A BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF UNEXPLORED FRANCE. U 



booklets that published by the " Syndicat d'Initiative de Valence- 

 sur-Rhone et de la Drome." A glance at its contents decided 

 me to try the country known collectively as the Vercors, and 

 a cyclist friend having passed through the Laus valley earlier in 

 the summer and given satisfactory account; I took the morning 

 tourist-car from Grenoble on July 2nd, one of the many now 

 "doing" the Alps and outlying "massifs" in connection with 

 the P.L.M. and Sud Railways. By these means rapid communi- 

 cations have been opened up with well-known entomological 

 centres, and a vast region of new country placed within easy 

 reach of the main lines. But after five weeks' experience of 

 them I cannot say that I view the automobile alpine — by the 

 way the Academy is divided as to whether it is masculine or 

 feminine — as an unmixed blessing. From the tourist's point of 

 view the cars travel far too swiftly — it is impossible to enjoy 

 the scenery ; while at present many of the mountain roads are 

 wholly unfit for motor traffic, and the shaking amounts to 

 positive torture of mind as well as of body. For when the setting 

 boards are full the anxious collector is speculating all the time 

 how many pins have got loose in the boxes, and trembling for 

 the fate of his rarities. On several occasions, notably on the 

 road from Barcelonnette to Prunieres, the railway station on the 

 Brian9on line, irreparable damage was done in the way of broken 

 antenna and split wings. Those who do their setting, as I do, 

 en route will do well, therefore, to examine the boards before and 

 after any involuntary game of Cup-and-Ball of the kind. Further, 

 the turns and twists of the mountain roads, bad enough in the 

 old diligence days, are nerve-shattering at the pace taken by 

 the French chauffeur ; and, worst of all for the entomologist, 

 except when going slow uphill, the delight of spotting species by 

 the roadside is destroyed ; even more so of the occasional walk 

 ahead with net or pill boxes by footpath short cuts, while 

 the horses toil round the dusty zigzags. It was really quite 

 a relief when, on one occasion at least, I found the motor, for 

 want of passengers, superseded by the decayed and decrepit 

 diligence, otherwise consigned to indefinite Aestivation. But 

 against these drawbacks may be reckoned the rapidity of the 

 journey. Localities formerly reached in a day's drive are 

 now but a few hours distant. While the completion of the 

 Annot tunnel on the Digne-Nice line has at length united by 

 rail and motor the Basses-Alpes and the Alpes-Maritimes. In 

 the "fifties " it took Bellier and Guillemot two days and two nights 

 in the diligence from Grenoble to Larche. The journey, with 

 intervals, now occupies barely twelve hours. 



The Vercors may be reached either from Valence or Grenoble, 

 the usual starting point being Pont-en-Royans ; but wishing to 

 explore the Lans valley, as well as to see something on foot of 

 the Gorges of the Bourne, to which the road leads through 



