378 BERNHARD STUDER. 



tensely interested in geology, that he resolved to consecrate all his life 

 to the hard work of trying to disentangle the very complicated geologi- 

 cal structure of his native country, the Oberland or Bernese Alps. His 

 first work, as a sort of preliminary, was his " Monographic der Molasse," 

 published in 1825. Considering the time and the state of palaeonto- 

 lo<ncal knowledge, Studer showed capacity of the first order as a 

 minute, diligent observer, and great skill for generalization, on a prac- 

 tical geological question, very little understood until his monograph. 



Then Studer commenced in earnest his exploration of the Alps of 

 the Valais, Vaud, Fribourg, Bern, and Lucerne, publishing excellent 

 descriptions of the different large massifs of the Grand Saint-Bernard, 

 of Monte Rosa, of the Simplon, St. Gothard, the Bernese Oberland, 

 the country between the lakes of Thun and Lucerne, and his great work 

 on the Swiss Occidental Alps, with a most important Atlas, Leipzig, 

 1834. 



It can be said of him that he is the first geologist who has delineated 

 and fixed the theory of massifs of the Alps, explaining them by the 

 eruptive forces. Studer opposed sternly the opinions expressed lately 

 by Ed. Suss of Vienna, and remained to the last a partisan of the Von 

 Buch theory. 



His " Geologie der Sehweiz," in two volumes, Bern, 1851-53, is one 

 of the best resumes ever published of the geology of a whole country, — 

 clear, exact, well balanced, and extremely just towards all his contem- 

 poraries and brother geologists of the Alps and the Jura. In con- 

 nection with this masterly work, Studer published, with his friend 

 Arnold Escher von der Linth, " La Carte geologique de la Suisse," in 

 four sheets ; and a reduction in one sheet, two years later, 1855. The 

 part of Escher von der Linth relating to the Geology of the Eastern 

 Alps of Switzerland and Voralberg is on a level with Studer's re- 

 searches ; and his extremely difficult studies of the area of the cantons 

 of Uri, Unterwalden, Schwytz, Glaris, and St. Gall can compare with 

 the most complicated stratigraphy ever published in any country. 



In 1859, Studer, entirely by his own exertions and direct influence, 

 obtained from the federal government of Switzerland the organization 

 of the Geological Survey, in view of publishing a Geological Map of 

 Switzerland on the scale of 1 : 100,000. Studer was appointed Presi- 

 dent of the Commission, and until the last day of his life he directed 

 the work admirably, and succeeded almost in bringing it to its close, for 

 he saw the proof of the last sheet of the " Carte geologique de la 

 Suisse " colored on the topographical map of General Defour, shortly 

 before his death. 



