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Show 400 MR. J. H. LEECH ON THE BUTTERFLIES [May 3 the mountains attain a height of four or five thousand feet, and densely wooded nearly to their summits, some of the timber being very fine. From the" summit of So-ko-San, the highest peak, the view consists of a sea of wooded mountains except near the coast, and scarcely a house or sign of cultivation. The natives are harmless, and dirty to an incredible degree. Travelling is difficult on account of the money, which is all copper, and of so low a value that one man can only carry a few shillings' worth. Scarcely any food is procurable, and the native habitations are too lively even for an entomologist. The traveller must make up his mind to live on what he takes with him, and to sleep in the open air or under the verandah of a temple. However, although the weather was bad and living rather rough, I was amply repaid by the results of my collecting. M y one regret is that I spent so short a time in the finest country I have ever visited, both for entomology and sport. Early in July I returned to Nagasaki, and went at once to Shimonoseki, a good locality and less sacrificed to " paddy " than most places. From Shimonoseki, the most southern town of Central Japan, to Awanovi, the most northern, I travelled most of the way overland, with poor results. Owing to the cholera I was quarantined and fumigated from one end of the country to the other. Servants died, others refused to go on, or asked exorbitant prices. The authorities invariably chose the best collecting localities for the purposes of cremation ; in fact, the whole west coast was entirely demoralized. Early in August I reached Hakodate, where I had a fortnight's good collecting. I then proceeded to Nemoro on the east coast of Yesso, and procured another ship to take rne up to the Kurile Islands. Here the whole country was covered with impenetrable bamboo-grass about 8 feet high, and both collecting (there was very little insect-life) and sport were out of the question. After wasting much valuable time trying to get further north, I turned back. The remainder of m y Japanese expedition was on the ordinary tourists' routes. In the whole country I only succeeded in finding two really good collecting districts, viz. the neighbourhood of Hakodate and some well-known mountain-resorts in Central Japan, all of which had been thoroughly worked before. I succeeded in capturing all the Rhopalocera known to Japan with the exception of ab< ut six species ; I discovered one species new to science and several hitherto unrecorded from Japan. I procured about 15,000 specimens of Moths, which I propose to treat of in another paper, and an enormous number of Coleoptera. Altogether I consider the results attained to have been fairly satisfactory. |
