34 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[February 



may say here that during our holiday of nine working days we took 

 1 59 species of Lepidoptera, viz. : 70 butterflies and 59 moths; also 

 40 species of Coleoptera. 



To live in that pure exhilarating air, surrounded by a scene of 

 ever-changing beauty, was to be lifted out of one's self, to forget the 

 small worries of life, to be in a new world. Night, with its starlight 

 serenity, the silence broken only by the jingling tingtang of the cattle- 

 bells, mellowed and made musical by distance ; morning, with its 

 mists and mystery — mountain and lake not yet unveiled ; then the 

 veil is lifted, and the children of Niobe are seen resting on the breast 

 of the mountain, on the bosom of the lake — little clouds soon to be 

 dispersed before the searching gaze of the fiery god of day. How 

 pure a purple the islets are in the morning haze ! 



A holiday in such a country is a liberal education. There one 

 realises the stupendous power of the great slow silent forces which 

 have moulded, or do mould, our rock-built earth. There the botanist 

 can trace successive zones of floral life, up to heights where no hardiest 

 plant can live. How large the flowers are, and how rich their colour ! 

 Crocuses and anemones clustering round the snow left in the hollows ; 

 lovely star gentians of purest sapphire blue, most truly floral gems ; 

 cheery pink primulas ; hardy rhododendrons clothing the higher 

 Alpine slopes, and in the distance resembling our glorious Scotch 

 heather ; and, springing from the ice itself, the beautiful Alpine 

 auricula. 



And to the entomologist, what a treasury of insect beauty is 

 Switzerland ! Who could forget the first sight of Parnassius apollo 

 as, at calm summer noontide, it floats on the buoyant air with wings 

 expanded motionless. What a delight to a lover of insect life and 

 beauty to be in the midst of scores of sunny-brown Fvitillaries, with 

 their graceful swiftly-gliding motion ; or amongst Blues reflecting the 

 sky in all its moods. What a charming sight it is to see the pearly- 

 blue Covydon assembled in scores by the side of a trickling streamlet 

 to refresh themselves in the heat of the noon-day ; or multitudes of 

 those beautiful diurnal fireflies (the Zygcmce) making a bee-line through 

 the sunny air ; or Stellatarum poised with lightning-motioned wings 

 above the flower which yields it nectar ; bright-eyed Mceva sporting 

 round the rocks it so affects ; and brilliant Coppers flying through 

 the flowery meads. 



These are the treasures which gladden the eye and quicken the 

 pulse of a lover of nature. A holiday such as I have described leaves 

 its impress for a lifetime. Switzerland — what beautiful visions, what 

 pleasant thoughts, that word will ever call to remembrance. Stored 

 up in our memories, my friend and I have a fund of happy experiences, 

 to draw upon in later years. It is not often given to travellers to see 



