CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION

Summary

With the name of Humboldt we associate all that is interesting in the physical sciences. No traveller who has visited remote regions of the globe, for the purpose of observing the varied phenomena of nature, has added so much to our stock of positive knowledge. While the navigator has explored the coasts of unknown lands, discovered islands and shores, marked the depths of the sea, estimated the force of currents, and noted the more obvious traits in the aspect of the countries at which he has touched; while the zoologist has investigated the multiplied forms of animal life, the botanist the diversified vegetation, the geologist the structure and relations of the rocky masses of which the exterior of the earth is composed; and while each has thus contributed to the illustration of the wonderful constitution of our planet, the distinguished traveller whose discoveries form the subject of this volume stands alone as uniting in himself a knowledge of all these sciences. Geography, meteorology, magnetism, the distribution of heat, the various departments of natural history, together with the affinities of races and languages, the history of nations, the political constitution of countries, statistics, commerce, and agriculture,—all have received accumulated and valuable additions from the exercise of his rare talents. The narrative of no traveller therefore could be more interesting to the man of varied information.