March, 1881.1 217 



TRICEOPTERA AND XEUROPTERA OF THE UPPER ENGADINE 



IN AUGUST. 



BY R. McLACHLAN, F.R.S., &c. 



In the "Entomologist's Annual" for 1871, pp. 15—17, 1 published 

 a few notes on Swiss TricJwptera, some of which related to materials 

 collected by Mr. Stainton in the Engadine in 1870. At that time the 

 hope that I might some day go over the same ground scarcely existed 

 with me. However, on August 6th, 1880, 1 left home at 8 a.m. for 

 the Engadine, and travelling direct via Boulogne, Paris, Belfort, and 

 Basle, arrived at Zurich at 12.30 p.m. on the 7th. Leaving Zurich on 

 the morning of the 9th, I was at Chur in the afternoon of the same 

 day. Having posted my portmanteau for Pontresina, I walked onto 

 Churwalden in the evening, and slept there, joining the diligence 

 party at 8.30 next morning,* for the Engadine via the Albula Pass. 

 The burning of the old bridge over the Rhine at Reichenau, which oc- 

 curred a day or two previously, probably diverted, for the moment, 

 some of the traffic over the Julier Pass via Thusis, so that from 

 Churwalden to Samaden (within three miles of Pontresina) the 

 travellers formed quite a large party, accommodated in two large 

 diligences and three " supplementaires." The weather was tolerably 

 fine, but cold : snow had fallen the previous night on the Albula Pass, 

 and the mountains had a thin covering of fresh snow ; large patches 

 of unmelted old snow also lay here and there in hollows far below the 

 road, for the summer had not been a warm one in Switzerland. At 

 the Albula Hospice (7582 feet) the rush of shivering travellers in 

 quest of hot coffee was almost ludicrous. Delay was occasioned in 

 waiting for lateral posts, &c, and it was past 9 p.m. before we reached 

 Pontresina, where the portmanteau had previously arrived by a night 

 post. To my dismay all the hotels were crammed, and any chance of 

 obtaining a bed in one of them was hopeless ; not a pleasant prospect 

 at that time of night, and especially as I had planned a stay of ten 

 days. However, a room in a small house, difficult of access, and still 

 more difficult to descend from in the morning, was procured, and here 

 I stayed until the 20th, taking meals only in one of the hotels. f 



* By this means the inconvenience of having to leave Chur at 5.30 a.m. was avoided. 



+ The simplicity of the Engadine is a thing of the past. " Society " has taken possession of 

 the district, at any rate in August, and I more than once heard Pentresina, St. Moritz, and St. 

 Moritz Bad likened to Brighton carried into the Alps. At Pontresina 800 beds are now not 

 sufficient to accommodate the visitors in August. As a hint to future travellers who (like myself 

 on this occasion) may be alone, it is well to say that fair sleeping accommodation may sometimes 

 be obtained in houses belonging to a resident who lets out the rooms, and, if it be preferred, 

 meals can be obtained in a German restaurant, thus avoiding the hotels altogether. In July the 

 place is not so full. The Americans, so ubiquitous in the Bernese Oberland, have not yet appeared 

 in the Engadine in force. 



