Eikhval’d E.I.: Excerpts from a Trip to Algeria in 1847

Title

Otryvki iz puteshestviia v Alzhir v 1847, “Vestnik russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva”, 1851, 2, p. 1-90

Excerpts from a Trip to Algeria in 1847

Keywords

Summary

The article bears a subtitle: “Read at the General Assembly on May 11, 1849”. It describes the author’s journey to Algeria in 1847, focusing on local history, nature, and geology. Eikhval’d reaches the city by boat from Marseille, and immediately notices that it looks rather European in terms of architecture. He provides general information about the city’s structure, population, women’s role, landmarks, economy, and history. The author then moves on to describe in great detail the local flora and visits the botanical garden, providing the scientific naming and characteristics of many indigenous species of flowers and trees. He then attempts a journey to the desert, but due to the hot weather, he only reaches Blida, Oran, and Médéa, observing some plants on his way. Here, the author provides some historical reflections on the French colonisation of Africa, comparing it with the Russian Empire’s war in Dagestan and the Caucasus. A few pages are then devoted to the fauna of the desert. The author also provides a short list of the newest French publications devoted to the country’s geography and history. In the following pages, he provides geological information about local minerals, rocks, and water springs. He concludes his report by recalling a local legend about two springs that are said to have magical properties.

Bio

Eduard Eikhval’d was a Russian naturalist and palaeontologist, member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1826). He studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Berlin from 1814 to 1817, returning to Russia in 1819 in order to pursue an academic career. He worked as a professor at various universities: Dorpat (from 1821), Kazan (from 1823), Vilnius (from 1829), and the Medical and Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg (1838-1851). From 1839 to 1855 he also taught palaeontology at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute. He travelled to the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea in 1825-1826, and to the southwestern parts of the Russian Empire in 1829. He consequently published a number of works describing new species of plants and the Caspian-Caucasian fauna, including mollusks, fish, and reptiles, and providing information on the geography of the areas he visited. He authored textbooks on mineralogy and geology, publishing the only Russian palaeontology manual of the time. In later years, he also travelled to Scandinavia, Italy, and North Africa for his paleontological research. He worked on the most comprehensive palaeontological summary of his time for fifteen years (Palaeontology of Russia, 1850, 1854, 1861), a three-volume edition that was promptly translated into French.

Sources

Pamiati Eduarda Ivanovicha Eikhval’da, “Gornyi zhurnal”, 1876, 4, p. 332-334;

B. Raikov, “Eduard Ivanovich Eikhval’d”, in Russkie biologi-evoliutsionisty do Darvina: Materialy k istorii evoliutsionnoi idei v Rossii, II, Moskva 1951, p. 321-389;

Afrika: entsiklopedicheskii spravochnik, ed. by V. Potekhin, II, Moskva 1963, p. 312;

I. Starodubceva et al., Eduard Ivanovich Eikhval’da” (K 200-letiiu nachala nauchnoi deiatel’nosti, in Trudy paleontologicheskogo obshchestva, III, Moskva 2020, p. 117-127.

M.E.