30 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



of June, 1825, that I visited that delightful country. 

 The romantic valley of Baidary, covered with luxuriant 

 and variegated flowers and a great variety of the most 

 "beautiful insects, offered me an immense field for collect- 

 ing plants and insects, a catalogue of which I published 

 in St. Petersburg in 1827. On the first excursion I 

 made in that country, I was followed at a distance by a 

 dozen mysterious-looking young Tartars, who, as soon as 

 they perceived me picking up those violet-coloured 

 carabs from under the stones, and putting them into a 

 vial, suddenly all disappeared. But judge of my as- 

 tonishment, on my return in the evening, in finding a 

 crowd of Tartars in front of my house. Had I been 

 less acquainted with the kind feeling of those people, 

 and particularly their hospitality towards strangers, I 

 should certainly have witnessed that crowd with some 

 alarm. But as I approached the house, a number of 

 them walked solemnly towards me, the right hand on 

 the breast, as a sign of salutation, and -with the left pre- 

 sented me jars filled with these splendid carabs, as a 

 token of their affection for me. 



Nor was this all, for two days after when I left Bai- 

 dary for Theodosia, and when almost ten miles distant 

 from the former place, I heard behind me the swift 

 trotting of horsemen, and, turning round, met one of 

 those friendly Tartars of Baidary, who had followed me 

 for the purpose of presenting me another jar full of 



