Lasiophthicus pyrastri, L. June, August, Vancouver, (Harvey); Pincher Creek, July 29, (Willing). Chrysotoxum pubescens, Loew. Rare, St. John, (McIntosh). Criorhina Kincaidi, Coq. Vancouver, May, (Harvey); Vernon, (Venables). We have only the type specimen, a male, in U. S. Nat. Mus. (D. W.C.) Merodon equestris, Fab. St. John, 1902, (McIntosh). First recorded as found in North America by Mr. Chaguon last year. Volucella facialis, Will. St. John, (McIntosh). Coast. (D.W.C.) Eristalis inornatus, Loew. Eristalis flavipes, Walk. Xylota barbata, Loew. Hitherto only known from the Pacific Rather common, June, July, St. John, (McIntosh). North of Olds, Alta., Sept. 12, (Willing). North Renfrew, B. C., July, (Osbarn). Myopa clausa, Loew. Rare, May, June, July, St. John, (McIntosh). Myopa plebeia, Will. Hatzic, B. C., April, (Draper). Gymnochata alcedo, Loew. Vancouver, May, (Harvey). Winthemia quadripustulata, Fab. St. John, (McIntosh); bred from larva of Murumba modesta, Ottawa, (Fletcher). Estrophasia clausa, Br. & Berg. Rare, St. John, (McIntosh). Alophora fenestrata, Coq. A few in August, St. John, (McIntosh). Pyrellia cyanicolor, Zett. Vancouver, April, (Harvey). A rare species. Cuterebra grisea, Coq., n. sp. Fort Simpson, B. C., (Keen). Hamatobia serrata, Desv. St. John, (McIntosh); Regina, (Willing); Vancouver Island, abundant, 1903, (Fletcher). Pyrgota valida, Harris. One pair, St. Catharines, Ont., June 15, (Fletcher). NOTES ON INJURIOUS INSECTS OF THE ABITIBI REGION. BY TENNYSON D. JARVIS, B. S. A., DEMONSTRATOR IN BIOLOGY, ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. Larch Saw-Fly (Nematus Erichsonii):-Nearly all of the trees in this northern country have been destroyed by the larvae of this Saw-Fly. During the early part of July the adult flies were seen floating down the Porcupine River, and a few days later the shore of Nighthawk Lake was covered with them. Pupa-cises were found in masses beneath the surface of vegetation of all the trees examined in the district. The flies deposited their eggs about the first week in July and the eggs hatched about the 12th of July. Spruce Gall Louse (Chermes abietis):-The Gall Louse was very common on the Black and White Spruces. The Spruces along the water seemed to suffer more than the inland trees, and* the White Spruce more than the Black. Birch Case-Bearer (Coleophora sp.):-This insect was found feeding on the Paper Birch and Alder. In some districts it was very common and destructive to the Birch.. American Tent Caterpillar (Clisiocampa americana) :-This pest was found about one hundred miles north of Metagama feeding on the leaves of the Pin Cherry. Pale Brown Byturus (Byturus unicolor):-This pest was found throughout the district feeding on the leaves and buds of the Wild Raspberry. Pine Borer (Monohammus confusor) - A few specimens of this Borer were found, and the work of the insect was noticed in a few places. American Saw-Fly (Cimbex Americana) :-The larvae of this insect were found in considerable numbers on the Willow trees around Nighthawk Lake. Lace Bugs (Corythuca arcuata):-Common on the Birch and Alder through the region. Spittle Bugs (Aphrophora sp) :-Common on the Red Osier, Dog Wood, Spruces, and many herbs. Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris rapae):-The larvæ of this insect were found in the Indian gardens around Nighthawk Lake feeding on turnips and cabbage. The adults' were found throughout the Region. Lake. Clouded Sulphur (Eurymus philodice): -Adults were quite common around Nighthawk Cut Worms (Hadena sp.);—Very injurious in gardens at Fort Mettagami, and common in the Abitibi region, Alder Blight (Schizoneura tessellata) :-Alders were covered with this insect. Scurfy Bark Louse (Chionaspis sp );-Found on the Alder at Fort Frederick House Lake. Ash Colored Blister Beetle (Epicauta cinerea):-Were found feeding on the Wild Vetch near Porcupine Lake. Black Blister Beetle (Epicauta Pennsylvanica) :-Found feeding on Golden Rod. Maple Borer (Dicerca divaricata):-The adult of this Borer was found in the middle of July around Nighthawk Lake. The Banded Purple (Basilarchia arthemis):-This butterfly was found in open places along river banks. Yellow Swallow Tail (Papilio turnus):-These butterflies were found in the same places as the Banded Purple, and usually accompanied them. Fall Canker Worm (Alsophila pometaria) :-Were found on the Birch, Aspen, and many >ther shrubs throughout the district. Polyphemus Moth (Telea polyphemus) :-These were observed floating on the water, and flying around the river banks. Locusts:-Were common in dry places, but most of them were in the nymph stage. Pine-Cone Willow Gall (Cecidomyia strobiloides):-Galls were found on the Heartleaved Willow. Birch Aphis (Aphis sp.):-Aphids in this country were very uncommon, but Birch Aphids were found in small numbers on nearly all Birches. Potato Beetles (Doryphora decem-lineata) :-A few Potato Beetles were found in the Indian gardens at Fort Mattagami. Lake. Aspen Leaf-Roller --This insect has caused considerable damage to Aspens in this Region. Balm of Gilead Leaf-Gall:-This was common on many trees around Frederick House HUNTING FOR FOSSIL INSECTS. BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. Fully thirty years ago, the last week of July found my companion and myself in a railway town in Wyoming, camping on the floor of the storage-room of a Western post office and "store" combined, frequented alike by Indians, half-breeds and whites. We had just room to lay ourselves down at night on buffalo robes in the narrow passage between barrels of molasses on one side and cheeses and firkins of pretty strong butter on the other, while skins and furs dangled from the rafters overhead. Sometimes cats entered by the one open window and actually fought on our prostrate bodies, awaking us from profound sleep by squalling in our very ears. Green River served us for our toilet. We were on the search of fossil insects. A few had been obtained in a railway cutting near by and this indicated that more might be found, as proved to be the case. We prospected at various points in the face of the high red buttes which tower above Green River, and where the thin strata may be traced uninterruptedly for many miles; but at no spot did we discover nearly as many specimens in a given time as at the "Fish Cut," a place across the river two or three miles from the town, where, in making a cutting for the railway many fossil fishes had been exhumed. To this point, day after day, we went with our satchels, hammers, lunches and canteens, and sat down upon the bank, the walls about us making the July sun still more scorching. There was absolutely no shade, and our only protection was a flat sponge in the crown of our straw hats, parsimoniously wetted now and then from our canteens. The rock here was very hard, and the process of cleaving the shale to disclose the fossils rather trying to the hands, which were well blistered and lacerated after our ten days' work. We obtained a few hundred specimens. Most of them, it is true, were rather imperfect, but fossil insects were a great rarity, and now and then we were cheered by a particularly fine specimen, and renewed our efforts at the precise level at which this occurred. We came to the conclusion that they were mostly found in a small pocket of rock which we exhausted. Twelve years later, I visited the place again with a different companion. The place was changed, for though there was the same alignment of drinking saloons within quick reach of the station, there was a neat hotel at the station itself, and creature comforts were not lacking. This time we attacked the buttes and especially Pilot Butte on the north side of the railway and were more successful than before, finding many specimens at several horizons, and had the advantage of working a part of the day in the shadow of the butte. Florissant, in central Colorado, is now the most famous locality for fossil insects in America, and this I have visited at three different times. On the last occasion, having two or three boys with me, we procured a tent, hired a cook, and camped near the little hillock which has furnished the larger part of the specimens, besides having at one end the huge silicified trunk of a Sequoia tree, which some parties had attempted to saw in pieces to carry off; apparently it proved too severe a task, as the work had been abandoned half finished. Our camp was within pistol shot of this hillock, in a little grove of evergreens overlooking the ancient Florissant lake-basin where the fossils were entombed, and so we could give all day to the work. Moreover, as on previous visits I had made a careful study of the spot and noted the levels yielding best results, little had to be done in the way of prospecting. The pick brought out great slabs which, to uncover the fossils, we proceeded carefully to split with knives and geological hammers, seated side by side in the dirt. In this way we obtained many hundred specimens in a day, while some men set at work in some deeper quarries a mile away brought us at the end of our stay what they had exhumed. Each day's pile was carefuly stored in a safe place, and a day at the last given up to packing. Our cook proved so good in his special line and such a helpful worker with the pick, that we engaged him for the new move the boys were most eager for. Some years before, one of Dr. Hayden's survey parties had discovered in some rocks of about the same age as those at Florissant certain fossil leaves which were identical in species with those found with the insects at Florissant. This was on the summit of the Roan mountains or Book Cliffs, distant some two hundred miles, but still in Colorado. From that point, moreover, it was but thirty miles in a direct line across the mountains to a place where fossil insects themselves had been found in the valley of the White River, though nobody had been able to rediscover the precise locality, and the original explorer was dead. That it was beyond the settled country only excited the enthusiasm of my companions, and so our pecking party around the Florissant hillock spent much time in planning the expedition we finally undertook. This was in 1889. We made our way to Grand Junction by rail and there procured a simple "outfit" in the shape of a two-horse team, an extra horse and saddles. Our cook was our teamster, and loaded with provisions we pushed out from Grand Junction late in the afternoon of July 12th and camped by the roadside twelve miles on, passing Frulta on the way. By noon of the next day our road left Grand River and headed for the mountains and we reached the last ranch in Salt Creek by nightfall. The close of another day, in which we passed a band of Ttes, found us camped in the woods on the summit of the Roan mountains by Cliff Springs, a meagre enough trickling affair, but the only water for miles about. Here we spent a week, discovered with little doubt the spot where the fossil leaves had been found, but with them no insects. At several other points however, and especially at one place about five miles from camp, we found an exceedingly rich deposit of insects, very easily worked. This locality was a charming one. At the height of nearly nine thousand feet and at the very brink of a precipitous descent of more than two thousand feet, one looked beyond the deeply cut ravines to the distant plains, through which the Grand River forces its way. We had to work on the slope of the precipice, cutting footholds for our security from slipping. We had also to walk back to camp, using our beasts as pack animals and following the Indian trail along the brink of the precipitous cliff; at times this passed through a dense chapparal, where it was difficult to get through without unlading, or injury to our treasures; at others it ran a little below the brink of the precipice along the talus by a scarcely marked path, where the rubbish loosened by our tread rolled and fell, many hundred feet below. Once, in the most critical spot, a violent storm of hail struck us and whirling about with no regard whatever to our shelving footing, the animals all turned tail to the wind like weathercocks, facing down hill, and nearly set us rolling down the steep embankment; nor would they budge till all was over. We were shortly visited at our camp by some of the Utes, inclu ing the Indian Police, suspicious of hammers and picks in such close vicinity of the Indian reservation, still more suspicious when they learned our intention to enter it. But they were probably appeased on sight of the fossils, for they did not visit us on the Reservation, though we told them just where we were bound. After a week's stay, living largely on venison and nightly visited by skunks and other prowlers, including one bear, we cached our fossils, and made our next move of forty miles to the White River by way of Douglas Creek. We had for company a team of road-makers, who had been camped near us. There was one ranch and a well of water at a point about midway, where we camped the first night. For myself, armed with hammer and insect net, I walked alone the rest of the journey, meeting not a soul, and shall never forget that broiling, breathless valley. I found just one bit of shade the entire distance by hugging a huge rock, and here I stripped to the skin to bathe in the air, the only element at hand, and then pushed on, inspired by the thought of a coming plunge in the White River. At Rangeley, where we struck the river, were, within a radius of a couple of miles, four or five ranches, a school house and a postoffice, visited twice a week by a post rider from the nearest station, sixty miles away. Here we rested a couple of days, restocked our larder, and then pushed down the river to the Utah boundary and Reservation. The road, if road it could be called, where no teams passed, was of the roughest, and we all had literally to put our shoulders to the wheel to get past difficult places, or to prevent an upset. At the end of two days' journey we found by the river bank a winter camp of herdsmen, now deserted, and took possession, though we slept in the open. Here, in the course of a fortnight or more, we explored the region for ten miles around, varied by an occasional irruption of cow boys in search of vagrant cattle, and willing to play a trick or two on "tenderfeet." We were more than a dozen miles beyond the last ranch and had the world to ourselves. We bathed in the coffee-colored White River morning and evening, but the day was given up to exploration and quarrying in the hot August sun. The superb frowning cliffs enticed us in every direction, and we found fossil insects at a dozen different points, and at many horizons of the varicolored strata. We pushed our way into most of the burning side canons but, as it was hot enough elsewhere, merely looked into "Hell Hole." Our most successful quarrying was on the very top of one of the highest bluffs, fully a thousand feet in height, up which we had not only to climb by a precipitous talus heap, but drag a horse after us, laden with our lunch and a keg of water. The water was turbid enough, and our only lunch cold oatmeal and sugar, the cooked oatmeal of a muddy color from the impurity of the water. All specimens had to be wrapped and carefully packed in satchels for the descent. But we succeeded in our search, found large slabs quite covered with insect remains, and brought away many hundreds of fossils, and finally a large experience of roughing it in the West. Our horses barely dragged our laden wagons back to Grand Junction, one of the party, taken down by illness during our halt on Roan Mountain, having to lie at full length all the way over the rough roads in the springless wagon. As a result of this six weeks' trip we discovered that fossil insects can be found at two additional places in Colorado, as abundantly as at Florissant. No doubt there are many other places awaiting discovery. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PAST. BY J. ALSTON MOFFAT, LONDON, ONT. It has been remarked that it is a certain indication of persons getting old when they become reminiscent. The recent death of Mr. James Angus, of West Farms, near New York, who was for thirty-two years a member of the Entomological Society of Ontario, turued my thoughts backwards upon many things, and as there is no question now as to my being old, it |