WCP746

[1]

Broadstone, W<imborne>

Nov^r.15th <1905>¹

My dear Fred²

We have now a weekly ma<il to> Trinidad, one week on Saturday from Sou<thampton> by which I wrote you a long letter of 3 s<ent> with important information from Tring from a French beetle collector.³ This we<ek's> mail leaves on Friday from Dartmou<th.> I take the opportunity of writing agai<n> a little more information, as the let<ter> must be posted here tomorrow mo<rning.>

Dr. D. Sharp⁴ told me of a beetle coll<ector> in London — a Dr. Heath,⁵ who is a phy<sician> and an F.L.S., so I wrote to him t<o> [MS burned] if he would buy a 3rd. set of your be<etles>. I had his reply yesterday saying, [MS burned] as he has a large number S. Ameri<can> beetles he does not buy sets, but <would> buy some if "they are sent to h<im with> their prices." This may be [MS burned] when you have sent to W[MS burned] and have found out [MS burned] [2] [MS burned] I have found an old <memoran>dum sent me by S. Stevens,⁶ receiving my collections from Borneo <givin>g me the selling prices of about 50 [MS burned] of choice beetles, mostly new or rare, [MS burned] f moderate or large size. They varied <pr>ice from 2/- to 10/- or 12/-; and as Janson⁷ [MS burned] me that good insects now fetch "quite <as g>ood prices as they did at that time," — <I th>ink, if I saw specimens of your [MS burned] things from Santa Catalina ( when [MS burned] know which are the best) I should <be> able to price them for you and you <cou>ld then send him ^{(the Dr. Heath)} a small lot <of> them. If you do get a fair proportion of new species, many of them are sure [MS burned] quite abundant.

<I> also send on opp. page⁸ copy of Mr. <Jordan>'s⁹ letter stating exactly how the Butts. <a>re to be sent to Tring Museum. [MS burned]y will take even the micros., at [MS burned] while the hint about the [3] [MS burned]ch only come after midnight [MS burned] is a very valuable hint. As "mothing" [MS burned] good in rainy weather you will <have> to make your hay when neither sun <nor> moon shine, and sleep by day!

<It i>s well to take with you a large sheet <of> white calico about 2 yards square, to pin <to> the wall of the Verandah. With a small <lam>p on a table in front of it this makes <a gl>ow of light for a long distance, and not <only> attracts more moths but gives a good surface on which to see and capture <th>em. I will just mention here what <I> found a good plan to prevent pinned <inse>cts be coming loose. Use pins the same [MS burned]ight in each box (cutting off extra long [MS burned]s then lay a sheet of rather thick [MS burned]r, cut the size of the box, on the pins [MS burned] <e>ach size side, and if the pin heads on the [MS burned]es do not almost touch lay a[MS burned] <cot>ton wool of the required thickness [MS burned]. In this way even if pinned [4] into deal not an insect can c[MS burned]

I have just bought a copy of the [MS burned] edition of Bates' Amazon, with a<n> interesting "Life and Letters" by Clod<d.>¹⁰ <I> shall read it through again soon. <I> have only had myself the cheap a[MS burned] edition which Bates¹¹ gave me. I f<ind> states that at Caripi and Cametá [MS burned] two first places where he found b[MS burned] plentiful, he mentions specially, the [MS burned] of roads and paths, and of new clea<rings> which were all productive of beetl<es> [MS burned] he remarks that even on fallen trees &c. they were "not very abundant a<t> one time", but that day after day new species continually appeared, as I found in Borneo. He mention[MS burned] middle of the dry season as being [MS burned] beetles, but on days after a [MS burned].

Another thing worthy of [MS burned] He says: "I had [MS burned] [5] [MS burned] food was as much a necessary of [MS burned] in this exhausting climate as it is in <the> north of Europe. An attempt such as I made to live on vegetable food was quite <a> failure." Of course if you could <ha>ve a quart of new milk or half a <doz>en eggs every day, you might live <on> rice, mandioca, and fruits, especially <if> you have plenty of cooked plantains, <sw>eet-potatoes, or bread fruit. But even <th>en I believe a good meal of fresh <fi>sh or game two or three times a week would for most ^European people be essential [MS burned] thorough health. But as you can <su>rely get milk or eggs, I consider it <ma>dness to try and live on chance <nu>tritions and unappetising vegetable [MS burned] and that you will act wisely [MS burned] whatever nourishing food you [MS burned] especially eat all that other [MS burned] then live to [6] come home, and return to your v<egetarian> ideals if you "feels disposed"!

I think you were told that there <were> some Campos within a walk of S. Cat<alina.> I see Bates remarks on the abundance <of> beetles at the flowers of trees & shrubs [MS burned] Campos of Santarem in the wet seaso<n.> Also the bits of forest by the sides of streams seem to be especially pro<ductive> of insects; so when it is too wet [MS burned] the forest near S.C. you can explore the Campos. I hope before this let<ter> reaches you you will be at that <land> of promise and that by 'Xmas or <at> all events early in January I sh<all> hear of your first impressions of <the> place and its surroundings.

Wishing you every success |Yours very truly | Al<fred R. Wallace> [signature]