782 ■ KARL ALFRED VON ZITTEL. 



lection — he made one of the <>reatest and most important scientifically 

 of the world. At Munich he founded the most renowned chair, the 

 largest school of paleontoloo-y, and quickly made evident the truth 

 of the prediction of M. Homes in 1866, when Zittel was called to 

 Munich : ' Through Zittel the leading j^osition in paleontology, which 

 heretofore Vienna has held, will be transferred to Munich.' 



" Here Zittel was recognized without envy by the entire scientific 

 world as the master of paleontology, the teacher of paleontologists." 



A. S. Woodward has stated : '• For more than thirt}^ years he had 

 been acknowledged as the leading exponent of the science Avhich is 

 intimately connected wirh the progress both of geology and biology. 

 For a still longer period his charming personality had combined with 

 his wide reputation to attract to the Palaeontological Museum at 

 Munich students of the natural sciences from all civilized nations." 



Tlie master of modern paleontology passed away in Karl Alfred 

 von Zittel. This was clearly shown during his life, and was also 

 acknowledged in the numerous memorials Avhich have been written of 

 the great dead by Branco, Canavari. Dacque, I)iener,(Tiinther, Hiegel, 

 Jaekel, Kitchen, Osborn, Pomj^eckj, Kothpletz, and Woodward. 



Zittel traveled extensively in the interests of geology; he made 

 numerous trips to the Alps, Avent twice into Scandinavia, England, 

 and North America, and more often to France and Italy, Russia and 

 Algeria. 



His first publications relate to minerals, mineral localities, and 

 petrography. He next assisted in majiping the geology of Dalmatia. 

 and then of Baden. In glacialogy he proved, in bSTH, that during 

 Diluvial tin)e the glaciers extended across the folds of the Bavarian 

 Alps far over the foreland of tlie upper Bavarian North Alps; and 

 that to the Avork of glaciers is due the present topographic- and oro- 

 graphic picture of the Bavarian high table-land. 



In the winter of 1873-74 he Avas geologist on the Rohlfs expedition 

 across the Libyan desert to the Siuah (SiAva) oasis. Of this then 

 terra incognita he constructed a geologic map covering the region 

 traveled, and shoAved by means of his abundant collections of fossils 

 that the limestone plateau forming the base of the desert is of Eocene 

 and Miocene age; further, that these are superposed on youngest 

 Cretaceous or Upper Devonian, Avith a fauna indicating that this 

 constituted a part of the Indian Cretaceous basin. The Sahara until 

 then Avas believed to haA'e been coA^ered by the diluvial sea, and this 

 fact lent itself to a ready ex})lanation of (lie causes of the Glacial 

 period in Europe. Zittel, hoAvever, exploded the niylli of the Sahara 

 sea by shoAving that during Diluvial time Sahara Avas land, and that 

 the sand of the desert was not formed by the action of sea AvaA'es, but 

 is due to weathering of the older sandstones. 



