390 Miscellanies. 



has been finished and furnished mih instruments, so that this Acad- 

 emy possesses the only establishment of this kind, con)plete and per- 

 fect, and the public may soon be in possession of the results of the 

 labors of M. Kupfer, who is devoted to this branch. Eight similar 

 observatories are to be constructed in different parts of Russia. - 



The zoological museum has been enriched by Langsdorf, Mer- 

 TENs, and especially by Kittlitz. It contains seven hundred and 

 fifty four specimens of three hundred and fourteen species of birds, 

 mostly new, and a rich collection of shells sent by EcGERfrom Port 

 au Prince. The herbarium has received an important increase by 

 the collection of plants from Jndia from Dr. Wallich, director of 

 the garden at Calcutta ; by that of Fleischer, at Esslingen, and by 

 the remittances of Tourtchaninof, from Irkutzk, of Haupt, from 

 Ecatheriaoslaf, and of Katalsky, Kittlitz and Egger. The 

 mineralogical cabinet is enriched by the rare collection of M. 

 Struve, resident Russian minister at the Hanseatic towns, purchased 

 for 50,000 rubles. The Asiatic museum is indebted to M. Can- 

 erine, minister of finance, for a great number of curious medals of 

 Persia and Tartary, as well as a complete collection of Russian 

 medals, struck during the last three reigns, consisting of twenty of 

 gold, seventy eight of silver, and two counters of Bronze. The 

 museum has also received the collection of counterfeit silver medals 

 of M. Becker, of Offenbach, to the number of two hundred and 

 ninety six, imitating with great fidelity and admirable skill, the 

 antique medals of Greece and Rome. The Egyptian museum has 

 received from Admiral Count 'Heyden, two stones, one of which is 

 sepulchral with hieroglyphic inscriptions, brought from Greece. 

 Agreeably to the proposition of the late M. Mertens, an ethnographic 

 museum has been founded, and has received the objects collected 

 by M. Mertens during his voyage round the world. Among the 

 number of important acquisitions must be mentioned the port-folio 

 of drawings brought by the expedition of the ships Moller and Sen- 

 iavine, and presented to the Academy by the savans and artists who 

 accompanied it. This rich and precious collection is composed of 

 one thousand and twenty eight sheets, the greater portion of which 

 will enrich the accounfeof this voyage which the Academy intends 

 speedily to publish. M. Lenz has presented to the Academy the 

 journal of his travels to Nikolaief and Bakons., The archeographic 

 labors have been continued under M. Stroief, who, arrested, in his 

 excursions by cholera morbus, was enabled by this delay to prepare 



