The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-10-02
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
FINDS PLEASURE IN THE INvEs-
TIGArION or DAME NATURE.
Ho Dlssertatcs Upon Beetles, Rabbits
and Literature.

wish that we're q great naturalist |
Il wish that / was a botanist or q
horticultural or an ornithologist /
have great admiration for Linneus and |
Audubon and Humboldt and Agassiz.
II seems 10 be- by design that such
men we're born 10 explore the myater-
les OF nature aud solve them, and then
teach them 20 as. They are oil dead,
but they finished their life work and
nobody has improved upon IT, never
60 into n drug store and read the Lat
in names upon the jars but what /
think Of Linueus. What work for
one man TO do-to walk thousands Of
miles over mountains and valleys, in
heat and cold, and 10 study and 10
classify 5000 different towering plants
and innumerable others that did not
flower. Poor as charity during his
early manhood; for weeks and months
actually suffering for food; and even
when his earnest work began TO attract
attention Of the learned and great he
was not allowed to marry the girl he
loved until, like Jacob, no had been
put on five years probation. How he
was enriched, honored and ennobled
in his latter life is matter of history
and is pleasant reading.
was Eliminating about these things
because a friend from Milledgeville
wrote me about the large yellow but
terhies that we're now migrating south
ward and asked if / had observed them.
He says that next spring they may be
seen migrating northWard, and this
annual change of place is as certain as
the flight of the swallows. For q few
days past had noticed the number of
these beautiful butterflies that were
passing over our flowers in the front
yard and stopping a hurried moment
TO sip honey from their chalices and
then moving on with steady and grace
ful flight, but it had not occurred TO
me that they were all going one way.
But they are; and still they come and
still they go; not by hundreds nor
tens, but hardly a minute passes but
what I can see two or three or half
dozen flying leisurely along They are
peculiar species, are all of a size and
with solid chrome yellow wings that
seem less frail than those of other
varieties What does their flight
signify? Do they know that win.
ter is coming, and when? Where
is their journeys end? Where
will they stop to lay their eggs and
die, and what will be the transforms
ton that brings new butterflies to life
for a return in the early spring? Such
| things are to be observed and studied,
but who does it? Some years ago when
was farming l observed that hundreds
of small branches of the persimmon
and the apple and other trees we're
lying upon the ground with withered
leaves, and upon examination they
seemed to have been cut off as by a
tiny turning lathe; the incision half
inch wide at the bark and narrowing
down to the center just as 3 turning
chisel would do it. None of the nabors
could explain it to me, but I found out
on closer investigation that it was done
by black beetle that first made IN
incision on the tender bark and laid
her eggs like a locust and then pro-
ceeded to cut off the limb so that il
might fall to the ground where
the Larvae could hatch and then
burrow in the soil and go through
natures transformations. But how
did the beetle cut the limb so ar
tisticAlly? Why it fastened it's hard
sharp, horny mandibles to the bari
and then buzzed round and round by
the power of its wings until the worl
was done. What a wonderful me-
chanic is this beetle What a wonder
full study in naturel There is more
unsolved science i'll the lightning bugs
that like little meteors brighten tn,
twilight on our lawns, than in thu
electric flashes that illuminate the
clouds. What are all these things for
Humboldt says there are 400 differen
species of humming birds. WHAT for
Why should not one kind or ten kind
have answered the Creators purpose
Why are millions of flowers born t.
blush unseen on mountain sides ant
cliffs and in the desert? Humboldt say
there are 500, 900 beautiful scales on
large butterfy's wing, and they can b
seen and counted with q microscope
Why should there be 80 many? VIII
ever sees them but God, and perhRp
the angels?
But there is no limit to these mys
teries, and no answer to these quet
tions. And so I will forbear. Ther
seems to be bigger things before th
people now. The paramount questio
is gold or silver and even the preach
ers have engaged in the discussion
DR.. Parkhurat and Tom Dixon an
some OF the southern ministers have Ell
z tered the arena and are trying to cor
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