country of the nomad Kirghizes and the far Altai mountains on the
borders of Tibet; and when readers receive my work I shall probably
have turned my face homewards again, and for weeks be speeding
across the frozen Siberian steppes, wrapped in furs, listening to
the sleigh bells, and wondering how my book has sped. It is full of
theories--I trust not unsupported by facts: some thought out on the
plains of Southern Australia; some during many a solitary sleigh
drive over frozen lakes in North America; some in the great forests
of Central and South America; some on the wide ocean, with the
firmament above and below blending together on the horizon; and
some, again, in the bowels of the earth when seeking for her hidden
riches. The thoughts are those of a lifetime compressed into a
little book; and, like the genie of the Arabian tale, imprisoned in
an urn, they may, when it is opened, grow and magnify, or, on the
contrary, be kicked back into the sea of oblivion.

This much is necessary; not to disarm criticism, but to excuse
myself to those authors whose labours on some of the subjects I
have treated of I may not have mentioned. I have, during my
sojourns in England, worked hard to read up the literature of the
various questions discussed, but I know there must be many
oversights and omissions in referring to what others have done;
especially with regard to continental writers, for I know no
language but my mother-tongue; and their works, excepting where I
have had access to translations, have been sealed books to me.

I am indebted to Mr. H.W. Bates for much assistance, and especially
for undertaking the superintendence of these sheets in their
passage through the press; to Mr. W.C. Hewitson, of Oatlands Park,
I am under many obligations, for taking charge of my entomological