MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 33 
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 improvy- 
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 modern 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 brought 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 might 
be regarded as an improved edition of a part of the 
Miscellania. The first number is occupied wholly 
VOL. I. c 
