366. Report of the Voyage of Discovery 
hardly apparent, which the describer, isolated from both, has 
not thought of noting: if the naturalist cannot see them toge- 
ther, and compare them point by point with the most attentive 
eye, he will never be able to seize their differences ; and yet it 
is too often on such insufficient data that the most general and 
the most important doctrines are hazarded,—such as the geo- 
graphy of animals, the limits of their extension, and all the 
consequences which belong to this order of facts. 
Botanists fall less frequently into these inconveniences, be- 
cause the facility with which vegetables are preserved in her- 
bals has obtained for them, at all times, the means of imme- 
diate comparison of the objects of their studies: but it is not 
the same in Zoology, in which, insects and shells excepted, 
durable collections cannot be formed without great expense, 
minute attention, and unconquerable patience. 
We cannot then too warmly express the gratitude which is 
due to the Minister of Marine, who of late has not set on foot 
any scientific voyage * without including some persons skilled 
in the preparation of animals, and giving them orders not only 
to make in each place a general collection of whatever pre- 
sented itself, but also to deposit them as soon as they return- 
ed, in the King’s cabinet, where the administration on its part 
takes the necessary measures for their preservation, and where, 
placed in the midst of all the objects of the same kind, they 
offer to the naturalist sure means of fixing, with certainty, and 
in all the necessary details, their comparative characters. . . 
The gentlemen attached as zoologists to the expedition of 
M. Duperrey were not discouraged by any fatigue. Hunters 
and fishermen, as well as preparers, they have collected as 
many objects as could be expected from the number and length 
of their opportunities: far from being thwarted by their naval 
companions, as has too often happened to others, they had 
them all for auxiliaries ; independently of M. Durville, they 
were above all seconded by M. Berard. All they collected has 
been preserved, in spite of the difficulties in the way of this 
sort of operation, the heat of the climates they visited, and the 
little help they obtained from the natives. They have faith- 
fully and without reserve deposited, on their return, their col- 
lections, in an establishment consecrated to science, taken in its 
highest acceptation ; an establishment where all naturalistsmay 
study them in concurrence with the collectors, as surely no man 
* The time is yet to come when a similar encomium can be justly claim- 
ed in this country.— Eprr. 
+ We omit here several paragraphs on the best methods of making ma- 
ritime expeditions useful to the progress of natural history. 
worthy 
