35 



difficulties iu the way of carrying out the former scheme and abandoned 

 it. In July, 1859, he writes to a friend as follows : 



Since I left the office I have had several offers from various States to continue my 

 work; and probably iu the autumn I may make some arrangement with them, but 

 at i)resent am collecting material for a large work on entomology, more especially 

 connected with agriculture. I have already in four months etched and nearly finished 

 twelve copper plates, large octavo, comprising nearly 150 of our principal Coleoptera, 

 beginning with the Cicindelidse and Carabidae, as beneficial to the agriculturist, inas- 

 much as both larva and imago destroy other insects injurious to the crops. I intend 

 at the same time, to make my work useful to the entomological student, as I shall 

 figure specimens of all the leading families unconnected with agriculture; and as 

 there is no such work iu America, I am encouraged by the scientific men here. The 

 work will not be finished for at least three years, but by that time I hope to have at 

 least 1,500 to 1,800 specimens etched and colored." 



Of the habits of his life at this time, not dissimilar to the habits of 

 his later years, the same letter gives a number of hints. He calls it a 

 hermit's life: up at 6 or 7, breakast in 5iis "den" (the writer of this can 

 readily picture both "breakfast" and "den"), after which he smoked 

 "a hookah" (nearly ten years later he gave up smoking altogether); 

 the rest of the day, nntil 5 o'clock, being given up to the arrangement 

 of his specimens and to etching. 



Then he took a restaurant dinner, "Jewish passover fashion, with 

 cap or hat on," after which he hunted for specimens, and returned home 

 about 8 o'clock iu the evening. From that time until 10 o'clock he made 

 his notes of the day, searched for references, and then to bed. An ex- 

 acting task-master, he applied himself without cessation, inaugurating 

 that severe routine in his labors, with little or no recreation, which 

 marked the last ten years of his life. At this time he wrote: "My 

 maxim now is ' nulla dies sine linea,^ and it is astonishing at the end of 

 three months to see what the motto will accomplish." But the results 

 are due not to the motto, but to the i^ersistent application, which in Mr. 

 Glover was second nature — more marked in his case than in that of 

 many men who perhaps have produced greater results, for he liter- 

 ally did not allow himself any recreation besides that which was de- 

 manded for the hours of sleeping and refreshment. 



To his cousin, Abram Olapham, of Leeds, England, he writes at this 

 time as follows : 



If you can procure me specimens of your common British insects, without trouble, I 

 would be much obliged, as I want them for comparison, to find corresponding types 

 here, and to see what differences there are between our Agrotidae and the cut- 

 worms of England, as I believe that many will be found to be perfectly identical 

 Several insects have been imported we all know. Take, for example, the Gale- 

 ruca calmariensis, which is even at the present moment destroying all our European 



* His work was commenced about March 1, 1859. From that time to the date of 

 his entering the Department of Agriculture, in 1863, was about four years. He held 

 the position of United States entomologist just fifteen years to a day, making Hine- 

 teen years of labor upon his undertaking up to the time it was so suddenly discon- 

 tinued by the breaking down of his health. How many more years he would have 

 worked upon it, had health beeu spared, it is difficult to say. 



