2 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



Francisco — to share in the founding and the support of the California Academy 

 of Sciences. 



Naturalists in San Francisco Before 1853 



In 1939 Alice Eastwood summarized the history of botanical exploration on 

 the Pacific Coast and four years later Eoland H. Alden and John D. Ifft pub- 

 lished in the Occasional Papers of the Academy a review entitled "Early Natural- 

 ists in the Far West." For this reason the notice given here to naturalists active 

 before 1853 will be brief. 



The first naturalists to visit San Francisco were French explorers under 

 Comte de La Perouse who made a landfall there in 1786. La Perouse was com- 

 mander of the Boussole, and with him was the gardener and botanist, Jean 

 Nicholas Collignon, while the corps of the second vessel, Astrolabe, included 

 De Boissieu la Martiniere, "doctor of physic and botanist," and the naturalist, 

 Louis Dufresne. Six years later, in November, 1792, Captain George Vancouver 

 visited both San Francisco and Monterey and Archibald Menzies, surgeon- 

 naturalist to the expedition, took back to England the California condor (per- 

 haps taken along the lower Columbia River) but was able to collect only a few 

 plants. In 1806 another flag entered San Francisco Bay, representing a nation 

 that had as yet not challenged the Spanish supremacy in California. On March 

 28, 1806, the Russian ship Juno sought supplies for Russia's stricken colony 

 at Sitka, the base of her fur seal operations in the North Pacific. Langsdorff, an 

 officer on board the Juno, has left us a detailed account of the forty-four days 

 at anchor here. 



The Russian settlement was established at Fort Ross in 1812, primarilj^ to 

 supply fresh vegetables for the scurvy-cursed men plying the boats in the Behring 

 Sea for seals. Trading vessels were not allowed to enter any port of California 

 at this time and Russians from Fort Ross who ventured into San Francisco were 

 held prisoners there by the Spanish for violations of the laws. It is unlikely, 

 therefore, that the Russians were able to collect many specimens in the region 

 at this time. 



Ten years passed before a second Russian vessel, the Rurik, carrying an- 

 other surgeon-naturalist, Johann Friederich Eschscholtz, entered San Francisco 

 harbor on October 1, 1816. Captain Kotzebue carried with him on the Rurik 

 the well known poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso. Though the visit of 

 the Rurik was made during the late fall dry season the expedition collected 

 a large number of novelties because of unusual rains. 



Kotzebue visited San Francisco for the second time in 1824 and Dr. Esch- 

 scholtz again accompanied Kotzebue. The Russian ship spent nearly two months 

 in California, leaving San Francisco on November 25, 1824. The captain opined : 

 "I confess I could not help speculating upon the benefit this country would derive 

 from becoming a province of our powerful empire, and how useful it would prove 

 to Russia." Eschscholtz 's collections were exclusively zoological on this second 

 voyage. He died in 1831 before the completion of his Zoologischer Atlas, in which 

 he published his Calif ornian discoveries. 



During the last years of the Russian occupation several Russian naturalists 

 visited northern California. These included Governor Ferdinand P. Wrangell; 

 Dr. F. Fischer and Dr. Edward L. Blaschke, of the Russian American Company; 



