PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE MOFUSSIL. 
479 
’Phis train of reasoning is peculiarly appli- 
cable to the economy of insects. They 
constitute every large and interesting part of 
the animal kingdom. They are everywhere 
about us. The spider weaves his curious 
web in our houses ; the caterpillar constructs 
his silken cell in our gardens : the wasp that 
hovers over our food has a nest noT; far re- 
moved from us, which she has assisted to 
build with the nicest art ; the beetle that 
crawls across our patch is also an ingeni- 
ous and laborious mechanic, and has some 
curious instincts to exhibit to those who will 
feel an interest in watching his movements ; 
and the moth that eats into our clothes has 
something to plead for our pity, for he came 
like us, naked into the world, and he has 
destroyed our garments, not in malice or 
wantonness, but that he may clothe himself 
with the same wool which we have stripped 
from the sheep. An observation of the ha- 
bits of these little creatures is full of valua- 
ble lessons, which the abundance of the 
examples has no tendency to diminish. The 
more such observations are multiplied, the 
more are we led forward to the freshest and 
the most delightful parts of knowledge ; the 
more do we learn to estimate rightly the 
extraordinary provisions and most abundant 
resources of a creative Providence ; and the 
better do we appreciate our own relations 
with all the infinite varities of Nature, and 
our dependence, in common with the ephe- 
meron that flutters its little hour in the sum- 
mer sun, upon that Being in whose schema 
of existence the humblest as well as the 
highest creature has its destined purposes. 
“ If you speak of a sto^,” says St. Basil, 
one of the Fathers of the Church, “ if ycru 
speak of a fly, a gnat, or a bee> your conver- 
sation will be a sort of demonstration of His 
power whose hand formed them; for the 
wisdom of the workman is commonly perceiv- 
ed in that which is of little size. He who 
has stretched out the heavens, and dug up 
the bottom of the sea, is also He who has 
pierced a passage through the sting of the 
bee for the ejection of its poison.” 
If it be granted that making discoveries 
is one of the most satisfactory of human 
pleasures, then we may without hesitation 
affirm, that the study of insects is one of the 
most delightful branches of natural history, 
for it affords peculiar facilities for its pursuit. 
These facilities are found in the almost inex- 
haustible variety which insects present to the 
entomological observer. As a proof of the 
extraordinary number of insects within a 
limited field of observation, Mr. Stepherra 
informs us, that in the short space of forty 
days, between the middle of June and the 
beginning of August, he foxind, in the vici- 
nity of Ripley, specirhens of above two thou- 
satid four hundred species of insects, ex- 
clusive of caterpillars and grubs, — a number 
amounting to nearly a fourth of the insects 
ascertained to be indigenous. He further 
tells us, that among these specimens, 
although the ground had, in former seasons, 
been frequently explored, there were about 
one hundred species altogether new, and 
not before in any collection v.^hich he had 
inspected, including several new genera ; 
while many insects reputed scarce were in 
considerable plenty*. The localities of in- 
sects are, to a certain extent, constantly 
changing ; and thus the study of them has, 
in this circumstance, as well as in their 
manifold abundance, a source of perpetual 
variety. Insects, also, which are plentiful 
one year, frequently become scarce, or dis- 
appear Eiltogether, the next — a fact sti'iking- 
ly illustrated by the uncommon abundance, 
in 1826 and 1827, of the seven-spot lady- 
bird {Coccinella septempunctata), in the 
vicinity of London, though during the two 
succeeding summers this insect was compa- 
ratively scarce, while the small two-spot 
lady-bird {Coccinella bipunctata) was plen- 
tiful. {To be continued,) 
♦ Stephens’s Illustrations, vol. i., p. 72 , note. 
THE 
SPIRIT OF THE INDIAN PRESS, 
OR 
MONTHLY REGISTER OF USEFUL INVENTIONS, 
AND 
IMPROVEMENTS, DISCOVERIES, 
AND NEW FACTS IN EVE^Y DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE. 
ORGANIC REMAINS IN THE SEWALIK rented to the museum by Captain Cautley of 
HI LLiS. Bengal artillery. These organic remains 
come fro m the range of hills formerly called 
We observe in the Delhi that a Sewalik, which skirt the base of the Himalayah 
magnificent collection of fossil bones was pre- mountains from the Ganges to the Sutlege 
