Butter jiics of Bulgaria. 185 



valleys are almost virgin, though sawmills are creeping up 

 them wherever a road passable for pack-horses can be kept 

 open without too much labour. Though the monastery 

 owns large numbers of sheep and horses the mountains are 

 not grazed nearly so hard as in most parts of Bulgaria and 

 Turkey, and in consequence there are many good-looking 

 collecting-places which in the Alps would swarm with 

 butterflies. 



For some reason, however, which I cannot explain, though 

 an abnormal season may to some extent account for it, we 

 never once either then or later found butterflies in such 

 abundance as in many parts of the Alps, and though 

 as our list shows a large proportion of the Alpine 

 species are present, yet many more which should accom- 

 pany them are seemingly quite wanting. Bad weather 

 hindered our work very much, and on very few days we 

 were able to get more than two or three hours' unbroken 

 sunshine, whilst several days were entirely lost through 

 heavy rain. 



We had hoped to extend our trip from Rilo Monastir 

 into Macedonia, the frontier of which is close by, and to 

 reach the southern and presumably warmer and earlier 

 slopes of the range ; but the political aspirations of the 

 Macedonians, which have caused considerable unrest and 

 friction between tlie Turkish and Bulgarian governments 

 on this frontier, made our application for leave to visit 

 Macedonia useless, and after waiting a week at the 

 monastery we went into camp on the pass between it and 

 Samokov. Here we had two days of fine weather, and got, 

 among other things, McUta3a cyrithia, wliich here finds its 

 southern limit. After a few days we returned to Samokov, 

 where Herr Haberhauer, having hurt his leg, was obliged 

 to leave us, and through the kind help of Dr. Clark and 

 Mr. Thompson, who have a large and apparently thriving 

 mission here, obtained the services of a young Bulgarian, 

 Radomir Kezantchieff, as interpreter. Five miles from 

 Samokov is a newly-established watering-place called 

 Camkuriya, close to high mouutains and good collecting- 

 ground, and though not above 4U()0 feet elevation it might 

 be made a good centre for excursions. 



From here we went up into the mouutains east of 

 Mus-alla and camped near the source of the Maritza, close 

 to the watershed, intending to travel along the frontier as 

 far as Batak. Here we found an Ercbia which neither 



