Biography of Baron Leopold von Buck. 11 



oldest living pupil of the Mining Academy, and, as may easily 

 be supposed, he met with the most marked attention. Where- 

 ever he went he was sure to become the nucleus of an indus- 

 trious group of givers and takers in the domain of Natural 

 History. For the last few years Bonn has had the good 

 fortune to see him almost every summer within her walls, 

 engaged for a longer or shorter period in intimate intercourse 

 with some of his fellow naturalists ; with von Dechen, the 

 now deceased Goldfuss, G. Bischof, F. Romer, 0. Weber, 

 and others, a circle from which the writer of this notice did 

 not remain excluded. And such was the nature of his inter- 

 course at other places likewise, which he used to stop at in 

 the course of his pilgrimages. The latter used to compre- 

 hend not merely investigations in the field, but likewise per- 

 sonal intercourse with the initiated, who lived in the neigh- 

 hood of the scenes he visited. He took an active part at the 

 meetings of the scientific societies of Berlin. 



From what we have said it is obvious that the deceased was 

 a very industrious and active member of the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences. The French Institute had done him the honour to 

 name him an Associe Etranger, of which, as our readers are 

 aware, the statutes allow only eight to be elected. Itis impossible 

 for me to enumerate the other academies and learned bodies at 

 home and abroad of which he was a member ; they are cer- 

 tainly very numerous. He never set them forth on a title- 

 page. For the same reason I can only state, in regard to the 

 orders with which he may have been invested, that he was a 

 Knight of the Civil Class of the Order pour le Merite, and of 

 the First Class of the Order of the Rother Adler. He was a 

 Royal Chamberlain of Prussia, and his merits were always 

 highly recognised by his sovereign. 



It is no easy task to represent the personal qualities of a 

 distinguished man, especially when, as was the case with the 

 subject of this memoir, he possessed a number of peculiarities 

 which place him in an anomalous relation to the common 

 herd of God's creatures. In the present case, however, there 

 is less necessity for dilating, because the great majority of 

 those who will take an interest in these lines are likely to have 

 seen the deceased once, at least, in the course of his manifold 



