18 MEMOIR OF 



He is of honourable lineage, and holds the rank of a 

 Prussian Baron. Fortunate in possessing ample 

 pecuniary resources, he was enabled to prosecute 

 his early studies, and his researches in after life, 

 without experiencing those privations against which 

 many other eminent men have been doomed to 

 struggle. He received his academic education at 

 Gottingen and Frankfort on the Oder. His propen- 

 sity to travel was early manifested; for in 1790 

 while only in his twenty-first year, he, in company 

 with the naturalists Forster and Geuns, not only 

 traversed part of Germany, especially the country 

 on the banks of the Rhine, but also visited Holland 

 and England. In the same year his first work, en- 

 titled " Observations on the Basalts of the Rhine," 

 appeared. In 1791 he proceeded to Freyberg, for 

 the purpose of profiting by the instructions of the 

 celebrated Werner, the founder of geological science. 

 There he devoted himself to the study of mine- 

 ralogy and botany; and two years afterwards he 

 published the results of some of his observations 

 in the mines of that district, under the title of 

 {Specimen Florae Frilergensis Sulterranece. 



Having been appointed assessor of the Council of 

 Mines at Berlin in 1792, and soon afterwards direc- 

 tor-general of the mines of the principalities of 

 Anspach and Bayreuth, in Franconia, he formed in 

 these districts several establishments of general uti- 

 lity ; among others, the public school of Streben, 

 from which there have issued several distinguished 

 persons. In 1795 he resigned his office with the 



