922 FERDINAND, FREIHERR VON RICHTHOFEN. 



under the inspiration of Ritter, he became acquainted with a man 

 who had travelled in the Orient and thus attained his first interest 

 in that portion of the world in which he travelled later. Von Richt- 

 hofen's thesis for the doctorate was entitled " Ueber den Melaphyr," 

 and was published in 1856. From this time until 1860 he was engaged 

 in geological surveys in southern Tyrol and in the Carpathian Moun- 

 tains. His writings during this period dealt principally with the 

 dolomites of the Tyrol, which he concluded were formed as coral 

 reefs, and with precious metal deposits associated with Carpathian 

 volcanics. 



In 1860, with the rank of a Legation secretary, he joined a Prussian 

 expedition under the leadership of Count Eulenburg, to visit Siam, 

 China, and Japan. He left the expedition in Siam and proceeded to 

 Ceylon where he showed that laterite could be derived from the 

 decomposition of many kinds of rocks. His travels took him to Java, 

 the Celebes, the Philippines, Formosa, Japan, China, and Burma, 

 and in 1862 he went to California. Six years were spent in Cali- 

 fornia and Nevada, the results of the work being his memoirs on the 

 Comstock Lode (1866) and his "Natural System of Volcanic Rocks" 

 (1868). 



The next four years were spent in the exploration of China, gather- 

 ing material for his monumental work, "China." He discovered the 

 vast coal fields of Shantung, thereby emphasizing the economic 

 importance of China, and he advised his government to select Kiao 

 Chau as a naval base for the Far East. In 1872 he returned to 

 Germany to work up the results of his travels, and three years later 

 the University of Bonn elected him to the chair of geography, but 

 permitted him to complete the first part of the work on China before 

 assuming his professorship in 1879. From Bonn he went to Leipzig 

 in 1883, and to Berlin in 1886. At the University of Berlin he taught 

 until the end of his life. 



Richthofen's gieatest work, "China," appeared in five volumes, the 

 first being issued in 1877, the last in 1912. In the first volume there 

 is an elaborate history of China and a statement of his evidence con- 

 cerning the origin of loess. He held that loess was an eolian deposit 

 formed on broad, open steppes, contrary to the belief of Pumpelly 

 that the loeiss of Mongolia was deposited in lakes. These conclusions 

 have since been confirmed by the discover}' of similar deposits of 

 loess in Central Europe, Germany, and the Mississippi Valley, asso- 

 ciated with a steppe fauna. In 1907 Richthcfen's "Tagebiicher aus 

 China," in two volumes, was published. 



