ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 539 



Such is the apparatus to be provided by the entomo- 

 logical Nimrod : it is not often, however, that it will be 

 necessary, except in distant excursions, to encumber and 

 disfigure yourself with the whole. Even in this pursuit 

 more may be effected by a judicious division of labour, 

 than by grasping at every thing at once ; and your ac- 

 quisitions will in the end be more numerous, and your 

 acquaintance with them more intimate, if at one time 

 you devote yourself to the woods and hedges, another 

 to the plains and meadows, a third to any heaths in your 

 vicinity, and a fourth to the collection of aquatic insects 

 whether from stagnant or running waters : having thus 

 chosen the scene of action, you may equip yourself ac- 

 cordingly. You will of course, though in pursuit of a 

 particular description of game, not neglect to seize any 

 other insects that fall in your way ; but for this purpose 

 it is unnecessary to be always provided with a certain in- 

 strument. Dr. Franklin used to say that a man would 

 never make a Natural Philosopher, who, in performing 

 his experiments, could not saw with a gimblet or bore 

 with a saw ; and so we may say, he will never make an 

 expert collector of insects, who on occasion cannot fish 

 with his hand or forceps, use his hat or an old letter to 

 beat his game into, or, in the absence of boxes or bottles, 

 contrive to secure his captures in small pieces of paper 

 twisted up. Sparrman, when at the Cape, was wont, 

 to the no small amazement of the wondering natives, who 

 took him for a conjurer, to stick his impaled insects 

 round the outside of his hat a : and though I should not 

 recommend such an exhibition in a civilized region, it 



a Voyage to the Cape. i. 63, Eng. Trans. 



