28 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



travels, and so pleased the Empress Catharine by the glow- 

 ing description he gave of the country, that she thought she 

 could not reward him better than by giving him a portion 

 of it, with an income of two thousand rubles. Pallas con- 

 sidered it but as a species of exile, and was overwhelmed. 

 He saw that he was the dupe of a simple desire to make the 

 newly-acquired territory grateful to his sovereign, and he 

 sat himself down, without the power or courage to com- 

 plain, suffering in body and mind till the shades of an un- 

 ending night vailed him from the world." 



Now the facts are these : Professor Pallas, Member of 

 the Imperial Academy of Science at St. Petersburg, Coun- 

 cilor of State, and Knight of several Orders, was born in 

 1741, at Berlin, where he acquired a distinguished reputa- 

 tion by his researches and writings on Natural History. 

 When the Empress Catharine II. of Russia learned the 

 fame of this great man, and his eminence in his department 

 of science, she invited him to her court, and then proposed 

 to him, as a Naturalist, to survey Siberia, the Crimea, and 

 the Cis and Trans-Caucasian provinces. He accepted her 

 proposition, and spent several years in traveling through 

 the countries, all the while being recompensed in a prince- 

 ly manner by the Empress, and journeying in the greatest 

 style and expense. His many classical and valuable works 

 with regard to the Zoology and Botany of those provinces, 

 published in French, German, and the Russian languages, 

 were the result of his extensive labors, and to this day at- 

 test his eminent ability in the department of Natural His- 

 tory. 



On his return to St. Petersburg he offered to sell his 

 large collection of natural productions for the sum of fif- 

 teen thousand rubles ; but when the Empress heard of it 

 she wrote him, telling him that he knew very well how to 

 write a learned work, but that he did not know how to 

 make a calculation, for his cabinet was worth twenty thou- 



