My expedition into northern Asia (to the Ural, the Altai, and the shores of the Caspian Sea) in the year 1829, with Ehrenberg and Gustavus Rose, at the command of the Emperor of Russia, took place between the second and third editions of my work. This expedition has essentially contributed to the enlargement of my views in all that concerns the formation of the earth’s surface, the direction of mountain-chains, the connexion of the Steppes and Deserts, and the geographical distribution of plants according to ascertained influences of temperature. The ignorance which has so long existed respecting the two great snow-covered mountain-chains, the Thian-schan and the Kuen-lün, situated between the Altai and Himalaya, has (owing to the injudicious neglect of Chinese sources of information) obscured the geography of Central Asia, and propagated fancies instead of facts, in works of extensive circulation. Within the last few months the hypsometric comparisons of the culminating points of both continents have unexpectedly received important and corrective illustration, of which I am the first to avail myself in the following pages. The measurement (now divested of former errors) of the altitude of the two mountains, Sorata and Illimani, in the eastern chain of the Andes of Bolivia, has not yet, with certainty, restored the Chimborazo to its ancient pre-eminence among the snowy mountains of the new world. In the Himalaya the recent barometric measurement of the Kinchinjinga (26,438 Parisian, or 28,178 English feet) places it next in height to the Dhawalagiri, which has also been trigonometrically measured with greater accuracy.
To preserve uniformity with the two former editions of the Views of Nature, the calculations of temperature, unless where the contrary is stated, are given according to the eighty degrees thermometer of Reamur. The lineal measurement is the old French, in which the toise is equivalent to six Parisian feet. The miles are geographical, fifteen to a degree of the equator. The longitudes are calculated from the first meridian of the Parisian Observatory.
Berlin, March, 1849.
CONTENTS
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Publisher’s Preface | [v] |
| Author’s Preface, to the First Edition | [ix] |
| Author’s Preface, to the Second and Third Editions | [xi] |
| Summary of Contents | [xvii] |
| Steppes and Deserts | [1] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [22] |
| Cataracts of the Orinoco | [153] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [174] |
| Nocturnal Life of Animals in the Primeval Forest | [191] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [202] |
| Hypsometric Addenda | [204] |
| Ideas for a Physiognomy of Plants | [210] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [232] |
| On the Structure and Mode of Action of Volcanos in different parts of the Earth | [353] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [376] |
| Vital Force, or The Rhodian Genius | [380] |
| Illustration and Note | [386] |
| The Plateau of Caxamarca, the Ancient Capital of the Inca Atahuallpa, and First View of the Pacific from the Ridge of the Andes | [390] |
| Illustrations and Additions | [421] |
| Index | [437] |
FAC-SIMILE OF THE HAND-WRITING OF BARON HUMBOLDT.
EXTRACTS OF A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
| ON STEPPES AND DESERTS | pp. [1]–21. |
Coast-chain and mountain-valleys of Caracas. The Lake of Tacarigua. Contrast between the luxuriant abundance of organic life and the treeless plains. Impressions of space. The steppe as the bottom of an ancient inland sea. Broken strata lying somewhat above the surface, and called Banks. Uniformity of phenomena presented by plains. Heaths of Europe, Pampas and Llanos of South America, African deserts, North Asiatic Steppes. Diversified character of the vegetable covering. Animal life. Pastoral tribes, who have convulsed the world—pp. [1]–5.