COLLOQUIA ENTOMOLOGICA. 327 



manages them, will enlighten his subject as the spring brightens 

 the face of Nature, by strewing the earth with flowers. 



Erro. Or as Nature herself adorns her favourite regions, 

 the tropics, with her radiant birds, her gorgeous flowers, and 

 her glorious insects. 



Ent. Or as Juno, in her stately queenlike walk through 

 heaven, showered her track with inextinguishable stars. 



Rus. Via lactea, a thing I never look on without a recur- 

 rence to that beautiful fable ; but of all heavenly sights, the 

 anrora borealis is to me the most beautiful ; here it does not 

 exist; but in Sweden, and the north of Russia, the frozen face 

 of the snow is lighted up by it with inconceivable splendour. 

 It begins soon after sun-down, and rising in the north, at first 

 somewhat like sheet-lightning afar off in the horizon, spreads 

 fen-like to the zenith, and at last wraps all the heaven in a 

 shooting, shifting, flashing, varying, all -coloured light, and 

 tinges the earth with the reflection of its hue. 



Erro. Russia and her ice-palaces have no temptation for 

 me. 



Ent. Think of the bears'-paws for breakfast, Roey. 



Rus. And think of the bear-hunts. I have speared the 

 tusky pig in his native Hartz; I have chased the bounding 

 chamois on his native Alps ; I have fought hand to hand with 

 the majestic desert-king on his native Zaara ; and here I have 

 not scorned the insipid inanity of pursuing the stag, the fox, 

 the otter, and even the gentle hare; but a bear-hunt, with all 

 its pomp and circumstance, is the hunt for me. 



Erro. I feel no great desire to witness one. I suppose 

 half-a-crown would purchase the sight any day in London. 



Ent. Thanks to Joseph Pease, those disgusting, disgrace- 

 ful, inhuman, brutal exhibitions are put an end to. 



Rus. To his honour be it spoken ; but what resemblance 

 has the worrying with curs a mangy bear, closely chained 

 against a cellar wall, to the pursuit of the same animal in his 

 native forests ? 



Ent. Where for a century he has stalked sidling along, 

 undisputed master — none. 



Rus. I had been six months at St. Petersburgh without 

 seeing a bear-hunt, when the Emperor announced it to be his 

 pleasure, that preparations should be made for one; and, 

 much to my satisfaction, an express invitation was sent me 



