IN SEARCH OF RUSSIAN BUTTERFLIES. 237 



surpassing interest to the tourist ; but when one comes to go 

 a little closely into the question, it becomes evident that there 

 is something to be said on the other side of the question. 



There is a strip of mountainous coast extending along the 

 eastern shores of the Black Sea from Novorossisk to Batoum — 

 beautiful throughout and very tempting; but, says Baedeker, 

 reeking with malaria, every bit of it ! and independent testimony, 

 including the verdict of the British Consul at Novorossisk, con- 

 firms Baedeker. Even Novorossisk itself is very malarious in 

 certain parts of its environs. 



No less scathing is Baedeker about the sanitary condition 

 of the whole range, which he describes as malarious throughout, 

 even in the mountains. And then the people ! Brigands almost 

 all of them, more or less ! The published returns testify to 

 many hundreds of cases of highway robbery annually, and even 

 life is by no means safe. It might be possible to do something 

 in one or two well-frequented places, but elsewhere, to be in 

 safety, you must collect your specimens under the guns of an 

 armed escort, enveloped in a mosquito net, and even Lepi- 

 doptera lose their charm when studied under such conditions ! 



Secondly, there are the Ural Mountains. I am not aware that 

 the objections I have named respecting the Caucasus as a centre 

 apply to this district ; and I may say that, so far as I am aware, 

 out of the Caucasus life and property are as safe at the present 

 moment in Russia as in any other European country. But the 

 Urals are situated rather too far north to produce the majority 

 of the eastern species that affect Russia. Further, I gather 

 that the accommodation is poor and objectionable from many 

 points of view, and that only Russian is spoken ; and I think 

 I can go so far as to say that a sojourn there, unless one had a 

 courier and could spend it under canvas, would be anything 

 but enjoyable, if not impossible, from our point of view. 



There remain the steppes of the south-east in the basins of 

 the great rivers, the Ural and the Volga. This region, from 

 all the reports I have seen, contains the greatest number of 

 desirable Lepidoptera of any district in Russia, and to it 1 felt 

 strongly drawn. The chief difficulty to be surmounted was one 

 which applies more or less to all parts of Russia : how to avoid 

 the uncleanliness and disease which unfortunately are only too 

 prevalent everywhere. Even in the large towns sanitation is 

 almost unknown ; in the hotels, with the exception of a very few, 

 the beds are verminous. Cholera, typhus, and other objection- 

 able acquaintances are more or less endemic, and often epidemic ; 

 and, of course, in the small towns and in the villages matters 

 are very much worse. One would have liked to settle down in 

 some district which had never been worked, but the objections 

 to such a course were so manifest that I felt compelled to pause. 



In this dilemma an idea came into my head which seemed 



