GMELIN, SAMUEL GOTTLIEB, nephew of John George Gmelin, was born at Tubingen in 1744, studied in that university, where he applied himself chiefly to the natural sciences, and took his degree of M.D. In 1767 he went to St. Petersburg, and in the following year be was sent by the Empress Catherine on a scientific tour through the southern provinces of Russia. He first visited the banks of the Don, or Tanais, down to Tscherkask, the capital of the Don Cossacks. whence he proceeded to Astrakhan in 1769, and examined the banks of the Wolga and the delta of that river. In 1770 he sailed on the Caspian Sea, explored its western coast, visited Derbend and Baku, and the mouths of the Boor, and wintered at Eazelly. In the fol lowing year he continued his tour along the southern coast, visited the I'ersian provinces of Ghilan and Mazanderan, and then returned to Astrakhan, where he prepared the narrative of his journey for the press. He next visited the colony of Sarepta, and crossed the Kooman steppes to Mosdok. In 1773 he again left Astrakhan, for his
second and last voyage on the Caspian, and aft.r exploring several parts of the Persian coast, ho left his ship at Euzelly, and proceeded, in January 1774, by land, to Baku, and thence to Derbend. Being peremptorily ordered away by the khan, or governor of that place, he endeavoured to reach by land Kisliar, the nearest Russian settlement on that side, but was seized on the road by a party of the Kaitak tribe, whose khau Uemey confined him iu a prison at Achmetkent, in the mountains of the Caucasus, where he died of ill-health and bad treatment, in June 1774. The Empress Catherine provided for his widow. His travels, 'Raise durch Roseland zur untersuchung der dreg Natur Reiche,' in 4 parts, with numerous plates, were published at St. Petersburg. The last volume contains a biographical notice of the author. Gmelin wrote also Historia Fncorum,' and made other contributions to natural history.