A BANQUET OF BEETLES. 239 



without solicitation (at least from the Board of Fisheries), 

 had agreed to send down Captain Washington, the Ad- 

 miralty surveyor, for the very purpose. I therefore made 

 short work with the intended report, and got Lord Berrie- 

 dale to sign a paragraph or two stating to the Board, 

 that, in Captain Washington's appointment, our object 

 had been attained. Now, if there is to be a meeting of 

 the Board on Wednesday (it is their usual day), I should 

 like to be present, in the event of any report by Captain 

 Washington being to be laid before us." 



TO THE REV. JOHN SYM. 

 " Thorny How, Grasmere, lltk August 1849. 



" My dear Pastor, — .... I was greatly pleased 

 with my trip. I stayed with my entomological friend, 

 Mr Melly, for a week, and received from him and his 

 family every kindness, including a box of beetles of the 

 most recherche character, quite new to me, and therefore 

 great acquisitions to my collection. His own is the finest 

 and most orderly I have ever seen. Although I was at it 

 every morning by seven, I could only after all take what 

 I consider as a most cursory glance, leaving innumerable 

 extraordinary forms of insect life altogether unexamined. 

 He supposes himseh to have about twenty-nine thousand 

 species of beetles, and as he has both sexes, and occasion- 

 ally varieties of each kind, you may suppose the amoun t of 



