THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLVII.l SEPTEMBEE, 1914. TNo. 61G 



AN EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF RUSSIAN 

 BUTTERFLIES. 



By W. G. Sheldon, F.E.S. 



So far as I am aware, out of the hundreds of expeditions 

 British lepidopterists have made into almost every part of 

 Europe during the last thirty years, not a single one has had 

 this great country for its goal, though I believe one or two have 

 incidentally collected a few specimens there on their way 

 further east. 



Foreigners travelling in Russia at present are not very 

 numerous, and such as there are consist almost entirely of those 

 who have business in the country ; and I may say that in my 

 journey of about two months, during which I travelled about 

 five thousand miles, I saw only one German, and not a single 

 American, Frenchman, or Englishman, until Moscow was reached 

 on my return to England. 



The prospect of undergoing the rigid Customs examination 

 frightens a good many timid ones ; the passport regulations 

 are, perhaps not without reason, the cause why a good many 

 more possible visitors do not reach Russia, and seriously this 

 question is always an anxious and it may very easily become a 

 disastrous one, for an individual in Russia who cannot produce 

 a passport is looked upon by the authorities as a very suspicious 

 person ; he must stay in the town where he happens to be until 

 they are satisfied of his bona fides, which will usually take many 

 days, possibly some weeks, and if he is a little indiscreet he will 

 very probably spend the time in prison. Then, apart from the 

 fact that it is not very difficult to lose a document, a foreign 

 passport has considerable value to those subjects of the Czar 

 who wish to leave Holy Russia, but whom the authorities of that 

 country do not desire to part with ; consequently there are 

 always people on the lookout to steal your passport, and they do 

 not by any means lack opportunities. On the frontier it is taken 

 from you, passed by an official, and then after the luggage has 

 been examined, which will take a considerable time, another 



ENTOM. — SEPTEMBER, 1914. U 



