WCP738

[1]

Broadstone, <Wimborne>

July 2 <1905>

My dear Fred¹

I was very glad to [MS burned] the account of your interview with Cap<tain Boynton.>² I am inclined to think he purposely <exag>gerated the discomforts of S. Catalina <in> order to test you. I am surprised to [MS burned] he thinks well of Tolstoy & me! [illeg.] [MS burned] character you heard of him makes him [MS burned] kind of well educated pirate like one [MS burned] been reading about in Max Pemberton's³ s<tory> "The Iron Pirate"⁴ or likes Byron's old [MS burned] M Corsair⁵ — who was — "the wildest [illeg.] [MS burned] man, Who ever scuttled ship or cut throat." But as Mrs. B. did not [MS burned] you of the horrors of "sketers" & r[MS burned] they are probably bearable.

The fact of rats eating termites is [MS burned] new to me. There is one way, I think [MS burned] getting rid of both termites & rats would be perhaps a little do[MS burned] soak all woodwork [MS burned] [2] [MS burned]sive-sublimate (Mercuric-chloride) or <C>hloride of mercury. It dissolves in 16 <tim>es its weight in water, but I expect [MS burned] much weaker solution would be strong <eno>ugh as it is a most virulent poison, & <m>ust be used carefully; but I do not think any insect would touch wood [MS burned]t had absorbed any of it. Wood posts <wo>uld be repeatedly washed with it near [MS burned] ground and if rats then gnawed the <w>ood it would certainly kill them. Any thing they will eat soaked in it and laid around the house would kill them, but also dogs & cats. I once (with my brother) in Wales had a bedroom swarming with bugs. [MS burned]cks in floors, walls, & of the old wood bedstead [MS burned] full of them. They came out in thousands. [MS burned] washed floor walls & even ceiling, & the [MS burned] taken to pieces) with this solution, lived [MS burned] & never saw another bug! [MS burned] & can no doubt be got [3] from any chemist in P. of Spain. If [MS burned] it you must be very careful as it wr[MS burned] your skin or any clothes if left on <it.>

I wonder if the rats at S. Catalina a<re> introduced or are real ^native forest rats.

As to your collections I would advise [MS burned] all home in small store boxes or cigar [MS burned] separately by post. There is a par<cel> post now to Venezuela twice a month. I presume from it 3lb — 3/8, 7lb — 4/1, 11lb – max. size 4 ft. X 2 ft. girth. Once get [MS burned] to a post office and they will probab<ly> be safe.

If you have called again on Mrs B<oynton> she will perhaps give you some useful [MS burned] and enable ^you to judge if Capt. B was [MS burned]

A Foreign Office Passport in general [MS burned] empowers you to travel to any for<eign> and have the assistance [MS burned] British officials, Consuls &c. [MS burned] certificate of resp[MS burned] [4] [MS burned] seen, from my last letter, that you <have> done as regards Janson⁶ exactly <as> I recommended: Maranhão is Portuguese name — , Marachand Eng. of the <sam>e place, the next port beyond the <A>mazon.

When writing lately to my friend Prof. <Br>anner⁷ of the Stanford University in California <abo>ut another matter I asked him if he <kn>ew anything of the Entomolgy of Brazil and especially if beetles more abundant <in> the interior. He was many years there <exp>loring the geology of the whole country. <He> says in reply: — "You ask about beetles in the highlands of Brazil. I used to do considerable entomological collecting, <but> I did not pay special attention to beetles. <My> recollection is that they are quite abundant in the forest regions of Pernambuco, [MS burned] Sergipe, and Bahia. It would [MS burned] your friend to go [5] (5) to Bahia and to follow along <the> railway that goes from the port [MS burned] Joazeiro on the Rio San Francisco. The railway line together with the fo<rest> regions near Bahia woud afford <a> variety of conditions."

This gives a certain amout of [illeg.] [MS burned] of what others have recommended.

If you go to Sta. Catalina please [MS burned] me with your first or second letter [MS burned] little sketch map of the surrounding country, marking, forest, campo hills — rivers &c. however roughly with any paths, roads &c.. I <lo>ng to hear of your getting Morphos Papilios, Heliconias &c. by the s[MS burned] Ithomias, and Catagrammas by [MS burned] hundred, and longicorns by the [MS burned]

As to mosquitos, if [MS burned] early and get [MS burned] [6] dodge the mosquitos.

Perhaps you will be interested to hear that after about a year's work I have written my 75 years recollections <in> 40 chapters, and have just begun going over it for corrections and some additions or diminutions.

I am still in fair health and the garden is full of flowers.

Perhaps Capt. B. has been in Brazil or at Bluefields & can give you some information.

Yours very sincerely | Alfred R.Wallace — [signature]