74 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, 



tion from this to the striate sculpture is gradual, and can readily 

 be traced even in the plate. D . costatus, although merely a cata- 

 logue name, is based on those females in which three of the in- 

 tervals on each elytron are a little wider and more prominent, as 

 faintly shown on the fifth figure in the second row. The terminal 

 figure is an exceptionally small female collected by Mr. Henry 

 Wenzel. The six specimens on the upper row and two on the 

 lower are males, as will be known by the more prominent mandi- 

 bles with a tooth on the upper side. Regarding the possibilities 

 of variation, the plate shows for itself, although far less than the 

 specimens themselves, and Dorcus parallelus is by no means a 

 good species for the illustration of varietal possibilities. The 

 use of any photographic method usually causes a loss of some 

 detail, but when form alone is to be illustrated more accurate 

 results for comparison can be obtained. 



IN ALASKA. 



By W. G. Wright, San Bernardino, Cal, 



One might suppose that a trip to Alaska would afford an ento- 

 mologist abundant material for collecting, and that he might 

 write a book about what he saw through his entomological glasses, 

 and experienced in pursuit of his pet hobby. But having made 

 the trip, I am obliged to say that the results, both actual and 

 theoretical, were very meagre. 



To begin with, the country from the Strait of San Juan de Fuca 

 to Yakatat Bay is all of a piece. The ground is all solid rock, 

 if I may so speak, islands and mainland alike, and the channels 

 through which the steamer sails most of the way are mere cracks 

 in the hard, black rock, some of them so deep that it is imprac- 

 ticable to anchor in them. How a tree can manage to find 

 root-hold upon such solid rock is a continual mystery, but they 

 do, and the whole country, whether level or side-hill (and most 

 of it is tilted up an angle frequently acute), is covered with the 

 same endless ranks of sombre fir trees, the very sight of which 

 at length becomes a weariness; and the trees, with horizontal 

 limbs down to the ground, come clear down to the water's edge, 

 so that a landing becomes a difficulty. The Japan current, or 

 some other cause, gives to Sitka about the same temperature as 



