458 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^t. 



Obituary. — Dr. A. v. Middendorif, Dr. L. v. Schrenck, 

 and Herr Oberaratmann Ferdinand Heine. 



Dr. Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, the dis- 

 tinguished Russian explorer and naturalist, well known to 

 ornithologists as the author of ' Sibirische Reise/ one of 

 our principal authorities on the birds of Siberia, died at 

 Hellenorm in Livonia, on the 16th of January last. Mid- 

 dendorff was born in St. Petersburg on Aug. 6th, 1815, and 

 received his education at a gymnasium in that city and at 

 the University of Dorpat, where he took the degree of M.D. 

 in 1837. Afterwards he proceeded to Berlin, Erlaugen, 

 Vienna, and Breslau to pursue his studies. In 1839 Mid- 

 dendorfiP took up his abode at Kief, as assistant to the 

 Professor of Zoology. Shortly afterwards he was sent to 

 join V. Baer's expedition to the White Sea and Arctic Ocean, 

 where, on one occasion, he was lost for eighteen days on the 

 icy plains in mid-winter, and very nearly perished of cold 

 and starvation. In 1843 Middendorff was sent out by the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg on his 

 celebrated expedition to explore Northern Siberia, and his 

 first reports upon the temperature of the earth at various 

 depths won for him a European reputation. For many 

 years in succession Middendorff continued to work out the 

 numerous and varied results of his Siberian expedition — 

 geographical, botanical, zoological, and anthropological — 

 which were published in both German and Russian. In 

 addition to this, he acted for 12 years as secretary to the 

 Academy, and published a number of works on various 

 branches of zoology and geography, amongst which his 

 treatise on the migration of birds {' Die Isepiptesen Russ- 

 lands^) is often consulted by ornithologists. Middendorff' 's 

 knowledge and acquirements were much valued at the 

 Imperial Court, and he was appointed to instruct several of 

 the Grand-Dukes in Natural History, and to accompany 

 them on their foreign journeys. In 1885 Middendorff gave 

 up active work for the Academy, and retired to his estates 

 in Livonia, after which he devoted his untiring energies with 

 great zeal to agriculture. 



