SIMLA 
45 
is, but on settling vanished suddenly, burying itself in the herbage. 
Golias fieldii was common, but was not remarkable for swift flight. 
Harkanda, 8800 ft., to Baghi, 8900 ft. 
October 13th. 
The road traverses a magnificent forest made up for the most 
part of grand Spruces, their boles often 6 feet in diameter, with few 
and short branches. Many of them supported a species of Ampelopsis, 
(very similar to the familiar Virginian Creeper), now just begin¬ 
ning to turn red, but so lofty were the trees—at the very least 100 feet 
—that none of the creepers could get more than half way up their 
towering stems. Under the trees was a profusion of ferns, but at 
this season of the year the road was too dark and chill to be the 
haunt of butterflies, so I had to content myself with the grand 
vegetation, and the occasional inspiring glimpses of “ The Snows,” 
lying far away beyond the deep valley of the Sutlej, over which one 
might occasionally see, among many Kites, the lordly Eagle. 
Baghi, 8900 ft., over Mt. HutttI, 11,000 ft., to Rarkanda, 8800 ft. 
October 14th. 
Baghi, our furthest point, is but 26 miles W.RW. of Simla, 
though by the winding mountain road it is fifty. Here I met with 
Neptis astola , Moore, thus making my first acquaintance with that 
beautiful but difficult genus. The steep footpath up Mt. Huttu, 
when it has attained an elevation of a little more than 10,000 ft., 
emerges from the forest on to a flowery clearing that bore evidence 
of former cultivation. Here I saw Golias fieldii , Atella phalantha, 
and Argynnis issaea , and here also I took two specimens of Parnassius 
hardwickii , Gray, 1 one worn, the other in beautiful condition; above 
it is a lovely creature, but the underside has a curious resemblance to 
oiled paper. Delicate looking though it be, it is strangely tenacious 
of life. The concurrence of a Clouded Yellow, a Queen of Spain, 
and an Apollo was very suggestive of the Alps. All too soon the 
path plunged again into the now somewhat scrubby forest to come 
out finally, at near 11,000 ft., on to the grassy, flower-bedecked 
plateau in which the mountain culminates. 
The highest peak was of course crowned by a Lha To, or 
“ Spirit-of-evil pillar,” a cubical structure of stone which brought to 
1 See Plate I., Fig. 4. 
