ORDER I. BEETLES. 27 



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, &quot; twould be something.&quot; That coun 

 try was conquered at the end of the last century by the fa 

 mous Potemkin, the favorite of Catharine II., and its sov 

 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 &quot; Circassia, or a Tour to the Cau 

 casus,&quot; 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, 1 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: &quot; In this vicinity 

 lived Pallas, who came here and wrote his famous book of 



