818 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
allowed to fall directly on the Interior. Ilerr Burth's views are iu opposition to those 
of the majority of the working foresters of Germany and Scandinavia, but his exten- 
sive aoqnaintanoe with borne and foreign forests, Ins great practical experience, and 
his reputation as a naturalist, entitle them to all possible respect, although it is not 
to be supposed that his plea for the innocuousnoss of the JioHtrychux typographua will 
be admitted without much sifting of the evidence, seeing that this insect is generally 
believed by German foresters to have been the cause of the destruction of the forests 
of the Harz Mountains, when between 1780 and 1790 two million trees died of desicca- 
tion. 
In pursuance of the work of the last season, I visited the Adirondack 
region of New York in June and July of the present season, and then 
made an extended journey through Aroostook County, Me., visiting 
the Moosehead Lake region, and spent the remainder of the summer at 
Brunswick, Me., and on the shores of Casco Bay. My object in visit- 
ing northern New York and Maine in the latter part of June and early 
in July was to ascertain whether the Spruce-bud Worm described in 
my last report was concerned in the widespread destruction of spruce 
and fir in those important lumbering regions. The result showed that 
this caterpillar, which has in former years been so destructive to. the 
spruce and fir in Cumberland and adjoining counties, has not been at 
work to any appreciable extent in the northern forests. Indeed, not a 
caterpillar of this species (Tortrix fumiferand) was to be found after 
diligent search in the Adirondacks nor in Aroostook, and at Moosehead 
Lake but a single specimen was captured, early in July (the 7th), show- 
ing that it was much less common this year than at the Rangely Lakes 
last season. Here it may be remarked that the same caterpillar was 
found late in June (the 22d) to be less common about the shores of Casco 
Bay than in 1883. This shows that this destructive insect is gradually 
becoming scarce. During 1884, 1885, and 1886 the young trees were ob- 
served to be growing up, and to have already, in some degree, effaced 
the desolate appearance of the tracts which had been destroyed and 
from which the dead timber had been cut. In 1885, 1886, and 1887 not 
a single specimen either of the caterpillar or moth could be found on 
the shores or on some of the islands of Casco Bay. 
The destruction of spruces in northern New York in 1884. — I spent 
about two weeks in the middle part of June in the Adirondacks, pass- 
ing through the more mountainous portions, from the Ausable Chasm 
to Schroon Lake, spending most of the time at Keene Flats, at Beede's 
Hotel, in the heart of the forest region. Mr. Beede, who was formerly 
a lumberman and guide through these forests, informed me that the 
spruce had been dying for the past fifteen years, and that on the mount- 
ains surrounding the hotel about one spruce in ten had died; and from 
our observations and those of George Hunt, esq., of Providence, who 
kindly accompanied me on this journey and who has visited these woods 
for mauy years past, we should judge this to be a moderate estimate. 
The trees had not died in masses or clumps, but simply individually, 
and in places only were the dead trees especially thick. That they had 
