Insects* 7219 



Sisi/phus in Manchuria. — There is a nice little bay on the Mancliurian coast 

 which rejoices in the name of " Sio-wu-hu." You land on the sandy beach, to the 

 left of a clear running stream, and you see before yon a green level plain, bounded by 

 distant hills. Cattle and horses graze here, for although the soil is sandy, yet the 

 pasturage is good : the bird's-foot trefoil grows on it, in company with many grasses 

 not to be distinguished from those of England,- — the very dandelion seems the same; 

 but on the outlying precincts, and among the young oaks which skirt the plain, that 

 glorious wide-mouthed blue-bell {Platycodon grundijiora) blooms in all its pride, and 

 Trollius asiaticus is as common as buttercups in a Hampshire meadow. Now the 

 Manchurian bulls have stamped bare patches in this small savannah, and have also 

 left other traces of their presence; in these deposits, associated with Aphodius, 

 Geotrupes and Outhophagus, we discover our Sisyphus. You suppose we easily win 

 this prize: on the contrary. What is that dark body moving steadily and slowly 

 across the plain .i* It is a herd of cattle commanded by a patriarch bull, with a great 

 black head, reddish eyes, short horns and a dewlap that nearly touches ihe ground. 

 We are serenely engaged in disentombing Sisyphus, and we just look up and continue 

 our occupation : the moving mass of cows and calves, led on by "the patriarch, steadily 

 advances; there are many stoppages and much pawing of the ground, and some low 

 bellowings, but onward it comes. Prudence suggests a retreat ; courage and a desire 

 for more specimens of Sisyphus, urge our remaining; so putting on an indifferent 

 air, we go on turning over the sandy deposits : this seems to have some effect upon 

 the bovine party, — patriarch bull, his admiring cows and their offspring, the playful 

 calves, make a dead halt and stand staring. Thus we continue while a shard remains 

 unexamined, when we rise and resume our stick, and stroll, with a would-be-careless 

 air, towards the beach: the patriarch bull with the great curly head and dewlap 

 and all his wives and concubines follow us down to the water, where, a boat being 

 handy, we leave them. Whether our smaller stercoraceous ebon friend, with the 

 gray curved hind legs, of these Tartarean regions, be the Sisyphus Schaefferi of the 

 illustrious Swede, or a new species not yet described, remains for the present a 

 mystery. — Arthur Adams ; Sio-wu-hu, Manchuria, August 16, 1859. 



The " Gold Bug," a Reminiscence of Rio. — It is a cloudy day when we shoot 

 across the glorious harbour of Rio, eager to explore the sides of the Sugar-loaf Moun- 

 tain. We rejoice that the sun so beneficently veils his fierce rays in a misty 

 atmosphere, for our toilsome climb will be more pleasant. We have not gone far 

 before the enthusiasm of the party breaks out into exclamations of surprise and 

 delight at the beauty of the scenery, and we pronounce both Fauna and Flora to be 

 quite as attractive as Humboldt and Von Martius have painted them. How the 

 great showy butterflies languidly flap their particoloured wings! The buff corolla of 

 the Thunbergia rivals in its modest beauty the variegated gaudy passion-flowers that 

 hang in rich clusters from the branches of the trees. In damp, sequestered shadowy 

 nooks the ferns are splendid, and as for the wasps and ants I fear they would startle 

 even Mr. Smith, of the British Museum, from his calm propriety, nor would his 

 neighbour in the insect-room, friend Adam White, be less astonished at the beetles 

 and the myriapods. Half afraid of snakes I penetrate a dense thicket, and crawl on 

 hands and knees to the stems of some wild plantains, meeting on the road all sorts of 

 " clammy, slabby, creeping and uncomfortable life." Under the decaying leaves I 

 find Juli of almost fabulous dimei.sions; Polydesmi with sculptured segments, centi- 

 pedes wriggling away with rapid moving legs and serpentine undulations, aud that 



