51 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
neu-Wied, a small principality of Rhenish Prussia. He was from boy- 
hood of a studious inclination, and early became interested in the natural 
sciences. In spite of this he was in the Prussian army at the battle of 
Jena, and was among those captured by the enemy. He returned to his 
studies at the end of this war, but was among the victorious army which 
entered Paris in 1813. In this service he earned the iron cross of 
Chalons and a major-generalship. During all of this time he had been 
planning a scientific expedition to Brazil in order to satisfy a keen de- 
sire to add to.the world’s knowledge, imparted to him by the celebrated 
Professor Johann Friederich Blumenbach, of whom he was a favorite 
pupil. Early in 1815 he started for Brazil. He was joined in South 
America by two other German scholars, and the trio spent two years 
studying the flora, fauna and native races of this country. His result- 
ing publications gave him a high rank among the scientists of the period, 
and his “ Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 ” was soon 
— into the French, English and Dutch languages. 
n 1832 Prince Maximilian started on a second enterprise—a trip 
to trans-Mississippi region. He arrived in Boston on the fourth of 
July. He brought with him a very capable artist, for the express pur- 
pose of obtaining portraits of famous Indians. He made more or less 
brief visits to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and then went to 
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and thence through the coal region, reaching 
Pittsburg in the autumn. The journey was then continued overland to 
Wheeling, where they embarked for the voyage down the Ohio River. 
They turned aside for the purpose of visiting New Harmony, Indiana, 
where then was located the best library of American and natural history 
west of the Atlantic seaboard. Here the winter was spent studying 
and preparing for the journey on the Missouri River. On March 16, 
1833, the journey was resumed and they arrived in St. Louis before the 
fur-trading expeditions had left on their annual trip to the northwest. 
Following the advice of several St. Louis men, the journey was made by 
boat up the Missouri River, instead of by land, as was at first planned. 
On April 10 the journey was commenced, and by the twenty-second they 
had reached Fort Leavenworth. The expedition was continued to Fort 
McKenzie, on a branch of the Yellowstone River, among the Blackfeet 
Indians, where they remained for two months. The return trip was be- 
gun on September 14, and the succeeding winter was spent at Fort 
Clark, near the present town of Bismarck, North Dakota. The next 
spring Prince Maximilian returned to St Louis and journeyed eastward 
by way of the Ohio canal and Lake Erie to New York, where he em- 
barked for the Old World on July 16, 1834. Upon returning from the 
upper Missouri country the collections which had been made were left 
behind to be sent down the river in another steamer which was soon to 
follow the one carrying the party. A fire broke out on this steamer and 
