Mature and Art, June 1, 1867.] 
OUE BEITISH BUTTERFLIES. 
171 
The traveller who may arrive in Peru during 
the hot summer months, will be astonished at the 
aridity of the coast. He will see a few shrivelled 
Tilandsias, some species of Cacti, Cardo Santo 
( Argemone Mexicana ) ; and if the sea-shore is ex- 
plored, the horny Salicornia, some species of Salsola, 
Sesuvium, and the long Macrocystis Humboldti 
or Sargasso. The great desert line of coast is cut 
here and there with valleys and ravines, in which 
the traveller may rest, his sight having been nearly 
blinded by the reverberation of the sand upon tro- 
pical vegetation, and where he can assuage his thirst 
with cooling fruit of the Granadilla ( Passiflora 
lingtdaris), the orange, and other fruits, and repose 
his limbs under the shade of the plantain tree. 
I have adverted to the more interesting objects 
connected with the Peruvian deserts ; but there are 
unpleasant occurrences, as the earthquake and the 
terciana or ague. 
The volcanoes, dormant and active, are mostly 
on the western or Cordillera side of the coast ; these 
are one of the great signs of subterranean chemical 
action. The other is the terrible earthquake, 
resulting from the underground explosions, causing 
the destruction even of whole cities ; some, situated 
on the sea-coast, as Callao, were once washed entirely 
away by the waters of the Pacific rolling in a 
gigantic earthquake wave, which, on retiring, 
swept all into the deep. The city of Arequipa has 
been totally destroyed five times, from 1540 to 
1784. 
The next drawback to a residence in the valleys 
of the coast of Peru, is the terciana or ague. I 
nearly became a victim, having caught a bad sort 
called the atabardillada, at Pica, in the province 
of Tarapaca, at over 4,000 feet above the level of 
the sea. The treatment then (1826) was doses of 
powdered Peruvian bark in old wine, and lemonade. 
The chills and fever would in time disappear, but 
occasionally fatal dysentery would follow. Quinine 
was not then known in that region. 
Dr. Hamilton, who practised in Tacna as early 
as 1825, says he paid, as the wholesale price at Lima 
of adulterated sulphate of quinine, £7 the ounce. 
He mentions that the desert portion of Peru is 
free from terciana, but it is found in all the valleys 
and ravines where there is water and where there is 
vegetation ; for at all seasons vegetable matter is 
more or less in a state of decomposition there. 
The vegetable malaria is more concentrated and 
deadly in some localities than others. He had to 
remain with a party of eight, a day and two nights 
in the valley of Tambo ; seven took the dreaded 
fever, volatile organic matter being conveyed into 
the system through the medium of the gastric, re- 
spiratory, or other organs. 
Terciana is not endemic on the high table-lands, 
but appears again on the eastern slopes. For many 
years past quinine, in its various preparations, has 
been administered in Peru, with its well-known 
salutary effects. 
At Tacna 18° S.. 1,400 feet above the level of the 
sea, and a little inland, the mean temperature is 
about 64° Fahr. ; the greatest heat in the shade is 
■90°. On the sea-shore, in latitude 20° 12', the winter 
mean heat is from 62° to 67°; in summer 72° to 
78°, but mid-day in the sun it is scorching. 
A short time after the foregoing was written, a 
Spanish fleet stealthily took possession of the 
Cliincha Islands, on account of some old and 
trifling claims on Peru, and ere the Spaniards gave 
them up, got nearly a million sterling out of the 
Peruvian government. 
The Spaniards next went to Valparaiso, but 
finding the Chilenos would not give them the satis- 
faction they required, bombarded it, a defenceless 
city, destroying in particular all the public buildings. 
The Spanish fleet then sailed north to Callao in 
May, 1866, in the hope of destroying that port and 
its fortifications ; in this, however, they got very 
much the worst of it, the more disabled portion 
running off to the Philippine Islands, the other 
portion round Cape Horn. Peru and Chili are 
still at feud with Spain, and Spain will have to 
apologize to those Republics, ere peace can be 
re-established. 
OUE BEITISH BUTTEEFLIES: 
THEIE STRUCTURE, HABiTS, HISTORY, AND FOREIGN RELATIVES. 
By Arthur G. Butler, E.Z.S., Assistant, Zoological Department, British Museum. 
Part II. Rliodocera Rhmvai. The Brimstone. 
T HIS delicate butterfly, the second on our lists, 
is, wherever it occurs, one of the most common 
of British insects ; it is by no means rare upon the 
Continent, and may be met with in great numbers 
in some parts of India. Few insects can be more 
attractive to the eye than this species when upon 
the wing ; its flight, though rather more rapid and 
powerful, very much resembles that of the well- 
known Pieris Brassicce, or common white butterfly 
of our gardens ; like it, the Brimstone has a habit 
of repeating the same regular journey over and over 
again for hours together, therefore, though the 
collector should miss his insect the first time it 
passes him, he need not despair of eventually 
capturing it, if he but remains in the same place 
for a few minutes. Of this fact we had practical 
proof the very first time that we saw the insect 
alive, and hi the neighbourhood of London. 
The Brimstone is at its prime towards the middle 
of August. In order to see it to perfection it is 
