32 



nera, confessing his inability to do so, I shall be obliged if you will continue to 

 collect any Diptera that fall in your way until I leave you a specimen, saving 

 you have enough of that species. Some of the sjjecies you left are not at all 

 common at Newark, and some I have never seen before. I think I shall obtain 

 from them two or three genera not previously in my collection. As to your 

 proposal to make a catalogue of the species of Hymenoptera of oSTorth America, 

 as well as a list of the Genera and where found, I think it is one of the deside- 

 rata of North American Entomologists, and shall be very glad if vou will de- 

 vote to it any days unsuitable for collecting. 



I am glad to hear of the arrangement you have made with Ulke, and hope 

 we shall be able to get along in the Coleoptera. 



In a previous note you threw out a proposition about going to California and 

 Oregon next fall, and sj^ending eighteen months or two years in raakino- col- 

 lections in those regions. In ordinary times I should think it a desirable ex- 

 pedition, but in the present state of financial affairs I canmake noengao-ements 

 for the future. I know already that my income for the present year will be 

 considerably reduced. I see no prospect of any improvement in the time; in 

 fact, it appears to me that they must continue to grow worse under tlie war 

 policy of the present Administration. I expect, therefore, that before the end 

 of the year my income will be still further reduced. So far, therefore, from 

 wishing to make any further engagements for the future, I think it quite pos- 

 sible tliat I shall be obliged to terminate my engagement with you at the end 

 i^f our year, and as my organ of caution (as Phrenologists say) leads me to trust 

 nothing to the future that can be accomi^Iished in the present, if you are will- 

 ing to take it, I will now pay you the $ due up to that time, with the un- 

 derstanding that our engagement terminates at that time unless previously re- 

 newed. I expect to be in the city again next Monday, after 4 P. M., when I 

 shall be glad to see you, if convenient. 



We need not wonder at these discouraging views of the future finan- 

 cial prospects of our country at that date. Not a man in the land 

 could then anticipate the astonishing fiaancial strength which the re- 

 public ultimately displayed. 



Neicark [Del.), November 8, 1861. 



For the present I wish you to attend to the interests of the Society ^r.si, mine 

 afterwards. On this point I will have a conversation with you when we meet. 

 I have recently resumed my studies on Classification, and have obtained a few 

 new ideas which may lead to useful results, and therefore prefer to have no 

 changes made in the names of Genera of Coleoptera for the present. I enclose 

 in a small box 17 specimens of Hemiptera for the Society. None of these spe- 

 cies, except one, are on my list as having been presented to the Society. I had 

 no box to put them in, or I should also have left the 11 species of Coleoptera 

 which you have marked as not being in the collection of the Society. I will 

 however, bring them back from Newark. 



My health is about as good as usual, with the exception of a slight honrse- 

 ness and thickening of the palate, the remnant of a sore throat. My irregu- 

 larity in coming to the city for the last two or three weeks was not caused by 

 ill health, but by business which required me to be here on particular davs. 

 I hope next week to resume my usual habits. 



