883.] 95 



mountains are much more abrupt and broten, shooting up into the most fantastic 

 peaks, one, in particular, being very like a church steeple. The vegetation is very- 

 luxuriant, and it is difficult to get about, the low ground being rather swampy, with 

 but few paths. I found the usual Tahitian insects in plenty here, and took several 

 hawk-moth larvse, feeding on a species of Convolvulus with very large leaves. These 

 have just produced a moth which I cannot distinguish from our Sphinx convolvuli, 

 except in size, it being only about three inches across. Some very pretty land and 

 fresh water shells, different from those found at Tahiti, occurred to me : but the 

 mosquitoes quite spoiled the pleasure of walking in the woods, as they were more 

 numerous than even at Acapulco or San Bias, and qiute as venomous. 



"We left Eimeo on the afternoon of April 9th, for the remote island of Eap-a or 

 Oparo, and thence to Cook's Islands. After a somewhat tempestuous passage, in 

 which the wind persistently headed us, and we had to steam a good deal in conse- 

 quence, we arrived at Rap-a on the 18th, and anchored in Ahurei Bay, a well 

 sheltered harbour, but full of reefs, and with poor holding ground. Rap-a is a very 

 pretty island, eighteen miles in circumference, and may be described as one mass of 

 jagged and precipitous mountains, running up into remarkable needle-shaped peaks, 

 the highest being 2172 feet in elevation. As we stayed here only twenty-four hours, 

 I was able to get on shore only once, for a few hours, but I greatly enjoyed my brief 

 ramble. The vegetation was not unlike that of the islands we had as yet visited, 

 with the exception of the cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, which appeared to be 

 almost, or quite, absent : on the other hand, the screw-pine (Pandanws) was abundant, 

 and the tree-ferns remarkably fine. The only butterfly I saw was Dajiais Archippus ; 

 the moths were, for the most part, common Tahitian species, with the exception of 

 a very fine large moth {OpMderes sp.), brown, with bright orange hind- wings, banded 

 with black, of which I saw three or four specimens, and was lucky enough to catch 

 one. A few beetles, including two or three very nice fresh species of CossonidcB,BxiA. 

 some land-shells of the genus Helix, completed my small collections at Rap-a. The 

 inhabitants, about 150 in number, seemed poor, though they had no lack of food, in 

 the shape of goats, pigs, and taro-root, with which they supplied us plentifully. 



Leaving Rap-a on the 19th, and again encountering baffling winds, we arrived 

 at Mangaia, one of the Cook Islands, on the 27th. We did not anchor here, as there 

 is no harbour, and only stayed long enough to communicate with the shore, so I did 

 not land. Next day, we arrived at Rarotonga, unanimously pronounced to be the 

 prettiest island we had yet visited : it attains the elevation of 2925 feet, and is 

 covered with most beautiful and luxuriant vegetation. There is no anchorage here, 

 the island being surrounded by a fringing coral reef. We had to lay off and on 

 under steam for about twenty-four hours, but I managed to get a short run on shore 

 on the afternoon of the 28th. I found the productions, animal and vegetable, much 

 the same as at Tahiti ; a great deal of coffee and cotton are grown here. Six or 

 seven species of butterflies turned up, viz. : Danals and Diadema (the $ s of the 

 latter very handsomely suffused with red, like the East Indian form, I believe), two 

 of EuploRa (one new to me), Cyllo Leda, and a lovely little blue-purple Polyommatus ; 

 no fresh moths, but about eight species of beetles, among them a nice Hylesinus, 

 and several Cossonidce, one of the latter very minute. Three or four species of land- 

 shells, and about fifty sorts of sea-shells in good condition picked up on the beach, 

 made up a very fair afternoon's work. 



