anxious to get, because I had described one of them as new in the previous year from three specimens taken near here by Mr. Woolley-Dod. When I had learnt what I wanted to know about the ranching business, I went to stay a day or two with this gentleman at a small ranch he had lately started near Calgary. I found that since my last visit he had bought a small bunch of cattle and was, in company with another Englishman, in a fair way to increase his herd, though making money in this business is a work of time, and there is at first a great deal more hard work than many of the men who try it seem to care for. In his spare time he collected lepidoptera and had discovered many new moths, especially Noctuidæ, which have been described in the United States. Œneis alberta and its near ally Œneis varuna were both abundant near his ranch, and, though they fly on the same grassy hills, are quite distinct. Another rare butterfly is abundant on these prairies from the middle to the end of May—Erebia discoidalis; it has been found also on the east side of Hudson Bay and in northern and eastern Siberia. Mr. Woolley-Dod has also taken at Moiley, a little east of Calgary, a very rare species of Œneis, Œ. Macouni, which had hitherto only been found at Nepigon on the north side of Lake Superior, though it probably occurs in other parts of western Canada. During my excursions about Calgary I saw few game birds, and the only nest I took was one of Buteo hudsonicus with four eggs, which was on a rocky pinnacle in a valley. The birds of this country are, however, so well known in comparison with the insects, that I did not think it worth while to collect them during such a short stay in the country. It was too early in the season for many flowers to be out, the most conspicuous being an anemone, which resembles the one found all over the Siberian steppes at the same season.
On returning to Calgary I determined to visit Victoria, as I wished to see what prospect there was of a future market for sheep on the coast. The mountains at this season were still very snowy, and at Laggan, where I stopped a short time to see my old companion Bean, I found a single Pieris, the only butterfly yet out. The route to the west coast by the Canadian Pacific Railway has been so often described that, beautiful as it is, I need say nothing about it. I reached Victoria on May 22nd, and found an old acquaintance, Mr. Phillipps-Wolley, who was now living there. Victoria enjoys one of the nicest and most English-like climates in North America, and as there were now a good many butterflies about, I enjoyed two or three days' collecting. I also went forty miles up the railway to see the son of a friend in England, who was learning farming here with a settler. A good many English and Canadians were farming with more or less success in Vancouver Island, but the difficulty of clear¬ ing any extent of land in such very heavily timbered country makes it a long and costly process to establish a farm. At this time, the general depression which affected all parts of the United States and Canada made prices too low to be remunerative, but I heard that the great boom which had prevailed both in Alaska and the Kootenay district during the last three years had now very much improved the position and prospects of farmers in British Columbia. In a chemist’s shop in Victoria I saw the most superb pair of cariboo-horns which I have ever seen; they
