416 F. W. Simonds — Life of Dr. Ferdinand von Roemer. 



Among his papers published in 1887 is the description of a fossil 

 Crustacean from the Shoal Creek region near Austin, entitled 

 " Graptocarcinus Texanus, eine Braohyure aus der oberen Kreide von 

 Texas," with an illustration (N. Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1887, Bd. i, 173). 

 The next year he published the description of " Macraster, eine neue 

 Spatangoiden-Gattung aus der Kreide von Texas " (N. Jahrb. f. Min., 

 etc., 1888, Bd. i, 191), represented by M. Texanus from Georgetown. 

 The same year he also published " Uber eine durch die Haufigkeit 

 Hippuriten-artiger Chamiden ausgezeichnete Fauna der oberturonen 

 Kreide von Texas " (Paleont. Abhand., Bd. iv, 3 plates). The fauna 

 here considered is from Barton's Creek, a well-known locality a short 

 distance south-west of Austin. Of the twenty-one species described 

 he regarded eighteen as new. Objection has been justly taken by 

 the students of Texan geology to the assignment of this fauna to 

 the Upper Turonian, for, as a matter of fact, the strata are Lower 

 Cretaceous, and cannot be correlated with that formation. 



But Eoemer was a mineralogist as well as a geologist and 

 palseontologist. In a practical way this was shown in his great 

 work at the Breslau Museum. His love for minerals was strong, 

 and his knowledge such that he was envied by the younger men 

 who specialized in that line. It has, however, been said that his 

 greatest service to mineralogy was that he "saved" to that science 

 the incomparable Websky. 



Again, Roemer was a man of wide experience in travel. Not 

 only did he visit North America, but in Europe every country and 

 some countries several times ; England in 1851, 1866, 1871, 1876, 

 and 1880 ; Ireland in 1883 ; Holland and Belgium in 1854 ; Sweden 

 in 1856 and 1878 ; ^ Austria and Upper Italy in 1857 ; Piedmont and 

 Bohemia in 1858; Norway in 1859 ; France in 1860; Russia in 1861; 

 Turkey in 1863 ; Spain in 1864 and 1872 ; Switzerland in 1869. 

 These journeys, his numerous publications, and an unusual aptitude 

 in acquiring foreign languages, made him probably the best known 

 German geologist of his time. 



As would naturally be expected, his long and active career brought 

 him many honours, both at home and abroad. In recognition of his 

 great service to science he was invested with a title by the State, 

 and elected to membership in many of the learned societies, among 

 which may be mentioned the Geological Society of London, 1859 ; 

 the Royal Academy of Science, Berlin, 1869 ; the Imperial Academy 

 of Science, St. Petersburg, 1874 ; the Royal Bavarian Academy of 

 Science, Munich, 1885. In the year last mentioned he was also the 

 recipient of the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society. 



1 It was Dr. Woodward's good fortune to know Dr. Ferdinand Eoemer for many- 

 years (from 1858 to nearly the end of his life). Travelling on a geological excursion 

 in the Eifel with Mr. John Edward Lee, F.G.S., in the Autumn of 1878, they met, 

 quite accidentally, Dr. Ferdinand Eoemer near Gerolstein, and with him as geological 

 guide and most genial of companions, they spent a never-to-be-forgotten tortnight,- 

 visiting with their historian all the most interesting Devonian fossil localities, and 

 examining the extinct craters (now crater-lakes) in that delightful country. In the 

 following year Mr. Lee and Dr. Eoemer made an expedition to Faxe in Denmark to 

 study this very interesting uppermost Cretaceous deposit. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



