Document information
Physical location:
MS papers 37, folder 212, no. 619, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. 84.10.04aPreferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Julius von Haast, 1884-10-04 [84.10.04a]. 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/84-10-04a>, accessed September 10, 2025
4/10/84
Lassen Sie meine dankbarste Anerkennung ausgesprochen sein, edler Freund, für den
ausgezeichneten u würdigen Nekrolog, welchen Sie dem betrauerten Hochstetter gewidmet
haben! Ich las Alles, was Sie über unseren dahingeschiedenen Freund sagten, im New
Zealand Journal of Science mit grosser Rührung. Sein Andenken wird in der Naturwissenschaften
stets wach bleiben, und die geographischen Denkmale, welche ihm in Australien durch
mich gesetzt wurden, werden ja auch in der Erdgeschichte selbst dieses Landes dauern
bleiben. Wie traurig ist es, dass ihm nicht vergönnt war, in seiner grössten Schöpfung,
die des Museums von Wien, zu walten, u da in einem langen serenen Lebensabend die
Triumphe seines ruhmreichen und bewegten Lebens zu feiern.
Stets ganz der Ihre
Ferd. von Mueller.
4/10/84
Let my most grateful appreciation be expressed, noble Friend, for the excellent and
dignified obituary that you have devoted to the mourned Hochstetter!
I read all that you said about our deceased friend in the New Zealand Journal of Science
with great emotion. His memory will always be kept alive in the sciences, and the
geographical monuments that were raised to him in Australia through me will certainly
also endure in the history of the earth, even in this country.
How sad it is that it was not granted to him to reign in his greatest creation, that
of the museum of Vienna, and then to celebrate the triumph of his glorious and eventful
life in a long serene evening of life.
1
Ferdinand Hochstetter died on 18 July 1884.
2
Haast (1884), published in the September 1884 issue of the New Zealand Journal of Science.
3
The only geographical feature named for Hochstteter in Australia that is listed in
modern maps is Mt Hochstetter in the Murchison area of Western Australia, said to
have been named by J. Forrest ('Western Australian Names', Sunday times (Perth), 15 April 1928, second section, p, 12).
4
Hochstetter had since 1876 been Intendant of the Kaiserlich-königliches Naturhistorischen
Hofmuseum in Vienna. The museum was opened in 1889.
Always completely your
Ferd. von Mueller.