xxxviii Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



region actually traversed by himself, Baron von Eichthofen discussed the 

 general physical geography of Central Asia as a whole, and with great 

 skill explained the broad configuration and grouping of the mountain 

 chains of the region. Among the problems of which he presented a 

 new solution, perhaps the most interesting and important was that of 

 the Loess, which attains such colossal dimensions in the Celestial Empire. 

 He brought forward a large body of evidence to show that this wide- 

 spread and thick deposit is of iEolian origin, being due to the transport 

 of dust by the winds. The fourth volume bears ample witness to his 

 diligence and ability as a field-geologist and collector : it is devoted to the 

 Palaeontology of the scene of his labours, and though he entrusted the 

 determination and description of his fossils to others, it is to his skill and 

 enthusiasm that we owe the establishment of the existence of the Cambrian, 

 Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous systems in China. He it was also 

 who brought to light the Chinese development of the floras of Carboniferous, 

 Jurassic, and Tertiary times. 



Eichthofen's geographical prowess was so well recognised, that in 1879, 

 after the publication of the first volume of his ' China/ he became Professor 

 of Geography in the University of Bonn. There he spent four happy years, 

 during which he issued the successive volumes of that work. It was during 

 this interval that he married Irmgard, daughter of Karl Freihern v. Eichthofen, 

 the gracious and accomplished lady to whom he had long been devotedly 

 attached, and who became thenceforward his helpful companion in his work 

 and in his journeys. As a teacher he soon showed that he possessed pre- 

 eminent educational gifts, whereby he attracted students around him, kindled 

 in them some of his own enthusiasm, and gave to geography a more defined 

 and a higher place as a mental discipline in the studies of a University. His 

 success in this sphere led to his being called, in 1883, to the Professorship of 

 Geography at Leipzig. But all who had watched his career realised that before 

 long he must inevitably be withdrawn to Berlin as the national centre where 

 most scope would be found for the development of his schemes as a teacher 

 and organiser of educational methods. The expected transference took place in 

 1886, when he became Professor of Geography at the metropolitan University 

 of Germany. There he threw himself with all his characteristic originality 

 and ardour into the task of devising and arranging such illustrations of 

 geography as would bring vividly before the eyes and minds of his students, 

 and of the general public, the characteristic features of land and sea, and the 

 appliances for scientific exploration and travel. In connection with the 

 University a Geographical Institute was organised by him, in which these 

 various collections were arranged, and where ample space was found for large 

 and small lecture rooms, map-drawing rooms, survey-practice rooms, a reference 

 library, and large reading-room, well furnished with current geographical 

 literature in all languages. In his later years he gave special attention to 

 the illustration of the sea, and succeeded in prevailing on the authorities to 

 build a Museum for Oceanography (" Meereskunde "), in which he sought to 



