78 EEV. A. MILES MOSS ON THE 



line of research, I shall feel rewarded for my efforts, and shall be glad to do all in my 

 power to co-operate. 



And be it noted, on the authority of Messrs. Rothschild and Jordan in their ' "Revision 

 of the Sphingidse,' that the earlier stages of the great majority of even common 

 tropical species are as yet entirely unknown. 



While the moths of most species iigure in the few great representative collections of 

 the world, it was my good fortune to come across the second or third specimens 

 known of several species which inhabit the Interior, e. g., Protoparce leucospila and 

 Xyloplianes ockendeni, and also at Lima to discover a new species of Protoparce allied 

 to sexta, but entirely distinct from it. 



Peru is a country characterised by sharp contrasts and a combination of opposites, 

 while its varying climatic conditions in different parts, and its diverse fauna and flora, 

 must ever present peculiar interests to the student of nature. Where, for example, in 

 the whole range of travel, by taking a single hour's railway run of 26 miles, can you 

 with certainty on any day in the dull, damp winter, which prevails in Lima from May 

 till November, exchange your lot for a summer sun and cloudless blue sky ? Continue 

 your journey for another 73 miles, and in six hours you are shivering in the barren 

 highlands of perpetual snow at an elevation of 15,660 feet, and this at 12° south of 

 the Equator. Owing to the necessary turns and twists of the line, the train journey 

 from Callao to Oroya is over 138 miles, but Oroya is in reality no more than 95 miles 

 from the sea, while the Galera tunnel through Mount Meiggs and the main cordillera 

 is only 73. Similarly, the distance between Oroya and the headquarters of the 

 Peruvian Corporation's Coffee Estates, known as the Perene Camp, is only 57 miles, but 

 the winding of the road brings it to little short of 80. 



In making this journey, the exit from a tunnel on the road below Palca marks the 

 changed panorama, which is one of the most striking that can be conceived. The 

 ravine leading to Chanchamayo here for the first time bursts into full view, and once 

 again in the brief space of an hour the cold, draughty, arid uplands are left behind, 

 and their eternal sadness exchanged for one of nature's most joyous aspects, with trees 

 of many sorts and sizes clothing the quehrada (or ravine) and cresting every hill-top. 

 It is difficult in description to give an adequate idea of this great and remarkable 

 change. 



We have reached a new country, the real Peru of the naturalist's dream, and, 

 though I do not want to reflect upon their want of enterprise, I may venture the 

 assertion that few of Lima's citizens have ever set eyes upon it. In this connection 

 one recalls the somewhat vain adage : " Afuera de Lima no hay Peru," — a harmless 

 conceit perha])S, but one distinctly open to question ; and though it would be 

 unreasonable to expect all people to share the same tastes, it does seem a pity when 

 nature's finest features do not engage that universal appreciation which they merit. 



