JWfecellanea. 
THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
The Natural History collection, made by the officers of H.M.S. Erebus 
and Terror, during the four years’ voyage of these ships, in various parts 
of the world, have lately been unpacked and examined by the different 
scientific men, preparatory to their being published and deposited in the 
British Museum. The collection is the largest that has been brought 
home by any naval expedition since the time of Cook and Banks, which 
is more highly creditable to Captain Ross and the officers under his 
command, when we consider that the Expedition was chiefly dispatched 
for observing magnetic phenomena. The collection consists of an im¬ 
mense number of marine animals of all classes and orders, from seals and 
fish to the most minute animalcules, chiefly procured from the shores of 
the islands of the Antarctic Ocean, Terra del Fuego, the Falkland 
Islands, New Zealand, and from all parts of the Southern and Antarctic 
seas, between the latitudes of 10® to 7 8° soiflh. For the great extent of 
the ocean traversed by these ships during the three successive voyages, 
gave them ample opportunities of capturing the numerous pelagic ani¬ 
mals which swarm in those seas. To procure the animals, the towing 
net was used, from the latitude of England to 78® south, twice through 
the tropics, and thrice across the whole breadth of the Atlantic Ocean, 
between America and Africa. The dredge was continually used in the 
Antarctic circle, in depths varying from 40 to 400 fathoms, and on many 
occasions in the harbours of Falkland and Hermit Islands, at Cape Horn, 
Lord Auckland and Campbell’s Islands, Kerguelen’s Land, New Zea¬ 
land, and in many places within the tropics, as the banks of Cape Frio 
and the Brazils. Hence has been produced results of the greatest im¬ 
portance, in thus bearing on the most interesting geological problems. 
During the stay of the various vessels in the various harbours, great at¬ 
tention was paid to the collection of plants and land animals of all kinds. 
Thus the unexplored islands to the south of New Zealand, Kerguelen’s, 
and Graham’s Land, offered a rich store of varieties to the botanist, and 
the long stay of the vessels at Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand, 
enabled them to complete the fauna and flora of those very interesting 
colonies : the botanical collections alone consist of upwards of 3,000 
species, many of which are quite new to science, or were only before 
known by the specimens brought by Banks and Solander. The collec¬ 
tion is accompanied with a large series of drawings, of the more delicate 
and minute marine animals, coloured from life, and accompanied with 
microscopic dissections, and a large and most important collection of 
drawings of the rare plants, made from the fresh specimens ; the collec¬ 
tion is curious, as showing the great general similarity of the animal 
productions of the two poles : this is especially the case with the marine 
Crustacea, but, though the species are similar in general character, they 
are all still distinct as species from those of the Arctic seas. The same 
may be said with regard to the lepidopterous insects of New Zealand and 
the British Islands.— Athenceum, No. 849, p. 112. 
BOTANY OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 
[From the London Journal of Botany , for May, 1844.] 
At page 247 of the last volume of our Journal, will he found some par¬ 
ticulars of the voyage of Her Majesty’s discovery ships, Erebus and 
