lxxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



been created expressly for him. He was a Knight of the Legion 

 of Honour. 



M. D'Orbigny commenced in 1826 his travels for the Museum, 

 under the auspices of the government. As a student at Rochelle, 

 M. D'Orbigny passed his earlier years on the sea-shore, and em- 

 ployed much of his time in examining the natural productions 

 thrown ashore by the waves. Before he had attained the age of 

 twenty-two, he presented to the Academy a work which was at- 

 tended with great success, as the committee appointed to examine 

 it reported that, from the great number of new species he had made 

 known, he deserved to be placed in the first rank of original ob- 

 servers. In 1826 he proceeded, as Travelling Naturalist for the 

 Museum, on a voyage to South America, where he explored, with 

 equal perseverance, courage, knowledge, and success, Brazil, Buenos 

 Ayres, the frontiers of Patagonia, and the Republics of Chili and 

 Bolivia, from the shore of the Pacific Ocean to the centre of the con- 

 tinent : he afterwards went through the Republic of Peru, and, when 

 he returned to France, had visited all that portion of the earth from 

 the 11th to the 12th degree of latitude, and from the Pacific to the 

 Atlantic Ocean. 



As the product of this voyage, M. D'Orbigny brought home most 

 extensive collections and manuscripts, numerous drawings of objects 

 of natural history, and everything necessary to illustrate the geo- 

 graphy, the languages, the ethnology, and archseology of this part of 

 America : historical manuscripts, thirty-six vocabularies of the Ame- 

 rican language, a collection of animals containing 7000 species, of 

 which many were new, and one of about 2300 species of plants, as 

 well as much information respecting the geology of the countries he 

 visited, were amongst the results of his labours, and were embodied 

 in the great work entitled, "Yoyage dans PAmerique du Sud," 

 published under the sanction of the Minister of Public Instruction. 

 He also superintended the publication of another work, " Yoyage 

 pittoresque dans les deux Ameriques;" and his labours were appre- 

 ciated by the Geographical Society of Prance, which awarded him its 

 annual prize in 1836. As an active, intrepid, and persevering traveller, 

 he had thus made his way over an immense extent of country, from 

 Brazil and Peru to Patagonia, in eight successive years, sometimes 

 navigating previously unknown rivers, sometimes penetrating virgin 

 forests, resting on the loftiest plateaux of the Andes, or in the plains 

 of Patagonia, frequently finding himself amongst contending tribes, 

 and being obliged to take part in their conflicts. 



M. Alcide D'Orbigny, who had thus studied nature under all its 

 varied forms, now devoted himself to a task not less deserving of the 

 admiration of posterity, as he thenceforth consecrated his life to 

 the study of Palaeontology, a science which had only sprung into 

 existence in the nineteenth century, and which has already enabled 

 the geologist to study the ancient natural history of the several 

 epochs of the earth's history, and to determine by that clue the true 

 relative age of the mineral deposits with which the fossil relics of 



