304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
immediately on their arrival, and which includes their occupa- 
tion. I filled mine in without any thought of the result, but on 
my fifth day found myself called upon to pay 16 krones, whilst 
my friend, who is fortunate enough not to have an occupation, 
got off for 8 krones. I strongly protested at this manifest 
injustice, but was met by the argument: ‘‘ But you put yourself 
down as a ‘director.’ I hastened to explain that however digni- 
fied such an occupation might be in Hungary, in England there 
were plenty of very poor directors ; but it was of no use, I had to 
pay the 16 krones, and to console myself with thinking that some 
at least of my entomological predecessors visiting Herculesbad 
had paid considerably more. 
The Hohe Tatra is that portion of the great chain of moun- 
tains, the Carpathians, which rises out of the plain north-east of 
Budapest, at a distance of some 140 miles as the crow flies; it 
is the highest portion of the chain, rising in some of its peaks to 
an altitude of nearly 9000 ft., and although not covering a large 
area—which I suppose may measure roughly twenty miles by 
ten—it contains some of the finest mountain scenery to be found 
in Kurope. Strange to say, in spite of this and that it also con- 
tains some of the best hotels I have seen anywhere in Kurope, the 
Tatra is very little known to British tourists, and hardly at all to 
those of us who are entomologists. For although I happen to 
know that one or two British lepidopterists have visited it, there 
do not seem to be any published reports in English of the 
insect fauna of the region; at least I have been unable to dis- 
cover any, though of course it is well known to the Hungarians, 
and in a lesser degree to the Germans.* 
It was therefore with considerable curiosity and anticipation 
of something interesting that I proceeded thither. Unfortunately 
during my stay of eleven days, from the 38rd to the 18th of July, 
the weather was the very worst I have ever experienced in 
continental Europe, and I was only able to get amongst the 
alpine species on two occasions; on the first I only had a few 
minutes’ sunshine, and on the second occasion, although there 
was a fair amount of it, the temperatvre was so low I did not see 
a single butterfly on the wing. Eventually, after several days 
of almost continuous rain and mist, I had to give it up and come 
away. 
The Tatra from the treeless plain, which has an altitude 
of about 2000 ft. up to about 5000 ft., is thickly covered 
with forests of spruce; the hotels, of which there are a 
number, are principally scattered about these forests at an 
altitude of about 38000 ft. The climate is much colder than 
at a corresponding level in the Alps, and the whole district 
reminds one forcibly of some parts of Scotland. The moun- 
tains are chiefly of a granite formation, though in the east 
* Of. ‘Iris,’ vol. xiv, p. 365, et seq. [H. R.-B.| 
