138 THE TINE^I OF THE HIGHER ALPS. 



So we go further and further on, higher and higher up. 

 If the air be still cool, yet in the course of some hours the 

 exertion of climbing becomes sensible enough. 



At last we leave the wood, and before us lies an extensive 

 meadow land, surrounded by a wooden fence ; but still this 

 ascends, though with a more gentle slope, and thousands 

 of feet above us yet lies our destined hunting-ground. 



We proceed, now in the full glare of the sunshine, on the 

 rapidly-drying grass. The collector glances eagerly in search 

 of insects, and indeed here we first met with species peculiar 

 to the Alpine world, though still singly and sparingly enough. 

 Brown butterflies of the genus Erebia attract our attention ; it 

 is Erebia Melampus, a constant inhabitant of the lower 

 Alps. 



We go further; other allied species join and gradually 

 become more plentiful, and the meadows appear more and 

 more to be tenanted with a peculiar insect-world. There 

 flutters heavily before our feet a brown Geometra, with 

 yellow markings ; it is G. equestraria, and on the flowers 

 sits the yellow G. tinctaria. Possibly we already perceive 

 hurrying along a greenish yellow Colias Phicomone, as a 

 sample of what awaits us on the summit of the mountain. 

 At last we reach the top, exhausted and streaming with 

 perspiration. Yet all weariness soon disappears in the fresh 

 and pure air, especially as we contemplate our magnificent 

 hunting-ground, begirt with snow-fields. Soon we are hard 

 at work, carrying death and havoc into the peaceful insect 

 world around us, and the harvest is indeed rich in the new 

 and the beautiful, if only the sun shine and blue sky remain 

 true to the collector. 



Probably every Lepidopterist, even though his studies are 

 more directed to the smaller than the larger groups of the 

 order, will for the first hours at such a time devote his 



