and Writmgs of Baron von Buck. ^31 



and the degree of perfection which the theory of the origin 

 of mountains has thus attained, will connect his name with 

 this part of geognosy in a manner which can never be 

 forgotten. For, although all the phenomena cannot by any 

 means be clearly explained, and although the cause cannot 

 yet be ascertained why, in a certain space of the surface of our 

 earth, the fissures follow exactly a determinate longitudinal 

 direction, and one differing from all the others in the neigh- 

 bourhood (which is also the case when there were several 

 principal fissures instead of one), yet the adoption of the ele- 

 vation of mountains on such fissures is already so abundantly 

 supported by facts, and the attempt to explain by other means 

 the parallel strike of mountain-chains leads to results so evi- 

 dently in contradiction to nature, that we may with certainty 

 assume, that the foundation thus furnished by Von Bucb, will 

 continue to become more and more established, and will never 

 be destroyed. 



Becent labours. — We have thus glanced, but in the most 

 general way, at the series of services rendered by Leopold 

 von Buch to the advancement of our science, and these ex- 

 hibit the results of the most indefatigable and honourable zeal. 

 We ought, indeed, to be proud to reckon amongst those who 

 have devoted themselves to geology, a man who has displayed 

 such brilliant genius in enlarging the sphere of human know- 

 ledge. Even now, we find him uninterruptedly occupied with 

 pursuits tending to the extension and improvement of various 

 departments of our science. His unwearied activity has pro- 

 duced a geognostical map of the whole of Germany, which, 

 next to the map of England by Greenough, that resulted 

 from the labours of the Geological Society, affords by much 

 the most perfect geognostical representation that we possess 

 of so large a portion of the surface of the earth. This map, 

 which is in forty-two sheets, first appeared in the year 1824, 

 and was published by Simon Schropp of Berlin. Since then, 

 it has passed through several editions, and has undergone 

 numerous corrections, so that, as regards a large portion of 

 Germany, but little remains in this respect to be desired. 



Leopold von Buch has lately occupied himself with organic 

 remains, and his investigations have been attended with the 



