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THE ENTOMOLOGIST 
Vou. XLVII.] NOVEMBER, 1914. [No. 618 
THREE WEEKS IN DAUPHINY. 
By H. Rownanp-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 
(i.) La Grave. 
Wuen I left London on a blazing July day, the promise of 
a successful entomological tour in the mountains south of 
Grenoble seemed assured. Letters from French correspondents 
beginning in the spring had prepared me for a great butterfly 
year: an absence of late frosts, prevalence of sunny skies, and 
only just the requisite rainfall to encourage the crops from 
north to south. The factors of success were established—at 
least, I thought so; and when I stepped into the P. L. M. motor 
outside Grenobie station on the morning of the 11th, there was 
not a cloud even the size of a man’s hand in the sky of the 
Midi or on the visible political horizon. In April, when I had had 
the privilege of addressing the Entomological Society of France 
at their annual banquet, and at a moment when Paris was 
celebrating the visit of our King and Queen, I ventured to suggest, 
‘‘heureusement pour nous autres, les chevaliers de la Nature, 
la politique n’existe pas.” I little thought how soon and in 
how sudden fashion the welter of European politics was to engulf 
the comity of nations, and how the waves of a great war were 
to sweep over the quiet haunts where in former years I had 
wandered in search of butterflies. ‘To-day, after three months 
of storm and stress, the calm Alpine valleys, thick with corn; 
the mountain pastures, a wonder of flowers; the restful villages— 
all are as a dream to the reality of which the little harvest of 
my cabinets alone may testify. 
This part of the Dauphiny Alps has been worked for many 
years by English lepidopterists; less systematically by the 
French, though, needless to say, the indefatigable M. Charles 
Oberthtr has taken toll of the district; while it was one of Dr. 
Reverdin’s observations (in litt.) on the occurrence of Hrebia 
scipio at Monétier-les-Bains, on the southern side of the Col 
de Lauteret, which tempted me to include a week there in my 
programme. In the ‘ Entomologist’s Record’ (vol. viii. 1896 ; 
ix. 1897) the late Mr. Tutt gives an exhaustive account of a visit 
to Le Lauteret and La Grave during the first weeks of August. 
ENTOM.—NOVEMBER, 1914. 2A 
