80 



of May and the beginning of June." There is no uncertain ring about this. It is the 

 opinion of the writer that " Carthage must be destroyed." And, after invoking the aid 

 of "every able-bodied citizen" and every " housewife," he ventures to say " that the 

 enemy will be conquered in less time than it will take to exterminate the Indians in 

 Florida." From his language we can see that Dr. Harris stood nearer to the Revolution. 

 The Seminoles we may infer were regarded then as a sort of pest, and the extermination 

 of Lndians was always a part of the regular Puritan programme. At any rate, Dr. 

 Harris, here at the outset, recognizes the value of co-operation. Unless the farmers take 

 hold generally and apply the wisdom contained in the State Reports, they will have been 

 „ssued in vain. 



As a technical writer on the butterflies and moths Dr. Harris shows a rare 

 excellence. His account of the butterflies of New England is remarkably full and 

 accurate, considering what had been previously published on the subject. I have always 

 read with keen interest the pages upon which he.has given us the histories of the Spinner 

 moths. The natural impatience with which inexperienced entomologists, in their rage 

 for exact nomenclature, are apt to feel at his occasional mistakes, leads them to neglect 

 this portion of the report, which, nevertheless, it would do them good to read and ponder 

 over. These lovely Spinner moths, escaping by the hands of time from the cage of 

 winter, make a hidden glory in the world. On purply wings they cleave the night, in 

 their brushing flight becoming early worn and old through the quick impatience of their 

 lives. We pin them in our boxes and write very learned paragraphs about them, forcing 

 these soft creatures, with their curved and rounded outlines, into our square and rigid 

 categories. But they escape us still, and, after all our efforts, we dissect mere dead 

 chitine at last. Yet it affords a livelihood for some of us butterfly farmers, and, for 

 others, the chance of being sometime remembered by name, of becoming in a way oneself 

 a species lifted out of the individual ranks — the most trifling immortality, to be named 

 in connection with a moth ! As I have discovered some facts in the history of the White 

 Mountain butterfly, it may carry some faint memory of me upon its wings. We may 

 remember Dr. Harris by a host of insects which till our fields each summer. Yet there is 

 something more to be attained than to be thus remembered by posterity. We may feed 

 our souls by study and observation by the way side, gathering with our experience a host 

 of happy memories. Thoreau says : " I can recall to mind the stillest summer hours, in 

 which the grasshopper sings over the mulleins, and there is a valour in that time the 

 bare memory of which is armour that can laugh at any blow of fortune." We must bring 

 something away with us beside our specimens. A healthier mind, a nobler resolve, the 

 virtue that comes from watching the struggle for life, impressing us constantly like the 

 wind that blows upon us and is never quiet. The Hindoos say that, for purity, there is 

 nothing to be compared with wisdom. T do not doubt it. But through action and 

 application we reap the reward of our wisdom and test its value. But what a small field 

 in the stretching prairies of wisdom we entomologists cultivate, whose fences yet contain 

 for us a universe ! When the true succession of evolution has been made out, we must 

 gtill make shift to live and die, still face the same conditions of life and await the same 

 end. The problem of life changes itfe aspect, but remains unsolvable. 



My copy of Dr. Harris's writings is one originally presented by the author to Dr. 

 Fitch. It contains a few marginalia by both, and I give here those of Dr. Fitch upon 

 Harris's account of the Spinner moths. These present some few points of interest, for, 

 while our knowledge is fuller, it is far from perfect, and a certain interest pertains to 

 the remarks of one who followed so closely in the footsteps of Harris. On page 241 of 

 the report, after Harris's account of Gnophria vittata, Dr. Fitch writes : " Vide Lithosia 

 depresaa, Fabr., Sup. p. -460." I have not consulted this reference. I have given, I 

 believe correctly, the synonyms and the name for the variety of this species in my check 

 list. Previously the names were not properly referred. After Arctia Americana, Dr. 

 Fitch says : u A specimen was sent to me from Canajoharie, but. 1 have never met with 

 it in Washington county;" and then adds "'till July 27th, 1864." To Arctia acrosa, 

 Dr. Fitch notes : " I took a specimen at Fort Miller, 1832 — where it could hardly have 

 been introduced in the way Harris supposes." This is in reference to the remarks on 



