MEMOIR OF LEOPOLD VON BUCH. 3G5 



of Ills came at last to be regardetl, by tlie villagers among whom lie passed, 

 somewhat iu the light of those of the benevolent genii of the old German legends. 

 Each season saw him return, at a stated time, to the paternal manor, where a 

 brother, Avho was blind, awaited him, and whom he would allow no one but 

 himself to conduct to the waters of Carlsbad. 



In 1S04, Vesuvius having shown some signs of disturbance, he repaired 

 thither anew ; this time in company with MM. dc Humboldt and Gay Lussac. 

 The combined observations of these eminent men resulted in a scientiiic expo- 

 sition of all the effects associated with volcanic eruptions. Vibrations of the 

 earth were recognized as their inseparable concomitants ; the nature of the 

 gases exhaled, the composition of the lavas, the force, development, and dura- 

 tion of these terrible phenomena were all, for the first time, submitted to a 

 discriminative examination. 



Nominated, in 180G, a member of the Academy of Sciences of lierlin, Von 

 Buch read, on the occasion, a discourse on the progression of forms in nature. 

 The philosophic view of the succession of beings had been advanced l)y Buffon, 

 and the recent labors of Cuvier had furnished a wonderful commentary. Ger- 

 many was struck with admiration at these sublime views, derived from France. 

 In this discourse the author paints the successive gradations of the creation ; 

 inorganic bodies serving for elements in a world which is preparing for animated 

 beings ; animated beings taking their place one after the other, from the most 

 simple up to the most complicated ; up to man, the last term of the progress, 

 whose appearance suggests these striking words : "To the existence of this 

 being, the freest and most exalted of all, a vast concourse of physical causes 

 was necessary. He alone encompasses the globe from one pole to the other ; 

 detaches himself, by an internal force, from matter ; elevates himself above it, 

 and, this achieved, who shall presume to trace for him a limit?" 



Some thirty years before the date of these expressions the famous book of 

 Pontoppidan had, in some sort, revealed to Europe countries which belong to 

 it, but which were then as little known as certain tracts of India or America. 

 The soil of the Scandinavian peninsula — at that time a vii-giu one, as regards 

 researches — held out to Von Buch a promise of new impressions. No sooner, 

 in fact, does he arrive at Christiana,* than he finds mountains of porphyry 

 resting on limestone, and enormous masses of granite supported by fossil-bearing 

 strata. Thus was the last blow given to his early faith, and from this time he 

 thought no more of defending Neptunism. 



He devoted two years to a study of the formations of Sweden and Norway. 

 Proceeding with his accustomed energy, sometimes by land, sometimes by sea, 

 he explored the singularly indented coasts of the Scandinavian peninsula, 

 ascending as far as the barren rocks of the North cape. He was occupied -with 

 the solution of an imposing problem. 



Eor more than a half century the inhabitants of the coast thought they had 

 observed a gradual depression of the level of the sea. At tlie suggestion of the 

 celebrated astronomer Celsius there had been marks cut in the rocks at Gefle 

 and Calmar. Linnajus had himself traced a level on a block, which he describes 

 with botanical precision. Here a maritime city having become an inland one ; 

 there an arm of the sea having been transformed into a highway ; and all tra- 

 dition concurring, the people of the country could no longer doubt of a diminu- 



• * Porphyries in huge masses, iu mountains even, are seated ou a calcareous, slioll-bearing 

 rock. These porphyries again arc covered by a sienite almost entirely composed of feldspar 

 in large beds, and this sienite is buried under a granite which is in nowise distinguished, as 

 regards its composition, from a granite of the most ancient formation. 



^' These phenomena, which give undoubtedly great geological interest to the environs of 

 Christiana, have been observed with niucli sagacity, and described by M. llaussmann, pro- 

 fessor at Giittingen, in a special mcuioir, inserted iu the journal of the Baron de Moll." — ( ^on 

 Buch, Voyage en Noriccgc et en Laponie.) 



