XX] LONDON : VOYAGE TO SINGAPORE 329 



way, but the more attractive families — as the Geodephaga, the 

 Lamellicornes, the Longicornes, and the Buprestidae among 

 beetles, the bees and wasps among Hysuoptera, might have 

 volumes devoted to them. As these volumes would, if com- 

 pact and cheap, have a very large sale in every civilized 

 country, they might be issued at a very low price, and would 

 be an immense boon to all amateur collectors, travellers, and 

 residents abroad ; and if the chief genera were illustrated by 

 a careful selection of photographic prints, now so easily and 

 economically produced, they would constitute one of the 

 greatest incentives to the study of nature. 



The only other book of much use to me was the volume 

 by Boisduval, describing all the known species of the two 

 families of butterflies, the Papilionidae and Pieridae. The 

 descriptions by this French author are so clear and precise 

 that every species can be easily determined, and the volume, 

 though dealing with so limited a group, was of immense 

 interest to me. For other families of butterflies and for some 

 of the beetles I made notes and sketches at the British 

 Museum, which enabled me to recognize some of the larger 

 and best known species ; but I soon found that so many of 

 the species I collected were new or very rare, that in the 

 less known groups I could safely collect all as of equal 

 importance. 



It was, I think, in the latter part of January, 1854, that I 

 received a notification from the Government that a passage 

 had been granted me to Singapore in the brig Frolic, 

 shortly sailing for that port, and that I was to communicate 

 with the captain — Commander Nolloth — as to when I should 

 go on board. I think it was about the middle of February 

 that I went to Portsmouth with all necessaries for the voyage, 

 my heavy baggage having been sent off by a merchant ship 

 some time previously. The Frolic was anchored at Spithead 

 with a number of other warships. She was about seven 

 hundred tons, and carried, I think, twelve guns. The accom- 

 modation was very scanty. I messed with the gun-room 

 officers, and as there was no vacant cabin or berth, the 

 captain very kindly accommodated me in a cot slung in his 



