A STUDENT ASSISTANT 247 



arrived ^^ and that I shall not detain the artist Berkhan/^ unless 

 unavoidable necessity and the interest of the Academy force me 

 to do so, should I be obliged to wait longer for the same 

 [Fischer (?)] than there is work for me and him [Berckhan (?)] 

 to do at the Sea of Penzhina. 



The excerpt on marine plants from Ray's " Synopsis "^^ 

 which was sent from Krasnoyarsk on February 28, 1740, I have 

 not yet received and am eagerly waiting for it. 



That the student Gorlanov^^ was in great need, as he wrote to 

 Your Highness as well as to Professor M tiller, is a gross lie, and 

 I assure Your Highness that all my affairs are in the best of 

 order and regularity and that no one in my party can complain 

 of being in want, notwithstanding the fact that we received our 

 first [allowance of] provisions from the general fund only in 1742. 

 Never before has Gorlanov had a year's pay on hand at the end 

 of the year, as he has now, never before has he been out of debt 

 as now, and never before has he had such good clothes and linen 

 as now. But he surely deserves no credit for this. That he may 

 at times be short of brandy, I admit willingly that I am the 

 cause of that, and most diligently so. How clear my conscience 

 is and how justified my diligence is apparent from the fact that 

 when I unexpectedly found a copy of that letter at his quarters 

 [bei ihm] I did not even deign to call to account this imprudent 



i« Johann Eberhard Fischer (1697-1771) replaced G. F. Muller as 

 historian on the Siberian expedition, when Muller, who with Gmelin 

 had asked to be relieved, returned to Russia. Fischer's appointment 

 dated from May, 1738, and was confirmed by the Senate in March, 1739, 

 whereupon Fischer set out upon his journey (Pekarskii, Istoriya Akademii 

 Nauk, Vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1870, pp. 617-618). 



" Johann Christian Berckhan was one of the artists assigned to the 

 expedition. His zealous and accurate work in depicting the plants and 

 animals found on the expedition led, on his return, to his appointment as 

 an adjunct, or assistant, of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences 

 (preface to J. G. Gmelin's "Flora sibirica," as reprinted in Otto Gmelin, 

 op. cit., pp. 66-67). 



18 Probably John Ray: Synopsis methodica stirpium britannicarum, 

 London, 1690 (2nd edit., 1696; 3rd edit., 1724), is meant. (S) 



19 Gorlanov was a student assistant. 



