animated to the utmost the ideas he had already so vividly conceived, besides materially aiding their accomplishment by advice and information on points connected with natural history and the collection of specimens. In company with this friend, he made excursions through several parts of Europe, studied the volcanic phenomena of Italy and Sicily, the Alps and the banks of the Rhine, and in 1790 visited Holland and England. His first publication was a dissertation, the result of these excursions, On certain Basaltic Formations on the Rhine, 1790.

His destined profession was that of official employment in the mines under the Prussian Government, with a view to which he pursued the study of mineralogy at Freiburg, under the celebrated Werner; and in 1792 was subsequently appointed superintendent of mines at Beyreuth. During his continuance there, he contributed various minor publications to natural and mineralogical science. But his ardent desire for travelling overcame every consideration of professional advancement; and, in consequence, he resigned his employment in the mines in 1795

Disappointed in his hope of joining in two proposed expeditions under the French Government-one to Egypt and Syria, the other to the South Pacific-which were frustrated by the convulsed state of Europe at that period, four years elapsed before he was able to put his project in execution. The time, however, was not lost; he diligently employed it in prosecuting those preparatory studies which enabled him to apprehend in their due relations all the varied and important points of science which would claim attention, and open new fields of - research; while the study and practice of methods of observation, and the use of physical and astronomical instruments and apparatus, were essential preparatives for the course of investigation he had planned.

In 1797 he remained for some time at Vienna, preparing for botanical excursions by studying the collections of exotic plants in that city; after which he had the advantage of travelling through Salzburg and Styria in company with the

great geologist Von Buch, and was about crossing the Tyrolean Alps, when the breaking out of war in Italy forced them to abandon an excursion into that country. During the two next years he resided temporarily in various parts of Europe, but especially at Jena, where he formed the acquaintance of Göthe and Schiller. He published Researches into the Structure of Muscular and Nervous Fibre, and The Chemical Processes of Life (1797), as well as Investigations on Various Gases, then imperfectly known (1799), evincing the very varied as well as accurate nature of his studies.

Having, as we have seen, been disappointed in obtaining any opening in connexion with Government expeditions, he now determined to rely on his own resources. His friendship with M. Bonpland enabled them jointly to concert plans of exploration. With that eminent botanist he spent some time in France, with the intention of making an excursion into Africa and the East; but here again various difficulties interposed; and finally, the continent of South America appeared to offer in many respects the most eligible field for their operations, and for which they made their preparations accordingly; and in 1799, after traversing a considerable part of Spain, they finally embarked at Corunna for the Azores. The voyage, so far from being wearisome, or lost time, was to Humboldt a source of ever-new interest. The aspects and productions of the ocean, the phenomena of the atmosphere, the views of the heavens under a tropical sky, were all topics of fresh research and deeply instructive study, of which he knew how to avail himself to the utmost.

In a sketch like the present, we of course make no pretension of following the travellers through the varied scenes of their explorations : from the shores of Spain. to the Canary Islands, and the Peak of Teneriffe; whence crossing the Atlantic, the more arduous task of exploring the South American Continent occupied them nearly four years; commencing from the northern coast, and investigating successively the mountainous regions

of those parts, the Llanos and Pampas, the rivers and marshes; studying earthquake phenomena in the Carraccas; and comparing the volcanic phenomena of the Andes with those of Mexico; investigating the physical aspects of the West Indian Islands. We can only observe, in general, throughout every part of these wanderings, how rich à field-then almost entirely new to scientific research-was opened to their inquiries. These vast regions, as to their physical structure and conditions, as well as their animal and vegetable productions, hitherto for the most part very little examined, were more fully disclosed to their research; and no opportunity was lost of examining and registering all the variety of interesting physical phenomena and diversified forms of animated nature, which in such endless profusion presented themselves for examination.

During these lengthened explorations the masses of collected specimens, geological, botanical, zoological, and miscellaneous, became by degrees enormous. The difficulties

of packing and conveying them were great, and the fear of losing them still more a source of anxiety to the indefatigable collectors. Triplicate sets were prepared and packed; one set sent, as opportunity offered, to the United States, for shipment to England; another to France or Spain; while the third continually accompanied the travellers on a long train of mules, and was anxiously kept under their own eyes. Of the two former sets, in the state of warfare in which the European Powers were then involved, it was not surprising that many failed in reaching their destination, or that few, in fact, were preserved or recovered; but it is satisfactory to know that a valuable portion (chiefly those collected from the shores of the Pacific) were secured to science owing to the generous exertions of Sir Joseph Banks with the British Government; to whom Humboldt pays the graceful acknowledgment, that amidst the political agitations of Europe he unceasingly laboured to strengthen the bonds of union between scientific men of all nations.'

Gifted with a constitution and bodily powers of unusual vigour, he

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encountered not only without inconvenience, but with pleasure, the difficulties and privations which beset a life of wandering in regions for the most part untrodden by civilized visitants; and even in the more frequented parts having to make his way among persons of very different pursuits and ideas, to whom the objects of his mission could not but appear strange, even if they did not excite prejudice and hostility. Yet we are surprised in many parts of the narrative at the apparent ease and familiarity with which he seems to have conciliated the goodwill of the various grades and classes of persons with whom he was brought in contact. The vivid and glowing language in which he dilates on the surpassing richness and variety of objects presented to his observation in the new scenes thus opened, and the diversified forms of animal and vegetable life with which every part of nature in those regions teems, cannot be effaced, even at this distance of time, from the memory of those who perused his descriptions with that eager curiosity which they excited at the time of their publication, when those countries were so little known, and when vast varieties of plants and animals now familiar to us in our zoological collections and botanical conservatories, were new to European science.

Few writers have combined in a higher degree powers of scientific investigation with those of graphic and forcible description.

In the perusal we seem actually present at the scenes of his toilsome struggle through the tropical forests, and his strange bivouacs under their shelter. Thus, to recall a single scene:-We seem to belong to the party on the banks of one of the tributaries to the Orinoco-to see the crocodiles and other aquatic neighbours attracted to the banks by the light of their fires-where the hammocks are slung on oars; we follow with all their anxiety the footmarks of a tigress and her young ones left in the sand when going to the river to drink-we hear the terrific howlings of the jaguars and pumas responded to by the fearful cries of alarm from the peccaris, the monkeys, and the

sloths-the screams of the curassao, the parakka, and other birds; and we observe the dog ceasing his bark and cowering under the hammock as, amid the din, he distinguishes the growl of the distant tiger.

Yet animate dand encouraged by the fearlessness of the native guides, they snatch a brief repose. On the return of day all these alarms are effaced by the contemplation of the marvellous scene of matchless beauty which the tangled depths of the tropical forests present; when, as Humboldt expresses it, 'the explorer can hardly define the varied emotions which crowd upon his mind'-the deep silence of the solitude-the beauty and contrast of the forms-the gaudy plumage of innumerable varieties of birdsthe unceasing vigour and freshness which ever clothe tropical vegetation amid the humid heat which fosters it; and where it might be said that the earth, overloaded with vegetable productions, cannot allow them space to unfold themselves; the trunks of the trees everywhere covered and concealed by a thick clothing of parasitic verdure;' the lianas which creep on the ground also climbing to the tops of the highest trees, and hanging in festoons from one to another at the height of a hundred feet. These and various other plants so interlaced together that the botanist may often be misled to confound the flowers belonging to one with those of another; while through the dense and compact mass of foliage no solar ray is able to penetrate; and the whole journey is performed in a kind of dim twilight under trees of stupendous height and size, of which no European forests convey any idea; streaming with continual vapour, and the humid air scented with the delicious perfumes of flowers and odoriferous resins.

Amid his graphic descriptions on the one hand, the eye seems fatigued in the endeavour to stretch to the extreme and immeasurable extent of the level llanos and pampas; on the other, the breathing seems oppressed under the dense canopy of vegetation in the forests, where the heated and confined air is loaded with steaming exhalations from

swamps and pools swarming with aquatic life, and tangled jungle through which the vast boas, and more fearful venomous snakes, twine their noiseless but deadly path; while air and vegetation are equally alive with every variety of insect existence.

Such are some few of the ideas so vividly conjured up, and the recollection of which may serve to convey a more distinct impression of the arduous labours of the explorer, now in traversing these depths of primeval forest, now on the bleak ridges of the Cordilleras, and amid the more dangerous and marvellous conformations of the seats of volcanic action, pursuing with unwearied perseverance, indomitable courage, and enlightened intelligence those objects of scientific inquiry which were not left to chance discovery, but sought out on a deliberate and well-arranged plan.

Devoted as he was to the study of nature, it would be an entire mistake to regard Humboldt as less interested in questions regarding the condition of men and nations; on the contrary, he clearly viewed those subjects in the comprehensive light of his philosophy as among the essential parts and even highest departments of the study of universal nature. Not to dwell on the volumes devoted to those topics which form part of the series of his results, even in the Personal Narrative he in many places discusses with deep interest and emphasis the condition, and speculates on the origin and prospects, of the various tribes of the human family with whom he was brought into contact, and for whom he always expresses the most kindly interest.

To cite a single instance, we cannot find this spirit better exemplified than in his reflections on the dis tinctions between the free and independent Indians of South America, whom he will not call savages, and the reduced' Indians in the missions, and nominally Christians. The former he represents as living under chieftains peacefully united in villages, and cultivating the soil which, in the exuberance of a tropical climate, produces abundance of food with little or no labour. He contends that very false ideas are dif

1859.]

fused by calling the one 'Christian,' 'reduced,' or 'civilized,' and the other pagan,' 'savage,' and barbarous. He observes:

The reduced Indian is often as little of a Christian as the independent Indian is of an idolator. Both alike occupied by the wants of the moment betray a marked indifference for religious sentiments, and a secret tendency to the worship of nature and her powers which belongs to the earliest infancy of nations.*

In 1804 the travellers returned to Europe, and Humboldt, conjointly with Bonpland, in different departments, engaged themselves in the arduous task of reducing into order their varied collections, and drawing up the accounts of their researches for publication. The strictly scientific portion of their results was embodied in several series of voluminous works, which, commencing in 1807, occupied several years in publication, and have amply sustained the scientific reputation of their authors. A brief glance at their contents may be taken as follows:

The 1st series comprises astronomical, geodetical, and hypsometrical observations, determining the geography of numerous points, besides many phenomena of interest to terrestrial physics throughout the tropical region of America.

The 2nd and 3rd are botanical, chiefly by M. Bonpland, including the descriptions of plants collected in Mexico, Cuba, the northern provinces of South America, with monographs of some important genera.

The 4th, on the geography of plants in the same regions, includes the whole account of their distribution, in connexion with the atmospheric and meteorological investigations determining the conditions of the climate on which they depend, as well as the geological structure of the regions.

The 5th series consists of the zoology and comparative anatomy, including some elucidations by Cuvier referring both to all classes of animals and to varieties of human races.

The 6th embraces the political state of the South American pro

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vinces, including a variety of statistical and topographical details.

The 7th is the most generally interesting and descriptive portion of the whole, including the pictorial illustrations, the representations of antiquities and monuments, of mountains and cities, of scenery and natural objects.

If this be only a meagre and dry enumeration of a few of the leading heads of the discussions and descriptions of which these elaborate volumes are composed, they will suffice to give some slight idea of the immense extent as well as variety of the labours of the traveller.

These valuable researches soon became known through translations to all European cultivators of science, and have been duly appreciated; but by far the most interesting portion to the public at large has been the Personal Narrative, which in five volumes appeared at successive intervals from 1814 to 1821 (since reprinted in, Bohn's Standard Library); a work which, besides the detail of all the adventures encountered, contains many of the most highly interesting descriptions of natural scenery and phenomena, conveying those vivid and living pictures of scenes witnessed to which we have already referred.

Many lesser publications of Humboldt, partly arising out of the subjects suggested by the travels, appeared in subsequent years, the most noted of which perhaps is the Essay on the Superposition of Rocks, in both hemispheres, 1823. In 1818 he spent some time in England. On his return to the Continent in 1826, he fixed his residence permanently at Berlin, and received the highest honours and marks of royal esteem from both King Frederic William III. and his successor, besides being invested with decorations and orders of knighthood by nearly all the sovereigns of Europe. In 1829, at the pressing invitation of the Emperor of Russia, he joined a scientific expedition into Siberia with Gustav Rose and Ehrenberg, in which they explored the whole of Northern Asia, penetrating even to the borders of China.