206 Professor Hoffmann on the Geological Investigations 



to science, without attending to any distracting occupations 

 whatever, that have at all times most materially contributed 

 to its advancement. 



Earlier Investigations in Germany. — After he had com- 

 menced the study of geognosy at Freiberg, under the special 

 superintendence of Werner, Von Buch opened the career of 

 his own observations by the examination of the mountainous 

 tracts of Silesia, which are so rich in important phenomena. 

 In the year 1797, he finished his little separate work, entitled 

 " Attempt at a Mineralogical Description of Landeck," {Ver- 

 such einer nmieralogischen Beschreihung von Landeckj Bres- 

 lau, 1797.*) This essay, which immediately excited attention, 

 is still a very useful contribution to the knowledge of that 

 interesting district ; but it is more especially to be recom- 

 mended for perusal, because it may be regarded as a model of 

 simple and clear representation, and of luminous and concise 

 description. When Von Buch prepared it, he still transferred 

 to nature all the geognostical views adopted by Werner ; and 

 we find in it a most vigorous defence of the Neptunian origin 

 of basalt, which we may now consider as an instructive docu- 

 ment for enabling us to judge of the state of the science at 

 that period. Here we have not only presented to us, as the 

 result of careful study, all the cases in which organic remains 

 had been observed in basalt, but it is, moreover, shewn, that 

 the basalts of Silesia rest on the most diversified older and 

 younger rocks, even on such as are older than the coal-forma- 

 tion, and hence, by the application of the Wernerian doctrine 

 as to the origin of volcanos, that they cannot have been pro- 

 duced by volcanic agency. 



Immediately after the publication of Buch's description of 

 a detached mountainous district, there appeared his geognos- 

 tical description of Silesia, which is dedicated to Werner 

 himself. This is accompanied by a geognostical map of Si- 

 lesia, which is wonderfully complete for the period at which 

 it was executed, and which has only recently been perfect- 

 ed and extended by the detailed observations of Von Raumer, 

 Von Oeynhausen, Zobel, and Von Carnall. The descrip- 



* Translated into English by Dr Charles Anderson of Leith, 18 10^ 



