The New International Encyclopædia/Güssfeldt, Paul

GÜSSFELDT, gụs'fĕlt, Paul (1840—). A German explorer. He was born in Berlin, and was educated at Heidelberg, Berlin, Giessen, and Bonn. When the first expedition was sent out by the German African Society in 1872, he was chosen its leader. The expedition sailed to the coast of Loango, but was shipwrecked near Freetown, Liberia, January 14, 1873, and lost all its stores and equipments. Although Güssfeldt succeeded in establishing a station on the coast, he was unable to penetrate into the interior, and returned to Germany in the summer of 1875. In 1876 he visited Egypt and the Arabian Desert (with Schweinfurth), and afterwards explored a portion of the Andes, where he discovered a number of glaciers in latitude 34° 30' S. He also ascended to the top of the volcano of Maipo, and reached almost the summit of Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak of South America. In 1892 he became professor of physical geography in the seminary for Oriental languages in Berlin. Among his principal works are the following: In den Hochalpen. Erlebnisse aus den Jahren 1859-85 (3d ed. 1893); Kaiser Wilhelms II. Reisen nach Norwegen in den Jahren 1889-92 (1892); Die Loangoexpedition, jointly with Falkenstein and Pechuel-Loesche (1879 et seq.).