THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1865. 



428 



(DMitianj. 



THE LATE SIR ROBERT H. SCHOMBURGK. 



We have the melancholy duty of writing an obituary notice of one of 

 our oldest and most esteemed friends, Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk. 

 He was endeared to all who knew him by his kindness of heart, 

 amiability, and courteousness. For nearly a quarter of a century 

 he was one of our most frequent correspondents on scientific matters in 

 the various publications with which we have been connected. It seems 

 but as yesterday that, at our request, he sent home a valuable collection 

 of Siamese products and manufactures to the International Exhibition 

 of 1862. One of his latest literary efforts was the account of the 

 manufacture of Siamese books and paper, with illustrations of the 

 raw materials sent us, and published in, the September number of the 

 Technologist last year. He arrived in England soon after in ill health, 

 and, after a short stay at the Tavistock Hotel, Covent Garden, left 

 lor Berlin, where he died on the 11th of March. 



Although he had reached to threescore years, his constitution had 

 been much broken by long residence in tropical countries. In the years 

 1835 to 1839 he undertook expeditions into the interior of British Guiana 

 under the directions of the Geographical Society of London, and in the 

 years 1840 to 1844 as Her Majesty's Commissioner for surveying the 

 boundaries of British Guiana between Brazil and Venezuela ; on the latter 

 occasion, after enduring much fatigue and great privations with his small 

 party, he completed the circuit of the colony, from its sea boundary to 

 within forty-two miles of the equator, in the course of nearly three years. 

 An abstract account of this expedition was given in Simmonds's 'Colonial 

 Magazine,' vol. )., p. 40, 1844. Fur these services he was knighted by 

 Her Majesty, and it was in these explorations that he discovered, and 

 introduced into Europe, the beautiful and gigantic water lily, which he 

 named after the Queen, and which he assumed for his crest. 



Sir Robert was well known to the scientific world as an eminent 

 naturalist and geographer, and a good geologist and surveyor. 



The following is a list of some of the numerous papers contributed 

 by Sir Robert to the scientific publications of the day : — " On the Lake 

 Parima, the El Dorado of Sir "Walter Raleigh, and the Geography of 

 Guiana," ' Simmonds's Colonial Magazine,' vol. v., p. 381 ; " A Descrip- 

 tion of the Murichi, or Ita Palm of Guiana {Mauritia flexuosa), and its 

 Use* by the Aborigines," ibid., vol. vL, p. 43 ; " On the Geological Struc- 

 ture of Barbados," ibid., vol. vi\, p. 470; "A Visit, to Turner's Hall "Wood, 

 Barbados, i:i 1846," £&i'rf.,vol.viii.,p. 4S2 ; "On the Commercial Statistics 

 of the Republics in South America,' 7 ibid., vol. xiii., p. 260, and vol. xiv., 

 p. 40. ; " On the Manufacture of Beet-rout Sugar in the Zollverein," ibid., 

 vol. xiv.. p. 134 ; " Oi. a Comparative Vocabulary of Eighteen Languages 



