1875] Tour in the Engadine. 255 



Kirby sent me a copy of the Gorilla Article,* and I think it very 

 well turned out. There is a novelty, is there not, in giving a leader 

 on our poor relation ? Was it not a pity to leave out about the 

 supposed white gorilla ? . . . It is curious about the separation of 

 sexes in the H.-a. Bat.f Do you think the female kind congregate for 

 gossip or other purposes ? No birds here, but Wheatears, Alpine 

 Choughs, Sparrows, Woodpeckers, and marmots. Will you give my 

 kind remembrances to your father, and tell him this is the most 

 interesting part of Switz I have yet seen. 



It was at the close of a long day's butterfly hunting 

 (July 13} in the Val de Fain that, sitting down to rest, he 

 had his first and only opportunity of seeing the Swiss 

 Marmot in its native home. A shrill whistle advised him 

 of its presence. " Oh, do sit very still, and we shall see 

 the marmots appear," he exclaimed ; and by-and-by one, 

 then another, popped up, until quite a group of the pretty 

 animals were frisking about, within a few yards of their 

 well-pleased observers. 



He was equally pleased with Samaden, gathered 

 Lychnis flos-jovis in Val Bevers, and " all sorts of 

 treasures" at the top of Piz Padella (Dianthus glacialis, 

 Saxifraga stenopetala, Ranunculus parnassifolia, Eritri- 

 chium nanum, and Arenaria recurva among the number), 

 but lost his "favourite botanical digger" in the Maloya 

 Pass, while exploring a supposed locality for Woodsia, 

 where an Eagle was seen, but no sign of the fern. On the 

 26th, when they left Samaden, a fine but (to some nervous 

 fellow-travellers) rather trying day was spent, going by 

 banquette to Chur, through the high JulierPass.J "Descent 

 (from top of the Pass) through a barren wilderness of stony 

 peaks to Miihlen, where the scenery changes to spruce 

 and larch firs (no Arollas). The scenery very fine. Valley 

 gradually opens into a broad expanded green extent of 

 meadow, and corn recommences. Epipactis rubra seen by 

 F. Another tall plant (r Aconite, very tall) and Salvia. 

 Tiefencasten lies in a hole, at junction of three roads 



* Probably an article in a Dublin daily newspaper, relating to the purchase 

 for the Museum, at this time, of the skin of a gorilla, which Mr. More negoti- 

 ated at Paris. 



t " Hairy-armed Bat." 



1 The diary kept during the Swiss tours is only occasionally (as in the 

 following extract) in Mr. More's own handwriting. 



