Foreign travelers - Who's who

Pococke Richard (1704-1765)

Born in Southampton in 1704 Richard Pococke was an ardent traveler.

Upon competing his studies at Corpus Christi College he was appointed to the precentorship of Lismore Cathedral in 1725 and in 1734 became vicar-general.

In the years 1737-1738 he made a travel to the Middle East. In this journey he visited Palestine and Jerusalem. Returning to England, Pococke published in 1743 vol. I of a book named "A Description of the East".

Vol. II of "Description", consisting of observations on Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cyprus, Crete, Asia Minor, Greece and parts of Europe, was published in 1745 and attained great celebrity.

Pococke died of apoplexy in September 1765 at Charleville near Tullamore, Ireland, while on a visitation. He was buried in Bishop Montgomery’s tomb at Ardbraccan.

Sources:

Rehav Rubin, Image and Realty, Magnes press, Jerusalem, 1999, p. 48, 49, 52, 156, 159.,

The Dictionary of National Biography, Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee (eds.), Oxford University Press, London 1917, pp.12-14.

Franz Kraus (1834-1897)

Franz Kraus initially dealt with mineralogy and geology and quickly acquired extensive specialist knowledge. In 1875 he became a member of the k.k. geographical society in Vienna, 1876 co-founder of the scientific club, 1878 correspondent of the k.k. geological imperial institute.

Under his suggestion, an association for caving was founded as part of the scientific club in October 1879. Franz Kraus carried out numerous cave trips, which he wrote about in the yearbooks of the Austrian Tourist Club.

At his suggestion, the Speleology Section of the Austrian Tourist Club prepared surveys of the peculiar water conditions in the valleys in Carniola (central part of modern Slovenia), which should provide the basis for extensive renovation work in the Karst area. In 1885 a separate karst committee was founded, which immediately decided to research the upper part of the Pivka river from the Pivka ave to the Postojna cave in order to find the presumed connection between these cave systems. Kraus personally directed the work that began in the summer of 1885 in the Pivka cave. Although the work had to be stopped because of early autumn floods, he was able to make interesting scientific observations. The The Ministry of Agriculture and the state government of Carniola resumed the drainage projects in 1886.

In the 1890s, the discoveries in the Postojna cave and the research of the French speleologist E.A. Martel made a great impression on Kraus. In 1893 Martel succeeded in following the course of the Pivka river from Postojna to the Pivka cave and to prove Kraus's view that the Pivka cave belonged to the Postojna cave system. Kraus reported on these events in numerous publications. In 1894 he published the work Höhlenkunde (ways and purpose of exploring underground spaces), in which he summarized and systematically structured all his speleological knowledge.