56 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



ptirchaser, at the same time desiring him to make 

 out the catalogue and fix the price. He accordingly 

 named fifteen thousand rubles. Having examined 

 the catalogue, she subjoined, with her own hand, 

 *' Mr Pallas understands natural history much bet- 

 ter than figures : he ought to have charged twenty 

 thousand instead of fifteen thousand rubles, for so 

 many valuable articles. The Empress, however, 

 takes upon herself to correct the mistake, and hereby 

 orders her treasurer to pay twenty thousand. At 

 the same time, Mr Pallas shall not be deprived of 

 his collection, which shall still continue in his own 

 possession during his life, as he so well understands 

 how to render it most useful to mankind." 



It has been acutely observed, that it rarely hap- 

 pens that men who are very assiduously occupied in 

 such multifarious enterprises have the requisite op- 

 portunities and powers for originating those master 

 ideas which effect great changes in the sciences ; 

 but Pallas was an exception to this rule. It has 

 already been noticed that he all but changed the 

 face of zoology ; and it has been stated upon high 

 authority, that he was really the instrument of 

 effecting a revolution in geology, concerning what 

 has been called the theory of the earth. An atten- 

 tive examination of the two great mountain ranges 

 of Siberia, led him to the recognition of this general 

 rule, which has since been universally verified, that 

 there is a regular succession in the three primitive 

 orders of mountain rocks, viz. that there is a granite 

 in the middle, then schists lyiu^' upon »t and. 



