1974] 
Matthews — Cambridge Entomological Club 
9 
1ST e w - England. 
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 
Boston, Mass., August 21, 1875. 
The Cambridge Entomological Club. 
Camt of the Cambridge Entomological Club, ) 
Mr. Washington, July, 1875. I 
Mr. Editor: — This is the first uncomfortable clay we have had. 
The clouds rise from the valley and descend from the summit by 
turns, driven by the shifting currents of air, and we get more of 
the fog and drizzly showers here on the middle of the mountain 
than they have either above or below us. Once in a while we 
catch a glimpse of Ml. Carter, with half a dozen little clouds play- 
ing a stately game of tag among his green ravines, or of the Glen 
House in the sunny valley, but it is only for an instant, and 
though we can hear the stage rattling along half a mile overhead, 
we have not seen the road above the trees since sunrise. 
Alter passing the five-mile post an extensive view is opened to- 
ward Conway, taking in several very picturesque mountains and 
lakes, the summit of Mt. Washington tower on the right, and in 
the middle distance the rugged sides of the south wall of Tucker- 
man’s ravine. Here is the beginning of the habitat of the Mount- 
ain UutterHy, a species peculiar to this locality and eagerly sought 
by nearly all our party. They have the curious habit of flattening 
their wings down upon the ground or rock when they alight tc 
avoid the wind, but such is the force of habit that they do so when 
it is a calm also, raising them slowly afterwards as if it were a sec- 
ond thought. The caterpillars live on a coarse kind of sedge 
which grows here. 
Proceeding to the summit we arrived in season to witness the 
ascent of the singular looking little engine and car. The engine 
being built for up-hill work seems, as one of the party aptly ex- 
pressed it, to “ tip down” as soon as it comes on the piece of level 
track in part of the platform. Most of us, after a rapid glance at 
three States and a hundred lakes and rivers, devoted our time to 
hunting Alpine beetles which abound under the rocks. Nearly all 
these are species peculiar to high mountains, but on fair days many 
butterflies, flies, and wasps wander up from the valleys. Return- 
ing by moonlight, we did ample justice to the fried hominy and 
syrup which the stay-at-homes had provided, and at ten o’clock 
when the rain came splashing down in torrents, most of us were 
too drowsy to think that the morrow’s projected trip to Tucker- 
man’s ravine must be abandoned. 
Yours truly, Walter IIoxie. 
Portion of a letter written by Club member Walter Hoxie while at the 
C.E.C. camp, Mt. Washington, July, 1875, and published in the New-England 
Journal of Education. [Copy in C.E.C. archives.] 
