390 
INDIA 
of basaltic rock hundreds of feet in height, so that butterflies must 
be pursued with circumspection, for in many places a false step 
would be fatal. The ascent is made on what may be called the 
landward side by a toy-railway. This is a novel structure, and we 
stopped twice in what appeared to be most perilous places on the face 
of a cliff. The second time flames came out of the funnel, and they 
had to rake the fires out! 
The plateau (as well as such portions of the scarps as are not too 
steep) is clothed with jungle of medium size, which, in the absence 
of palms and dominant creepers, has little of the tropical aspect, 
though Monkeys (and, it was alleged, Panthers) range therein. On 
emerging from this forest and going out on to one of the Points, it 
is difficult to believe that one is not on an island, and that the sea 
is not at one’s feet, in place of being 28 miles away. On these 
Western Ghats the rainfall is measured by feet instead of by inches, 
and at the end of the rainy season many of the roads have to be 
reconstructed to make them passable. Again; gardens are so liable to 
be washed away bodily, that the gardener’s art is almost confined to 
pot-culture. It was difficult to realize these things, as we laboriously 
tramped through the deep red dust, for at the time of our visit the 
drought was extreme, the trees were in great part leafless, and I 
compared the colour of the grass to the very pale drab of the 
cover of my Letts’ Diary, No. 36. There was water in Charlotte 
Lake certainly, but the other drinking places were reduced to 
puddles, or even patches of damp mud. 
My captures in nine days’ work were sufficiently numerous to 
give an idea of what the locality might be expected to produce under 
less arid conditions :— 
Solitary males of Danaida plexippus and D. chrysippus, together 
with abundance of Grastia core , Cram, (one of the latter with a 
well-marked symmetrical injury to the hind-wings), represented 
their sub-family. 
Satyrines were few and far between, comprising Yphbhima hueb - 
neri —one so exceptionally “ dry ” as to lack ocelli on the underside 
of the hind-wing—and one remarkable example of Mycalesis perseus , 
approaching in character that taken on the Nilgiris in 1904 (see 
above, p. 101). 
Atella phalantha was fairly numerous, odd specimens of Precis 
almana and lemonias, of very a dry” character, occurred; several 
Neptis were seen, the only one netted proving to be eurynome. 
Blues were more notable for variety than numbers, Neopithecops 
zalmora being the commonest. The others taken were Catochrysops 
