Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Krauss

Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Krauss (Stuttgart, 9 July 1812 - 15 September 1890), was a German scientist, traveller and collector.

He was an apothecary's apprentice and worked as a pharmacist for a while, but then took up the study of mineralogy, zoology and chemistry at Tübingen and Heidelberg, where he excelled academically and was awarded a PhD summa cum laude in 1836.

The following year Baron von Ludwig, famous for his garden in Cape Town, visited Germany and persuaded Krauss to visit South Africa. They sailed from Portsmouth aboard the 676-ton barque La Belle Alliance (the same vessel that had carried 1820 Settlers from England to the Eastern Cape) and arrived in Cape Town 81 days later on 7 May 1838. Krauss started collecting and studying the fauna, flora and geology of Cape Town and environs in earnest after a short trip to Tulbagh. He collected molluscs and crustaceans, marine algae and fish. Planning a trip to the interior, he ordered a wagon to be made. He set off with his ox-wagon, 14 oxen, a horse and two assistants, going over Sir Lowry's Pass and the Houhoek Pass to Genadendal. From here he visited Kogmanskloof by horse. Leaving Genadendal he travelled southwards to Caledon, to Walker Bay, Elim, Prinskraal, Cape Agulhas, along Struisbaai to De Hoop and Swellendam. From here he set out eastwards to Mossel Bay and George, spending some time in the extensive forests of the Tsitsikamma. He went on a small side trip from George across the Outeniqua Mountains to Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves. Going further east from George, he crossed the Kaaimans River, but had to leave his wagon at the Diep River because of a dangerous crossing. Travelling further with Rev. Ballott and staying with Capt. Thomas Henry Duthie (friend of Charles Collier Michell) on the farm Belvidere, before joining George Rex at Melkhout Kraal. From here he touched at Plettenberg Bay and Keurbooms River, and on 19 February 1839 left Knysna to return to his abandoned wagon at Diep River and decided to tackle the difficult Devilskop pass into the Langkloof, where he found that the trip had so exhausted his oxen that they needed to be replaced. Travelling east along the Langkloof, he made an excursion lasting a week on horseback to Toorwater at the point where the Olifants River cuts through the Swartberg, returning over Antoniesberg and the Kouga Mountains and meeting up with his wagon, which had gone ahead, on 1 March. When he reached Jagersbos three days later, he turned south over the Kareedouwberg to the Moravian Mission station at Koksbosch (which is now known as Clarkson) and went on to Driefontein. He spent 3 weeks in this locality, referring to it as Tsitsikamma, before moving across the Gamtoos River and on to Uitenhage where he stayed with the pharmacist and plant collector Joachim Brehm. Here he sold his wagon and oxen to a Dr. John Jones who farmed north of the Groot Winterhoek Mountains. From Uitenhage he made several outings to Swartkops, Bethelsdorp, Port Elizabeth and Cape Recife, visiting the botanist and retired major Friedrich von Buchenröder on the Swartkops River.

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