i 



Scientific Intelligence — Miscellaneous, 205 



growth of the cochineal insect has been introduced, and so success- 

 fully carried out in various parts of the Old World, that the 

 quantity yearly produced now rivals the whole amount obtained 

 from Central America. In 1831 the culture of the cochineal 

 was commenced in the Canary Islands, and the first crop 

 consisted of only 8 pounds; in 1832, it was 120 pounds; in 

 1833 it had risen to 1319 ; and in 1849, we learn by a late 

 official document, the enormous quantity of 800,000 pounds 

 was exported from these islands, the greater part of which was 

 sent to England and France. In 1845, the quantity of cochineal 

 produced in Java, under the patronage of the Dutch government, 

 amounted to 45,000 pounds. Under the auspices of the French 

 government, plantations have been commenced in Algeria, which 

 promise to succeed admirably. Some specimens already exported 

 have been pronounced to be superior to the finest qualities from 

 Mexico. Soils unfit for the cultivation of the vine or potato readily 

 support the cactus, on which the cochineal insect feeds, while tlie 

 insect can be more readily raised than the silk worm, and with less 

 chance of loss. — American Annual of Scientific Discovery ^ for 1851, 

 p. 210. 



29. The Life of a Wandering Naturalist. — " No pleasanter recol- 

 lection," says Dr Wagner, " has remained to me from my ten years* 

 travel than that of the wandering life, like that of a trapper in the 

 wilds of Canada, which I led for three successive summers in the 

 primeval forests of Georgia and Colchis, through the green groves 

 of the Bythinian Olympus, in the Taurian Steppes and the Alpine 

 regions of the Caucasus. Nowhere could this nomadic existence be 

 more beautiful and full of enjoyment than in Trans -Caucasia. The 

 crane does not sail more rejoicingly through the fields of air, tlie 

 dolphin does not gambol more unrestrained and free within his 

 watery domain, than we did on the verdant declivities of the Pam- 

 bat mountains, in the solitude of the immeasurable woods of Gambor, 

 on the sunny pastures of Ossetia, where, wandering and bivouacking 

 for days and weeks together, we scarcely saAv a human face. At no 

 time of my life did I possess fewer conveniences, at no time had so 

 little intercourse with cultivated society, yet never did I feel myself 

 freer, happier, more light-hearted, than during those strolling gipsy 

 days, in which, as hunters, geologists, botanists, entomologists, we 

 made our pilgrimage through these unknown regions, stopping 

 wherever the beauty of the country, or the rich booty it promised, 

 tempted us to linger. 



'* The faithful Hungarian Istwan, and the grumbling old Cossack 

 Wassily were my companions in these excursions : and subsequently 

 I took a Pole named John Saremba, and occasionally natives, into 

 my service. The Cossack led the horse that I employed in carrying 

 my burka, the blankets, the cooking utensils, and the necessary 

 scientific apparatus. The young Magyar, who was an active, moun- 



