Dec. 1, 1831] 
NATURE 
III 
in which he gives the sum of his own practical experience, 
with a digest of what had been done by others. Though 
much of these two little pocket volumes has been super- 
seded by the progress of science, they remain as an 
admirable summary of the geology of their time, while 
many of their sound practical directions may be usefully 
read and remembered in all time coming. The closing 
sentences of the preface may be quoted here for their 
personal reference. ‘‘ Thrown from my earliest days on 
the highways of the world, as most of my kin have 
been, having spent my life among seven capitals of 
Europe, and having near relatives in a dozen cities of 
the north-west and centre of this continent, my travelling 
disposition may be easily understood, and my irresistible 
tendency to a vagabond life. I was left an orphan at 
eleven years, and became entirely master of my own 
movements at twenty. This want of a fixed residence, 
this facility of moving about and making myself at home 
everywhere, adopting the customs and language of each 
country, must naturally have taught me to travel, and 
may to some extent excuse my pretension to say more on 
these matters than others. I have traversed a good part 
or Europe, and have been able to examine in detail all 
the formations of this continent. In spite of trying 
adventures, it is no mere invalid who now speaks and 
bids adieu to an active life, but one who, having seen 
much during a period of twenty years, believes that he 
may usefully recapitulate his observations for the benefit 
of his fellows, before again starting on the wandering life 
to which fate seems to have condemned him. The West 
flees from me, the East summons me; my grave shall be 
where heaven may please.’’ During one of his sojourns 
in Paris he and a few others founded the present dis- 
tinguished Geological Society of France. In a letter 
which I had from him at the time of the jubilee of the 
Society last year, he writes; “ The Geological Society of 
France was created in my library room, April 1, 1830; 
present were Brongniart (Alex.), Cordier, Férussac, 
Blainville, Constant Prevost, Jobert—all dead. [This 
is not quite correctly remembered ; for the meeting took 
place on March 17, 1830, in the rooms of the Philomathic 
Society of Paris, Boué himself in the chair.] They 
wish I should preside at this solemn meeting, but at 
eighty-six years of age, with my infirmities, it was impos- 
sible.”’ He was one of the early presidents of the Society, 
and through life continued to take a paternal interest in 
its welfare. 
Some forty years ago or more, after many wanderings 
in Austria and the adjacent countries, Boué obtained a 
piece of land at Véslau, on the last spurs of the Eastern 
Alps, looking over the great plain which stretches east- | 
wards to the Carpathian mountains. There were at the 
time few or no houses about the place, and the three or 
four acres acquired by Boué were a free gift from the 
proprietor to encourage building there. Now it is a 
fashionable watering-place for the Viennese, with nume- 
rous villas and hotels gathered round a copious hot 
spring, the water from which is caught in a swimming 
basin. I visited the veteran there in 1869, and found 
him established for the summer among his vineyards and 
his orchard well stocked with quinces, almonds, peaches, 
and apples. He had no children, but had adopted as a 
daughter a relative of his wife. It wascharming to see the 
enthusiasm with which he threw himself into everything 
that he did. In spite of severe suffering and numerous 
operations of lithotomy he still retained, for an old man of 
seventy-five, an extraordinary vigour and vivacity. He 
made wine enough not only to supply his own needs, but 
to sell to the dealers, and looked after every detail of the 
process as if wine-making had all along been the only 
occupation of his life. He took me with him on some 
interesting excursions in the neighbourhood, and warm 
though the weather was, he walked at a pace to which 
even young geologists are not accustomed in this country, 
| are German hospitals or barracks. . 
| It was delightful, too, to listen to his reminiscences of old 
times. He had known most of the geologists of note of 
the century, and had corresponded with all of them. He 
had amusing little personal recollections to give, mostly 
in English, which he would now and then, when the 
words failed him, exchange for German. He remem- 
bered down to the minutest details his life at Edinburgh 
and his rambles in Scotland. Now and then in a pause 
of our talk, as his memory drifted back again into the old 
student days, his face would lighten up with a sudden 
gleam of satisfaction as he would question me as to some 
quarry or brook-section he had visited more than half a 
century before, and which stood out as distinctly as if it 
were again in front of him. At his town house in Vienna, 
whither he used to return for the winter, he showed me his 
tabulated geological indices, in which he said that every 
geological work or memoir published in his time in every 
language was catalogued. It is much to be desired that 
these indices, which were carefully written out by himself, 
should be promptly published. They are particularly 
full, I believe, in the department of physical geology. 
Up to the last he retained his interest in the progress of 
the science, and communicated thoughtful papers on the 
work of others when no longer able to make original re- 
searches himself. The many long letters he wrote to 
me were always full of gossip as to the doings of his 
friends in Vienna, and shrewd remarks on passing events, 
scientific or otherwise. They were always in English, as 
I have said, but often with such strange idioms and spel- 
ling as occasionally made their meaning not very clear. 
I am tempted to give a quotation from one which I re= 
ceived from him in November, 1870, during the time of 
the Franco-German war :—“I was retain to late in the 
country this year by bad weather. My vintage did 
protract itself so late in October that we are hardly 
established comfortably now in town. Besides, the 
dreadful war preoccupations did take me all time from 
thinking at scientific matter, and now perhaps that dis- 
tress will approach till nearer our abode. When you 
will know that I have very good and near parents in both 
armies and you perceive the possibility of parents killing 
themselves without recognising themselves, nor having 
the opportunity to do so, you will understand that I have 
often headach when I ride the newspapers or hear from 
the quite useless slaughters which have been prevented 
only by those men at the head of the human Society. I 
have parents in Paris, other exiled in Spain in England 
in Switzerland. The country houses of some by Paris 
.. As descending 
from Frenchmen I fill myself quite happy to be a German 
and to have remain such my whole life on.” 
With the regret that accompanies the severance of a 
tie that links us with so many interesting associations of 
the past there mingles in no common measure the feeling 
of personal bereavement. Retired for so many years in 
his Austrian retreat, Boué kept up the freshness of his 
youthful sympathy with progress and the kindliness of 
his hearty exuberant nature. May the dust lie light on 
his honoured head! To have even seen his round, good- 
natured face and sparkling eye was something to remember 
with satisfaction; but to have been privileged with his 
friendship was an honour the recollection of which will 
be more than ever precious to those from whom it has 
now been for ever withdrawn. 
ARCH, GEIKIE 
NOTES 
TueE International Exhibition of Smoke-abating Appliances 
at South Kensington was opened yesterday with great ¢c/a¢. 
The opening meeting was held in the Albert Hall, the Lord 
Mayor in the chair, supported by the Marquess and Marchioness 
of Lorne, Doctors Siemens and Frankland, Captain Galton, 
