XXXVlll PROCEEDII*rGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ing study of mineralogy . He remained atFreibe^-g until 1808. At 

 this period of his life, at the age of twenty-three, he is described as 

 a most engaging and fascinating person. He became intimate with 

 Yarnhagen and Schleiermacher, and was the constant companion of 

 Schubert and of Engelhardt. 



The battle of Jena produced a great eifect on his outer and 

 inner life. Overwhelmed by the sad fate of his country, he looked 

 for consolation, first, to his mineralogical studies, and then began 

 his geological explorations with Engelhardt, exploring the Erzge- 

 birge and the mountains on the Ehine between Cologne and Stras- 

 bourg, and subsequently the formations in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris. Here a remarkable change took place in his ideas. His 

 hatred towards the conquerors of his country, and the reading of 

 the works of Pestalozzi and others, engendered the idea of exerting 

 himself for the improvement of the education of young Germany, 

 and of raising a more fertile produce from the rotten soil. 



After another visit to the Syenitic formation of the Erzgebii^ge, 

 he proceeded to visit Pestalozzi, at Yverdon, and became a teacher 

 in his establishment. But here a sad disappointment awaited him. 

 Only a few weeks had passed away before he was undeceived and 

 became aware of the total want cf method in the system, and of the 

 germs of destruction and decay which it contained ; Pestalozzi con- 

 fessed it himself, and in May 1810 Eaumer left him a sadder but 

 a wiser man. In Niirnberg he again met Schubert, who encouraged 

 him to publish the results of his former explorations under the title 

 of ' Geognostical Fragments.' The unexpected success of this, his 

 first publication, led to his being appointed Professor of Mineralogy 

 at Breslau, in 1811, and councillor of the mining establishment 

 there. But this publication also bore bitter fruit, and led to a tem- 

 porary estrangement between him and his beloved teacher Werner. 

 He had proved in this work that the sequence of the beds of the older 

 rocks which Werner had laid down was by no means of universal 

 application, and that this very Erzgebirge, which Werner had con- 

 sidered as the type of all mountain -formations, was itself a remark- 

 able exception. He was himself astonished at the result, but the fol- 

 lowers of Werner were indignant. The quarrel was made up in 1814. 



The commencement of his duties in Breslau, notwithstanding the 

 fact that his brother, the historian, Erederic v. Eaumer, was one of 

 his colleagues, was attended with great difficulties, for want of a 

 good mineralogical collection. The investigation of the Silesian 

 mountains, in 1812, was a more agreeable occupation, and in 1813 

 he published his work ' On the Granite of the Eiesengebirge.' But 

 the spring of this year brought another change. The appeal of 

 the king to arms for the liberation of the country found an echo 

 in his heart. He entered the Landwehr, became aide-de-camn to 

 General Gneisenau, took part in the battle of Leipzig and ' other 

 minor engagements, and was employed on many important and con- 

 fidential missions. On the 4th of May, 1814, he was most honour- 

 ably dismissed by the king, and a few days afterwards was decorated 

 with the Order of the Iron Cross. 



