400 MR. J. H. LEECH ON THE BUTTERFLIES [May 3 



the mountains attain a height of four or five thousand feet, and are 

 densely wooded nearly to tlieir summits, some of the timber being 

 very fine. From the summit of So-ko-San, the highest peak, the 

 view consists of a sea of wooded mountains except near the coast, 

 and scarcely a house or sign of cultivation. The natives are harm- 

 less, and dirty to an incredible degree. Travelling is difficult on 

 account of the money, which is all copper, and of so low a value that 

 one man can only carry a few shillings' worth. Scarcely any food is 

 procurable, and the native habitations are too lively even for an 

 entomologist. The traveller must make up his mind to live on what 

 he takes with him, and to sleep in the open air or under the verandah 

 of a temple. However, although the weather was bad and living 

 rather rough, I was amply repaid by the results of my collecting. 

 My one regret is that I spent so short a time in the finest country 

 1 have ever visited, both for entomology and sport. Early in July 

 I returned to Nagasaki, and went at once to Shimonoseki, a good 

 locality and less sacrificed to " paddy " than most places. From 

 Shimonoseki, the most southern town of Central Japan, to Awanovi, 

 the most northern, I travelled most of the way overland, with poor 

 results. Owing to tbe cholera I was quarantined and fumigated from 

 one end of the country to the other. Servants died, others refused to 

 go on, or asked exorbitant prices. The authorities invariably chose 

 the best collecting localities for the purposes of cremation ; in fact, 

 the whole west coast was entirely demoralized. 



Early in August I reached Hakodate, where I had a fortnight's 

 good collecting. I then proceeded to Nemoro on the east coast of 

 Yesso, and procured another shijj to take me up to the Kurile 

 Islands. Here the whole country was covered with impenetrable 

 bamboo-grass about 8 feet high., and both collecting (there was very 

 little insect-life) and sport were out of the question. After wasting 

 much valuable time trying to get further north, I turned back. The 

 remainder of my Japanete expedition was on the ordinary tourists' 

 routes. In the whole country I only succeeded in finding two really 

 good collecting districts, viz. the neighbourhood of Hakodate and 

 some well-known mountain-resorts in Central Japan, all of which 

 had been thoroughly worked before. 



I succeeded in capturing all the Rhopalocera known to Japan with 

 the exception of abi ut six species ; I discovered one species new to 

 science and several hitherto unrecorded from Japan. I procured 

 about 1.0,000 specimens of Moths, which I propose to treat of in 

 another paper, and an enormous number of Coleoptera. Altogether 

 I consider the results attained to have been fairly satisfactory. 



