FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES 59 



40 //, when the stolen drug was discovered under 

 a stone in the river bed. 



His assistant, whom the doctor knew, said that 

 he could not explain the matter in any way, but 

 felt that he had to go wherever the measure 

 directed him. 



For some days after our arrival mist and cloud 

 cov^ered the tops of the surrounding mountains. 

 These rose to a height of over 11,000 ft, whilst 

 the summit of the lower ridges, blotched and 

 scarred, marred and torn as far as the eye could 

 reach by patches of cultivation, were some 3,000 ft. 

 above the river. My sympathies are with the 

 toiling peasant, but I abominate his handiwork. 

 Maize, wheat and barley were the principal crops. 

 I have never seen such masses of wild flowers as 

 grew on the crest of these foothills. There were 

 lilies, red and yellow, spotted and plain ; some 

 over six feet high, others but a few inches above 

 the ground ; gentians, pinks, irises — these of course 

 not in flower ; jasmine and a quantity of other 

 varieties whose names I did not know. Above 

 them fluttered hundreds of butterflies, which seemed 

 particularly fond of a beautiful mauve flower grow- 

 ing on a straight stem. The largest of these butter- 

 flies were of a blackish green, with pink under wings 

 and swallow tails. They must have measured 

 nearly four inches across. 



These foothills are fine hunting ground for roe 

 {Capreolus bedfoi^di) in the winter. During the 

 summer the grasses and undergrowth are too 

 luxuriant to render their pursuit at all a hopeful 

 undertaking. We tried one day and jumped a 

 buck which I missed ; while George shot a female 



