164 Mr. G. F. Mathew’s life-histories of 
to each other, so that we might not get too far apart, 
and might meet for lunch. Our path at first took us 
through dense jungle, where no collecting could be done, 
but in about a quarter of an hour we reached a part of 
the forest where the undergrowth was less thick, and 
where a few butterflies, Huplee and Hamadryas sp. ?, 
were taken. Pushing on we at length reached a ravine, 
through the centre of which it was evident a fierce 
torrent often ran. At the time of our visit it was 
almost dry, excepting a pool here and there, but the rest 
of the bed composed of smooth pebbles of various sizes. 
The banks were steep, the lower parts covered with a 
fringe of sedge and rough grass, above which were trees, 
bushes, and innumerable creepers. Here the magnificent 
metallic-blue and black-bordered Papilio ulysses was 
flying backwards and forwards in some numbers, but do 
what we could, neither myself nor the natives, whom I 
had provided with nets, succeeded in catching any. 
They flew very rapidly, and generally high out of reach, 
but occasionally one passed sufficiently near to afford, 
apparently, an easy shot, but somehow or another, just 
as I made a stroke at it, it swerved to one side with 
astonishing celerity. I was probably nervous at the 
sight of such a brilliant creature, and so missed it. 
Unfortunately there were no low-growing flowers to 
attract butterflies, but, on the other hand, there were 
two kinds of forest-trees from forty to sixty feet high, 
whose crowns were loaded with white blossom, and 
among which numberless butterflies could be seen dis- 
porting themselves, a sight which was most trying and 
tantalising.* 
We wandered up the ravine for nearly a mile, catching 
Lepidoptera by the way, when suddenly, upon turning a 
corner, we saw, a short distance in front of us, that 
further progress was arrested by the face of a perpen- 
dicular cliff, some eighty feet high, and over which, 
during the rainy season, a magnificent waterfall must 
tumble. At the foot of the cliff, in the shade, were some 
pools of clear water, and, as it was now lunch-time, and 
* I have been informed by Mr. Miskin, of Brisbane, that he 
ence took a number of P. ulysses in the north of Queensland, 
flying before the flowers of a kind of pumpkin, which seemed to 
be very attractive to them. 
