THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 165 



to Edinburgh. Particulars of his discoveries with 

 regard to the old Norwegian colonists who some 

 900 years previously had settled on the east coast of 

 Greenland, were afterwards published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xiv. ; and one 

 of his charts of the west coast of Greenland was in 

 the museum of the Royal Dublin Society. Before 

 leaving Greenland, Giesecke shipped for Copenhagen 

 a quantity of valuable minerals, which were captured 

 by a French privateer. Being recaptured by an English 

 frigate, the collection was brought to Leith, where it 

 was purchased by Mr. Allan, a banker of Edinburgh. 

 Giesecke went thither in pursuit of his collection, and 

 became a warm friend of Allan, who introduced him 

 to Sir George Mackenzie, whose friendship he also 

 gained. Soon after, Giesecke became a candidate for 

 the professorship of mineralogy in the Dublin Society, 

 to which, as we have seen, he was appointed. 



The school became famous, and Mr. Isaac Weld, 

 one of the secretaries, in 1 83 1, spoke of its head as 

 " one whose superlative attainments in the science were 

 acknowledged from one end of Europe to the other." 

 The collection of minerals in the museum numbered 

 30,000 specimens, including gieseckite. 1 At the time 

 of his appointment, Giesecke was unable to lecture in 

 English, but undertook to devote himself to its study, 

 which he did with such success that in a short time 

 he spoke the language with ease. He was soon able 

 to report the arrangement of the Leskean museum, 

 and of his own Greenland collection, which he pre- 

 sented to the Society. On 22nd May 18 17, a gold 

 medal, with inscription, was presented to Sir Charles 

 Giesecke, at a meeting of the Society, when the 



1 Gieseckite is a hydrous silicate of aluminium and potassium of the 

 mica group, named after Giesecke, who brought it from Greenland. 



