OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. 



599 



of Natural History in the University of Toronto, 

 Canada ; died there, aged about 70 years. He 

 was the second son of the Hon. Francis 

 Hincks, a noted political leader of Canada, and 

 early distinguished himself as a naturalist. 

 He was the first Professor of Natural History 

 in Queen's College, Cork, and had held that 

 position in the University of Toronto since 

 1853. 



July . KORSAKOFF, Lieutenant - General 

 M. S., Governor-General of Eastern Siberia 

 for the past ten years ; died in St. Petersburg, 

 aged 44 years. His family was one of the most 

 noted in Russia, and enjoyed the favor of the 

 Emperor Nicholas to such an extent that he 

 was envied for the rapidity of his promotion, 

 which was due to the kindly interest of the 

 Czar in his behalf. He was sent to Siberia in 

 1845, with the rank of second-lieutenant, and 

 attached to the staff of General Mouravieff, at 

 that time Governor- General. So rapid was 

 his promotion through all the grades, that he 

 was made a general of brigade in 1853, and a 

 major-general two or three years later. He 

 commanded a division of the army that de- 

 scended the Amoor in 1854-'55, and wrest- 

 ed the valley of that river from China. Af- 

 terward he devoted his attention to colonizing 

 the new country, and much of the prosperity of 

 Eastern Siberia is due to his enlightened poli- 

 cy. A map of that territory, issued under his 

 auspices, includes several provinces of North- 

 ern China drawn with such minuteness, that it 

 is fair to presume that he expected to bring 

 them, ere long, under the Muscovite banner. 

 In person. General Korsakoff was of medium 

 height, fair complexion, blue eyes, and Saxon 

 hair, and his face was one of unusual beauty. 

 His manners were affable and winning in the 

 extreme. He was a warm friend of America 

 and the Americans, and never omitted an op- 

 portunity to show his appreciation of the Great 

 Republic. 



July . OSSORIO, JUAN BATTTISTA, a Cuban 

 patriot, admiral of the Cuban fleet ; died a 

 martyr in the cause of Cuban liberty, aged 

 32 years. He was a native of Havana, and 

 early in life held a position in the Spanish 

 Navy. Strongly devoted to the cause of his 

 oppressed country, he joined the revolutionary 

 movement, and soon signalized himself by a 

 daring act. The Spanish steamship Comman- 

 datorio, engaged in mercantile traffic, sailed 

 about two years ago, from Havana, bound for 

 Cardenas. Ossorio was purser, and he, with 

 other Cubans on board, resolved to capture 

 the vessel in the name of the new republic. 

 All the conspirators were armed. Selecting a 

 favorable night, they pinioned the Spaniards 

 on board, and, taking charge of the vessel, en- 

 deavored to make the port of Nassau. But, 

 while trying to evade the Spanish cruisers, the 

 Commandatorio ran ashore, and was aban- 

 doned on the Cuban coast, where the conspir- 

 ators ran imminent danger of capture. They 

 managed, however, to evade the Spanish scouts, 



and escaped from the island. Undeterred by 

 this disaster, Ossorio continued faithful to the 

 national cause, and accompanied several expe- 

 ditions which sailed from this country for 

 Cuba. He fell into the hands of the Spaniards, 

 early in July, who inhumanly hanged him from 

 the yard-arm of the Neptune, at Nuevitas. All 

 accounts testify that he was a brave, active, 

 and intelligent officer. 



July . SOMMEILLIER, GERMANE, an emi- 

 nent Italian engineer ; died in Savoy. He was 

 the leading promoter of the Mont-Cenis Tunnel 

 project, which he commended in a pamphlet 

 twenty years ago. The control of that stu- 

 pendous undertaking was assumed by him, and 

 he had the satisfaction of seeing it virtually 

 completed before his death. 



Aug. 22. LABROUSSE, NICOLAS HIPPOLYTE, 

 a French savant, admiral of the French Navy, 

 committed suicide. He was born July IV, 1807, 

 entered the naval school in 1822, and the naval 

 service as ensign in 1829. He devoted him- 

 self very early to the improvement of the con- 

 struction of naval vessels. In 1834, while yet 

 only an ensign, he made some important in- 

 ventions in spherical cartridges, and the ex- 

 ercise of marines in loading and firing in broad- 

 side. He was made lieutenant in 1835, and 

 in 1840 drew some plans of ships-of-the-line, 

 and coast-guard vessels with iron spurs, or 

 rams, thus antedating the English and Ameri- 

 can rams by almost twenty years. He was 

 also a pioneer in the construction of steam- 

 ships-of-war, and iron war-vessels with beaks 

 or rams. In 1858 he was the inventor of 

 a plan for hollow-iron masts and iron-wire 

 rigging for armored vessels, and designed some 

 of the best armored ships of the French Navy. 

 He became commander in 1843, captain in 

 1853, rear-admiral in 1860, vice-admiral in 

 1867, and admiral in 1870. He was a mem- 

 ber of the Admiralty Board in 1863, and its 

 president from 1867 to 1870. He was a Com- 

 mander of the Legion of Honor. 



Aug. 22. ZAHN, JOHN CHARLES WILLIAM, a 

 German architect and designer, superintendent 

 of excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii ; 

 died at Berlin. He was born at Rodenburg, 

 Hesse, August 21, 1800, and was the son of a 

 painter. He studied in the Academy of Cas- 

 sel, and in 1822 went to Paris, and thence 

 to Italy, Naples, and Sicily, for the purpose of 

 studying the ruins of ancient monuments. Af- 

 ter his return to Paris, he published "Paint- 

 ings and Frescoes newly discovered at Pom- 

 peii," and commenced his grand collection for 

 the " Ornaments and Paintings most remark- 

 able in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabies," 

 published at Berlin, in three volumes, with one 

 hundred plates, printed by the lithographic 

 process, then little known. In 1830 he was 

 made Professor of the Academy of Arts in 

 Berlin, but subsequently obtained leave of ab- 

 sence, and returned to Italy. From this period 

 until 1840 he spent his time in Naples, Pom- 

 peii, Calabria, and Sicily, occupied in discov- 



