Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)
Dr. Péter Rózsa: Robert Townson (1762-1827): a pioneer scientific explorer of the Carpathian Basin
the Past fair is particularly interesting. He left Pest for Eger. Meantime, he was the guest of Baron József Orczy (1746-1804), and they visited the baron's estates. In Eger he visited the Líceum, and then, passing through Tiszafüred and Hortobágy, he went to Debrecen, where he spent some days. From Debrecen he travelled to Nagyvárad (now Oradea in Romania). He went from Nagyvárad to Tokaj (passing through Debrecen again), and then he made a "mineralogical excursion" of a week in the Tokaj Mountains. The next station of his tour was Kassa (now Kosice in Slovakia) , from where he visited the famous bath at Ránkfüred (Herlany) and the well-known opal mine at Veresvágás (Çervenica) . From Kassa he visited the Baradla cave at Aggtelek and the Lednica ice-cave at Szilice (Silica), and then, passing through Rozsnyó (Roznava), Szomolnok (Smolník), Igló (Spisská Nová Ves) and Lőcse (Levoça), he travelled to Késmárk (Kezmarok) . Here, he stayed for same days as a guest at the manor-house of Mr. Horváth, the deputy lieutenant, at Sztráska (Strázky). After this he made long excursions in the High Tatra Mountains, and climbed up some peaks, too. Following a short trip to the Wieliczka salt mines and Krakow, he continued his Hungarian tour in the mining area at Selmecbánya (Banská Stiavnica), and then, passing through Garamszentbenedek (Hronsky Beçadik) , Nyitra (Nitra) and Nagyszombat (Trnava) , he went to Pozsony (Bratislava). He stayed there for some days, and then he left Hungary. He returned to Vienna in the middle of October 1793. During this short half-year, he covered a considerable distance, approximately 2000 km, in the Hungary of that time, and further 400 km in Poland when went to the Wieliczka salt mines 5 (figure 3). Townson's book is not only an important scientific work but, being an enjoyable and vivid description on social, political and economic conditions of Hungary of the age, it has considerable source value. His exact observations are accounted for and utilised by several disciplines (history, ethnography, landscape studies, etc.) 6 In the following part of this paper, Townson's descriptions and excursions concerning the Tokaj Mountains, the caves near Aggtelek and Szilice, the High Tatra Mountains (including his barometric altimetry), botanical and entomological data summarised in the Appendix, and the map of Hungary enclosed to his book will be introduced. I think that these are Robert Townson's most important and, in some respects, pioneer contributions to the exploration of the Carpathian Basin, i.e. Hungary of that time.
