ORDER I.—BEETLES. y iF 
you will be hospitably received and entertained as an old 
friend. If the rest of the world were more like the poor 
people of the Crimea, “‘’twould be something.” That coun- 
try was conquered at the end of the last century by the fa- 
mous Potemkin, the favorite of Catharine II., and its soy- 
ereign, the Khan, sent a prisoner to St. Petersburg, where 
he died. 
In this connection, and at the risk of still further digress- 
ing from the subject-matter of this work, I feel it a duty in- 
cumbent upon me not to let this opportunity pass without 
doing an act of simple justice to the memory and the char- 
acter 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, Lieu- 
tenant-governor of Rhode Island, handed me Mr. Ditson’s 
written work, entitled “ Circassia, or a Tour to the Cau- 
casus,” in which I was surprised to find some statements 
which I knew to be erroneous, and which I can only ac- 
count for from the superficial and one-sided view of things 
a traveler is liable to take who rapidly passes through a 
country and receives his impressions from only partial 
sources. But the erroneous 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 acquainted 
with his most intimate friends, and familiarly knew his 
whole life and character. Besides, afterward, at Simpher- 
opol, in the Crimea, in 1825, I was hospitably received and 
entertained by Madame Caroline Ivanowna Pallas, the wid- 
ow of that distinguished Philosopher, and from her own lips, 
of course, acquired the most accurate and reliable informa- 
tion with regard to herself and her husband. 
Speaking of Baktschiserai, the former residence of the 
Khans of the Crimea, Mr. Ditson says: ‘ In this vicinity 
lived Pallas, who came here and wrote his famous book of 
