﻿Vol. 64.] ANNIVEBSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Iv 



through the Schottengymnasium in the Austrian capital, he studied 

 jurisprudence, and took the degree of Doctor of Laws at the 

 University of Graz in 1864. Eut he was not destined to follow 

 the legal profession. While a student he showed a keen of love of 

 the mountains, and he succeeded in rousing a similar enthusiasm 

 among a number of his associates at the University, with whom he 

 formed a brotherhood of Alpine climbers. Out of this society, of 

 which he was the inspiring soul, there eventually grew the 

 " Deutscher & Osterreichischer Alpenverein,' which was founded in 

 1873. He took an active part in the earlier progress of this Yerein, 

 editing the publications and stimulating the work, so that he came 

 to be acknowledged as one of the leading alpinists of his country. 

 This close personal contact with the mountains ultimately shaped 

 his whole future career. It led him to take note of the rock- 

 features which appeal alike to the eye and to the imagination, 

 and induced him to seek an explanation of the meaning of these 

 features, and thus to add geological studies to his legal training. 

 It may readily be believed that his bent towards our science 

 could not but be encouraged and strengthened by the persuasive 

 eloquence of Prof. Suess, under whom he studied and with whom 

 he made excursions into the Eastern Alps. It is, at least, certain 

 that geology proved to have more attraction for him than the 

 law. Before long he had made such progress in geological pursuits 

 that he was able to qualify himself for the position of Privatdozent 

 in the Yienna University, which he obtained in 1871. In that 

 capacity he continued for some years to lecture on stratigraphy, 

 the geology of the Alps and the Austrian Empire, and conducted 

 geological excursions. 



Having now resolved to give up his life to the study of his 

 beloved mountains, he offered himself, and on February 18th, 1865, 

 was accepted, as a volunteer on the staff of the Austrian Geological 

 Survey. He proved to be so efficient a worker that in the course 

 of two or three years he was taken into the regular service of the 

 establishment, and remained there for thirty-three years. By the 

 end of December 1870 he had become a Bergrath and one of 

 the chief geologists, and in the summer of 1879 he rose to the rank 

 of Oberbergrath. In 1892, on the appointment of Stache to tho 

 directorate in succession to Stur, Mojsisovics was made Yice- 

 Director. In 1900, the state of his health having compelled him to 

 give up active field-work, he retired from official life, with the title 

 of Hofrath in recognition of his long and distinguished services. 



