Tad a tremendous blow with a heavy club at Bonpland to the ground, stunned and His companion utilised the time occupied by his fonts recovery for the observation of an eclipse ren. Never, indeed, was a more active and ralatigable searcher into the secrets of nature Alexander von Humboldt. His constitu, originally weak, had been fortified by se, temperance, and the cheerfulness enered by an engrossing and congenial purHe had the faculty, like Napoleon, of aring almost at will, and a short repose red him. The amount of actual work, in the way of observation and carefully conducted experiments, he went through during this rary, and, indeed, throughout every part of law career, is amazing. And here is one of the of cases of the great value of the results he urred for science. He gives, as it were, ter and verse for every assertion he makes; *rting is hurried, nothing left incomplete, **ing accepted on hearsay. Step by step the tary of natural science clears his path as arbes onward, wresting one secret after mother from nature, and enriching the world *th knowledge. AN EARTHQUAKE; ASCENT OF THE SILLA. ntance with a somewhat startling incident the great volcano of Pichincha came the try das" or internal rumblings, the pres of heavy earthquake shocks, lasting nine minutes, they had become so tomed to the phenomenon that they did not rise from their beds; and at last were no 313 more astonished at seeing the earth heaving around them than the sailor is to see the ocean rising in billowy waves. He was told that 1784 had been a year especially fertile in earthquake shocks; the Mexicans at that time had been as much accustomed to hear the subterranean thunder rolling beneath their feet as at others to hear it rumbling through the air. At Caracas, whither they had proceeded soon after, Humboldt and Bonpland ascended a remarkable mountain, the Silla, or Saddle mountain, in the neighbourhood of the city. The energy of Humboldt is shown in the fact that though he had spent the whole of the previous night in watching occultations of the satellites of Jupiter, he started at five in the morning on Some inhabitants of Caracas this expedition. who set off to take part in the expedition soon turned back; among others, a young Capuchin monk, of whom Humboldt gives an amusing account. This amateur explorer boasted of the great things he would do; but very soon sat down, almost at the foot of the mountain, and watched the ascent of the climbing party with his telescope. THE LLANOS OF THE ORINOCO. No part of this eventful journey is more interesting than the expedition now undertaken by the travellers across the vast steppe or plain that stretches to the south, behind Caracas, towards the mighty Orinoco and the great rivers its tributaries. At that time these regions were completely a terra incognita even to the scientific world; nothing was known of those vast equatorial regions of America beyond the coast line, and Humboldt's account reads almost like an To him the vast treeless account in a fairy tale. plains stretching away at a dead level to the horizon, with only banks or ridges of floetz rising here and there above the uniformity of the surface, suggested the idea of a petrified ocean; but like the ocean it is far from being devoid of life. The steppes or llanos are inhabited by wild animals of the most different kinds,-striped viverra or bats, the armadillo, the maneless lion, the jaguar or American tiger, whose strength enables it to drag to the summit of a hill the body of a bull it has killed. Enormous herds of cattle roam, almost wild, over the llanos; and Humboldt calls attention to the wonderful adaptability displayed by the ox and horse tribe to various conditions of climate and vicissitudes of circumstances; an adaptability also possessed in the vegetable world by the cereals or corn plants. The animals and plants, he observes, that are most necessary to the comfort and well-being of man, appear to have followed him over the face of the globe, and to flourish and increase wher ever he can make his dwelling; on the bleak hills of Norway and on the burning plains of India alike they find subsistence; and from the hardy rye to the lordly maize every zone of the earth's surface produces a corn plant of one kind or another. In the llanos the cattle struggle on against difficulties and dangers of the most opposite kinds. The drought of summer converts the plains into arid deserts, and numbers of creatures perish for want of water. The cunning mule obtains a supply from the melocactus, a globular plant covered with thorny spikes, and containing a watery pulp. Many mules are seen lamed from thorns in the feet by kicking these plants open. The sufferings endured by the animals, when the rivers have become dry watercourses, are pitiable, the stings of myriads of insects greatly increasing them. Then comes the wet season, and the whole region is converted into a swamp, with great lakes, from which the higher portions stand out in the form of islands. Then the cattle have to live like amphibious animals, swimming from island to island, and menaced by alligators and jaguars; while the formidable gymnotus, or electric eel, lurking in the water, destroys many of them, stunning or numbing them with repeated shocks. In no part of the world does nature appear in more wonderful <liversity of climate, or exhibit a greater and more marvellous fulness of animal life, than in these vast llanos of Venezuela. LIFE OF ANIMALS IN THE FOREST; ASCENT OF CHIMBORAZO; RETURN. During a long journey by water in native canoes, the travellers penetrated to the frontier settlements of the Spaniards on the Rio Negro, in the south. Returning by the Casiquiare into the Orinoco, the connection of the latter great river with the mighty Maranon, the Amazon river, was established as a geographical fact. The wondrous wealth of animal and vegetable life in the primeval forests, where climbing plants or lianas, of more than a hundred feet in length, stretched from one colossal tree to another, like the tackle of a ship; the generally impenetrable thicket, with paths broken through it only here and there by the animals coming down to the river to drink, in such numbers and variety that one of the boatmen, who had learnt biblical history at one of the Spanish mission stations, declared, "It is here as in Paradise,"-the noc turnal noise and confusion occasioned by the beasts of prey hunting through the trees-with all the other experiences of that remarkable | journey in regions where the foot of civilized man had never yet trod,-all these things are to be found described, in clear yet eloquent language, in the "Personal Narrative" and the "Aspects of Nature," in which latter work the author presented for the benefit of the revling public some of the most striking scenes of hi wanderings. The ascent of the mighty Cordilleras, of the Andes, including that of the mighty Chimboram the Snow Mountain, which Humboldt was the first to climb, formed another part of the enter prising traveller's experience; and here he noticed the wonderful diversity of plant-life under the same parallel of latitude at different elevations above the sea level. From the bat valleys, where the vegetation is entirely tropical, as the traveller ascends to the higher regions, he passes by regular gradations, through districts exbibiting in a series the plants first of the tem perate and then of the cold regions; at length arriving at the heights where a few lichens and mosses are the last representatives of the vege table world before he reaches the region of per petual snow. The remarkable distribution a animals also excited his wonder-the highest peak of the Andes and the depths of hot springs alike exhibited traces of animal life in various forma The plan of the journey in South America, a afterwards in Mexico, was several times altered in consequence of rumours, which always turn out delusory, that Baudin's expedition was expected to arrive in one port or another. Aft pursuing this scientific will-o'-the-wisp for a long period, to his great detriment in loss of time and temper, Humboldt at length was determined to give up the idea of joining Baui: altogether, and finish his journey independenty as he had begun it. The great enterprise wa not concluded until 1804, and never had a jour ney enriched science with such vast and varie results-geology, botany, ethnology, electric an meteorological science, physical geography astronomy-there was not a department which this admirable Crichton of science did n show himself an admirable proficient and patient, persevering, and reverend investigates When at length, in August 1804, he landed a Bordeaux, on his return, he had to contradict t his presence a report that he had died of yell fever at Vera Cruz. "PLENDID EDITION OF HUMBOLDT'S TRAVELS. The only continental city where at that time the urces could be found adequate to the publiata, in a worthy form, of the account of these as was Paris; for the other capitals of tinental Europe were agitated by the turmoil f war, and the fear of invasion. Humboldt aringly conceived the idea of establishing resilence in the French metropolis. After excursion into Italy for scientific purposes, and a vint to Berlin, which capital he found in possession of the French, he carried this iza into effect; and until 1827 he resided atly in Paris, occupied in the task of preparing Ir the press, revising and publishing the account travels Humboldt was a man to whom mney was valuable only in so far as he found it mary for carrying out his scientific designs. At the very outset he had, as we have seen, sold anded property to provide funds for his e; and now he devoted the remainder of ha frtune to the expenses of publishing in tty-nine volumes, some written in French, ether in Latin, a splendid collection of narrat, treatises, and notes embodying the results of his travels and researches in the New World. The work was enriched with more than fourteen hundred engravings, many of them coloured; and the expense from first to last amounted to ,000; for wonderful as was Humboldt's egy, and indefatigable as he showed himself a worker, it would have required the hundred hunds of Briareus to execute even the mechanical part of the gigantic task; and the author was ged to enlist the assistance of eminent men Cuvier, Bonpland, Latreille, and Kunth, in the botanical, zoological, and other departments. And in carrying out this work, priceless in its pertance to science, he received no kind of ance from his own or any other European Gerernment. He had his reward, however, in the consciousof having given an entirely new impulse to tific study and exploration. It is not alone what be achieved, but what he taught others to acere that renders this work of Humboldt's Other travellers had magnificent success. estigated each a separate department of ence; he combined his teaching to one great and complete result. "All are but parts of one harmonious whole,” the truth be inculcates and exhibits in all his explanations of the separate phenomena and perations of natural forces; it was the task of 315 his life to investigate and exhibit, not natural VARIETY AND EXTENT OF HUMCOLDT'S WORK; "Finding therein no little delectation, To think how strange, how wonderful they be ;' 1 acumen was highly valued by the reigning house of Prussia; as is shown by the fact of his accompanying Prince William on a difficult diplomatic mission in 1807, his arrival in London, as the companion and friend of the King of Prussia, in 1814, and afterwards by his presence, as the representative of his country, at the congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle and Verona. The world-wide reputation of his works, and the reverence with which his name was uttered by every mouth, awoke that portion of the world in which a prophet has proverbially the least chance of finding honour-his own country-to a sense of his worth; King Frederick William III. of Prussia became somewhat tardily impressed with the idea that so illustrious a subject of Prussia ought not to be living among strangers, and pressed the philosopher to take up his residence at Berlin; which Humboldt accordingly did in the year 1827. His elder brother William rejoiced, and with good reason, at this return of the traveller to his native land. "Alexander is here," he writes jubilantly to his friend Gentz, on the 21st of May, 1827, "and has regularly established his residence here he is more industrious and livelier than ever." SCIENCE POPULARIZED; HUMBOLDT'S LEC TURES. Not only William von Humboldt, who had always regarded his brother with an affection mingled with wonder and veneration, had reason to rejoice at the philosopher's return to Berlin; for indeed the whole of Germany had reason to remember the year 1827 as a remarkable epoch, -as the time when science was for the first time popularised before a German audience; and the result of long years of unwearied labour and research was presented to the public in a series of lectures, so admirably lucid and yet so solidly wise-so attractive in the playful fancy which enlivened the delivery, and yet so closely logical and convincing in their arguments,-that the capital was fairly taken by storm, and many a man dated the opening of a new world of wonder and enchantment to his mental ken from the day when he heard the quiet, modest, and goodhumoured voice of Alexander von Humboldt in the hall of the Academy of Sciences. subject of his series of lectures, that occupied six months, was the physical description of the world. Crowded and enthusiastic audiences filled the hall; and the enforced exclusion of hundreds for want of room occasioned a pressing petition for a repetition of the course in the The great hall of the Singing Academy of Berlin. The King, accompanied by the royal family and some members of the Court, came regularly to hear the wonders of creation expounded by the traveller; and what was even more gratifying to the man who had laboured so long to spread. knowledge among the community generally, the people came thronging to learn from him what a marvellous world it was in which they lived and how the earth, like the heavens, declares the glory of the Creator; -how the moan* tains and the plains, equally with the firmament show His handiwork; how day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. These lectures, delivered in presence of King and magnates and people, were a public recognition of the fact that knowledge was no longer to be the heritage of an exclusive and privileged caste, but like the glorious sunlight was to shine on all alike who would come forth to rejoice in its rays. THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS AND HUMBOLDT. And now, when he had almost entered upon his sixtieth year, the grand old scholar prepared for a new and arduous course of travel. It was to the Ural Mountains, and thence to the vast regions of Central Asia, and the mighty range the Altai, that his unwearied energy now led him. The occasion of this new journey was in itself a highly honourable one. The Car Nicholas of Russia has not left behind him the kind of memory that, redolent of justice and benevolence, "smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust." We think of him generally as the sters, ambitious, unscrupulous autocrat, who closed a long reign of tyranny and repression with an unjust war, and broke his heart when the failure and destruction of his hosts in the Crimea brought home to his proud spirit the lesson that the glories of even an emperor's birt and state" are shadows, not substantial things, and that the best-laid plans of aggrandizeme may collapse in sudden and overwhelming ruin. It is only just, on the other hand, that br should have all credit for the enlightenment ami largeness of view he showed on certain occasions and never were these qualities more advantage ously exhibited than when, in 1828, he made proposition that Humboldt should undertake comprehensive journey through his empire, a the sole expense of the Russian Crown; any ide of advantage that his government might rea from the investigations of the distinguish . traveller, with respect to mining and othe national industries, to be rigidly subordinates the interests and advancement of science, wah were to be regarded as the first and chief art of the expedition. Humboldt was not beran to refuse an offer so congenial to his and wishes; but it speaks well for his atram that his acceptance was coupled with conition that the journey should be delayed the spring of the next year. He had yet fash the course of lectures promised to his countrymen; and in the autumn he felt ed upon to preside at the annual meeting of orma naturalists and professors of medicine, ar was this year to be held at Berlin. This other duties to his own people being ly and punctually fulfilled, in the spring of e set forth on his Asiatic travels. EMBOLDT'S JOURNEY INTO CENTRAL ASIA. In this second great journey Humboldt was panied by two most efficient coadjutors, atar Rose and Ehrenberg. The former underto conduct the chemical mineralogical y and to keep the scientific diary of the tion; while the zoological and botanical partment was entrusted to Ehrenberg. Hum#himself was fully occupied with observa on the magnetism of the earth, and with mucal geography, and the general investiof the geognostic and physical features of ⚫rth-western Asia. The orders of the Czar naturally procured for a travellers every possible assistance and proin their arduous undertaking that the ⚫f an autocrat can give. A mining official position was commissioned to accomy them everywhere, and assist them with his kwledge, besides seeing that the authois the various towns furnished all necessary ; and thus equipped, and provided with Imperial hospitality and patronage afl, they quitted St. Petersburg on ath of May, to make their way to Moscow The Ural range. In his investigation of the and features of this great mountain chain, - was frequently reminded of his ex among the Andes many years before; aly he remarks on the similarity in the = the chain, parallel with a meridian, pole towards the equator. The number facts which he obtained for the depart£ gelozy and mineralogy, during a four kadence among the Ural mountains, dast nished even those who were bis unfailing energy and industry. at to the malachite quarries of Zumesthe travellers continued their journey by way of Ikaterinenborg and Tobolsk into the heart of Asia, passing over the terrible Borabinsky steppe, formidable for the myriads of stinging insects that infest it, and accordingly avoided by the inhabitants of the country around, who seldom, unless urged by necessity, venture into its precincts. But in the cause of science Humboldt encountered the dangers and discomforts of the Borabinsky plain, as he had faced the perils of the steppes of the Orinoco. He made his way to the banks of the Obi river, and on the 17th of August reached what he considered the exact central point of Asia, to the north of Lake Osaisang. He returned by way of Astrakan to the banks of the Volga and the Caspian, and so back to Moscow and St. Petersburg. RESULTS OF THE ASIATIC JOURNEY. The energy and activity displayed by Humboldt, who was now sixty years old, during this remarkable journey, are sufficiently attested by the fact that within the short period of eight months and a half he had traversed by land a distance of more than eleven thousand geographical miles, or nearly half the extent of the earth's surface measured round the equator. By the end of December he was back again in St. Petersburg, having completed one of the most remarkable land-journeys of modern times. The distance traversed, though in itself remarkable, was the least salient feature of the achievement; the chief wonder lay in the enormous mass of scientific material, in the number of observations and notes on geology, mineralogy, and physical geography, collected by this indefatigable searcher into the secrets of nature, at a time of life when the energies of the majority of men have begun to diminish, and they are prone to look forward to rest, rather than to increased exertion. But immediately on his return the old philosopher sat down to the arduous task of giving to the world in various most valuable volumes the result of his Asiatic researches. This was accomplished chiefly in the great work entitled, "Asie Centrale; recherches sur les Chaines de montagnes, et la climatologie comparée," published in French and German respec tively at Paris and Berlin, in 1843. THE ONE TRIAL OF HUMBOLDT'S LIFE. The reputation of the great man of science in his own country was increased by every new work that poured from his prolific pen. After the death of Frederick William III., that monarch's successor, the late King Frederick William IV., continued to treat the now aged philosopher |