Other Leaf-Rollers 
here, but far away on the rounded heights 
of the lower, outermost Alps. The high- 
lander’s exile none the less seems pleasant. 
The big Snail does quite well in the marshy 
scrub on the banks of the torrent. 
Neither is the Apoderus a native. She is 
a castaway, hailing from the hazel-clad 
heights. She has made the voyage in a 
little boat, that is to say, in the leafy cockle- 
shell in which the grub is born. The vessel 
was tightly closed, which made the passage 
possible. Running ashore at some point on 
the bank in the height of summer, the insect 
perforated its cell and, not finding its 
favourite tree, established itself upon the 
alder. There it founded a family, remain- 
ing faithful to the same tree for the three 
years during which I had to do with it. It is 
probable, for that matter, that the origin of 
the settlement dates farther back. 
The history of this stranger interests me. 
The primordial conditions of her life— 
climate and food—are changed. Her 
ancestors lived under a temperate sky; they 
grazed on the leaf of the hazel-bush; they 
manufactured cylinders out of piece-goods 
181 
