PALLAS, PETER Srsiox, an eminent traveler and naturalist, was born Sept. 22, 1741, at Berlin, where his father was a physician. He studied medicine, natural history. and other branches of science at the universities of Berlin, Gottingen, and Leyden, and was employed in classifying many valuable collections of objects of natural history, both in Holland and England. He gained a high reputation by the publication of his Elenchus Zoophytorum (Hague, 1766), a work still much valued; 31iscellanea Zoolagica (Hague. 1766), and Spicilegia Zoologica (2 vols., Berlin, 1767-1804). The empress Catharine invited him, in 1768, to St. Petersburg, where he was well received, and had hi nors conferred on him, and he was subsequently appointed naturalist to a scientific expedition bound for Siberia, there to observe the transit of Venus. Pallas spent six years on this journey (1768-74), exploring in sticcession the Ural mountains, the Kirghis steppes, great part of the Altalan range, and the country around lake Baikal as far as Kiachta, great part of Siberia, and the steppes of the Volga, returning to St. Petersburg in 1774, with an extra ordinary treasure of specimens in natural history, which form the nucleus of the museum of the academy of Stiretersbut7. His travels (Reisen dvrch, verschiedene Provinzen des Russ. Reichs) were published at St. Petersburg (1771-76). in 3 vols., and were followed
by his Sammlung historischer Nachrichten fiber die Mongol. Valeerschaften (2 vols., St. Petersb. 1776-1802), and his Xeue nordische Beitrage zur Aysikalischen and yeograpAisehen Erd-und VOlkerbeschreibung, Xaturgeschichte and aekonomie (6 vols., St. Petersb. 1781-93). Without positively neglecting any branch of natural history, he now devoted himself more particularly to botany; and his magnificent Flora 1?osska (St. Peter,,a. 1784-88), a work which, however, he was not able to complete, and his Species As•ragalorum (14 parts, Leip. 1800-4), were among the results of his studies. He published also tcones Insectorum pracipue ROS8iCV Sibiria'que Feculiarium (Erlangen, 1781, 1783, and 1806); and contributed to a glossary of all the languages of the Russian empire, which was published at St. Petersburg. As he wished to live in the Crimea, the empress Catharine presented him with an estateln the finest part of that peninsula. where he resided generally from 1796. His Travels in the South of Russia were published in 1799 (2 vols., Leip., with volume of plates). After the death of his wife, he went to Berlin, where lie died Sept. 8, 1811. A large and valuable work of his, on the fauna of Russia, has not yet been published.,