THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



188 



in any way to narrow the facilities now 

 enjoyed by the public, for the transmisson 

 of entomological specimens, but will rather 

 extend them," still the difficulties of dis- 

 criminating between one class of live animals 

 and another was so great, that it had been 

 necessary to make the prohibition absolute. 

 That was in effect saying ; we know, as you 

 tell us, that the rule is evaded now, and we 

 hope the evasion will be extended under 

 the new regulation, but we cannot well draw 

 up rules to make the practice legal. That, at 

 all events, was our rendering of the communi- 

 cation, which so carefully avoided replying to 

 our remarks on the acknowledged evasion 

 of the rule, but said " that the facilities now 

 enjoyed " were to be extended. It would 

 appear however, whatever is to be done 

 when the Parcels' Post comes into operation, 

 the rule is to be rigidly enforced in the 

 meantime. One of our friends sent a box 

 of larvae to a correspondent in France, but 

 instead of transmitting it as directed, it was 

 detained in the General Post Office, and the 

 following circular forwarded. 



" Returned Letter Office, 



" General Post Office, 



" June nth, 1883. 



" Madam, — I have to inform you that a 

 " Packet addressed to you (from Tenhury), 

 " containing Live Insects [Caterpillars) is 

 " detained at this office, it being contrary 



to law to forward through the Post 

 " Office anything likely to injure the con- 

 " tents of the Mail Bags, or to do harm 

 " to any Officer of the Department." 



" Personal application must be made 

 " here for the Packet, between the hours 



of 10 and 4 (on Saturdays between 10 

 " and i), and it will be delivered to the 

 "person applying for it; but, if not 

 "applied for within five days from the 

 " present time, it will be disposed of." 



" I am, your obedient Servant, 



" G. R. Smith, Controller." 



The circular was addressed to a lady resid- 

 ing at " Escaudoeuvres Nord, France." 



Any one gifted with a vivid imagination 

 might try to picture the consternation of 

 the post office officials at discovering that 

 such an alarmingly dangerous packet had 

 been intended to pass through their hands. 

 The explosion in Whitehall, and threatened 

 blowing down of the Houses of Parliament 

 were really nothing to this. The " harm " 

 that might have been done to the " officers 

 of the department " was really serious. 

 Had the packet contained a few living 

 specimens of the devil's coach-horse {Ocypus 

 olens),ih.e " department " would, doubtless, 

 have been abandoned the instant the diaboli- 

 cal looking creatures turned up their black 

 tails and showed the white teeth they carry 

 in them. But, joking apart, what can we 

 think of the "department " that suggests to a 

 lady in France that she shall make a per- 

 sonal call at the General Post Office, 

 London, to remove a packet calculated ' to 

 do harm " to the Officials of the office ; that 

 only allows her five days to do so ; and that 

 imagines the "caterpillars" would live 

 without fresh food during the time. The 

 lady, rot being inclined to undertake the 

 journey, sent the circular to her English 

 correspondent, who naturally complained 

 that the packet had been detained. To 

 this letter the following reply has been 

 received. The italics are ours. 



" General Post Office, 



June 22nd, 18S3." 

 " Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 

 " 15th instant, I have to inform you that 

 "the packet in question, which contained 

 " live caterpillars, was quite unfit for trans- 

 " mission by post." 



" It was found necessary to destroy it 

 " after it had been left in the Returned 

 " Letter Office for several days." 



" You are entirely mistaken in suppos- 

 " ing that any live animals are transmis- 

 " sible by post." 



