212 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
many scientific men, and the preparation of many hundreds of 
plates, it is evident that it could not well be issued in a shorter 
space of time. It will always remain a proud monument to the 
honour of the Austrian Government, and of the able’enthusiastic 
men to whom the navigation and scientific researches during that 
memorable voyage were entrusted. 
To show how Hochstetter took an interest in every important 
subject occupying public attention at the time, I may here men- 
tion that during this year he worked out a scheme for the 
construction of main railway lines in Asia, which was published 
and received honourable notice. 
Another subject, causing him also a great deal of exertion, 
was the engagement of a first-class taxidermist for the Canter- 
bury Museum, which after some time and a great deal of corres- 
pondence he was able to execute by sending out to us Mr. A. 
Reischek, of Vienna, for that post. The amount to be devoted 
to the publication of my Report on the Geology of Canterbury 
and Westland being rather limited, it was decided td have the 
illustrations for that work printed in Europe, and Hochstetter, 
with his usual kindness and readiness to help me, undertook in 
the beginning of the same year (1877) the selection of the firm 
to whom the work was to be entrusted; and he made such a 
good choice that the whole was executed in excellent style and 
at a moderate cost. 
During that year, besides lecturing as usual, he continued to 
devote all his time to settling the final plans for the future 
arrangement of the collections in the new Museum building, and 
obtaining by purchase and exchange large series of those objects 
in which the Vienna collections were deficient. 
In September the Geological Congress met in Vienna, during 
which his hospitable house was one of the principal attractions 
for his brethren of the hammer. On the 1st October of the same 
year he also took charge of the Mineralogical Museum. At the 
same time he had over two hundred students, to whom he had to 
lecture on mineralogy and geology; so that, with the new bur- 
den added, notwithstanding that he had a wonderful capacity for 
work, it is not to be wondered at that he sometimes felt rather 
depressed. | 
However, at that time he was able, to his great enjoyment, 
to show some attention to one of his oldest New Zealand friends ; 
and in the beginning of January, 1878, he writes full of joy that 
he had the great pleasure to spend Christmas and New Year’s 
Day with our mutual friend, Dr. Carl Fischer, and his family, 
who for some months went to live in Vienna, and he adds :—“I 
am quite revelling in New Zealand reminiscences. I see the 
beautiful Auckland Harbour again before me; all the olden 
times come back, and only thy presence is wanting to make me 
feel quite happy, though we are both getting old and grey.” 
The Museum buildings were now so far advanced that at the 
beginning of that year (1878) the preparation of the designs for 
the show-cases, of about thirty different forms and sizes, could 
