IV 
On returning to my home in the beginning of the year 
1860, it became my duty to work up the rich and copious ma- 
terials I had brought with me in the shape of observations 
and collections, and to publish them as one of the results of 
the Novara-Expedition. A scientific work, accompanied by an 
atlas with numerous illustrations of newly discovered fossils, 
with views of the country and geological maps were to com- 
prise the results of my geological researches. In a second 
work of a more general character 1 intended to present the 
results of my observations in a form better suited to the gene- 
ral reader and, in the proposed English translation, more 
especially accessible to the Colonists of New Zealand. 
With heartfelt gratitude I may be allowed to state here, 
that the Imperial Austrian Government accorded me every 
assistance necessary to enable me to carry out both designs. 
While for the publication of the scientific work the Govern- 
ment itself has provided in a most liberal manner, I am in- 
debted to the kindness of Baron von Cotta , for the publication 
of the Book of Travels in a form worthy to stand side by 
side with the Narrative of the Novara-Expedition as published 
in the Imperial Printing Office at Vienna. 
By letters and other communications from numerous friends 
in New Zealand 1 have been enabled to follow from this hemi- 
sphere also, the course of events on those distant islands. 
Amongst these my friend and former fellow traveller, Dr. Julius 
Ilaast, the present Government Geologist of the Province of 
Canterbury, has contributed most amply to the completion of 
the present work by the important and interesting information 
obtained by him during his travels in the Alpine regions of 
the Southern Island. 
Should I have been so fortunate as to have afforded any 
new information regarding the youngest and most distant colony 
of the British crown, I venture to hope, that 1 may at least 
