582 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



there at the same time in the course of his voyage round the 

 world in the ' Galathea.' This accident, however, did not 

 prevent Burmeister from exploring the whole country and 

 making large collections in every branch of Natural History, 

 which were subsequently deposited in Halle Museum. The 

 results of this journey were given to the world in two most 

 useful works, the ' Systematische Uebersicht der Tliiere 

 Brasiliens,^ and the ' Erlauterungen zur Fauna Brasiliens/ 

 both well known to Zoologists. But Burmeister did not 

 find himself comfortable at Halle after all that had occurred, 

 and shortly afterwards returned to South America, and 

 became Director of the Public Museum of Natural History 

 at Buenos Ayres, which post he retained until shortly before 

 his death, when he received a well-earned pension. In 1861 

 he published his ' Reise durch die La Plata-Staaten^ in two 

 volumes, the second of which is devoted to a "■ Synopsis of 

 the Vertebrates of the Argentine I\epublic,^\and remains our 

 standard Avork on this subject to this day. For the past 

 thirty years, although Burmeister has communicated many 

 papers on zoological subjects to the scientific journals in 

 Europe, he has been principally occupied in studying the 

 wonderful fossil Mammals of the Argentine tertiaries, to 

 which he had devoted unceasing care and attention. The 

 results have been published mostly in the ' Anales del Museo 

 Publico de Buenos Aires,^ and are illustrated by a large 

 series of well-executed plates, after the author^s drawings, 

 Burmeister also published a Monograph of the Fossil Horses 

 of the Argentine Pampas, and undertook a large work 

 entitled 'Description Physique de la Repul)lique Argentine,' 

 with an accompanying atlas in folio. This last work was 

 commenced in 1876, but unfortunately remained incomplete 

 at the time of his death. Burmeister is succeeded in the 

 Directorship of the National Museum of Buenos Ayres by 

 his former Assistant, Dr. Carlos Berg. 



