2O2 The Alps in September. 



the barometer was falling, and the very next day 

 a continuous rain and snow-fall set in, lasting 

 nearly three days ; so that it seemed as if the 

 birds were making haste to escape from a climate 

 which might very well be dangerous to them. 

 In Meiringen I was told that great numbers of 

 them were caught and killed by severe weather 

 in September last year. And the waiter in the 

 hotel at Hospenthal, who most fortunately has 

 some interest in these matters, and keeps his eyes 

 open in his idle autumn hours, declared that he 

 had seen the martins so eager to induce their 

 young to leave the nest before it was too late, 

 that at last they pulled them out by main force 

 and compelled them to join the general assembly 

 on the steeple. 



This same man had also noticed a migration of 

 another kind, which it may be worth while to 

 record here. Sitting in front of the hotel, with 

 nothing to do, he had observed a constant stream 

 of dragon-flies making their way up the valley ; 

 and during my walks that day I was able fully to 

 verify his statement. All the way from Hos- 

 penthal to Andermatt these creatures were to be 



