ORDER I. BEETLES. 29 



sand rubles, and that she would be purchaser of it at that 

 price under one condition, viz., that the cabinet should re- 

 main in his house for his use as long as he lived. Accord- 

 ingly, she accompanied her letter to Pallas with the twenty 

 thousand rubles. 



This delicate and munificent present of the Empress was 

 followed by her settling upon him large estates in the 

 Crimea, where he preferred to reside ; but a great portion 

 of these estates he sold, after the death of the Empress, to 

 the famous Armenian, Natarra, who owned the large crown- 

 diamond of Shack Nadir of Persia, which was purchased by 

 Catharine, and is still now seen in the Hermitage among 

 the other crown-jewels. 



In view of all these facts, we can not understand how 

 Pallas became a dupe of the Russian Government, or could 

 consider himself as exiled to the Crimea, as Mr. Ditson says. 

 It was not so, as he resided there only when he preferred 

 it ; and after the death of the Empress, when he was over 

 sixty years old, he became anxious to see his fatherland 

 once more. Accordingly, he settled on his wife, who pre- 

 ferred to remain there, a very fine estate near Simpheropol, 

 and he went to Berlin, his native place, where he died at 

 the age of seventy years. 



Pallas was twice married. He had by his first wife only 

 one daughter, who was married to Count Wimpfen, a Gen- 

 eral in the Russian army, who was killed, in 1805, on the 

 battle-field of Austerlitz. His second wife was still alive, 

 and resident in the Crimea, in 1825, when I was there. 

 Although over sixty years of age, she was the life of soci- 

 ety, a lady of great intellectual attainment, and an accom- 

 plished scholar. She spoke fluently the Russian, French, 

 Italian, German, and Tartar languages. 



We have already remarked, in the lives of the Insects 

 under consideration, that they afford a constant evidence 

 of the working of Nature's great law of antagonization 



