 He was educated at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen, and the Freiberg School of Mines.He was state geologist of Mississippi from 1850 to 1851, engaged in the geological survey of Alabama from 1854 to 1855, and from 1856 until 1860 held the office of mineralogical, geological, and agricultural surveyor of South Carolina.His first annual report of the last-mentioned survey was published in 1857, and the fourth and last in 1860.