The Beetles of the Mountains 



apparently peculiar to some special mountain, as 

 Chrysomda cerealis is to Snowdon, but in the main 

 the same Alpine forms are common to them all. As 

 to the best time of year for such an expedition, late in 

 May or early June will perhaps afford the most satis- 

 factory results, although we can find beetles up in 

 these altitudes all through the summer, and must be 

 guided very much by the weather, choosing if we can, 

 an occasion after a period of dry weather, since we 

 want the mountain streams with a minimum of water 

 in them, and the mountain bogs not impassable. 



Up most of our well-known mountains, excepting 

 perhaps certain remote peaks in the wilds of Rosshire 

 the Western Islands, or the extreme south-west of 

 Ireland, there exist more or less evident tracks worn 

 by generations of adventurous tourists, leading from 

 the base to the extreme summit. One indeed and that 

 perhaps the noblest of them all has been hopelessly 

 desecrated by the facilities accorded for reaching the top. 

 For us, however students of the fauna of the mountains 

 rather than merely desirous of the attainment of the 

 summit, or the enjoyment of a "view " I rather recom- 

 mend the avoidance of any such track. With a good 

 map, a compass, and a modicum of common sense, 

 one can (except in foggy weather, when the whole 

 expedition is better abandoned) usually find one's way 

 up- by some more devious way, which, although it may 

 ensure us more solitude, will probably reveal in broken 

 mountain stream, secluded ravine, or remote boulder- 

 strewn slope, more of what we have set forth to 



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