12 Biography of Baron Leopold von Buck. 



peregrinations. He is also known in his externals by the 

 excellent likeness which has been so widely diffused, taken 

 from the very successful portrait executed at the command 

 of the king, by our meritorious Rhenish artist, Professor 

 Vegas. There he sits upon a block of granite, spiritually 

 rendered, but characteristic and true to the life ; he is resting 

 from his journeyings amongst the mountains, with his miner's 

 crook in his hand, his broad shirt-frill not very nicely plaited, 

 and one of the tails of his black dress-coat negligently inserted 

 betwixt his body and his seat. The portrait is a pendant to 

 that of Humboldt. 



Buch was of middle size ; his make might be described as 

 tolerably strong. His features were distinctly marked, and 

 he had a Roman nose. The expression of his countenance 

 was commonly somewhat stiff, little versatile, denoting the 

 deep earnest thinker; but withal, there would not unfre- 

 quently play over it a smile, which, in its turn, betrayed no 

 common degree of mildness and friendliness. Another form 

 of his physiognomy, the satirical or sarcastic, could also on 

 occasions be displayed, and harmonised with the pungent 

 wit of which he could be prodigal upon proper occasions. The 

 sharpness of his eye seemed mitigated by the glasses which 

 he constantly wore ; but this organ had a most extraordinary 

 capacity for the minute distinction of the smallest objects. 

 His complexion was deeply tanned by sun. 



His dress was commonly neither neat nor well preserved, 

 though he was fond of elegance in his apartments. This is 

 also exhibited in the instructive plates with which his works 

 were, for most part, illustrated. Upon his journeys he gene- 

 rally wore, even in summer, a black dress-coat and great- 

 coat, both well provided with pockets for holding his maps, 

 note-book, hammer, and other indispensables. He always 

 went in shoes and silk stockings. His gait was unsteady, 

 and nobody that saw him moving along, with his head bent 

 forward over his chest, would have dreamt that this was the 

 man who had spent the greater part of his life in travelling 

 about upon foot. When obliged to travel in a carriage or on 

 a railway he was most unhappy. 



