vats ee ee te Te ee cg. Se ae eel ee a 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST 
Vou. XLVII.1 SEPTEMBER, 1914. [No. 616 
AN EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF RUSSIAN 
BUTTERFLIES. 
By W. G. SHeEupon, F.E.S. 
So far as I am aware, out of the hundreds of expeditions 
British lepidopterists have made into almost every part of 
Europe during the last thirty years, not a single one has had 
this great country for its goal, though I believe one or two have 
incidentally collected a few specimens there on their way 
further east. 
Foreigners travelling in Russia at present are not very 
numerous, and such as there are consist almost entirely of those 
who have business in the country; and I may say that in my 
journey of about two months, during which I travelled about 
five thousand miles, I saw only one German, and not a single 
American, Frenchman, or Englishman, until Moscow was reached 
on my return to England. 
The prospect of undergoing the rigid Customs examination 
frightens a good many timid ones; the passport regulations 
are, perhaps not without reason, the cause why a good many 
more possible visitors do not reach Russia, and seriously this 
question is always an anxious and it may very easily become a 
disastrous one, for an individual in Russia who cannot produce 
a passport is looked upon by the authorities as a very suspicious 
person; he must stay in the town where he happens to be until 
they are satisfied of his bona fides, which will usually take many 
days, possibly some weeks, and if he is a little indiscreet he will 
very probably spend the time in prison. Then, apart from the 
fact that it is not very difficult to lose a document, a foreign 
passport has considerable value to those subjects of the Czar 
who wish to leave Holy Russia, but whom the authorities of that 
country do not desire to part with; consequently there are 
always people on the lookout to steal your passport, and they do 
not by any means lack opportunities. On the frontier it is taken 
from you, passed by an official, and then after the luggage has 
been examined, which will take a considerable time, another 
ENTOM.—SEPTEMBER, 1914. U 
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