The Collections of William John Burchell. 45 



IV. — The Collections of William John Burchell, D.C.L.^ in 

 the Hope Department, Oa-ford University Museum. 



I. Introduction. 

 Hon. LL. 



J'^rCSluCllt Ul I lie jjJllL'jiinjiv-'giv^tn Kjvyv^ivji, y v/i i_j>jij >avyii j ij.i^|/o 



Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford, Fellow 

 of Jesus College, Oxford. 



[Plate III.] 



When, in June 1893, I was first placed in charge of tlie 

 Hope Collections of the University of Oxford ray attention 

 was at once arrested by specimens of insects and other arthro- 

 pods collected in South Africa about ninety years ago, and 

 much larger numbers from Brazil with dates going back 

 about three-quarters of a century. I was struck by .the 

 precision and detail of the data and by the existence of 

 numbers which evidently referred to a diary. Three manu- 

 script note-books were eventually found in the Hope Library, 

 and these showed that the material had been collected by the 

 great naturalist William John Burchell, truly described by 

 Swainson as " one of the most learned and accomplished 

 travellers of any age or country — whether we regard the 

 extent of his acquirements in every branch of physical science 

 or the range of the countries he has explored " (' Cabinet 

 Cyclopgedia ' of Dionysius Lardner, vol. Taxidermy &c., 

 Appendix, p. 383 : London, 1840). 



The first necessity was to ascertain if the data were as 

 accurate as they were full and elaborate. A single quotation 

 from the Brazilian note-book throws much light upon this 

 important question. From Oct. 6th to Nov. 16th, 1825, 

 Burchell was upon an expedition into Minas Geraes from 

 Kio de Janeiro. The following note refers to the beetles 

 collected on four days towards the end of this journey : — 



" All the Coleoptera of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th have since 

 been marked 4. 11. 25, as the different day's collections bein"- 

 mixed in one paper could not be distinguished. They were, 

 however, all caught in forests or on the edge of forests. 

 Some other Coleoptera caught on these same days, but which 

 were put up in separate papers and marked, are properly 

 distinguished by their labels, but those certainly of the 4tli 

 are marked 4. 11. 25, with the 4 underlined, and consist of 

 only a few minute insects caught at night by the candle." 

 It is obvious that the man who wrote that note was a man 



