98 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. IX 



Fabricius, whose one American species is Carabus vietinghovii. 

 Russian territory extended 3,000 miles eastward, all new to col- 

 lectors, beginning with the very boundary of Siberia. It knew no 

 exact confines across the Pacific. The province of Alaska was 

 wholly vague, etxending from the North Pole to the Spanish 

 Mexico, subject only to the undefined claims of Great Britain 

 and the United States to the coast. The only American expedi- 

 tion to the coast was that of Lewis and Clark, about 1796. The 

 inhabitants were Esquimaux, Indians and a few fur traders, until 

 an old Spanish civilization was encountered in southern California. 

 This vast domain was the Russian coleopterist's field and one pre- 

 cisely to his taste. Everything going into his collection Avas new, 

 unless it was circumpolar, the risk of creating synonyms was nil 

 except for such things as had been described from Scandinavia, 

 Lapland, or out of the Otto Fabricius material from Greenland. 



Before Say had gone to New Harmony and when Kirby was 

 beginning to look at his boreal American insects, the Russian 

 Imperial Chamberlain fitted out an exploring expedition under 

 Captain (afterwards Admiral) Kotzebue. Two voyages were 

 made around the world, around Cape Horn and exploring both 

 sides of the Pacific. The naturalist of the first voyage was Adel- 

 bert von Chamisso, far better known as a poet. His only appear- 

 ance in our checkist is in the possessive case — Carabus chamissonis 

 Fisch. About this beetle he wrote quite a poem. 



Dr. Eschscholtz of Dorpat in Livonia sailed on the second 

 voyage in the double capacity of surgeon and naturalist. This 

 man's first paper, a description of 30 new beetles, was published 

 in St. Petersburg in 1818. His actual stay in California was 

 limited to about two months. He wrote among others, mono- 

 graphs on Passalus and the Elateridse and " Genera and Species 

 of Staphylinidse," his most famous work. His atlas on the 

 Kotzebue collection appeared in 1829, but was left incomplete, as 

 this true scholar died suddenly at the age of 40. His collection 

 passed to Motschulsky, thence to the Society of Naturalists of 

 Moscow. His creation of genera applicable to America was 43, 

 his species 42. 



Count C. G. von Mannerheim did much to make the Moscow 

 Bulletin famous. Noble by birth and wealthy by inheritance, he 



