THE BASSES-ALPES IN AUGUST. 259 



mission, the Col, entomologically speaking, is to me a blank. 

 Nor do I fancy that the Alios side would be productive, as it is 

 wholly devoid of forest and grazed apparently to the summit, 

 which commands but a moderate view of the surrounding moun- 

 tains. The 7th and the 8th of August as well as the 10th 

 I devoted entirely to the neighbourhood of the beautiful Lac 

 d'AUos, with the intention of tracking down the elusive scipio. 

 But my evil star was in the ascendant, and though I penetrated 

 high up beyond the lake itself, which lies at over 7000 ft. — an 

 expanse of lapis -lazuli in a setting of sombre peaks, not in shape 

 unlike the Dolomites — again clouds and rain disappointed my 

 search. 



Except on the 8th, when I was soaked to the skin in a terrific 

 thunderstorm which found me with no better shelter than a 

 willow-tree, the lower stages of the mule-path that leads first to 

 the forester's house — round which the reafforestation of the bare 

 hills is in full swing — were warm and sunny. About a quarter 

 of an hour from the village the track is shaded by a wealth of 

 wild fruit trees — pears, apples, cherries, and sloes, and here- 

 abouts worn males of Thecla acacice were drinking in the honey 

 of the white stone-crop, while the females might be seen ovi- 

 positing on the sloe-bushes — always favouring the meanest 

 specimens : Thecla spini, a little less disreputable, was also in 

 evidence, with worn Limenitis Camilla. In the open, fresh Pontia 

 daplidice and Erehia neoridas males were again in profusion, with 

 Epine2)hele lycaou, males of CJirysophanus virgaurea, ai,nd Hesperia 

 comma, the uncut meadows revealing occasional Aporia crataegi, 

 and by the woodsides innumerable Erehia eurijale. Curiously 

 enough, with the exception of a single brilliant Aglais urticce on 

 the shore of the Lac, I do not remember to have seen a single 

 Vanessid on the Basses-Alpes in the first fortnight of the month 

 except P. c-album. 



The mountains round Alios, as the inhabitants are proud 

 to inform us, partake much more of the character of the Swiss 

 Alps than of the Basses-Alpes. But this season, at all events, 

 butterflies did not appear in anything like the profusion to 

 which those who collect in Switzerland are accustomed. Except 

 Coenonympha iphis, which occurred wherever its food-plants grew, 

 I cannot say that any single species was really common. At 

 5500-6000 ft. males of Chrysophanus hippothoii var. euryhia were 

 in evidence, and I took a female of C. virgaurca which stands 

 midway between the type, and the var. zermattensis in the distri- 

 bution of colour. Brenthis amatlmsia was rare, as also B. pales 

 var. arsilache, their condition showing that it was not a result of 

 my coming too late upon the ground. Small E. goante, a form 

 of E. var. cassiope (= obsolcta, Tutt) and E. var. dromus, made 

 up the Ej-ebia record of this part of the walk ; and it was not 

 until I arrived at the mountain-wall which encloses the Lac that 



Y -2 



