sian minister plenipotentiary, for the settlement of the territorial questions in Germany. The king appointed him, soon after, a member of the council of state, and presented him with an estate. He was then ambassador extraordinary to London, and afterwards, in October, 1818, to Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1819, he was called to the Prussian cabinet. He remained at Frankfort on the Maine, as a member of the territorial committee, until its dissolution, July 10, 1819, when he entered upon the duties of his office in Berlin, from which, however, he was soon exempted. He belonged to the committee to which was committed the examination of the plan of a constitution. In 1825, the Paris academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres elected him a foreign member.

HUMBOLDT, Frederic Henry Alexander, baron of, brother of the preceding, was born Sept. 14, 1769, at Berlin, studied at Göttingen, and Frankfort on the Oder, went to the commercial academy in Hamburg, and, in 1790, travelled with G. Forster and Van Geuns along the Rhine, to Holland and to England. This journey gave rise to his Observations on the Basalt on the Rhine, which was published, in 1793, at Brunswick. In 1791, he studied mining and botany at the mining school in Freyberg. (See his Specimen Flore Fribergensis subterraneæ, Berlin, 1793.) Here his acquirements, his attractive and instructive conversation, his wit, and goodness of heart, gained him universal esteem and affection. In 1792, he was appointed assessor in the mining and smelting department, and soon afterwards removed to Baireuth, as overseer of the mines in Franconia. Here he introduced many improvements, among which was the establishment of the mining school at Steben; he likewise made valuable galvanic experiments, the results of which were published in Berlin, 1796, in two volumes. But in 1795, he voluntarily gave up this office, from a desire to travel, and went with the baron Hafter to Italy, and, in the autumn of the same year, travelled through a part of Switzerland, with his friend Freiesleben. In 1797, he went, in company with his brother, and a gentleman named Fischer, to Paris, where he became acquainted with Aimè Bonpland, a pupil of the medical school and botanic garden in Paris. Humboldt, who, ever since 1792, had cherished the design of travelling within the tropics at his own expense, went to Madrid, with a considerable collection of instruments, where the court, in

March, 1799, granted him permission to travel through the Spanish colonies in America. He immediately sent for his friend Bonpland, and sailed with him from Corunna. Their plan was to travel for the space of five years, and was laid out on a larger scale than any journey be fore undertaken by private individuals. They landed at Teneriffe, where they ascended to the crater of Pico, in order to analyze the atmospheric air, and to make geological observations upon the basalt and porphyry-slate of Africa. In July, they arrived at Cumana in South Ameri

ca.

In 1799 and 1800, they visited the coasts of Paria, the Indian missions, and the province of New Andalusia; and likewise travelled through New Barcelona, Venezuela and Spanish Guiana. After they had ascertained the longitude of Cumana, Caracas and other places, by the observation of Jupiter's satellites, and botanized on the summits of Ceripa and Silla de Avila, they went, in February, 1800, from Caracas to the charming valleys of Aragua, where the eye is delighted with the splendor of tropical vegetation, along the great lake of Valencia. From Porto Cabello, they travelled into the interior as far as to the equator; afterwards wandered through the extensive plains of Calabozo, Apura and the Llanos, where the thermometer of Réaumur stood in the shade at 33°-37° (106°-115° of Fahrenheit), and the hot surface of the earth showed, for more than 42,000 square miles, but a very slight difference of level. They also observed, upon the sand in this quarter, the phenomena of refraction and singular elevatinos. At San Fernando of Apura, they commenced a voyage of more than five hundred leagues in canoes, and surveyed the country with the assistance of chronometers, of Jupiter's satellites, and the moon's amplitude. They descended the Rio Apura, which empties into the Orinoco in the 7th degree of N. latitude, ascended the latter to the mouth of the Rio Guaviare, and passed the celebrated waterfalls of Atures and Maipure, where the cave of Atarnipo encloses the mummies of a nation which was destroyed in a war with the Caribs and Maravites. From the mouth of the Rio Guaviare, they ascended the streams of Atahapo, Tuamini and Temi. From the mission of Javita, they proceeded by land to the sources of the Guginia (Rio Negro). The Indians carried their canoes through the thick forests of hevea, lecy this and laurus cinnamomoides, to the Cano Pimichin, by which they arrived at

the Rio Negro, which they descended to the fort of San Carlos and the boundaries of Grand Para, the principal captaincy of Brazil. In order to determine the branch of the Orinoco, called Cassiquiare, which unites that river with the Amazon, Humboldt and Bonpland went from the Spanish fort of San Carlos, through the Black river and the Cassiquiare again to the Orinoco, and along this river to the mission of Esmeraldo, near the volcano of Duida, or to the source of the stream. But the Guairas Indians a white and almost dwarfish race, but very warlike, and the copper-colored Guajaribes-a ferocious race of cannibals, who inhabit the country to the westward,-made it impossible for them to reach the sources of the Orinoco. From Esmeralda they travelled 345 French miles (about 966 English), the whole length of the Orinoco, to its mouth at St. Thomas or Angostura in New Guiana. The travellers passed the waterfalls for the second time, to the southerly side of which neither Peter Gumilla nor Caulin had ever advanced. After severe hardships, they returned upon the Orinoco to Barcelona and Cumana, through the missions of the Caribbean Indians, a gigantic race. They now tarried some months upon the coasts, and thence proceeded to Cuba, stopping for some time in the southern parts of St. Domingo and Jamaica. Here they employed themselves three months, partly in determining the longitude of Havana, and partly in building a new furnace for boiling sugar. From hence they intended to go to Vera Cruz, from that place, through Mexico and Acapulco, to the Philippine islands, and from thence, if possible, through Bombay, Bassora and Aleppo, to Constantinople; but false reports in regard to Baudin's journey induced them to alter their plan. The American newspapers represented, that this French navigator would go first from France to Buenos Ayres, afterwards sail round cape Horn, and thence proceed to the coasts of Chile and Peru. Humboldt had, at his departure from Paris in 1798, promised the museum, as well as captain Baudin, that, if the French expedition should take effect during the course of his journey, he would unite himself thereto. Conformably to this promise, he sent his manuscripts, and the collections which he had made in 1799 and 1800, immediately to Europe, where they arrived safe, with the exception of a third part of the collections, which suffered shipwreck. He then hired a vessel in the harbor of Betabam to go to Carthagena, and from

thence he intended going across the isthmus of Panama to the Southern ocean. In March, 1801, he left Betabam, sailed along the southern part of the island of Cuba, and took astronomical observations of different points in the group of islands called the Jardin del Rey, together with the landing places in the harbor of Trinidad. He remained a short time at Rio Sinu, where no botanist had ever before collected specimens. Humboldt afterwards observed the eclipse of the moon which took place March 25, 1801. As the season of the year did not permit them to sail from Panama to Guayaquil, they abandoned the plan of passing over the isthmus. The wish to find the celebrated mutisia, induced the travellers to spend some weeks in the forests of Turbaco, which were adorned with the most splendid flowers. They then descended the river Magdalena, of which Humboldt sketched a chart, while Bonpland spent his time in studying the productions of the vegetable kingdom, such as heliconia, psychotria, melastoma, myrodia and dychotria emetica. From Honda, where they landed, they travelled by difficult paths, through forests of oak and woods of melastoma and cinchona, to Santa Fé-deBogota, the capital of New Grenada. The splendid collections of Mutis, the waterfall of Tequendama, the mining works of Mariquita, Santa Anna and De Zipagnira, the natural bridge of Icononzo-two rocks separated from each other by an earthquake, and supporting another trembling in the air,-all these curious and remarkable objects occupied the attention of the travellers till September, 1801. Notwithstanding the unfavorable rainy season, they travelled to Quito, then descended to the valley of the river Magdalena, crossed the Andes at Quindiu, where the snowcapped summits of Tolina reared themselves in the midst of forests of storax, passion-flowers, resembling trees in size, bambusas and wax-palms. When they arrived, barefooted and wet, at the valley of the river Cauca, they rested at Cartago and Buga, and wandered through the province of Choco, the region of the metal platina. They now ascended to Popayan, at the foot of the snow-capped volcanoes of Purace and Sotara, through Caleto and the gold-washings of Quilichao. The thermometer, in this remarkable climate, always stood at 17°-19° of Réaumur (70°-74° Fahrenheit). They ascended at this time, though with laborious exertions, to the crater of the volcano Purace, the mouth of which is full of

boiling water, and, in the midst of snow, sends out a constant vapor of sulphureted hydrogen. They then passed on, avoiding the poisonous valley of Patia, over the steep Cordilleras of Almaguer, to Pasto, and travelled through Guachucal over the mountainous plains of the province de los Pastos. After four months of great fatigue, they at length reached the cities of Iberra and Quito in the southern hemisphere. They arrived at the latter city, distinguished for the superior education of its inhabitants, Jan. 6, 1802. They continued their geological and botanical surveys eight or nine months in the kingdom of Quito, remarkable for its huge mountains, its volcanoes, its vegetation, its old monuments, but more especially for the manners of its former inhabitants. They ascended twice to the crater of the volcano Pichincha, where they performed experiments to ascertain the composition of the air, its electrical, magnetical and hygroscopical qualities, its elasticity, and the degree of temperature of boiling water. Meantime they made several excursions to the mountains of Antisana, Cotopaxi, Tunguragua and Chimborazo, whose tops are covered with perpetual snow. The geognostical character of the Andes was also a subject of their particular attention. The trigonometrical and barometrical measurements of Humboldt have fully proved that some of these volcanoes have sunk considerably since 1753, and with this result the observations of the inhabitants perfectly coincide. At the same time, Humboldt was convinced that all these great masses were formed by crystallization. Charles Montufar, son of the marquis of Selvalegre of Quito, a man passionately devoted to science, in January, 1802, joined our travellers, and accompanied them throughout their remaining expeditions to Peru and Mexico. Being favored by circumstances, they ascended the summits of the most remarkable mountains, to a height hitherto never reached. They ascended Chimborazo, June 23, 1802, 3096 toises, 18,576 Fr. feet (3485 feet higher than Condamine reached, in 1745) above the surface of the sea. The blood started from their eyes, lips and gums, and they became almost torpid through cold. A narrow, deep valley hindered them from reaching the most remote summit of Chimborazo, which was about 224 toises (or 1344 feet) higher. From Quito they proceeded to the river Amazon and Trina, in the expectation of observing there the transit of Mercury over the sun's disk. They visited the ruins of Lactacunga,

Hambato and Rio Bamba-a country which was overwhelmed, Feb. 7, 1797, by a terrible earthquake-went through the snowy fields of Assonay to Cuenca, and thence through the Paramo of Saraguro to Loxa, where, in the forests of Gonzanama and Malacatos, they made valuable observations on the Peruvian bark. From Loxa they proceeded through Ayavaca and Gouncabamba to Peru, passing over the lofty Andes, in order to reach the river Amazon. They saw the splendid ruins of the road of Yega, which passes over the porphyry rocks of the Andes, between 12 and 1800 toises high, from Cusco to Assonay, and is provided with inns and public fountains. At the village of Chamaya, they embarked on a raft, followed the course of the river of the same name into the Amazon, and ascertained the astronomieal situation of their junction. As Condamine had embarked upon the Amazon, below Quebrada de Chuchunga, and likewise had not ascertained any longitude except at the mouth of the Rio Napo, Humboldt followed the Amazon to the cataract Rentewa, and, at Tomependa, drew up an accurate plan of this unknown part of the river. Bonpland had, in the mean time, employed himself in botanical researches. Now, for the fifth time, our travellers passed the Andes, in order to return through Montan and Peru. They determined the point where the magnetic needle of Borda showed the middle point of declination, although under the seventh degree of south latitude, and examined the rich mines of Hualguayok, where silver is found 2000 toises above the surface of the sea. From Caxamarca, which is celebrated for its baths and ruins, they descended to Truxillo, in the neighborhood of which are included the ruins of the immense Peruvian city, Mansiche, decorated with pyramids, in one of which, in the 18th century, was found beaten gold to the value of more than 4,000,000 livres. On this westerly descent of the Andes, they had, for the first time, a magnificent view of the Pacific ocean, and of that long and narrow valley where rain and thunder are unknown. They followed the barren coasts of the southern ocean through Santa and Guarmey to Lima, where Humboldt was so fortunate as to observe pretty accurately, in the harbor of Callao de Lima, the termination of Mercury's transit over the sun. In January, 1803, our travellers took passage for Guayaquil, a harbor upon the bank of a mighty river, where palms, plumaria, tabernanontana and banana plants appear in in

describable splendor. After 30 days, they reached Acapulco. Although Humboldt wished very much to hasten his return to Europe, yet the beauty of New Spain, the hospitality of its inhabitants, and the fear of the black vomit, then prevalent at Vera Cruz, induced him to delay his departure till the middle of winter. Afterwards they employed themselves in the examination of plants, of the air, the hourly variations of the barometer, the appearances of the magnet, and especially the longitude of Acapulco, and then departed for Mexico. They passed through the sultry valleys of Mescala and Papagayo, where the thermometer stood, in the shade, at 32° of Réaumur (104° Fahrenheit); traversed the lofty plains of Chilpanzlugo, Theuilotepec and Tasco, where oaks, cypresses, fir trees and European grain flourished in a mild climate. Here they visited the mining works of Tasco, where the veins of silver appear alternately in limestone and mica slate, and contain within them gypsum in lamina. In April, 1803, they ascended through Cuernaraca and the fogs of Cuchilaqua to the city of Mexico, which is very pleasantly situated, and is distinguished from all the cities of the new world by its scientific institutions. After a residence of some months, during which Humboldt corrected the longitude of Mexico, our travellers visited the celebrated mining works of Moran and Real del Monte, where the mines of Biscaya have already yielded to the count of Regla several millions of dollars. They then examined the obsidian of Oyamel, which lies imbedded in the layers of pearlstone and porphyry, and served the former inhabitants for knives. This whole country is full of basaltic blocks: amygdaloid and secondary calcareous formations afford the most striking appearances for the consideration of the geologist. These Del Rio, a scholar of Werner, had already analyzed. In 1803, they visited the southern part of the kingdom. They directed their researches to Hunhuetoca, and went thence through Queretano, Salamanca, and the fruitful plains of Yrapuato, to Guanaxuato, whose mines are far more considerable than those of Potosi. They were here occupied, during the space of two months, with measurements and geological investigations, examined the baths of Comagillos, whose temperature is 11° Réaumur (about 25° Fahrenheit), higher than that of those in the Philippine islands, and then went through the valley of St. Jago to Valladolid, the capital of the former kingdom of Mechoacan. Thence

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they descended, notwithstanding the constant autumnal rains, into the plains of Jorulo, on the coasts of the Pacific, where, in 1759, a volcano of 1494 feet in height was raised, in a single night, from the surface of the earth, in the midst of more than 2000 small openings, which are still smoking. They descended to the bottom of the crater, the air of which was very strongly charged with carbonic acid, which they analyzed. From the pleasant and fruitful kingdom of Mechoacan, they returned through the elevated plains of Tolucca to Mexico. At Tolucca, they visited the wonderful hand-tree, the cheiranthostemon of Cervantes, of which, since the most ancient times, there has existed but one specimen. At Mexico, they employed themselves in arranging their herbariums and geological collections, in calculating the measurements which they had made, and on the geological atlas, for which Humboldt had taken sketches. They left this city in January, 1804, in order to explore the eastern declivities of the Cordilleras, and made geometrical measurements of both the volcanoes of Puebla, Popocatapetl and Itzaccihuatl. They then passed on through Perote to Xalapa. Notwithstanding the deep snow which covered it, Humboldt arrived at the summit of Cofre, which exceeds in height the Peak of Teneriffe by 162 toises, and determined its situation by observations made on the spot. He also took a trigonometrical survey of the Peak of Orizana. After a pleasant tour in this country, our travellers descended to the port of Vera Cruz, escaped the black vomit, which then extensively prevailed, and embarked on board a Spanish frigate for Havana, where they again took possession of their collections, which had been deposited there in 1800. They remained here two months, when they set sail for Philadelphia, which they reached, after a passage of 32 days. Here and at Washington, they remained two months, and arrived in Europe August, 1804. The rich collections which they brought with them are unique in their kinds, and of inestimable value: they contain, among other things, 6300 kinds of plants. The account of their travels, and of their important results, Humboldt published in the splendid work which appeared at Paris, Hamburg and London, 1810 et seq., Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland (grand folio), the first division of which is devoted to general physics and to an account of their journey. The first part of this account is contained in the numbers already publish

ed, under the separate title of Vues des Cordillères et Monumens des Peuples de l'Amérique, and is adorned with 50 or 60 engravings. The second division relates to zoology and comparative anatomy; the third contains a political essay on New Spain; the fourth is devoted to astronomy; the fifth to mineralogy and magnetism, and the sixth to botany. The whole series, which consists of 12 volumes, 4to., 3 volumes, folio, with two collections of maps, and one of picturesque engravings, is justly called, by a competent judge, "a work of gigantic extent and richness, to which the modern literature of Europe can hardly offer a parallel." Humboldt has since, with Gay-Lussac in Paris, rectified the theory of the situation of the magnetic equator, and laid before the academy of sciences, in 1817, his chart of the remarkable course of the river Orinoco. In October, 1818, he visited London, where it is said the allied powers requested him to sketch a plan of the political situation of the South American people. For the execution of his plan to undertake a scientific journey to the East Indies and Thibet, the king of Prussia, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in November, 1818, granted him a yearly pension of 12,000 dollars, and the use of the necessary instruments. But this journey was abandoned. Humboldt lived many years in Paris, devoted to the sciences, till, in the winter of 1822, he was called to Verona to accompany the king of Prussia on his journey through Italy. His residence at Naples was the cause of his inquiries into the formation of volcanoes, the result of which he gave to the public in a small essay. In the latter part of 1826, he returned from Paris to Berlin. In 1829, he made a journey to Northern Asia, as far as to the confines of China, in which he was much assisted by the Russian government, which wished to obtain, through him, more accurate information respecting the character and contents of the Ural mountains. Since his return, he has communicated several pieces of highly interesting information connected with his journey. According to the latest accounts, Humboldt has gone on a semi-diplomatic mission from Prussia to Paris.*

HUME, David, an eminent historian and *The emperor of Russia has lately presented him with a magnificent vase of aventurine. The substance is said to be confined to Siberia, and, in transparency and variety of tint, crystalline fineness of texture, and susceptibility of high polish, to resemble the finest sort of agate. The vase is eight feet high, of an antique shape, with carved arms of massive gold.

philosopher, was born at Edinburgh, in 1711. His father was a descendant of the family of the earl of Home, but not opulent, and the subject of this article being his youngest son, his fortune was very small. Losing his father in his infancy, he was brought up under the care of his mother, a woman of singular merit, and was destined by his family for the law; but his passion for literature was so strong, that he could not confine himself to professional studies, and, as he observes in his memoirs, while his family fancied him to be poring over Voet and Vinnius, he was occupied with Cicero and Virgil. In 1734, he visited Bristol, with recommendations to some eminent merchants; but he was as little disposed to commerce as to law, and resolved to retire to some provincial town of France, with the intention of prosecuting his literary pursuits in privacy, and of supplying, by economy, his pecuniary deficiencies. He passed three years in France, in a manner very accordant with his own inclinations. In 1737, he went to London, and the next year published his Treatise upon Human Nature, the entire neglect of which proved a severe mortification. In 1742, he printed at Edinburgh his Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, which, owing to their more popular form and elegance of style, were very favorably received. In 1745, he took up his residence with the young marquis of Annandale, to whom he acted as a sort of guardian-an office which was rendered necessary by that nobleman's health and state of mind. He remained in this situation for a year, and then stood candidate for the professorship of moral philosophy at Edinburgh; but, although strongly supported, he was excluded by the negative of the presbytery, in consequence of his known scepticism. In 1746, he accompanied general Sinclair, as his secretary, in an expedition designed against Canada, but which ended in an attack upon the French coast; and, in 1747, attended the same officer in a military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin. Having been led to imagine that the neglect of his Treatise upon Human Nature originated from its too dry and systematic form, he cast the first part of the work anew, and caused it to be published, while he was abroad, with the title of an Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding. It, however, attracted very little more notice than at first, and, on his return, the author retired to Scotland, where he resided two years. In 1751, he repaired to the metropolis, where, in the next year, he pub