248 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the north-west point of Iceland, at the distance of a mile and a 

 half from the shore, and within the arctic circle. The cliffs of 

 Cape North are not very lofty, but precipitous, and going down 

 sheer into the sea, completely flat-topped, and with clouds 

 brooding low upon their summits. These heights are mostly of 

 a grey tint, with red and brown patches here and there, without 

 fissures, ravines, or projecting points, but presenting a uniform 

 wall of rock, with ledges of greensward seawards. A short 

 distance eastward, where the greensward dips into a hollow, and 

 the cliffs are lower in consequence, there are two places where 

 two waterfalls respectively leap over the brink into the sea, 

 descending from the Dranga glacier. A thick fog over the sea 

 prevailed for a considerable time this morning, but the weather 

 became clearer after mid-day, about which time we entered 

 Reykiafjordur, whose inhabitants are said to be the poorest in all 

 Iceland when the ice-floes prevent them from betaking themselves 

 to their lucrative fishing-grounds, and great hunger and distress 

 prevail ; but they are correspondingly thriving when they can 

 pursue their ordinary avocation, so completely does their 

 subsistence depend on their fisheries. Reykiafjordur is small 

 and narrow compared with other arms of the sea, and its village 

 similarly consists of very few houses. A few Coleoptera are to 

 be obtained by searching under stones; but though there are 

 decidedly some flowers and more varied kinds of plants than at 

 Isafjordur, I saw no Geometridse whatever, and only one Cramhus 

 and one Phrygania. My own idea is that we have passed the limit 

 where most species occur, and are now too far north to meet with 

 man3\ The said limit I should be inclined to place between 

 Innuundafjordur and Isafjordur, possibly somewhere about fifty 

 miles south of the arctic circle. Some inmates of a house, where 

 we were invited to sit down, and given a draught of good milk 

 shortly before our return to the steamer, attributed the absence 

 of insects to the day not being a sunny one, and stated that there 

 had been several moths. Part of yesterday at Isafjordur, however, 

 turned out very fine and warm during my walk, yet I did not see 

 half a dozen Geometridse ; and of course certain species must 

 have their limit somewhere, as in our own land,— a limit traceable 

 to climate, and not always depending on the food-plant (as though 

 the insect cannot continue to exist apart from the food-plant, yet 

 the food-plant may be found without the insect). I gathered a 

 species of grass new to me this morning. At Reykiafjordur may 

 be seen many barrels and vats for holding the whale-oil, also 

 large sections of whalebone from the animal's palate, and large 

 masses of blubber drying in the sun, round which several specimens 

 of Calliphora vomitoria were buzzing, and others lying lifeless on 

 their backs on the surface of the blubber, either from their wings 

 and legs having become clogged with the oil (and this is the most 



