558 P>'of. A. Gauclry — Palcpontologij in Germany. 



The building of the University is nearly finished ; it is a pleasure 

 to be a student in such a palace ; marble has been lavished upon it ; 

 it is reached by a vast flight of steps. An eminent savant, Professor 

 Suess, a Member of Parliament, directs the collections of geology, 

 and another professor equally able, M. Neumayr, superintends those 

 of palceontology. 



The Museum of Natural History (Hof Naturalien Museum) belongs 

 to the Crown. The Emperor has just placed at its head Dr. Fran^i 

 Eitter von Hauer, who was formerly Director of the Geological Insti- 

 tute. M. Fuchs is specially charged with the department of pala3on- 

 tology. The buildings are advancing rapidly, and a large part of the 

 collections are expected to be arranged before the coming spring. I was 

 told that the fossils will be, as in the old museum, separated from the 

 representatives of living creatures, and that they will occupy six 

 rooms. The vertebrate room is ornamented with mural paintings, 

 which represent landscapes of the world at different geological epochs 

 with the most characteristic animals and plants. These paintings 

 are separated from one another by statues which have their palason- 

 tological attributes ; one holds an Ichthyosaurus, another a head of 

 Dinotlierium, another a jDiece of Cervus megaceros, another a head of 

 TJintatherium, etc. I have seen few fossils, because all is in process 

 of removal. Among those which M. Puchs was able to show 

 me, I observed some skeletons of Ursus spelceus, a skeleton of 

 Megaceros, another of the Quaternary Ibex, some fine specimens 

 of Mastodon, of Dinotherium and a series of vertebrates from 

 Maragha, in Persia, of the same age as those of Pikermi and those 

 of Baltavar in Hungary, described by M. Suess. 



Besides the collections that I have just cited, there is the Geolo- 

 gische Eeichanstalt, which the new Director, Herr Dionys Stur, had 

 the kindness to show me. The fossils are there arranged accord- 

 ing to their geographical and geological order ; it is perhaps the finest 

 collection of stratigraphical palseontology which exists in Europe. 

 One admires especially the series of Ammonites from the Trias of the 

 Austrian Alps, upon which M. de Mojsisovics has lately written 

 some most important memoirs. 



I have not been recently to Pesth ; but two learned Hungarian 

 professors, M. de Hantken and M. Szabo, have assured me, that 

 since I was in that city, its collections of geology and palceontology 

 have become very important. 



At Prague, Professor Fritsch conducted me over the site where 

 the foundations have just been laid of a large museum of science 

 for Bohemia; pending the erection of the new building, they have 

 built near the old museum of Bohemia a provisional hall specially 

 consecrated to paleeontology. Professor Fritsch has there arranged 

 numerous and very remarkable fossils classed age by age. The 

 immense collection of Silurian fossils which was made by Barrande, 

 and given by him to Bohemia, has been left in the apartment which 

 our illustrious and revered compatriot occupied in the Chotek Gasse. 

 It is difficult to imagine the immense number of Orthoceratites, Cyrto- 

 ceratites, Trilohifa, etc , in this apartment. I had there a proof of 

 the degree to which the love of palaeontology can reach, for in the 



