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 Anthophorse ; ^ 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,^ 

 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 Nowvelles 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 



