l^LIE DE BEAUMONT. 



607 



Still more accurate catalogue of the stars to be made, by a combined 

 effort of astronomers in the principal countries of the civilized world ; 

 and his directions for making these observations are a masterpiece of 

 practical astronomy. 



Argelander's position as an astronomer is a most elevated one ; he 

 was not a deep mathematician, but in his specialty, ste;lar astronomy, 

 surpassed all save Bessel and Wilhelm Struve. His works must be 

 thoroughly studied by any one who wishes to attain to any eminence 

 in the same studies. They are almost absolutely faultless ; and the 

 keenness of his criticism of others is everywhere made doubly effective 

 by the gentleness and kindness of his tone, and his care never to omit 

 giving due commendation to the same works. The founders of the 

 modern German school of practical a>tronomy — Bessel, Gauss, W. 

 Struve, Argelander, Encke, Schumacher, Hansen — ax'e now gone 

 from us ; it remains for their disciples, of all countries, to worthily per- 

 petuate their memory. 



:ErJE DE BEAUJIOXT. 



Elie DE Beaumoxt, who died on the 24th September, 1874, was 

 born on the 2oth of the same month, 171)8, and entered the Ecole 

 Polytechnique of Paris in 1817, from which he passed to the Ecole des 

 Mines, which was to be his field of labor for a long lifetime, and with 

 the reputation of which his name will always be associated. "While yet 

 a student, he gave proof of a rare intelligence and a great devotion to 

 geolosy, which led to his early selection for what proved the chief 

 work of his life, the preparation, in conjunction with Dufrenoy, of a 

 geological map of France, for which that of England by Greenough, 

 published about this time, was to serve as model. Having completed 

 his studies in 1822 and joined the corps of mining engineers, he was 

 with Dufrenoy sent to England to get suggestions as to the work, and 

 also to collect statistics of the mining industry of the United Kingdom. 

 It was not till 1825 that the task cjf the map was commenced, a work 

 which required eighteen years for its completion. This map, with its 

 accompanying volumes of text, remains a great monument to its 

 authors and a work of national importance, not only by reason of the 

 services which it has rendered to the science of geology, but for the 

 aid given to the development of the country in every industry con- 

 nected with the earth's crust, from mining to civil engineering and 

 a<Tricultuie. In this great task Elie de Beaumont was aided by his 

 colleao-ue Dufrenoy, but his labors in connection with the geology of 



