lx PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
The butterflies and moths, alas ! they lie 
In nets and boxes, doomed too soon to die; 
The bright-winged messengers of Nature’s Queen, 
Labelled, and named, and pinned, may now be seen. 
Apollo frowns ! The blue skies weep in rain, 
The bluebells toll “ With man comes woe and pain !” 
Weary, and hot, and tired, down sits each man 
Of the far-seeking, earnest, mountain clan, 
And lo ! instead of hillside bleak and bare, 
They view a scene mysterious, passing fair — 
A crowd of blushing nymphs, with smiling eyes 
Bluer and brighter than are Naples’ skies, 
Stand round the Mother Queen, wdio thus begins — 
“ Wherefore, fair sirs, would ye increase your sins 
By slaying those that better are than ye ? 
Poor innocents, all happy, bright, and free 
An hour ago. Give them their lives again 
You cannot—no, you cannot ! Yet you take 
That which you never did, and cannot, make. 
Begone ! lest in my wrath and pain I slay 
Ye who have murdered those I love this day.” 
Then spake the Master of the mountain clan, 
And nods assent to him each weary man— 
“ Yea, Mother Nature, but we too are thine; 
Thy kind indulgence, too, I claim as mine ! 
Do thy poor innocents not murder too ? 
Give us as well as them our lawful due ; 
They kill to live, but we that we may know 
Why such things be—why such a flower may grow 
Where others can’t. We love not to destroy, 
But rather to promote all creatures’ joy. 
Give us thy hand to-day, and let all see 
Nature and Science can in love agree. 
Aid us to solve thy wonders, and then we 
Shall by our knowledge aid and forward thee.” 
Then smiled our Mother Nature as she said— 
“ I do accept and claim your promised aid, 
And, for my part, I shall do all I can 
To help to wisdom the true mountain clan.” 
They pledged the oath in quaighs of mountain dew, 
Nature and men, they vowed they would be true. 
Then each a nymph led forth, and, hand in hand, 
Around Apollo’s altar ringed they stand 
Until the the Chief gives signal. Off they go, 
Faster and faster, hands and faces glow; 
Surely each member of the mountain clan, 
Be he an older or a younger man, 
Never so danced in all his life before 
As they dance now upon the mountain floor ; 
And as they dance they sing, and this the strain, 
Which the wild hills take up and sing again :— 
