166 ON BUTTERFLY-COLLECTING IN THE ALPS. 



experiences some years ago of this part of the Dauphine Alps ; but 

 unfortunately we were too early for Lepidoptera, the snow lying still 

 thickly about the top of the pass above La Grave, where, indeed, we 

 narrowly escaped being carried away by a small avalanche a catastrophe 

 that happened to a small cart that had preceded us by about an hour. 

 At Briancon, although over 4000 ft. above the sea, we got for a while 

 into a more southern fauna, as evidenced by the occurrence of such 

 forms as Melitcea dejone, and the beautiful yellow " orange-tip " Anthocharis 

 Ent.M. M.xvi. euphenoides. The Mediterranean fauna would, therefore, seem to extend 

 up the valley of the Durance quite into the Alpine district. From Briancon 

 we drove by Mount Grenevre, a pass of about 6000 ft., over the frontier to 

 Oulx, a small village (at an elevation of 3500 ft.) on the Mount Cenis 



district had long been known to members of the Alpine Club, and possessed the 

 peculiar attraction of a mountain (La Meije, over 13,000 ft.) that had, up to that time, 

 baffled all attempts to scale it (it has since been several times successfully ascended), 

 in addition to many other inducements for mountaineers of the more amateur class ; 

 it was also well known to botanists as a paradise for rare alpine plants, and it supplies 

 (through its adventurous and migratory inhabitants) many of the horticultural 

 establishments of Europe (and even of America) with them, either in the form of seeds 

 or roots. French entomologists had also visited it ; but it had rarely seen an English 

 net ; yet there are probably few districts in Europe so favourable for a Lepidopterist ; 

 it is not favourable for a Neuropterist, owing to most of the streams having their source 

 in glaciers. It has the advantage of a magnificent military road, a wonderful piece 

 of civil-engineering. British tourist-entomologists should decidedly make its intimate 

 acquaintance. It is easy of access. From Grenoble to the summit of the Col du 

 Lautaret is about 50 English miles by diligence and mail. Grenoble can be reached 

 from London in about 27 hours (on my return I left that city at 3.15 P.M., and was at 

 home in my study before 7 P.M. next day). The end of June is too early, even in an 

 ordinary season, and in such a season as 1879 was a month too early. I would 

 recommend entomological tourists (not pressed for time, nor wanting to go over too 

 much ground) to stay first at Bourg d'Oisans, where there is a comfortable inn, kept 

 by an obliging old Frenchman, M. Martin ("Hotel de Milan"). Afterwards they 

 should push on to the Col du Lautaret, where there appears to be good accommodation 

 at the Hospice on the summit (subsidized by government, as a refuge for wayfarers in 

 the long winter months). My head-quarters were at Bourg d'Oisans and La Grave, 

 the latter at the foot of La Meije. But I think (for an entomologist) the Hospice is 

 preferable to La Grave. This latter is a miserable village with a poor inn, offering no 

 special inducements, excepting to Alpine climbers : the sleeping-quarters were over the 

 stable (which is, perhaps, cleared out once a year), the food was indifferent, the charges 

 not moderate ; and, moreover, newly-arrived strangers are liable to an indisposition 

 (already alluded to several times in the records of - mountaineering), that may place 

 them (as it did me and one of my companions) hors de combat, and take several days 

 to shake off. (The water, and the sudden change of temperature from the excessively 

 hot experiences of Bourg d'Oisans were both blamed for this; but there has been no 

 report from an official sanitary inspector !). Any British entomologist who is not 

 specially connected with water insects should visit this district ; and even the exception 

 I have made would, perhaps, not hold good in the autumn months, when the glaciers 

 have discharged their annual surplus." E. MC-LACHLAN. 



