ZOOLOGY AND BOTAIfY OF THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS. 43 



as liigli lip as 8500 feet, where the flora and scenery reminded one 

 strongly of the high fjeld of Norway, and Druas octopetala, which 

 covered the curious dry gravelly ridges on the hill-sides in many 

 places. 



Flying over these marshy alpine flower-gardens were some of 

 tlie rarest and most beautiful butterflies of Siberia, the European 

 Alps, and Lapland, many of them also found on the Alps of 

 Colorado, such as Par^iassius Eversmanni and P. deliivs, Erebki 

 lappona, E. ero, E. tyndarus, and E. maurisius, (JEneis bore and 

 (E'. sculda, Argynnis Kefersteini, A. freya, and A. frigga, Golias 

 mongola, Lycasna orhitulus and L. pheretes. Whilst on the higher 

 and more rugged mountain-tops were herds of the great Wild 

 Sheep and Ibex, Marmots, and Alpine Hares. 



The Kirghiz, who were pasturing large herds of mares in this 

 neighbourhood, on whose milk converted into kumiss they almost 

 entirely li\e, had taken from the nest to train for falconry two 

 young falcons wdiicli I believe to be F. sacer ; but a rare species 

 or variety known as Falco altaicus, allied to the Peregrine, also 

 occurs in the country. 



The only vegetables which we had during our stay at these 

 altitudes were rhubarb {R. Uliaponticwm) and wnid onions ; but 

 the Tartars were also fond of the young stem of a species of 

 Heracleum, which was too strong for my taste. 



Tbe larch, Larix sibirica, ascended here to a little over 7000 

 feet. I saw young trees at this elevation about 1^ diameter and 

 7 feet high, which showed 25 years' growth ; and a very remark- 

 able stunted old larch, 3 feet in diameter and not more than 20 

 feet high, which must have been many hundreds of years old. 

 Away from these there was no fuel but \\illows and dry horse 

 dung, the common fuel of Mongolia and Tibet. 



The change in the scenery and character of vegetation, fauna, 

 and insects w^as most marked on crossing the watershed between 

 the Tchuja and Bashkaus valleys. It seemed as though in one 

 day we had passed from Asia into Europe, for a number of 

 plants, such as Linncea borealis, Saxifraga umbrosa, and various 

 Fricacece, familiar to me in the Alps, which I bad not previously 

 seen, were found there ; whilst ferns, which are conspicuous by 

 their absence in the dry Tchuja valley, had also become abundant. 

 Instead of thin larch forests, about which you could every v/here 

 ride on horseback, we found dente forests of Finns sylvestris. 



