LEPinoPTKUdL'S INSECTS. 107 



teen days before, seen the much talked of Sea-serpent, an animal of whose 

 existence the majority of the people in this region doubt as little now, 

 as in the time of Pontoppidan, at tlie same time tliat even the credulous 

 multitude ridicules the ideas of Krakens, Mermen, and Mermaids. Even 

 before we arrived here, two peasants, and an educated atid intelligent 

 man, the father-in-law of the preacher at Ilemnes, had assured us, that 

 they had recently seen it with their own eyes, and our North Herroer, 

 who was quite offended when we made him repeat his account several 

 times, gave us the same description of its appearance, which Pontoppi- 

 dan had written down from the mouth of M. de Terry, attested by the 

 oaths of several other spectators. 'During a perfect calm of the sea,' 

 he told us, 'an animal, about eighty feet long, with a smooth head, and a 

 kind of mane on the anterior part of its body, had risen to the surface 

 of the water, not fifty fathoms from his boat. On observing him, it has- 

 tened to disappear, moving wilh considerable rapidity, during which, 

 now one part of its body and now another projected above t!ie water.' 

 We were fully convinced by the good sense and simplicity of this man ; 

 and it appears highly probably that an undescribed animal, of very con- 

 siderable size, at the present time iidiabits the depths of the Northern 

 seas, however much, what has been written from hurried and anxious ob- 

 servation, may be mixed with fable. Whales and Dolphins are objects, 

 of quite too every-day occurrence to the inhabitants of the North, to be 

 mistaken by them." 



(F. Bole, Tagf.buch gelialten auleiMLT Rcise duich iXorvvogeii, iin Jahre 1817, 

 p. 315.) 



S. F. B. 



AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NATURAL HISTOIIY OF LEPIDOPTKIJOUS 



INSECTS. 



From tilt; I'rciicli of Boisdnvnl. 



The growth of caterpillars is more or less rapid according to the 

 race, and varies with the nature of their food and the season of the year. 

 Those, that live upon succulent plants, grow much more rapidly than 

 those which feed upon grass or licliens. There are a great many that 

 eat only during the night and lie quiet all day, whilst others eat so vora- 

 ciously as to attain their full growth in the course of live days. 31. Vau- 

 ihnier of Nantes has discovered tliat the caterpillars of tlie Argynnls dia 

 and ciiphrosync frequently remain in a torpid state during the sunmier 

 and winter, and change to the perfect insect only in the following spring, 

 thou^di some also underao this chanirc towards the close of Auijusl. 



