Ferdinand Stoliczka

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Ferdinand Stoliczka (May 1838 - June 19, 1874) was an Austrian/Czech palaeontologist born at Hukvaldy (Hochwald) near Kromeriz in Moravia. His father was a forester. He studied at a German Secondary school in Kromeriz. Although he published 79 articles from 1859-1875, he never wrote anything in Czech. (It is believed that he spoke German at home. In his Calcutta years he was an important figure in the Germal-speaking community there). His scientific career started in the Austrian Geological Survey (his first papers were based on work in the Alps and Hungary). He studied geology and paleontology at Prague and the University of Vienna under Professor Eduard Suess and Dr Rudolf Hoernes.

In 1859 he wrote to the Vienna Academy on some freshwater mollusca from the Cretaceous rocks of the north-eastern Alps.

In 1861 he joined the Austrian Geological Survey, and in the following year he joined the Geological Survey of India under the British Government in India after being recruited by Dr Thomas Oldham (1816-1878). In Calcutta he was assigned the job of documenting the Cretaceous fossils of southern India and published them in the Palaeontologia indica, along with William Thomas Blanford. By May 1873 this work was completed with four volumes totalling nearly 15000 pages.

He studied the geology of the western Himalayas and Tibet, and published numerous papers on many subjects including Indian zoology. He was also briefly (in 1868) the joint curator of the Indian Museum and also the Natural History Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was involved in editing the Society's journal. He visited Burma, Malaysia and Singapore, and made two trips to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Rann of Kutch. He visited Kutch in 1871-1872 but noted that his geology work kept him from making many observations. He noted wild cheetahs from the region and also what is now Stoliczka's bushchat. In 1873 he joined an expedition organized by Hume along with Valentine Ball to the Andaman and Nicobar islands. His first Himalayan trip was in 1864 with F. R. Mallet of the GSI. In 1865 he visited again with an artist friend and a dog to the Ladakh Valley. His third was the most major expedition (1873-1874) during the height of the "Great Game", the rivalry between the Russian and British empires. Eastern Turkestan (Kashgaria) was a buffer state of prime importance. The British launched an official diplomatic enterprise-the Second Yarkand Mission led by (afterwards Sir) Douglas Forsyth to Yakub Beg, the rules of Chinese Turkestan. The mission had seven sahibs, 350 support staff and 550 animals The expedition needed 6476 porters and 1621 horses and it is said that the Ladakh economy took four years to recover from the losses incurred. The mission set out from Rawalpinid to Leh via Murree. The misson went via Pangong Lake, Changchenmo and Karakash Valley to Shahidulla and finally Yarkand. They reached Kashgar in December 1873. On 17 March 1874 they began the return journey. They were to visit the Pamir and Afghanistan areas but were forced not to by political situations. On 16 June 1874 he had severe headaches as they crossed the Karakoram pass (5580 m). He wrote

...upon this followed massive dolomitic limestone and this was overlain with blue shales. I must have a ramble in these limestones tomorrow.

Captain Trotter reported that on the 18th "he started on horseback early in the morning to examine some rocks up the stream." He returned tired and complained of his headache. He breathed heavily and coughed all night. The native doctor diagnosed acute brochitis and inflammation of the lungs and treated him with brandy mixed in a cough mixture. At 2 pm he drank some port wine and "his respiration grew slower and slower, and also did his pulse, and he finally breathed his last, dying so quietly that i was impossible to say at what precise instant he passed away".

He died on the 19th of June 1874, on the return journey, at Moorghi in Ladakh and his dying request was that the birds part of the scientific results of the expedition be published by Allan Octavian Hume. This work was finally, however completed by Richard Bowdler-Sharpe seventeen years later.

Dr. H. V. Bellew did the post-mortem and confirmed "spinal meningitis deteriorated by over-exertion in strenouus endeavours after information, and the great height." Today this is generally believed to have been Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), a condition well known to Himalayan travellers. It manifests as pulmonary or cerebral edema. Above 5000 m this is fatal in about 40% of the cases. Conditions that aggravate it include exertion, fast ascent and alcohol, all of which were present in his case.

His interest in birds started only in the Himalayas in 1864 and was greatly encouraged by Allan Octavian Hume, the "father of Indian Ornithology". Stoliczka's first ornithological works were large collections of birds from the Sutlej Valley. Arthur Viscount Walden recognized his contributions and welcomed the geologist Stoliczka "to a high place among scientific ornithologists" but disagreeed with Stoliczka's idea of adding new species due to small differences in plumage. Hume however supported Stoliczka and wrote a note against the cabinet naturalists of London. Some of Stoliczka's new species were discovered to have been already discovered by the Russina zoologist N. A. Severtzov. He wrote a week before his death to Valentine Ball

'Please tell Waterhouse to order for the Asiatic, Severtzov's Turkestanskie Jevotnie immediately, if it is not at the Indian Museum. If they do not like ordering it, order it for myself throught Truebner without delay. Do not forget, please.

Image:Stoliczka memorial.jpg Image:Stoliczka leh epigraph.jpg

A granite obelisk is erected in his memory at the Moravian Cemetery in Leh. An obituary was published in Nature, July 9, 1874 by W. T. Blanford.

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