A BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF UNEXPLORED FRANCE. 9 
booklets that published by the ‘‘ Syndicat d’Initiative de Valence- 
sur-Rhone et dela Drome.” A glance at its contents decided 
me to try the country known collectively as the Vercors, and 
a cyclist friend having passed through the Lans valley earlier in 
the summer and given satisfactory account, I took the morning 
tourist-car from Grenoble on July 2nd, one of the many now 
‘*‘doing”’ the Alps and outlying ‘‘ massifs’’ in connection with 
the P.L.M. and Sud Railways. By these means rapid communi- 
cations have been opened up with well-known entomological 
centres, and a vast region of new country placed within easy 
reach of the main lines. But after five weeks’ experience of 
them I cannot say that I view the automobile alpine—by the 
way the Academy is divided as to whether it is masculine or 
feminine—as an unmixed blessing. From the tourist’s point of 
view the cars travel far too swiftly—it is impossible to enjoy 
the scenery ; while at present many of the mountain roads are 
wholly unfit for motor traffic, and the shaking amounts to 
positive torture of mind as well as of body. For when the setting 
boards are full the anxious collector is speculating all the time 
how many pins have got loose in the boxes, and trembling for 
the fate of his rarities. On several occasions, notably on the 
road from Barcelunnette to Prunieéres, the railway station on the 
Briancon line, irreparable damage was done in the way of broken 
antenne and split wings. Those who do their setting, as I do, 
en route will do well, therefore, to examine the boards before and 
after any involuntary game of Cup-and-Ball ofthe kind. Further, 
the turns and twists of the mountain roads, bad enough in the 
old diligence days, are nerve-shattering at the pace taken by 
the French chauffeur; and, worst of all for the entomologist, 
except when going slow uphill, the delight of spotting species by 
the roadside is destroyed; even more so of the occasional walk 
ahead with net or pill boxes by footpath short cuts, while 
the horses-toil round the dusty zigzags. It was really quite 
a relief when, on one occasion at least, 1 found the motor, for 
want of passengers, superseded by the decayed and decrepit 
diligence, otherwise consigned to indefinite stivation. But 
against these drawbacks may be reckoned the rapidity of the 
journey. Localities formerly reached in a day’s drive are 
now but a few hours distant. While the completion of the 
Annot tunnel on the Digne-Nice line has at length united by 
rail and motor the Basses-Alpes and the Alpes-Maritimes. In 
the ‘‘fifties”’ it took Bellier and Guillemot two days and two nights 
in the diligence from Grenoble to Larche. The journey, with 
intervals, now occupies barely twelve hours. 
The Vercors may be reached either from Valence or Grenoble, 
the usual starting point being Pont-en-Royans ; but wishing to 
explore the Lans valley, as well as to see something on foot of 
the Gorges of the Bourne, to which the road leads through 
