80 



water — will amount to 10,000, and I do believe they rather exceed than fall short 

 of this sum." Having afterwards discovered a greater number of English moths 

 and butterflies, he was induced to imagine the number of British insects might be 

 increased to 2,000, making the total number of the insect creation on the globe's 

 surface 20,000 — not so many as are now extant of one order in one collection, 

 and only twice the number of British species in one catalogue, without the subse- 

 quent discoveries. 



Thus, Ray guessed the total amount of insect tribes to be a quarter of those 

 now actually known to entomologists of the present day ; and tbis number is 

 assumed to be less than an eighth of those supposed to exist in the world. From 

 such facts it requires no extraordinary stretch of imagination to conceive what yet 

 remains to be discovered in this reign of creation alone, without adding the bound- 

 less stars of Nature's other works, of which, in some instances, we know but 

 little more, and in others far less. The strides now rapidly making in the study 

 of natural history must produce extraordinary results ; but we need only adduce 

 the present subject as an instance of how far mankind is distant from the point of 

 general knowledge, even of such things as are tangible and meet the eye, without 

 embracing a microscopic world of animated beings, not less important in their seve- 

 ral functions and purposes, and probably far more numerous in all their classes. 



CD. 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LEVEL OF HATFIELD CHASE. 



By the Rev. F. Orpen Morris. 



Journeying from Doncaster in a north-easterly direction, an hour's ride 

 will bring you to the border of Lincolnshire, crossing which you will soon reach 

 the village of Wroot. Even those who have never before been in Roger Wild- 

 rake's " moist county of Lincoln," at this extremity of it, will at once recognize 

 its peculiar characteristics, although the traveller on the road from Doncaster will 

 have been gradually prepared for the wild and dreary tract of country which will 

 here meet his view. I have travelled much, both in England and Ireland, but 

 never did I before behold so strange and anomalous a region. The naturalist will 

 visit " the Level of Hatfield Chase" with a spirit of inquiry, at least such was my 

 case, for I had heard so much of the mystery in which its history is involved that I 

 embraced the first opportunity of accompanying a friend who had greatly excited 

 my curiosity by his description of the country. The following observations from 

 my inspection of this locality are chiefly intended with the view of obtaining fur- 

 ther information or corroborating my suppositions on the subject. There are three 



s 



