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"In
Victoria I used to get up about 9, read the newspapers, take a few
solar observations with a Sextant till 12, have luncheon, and ride
up to town about 2, lounge about the town paying visits and
shopping till 3, then go for a ride till 4:39, get home about
5:30, have dinner at 6, cup of tea at 7:30, rubber of whist (for
love) till 11, and then turn in and that was our ordinary
employment. We used to be overrun at various portions of the
day by naval officers coming on shore for fun, and in the evening
we used sometimes to have as many as a dozen at a time in our
Mess-room, and we were all great friends with them."
-- 27 May
1860, Lt. Anderson RE |
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(Feb. 11, 1861) One
of the members of our Commission called Bauerman who is our Geologist
is well acquainted with all the country about where you are and he is
been interesting me very much in his account of it all, about Teplitz
and Erzegebirge and Mileschauer, etc.
(written to little brother Jack, who evidently is travelling on
the Continent)
--Lt.
Anderson, Observations of the Boundary Commission
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"Our force is greatly reduced at this place to what it was last winter.
In the first place we have lost our surgeon who has invalided himself, and also our Geologist who has been recalled."
-- Lt. Anderson, Fort Colville, 20 Nov. 1861 |
Born in 1833 in
London, Bauerman studied geology in England and Germany. Little is
known of his early life prior to age 18, when he went to the Government
(later Royal) School of Mines in London, now part of Imperial College,
from 1851 to 1853. He was then accepted at the prestigious
Freiburg Academy in Breisgau, Germany.
After two years' study in Germany, Bauermann worked for one year on the
Geological Survey of Britain, under Sir Roderick Murchison.
By 1858, aged 23, Bauerman was already a noted metallurgist,
mineralogist and geologist. That year saw him appointed on the
recommendation of Murchison as geologist for the British Boundary
Commission. The Commission was charged with surveying the 49th
parallel, the border between the newly-founded colony of British
Columbia and its neighbour to the south, Washington Territory.
The geologist’s role in this new colony was critical, given the
importance of gold and the presence of rich mining strikes near the
contentious border. Bauerman’s work in the colony was the basis
for one of his several books, a comprehensive study of the geology of
southern British Columbia from the Pacific to the Rockies.
During his time in the Colony, Bauerman was also a regular correspondent
to The Times of London.
In subsequent years Bauerman geologized in many other parts of the
world, including Sweden, Lapland, Canada, Arabia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil,
Asia Minor and the United States. On March 18, 1863, he was
elected a Fellow of The Royal Geological Society, again nominated by his
mentor Murchison, and remained a member until his death.
| Bauerman's home in 1909 at 142
Cavendish Road, Balham, Surrey, England |
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Bauerman served as professor at Firth College, Sheffield. Later he
was appointed a professor on the staff of the Ordnance College at
Woolwich, home to prospective officers of both the Royal Engineers and
Royal Artillery. He died in 1909.
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Bauerman returned to England complaining that his scientific work had been severely subordinated to the Boundary Survey, a not
uncommon complaint of scientists attached to such expeditions.
According to Deutsch, his findings were eventually published as :
H. Bauerman, report on the Geology of the Country near the Forty-ninth parallel of North latitude West of the Rocky Mountains from Observarions made 1859-61
(Montreal: Geological and Natural Histroy Survey of Canada, 1884)
-- Pg. 308, Letters from the 49th parallel, by C. Ian
Jackson.
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