32 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Paljeno, which I had seen there in iSoo. It occurs 

 abundantly on the slopes just below the Bel-Alp 

 Hotel. The east side of these slopes incline steeply 

 towards the Aletsch Glacier, which is in full view of 

 them, and require cautious walking, They are 

 covered with the Rhododendron scrub which Palteus 

 so affects. The day was not altogether auspicious, 

 but I caught a fine series, including two lovely 

 females. On my way down I did not keep to the 

 path, but at first bore a good deal to the left, passing 

 over some very broken and undulating ground where 

 were scattered here and there a few large fir-trees. 

 Just as I reached a little rough hillock which lay in 

 my way, a great black wood-pecker got up from the 

 other side, and flew leisurely to one of the fir-trees, up 

 the trunk of which it climbed, keeping the trunk, 

 however, between itself and me, and peeping curiously 

 round at the stranger who had ventured to trespass 

 on its lonely fastnesses. I think it was an old bird, 

 for the brilliant crimson crest was very conspicuous. 



Another excursion was to the Pfyn-Wald, a wood 

 of pine-trees — interspersed with grassy spaces — which 

 lies between Leuk and Sierre. Meleager and Sebrus 

 are both taken there, but I was not fortunate enough 

 to find either the one or the other. Four years ago 

 I got a pair of Meleager there, the female being the 

 brown variety named Steveni. The true home of 

 this butterfly is Digne and its neighbourhood. I got 

 one good Camilla (greatly to my surprise, as I never 

 saw any honeysuckle in the Pfyn-Wald), a few fine 

 Arion, some Dia and Dryas, and two or three Stella- 

 tarum. This last insect is very abundant in the 

 Rhone valley. 



As to plants at Berisal, I saw there the rare and 

 curious Campanula excisa ; it was abundant within a 

 short distance of the hotel. I have never seen the 

 plant elsewhere. All four of the Swiss species of 

 Pyrola, too, occur close to the hotel, and Secunda is 

 very plentiful and fine on the Alp ; to the left — a 

 short distance beyond the Simplon Hospice — it grows 

 amongst the low bilberry bushes. 



When we left Berisal at the end of July, we went 

 to Aigle. Here I obtained a few Camilla, Sibylla, 

 Quercus, W. album, Ilicis, iEthiops, lone Althaea?, 

 (this insect in the proper season is abundant at Aigle, 

 but I was too late for it), and about a dozen Aetata 

 var. Cordula. I saw two Iris, a butterfly which is 

 generally abundant here, but I was not lucky enough 

 to take any. From what I saw and heard, I think 

 Aigle — or perhaps better still Sepey, higher up the 

 valley towards the Diablerets — would be a capital 

 centre for Lepidopterists ; but at Aigle itself mus- 

 quitos are very troublesome to new-comers in July 

 and August. 



There is an exceedingly rare- fern to be found near 

 that place ; I refer to Asplenium fontanum, which 

 grows abundantly on the rocks that bound the road 

 on the left, on the way up to Sepey. To see such a 

 ccarce plant as this in situ would repay any botanist 



for the trouble of a visit to this — in spite of mus- 

 quitos — very charming place ; moreover, the hotel 

 (Beau Site) is one that can be honestly recommended, 

 for its comfortable arrangements and very moderate 

 charges. 



R. B. P. 

 Eastbourne. 



NOTES ON THE SITE OF HASTINGS. 

 By T. V. Holmes, F.G.S. 



IN the present day the additions yearly made to our 

 larger towns consist of habitations and work- 

 shops, built on sites of very various degrees of merit or 

 demerit. Here a healthy plateau becomes covered 

 by " desirable villa residences ; " there, on marshes 

 below high-water mark, appear factories and streets 

 of small dwellings, adjoining newly-excavated docks. 

 But an ancient town owed its existence to its natural 

 advantages of soil and situation over all other spots 

 in the district. The site of ancient London, for 

 example, consists of a gravel-capped plateau close to 

 a navigable river ; water for domestic use being 

 easily obtained from shallow wells, and the elevation 

 of the ground obviating any fear of floods, and being 

 comparatively advantageous for purposes of defence. 

 And the more ancient the town the more heed did its 

 founders pay to defensive strength, either in the 

 shape of a strong site for the town itself, or in the 

 proximity of a naturally strong position, which might 

 become a refuge for women and children, and a place 

 for the storage of valuables, during the inroad of some 

 hostile tribe or nation. 



Though the site of Hastings is very different in 

 character from that of London, it is yet, as evidently 

 as the great city on the Thames, a place which must 

 have been occupied as a town from the earliest times. 

 But the record of Hastings is not one of gradual 

 development as that of London has been. Starting 

 as a mere fishing-town or village, Hastings became, 

 eight hundred years ago, the Premier Cinque Port. 

 Centuries of decline, the result of physical changes, 

 followed, yet during the last half-century it has so 

 greatly extended and developed itself, that it is now 

 much more decidedly the Premier Cinque Port than 

 it was in the days of the Norman kings. Yet it 

 cannot be said that the importance of Hastings 

 Castle tended to counterbalance the destruction of 

 its harbour, and preserve a continuity of existence to 

 the town. For while the castle of another of the 

 Cinque Ports, Dover, is now the centre of extensive 

 modem fortifications, Hastings Castle was allowed to 

 fall into decay as early as the fourteenth century. 



In order to get some knowledge of the geological 

 structure of the district immediately surrounding the 

 town, we cannot do better than take our stand on the 

 massive stone groyne which juts into the sea under 

 the East Cliff of Hastings. The East Cliff is seen t o 



