VICTORIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 613, 22 September 1858, Page 3

VICTORIA.

A royal (lake, closely allied to the Imperial House of llomanoff. ami to the reigning king of Holland, is at present on a visit to this colony, having arrived from 'New York by the Mary Bangs, which anchored in the btvy yesterday. The Count Heidenham is the, pseudonym adopted by our distinguished visitor, and by that designation he wishes to be known and addressed. His mission, I may add, is not political, but purely scientific. lie is the friend, and has been the companion of the venerable Humboldt, and. is animated by that enthusiastic love of knowledge, that ardent spirit of inquiry, and that vehement desire to penetrate the terra incognita! of the earth which have inspired so many of his patient and persevering countrymen, for the Count is a native of the land which sent -us a Neumayer, a Mueller, and a Guerard. For the last ten years our illustrious visitor (t do not I use the adjective in reference to his rank, but to his scientific acquirements) has been exploring South, Central, and Xorth America, not en rjratid seigneur, as British noblemen travel over Europe, but, as often as not, on foot, encountering hardships and enduring privations with a cheerful courage, and making himself at home with all sorts of people, in all sorts of places, under all sorts of circumstances. A German merchant in this c'.ty, allured to California when the goldfields were first discovered, remembers a countryman presenting himself one evening at the entrance of the German's tent, pitched in a district far remote from the sea board, and soliciting a night's shelter. The stranger, whose language and demeanor were those of the scholar and the gentleman, was way-worn and foot-soi'e, and his garb was somewhat dilapidated withal; but he received a frank welcome, and shared the shakedown and blanket of the German digger. The guest was full of anecdote and information; was evidently at home in courts, but nevertheless equally at home in the rancheria of a Mexican peasant, or beneath the calico roof of an adventurous gold-seeker. I don't suppose the entertainer ever fell in with a more agreeable guest; and I know that he was considerably surprised |to find so curious an illustration of the adage that "adversity acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." as that which was supplied by the fact of his having couched under the same coverlid with a descendant of Duke Eberhard's and the brother (if I mistake not) of an European sovereign. Since then, Count Haidenhain has made himself familiar with the physical aspects and natural history of a great portion of tha North American Continent, carefully avoiding the attentions which might be paid to him, on account of his rank, and cultivating the society of men of science, art, and letters, with whom his intercourse is marked by the utmost bonhommie, and. by the entire absence of restraint on either side. Such specimens of natural history as he collects, he transmits to a museum, which he has founded in the town of Merg'entheim (which is his appanage, I bslieve), in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. Instead.of expending his income in self indulgence and ostentatious display, he devotes it to travel; communicating the results of his observations to scientific journals published in Germany, and worthily copying the example of the great Humboldt. In visiting Australia, the Count proposes to make himself acquainted with its natural history, and to study its social developments; and it will be interesting, hereafter, to learn what were the impressions produced upon the mind of so intelligent an observer, during his stay in these colonies. There is some talk on the part of the Count's compatriots and the literary, and artistic, and scientific celebrities of Melbourne to iuyite him to an entertainment at the Criterion; hut the Count is so much averse to publicity and eclat, that, unless the proposed welcome is of a semi-private character, I doubt whether he would accede to the invitation. — Correspondent of Gcelong Daily News.