INTRODUCTION. 89 



incredulous reception by Werner and his adherents. One of 

 those, Jens Esmarch, afterwards Professor of Geology in the 

 University of Christiania, travelled through the districts which 

 Fichtel had described. In all the localities where Fichtel had 

 found evidence of the igneous as opposed to the aqueous origin 

 of the primitive rocks, Esmarch could see only a confirmation 

 of Werner's teaching (Short Description of a Journey through 

 Hungary^ Transylvania^ and the Banat Mountains, Freiberg, 



1797). 



The writings of the energetic but somewhat eccentric 

 traveller Hacquet J in many respects supplemented the works 

 of Fichtel. 



Racquet's records of his journeys in the Carpathian and 

 Transylvanian mountains were, however, written towards the 

 close of his active life. His fame is based upon another work, 

 the Oryctograpkia Carniolica, a study of the surface conforma- 

 tion of Carniola, Istria, and neighbouring districts (4 vols., 

 Leipzig, 1778-89). This monograph, which was modelled 

 after the pattern of the Swiss geologists, Scheuchzer and De 

 Saussure, represented the fruit of twenty years' residence in 

 Carniola, and disclosed for the first time something of the 

 mineralogical and physical structure of the more remote 

 southern ranges of the Alps. A geographical map was 

 published along with the work. 



The scenic character and physical relations of the country, 

 as well as the customs and character of the population, are 

 excellently depicted. But in the geological portion the author 

 unfortunately confined himself to a barren description of the 

 individual occurrences of rocks, minerals, and fossils, without 

 attempting to give a general conception of the structure. 

 During the years 1781-86, Hacquet extended his knowledge of 

 the Alps by travelling through the Dinaric, Julie, Rhsetic, and 

 Noric Alps. He then published a work of a more mineral- 

 ogical and geological character upon these districts, but he did. 

 not succeed in arriving at any real appreciation of the broad 

 features of Alpine structure. 



This was a task even beyond the greater powers of Leopold 



1 Balthazar Hacquet (1739-1815) had a varied career. Born in Brittany, 

 he became a surgeon ; in that capacity he attached himself to the Austrian 

 Army throughout the Seven Years' War. At the close of the war he taught 

 Surgery at the Lyceum of Laibach, and in 1788 he was made Professor of 

 Natural History and Surgery in the University of Lemberg. 



