A WEEK AT LE MONT DORE. 61 



A week at le Mont Dore. 



By G. T. BETHUNE-BAKER, F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



After long abstinence from Continental travel my wife and I 

 looked forward with much pleasurable anticipation to a sojourn in "la 

 belle France," having made up our minds to spend most of our holiday 

 in Provence. 



A short stay, however, at le Mont Dore — Auvergne— might prove 

 a pleasant half-way house and a very convenient locality wherein to 

 take a brief rest before going further afield and setting to work on the 

 Lepidoptera of southern France. 



Le Mont Dore is one of the greatly frequented " watering " places 

 on the other side of the channel, for it possesses a sumptuously 

 arranged " etablissement thermal," which is famed for its hot sulphur 

 springs as also for other kinds of medicinal waters. It is an easy 

 journey from Paris, for we left there at 8 p.m. and arrived at our 

 destination at 6 in the morning. 



Our first day was dull and cool and slightly rainy, but after eleven 

 o'clock the drizzle ceased. This was the only grey day we experienced 

 during our trip which lasted about nine weeks. The next day, 'June 

 20th, was brilliant and very warm, and we took a walk in the morning 

 up the side of the hill towards " le Capucin," a high dome shaped 

 summit 4,800 ft. high, and in the afternoon a walk up the hills on the 

 opposite side brought me to a high mountain pasture about 4,000 feet, 

 where Krebia epipkron was not uncommon. The only £ taken is of 

 the cassiope form with white pupils, the males, however, were variable, 

 some with the black spots reduced to mere points, or with only two 

 sub-costal black spots, whilst others had the full complement of four 

 well marked spots on both wings. E. stygne was common everywhere, 

 and these were the only two Krebiae I saw. Heodes hippothoii was just 

 emerging in first class condition and generally of the typical form, 

 though I took one female almost of the var. eurybia, but with 

 the spots elongated into sub-sagittate dashes. Ino statices was 

 common in both sexes on the scabious flowers. Insects generally 

 were by no means plentiful, but the reason was not far to seek, for the 

 general formation is, I think, granitic, though the height of the 

 village (le Mont Dore) is not more than 3,400 ft., yet the aspect facing- 

 north is cold, and June the 20th to the 26th was evidently too soon 

 for any except quite the early emergences. I was specially desirous of 

 obtaining Zyyaenidae, but not one did I see of the genus Zyyaena, 

 though I searched assiduously both in the valleys as well as on 

 the hillsides. 



The scenery is delightful, and a glorious excursion by automobile 

 past Lac de Guery to the village and wonderful old church of Orcival, 

 on through the famous gardens of Chateau Conde will not easily be 

 forgotten. The church, a double storey one, has the same accommo- 

 dation below as on the ground floor, for it is possessed of a large, 

 interesting crypt that provides this curious arrangement — perhaps the 

 thing that struck one most was the brand new statue of the recently 

 made Sainte Jean d' Arc, which was in every church we visited. The 

 country we passed through, all too quickly alas, contained some of the 

 most beautiful sub-alpine views that I have seen, fortunately on our way 

 back we were able to stay a short time at the Lac de Servieres 

 April, 1920. 



