148 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



minerals and rocks to the deepest problems in the history 

 of the globe. 1 



His influence in his time was great. Though he began 

 as a Wernerian, he gradually and almost unconsciously 

 passed into the ranks of the vulcanists. In no respect did 

 he show his independence and love of truth more than in 

 his long and enthusiastic researches among volcanoes. 

 No Vulcanist could have worked out more successfully 

 than he did the structure and history of the Canary 

 Islands. 



Among the leaders of geology in the first half of this 

 century there was no figure more familiar all over Europe 

 than that of Von Buch. Living as a bachelor, with no 

 ties of home to restrain him, he would start off from 

 Berlin, make an excursion to perhaps a distant district or 

 foreign country, for the determination of some geological 

 point that interested him, and return, without his friends 

 knowing anything of his movements. He made most of 

 his journeys on foot, and must have been a picturesque 

 object as he trudged along, stick in hand. He wore knee- 

 breeches and shoes, and the huge pockets of his overcoat 

 were usually crammed with note-books, maps, and geolo- 

 gical implements. His luggage, even when he came as 

 far as England, consisted only of a small baize bag, which 

 held a clean shirt and silk stockings. Few would have 

 supposed that the odd personage thus accoutred was one 

 of the greatest men of science of his time, an honoured 



1 Von Buch's collected writings form four large closely-printed octavo 

 volumes. The Royal Society's Catalogue assigns 153 separate papers to 

 him. For a biographical account of Yon Buch see the sketch by W. 

 Haidinger in Jahrb. Jc. k. geol. Reichsanst. Band iv. (1853), p. 207, and 

 the notices prefixed to his collected works. 



