1891.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 205 



travels. These little creatures, apparently unconscious of their 

 approaching disaster, go merrily on, crossing the waters of rivers 

 and lakes, one after another, successfully and safely; and thus 

 encouraged by their success and safety, plunge into the ocean, 

 probably expecting successfully and safely to reach the other 

 shore. But modern science has no account to give us of their 

 arrival in Canada or these United States. Not one of them has 

 successfully arrived on our side of the Atlantic in modern times.* 



In conclusion, I look upon it as impossible to establish my 

 foregoing Conjecture as a general Fact, by means of specific 

 facts observed or recorded, and by reasonings thereon, viz. : that 

 the Divine Being, desiring to dispose of, or get rid of superabun- 

 dant animal life by means of drowning, endowed the Lemmings 

 with instincts, deliberately intended, for the specific purpose of 

 thinning them out in that way. The immense congregations of 

 Butterflies may, in some way, have the same intention of thinning 

 out their superabundant numbers. I may say, however, that such 

 a conjecture appears to me to be probable, yet also, that it is only 

 conjecture, and must always remain to be such to the end of time. 



There is no end to conjecture; too much of it is not profitable 

 and is unsatisfying. Its real use is to stimulate research, and 

 observation, and reflection. Conjectures are boundless in their 

 nature, and can only be established as facts, or errors, by patient 

 and intelligent research. 



The writer would be glad to have the opinions of any readers 

 of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS on this subject, with any facts that 

 have influenced their conclusions; not as matters of disputation 

 or contention, but for the true advancement of science, and to 

 increase our knowledge of Nature. 



* The presence of Lemmings in the northern part of North America, of species different 

 from those now in Norway, seems to indicate that in remote ages, such a condition of 

 things existed as to climate, as enabled the Lemmings to pass westward from Norway to 

 America. It is believed by some scientists that, in the remote past, Greenland and other 

 north polar regions had a climate different from its present glacial character. Later re- 

 searches have discovered fossil remains of trees, etc., with forms now belonging to the 

 temperate and tropical zones of the earth. It may be that the species of Lemmings, now 

 in North America, are descendents of those who passed from one continent to the other 

 in those remote times when the differences of climate made such a passage possible to them. 



A recent importation of orange trees into California from Tahiti showed 

 them to be infested by a new insect, and the authorities will not allow 

 them to be landed. (Newspaper Entomology.} 



