31-2 Mr, RolauJ Trimon on 



Telli (about 8,000 feet) aro tlio highest points. At the 

 back of these, tliore rise a number of streams, all running 

 westward, which form the heads of the Orange River. 

 This region is but little known, being almost too cold 

 for human habitation, except for a few months of the 

 summer, and even then being much subject to violent 

 rain-storms and heavy mists, which render travelling 

 dangerous among the numerous swamps and patches of 

 boggy ground. The rivers here are thickly fringed ^vith 

 fine willows, and run in deep narrow valleys; and the 

 difficulty of follo^ving their course can only be understood 

 by those who have attempted it. The range of mountains 

 appears to have resulted from rapid upheaval, an igneous 

 rock in many places covering the level strata of white 

 sandstone, and forming spurs running down towards the 

 Caledon River. This peculiar tract is almost devoid of 

 animal life; and when there in December, 18G8, I met 

 with very few insects except in the valley of the j\Iakaleng 

 River or Kornet Spruit. The only persons inhabiting 

 this part are a few wandering Bushmen, who occasionally, 

 during severe weather, make a raid into more favoured 

 localities." 



The country of which the above gives an account, is 

 very clearly by no means well adapted for butterfly life ; 

 and, in fact, nearly the whole of Mr. Bowker's specimens 

 were captured in the lower-lying ground near the Caledon, 

 where a comparatively milder climate prevails. But even 

 at Maseru, the frosts in winter are keen ; Mr. Bowker 

 writing at the end of I\fay, 18G0, said — "The cold here 

 now is something intense: the water brought to me the 

 other morning, when the sun was shining brightly and 

 had been up for half-an-hour, in about twenty minutes' 

 time was covered with a coat of ice of about the tliickness 

 of a dinner plate; and when, after throwing out the ice, 

 I had washed, the soapy water was, in ten minutes' time, 

 again frozen over." 



The number of species found in Basuto-land is 62, less 

 than one-fourth of the total number which I have now 

 recorded as natives of extra- tropical Southern Africa. 

 Compared with the productiveness of the adjacent region 

 of Natal, whence 1 have noted more than 200 species, 

 this paucity a]7}}ears the more remarkable ; but it must 

 be remembered that the bulk of Natalian butterflies are 

 from the narrow belt of well-wooded country on the 



