MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 33 



cessor in the line of Natural History, who as greatly 

 exceeded me in abilities as he did in zeal, meditated 

 a voyage to the New World, in pursuance of a si- 

 milar design. The gentleman alluded to was Francis 

 Willoughby, Esq., who died in 1672, on the point 

 of putting his design into execution. Emulous of so 

 illustrious an example, I took up the object of his 

 pursuit ; but my many relative duties forbade me 

 from carrying it to the length conceived by that great 

 and good man. What he would have performed, 

 from an actual inspection in the native country of 

 the several subjects under consideration, I must con- 

 tent myself to do, in a less perfect manner, from pre- 

 served specimens transmitted to me ; and offer to 

 the world their Natural History, taken from gentle- 

 men or writers who have paid no small attention to 

 their manners." During the progress of this work 

 he received assistance from Dr Garden, in America, 

 Pallas, Thunberg, Sparman, Muller, and Fabricius, 

 besides many other northern naturalists, more eager 

 than another to render what assistance they could to 

 this great undertaking. 



The Arctic Zoology is contained in three quarto 

 volumes, to which a supplement of 163 pages was 

 afterwards added. The first volume is entirely de- 

 voted to a sketch of the range of coast and country 

 which is to be described. He commences at Dover, 

 and carries his reader along the eastern side of Bri- 

 tain, to the Orkneys, Shetland; the Faroe isles, and 

 Iceland. He returns, and sets out again from Calais, 



VOL. VII. C 



