BEES. d 



the enthusiastic ornitholog-ist desire to study the habits of the 

 humming- bird, or the mocking- bird ? He must proceed to 

 the new world, brave the terrors of the Atlantic, expose 

 himself to the dangers of venomous reptiles, miasmatic 

 swamps, or it may be to the chance of g-etting* his interior 

 ventilated by civilized revolver, or the anatomy of his brain 

 displaced by savage tomahawk. Or does the energ-etic na- 

 turalist wish to see for himself the habits of the gigantic 

 whale ? — he must be corttent to live for months in a pecuHarly 

 uncomfortable ship, to reside among icebergs at all events ; 

 if unsuccessful, to return as wise as he went, and if successful 

 to his heart's desire, to find himself in every body's way 

 during the chase, the capture, and the flensing, and from 

 the moment that the huge carcass is made fast to the ship, 

 to the time when he disembarks, to exist in an atmosphere 

 of blubber, and, to borrow the phraseology of the Ancient 

 Mariner — 



" Blubber here, and blubber there, 

 And blubber everywhere." 



Let every one m whom the sense of smell is not utterly extinct, 

 beware how he set foot in a whaler. Is he an icthyologist 

 giving himself up to the study of fish in their native ele- 

 ment I* How many days in the year will he find adapted to 

 his purpose ; when the wind does not ruffle the surface, that 

 must be bright and clear, in order that his eyes may pene- 

 trate into the vasty depths, and perceive the glittering crea- 

 tures engaged in their instinctive tasks, or when the rain 

 does not make the water irremediably muddy, or the snow 

 and frost obscure the surface altogether ? 



For him whose tastes incline to the study of animated na- 

 ture, no pursuit is better adapted than that of entomology, 

 by which I mean practical entomology. Without attempt- 

 ing for one moment to decry the labours of the systematic 

 entomologist, whose discriminating eye enables him to dis- 

 cover trifling points of diflerence marking out species, and 

 by whose aid we are enabled to affix a certain name and 

 position to that insect, which to the inhabitant of another 

 country would be unrecognisable in our description, yet he 

 who would see the full beauty of insect life, must live among 

 insocts, and with them. Here lies the superiority of this 



