276 The Zoologist — July, 1866. 



be warmer than those falling on the plains, but there is no doubt that 

 the radiation from solid bodies at great elevations is very marked.' 

 In reply to inquiries, the President added that the insects in the snow 

 were all dark in colour, that the holes were on the slope of the moun- 

 tain on which the sun was shining directly, and that they were truly 

 cylindrical, not hemispherical or narrowed at the bottom. His explana- 

 tion of the phenomenon did not meet with general acceptance; it was 

 objected that radiation was scarcely likely to produce a cylindrical 

 excavation, and Mr. A. R. Wallace doubted whether an insect of so 

 small bulk and mass, and which could only give off by radiation the 

 heat which it had first absorbed, was capable, even though of dark 

 colour, of absorbing sufficient to produce the considerable melting of 

 the snow around it which the President had described." (Zool. 9556). 



Alpine Entomology has not yet enjoyed so much patronage as its 

 more lucky sister-science, Alpine Botany, and as anything bearing on 

 obscure points must, in a collected form, ever be welcome to future 

 inquirers, I have not hesitated to repeat the above note in exlenso; for 

 the same reason, I think myself justified in adding the following more 

 precise particulars, kindly furnished by Mr. Pascoe, to whom I beg to 

 tender my sincere thanks. 



This gentleman informs me that the date was the 7th of July, 1864, 

 and he then continues, " I crossed the pass alone, and as it was nearly 

 five o'clock P. M., before I got to the summit, I passed over the snow- 

 fields as rapidly as my excessive fatigue permitted. The snow at that 

 late hour was very soft, and, as you will easily understand, I did not 

 devote so ranch attention to the ' small holes ' as I should have other- 

 wise done. 1, however, did not say, the holes were 'numerous;' they 

 were, prohnhhj. I saw about twenty, perhaps more. They occurred 

 chiefly at about the stiffest part of the ascent, some 500 feet or so 

 below the summit, which is said to be 8386 feet above the sea. All 

 the insects I saw were Ichueumonida) or Diptera, all limp and moist. 

 I see on reference to my notes that I have mentioned a few Ephemerae. 

 As this was not repeated in my note read at the meeting, I suspect 

 that I must have thought they had not been sufficiently made out at 

 the time. Naturally very delicate, they might under the circum- 

 stances have been rather guessed at than satisfactorily determined. 

 With regard to the holes in the snow, my first impression that they 

 looked as if caused by a wine-cork being pressed half-way down into 

 it again occurs to me as giving the most exact idea of their size and 

 appearance, perhaps a trifle smaller, and, to be particular, a fresh cork, 



