6 Biographical Memoir of the late Friedrich Hoffmann. 



necessary, for experiments. He had already at Gottingen 

 formed a mineralogical collection, which contained more than 

 could have been expected from his position as a beginner, the 

 shortness of the time, and the limited extent of his means. 



The more he advanced in knowledge at Berlin, the stronger 

 became Hoffmann's desire to enter on some field for personal 

 observations, which should be more productive for his studies 

 than the Mark Brandenburg. As at first he did not possess the 

 means of making a longer journey, he again directed his course, 

 Tsx the summer of 1820, to the nearest mountains — the Hartz — 

 without having any very special object in view. But he had hard- 

 ly crossed the Elbe, and traversed a portion of the hilly Vorland 

 between Magdeburg and Helmstadt, when his researches assum- 

 ed a definite and fruitful direction. Astonished hy the sight of 

 the alternation of the numerous mountain-rocks occurring there; 

 ccanbined with the remarkable phenomena of the parallelism of 

 Ibe lines of direction and the position of the strata, regarding 

 which some of the more remarkable facts were then unknown : 

 the thought struck him, that the study of the newer rocks, 

 which previously had been much neglected in Germany, viz., 

 «f their geographical distribution in the north-western portion 

 «f his native country, and their connection with similar forma- 

 tions in England, would fill up a great blank in the science. 

 This idea was the germ of all his subsequent investigations in 

 that district, and he followed it up indefatigably for eight years. 

 It is undoubtedly a striking trait of his truly scientific cha- 

 racter, that, with all the ardour of youthful enthusiasm, he still 

 itc<t only w^as attracted by remarkable and important pheno- 

 »CQa, but that, dwelling even upon those appearances which 

 were obscure and concealed, he could not be satisfied until he 

 IeskI unravelled all the relations to his satisfaction. He felt 

 .lA»it it would be of importance to devote a considerable period 

 entirely to the special geognostical examination of a portion of 

 Germany but little known ; and for that purpose he visited du- 

 jjBg the following year the districts near the Weser, and the 

 tnets of country lying between ihem and the outer extremity 

 «f tbe Hartz Mountains. With the view of furnishing as per- 

 fct a map as possible of the distribution of the formations, and 

 enabling the individual observers resident in the country, 



