Notes

Abstract

WE regret to announce the death, at Stuttgart, on the 5th inst., of the celebrated traveller and zoologist, Theodor von Heuglin. lie was only fifty-two years of age, having been born in 1824, at Hirschlanden, near Leonberg, in Suabia. Von Heuglin had received a comprehensive education and had well prepared himself for his greater travels, by numerous visits to different European countries and by wide study. In 1850 he made a protracted stay in Egypt in order to study oriental languages, manners, and customs. After some visits to the interior of Arabia as well as the east coast of the Red Sea, he became secretary to Dr. Reitz, the Austrian Consul at Khartoum, and in that capacity visited the Upper Nile districts and Abyssinia. When Dr. Reitz had succumbed to the climate, von Heuglin returned to Khartoum, and succeeded him in the consulate. As consul he visited the White Nile, and eventually returned to Germany in 1856. Here he published bis excellent “Travels in North-East Africa” (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1857), which had been preceded (in 1855) by his “Systematic Review of the Birds of Africa.” He again paid a visit to the Red Sea, and in 1860 took the lead of the expedition which was to find Vogel's traces, proceeding from the cast; Steudner, Kieselbach, Hansal, Schubert, and Munzinger were members of this expedition, which, although acquiring valuable information about the Gailas districts, failed in its principal object. In 1862 von Heuglin returned to Khartoum with Steudner, and in 1863 made a fresh attempt to trace the course of the White Nile. The results of these travels were published in Petermann's Mittheihungen (1860–64). His merits were particularly great in ornithology; his drawings are true to nature, his descriptions exact, detailed, and extremely attractive. Also in Arctic regions von Heuglin gave proof of great intelligence and courage; he was almost more successful as an Arctic explorer in 1870 and 1871 than as an African traveller. His work on northern landscapes and animals (published by Westermann, at Brunswick) is one of the most attractive and handsomest records of travels yet published, and is highly esteemed by all who are interested in Arctic exploits. His death was a sadly unexpected one, a slight cough developed into inflammation of the lungs, to which he succumbed in the course of a few days.