MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



offered to undertake and superintend. This project 

 was strongly recommended by Gaubius and ap- 

 proved of by the Prince, but was prevented from 

 being carried into execution by the author s father, 

 who not only refused his consent to his taking such 

 a distant expedition, but even recalled him to Ber- 

 lin. In obedience to his father s wish, but with the 

 greatest reluctance, he quitted Holland in Novem- 

 ber 1766. 



On his return to his native city, his only consola- 

 tion for his separation from his friends in Holland, 

 and in having lost so many opportunities of improv- 

 ing himself, consisted in arranging the vast stock of 

 materials he had collected, and the observations he 

 was unceasingly making, and presenting them to the 

 public. This he did in that work so well known 

 and so often quoted, the Spicilegia Zoologica^ which 

 was somewhat on the plan of our modem periodi- 

 cals, coming out in successive numbers, though not 

 rigorously restricted as to time. It extended to thirty 

 or forty quarto pages letterpress, and was illustrated 

 with excellent engravings, both of the entire ani- 

 mals, and of the parts of their structure which were 

 insisted upon. Four numbers only were at this 

 time bpought out under his own eye at Berlin ; they 

 appeared, however, in less than six months, thus 

 supplying new proof of the unwearied energy of the 

 author. 



As we have already remarked, this volume miglit 

 be regarded as an improved edition of a part of the 

 Miscellania, The first number is occupied wholly 

 C 



