Warunki prowadzenia badań terenowych w Karpatach do roku 1914

In the second part of the 19th century, the Carpathians became a field of widely conducted research by the Polish scientists. On the basis of source materials we can reconstruct the conditions of those research. In the majority of cases the field works were carried on in difficult or even very difficult conditions. While getting to the foothill did not cause major problems, the state of transport and communication in mountainous terrain was very poor. Especially in the area of Eastern Carpathians there was practically no transport at all. Scientists had to cope with serious shortages in infrastructure – both in accommodation and available food; their diet was deficient and poor in nutrients. They were forced to spend the nights in spartan conditions, lack of guides evoked widespread criticism, the maps at their disposal were unsatisfactory, and the scientists were solely left to their own resources. Each time they decided to explore an area, they were aware of its difficult accessibility. The farther east they went, the worse accessibility of particular Carpathian range they encountered, and that situation extremely hampered their research. Thy had no specialist equipment to move in mountainous terrain and so were forced to settle for what they had – mostly things not suitable for field works. One has to remember that they had to use a lot of research equipment, which made it hard to move around. Their research work was also highly dependent on weather conditions and according to the sources, weather often hampered it or even prevented them from undertaking it at all. Despite all those adversities, the Polish scientists representing mainly the Kraków scientific institutions – the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and its Physiography Committee, as well as the Jagiellonian University – conducted field research in all the ranges of Western and Eastern Carpathian Mountains for decades. Regardless of very difficult, often extreme, conditions of field work, the scientists carried out their responsibilities excellently, making their substantial contribution to the development of Polish and European science.