364 Butterfly Hunting in the Desert. [April, 
Here, also, at the foot of the steep ascent, is the last water of 
the day’s journey, and as the next twenty-five miles must be mate 
without water or rest, we halt here and take lunch and breathe 
the team. 
The morning is now well advanced, and the sunshine is vey 
warm in the close cafion; there should be butterflies about 
Growing in the dry washes that furrow the mountain side are some 
Eriogonums with showy yellow blossoms, and feeding on these we 
see two yellow Argynnides, A. callippe, still in good feather at this _ 
‘late date (Sept. t1). Taking them to make sure that whatever ill - 
success may betide, we will not return empty,and adding a few Pam 
philas found about the water to keep them company, we resume 
the journey, climbing laboriously up the steep road, occasionally 
seeing a dark-brown Satyrus, but no other flying thing. At length 
the crest is reached, and with a parting glance behind us at ai : 
precipitous descent and the forest-covered mountain slopes, with the : 
distant valleys and hills winking in the sunshine and the Pacii 
ocean glimmering in the background eighty miles away, We a 
the desert and see before us a vast extent of nearly level desolate : 
plain, extending hundreds of miles, broken here and there by i 
still more desolate, dry, rocky hills, sharp cones and vont 
peaks and upheavals of uncouth and indescribable shapes, wae 
utterly desolate and barren, and without shrub or tree upon "i. 7 
forbidding sides. Mines galore, of copper, silver and gold, le 
hidden in these rocky excrescences, but for other uses the a 
region seems to be a world incomplete—not yet fitted for : 
abode of man. This, then, is the desert, with a new forsa H 
fauna,lapped in an atmosphere robbed by occult causes of m n 
particle of moisture, and heated by a blazing sun, and pe i , 
everybody except gold hunters and other lunatics; § me | 
promising field? We look forward over it with just @ yea 
for several men of our acquaintance, and braver than we," : | 
laid their bones to bleach in its sands. : 
4 
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er 
iN 
Soon after passing the wind-swept crest of the pass, ae 
‘several Satyrus boopis settled, one in a place upon paces o 
pings ; the insects rise as we approach, flutter off behind a 
bush, and alight upon the ground, but are wary, and only git : 
tious pursuit and a cast just as they resettle, can they s poti — 
Some miles further on a few Lemoinas are seen wen | 
without any apparent object, and upon stopping they 50%" 
