The Late Ferdinand Von Hochstetter

Abstract

THE numerous friends and admirers of the late Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter in Europe and Australasia have to thank his old associate, Dr. Julius von Haast, for a graceful tribute paid to his memory, which takes the form of a sympathetic biographical notice published towards the end of last August at Christchurch, New Zealand. The memoir, which is accompanied by two portraits, from a lithograph and a photograph showing the distinguished naturalist in his twenty-ninth and fiftieth years respectively, is taken for his early career partly from an account in Brockhaus's “Conversations Lexicon,” and for the period since the two friends first met at Auckland, N.Z., in 1858, from Hochstetter's writings and private correspondence. Born on April 30, 1829, at Esslingen, Wurtemberg, the future naturalist was at first intended for the Church by his father, Prof. Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter, chief pastor of that town, and himself a botanist of no mean repute. But in the seminary of Maulbronn near Tübingen, his love of science, implanted in the paternal home, grew so strong that, besides theology, he applied himself with great zeal to the study of mineralogy, palæontology, and geology. After taking his degree of Doctor Philosophise in 1852 he seems to have finally made choice of a scientific career, and in 1853 found employment on the Geological Survey of the Austrian Empire, soon after receiving the appointment of Chief Geologist for the Bohemian Section. His reports on the geology of the Boehmer Wald were so highly appreciated that he was selected in 1857 as geologist of the Novara Expedition, which brought him to Auckland on December 22, 1858. Here his services were at once secured by the Government, and with the reluctant consent of the Commodore of the Novara he accepted an engagement of eight months to examine the geology, physical features, and natural history of New Zealand. During this period he made extensive topographical and geological surveys of the provinces of Auckland and Nelson, the results of which were embodied in his standard work, “Neu Seeland,” published in 1863, followed in 1867 by the greatly enlarged English edition dedicated to the Queen. Soon after his return to Europe he was appointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the Technical University of Vienna, and after a visit of some months to England in 1860 he settled permanently in the Austrian capital, where, in April 1861, he married Georgina Bengough, daughter of the English director of the Vienna gas-works. A visit in 1863 to Vesuvius was followed next year by the appearance of the “Geology of New Zealand” and of the “Palæontology of New Zealand,” both of great scientific value, and forming his main contributions to the extensive series of the Novara publications.