1881.] 83 



during the night, but anchored before sunset in some one or other of the many 

 excellent harbours, I had occasional opportunities of landing, and, it is needless to 

 say, enjoyed myself immensely in the primeval Patagonian forest. The beauty and 

 luxuriance of these woods is most wonderful : the chief trees are the evergreen 

 beech (Fagus betuloides), the aromatic Winter's Bark (Drimys Winter*), a species 

 of cedar, &c, the whole matted together with a most dense undergrowth, among 

 which the wild Fuchsia holds a conspicuous place. It is like scrambling through a 

 quickset hedge, to try and get about among these woods, and the open places are 

 covered with a dense coating of spongy peat, saturated with water, and worse to 

 cross than an Irish bog ! The woods are a real Botanical paradise, being full of the 

 most lovely wild flowers, while the profusion of exquisite mosses, lichens, fungi, and 

 small ferns, which find a congenial climate in this land of never-ceasing rain, would 

 simply drive a Cryptogamist wild with delight. Insects are, however, not numerous. 

 I only got two beetles, a fine Brenthid weevil, and a chafer related to Serica : in 

 moths, the genera were almost all British, the one best represented being Eupithecia, 

 of which I found some half a dozen species, one or two pretty Toeniocampce, a 

 Cidaria, very like suffamata, a Scoparia, a Crambus, a pretty olive-black Campto- 

 gramma, and one or two Micros. The great drawback to collecting, or even enjoying 

 the glorious scenery, was the weather, which, although it was the height of summer 

 in these southern latitudes, was most detestable — a succession of fierce storms of 

 wind, rain, and sleet, the thermometer rarely rising above 50°. I do not think we 

 had two consecutive hours without a shower after we left Punta Arenas, until we 

 fairly got clear of the coast. 



We arrived at Valparaiso, after a pleasant passage from the G-ulf of Penas, on 

 January 15th, but we stayed here only four days, and the few insects I obtained were, 

 with but one or two unimportant exceptions, identical with those I subsequently 

 obtained at Coquimbo, where we arrived on January 21st, and remained until 

 March 12th. This is a poor little town of about 6000 inhabitants, and the environs 

 are very sandy and barren, with but a scanty vegetation in the best parts. Under 

 irrigation, large crops of lucerne, &c, are grown, and these lucerne-fields produce many 

 interesting insects. Some of them remind one forcibly of those found at home in 

 similar places ; thus Colias Vautieri, $ , perhaps the commonest butterfly of the 

 district, closely resembles our Edusa ; Pyrantels Carye is a close mimic of cardui ; 

 a large sulphur-yellow Callidryas is a good imitation of our " Brimstone ;" and some of 

 the little skippers of the genera Pamphila and Pyrgus are very like our native species. 

 The most conspicuous butterfly is a superb Papilio (Archidamas), a rich purplish- 

 black insect, with a curved fascia of golden-yellow spots across all the wings, which 

 are from 3 to nearly 4 inches in expanse : this beautiful creature is common, even in 

 the town and on board the ship. Its larva, a fat, stumpy caterpillar of a deep madder- 

 purple colour, with a double row of orange-red tubercles on the back, is very plenti- 

 ful on a creeping plant, a species of Aristolochia, and it emits, in a concentrated 

 form, the very disagreeable smell of its food ; the pupa is often found attached to 

 rocks, &c. Another very beautiful, but scarce, butterfly is the extraordinary Satyrid 

 — Argyrophorus argenteus — of which the male is entirely of a vivid silvery-white 

 above, glistening in the sun, as it flies along, like a sheet of burnished metal; while 

 the female is as dull as the male is brilliant, being entirely a dull sooty-brown. Un- 

 fortunately, I have been able to obtain only this latter sex, for although I have seen 



