WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 243 



about this ardent votary of nature. Strong and healthy, 

 neither wind nor rain interfered with her fieldwork in 

 botany or paleontology. It was her greatest pleasure to 

 roam through dark forests and scale high mountains in 

 search of new species of plants and fossils. And the suc- 

 cess which rewarded her efforts was such that the old and 

 trained naturalists among her male friends had reason to 

 envy her good fortune as an explorer. 



But Frau Kablick never permitted her frequent excur- 

 sions, or her devotion to science, to cause her to neglect 

 the duties of her household. Fortunately, her husband was 

 also an ardent student of nature, and while his wife was 

 devoting her attention to botany and paleontology, he was 

 making investigations in zoology and mineralogy. They 

 spent fifty happy years together in the pursuit of science 

 and their joint efforts contributed not a little toward the 

 advancement of the branches of science to which they had 

 devoted their lives with such well-directed effort and en- 

 thusiasm. 



As the fruitful life of Josephine Kablick who had shed 

 such luster on her sex in Bohemia was drawing to a close, 

 a young woman in Germany, Amalie Dietrich by name, was 

 preparing herself to fill the void which would be occasioned 

 by her predecessor 's death. Her first love, as a young girl, 

 was plant life, and this was subsequently accentuated by 

 her husband, who was not only a botanist himself but also 

 one who belonged to a distinguished family of botanists. 



A keen observer and an indefatigable collector, Frau 

 Dietrich soon became known throughout Europe as a bot- 

 anist of marked ability and daring. She was wont, unac- 

 companied, to climb the highest peaks of the Salzburg 

 Alps, and spend entire weeks there seeking new species of 

 Alpine flora. During the day she explored the deep ra- 

 vines and clambered along the brambly ledges of beetling 

 precipices, and during the night she sought shelter and 

 repose in the humble hut of some hospitable herdsman. 



