370 Report of the Voyage of Discovery 
voyage in the Black Sea with Captain Gauttier, he studied the 
interests of the Museum; but in this voyage he has proved still 
further his zeal and disinterestedness. ‘The insects which he 
has deposited there amount to nearly 1,200, forming nearly 
1,100 species: viz. 361 coleoptera, 428 lepidoptera, and the 
rest included in the other orders. M. Latreille is of opinion 
that, of this number, 450 species at least were wanting in the 
Museum of Natural History, and that nearly 300 are not yet 
described in published works. They come from Chili, from 
Lima and Payta in Peru, and more especially from Port 
Praslin in New-Ireland, from Offak in the land of Papous, 
from Dory in New-Guinea, from Bourou in the Moluccas, from 
Otaheite and from the Malouines. Although the Museum al- 
ready possessed a great number of these animals from New- 
Holland and Brazil, it will yet acquire by this voyage several 
species in which it was deficient, and which inhabit exclusively 
these countries. 
_™M. Lesson had also formed a collection of insects, fron 
which M. Durville has chosen all those which had escaped 
his search. It is also to the zeal of M. Lesson, seconded by 
M. Garnot, that the Museum will owe sixty Crustacea, natives 
of the seas which they have traversed, and of which some are 
new. 
A special praise due to the officers whose labours we have 
just made known, is, that like true naturalists, they have col- 
lected every thing; to the smallest species, to those even which 
they might have supposed to have been common on our coasts; 
they have not imitated so many. voyagers, who, aiming to 
make a choice and to bring nothing but what seemed re- 
markable to them, neglect precisely that which would have 
been interesting. We repeat it, because it cannot be too much 
repeated to voyagers, The most learned naturalist when he sees 
an isolated species, is not able to say if the species is new; it 
is only by having under his eye the series of adjoining spe- 
cies, that he can make sure of its characters. Thus, those are 
in a great error who, on a voyage, employ themselves with 
any thing else than collecting means of study, either by. pre- 
paration, or the drawing of things that preparation cannot pre- 
serve ; or lastly, in committing to writing all the fugitive cir- 
cumstancés which the object does not carry along with it, and 
who lose their time in making descriptions or investigations 
respecting nomenclature, which must always be done over again 
whenthenaturalist arrives at his cabinet. It is in accordance with 
these views, that those engaged in this last expedition have di- 
rected and ceconomized their activity. There only remains then 
for them, in order to fulfil, as much as in them lies, the wishes 
of 
