128 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
kevitch, probably the same person who I see announced in the papers as 
Russian Consul-general, under the name of Gorkwitch, who accompanied 
the Russian admiral, Pontiatine, as naturalist, in his visit to Japan, when 
the treaty with that kingdom was entered into. M. Gaskevitch was 
wrecked in the Russian frigate Diana, in consequence of a terrible earth- 
quake, and kindly treated by the Japanese, who subsisted the shipwrecked 
crew. Thereafter, in an attempt to rejoin the Admiral in a Russian 
ship, he was captured by the British, and his scientific career in these 
seas closed for the time by his having been sent home to be adjudged upon 
in this country ; where he no sooner arrived than he was at once ordered 
to be set at liberty. He does not seem to have liked his captivity at all^ 
and I am sure men of science in this country will like it as little. How 
any captain could have conceived it consistent with his duty to arrest a 
scientific man in his career of usefulness, under any circumstances, seems 
difficult to understand ; but there are always two sides to a story — and 
audi alteram partem is a rule never deviated from without subsequent 
unpleasant reflections. If he has now returned to till the important part 
of Consul-general, we may expect to reap a good harvest of Coleoptera 
through his friend Count Motschoulsky. 
From the loss of his collections, sustained by M. Gaskevitch, the report 
and descriptions of the Japan and Amoor species are very meagre, chiefly 
Lepidoptera. Of the Coleoptera brought by him, M. Motschoulsky re- 
marks that they off'ered little resemblance to our European species, and 
that there were only found three which appear identical with those of 
the west — Anomala ohlonga, Anobium paniceum, and Coccinella ira- 
pustulata. All the rest belonged to the type of China and the Philippine 
Isles. 
If we have drawn little from the north of these seas of late years, the 
more southern portion has amply atoned for it ; Mr Wallace having sent 
from Celebs, Aru, &c., a great variety of most beautiful and striking new 
species. These, for the most part, yet remain to be described ; only a few 
of their favourite group, the Longicornes, having been described by Mr 
Pascoe in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London ; 
and by Mr Adam White, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 
London. 1 hope we shall have many more of these species described by 
these gentlemen. 
There has been an intermission to the rapidity with which the entomo- 
logy of Australia and New Zealand was becoming known. Dr Baly's 
monogra})h of the genus Australica (the equivalent of our Chrysomelidce) 
is, I think, the last connected description of species from that quarter. 
There is, however, a great mass of unappropriated material collected, and 
it is to be hoped that ere long some labourer may arise willing to cultivate 
the fields now lying vacant. 
Passing on to South America, there is no work of any moment to record. 
Little groups of species, and some isolated descriptions, are all that I 
have to notice. One of the most interesting of these is the Agrium 
fallaciosum of Chev. (also described by M. Motschoulsky, under the 
name of Pinochile ceenosa'). It is found at the Straits of Magellan, 
comes next to the Manticora of the Cape, and forms the transition 
between them and the Omtts of the Rocky Mountains. It thus possesses' 
a similar interest to the Eucrania of the deserts north of Patagonia, 
which represent the Ateuchi of Africa. Mr Bates, a most successful and 
scientific collector, has sent home from the Amazon an immense quantity 
of interesting and lovely novelties, some of which have been from time 
to time described by Dr Baly, Mr Thomson, &c., but the great mass are 
still undescribed. A curious genus, possessing the unique character of 
being viviparous, has been described by M. Schiodte as found in Brazil ; 
