More Beetles 



To suspect the existence of a beautiful 

 problem underground and to be unable to 

 dig! The zeal survives, as ardent as in the 

 days when I used to demolish the spongy 

 slopes beloved of the Anthophorae ; 1 the love 

 of research has not abated; but my strength 

 fails me. Fortunately I have an assistant 

 in the person of my son Paul, who lends me 

 the vigour of his wrists and the suppleness 

 of his back. I am the head, he is the arm. 

 The rest of the family, including the 

 mother and she not the least eager usu- 

 ally go with us. You cannot employ too 

 many eyes when the pit becomes deep and 

 you have to observe from a distance the tiny 

 objects unearthed by the spade. What one 

 overlooks another will detect. Huber, 2 

 when he was blind, studied the Bees through 

 the intermediary of a clear-sighted and de- 

 voted helper. I am even better off than the 

 great Swiss naturalist. My sight, which is 

 still fairly good though much worn, is as- 



1 A genus of wild Bees. Cf. Bramble-bees and Others, 

 by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de 

 Mattos: chaps, iv. and vii. and passim. Translator's 

 Note. 



2 Franqois Huber (1750-1831), the Swiss naturalist, 

 author of Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles. He 

 early became blind from excessive study and thereafter 

 conducted his scientific work with the aid of his wife. 

 Translator's Note. 



86 



