THK LRPinoPTEKA oF TIIK l,rfTLi: ST. liEUNAKD PASS. 190 



I sat and pondered as to the best means of making a safe descent. I 

 calculated that the most satisfactory way was to sit down until the 

 cloud had passed, hut the cloud never did pass, or at least if it did 

 another overtook it before I distin,<j:uished the end of it. It was just 

 one interminable driving fog, travelling at race-hor.se speed, and I was 

 among the Alpine clouds. [ packed up my net so as not to distract 

 my attention, and listened for the cow-bells down in the valley near 

 the Hospice. For a time I kept to the grassy flowery bank, that had 

 a short time before been so gay and full of life. Now the fiowers were 

 closed, everything was still, and the water hung in drops on every 

 blade of grass, I failed to hit the snow patches, so I set my face in 

 what I surmised must be the direction of the Hospice, and carefully 

 went down the incline straight ahead. Soon the clouds got less dense, 

 one could see a greater distance ahead, and gradually the thick cloud 

 changed for a, driving penetrating vain. Another hundred feet or so down 

 and the Hospice came in sight ; but the I'ain never ceased for that day, 

 and further collecting was out of the question. The next morning was 

 again threatening, (hill, and very cold, so I determined to leave the 

 higher levels and get down to the more tropical regions at the foot of 

 the mighty (Irannnont, and explore again those delightful old haunts 

 that I descril)ed a, little time ago in my UamblcH in Alpine Vdlleya. The 

 collecting between the Hospice and La Thuile is beyond description. 

 The clouds cleared oflf at noon, and the sun shone out in all its 

 brilliancy. The Alpine Pyrales and Geometrids were in thousands on 

 the higher meadows, and as I left the road and took a footpath lead- 

 ing through the woods, on my right, direct for La Thuile, the wealth 

 of insect life was amazing. Krchia noyi/c ab. rri/nnis appeared again, 

 and then thousands of Enhid rurijalc, limithis palea, and all the com- 

 mon insects of this level. The insect, however, of the rocks, was 

 Lanntia rocsiaUi. Tliis species was simply in myriads, great large grey 

 individuals, with an amazing turn of speed and exceedingly wary ; 

 Cli.sii)c((tnjia alpina (a dark brown female just emerged), and then, lower 

 down, a linunt for I'arnai^dn^ tlcliii^, which reminded one nmch, on the 

 wing, of Aporia cratd'yi. Still I was walking against the diligence, 

 and I could hear the liells, now near, now far, as they rounded the zig- 

 zags, whilst I fired straight ahead. At last I came in full sight of La 

 Thuile and its rushing river. I had overshot my mark a little, but 

 made a bee-line for tlie village. Soon I found myself on the skrees 

 of a very steep slope, and selecting a couple of fairly large flat stones, 

 I fixed my feet and went down the slope at a tremendous pace, landing 

 quite safely among the wild raspberry bushes at the bottoni. I climbed 

 one or two low stone walls, and found myself on the outskirts of La 

 Thuile, and after losing myself repeatedly in the narrow alleys that 

 serve for streets in Alpine villages, I ultimately found myself in the 

 road near the bridge, minus. I found out afterwards, a fair share of the 

 boxes in which 1 had put my afternoon's captures. A few hundred 

 feet above me I could see the Customs' ofKcer overhauling my baggage, 

 under the superintendence of Signor BoAvn, an Italian doctor of 

 science, whose acquaintance I had made at the Hospice. A mile and 

 a half of zigzags, however, extended between my position and that of 

 the diligence, and so I sauntered slowly over the bridge and into that 

 part of the town lying on the other side of the river, the lovely feeder 

 of the Dora, that breaks through the mountains behind Pre St. Didier. 



