8 Prof. Cotta’s Eulogy on Von Buch. 
He never communicated in advance, when and where he should 
travel; and even as he began his extensive journey to the Ca- 
nary Islands, no one in Berlin had the least intimation of it before 
his departure. The mechanician who had to construct his ba- 
rometer, could only conclude that he meant to ascend to high alti- 
tudes, as it must be arranged for the determination of heights of 
14,000 feet. 
I believe myself not to be inexperienced in wandering on foot, 
but I must however acknowledge, that I was right glad late one 
evening to have reached the terminus as we once sixteen years 
ago, wandered thirty-five miles over the mountains from Schan- 
dau to ‘Tharand. We halted for refreshment but once on the 
way, at a spring whose waters we quaffed from the goblet of 
Diogenes. Instead of stopping at an inn to rest, he halted with 
pleasure but once in a beautiful spot in the freedom of nature, 
but even there not without investigating a stone or a leaf in the 
meanwhile. At such a time he once said, “If we contemplate 
with attention any one subject of Nature, we can always find 
something new in it, should it have been investigated and de- 
scribed ever so often.” 
In this way he generally travelled, seeking however of course 
at evening as good an inn as possible, with whose signs and char- 
acters in the greatest part of Europe there was scarely any one so 
well acquainted as he. ‘ee 
, when in a distant land, winter surprised him, then indeed 
the way home on foot was no more practicablé. To travel with 
strangers however, in a stage-coach, was to him, on account o 
the possibility of coming in contact with a smoker, fundamentally 
out of the question. e therefore, before railroads were known, 
used in every case to purchase his own waggon and with extra 
post horses return home. But now as he did not possess the gift 
of selling these again in Berlin, whole collections of all sorts of 
travelling vehicles here collected on his hands, until at length 
some relative resolved upon selling them for him. But enough 
of these peculiarities, which easily could be communicated in 
much greater numbers. They often form, however, only the 
original exterior of one of the noblest hearts. 
Unmarried as he always was, and notwithstanding his being 
ever on journeys, L. v. Buch made use for himself of not the half 
of his large income. Believe not however in the least, that he 
hoarded up or collected the other half! He collected only the med- 
als of creation, none stamped by the hand of man. He supported 
what appeared to him worthy of support, with a lavish hand, and 
that too without having it easily remarked. Not alone in the 
cause of science, but also in the purest philanthropy, he expended, 
doubtless, thousands yearly. I myself have seen him moved to 
tears at the misfortune of another, and I know the satisfaction of 
he 
a a sealing 
eesti 
NS IO Sy (SR 
