Letters from Alexander Henry Haliday to Hermann Loew, 1867
23rd October 1867 Mr dear Dr Loew I received from you, by post, a short time since, a printed sheet, on Diptera with imperfect or deficient wings,—which, I hoped, might be the harbinger of a letter from you. Bur none having come since, I will no longer delay acknowledging it, and thanking you for your remembrance of me. I hope that your continued activity in science is a good augury of the state of your health, and that the serious illness of last year, with its lingering effects, has quite passed away, and left you restored at least to your ordinary measure of strength, and exemption from pain. I have much reason to be thankful for my continued recovery, after nearly three years of disability, that seemed rather hopeless. I have been able to take a fair proportion of bodily exercise this summer, without having undertaken any distant journey. And if I don’t feel myself capable of enduring the same fatigue, or mounting the same heights, as when I visited Monte Rosa in 1862, the lapse of time is enough to account for it, without repinings. When one writes ?? for the first cipher of one’s years, it is to be expected that the acme of vigour is pretty far past. I had one pleasant excursion, of three days, with the English chaplain of the Baths of Lucca, and his wife; all on horseback, each with saddlebags, or other epitome of baggage, slung at the saddlebow, and a squire on an ass,—otherwise not at all like Sancho Panza[1]. We took up our quarters at Boscolungo, the pass[2] of the Apennines between Pistoia [3] and Modena [4], lying upwards of 4000 feet above the sea, among fine woods of fir (A. excelsa and A. picea),beech and other mountain trees. This used to be a favourite retreat of mine from the heat of midsummer, in the first years of my residence in Italy; but I had not been able to visit it for the three years preceding the present one The - ascent of Grande [5]. This, though the highest peak, is an outlying one from the general chain of the Central Apennine; so we had first the descent of 1000, and then an ascent of 4000 feet to make. The heat of summer had dried up the short herbage on the slope of the mountain most obvious for ascent, so that it was dangerously slippery, and we had to choose a longer and more rugged path winding half round the mountain. The weather was magnificent, and there was but one thing to be missed in the grand panorama from the summit. A seafog,beyond the headland of Piombino [6], obscured the Mediterranean with the islands Elba, Corsica etc. But on that side the wild serrated coast of the Apuane Alps Alps was distinctly drawn and before us, from the one extremity where it first rises out of the Lunigiana valley valley, to the other where it ends in the half detached group of the Pisan mountains [understood as the whole extent of the mountainous system dividing, Pisa and Lucca] “whereby the Pisans cannot see Lucca” [7]. At the other side we had, undiscovered by fog, the expanded plain of the Romagna & Lombardy, with its ramified system of broad river channels, bounded by the long line of the Adriatic. The third day, we returned home by another pass La Foce ([8]) 300 feet higher than that of Boscolungo;—the first two or three miles of descent from which, on the Tuscan side, ( the road itself here but a precarious bridle - path ) present the grandest views I know in the Apennines. But then I had no opportunity of comparison with the nucleus of that - chain
the Abruzzi[9], now an inaccessible region to tourists, the name of Shepherd and Brigand being there convertible, and the people more savage than their own wolfhounds. One other excursion I made after this, at the beginning of the present month, having been obliged to defer it so long, by the violence of the rains about the time of equinox. This was a visit to Major O Pirazzoli [10] at Imola , with whom then I proceeded to Ravenna,[11] here we spent three days, chiefly in its “immemorial wood” [12], and on the Adriatic shore which bounds it for 25 miles, or more—and which had not tracked before, though seen several times from Cassione Of the city itself, and its early Christian remains of art, I took but a cursory view, reserving them rather for, I hope, a future visit, in company with my relations Signor and Signora Pisani. This had been planned for the present year, but was defeated by the accident that befel [sic] my cousin in the spring, as she had not yet fully regained the use of the broken limb. But if I was disappointed somewhat in the remains of art, it was not so with the fir wood. I can now better enter into Lord Byron’s longing memories of his solitary rides in those forest glades, —“Sweet hour of Twilight, in the Solitude of the Pine forest and the silent shore” etc.—after seeing the grand old trees, with the open, elastic, short sward, that clothes the bibulous sandy soil, the gift of the sea, inviting the pressure of the foot, or of horses’ hoofs —The underwood, itself evergreen as the forest, being cheerfully juniper, but gay with the flaming berries of Pyracanthia, hips of the wild rose, and coral red bunches of barberry, is no impediment, from the way it grows in small clumps or detached bushes. But there is much monotony in the vegetation; almost the only flowers, at that season, were Gypsophila and Diplotaris; and on the open coast the vegetation was so parched, that disappointed in reaping any entomological harvest (Pirazzoli , I believe, did not add one species or even any desirable capture to his Coleoptera) we renounced the intention of proceeding (25 miles farther on, along the coast ) to the famed valleys �(in reality lagoons) of Comacchio [13]. The weather indeed was almost wintry, and unfavourable to our hunts. I was able to verify the presence, on the Adriatic Coast also, of a few Diptera, I had met with on the Mediterranean previously and two pretty and I think undescribed species of Ephygrobia and Anopheles pictus, of which I found two specimens in the rice grounds.It is only since may return home, that having to go to Leghorn [14] on business, I found a couple of hours to spare for the shore, and though there also the withered state of the vegetation was impropitious [letter ends]
Etna & the environs of Catania; that part of Sicily as yet free of brigandage and the Cholera [15] , it is to be hoped , will not continue a third year ; though it is rife at present about Catania.This on the suppostion that I find myself improved in pedestrian powers, & fit for the mountainside; of which I have had no trial since 1863. It is just possible I have an earlier opportunity to make the experiment, as F. Walker [16], also intends visiting the Exposition[17], at Paris, the end of this month, wished to proceed on to Mt. Blanc, and asked me to meet him at Courmayeur [18],on the Italian side. I was on my way thither in 1862, but turned back from Aosta, when I found myself nearly reduced to depend on horseback for my movements, from the effects of my nightly descent of the mountainside, & solitary bivouac beside the Lys glacier [19], too happy that I escaped with my limbs whole. However in a later [assuming this is the next page] letter Mr Walker expresses a doubt whether he will be able to go further than Paris, his elder brother being at present unwell. In the autumn, before the vintage, which promises to be early this year, (perhaps the end of August, or beginning of September), Iintend to join O. Pirazzoli (who has retired from military service, & resides at Imola [20]) in an Entomological visit to the pinewood of Ravenna, and the lagoons of Comacchio. I have done little good, collecting, this summer, having been so much on one spot. I have not nearly replaced what perished (of my first two years’ collecting) during the following illness, when I could not attend to the presentation of my collection. In particular, I have not met again with a new genus allied to Gymnopa but with nearly the structure of fore feet of an Ochthera; of which I had two specimens, taken on the sandy seashore near Viariggio [21]. Nor have I left a specimen of my namesake, I mean the Chalcid which A. Forster honoured me by naming generically from my surname. Happily the barbarism dies a natural death, as I was able to assure myself, by comparison with the typical specimen (N. American) in British Museum, that it is identical with Metapelma (Westwood). I see you have characterized a second species of Attica, from the Salterns of ____ imagine it is the species (the only one of the genus) which occurs here,—and which I met with twenty years since in the Salterns of Lymmington, (works in existence since the times of Roman dominion in England) along with A. pygmaea, but easily distinguishable by its much more dusky colours. I had intended in my Maremma excursion to have examined the Salterns of Mortaiolo [22], inland salt springs. I went thither for the purpose, & had to sleep on the train; but the manager, to whom I had a letter of introduction, being absent, I found I should have had to sacrifice a day, writing for his return which was not worth my while. But I took, in that neighbourhood, a specimen which seems to be a link between Ephydra and Parydra. At the borax works of Me Cerboli [23], I found little to interest me entomologically. Only, whe [illegible],charged with boracic acid (of some unoccupied sources) was so hot, fresh busting from the steamy mumbling soil, that it was almost painful to the hand, there were the blood red larvae of a Chironomus swimming about with the usual wriggling motion; while a little lower down, where the pools were cooled down to blood heat by exposure to the air and the influx of cold water , these same larvae were chiefly on the underside of stones & wrapped in a blanket of mud , as if the climate were too cold for them.The species of which I took only a few, I have not determined ; my books as I said, not being freely accessible . Dolichopidae now beginning to appear in grater number ; and I have taken within the last few days both [letter ends]
in which the late C. Passerini [24] had found it plentifully now converted into a suburban garden, with not an old tree left;—and scarcely any but copse-wood remaining within walking distance of the town; and this, on trial, did not reward me with anything worth naming. Indeed the only species of interest, I can particularize as the fruit of this excursion, was Rhynchites ruber, a single specimen. The few remaining cork trees of Follonica seemed to be peopled only by the usual Cynipidae of other species of Quercus . In the sands of the coast I found what will be a new genus next to Astaeia, of which it has the neuration of wing; but this I had found before nearer home. Cyrtosia [25] did not occur. I should probably have done better, had I made this visit, to the Maremma, the beginning of May; which I was on the point of doing; but at the last I consented, instead, to accompany a friend, who speaks no Italian, to Rome, taking the coast line of railway, so as to see the Maremma district in passing, which I proposed to visit. At Rome I spent four days putting him through a course of monuments, churches & galleries; which was very hard work;—remained as many more, after his departure, to see some relations and friends in the city; had not time for the country, only took one walk, the last evening, for about two miles up the bank of Tiber, which I found, on this occasion, singularly inanimate. Returning to Florence by another (the Perugia) line, I stopped for half a day to visit the falls of Terni [26] [27] for the first time; swept by the battlefield of lake Piediluco [28] under the first rays of the morning sun; and spent a few hours in Florence, where I had not been since it was constituted the Capital of Italy. Then came the trouble of moving a pretty large family, from the house in town, where we had passed the winter months, to the half finished country house, where we intend to remain henceforth, both summer and winter. It is situated on the slope of one of the hills that encircle Lucca, looking southwards over the city and its irriguous plain, and being perhaps six hundred feet higher,overlooks the fogs and frosts of the lowlands, which scarcely ever arise so high. While it is backed by hills as high again, which shelter us from the “Tramontano” and “Grecale”, the most formidable of the winds. I have scarcely moved from home since. I had hoped to have spent a week at the Baths of Lucca (16 miles Italian district) at the same time with E. Von Bruck [29] & F. Piccioli[30]; but the latter was recalled from the Gombo (a good locality on the coast, near Pisa, where he spent a fortnight with the Von Brucks) by business of the Museum, and was unable to rejoin them during their stay at the Baths, whither I went past one May to see E.V.B. They were very successful at the Gombo, and E.V.B. afterwards at the Baths, collecting minute Coleoptera Pselaphidae etc. and E.V.B. gave me there a specimen of the new Anophthalmus, of the Tana a Termini, [31] a cave of the limestone, that D.E.P. Wright [32] Captain E. Bland & I explored in vain, for similar purpose, in 1863. E. P. Wright is now in the Seychelles islands, for an exploration of their natural history; but he was very unfortunate as setting out, the ship that carried out his Books of reference, instruments etc, having been lost in the storms of last spring. The loss of time, by this disaster, will be irreparable, as his stay is limited strictly by the obligation of being home, at Dublin, for the Zool. lectures of the winter session in the University; and those islandrocks will not afford supplies of material, or workmen, to replace the missing articles with temporary substitutes. I expect he will be able to see us, on his return road, in near October; and I hope to get him to come out here, next year, to join me in a visit to [letter ends …] I had he luck, for the first time, to find the female of that species , with the same form of femora , and with the silvery annuli of palpi and tarsi much more marked than in the male. I have too been able by the past summers collecting to replace nearl all that I had lost of my first two years spoil, in the intervening three , when I was too unwell to give any attention to the preservation of them.In particular, I regret not to have found again the small Scatella with a signal “speculum”, or definite thickening of the middle of the costal vein;—nor the n. g. allied to Gymnopiella (Mosillus), but approaching - in the enlargement of variolous sculpture of the face,—and Ochthera in the form of the forelegs. In the Hymenoptera I have been a little, and just a little, more successful. However I got again, this autumn, Rondani’s [33] Pegophila meridionalis, which he had only from Malta through Dr.Schembri [34]. It appears here only after the autumnal equinox, for a few days, and in small number. The genus is a good one, in my opinion, and most nearly allied to - . I regret greatly that, at the distance we are from each other, it is so difficult to effect any interchange of other things than writings. I sent, in a treble letter to J. Gray [35] of the British Museum, not very long ago, some choice specimens;—the letter never came to his hands;—and I can hardly replace its contents;—so that, even for the little that could be sent in that way, the prospect is not encouraging. By the bye, would you kindly let me know, referring to date of letter, what exactly I did write about a second species of Epidapus I presume it must have been based on a sight of a Sciara that occurs with rudiments of wings or none but which I have not found destitute of halteres. Having consulted your paper in the Zeitschrift - Geranomya, Tachypeza etc. I must reexamine the species I considered as - Zett. as I think I find the same, here, in similar situations (riverbed, and dripping banks). I know nothing of what C. Rondani has been doing latterly. Several late notes of mine, written with the desire to have seen him at Parma, where I crossed the Apennine, have remained unanswered. Yet I cannot find he was among the Italian visitants to Paris, in the course of the summer, so I must suppose him to have been spending all his vacation in the country, and , if returned to Parma, to have found so much to occupy him in his official duties, and in preparation for the press, that he has found no leisure to write to me again. As to Bellardi[36], I am afraid I must give up all hope of his correspondence again. The only brief note, I have had from him this year, was on a matter purely of his own concerns, though he excused himself by overwhelming occupations, and promised to write when he had more leisure. From A. Costa[37]I have not heard of the results of the month he spent collecting (May-June) in the Terra d’Otranto [38]. He had the fixed intention of going to Paris, after the University session; and I begged him to let me know in time, that I might have given him a rendezvous at Leghorn, on his way going or returning. So, you see, I am left pretty much alone to my Dipterological studies. Even Winnertz [39] has left me a long time without a reply to my letter. But I suppose him to be absent on one of his usual journeys, and that I shall hear from him, soon after he returns to Crefeld.M. Bigot [40] does not seem as active as he once was, in these matters;—I sent him, however, a tiny note, not long ago, to stir him to remembrance. I was much disposed, at one time, to write a half serious remonstrance to him, and to my good friend Dr Sichel[41] , for suffering their names to appear as countenancing the publication of Dr. R. Desvoidy’s [42] posthumous works on Diptera. It is hard work, at best,to keep the Augean stable [[43] tolerably clean, without pitchforking into it volumes of rubbish at once. And now, I have given you a pretty large dose of written gossip, with as little as may be of information or interest in scientific view—not having materials. I have not yet found room, in this unfinished house, to set out my books, and the part of my collections that I got from Dublin early in the summer, so as to be available for study. But now that the time for out of door exercise and collecting is pretty well past, [letter ends] Of Italy, which is occupying a great portion of my time at present, sending circulars out, writing letters etc. In the course of this month I hope it will be formally and legally constituted and before I start for next summer's visit (if it takes place) to Sicily, I may see the first part of the journal out. How long it may be live is another consideration. The existing scientific journals of Italy lead but a languishing life;—and the heads of the young are full of politics (to little good in many cases), and to the sacrifice of literary & scientific studies. I wish I could induce you in charity to give us aid in the first instance with some essay, out of the superfluity of your materials, for the Italian Fauna, I believe you have better means to do so than any resident entomologist in the country;—and certainly would do it incomparably better. The journal is intended to be devoted to the Italian Fauna, not including notices of the species of western & southern Europe which may be looked for here—I am afraid however, from what you say of your engagements, that I must not hope for much until your intended retirement from official duty takes place. I hope the severity of the winter has not been unfavourable to your health—Here it has been productive of numberless cases of catarrh & bronchitis—from which I myself have escaped nearly free. And now,though snow & frost alternate in general, yet there are mid days often bright & mild as spring, and before long there may be expected to gain the upper hand—The unusual severity of the season has however driven insects to their retreat in an unusual degree.—for example, a few days since, I swept a bed of