Document information

Physical location:

Sammlung Perthes Archiv, SPA ARCH PGM 328, Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt. 76.05.10

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to August Petermann, 1876-05-10. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/76-05-10>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law, Eduard Wehl, had died on 11 February 1876. For a published version of this letter, see Voigt (1996), pp.130-1.
Melbourne
10/5/76.
Haben Sie die Gewogenheit, edler Freund, dem vortrefflichen Herrn Perthes meinen besten Dank zu erstatten für die liberale Übersendung des herrlichen Atlas. Ich habe die mir zugesandten Exemplare an die respectiven Adressen befördert, und das 2t (oder Extra) Exemplar im Namen Ihrer Anstalt Herrn R. Brough Smyth zum Privat-Geschenk gemacht.
Anbei ein Zeitungsblatt, das Ihnen einige neue Data geben mag. Ich muss aber an Ihr Gerechtigkeitsgefühl appelliren und an das aller andern Geographen, ob es nobel sei die von dem vortrefflichen McKinlay unter so grossen Schwierigkeiten entdeckten Flüsse &c umzunennen . Gewiss werden Sie sich gegen eine solche Ungerechtigkeit, die noch dazu Verwirrung herbeiführt, öffentlich in Ihren weitverbreiteten Mittheilungen zu erheben.
Wenn in dieser Beziehung die Priorität nicht mehr geachtet werden soll, dann wie bald die sämtliche geogr. Nomenclatur in ein Chaos zerflossen sein.
Eins möchte ich über Ihre schöne Karte bemerken. Es fehlt uns Tasmania darauf. Neu-Seeland ist weder zoologisch, noch phytologisch, noch anthropologisch, noch geographisch, noch politisch als australisch zu betrachten. Aber ganz anders verhält es sich mit dem ächt austr Tasmanien; Sie würden Raum unterhalb der "Bight" für Einfügung dieser Insel haben und dadurch das Ganze completiren.
Stets Ihr
Ferd. von Mueller
Melbourne, 10 May 1876.
Be so kind, noble friend, as to express my gratitude to the excellent Mr Perthes
2
Bernhard Perthes?
for the generous transmission of the magnificent atlas.
3
Adolf Stieler, Handatlas über alle Theile der Erde und über das Weltgebäude, Gotha. Various editions of this were published, including one in 1876.
I have forwarded the copies sent to me to the respective addresses and have presented the second (or extra) copy as a private gift on behalf of your firm to Mr R. Brough Smyth.
Enclosed a newspaper,
4
Newspaper not found.
that may give you some new data. But I must appeal to your sense of justice and to that of all geographers, whether it is noble to rename the rivers &c. discovered by the excellent McKinlay under such great hardships. Surely you will publicly object in your widely distributed Mittheilungen
5
Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes Geographischer Anstalt.
against such an injustice, which in addition leads only to confusion.
6
McKinlay in 1862 had named 'Mueller's Creek', a 'magnificent stream' that he had followed for a time while searching for Burke and Wills; see M to J. McKinlay, 7 June 1863. This subsequently proved to be a stretch of the same river that in 1866 was named Diamantina by William Landsborough in honour of Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, Governor of Qld; and Landsborough's name prevailed despite the priority of McKinlay's naming.
See also M to the Royal Geographical Society, November 1876 (in this edition as 76-11-00).
If priority were no longer observed in this regard, then how soon will the whole of geographical nomenclature collapse into chaos.
There is one thing I should like to mention about your beautiful map.
7
M is almost certainly referring here to Petermann's Specialkarte von Australien in 9 Blättern nach originalen & officiellen Quellen (Gotha, 1876), that omits Tasmania completely; see the National Library of Australia's digitized copy, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231346632 . The comment about New Zealand that follows probably reflects M's having also seen another of Petermann's maps, West-Australien ; Tasmania, fruher genannt Van Diemen's Land ; Neu-Seeland (Gotha, 1876); digital image at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232644547.
We lack Tasmania on it. New Zealand is neither zoologically, nor phytologically, nor anthropologically, nor geographically, nor politically to be regarded as Australian. The picture is a totally different one, however, in respect of the genuinely Australian Tasmania. You would have room beneath the Bight
8
Great Australian Bight.
to fit in this island and would by this complete the whole.
Always your
Ferd. von Mueller.