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SCHWEINFURTH, GEORG AUGUST (1836– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 392 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCHWEINFURTH, GEORG See also:AUGUST (1836– ) , See also:German traveller in See also:East Central See also:Africa and ethnologist, was See also:born at See also:Riga on the 29th of See also:December 1836. He was 'educated at the See also:universities of See also:Heidelberg, See also:Munich and See also:Berlin (1856-1862), where he particularly devoted himself to See also:botany and palaeontology. Commissioned to arrange the collections brought from the See also:Sudan by Freiherr von See also:Barnim and Dr See also:Hartmann, his See also:attention was directed to that region; and in 1863 he travelled See also:round the shores of the Red See also:Sea, repeatedly traversed the See also:district between that sea and the See also:Nile, passed on to See also:Khartum, and returned to See also:Europe in 1866. His researches attracted so much attention that in 1868 the See also:Humboldt-Stiftung of Berlin entrusted him with an important scientific See also:mission to the interior of East Africa. Starting from Khartum in See also:January 1869, he went up the See also:White Nile td,See also:Bahr-el-Ghazal, and then, with a party of See also:ivory dealers, through the regions inhabited by the Diur (Dyoor), See also:Dinka, See also:Bongo and Niam-Niam; See also:crossing the Nile See also:watershed he entered the See also:country of the See also:Mangbettu (Monbuttu) and discovered the See also:river Welle (19th of See also:March 1870), which by its westward flow he knew was See also:independent of the Nile. Schweinfurth formed the conclusion that it belonged to the See also:Chad See also:system, and it was several years before its connexion with the See also:Congo was demonstrated. The See also:discovery of the Welle was Schweinfurth's greatest See also:geographical achievement, though he did much to elucidate the See also:hydrography of the Bahr-el-Ghazal system. Of greater importance were the very considerable additions he made to the knowledge of the inhabitants and of the See also:flora and See also:fauna of Central Africa. He described in detail the cannibalistic practices of the Mangbettu, and his discovery of the See also:pygmy See also:Akka settled conclusively the question as to the existence of See also:dwarf races in tropical Africa. Unfortunately nearly all his collections made up to that date were destroyed by a See also:fire in his See also:camp in December 187o. He returned to Khartum in See also:July 1871 and published an See also:account of the expedition, under the See also:title of See also:Im Herzen von Afrika (See also:Leipzig, 1874; See also:English edition, The See also:Heart of Africa, 1873, new ed. 1878).

In 1873-1874 he accompanied See also:

Gerhard See also:Rohlfs in his expedition into the Libyan See also:Desert. Settling at See also:Cairo in 1875, he founded a geographical society, under the auspices of the See also:khedive See also:Ismail, and devoted himself almost exclusively to See also:African studies, See also:historical and ethnographical. In 1876 he penetrated into the Arabian Desert with See also:Paul Giissfeldt, and continued his explorations therein at intervals until 1888, and during the same See also:period made See also:geological and botanical investigations in the See also:Fayum, in the valley of the Nile, &c. In 1889 he removed to Berlin; but he visited the See also:Italian See also:colony of See also:Eritrea in 1891, 1892 and 1894. The accounts of all his travels and researches have appeared either in See also:book or pamphlet See also:form or in See also:periodicals, such as See also:Peter-See also:matins Mitteilungen, the Zeitschrift See also:fur Erdkunde, &c. Among his See also:works may be mentioned Artes Africanae; Illustrations and Descriptions of Productions of the See also:Industrial Arts of Central African Tribes (1875).

End of Article: SCHWEINFURTH, GEORG AUGUST (1836– )

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