The Zoologist— July, 1866. 277 



and not one that the wine has bloated with years of contact, was in 

 my mind's eye. There were no dead insects to be seen lying on the 

 snow; the only one I saw lying on it was still living : I suspect that 

 these insects are only templed to make such a lofty flight in the early 

 morning, say nine o'clock A. M., and once on it, they are soon benumbed 

 and then sink rapidly ; some may have been in these holes for days, 

 for at a certain depth, the insects being beyond the influence of the 

 sun's rays, radiation would cease and they would go no lower : I may 

 remind you also that plants and stones sufficiently near the surface 

 erect for themselves hollows in the snow somewhat similar. Some of 

 the large blocks of stone I saw with a kind of fosse, at least three feet 

 deep, around them, and in their neighbourhood the snow was very 

 soft and yielding. The time had been very hot and dry, — I think for 

 weeks ; and the slopes had a more or less northerly aspect, and were 

 exposed to the sun until five o'clock p.m." 



Having given full particulars of these valuable observations I now 

 append the translation of a passage occurring in F. von Tschudi's 

 * Thierleben der Alpenwelt,' 1861, p. 465, which is intimately con- 

 nected with Mr. Pascoe's investigations and my above remarks about 

 dying in the snow region. F. von Tschudi says : — " Winged insects, 

 which are often carried by the wind to the upper snow-fields, will 

 sink into these sometimes two feet deep, and it has been observed that 

 these creatures settle voluntarily on the 'Jirn^^ extending their wings 

 and limbs, and that they rest in this position at their ease without 

 moving, it being probable that they enjoy the absorption of the oxygen, 

 of the ^firn^ If they are taken up and removed to a stone or 

 a piece of wood, they will at once proceed to the 'firn,' where 

 they extend themselves as if inebriated, and gradually sink in 

 (seemingly) in full enjoyment. Dug out of a depth of two feet, 

 they sometimes get lively again very quickly ; otherwise, if left to 

 themselves, they soon perish and at once get decomposed, and then 

 the sinking in will cease. It has been tried to place dead insects 

 on the ' firn,' when the body was found to swell up to a soft mass, 

 then to shrink very much and afterwards to decay, after this the firn 

 closed itself over it, which does not easily happen with living 

 insects." 



* " Firn" is used to designate that peculiar state of snow, when the individual 

 bard grains are firmly cemented together by an icy substance. A higher temperature 

 will loosen this cement, without affecting the hard grains, and they will then readily 

 separate, but at night they are again freezing together to a compact mass. — Tschudi. 



