Richthofen, FERDINAND, BARON VON

Richthofen, FERDINAND, BARON VON, traveller and geographer, was born at Karlsruhe in Silesia, on 5th May 1833, was educated at Breslau and Berlin universities, and at the Geological Institute of Vienna (1856), and in 1860 accompanied a Prussian expedition to eastern Asia. The next twelve years he spent in travelling through Java, Siam, Burma, California, Sierra Nevada, and China and Japan (1868-72). After his return to Europe (1872) he was appointed president of the Berlin Geographical Society (1873-78), professor of Geology at Bonn (1875), and of Geography at Leipzig (1883) and at Berlin (1886). His reputation as a geographer is built principally upon his great work on China (Berlin, 4 vols. 1877-81), and upon Die Metallproduktion Kaliforniens (1865), The Natural System of Volcanic Rocks (San Francisco, 1867), Aufgaben und Methoden der heutigen Geographie (1883), and numerous articles in geographical journals.