BEETLES. 33 



In this connection, and at the risk of still further 

 digressing from the subject-matter of this work, I feel 

 it a duty incumbent upon me not to let this oppor- 

 tunity pass without doing an act of simple justice to 

 the memory, and the character of one of the most 

 distinguished Naturalists of his time, Pallas, long a 

 resident of the Crimea. 



Only a short time since, the Hon. Samuel Arnold, 

 Lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island, handed me Mr. 

 Ditson's written work, entitled " Circassia, or a tour to 

 the Caucasus," in which I was surprised to find some 

 statements which I knew to be erroneous, and which 

 I can only account for from the superficial and one- 

 sided view of things a traveller is liable to take who 

 rapidly passes through a country and receives his 

 impressions from only partial sources. But the er- 

 roneous impressions which Mr. Ditson conveys with 

 regard to the world-renowned Naturalist, Pallas, 

 particularly demand correction from me, because, 

 during my residence in St. Petersburg, I was ac- 

 quainted with his most intimate friends, and famil- 

 iarly knew his whole life and character. Besides, 

 afterwards, at Synrpheropol, in the Crimea, in 1825, 

 I was hospitably received and entertained by Ma- 

 dame Caroline Ivanowna Pallas, the widow of that 

 distinguished Philosopher, and from her own lips 



of course acquired the most accurate and reliable 

 3 



