THE UNKNOWN. 



leave. I have also friends here with whom I can 

 leave all the things I do not want to take with 

 me. All these advantageous circumstances would 

 probably never be combined again ; and were I to 

 refuse this opportunity I might never go to Arru 

 at all ; which, when you consider it is the nearest 

 place to New Guinea where I can stay on shore 

 and work in perfect safety, would be much to be 

 regretted. What I shall get there it is impossible 

 to say. Being a group of small islands, the 

 immense diversity and richness of the productions 

 of New Guinea will, of course, be wanting; yet I 

 think I may expect some approach to the strange 

 and beautiful natural productions of that unex- 

 plored country. Very few naturalists have visited 

 Arru. One or two of the French discovery ships 

 have touched it. M. Payen, of Brussels, was 

 there, but stayed probably only a few days ; and 

 I suppose not twenty specimens of its birds and 

 insects are positively known. Here, then, I shall 

 have tolerably new ground, and if I have health 

 I shall work it well. I take three lads with me, 

 two of whom can shoot and skin birds."* 



Such men as these are fast beating up the un- 

 trodden ground, and gathering into our museums 

 and cabinets the natural history harvest of every 

 land. Already we know the characteristic forms 

 of almost all the regions of the earth , and, though 

 there yet remain great tracts unexplored, and 

 these in the most teeming climes, yet from the 

 productions of surrounding or contiguous districts 

 we can pretty surely conjecture what forms they 

 will yield,— what sorts of forms, at least, though 

 there may remain much of novelty in detail. 

 When we consider that an ardent and most inde- 

 fatigable entomologist, after spending eleven years 



* Zoologist, pp. 5117, 5656. 



263 



