COLLEGE LIFE. 109 



previous to the year 1790, are characterised by an accuracy 

 which still calls for admiration.' 



Freiberg became the resort of mineralogists, geologists, and 

 miners from all quarters of the globe from Sweden, Denmark, 

 Eussia, Poland, Transylvania, Italy, England, France, Spain, 

 India, and America. On July 14, 1791, Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt entered the Academy as the 357th pupil. His reputa- 

 tion as c an interesting young student of science ' had already 

 preceded him, and his ' Observations upon the Basalts of the 

 Ehine ' secured him a warm reception from Werner. 



On June 15, the day after his arrival, he took his first 

 lesson in practical mining by a descent into the ' Elector ' with 

 Karl Freiesleben, a fellow-student, who had been appointed 

 "by Werner to be his guide during a tour of inspection through 

 the mines an expedition which interested him so much, that 

 in the following week the two young men undertook a journey 

 through the central chain of the Bohemian mountains, the 

 results of which appeared in the ' Bergmannisches Journal.' l 



Humboldt was disappointed in obtaining accommodation in 

 the buildings of the Institution, under the same roof with 

 Werner, but apartments were prepared for him in the first 

 floor of a private house, 2 at the corner of the Burggasse and 

 Weingasse, since distinguished by a tablet commemorating 

 the circumstance. From many of his expressions it may be 

 gathered that personally he was not strongly attracted to Werner, 

 whereas in the house of Freiesleben he felt as a beloved member 

 of the family, everyone being at pains to further the object 

 of his stay. It was, however, to Karl Freiesleben, his junior 

 only by two years, that he was pre-eminently attracted, and 

 to him he became devotedly attached. It was one of Hum- 

 boldt's characteristics, evinced early in life, to select, wherever 

 he might be, one particular friend upon whom to lavish the 

 full force of his affections : thus in Berlin it was Beer, later 

 Willdenow, at Frankfort Wegener, and at Hamburg Watten- 

 bach, with whom by turns he was accustomed, like his dis- 

 tinguished brother, to revel in sentimental friendship and 



1 1729, vol. i. 



2 Severer, ' Theorie und Praxis (Freiberg, 1867), p. 143. 



