Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/565

Rh of the book; and he wrote out, in five thick manuscript parts, the Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera, illustrating them with drawings in the margins of copies of the figures in the book. In thankful recognition of the aid which this work gave him, and of the kindness of its owner, he some years afterward named the oldest fossil bird of Switzerland, which he found in the slates of Matt, after the musician, Protornis Blumeri. Now he could pursue his collecting with a good heart, and, with the co-operation of his brothers Samuel and Heinrich, he did so; and for many years no beetle, or butterfly, or caterpillar, was safe from their hands.

His attention was at first given wholly to animals, and chiefly to insects; and it was not till June, 1827, that any evidence appears in his diaries of his beginning to take an interest in plants; but from this time on botanical references are frequent. More than a year before this, in January, 1826, he had begun the record of meteorological observations, which he kept up three times a day for two and a half years till the middle of 1828, when he went to the University of Halle. Young Heer was accustomed to make frequent excursions to the mountains, accompanied usually by his father or his brothers. In this way he became acquainted with the entomology and botany of the whole canton, and enlarged his collections and made them objects of attraction. An acquaintance with Georg Spielberg, a botanist, who was conducting a high-school at Mollis, brought him an introduction to the learned Dr. Hegetschweiler, one of the most distinguished men of the confederation in that science; and through these connections, and by means of visits which he made with his father to the leading towns of Switzerland, he brought himself into relations with nearly all the scientific men of the country. Now he offered for sale a herbarium of two hundred and fifty Swiss Alpine plants, duly labeled, with which he hoped to obtain pocket-money for his journey to the university. As the time drew near for him to go there, he became more diligent in study. He assigned a task to every hour of the day, from four o'clock in the morning till seven o'clock in the evening. The most of the time was given to theology and church history. Two hours were allotted to botany, and one hour in the evening to the care of the goats and sheep.

He started for Halle on the 30th of September, 1828, carrying his plant-box filled with bulbs. His purpose was to study theology; but, while he gave due attention to the lectures on philosophy and metaphysics and the canon of Scripture, he formed personal relations with the botanists and entomologists and the specialist in ferns, and the zoölogists whose names may be found in the lists of the faculties of Halle of that time; and, while he still nursed his religious inclinations, he also kept up and cultivated and made to grow the taste for scientific investigation. His vacations gave him opportunities to make excursions of considerable length, which he improved to the increase of