114 Miscellaneous. 



return to Alexandria, the two naturalists quitted the General's ex- 

 pedition in order to carry on nutural-history investigations on 

 their own account. They traced the Nile upwards as far as Emhu- 

 kolil in Dongola, made an excursion into the Fayoom, returned to 

 Cairo in 1 8:2;{, and then examined the northern coasts of the Eed 

 Sea and especially the Sinaitic mountains. While Hcmprich conveyed 

 the collections they had made to Alexandria, and remained in that 

 city awaiting remittances, Ehrenherg remained for six months in 

 Tor. occujning himself i)rinoipallj- with the corals of the Hed Sea. 



The two naturalists afterwards undertook a third journey, into Syria 

 and Crelosyi-ia ; they penetrated as far as liaalhec, and reached the 

 snowv summits of Lebanon. Their further journey was commenced 

 in 182o ; it carried them through Arabia to Loheia and across to 

 Massowa on the Abyssinian coast. Here Hemprich fell a victim to 

 fever ; and his friend committed him to the grave on the small island 

 of Toalut. Ehrenberg then made an excursion to the hot springs of 

 Eilet, and returned by Kosseir and Alexandria to Europe in 1 S2(i. 

 During the six years of his absence he lost nine of his European 

 companions by death. In the ifemoirs of the Berlin Academy for 

 the vear 182(i, Alexander von Humboldt gave a preliminary report 

 upon these great travels and the important collections which had 

 reached Berlin through Ehrenberg and Hemprich. 



In the vear 1827 EhrenbeTg was made an Extraordiiuxry Professor 

 in the University of Berlin, and on the apjdication of Alexander von 

 Humboldt obtained, through the minister Von Altenstein, the means 

 of making known the scientific results of his travels. In consequence 

 of this, two volumes of ' Symbola) physicae,' with copperplates re- 

 presenting mammals, birds, insects, &c., appeared in the years 1828- 

 18.'U. Unfortunately circumstances were unfavourable to a conti- 

 nuation of the work. 



A short historical sketch of the first part of his travels appeared 

 in 1828 under the title " Naturgeschichtliche Reisen durch Xord- 

 afrika und Westasien in den Jaliren 1820-2(j, von Hemprich und 

 Ehrenberg." In 1827, Ehrenberg had already published a descrip- 

 tion of the deserts in the Memoirs of the Academy. He also pub- 

 lished some of his observations upon various subjects in different 

 periodicals, e. </. on the Manna of the Tamarisks, on the Scorpions 

 and their geographical distribution, on'the ^lonkeys of Sennaar and 

 Kordofan, on the peculiar noise heard on Djebel Nakuss among the 

 mountains of Sinai, and on the Corals and Acalephae of the lied Sea. 



The journey to the Ural and the Altai and to the Chinese frontier, 

 undertaken in 1829 by Alexander von Humboldt at the desire of the 

 Emperor Nicholas, principally for the purpose of bringing to light 

 the mineral riches of the Ilussian empire, has been well described 

 by Gustav Hose, who, with Ehrenberg, accompanied Humboldt. 



On his return, Ehrenberg devoted himself exclusively to micro- 

 scopical researches ; and in 1 830 he published a memoir on the orga- 

 nization, classification, and geographical distribution of the Infusoria, 

 of which Cuvier speaks as follows in tlie ' Analyse des travaux de 

 rAcaderaie lloyale dc Paris : ' — " This discovery entirely changes 



