36 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



cians, and of a great number of assistants, whose 

 services were to be devoted to the several objects of 

 pursuit. To Pallas was entrusted the preparing 

 the general instructions for the naturalists, and he 

 was gratified with the choice of his more immediate 

 associates : on him too was conferred, at his own 

 request, the conduct of the expedition to the east 

 of the Volga, and towards the extreme parts of 

 Siberia. 



Pallas spent the winter previous to his departure 

 in Petersburg ; and in the midst of his innumerable 

 preparations, found time for a multitude of scientific 

 labours. He drew up a systematic catalogue of the 

 animals in the museum of the Academy of Sciences ; 

 he arranged the celebrated collection of Professor 

 Breyn of Dantzic, which has been lately purchased 

 by Prince Orlof; and prepared for the press six 

 additional numbers of the Spkilegia Zoologica^ which 

 were printed at Berlin, during his absence, under 

 the direction of Dr Martin.* The work, however, 

 which produced the liveliest sensations at the time, 

 was a memoir which was read to the Imperial Aca- 

 demy concerning the bones of the great quadrupeds 

 which are so often found in Siberia ; among which 

 he recognized those of the elephant, rhinoceros, buf- 

 falo, and many others belonging only to intertropical 

 countries, and in quantities which are quite enor- 

 mous. These statements raised the attention of all 

 the naturalists in Europe to these astonishing ap- 



* These we have not been able to procure. 



