114 Miscellaneous, 



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

 pedition in order to carry on natural-history investigations on 

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

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

 Cairo in 1823, and then examined the northern coasts of the Red 

 Sea and especially the Sinaitic mountains. "While Hemprich conveyed 

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

 city awaiting remittances, Ehrenbcrg remained for six months in 

 Tor, occupying himself principally with the corals of the Red Sea. 



The two naturalists afterwards undertook a third journey, into Syria 

 and Coelosyria ; they penetrated as far as Baalbec, and reached the 

 snowy summits of Lebanon. Their further journey was commenced 

 in 1825 ; 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 1826. 

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

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

 the year 1826, 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 year 1827 Ehrenberg was made an Extraordinary Professor 

 in the University of Berlin, and on the application 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 ' Symbolae physicse,' with copperplates re- 

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

 1834. 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 Nord- 

 afrika und "Westasien in den Jaliren 1820-26, 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. g. on the Manna of the Tamarisks, on the Scorpions 

 and their geographical distribution, on'the Monkeys 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 Red 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 Russian empire, has been well described 

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



On his return, Ehrenberg devoted himself exclusively to micro- 

 scopical researches ; and in 1830 he published a memoir on the orga- 

 nization, classification, and geographical distribution of the Infusoria, 

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

 r Academic Roy ale de Paris ; ' — " This discovery entirely changes 



