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COSMOS: 



A SKETCH 



C> A 



PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVEI 



BY 

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 

TRANSIAXED FROM THE OGKIIAN, 

BT E, C. OTTK. 



V»tum ?eio.ranm& vis atque msqestas in omnilrat momentis fide e&ret, si onb mod 
fjjug ae non totam complectotor animo.-— Pli]>.| fflsi. Nat.t lib. rn. e. 1. 



VOL. I. 



LONDON: 
HKNRY a. BOHN, YORK STREET; OOVBNT GAR] 

1864. 







T- 



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L 






HARVARD UNIVERSnY 
VCHOGL OF ENGINEERMa' 

JUN 20 1917 

iKAN^ar-thKcO TO 
rvtoinrvw ««x>k.U;U£ Liui-iAKlT 



LONDON : 
FBINSED BT HABBIBOlf AND SONS, 

ST. mabtin's lane. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, 



I CAKNOT more appropriately introduce the Cosmos to tli« 
notice of the readers of the Scientific Library, than by pre- 
senting them with a brief sketch of the life of its illustrious 
author.* While the name of Alexander von Humboldt is 
familiar to every one, few, perhaps, are aware of the peculiar 
circumstances of his scientific career, and of the extent of his 
labom's in almost every department of physical knowledge. 
He was bom on ihb 14th of September, 1769, and is, there- 
fore, now in his 80th year. After going through the ordinary 
course of education at Gdttingen, and having made a rapid 
tour through Holland, England, and France, he became a 
pupil of Werner at the mining school of Freyburg, and in his 
21st year, published an *^ Essay on the Basalts of the Rhine.** 
Though he soon became officially connected with the mining 
corps, he was enabled to continue his excursions in foreign 
countries, for during the six or seven years succeeding the 
publication of his first essay, he seems to have visited Austria, 
Switzerland, Italy, and France. His attention to mining did 
not, however, prevent him from devoting his attention to 
other scientific pursuits, amongst which botany and the then 
recent discovery of galvanism may be especially noticed. 
Botany, indeed, we know from his own authority, occupied 
Uim almost exclusively for some years, but even at this time 
he was practising the use of those astronomical and physical 
instruments, which he afterwards turned to so singularly 
excellent an accoimt. 

The political disturbances of the civilized world at the close 
of the last century prevented our author from carrying out 

* For the following remarks I am munly indebted to the articles <m 
the Cosmos in the two leading quarterly Beviews. 

Vol. I. h 



a translator's preface. 

^O^oiiS plans of foreign travel which he had contemplated, 
and detained him an unwilling prisoner in Europe. In the 
year 1 799 he went to Spain, with the hope of entering Africa 
from Cadiz, but the unexpected patronage which he received 
at the Court of Madrid, led to a great alteration in his plans, 
and decided him to proceed directly to the Spanish Posses- 
sions in America, ** and there gratify the longings for foreign 
Mventure, and the scenery of the tropics, which had haunted 
him from boyhood, but had all along been -turned in the dia^ 
metrically opposite direction of Asia." After encountering 
various risks of capture, he succeeded in reaching America, 
and from 1799 to 1804 prosecuted there extensive researches 
in the physical geography of the -New World, which have 
indelibly stamped his name in the undying records of science. 

Excepting an excursion to Naples with Gay Lussac and. 
Von Buch in 1805 (the year after his return from America), 
the succeeding twenty years of his life were spent in Paris, 
and were almost exclusively employed in editing the results . 
of his American journey. In order to bring these results I 
before the world, in a manner worthy of their importance, • 
he commenced a series of gigantic publications in' almost 
every branch of science, on which he had instituted obser- 
vations. In 1817, after twelve years of incessant toil, four- 
fifths were completed, and an ordinary copy of the part j 
then in print, cost considerably more than one hundred pounds 
sterling. Since that time the publication has gone on more 
slowly, and even now, after the lapse of nearly half a century, ' 
it remains, and probably ever will remain, incomplete. 

In the year 1828, when the grea,test portion of his literary 
labour had been accomplished, he imdertook a scientific 
journey to Siberia, under the special protection of the Russian 
Government. In this journey — a journey for which he had [ 
prepared himself by a course of study unparallelled in the 
history of travel—he was accompanied by two companions 
hardly less distinguished than himself,- Ehrenberg and Gustav 

\ 

f 



! 






TSAJr6LATOB*8 FSEFAOS. til 



Rose, and the lesnlts^ obtained during liieir expedition, aro 
recorded by our author in his Frapnenta AsitUiquss, and in 
his Asie Centrale, and by Bose in his Bmb nach dm\ (hmd* 
If the Asie CentraU had been his only work, constituting, at 
it does, an epitome of all the knowledge acquired by himself 
and by former trayeDers, on the physical geography of Nortb- 
eoL and Central Asia, that work alone would have sufficed 
to form a reputation of the highest order. 

I proceed to offer a few remarks on the work of which I 
now present a new translation to the English public, a work 
intended by its author '' to embrace a summary of physical 
knowledge, as connected with a delineation of the material 



uniTcrse." 



The idea of such a physical description of the universe had, 
it appears, been present to his mind fix)m a very early epoch. 
It was a work whieh he felt he must accomplish, and he 
devoted almost a lifetime to the accumulation of materials 
for it. For almost half a century it had occupied his 
thoughts; and at length in the evening of life, he felt 
himself rich enough in the accumulation of thought, travel, 
reading, and experimental research, to reduce into form 
and reality, the undefined vision that has so long floated 
before him. The work when completed will form three 
volumes. The firfit volume comprises a sketch of all that is 
at present kno¥m of the physical phenomena of the universe: 
the second comprehends two distinct parts, the first of which 
treats of the incitements to the study of nature, afforded in 
descriptive poetry, landscape painting, and the cultivation of 
exotic plants; while the second and larger part enters into 
the consideration of the different epochs in the progress of 
discovery and of the corresponding stages of advance in 
human civilisation. The third volume, the publication of 
which, as M. Humboldt himself informs me in a lettei 
addressed to my learned friend and publisher, Mr.. H. G. Bohn, 
**ha8 been somewhat delayed, owing to the present state of 



Vui TBANSLATOKS FBEFACZ. 

public affairs, will comprise the special and scientific develop- 
ment of the great Picture of Nature." Each of the three 
parts of the Cosmos is therefore, to a certain extent, distinct 
in its object and may be considered complete in itself. 
We cannot better terminate this brief notice, than in the 
words of one of the most eminent philosophers of our own 
country, that *' should the conclusion correspond (as we doubt 
not) with these beginnings, a work will have been accom- 
plished, every way worthy of the author's fiime, and a crown- 
tig laurel added to that wreath, with which Europe will 
\ways delight to surround the name of Ales^ander von Hum- 

In venturing to appear before the English public as the 
interpreter of *Uhe great work of our izge"* I have been 
encouraged by the assistance of many kind literary and scien- 
tific friends, and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of 
expressing my deep obligations to Mr. Brooke, Dr. Day, 
Professor Edward Forbes, Mr. Hind, Mr. Glaisher, Dr. Percy, 
and Mr. Ronalds, for the valuable aid they have afforded me. 

It would be scarcely right to conclude these remarks 
without a reference to the translations that have preceded 
mine. The translation, executed by Mrs. Sabine, is singularly 
accurate and elegant. The other translation is remarkable 
for the opposite qualities, and may therefore be passed over i 
silence. The present volumes differ from those of Mrs. Sabin * 
in having all the foreign measures converted into correspond- 
ing English terms, in being published at considerably less 
than one third of the price, and in being a translation of the 
entire work, for I have not conceived myself justified in 
omitting passages, sometimes amounting to pages, simply 
because they might be deemed slightly obnoxious to our 
national prejudices. 

* The expression applied to the Cosmos, Igr the learned Bunsen In 
his late Report on £thnolog7i in the Report qfthe British jAssociatUm 
for 1847, p. 265. 



K 



\ AXJTHOR'S PREFACE. 



bx the laic eTening of an active life I offbr to the Qerman 
public a work, whose undefined image has floated before my 
mind for almost half a century. I have frequently looked upon 
its completion as impracticable, but as often as I have been 
disposed to relinquish the undertaking, I have again— -although 
perhaps imprudently — ^resumed the task. Tlus work I now 
present to my cotemporaries, with a diffidence inspired by a 
just mistrust of my own powers, whilst I would willingly for- 
get that writings long expected are usually received vrith less 
indulgence. 

Altiiough the outward relations of life, and an irresistible 
impulse towards knowledge of various kinds, have led me to 
occupy myself for many years — and apparently exclusively— 
with separate branches of science, as, for instance, with 
descriptive botany, geognosy, chemistry, astronomical deter- 
minations of position, and terrestrial magnetism, in order that 
I might the better prepare myself for the extensive travels in 
which I was desirous of engaging, the actual object of my 
studies has nevertheless been of a higher character. The 
principal impulse by which I was directed, was the earnest 
endeavour to comprehend the phenomena of physical objects in 
their general connection, and to represent nature as one great 
whole, moved and animated by internal forces. My inter- 
cotirse with highly gifted men early led me to discover that 
without an earnest striving to attain to a knowledge of special 
branches of study, aU attempts to give a grand and general 
view of the universe would be nothing more than a vain 
illusion. These special departments in the great domain of 



axtthob's pbefacb. 



natural science are, moreover, capable of being reciprocaUy 
, fructified by means of the appropriative forces by which they 
are endowed. Descriptive botany, no longer confined to the 
narrow circle of the determination of genera and species, 
leads the observer who traverses distant lands and lofty 
moimtains to the study of the geographical distribution of 
plants over the earth's surface, according to distance from the 
equator and vertical elevation above the sea. It is further 
necessary to investigate the laws which regulate the difierences 
of temperature and climate, and the meteorological processes 
of the atmosphere, before we can hope to explain the involved 
causes of v^ctable distribution; and it is thus that the 
observer who earnestly pursues the path of knowledge is 
led from one class of phenomena to another, by means of the 
mutual dependence and connection existing between them. 

I have enjoyed an advantage which few scientific traveUert 
have shared to an equal extent, viz., that of having seen not 
only littoral districts, such as are alone visited by the majority 
of those who take part in voyages of circumnavigation, but 
also those portions of the interior of two vast continents which 
present the most striking contrasts, manifested in the Alpine 
tropical landscapes of South America, and the dreary wastes of 
the steppes in Northern Asia. Travels, undertaken in dis- 
tricts such as these, could not fail to encourage the natural 
tendency of my mind towards a generalisation of views, and to 
encourage me to attempt, in a special work, to treat of the 
knowledge which we at present possess, r^;arding the sidereal 
and terrestrial phenomena of the Cosmos in their empirical 
relations. The hitherto undefined idea of a physical geography 
has thus, by an extended and perhaps too boldly imagined a 
plan, been comprehended, under the idea of a physical 
description of the universe, embracing all created things in 
the regions of space and in the earth. 

The very abundance of the materials which are presented to 
the mind for arrangement and definition, necessarily impart 



▲VTHOB S PSSFACE. Xl 

DO incoiiaiderabie difficulties in the choice of the form under 
which such a work must be presented, if it would aspire to 
the honour of being regarded as a literary composition. 
Descriptions of nature ought not to be deficient in a tone of 
life-lSie truthfulness, whilst the mere enumeration of a series 
of general results is productive of a no less wearying impres- 
sion than the elaborate accumulation of the individual 
data of observation. I scarcely venture to hope that I have 
succeeded in satisfying these various requirements of compo- 
sition, or that I have myself avoided the shoals and breakers 
which I have known how to indicate to others. My faint 
hope of success rests upon the special indulgence which the 
German pubhc have bestowed upon a small woric bearing the 
title of Ansiehten der Natur, which I published soon after my 
return from Mexico. This work treats, imder general points 
of view, of separate branches of physical geography, (such as 
the forms of vegetation, grassy plains, and deserts.) The 
effect produced by this small volinne has doubtlessly been 
more powerfully manifested in the influence it has exercised 
on the sensitive minds of the young, whose imaginative facul- 
ties are so strongly manifested, than by means of anything 
whi<^ it could itself impart. In the work on Ihe Cosmos on 
which I am now engaged, I have endeavoured to show, as in 
that intitled Atmchten der Naiur, that a certain degree of 
scientific completeness in the treatment of* individual &ct8, is 
not whoUy incompatible with a pictuweque aiumation rf 
style. 

Since public lectures seemed to me to present an easy and 
efficient means of testing the more or less successful manner of 
eonnectii^ together the detached branches of any one science, 
I undertook, for many months consecutively, first in the French 
language, at Paris, and afterwards in my own native German, 
at Berlin, (almost simultaneously at two different places 
-of assembly,) to deliver a course of lectures on the physical 
description of the universe, according to my conception 



xii axjthob's phefacx. 

of the science. My lectures were giTen exteinporaneouslj^ 
both in French and German, and without the aid of written 
notes, nor have I, in any way, made use, in the present work, 
of those portions of my discourses which have been preserved 
by the industry of certain attentive auditors. With the 
exception of the first forty pages, the, whole of the present 
work was written, for the first time, in the years 1 843 and 
1844. 

A character of unity, freshness, and animation, must, I 
think, be derived from an association with some definite 
epoch, where the object of the writer is to delineate the pre- 
sent condition of knowledge and opinions. Since the addi- 
tions constantly made to the latter give rise to fundamental 
changes in pre-existing views, my lectures and the Cosmos 
have nothing in common beyond the succession in which 
the various facts are treated. The first portion of my work, 
contains introductory considerations regarding the diversity 
in the degrees of enjoyment to be derived from nature^ 
and the knowledge of the laws by which the imiverse is 
governed; it also considers the limitation and scientific mode 
of treating a physical description of the universe ; and gives 
a genera] picture of nature which contains a view of all the 
phenomena comprised in the Ck)smo8. 

This general picture of nature, which embraces within its 
wide scope the iiemotest nebulous spots, and the revolving 
double stars in the regions of space, no less than the telluric 
phenomena included under the department of the geography 
of oiganic forms (such as plants, animals, and races of men), 
comprises all that I deem most specially important with 
regai'd to the connection existing between generalities and 
specialities, whilst it moreover exemplifies, by the form and 
style of the composition, the mode of treatment pursued in 
the selection of the results obtained from experimental know- 
ledge. The two succeeding volumes will contam a consi- 
deration of the particular means of incitement towards the 



A0THOB*8 FBEfACE. liu 

ftody of nature (consisting in animated delineations, land- 
scape painting, and the arrangement and cultivation of 
e^^otic y^etable forms), of the history of the contemplation of 
the universe, or the gradual development of the reciprocal 
action of natural forces constituting one natural whole; and 
lastly, of the special branches of tiie several departments of 
science, whose mutual connection is indicated in the begin- 
ning of the work. Wherever it has been possible to do so I 
have adduced the authorities firom whence I derived my fiicts, 
with a view of affording testimony both to the accuracy of my 
statements and to the value of the observations to which refer- 
ence was made. In those instances where I have quoted from 
my own writings (the &cts contained in which being, from 
their very nature, scattered through different portions of my 
works), I have always referred to the original editions, owing 
to the importance of accuracy with r^ard to numerical re* 
lations, and to my own distrust of the care and correct- 
ness of translators. In the few cases where I have extracted 
short passages fix)m the works of my friends, I have indicated 
them by marks of quotation ; and, in imitation of the practice 
of the ancients, I have invariably preferred the repetition of 
the same words to any arbitrary substitution of my own 
paraphrases. The much contested question of priority of 
claim to a first discovery, which it \s so dangerous to treat of 
in a work of this uncontroversial kind, has rarely been 
touched upon. Where I have occasionally referred to clas- 
sical antiquity, and to that happy period of transition which 
has rendered the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries so cele- 
brated, owing to the great geographical discoveries by which 
the age was characterised, I have been simply led to adopt 
this mode of treatment, fix)m the desire we experience from 
time to time, when considering the general views of nature, 
to escape from the circle of more strictly dogmatical modem 
opinions and enter the free and fimciful domain of earlier 
presentiments. 



XIT AUTHOB S FBEFACE. 

It has frequently been regarded as a subject of discouraging 
oonsideration, that ^vdiilst purely literary products of intellec- 
tual activity are rooted in the depths of feeling, and inter- 
woven with the creative force of imagination, all works treat- 
ing of empirical knowledge, and of the connection of natural 
phenomena and physical laws, are subject to the most marked 
modifications of form in the lapse of short periods of time, 
both by the improvement in the instruments used, and by the 
consequent expansion of the field of view opened to rational 
observation, and that those scientific works which have, to use 
•a common expression, become antiquated by the acquisition of 
'new funds of knowledge, are thus continually being consigned to 
oblivion as unreadable. However discouraging such a prospect 
must be, no one who is animated by a genuine love of nature, 
and by a sense of the dignity attached to its study, can view 
with regret anything which promises future additions and a 
greater degree of perfection to general knowledge. Many im- 
portant branches of knowledge have been based upon a solid 
foundation which wiU not easily be shaken, both as regards 
the phenomena in the regions of space and on the earth; 
whilst there are other portions of science in which general 
views will undoubtedly take the place of merely special ; where 
new forces will be discovered and new substances will be 
made known, and where those whicK are now considered as 
simple will be decomposed. I would therefore venture to hope 
that an attempt to delineate nature in all its vivid animation 
and exalted grandeur, and to trace the stable amid the vacil- 
lating, ever- recurring alternation of physical metamorphoses, 
will not be wholly disregarded even at a fixture age. 

PoMam, JVbv. 1844 



CONTENTS OP VOL. I. 



nw Tnmalatoi^B Frefiiee r 

¥he Anihor^B Preboe Ix 

Snmmaij |1] 

INTBODUCTION. 

The resalts of the study of phjacal phenomena 1 

Tke difTerent epochs of the contemplation of the external world ... t 
Xhe different degrees of ei\jojment presented by the contemplation 

of nature 8 

Instances of this species of eiyoyment 4 

Keans by which it is induced 6 

3%e elevations and climatic relations of many of the most celebrated 
mountains in the world, considered with reference to the effect 

produced on the mind of the obsenrer 6 — 12 

Tkt impressions awakened by the aspect of tropical regions 18 

The more accurate knowledge of the physical forces of the universe, 
acquired by the inhabitants of a small section of the tempe- 
rate zone 16 

The earliest dawn of the science of the Cosmos 16 

Tkt difficulties that opposed the progress of inquiiy 17 

Gonaideration of the effect produced on the mind by the observa- 
tion of nature, and the fear entertained by some of its ii\juriouB 

influence 20 

iUiistrations of the manner in which many recent discoveries have 
tended to remove the groundless fears entertained regarding 

the agency of certain natural phenomena 23 

Thfi amount of scientific knowledge required' to enter on the consi- 
deration of physical phenomena 27 

The ol)}ect held in view by the present work 29 

The nature of the study of the Cosmos *. 31 

qkedal requirements of the present age 38 



XVI • COXTli^'XS. 

Limits and method of exposition of t\6 physical descnption of the 

universe 87 

Considerations on the terms physiology and physics 39 

Physical geography 40 

Celestial phenomena 45 

The natural philosophy of the ancients directed more to celestial 

than to terrestrial phenomena 47 

The able treatises of Yarenius and Carl Ritter 49 

Signification of the word Cosmos 51 

The domain embraced by cosmography t^ 

Empiricism and experiments 57 

The process of reason and induction 61 

GENERAL REVIEW OF NATURAL PHENOMENA. 

Connection between the material and the ideal world 68 

Delineation of nature 65 

Celestial phenomena 67 

Sidereal systems 78 

Planetary systems 75 

Comets 85 

Aerolites '. 97 

Zodiacal light 127 

Translatory motion of the solar system 185 

The milky way 141 

Starless openings 148 

Terrestrial phenomena 145 

Geographical distribution 158 

Figure of the earth 155 

Density of the earth 161 

Internal heat of the earth 165 

Mean temperature of the earUi 167 

Terrestrial magnetism 169 

Magnetism 177 

Aurora Borealis 187 

Geognostic phenomena 197 

Earthquakes ^ 199 

Gaseous emanations 215 

Hot springs 217 

Salses :.... 228 



•J 



CONTENTSw XVU 

Tolcuioes 225 

Bocks 247 

Palaeontology 278 

Geognostic periods 289 

Physical geography 291 

Meteorology 817 

Atmospheric preasure 821 

Climatology 828 

The snow-line '. 887 

Hygrometiy 841 

Atmospheric electricity 848 

Organic life 847 

Motion in plants ^ 849 

UniTeisality of animal life 851 

Geography, of plants and animals 855 

Floras of different countries 859 

Man 861 

Baees > .. JJ«8 

Langnage 867 

Condnsion of the sabject S69 



SUMMARY. 



Translator's IVe&oe. 
Author's Pre&ee. 

Vol. I. 

GENERAL SlJlDfABT OV THB OOJfl'JUffXH. 

Introduction. — Beflectiona on the different degrees of enjoymeni 
9ent€d to usbyihe aspect of nature, and the scientific exposii i 
the laws of the universe ..'.... pp. 

Ludght into the conneetion of phenomena as the aim of all r i 
inrestigation. Nature presents itself to meditative contemplatio i 
unity in diversity. Differences in the grades of enjoyment yielc i 
natore. Effect of contact with free nature; enjoyment deriye( 
nature independently of a knowledge of the action of natural for : 
of the effect produced by the individual character of a locality. ] 
of the physiognomy and configuration of the surface, or of the ch i 
of vegetation. Reminiscences of the woody valleys of the Cord 1 
and of the Peak of Teneriffe. Advantages of the mountainous ' 
near the equator, where the multiplicity of natural impressions i 
its maximum within the most circumscribed limits, and where it i 
:nitted to man simultaneously to behold all the stars of Ihe fim i 
and all the forms of vegetation — pp. 1-12. 

Tendency towards the investigation of the causer* of physical i 
mena. Erroneous views of the character of natural forces arisin 
an imperfect mode of observation or of inductio!]i. The crude a ■ 
lation of physical dogmas transmitted from one century to a ( 
Their diffusion amongst the higher classes. Scientific physics a t 
eiated with another and a deep-rooted system of untried and mi i 
stood experimental positions. Investigation of natural laws, 
hension ^at nature may lose a portion of its secret charm by an 
into the internal character of its forces, and that the enjoyi 
nature must necessarily be weakened by a study of its ' i 
Advantages of general views which impart an exalted and i 
character to natural science. The possibility of separating gen i 
from specialities. Examples drawn from astronomy, recent | 
discoveries, physical geognosy, and the geography of plants. 1 
bility of the study of physical cosmography — pp. 12-85. Misum 
popular knowledge, confounding cosmography with a mere oncy( 
enumeration of natural sciences. Necessity for a simuitaneoui f 
for all branches oi natural science. Inffuence of this study on : 
proi^erity and the welfare of nations; its more earnest and chan 



[V^ COSMOS. 

fdm Is an inner one, arising from exalted mental activity. Modo of 
treatment with regard to the object and presentation; reciprocal coi - 
nection existing between thonght and speech — p. 86. 

The notes to pp. 6-12. Comparative hypsometrical data of the eley^ 
tions of the Dhawalagiri, Jawahir, Chimborazo, Etna, (according to the 
measurement of Sir John Herschel), the Swiss Alps, &c. — p. 6. Rarity 
of palms and ferns in the Himalaya mountains — ^p. 8. European yege- 
table forms in the Indian mountains — ^p. 8. Northern and southern 
limits of perpetual snow on the Himalaya; influence of the elevated 
plateau of Thibet — pp. 9-12. Fishes of an earlier world — ^p. 26. 

Limits and Method of Exposition of the Physical Description of ihc 
Universe pp. 37-61. 

Subjects embraced by the study of the Cosmos or of physical cosmo- 
graphy. Separation of other kindred studies — ^pp. 37-44. The urano- 
logical portion of the Cosmos is more simple than the telluric; the 
impossibility of ascertaining the diversity of matter simplifies the study 
of the mechanism of the heavens. Origin of the word Cosmos, its 
signification of adornment and order of the universe. The existing 
cannot be absolutely separated in our contemplation of nature &om the 
future. History of the world and description of the world — pp. 44-66. 
Attempts to embrace the multiplicity of the phenomena of the Cosmos 
in the unity of thought and under the form of a purely rational combi- 
nation. Natural philosophy which* preceded all exact observation in 
antiquity is a natural, but not unfreqnently ill-directed, efibrt of reason. 
Two forms of abstraction rule the whole mass of knowledge, viz., the 
qua,ntitative, relative determinations according to number and magni- 
tude, and qualitative, material characters. Means of submitting pheno* 
mena to calculation. Atoms, mechanical methods of construction. 
Figurative representations; mythical conception of imponderable mat- 
ters, and the peculiar vital forces in every organism. That which is 
attained by observation and experiment (calling forth phenomena) leads 
by analogy and induction to a knowledge of empirical laws; their 
gradual simplification and generalisation. Arrangement of the facts 
discovered in accordance wi£b leading ideas. The treasure of empirical 
contemplation collected through ages, is in no danger of experiencing 
any hostile agency from philosophy — ^pp. 66-61. 

[In the notes appended to pp. 48-63, are considerations of the general 
>nd comparative geography of Yarenius. Philological investigation / 
into the meaning of the words KOfr/iof and mundus^ 

Delineation of Nature, Oeneral Beview qf Natural Phenomena 

pp. 62-869. 

Introduction — ^pp. 62-67. A descriptive delineation of the world 
embraces the whole universe (rb irdv) in the celestial and terrestrial 
spheres. Form and course of the representation. It begins with the 
depths of space, of which we know little beyond the existence of 
laws of gravitation, and with the region of the remotest nebulous spots 



■< 



8UMMABY. [ill J 

and double stars, and then gradually descending throagh the starr}" 
Btratum to which our solar system belongs, it contemplates this terres- 
trial spheroid, surrounded by air and water, and finally, proceeds to 
the consideration of the form of our planet, its temperature, and 
magnetic tension, and the fulness of organic vitality which is un- 
folded on its suiface under the action of light. Partial insight Into 
the relatire dependence existing amongst all phenomena. Amid all 
the mobile and unstable elements in space, mean numerical valuer are 
the ultimate aim of inyestigation, l>eing the expression of the physical 
laws, or forces of the Cosmos. The delineation of the unirerse does not 
beg^n with the earth, from which a merely subjective point of view 
might have led us to start, but rather with the objects comprised in the 
regions of space. Distribation of matter, which is partially conglo- 
merated into rotating and circling heavenly bodies of very different 
density and magnitude, and partly scattered aa self-luminous vapour. 
Beview of the separate portions of the picture of nature for the purpose 
of explaining the reciprocal connection of all phenomena. 

I. Celestial portian of the Cosmos . . • . pp. 67-145. 

II. Terrestrial portion of the Cosmos . . . . pp. 145-869. 

a. Form of the earth, its mean density, quantity of heat, electro- 
magnetic activity, process of light — pp. 146-197. 

6. Vital activity of the earth towards its external surface. Be-action 
of the interior of a planet on its cmst and surface. Subterranean noise 
without waves of concussion. Earthquakes dynamic phenomena — 
pp. 197-213. 

c. Material products which frequently accompany earthquakes. 
Gaseous and aqueous springs. Salscs and mud-volcanoes. Upheavals 
of the soil by elastic forces— pp. 213-226. 

d. Fire-emitting mountains. Craters of elevation. Distribution of 
Tolcanoes on the earth — ^pp. 226-245. 

e. Volcanic forces form new kinds of rock, and metamorphose those 
already existing. Geognostical classification of rocks into four groups. 
Phenomena of contact. Fossiliferous strata; their vertical arrangement. 
The faunas and floras of an earlier world. Distribution of masses of 
rock— pp. 245-288. * 

/. Gteognostical epochs which are indicated by the mineralogical dif- 
ference of rocks have determined the distribution of solids and fluids 
into continents and seas. Individual configuration of solids into hori- 
zontal expansion and vertical elevation. Relations of area. Articu- 
lation. Probability of the continued elevation of the earth's crust in 
ridges— pp. 288-806. 

ff. Liquid and aeriform envelopes of the solid surface of our planet 
Distribution of heat in both. The sea. The tides. Currents and their 
effects— pp. 306-316. 

h. The atmosphere. Its chemical composition. Fluctuations in its 
density. Law of the direction of the winds. Mean temperature. Enu- 
meration of the causes which tend to raise and lower the tempeiatniCb 

Vol. I. c 



[iv] COSMOS. 

Continental and insolar climates. East and west coasts. Caase of the 
ciurature of the isothermal lines. Limits of perpetual snow. Quantity 
of vapour. Electricity in the atmosphere. Forms of the clouds — 
pp. 316-347. 

t. Separation of inorganic terrestrial life from the geography of vital 
organisms; the geography of vegetables and animalB. Phyracal grada- 
tions of the human race — (pp. 347-369), 

Special Analysis of the Delineation of NaJtwre, including r^erences to 

tlie subjects treated of in the Notes, 

I. Celestial portion of the Cosmos pp. 67-145 

The universe and all that it comprises — ^multiform nebulous spots, 
planetary vapour, and nebulous stars. The picturesque charm of a 
southern sky — (note pp. 68-9). Conjectures on the position in space of 
the world. Our stellar masses. A cosmical island. Gauging stars. Double 
stars revolving round a common centre. Distance of the star 61 Cygni — 
(p. 72 and note). Our solar system more complicated than was conjec- 
tured at the close of the last century. Primary planets with Neptune, 
Astrea, Hebe, Iris, and Flora, now constitute 16; secondary planets ISi; 
myriads of comets, of which many of the inner ones are enclosed in the 
orbits of the planets; a rotating ring (the zodiacal light) and meteoric 
stones, probably to be regarded as small cosmical bodies. The teles- 
copic planets, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Astrea, Hebe, Iris, and Flora, 
with their frequently intersecting, strongly inclined, ai^d more eccentric 
orbits, constitute a central group of separation between the inner plane- 
tary group (Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars), and the outer 
group (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Contrasts of these 
planetary gpx»ups. Relations of distance from one central body. Dif- 
ferences of absolute magnitude, density, period of revolution, 'eccentri- 
city and inclination of the orbits. The so-called law of the distances 
of the planets from their central sun. The planets w^ich have 
the largest number of moons — (p. 80 and note). Relations in space 
both absolute and relative of the secondary planets. Largest and 
smallest of the moons. Greatest approximation to a primary planet. 
Retrogressive movement of the moons of Uranus. Lihration of the 
Earth's satellite — (p. 83 and note). Comets; the nucleus and tail; 
various forms and directions of the emanations in oonoidal envelopes with 
more or less dense walls. Several tails inclined towards the son; change 
of form of the tail; its conjectured rotation. Nature of li^t Occ& 
tations of the fixed stars by the nuclei of comets. Eccentricity of their 
orbits and periods of revolution. Greatest distance and greatest ap- 
proximation of comets. Passage through the system of Jupiter's satel- 
lites. Comets of short periods of resolution, more correctly termed 
inner comets (Enke, Biela, Faye) — (p. 94 and note.) Revolving aero- 
lites (meteoric stones, fire balls, falling stars). Their planetary velocity, 
magnitude, form, observed height. Periodic return in streams; the 
November stream and the stream of St. Lawrence. Chemical compo- 
idlion of meteorie asteroids — {p, 117 and note). Ring of zodiaetl 



8ITVHASY. [yj 

fight. limitalacin of the present solar atmosphere — (p. 130 and note). 
iSanslatory motion of the whole solar tsysiem — (pp. 1 35 — 139 and note). 
The existence of the law of gravitation beyond our Rolar system. The 
milky way of stars and its conjectored breaking ap. Milky way of 
nebnloas spots, at right angles with that of the stars. Periods of revo- 
lutions of bi-coloured double stars. Canopy of stars ; openings in the 
stellar stratum. Eyents in the universe ; the apparition of new stars. 
Propagation of light, the aspect of the starry vault of the heavens con- 
veys to the mind an idea of inequality of time — (pp.139-145 and notes). 

II. Terrestrial portion of the Coemoa . . . . pp 145-869 
a. Figure of the earth. Density, quantity of heat, eleotro-magneUe 
tension, and terrestrial light — (pp. 145-197 and note), knowledge of 
the compression and curvature of the earth's surface acquired l^ 
measurements of degreesi, pendulum oscillations and certain inequa- 
lities in the moon's orbit. Mean density of the earth. The earth's 
crust, and the depth to which we are able to penetrate — (p. 151 note). 
Three-fold movement of the heat of the earth; its thermic condition. 
Law of the increase of heat with the increase of depth — (p. 162 and 
note). Magnetism electricity in moUon. Periodical variation of ter- 
restrial magnetism. Disturbance of the regular course of the magnetic 
needle. Magnetic storms; extension of their action. Manifestations 
of magnetic force on the earth's surface presented under three (hisses of 
phenomena; viz.: lines of equal force (isodynamic) ; equal inclination 
(isoclinic); and equal deviation .(isogenic). Position of the magnetic 
pole. Its probable connection with the poles of cold. Change of all 
the magnetic phenomena <^ the earth. Erection of magnetic obser- 
vatories since 1828 ; a far-extending net-work of magnetic stations — 
(p. 184 and note). Development of light at the magnetic poles ; terres- 
trial light as a consequence of the electro-mimetic activity of our 
planet. Elevation of polar light. Whether magnetic storms are ac- 
companied by noise? Connection of polar light (an electro-magnetic 
development of light) with the formation of cirrus clouds. Other 
examples of the generation of terrestrial light — (p. 197 and note). 

6. The vital activity of a planet manifested from within outward, 
the principal source of geognostic phenomena. Connection between 
merely dynamic concussions or the upheaval of whole portions of the 
earth's crust, accompanied by the e^sion of matter, and the gene* 
ration of gaseous and liquid fluids, of hot mud and fused earths, which 
solidify into rocks. Yolcanic action in the most general conception ot 
the idea, is the reaction of the interior of a planet on its outer surface. 
Earthquakes. Extent of the circles of commotion and their gradual 
increase. Whether there exists any connection between the clumges in 
terrestrial magnetism and the processes of the atmosphere. Noises, 
subterranean thunder without any perceptible concussion. The rooks 
niiich modify the propagation of the waves of concussion. Upheavals ; 
emption of water, hot steam, mud mofettes, smoke and flame during an 
Mrthquake — (pp. 197-214 and notes). 
c Closer eonslderation of nuUerlai prodoeta at a eoiuMq[iienee of 



[ri] 00=™. 

lateiniil planetary actiTity. There rise ^m t 
through fiaaarea and conea of eruption, rarions | 
or acidulated), mud and moltea earths. Vol 
intermittent spring. Temperature of thermal s 
and change. Depth of the foci^^(pp. 218-22 
mud-Yolcanoea. WhiUt fire-emitting mountains 
earths, produce Toleanic rocks, spring irater I 
strata of limestone. Contiaued generation ft 
226 and not«). 

d. Diveiaitj of volcanic elevations. Dom 
mountains. Aetasl volcanoes which are formec 
tion or among tlie delrilua of their original stni 
ncctioD of the interior of our earth with Uie al 
certain rocks. loflnence of the relations of h 
of tbe eruptions. Height of the cone of cin< 
those volcanoes which rise above tbe sDOw-lioe. 
fire. Volcanic storm during the eruption. 1 
lavas — (p. E34 and notes). Distribution of vi 
surface; central and linear volcanoes; insniar 
Distance of volcinoea from Uie sea-coast. Eitji 
— (p. 245 and notes). 

e, Belalion of volcanoes to the characler of 
form new rocka, and melamoiphose the more ai 
oTthese relations leads by a double coarse to 
geognosy, (the study of the teitnres and of the 
strata), and to the configniation of continents 1 
vated above the level of the sea {the stud; of 
and outlines of the dillerent parts of the earth.) 
according to the scale of tbe phenomena of strud 
which are atill passing before our eyes. Socks ( 
rocks, changed (metamorphosed) rocka, cooglomi 
are deSnite associationa of oryctognoeticallj ui 
four phases in Ihe formative condition ; rocka < 
(granite, aieuite, porphyry, gTccnEtone, byperstlii 
laphyre, basalt, and phonolith.ej ; sedimentary n 
measures, lime stone, travertino, infiiBOrial di 
rock, which contains also together with the d 
eruption and sedimentary rocks, the remwna of 
more ancient metamorphic massea. Aggregat 
tiona, The phenomenon of contact eiplained 
tion of minerals. EETccts of pressure and I 
cooling. Origin of granular or sacehanidal 
■cMsl into ribbon jasper. Metamorpho^ a 

3US schist through granite. Converaio 

to argillaceODS schist, by contact with 

Filling np of the veins &om helow. 

' 11 agglomerate structures. FricUon 



SUMMARY. [vil] 

tital forms. Dependence of physiological gradations on the age of tha 
formations. Geognostic horizon, whose careful investigation may yield 
certain data regarding the identity or the relative age of formationf^ 
the periodic recurrence of certain strata, their parallelism, or their total 
■appression. Types of the sedimentary structures considered in their 
most simple and general characters ; Silurian and devonian formationa 
(formerly known as rocks of transition); the lower trias (mountain 
Hme-Btone, coal-measures, together with todtliegxmde and zcchsteln); 
the upper trias (hunter sandstone, muschelkalk, and keuper) ; jura lime- 
stone (lias and oolite); free-stone, lower and upper chalk, as the last 
of the flotz strata, which begin with mountain limestone ; tertiary 
foimations in three divisions, which are designated by granular lime- 
atone, lignite, and south apennine gravel — pp. 271-280. 

The faunas and floras of an earlier world, and their relations to exist- 
ing organisms. Colossal bones of antediluvian mammalia in the upper 
alluvium. Vegetation of an earlier world ; monuments of the histoxy 
of its vegetation. The points at which certain vegetable groups attain 
their maximum; cycadcae in the keuper and lias, and coniferae in the 
banter sandstone. Lignite and coal measures (amber-tree). Deposition 
of laige masses of rock ; doubts regarding their origin — p. 288 and aote. 

/. The knowledge of geognostic epochs — of the upheaval of mountain 
chains and elevated plateaux, by which lands are both formed, and 
destroyed, leads, by an internal causal connection, to the distribution 
into solids and fluids, and to the peculiarities in the natural configura- 
tion of the earth's sur£Eu;e. Existing areal relations of the solid to the 
fluid di^er considerably firom those presented by the maps of the physi- 
cal portion of a more ancient geography. Importance of the eruption 
of quartzofle porphyry with reference to the then existing configuration 
of oontinentid masses. Individual conformation in horizontal extension 
(relations of articulation), and in vertical elevation (hypsometrical 
Tiewa). Influence of the relations of the area of land and sea on the 
temperature, direction of the winds, abundance or scarcity of oi^ganic 
products, and on all meteorological processea coHectively. Direction 
of the major axes of continental masses. Articulation and pyramidal 
termination towards the south. Series of peninsulas. Valley-like 
fonnation of the Atlantic Ocean. Forms which firequently recur — 
pp. 288-297 and notes. Bamifications and (systems of mountain chains, 
and the means of determining their relative ages. Attempts to deter- 
mine the centre of gravity of the volume of the lands upheaved above 
the level of the sea. The elevation of continents is still progressing 
■lowly, and is being compensated for at some definite points by a per- 
ceptible sinking. AH geognostic phenomena indicate a periodical 
alternation of activity in the interior of our planet. Probability of new 
elevations of ridges — ^pp. 297-306 and notes. 

ff* The solid surface of the earth has two envelopea, one liquid, and the 
other aeriform. Contrasts and analogies which these envelopes — the sea 
and the atmosphere — present in their conditions of aggregation and elec- 
tricity, and in their relations of currents and temperature. Depths of the 
and of the atmosphere, the shoals of which constitute our highland! 



[viii] COSMOS. 

a&d monntain chains. The degree of heat at the surface of the sea in diffe- 
rent latitudes and in the lower strata. Tendency of the sea to maintain 
the temperature of the surface in the strata nearest to the atmosphere, 
in consequence of the mobility of its particles, and the alteration in its 
density. Maximum of the density of salt water. Position of the zones 
of the hottest water, and of those having the greatest saline contents. 
Thermic influence of the lower polar current and the counter-currents 
in the straits of the sea — pp. 806-309 and notes. General level of the 
sea, and permanent local disturbances of equilibrium; the periodic 
disturbances manifested as tides. Oceanic currents ; the equatorial or 
rotation current, the Atlantic warm Gulf-stream, and the further im- 
pulse which it receives; the cold Peruvian stream in the eastern portion 
of the Pacific Ocean of the southern zone. Temperature of shoals. The 
universal division of life in the ocean. • Influence of the small sub- 
marine sylvan region at the bottom of beds of rooted algae, or on 
fiir-extending floating layers of fucus — pp. 309-316 and notes. 

h. The gaseous envelope of our planet, the atmosphere. Chemical 
composition of the atmosphere, its transparency, its polarisation, pres- 
sure, temperature, humidity, and electric tension. Belation of oxygen 
to nitrogen; amount of carbonic acid; carburetted hydrogen; ammo- 
niacal vapours. Miasmata. Begular (horary) changes in the pres- 
sure of the atmosphere. Mean barometrical height at the level of 
the sea in different zones of the earth. Isobarometrical curves. Baro- 
metrical windroses. Law of rotation of the winds, and its importance 
with reference to the knowledge of many meteorological processes. 
Land and sea winds, trade winds and monsoons — pp. 316-322. Climatic 
distribution of heat in the atmosphere, as the effect of the relative posi- 
tion of transparent and opaque masses, (fluid and solid superficial area^) 
and of the hypsometrical configuration of continents. Curvature of the 
isothermal lines in a horizontal and vertical direction, on the earth's sur- 
face and in the superimposed strata of air. Convexity and concavity of 
the isothermal lineE^ Mean heat of the year, seasons, months, and days. 
Enumeration of the causes which produce disturbances in the form of 
the isothermal lines, i. e. their deviation from the position of the geogra- 
phical parallels. Isochimenal and isotheral lines are the lines of equal 
winter and summer heat Causes which raise or lower the temperature. 
Bastion of the earth's surface according to its Inclination, colour, 
density, dryness, and chemical composition. The form of the cloud 
which announces what is passing in the upper strata of the atmosphere 
is the image of the strongly radiating ground projected on a hot soxn- 
mer sky. Contrast between an insular or littoral climate, such as is 
experienced by all deeply-articulated continents, and the climate of the 
^terior of large tracts of land. East and west coasts. Difference be- 
tween the sou£em and northern hemispheres. Thermal scales of culti- 
vated plants, going down from the vanilla, cacoa, and musacese, to citroni^ 
And olives, and to vines yielding potable wines. The influence which 
these scales exercise on the geographical distribution of cultivated plants. 
The favourable ripening and the immaturity of fruits are essentially influ- 
enced by the difference in the action of direct or scattered light in a 



STTHMABT. [iz] 

dear sky, or in one overcast with mist. General Eamm$ry of the cauet 
vhich yield a more genial climate to the greater portion of Europe 
considered as the western peninsula of Asiar— p. 888. Determination 
of the changes in the mean annual and summer temperature, which 
correspond to one degree of geographical latitude. Equality of the 
mean temperature of a mountain station, and of the polar distance of 
any point lying at the level of the sea. Decrease of temperature wiUi 
the decrease in elevation. Limits of perx>etual mow, and the fluctua- 
tions in these limits. Causes of disturbmce in the regularity of the 
phenomenon. Northern and southern charos of the Himalaya ; habiti^ 
bility of the elevated plateaux of Thibet — p. 388. Quantity of moisture 
in the atmosphere according to the hours of the day, the seasons of the 
year, degrees of latitude, and elevation. Greatest dryness of the atmo- 
sphere observed in Northern Asia between the river districts of the 
Irtysch and the Obi. Dew, a consequence of radiation. Quantity of 
rain — ^p. 342. Electricity of the atmosphere, and disturbance of the 
electric tension. Geographical distribution of storms. Predetermina- 
tion of atihospheric changes. The most important climatic disturbances 
cannot be traced at the place of observation to any local cause, but are 
rather the consequence of some occurrence by which the equilibrium in the 
atmospheric currents has been destroyed at some considerable distance, 
i. Physical geography is not limited to elementaxy inorganic terres- 
trial life, but, elevated to a higher point of view, it embraces the sphere 
of organic life, and the numerous gradations of its typical development. 
Aniimd and vegetable life. General difiPusion of liSfe in the sea and on 
the land; microscopic vital forms discovered in the polar ice no less than 
in the depths of the ocean within the tropics. Extension imparted to the 
horizon of life by Ehrenberg's discoveries. Estimation of the mass 
(volume) of animal and vegetable organisms —pp. 347-356. Geography 
of plants and animals. Migrations of organisms in the ovum, or by 
means of organs capable of spontaneous motion. Spheres of distribution 
depending on climatic relations. Regions of vegetation, and classification 
of the genera of animalB. Isolated and social living plants and animals. 
The dmracter of floras and faunas is not determined so much by the 
predominance of separate fiamilies in certain parallels of latitude as by 
the highly complicated relations of the association of many families, and 
the relative numerical value of their species. The forms of natural 
fiunilies which increase or decrease from the equator to the poles. Inves- 
tigations into the numerical relation existing in different districts of the 
earth between each one of the large families to the whole mass of phane- 
rogamLnt — pp. 356-560. The human race considered according to its 
physical gradations, and^e geographical distribution of its simultane- 
ously occurring types. Bices and varieties. All races of men are forms 
of one single species. Unity of the human race. Languages considered 
as the intellectual creations of mankind, or as portions of the history of 
mental actinty manifest a character of nationality, although certain his- 
torical occitsrences have been the means of difiusing idioms of the 
same family of languages amongst nations of wholly diSerent descent^* 
pp. 360-369. 



INTRODUCTION 



REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF ENJOY. 
MENT PRESENTED TO US BY THE ASPECT OF NATURE, 
AND THE STUDY OF HER LAWS. 

Ik attempting, after a long absence £rom my native country, 
to develope tiie physical phenomena of the globe, and the 
simultaneous action of the forces that pervade the regions of 
space, I experience a twofold cause of anxiety. The subject 
before me is so inexhaustible and so varied, that I fear either 
to fall into the superficiality of the encyclopsedist, or to weary 
the mind of my reader by aphorisms consisting of mere gene- 
ralities clothed in dry and dogmatical forms. Undue concise- 
ness often checks the flow of expression, whilst difi^eness is 
alike detrimental to a clear and precise exposition of our ideas. 
Nature is a free domain ; and the profound conceptions and 
enjoyments she awakens within us can only be vividly deli- 
neated by thought clothed in exalted forms of speech, worthy 
ofJ>earing witness to the majesty and greatness of the creation. 
JJn considering the study of physicsd phenomena, not merely 
in its bearings on the material wants of life, but in its general 
influence on the intellectual advancement of mankind, we 
find its noblest and most important restdt to be a knowledge 
of the chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked 
together, and made mutimlly dependent upon each other] and 
it is the perception of these relations that exalts our views 
and ennobles our enjoyments. - Such a result can, however 
only be reaped as the finiit of observation and intellect, com- 
bined with the spirit of the age, in which are reflected all 
the varied phases of thought, jj&e who can trace, through 
by-gone times, the stream of our knowledge to its primitive 
•ource, will learn from history how, for thousands of years, mau 






2 COSKOS. 

has laboiu'ed, amid the ever-recurring changes of form, to 
recognise the invariability of natural laws, and hat thus by 
the force of mind gradually subdued a great portion of the phy- 
sical world to his dominion]] In interrogating the history of 
the past, we trace the mysterious course of ideas yielding the 
first glimmering perception of the same image of a Cosmos, 
or harmoniously ordered whole, which, dimly shadowed forth 
to the human mind in the primitive ages of the world, is now 
fully revealed to the maturer intellect of mankind as the 
result of long and laborious observation. 

Each of these epochs of the contemplation of the external 
world — the earliest dawn of thought, and the advanced ststge 
of civilisation- — ^has its own source of enjoyment. In the 
former, this enjoyment, in accordance with the simplicity 
of the primitive ages, flowed from an intuitive feeling of 
the order that was proclaimed by the invariable and suc- 
cessive re-appearance of the heavenly bodies, and by the 
progressive development of organised beings ; whilst in the 
latter, this sense of enjoyment springs from a definite know- 
ledge of the phenomena of nature. When man began to 
interrogate nature, and, not content with observing, learnt 
to evoke phenomena under definite conditions ; when once he 
sought to collect and record facts, in order that the fruit of 
his labours might aid investigation after his ow^n brief exist- 
ence had passed away, iha philosophy of Nature cast aside the 
vague and poetic garb in which she had been enveloped from 
her origin, and having assumed a severer aspect, she now 
weighs the value of observations, and substitutes induction 
t) and reasoning for conjecture and assumption. [The dogmas 
of foimer ages survive now only in the superstitions of the 
people and the prejudices of the ignorant, or are perpetuated 
in a few systems, which, conscious of their weakness, shroud 
themselves in a veil of myster^ We may also trace the same 
primitive intuitions in languages exuberant in figurative 
expressions ; and a few of the best chosen symbols engendered 
by the happy inspiration of the earliest ages, having by 
degrees lost their vagueness through a better mode of inter- 
pretation, are still preserved amongst our scientific terms. 

^ature considered rationally/, that is to say, submitted to 
the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena ; 
a harmony, blendiarr together all created things, however diB- 




Il^TKODUCTION. 

dmilar in fonn and attributes; one great whole {to 
animated by the breath of lij@ (The most important r 
of a rational inquiry into nature is, therefore, to csta 
the unity and harmony of this stupendous mass of forc(^ 
matter, to determine with impartial justice what is due t( 
disooveries of the past and to those of the present, an 
analyze the individual parts of natural phenomena wit 
succumbing beneath the weight of the wholeT] Thus, 
thus alone, is it permitted to man, while mindful of the 
destiny of his race, to comprehend nature, to lift the veil 
shrouds her phenomena, and, as it were, submit the re 
of observation to the test of reason and of intellect. 

In reflecting upon the different degrees of enjoyment 

sented to us in the contemplation of nature, we find that 

first place must be assigned to a sensation, which is wl 

independent of an intimate acquaiutanoe with the phy 

phenomena presented to our view, or of the peculiar 

raeter of the region surrounding nfi. In the uniform | 

bounded only by a distant horizon, where the lowly heather 

cistos, or waving grasses, deck the soil ; on the ocean si 

where the waves, softly rippling over the beach, leave a ti 

green with the weeds of the 8ea;Ceverywhere, the i 

is penetrated by the same sense of the grandeur and 

expanse of nature, revealing to the soid, by a mystci 

inspiration, (the existence of laws that regulate the forci 

the universe^ Mere communion with nature, mere coi 

with the free air, exercise a soothing yet strengthening h 

eaee on the wearied spirit, calm the storm of passion, 

soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost dc] 

Everywhere, in every region of the globe, in every sta^ 

intellectual culture^the same sources of enjoyment are i 

vouchsafed to man.tThe earnest and solenm tiioughts awaki 

by a communion with nature intuitively arise from a pre 

tunent of the order and harmony pervading the whole 

verse, and from the contrast we draw between the nai 

limits of our own existence and the image of infinity revc 

on every side, whether we look upwards to the starry i 

of heaven, scan the far-stretching plain before us, or see 

trace the dim horizon across the vast expanse of ocean. 

The contemplation of the individual characteristics of 
landscape, and of the ocmfonnatiQn of the land in any def 

b2 



4 cossfos 

region of the eartu, gives rise to a different source of enjoy- 
ment, awakening impressions that are more vivid, better 
defined, and more congeni^ to certain phases of the mind, 
than those of which we have abeady spoken. At one time 
the heart is stirred by a sense of the grandeur of the face of 
nature, by the strife of the elements, or, as in Northern Asia, 
by the aspect of the dreary barrenness of the far-sti'etching 
steppes ; at another time, softer emotions are excited by the 
contemplation of rich hajrests wrested by the hand of man 
from the wild fertility of nature, or by tiie sight of human 
habitations raised beside some wild and foaming ton^ent. 
Here I regard less the degree of intensity, than the difference 
existing in the various sensations that derive their charm and 
permanence from, the peculiar character of the scene. 

If I might be allowed to abandon myself to the recollec- 
tions of my own distant travels, I would instance, among the 
most striking scenes of nature, the calm sublimity of a tropical 
night, when the stars, not sparkling, as in our northern skies, 
shed their soft and planetary light over the gently-heaving 
ocean ;— or I would recall the deep valleys of tiie Cordilleras, 
where the tall and slender palms pierce the leafy veil around 
them, and waving on high their feathery and arrow-like 
branches, form, as it were, " a forest above a forest ;"* or I 
would describe the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, when a 
horizontal layer of clouds, dazzling in whiteness, has separated 
the cone of cinders ft-om the plain below, and suddenly the 
ascending current pierces the cloudy veil, so that the eye of 
the traveller may range from the brink of the crater, along the 
vine-clad slopes of Orotava, to the orange-gardens and banana- 
groves that skirt the shore. In scenes like these, it is not the 
peaceful charm imiformly spread over the fece of nature that 
moves the heart, but rather the peculiar physiognomy and con- 
formation of the land, the features of the landscape, the ever- 
varying outline of the clouds, and their blending with the 
horizon of the sea, whether it lies spread before us like a 
smooth and shining mirror, or is dindy seen through the 
morning mist. All that the senses can but imperfectly com- 
prehend, all that is most awful in such romantic scenes of 
nature, may become a source of enjoyment to man, by open- 

* This expression is taken from a beautiful description of tropical 
forest scenery in Paul and VirginUif hj Bemardin do Saint Pierre« 



IKTBODirCTIOir. i 

hag a wide field to the creative powers of his imagiuation. 
Impressions change with the varying movements of the mind, 
and we are led by a happy illusion to believe that we receive 
firom the external world that with which we have ourselves 
invested it. 

When fax from our native country, after a long voyage, we 
tread for the first time the soil of a tropical land, we experi- 
ence a certain feeling of surprise and gratification in recog- 
nising, in the rocks that surround us, the same inclined schistose 
strata, and the same columnar basalt covered with cellular 
amygdaloids, that we had left in Europe, and whose identity 
of character, in latitudes so widely different, reminds us, that 
the solidification of the earth's crust is altogether independent 
of climatic influences. But these rocky masses of schist and of 
basalt are covered with vegetation of a character with which 
we are imacquainted, and of a physiognomy wholly unknown 
to us ; and it is then, amid the colossal and majestic forms of 
an exotic flora, that we feel how wonderfully the flexibility of 
our nature fits us to receive new impressions, linked together 
by a certain secret analogy. We so readily perceive the 
affinity existing amongst all the forms of organic life, that 
although the sight of a vegetation similar to that of our 
native country might at first be most welcome to the eye, as 
the sweet familiar sounds of our mother tongue are to the ear, 
we nevertheless, by degrees, and almost imperceptibly, become 
familiarised with a new home and a new climate. As a true 
citizen of the world, man everywhere habituates himself to 
that which surroimds him ; yet fearfiil, as it were, of breaking 
the links of association that bind him to the home of his child- 
hood, the colonist applies to some few plants in a far distant 
clime the names he had been familiar with in his native land ; 
and by the mysterious relations existing amongst all types of 
organisation, the forms of exotic vegetation present them- 
selves to his mind as nobler and more perfect developments of 
those he had loved in earlier days. Thus do the spontaneous 
impressions of the untutored mind lead, like the laborious 
deductions of cultivated intellect, to the same intimate per- 
suasion, that one sole and indissoluble chain binds together all 
nature. 

It may seem a rash attempt to endeavour to separate, into its 
different elements, the magic power exercised upon our minds 



6 COSMOS. 

by the physical world, since the character of the landscape, and 
of eveiy imposing scene in nature, depends so materially upon 
the mutual relation of the ideas and sentiments simultaneously 
excited in the mind of the observer. 

The powerful effect exercised by nat-ire springs, as it were, 
from the connection and unity of the impressions and emotions 
produced; and we can only trace their different sources by 
analysing the individuality of objects, and the diversity of 
forces. 

The richest and most varied elements for pursuing an 
analysis of this nature present themselves to the eyes of 
the traveller in the scenery of Southern Asia, in the Great 
Indian Archipelago, and more especially, too, in the New 
Continent, where the summits of the loffcy Cordilleras pene- 
trate the confines of the aerial ocean surroimding our globe, 
and where the same subterranean forces that once raised these 
mountain chains, still shake them to their foundation and 
threaten their downfall. 

Graphic delineations of nature, axranged according to sys- 
tematic views, are not only suited k/ please the imagination, 
but may also, when properly considered, indicate the grades 
of the impressions of which I Lc»7e spoken, fi-om the imi- 
fonnity of the sea-shore, or the barren steppes of Siberia, to 
the inexhaustible fertility of the torrid zone. If we were 
even to picture to ourselves Mount Pilatus placed on the 
Schreckhorn,* or the Schneekoppe of Silesia on Mont Blanc, 

* These comparisons are only approximative. The several elevations 
above the level of the' sea are, in accurate numbers, as follows : — 

The Schneekoppe or Riesenkoppe, in Silesia, about 5,2/0 feet, accord- 
ing to Hallaschka. The Righi 5,902 feet, taking the height of the Lake 
of Lucerne at 1426 feet, according to Eschman. (See Compte Rendu des 
Mesures Tngonometriques en Suisse f 1840,- p. 230.) Mount Athos 6,775 
feet, according to Captain Gaultier; Mount Pilatus 7,546 feet; Mount 
Etna 10,871 feet, aiccording to Captain Smyth; or 10,874 feet, according 
to the barometrical measurement made by Sir John Herschel, and com- 
municated to me in writing in 1825, and 10,899 feet, according to 
angles of altitude taken by Cacciatore at Palermo (calculated, by assuming 
the terrestrial refraction to be 0076); the Schreckhorn 12,383 feet; the 
Jungfrau 13,720 feet, according to Trallea ; Mont Blanc 15,775 feet, 
according to the different measurements considered by Roger (Bibl. 
Univ.f May, 1828, pp. 24 — 53), 15,733 feet, according to the measurements 
taken from Mount Columbier by Carlini, in 1821, and 15,748 feet, as 
meaBured by the Austrian engineers from Trelod and the Glacier d^Ambbu 




INTBODITCTION. 7 

we should not have attained to the height of that great Colos- 
sus of the Andes, the Chimborazo, whose height is twice that 
of Mount Etna ; and we must pile the Righi, or Mount Athos, 
on the summit of the Chimborazo, in order to foim a just 
estimate of the elevation of the Dhawalagiri, the highest point 

The ^u^al height of the Swiss moantains flactnateSf according to 
Eschman's observations, as much as 25 English feet, owing to the varying 
thickness of the stratum of snow that covers the summits. Chimborazo 
is, according to my trigonometrical measurements, 21,421 feet, (see Hum- 
boldt, Reeueil d'Ois, Astr., tome i., p. 73), and Dhawalagiri 28,074 
feet. As there is a difference of 445 feet between the determinations of 
Blake and Webb, the elevation assigned to the Dhawalagiri, (or white 
mountain from the Sanscrit dhawala, white, and gh-i^ mountain), cannot 
be received with the same confidence as that of the Jawahir. 25,749 feet; 
saaoe the latter rests on a complete trigonometrical measurement, (see 
Herbert and Hodgson in the Asiat. Res,, vol. ziv., p. 189, and Suppl. to 
EncyeL Brit, vol. iv., p. 643.) I have shown elsewhere {Ann. des 
Sciences NatureUeSy Mars, 1825,) that the height of the Dhawalagiri 
(28,074 feet) depends on several elements that have not been ascertained 
with certainty, as azimuths and latitudes, (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, t. iii., 
p. 282). It has been believed, but without foundation, that in the Tar- 
taric chain, north of Thibet, opposite to the chain of Kouen-iun, there 
are several snowy summits, whose elevation is about 30,000 English 
feet, (almost twice that of Mont Blanc,) or, at any rate, 29,000 feet, (see 
Captain Alexander Gerard's and John Gerard's Journey to the Boorendo 
Pats, 1840, vol. i., pp. 143 and 311). Chimborazo is spoken of in the 
text only as one of the highest summits of the chain of the Andes ; for in 
the year 1827, the learned and highly gifted traveller, Pentland, in his 
memorable expedition to Upper Peru (Bolivia), measured the elevation of 
two mountains situated to the east of Lake Titicaca, viz., the Sorata 
25,200 feet, and the Blimani 24,000 feet, both greatly exceeding the 
height of Chimborazo, which is only 21,421 feet, and being nearly equal in 
elevation to the Jawahir, which is the highest mountain in the Himalaya, 
that has as yet been accurately measured. Thus Mout Blanc is 5,646 
feet below Chimborazo; Chimborazo 3,779 feet below tlie Sorata; the 
Sorata 549 feet below the Jawahir, and probably about 2,880 feet below 
the Dhawalagiri. According to a new measurement of the lUimani, by 
Pentland, in 1838, the elevation of this mountain is given at 23,868 feet, 
varying only 133 feet from the measurement taken in 1827. The 
elevations have been given in this note with minute exactness, as erroneous 
numbers have been introduced into many maps and tables recently pub* 
lished, owing to incorrect reductions of the measurements. 

[In the preceding note, taken from those appended to the Introduction 
in the French Translation, rewritten by Humboldt himself, the measure- 
ments are given in metres, but these have been converted into English feet 
for the greater convenience of the general reader.] — Tr, 



8 COSMOS. 

of the Himalaya. But although the mountains of India greatly 
surpass the Cordilleras of South America, by their astonishing 
elevation, (which after beiag long contested has at last been 
confirmed by accurate measurements,) they cannot, from their 
geographical position, present the same inexhaustible variety 
of phenomena by which the latter are characterised. The 
impression produced by the grander aspects of nature does 
not depend exclusively on height. The chain of the Himalaya 
is placed far beyond the limits of the torrid zone, and scarcely 
is a solitary palm-tree to be found in the beautiful valleys 
of Kumaoun and Garhwal.* On the southern slope of the 
ancient Paropamisus, in the latitudes of 28* and 34°, nature 
no longer displays the same abundance of tree-ferns, and 
arborescent grasses, heliconias and orchideous plants, which 
in tropical regions are to be found even on the highest plateaux 
of the mountains. On the slope of the Himalaya, under the 
shade of the Deodora and the broad-leaved oak, peculiar to 
these Indian Alps, the rocks of granite and of mica schist are 
covered with vegetable forms, dmost similar to those which 
characterise Europe and Northern Asia. The species are not 
identical, but closely analogous in aspect and physiognomy, as 
for instance, the juniper, the alpiae birch, the gentian, the 
marsh pamassia, and the prickly species of Ribes.f The 

* Tlie absence of palms and tree-ferns on the temperate slopes of the 
Himalaya is shown in Don's Flora NepalentiSt 1825, and in the remark- 
able series of lithographs of Wallich's Flora Indica^ whose catalogae 
contains the enormous number of 7,683 Himalaya species, almost all 

?hanerogamic plants, which have as yet been but imperfectly classified, 
n Nepaul (lat. 264* ^ ^'^k!') there has hitherto been observed only one 
species of palm, Chamserops martiana, Wall. {Plantis Asiat., lib. iii., pp.S, 
211), which is found at the height of 5,250 English feet above the level 
of the sea, in the shady valley of Bunipa. libe magnificent tree-fern^ 
Alsophila brunoniana. Wall, (of which a stem 48 feet long has been in the 
possession of the British Museum since 1831) does not grow in Nepaul, 
but is found on the mountains of Siihet, to the north-west of Calcutta, 
in lat. 24° 50'. The Nepaul fern, Paranema cyathoides, Don, formerly 
known as Sphsroptera barbata, Wall. (Plant<B Asiat. ^ lib. i., pp. 42,48) is, 
indeed, nearly related to Cyathea, a species of which I have seen in 
the South American Missions of Caripe, measurinsr 33 feet in height; this 
U not, however, properly speaking, a tree. 

t Ribes nubicola, R. glaciale, R. grossularia. The species which 
compose the vegetation of the Himalaya are four pines, notwithstanding 
the assertion of the ancients regarding Eastern Asia (Strabo, lib. Il^ 



I17TB0DUCTI0K. 9 

chain of Uie Himalaya is also wanting in the imposing pheno- 
mena of volcanoes, which in the Andes and in the Indian 
Archipelago often reveal to the inhabitants, imder the most 
terrific forms, the existence of the forces pervading the interior 
of our planet. 

Moreover, on the southern declivity of the Himalaya, where 
the ascending cuiTCDt deposits the exhalations rising from & 
vigorous Indian vegetation, the region of perpetual snow 
begins at an elevation of 11,000 or 12,000 feet above the 
level of the sea,"^ thus setting a limit to the development of 

p. 510, Cas.), twent7*fiTe oaks, four birches, two chesnuts, seven maples, 
twelve willows, fourteen roses, three species of strawberry, seven species 
of Alpine roses {rhododendra)^ one of which attains a height of 20 feet* 
and many other northern genera. Large white apes, having black faces, 
inhabit the wild chesnnt-tree of Kashmir, which grows to a height of 
100 feet, in lat. 33** (see Carl Von Hugel's Kaschmir, 1840, 2nd pt., 
249.) Among the coniferse, we find the Pinus deodwara, or deodara (in 
Sanscrit, dtwa-daru — the timber of the gods), which is nearly aUied to 
Pinus cedrus. Near the limit of perpetual snow, flourish the large and 
showy flowers of the Gentiana venusta, G. Moorcroftiana, Swertia pur« 
purescens, S. speciosa, Parnassia arroata, P. nnbicola, Poeonia Emodi, 
Tulipa stellata ; and, besides varieties of European genera peculiar to tliese 
Indian mountains, true European species, as Leontodon taraxacum, Pru- 
nella vulgaris, Galium aparine, and Thlaspi arvense. The heath men- 
tioned by Saunders, in Turner's Travels f and which had been confounded 
with CaUuna vulgaris, is an Andromeda, a fact of the greatest importance 
in the geography of Asiatic plants. If I have made use, in this work, of 
the un philosophical expressions of European genera, European species, 
growing wild in Asia^ &c., it has been in consequence of the old botanical 
language, which instead of the idea of a large cQssemination, or ra'hcr of 
the co-existence of organic productions, has dogmatically substituted the 
false hypothesis of a migration, which from predilection for Europe, is 
further assumed to have been from west to east. 

* On the southern declivity of the Himalaya, the limit of perpetual snow 
is 12,978 feet above the level of the sea; on the northern declivity, or 
rather on the peaks which rise above the Thibet, or Tartarian plateau, 
this limit is at 16,625 feet from 30i° to 32"* of latitude, whilst at the 
equator, in the Andes of Quito, it is 15,790 feet. Snch is the result I 
have deduced from the combination of numerous data furnished by 
Webb, Gerard, Herbert, and Moorcroft. (See my two memoirs on the 
mountains of India, in 1816 and 182U, in the Ann, de Chimie et de Phym 
ngue, t. iii. p, 303, t. xiv. pp. 6, 22, 50.) The greater elevation to which 
the limit of perpetual snow recedes on the Tartarian declivity is owing to 
the radiation of heat from the neighbouring elevated plains, to the purity 
of the atmosphere, and to the infrequent formation of snow in an air 
which is both very cold and very dry. (Humboldt, Atie CentrtUtf t. ii^ 



10 COSMOS. 

organic life in a zone that is nearly 3000 feet lower than 
tiliat to which it attains in the equinoctial region of the Cor- 
dilleras. 

But the countries bordering on the equator possess another 

pp. 281-326.) My opinion on the difference of height of the snow-line on 
the two sides of the Himalaya has the high authority of Colebrooke in its 
faTOur. He wrote to me in June, 1824, as follows : — ** I also find, from 
the data in my posseission, that the elevation of the line of perpetual snow 
is 13,000 feet. On the southern declivity, and at lat. 31**, Webb's mea- 
surements give me 13,500 feet, consequently 500 feet more than tlie 
height deduced from Captain Hogdson's observations. Gerard's mea- 
surements fully confirm your opinion that the line of snow is higher on 
the northern than on the southern side ** It was not until the present 
year (1840) that we obtained the complete and collected journal of the 
brothers Gerard, published under the supervision of Mr. Lloyd. {Narra- 
tive of a Jfiwney from Cawnpow to the Boorendo PasSy in the Himalaya^ 
by Captain Alexander Gerard and John Gerard^ edited by George Lloyd, 
Toi. i. pp. 291, 311, 320, 327, and 341.) Many interesting details re- 
garding some localities may be found in the narrative of A visit to the 
Skatooly for the purpose of determining the line of perpetual snow on the 
wvthemface of the Himalaya^ in August, 1822. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, these travellers always confound the elevation at which sporadic 
snow falls, with the maximum of the height that the snow-line attains on 
the Thibetian plateau. Captain Gerard distinguishes between the summits 
that rise in the middle of the plateau, where he states the elevation of the 
snoW'line to be between 18,000 and 19,000 feet, and the northern slopes 
of the chain of the Himalaya, which border on the defile of the Sutledge, 
and can radiate but little heat, owing to the deep ravines with which they 
are intersected. The elevation of the vill^^e of Tangno is given at only 9300 
feet, while that of the plateau surrounding the sacred lake of Manasa is 1 7 ,000 
feet. Captain Gerard finds the snow-line 500 feet lower on the northern 
slopes, where the chain of the Himalaya is broken through, than towards 
tiie southern declivities facing Hindostan, and he there estimates the line of 
perpetual snow at 15,000 feet. The most striking differences are presented 
between the vegetation on the Thibetian plateau, and that characteristic 
of the southern slopes of the Himalaya. On the latter the cultivation 
of grain is arrested at 9974 feet, and even there the com has often to 
be cut when the blades are still green. The extreme limit of forests 
of tall oaks and deodars is 11,960 feet; that of dwarf birches 32,983 
feet. On the plains, Captain Gerard found pastures up to the 
height of 17,000 feet; the cereals will grow at 14,100 feet, or even at 
18,540 feet; birches with tall stems at 14,100 feet, and copse or brush- 
wood applicable for fuel is found at an elevation of upwards of 17,000 
feet, that is to say, 1280 feet above the lower limits of the snow-line at the 
equator, in the province of Quito. It is very desirable that the mean 
elevation of the Thibetian plateau, which I have estimated at only about 
8200 feet between the Himalaya and the Kouen-Lun, and the difference in 



^ 



.»*.». 




INTKt>DirCTIOX. 11 

advantage, to which sufficient attention has not hitherto been 
directed. This portion of the surface of the globe affords in 
the smallest space the greatest possible yariety of impressions 
from the c(»itemplation of nature. Among the colossal moun- 

die height of the Ime of peq^etnal mow on the soathem and on die 
northeni slopes of the Himalaya, shonld be again investigated by tra- 
vellers who are accustomed to jndge of the general conformation of the 
land. Hitherto simple calculations have too often been confounded with 
actual -measurements, and the elevations of isolated inmmtts with that of 
the surrounding plateau. (Compare Carl Zinmerman's excellent Hypso- 
metrical Remarks in his Geograpfwtchen Analyse der Karie von Inner 
Arien^ 1841, s. 98.) Lord draws attention to the difference presented by 
the two faces of the Himalaya and those of the Alpine chain of Hindoo- 
Coosh, with respect to the limits of the snow-line. ** The latter chain," 
he says, " has the table-land to the south, in consequence of which the 
snow-line is higher on the southern side, contrary to what we find to be the 
case with respect to the Himalaya, which is bounded on the south by shel- 
tered plains, as Hindoo-Coosh is on the north." It must, however, be ad- 
mitted that the hypsometrical data, on which these statements are based, re- 
quire a critical revision with regard to several of their details ; but still they 
suffice to establish the main fact, that the remarkable configuration of the 
land in Central Asia affords man aU that is essential to the maintenance of 
life, AS habitation, food, and fndi, at an elevation above the level of the sea, 
which in almost all other parts of the globe is covered with perpetual ice. 
We most except the very dry districts of Bolivia, where snow is so rarely- 
met with, and where Pentland (in 1838) fixed the snow-line at 15,667 
feet, between 16* and 17f " south latitude. The opinion that I had ad- 
vanced regarding the difference in the snow- line on the two faces of the 
Himalaya has been most fully confirmed by the barometrical observations 
of Victor Jacquemont, who fell an early sacrifice to his noble and unwea- 
-ied ardour. (See his Correspondance pendant son voyage dans Vlnde^ 
1828 h 1832, liv. 23, pp. 290, 296, 299.) " Perpetual snow," says 
/acqiumont, * descends lower on the southern than on the northern slopes 
of the Himalaya, and the limit constantly rises as we advance to the north 
of the chain bordering on India. On tiie Kioobrong, about 18,317 feet 
in elevation, according to Captain Gerard, I was still considerably below 
the limit of perpetual snow, which, I believe to be 19,690 feet in this part 
of Hindostan." (This estimate I consider much too high.) 

The same traveller says, " To whatever height we rise on the southern 
declivity of the Himalaya, the climate retains the same character, and the 
same division of the seasons as in the plains of India; the summer solstice 
being every year marked by the same prevalence of rain, which continues 
to fall without intermission until the autumnal equinox. But a new, a 
totally different climate begins at Kashmir, whose elevation I estimate to 
be 5350 feet, nearly equal to that of the cities of Mexico and Popayan," 
(Correapond, de Jacquetnontt t. ii., pp. 58 et 74). The warm and humid 
cir of th6 jse&f aa Leopold von Buch well observes, is carried by the moB- 



12 COSMOS. 

tains of Cundinamarca, of Quito, and of Peru, furrowed by deep 
ravines, man is enabled to contemplate alike all the families of 
plants, and all the stars of the firmament. There, at a single 
glance, the eye surveys majestic palms, humid forests of 
bambusa, and the varied species of musaceaB, while above 
these forms of tropical vegetation appear oaks, medlars, the 
sweetbrier, and umbelliferous plants, as in our European 
homes. There, as the traveller turns his eyes to the vault of 
heaven, a single glance embraces the constellation of the 
Southern Cross, the Magellanic clouds, and the guiding stars 
of the constellation of the Bear, as they circle round the 
arctic pole. There the depths of the earth and the vaults of 
heaven display aU the richness of their forms and the variety 
of their phenomena. There the different climates are ranged 
the one above the other, stage by stage, like the vegetable 
zones, whose succession they limit ; and there the observer 
may readily trace the laws that regulate the diminution of 
heat, as they stand indelibly inscribed on the rocky walls and 
abrupt declivities of the Cordilleras. 

Not to weary the reader with the details of the phenomena 
which 1 long since endeavoured graphically to represent,* I 

soons across the plains of India to the skirts of the Himalaya, which 
arrest its course, and hinder it from diverging to the Thihetian districts of 
Ladak and Lassa. Carl von HQgel estimates the elevation of the valley of 
Kashmir above the level of the sea at 5818 feet, and bases his observation 
on the determination of the boiling point of water, (see theil 11, s. 155^ 
and Journal of Geog. Soc.f vol. vi. p. 215). In this valley, where the 
atm sphere is scarcely ever agitated by storms, and in 34° 7' lat., snow is 
found, several feet in thickness, from December to March. 

* See, generally, my Essai sur la Geographie des PlanteSt et le 
Tableau physique des Regions Equinoxiales^ 1807, pp. 80-88. On the 
diurnal and nocturnal variations of temperature, see Plate 9 of my Atku 
Giogr. et Phys, du Nouveau Continent ; and the Tables in my work, 
entitled De distributions geographica Plantarum secundum coeli tem- 
periem et altitudinem montium, 1817, pp. 90-116; the meteorological 
portion of my Asie Centrales tom. iii., pp. 212, 224 ; and, finally, the more 
recent and far more exact exposition of the variations of temperature 
experienced in correspondence with the increase of altitude on the chain 
of the Andes, given in Boussingault's Memoir, Sur la profondeur h la-- 
quelle on trouve, sous les TYopiques, la couche de Temperature Invariable, 
(Ann. de Chimie et de Physique, 1833, t. liii., pp. 225-247.) This treatise 
contains the elevations of 1 28 points, included between the level of the 
sea and the declivity of the Antisana (17,900 feet), as well as the mean 
temperature of the atmosphere, which varies with the height between 81* 
and 35* F. 



1^ 



INTEODTTCTION. 13 

w31 here limit myself to the consideration of a few of the 
general results whose combination constitutes the physical 
dehneaiion of the torrid zone. That which, in the vagueness 
of our impressions, loses all distinctness of form, like some ^* 
distant mountain shrouded from view by a veil of mist, is <. 
clearly revealed by the light of mind, which by its scrutiny *" 
into the causes of phenomena learns to resolve and analyze *" 
their different elements, assigning to each its mdividual cha- 
racter. ^Thus in the sphere of natural investigation, as in b ' 
poetry and painting, the delineation of that which appeals 
most strongly to the imagination, derives its collective interest > 
from the vivid truthfrdness with which the individual features 
are pourtrayedJl 

The regions of the torrid zone not only give rise to the 
most powerfiil impressions by their organic richness and their 
abundant fertility, but they likewise afford the inestimable 
advantage of revealing to man, by the uniformity of the varia- 
tions of the atmosphere and the development of vital forces, 
and by the contrasts of climate and vegetation exhibited at 
different elevations, the invariability of the laws that regulate 
the course of the heavenly bodies, reflected, as it were, in 
terrestrial phenomena. Let us dwell then for a few moments 
on the proofs of this regularity, which is such, that it may be 
submitted to numerical calculation and computation. 

In the burning plains that rise but little above the level 
of the sea, reign the families of the banana, the cycas, and 
the palm, of which the number of species comprised in the 
flora of tropical regions has been so wonderfully increased in 
the present day, by the zeal of botanical travellers. To these 
groups succeed, in the Alpine valleys and the humid and 
shaded clefts on the slopes of the Cordilleras, the tree-ferns, 
whose thick cylindrical trunks and delicate lacelike foliage 
stand out in bold relief against the azure of the sky, and the 
cinchona, from which we derive the febrifuge bark. The 
medicinal strength of this bark is said to increase in propor- 
tion to the degree of moisture imparted to the foliage of the 
tree by the light mists which form the upper surface of the 
clouds resting over the plains. Everywhere around, the con- 
fines of the forest are encircled by broad bands of social 
plants, as the delicate aralia, the thibaudia and the myrtle- 
leayed andromeda, whilst the Alpine rose, Ihe magnificent 






14 COSMOS. 

befaria, weaves a purple girdle round the spiry peaks. In 
the cold regions of the Paramos, which is continually exposed 
to the fiiry of storms and winds, we find that flowering shrubs 
and herbaceous plants, bearing large and variegated blossoms, 
have given place to monocotyledons, whose slender spikes 
constitute the sole covering of the soil. Tliis is the zone of 
the grasses, one vast savannah extending over the immense 
mountain plateaux, and reflecting a yellow, almost golden 
tinge, to the slopes of the Cordilleras, on which graze the 
lama and the cattle domesticated by the European colonist. 
Where the naked trachyte rock pierces the grassy turf and 
penetrates into those higher strata of air which are supposed 
to be less charged with carbonic acid, we meet only with 
plants of an inferior organisation, as Kchens, lecideas, and 
the brightly-coloured dustlike lepraria, scattered around in 
circular patches. Islets of fresh-fallen snow, varying in form 
and extent, arrest the last feeble traces of vegetable develop- 
ment, and to these succeeds the region of perpetual snow, 
whose elevation imdergoes but little change, and may be 
easily determined. It is but rarely that the elastic forces at 
work within the interior of our globe, have succeeded in 
breaking through the spiral domes, which, resplendent in the 
brightness of eternal snow, crown the summits of ihe Cordil- 
leras—and even where these subterranean forces have opened 
a permanent communication with the atmosphere, through 
circular craters or long fissures, they rarely send forth cur- 
rents of lava, but merely eject ignited scorias, steam, sulphu- 
retted hydrogen gas, and jets of carbonic acid. 
^ In the earliest stages of civilisation the grand and imposing 
spectacle presented to the minds of the inhabitants of the 
tropics could only awaken feelings of astonishment and awe. 
It miffht perhaps be supposed, as we have already said, that 
the piriodical retum of the same phenomena, and 4e unlfoim 
manner in which they arrange themselves in successive 
groups, would have enabled man more readily to attain to a 
knowledge of the laws of nature ; but as far as tradition and 
history guide us, we do not find that any application was 
made of the advantages presented by these favoured regions. 
Kecent researdies have rendered it very doubtful whether 
the primitive seat of Hindoo civilisation— one of the most 
remarkable phases in the progress of mankind — ^was actually 



IKTS0DT7CTI0N» 

within the tropics. Airyana Vaedjo, the ancient cradl( 
the Zend, was situated to the north-west of the upper In 
and after the great religious schism, that is to say, after 
separation of the Iranians from the Brahminical institut 
the language that had previously been common to them 
to the Hindoos, assumed amongst the latter people (toge 
with the literature, habits, and condition of society) an i 
vidual form in the Magodha or Madhya Desa,* a disi 
that is bounded by the great chain of Himalaya and 
smaller range of the Vindhya. In less ancient times 
Sanscrit language and civilisation advanced towards the so 
east, penetrating further within the torrid zone, as my bro 
Wilhelm von Humboldt has shown in his greai work on 
Kavi and other languages of analogous structure.f 

(Notwithstanding the obstacles opposed in northern 
tudes to the discovery of the laws of nature, owing to 
excessive complication of phenomena, and the perpetual 1 
variations that, in these climates, affect the movements o] 
atmosphere and the distribution of organic forms ; it is tc 
inhabitants of a small section of the temperate zone, that 
rest of mankind owe the earliest revelation of an intimate 
rational acquaintance with the forces governing the phy 
world^ Moreover, it is from the same zone (which is a 
rently more ^vourable to the progress of reason, the so 
ing of manners, and the security of public liberty), tha 
germs of civilisation have been carried to the regions o] 
tropics, as much by the migratory movement of races f 
the establishment of colonies, differing widely in their j 
tution from those of the Phenicians or Greeks. 

In speaking of the influence exercised by the success! 
phenomena on the greater or lesser facility of recognisin 
causes producing tiiem, I have touched upon that impc 

* See, on the Madlijade9a, properly so called, Lassen's ex. 
work, entitled Indische Aiterthunuiunde, bd. i., s. 92. The C 
gi^e the name of Mo-kie-thi to the southern Bahar, situated to the 
of the Ganges, (see Foe-Koue-Ki, by Chy^Fa-Hian^ 1836, p. 
Djambu-dwipa is the name given to the whole of India; but the 
also indicate one of the four Budhist continents. 

•f Veber die Kawi Sprache aufder Intel Java^ nehut einer Eint 
Uber die Verachiedenheit des mensehliehen Sprachbauet tend 
Binfluss attfdie geistige Entwickelvng des MenschengescMechV 
VTilhelm v. Humboldt, 1836; bd. i., s. 5 — 510. 



;> 



^ 



16 COSMOS. 

'^ J^ stage of our communion with the external world, when the 
enjoyment arising fi'om a knowledge of the laws, and the mutual 
connection of phenomena, associates itself with the charm of 
a simple contemplation of nature. That which for a long 
time remains merely an object of vague intuition, by degrees 
acquires the certainty of positive truth; and man, as an 

/immortal poet has said, in our own tongue — Amid ceaseless 
^ change seeks the unchanging pole. * 
\\n order to trace to its primitive source ^ibg ^nj oym ent 
.derived from the exercise -ofLthought, it is sufficient to c3St a 
rapi3rglance^6ri''the earliest dawnings of the philosophy of 
nature, or of the ancient doctrine of the Cosmos, We find even 
amongst the most savage nations (as my own travels enable 
me to attest), a certain vague, terror-stricken sense of the 
all-powerful unity of natural forces, and of the existence of an 
invisible, spiritual essence manifested in these forces, whether 
in imfolding the flower and maturing the fruit of the nutrient 
ti*ee, in upheaving the soil of the forest, or in rending the clouds 
with the might of the storm. We may here trace the revela- 
tion of a bond of union, Hnking together the visible world and 
that higher spiritual world which escapes the grasp of the 
! Benses. The two become unconsciously blended togetlier, 

developing in the mind of man, as a simple product of ideal 
\ conception, and independently of the aid of observation, the 

first germ of a Philosophy ofNatureT) 

[^Amongst nations least advanced in civilisation, the imagi- 
nation revels in strange and fantastic creations ; and by its 
predilection for symbols, alike influences ideas and lan ^agg l] 
Instead of examining, men are led to conjecture, dogmatize, 
and interpret supposed facts that have never been observed. 
TTie inner world of thought and of feeling does not reflect the 
image of the external world in its primitive purity. That 
which in some regions of the earth manifested itself as the 
rudiments of natural philosophy, only to a small niunber of 
persons endowed with superior intelligence, appears in other 
regions, and among entire races of men, to be ihe result of 
^ mystic tendencies and instinctive intuitions. /An intimate 
communion with nature, and the vivid and deep emotions 
thus awakened, are likewise the somrce from which have 

* This verse occurs in a poem of Schiller^ entitled Dtr SpazterffOMg^ 
which first appeared, in 1795, in the Horen. 



o 



IKTEODTTCTIOir. !7 

q)mng the first impulses towards the worship and deification ^ 
of the destroying and preserving forces of the universe) But 
hy degrees as man, after having passed through the different 
gradations of intellectual development, arrives at the free 
enjoyment of the regulating power of reflection, and learns 
hy gradual progress, as it were, to separate the world of 
ideas from that of sensations, he no longer rests satisfied ^ 
merely with a vague presentiment of the htmnonious unity of ^ 
natural forces ; thought begins to fulfil its noble mission ; and S 
observation, aided by reason, endeavours to trace phenomena ' 
to the causes from which they spring. 

^lie history of science teaches us the difficulties that have ^ 
opposed the progress of this active spirit of inquiry. Inaccu- 
rate and imperfect observations have led by fidse inductions 
to the great number of physical views that have been per- 
petuated as popular prejudices among all classes of society. 
Thus by the side of a solid and scientific knowledge of natural 
phenomena there has been preserved a system of the pre- 
tended results of observation, which is so much the more 
difficult to shake, as it denies the validity of the facts by which 
it may be refuted. This empiricism, the melancholy heritage 
transmitted to us from former times, invariably contends for 
the truth of its axioms with the arrogance of a narrow- 
minded spirit. Physical philosophy, on the other hand, when 
based upon science, doubts because it seeks to investigate^ 
distinguishes between that which is certain and that which is 
merely probable, and strives incessantly to perfect theory by 
e xtendi ngjhe circle of observatioiQ *'"— — 

This assemblage of imperfect dogmas bequeathed by one 
age to another — ^this physical philosophy, which is composed O 
of popular prejudices, — ^is not only injurious because it per- 
petuates error with the obstinacy engendered by the evidence .. 
of ill observed facts, but also because it hinders the mind 
from attaining to higher views of nature. Instead of seeking 
to discover the mean or medium point, around which oscillate, 
in apparent independence of forces, all the phenomena of the 
external world, this system delights in multiplying exceptions 
to the law, and seeks, amid phenomena and in organic forms, 
for something beyond the marvel of a regular succession, and 
an internal and progressive development. Ever inclined to 
believe that the order of nature is disturbed, it refuses to 



« » 



a-^ 



18 COSMOS. 

recoj^ise in the present any analogy with the past, and guided 
by its own varying hypotheses, seeks at hazard, either in the 
interior of the globe or in the regions of space, for the cause 
of these pretended pertiu'bations. 

Q[t is the special object of the present work to combat those 
eiTors which derive their source from a vicious empiricism 
and from imperfect inductionsT^ The higher enjoyments 
yielded by the study of nature depend upon the correctness 
and the depth of our views, and upon the extent of the sub- 
jects that may be comprehended in a single glance. Increased 
mental cultivation has given rise, in all classes of society, to an 
increased desire of embellishing life by augmenting the mass 
of ideas, and by multiplying means for their generalization ; 
and ^his sentiment fiilly refutes the vague accusations ad- 
vanced against the age m which we Hve, showing that other 
interests, besides the material wants of life, occupy the minds 
of menTJ 

It is almost with reluctance that I am about to speak of a 
sentiment, which appears to arise from narrow-minded views, 
or from a certain weak and morbid sentimentality,— I allude 
to the fear entertained by some persons, that nature may by 
degrees lose a portion of the charm and magic of her power, 
as we learn more and more how to unveil her secrets, com- 
prehend the mechanism of the movements of the heavenly 
bodies, and estimate mnnerically the intensity of nattural 
forces. It is true that, properly speaking, the forces of 
nature can only exercise a magical power over us, as long as 
their action is shrouded in mystery and darkness, and does 
not admit of being classed among the conditions with which 
experience has made us acquainted. The effect of such a 
power is, therefore, to excite the imagination, but that, assur- 
edly, is not the faculty of mind we would evoke to preside 
over the laborious and elaborate observations by which we 
strive to attain to a knowledge of the greatness and excellence 
of the laws of the universe. 

The astronomer who, by the aid of the heliometer oj* 
a double-refracting prism,* determines the diameter of pla- 

* Arago's ocular micrometer, a happy improvement upon Rochon's 
prismatic or donble-refinction micrometer. See M. Mathieu's note in 
Delambre's Hi»Uivrt de I'AMironomie au due'huiiiinie Siicle, 1827. 



^ vj^ /•«-* ^ ^ 

INTEODUCTIOX. !• 

nctary bodies, who measures patiently, year after year, the 
meridian altitude and the relative distances of stars, or M'ho 
seeks a telescopic comet in a group of nebula;, does not feel 
his imagination more excited — ^and this is the very guarantee 
of the precision of his labours — than the botanist who counts 
the divisions of the calyx, or the number of stamens in a 
flower, or exanaines the connected or the separate teeth of the 
peristoma surrounding the capsule of a moss. Yet the multi- 
plied angular measurements, on the one hand, and the detail 
of organic relations on the other, alike aid in preparing the 
way for the attainment of higher views of the laws of the 
universe. 

We must not confound the disposition of mind in the 
observer at the time he is pursuing his labours, with the ulte- 
rior greatness of the views resulting from investigation and the 
exercise of thought. The physical philosopher measures with 
admirable sagacity the waves of light of imequal length 
which by interference mutually strengthen or destroy each 
other, even with respect to their chemical actions : the 
astronomer, armed with powerful telescopes, penetrates the 
regions of space, contemplates, on the extremest confines ol 
our solar system, the satellites of Uranus, or decomposes faintly 
sparkling points into double stars diffeiing in colour. The 
botanist discovers the constancy of the gyratory motion of the 
chara in the greater number of vegetable cells, and recog- 
nises in the genera and natural families of plants the intimate 
relations of organic forms. The vault of heaven, studded 
with nebula) and stars, and the rich vegetable mantle that 
covers the soil in the climate of palms, cannot surely fail to 
produce on the minds of these laborious observers of nature, 
an impression more imposing and more worthy of tlie majesty 
of creation, than on those who are unaccustomed to investi- 
gate the great mutual relations of phenomena. I cannot, 
tberefore, agree with Burke when he says, "it is our igno- 
rance of natural things that causes all our admiration, and 
chiefly excites our passions.** 

Whilst the illusion of the senses would make the stars sta- 
tionary in the vault of heaven, astronomy by her aspinng 
labours has assigned indefinite bounds to space ; and if she? 
have set limits to the great nebula to which our solar system 
belongs, it has only been to show us in those remote regions 

c2 



Ni 



20 COSMOS. 

of space, which appear to expand in propoiHion to the increase 
of our optic powers, islet on islet of scattered nebulsB. The 
feeling of the sublime, so far as it arises &om a contemplation 
of the distance of the stars, of their greatness and physical 
extent, reflects itself in the feeling of the infinite, which 
belongs to another sphere of ideas included in the domain of 
(^ mind. The solemn and imposing impressions excited by this 
sentiment, are owing to the combination of which we have 
spoken, and to the ^alogous character of the enjoyment and 
emotions awakened in us, whether we float on the suri^ce 
of the great deep, stand on some lonely mountain summit 
enveloped in the half-transparent vapoury veil of the atmo- 
sphere, or by the aid of powerful optical instruments scan 
the regions of space, and see the remote nebulous mass resolve 
itself into worlds of stars, 
h^^ The mere accumulation of unconnected observations of 

V details, devoid of generalization of ideas, may doubtlessly 
^ have tended to create and foster the deeply-rooted prejudice, 
1^'* . , that the study of the exact sciences must necessarily clnll the 
feelings, and diminish the nobler enjoyments, attendant upon 
a contemplation of nature. Those who still cherish sach 
erroneous views in the present age, and amid the progress of 
public opinion, and the advancement of all branches of know- 
ledge, fail in duly appreciating the value of every enlarge- 
ment of the sphere of intellect, and the unportance of the 
detail of isolated facts in leading us on to general results. 
The fear of sacrificing the free enjoyment of nature, under the 
influence of scientific reasoning, is often associated with an 
apprehension, that every mind may not be capable of grasping 
the truths of the philosophy of nature. It is certainly true 
that in the midst of the universal fluctuation of phenomena 
And vital forces— in that inextricable network of organisms 
by turns developed and destroyed— each step that we malce 
in the more intimate knowledge of nature, leads us to the 
entrance of new labyrinths ; but the excitement produced by 
a presentiment of discovery, the vague intuition of the mys- 
teries to be imfolded, and the multiplicity of the paths before 
us, all tend to stimulate the exercise of thought in every 
stage of knowledge. The discovery of each separate law of 
nature leads to the establishment of some other more general 
law, or at least indicates to the intelligent' observer its exist- 



.y 



INTRODUCTIOlf. 21 

ence. Nature, as a celebrated physiologist* has defined it, 
and as the word was interpreted by the Greeks and Romans, la 
*' that which is ever growing and ever unfolding itself in new ^ 
forms." 

The series of organic types becomes extended or perfected, 
in. proportion as hitherto imknown regions are laid open to 
our view by the labours and researches of travellers and 
observers; as Hving organisms are compared with those 
which have disappeared in the great revolutions of our planet; 
and as microscopes are made more perfect and are more 
extensively and efficiently employed. In the midst of this 
immense variety, and this periodic transformation of animal 
and vegetable productions, we see incessantly revealed the 
primordial mystery of all organic development, that same 
great problem of metamorphosis which Gothe has treated 
with more than common sagacity, and to the solution of 
which man is urged by his desire of reducing vital forms to 
the snuJlest number of fundamental types. As men contem- . 
plate the riches of nature, and see the mass of observations 
incessantly increasing befo'"- them, they become impressed 
with the intimate convictioi* that the surface and the interior 
of the earth, the depths c ,he ocean, and the regions of air 
will still, when thousands a^d thousands of years have passed 
away, open to the scientific observer untrodden paths of dis- 
covery. The regret of Alexander cannot be applied to the 

progress of observation and intelligence.f General consi- ' 
derations, whether they treat of the agglomeration of matter in I 
the heavenly bodies, or of the geographical distribution of \ 
terrestrial organisms, are not only in themselves more attrac- i 
tive than special studies, but they also afibrd superior advan- ^ 
tages to those who are unable to devote much time to occupa- ' 
tions of this nature. The different branches of the study of 
natural history are only accessible in certain positions of 
social life, and do not at every season and in every climate 
present like enjoyments. Thus, in the dreary regions of the 
north, man is deprived for a long period of the year of the 
spectacle presented by the activity of the productive forces of 
oi^nic nature ; and if the mind be directed to one sole class 

* Carus, Von den Urtheilen des Knochen und Schaien GerU$tes, 
1828, § 6. 
f Plat., in Vita Ales. Magnif cap. 7* 



22 COSMOS. 

« 

of objects, the most animated narratives of voyages in distaxit 
lands will fail to interest and attract us, if they do not touch 
upon the subjects to which we are most partial. 

As the history of nations — if it were always able to trace 
events to their true causes— might solve the ever-recmring 
enigma of the oscillations experienced by the alternately pro- 
gressive and retrograde movement of human society, so might 
also the physical description of the world, the science of the 
Cosmos, if it were grasped by a powerful intellect, and based 
upon a knowledge of all the results of discovery up to a 
given period, succeed in dispelling a portion of the contradic- 
tions, which, at first sight, appear to arise from the complica- 
tion of phenomena and the multitude of the pertui'bations 
siQiultaneously manifested. 

(The knowledge of the laws of nature, whether we can trace 
them in the alternate ebb and flow of the ocean, in the 
measured path of comets, or in the mutual attractions of 
multiple stars, aUke increases our sense of the calm of natiure, 
whilst the chimera so long cherished by the human mind in 
its early and intuitive contemplations, the belief in a " discord 
of the elements," seems gradually to vanish in proportion as 
science extends her empireT] General views lead us habitually 
to consider each organism (is a part of the entire creation, and 
to recognise in the plant or the animal, not merely an isolated 
species, but a form linked in the chain of being to other forms 
either living or extinct. They aid us in comprehending 
the relations that exist between the most recent discoveries 
and those which have prepared the way for them. Although 
fixed to one point of space, we eagerly grasp at a knowledge 
of that which has been obsei-ved in different and far distant 
regions. We delight in tracking the course of the bold mariner 
through seas of polar ice, or in following him to the summit of 
that volcano of the antarctic pole, whose fires may be seen from 
afar, even at mid-day. It is by an acquaintance with the results 
of distant voyages, that we may learn to comprehend some of 
the marvels of terrestrial magnetism, and be thus led to appre- 
ciate the importance of the establishments of the numerous 
obser^^atories, which in the present day, cover both hemispheres, 
and are designed to note the simultaneous occurrence of 
perturbations, and the frequency and duration of ftiagnetic 
storms. 




IITTSODUCTIOK. 33 

Let me be permitted here to touch upon a few points 
connected with discoveries, whose importance can only be 
estimated by those who have devoted themselves to the study 
of the physical sciences generally. Examples chosen from 
among the phenomena to which special attention has been 
directed in recent times, will throw additional light upon the 
preceding considerations. Without a preliminary knowledge 
of the orbits of comets we should be imable duly to appre- 
ciate the importance attached to the discovery of one of these 
bodies, whose elliptical orbit is included in the narrow limits of 
our solar system, and which has revealed the existence of an 
ethereal fluid, tending to diminish its centrifugal force and the 
period of its revolution. 

The superficial half-knowledge, so characteristic of the 
present day, which leads to the introduction of vaguely com- 
prehended scientific views into general conversation, also gives 
rise, under various forms, to the expression of alarm at the 
supposed danger of a collision between the celestial bodies, or 
of disturbance in the climatic relations of our globe. These 
phantoms of the imagination are so much the more injurious 
as they derive their source firom dogmatic pretensions to ti*ue 
scierce. The history of the atmosphere, and of the annual 
variadons of its temperature, extends already sufficiently far 
back to show the recurrence of slight distiu'bajices in the mean 
temperature of any given place, and thus affords sufficient gua- 
rantee against the exaggerated apprehension of a general and 
progressive deterioration of the climates of Em-ope. Encke's 
comet, which is one of the three interior comets^ completes 
its course in 1,200 days, but from the form and position of 
its orbit it is as little dangerous to the earth as HaUey's 
great comet, whose revolution is not completed in less than 
seventy-six years, (and which appeared less brilliant in 1835 
than it had done in 1759 ;) the interior comet of Biela 
intersects the earth's orbit, it is true, but it can only approach 
our globe when its proximity to the sun coincides with our 
winter solstice. 

The quantity of heat received by a planet, and whose 
unequal distribution determines the meteorological variations 
of its atmosphere, depends ahke upon the light-engendering 
force of the sun, that is to say, upon the condition of its 
gaseous coverings, and upon the relauve position of the planet 
and the central body. 



24 COSMOS. 

There are variations, it is true, which in obedience to the 
laws of universal gravitation, affect the form of the earth* 
orbit, and the inclination of the ecliptic, that is, the angle 
which the axis of the earth makes with the plane of its orbit; 
but these periodical variations are so slow, and are restricted 
within such narrow limits, that their thermic effects would 
hardly be appreciable by our instruments in many thousands 
of years, llie astronomical causes of a refrigeration of our 
globe, and of the diminution of moisture at its surface, and 
the nature and frequency of certain epidemics— phenomena 
which are often discussed in the present day according to the 
benighted views of the middle ages— ought to be considered 
as beyond the range of our experience in physics and chemistry. 

Physical astronomy presents us with other phenomena, 
which cannot be fiiUy comprehended in aU their vastuess 
without a previous acquirement of general views regarding 
the forces tiiat govern the universe. Such, for instance, are 
the innumerable double stars, or rather suns, which revolve 
round one common centre of gravity, and thus reveal in 
distant worlds the existence of the Newtonian law ; the 
larger or smaller number of spots upon the sim, that is to 
say, the openings formed through the luminous and opaque 
atmosphere surrounding the soKd nucleus ; and the regular 
appearance, about the 13th of November, and the llQi of 
August, of shooting stai's, which probably form part of a belt 
of asteroids, intersecting the earth's orbit, and moving with 
planetary velocity. 

Descending from the celestial regions to the earth, we 
would fain inquire into the relations that exist between the 
osciQations of the pendulum in air (the theory of which has"' 
been perfected by Bessel), and the density of our planet ; and 
how the pendulum, acting the part of a plummet, can, to a 
certain extent, throw light upon the geological constitution 
of strata at great depths ? By means of this instrument we 
are enabled to trace the striking analogy which exists between 
the formation of the granular rocks composing the lava cur- 
rents eiected from active volcanoes, B^d those endoe^enous 
masses of granite, porphyry, and serpentine, which, Luing 
from the interior of the earth have broken, as eruptive rocks, 
through the secondary strata, and modified them by contact, 
either in rendering their, harder by the introduction of silex. 



d 



IKTBODTJCTION 26 

or reducing them into dolomite ; or finally by inducing within 
them the formation of crystals of the most varied composition. 
The elevation of sporadic islands, of domes of trachyte, and 
cones of basalt, by the elastic forces emanating from the fluid 
interior of our globe, has led one of the first geologists of the 
age, Leopold von Buch, to the theory of Uie elevation Oa 
continents, and of mountain chains generally. This action of 
subterranean forces in breaking through, and elevating strata 
of sedimentary rocks, of which the coast of Chili, in conse- 
quence of a great earthquake, furnished a recent example, 
leads to the assumption, that the pelagic shells found by 
M. Bonpland and myself on the ridge of the Andes, at an 
elevation of more than 15,000 English feet, may have been 
conveyed to so extraordinary a position, not by a rising of the 
ocean, but by the agency of volcanic forces capable of ele- 
vating into ridges the softened crust of the earth. 

I apply the term volcanic, in the widest sense of the word, 
to every action exercised by the interior of a planet on its 
external crust. The sur&ce of our globe, and that of the moon, 
manifest traces of this action, which in the former, at least, has 
varied during the course of ages. Those, who are ignorant of 
the fact, that the internal heat of the earth increases so ra- 
pidly with the increase of depth, that granite is in a state of 
fusion, about twenty or thirty geographical miles below the 
surface,* cannot have a clear conception of the causes, and 
the simultaneous occurrence of volcanic eruptions at places 
widely removed from one another, or of the extent and inter- 
section of circles of commotion in earthquakes, or of the 
uniformity of temperature, and equality of chemical com- 
position observed in thermal springs during a long course of 
years. The quantity of heat peculiar to a planet is, however, 
a matter of such importance, — ^being the result of its piimitivc 
condensation, and varying according to the natiu-e and 
duration of the radiation, — ^that the study of this subject may 

* The determinatioiis usaally given of the point of fusion are in 
general much too high for refracting substances. According to the ^ery 
accurate researches of Mitscherlich, the melting point of granite can 
hardly exceed 2:^72* F. 

[Dr. Mantell states in The Wonders of Geology, 1848, vol. i. page 34, 
that this increase of temperature amounts to l"* of Fahrenheit ior etery 
&4 feet of vertical depth.] — TV* 



26 COSMOS. 

throw some degree of light on the history of the atmosphere, 
and the distribution of the organic bodies imbedded in the 
solid crust of the earth. This study enables us to understand 
how a tropical temperature, independent of latitude (that is, 
of the distance from the poles), may have been produced by 
deep fissures remaining open, and exhaling heat from the 
interior of the globe, at a period when the earth's crust was 
still furrowed and rent, and only in a state of semi-solidifi- 
cation; and a primordial condition is thus revealed to us, 
in which the temperature of the atmosphere, and climates 
generally were owing rather to a liberation of caloric and of 
different gaseous emanations, (that is to say, rather to the 
energetic re-action of the interior on the exterior,) than to the 
position of the earth with respect to the central body, the 
sun. 

The cold regions of the earth contain, deposited in sedi- 
mentary strata, the products of tropical climates ; thus, in 
the coal formations, we find the trunks of palms standing 
upright amid conifers, tree ferns, goniatites and fishes 
having rhomboidal osseous scales ; * in the Jura lime- 
stone colossal skeletons of crocodiles, plesiosauri, planulites, 
and stems of the cycadese; in the chalk formations, small 
polythalamia and bryozoa, whose species still exist in our 
seas ; in tripoli, or polishing slate, in tlie semi-opal and the 
farina-like opal or mountain meal, agglomerations of silicfeous 
infusoria which have been brought to light by the powei-iul 
microscope of Ehrenbergf ; and lastly, in transported soils, 

* See the classical work on the fishes of the old world by Agassiz 
Bech. 8ur les Poissons Fossiles, 1834, vol. i. p. 38 ; vol. ii. pp. 3, 28, 34, 
App. p. 6. The whole genus of Amblyptems, Ag. nearly allied to Pa- 
laeoniscus (called also Palaeothrissum) lies buried beneath the Jura forma- 
tions in the old rarboii^rerous strata. Scales which, in some fishes, as in 
the family of Lepidoides (order of Ganoides), are formed like teeth, and 
covered in certain parts with enamel, belong, after the Placoides, to the 
oldest forms of fossil fishes ; their living representatives are still found in two 
genera, the Bichir of the Nile and Senegal, and the Lepidosteus of Ohio. 

t [The polishing slate of Bilin is stated by M. Ehrenberg to form a 
series of strata fourteen feet in thickness, entirely made up of the siliceous 
shells of GaillonellcEy of such extreme minuteness, that a cubic inch of 
the stone contains forty-one thousand millions ! The Bergmehl (moun- 
tain-meal or fossil farina) f of San Fiora, in Tuscany, is one mass of 
animalculites. See the interesting work of G. A. Mantell, On theMedab 
of Creation, vol. i. p. 223.] — 2V. 



IKTBODXTCTIOX. 27 

and in certain caves, the bones of elephants, hyenas, and 
lions. An intimate acquaintance with the physical pheno- 
mena of the universe leads us to regard the products of warm 
latitudes that are thus found in a fossil condition in northern 
regions, not merely as incentives to barren curiosity, but as 
subjects awakening deep efiection, and opening new sources 
of study. 

Erhe number and the variety of the objects I have alluded ^ 
to, give rise to the question whether general considerations of 
physical phenomena can be made sufficiently clear to per- 
sons, who have not acquired a detailed and special know- 
ledge of descriptive natural history, geology, or mathematical 
astronomy ? I think we ought to distinguish here between •> 
him, whose task it is to collect the indi^ddual details of ^^ 
various observations, and study the mutual relations existing 
amongst them, and him to whom these relations are to b© 
revealed, under the form of general results. The former 
should be acquainted with the specialities of phenomena, 
that he may ai-rive at a generalization of ideas as the result, 
at least in part, of his own observations, experiments, and 
calculations. It cannot be denied, that where there is an 
absence of positive knowledge of physical phenomena, the 
general results which impart so great a charm to the study of 
nature cannot all be made equally clear and intelligible to 
the reader, but still I venture to hope, that in the work 
which I am now preparing on the physical laws of the 
universe, the greater part of the fects advanced can be made 
manifest without the necessity of appealing to fundamental 
views and principles. The picture of nature thus drawn, <^ 
notwithstanding the want of distinctness of some of its out- ^ , 
lines, will not be the less able to enrich .the intellect,, enlarge '■ 
the sphere of ideas, and nourish and vivify the imagination. ^ 

There is, perhaps, some truth in the accusation advanced 
against many German scientific works, that they lessen the 
value of general views by an accumulation of detail ; and do 
not sufficiently distinguishing between those great results 
which form, as it were, the beacon lights of science, and the 
long series of means by which they have been attained. This 
mefiiod of treating scientific subjects led the most illustrious 
of our poets* to exclaim with impatience — "The Germans 

* Gdthct in Die Aphorwnen Uber Naturwiittmekafty bd. l., b. 155. 
{Wtrke kleine Axugahe^ vm 1833^) 



\ 



23 COSMOS. 

have the art of making science inaccessible." An edifice 
cannot produce a striking effect until the scaffolding is re- 
moved, that had of necessity been used during its erection. 
Thus the uniformity of figure observed in the distribution of 
continental masses, which all terminate towards the south in 
a p3T:amidal form, and expand towards the noith (a law that 
determines the nature of climates, the direction of currents in 
the ocean and the atmosphere, and the transition of certain 
types of tropical vegetation towards the southern temperate 
zone), may be clearly apprehended without any knowledge of 
the geodesical and astronomical operations by means of which 
these pyramidal forms of continents have been determined. 
In like manner, physical geography teaches us by how many 
leagues the equatorial axis exceeds the polar axis of the 
globe ; and shows us the mean equality of the flattening of 
the two hemispheres, without entailing on us the necessity of 
giving the detail of the measurement of the degrees in the 
meridian, or the observations on the pendulum, which have 
led us to know that the true figure of our globe is not 
exactly that of a regular ellipsoid of revolution, and that this 
irregularity is reflected in the corresponding irregularity of 
^ the movements of the moon. 
' t> (^ The views of comparative geography have oeen specially 
enlarged by that admirable work, Erdkunde im Verhaltntss 
zur Natur und zur Geschichte^ in which Carl Ritter so ably 
, j\V delineates the physiognomy of our globe, and shows the 
j^ influence of its external configuration on the physical phe- 
nomena on its surface, on the migrations, laws, and manners, 
of nations, and on all the principal historical events enacted 
upon the face of the earth. 

France possesses an immortal work, L'Exposition du 
Syst^me du Monde^ in which the author has combined the 
J. ^ results of the highest astronomical and mathematical labours, 
and presented them to his readers fi:ee from all processes of 
demonstration. The structure of the heavens is here reduced 
to the simple solution of a great problem in mechanics; yet 
Laplace*s work has never yet been accused of incompleteness 
and want of profundity. 

The distinction between dissimilar subjects, and the sepa- 
ration of the general from the special are not only conducive 
to the attainment of perspicuity in the composition of a 
] faysical history of the universe, but are also the means by 




IKTBOBUCTIOK. % 29 

which a character of greater elevation may bo imparted to 
the study of nature. By the suppression of all unnecessary 
detail, the great masses are better seen, and the reasoning 
faculty is enabled to grasp aU that might otherwise escape the 
limited range of the senses. 

The exposition of general results has, it must be owned, 
been singularly facilitated by the happy revolution experienced 
since the close of the last century, in the condition of all tho 
special sciences, more particul^y of geology, chemistry, 
and descriptive natural lustory. [jn proportion as laws admit '-^^ ' 
of more general application, and as sciences mutually enrich 
each other, and by their extension become conDCcted together 
in more numerous and more intimate relations, the develop- 
ment of general truths may be given with conciseness devoid 
of superficiality. On being firat examined, all phenomena 
appear to be isolated, and it is only by the residt of a multi- . , 
plic ity of observations^ combined by rea son, that we are able to /^ 
trace the mutual relations existing between themTJ If, how- 
ever, in the present age, which is so strongly characterised by 
a brilliant course of scientific discoveries, we perceive a want 
of connection in the phenomena of certain sciences, we may 
anticipate the revelation of new facts, whose importance will 
probably be commensurate with the attention directed to these 
branches of study. Expectations of this nature may be 
entertained with regard to meteorology, several parts of 
optics, and to radiating heat, and electro-magnetism, since the 
admirable discoveries of Melloni and Faraday. A fertile field 
is here opened to discovery, although the voltaic pile has 
already taught us the intimate connection existing between 
electric, magnetic, and chemical phenomena. Who will 
venture to affirm that we have any precise knowledge, in the 
present day, of that part of the atmosphere which is not 
oxygen, or that thousands of gaseous substances affecting our 
organs may not be mixed with the nitrogen, or finally, that we 
have even discovered the whole number of the forces which i 
pervade the universe r 

[It is not the purpose of this essay on the physical history of ^ ^ 
the world to reduce all sensible phenomena to a small numbei 
of abstract principles, based on reasoD ^jjnly. The physical 
history of the universeT whose exposition I attempt to deve- 
lope, does not pretend to rise to the perilous abstractions of a 

//^ -' 



30 COSMOS. 

purely rational science of nature, and is simply a physical 
geography^ combined with a description of the regions of space 

fand the bodies occupying them. Devoid of the profoundness of 
a purely speculative philosophy, miy essay on ^hsLCQ&mQ&troaAa 
jif .thfij^CLnlfiTnp^Q^^'^^ nf -±WnTii3ir<>T^*>^ and is based upon a 
rational empiricism, that is to say, upon the results of the 
facts registered by science, and tested by the operations of the 
intellect. It is within these limits alone that the work, which 
I now venture to imdertake, appertains to the sphere of 
labour, to which I have devoted myself throughout the 
course of my long scientific career. This path of enquiry is 
not imknown to me, although it may be pursued by others 
with greater success. The unity which I seek to attain in the 
development of the great phenomena of the imiverse, is 
analogous to that which historical composition is capable 
J ^ of acquiring. ^AJl points relating to the accidental indi- 
vidualities, and the essential variations of the actual, whether 
in the form and aiTangement of natural objects in the struggle 
of man against the elements, or of nations against nations, 
do not admit of being based only on a rational foundation 
— ^that is to say, of being deduced from ideas alon^ 

It seems to me that a like degree of empiricism attaches to 
the Description of the Universe and to Civil History ; ^but in 
reflecting upon physical phenomena and events, and tracing 
their causes by the process of reason, we become more and 
more convinced of the truth of the ancient doctrine, that the 
forces inherent in matter, and those which govern the moral 
world, exercise their action under the control of primordial 
necessity, and in accordance with movements occurring periodi- 
cally after longer or shorter inten^ils. 

It is this necessity, this occult but permanent connection^ 
this periodical recurrence in the progressive development of 
forms, phenomena, and events, which constitute nature^ obedi- 
ent to the first impulse imparted to it. Physics, as the term 
signifies, is limited to the explanation of the phenomena of 
the material world by the properties of matter. The ul timate 
object of the experimental sciences is, thercfore,„tO jliscosBa: 
laws, an J to trace their YrogressTve generalization. All that 
exceeds this goes beyond the province of the physical descrip- 
tion of the universe, and appertains to a range of higher 
speculative views. 



\-^-'' 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

Emanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers who have escaped 
the imputation of impiety, has defined Avith rare sagacity 
*he limits of physical explanations, in his celebrated essay 
On the Theory and structure of the Heavens, published at 
Konigsberg, in 1755. 

The study of a science that promises to lead us through the 
vast range of creation may be compared to a journey in a far 
distant land. Before we set forth we consider, and often with 
distrust, our own strength aad that of the guide we have 
chosen. But the apprehensions which have originated in the 
abimdaoee and the difficulties attached to the subjects we 
would embrace, recede from view as we remember that with 
the increase of observations in the present day, there has also 
arisen a more intimate knowledge of the connection existing 
nmnTig all phenomena. It has not unfrequently happened, 
that "file researches made at remote distances have oiten and 
unexpectedly tha:own light upon subjects which had long 
resisted the attempts made to explain them, within the narrow 
limits of our own sphere of observation. Organic forms that 
had long remained isolated, both in the animal and vegetable 
kingdom, have been connected by the discovery of inter- 
mediate links or stages of transition. The geography of 
beings endowed with life attains completeness, as we see the 
species, genera, and entire families belonging to one hemi 
sphere, i efiected, as it were, in analogous animal and vegetabln 
forms in the opposite hemisphere. These are, so to speak, the 
equivalents which mutually personate and replace one another 
in the great series of organisms. These connecting links and 
stages of transition may be traced, alternately, in a deficiency or 
an excess of development of certain parts, in the mode of junc- 
tion of distinct organs, in the difierences in the balance offerees, 
or in a resemblance to intermediate forms which aie not per- 
manent, but merely icharacteristic of certain phases of noimal 
development. Passing from the consideration of beings en- 
dowed with life to that of inorganic bodies, we find many 
striking illustrations of the high state of advancement to which 
modem geology has attained. We thus see, according to 
the grand views of Elie de Beaumont, how chains of moun- 
tains dividing diflPerent climates and floras and different races 
of men, reveal to us their relative age^ both by the character 
of the sedimentary strata they have uplifted, and by the direo- 



82 OOSMOB. 

tions "which they follow over the long fissures with which 
the earth's crust is furrowed. Relations of super-position of 
trachyte and of syenitic porphyry, of diorite and of serpen- 
tine, which remain doubtful when considered in the auriferous 
soil of Hungary, in the rich platinum districts of the Oural, 
and on the soutii-westem declivity of the Siberian Altai, are 
elucidated by the observations that have been made on the 
plateaux of Mexico and Antioquia, and in the unhealthy ravines 
of Choco. The most important facts on which the physical 
history of the world has been based in modem times, have 
^ ^ not been accumidated by chance. Qt has at length been fully 
acknowledged, and the conviction is characteristic of the age, 
that the narratives of distant travels, too long occupied in tide 
mere recital of hazardous adventures, can only be made a 
som'ce of instruction, where the traveller is acquainted with 
the condition of the science he would enlarge, and is guided 
by reason in his researches 

It is by this tendency to ejeneralization, which is only 
dangerous in its abuse, that a great portion of the physical 
knowledge already acquired may be made the common pro- 
perty of all classes of society'j] but in order to render the 
' instruction imparted by these means conmiensurate with the 
importance of the subject, it is desirable to deviate as widely 
as possible from the imperfect compilations designated, tiU the 
close of the eighteenth century, by the inappropriate term of 
popular knowledge. I take pleasure in persuading myself that 
scientific subjects may be treated of in language at once 
dignified, grave and animated, and that those who are re- 
stricted within the circumscribed limits of ordinary life, and 
have long remained strangers to anjntimate comuiunion with 
^_nature, may thus have opened to them one of the richest 
sources of enjoyment by which the mind is invigorated by the 
/ acquisition of new ideas. Communion with nature awakens 
within us perceptive faculties that had long lain dormant ; 
and we thus comprehend at a single glance the influence 
exercised by physical discoveries on the enlargement of the 
sphere of intellect, and perceive how a judicious application 
of mechanics, chemistry, and other sciences may be made 
conducive to national prosperity. 

A more accurate knowledge of the connection of physical 
phenomena will also tend to remove the prevalent error that 



IKTBODXrCTIOK. 33 

all branches of natural science are not equally important in 
relation to general cultiyation and industrial progress. An 
arbitrary distinction is frequently made between the various 
degrees of importance appertaining to mathematical sciences, 
to the study of organised beings, the knowledge of electro- 
magnetism, and investigations of the general properties of 
matter in its different conditions of molecidar aggregation ; 
and it is not uncommon presumptuously to affix a supposed 
stigma upon researches of this nature, by terming them 
" purely theoreticai," forgetting, although the fact has been 
long attested, that in the observation of a phenomenon, which 
at first sight appears to be wholly isolated, may be concealed 
the germ of a great discovery. When Aloysio Galvani 
first stimulated the nervous fibre by the accidental contact of 
two heterogeneous metals, his contemporaries could never have 
anticipated, that the action of the voltaic pile would discover 
to us, in the alkalies, metals of a silvery lustre, so light as to 
swim on water, and eminently inflammable ; or that it would 
become a powerM instrument of chemical analysis, and at 
the same time a thermoscope, and a magnet. When Huyghens 
first observed, in 1678, the phenomenon of the polarization of 
light, exhibited in the difference between the two rays into 
which a pencil of light divides itself in passing through a 
doubly refracting crystal, it could not have been foreseen, 
that a century and a half later the great philosopher, Arago, 
would by his discovery of chromatic polarization, be led to 
discern, by means of a small fragment of Iceland spar, whether 
solar light emanates from a solid body, or a gaseous covering ; 
or whether comets transmit light directly, or merely by re. 
flection.* , 

CAn equal appreciation of all branches of the mathematical, 
physical and natural sciences, is a special requirement of the 
present age, in which the material wealth and the growing 
prosperity of nations are principally based upon a more en- 
lightened employment of the products and forces of nature. 
The most superficial glance at the present condition of Europe 
shows that a diminution, or even a total annihilation of 
national prosperity, must be the award of those states who 

* Arago's Discoveries in the year 1811. — Delambre's Hiitoirt 
Ce PAsi,, p. 652. (Passage already quoted.) 



o o 



Y:^^ 



C 6W^»>^ 



84 G0SK08. 

shrmk with slothful indifference from the great stn^le of 
rival nations in the career of the industrial arts. It is with 
nations as with nature, which, according to a happy ex- 
pression of Gothe,* " knows no pause in progress and 
development, and attaches her curse on all inaction." The 
propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of science can 
therefore alone avert the dangers of which I have spoken. Man 
cannot act upon nature, or appropriate her forces to his own 
use, without comprehending their Ml extent^ and having an 
/" intimate acquaintance with the laws of the physical world. 
/ Bacon has said that, in human societies, knowledge is power. 
Both must rise and sink together. But the knowledge that 
results from the free action of thought, is at once the delight 
K and the indestructible prerogative^ of man ; and in forming 

part of the wealth of mankind, it not unfrequently serves as 
a substitute for the natural riches, which are but sparingly 
scattered over the eai-th. Those states which take no active 
part in the general industrial movement, in the choice and 
preparation of natural substances, or in the application of 
mechanics and chemistry, and among whom this activity ia 
not appreciated by all classes of society, wiU infaUibly see 
their prosperity diminish in proportion as neighbouring coim- 
tries become strengthened and invigorated under the genial 
influence of arts and sciences. 

As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philo- 
sophy, poetiy, and the fine arts, the object at which we aim 
ought to be an inward one— an ennoblement of the intellect— 
i . so ought we likewise, in our piu*suit of science, to strive 
» a,\ after a knowledge of the laws and the principles of unity that 
; ^ ^ w pervade the vital forces of the universe ; and it is by such a 
\^ /" *^ course that physical studies may be made subservient to the 
progress of industry, which is a conquest of mind over matter. 
By a happy connection of causes and effects, we often see the 
useful linked to the beautiful and the exalted. The improve- 
ment of agriculture in the hands of free men, and on pro- 
perties of a moderate extent — ^the flourishing state of the 
mechanical arts freed from the trammels of municipal restric- 
tions—the increased impetus imparted to commerce by the 

* G^thC; in JHe Aphorismen a^er NaittrwUtemeAqft^'^Werke, bd. U 
1.4. 



/ 



'jMj-^.^^-ii-^ 



-IA> 



i:ErTB01>TTCTI0K. 

multiplied means of contact of nations with each oth< ' 
all brilliant results of the intellectaal progress of mi i 
and of the amelioration of political institutions, in \ 
this progress is reflected. The picture presented by i • 
history ought to convince those who are tardy in awa ' 
to the tru^ of the lesson it teaches. 

Nor let it be feared, that the marked predilection i 
study of nature, and for industrial progress, which is so ( : 
teristic of the present age, should necessarily have a tei i 
to retard the noble exertions of the intellect in the dom . 
philosophy, classical history, and antiqui^ ; or to depn i 
arts by which life is embelHshed of the TivifVing i 
of imagination. Where all the germs of ciyilisatic i 
developed beneath the segis of free institutions anc 
legislation, there is no cause ibr apprehending that ar \ 
bi^ch of knowledge should be cultivated to the preiui . 
others. All a£Pord the state precious fruits, whethe: 
yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical v • 
or wheth^ more permanent in their nature, they trans : 
the works of mind the glory of nations to remotest pos ; 
The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric austerity, ] : 
the gods to grant them *' the beauiifol with the good." ^ ' 

I will no loi^r dwell upon the considerations of the 
ence exercised by the mathematical and physical scien ; 
an that appertains to the material wants of social life ; \ 
vast extent of the course on which I am entering forbi i 
to insist frirther upon the utility of these applications. J 
tomed to distant excursions, I may, perhaps, have en 
deseribing the path before us as more smooth and pL 
than it really is, for such is wont to be the practice of 
who delight in guiding others to the summits of lofty i 
tains : they praise the view even when great part c 
distant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this 
transparent vapoury veil imparts to the scene a certain 
from the power exercised by the imagination over the d 
of the senses. In like manner, from the height occupi 
the physical history of the world, all parts of the horizo 
ntot appear equally clear and well-defined. This indii 

* Pseado-FIato.— J/et^. zl. p. 184, ed. Steph. } Plat., B 
Laeomte*, p. 253, ed« Hutten. 



86 C06X06. 

ness will not, however, be wholly owing to the present ^nper- 
feet state of some of the sciences, but in part, likewise, to the 
unskilMness of the guide who has imprudently ventured to 
ascend these lofty summits. 

* The object of this introductory notice is not, however, 

solely to draw attention to the importance and greatness of 

the physical history of the imiverse, for in the present day 

these are too well understood to be contested, but likewise to 

prove how, without detriment to the stability of special studies, 

we may be enabled to generalize our ideas by concentrating 

them in one common focus, and thus arrive at a point of view 

from which aU the organisms and forces of nature may be 

seen as one living active whole, animated by one sole impulse, 

^ "Nature,'' as Schelling remarks in his poetic discourse on 

r f ^art, " is not an inert mass ; and to him, who can comprehend 

'.£A*"^her vast sublimity, she reveals herself as the creative force of 

the universe — ^before aU time, eternal, ever active, she calls to 

life all things, whether perishable or imperishable." 

By uniting, under one point of view, both the phenomena of 
our own globe and those presented in the regions of space, we 
embrace the limits of the science of the Cosmos, and convert 
the physical history of the globe into the physical history of the 
universe ; the one term being modelled upon that of the other. 
This science of the Cosmos is not, however, to be regarded 
as a mere encyclopaedic a^regation of the most important and 
general results that have been collected together from special 
branches of knowledge. These results are nothing more than 
the materials for a vast edifice, and their combination cannot 
constitute the physical history of the world, whose exalted 
part it is to show the simultaneous action and the connecting 
links of the forces which pervade the imiverse. The distri- 
bution of organic types in different climates and at different 
elevations-— that is to say, the geography of plants and animals 
—differs as widely from botany and descriptive zoology as 
geology does from mineralogy, properly so called. The 
physical history of the imiverse must not, therefore, be con- 
foimded with the Encyclopcedias of the Natural Sciences, as they 
have hitherto been compiled, and whose title is as vague as 
their limits are ill-defined. In the work before us, partial 
fiewts will be considered only in relation to the whole. The 
higher the point of view the greater is the necessity for a syste-i 



ZKTBODtrcnoK. 87 

matic mode of treating the subject in language at once ani- 
mated and picturesque. 

But thought and language have ever been most intimately 
allied. If language, by its originality of structure, and its 
native richness, can, in its delineations, interpret thought with 
grace and deamess, and if, by its happy flexibility, it can paint 
with vivid truthfulness the objects of the external world, it 
reacts at the same time upon thought, and animates it, as it 
were, with the breath of life. It is this mutual re-action which 
makes words more than mere signs and forms of thought ; 
and the beneficent influence of a language is most strikingly 
manifested on its native soil, where it has sprung sponta- 
neously from the minds of the people, whose character it 
embodies. Proud of a country that seeks to concentrate her 
strength in intellectual imity, the writer recalls with delight 
the advantages he has enjoyed in being permitted to express his 
thoughts in his native language ; and truly happy is he, who, 
in attempting to give a lucid exposition of the great pheno- 
mena of the universe, is able to draw from the depths of 
a language, which through the free exercise of thought, and 
by the effiisions of creative fancy, has for centuries past 
exercised so powerfrd an influence over the destinies of man. 



LIMITS AND METHOD OP EXPOSITION OP THE PHYSICAL 
DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 

I HAVE endeavoured, in the preceding part of my work, to 
explain and illustrate by various examples, how the enjoy- 
ments presented by the aspect of nature, varying as they do 
in the soiirces from whence they flow, may be multiplied and 
ennobled by an acquaintance with the connection of pheno- 
mena and the laws by which they are regulated. [Tl remains,^ 
then, for me to examine the spirit of the method in which the 
exposition of the physical description of the universe should be 
conducted, and to indicate the limits of this science, in accord- 
ance with the views I have acquired in the course of my 
studies and travels in various parts of the eai-t^ I trust I 
may flatter myself with a hope that a treatise oi this nature 




38 co0xoi» 

will justify the title I ba\« ventured to adopt for my work, 
and exonerate me from tlie reproach of a presumption that 
would be doubly reprehensible in a scientific discussicm. 

Before entermg upon the delineation of the partial pheno- 
mena which are found to be distributed in various groups, I 
would consider a few general questions intimately connected 
together, and bearing upon the nature of our knowledge of the 
external world and its different relations, in all epochs of 
history and in all phases of intellectual advancement. Under 
this head will be comprised the following considerations :— ^ 

1. The precise limits of the phyisical description of the uni- 
verse, considered as a distinct science. 

2. A brief enumeration of the totality of natural pheno- 
mena, presented under the form of a general delineation of 
nature, 

3. The influence of the external world on the imagination 
and feelings, which has acted in modem times as a powerM 
impulse towards the study of natural science, by giving ani- 
mation to the description of distant regions and to the deline- 
ation of natural scenery, as &r as it is characterised by vege- 
table physiognomy, and by the cultivation of exotic plants, 
and their arrangement in well-contrasted groups. 

4. The history of the contemplation of nature, or the pro- 
gressive development of the idea of the Cosmos, considered 
with reference to the historical and geographical facts that 
have led to the discovery of the connection of phenomena. 

The higher the point of view from which natural phenomena 
may be considered, the more necessary it is to circimiscribe 
the science within its just limits, and to distinguish it from 
all other analogous or auxiliary studies. 

(physical cosmography is founded on the contemplation of 
all created things, — all that exists in space, whether as sub- 
stances or forces,-^that is, all' the material beings that con- 
stitute the universe. The science which I woidd attempt to 
define, presents itself therefore to man as the inhabitant of the 
earth, under a twofold form— as the earth itself, and the regions 
of apace. It is with a view of showing the actual character 
and the independence of the study of physical cosmography, 
and at the same time indicating the nature of its relations to 
general physics^ descriptive natural history, geology , and com- 
parative geography ^ that I will pause for a few moments to 



L. 



IKTB0D17CTI0K« 39 

consider that portion of the science of the Cosmos which oon* 
ceros the earm. As the history of philosophy does not con« 
sist of a mere material enmneration of the philosophical views 
entertained in different ages, neither should the physical 
description of the universe be a simple enfivdopeedic compila- 
tion of the sciences we have enumeratedj The difEiculty of 
defining the limits of intimately-connected studies has been 
increased, because for centuries it has been customary to 
designate yarious^ branches of empirical knowledge by terms 
whidi admit either of too wide or too limited a definition of 
the ideas which they were intended to convey, and are, 
besides, objiectionable from having had a different significa- 
tion in those classical languages of antiqidty from which they 
have been borrowed. (Jhe terms physiology, physics, natural ^ 
history, geology, and geography, arose, and were commonly 
used, long before clear ideas were entertained of the diversity 
of objects embraced by these sciences, and consequently of 
their reciprocal limitatio£Q Such is the influence of long 
habit upon language, that by one of the nations of Europe 
most advanced in civilisation the word '' physic'' is applied to 
medicine, whilst in a society of justly deserved universal 
reputation, technical chemistry, geology, and astronomy, 
(purely experimental sciences,) are comprised under the head 
of ** Philosophical Transactions/' 

An attempt has often been made, and almost always in 
vain, to substitute new and more appropriate terms for these 
ancient designations, which, notwithstanding their imdoubted 
vagueness, are now generally imderstood. These changes 
have been proposed, for the most part, by those who have 
occupied themselves with the general classification of the 
various branches of knowledge, from the first appearance of 
the great encyclopeedia {Margarita Phdosophica) of Gregory 
Reisch,^ prior of the Chartreuse at Fribui^, towards the close 

* The Margarita PkiUmophica of Gregory Reisch, Prior of the Char- 
trease at Fribarg, first appeared under the following title : JEpitome omnis 
Philo9ophi€Bt alias Margarita Philosophical tractans de omni generi scibili. 
The Heidelberg edition (1486), and that of Strasburg (1504), both bear 
this title, but the first part was suppressed in the Friburg edition of the 
tnme year, as well as in the twelve subsequent editions which succeeded 
one another, at short intervals, till 1535. This work exercised a great 
influence- on the di^'usion of mathematical and physical sciences^ towards 



40 OOSMOS. 

of the fifteenth century, to Lord Bacon, and from Bacon to 
D'Alembert; and in recent times to an eminent physicist, 
Andre Marie Ampere.* The selection of an inappropriate 
Greek nomenclature has, perhaps, been even more prejudicial 
to the last of these attempts than the injudicious use of binary 
divisions, and the excessive midtiplication of groups. 
trhe physical description of the world, considering the uni- 
VCTse as an object of the external senses, does imdoubtedly 
require the aid of general physics and of descriptive natural 
history, but the contemplation of aU created things, which are 
linked together, and fbrm one whole, animated by internal 
forces, gives to the science we are considering a peculiar cha- 
racter. Physical science considers only the general properties 
of bodies ; it is the product of abstraction, — a generalization 
of perceptible phenomena ; and even in the work in which 
were laid the first foundations of general physics, in the 
eight books on physics of Aristotle,f aU the phenomena of 
nature are considered as depending upon the primitive and 
vital action of one sole force, from which emanate all the 
movements of the universe. The terrestrial portion of phy- 
sical cosmography, for which I would willingly retain the 
expressive designation oi physical geography, treats of the dis- 
tribution of magnetism in our planet with relation to its 
intensity and direction, but does not enter into a considera« 

the beginning of the sixteenth century, and Chasles, the learned author of 
VAper^ Historique des Mithodes en GlonUtrie (1837), has shown the 
great impoi-tance of Reisch's Encyclopcedia in the history- of mathematics 
in the middle ages. I have had recourse to a passage in the Margarita 
Philosophical found only in the edition of 1513, to elucidate the important 
question of the relations between the statements of the geographer of 
Saint-Die, Hylacomilus (Martin Waldseemiiller), the first who gave the 
name of America to the New Continent, and those of Amerigo Vespucci, 
Ren^, King of Jerusalem and Duke of Lorraine, as also those contained in 
the celebrated editions of Ptolemy, of 1513 and 1522. See my Examen 
Critique de la Giographie du Notweau Continent f et des Progris de VAs^ 
tronomie Nautique aux 15e et 16e Siecles, t. iv., pp. 99 — 125. 

* Ampere, Essai sur la Phil, des Sciences, 1834, p. 25. Whewell, 
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii., p. 277. Park, Pantology^ 
p. 87. 

f All changes in the physical world may be reduced to motion. Aris- 
tot., Phys. Ausc, iii., 1 and 4, pp. 200, 201. £ekker,viii., 1, 8, and 9, 
pp. 250, 262, 265. De Genere et Corr,, ii., 10, p. 336. Pseudo* 
Arifltot.! Df Mundo, cap. yi., p 398* 



IKTBOBtronOK. /^ i/ s 41 

lion of the laws of attractioii or repulsion of the poles, or the 
means of eliciting either permanent or transitory electro-mag- 
netic currents. Phyisical geography depicts in Jbroad outlines 
the even or irregular configuration of continents, the relations 
of superficial area, and the distribution of continental masses in 
the two hemispheres, a distribution which exercises a power- 
ful influence on the diversilr of climate and the meteorological 
modifications of the atmosphere ; this science defines the cha- 
racter of mountain-chains, which, having been elevated at dif- 
ferent epochs, constitute distinct systems, whether they run in 
parallel lines, or intersect one another ; determines the mean 
height of continents above the level of the sea, the position 
of the centre of gravity of their volume, and the relation of 
the highest siunmits of mountain-chains to the mean elevation 
of their crests, or to their proximity with the sea -shore. It 
depicts the eruptive rocks as principles of movement, acting 
upon the sedimentary rocks by traversing, uplifting, and inclin- 
ing them at various angles ; it considers volcanoes either as 
isolated or ranged in single or in double series, and extend- 
ing their sphere of action to various distances, either by rais- 
ing long and narrow lines of rocks, or by means of circles of 
conmiotion, which expand or diminish in diameter in the 
course of ages. This terrestrial portion of the science of the 
Cosmos describes the strife of the liquid element with the solid 
land ; it indicates the features possessed in common by all 
great rivers in the upper and lower portion of their course, 
and in their mode of bi^cation when their basins are imclosed; 
and shows us rivers breaking through the highest mountain- 
chains, or following for a long time a course parallel to them, 
either at their base, or at a considerable distance, where the 
elevation of the strata of the mountain system and the direc- 
tion of their inclination correspond to the configuration of 
the table-land. It is only the general results of compara- 
tive orography and hydrography that belong to the science 
whose true limits I am desirous of determining, and not the 
special enumeration of the greatest elevations of our globe, of 
active volcanoes, of rivers, and the number of their tributaries; 
these details falling rather within the domain of geography 
properly so called. We woidd here only consider phenomena 
in tiieir mutual connection, and in their relations to different 
semes of our planet, and to its physical constitution generally* 



y- ^ 



42 OOSMOB, 

The roecialitieg both of inorganic and organised matter, 
classed according to analogy of form and composition, un- 
doubtedly constitute a most interesting branch of study, but 
they appertain to a sphere of ideas haymg no affinity with the 
subject of this work. 

The description of different countries certainly furnishes 
us with the most important materials for the composition of ^a 
physical geography; but the combination of these different 
descriptions, ranged in series, would as little give us a true 
image of the general conformation of the irregular surface of 
our globe, as a succession of all the floras of different regions 
would constitute that which I designate as a Geography of 
Plants. It is by subjecting isolated observations to the 
process of thought, and by combining and comparing them, 
that we are enabled to discover the relations existing in 
common between the climatic distribution of beings and the 
individuality of organic forms (in the morphology or descrip« 
tive natm^ history of plants and animals); and it is by 
induction that we are led to comprehend numerical laws, the 
proportion of natural families to tiie whole number of species, 
and to designate the latitude or geographical position of the 
zones in whose plains each organic form attains the mft-T^'tir^nTn 
of its development. Considerations of this nature, by their 
tendency to generalization, impress a nobler character on the 
physical description of the globe ; and enable us to understand 
how the aspect of the scenery, that is to say, the impression 

Produced upon the mind by the physiognomy of the vegetation, 
epends upon the local distribution, the number, and tiie luxu- 
riance of growth of the vegetable forms predominating in the 
general mass. The catalogues of organised beings, to which 
was formerly given the pompous titie of Systems of Nature^ 
present us with an admirably connected arrangement by ana- 
logies of structure, either in the perfected development of 
these beings, or in the different phases which, in accordance 
with the views of a spiral evolution, affect in vegetables the 
leaves, bracts, calyx, corolla, and fructifying organs ; and in 
animals, with more or less synmietrical regularity, the cellular 
and fibrous tissues, and their perfect or but obscurely deve- 
loped articulations. But these pretended systems of nature, 
however ingenious their mode of classification may be, do not 
show us organic beings, as they are distributed in groups 



l-^^^ cPLe.'^'- 



tr 



1KTB0P17CITI0V. 4S 



c* 



ijiroti^hout ocur plaaei, according to their different relations 
of latitude and elevation above the level of the sea, and to 
climatic influences, i^hich are owing to general and often ^^ 
very remote causes. LThe ultimate aim of physical geography ^ « o 
is, howev^, as we have already said, to recognise unity in 
the vast diversity of phenomena, and by the exercise of 
thought and the combmation of observations, to discern the 
constancy of phenomena in the midst of apparent changes. 
In the exposition of the terrestrial portion of the Cosmos, it 
will occasionally be necessary to descend to very special 
faxita ; but this will only be in order to recall the connection 
existing between the actual distribution of organic beings 
over the globe, and the laws of the ideal classification by 
natural families, analogy of internal oiganizationp and pro- 
gressive evolution^ 

It follows &om these discussions on the limits of the 
various sciences, and more particularly from the distinction 
which must necessarily be made between descriptive botany 
(morphology of vegetables) and the geography of plants, that 
in the {^ysical history of the globe, the innumerable multitude 
of oiganised bodies which embellish creation are considered 
rather according to zones of habitaiion or stations and to 
differently inflected isothermal bands, than with reference to 
the principles of gradation in the development of internal 
organism. Notwithstanding this, botany and zoology, which 
constitute the descriptive natural history of all organised 
beings, are the fruitful sources whence we draw the materials 
necessary to give a solid basis to the study of the mutual 
Tfelat^ons and conn ection of ^enomenaii - — 

We wiH here sulfoin one important observation, by way of 
elucidating the connection of which we have spoken. The 
first general glance over the vegetation of a vast extent of a 
continent shows us forms the most dissimilar — gramineoe and 
orchidesB, coniferse and oaks, in local approximation to one 
another ; whilst natural &milie8 and genera, instead of being 
locally associated, are dispersed as £r by chance. This dis- 
peniou IB, however, oiily apparent. The physical description 
of the globe 'teaches us that vegetation everywhere presents 
ntimerically constant relations in the development of its forms 
and types ; that in the same climates, the species which are 
wanting in one country are replaced in a neighbouring one by 



44 00S1C08. 

other species of the same &mily ; and that this law of mb* 
stitutum, which seems to depend upon some inherent mys- 
teries of the organism, considered with reference to its origin, 
n>ftinf.fliTiR in contiguous regions a numerical relation between 
the species of various great fiunilies and the general mass of 
the phanerogamic plants constituting the two floras. We 
thus find a principle of \mity and a primitive plan of dis- 
tribution revealed in the multiplicity of the distinct organiza- 
tions by which these regions are occupied; and we also 
discover in each zone, and diversified according to the &milies 
of plants, a slow but continuous action on the aerial ocean, 
depending upon the influence of light — the primary condition 
of all organic vitality-^— on the solid and liquid surface of our 
planet. It might be said, in accordance with a beautiful 
expression of Lavoisier, that the ancient marvel of the myth 
of Prometheus was incessantly renewed before our eyes. 

If we extend the course which we have proposed, following 
in the exposition of the physical description of the earth to 
the sidereal part of the science of the Cosmos, the delineation 
of the regions of space and the bodies by which they are 
occupied, we shall find our task simplified in no common 
degree. If, according to ancient but unphilosophical forms of 
nomenclature, we would distinguish between physics^ that is 
to say, general considerations on the essence of matter, and 
the forces by which it is actuated, and chemistry^ which 
treats of the nature of substances, their elementary com- 
position, and those attractions that ai-e not determined solely 
by the relations of mass, we must admit that the description 
of the earth comprises at once physical and chemical actions. 
In addition to gravitation, which must be considered as a 
primitive force in nature, we observe that attractions of 
another kin.d are at work aroimd us, both in the interior 
of our planet and on its surface. These forces, to which 
we apply the term chemical affinity, act upon molecules in 
contact, or at infinitely minute distances fi:om one another,* 

* Oq the question already discussed by Newton, regarding the differ- 
ence existing between the attraction of masses and molecular attraction, 
see Laplace, Exposition du Systeme du Monde ^ p. 384, and supplement 
to book X. of the Mecantquc Celeste^ pp. 3, 4 ; Kant, Metaph. At^fangs- 
ffrUnde der Naturwissevuckqft^ S'dm, Werke^ 1839, bd. v., s. 309 (Meta- 
physical Principles of the Natural Sciences); Pectet, Physique ^ 1838« 
?ol. i., pp. 59--63. 



S yJbi^^O ^t^^^LA^h^ ^ ^-^^//o,^ / 



/Tj^j^J^irVfi 



XVTBODirCTIOK. 46 

and which being differently modified by electricity, heat, 
condensation in porous bodies, or by the contact of an 
intermediate substance, animate equally the inorganic world 
and animal and vegetable tissues. If we except the small 
asteroids which appear to us under the forms of aerolites 
and shooting stars, the regions of space have hitherto pre- 
sented to our direct observation physical phenomena alone ; 
and in the case of tliese, WG know only with certamtytne 
effects depending upon the quantitative relations of matter or 
the distribution of masses. The phenomena of the regions of 
space may consequently be considered as influenced by simple 
dynamical laws — the laws of motion. 

The effects that may arise from the specific difference and 
the heterogeneous nature of matter, have not hithei'to entered 
into our calculations of the mechanism of the heavens. The 
only means by which the inhabitants of our planet can enter 
into relation with the matter contained within the regions of 
space, whether existing in scattered forms or united into 
large spheroids, is by the phenomena of light, the propagation' 
of luminous waves, and by the influence universally exercised 
by the force of gravitation or the attraction of masses. The 
existence of a periodical action of the sun and moon on the 
variations of tenestrial magnetism is even at the present day 
extremely problematical. We have no direct experimental 
knowledge regarding the properties and specific qualities of 
the masses circulating in space, or of the matter of which 
they are probably composed, if we except what may be derived 
from the fall of aerolites ot meteoric stones, which, as we 
have already observed, enter within the limits of our ter- 
restrial sphere. It will be sufficient here to remark, that the 
direction and the excessive velocity of projection (a velocity 
whoUy planetary) manifested by these masses, render it more 
than probable that they are smaU celestial bodies, which being 
attracted by our planet are made to deviate from their original 
course, and thus reach the earth enveloped in vapours, and in 
a high state of actual incandescence. The familiar aspect of 
these asteroids, and the analogies which they present with 
the minerals composing the earth's crust, undoubtedly afford 
ample grounds for surprise ;* but, in my opinion, the only con- 

* [The analysis of an aSrolite which fell a few years since in Maryland, 
United States, and was examined by Professor Silliman of Newha?ea. 



•♦M4 

/ 



46 C081C08« 

dusion to be drawn from these &cts is, that in general planets 
and other sidereal masses which,- by the influence of a central 
body, have been agglomerated into rings of vapour, and sub- 
sequently into spheroids, being integrant parts of the same 
system, and having one common origin, may likewise be 
composed of substances chemically identical. Again, experi- 
ments with the pendulimi, particularly those prosecuted with 
such rare precision by Bessel, confirm the Newtonian axiom, 
that bodies the most heterogeneous in their nature (as water, 
gold, quartz, granular limestone, and different masses of 
aerolites) experience a perfectly similar degree of accelenu 
tion from the attraction of the earth. To the experiments of 
the pendulum may be added the proo& furnished by purely 
astronomical observations. The almost perfect identity of the 
mass of Jupiter, deduced from the iMuence exercised by this 
stupendous planet on its own satellites, on Encke's comet 6f 
short period, and on the small planets Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and 
Pallas, indicates with equal certainty, that within the limits of 
actual observation attraction is determined solely by the 
quantity of matter.* 

This absence of any perceptifale difference in the nature of 
matter, alik6 proved by direct observation and theoretical 
deductions, imparts a nigh degree of simplicity to the me- 
chanism of the heavens. The immeasureable extent of the 
regions of space being subjected to laws of motion alone, the 
sidereal portion of the science of the Cosmos is based on the 
pure and abimdant source of mathematical astronomy, as is 
the terrestrial portion on physics, chemistry, and organic 
morphology ; but the domain of these three last-named 
sciences embraces the consideration of phenomena which are 
so complicated, and have, up to the present time, been foimd 
so little susceptible of the application of rigorous method, that 
the physical science of the earth cannot boast of the same 

Connecticut, gave the following results: — Oxide of iron 24; oxide of 
nickel, 1*25; silica, with earthy matter, 3*46; sulphur, a trace; = 28*71. 
Dr. Mantell's Wonders of Geolagy. 1848. vol. i. p. 51.] — 2V. 

* Poisson, Connaiwances dea Temps pour V Annie 1836, pp. 64 — 66. 
Bessel, PoggendorfiTs ^niui/«R, bd. xxv., 8.'417. Encke, Abhandlungen 
der Berliner Academiey (Trans, of the Berlin Academy,) 1826, s. 257. 
Mitscherlich, Lehrhueh der Chemie^ (Manual of dLemistry^} 1837^ 
bd. i., s. 352. 



iKiBOBtrcnoK. 4T 

eeftaintj and fihnplicity in the exposition of fbets and their 
mutual connection, which characterise the celestial portion Oa 
the Cosmos. It is not improbable that the difference to which 
we allude may furnish an ex^anation of the cause which, in 
the earliest ages of intellectual culture amongst the Greeks, 
directed the natural philosophy of the Pythagoreans with 
more ardour to ^e heayenly bo^es and the regions of space, 
than to the earth and its productions, and how through Philo- 
laiis, and subsequently through the analogous Tiews of Aris- 
tarehus of Samos, and of Seleucus of Erythrea, this science 
has been made moro conduciye to the attainment of a know« 
ledge of the true system of the world, than the natural philo- 
sojmy of the Ionian school could ey^ be to the physical 
history of the earth. Giying but little attention to die pro- 
perties and specific differences of matter filling space, the 
great Italian school, in its Doric grayity, turned by pro- 
ference towards all that relates to. measure, to the form of 
bodies, and to the number and distances of the pkiiets;* 
whilst the Ionian physicists directed their attention to the 
qualities of matter, its true or supposed metamorphoses, and 
to relations of (»rigin. It was reserved for the powerful 
genius of Aristotle, alike profoundly specxdatiYe and practical, 
to sound with equal success the depths of abstraction and the 
inexhaustible resources of yital activity pervading the material 
world. 

Severa? highly distinguished treatises on physical geography 
are pre&ced by an introduction, whose purely astronomical 
sections are directed to the consideration of the earth in its 
planetary dependence, and as constituting a part of that great, 
system which is animated by one central body, the sun. This 
i>mee is diametrically op^ed to the one which I p7x>pose 
following. In order adequately to estimate the dignity of the 
Cofflnos, it is requisite tiiat the sidereal portion, termed by 
Kant the natural Miiory of the heavens, should not be made L-^ 
subordinate to the terrestrial. In the science of the Cosmos, 
according to the expression of Aristarchus of Samos, the 
pioneer of the Copemican system, the sun with its satellites 
was nothing more than one of the innumerable stars by which 
q^ace is occupied. The physical history of the world must, 

• Compare Ottfined Mttller's Donent bd. i,, s. 365. 



IKTBODTTCTIOir. 49 

to the mode of considering our planet either with reference to 
its surface in its different zones, or to its relations to the sun 
and moon. It redounds to the glory of Varenius, that his work 
on General and Comparative Geography should in so high a 
degree have arrested the attention of Newton. The imperfect 
state of many of the auxiliary sciences from which this writer 
was obliged to draw his materials, prevented his work from 
corresponding to the greatness of the design, and it was 
reserved for the present age, and for my own coimtry, to see 
the delineation of comparative geography, drawn in its frdl 
extent, and in all its relations with tiie history of man, by the 
skilful hand of Carl Bitter.* 

tions of Varenius regarding the equinoctial enrrent from east to west, to 
which he attributes the origin of the Gulf Stream, beginning at Cape St. 
Augustin and issuing forth between Cuba and Florida (p. 140). Nothing 
can be more accurate than his description of the current which skirts the 
western coast of Africa, between Cape Verd and the island of Fernando 
Po in the Gulf of Guinea. Varenius explains the formation of spo- 
radic islands by supposing them to be ''the raised bottom of the sea:" 
magna spirituum inchuorum rt, neui aliquando monies e terra protuiOM 
eue quidam eeribuntt (p. 225). The edition published by Newton in 
1681 (auctior et emendatior) unfortunately contains no additions from 
this great authority; and there is not even mention made of the polar 
compression of the globe, although the experiments on the pendulum by 
Bicher had been made nine years prior to the appearance of the Cam- 
bridge edition. Newton's Prineipia Mathematica PhUoeopkuB NaturaUa 
were not communicated in manuscript to the Royal Society until April 
1686. Much uncertainty seems to prevail regarding the birthplace of 
Varenius. Jaecher says it was England, while, accor^g to La Biogram 
pMe Unwereelle (b. zLvii., p. 495), he is stated to have been bom at 
Amsterdam; but it would appear from the dedicatory address to the 
Burgomaster of that city, (see his Geographia Comparativa), that both 
suppositions are false. Varenius expressly says that he had sought 
reftige in Amsterdam, ''because his native city had been burnt and 
completely destroyed during a long war," words which appear to apply 
to the north of Germany, and to the devastations of the thirty years' 
war. In his dedication of another work, Deeeriptio regni JaponMe, 
(Amst. 1649), to the senate of Hamburgh, Varenius says that be prose- 
cuted his elementary mathematical studies in the gymnasium of that city. 
Then is, therefore, every reason to believe that tins admirable geographer 
was a native of Germany, and was probably bom at Luneburg, {Witten, 
Mem. I%eoL, 1685, p. 2142; Zedler, Untvertal'LeMeoUf vol. zlvIm 
1745, p. 187.) 

* Carl Bitter's Erdkunde im Verftitihuit zur Natur and zur Oem 
ukiekh det Memekenf oder allgemeim verglekhende GeograplM (Geo* 



)^ 



50 0O8KO& ^ t :■ l{) 

' The enumeration of the most important results of the astro« 
nomical and physical sciences which in the history of the 
Cosmos radiate towards one common focus, may perlmps, to a 
certain degree, justify the designation I have given to my 
work, and, considered within the circumscribed limits I have 
proposed to myself, the undertaking may be esteemed less 
adventurous than the title. The introduction of new terms, 
especially with reference te the general results of a science 
which ought te be accessible te sJl, has always been greatly 
in opposition to my own practice; and whenever I have 
enlarged upon the established nomenclature, it has only been 
in the specialities of descriptive botany and zoology, where 
the introduction of hitherto unknown objects rendered new 
names necessary. Thfi (JJ^HOTniflatiftag. of physical descript iona 
of the universe^ or jihysXc^.^ cosmography, which I use mdis- 
oriminately, ha^ Seen modelled upon diose oiphyUcad deacrip* 
tiona of the earth, that is to say, physiodl geography, terms that 
have long been in common use. Descartes, whose genius was 
one of the most powerful manifested in any age, has left us a 
fisw fragments of a great work, which he intended publishing 
.^, imder t^e title of Monde, and for which he had prepared him^ 
\' self by special studies, including even that of human anatomy. 
^ The uncommon, but definite expression of the science of the 
Cosmos recalls to the mind of the inhabitant of the earth that 
we are treating of a more widely-extended horizon ; of the 
assemblage of all things with which space is fiUed, &om the 
remotest nebulas to the climatic distribution of those delicate 
tissues of vegetable matter, which spread a variegated cover- 
ing over the surface of our rocks. 

The influence of narrow-minded views peculiar to the 
earlier ages of civilisation led in all languages to a con& ion 
of ideas in the synonymic use of the words earth and world; 
whilst the common expressions, voyages round the world, mcq) 
of the world, and new world, afTord farther illustrations of the 
same confusion. The more noble and precisely-defined ex- 
pressions of system of the world, the planetary world, and crea^ 
iion and age of the world, relate eitlier to the totality of the 
substances by which space is filled, or to the origin of the 
whole imiverse. 

graphy in relation to Natoro wni, the Histoiy of Man, or general Com* 
parative Geography). 






t 1 

I 



• *•• 



/ 



nrTBOBircTioir. 61 

It waa natoral that, in the midst of the extreme Tariability 
of phenomena presented by the sur&ce of our globe, and the 
aerial ocean by which it is surrounded, man should have been 
impressed by the aspect of the vault of heaven, and the uni- 
form and regular movements of the sun and planets. Thus 
the word Cosmos, which primitively, in the Homeric ages, 
indicated an idea of order and harmony, was subsequently 
adopted in scientific language, where it was gradually applied 
to the order observed in the movements of the heavenly 
bodies, to the whole universe, and then finally to the world 
in which this harmony was reflected to us. According to the 
araertion of Philolatis, whose fragmentary works have been 
so ably commented upon hj Bockh, and conformably to the 
general testimony of antiqmty, Pythagoras was the first who /" 
used t he word Cosmos to desipiate the order that reigns in'^-'v^ 
the uni verse, o r entire world.* "~""^ ' "^ 

Tom^Eeltalian school of philosophy, the expression passed 
m this signification into the language of those early poets of 

* JLofffioCt in the most ancifnt, and at the same time most precise, 
definition of the word, signified ornament (as an adornment for a man, 
ft woman, or a horse) ; taken figuratively for evra^ia, it implied the order 
Of adornment of a disconrse. According to the testimony of all the 
ancients, it was Pythagoras who first used the word to designate the order 
in the universe, and the universe itself. Pythagoras left no writings; 
hat ancient attestation to the truth of this assertion is to be found in 
several passages of the fragmentary works of Philolatts (Stob., Eclog,, 
pp. 360 and 460, Heeren) ; pp. 62, 90, in BOckh's German edition. I do 
not, according to the example of Nake, cite Timseus of Locris, since his 
authenticity is doubtfuL Plutarch (fie Plae, PhiLf ii, 1), says in the 
most express manner, that Pythagoras gave the name of Cosmos to the 
universe on account of the order which reigned throughout it; so likewise 
does Galeh. (Hist, Phil,, p. 429j. This word, together with its novel 
signification, passed from the schools of philosophy into the language of 
poets and prose writers. Plato designates the heavenly bodies by the 
name of UranoSf but the order pervading the regions of space he too 
terms the Cosmos, and in his THrmBuSf (p. 30 b.) he says that the world it 
an animal endowed toith a sotU {Kdafiov i&ov in^/vxov). Compare Anaxag. 
Claz., ed. Schaubach, p. Ill, and Hut., De Plae, PhiL, ii, 3) on spirit 
apart from matter, as the ordaining power of nature. In Aristotle (2>« 
Ceglo^ 1, 9,) Coemo9 signifies "the universe and the order pervading it," 
but it is likewise considered as divided in space into two parts, — the 
sublunary world, and the world above the moon. (Meteor, I, 2, 1, and 
I, 3, 13, pp. 339 a, and 340 b, Bekk.) The definition of Cosmos, which 
I have flJready cited, is taken from Pseudo-Aristoteles de Mundo, cap. ii. 
(p. 391); the passage referred to is as follows : K^a/coc iari oifcriifia U 

E 2 



52 COSMOS. 

nature, Farmenides and Empedocles, and from thence into 
the works of prose writers. We will not here enter into a 
discussion of the manner in which, according to the Pytha- 
gorean Tiews, Philolaiis distinguishes between Olympus, 

ovpavov Kal yrjg Kai t&v iv rovrotQ vtpuxofuvwv ^vcrcoiv, Asyerai ik 
Kai kxipoac kooXoc i? r£v SXn^v rd^ig re Kal duixofffirjffiQ, vvb Bi&v re Koi 
did Oe&v ^vXaTTonivii, Most of the passages occurring in Greek writers 
on the word Cosmos, may be found collected together in the controyersy 
between Richard Bentley and Charles Boyle {Opwcula Philological 1781, 
pp. 347f 445 ; Dissertation upon the Epistles of PhalariSf 1817, p. 254); 
on the historical existence of Zaleucos, legislator of Leucris, in Nakt's 
excellent work, Sched, crit., 1812, pp. 9, 15 ; and finally, in Theophilus 
Schmidt, Ad Cleom, cyel, theor., met. 1, 1 p. ix., 1 and 99. Taken in a 
more limited sense, the word Cosmos is also used in the plural (Plut., 1, 5,) 
either to designate the stars (Stob., 1, p. 514 ; Plut., 11, 13,) or the 
innumerable systems scattered like islands through the immensi.y of 
space, and each composed of a sun and a moon. (Anax. Claz., PftkJnn» 
pp. 89, 93, 120 ; Brandis, Gesch. der Griechisch-Romischen Philosophie, 
b. i., s. 252 (History of the Greco-Roman Philosophy). Each of 
these groups forming thus a Cosmos, the universe, rb irav^ the word 
must be understood in a wider sense (Plut. ii, 1.) It was not until 
long after the time of the Ptolemies that the word was applied to the 
earth. Bockh has made known inscriptions in praise of Trajan and 
Adrian {Corpus Inser, Grac, I, n. 334 and 1306) in which Koofwc 
occurs for oiKovfitvri, in the same manner as we still use the term world 
to signify the earth alone. We have already mentioned the singular 
division of the regions of space into three parts, the Olympus, Cosmos, 
and Ouranos, (Stob. 1, p. 488 ; Philolaiis, pp. 94, 202) ; this division 
applies to the different regions surrounding that mysterious focus of the 
universe, the *£(Tria rov TravroQ of the Pythagoreans. In the fragmentary 
passage in which this division is found, the term Ouranos designates the 
innermost region, situated between the moon and earth ; this is the domain 
of changing things. The middle region where the planets circulate in an 
invariable and harmonious order, is, in accordance with the special con- 
ceptions entertained of the universe, exclusively termed Cosmos, whilst the 
word Olympus is used to express the exterior or igneous region. Bopp, 
the profound philologist, has remarked, " tiiat we may deduce, as Pott 
has done, EtymoL Forschungen, th. i., s. 39 and 252 {Etymol. Researches) 
the word Koafiog from the Sanscrit root *sud*, purificari, by assuming two 
conditions ; first, that the Greek ic in Kotrfioc comes from the palatial c, 
which Bopp represents by 's and Pott by p, (in the same manner as dsKa, 
decem, taihun in Gothic, comes from the Indian word <f^an),and next, that 
the Indian <f corresponds as a general rule with the Greek B {Veryleichende 
Orammatik, § 99, — Comparative Grammar), which shows the relation «f 
KocTfioQ (for KoOfiog) with the Sanscrit root *sud!, whence is also derived 
KaOafAog, Another Indian term for the world is gagai (pronounced 
dichagat)f which is, properly speaking, the present participle of the rerk 



iJfTBOSlTCTIOK. 53 

Uranus, or ^he heavens, and Cosmos, or how the same word, 
used in a plural sense, could be applied to certain heavenly bo- 
dies (the planets) revolving round one central focus of the world, 
or to groups of stars. In this work I use the word Cosmos in 
conformity with the Hellenic usage of the term subsequently to 
the time of Pythagoras, and in accordance with the precise 
definition given of it in the treatise entitled De Mundo, which 
was long erroneously attributed to Aristotle. It is the assem- 
blage of all things in heaven and earth, the universalitv of 
created things constituting the perceptible world. If scien- 
tific terms had not long been diverted fi:om their true verbal 
signification, the present work ought rather to have borne the 
title of Cosmography, divided into Uranography and Geo- 
graphy, The Romans, in their feeble essays on philosophy, 
imitated the Greeks by applying to the universe the term 

goffdmi (I go), the root of which is gd. In restricting ourselves to the 
circle of Hellenic etymologies, we find {EtymoL M., pp. 532, 12) that 
KoiTfiQC is intimately associated with jca^ct;, or rather with Kaivvfiaif whence 
we have K€Ka<Tfisvog or KtKadfjLsvog, Welcker, {Eine Kretische Col. in 
Theben, s. 23, A Cretan colony in Thebes,) combines with this the name 
KaSfiost as in Hesychius KaSfioc signifies a Cretan suit of arms. When the 
scientific language of Greece was introduced amongst the Romans, the word 
munduSf which at first had only the primary meaning of Kotrfxoc (female 
ornament), was applied to designate the entire universe. Ennius seems to 
have been the first who ventured upon this innovation. In one of the 
fragments of this poet, preserved by Macrobius, on the occasion of his 
quarrel with Virgil, we find the word used in its novel mode of acceptation. 
"Mundus CobH vastus constiiit silentio** (Sat. vi., 2). Cicero also says : 
" guem nos lucentem mundum vocamus" (Timseus, S. de Univer.f cap. x.) 
The Sanscrit root mandf from which Pott derives the Latin mundus^ {Etym, 
Forschf th. i., s. 240,) combines the double signification of shining and 
adorning. L6ka designates in Sanscrit the world and people in general, 
in the same manner as the French word monde, and is derived, according 
to Bopp, from iok (to see and shine) ; it is the same with the Sclavonic 
root swjet, which means both light and world, (Grimm, Deutsche 
Gramm.f b. iii., s. 394, German Grammar.) The word welt, which the 
Germans make use of at the present day, and which was weralt in old 
German, worold in old Saxon, and vSruld in Anglo-Saxon, was, according 
to James Grimm's interpretation, a period of time, an age (saculum), 
rather than a term used for the world in space. The Etruscans figured to 
themselves mtmdus as an inverted dome, symmetrically opposed to the 
celestial vault (Ottfried Mtiller's Etrusken, th. ii., s. 96, &c.) Taken 
in a still more limited sense, the word appears to have signified amongst 
the Goths the terrestrial surface girded by seas {mareif mm), the merigard, 
literally garden qfseae. 



54 008X011. 

mundus, which, in its primary meaning, Indicated nothing 
more than ornament, and did not even imply order or regu- 
larity in the disposition of parts. It is probable that the 
introduction into the language of Latium of this technical 
term as an equivalent for Cosmos, in its double signification, is 
due to Ennius,* who was a follower of the Italian school, and 
the translator of the writings of Epicharmus and some of his 

. rt jkJSB?®' ®^ ^® Pythagorean philosophy. 

J7 J Y^^^Q would first mstinguish between the physical history 
and the physical descriphon of the world. The former, con- 
ceived in the most general sense of the word, ought, if mate- 
rials for writing it existed, to trace the variations experienced 
by the universe in the course of ages, from the new stars 
which have suddenly appeared and disappeared in the vault 
of heaven, from nebulae (ussolving or condensing, — ^to the first 
stratum of cryptogamic vegetation on the still imperfectly 
cooled surface of the earth, or on a reef of coral uplifted 
from the depths of ocean. The physical description of the 
world presents a picture of all that exists in space— of the 
simultaneous action of natural iSorces together with the phe- 
nomena which they produce. 

"^ But if we would correctly comprehend nature, we must 
not entirely or absolutely separate the consideration of the 
present state of things from that of the successive phases 
through which they have psissed. We cannot form a just 
conception of their nature without looking back on the mode 
of their formation. It is not organic matter alone that is 
continually imdergoing change and being dissolved to form 
new combinations. The globe itself reveals at every phase 
of its existence the mystery of its former conditions. 

We cannot survey the crust of our planet without recog.. 
nising the traces of the prior existence and destruction of an 
organic world. The sedimentary rocks present a succes- 
sion of organic forms, associated in groups, which have suc- 
cessively displaced and succeeded each other. The different 

^ See, on Ennius, the ingenious researches of Leopold Krahner, in his 
Grundlinien zur Geschichte des Verfalls der Romiscken Staats -Religion f 
1837, s. 41 — 45 (Outlines of the History of the Decay of the £}sta* 
blished Religion amongst the Romans). In all probability Ennius did 
not quote from writings of Epicharmus himself, but from poems compoacd 
In the name of that philosopher, and in accordance with his views. 



IKTBODrCTlOK. 55 

su^rimposed strata thus display to us the fiiiinas and floras of 
dmerent epochs. In this sense the description of nature is 
intimately connected with its history; and the geologist, 
who is gxiided by the connection existing amongst the facts 
observed, cannot form a conception of the present without 
pursuing, through countless ages, the history of the past. 
In tracing the physical delineation of the globe, we behold 
the present and the past reciprocally incorporated, as it were, 
with one another; for the domain of nature is like that of lan- 
guages, in which etymological research reveals a successive 
development, by showing us the primary condition of an idiom 
reflected in the forms of speech in use at the present day. 
The study of the Inaterial world renders this reflection of the 
past peculiarly manifest, by displaying iu the process of for- 
mation rocks of eruption and sedmientarv strata, similar to 
those of former aged. If I may be allowed to borrow a strik- 
ing illustration from the geological relations by which the 
physiognomy of a country is determined, I would say that 
domes of tiachyte, cones of basalt, lava-streams {coulies) of 
amygdaloid with elongated and parallel pores, and white 
deposits of pumice, intermixed with black scoriee, animate the 
scenery by the associations of the past which they awaken — 
acting upon the imagination of the enlightened o oserver like 
traditional records of an earlier world. Their form is their 
history. 

The sense in which the Greeks and Romans originally em- 
ployed the word history, proves that they too were intimately 
convinced that to form a complete idea of the present state of 
the universe, it was necessary to consider it in its successive 
phases. It is not, however, in the definition given by Valerius 
Flaccus,* but in the zoological writings of Aristotle, that the 
word history presents itseu as an exposition of the results of 
experience and observation. The physical description of the 
world by Pliny the elder, bears the title of Natural History ^ 
while in the letters of his nephew it is designated by the 
nobler term of History of Nature. The earher Greek his- 
torians did not separate the descriptions of countries from 
the narrative of events of which they had been the theatre. 
With these writers, physical geography and history were long 
. intimately associated, and remained simply but elegantly 
blended until the period of the development of political inte- 

* Aul. GelL, NQct. Att., y. 18. 



66 ' 008X08. 






rests, when the agitation in which the lives of men were 
passed caused the geographical portion to be banished from 
the history of nations, and raised into an independent 
science. 

Otk I* It remains to be considered whether, by the operation of 
thought, we may hope to reduce the immense diversity of 
^ phenomena comprised by the Cosmos to the unity of a prin- 
ciple, and the evidence afforded by rational truths. In the 
\ , present state of empirical knowledge, we can scarcely flatter 
S. ourselves with such a hope. Experimental sciences, based 
; ' on the observation of the external world, cannot aspire to 
completeness; the nature of things, and the imperfection of 
our organs, are alike opposed to it. We shall never succeed 
in exhausting the immeasurable riches of nature; and no 
generation of men will ever have cause to boast of having 
comprehended the total aggregation of phenomena. It is only 
by distributing them into groups, that we have been able, in the 
case of a few, to discover the empire of certain natural laws, 
grand and simple as nature itself. The extent of this empire 
will no doubt increase in proportion as physical sciences are 
more perfectly developed^ Striking proofs of this advance- 
ment have been made manifest in our own day, in the pheno- 
mena of electro-magnetism, the propagation of luminous 
Op ' waves and radiating heat. |ln the same manner, the fruitful 

<;*> ' doctrine of evolution shows us how, in organic development, 
aU that is formed is sketched out l3eforehand, and how the 
tissues of vegetable and animal matter uniformly arise from 
the multiplication and transformation of cells. 

The generalization of laws, which being at first bounded by 
narrow limits, had been applied solely to isolated groups of 
phenomena, acquires in time more marked gradations, and 
gains in extent and certainty, as long as the process of reason- 
ing is applied strictly to analogous phenomena; but as soon 
as dynamical views prove insufficient where the specific pro- 
perties and heterogeneous nature of matter come into play, it is 
to be feared that by persisting in the pursuit of laws we may 
find our course suddenly arrested by an impassable chasm. 
The principle of unity is lost sight of, and the guiding clue 
is rent asunder whenever any specific and peculiar lund of 
action manifests itself amid the active forces of nature. The 
law of equivalents and the numerical proportions of compbsi- 



iimtoDTrciTiOK. 57 

tion, 80 happily recognised by modem chemists, and pro- 
claimed under the ancient form of atomic symbols, still 
remains isolated and independent of mathematical laws of 
motion and gravitation. 

Those productions of nature which are objects of direct 
obseryation may be logically distributed, in classes, orders, and 
families. This form of distribution undoubtedly sheds some 
Hght on descriptive natural history, but the study of organ- 
ised bodies, considered in their linear connection, although it 
may impart a greater degree of unity and simplicity to the 
distribution of groups, cannot rise to the height of a classifi- 
cation based on one sole principle of composition and internal 
organisation. As different gradations are presented by the 
laws of nature according to the extent of the horizon, or the 
limits of the phenomena to be considered, so there are like- 
wise differentiy graduated phases in the investigation of the 
external world. Empiricism originates in isolated views, 
which are subsequently grouped according to their analogy or 
dissimilarity. To direct observation succeeds, although long 
afterwards, the wish to prosecute experiments, — ^that is to 
say, to evoke phenomena imder different determined condi- 
tions. The rational experimentalist does not proceed at 
hazard, but acts under the guidance of hypotheses, founded 
on a half indistinct and more or less just intuition of the con- 
nection existing among natural objects or forces. That which 
has been conquered by obseryation or by means of experi- 
ments, leads, by analysis and induction, to the discovery of 
empirical laws. These are the phases in human intellect 
that have marked the different epochs in the life of nations ; 
and by means of which that great mass of &cts has been 
accumulated which constitutes at the present day the solid 
basis of the natural sciences. 

Two forms of abstraction conjointiy regulate our knowledge, 
namely, relations of qttantitv, comprising ideas of nimiber and 
size, and relations of quality, embracing the consideration of 
the specific properties and the heterogeneous nature of matter .i 
The former, as being more accessible to the exercise of thought,} 
appertains to mathematics, the latter, from its apparent mys- 
teries and greater difficulties, falls under the domain of the 
chemical sciences. In order to submit phenomena to calcu- 
lation, recourse is had to a hypothetical construction of matter. 



/ 
/ 



68 eostfOB. 

by a combination of molecules and atoms, whose nmnber, 
form, position, and polarity determine, modify, or yary phe- 
nomena. 

The m3rthical ideas long entertained of the imponderable 
Substances and vital forces peculiar to each mode of oi^aniza- 
tion, have complicated our views generally, and shed an 
imcertain light o& the path we ousht to pursue. 

The most various forms of intuition have thus, age after age, 
aided in augmenting the prodigious mass of empirical know- 
ledge, which in our own day has been enlarged with ever 
increasing rapidity. The investigating spirit of mftn strives 
from time to time, with varying success, to break through 
those ancient forms and symbols invented, to subject rebellious 
matter to rules of mechanical construction, 
ti 0">j CWe are still very fer from the time when it will be possible 
^sr us to reduce, by the operation of thought, all that we 
perceive by the senses, to the unity of a rational principle. 
It may even be doubted if such a victory could ever be 
;. achieved in the field of natural philosophy. The complica- 
^ tion of phenomena, and the vast es^tent of the Cosmos, would 

^ seem to oppose such a result; but even a partial solution of 
the problem,— -the tendency towards a comprehension of the 

/ phenomena of the universe, — ^will not the less remain the 
eternal and sublime aim of every investigation of nature. 

In conformity with the character of my former writings, as 
well as with the labours in which I have oeen engaged during 
my scientific career, in measurements, experiments, and the 
investigation of &tcts, I limit myself to the domain of empi- 

rical ideas. ""^ " ^ ; - - 

The exposition of mutually connected fects does not exclude 
the classification of phenomena according to their rational 
connection, the generaHzation of many specialities in the 
great mass of observations, or the attempt to discover laws. 
Conceptions of the uiiiverse solely based upon reason and the 
principles of speculative philosophy, would no doubt assign a 
stiU more exalted aim to tne science of the Cosmos. I am far 
from blaming the efforts of others solely because their success 
has hitherto remained very doubtfiil. Contrary to the wishes 
and coimsels of those profoimd and powerfiil thinkers, who 
have given new life to speculations which were already fiuni- 
liar to the ancients, systems of natural philosophy have in our 





INTBODVCTIOK. 69 



own cotintry for (Some time past turned aside the minds of 
men from the gtaver study of mathematical and physical 
sdences. The abuse of better powers which has led many of 
our noble but ill-judging youth into the saturnalia of a 
purely ideal science of nature has been signalised by the in- 
toxication of pretended conquests, by a novel and fantastically 
symbolical phraseology, and by a predilection for the formulse 
of a scholastic rationalism, more contracted in its. views than 
any known to the middle ages. I use the expression " abuse 
of better powers," because superior intellects devoted to phi- 
losophical pursuits and experim^tal sciences have remamed 
strangers to these saturnalia. H^e results yielded by an 
earnest investigation in the path of experiment, cannot be 
at variance with a true philosophy of nature. If there be 
any contradiction, the fault must He either in the imsoundness 
of speculation, or in the exaggerated pretensions of empiri- 
cism, which thinks that more is proved by experiment than 
is actually derivable from it!^ 

External nature may be opposed to the intellectual world, 
as if the latter were not comprised within the limits of the 
former; or nature may be opposed to art when the latter is 
defined as a manifestation of the intellectual power of man; 
but these contrasts, which we find reflected in the most cul- 
tivated languages, must not lead us to separate the sphere of 
nature from that of mind, since such a separation would 
reduce the physical science of the world to a mere aggrega- 
tion of empirical specialities. Science does not present itself 
to man, until mind conquers matter, in striving to subject the 
result of experimental investigation to rational combinations. 
Science is the labour of mind applied to nature, but the exter- 
nal world has no real existence for us beyond the image 
reflected within ourselves through the medium of the senses. 
As intelligence and forms of speech, thought and its verbal 
symbols, are united by secret and indissoluble links, so does 
the external world blend almost unconsciously to ourselves 
with our ideas and feelings. " External phenomena," says 
Hegel in his Philosophy of History, " are in some degree 
translated in our inner representations." The o bjectivo world, 
consci yed and re flected within us JagUfliought^ is suBjected to 

lecessaryjDonditioi]^. Qi.o\a intellectual being. 
The activity of thelffina exercises itself on the elements fur* 



.60 COSMOB. 

nished to it by the perceptions of the senses. Thus in the 
early ages of mankind there manifests itself in the simple 
intuition of natural facts, and in the efforts made to compre- 
hend them, the germ of the philosophy of nature. These 
ideal tendencies vary, and are more or less powerful, accord- 
ing to the individual characteristics and moral dispositions of 
nations, and toUhe degrees of their mental culture, whether 
attained amid scenes of nature that excite or chill the imagi-' 
nation. 

History has preserved the record of the numerous attempts 
that have been made to form a rational conception of the 
whole world of phenomena, and to recognise in the universe 
the action of one sole active force by which matter is pene- 
trated, transformed and animated. These attempts axe 
traced in classical antiquity in those treatises on the principles 
of things which emanated from the Ionian school, and in 
which all the phenomena of nature were subjected to hazard- 
ous speculations, based upon a small number of observations. 
By degrees, as the influence of great historical events has 
favoured the development of every branch of science sup- 
ported by observation, that ardour has cooled, which formerly 
led men to seek the essential nature and connection of things 
by ideal construction and in purely riatio nal pri nciples. In 
recent times, the mathematical portion of natural philosophy 
has been most remarkably and admirably enlarged. The 
method and the instrument (analysis) have been simulta- 
neously perfected. That which has been acquired by means 
so different — ^by the ingenious application of atomic supposi- 
tions, by the more general and intimate study of phenomena, 
and by the improved construction of new apparatus — ^is the 
common property of mankind, and should not in our opinion 
now, more than in ancient times, be withdrawn from the 
free exercise of speculative thought. 

It cannot be denied, that in this process of thought the 
results of experience have had to contend with many disad- 
vantages; we must not therefore be surprised if in the per- 
petual vicissitude of theoretical views, as is ingeniously 
expressed by the author of Giardano Bruno ^^ " most men see 
nothing in philosophy but a succession of passing meteors, 

* Schelling's Bruno, \iher das gbttliche und naturaliche Prindp, def 
Dinffe, § 181 (Bruno, on the Divine and Natural Principle^of Thinffs). 



JKTBODUGTIOlf. 

wizilst even the grander forms in which she has re 
krself share the &te of comets, bodies that do not n 
popular opinion amongst the eternal and permanent wo 
nature, but are regarded as mere fugitive appariti( 
igneous vapour.*' We would here remark that the al 
bought and the false track it too often pursues, ought 
sanction an opinion derogatory to intellect, which would 
that the domain of mind is essentially a world of vagi 
tastic illusions, and that the treasures accumulated by lal 
observations in philosophy are powers hostile to its own e 
It does not become the spirit which characterises the i 
age, distrustfully to reject every generalization of view 
every attempt to examine into the nature of things 
process of reason and i nduction^ yjfwould fe a denial 
dignity of human nature and the relative importance 
feculties with which we are endowed, were we to co 
at one time austere reason engaged in investigating 
and their mutual connections, and at another that exei 
the imagination whch prompts and excites discoveries 
weative powenrTS 



BMD OF INTBODUCTIOM. 



fiS 



Chapteb I. 

DELINEATION" OP NATTTEK GENERAL BBVIBW OP 

NATURAL PHENOMENA. 

When the human mind first attempts to subject to its 
control the world of physical phenomena, and strives by 
meditatiye contemplation to penetrate the rich luxuriance of 
living nature, and the mingled web of free and restricted 
lUttural forces, man feels himself raised to a height from 
whence, as he embraces the vast horizon, individual things 
blend together in varied groups, and appear as if shrouded in 
a vapoury veiL These figurative expressions are used in 
order to illustrate the point of view from whence we would 
consider the imiverse both in its celestial and terrestrial 
sphere. I am not insensible of the boldness of such an un- 
dertaking. Among all the forms of exposition to which these 
pages are devoted, there is none more difficult than the general 
deHneation of nature, which we purpose sketching, since we 
must not allow ourselves to be overpowered by a sense of the 
stupendous richness and variety of the forms presented to us, 
but must dwell only on the consideration of masses, either 
possessing actual magnitude or borrowing its semblance from 
the associations awaJ^ened within the subjective sphere of 
ideas. It is by a separation and classification of phenomena, 
by an intuitive insight into the play of obscure forces, and by 
animated expressions, in whicn the perceptible spectacle is 
reflected with vivid truthftdness, that we may hope to com- 
prehend and describe the universal aU {rh nav) in a manner 
worthy of the dignity of the word Cosmos in its signification 
of universe, order of the world and adornment of this universal 
order. May the immeasurable diversity of phenomena which 
crowd into the picture of nature in no way detract from that 
harmonious impression of rest andimity, which is the ultimate 
object of every literary or purely artistical composition. 

Beginning with the depths of space and die regions of 
remotest nebulsB, we will gradually descend through the starry 



i. 



DELINEATION OF IfATUBE. 63 

n>ne to which our solar system belongs, to our own terrestrial 
spheroid, circled by air and ocean, there to direct our atten- 
tion to its form, temperature, and magnetic tendon, and to 
consider the fulness of organic life unfoldine itself upon its 
surface beneath the yiyifying influence of Hght. In this 
manner a picture of the world may, with a few strokes, be 
jnade to include the realms of infinity no less than the minute 
microscopic animal and vegetable organisms, which exist in 
standing waters, and on the weather-beaten sur&ce of our 
rocks. All that can be perceived by the senses, and all that 
has been accumulated up to the present day by an attentive 
and variously directed study of nature, constitute the materials 
from which this representation is to be drawn, whose character 
is an evidence of its fidelity and truth. But the descriptive 
picture of nature which we purpose drawing, must not enter 
too fuUy into detail, since a minute enumeration of all vital 
forms, natural objects and processes is not requisite to the 
completeness of me undertaking. The delineator of nature 
must resist the tendency towards endless division, in order to 
avoid the dangers presented hj the very abundance of our 
empirical knowledge. A considerable portion of the quali- 
tative properties of matter — or, to speak more in accordance 
with the language of natural philosophy, of^the qualitative 
expression oi forces — is doubtlessly still unknown to ua; and 
the attempt perfectly to represent unity in diversity must 
therefore necessarily prove unsuccessful. Thus besides the 
pleasure derived from acquired knowledge, there lurks in the 
mind of man, and tinged with a shade of sadness, an unsatis- 
fied longing for something beyond the present-— a striving 
towards regions yet imknown and unopened. Such a sense 
of longing binds still &ster the Hnks which in accordance 
with the supreme laws of our being connect the material with 
the ideal world, and animates the mysterious relation existing 
between that which the mind receives from without, and that 
which it reflects from its own depths to the external world. 
If then nature ^understanding by the term all natural objects 
and phenomena) be illimitable in extent and contents, it like- 
wise presents itself to the human intellect as a problem which 
cannot be grasped, and whose solution is impossible, since it 
xequires a knowledge of the combined action of all natural 
foroes. Such an adoiowledgment is due where the actual 



state and poepective development of plienomena consfitote 
the sole objects of direct investigation, which does not venture 
to depart irom the strict rules of induction. But altboogh. 
Hie incessant cfibrt to embrace nature in its universality may 
remain unsatisfied, the history of the 
univewe (which will be considered in 
work) wiU teach us how, in the course i 
gradually attained to a partial insight it] 
dence of phenomena. My duty is to de 
knowledge in all their bearings with rel 
In all t^t is Bul^ect to motion and < 
ultimate aim, the very expression of 
upon mean nitm^-ical valves; which s 
amid change, and the stable amid ap] 
phenomena. Thus the progress of mo 
a especially characterised by the attain: 
cation of 1^e mean values of certain q' 
the processes of weighing and measuring 
tliat the only remaining and widely 
characters stiU in oiff writing — numbers- 
as powers of the Cosmos, although in a 
applied to them by the Italian School. 
The earnest investigator delights in 
merical relations, indicating the dimeti 
regions, the magnitudes and periodical 
heavenly bodies, the triple elements of i 
tbe mean pressure of the atmosphere, 
heat which the snn imparts in eadi yeai 
of the year, to all points of the solid ant 
planet. These sources of enjoyment do 
the poet of nature, or the mind of the 
Doth of these the present state of aetem 
cow that she answers doubtingly, or i 
answerable, questions, to which formi 
could iumish satis&ctor^ replies. In h 
clothed with less luxuriance, she show 
that seductive charm with which a dog 
Using physical pIuloBophy knew how t 
standing and give the rein to imaginati 
discovery of the new world, it was belie 
the &r West might be seen from the 6 



DELINEATION OP NATUBE. 

and the Azores. These illusive images were owing not to 
extraordinary refraction of the rays of light, but produced 
an eager longing for the distant and die unattained. 
philosophy of the Greeks, the physical views of the mi< 
ages, and even those of a more recent period have I 
eminently imbued with the charm springing from sin 
illusive phantoms of the imagination. At the limits of circ 
scribed knowledge, as from some lofty island shore, the 
delights to penetrate to distant regions. The belief in 
micommon and the wonderful lends a definite outline to e< 
manifestation of ideal creation ; and the realm of fanc^i 
£uTy.land of cosmological, geognostical and magnetic visio?: 
becomes thus involuntarily blended with Qie domau; 
reality. 

Nature, in the manifold signification of the word — ^whc 
considered as the universality of all that is, and ever will : 
as the inner moving force of all phenomena, or as their :i 
terious prototype — ^reveals itself to the simple mind 
feelings of man as something earthly, and closely aUic i 
himself. It is only within ^e animated circles of or[ 
structure that we feel ourselves peculiarly at home. I 
wherever the earth unfolds her fruits and flowers, and ; ; 
food to countless tribes of animals, there the image of n , 
impresses itself most vividly upon our senses. The impre i 
thus produced upon our minds limits itself almost exclus 
to the reflection of the earthly. The starry vault an( 
wide expanse of the heavens, belong to a picture of the 
Terse, in which the magnitude of masses, the numb i 
congregated suns and fiuntly glimmering nebulae, alth i 
they excite our wonder and astonishment, manifest themf ! 
to us in apparent isolation, and as utterly devoid of all 
dence of tiieir being the scenes of oi^anic life. Thus e^ 
the earliest physical views of mankind, heaven and earth : 
been separated and opposed to one another as an uppe 
lower portion of space. If then a picture of nature were t 
respond to the requirements of contemplation by the sen i 
ought to begin with a delineation of our native Earth. It s i 
depict first the terrestrial planet as to its size and forr ; 
increasing density and heat at iucreasing depths in its s 
imposed solid and liquid strata; the separation of se 
land, and the vital forms animating both, developed i 



66 COSMOS. 

cellular tissues of plants and aniTnals ; the atmosphaio ocean 
with its waves and currents, through which pierce the forest* 
crowned summits of our mountain chains. After this delinea^ 
tion of urely telluric relations, the eye would rise to the 
celestial regions, and the Earth would then, as the well-known 
seat of organic development, be considered as a planet, occu* 
pying place in the series of those heavenly bodies which 
circle round one of the innumerable host of self-luminous 
stars. This succession of ideas indicates the course pursued 
in the earliest stages of perceptive contemplation, and reminds 
us of the ancient conception of the ^' sea-girt disc of earth,'' 
supporting the vault of heaven. It be^ns to exercise its 
action at the spot where it originated, and passes from the 
consideration of the known to the unknown, of the near to the 
distant. It corresponds with the method pursued in our 
elementary works on astronomy, (and which u so admirable 
in a mathematical point of view,) of proceeding from the 
apparent to the real movements of the heavenly bodies. 

Another course of ideas must, however, be pursued in a 
work, which proposes merely to give an exposition of what is 
known— of what may in the present state of our knowledge 
be regarded as certain, or as merely probable in a greater or 
lesser degree— -and does not ^iter mto a consideration of the 
proofe on whicJi such results have been based. Here therefore 
we do not proceed from the subjective point of view of human 
interests. The terrestrial must be treated only as a part^ 
subject to the whole. The view of nature ought to be grand 
and fr^e, uninfluenced by motives of proximity, social sym- 
pathy, or relative ut'lKy. A physical cosmography — a picture 
of 'he universe-^ofcs not begin, therefore, with the terrestrial, 
but with that which fills the regions of space. But as the 
sphere of contemplation contracts in dimension our percep* 
tion of the richness of individual parts, the fulness of phy- 
sical phenomena, and of the heterogeneous properties of 
matter becomes enlarged. From the regions in which we 
recognise only the dominion of the laws of attraction, we 
descend to our own planet, and to the intricate play of terres-^ 
trial forces. The method here described for the delineation 
of nature, is opposed to that which must be pursued in esta- 
blishing conclusive results. The one enumerates what tha 
other demonstrates. 



OEZiSSTlAA 9HSV0KEVA* Vf 

Man lesms to know the •xtemal world thMngh tiie oi*ganA 
of the senses. Phenomena of light proclaim the existence of 
matter in remotest space, and the eye is thus made the medium 
through which we may contemplate the universe. The dis- 
covery of telescopic vision more than two centuries ago, has 
tnmsmi^ed to latest generations a power, whose limits fire 
as yet tmattained. 

The first and most general consideration in the Gosmos is that 
of the cotUenU of «pactf ,^«the distribution of matter, or of ctea- 
tion» as we are wont to designate the assemblage of all that iil 
and ever will be developed. We see matter either agglomerated 
into rotating, revolving spheres of different density and sice, 
or scattered through space in the form of self-luminous vapour. 
If we consider first the cosmical vapour dispersed in definite 
nebulous spots, its state of aggregation will appear constantly 
to vary% Sometimes appearing separated into round or ellip- 
tical discs, single or m pairs, occasionally connected by a 
thread of light ; whilst, at another time, these nebulse occur 
in forms of larger dimensions, and are either elongated, or 
variously brandied, or fhn-shaped, or appear like weU-defined 
rings, enclosing a dark interior. It is conjectured that these 
bodies are undergoing variously developed formative processes^ 
as the cosmical vapour becomes condensed in conformity with 
the laws of attraction, either round one or more of the nuclei. 
Between two and three thousand of such unresolvable nebtd®, 
ba which the most powerfbl telescopes have hitherto been 
unable to distinguish the presence of stars, have been counted, 
and their positions determined. 

The genetic evolution—- that perpetual state of development 
which seems to affect this portion of the regions of space— 
ham led philosophical observers to the discovery of the analogy 
cadsting among organic phenomena. As in our forests we see 
the same kind of tree in all the various stages of its growth, 
and are thus enabled to form an idea of progressive, vital 
development ; so do we also in the great garden of the uni- 
verse recognise the most different phases of sidereal formation. 
The process of condensation, which formed a part of the 
doctrines of Anaximenes, and of the Ionian School, appears 
to bd going on before our eyes. This subject of investigation 
Bud conjecture is especially attractive to the imagination, for 
in the study of the animated circles of nature, and of the 

w2 



M ooncoB. 

action of all the moTing forces of the uniTerse, the charm that 
exercises the most powerful influence on the mind is derived 
less from a knowledge of that which is, than frt>m a perception 
of that which tviU be, even though the latter be nothing more 
than a new condition of a known material existence ; for of 
actual creation, of origin, the beginning of existence from 
non-existence, we haye no experience, and can therefore form 
no conception. 

A comparison of the various causes influencing the develop* 
ment manifested by the greater or less degree of condensation 
in the interior of nebulae, no less than a successive course of 
direct observations have led to the belief that changes of 
form have been recognised first in Andromeda, next in the 
constellation Ai^o, and in the isolated filamentous portion of 
the nebula in Onon. But want of uniformity in the power of 
the instruments employed, different conditions of our atmo- 
sphere, and other optical relations, render a part of the results 
invalid as historical evidence. 

Nebulous stars must not be confounded either with irr^^u- 
larly-shaped nebulous spots, properly so called, whose separate 
parts have an imequal degree of brightness (and which may 
perhaps become concentrated into stars as their circumference 
contracts), nor with the so-called planetary nebulae, whose 
circular or slightly oval discs manifest in all their parts a 
perfectly imiform d^ree of faint light. Nebulous stars are 
not merely accidental bodies projected upon a nebulous ground, 
but are a part of the nebulous matter constituting one mass 
with the body which it surrounds. The not unfirequently con- 
siderable magnitude of their apparent diameter, and the 
remote distance from which they are revealed to us, show 
that both the planetary nebulae and the nebtdous stars must 
be of enormous dimensions. New and ingenious considera- 
tions of the different influence exercised by distance* on the 
intensity of light of a disc of appreciable diameter, and of a 
single self-luminous point, render it not improbable, that the 
planetary nebulae are very remote nebulous stars, in which 

*The optical considerations relative to the difference presented by a 
tingle luminous point, and by a disc subtending an appreciable angle, in 
which the intensity of light is constant at every distance, are explained 
in Arago's AncU^ des Travattx de Sir WiUiam Ifersckei, {Annuairj 
du Bureau des Long., 1842, pp. 410-412, and 441.) 



OJBLESTIiiZi PHSVOXSNA. 69 

the difference between the central body and the muTOunding 
nebulous covering can no longer be detected by our telescopic 
instruments. 

The magnificent zones of the southern heayens, between 50^ 
and 80°, are especially rich in nebulous stars, and in com>' 
pressed unresolvable nebuke. The laiger of the two Magel- 
lanic clouds, which circle round the starless, desert pole of the 
South, appears, according to the most recent researches,* as 
*' a collection of clusters df stars, composed of globular clusters 
and nebulae of different magnitude, and of large nebulous spots 
not resolvable, which producing a general brightness in the 
field of view, form as it were the back-ground of the picture." 
The appearance of these clouds, of the brightly beaming con- 
stellation Argo, of the Milky Way between Scorpio, the 
Centaur and the Southern Cross, the picturesque beauty, if 
one may so speak, of the whole expanse of the Southern 
celestial hemisphere, has left upon my mind an ine£bceable 
impression. "Aie zodiacal light which rises in a pyramidal 
form, and constantly contributes, by its mild radiance, to the 
external beauty of the tropical nights, is either a^vast nebulous 
ring, rotating between the Earth and Mars, or, less probably, 
the exterior stratum of the solar atmosphere. Besides these 
luminous clouds and nebulee of definite form, exact and corres- 
ponding observations indicate the existence and the general 
distribution of an apparently non-luminous infinitely-divided 
matter, which possesses a force of resistance, and manifests its 
presence in Encke's, and perhaps also in Biela's comet, by 
diTninialiiTig their eccentricity and shortening their period of 

* The two Magellanic cloudsy Kubeeula nu^or and Knbecula minor, 
are very remarkable objects. The larger of the two is an accamulated 
mass of stars, and consists of clusters of stars of irregular form, either 
conical masses or nebulae of different magnitudes and degrees of con- 
densation. This is interspersed with nebulous spots, not resolvable into 
stars, but which are probably star dust, appearing only as a general 
ndiance upon the telescopic field of a twenty-feet reflector, and forming 
a luminous ground on which other objects of striking and indescribable 
form are scattered. In no^ other portion of the heavens are so many 
nebulous and stellar masses thronged together in an equally small space. 
Kubecula minor is much less beautiful, has more unresolvable nebulous 
Ught, whilst the stellar masses are fewer and fainter in intensity. — (From 
a letter of Sir John Heischel, Feldhuysen, Cape of Good Hope, 18th 
June, 183a.} 



70 CMMDCOi. 

TOToluticm. Of ihif impedin^» etiierial, and eosmioal matter, 
it may be auppost^d that it is in motion; that it gravitates not- 
withstanding its original tenuity ; that it is condensed in the 
Tioioity of the great mass of the Sun ; and finally, that it may, 
for myriads of ages, have been augmented by the vapour 
emanating fixmi the tai]« of comets. 

If we now pass from the consideration of toe vaporous 
matter of the immeasurable r^ons of space (otptmnt x^proi)* — 
whether, scattered without definite form and limits, it exists 
as a cosmical ether, or is condensed into nebulous spots and 
becomes comprised among the solid agglomerated bodies of 
the universe-^we approach a class of phenomena exclusiyely 
designated by the term of stars, or as the sidereal world. 
Here, too, we find differences existing in the solidity or den- 
sity of the spheroidally agglomerated matter. Our own solar 
system presents all stages of mean density (or of the relation 
€i volume to maea). (hi comparing the planets from Mercury 
to Mars with the Sun and with Jupiter, and these two last 
named with the yet inferior density of Saturn, we arriye, bjr a 
descending 8cale,<-»to draw our illustration fix>m terrestrial 
substances, — at the respectiye densities of antimony, honey, 
water, and pine wood. In comets, which actually constitute 
the most considerable portion of bur solar system with respect 
to the number of individual forms, the concentrated part, 
usually termed the head, or nucleus, transmits sidereal light 
unimpaired. The mass of a comet probably in no case equals 
the five thousandth part of that of me earth, so dissimilar are 

* I should have made use, in the place of garden of the nnirersey of 
the beautiful ezpreauon x^proc wpavov, borrowed by Heai^ohius from an 
unknown poet, if x^^oc had not rather signified in general an encloaed 
space. The connexion with the Gennan Qarteti, and the Engliah gar- 
den, garde in Qothic (deriyed, according to Jacob Giinun, from gttir- 
dan, to gird), i&, howeyer^ evident, as is likewise the affinity with 
^e Sclavonic grad, gorod, and as Pott remarks, in his UtsfmoL ^or- 
echvngen, th. 1. s. 144 (EtymoL Besearches), with the Latin thore, 
whence we haye the Spanish corte, the French cour, and the English word 
court, together with the Ossetic hhart. To these may be further added 
the Scandinavian gard^, gdrd, a place enclosed, as a court, or a country 
seat, and the Persian gerd, gird, a district, a circle, a princely country 
seat^ a castle or city, as we find the term applied to the names sf plMos 
in Fiiduai's Schahnameh, as Si^fowakschgwd, Darabgird, &o» 

* [This word is written gaard in the Danish.]— !?h 



CELSSTIAIi PHXVOMEXii 71 

the finrmatiTe prooesses manifested in the original and per* 
liape still progressive agglomerations of matter. In proceed- 
ing fi^m general to special considerations, it was particularly 
desirable to draw attention to this diyersity, not merely as a 
possible, but as an actually proved fiict. 

The purely speculative conclusions arrived at by Wright, 
Kant, and Lambert, concerning the general structural ar- 
rangement of the universe, and of the distribution of matter 
in space, have been oonfinned by Sir William Herschel on 
the more certain path of observation and measurement. That 
great and enthusiastic, although cautious observer, was the 
first to sound the depths of heavmi in order to determine the 
limits and &rm of the starry stratum which we inhabit ; and 
he too was the first who ventured to throw the light of inves- 
tigation upon the relations existing between the position and 
distance of remote nebulsB and our own portion of the sidereal 
universe. WilHam Herschel, as is well expressed in the ele- 
gant inscriptioii on his monument at Upton, broke throueh 
the indosures of heaven {ccdorwn perr%^t claustra)^ and, like 
another Columbus, penetrated into an unknown ocean, from 
which he beheld coasts and groups of islands, whose true posi- 
tion it remains for future ages to determine. 

GooDsiderations regarding the different intensity of light in 
stars, and their relative number, that is to say, their nume- 
rical frequency on telescc^ic fields of equal masnitude, have 
led to the assumption of imequal distances and distribution in 
space in the strata which they compose. Such assumptions, 
in as £ir as they may lead us to draw the limits of the indi- 
vidual povticois of the universe, cannot ofier the same degree of 
mathematical certainty as that which may be attained in all 
that relates to our solar system, whether we consider the 
rotation of double stars with unequal velocity round one com- 
mon centre of gravity, or the apparent or true movements of 
all the heavenly bodies. If we take up the physical descrip* 
tion of the universe from the remotest nebulsB, we may be 
inclined to compare it with the mythical portions of history. 
The one begins in the obscurity of antiquity, the other in that 
of inaccessible space ; and at the point where reality seems to 
flee before us, imagination becomes doubly incited to draw 
from its own fulness, and give definite oatHne and permanence 
to the changing forma of dbjeete. 



72 COSMOS. 

If we compare the regions of the universe with one of the 
island-studded seas of our own planet, we may imagine mat- 
ter to be distributed in groups, either as imresolvable nebulsB 
of different ages, condensed around one or more nuclei, or as 
already agglomerated into clusters of stars, or isolated sphe- 
roidal bodies. The cluster of stars, to which our cosmical 
island belongs, forms a lens-shaped, flattened stratum, detached 
on every side, whose major axis is estimated at seven or 
eight hundred, and its minor one at a hundred and fifty times 
th» distance of Sinus. It would appear, on the supposition 
that the parallax of Sinus is not greater than that accurately 
determined for the brightest star in the Centaur (0'''9128), 
that Kght traverses one distance of Sirius in three years, 
whilst it also follows from Bessel's earKer excellent Memoir* 
on the parallax of the remarkable atar 61 Cygni (0"'3483), 
(whose considerable motion might lead to &e inference of 
great proximity), that a period of nine years and a quarter is 
required for the transmission of light from this star to our 
planet. Our starry stratum is a disc of inconsiderable thick- 
ness, divided a third of its length into two branches ; it is 
supposed that we are near this division, and nearer to the 
region of Sirius than to the constellation Aquila, almost in 
the middle of the stratum in the line of its thickness or minor 
axis. 

This position of our solar system, and the form of the whole 

♦ See Maclear's " Besults fr(m 1839 to 1840," in the Trans, of the 
Astronomical Soc, vol. xii. p. 370, on a Centauri, the probable mean, 
error being 0"*0640. For 61 Cygni, see Bessel, in Schumacher's Jahr- 
buck, 1839, s. 47, and Schumacher's Astron, Nachr,, bd. xviii s. 401, 
402, probable mean error, 0"*0141. With reference to the relative 
distances of stars of different magnitudes, how those of the third mag- 
nitude may probably be three times more remote, and the manner 
in which we represent to ourselves the material arrangement of the 
Btaiiy strata, I have found the following remarkable passage in Kepler's 
Epitome Astronomice Copemicanos, 1618; t. i. lib. 1, p. 84-89 : — 
"Sol hie noster nil cdiud est qiiam una exfixis, nobis major et darior 
visa, quia propior guamjixa. Pone terram stare ad lotus, una semi- 
diametro vice lactece, tunc hoec via lactea apparebit circulus parvus, 
vel ellipsis parva, tota dedinans ad laMs alteram , eritgue simvl uno 
intuitu conspicua, qwz nunc non potest nisi dimidia conoid quotns 
momeTiio. Itaque Jixarum sphcera non tantum orbe steUarum, sed etiam 
circvlo lactis versus nos deorsum est terminata," 




8U>XB2A£ 8TSTBM§b 73 

discoidal stratum, have been inferred firom sidereal scales, that 
is to say, from that method of counting the stars to which I 
have already alluded, and which is based upon the equidis- 
tant subdiyision of the telescopic field of yiew. The relative 
depth of the stratum in all directions is measured by the 
greater or smaller number of stars appearing in each division. 
These divisions give the length of the tay of vision in the same 
manner as we measure the depth to which the pliunmet has 
been thrown, before it reaches the bottom, although in the 
case of a starry stratum there cannot, correctly speaking, be 
any idea of depth, but merely of outer Hmits. In the direc- 
tion of the longer axis, where the stars lie behind one another, 
the more remote ones appear closely crowded tc^ther, united, 
as it were, by a milky- white radiance, or luminous vapour, 
and are perspectively grouped, encircling as in a zone the 
visible vault of heaven. This narrow and branched girdle, 
studded with radiant light, and here and there interrupted by 
dark spots, deviates omy by a few degrees from forming a 
perfect large circle round the concave sphere of heaven, 
owing to our being near the centre of the large starry cluster, 
and almost on the plane of the Milky Way. If our planetary 
system were far outside this cluster, the Milky Way would 
appear to telescopic vision as a ring, and at a still greater 
distance as a resolvable discoidal nebula. 

Amongst the many self-luminous moving suns, erroneously 
called Jixed stars, which constitute our cosmical island, our 
own sun is the only one known by direct observation to 
be a centred hody in its relations to spherical agglomerations 
of matter directly depending upon and revolving round it, 
either in the form of planets, comets, or aerolite-asteroids. 
As ^ as we have hitherto been able to investigate multiple 
stars (double stars or suns), these bodies are not subject, 
with respect to relative motion and illumination, to the same 
planetary dependence that characterizes our own solar system. 
Two or more self-luminous bodies, whose planets and moon, 
if such exist, have hitherto escaped our telescopic powers of 
vision, certamly revolve around one common centre of gravity ; 
but this is in a portion of space which is probably occupied 
merely by imagglomerated matter, or cosmical vapour, whilst 
in our system the centre of gravity is often comprised within 
the innennost limits of a vxsible central body. If, therefore. 



M 

ve regard the Sun and the Eardi, or th 
aa double stars, and the whole of onr 
as a multiple cluster of stars, the ai 
must be limited te the umyersality of 
in different systems, being alike applies 
processes of Ught and to the method of 

For the genemlizatioii of connioal 
with the plan we hare proposed to follt 
tion of nature or of the uniTerse, the i 
the Earth belongs may be considered 
firstly, with respect to the diBerent i 
agglomerated matter, and the relatii 
density, and distance of the heavenly 1 
and secondly, with reference to oth^ 
duster, and of the <dutngee of podtion < 
Sun. 

The tolar nrstem, that is to say, the t 
circling round the Snn, consists accord! 
of oar knowledge oi eleven primary plam 

[Slnee tb« pabllcaticn'of Buon Hmnboli 
oUier piameti baT« been diaooTered, making 
loagiog to oar ptanetary sysievi tiaeen ins 
Afitrea, Hebe, Flora, and Iria are meffibera o 
asteroids betweeii Mars and Jupiter. Astrea 
by Hencke at Driesen, the one in 1848 and 
and Iiii were both discovered in 18*7 b; Mr, 
Obaerratotj, Regent's Part It nonld appea: 
nations aS their elements, that the muiU p 
order with respect fo mean distance from thi 
Hebe, Astrea, Juno, Ceres, Pallaa. Of these, T 
(abont Sijeara). The piaaet Neptune, which a 
b; sereral astrraiomeis was aclnally observed • 
1846, is situated on the conflnce of onr planeta 
The diacoverjof thia planet is not ooJj highl; 
portance attached to it as a question of science, 
it aSbrda of the care and unremitting labour 
nomers in the investigation and comparJBOn 
and the ingeoioua application of the resnlts tl 
Tation of new bds. The merit of baviDg pi 
eoverj of the planet Heptane is due to M. Be 
rering and asaidnous efforts to deduce the en 
observations made during the forty yeara tha 
of that planet in 1T81, found the results yield< 
■nee with fact, in a degree that had no paratl 



FLAKETAmU 8T8TEMS« 75 

or floocMndaiy planet»— and myriads of cometa, thiee of whieh, 
known as me *^ planetary comets," do not pass b^ond tiio 
narrow limits of the orbits described by tiie principal planets. 
We may, with no inconsiderable degree of probability, include 
within the domain of oxir Smi, in ti^e immediate sphere of its 
central foroe, a rotating ring of Taporous matter, lying pro« 
bably between the orbits of Venns and Man, but certainly 

iMony, This sUrtliiig diaarepsaqrj whieh seemed only to gshi additlonsl 
weight fipom eyeiy attempt made by M. BouTard to correct his calcula- 
tioDfi^ led LcTerrier, after a careful modi^cation of the tables of Boayard^ 
to establish the proposition that there was " a formal incompatibility be- 
tween the obseryed motions of Uranns and the hypotheslB that he was 
acted OB tmly by the Son and known planets, according to the law of 
universal grayitation." Porsniog this idea, Leyerrier arriyed at the 
ooDohiflioa thaJt the disturbing cause must be a vlanet, and finally, after 
an amount of labour that seems perfectly oyerwhelming, he, on the Slst 
of August, 1846, laid before the French Institute a paper, in which he 
indicated the exMst spot hi the heayens where this new planetary body 
would be found, giying tbe following data for its yarious elements : 
Bssn diaUnce ftom the Sun, 86*154 times that of the Earth; period of 
reyolution, 217'387 yean; mean long., Jan. Ist^ 1847, 818^ 47'; maai^ 
^l heliocentric long., Jan. 1, 1847, 826'' 82'. Essential difficulties 
stib interyened, howeyer, andas the remoteness of the planet rendered 
it improbable that its diso would be discernible by any telescopic instru- 
ment, no other means remained for detecting the suspected body but its 
planetaiy motion, which could only be ascertained by mapping, after 
eyeiy obeeryation, the quarter of the heayens scanned, and by a com- 
panson of the yarious nu^is. Fortunately for the yerification of Le- 
yetrier's predictions, Br. Bremiker had just completed a map of the 
preoiae r^on in which it was expected the new planet would appear, 
this being one of a series of maps made for the Academy of Berlin, of 
the small stars along tbe entire zodiac By means of this yaluable 
airifrfsniri Br. Galle, of the Berlin Obseryatoiy, was led, on the 25th of 
September, 1846, by the discoyery of a star of the eighth magnitude, not 
reo(»rded in Br. Bremiker's map, to make the first obeeryation of the 
planet predioted by Leyerrier. By a singular coincidence, Mr. Adams 
of C^bridgo> had predicted the appearance of the planet simultaneously 
with M. Leyerrier ; but by the concurrence of seyenu circumstances mudh 
to be r^pretted, the world at large were not made acquainted with Mr. 
Adams* yaluable discoyeiy until subsequently to the period at which 
Leyerrier puhUshed his obseryations. As the data of Leyerrier and 
Adams stand at present there is a discrepancy between the predicted 
and the true distance, and in some other elements of the planet ; 
it remains, therefore, for these or future astronomers to reconcile theory 
with fact, or perhaps, as in the case of Uranus, to make tbe new planet 
the means of leading to yet greater diseoyeries. It would appear from 



76 COSMOS. 

beyond that of the Earth,* which appears to us in a pyramidtl 
form, and is known as the Zodiacal Light \ and a host of very 
small asteroids, whose orbits either intersect, or very nearly 
approach that of our earth, and which present us with the 
phenomena of aerolites and falling or shooting stars. When 
we consider the compKcation of variously formed bodies which 
revolve round the Sun in orbits of such dissimilar eccentricity 
— although we may not.be disposed, with the immortal author 
of the Micanique Celeste, to regard the larger number of comets 
as nebiilous stars, passing from one central system to another ,f 
we yet cannot fail to acknowledge that the planetary system, 
especially so called, (that is, the group of heavenly bodies 
which, together with their satellites, revolve with but slightly 
eccentric orbits round the Sun,) constitutes but a small por- 
tion of the whole system with respect to individual numben» 
if not to mass. 

It has been proposed to consider the telescopic planets, 
Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, with their more closely inter- 
secting, inclined, and eccentric orbits, as a zone of separation, 
or as a middle group in space ; and if this view be adopted, we 
shall discover that the interior planetary group (consisting of 
Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars,) presents several very 
striking contrasts| when compared with the exterior group, 
comprising Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The planets nearest 

the most recent observations^ that the mass of Neptune, instead^ of 
being, as at first stated, ^, \a only about ^J^o ^^t of the Sun, whilst 
its periodic time is now given with a greater probability at 166 years, 
and its mean distance from the Sun nearly 30. The planet appears to 
have a ring, but as yet no accurate observations have been made regard- 
ing its system of satellites. See Trans, Astron. Soc, and The Planet 
Neptune, 1848, by J. P. NichoU.]— 2V. 

* " If there should be molecules in the zones difinsed by the atmo- 
sphere of the Sun of too volatile a nature either to combine with one 
another or with the pluiets, we must suppose that they would in circling 
round that luminary present all the appearances of zodiacal light, with- 
out opposing any appreciable resistance to the different bodies com- 
posing the planetary system, either owing to their extreme rarity, or 
to the similarity existing between their motion and that of the planets 
with which they come in contact." — Laplace, Mxpos. du Syat du Monde, 
(ed. 5.) p. 416. 

t Laplace, Bxp, du Syst. du Monde, pp. 396, 414. 

t Littrow, Aatronomie, 1825, bd. xi. § 107. M^er, Aeirork 
1841, § 212. Laplacoi JSkq^. du Syst, du Monde, p. 210^ 



PLAinSTABT 8TSTEHS. 77 

the Sun, and consequently included in the inner group, are 
of more moderate size, denser, rotate more slowly and with 
nearly equal velocity, (their periods of revolution being almost 
all about 24 hours,) are less compressed at the poles, and, with 
the exception of one, are without satellites. The exterior 
planets, which are further removed from the Sun, are very 
considerably larger, have a density five times less, more than 
twice as great a velocity in the period of tiieir rotation 
round their axes, are more compressed at the poles, and if 
six satellites may be ascribed to Uranus, have a quantitative 
preponderance in the number of their attendant moons, which 
is as seventeen to one. 

Such general considerations regarding certain chaiacteristio 
properties appertaining to whole groups, cannot, however, be 
applied with equal justice to the individual planets of every 
group ; nor to the relations between the distances of the re- 
volving planets from the central body, and their absolute size, 
density, period of rotation, eccentricity, and the inclination of 
their orbits and the axes. We know as yet of no inherent 
necessity, no mechanical natural law, similar to the one 
which teaches us that the squares of the periodic times are 
proportional to the cubes of the major axes, by which the 
above-named six elements of the planetary bodies and the 
form of their orbit are made dependent either on one another, 
or on their mean distance from the Sun. Mars is smaller 
than the Earth and Venus, although further removed from the 
Sun than these last-named planets ; approaching most nearly 
in size to Mercury, the nearest planet to the Sun. Saturn is 
smaller than Jupiter, and yet much larger than Uranus. The 
zone of the telescopic planets, which have so inconsiderable a 
volume, immediately precede Jupiter, (the greatest in size of 
any of the planetary bodies,) if we consider them with regard 
to distance from me Sun ; and yet the discs of these small 
asteroids, which scarcely ad^t of measurement, have an areal 
8ur£Eice not much more than half that of France, Madagascar, 
or Borneo. However striking may be the extremely small 
density of aU the colossal planets, which are furthest removed 
from the Sun, we are yet unable in this respect to recognise any 
regular succession.* Uranus appears to be denser than Saturn, 

* See Kepler^ on the increasing density and volnmeof the planets in 
proportion with their increase of distance from the Son, which is described 



76 cosxoi. 

even if we adopt the smaller nuuM, Tiirt* assumed by Lamont ; 
and notwithstanding the inconsiderable difference of density 
observed in the innermost planetary group,"^ we find both 
Venus and Mars less dense than the Earth, which lies between 
them . The time of rotation certainly diminishes with increasing 
solar distance, but yet it is greater in Mars than in the Earth, 
and in Saturn than in Jupiter. The elliptic orbits of Juno, 
Pallas, and Mercury, have the greatest degree of eccentricity, 
and Mars and Venus, which immediately follow each other, 
have the least. Mercury and Venus euubit the same con- 
trasts that may be observed in the iova smaller planets, or 
asteroids, whose paths are so closely interwoven. 

The eccentricities of Juno and FaUas are very nearly iden- 
tical, and are each three times as great as those of Geres and 
Vesta. The same may be said of tiie inclination of the orbits 
of the planets towards the plane of projection of the ecliptic, 
or in the position of their axes of rotation with relation to 
their orbits, a position on which the relations of climate, 
seasons of the year, and length of the days depend more than 
on eccentricity. Those planets that have the most elongated 
elliptic orbits, as Juno, Pallos, and Mercury, have also, 
although not to the same degree, their orbits most strongly 
inclined towards the ecliptic. Pallas has a comet-like indi- 
nation nearly twenty-six times greater than that of Jupiter, 
whilst in the little planet Vesta, which is so near Pallas, the 
angle of inclination scarcely by six times exceeds that of Jupiter. 
An equally irregular succession is observed in the position of 
the axes of the few planets (four or five) whose planes of 
rotation we know with any degree of certainty. It would ap- 
pear from the position of, the satellites of Uranus, two of which, 
the second and fourth, have been recently observed with cer- 
tainty, that the axis of this, the outermost of all the planets, is 
scarcely inclined as much as 1 1° towards the plane of its orbit, 
while Batum is placed between this planet, whose axis almost 

as the densest of all the heayenly bodies; in the Epitome Astron, Co- 
pern, in yii. libroa digesta, 1618-1622, p. 420. Leibnits also inclined 
to the opinions of Kepler and Otto von Guericke, that the planets in- 
crease in rolume in proportion to their Increase of distance from the Sun. 
See his letter to the Magdeburg Burgomaster (Mayence, 1671), ia 
Leibnitz, Deuiachen Schriften, herausg, von Ouhrauer, th. i. § 264. 

* On the arrangement of maaMB. see Encke, in Schtmu ABft. Nnickr. 
1848, Nr. 488, 1 114. 



PXANSTABT SYSTEMS. 71 

coincides wiHi the plane of its orbit, and Jupiter, whose axis 
of rotation is nearly perpendicular to it. 

in this enumeration of the forms which compose the world 
in spaoe, we have delineated them as possessing an actual ex- 
istence, and not as objects of intellectual contemplation, or as 
mere links of a mental and causal chain of connexion. The 
planetary system in its relations of absolute sise, and relative 
position of the axes, density, time of rotation, and different 
degrees of eccentricity of the orbits, does not appear to offer 
to onr apprehenaon any stronger eridence of a natural neces- 
sity than the proportion obs^ed in the distribution of land 
and water on the Earth, the configuration of continents, or 
the height of mountain chains. In these respects we can dis- 
cover no common law in the regions of space or in the ine- 
qualities of the earth's crust, ^ey axe facts in nature, that 
have arisen from the conflict of manifold forces acting under 
unknown conditions; although man considers as accidenUd 
whatever he is unable to explain in the planetary formation on 
purely genetic principles. If the planets have been formed 
out <a separate rings of Yaporous matter revolying round the 
Sun, we may conjecture that the different thickness, unequal 
density, temperature, and electro-magnetic tension of these 
rings may have given occasion to the most various agglomera« 
tions of matter, in the same manner as the amount of tangential 
Telocity and small variations in its direction have produced 
so great a difference in the forms and indumtions of the 
elliptic orbits. Attractions of mass and laws of gravitation 
hare no doubt exercised an infiuence here, no less than in the 
gec^nostic relations of the elevations of continents ; but we 
are unable firom present forms to draw any conclusions regard- 
ing the series of conditions through whidi they have passed. 
Even the so-called law of the distances of the planets firom the 
Sun, the law of progression, (which led Kepler to conjec- 
ture the existence of a planet supplying the link that was 
wanting in the chain of connexion between Mars and Jupiter) 
has been foimd numerically inexact for the distances between 
Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, and at variance with the con- 
ceptian of a seri^ owing to the necessity for a supposition in 
the case of the first member. 

The hitherto discovered principal planets that revolve round 
our Sun, are attended certainly by fourteen, and probably 



80 COSMOS. 

by eighteen secondary planets (moons or satellites). The 
principal planets are merefore themselves the central bodies 
of subordinate systems. We seem to recognise in the fabric 
of the universe the same process of arrangement so frequently 
exhibited in the development of organic life, where we find in 
the manifold combinations of groups of plants or animals, the 
same typical form repeated in the mbordinate classes. The 
secondary planets or satellites are more frequent in the ex- 
ternal region of the planetary system, lying beyond the inter- 
secting orbits of the smaller phmets or asteroids ; in the inner 
region none of the planets are attended by satellites, with the 
exception of the Earth, whose moon is relatively of great 
magnitude, since its diameter is equal to a fourth of that of 
the Earth; whilst the diameter of the largest of all known 
secondary planets — ^the sixth satellite of Saturn — \& probably 
about one-seventeenth, and the largest of Jupiter^s moons, 
the third, only about one twenty-sixQi part that of the primary 
planet or central body. The planets which ore attended l^ 
the largest number of satellites are most remote from the 
Sun, and are at the same time the largest, most compressed 
at the poles, and the least dense. According to the most 
recent measurements of Madler, Uranus has a greater plane- 
tary compression than any other of the planets, viz. -g.-^. In 
our Earth and her moon, whose mean distance from one 
another amounts to 207,200 miles, we find that the differences 
of mass* and diameter between the two are much less con- 
siderable than are usually observed to exist between the 
principal planets and their attendant satellites, or between 
bodies of different orders in the solar system. Whilst the 
density of the Moon is five-ninths less than that of the Earth, 
it would appear, if we may sufficiently depend upon the 
determinations of their magnitudes and masses, tiiat the 

* If, according to Burckhardt's determination, the Moon's radius be 
0*2725 and its Yolume j^ , its density will be 0*5596, or nearly five- 
ninths. Compare also Wilh. Beer und H. M&dler, der Mond, § 2, 10, 
and Mttdler, Ast., § 157. The material contents of the Moon are, 
according to Hansen, nearly J, (and according to Madler ^.g) that of 
the Earth; and its mass equal to ^^ that of the Earth In the laigest 
of Jupiter's moons, the third, the relations of volume to the central body 
are ^^ ; and of mass xijoo* ^^ the polar flattening of Uranus, see 
Schum. Astron, Nachr., 1844, l^r. 498. 



PLAKSTAST 8T8TXM8. 81 

lecond of Jupiter's moons is actually denser tlian that great 
planet itself. Amongst the fourteen satellites, that have been 
investigated with any degree of certainty, the system of the 
seven satellites of Saturn presents an instance of the greatest 
possible contrast, both in absolute magnitude, and in distance 
from the central body. The sixth of these satellites is probably 
not much smaller than Mars, whilst our moon has a diameter 
which does not amount to more than half that of the latter 
planet. With respect to volume, the two outer, the sixth 
and seventh of Saturn's satellites, approach the nearest to the 
third and brightest of Jupiter's moons. The two innermost 
of these satellites belong perhaps, together with the remote 
moons of Uranus, to the smallest cosmical bodies of our solar 
system, being only made visible under favourable circum- 
stances by the most powerful instruments. They were first 
discovered by the forty-foot telescope of WiUiam Herschel 
in 1789, and were seen again by John Herschel at the Cape 
of Good Hope, by Vico at Rome, and by Lament at Munich. 
Determinations of the true diameter of satellites, made by the 
measurement of the apparent size of their small discs, are sub- 
jected to many optical difficiilties ; but numerical astronomy, 
whose task it is to predetermine by calculation the motions 
of the heavenly bodies as they will appear when viewed from 
the Earth, is directed almost exclusively to motion and mass, 
and but Kttle to volume. The absolute distance of a satellite 
from its central body is greatest in the case of the outermost 
or seventh satellite of Saturn, its distance from the body 
round which it revolves amounting to more than two millions 
of miles, or ten times as great a distance as that of our moon 
frt)m the Earth. In the case of Jupiter we find that the 
outermost or fourth attendant moon is only 1,040,000 miles 
from that planet, whilst the distance between Uranus and its 
sixth satellite (if the latter really exist) amoimts to as much 
as 1,360,000 miles. If we compare, in each of these subordi- 
nate systems, the volume of the main planet with the distance 
of the orbit of its most remote satellite, we discover the exis- 
tence of entirely new numerical relations. The distances of 
the outermost satellites of Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter are, 
when expressed in semi-diameters of the main planets, as 
91, 64, and 27. The outermost satellite of Saturn appears, 
therefore! to be removed only about one-fifteenth further from 



82 COBHOS. 

the centre of tliat planet ttan our moon is from ilie Earih. 
The first or innermost of Saturn's satellites is nearer to its 
central body than any other of the secondary planets, and pre- 
sents moreover the only instance of a period of revolution of 
less than twenty-four hours. Its distance from the centre of 
Saturn nuiy, according to Madler and Wilhelm Beer, be ex- 
pressed as 2-47 semi-diameters of that planet, or as 80,088 
miles. Its distance from the surfece of the main planet is 
therefore 47,480 males, and from the outermost edge of the 
ring only 4916 miles. The traveller may fimn to himself an 
estimate of the smalln^s of this amount by remembering the 
statement of an enferprisii^ navigator. Captain Beechey, that 
he had in three years passed over 72,800 miles. If instead of 
absolute distances we take the semi-diameters of the principal 
planets, we shall find that even the first or nearest of the 
moons of Jupiter (which is 26,000 miles further removed 
bom the centre of that planet than our moon is from that of 
the Earth) is only six semi-diameters of Jupiter from its centre, 
whilst our moon is removed from us fully 60^ semi-diameters 
of the Earth. 

In the subordinate sj^tems of satellites we find that &e 
same laws of gravitation which regulate the revolutions of 
the principal planets round the Sun, likewise govern the 
mutual relations existing between these planets among one 
another, and with reference to their atteniWt satellites. Hie 
twelve moons of Saturn, Jupiter, and the Earth, all move like 
the primary planets from west to east, and in elliptic orbits, 
deviating but little from circles. It is only in the case of our 
moon, and perhaps in that of the first and innermost of the 
satellites of Saturn (0*0681 that wo discover an eccentricity 
greater than that of Jupiter ; according to the very esact 
observations of Bessel, the eocentricityof the sixth of Saturn's 
satellites (0029) exceeds that of the Earth, Ontheextremest 
limits of Uie planetary system, where, at a distance nineteen 
times greater than that of our Earth, the centripetal force of 
the Sun is greatly diminished, the satellites of Uranus (which 
have certainly been but imperfectly investigated) exhibit the 
most strikii^ contrasts from the facts observed with regard to 
other secondary planets. Instead, as in all other satellites, of 
havmg their orbila but slightly inclined towards the ecKptic, 

ftnil (rxcit (iTCpntinn- even SntiiVn'M rinv. whii-Ti msvlw mimrAeii 



PLAKETABY STSTfiXS* 88 

as a fusion of agglomerated satellites) moving firom west to 
east, the satellites of Uranus are almost perpendicular to the 
ecliptic, and move retrogressively from east to west, as Sir 
John Herschel has proved by observations continued during 
many years. If the primary and secondary planets have been 
formed by the condensation of rotating rings of solar and 
planetary atmospheric vapour, there must have existed singular 
causes of retardation or impediment in the vaporous rings 
revolving roimd Uranus, by which, und^ relations with which 
we are imacquainted, the revolution of the second and fourth 
of its satellites was made to assume a direction opposite to 
that of the rotation of the central planet. 

It seems highly probable that vie period of rotation of all 
secondary planets is equal to that of their revolution round 
the main planet, and therefore that they always present to the 
latter the same side. Inequalities, occasioned by slight vari- 
ations in the revolution, ^ve rise to fluctuations of from 
6* to 8^, or to an apparent hbration in longitude as well as in 
latitude. Thus, in tne case of our moon, we sometimes obsei-ve 
more than the half of its surface, the eastern and northern 
edges being more visible at one time, and the western or 
southern at another. By means of this libration* we are 
enabled to see the annular moimtain Malapert (which occa- 
sionally conceals the Moon's south pole), the arctic landscape 
round the crater of Gioja, and the large gray plane near 
Endymion, which exc€;eds in superficial extent the Mare 
Vaporum, Three-sevenths of the Moon's surface are entirely 
concealed from our observation, and must always remain so, 
unless new and unexpected disturbing causes come into play. 
These oosmical reladons involuntarily remind us of nearly 
mmilar conditions in the intellectual world, where, in the 
dcto^ of deep research into the mysteries and the primeval 
creative forces of nature, there are regions similarly turned 
away from us, and apparently unattainable, of which only a 
narrow margin has revealed itself, for thousands of years, to 
the human mind, appearing, from time to time, either glim- 
mering in true or delusive light. We have hitherto con- 
sidered the primary planets, their satellites, and the concentric 

* Beer and mAiet, op. cit., § 185, s. 208, and § 847, s. 832 ; and iu 
their Phys, Kenntniss der himnU KOrper, s. 4 imd 69, Tab. 1. (Pby* 
deal Histoiy of the Heavenly Bodies.) 

o2 



84 cosKos. 

rings which belong to one at least of the outermost planets, 
as products of tangential force, and as closely connected 
together by mutual attraction ; it, therefore, now only re- 
mains for us to speak of the unnumbered host of comets which 
constitute a portion of the cosmical bodies revolying in inde- 
pendent orbits round the Sun. If we assume an equable 
distribution of their orbits, and the limits of their perihelia, 
or greatest proximities to the Sim, and the possibility of their 
remaining inyisible to the inhabitants of the Earth, and base 
our estimates on the rules of the calculus of probabilities, we 
shall obtain as the result an amount of myriads perfectly 
astonishing. Kepler, with his usual animation of expression, 
said, that there were more comets in the regions of space than 
fishes in the depths of ocean. As yet, however, there are 
scarcely one hundred and fifty, whose paths have been calcu- 
lated, i£ we may assume at six or seyen hundred the number 
of comets, whose appearance and passage through known 
constellations have been ascertained by more or less precise 
observations. Whilst the so-called classical nations of the 
west, the Greeks and Romans, although they may occasionally 
have indicated the position in which a comet first appeared, 
never afford any information regarding its apparent path, the 
copious literature of the Chinese (who observed nature care- 
fully, and recorded with accuracy what they saw) contains 
circumstantial notices of the constellations through which each 
comet was observed to pass. These notices go back to more 
than five hundred years before the Christian era, and many of 
them are stiU found to be of value in astronomical observa- 
tions.* 

* The first comets of whose orbits we have any knowledge, and which 
were calculated from Chinese observations, are those of 240 (under 
Gordian III.), 539 (imder Justinian), 565, 568, 574, 837, 1337, and 
1385. See John Russell Hind in Schum. Astr. Nachr., 1843. Ko. 498. 
Whilst the comet of 837 (which, according to du Sejour, continued during 
24 hours within a distance of 2,000,000 miles from the Earth) terrified 
Louis I. of France to that degree, that he busied himself in building 
churches and founding monastic establishments, in the hope of ap- 
peasing the evils threatened by i^ appearance, the Chinese astrono- 
mers made observations on the path of this cosmical body, whose tail 
extended over a space of 60% appearing sometimes single and some- 
times multiple. The first comet that has been calculated solely from 
European observations was that of 1456, known as Halley's comet, from 
the beUef long, but erroneously entertained, that the period whoi 



001CBT8. 85 

Although comets have a smaller mass than any other cos- 
mical bodies — ^being, according to our present knowledge, 
probably not equal to T^nnr P*^ ^^ ^® Earth's mass — ^yet they 
occupy the largest space, as their tails in several instances 
extend over many millions of miles. The cone of luminous 
vapour which radiates from them has been foimd, in some 
cases (as in 1680 and 181 1), to equal tlie length of the Earth's 
distance from the Sim, forming a line that intersects both the 
orbits of Venus and Mercury. It is even probable that the 
vapour of the tails of comets mingled with our atmosphere in 
the years 1819 and 1823. 

Comets exhibit such diversities of form, which appear rather 
to appertain to the individual than the class, that a description 
of one of these " wandering light-clouds," as they were 
already called by Xenophanes and Theon of Alexandria, 
contemporaries of Pappus, can only be applied with caution 
to another. The £untest telescopic comets are generally 
devoid of visible tails, and resemble Herschers nebiilous stars. 
They appear like circular nebulse of £dntly- glimmering 
vapour, with the light concentrated towards the middle. 
This is the most simple type; but it cannot, however, be 
regarded as rudimentary, since it might equally be the type 
of an older cosmica^ body, exhausted by exhalation. In the 
larger comets we may distinguish both the so-called " head " 
or " nucleus," and the single or multiple tail, which is charac- 
teristically denominated by tlie Chinese astronomers '* the 
brash." {sui.) The nucleus generally presents no definite out- 
line, although, in a few rare cases, it appears like a star of the 
first or second magnitude, and has even been seen in bright 
sunshine;^ as, for instance, in the large comets of 1402, 1532, 
1577, 1744, and 1843. lliis latter circumstance indicates, in 
particular individuals, a denser mass, capable of reflecting 
light with greater intensity. Even in Herschel's large tele- 
it was first obaerved by that astronomer was its first and only well 
attested appearance, 8ee Arago, in the Annuaire, 1836, p. 204, and 
Laugier, Comptes rendus des JSiances de I'Acad., 1843, t. xvi. 1006. 

* Arago, Annuaire, 1832, pp. 209, 211. The phenomenon of the tail 
of a comet being visible in bright sunshine, which is recorded of the 
comet of 1402, occurred again in the case of the large comet of 1843, 
whose nucleus and tail were seen in Korth America, on tlie 28th 
of February (according to the testimony of J. G. Clarke, of Portland, 



86 001X00. 

scope only two comets, that discoyered in Sicily, in 1807, and 
the splendid one of 1811, exhibited well-defined discs ;* the 
one at an angle of 1", and the other at 0"*77, whence the true 
diameters are assumed to be 536 and 428 miles. The dia- 
meters of the less well defined nuclei of -the comets of 1798 
and 1805 did not appear to exceed 24 or 28 miles. 

In several comets that have been investigated with great 
care, especially in the above-named Qne of 1811, which con- 
tinued visible ior so long a period, the nucleus and its nebulous 
envelope were entirely separated from the tail by a darker 
space. The intensity of light in the nucleus of comets does 
not augment towards the centre in any uniform degree; 
brightly shining zones being in many cases separated by 
concentric nebulous envelopes. The tails sometimes appear 
single, sometimes, although more rarely, double ; and in the 
comets of 1807 and 1843 the branches were of difierent 
lengths ; in one instance (1744) the tail had six branches, the 
whole forming an angle of 60^. The tails have been some- 
times straight, sometimes curved, either towards both sides, 
or towards the side appearing to us as the exterior (as in 
1811), or convex towards the direction in which the comet is 
moving (as in that of 1618) ; and sometimes the tail has even 
appeared like a flame in motion. The tails ar^ always turned 
away from the sun, so that their line of prolongation passes 
through its centre ; a fact which, according to Edward Biot, 
was noticed by the Chinese astronomers as early as 837, but 
was first generally made known in Europe by Fracastoro and 
Peter Apian, in the sixteenth century. These emanations may 
be regarded as conoidal envelopes of greater or less thickness, 

State of Maine), between 1 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon.* The distance 
of the very dense nucleus from the sun's light admitted of being 
measured with much exactness. The nucleus and tail appeared like a 
very pure white cloud, a darker 8pa<;e interrening between the tali and 
the nucleus. (Amer, Joum, of Science, yol. xlv. No. 1., p. 229.) 

* [The translator was at New Bedford, Massachusetts, U. S., on the 28th 
February, 1843, and distinctly saw the comet, between 1 and 2 in the 
afternoon. The sky at the time was intensely blue, and the sun shining 
with a dazriing brightness unknown in European climates.]— TV. 

♦ Phil Trana. for 1808, Part II. p. 165, and for 1812, Part I. p. 118. 
The diameters found by Herschel for the nuclei were 588 and 428 
English miles. For the magnitudes of the comets of 1798 and ISOS 
see ArugOy Annuaim, 1832, p. 208. 



OOSOHHU 87 

and wmmdered in this maimery fhey fonuBh a ample expUu 
natian of many of the remarkable optical phenomena ahready 
spoken of. 

Comets are not only characterifiticaUy different in form, 
some being entirely wimout a vifiible tail, whilst others have a 
tail of immense length (as in the instance of the comet of 
1618, whose tail measured 104°), but we also see the same 
comets undergoing successive and rapidly changing processes 
of configuration. These Tariations of form have been most 
accurately and admirably described in the comet of 1744, by 
Hensius, at St. Petersburgh, and in Halley's comet, on its 
last reappearance in 1835, by Bessel, at Konigsberg. A more 
or less well-defined tuft of rays emanated from l£at part of 
the nucleus which was turned towards the Sun ; and the rays 
being bent backwards, formed a part of the tail. The nucleus 
of Halley's comet, wilji its emanations, presented the appear- 
ance of a burning rocket, the end of which was turned side- 
ways by the force of the wind. The rays issuing from the 
head were seen by Arago and myself, at the Observatory at 
Paris, to assume very different forms on successive nights.* 
The great Konigsberg astronomer concluded from many 
measurements, and from theoretical considerations, " that the 
cone of light issuing from the comet deviated considerably 
both to the right and the left of the true direction of the Sim, 
but that it always returned to that direction, and passed over 
to the opposite side, so that both the cone of light and the 
body of tne comet from whence it en>anated, experienced a 
rotatory, or rather a vibratory motion, in the plane of the 
orbit." He finds that " the attractive force exercised by the 
Sun on heavy bodies, is inadequate to explain such vibra* 
tions, and is of opinion that they indicate a polar force, which 
turns one semi-diameter of the comet towards the Sun, and 
strives to turn the opposite side away from that luminary. 
The magnetic polarity possessed by the Earth, may present 
some analogy to this ; and, should the Sun have an opposite 
polarity, an influence might be manifested, resulting in the 
precession of the equinoxes." This is not the place to enter 

* Arago, i>e» cfumgevnents pkysigues de la GonUte de ff alley du 
16-23 OcL, 1886. Annuaire, 1886, pp. 218, 221. The ordinary 
direction of the exoanatioiifl was noticed even in Nero's time. " Cotim 
fudiot iolU ejguffimi** Seneoa^ J^aL Qucdst*, vlt 20. 



88 008M08. 

more fully upon the grounds on wbich explanations of tliiii 
sdbject have been based; but observations so remarkable,* 
and views of so exalted a character, regarding the most won- 
derful class of the oosmical bodies belonging to our solar system, 
ought not to be entirely passed over in this sketch of a general 
picture of nature. 

Although as a rule the tails of comets increase in magnitude 
and brilliancy in the vicinity of the sun, and are directed 
away from that central body, yet the comet of 1 823 offered the 
remarkable example of two tails, one of which was turned 
towards the sun, and the other away frt)m it, forming with 
each other an angle of 160^. Modifications of polarity and 
the unequal manner of its distribution, and of the direction 
in which it is conducted, may in this rare instance haye 
occasioned a double, imdiecked, continuous emanation of 
nebulous matter.f 

Aristotle, in his Natural Philosophy, makes these emana- 
tions the means of bringing the phenomena of comets into a 
singular connection wit£ the existence of the Milky Way, 
According to his views, the innumerable quantity of stars 
which (impose this stairy zone give out a self-luminous, in- 
candescent matter. The nebulous belt which separates the 
different portions of the vault of heaven, was, therefore, 
regarded by the Stagirite as a large comet, the substance of 
which was incessantly being renewed.]: 

* Bessel, in Schumacher, AH. Nachr., 1836, Nr. 300-802, s. 188, 
192, 197, 200, 202, und 230. Also in Schmnacher, Jahrb,, 1837, s. 149, 
168. William Herschel, In his observations on the beautiful comet of 
1811, belieyed that he had discoyered evidences of the rotation of the 
nucleus and tail (Phil, Trans, for 1812, Part I., p. 140). Dunlop, at 
Paramatta, thought the same with reference to the third comet of 1825. 

t Bessel, in AH, Nachr,, 1836, No. 302, s. 231. Schum., Jahrb. 
1887, B. 175. See also Lehioann, lleber Cometenachweffe (On tiie Tails 
of Comets), in Bode, Astron. Jahrh./Ur 1826, s. 168. 

t Aristot Meteor,, I 8, 11-14, nnd 19-21 (ed. Ideler, t i., pp. 82-84). 
Biese, Phil, dea Ariitotelea, bd. ii. s. 86. Since Aristotle ezeixiised so 
great an influence throughout the whole of the middle ages, it is veiy 
much to be regretted that he was so averse to those grander views of 
the elder Pythagoreans, which inculcated ideas so nearly approximating 
to truth, respecting the structure of the universe. He asserts that 
comets are transitory meteors belonging to our atmosphere, in the ver^ 
book in which he cites the opinion of the Pythagorean school, according 
to whieh.thfioe oosmioal bodto ar« sappoied to be plaiMti^ having long 



90 OOSXOi. 

encing any deflection during its passage*^ If mch an absence 
of relucting power must be ascribed to the nucleus of a comet, 
we can scarcely regard the matter composing comets as a 
gaseous fluid. The question here arises, whether this absence 
of refractine power may not be owing to the extreme tenuity 
of the fluid ? or does the comet consist of separated particles, 
constituting a cosmical stratum of clouds, which, like the 
clouds of our atmosphere, that exercise no influence on the 
zenith distance of the stars, does not |iffect the ray of light 
passing through it ? In the passage of a comet over a star, a 
more or less considerable diminution of light has often been 
observed : but this has been justly ascribed to the brightness 
of the groimd from which the star seems to stand forth during 
the passage of the comet. 

The most important and decisive observations that we 
possess on the nature and the Hght of comets, are due to 
Arago*s polarization experiments. His polariscope instructs 
us regarding the physical constitution of the Sun and comets, 
indicating whether a ray that reaches us from a distance of 
many millions of miles, transmits light directly, or by reflec- 
tion; and if the former, whether the source of light is a 
solid, a liquid, or a gaseous body. His apparatus was used 
at the Paris Observatory, in examining the light of Capella, 
and that of the great comet of 1819. The latter showed 
polarized, and therefore reflected light, whilst the flxed star, 
as was to be expected, appeared to be a self-luminous sun.f 

* Bessel, in the Asiron, Nackr., 1886, Ko. 801, g. 204, 206. Stnive, 
in Becueil des Mifm, de VAcad. de St Peterab,, 1886, p. 140, 148, and 
Astr. JNTachr., 1836, No. 803, a. 288, writes as foUowa : " At Doipat the 
star was in conjunction only 2 "'2 from the brightest point of the comet. 
The star remained continually visible, and its light was not perceptibly 
diminished whilst the nucleus of the comet seemed to be almost ex- 
tinguished before the radiance of the small star of the ninth or tenth 
magnitude." 

t On the 8d of July, 1819, Arago made the first attempt to analyse 
the light of comets by polarization, on the evening of the sudden ap- 
pearanee of the great oomet I was present at the Paris Observatory, 
and was fully convinced, as were also Matthieu and the late Bouvard, 
of the dissimilarity in the intensity of the light seen in the polariaoopcy 
when the instrument received cometary light. When it received light 
from Capella, which was near the comet, and at an equal altitude, the 
images were of equal intensity. On the reappearance of Bailey's oomet^ 
in 1835, the instnunent was altered, so as to g/ire, aooording to Axago'a 



ooioiw: ^1 

The ezistenoe of polaruied oometary light aanouaced itself not 
only by the inequality of the images, but was proved vith 
greater certainty ou the reappearance of Halley's comet, in 
die year 1835, by the more striking contrast of the comple« 
mentary colours, deduced from the laws of chromatic polar- 
ization discovered by Arago in 1811. These beautiful ex- 
periments still leave it undecided, whether, in addition to 
this reflected solar light, comets may not have light of their 
own. Even in the case of the planets, as, for instance, in 
Venus, an evolution of independent light seems very probable. 

The variable intensity of light in comets cannot idways be 
explained by the position of their orbits, and their distance 
from the Sun. It would seem to indicate, in some individuals, 
the existence of an inherent process of condensation, and an 
increased or diminished capacity of reflecting borrowed light. 
In the comet of 1618, and in that which has a period of tbree 
years, it was observed first by Hevelius, that the nucleus of 
the comet diminished at its perihelion, and enlarged at its 
aphelion, a &ct which, after remaining long unheeded, was 
again noticed by the talented astronomer, Valz, at Nismes. 
T^e regularity of the change of volume, according to the 
different degrees of distance from the Smi, appears very 
striking. Tke physical explanation of the phenomenon can- 
not, however, be sought in the condensed layers of cosmical 
vapour occurring in £e vicinity of the Smi, since it is difficult 
to imagine the nebulous envelope of the nucleus of the comet 
to be vesicular and impervious to the ether.* 

The dissimilar eccentricity of the orbits of comets has, in 
recent times (1819), in the most brilliant manner enriched 
our knowledge of the solar system. Encke has discovered 
the existence of a comet of so short a period of revolution, 

chromatic polarization, two images of complementaiy colours (green 
and red). {Annalesde Chimie, t.xiii. p. 108 ; Annuaire, 1832, p. 216.) 
" We must conclude from these observations,"' says Arago, " that the 
cometaiy light iras not entirely composed of rays having the properties 
of direct light; there being light which was reflected sp^ularly or polar- 
ized, that is, comiug from the sun. It cannot be stated with absolute 
certunty, that comets shine only with borrowed light, for bodies, in 
becoming self-luminous, do not on that account lose the power of 
reflecting foreign light." 

* Arago, in the Annuaire, 1832, pp. 217-220. Sir John Hersche]| 
AittOH,, I 488* 



92 eoncof . 

that it remains entirely within tbe Umits of our planetary 
system, attaining its aphelion between the orbits of the 
smaller planets and that of Jupiter. Its eccentricity must 
be assumed at 0*845, that of Juno (which has the greatest 
eccentricity of any of the planets) being 0-255. Encke's 
comet has several times, although with difficulty, been ob- 
served by the naked eye, as in Europe in 1819, and, according 
to Riimker, in New Holland in 1822. Its period of revolu- 
tion is about 3^ years ; but, &om a careful comparison of the 
epochs of its return to its perihelion, the remarkable fact has 
oeen discovered, that these periods have diminished in the 
most regular manner between the years 1786 and 1838, the 
diminution amoimting in the course of 52 years to about 
1-^ days. The attempt to bring into imison the results of 
observation and calcidation in the mvestigation of all the 
planetary disturbances, with the view of explaining this phe- 
nomenon, has led to the adoption of the very probable hy- 
pothesis, that there exists, dispersed in space, a vaporous 
substance capable of acting as a resisting medium. This 
matter diminishes the tangential force, and with it the major 
axis of the comet's orbit. The value of the constant of the 
resistance appears to be somewhat different before and after 
the perihelion; and this may, perhaps, be ascribed to the 
altered form of the small nebulous star in the vicinity of the 
Sun, and to the action of the unequal density of the strata of 
eosmical ether.* These facts, and the investigations to which 
they have led, belong to the most interesting results of 
modem astronomy. Encke's comet has been the means of 
leading asti'onomers to a more exact investigation of Jupiter's 
mass (a most important point with reference to the calcula- 
tion of perturbations) ; and, more recently, the course of 
this comet has obtained for us the first determination, al- 
though only an approximative one, of a smaller mass for 
Mercury. 

The discovery of Encke's comet, which had a period oi 
only S\ years, was speedily followed, in 1826, by that of 
another, Biela's comet, whose period of revolution is 6f 
years, and which is likewise planetary, having its aphelion 
beyond the orbit of Jupiter but within that of Saturn. It 

^Sncke, in the AstronomiKke Naehricklen, 1848, No. 489, s. 180-182 



OOXXTft. 



93 



has a Mnter light tlian Encke's comet, and, like the 
latter, its motion is direct, "whilst Halley's comet moves in 
a course opposite to that pursued by tne planets. Biela*8 
comet presents the first certain example of the orbit of a 
comet intersecting that of the Earth. This position, with 
reference to our planet, may, therefore, be productive of dan- 
ger, if we can associate an idea of danger with so extraor- 
dinary a natural phenomenon, whose history presents no 
parallel, and the results of which we ane consequently unable 
correctly to estimate. Small masses endowed with enor- 
mous velocity may certainly exercise a considerable power ; 
but Laplace has shown that the mass of the comet of 1770 is 
probably not equal to j-^ of that of the Earth, estimating 
further with apparent correctness, the mean mass of comets as 
much below ^ ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ that of the Earth, or about i-^i^ that of the 
Moon.* We must not confound the passage of Biela's comet 
through the Earth's orbit with its proximi^ to, or collision 
"with, our globe. When this passage took place, on the 29th 
of October, 1832, it required a ftdl month before the Earth 
would reach the point of intersection of the two orbits. 
These two comets of short periods of revolution, also inter- 
sect each other, and it has been justly observed,! that amid 
the many perturbations experienced by such small bodies 
from the larger planets, there is a possibility — supposing a 
meeting of Siese comets to occur in October — ^that the inha- 
bitants of the Earth may witness the extraordinary spectacle 
of an encounter between two cosmical bodies, and possibly 
of their reciprocal penetration and amalgamation, or of their 
destruction by means of exhausting emanations. Events of this 
nature, resulting either from deflection occasioned by disturb- 
ing masses, or primevally intersecting orbits, must have been 
of frequent occurrence in the course of millions of years in 

* Laplace^ Expos, du Syst, du Monde, pp. 216, 237. 

t Littrow, Besch/reihende Astron., 1885, s. 274. On the inner comet 
recently discovered by M. Faye, at the Observatory of Paris, and "whose 
eccentricity is 0-651, its distance at its perihelion 1*690, and its distance 
at its aphelion 5'832, see Schumacher, Astron. Nachr., 1844, No. 496. 
Regarding the supposed identity of the comet of 1766 with the third 
comet of 1819, see Astr, Nachr., 1833, No. 239 ; and on the identity 
of the comet of 1743 and the fourth comet of 181 9, see No. 237 of the 
last-mentioned work. 



94 COSMOS* 

the immeasurable regions of ethereal space; but they must be 
regarded as isolated occurrences, exercising no more general 
or alterative effects on cosmical relations than the breaking 
forth or extinction of a volcano within the limited sphere of 
our Earth. 

A third interior comet, having likewise a short period of 
revolution, was discovered by Faye, on the 22nd of Novem- 
ber, 1843, at the Observatory at Paris. Its elliptic path, 
which approaches much more nearly to a circle than that of 
anv other known comet, is included within the orbits of Mars 
and Saturn. This comet, therefore, which, according to 
Goldschmidt, passes beyond the orbit of Jupiter, is one of 
the few whose perihelia are bevond Mars. Its period of 
revolution is 7rX^ years, and it is not improbable that the 
form of iU pre^t orbit may be owing to^ito great approxi- 
mation to Jupiter at the close of the year 1839. 

If we consider the comets in their inclosed elliptic orbits 
as members of our solar system, and with respect to the 
length of their major axes, me amount of their eccentricity, 
and their periods of revolution, we shall probably find that 
the three planetary comets of Encke, Biela,.and Faye, are 
most nearly approached in these respects, first, by the comet 
discovered in 1766 by Messier, and which is regarded by 
Clausen as identical with the third comet of 1819 ; and next, 
by the fourth comet of the last-mentioned year, discovered by 
Blaupain, but considered by Clausen as identical with that of 
the year 1743, and whose orbit appears, like that of Lexell's 
comet, to have suffered great variations from the proximity 
and attraction of Jupiter. The two last-named comets would 
likewise seem to have a period of revolution not exceeding 
five or six years, and their aphelia are in the vicinity of 
Jupiter*s orbit. Amongst the comets that have a period of 
revolution of from seventy to seventy-six years, the first in 
point of importance with respect to theoretical and physical 
astronomy is Halley's comet, whose last appearance, m 1835, 
was much less brilliant than was to be expected firom preced- 
ing ones ; next we would notice Olbers* comet, discovered on 
the 6th of March, 1815 ; and lastly, the comet discovered by 
Pons in the year 1812, and whose elliptic orbit has been 
determined by Encke. The two latter comets were invisible 
to the naked eye. We now know with certainty of nine 



0OXST8. 95 

returns of Halley's large comet, it haTing recently been 
proyed by Laugier's calculations,* that in the Chinese table 
of comets, first made known to us by Edward Biot, the comet 
of 1378 is identical with Halley's ; its periods of revolution 
haye yaried in the interval between 1378 and 1835 from 
74-91 to 77*58 years, the mean being 76-1. 

A host of omer comets may be contrasted with the cos- 
mical bodies of which we have spoken, requiring several 
thousand years to perform their orbits, which it is dSfficidt to 
determine %ith any degree of certainty. The beautiful comet 
of 1811 requires, according to Argelander, a period of 8065 
years for its revolution, and the colossal one of 1680 as much 
as 8800 years, according to Encke's calctdation. These 
bodies respectively recede, therefore, 21 and 44 times further 
tlian iJranus B-om the Sun, that is to say, 33,600 and 70,400 
millions of miles. At this enormous distance the attractive 
force of the Sun is still manifested ; but whilst the velocity of 
the comet of 1680 at its perihelion is 212 miles in a second, 
that is, thirteeen times greater than that of the Earth, it 
scarcely moves ten feet in the second when at its aphelion. 
This velocity is only three times greater than that of water in 
our most sluggish European rivers, and equal only to half 
that which I have observed in the Cassiquiare, a branch of 
the Orinoco. It is highly probable, that amongst the innu- 
merable host of uncadculated or undiscovered comets, there 
are many whose major axes greatly exceed that of the comet 
of 1680. In order to form some idea by numbers, I do not 
say of the sphere of attraction, but of the distance in space of 
a fixed star, or other sun, from the aphelion of the comet of 
1680 (the furthest receding cosmical body with which we are 
acquainted in our solas* system), it must be remembered that, 
according to the most recent determinations of parallaxes, the 
nearest fixed star is full 250 times further removed from our 
Bun than the comet in its aphelion. The comet's distance is 
only 44 times that of Uranus, whilst a Centauri is 11,000, 
and 61 Cygni 31,000 times that of Uranus, according to Bes^^ 
sel's determinations. 

Haying considered the greatest distances of comets from 

* Laogiar, hi the Comple$ rendua dea Siancee de VAetdi»(€t 

1843, t xtL p. 1006. 



96 COSMOS. 

the central body, it now remains for us to notice instances 
the greatest proximity hitherto measured. Lexell and 
Burckhardt's comet of 1770, so celebrated on account of the 
disturbances it experienced from Jupiter, has approached 
the Earth within a smaller distance than any other comet. 
On the 28th of June, 1770, its distance from the Earth was 
only six times that of the Moon. The same comet passed 
twice, viz. in 1769 and 1779, through the system of Jupiter's 
four satellites without producing the slightest notable change 
in the well-known orbits of these bodies. The great comet 
of 1680 approached at its perihelion eight or nine times 
nearer to the sur&ce of the Sun than Lexell's comet did to 
that of our Earth; being on the 17th of December, a sixth 
part of the Sim's diameter, or seven-tenths of the distance 
of the Moon, from that luminary. Perihelia occurring beyond 
the orbit of Mars can seldom be observed by the inhabitants 
of the Earth, owing to the faintness of the light of distant 
comets; and amongst those already calculated, the comet of 
1729 is the only one which has its perihelion between the 
orbits of Pallas and Jupiter ; it was even observed beyond 
the latter. 

Since scientific knowledge, although frequently blended 
with vague and superficial views, has been more extensively 
diffused through wider circles of social life, apprehensions of 
the possible eyHa threatened by comets have acqtdred more 
weight, as their direction has become more definite. The 
certainty that there are within the known planetary orbits, 
comete which revisit our regions of space at short intervals- 
that great disturbances have been produced by Jupiter and 
Saturn in their orbits, by which such as were apparently 
harmless have been converted into dangerous bodies — ^the 
intersection of the Earth's orbit by Biela's comet — ^the cos- 
mical vapour, which acting as a resisting and impeding 
medium, tends to contract aU orbits — ^the individual difference 
of comets, which would seem to indicate considerable decreas-^ 
ing gradations in the quantity of the mass of the nucleus — are 
all considerations more than equivalent both as to number 
and variety, to the vague fears entertained in early ages, of 
the general conflagration of the world by flaming swords, and 
stars ynXh fiery streaming hair. As the consolatory considera- 
tions whidbi may be derived from the calculus of probabiiitiei» 



AEROLITES. 97 

address themselves to reason and to meditative understanding 
only, and not to the imagination or to a desponding condition 
of mind, modem science has been accused, and not entirely 
M'ithout reason, of not attempting to allay apprehensions which 
it has been the veiy means of exciting. It is an inherent 
attribute of the human mind to experience fear, and not hope 
or joy, at the aspect of that which is unexpected and extraor- 
dinary.* The strange fonn of a large comet, its faint nebidous 
light, and its sudden appearance in the vault of heaven, have 
in all regions been almost invaiiably regarded by the people 
at large as some new and formidable agent, inimical to the 
existing state of things. The sudden occmTencc and short 
duration of the phenomenon lead to the belief of some equally 
rapid reflection of its agency in teri'estrial matters ; whose 
varied nature renders it easy to find events that may be re- 
garded as the fulfilment of the evil foretold by the appearance 
of these mysterious cosmical bodies. In our own day, how- 
ever, the public mind has taken another and more cheerful, 
although singular turn, with regard to comets; and in the 
German vineyards in the beautiful valleys of the Rhine and 
Moselle, a belief has arisen, ascribing to these once ill-omened 
bodies, a beneficial influence on the ripening of the vine. The 
evidence yielded by experience, of which there is no lack in 
these days, when comets may so frequently be observed, has 
not been able to shake the common belief in the meteorological 
myth of the existence of wandering stars, capable of radiating 
heat. 

Prom comets, I would pass to the consideration of a far 
more enigmatical class of agglomerated matter — ^the smallest 
of all asteroids, to which we apply the name aerolites, or 
meteoric siones^f when they reach our atmosphere in a frag- 
mentary condition. If I should seem to dwell on the specific 

* Fries, Vorlesungen Uber die Stemhmde, 1833, s. 262-267 (Lec- 
tures on the Science of Astronomy.) An infelicitously chosen mstance 
of the good omen of a comet may be found in Seneca, 2iat. QtuEst., vii. 
17 and 21. The philosopher thus writes of the comet : " QtLem no8 Ne- 
nmia principatu Icettssimo vidimus et qui cometis detraxit in/amiam,** 

t [Much valuable information may be obtained regarding the origin 
tod composition of aerolites or meteoric stones in Memoirs on the sub- 
ject, by Baumbeer and other writers, in the ntimbcrs of Poggendotf s 
iftna/e», from 1845 to the present time.] — Th 



ennmerntion of these bodies, and oi 

general nature of this work might i 
80 imdesignedly. The diversity 6 
characteristica of comets has akead 
perfect knowledge we possess of 
renders it difficult in a work like 
proper degree of circumstantiality 
although of frequent recurrence, hai 
Torious degrees of accuracy, or to si 
the accidental. It is only with res 
computations that the astronomy ' 
marked adToncement, and conseque 
tioQ of these bodies must be limite 
differences of physiognomy and co 
and tail, the instances of great ap] 
mical bodies, and of the extremes i 
bite and in their periods of revolutii 
of these phenomena, as well as of t 
consider, can only be given by ske 
with the animated circumstantiality 
Shooting stars, fire balls, and r 
great probability, regarded as small 1 
aiy velocity, and revolving in obedi 
gravity in conic sections round the 
meet tiie Earth in tieix com«e, and 
enter within the limite of our a1 
condition, and frequently let fell mi 
stony fragments, covered with a sb 
we enter into a careful investigatioi 
those epochs when showers of shooi 
in Cumana in 1789, and in North . 
1833 and 1834, we shall find that 
sidfred separately from shooting stii 
are frequently not only simiUtancoui 
they likewise are often found to me 
one phenomenon gradually assuming 
alike with respect to the size of the 
sparks, and the velocities of their u 
ing smoking luminous fire balls are 
brightness of tropical dayhght,* equ 
* A friend of mine, much accnatomed 
nirein«Qte, fru in tlie year 1783 at Fopii} 



100 COSMOS. 

stars fall as if from a height of twelve or fifteen thousand feet> 
that they were of brighter coloiu's and left a more brilliant 
line of light in their track, but this impression was no doubt 
owing to the greater transparency of the tropical atmo- 
sphere,^ which enables the eye to penetrate further into dis- 

* delation Higtorigue, t. i. pp. 80, 213, 627. If in fiiUing stars, as in 
comets, we distinguish between the head or nucleus and the tail, we shall 
find that the greater transparency of the atmosphere in tropical climates 
is eyinced in the greater length and brilliancy of the tail which may be 
observed in those latitudes. The phenomenon is therefore not necessarily 
more frequent there, because it is oftener seen and continues longer 
visible. The influence exercised on shooting stars by the character of 
the atmosphere is shewn occasionally even in our temperate zone, and at 
very small distances apart. Wartmann relates that on the occasion of a 
November phenomenon at two places lying very near each other, Geneva 
and Aux Planchettes, the number of the meteors counted were as 1 to 7- 
(Wartmann, Mim. sur les Etoilesjllantes, p. 17.) The tail of a shooting 
star (or its train), on the subject of which Brandes has made so many exact 
and delicate obserrations, is in no way to be ascribed to the continuance 
of the impression produced by light on the retina. It sometimes continues 
visible a whole minute, and in some rare instances longer than the light 
of the nucleus of the shooting star ; in which case the luminous track 
remains motionless. (Qilb. Ann., bd. xiv. s. 251.) This circumstance 
further indicates the analogy between large shooting stars and fire balls. 
Admiral Krusenstem saw, in his voyage round the world, the train of a 
fire ball shine for an hour after the luminous body itself had disappeared, 
and scarcely move throughout the whole time. {Reiset th. i. s. 58.) Sir 
Alexander Bumes gives a charming description of the transparency of 
the clear atmosphere of Bokhara, which was once so favourable to the 
pursuit of astronomical observations. Bokhara is situated in 39** 43' N. L., 
and at an elevation of 1280 feet above the level of the sea. " There is u 
constant serenity in its atmosphere, and an admirable clearness in the sky. 
At night, the stars have imcommon lustre, and the milky way shines glo* 
riously in the firmauent. There is also a never-ceasing display of the 
most brilliant meteors, which dart like rockets in the sky : ten or twelve 
of them are sometimes seen in an hour, assuming every colour ; fiery red, 
blue, pale and faint. It is a noble country for astronomical science^ and 
great must have been the advantage enjoyed by the famed observatory <^ 
Samarkand." (Bumes, Travels into Bokhara, vol. ii. (1834,) p. 158.) A 
mere traveller must not be reproached for calling ten or twelve shooting 
stars in an hour, ** many," since it is only recently that we have learnt, 
from careful observations on this subject in Europe, that eight is the 
mean number which may be seen in an hour in the field of vision of on« 
individual (Quetelet, Corresp. MaiMm,, Novem. 1887, p. 447); thia 
nomber is, however, limited to five or six by that diligent observer^ 
OVoena. (Schom. Jahrh., 1838, a. 825.V 



AEB0LIXE8. 101 

tance. Sir Alexander Buiiies likewise extols as a conse« 
quence of the purity of the atmosphere in Bokhara, the 
enchanting and constantly recurring spectacle of variously- 
coloiired shooting stars. 

The connection of meteoric stones with the grander phe- 
nomenon of fire balls — ^the former being known to be projected 
from the latter with such force as to penetrate from ten to 
fifteen feet into the earth — ^has been proved, among many 
other instances, in the falls of aerolites at Barbotan, in the 
Department des Landcs (24th July, 1790), at Siena (16th 
June, 1794), at Weston, in Connecticut, U. S. (14th Decem- 
ber, 1807), and at Juvenas, in the Department of Arddche 
(15th June, 1821), Meteoric stones are in some instances 
thrown fi*om dark clouds suddenly formed in a clear sky, and 
fall with a noise resembling thunder. Whole districts have 
thus occasionally been covered with thousands of fragmentary 
masses, of uniform character but unequal magnitudes, that 
have been hurled from one of these moving clouds. In 
less frequent cases, as in that which occurred on the 16th of 
September, 1843, at Klein wenden, near Miihlhausen, a large 
aerolite fell with a thundering crash, while the sky was clear 
and cloudless. The intimate affinity between fire balls and 
shooting stars is further proved by the fact that fire balls, 
from which meteoric stones have been thrown, have occa- 
sionally been found, as at Angers, on the 9th of June, 1822, 
having a diameter scarcely equal to that of the small fire- 
works, called lloman candles. 

The formative power, and the nature of the physical and 
chemical processes involved in these phenomena are questio.i« 
all equally shrouded in mystery, and we are as yet ignorant, 
whether ihe particles composing the dense mass of meteorie 
stones are originally, as in comets, separated from one another 
in the form of vapour, and only condensed within the fiery 
ball when they become luminous to our sight, or whether in 
the case of smaller shooting stars any compact substance 
actually falls, or, finally, whether a meteor is composed only 
of a smoke -like dust, containing iron and nickel; whilst we 
are wholly ignorant of what takes place within the dark cloud 
from which a noise like thimder is often heard for many 
minutes before the stones fall.* 

* On meteoric dust, see Arago, in the Aunuaire for 1882, p. 254. I 
have very recently endeavounsd to show, in another work, {Asie Cen- 



103 COSMOS. 

We can oBcertainbymeasiireinen 
■nd wholly planetary velocity of ah< 
meteoric stones, and we can gain a 
general and uniform character of 
of the genetically cosmical procet 
metsmorpboseH. If meteoric stone 
are already coneoliduted into dense 

Irale, 1 L p. 40S,} hmr the ScTthian sags 
boniing rrom hoaTea, and reomned in 
Horde of the Paralatra, (Herod., it. fi-7,) j 
^collection of the tail of ftn aerolite. The 
fictions fDio Caa^iu^ lur. 1269,) of i 
heaven, and with vMch it had been att( 
TcroB, to coyer tiranze coins ; metallic ire 
tn meteoric stones. (Plin. ii. S6.) The f 
lapidibtu phiit, maet not aliraTS be imdere 
In Ltr. zxT. T, It probably refers to [ 
the volcano, Moont Albonna (Moote ( 
extlnguiahed at the time. (See Heyne, i 
>nd my Relation But., t. i. p. 394.) Tl 
Ligyans, on the wad from the Cau-awiB 1 
difl^rent sphere of ideas being sn atte 
origin of the roond qnartj blo^ in th< 
DKHitli of tie Khone, which Aristotle aiipi 
■ fifflnre during an earthquake, and Pa 
by the force of the wares of ao inland pii 
that ve still pesaera of the play of ^cby 
eTeij-thing proceeds, however, in part i 
aerolites, for Jupiter draws together a e 
WTJnnd to be covered by a, shower of ro 
ventured to deride the geognoslle myth 
Ligjan field of stones was, however, yer 
by the aucients. The district is now knt 
Xaurta BaromBri^ea dam U) Alpe. 
1829, chap. sii. p. 115.) 

* The specific weight of aerolites variei 
Their general deuMty m^ bo set dow 
what has been sidd in the text of the ai 
mtuit remark that the numbers have bei 
sents that oau be relied upon as correct. 
Weston, Connecticut, (14th December, 1 
byLe Roi, (10th July, 1771,) awut lOOi 
Charles Blagden, (13th Jantiry, 1733,) i 
{UnitrhaXtungen, bd. i. a. 42) ascribes i 
120 feet to ehooting stars, and a lumino 
IS miles. There are, however, ample o| 
tktt apparent diameter of fire balU and 



' 104 OOBMOt. 

be found, smce the region in which it fell is 
BO easy of access to European tiaveUers. The 
which in the beginning of the tenth century fell 
at Nomi, projected between three and four feet i 
face of the water, as we lenm from a docurae 
covered by Pertz. It must be remarked that tl 
bodies, whether in ancient or modem times, Cfi 
garded oh the principal fragments of masses thi 
broken up by the explosion either of a &'C b> 
cloud. 

On considering the enormous velocity with ■» 
been mathematically proved, meteoric stones rei 
from the extremest confines of the atmosphi 
lengthened course traversed by fii-e balls throqg 
strata of the air, it seems more than impi'obab' 
mettilliferous stony masses, containing perfectly- 
tals of olivine, labradorite, and pyroxene, shouli 
a period of time have been converted from a vi 
dition to a sohd nucleus. Moreover, that whi< 
meteoric masses, even where the internal eoi 
chemically different, exhibits almost always the j 
raeter of a fragment, being of a prismatic or tnu 
midal form, with broad somewhat curved faces, i 
angles. But whence comes this form, which wa> 
nised by Schreiber, as characteristic of the sever 
rotating planetary body ? Here, as in the spheri 
life, all that appertains to the history of devdopm 
hidden in obscurity. Meteoric masses become li 
kindle at heights which must be regarded as alm< 
air, or occupied by an atmosphere that docs not € 
Ifli'aaa part of oxygen. The recent investigation! 
the important phenomenon of twilight,* have i 

• BLot, Traite (CAstTonomiephyaiitue (36ine %A.), 1841 
17T, 238, 312. My lamented friend Poisson endeavoured, 
raanser, to solve the difficnlty attending an ssgnrnptiDn 
laneouB igiiition of meteoric atones at ua elevation wher 
of tbc atmosphere U almost null. These are his words : " 
to attribute, as ia usually doao, the iucaudescence of aeroli 
agninat the molecules of the atmosphere, at im elevation al 
where the density of the air is almost null. May we not 
the electric fluid, in a nentral condition, forma a kind ol 
extending for beyond tlw mttOI of oar »tmoapheie, yet ai 



jLCJIOLITES. 105 

lowered the Hiies which had, perhaps with some degree of 
temerity, been usually termed the boundaries of the atmo* 
sphere ; but processes of light may be evolved independently 
of the presence of oxygen, and Poisson conjectured that 
aerolites were ignited far beyond the range of our atmosphere. 
Numerical calculation, and geometrical ineasm'emcnt, are the 
only means by which, as in the case of the lai'ger bodies of our 
solar system, we are enabled to impart a firm and safe basis 
to our investigations of meteoric stones. Although Halley 
pronounced the great fire ball of 1686, whose motion was 
opposite to that of the Eartli in its orbit,* to be a cosmical 
body; Chladni, in 1794, first recognised, with ready acutenesft 
of mind, the connection between fire balls and the stones 
projected fi*om the atmosphere, and the motions of the former 
bodies in space. f A brilliant confirmation of the cosmical 
origin of these phenomena has been afforded by Denison 
Olmsted, at Newhaven, Connecticut, who has shown, on 
the concuiTent authority of all eye-witnesses, that duiing the 
celebrated fall of shooting stars, on the night between the 
12th and 13th of November, 1833, the fire balls and shooting 
stars all emerged from one and the same qimrter of the 
heavens, namely, in the vicinity of the star y in the con- 
stellation Leo, and did not deviate from this point, although 
the star changed its apparent height and azimuth during the 
time of the observation. Such an independence of the Earth's 
rotation shows that the luminous body must have reached our 

lestrial attraction, although phyBically imponderable, and consequently 
following our globe in its motion 1 According to this hypothesis, the 
bodies of which we have been speaking would, on entering this impon- 
derable atmosphere, decompose the neutral fluid by their unequal action 
on the two electricities, and they would thus be heated, and in a state 
of incandescence, by becoming electiified." (Poisson, Rech. sur la Proha^ 
hiliU des Juffements, 1837, p. 6.) 

* Philos. Transact., vol. xxix. pp. 161-163. 

t The first edition of Chladui's important treatise, Ueberden Uraprunff 
dervon Pallas gefundenen und anderen Eisenma^en (On the Origin of 
the masses of Iron found by Pallas, and other similar masses), appeared 
two months prior to the shower of stones at Siena, and two years beibre 
Idchtenberg stated, in the Odttingen Taschenhuch, that " stones reach 
our atmosphere from the remoter regions of space." Comp. also Olbenif 
letter to Benzenberg, 18th Nov 1 887 in Benzenberg's Treatise on 
Shooting Stars, p. 186. 



ice cosuoii. 

atmosphere fcota without. According to EacVe's compota. 
tioa'* of the whole number of the obBerrationa made in the 
United States of North America, betwesa 3^^ nod 42° lat., it 
would appear that all these meteors came from the same 
point of space in the directioii in which the earth was moving 
at the time. On the recurrence of falls of shooting stars in 
North America, in the month of November of the years 1 834 
and 1837, and in the annlt^ug falls obaerredat Bremen, in 
1838, a like general parallelism of the orbits, and the bojdc 
direction of the meteors from the constellation Leo, were 
again noticed. It has been supposed that a greater paral- 
lelism was observable in the <uicction of periodic tUls of 

* Encke, in Poggend. AnnaUn, bd. xuiii. (1931), & 213. Aiagg, 
in Uie Armvain for 1836, p. 281. Two letters which T wrote to 
BeDzenberg, May 19 and October 22, 1837, on the conjectural pre- 
ces^on of tJie oodea in the orbit of periodical &lla of ehooUng e^he. 
(Benzeoberg'B Stemedt., %. 207 und 208.) OlborasabsoijQonUy adopted 
this opinion of the gradual retardation of the November phenomenoo. 
{Aaraa, Nacla:.'i6'i6,'So. 372,8. 180,) If I may venture to combine 
two of the fiJls of shooting stara mentioned by lie Arabian writers with 
the epooh? found by Boguslawski for the fourteenth century, I obtain 
the following more or less accordant elemenla of the movemenls of the 

In Oct., 902, on tiie night in which King Ibrahim hen Ahmed died, 
there fell a heavy Bhower of ehootin^ stars, " like a fieiy rrun ■" and this 
year was, therefore, called the year of Etara. (Condc, Ilisl. de la Dcmin. 
deloa Aniba,p. 346.) 

On the 19th of Oct., 1202, the stats vere in motion nil night. 
"They fell like locusts." (Comptti Rendus, 1837, t. i p. 294; and 
Friehn, in the Btdl de VAcadimie de St. Peter^wg, t. iii. p. 308.) 

On the 2lBt OcL, O.S., 1366, "die saptente poat/entam XI. mtUia 
Vtrffinum cA hora matutina tuju* ad horam primaia visa eunt quasi 
BtdUe de ccelo cadere continuo, et in tanla midiitudine, qtiod nemo 
aarrare tu^cit." This remarkable notice, of nihicb we ehall speak more 
fullj' in the subsequent part of this work, was found by the younger Ton 
Boguslawski, in Benesse (de Horowic) de Weitmil or WeithmUJ, 
Chronicon Ecdeaxce Pragentia, p. 389. This ohroniolo may also be 
found in the second part oS ScripUirea renwi Bohemicarum, by Pclzel 
Bad Dobrowsky, 1784. (Schum. Astr. Nackr., Dec 1839.) 

On the night between the 9th and lOtb of November, 1787, many 
felling stars were observed at Manheim, Soathem Giermaiiy, by Henuner. 
(Kamtz, Meteor., th. iii. s. 23T.) 

After midnight, on the 12th of November, 1799, occurred the extrv 
ordinary faiX of stars at Cumana, which Bonptand and otyaell have 
described, and which was observed over a great part of the earth. 
BdaL HiH., t i. pp. 6]fi-fi2T.) 



AXJIOLITXtf. 107 

■h Doting stars, than in those of sporadic occurrence ; and it 
has further been remarked, that in the periodically-recurring 
falls in the month of August, as, for instance, in the year 1839^ 
the meteors came principally from one point between Perseus 
and Taurus, towards the latter of which constellations the 
Earth was then moying. This peculiarity of the phenomenon, 
manifested in the retrograde direction of the orbits in No- 
rember and August, should be thoroughly iuTcstigated by 
accurate observations, in order that it may either be fully 
confirmed or refuted. 

The heights of shooting stars, that is to say, the heights 
of the points at which they begin and cease to be visible, 
vary exceedingly, fluctuating between 16 and 140 miles. 
This important result^ and the enormous velocity of these 
problematical asteroids, were first ascertained by Benzenberg 
and Brandes, by simultaneous observations and determina- 
tions of parallax at the extremities of a base line of 49,020 
feet in length.* The relative velocity of motion is from 18 
to 36 miles in a second, and consequently equal to planetary 

Between the 12th and ISth of November, 1822, shooiing stars, inter- 
mingled with fire balls, were seen in large numbers by Kloden, at 
Potsdam. (Gilbert's Ann., bd. Izxii. &. 291.) 

On the 13th of November, 1831, at 4 o'clock in the morning, a great 
shower of &lling stars was seen by Captain B6rard, on the Spanish 
eoast, near Carthagena del Levante. {Annuaire, 1836, p. 297.) 

In the night between the 12th and 13th of November, 1833, occurred 
the phenomenon so admirably described by Professor Olmsted, in 
NortJi America. 

In the night of the 13-1 4th of November, 1834, a similar fall of 
shooting stars was seen in North America, although the numbers were 
not quite so considerable. (Poggend. Annfilen, bd. xxxiv. s. 129.) 

On the 13th of November, 1835, a bam was set on fire by the fall of 
a sporadic fire ball, at Belley, in the Department de TAln. {An- 
nuaire, 1836, p. 296.) 

In tiie year 1838, the stream showed itself most decidedly on the 
night of the 13-1 4th of November. {Astron, Nackr., 1838, No. 372.) 

* I am well aware that, amongst the 62 shooting stars simaltane- 
onsly observed in Silesia, in 1823, at the suggestion of Professor 
Biaades, some appeared to have an elevation of 183 to 240, or even 
400 miles. (Brandes, Unterkcdtungenfiir Freunde der Astronomic und 
Physik, heft i. s. 48. Instructive Narratives for the Lovers of 
Astronomy and Physics.) But Olbers considered that all determinft- 
tions for elevations beyond 120 miles must be doubtful, owing to tlui 
mallness of the paralla^. 



. 108 C08H0S. 

velocity. This planetary velocity*, as well as the direction of 
the orbits of iu-e balls and shooting stars, which has fre- 
quently been observed to be opposite to that of the Earth, 
may be considered as conclusive ailments against the hypo- 
thesis that aerolites derive their origin from the so-called 
active lunar volcanoes, Nimierical views regarding a greater 
or lesser volcanic force on a small cosmical body, not sur- 
rounded by any atmosphere, must from their nature be wholly 
arbitrary. We may imagine the reaction of the interior of 
a planet on its crust ten or even a hundred times greater 
than that of our present terrestrial volcanoes ; the direction 
of masses projected from a sateUite revolving from west to 
east might appear retrogressive, owing to the Earth in its 
orbit subsequently reaching that point of space at which these 
bodies fall. If we examine the whole sphere of relations 
which 1 have touched upon in this work, in order to escape 
the charge of having made unproved assertions, we shall find 
that the hypothesis of the selenic origin of meteoric stones f 

* The planetary velocity of translation, the movement in the orbit, 
is in Mercury 26*4, in Yenus 19*2, and in the Earth 16*4 miles in a 
second. 
^ + Chladni states, that an Italian physicist, Paolo Maria Terza^, on 
the occasion of the fall of an aerolite at Milan, in 1660, by which a 
Franciscan monk was killed, was the first who sarmised that aerolites 
were of selenic origin. He says, in a memoir entitled Musoeum Sep- 
talianum, Manfredi SeptcUce, Pairicii MediolanensUj indtuitrioso Hi- 
hare constructum (Tortona, 1664, p. 44), " LahantphUosophorum mentes 
8uh horum lapidum ponderihus ; ni dicere velimvSg lunam terrain 
alteram, sine mundum esse, ex cujus montibus divisa frustra in infer 
riorem nostrwn hunc orbem delabantur" Without any previous know- 
ledge of this conjecture, Olbers was led, in the year 1795 (after the 
celebrated fall at Siena, on the 16th of June, 1794), into an investi- 
gation of the amount of the initial tangential force that would be 
requisite to bring to the Earth masses projected from the Moon. . This 
ballistic problem occupied, during ten or twelve years, the attention 
of the geometricians Laplace, Biot, Brandes, and Poisson. The 
opinion which was then so prevalent, but which has since been aban- 
doned, of the existence of active volcanoes in the Moon, wher»j air and 
water are absent, led to a confusion in the minds of the £»3nerality of 
' persons between mathematical possibilities and physical probabilities. 
Olbers, Brandes, and Chladni thought " that the velocity of 16 to 32 
miles with which fire balls and shooting stars entered our atmosphere," 
famished a refutation to the view of their selenic origin. According 
to Olbers, it would require to reach the Earth, setting aside the 



▲XB0LITE8. 109 

depends upon a number of conditions whose acci^*ntal coin- 
cidence could alone convert a possible into an ictual fact. 
The view of the original existence of small planetary masses 
in space is simpler, and at the same time more analo^^ous 
with those entertained concerning the formation of other 
portions of the solar system. 

ttstance of the air, an initial Telocity of 8292 feet in the second ; ac- 
cording to Laplace, 7862; to Biot, 8282; and to Poi<son, 7595. 
Laplace states that this velocity is only five or six times as great as 
that of a cannon-ball, but Olbers has shewn, " that with such an initial 
Telocity as 7500 or 8000 feet in a second, meteoric stones would arrive 
at the. surface of our earth with a velocity of only 35,000 feet, (or 1'53 
German geographical mile.) But the measured Telocity of meteoric 
stones averages 5 such miles, or upwards of 114,000 feet to a second ; 
and consequently the original velocity of projection from the Moon must 
be almost 110,000 feet, and therefore 14 times g^reater than Laplace 
asserted/' (Olbers, in Schum. JaJirb., 1837, pp. 52-58 ; and in Gehler, 
Nues physik. Wihierbuche, bd. vi. abth. 3, s. 2129-2136.) If we 
could assume volcanic forces to be stiU active on the Moon's surface, 
the absence of atmospheric resistance would certainly give to their 
projectile force an advantage over that of our terrestrial volcanoes ; but 
even in respect to the measure of the latter force (the projectile force of 
our own volcanoes), we have no observations on which any reliance can 
be placed, and it has probably been exceedingly over-rated. Dr. Peters, 
who accurately observed and measured the phenomena presented by 
jEtna, found that the greatest velocity of any of the stones projected from 
the crater was only 1250 feet to a second. Observations on the Peak of 
Tenerifie, in 1798, gave 3000 feet. Although Laplace, at the end of his 
work {Mcpoa. du Syat. du Monde, ed. de 1824, p. 399), cautiously 
observes, regarding aerolites, ** that in all probability they come from 
the depths of space ;" yet we see from another passage (chap. vi. p. 233), 
that, being probably unacquainted with the extraordinary planetaiy 
Telocity of meteoric stones, he inclines to the hypotEesis of their lunar 
origin, always, however, assuming that the stones projected from the 
Moon " become satellites of our I^rth, describing around it more or less 
eccentric orbits, and thus not reaching its atmosphere until several 
or even many revolutions have been accomplished." As an Italian at 
Tortona had the fimcy that aerolites came from the Moon, so some of 
the Greek philosophers thought they came from the Sun. This was 
the opinion of Diogenes Laertius.(ii. 9), regardiAg the origin of the 
mass that fell at E^io& Potamos (see note, p. 103). Pliny, whose labours 
in recording the opinions and statements of prececUng writers are 
astonishing, repeats the theory, and derides it the more freely, because 
he. witib earlier writers (Diog. Laert., 3 and 5, p. 99, HUbner), accuses 
Anaxagoras of having predicted the fall of aerolites from the Sun : 
** Celebrant Grseci Anazagoram Clazomenium Olympiadis septuagesimie 
oetavae secundo anno prsBdixisse cselestium litterarum scientia, quibus 
4iet>08 sftzmn casurum esse e sole; Idquc factum iuterdiu in Thraciot 



110 oofivofl* 

It is very nrobable that a lai^e number of these cosmical 
bodies travCTse space undestroyed by the vicinity of our 
atmosphere, and revolve round the Sim without experiencing 
any alteration but a slight increase in the eccentricity of their 
orbits, occasioned by the attraction of the Earth's mass. We 
may, consequently, suppose the possibility of these bodies 
remaining invisible to us during many years and frequent 
revolutions. The supposed phenomenon of ascending shooting 
stars and fii*e balls, which Chladni has imsuccessfiilly endea- 
voured to explain on the hypothesis of the reflection oi strongly 

parte ad ^gos flomen. Quod si quis pnedictnm credat, sunul fatefttnr 
neceBEse est, majoris miiaculi divinitatem Anazagone fuisae, eolvique 
renim naturae intellectum, et confundi omnia, si aut ipse Sol lapis eaw 
aut unquam lapidem in eo fuisse credatur ; d^dere tamen creforo noneiit 
dubium.'* The fall of a moderate-sized stone, which is preserved in the 
Gymnasium at Abjdos, is also reported to have been foretold by Anax- 
agoras. The fall of aerolites in bright sunshine, and when the Mocai's 
disc was invisible, probably led to the idea of sun-stones. Moreovei; 
aceorcling to one of the physical dogmas of Anaxagoras, which brought 
on him the persecution of the theologians (even as they have attacked 
the geologiste of our own times), the Sun was regarded as*'' a molten 
fiery mass *' (jivSpog diaTrvpog^) In accordance with these views of Anax- 
agoras, we find Euripides, in Phaeton, terming the Sun '' a golde& 
mass ;" that is to say, a fire-eoloured, brightly-shining matter, but not 
leading to the inference that aerolites are golden sun-stones. (See note 
to page 101.) Compare Valekenaer, Diainbe in JSurip, perd. Dram, 
Iteliquias, 1767, p. 30. Diog. Laert., iL 40. Hence, among the Greek 
philosophers, we find four hypotheses regarding the origin of foiling 
stars : a telluric origin from ascending exhalations ; masses of stone 
raised by hurricane (see Aristot., M^eor,, lib. i. cap. iv. 2~18, and 
cap. vii. 9) ; a solar origin ; and lastly, an origin in the regions of 
space, as heavenly bodies which had long remained invisible. So* 
specting this last opinion, which is that of Diogenes of ApoUonia^ and 
entirely accords with that of the present day, see pages 112 and 113. It 
is worthy of remark, that in Syria, as I have been assured by a learned 
orientalist, now resident at Smyrna, Andrea de Nericai, who instructed 
me in Persian, there is a popular belief that aerolites chiefly fiQl on 
cl<ear moonlight nights. The ancients, on the contrary, espeelaUy 
looked for iheir fall during lunar eclipses. (See Pliny, xxxvii. 10, p. 164. 
Solinus, c. 37. Salm., Exerc^^ p. 531 ,* and the passages collected bj 
TJkert, in his Qeogr, d&r Cfriechm und ROmer, th. ii. 1. s. 131, note 14.) 
On ih& improbability that meteoric masses are fonned from metal'di»> 
solving gases, which, according to Fusinieri, may exist in the highest 
strata of our atmo^here, and, previously diffused through an aimoBt 
bomidless ^ace, may suddenly assume a solid condition, and on tbo 
penetration and misceahility of gases, see my Selat,Mi^., t i. p. 52{L 




AEB0JDITZ8. Ill 

compressed air, appears at first sight as the consequence of 
some unknown tangential force, propelling bodies from the 
earth ; but Bessel has shown by theoretical deductions, com* 
firmed by Feldt's carefully conducted calculations, that owing 
to the absence of any proofs of the simultaneous occurrence 
of the observed disappearances, the assumption of an ascent of 
shooting stars was rendered wholly improbable, and inad- 
missible as a result of obserration.* The opinion advanced 
by Olbers that the explosion of shooting stars and ignited fire 
l^lls not moving in straight lines may impel meteors upwards 
in the manner of rockets, and influence the direction of their 
orbits, must be made the subject of future researches. 

Shooting stars &11 either separately and in inconsiderable 
numbers, that is, sporadically, or in swarms of many thousands. 
The latter, which are compared by Arabian authors to swarms 
of locusts, are periodic in their occurrence, and move in 
streams, generally in a parallel direction, ^^ongst periodic 
&Us, the most celebrated are that known as the November 
phenomenon, occurring from about the 12th to the 14th of 
November, and that of the festival of St. Lawrence (the 10th 
of August), whose "fiery tears" were noticed in former times 
in a church calendar of England, no less than in old tra- 
ditionary legends, as a meteorological event of constant re- 
currence.f Notwithstanding the great quantity of shooting 

* Bessd, in Schnm. Astr, Ncuhr., 1889, Kr. 880 nnd 881, s. 222 imd 
846. At Uie ccmclufflon of the Memoir there is a comparison of the 
Son'd longitudes with the epochs of the November phenomenon, from 
the period of the first observations in Cumana in 1799. 

+ Dr. Thomas Forster (The Pocket Encydopcedia of Natural Phe- 
nomena, 1827, p. 17) states that a manuscript is preserved in the library 
of Christ's College, Cambridge,* written in the tenth century by a monk, 
and entitled JSphemerides Iterum NaturcUium, in which the natural 
phenomena for each day of the year are inscribed, as for instance, the 
first flowering of plants, the arrival of birds, Sx,; the 10th of August 
is distinguished by the word " meteorodes." It was this indication and 
the tradition of tiie fiery tears of St. Lawrence that chiefly induced 
Dr. f'orster to undertake his extremely zealous investigation of the 
August phenomena. (Quetelet, Correspond. Math6m., S6rie III. t. i. 
1887, p. 483.) 

* PNTo such manuscript is at present known to exist in the Xjibraiy 
of that College. For this information I am indebted to the inquiries of 
Hr. Gory of Pembroke College, the learned editor of JKeroglyphies ^ 
ffanspoUo ifUoua, GrediL and English, 1840.]— .TV*. 



112 

Btars and fii'e bulls of the most vaiious dimensions, ^rhlcli, 
according to Kloden, were seen to fell at Potsdam, on the 
night between tie 12th and 18th of November, 1822, and on 
the same night of the year in 1832, throughout the whole of 
Emrope, from Portsmouth to Orenburg on tile Ural lliver, and 
even in the Southern Hemisphere, aa in the Isle of France, no 
attention was directed to the periodicity of the phenomenon, 
and no idea seems to have been entertained of the connection 
existing between the fell of sliooting stars and the recurreuce 
of cei-tain dajrg, tmtil the prodigious swarm of shooting stara 
which Occurred in North America between the 12th and 13th 
of November, 1833, and was observed by Olmsted and Palmer. 
The stars fell, on tiiis occasion, like flakes of snow, and it w-as 
calculated that at least 240,000 had fallen during a period of 
nine hours. Palmer of New Haven, Connecticut, was led, in 
consequence of this splendid phenomenon, to the recollection 
of the fall of meteoric stones in 1 799, iirst described by Ellicot 
and myself,* and which, by a comparison of 'lie facts I bad 
adduced, showed that the paenomcnon had been simultaneously 
seen in tlie New Continent, from the equator to New Herm- 
hut in Greenland, (64° 14' lat.) and between 46° and 82° 
long. ITie identity of the epochs was recognised with 
astonishment. The stream, which had been seen from Jamaica 
to Boston {40° 21' lat.) to traverse the whole vault of heaven 
on the 12th and 13th of iS'ovember, 1833. was again observed 
in the United States in 'Si4, on the night between the 13th 
and 14th of November, although on this latter occasion it 
showed itself with somewhat less intensity. In Europe the 
periodicity of the phenomenon has since been manifested with 



3 rwulai'ly recurring phenomenon is that 
h of^Augu 



lotioed in the month of^August, the meteoric stream of 8 
/jawrenee, ajjpcaiing between the 9th and 14th of August. 

• Hnmb., Sel. Iliat., t. i. pp. 519-627. Ellioot, in the Tranaaetions 
<if Ike American Society, 1804, vol. vi, p. 29. Araga makes the fol- 
loiring obBoirationB in reference to the Novemher phenomeDo ; " We 
thug liccome more aod more confirmed in the helief th&t there exista tt 
zone composed of millions of small bodies, whose orbits cut the plane of 
the ecliptic nt abont the point which oar Earth aimuallj occupiea between 
the lltb and 13thof November. It is a iieiv plancttirjr world bcgiiming 
to b« revealed to os." (jlnnuatre, 183S, p. f "~ ' 



114 CUKOB. 

Decembci:, nud, to judge by the aa 
lites enmnetated by Capcooi, ako 
of November. AT about ite i 7th of 
AltliMigh tiic pbeBomsiiR Mthcil 
been independent of ihedurtasoe i 
■hire of the air, nnd other oliinatic i 
one perluipe aooidestalliy voomoideni 
not be wholly disregarded. The J 
■ Soietdis^ woa unusually bnlhant 
splendid iiill of meteors.of. the 12th. 
descmbed by Olntsted. It was ab 
18B8, where tbe periodic metaor 
-tsmarkable than at 'Richmond near 
in another work the singular fi 
Wrangol, and frequently ooufirme 
when he was on.the Siberian ooastt 

hitherto ob«rred, "fki foIlowIiiK epoc 

22nd to tbe 2fitb of April. 

I7th of July, (17th to the 28th of Jul: 

lOtli of August. 

12th to the 14th of Norember. 

2Tth to the 29th of NoYember. 

6th to the IStb of December. 

Wheu we condder that the regimu 
mjtiada of comets, we are led by ana 
' fcrencea exiating between isolated eomeb 
to regard the frequency of ^ese metec 
menC than Uie first ccudderaCion of the 

• Fnnl V. ITrangel, Seine Idngi dt 
den Jahr^ ]S2tl-I834, th. h. a. 259. 
the denser swurm of die November s 
years, see Olbecs, in Jahrb., 1837, 3. 28 
that Ehortlj before the fearful earlhqua 
33 years (the same interval) before the 
and 12th of November, 1799, a similai 
observed in the heavens. Bui it waa 
Bad not in the beginning of November 
PoEsiblj Eome traveller in Quito may 
day on which the vo1i:ano of CB,pjiibe 
for the space of an hour enveloped in 
habitants endeavoured to appease hea 
t^eliO. JJief., 1. 1 chap. iv. p. 307 ; cha 



A«SiOLIT£S. 115 

4unBg an AuivHsa Borealis, certain portions of the Yault of 
liefH'esi, vihieh ware not ilfeuniiiated, light up and eontinue 
IttDUBOiis «rh^ie¥er a. fliM)otiiig «tar passed oTcr them. 

Hie diifferent me^mnc streasns, each of which is composed 
of laynaids of sitiaU eosnioal Ladiies, probably intersect ontr 
Etftb's orbit m the aanne naniLer as Biela's ctnnet. Accord- 
iag ^ this JbjpQ£he«s, we lamj fie|MBes«:it to ourselves these 
4M^en0!ML-4Kketeon> raS'Oon^iostiig a dosed rixig or ssone, withiii 
nfiidh A^ ikli pursue cgoe oomaaoa <>rbit. The smaU^ 
^JKS^gits be^ecB MmcB «jad Jupiter, present us, if we except 
FaJlas, with im ftuakgous relation in their constantly inter- 
seoti»g orii«ts. As yet, howeyar, we have no certain know- 
ledge as to whether changes in the periods at which the 
stream beeomes vi^ble^ -or the retardaiians of the phenomaia 
iiiwhidk I haye ahseady spoken, indicate a regular precession 
orosciUation of the •i]^)de6''-*that is to say, of the points of 
iotersaetioB of the Earth's orlyit and of that of the ring ; or 
whether this mig ^ zcm^ ^cains so considerable a degree of 
breadth &om the irr^oiar gr«ouping and distances apart of 
the ffinall bodies., tnat it requii^es several days for the Earth 
to trav^Dse it. The system of Saturn's satellites shows us 
likewise a group of imsaense width composed of most inti- 
mate-connected 4KMsmical bodies. In this system, the orbit 
of the outermost (the seventh) satellite has aoch a vast di- 
amet^, that the Ear^, in her revolution roimd the Sun, 
re^^ures thz>ae days to ti^verse an extent of space equal to 
this diameter. If, therefore, in one of these rings, which 
we rc^aand as the 4xrbit of a periodical stream, the asteroids 
should be ao irregularly distributed as to consist of but few 
groups sufficiently deidse to give rise to these phenomena, we 
may easily imderstand why we so seldom witness such glorious 
Spectacles as those exhibited in the November months of 
1799 and 1833. The acute mind of Olbers led him almost to 
predict that the next appearance of the phenomenon of shoot- 
ing stars and £re balls intermixed, falling like f^^es of snow, 
would not recur imtil between the 12th and 14th of November, 
1867. 

The stream of the November asteroids has occasionally 
only been visible in a small section of the Earth. Thus, for 
instance, a very splendid m6*^oric shower was seen in England 
in the year 1837, whilst a mos„ attentive and skilful observer 

I 2 



118 COSMOS. 

of iron, from, the aesolites of Siam, in wkich the Iron scarceli^ 
amounts to 2 par cent., or the earthy aerolite of Ahm (inr the 
Department du Gard), whieh broke up in water ; or lastly, 
&om those of Jonzac imd Juvenas. which containad no metallic 
iron, but presaited a mixture of oryetognosticaQy ddstiact 
crystalline c<»ftpoiients ! These differences have led mjne** 
ralogists to separate these cosmieal masses into two elasses, 
namely, those containing nickelliferous meteoric iron, and 
those consisting of fine or coarsely.gira»ukf meteoric dist. 
The crust or rind of aerolites is peeidiarly characteristie oi 
these bodies, being only a few tenths of a line in thickness, 
often glossy and pitch>like, and occasi<H)ally veined.* There 
is only one instance on record, as far as I am aware (the 
aerolite of Chantonnay, in La Vendee), in which the rind was 
absent, and this meteor, like that of Juvenas, presented like- 
wise the peculiarity of having pores and vesicular cavities. 
In all other cases the black crust is divided &om the inner 
light-gray mass by as sharply-defined a line of separation, as 
is the black leaden-coloured investment of the wlute granite 
blocks t which I brought &om the cataracts oi the Orinoco, 
and )|^hich are also associated with many other cataracts, as, 
for instance, those of the Nile and of the Congo River. The 
greatest heat employed in our porcelain ovens would be in- 
sufficient to produce anything similar to the crust of meteoric 
stones, whose interior remains wholly imchaaged. Here and 
there, facts have been observed which would seem to indicate 
a fusion together ot the meteoric fragments ; but in general, 
the character of the aggregate mass, the absence of com- 
pression by the fall, and the inconsiderable degree of heat 
possessed by these bodies when they reach the earth,, are all 
opposed to the hypothesis of the interior being in a state of 
fusion during their short passage from the boundary of the 
atmosphere to our Earth. 

The chemical elements of which these meteoric masses 
consist, and on which Berzelius has thrown so much light, 
are the same as those, distributed throughout the eaisth's 



* The peenliar colour of their crust was observed even as early as in 
the time of Pliny (ii. 56 and 58) t " colore adusto.** The phrase " lateriboi 
pluisse/' seems also to refer to the burnt outer surface of aecoliisa 

t Humb., JRel, Hist, t ii. chap. xx. pp. 299-302. 



JlEBOl^XSS. 119 

CPBOSt^ and axe ££beexL in mimber, namelyr irony niakel, cobalt^ 
manganesev chromium, copper, axBenio, zinc, potash, soda, 
sulphur, pho^hoinifl, and carbon; Constituting altogethsB 
nearly one-tiiird of all the known simple bodies. Not- 
withstanding this similarity with the primary elements into 
which inoiganic bodies are chemically reducible, the amec^ 
of aerolites, owing to the mode in which their constituenti 
parts are compounded^ presents, generally, some featurei 
foreign to our telluric rocks and. minerals. The pure native 
iron, wbich is almost always found incorporated with aero- 
lites, imparts to them a peculiar but not consequently a selenia 
character ; for in other regions of space, and in other cos- 
mical bodies besides our Moon, water may be wholly absent, 
and processes of oxidation of rare occurrence. 

Cosmical gelatinous vesicles, similar to the organic nostoe 
(masses which have been supposed fidnce ike middle ages to. 
be connected with shooting stars), and those pyrites of Sterlit- 
tamak, west of the Uralian Mountains, which are taid to have 
constituted the interior of hailstones,^ must both be classed 
amongst tlie mythical fables of meteorology. Some few aero- 
lites, as those composed of a finely gmnuhir tissue of olivine, 
augite and. labradorite blended together f (as the meteoric 
stone foimd at Juvenas, in the Department de 1' Ardeche, which 
resembled dolorite), are the only ones, as Gustave Rose has 
remarked, which have a more famiHax aspect. These bodies 

* Gtigtay Eose, Beise nach dem Ural, bd. ii. s. 202. 

t GuBtay Hose, in Poggend. Ann., 1826, bd. iv., s. 173-192. Bam- 
melBberg, Erstea Suppl, zumchem. Handwdrterbw^ der Mineralogie, 
1843, 8. 102. "It is," says the clear-minded observer, Olbers, "a re- 
markable but hitherto unregarded fact, that while shells are found in 
Becondaiy and tertiary formations, no fossil meteoric stones have as yet 
been discovered. May we conclude from this circumstance, that pre- 
vious to the present and last modification of the earth's surface no 
meteoric stones fell on it^ although at the present time it appears pro- 
bable, from the researdies of Schreibers, that 700 £all annually V (Olbers, 
in Sebum. JaJirb., 1S38, s. 329.) Problematical nickelUferous masses of 
native iron have been foimd in Northern Asia (at the gold-washing 
establishment at Petropawlowak, eighty miles south-east of Kusnezk), 
imbedded thirty-one feet in the ground ; and more recently, in the 
Weston Carpathians (the mountain chain of Magura, at Szlanicz), both of 
which are remarkably like meteoric stones. Compare Erman, Archiv. 
f^r fcissensha/Uiche Kunde von Russland, bd. i. 8. 315, and Haidlngw^. 
Bericlu HJbtr Sdankzer SchUr/e in Ungam, 



120 COSMOS. 

contain, for instance, crystalline substances, perfectly similar 
to those of our earth's crust ; and in the Siberian mass of 
meteoric iron investigated by Pallas, the olivine only dififers 
from common olivine by the absence of nickel, which is re- 
placed by oxide of tin.* As meteoric olivine, like o\u* basalt, 
contains from 47 to 49 per cent, of magnesia, constituting, 
according to Berzelius, almost the ^alf of the earthy com- 
ponents of meteoric stones, we cannot be surprised at the 
great quantity of silicate of magnesia found in iJiese cosmical 
bodies. If the aerolite of Juvenas contain separable crystals 
of augite and labradorite, the numerical relation of the consti- 
tuents renders it at least probable, that the meteoric masses 
of Chateau-Renard may be a compound of diorite, consisting 
of hornblende and albite, and those of Blansko and Chanton- 
nay compounds of hornblende and labradorite. The proofe of 
the telluric and atmospheric origin of aerolites, which it is 
attempted to base upon the oryctognostic analogies presented 
by these bodies, do not appear to me to possess any great 
weight. 

Recalling to mind the remarkable interview between New- 
ton and Conduit at Kensington,! I would ask why the ele- 
mentary substances that compose one group of cosmical bodies, 
or one planetary system, may not in a great measure be iden- 
tical ? Why should we not adopt this view, since we may 
conjecture that these planetary bodies, like all the larger or 
smaller agglomerated masses revolving round the sim, have 
been thrown off from the once &r more expanded solar atmo- 
sphere, and been formed from vaporous rings describing their 
orbits round the central body ? We are not, it appears to 
me, more justified in applying the term telluric to tiie nickel 
and iron, the olivine and pyroxene (augite), found in meteoric 
stones, than in indicating ike German plants which I found 
beyond the Obi as European species of the flora of Northern 
Asia. If the elementary substances composing a group of 
cosmical bodies of different magnitudes be identical, why 

* Berzelius, JaUret^er,, bd. xr. a 217 and 281. Bammelsberg, Hand' 
w&rterb., abth. ii. s. 25-28. 

t " Sir Isaac Newton said he took all the planets to be composed of 
the same matter with the Earth, viz., earth, water, and stone, but vazl- 
onsly concocted." — Turner, CoUections for the HUtory of QraaUhaim, 
eoniaining atdhenUe Memoirs qfSir Isaac Newton, p. 172. 



JLSB0LTTE8. 121 

should they not likewise, in obeying the laws of mutual at- 
traction, blend together under definite relations of mixture, 
composing the white glittering snow and ice in the polar 
zones of ^e planet Mars, or constituting in the smaller cos- 
mical masses mineral bodies enclosing crystals of olivine, au- 
gite, and labradorite ? Even in the domain of pure conjecture 
we should not suffer ourselves to be led away by unphiloso- 
phical and arbitrary views devoid of the support of inductive 
leasoning. 

Kemarkable obscurations of the sun*s disc, during which 
the stars have been seen at mid-day (as for instance in the 
obscuration of 1547, which continued for three days, and 
occurred about the time of the eventful battle of Miihlberg), 
cannot be explained as arising from yolcanic ashes or mists, 
and were regarded by Kepler as owii^ either to a materia 
cametica, or to a black cloud formed by the sooty exhalations 
of the solar body. The shorter obscurations of 1090 and 
1203, which continued the one only three and the other six 
hours, were supposed by Chladni and Schnurrer to be occa- 
sioned by the passage of meteoric masses before the sim*8 
disc. Since the period that streams of meteoric shooting 
stars were first considered with reference to the direction of 
their orbit as a closed ring, the epochs of these .mysterious 
celestial phenomena have been observed to present a remark- 
able conneetion with the regular recurrence of swarms of 
shooting stars. Adolph Erman has evinced great acuteness 
of mind in his accurate investigation of the facts hitherto 
observed on this subject, and his researches have enabled him 
to discover the connection of the sun's conjunction with the 
August asteroids on the 7th of February, and with the No- 
vember asteroids on the 12th of May, the latter period 
corresponding with the days of St. Mamert (May 1 1th), St. 
Pancras (May 12th), and St. Servatius (May 13th), which, 
according to popular belief, were accounted " cold days."* 

• Adolph Erman, in Poggend. AnncUen, 1889, bd. xlviii. b. 582-601. 
Biot had previously thrown doubt regarding the probability of the No- 
vember stream rea{)pearing in the beginning of May {Comptes Bendus, 
1886, t. ii. p. 670). M&dler has examined the mean depression of tempera- 
tore on the three ill-named days of May by Berlin observations for 86 
yeaxB ( Verhandl des Vereins zurB^ftfrd, dea Gartenbav^ 1834, s. 377), 
and found a retrogression of temperature amounting to 2°*2 F. from the 



122 

The Greek natural philoB^hera, ^ta- were bnt litdfr du- 
poaed to pursue obaerv^ons, but evinoed inexhonatiblfi' fer- 
tility of imagination in giving the movt Tarinus interpietstioa 
of half-perceived facts, have, howeref, left some tiypathese* 
regitrding shooting stars and meteorio stonm, which abrikin^y 
aacord with tha visws now almotf univerBaUy admiUed of the 
coamical process of these phenomena. "Falling staxs." saya 
Plutarch, in his life of Lysander,* " are, according to the opii- 
nion of some physiciala, not eruptiona of the ctherial fire 
extinguished in the air immediately after its ignition, nor yet 
an iuHamnuLtory comhustion of the air, iriiich is dissolved in 
lai^ quantities in the i^iper regions of space; but these me- 
teors are rather a fall of cdestul bodies, which, in consequaice 
of a certnin intermission in the rotatory force, and by the 
impulse of some irre^^ular movement, have been hurled down 
not only to the inhabited portions of the Earth, but also 
beyond it into the great ocean, where we cannot find them." 
Diogenes of ApoUQnia-f expi-esses himself still more explicitly. 
Aocording to his views " Stais that are mvitiile, and conae- 

lllh lo the ISth of Maj, a period at wiich nearly the most rapid srd- 
Tance of heat takes place. It is mueh to be desired that this phenomcnoD 
of depressed temperature, which some hare Mt inclined to attribute to 
the melting of the ice in the north-eoat of Bnrope, should be sIbo invee- 
tifated in very iemol« apota, as ia America, orin the Southern H«ini' 
^ere. (Comp. Btdi. de I'Acad. Imp. de St. PUerAmirg, IBIS, L L, 
No. i,) 

• Plut., Vita par. in Lyaandt-o, rap. 22. The statement of Dama- 
cfaoa (Dnlmachos), that for TO days eontinuouslj there tras a Gecy cload 
seen in the sky, emitting spaite like falling stars, and which then, sink- 
ing nearer to the earUi,. let &il the etmie of .£giM Polamoa, " irUck, 
honever, was only a nnall part of it," ia extremely improbable, ainct 
the direcdoD aud velocity of tlie lira aloud would in that case of neoes- 
^ty have to remain for so many dnys the same aa those of the earth ; 
and this in the fire ball of the 19th of Jnly, 1086, described by Halley 
(IVatM., Tol.x](is.,p. 103) lasted only a few rainatea. It isnot aitogether 
certain whether Daimaohos, the writer, TTEpi ttr<Ti/i£inc, was the same per- 
son as DainiRchos of Plata^a, who was sect by Seleucus to India to the 
son of Androcottos, and who was charged by titralio with beings '*a 
speaker of lies" (p. TO, C^isauh.). l^'rom anotiier poKsage of Ptulaidi 
i^ompar. Solonia c. Cop. cap. 4) we Bbouid almost believe that he mb 
At all events we have here only the evidence of a very late anthor, irt». 
wrote a century and a half after the fiill of acralilea occuned in Thntos 
and whose authenticity is also doubled by riolarch. 

t Swb., ed. Heeren, i. 25, p. 508; Plut, de pifw. Pluioi., li. 1%. 



kXBMkVatH. 12& 

quently have no aaaie, move ia spoee- together with those 
that are visible. These invisible stars frequently fiill to the 
earth and are extingaished, as the atony star which fell burn- 
ing at JElgos Potamos." The Apollonian, who held all other 
stellar bodies when himinoas to be of a pumice-like nature, 
probably g3K>unded his opinions regsrdiiig shooting stars and 
meteoric masses on the doctrine of Anaxagoras the Clazome- 
nian, who regarded> all the bodies in the universe " as firagments 
of rocks, which the fiery ether in the force of its gyratory 
motion bad torn from Ihe Earth and converted into stars.** 
Tn the Icmian schod[,> therefore, according to the testimony 
transmitted to us in the views of Diogenes of ApoUonia, aero* 
lites and stars were ranged in' one and the same class : both, 
when considered with reference to their pnmary origin, being 
equally teUuric, this being understood only so &r as the earlh 
was then regarded as a central' body,* forming all things 
around it in the same manner as we, according^ to our present 
views, suppose the planets of our system, to have originated 
in the expanded atmosphere of another central body — the 
Srai. These views must not, therefore, be confounded with 
what is commonly termed the telluric or atmospheric origin 
of meteoric stones, nor yet with the singular opinion of Aris- 
totle^ which supposed the enormous mass of ^gos Potamos 
to have been raised by a hurricane. That arrogant spirit 
of incredulity, which rejects facts without attempting to in- 
vestigate them, is in some cases almost more injurious than 
an unquestioning credulity. Both are alike detrimental to the 
force of investigation.. Notwithstanding that for more than> 



ft 



* The remarkable paaa^ in Pint, de plae. Philos., 11. 13, ransthiis:.' 
Anaxagoras teaches that the surrounding ether is a fiery substance^ 
wkich by the power of its rotation tears rocks from the earth, infiames 
them, and conrerts them into stars." Applying an ancient fable to il- 
lustrate a physical dogma, the Clazomenian appears to have ascribed the 
fiall of the Nemean Lion to the Pelopennesns from the Moon to such a 
rotatoiy or cenianfugal force. (iElian., xii. 7 ; Pint., de facie in orbe Lunm, 
c 2i; Schol. ex Cod. Paris, in ApolL Arg&n., lib. 1. p. 498, ed. Schaef., 
t. iLp. 40; Meineke, Atmid. Alex., 1843, p. 85.) Here instead of 
stones from the Moon we have an animal from the Moon ! According 
ix> an acute remark of Bockh, the ancient mythology of the Nemaean 
innar lion has an astronomical origin, and is symbolically connected in 
ehxoBology with the cycle of intoxvsklatlon of the lunar year, with the 
ii>oon-woiship at !NeBue% and the games by which it was accompanied. 



124 COSMOS. 

two thousand years the annals of different nations had recorded 
falls of meteoric stones, many of which had been attested 
beyond all doubt by the evidence of irreproachable eye-wit- 
nesses, — notwithstanding the important part enacted by the 
Boetylia in the meteor- worship of the ancients— notwithstand- 
ing the fact of the companions of Cortes having seen an aero- 
lite at Cholula which had fallen on the neighbouring pyramid, 
— ^notwithstanding that Caliphs and Mongolian chiefs had 
caused swords to be forged from recently fallen meteoric 
stones,— nay, notwithstanding that several persons had been 
struck dead by stones falling from heaven, as for instance, a 
monk at Crema on the .4th of September, 1511, another monk 
at Milan in 1650, and two Swedish sailors on board ship in 
1674, yet this great cosmical phenomenon remained almost 
wholly unheeded, and its intimate connection with other plane- 
tary systems imknown, until attention was drawn to the subject 
by Chladni, who had alxeady gained immortal renown by his 
discovery of the sound-figures. He who is penetrated with a 
sense of this mysterious connection, and whose mind is open 
to deep impressions of nature, will feel himself moved by the 
deepest and most solemn emotion at the sight of every star 
that shoots across the vault of heaven, no less than at the 
glorious spectacle of meteoric swarms in the November phe- 
nomenon or on St. Lawrence's day. Here motion is suddenly 
revealed in the midst of nocturnal rest. The still radiance of 
the vault of heaven is for a moment animated with life and 
movement. In the mild radiance left on the track of the 
shooting star imagination pictures the lengthened path of the 
meteor through the vault of heaven, whilst, everywhere around, 
the luminous asteroids proclaim the existence of one common 
material universe. 

If we compare the volume of the innermost of Satum*s satel- 
lites, or that of Ceres, with the immense volume of the Sun, 
all rektions of magnitude vanish from our minds. The ex- 
tinction of suddenly resplendent stars in Cassiopea, Cygnus, 
and Serpentarius, have already led to the assumption of other 
and non-luminous cosmical bodies. We now know that the 
meteoric asteroids, spherically agglomerated into small masses, 
revolve round the Sun, intersect like comets the orbits of the 
luminous lax^er planets, and become ignited either in the 
vicinity of our atmosphere or in its upper strata. 



ASB0L1TE8. 125 

The only media by which we are brought in connexion with 
oilier planetary bodies, and with all portions of the universe 
beyond our atmosphere, are light and heat (the latter of which 
can scarcely be separated from the former),* and those mys- 
terious powers of attraction exercised by remote masses ac- 
cording to the quantity of their constituents, upon our globe, 
the ocean, and the strata of our atmosphere. Another and 
different kind of cosmical or rather material mode of contact is, 
however, opened to us, if we admit falling stars and meteoric 
stones to be planetary asteroids. They not only act upon us 
merely from a distance by the excitement of luminous or 
calor]£c vibrations, or in obedience to the laws of mutual 
attraction, but they acquire an actual material existence 
for us, reaching our atmosphere from the remoter regions of 
universal space, and remaining on the earth itself. Meteoric 
stones are the only means by which we can be brought in pos- 
sible contact with that which is foreign to our own phuiet. 
Accustomed to gain our knowledge of what is not telluric 
solely through measurement, calculations, and the deductions 
of reason, we experience a sentiment of astonishment at find- 
ing that we may examine, weigh, and analyse bodies that 
appertain to the outer world. This awakens, by the power 
of the imagination, a meditative spiritual train of thought, 
where the untutored mind perceives only scintillations of light 
in the firmament, and sees in the blackened stone that falls 
from the exploded cloud nothing beyond the rough product of 
a powerful natural force. 

Although the asteroid-swarms, on which we have been led 
from special predilection to dwell somewhat at length, ap- 

* The following remarkable passage on the radiation of heat from the 
fixed stars, and on their low combustion and vitality — one of Kepler's 
many aspirations — occurs in the Paralipom, in Vitell. Astron. pars 
Optica, 1604, Propos. xxxii., p. 25 : *' Lucis proprium est calor, sydera 
omnia calefaciunt. De syderum luce claritatis ratio testatur, calorem 
muversorum in minori esse proportione ad calorem miius soils, quam nt 
ib homine, cujus est certa caloris mensura, uterque simul percipi et ju- 
dicari possit. De cincindularum lucula tenuissima negaie non potes, quin 
cum calore sit. Yivunt enim et moventur, hoc autem non sine calefac- 
tione perJBcitur. Sic neque putrescentium lignorum lux suo calore 
destituitur ; nam ipsa puetredo quidam lentus ignis est. Inest et stir- 
pibfus suus calor." (Compare Kepler, EpU, Astron. Copemicance, 1618, 
t i. lib. i. p. 35.) 



i26 t)08M<M. 

proximate to a certain dc^xiee, in tktdr ineottsiderable mass 
and the diversity of their orbits, to comets, they present <ikis 
fessential <Hfferaaoe &om the iatter bodies, that onr knoniedge 
of their existence is almost enttiely limited to the mom^it of 
their destruction, that is, to the .penod when drawn within 
t^ sphere of the ^earth's attEaction, they beo<»ne lumuious 
>and ignite. 

In order to complete lOur view of ali that we ka^ve learnt to 
consider as appertaining to our solar system, which now, since 
the discovery .of the small planets, of the int^or comets of 
short revohitions, and of the meteoric asteroids, is so rich and 
complicated in its form, it remains for us to speak of the ring 
of Zodiacal Light, to which we have already alluded. Those 
who have lived for many years in the zone of palms must retain 
a pleasing impression <^ the mild radiance with which the 
zodiacal light, shooting pyramidaHy upwards, illumines a part 
of the uniform length of ^tropieal nights. I have seen it shine 
with an intensky >of light equal to the Milky Way in Sa^t- 
tarius, and that not only in tthe rare and diy atmosphere of 
the summits of the Abides at an elevation of ivom. thirteen 
to fifteen thousand ieet, but even on the boundless grassy 
plains, the Llanos of Venezuela, and on the sea-shore, be- 
neath the ever dear sky of Cumana. This phenomenon was 
often rendered especially beauitdfiil by the passage of light 
fleecy clouds, which stood out in picturesque and bold relief 
from the luminous background. A notice of this aerial spec- 
tacle is contained in a passage in my journal, while I was on 
the voyage &om Lima to the western coasts of Mexico i—- 
" For three or four nights (between 10* and 14* N. lat.) the 
zodiacal light has appeared in greater splendour than I have 
ever observed it. llie transparency of the atmosphere must 
be remarkably great in this part of the Southern Ocean, to 
judge by the radiance of the stars and nebulous spots. 
From the 14th to the Iftth of Mairch a regular interval of 
three-quarters of an hour occmTcd between the disappearance 
of the sun's disc in the ocean and the first manifestation of 
the zodiacal light, although the night was already perfectly 
dark. An hour after sunset it was seen in great brilliancy 
between Aldebaran and the Pleiades; and on the 18th of 
March it attained an altitude of 39° 6'. Narrow elongated 
clouds are scattered over the beautiful deep azure of the diet- 



ZODXAMUJL OOHT. 127 

tant hadbcon, flitting fftst Ike xo^iiMial U^t as before a golden 
coiriain. Above ^tbfise, other nlonds Aoe -horn time to time 
jreflectiiig the imoat brightly vacisgiiitod Ofdcims. It «eem8 a 
seofflid fiuaset. On tbifl eide -ci ^e ^vauk -of heai¥en .the light- 
naBffi of .the ni^t appeairs to oncreeae almost 416 ooduch as at the 
first quacter of the ^ooon. Towards 1^0 otckck the eodiacal 
Ught .genendly .beooiaes Tery £u&t inithis part of the Southern 
Ocean, and at midm^t I have «earcQly been able to trace a 
-vestige of it. On Ibe 16th «of March, when most strongly 
limunoiis, a faint reflection was yisible -in Abe east." In our 
gloomy so-called "temperate" Northern zone, the zodiacal 
%ht Ss only distinetly visible >in.the beginning 'Of Spring, after 
the.&veniqg twilight, in the western part of the sky, and at 
iiie«ilose of Autumn, before the dawn .of day, above the eost- 
ezn horizon. « 

It is difficult to understand how so striking a natural pheno- 
menon should have failed to attract the attention of physicists 
and astronomers, until the middle of Iheseventeenth century, 
^r how it could have escaped the observation of the Arabian 
natural philosophers, <in ancient Bactria, on the Euphrates, 
and in the soutb of Spain. Almost equal surprise is excited 
by the tardiness of observation of the nebulous spots in An- 
&omeda and Oriooi, first described by Simon Marius and 
Huygens. The earliest explicit description .of the zodiacal 
li^it occurs in Childrev's Britannia Baeonica* in the year 

* "There is another Ibing, which I lecommead to the observation of 
nuithematical men : which is, that in Fehruary, and for a little before, 
and a little after that month (as I have observed several years to- 
gether), about six in the evening, when the twilight hath almost 
deserted the horizon, you shall see a plainly diseemible way of the 
twilight striking up towards the Pleiades, and seeming almost to touch 
them. It is so observed any clear night, but it is best iliac nocte. 
Tkere is no such way to be observed at any other time of the year 
^that I can perceive), nor any other way at that time to be perceived 
darting up elsewhere. And I believe it hath been, and will be con- 
stantly visible at that time of the year. But what the cause of it m 
nature should be, I cannot yet imagine, but leave it to future enquiry." 
(Childrey, Britcmnia Baconica, 1661, p. 1 83.) This is the first view and 
a Bimple description of the phenomenon. (Cassini, Dicouvn'te de la Lu- 
mi^re cSleste qui paroU dans le Zodiaqtte, in the Mem. de VAcad., t. viii. 
1780, p. 276. Mairan, Traiti Phys, de VAurore Boriale, 1764, p. 16.) 
In this remarkable work by Childrey there are to be found (p. 91) 
very dear accounts of the epochs of maxima and miinma diunud and 



130 COBMOB. 

trol body simultaneously vrith the diurnal revolution of th 

latter.* This limitation of the solt 

concentrated condition is especiall; 

pare the central body of our systei 

nebulous stare. Herscbel has disc 

mdius of the nebulous matter but 

at an angle of 150'. On the assu 

not fiilly equal to I', we find th 

layer of such a Btar must be 130 

trid body than our Earth is from 

nebulous star were to occupy the ; 

phere would not only include the 

extend eight times beyond it.f 

Considering the narrow limitatii 
which we have juat described, we 
regard the existence of a very com} 
matter,! rcTolving freely in. space I 

1S43, and embnciog a notice of difTerei] 
earthqnskea and comets (bb, for inatance, 

J which are important ia relslion to Mei 
n Camargo'a manuscript Hitloria de j 
eaat alcooBt to the lenith ia, singalarljai 
md aiif BowB nitli stars." Hie detcrip 
laited forty dsjs, cannot in anj waj app] 
cateped, which liei very near, in the sou 
Hittory qflhe Conquttt of Mexico, vol. 
have confounded this phenonwaon, which 
JDg of bis nuafortanea, with the " estrella 
gyring forth; Meiicaa cbolaa, to leap o 
tiie connexion of thU Tspour witli the i 
Kith " the monatuQ of the star" (Citlalti 
my Motmmtya, t. ii. p. 303. 

* Laplace, Expat, du Syit. da Mono 
t. ii. pp. 169 and 171 ; Schubert, Altr,, 
f Arago, in the Atrnvain, 1842, p. ' 
tchel'g considerationi on the volume and 
nebulie, in Mary Soroerville'a Conneaion 
p. 108. The opinion that the Sun i< a i 
presents the phenomenon of zodiacal ligh 
icua Casaini, but was lirst promulgated 
FAuron Bor., p. il and 2G3 ; Arago, ii 
)t ia a renewal of Kepler's views. 

X Dominicns Cassini was the first tc 
Laplace, Schubert, and Poisson, the h 
cjqiUin Uie fonn of th« lodiocal lighc £ 



132 COSMOS. 

and wavering of the light. Must we suppose that changes 
are actually in progress in the nebulous ring ? or is it not 
more probable, tiiat although I could not, by my meteorolo- 
gical instruments, detect any change of heat or moisture near 
the groimd, and small stars of the fifth and sixth naagnitades 
appeared to shine with equally undiminished intensity of 
light, processes of condensation may be going on in the 
uppermost strata of the air, by means of which the trans- 
parency, or rather the reflection of light, may be modified in 
some peculiar and unknown manner ? An assiunption of the 
existence of such meteorological causes on the confines of our 
atmosphere, is strengthened by the " sudden flash and pulsa- 
tion of light," which, according to the acute observations oi 
Olbers, vibrated for several seconds through the tail of a 
comet, which appeared during the continuance of the pulsa- 
tions of light to be lengthened by several degrees, and then 
again contracted. As, however, the separate particles of a 
comet's tail, measuring millions of miles, are very unequally 

* Arago, in the Annttairef 1832, p. 246. Several physical facts appear 
to indicate that, in a mechanical separation of matter into its smallest 
particles, if the mass be very small in relation to the surface, the electrical 
tension may increase sufficiently for the production of light and heat. Ex- 
periments with a large concave mirror, have not hitherto given any positive 
evidence of the presence of radiant heat in the zodiacal light. (Lettre 
de M. Matthiessen k M. Arago, in the Compiee Rendut, t. xvi. 1843, 
Avril, p. 687.) 

t " What you tell me of the changes of light in the zodiacal light, and 
of the causes to which you ascribe such changes within the tropics, is oi 
the greater interest to me, since I have been for a long time past particu- 
larly attentive, every spring, to this phenomenon in our northern latitudes. 
I, too, have always believed that the zodiacal light rotated ; but I assumed, 
(contrary to Poisson's opinion, which you have communicated to me,) that 
it completely extended to the Sun, with considerably augmenting bright- 
ness. The light circle which, in total solar eclipses, is seen surrounding 
the darkened Sun, I have regarded as the brightest portion of the zodiacal 
light. I have convinced myself that this light is very different in different 
years, often for several successive years being very bright and diffused, 
whilst in other years it is scarcely perceptible. I think that I find the 
first trace of an allusion to the zodiacal light in a letter from Rothmann to 
Tycho, in which he mentions that, in spring he has observed the twilight 
dui not close until the sun was 24* below the horizon. Rothmann must 
certainly have confounded the disappearance of the setting zodiacal light 
in the vapours of the western horizon, with the actual cessation of twilight, 
have failed to observe the j»ulMtions of the light, probably on account 



ZOBIA.CAL LIGHT. 133 

distant from the eartli, it is not possible, according to the laws 
of the Telocity and transmission of light, that we should be 
able, in so short a period of time, to perceive any actual 
changes in a cosmical body of such vast extent. These con- 
siderations in na way exclude the reality of the changes that 
have been observed in the emanations from, the more con- 
densed envelopes around the nucleus of a comet, nor that of 
the sudden irradiation of the zodiacal light from internal mo- 
lecular motion, nor of the increased or diminished reflection of 
light in the cosmical vapour of the luminous ring; but should 
simply be the means of (hrawing our attention to the differences 
existing between that which appertains to the air of heaven 
(the realms of universal space), and that which belongs to the 
strata of our terrestrial atmosphere. It is not possible, as 
well-attested facts prove, perfectly to explain the operations 
at work in the much-contested upper boundaries of our at- 
mosphere. The extraordinary lightness of whole nights in 
the year 1831, during which small print might be read at 
midnight in the latitudes of Italy and the North of Germany, 

of the feintness with which it appears in these countries. You are, how- 
erer, certainly right in ascribing those rapid variations in the light of the 
heaTenly bodies, which you have perceived in tropical climates, to our 
own atmosphere, and especially to its higher regions. This is most strik- 
ingly seen in the tails of large comets. We often observe, especially in the 
clearest weather, that these tails exhibit pulsations, commencing from the 
head, as being the lowest part, and vibrating in one or two seconds through 
the entire tail, which thus appears rapidly to become some degrees longer, 
but again as rapidly contracts. That these undulations, which were formerly 
noticed with attention by Robert Hooke, and in more recent times by 
Sclir5ter and Chladni, do not actually occur in the tails of the comets, 
but are produced by our atmosphere, is obvious when we recollect that 
the individual parts of those tails (which are many millions of miles in 
length), lie at very different distances from us, and that the light from 
their extreme points can only reach us at intervals of time which differ 
several minutes from one another. Whether what you saw on the Orinoco, 
not at intervals of seconds but of minutes, were actual coruscations of the 
zodiacal light, or whether they belonged exclusively to the upper strata of 
our atmosphere, I will not attempt to decide. Neither can I explain the 
remarkable lightness of whole nights, nor the anomalous augmentation and 
prolongation of the twilight in tiie year 1831, particularly if, as has been 
remarked, the lightest part of these singular twilights did not coincide with 
the Sun's place below the horizon.'' (From a letter written by Dr. Olbers 
to myself, and dated Bremen, March 26tbt 1833.) 



134 COSMOS. 

is a fact direcHy at yarianco with all that we know, according 
to the most recent and acute researches on the crepuscular 
theory, and of the height of the atmosphere.* The phencmiena 
of light depend upon conditions still less understood, and their 
variaJbilitj at twilight, as well as in the zodiacal light, excite 
our astonishment. 

We have hitherto considered that which belongs to our solar 
system — ^that world of material forms governed by the Bun — 
which includes the primary and secondary planets, comets of 
short and long periods of reyolution, meteoric asteroids, which 
moTC thronged together in streams, either sporadically or in 
closed rings, and finally a luminous nebulous ring, that revolves 
round the Sun in the vicinity of the Earth, and for whiclu 
owing to its position, we may retain the name of zodiacal 
light. Everywhere the law of periodicity governs the motions 
of these bodies, lu)wever different may be the amount of tan- 
gential velocity, or the quantity of their agglomerated material 
parts ; the meteoric asteroids which enter our atmosphere from 
the external regions of universal space, are alone arrested in 
the course of their planetary revolution, and retained within the 
sphere of a larger planet. In the solar system, whose bound- 
aries determine the attractive force of the central body, comets 
are made to revolve in their elliptical orbits at a distance 44 
times greater than that of Uranus ; nay, in those comets 
whose nucleus appears to us, from its inconsiderable mass, like 
a mere passing cosmical cloud, the Sun exercises its attractive 
force on the outermost parts of the emanations radiating from 
the tail over a space of many millions of miles. Central 
forces, therefore, at once constitute and maintain the system. 

Our Sun may be considered as at rest when compared to all 
the large and small, dense and almost vaporous cosmical bodies, 
that appertain to and revolve around it ; but it actually rotates 
round the common centre of gravity of the whole system, 
which occasionally Mis within itself, that is to say, remains 
within the material cii'cumference of the Sun, whatever 
changes may be assumed by the positions of the planets. A 
very different phenomenon is that presented by the translatorv 
motion of the Sun, that is, the progressive motion of the centre 

* Biot, Traiti tTAstron. Physique^ Sfeme 6d., 1841, t. i. pp. 171i 
238, and 312. 



TUA.NSI.ATOBY MOTIOK OP THE 80LAB STSTE&T. 184 

of gi-avity of the whole solar syBtem in iiniTcrsal space. Its 
velocity is such* that, according to Bessel, the relative motion 
of the Sun, and that of 61 Cygni, is not less in one day than 
3,336,000 geographical miles. This change of the entire 
solar system would remain unknown to us, if the admirable 
exactness of our astronomical instruments of measurement, 
and the advancement recently made in the art of observing, 
did not cause our advance towards remote stars to be per- 
ceptible, like an approximation to the objects of a distant 
shore in apparent motion. The proper motion of the star 61 
Cygni, for instance, is so considerable, that it has amounted te 
a whole degree in the course of 700 years. 

The amount or quantity of these alterations in the fixed 
stars (that is to say, the changes in the relative position of 
self-luminoBS stars towards each other), can be aetermined 
with a greater degree of certainty than we are able to attach 
to the genetic explanation of the phenomenon. After taking 
into consideration what is due to the precession of the equi- 
noxes, and the nutation of the earth's axis produced by the 
action of the Sun and Moon on the spheroidal figure of our 
globe, and what may be ascribed to the transmission of light, 
that is to say, to its aberration, and to the parallax formed by 
the diametrically opposite position of the Earth in its course 
round the Sun, we still find that there is a residutll portion of 
the annual motion of the fixed stars due to the translation of 
the whole solar system in universal space, and to the true 
proper motion of tiie stars. The difficidt problem of numeri- 
cally separating these two elements, the true and the apparent 
motion, has been effected by the careM study of the direction 
of the motion of certain individual stars, and by the consider- 
ation of the fact that, if all the stars were in a state of absolute 
rest, they would appear perspectively to recede from the point 
in space towards which the Sun was directing its course. 
But the idtimate result of this investigrtion, confirmed by the 
calculus of probabilities, is that our solar system and the stars 
both change their places in space. According to the admir- 

♦ Be«sely in Schwm, Jahrb. f&r 1839, s. 51 ; probably four millions of 
niifeB daily, in a relative Telocity of at the least 3,336,000 miles, or more 
than double the velocity of revolution of the Earth iu her orbit round 
the Sun. 



tble regearcbeB of Ai^lander, at Abo, who has extended and 
more perfoctly developed the work begun by William Herechcl 
and Frevost, the Sun moves in the direction of the constella- 
tioa Hercules, and probably, from the combinatiim of the 
obeervntions made of 537 Btara, towards a point lying (at tha 
equinox of 1792'5) at 267" 49', 7 R.A., and 28"^ 4g'-7 N.D. 
It is extremely difficult, in investigationa of this natuie, to 
separate the absolute from the relative motion, and to deter- 
mine what is alone owing to the solar system. 

If we consider the proper, and not the perspective motions 
of tlie stars, we shall find many that appear to be distributed 
in groups, having an opposite direction ; and facts hitherto 
observed, do not at any rate render it a necessary assumption, 
that all parte of oui' starry stratum, or the whole of the stellar 
islands filling space, sho;Jd move round one large unknown, 
luminous or non-luminous central body. The tendency of the 
human mind to investigate ultimate and highest causes, cer- 
tainly inclines the intellectual activity, no less than the imagi- 
nation of mankind, to adopt Buch an hypothesis. Even the 
Stagyrite proclaimed that "everything which is moved must 
be referable to a motor, and that there would be no end to 
the concatenation of causes, if there were not cue primordial 
inunoveable motor."* 

The manifold translatory changes of the stars, not those 
produced by the parallaxes at which they are seen from the 
changing position of the spectator, but the true changes 
tonstantly going on in the regions of space, afford us incon- 
Irovertible evidence of the dominion of the laws of ailraclton, 
m the remotest regions of space, beyond the limits of our 

* RcgBTdiag the motioa of the loUr system, according to Bradley, 
Tobias Miyer, Lambert, Laknde, and Williani Herachel, see Arago, m tha 
Annuaire, 1842, pp. 3BS-399 ; Argelander, in Schum. Ailron. Nachr., 
Ht. 363, 3S4, 398, and in the treatise Fob dtr eigenen BexBtyvng det 
Sonncfuyiffnu (On the proper motion of the Solar System), 1837, s. 43, 
respecting Perseiu as the central body of the whole stellar stratum ; like- 
wise, Otho Strave, in the Bull, dt i'Aead. de St. Ptttrtb., 1843, t. i. 
No. 9, pp. 137-139. The last-named astronomer has found, by a more 
recent combination, 261° 23' R.A. -t- 37° 36' Decl. tot the direction ol 
the Sun's motion, and taking the mean of bis own results with that of 
Argelander, we have, by a combination of ?97 stara, tbe formula, 259* 9' 
B.A. + 34° SS' Decl. 

t AristoC, de Calo, iii. 2, p. 301, Bekker; Pityt., vlii. 5, p 256. 



TAAJHIAIOIIT HOTiOK. 157 

Bokr sjBtem. The existence of these laws ia revealed to us 
by many phenomena, as fbr instance by the motion of double 
stars, and by the amount of retarded or accelerated motion in 
difierent parte of their elliptic orbits. Human inquiry need 
no longer pursue this subject in the domain of vague con- 
jecture, or amid the undefined analogies of the ideal world ; 
for even here the progress made in the method of astronomical 
observations and calculations has enabled astronomy to take 
up its position on a firm basis. It is not only the 01800^617 
of the astounding numbers of double and multiple stars re- 
volving round a centre of gravity lying without their system, 
(2800 such systems having been discovered 14) to 1837) but. 
rather the extension of our knowledge regarding the funda- 
mental forces of the whole material world, and the prooia we 
have obtained of the universal empire of the laws of attraction, 
that must be ranked among the most brilliant discoveries of 
the age. The periods of revolution of coloured stars present 
tiie greatest difierencea ; thus, in some instances, the period 
extends to 43 years, as in ij of Corona, and in others to several 
thousands, as in 66 of Cetus, 38 of Gemini, and 100 of Pisces. 
Since Ilerechcrs measurements in 1782, die satellite of the 
nearest star in the triple wstem of f of Cancer bos completed 
more than one entire revolution. By a skilfid combination of 
the altered distances and angles of position,'" the elements of 
these orbits may be found, conclusions drawn regarding the 
absolute distance of the double stars from the Earth, and 
comparisons made between their mass and that of the Sun. 
Whether, however, here and in our solar system, quantity of 
matter is the only standard of the amount of attractive force, 
or whether specific forces of attraction proportionate to the 
mass, jaoj not at the eame time come into operation, as Bessel 
was the first to conjecture, are questions whose practical solu- 
tion must be left to future ages.f When we compare out 

* Savary, in the Omnaiitmce dtt Tenu, 1B30, pp. 56 nod 163. Encke, 
Kr-I. Jahrb., 1832, >. 253, &c. Araga, in tbe Aimvaire, 1834, pp. 
260,295. JoLnHerHChel. in the Jtf«noirto/(Se^(roiioin. Soc.,iol.y. 
p. 171. 

t BesKl, Untertuehung det TktiU der planelaritchen Stirungen, 
vrleht am der Bevregmig der Sonnt enltlehen, (An Imeetigation of the 
porUon of tbe Planetary Disturbaniea depending on the motion of tke 
£aii)iayt6A. dtr Btrl. Mad. der WUtmtch, 1824 CMathem. ClaaseV 



188 COSMOS. 

Sun with the other fixed stars — that is, with other self-lmni- 
nous Suns in the lenticular starry stratum of which our sys- 
tem forms a part, we find, at least in the case of some, that 
channels are opened to us, which may lead, at all events, to 
an approximate and limited knowledge of their relative dis- 
tances, volumes, and masses, and of the velocities of their 
translatory motion. If we assume the distance of Uranus 
from the Sun to be 19 'times that of the Earth, that is to say, 
19 times as great as that of the Sun from the Earth, the cen- 
tral body of our planetary system will be 11,900 times the 
distance of Uranus from the star a in the constellation Cen- 
taur, almost 31,300 from 61 Cygni, and 41,600 from Vega in 
the constellation Lyra. The comparison of the volimie of 
the Sun with that of the fixed stars of the first magnitude is 
dependent upon the apparent diameter of the latter bodies,— 
an extremely uncertain optical element. If even we assimie, 
with Herschei, that the apparent diameter of Arcturus is only 
a tenth part of a second, it stiU follows that the true diameter 
of this star is 1 1 times greater than that of the Sun.* The 
distance of the star 61 Cygni, made known by Bessel, has 
led approximately to a knowledge of the quantity of mat- 
ter contained in this body as a double star. Notwitiistanding 
that since Bradley's observations, the portion of the apparent 
orbit traversed by this star, is not sumciently great to admit 
of our arriving with perfect exactness at the true orbit and the 
major axis of this star, it has been conjectured with much pro- 
bability by the great Konigsberg astronomer,! " that the mass 
of this double star cannot be very considerably larger or 
smaller than half of the mass of the Sun." This result is from 
actual measurement. The analogies deduced from the rela- 
tively larger mass of those planets in our solar system that 
are attended by satellites, and from the fiict that Struve has 
discovered six times more double stars amongst the brighter 

8. 2-6. The question has been raised by John Tobias Mayer, in Com- 
ment Soc. Reg. GiHting., 1804-1808, vol. xvi. pp. 31-68. 

* Philae, Trans, for 1803, p. 225. Arago, in the Annuaire, 1842, p. 

375. In order to obtain a clearer idea of the dist£inces ascribed in a 

rather earlier part of the text to the fixed stars, let us assume that the 

. Earth is a distance of one foot from the Sun ; Uranus is then 19 fe<»t, and 

Vega Lyrse is 158 geographical miles from it. 

t Bessel, in Schum. Jahrb.f 1839| 8. 53. 



TKANSULTOSr ICOTIOX. 189 

than amoi^st the telescopic fixed stars, have led other astro- 
nomers to conjecture, thiat the average mass of the larger 
number of the binary stars exceeds &e mass of the Snn.* 
We are, however, &r from having arrived at general results 
r^arding this subject. Our Sun, accordiug to Argelander, 
belongs, with refeaence to prqper motion in qraee, to the class 
of rapidly moving fixed stars. 

The aspect of the starry heavens, the relative position of 
stars and nebulae, the distribution of their limiinous masses, 
the picturesque beauty, if I may so express myself, of the 
whole firmament, depend in the course of ages conjointly upon 
the proper motion of the stars and nebulsB, the translation of 
our solar system in space, the appearance of new stars, and 
the disappearance or sudden diminution in the intensity of 
the light of others, and, lastly and specially, on the changes 
which the Earth's axis experiences from the attraction of ihe 
Sun and Moon. The beautiful stars in the constellation of 
the Centaur and the Southern Cross, will at some fiiture time 
be visible in our northern latitudes, whilst other stars, as 
Sirius and the stars in the Belt of Orion, will in their turn 
disappear below the horizon. The places of the North 
Pole wiU successively be indicated by the stars /3 and a 
Cephei, and dCygni, until after a period of 12,000 years, 
Vega in Lyra will shine forth as the brightest of all possible 
pole stars. These data give us some idea of the extent of the 
motions which, divided into infinitely small portions of time, 
proceed without intermission in the great chronometer of the 
universe. If for a moment we covld yield to the power of 
^Goicy, and imagine the acuteness of our visual organs to be 
made equal wit£ the extremest bounds of telescopic vision, and 
bring together that which is now divided by long periods of 
time, the apparent rest that reigns in space woidd suddenly 
disappear. We should see the countlesia host of fixed stars 
moving in thronged groups in different directions ; nebulse 
wandering through space, and becoming condensed and dis- 
solved like cosmical clouds ; the veil of the Milky Way sepa- 
rated and broken up in many parts, and inoiion ruling supreme 
in every portion of the vault of heaven, even as on the Earth's 
«ui&ce, where we see it unfolded in t}»e germ, the leaf, and 

« Mftdler, Astrw^ s. 476 ; also la Schixii. /«Ar6., 1839, s. 95. 



140 

the M oflo o m , the argamaPB of the Tcgetahie worid. llieode- 
hrated Spanish hotanist, CSaYaniDes, was the first who enter- 
tained the idea of ^ seeing grass grow/* and he directed the 
horizontal micrometer threads of a powerfbllj magnifying 
g^ass at one time to the apex of the shoot of a bambnsa, and 
at another on the rapidly growing stem of an American aloe 
{Agave Americana), precisely as 'the astronomer places his 
cross of networic against a culminating star. In the collectiye 
life of physical nature, in the organic as in the sidereal world, 
aD things that have been, that are, and will be, are alike 
dependent on motion. 

The breaking xsp of the milky way of which I have just 
spoken, requires special notice William Herschel, our safe 
and admirable guide to this portion of the regions of space, has 
discovered by his star-gaugings that the telescopic breadth of 
the milky way extends firom six to seven degrees beyond what 
is indicated by our astronomical maps, and by the extent of 
the sidereal radiance visible to the naked eye.* The two 
brilliant nodes in which the branches of the zone unite, in the 
r^on of Cepheus and Cassiopea, and in the vicinity of Scorpio 
and Sagittarius, appear to exercise a powerful attraction on 
the contiguous stars; in the most brilliant part, however, 
between /3 andy Cygni, one half of the 330,000 stars that have 
been discovered in a breadth of 5* are directed towards one 
side, and the remainder to the other. It is in this part that 
Herschel supposes the layer to be broken up.f The number 
of telescopic stars in the milky way, uninterrupted by any 
nebulae, is estimated at 18 millions. In order, I will not say, 
to realise the greatness of this number, but at any rate to 
compare it with something analogous, I will call attention to 
the j&ct that there are not in the whole heavens more than 
about 8000 stars, between the Ist and the 6th magnitudes, 
visible to the naked eye. The barren astonishment excited 
by numbers and dimensions in space, when not considered 
with reference to applications engaging the mental and per- 
ceptive powers of man, is awakened in both extremes of the 
tmiverse, in the celestial bodies as in the minutest animal- 

* Sir William Herschel in the PhUos. Transact, for 1817, P. II. 
p. 328. 

t AragOi in the Atmuaire, 1842, p. 459. 



THE MILXT WAT. 141 

coles.* A cubic inch of the polishing slate of Bilin contains, 
according to Ehrenberg, 40,000 millions of the siliceous 
shells of Galionellse. 

The stellar nulky way, in the region of which, according to 
Ai^lander's admirable observations, the brightest stars of the 
firmament appear to be congregated, is almost at right angles 
with another milky way, composed of nebulae. The former 
constitutes, accordmg to Sir John Herschers views, an annulus, 
that is to say, an independent zone, somewhat remote from 
otir lenticular-shaped starry stratum, and similar to Satiim*s 
ring. Our plane^ systLi lies in an eccentric direction, 
nearer to ^e region of the Cross than to the diametri- 
cally opposite point, Cassiopea.f An imperfectly seen 
nebulous spot, Ascovered by Messier in 1774, appeared to 
present a remarkable similarity to the form of our starry 
stratum, and the divided ring of our milky way.]; The mOky 
way composed of nebulae, does not belong to our starry 
stratum, but surroimds it at a great distance without being 
physically connected with it, passing almost in the form of a 
lai^ cross through the dense nebulae of Virgo, especially in 
the northern wing, through Comse Berenicis, Ursa Major, 
Andromeda's girdle, and Pisces Boreales. It probably inter- 
sects the stellar milky way in Cassiopea, and connects its 
dreary poles (rendered starless from the attractive forces by 
which stellar bodies are made to agglomerate into groups,)§ 
in the least dense portion of the starry stratum. 

We see from these considerations, that our starry cluster, 
which bears traces in its projecting branches of having been 

* Sir John Herachel, in a letter from Feldhuysen, dated Jan. 13th, 
1836. NichoU, Architecture of the Heavens , 1838, p. 22. (See also 
Bome separate notices hj Sir William Herscfael on the starless space 
which separates ns by a great distance from the Milky Way, in the Philtm* 
Transact, for 1817, P. 11. p. 328.) 

t Sir John Herschel, Astronom,, § 6i24 ; likewise in his Observations 
en Nebula and clusters of Stars (Phil. Transact. 1833, P. II. p. 479, 
fig. 25) ''We have here a brother system, bearing a real physical resem- 
blance and strong analogy of structure to our own." 

t Sir WilUam Herschel, in the Phil. Trans, for 1785, P. I. p. 257. 
Sir John Herschel, Astron., § 616. (''The nebulous region of the heavens 
forms a nebulous milky way, composed of distinct nebulae as the other of 
stars.'' The same observation vas made in a letter he addreued to me. 
IB March, 1829.; 



142 COSMOS^ 

subject in the course of time to yarious metamorphoses, and 
evinces a tendency to dissolve and separate, owing to secon- 
dary centres of attraction — ^is surrounded by two rings, one 
of which, the nebulous zone, is very remote, while the 
other is nearer, and composed of stars alone. The latter, which 
we generally term the Milky Way, is composed of nebulous 
stars, averaging &om the 10th to the 11th degree of magni- 
tude,* but appearing, when considered indiv^ually, of very 
different magnitudes; whilst isolated starry dtisters (starry 
swarms) almost always exhibit throu^out a character of great 
imiformity in magnitude and brilliancy. 

In whatever part the vault of heaven has been pierced by 
powerful and far-penetrating telescopic instruments, stars or 
luminous nebulce are everywhere discoverable, the former in 
some cases not exceeding the 20th or 24th degree of telescopic 
magnitude. A portion of the nebidous vapour would probably 
be found resolvable into stars by more powerful opticfd instru- 
m^nts. As the retina retains a less vivid impression of sepa- 
rate than of infinitely near luminous points, less strongly 
marked photometric relations are excited in the latter case, 
as Arago has recently shown.f The definite or amorphous 
cosmical vapour so universally difEused, and which generates 
heat through condensation, probably modifies the transparency 
of the universal atmosphere, and diminishes that uniform in- 
tensity of light which, according to HaUey and Olbers, should 
arise, if every point throughout the depths of space were filled 
by an infinite series of stars. | The assumption of such a dis- 
tribution in space is, however, at variance with observation; 
which shows us large starless regions of space, openings in the 
heavens, as William Herschel terms them—- <me, four d^rees 
in width, in Scorpio, and another in Serpentarius. In the 
vicinity of both, near their mai*gin, we find unresolvable ne- 
bidffi, of which that on the western edge of the opening in 
Scorpio is one of the most richly thrcmged of the dusters of 
small stars by which the firmament is adorned. Herschel 
ascribes these openings or starless regions to the attractive 

* Sir John Herschel, Axtron.t § 585« 

t Arago, in the Awnuaire, 1842, pp. 282-285, 409-411» and ' 
439-442. 

t Olbers, on the trantuarency of celestial space* in Bode's Jakrt,, 1826» 
s. 110-121. 



STABLESS OPENINGS. 143 

and agglomaratiye fotoes of the marginal groups.* " They 
are parts of our starry stratum,'' says he, with his usual 
graee&l animation of style, ''that have experienced great 
devastation from time." If we picture to ourselves the 
telescopic stars lying behind one another as a starry canopy 
spread oyer the vault of heaven, these starless regions in 
Scorpio and Serpentarius may, I think, be regarded as tubes 
through which we may look into the remotest depths of 
space. Other stars may certainly lie in those parts where 
the strata forming the canopy are interrupted, but these 
are unattainable by our instruments. The aspect of fiery 
meteors had led the ancients likewise to the idea of clefts 
or openings {chasmata) in the vault of heaven. These open- 
ings were, however, only regarded as transient, whilst the 
reason of their being Imninous and fiery, instead of obsciire, 
was supposed to be owing to the translucent illuminated 
ether which lay beyond ihcm.f Derham and even Huygens, 
did not appear disinclined to explain in a similar manner the 
mild radiance of the nebtilfe.^ 

When we compare the stars of the first magnitude, which 
on an average are certainly the nearest to us, with the non- 
nebulous telescopic stars, and fiirther, when we compare the 
nebulous stars with imresolvable nebidsEt, for instance, with 
the nebula in Andromeda, or even with the so-called pla- 
netary nebulous vapour, a fact is made manifest to us by the 
consideration of the varying distances and the boundlessness 
of space, which shows the world of phenomena, and that which 
constitutes its causal reality, to be dependent upon the prO' 
poffaium of light. The velocity of this propagation is, accord- 
ing to Struve's most recent investigations, 166,072 geo* 
graphical miles in a second, consequently almost a million of 
times greater than the velocity of sound. According to the 
measorements of Maclear, Bessel, and Struve, of the paral- 
laxes and distances of three fixed stars of very unequal magni- 
tudes (aCentauri, 16 Qrgni, and oLyrsB), a ray of Hght reqidres 

* " An opcDiDg in the heeTens/' William HerscLel in ti^PhiL TVoiu. 
for 1785, Yol. Lav. P. I. p. 256. Le Fran^ais Lalande, in the ComuaUm 
dei Tempaur VAn VIU., p. 383. Aiagp, in the Anmiaire, 1842, p. 425. 

t Arifitot., Mtteor,, ii. 5, 1. Seneca, Naiur. Qftaat, i. 14, 2* 
'* Ccehixa disoMaisae," in Cic., de DiPtti., i. 43. 

% Arago, in the ^totuatre, 1842, p. 429. 



144 COSMOS. 

fespectiyely 3, 9^, and 12 years to reach us from these three 
bodies. In the short but memorable period between 1572 and 
1604, from the time of Cornelius Gemma and Tycho Brahe to 
that of Kepler, three new stars suddenly appeared in Cajs- 
siopea and Cygnus, and in the foot of Serpentarius. A simi- 
lar phenomenon exhibited itself at intervals in 1670 in the 
constellation Vulpis. In recent times, even since 1837, Sir 
John Herschel has observed, at the Cape of Good Hope, the 
brilliant star rj in Argo increase in splendour from the second 
to the first magnitude.* These events in the universe belong, 
however, with reference to their historical reality, to other 
periods of time than those in which the phenomena of light 
are first revealed to the inhabitants of the Earth : they reach 
us like the voices of the past. It has been truly said, that 
with om* large and powerful telescopic instruments we pene- 
trate alike through die boundaries of time and space : we mea- 
sture the former through the latter, for in the course of an hour 
a ray of light traverses over a space of 592 millions of miles. 
Whilst, according to the theogony of Hesiod, the dimensions 
of the universe were supposed to be expressed by the time 
occupied by bodies in falling to the ground (" the brazen 
anvH was not more than nine days and nine nights in Mling 
fix>m heaven to earth,") the elder Herschel was of opinionf 
that light required almost two millions of years to pass to 
the Earth from the remotest luminous vapour reached by his 
40 foot reflector. Much, therefore, has vanished long before 
it is rendered visible to us — ^much that we see was once dif- 
ferently arranged from what it now appears. The aspect of 
the starry heavens presents us with the spectacle of that 

* In December, 1837, Sir John Herschel saw the star vt Argo, which 
till that time appeared as of the second magnitude, and liable to no 
change, rapidly increase till it became of the first magnitude. In 
January, 1838, the intensity of its light was equal to that of a Centauri. 
According to our latest information, Maclear, in March, 1843, found it 
«8 bright as Canopus ; and even « Crucis looked faint by ii Argo. 

f ** Hence it follows that the rays of light of the remotest nebulae must 
faaVe been almost two millions of years on their way, and that conse- 
quently, so many years ago, this object must already have had an 
existence in the sidereal heayen, in order to send out those rays by which 
we now perceive it." William Herschel, in the Phil, JVans, for 1802, 
p. 498. John Herschel, Mtron. § 590. Arago, in the Anrntairtf 1842, 
pp. 334, 359, and 382-385. 



146 COSMOS 

m 

dering cledric and magnetio currents, and awaken and; gem* 
ally vivify the vital spark in organic- structures. on; tlie earth's 
sur&ce, must be reaeryeA. for the subject :o£ our. future, consi- 
deraticm. 

As we purpose for the present to confine ourselves 'exclu- 
sively within the telluric sphera of nature, it. will be expe* 
dient to cast a preliminaiy glance over, the reSatLonS; in .f^pace 
of solids and fluids, the form, of the Earth, its mean.density, 
and the partial distribution . of this density, in^dbe. interior 
of our planet, its temperature and its, electro-mag^tic ten- 
sion. From the. consideration of these reladons*. in.. space,, 
and of the forces inherent in matter,, we. shall pass.. to the, 
reaction of the interior on the exterior of ouc globe; and. 
to the special consideration of a universally distribnted natux 
ral power-rrsubterranean heat ; to the phenomena o£' earth- 
quakes, exhibited in unequally expanded circle^, of commo.- 
tion which are not referable to the action of dynamic laws 
alone ; to the springing forth of hot wells; and lasdyr to the 
more powerM actions of volcanic processes. The crust of, 
the earth, which may scarcely ha^e beenperceptildy elevated 
by tho sudden and repeated, or almost iminterrupted shocks, 
by which it has- been moved from below, imdei^es,. never- 
theless, great changes in the course of centuries in the. rehu 
tions of the elevation of solid portions^ when compared with 
the surface of the liquid parts, and even in the-form.x>f the 
bottom of the seav In this manner simultaneous temporary 
or perma^nt a»««s are opened, by. which tie i^^^f 
the Earth is brought in contact with the external atmosphere. 
Molten masses, rising from an unknown depth,.flQw in narrow 
streams along the. declivity of mountains, rusbing^impetuously 
onwards, or moving slowly and gently, imtil the flery source is 
quenched in the midst of exhakitions, and the. lava beeomes 
encrusted, as it were, by the solidiflcation of its outer surface. 
New masses of rocks are thus formed before our eyes, whilst 
the older ones are in their turn converted into other forms by 
the greater or lesser agency of plutonic forces. Even where 
no disruption takes place the crystalline molecules are dis- 
placed, combining to form bodies of denser texture. The 
water presents structures of a totally diifereLiit nature, as, for 
instance, concretions of animal and vegetable remains, of 
earthy, calcareous or almniaous precipitates, aggiomexation^ 



TEBBSSTBIAIt PHENOMENA. 14? 

of finely ^pxtlyerized mineral bodies, covered with layers of the 
fliKcaoiis sMelds of infbsoria, and with transported soils con- 
taaning tl^ bones of fossil animal forms of a more ancient 
worlds The study of the strata which are so difl^^ktly formed 
and arranged before our eyesy and of all that has been so vari* 
ottsly dklooated, contorted and upheaTed'by mutual compres- 
sion^ and voleanie force, leads the* reflective observer, by 
simple analogies, to draw a comparison between the present 
and- an age> that has long passed. It is by- a combination of 
actaal phenomena^ by^an^ ideal ^ikurgement of relations in 
space^ and of the amoimt of active forces, that we are able to 
advance into the long sought and indefinitely anticipated do- 
main of geognosy; which has only within the last ha£f century 
been based on the solid foundation of scientific deduction. 

It has been acutely remarked, " that notwithstanding our 
continual employment of large telescopes, we are less ac- 
quainted- with the exterior than with the interior of other 
planetS) excepting perhaps our own satellite.*' They have 
been weighed, and th^ voltune measured ; and their mass 
and dmisity are becoming known with constantly-increasing 
exactness^ thanks to the progress made in astnmomical ob- 
servation and calculation. Their physical character is, how- 
ever, hidden in obscurity, for it is only in our own globe that 
we can be brought in immediate contact with ail the elements 
of organic and inorganic creation. The diversity of the most 
heterogeneous substances, their admixtures and metamor- 
phoses, and the ever-changing play of the forces called into 
action^ afiEbrd to the human mind both noun^unent and enjoy- 
ment, and open an immeasurable field of observation, J&om 
which the inteUeetual activity of man derives a great portion 
of it». grandeur and power. The world of perceptive pheno- 
mena, is refiected in the depths of the ideal world, and the 
richness of nature and the mass of aU that admits of classifica- 
tion, gradually become the objects of inductive reasoning. 

I would here allude to the advantage of which I have 
already spoken, possessed by that portion of physical science 
whose origin is femiliar to us, and is connected with our 
earthly existence. The physical description of celestial 
bodies, from the remotely-glimmering nebulsB with their 
suns, to the central body of our own system, is Kmited, as we 
bave seen, to general conceptions of the voliune and quantity 

1.2 



148 C0SX08. 

of matter. No manifestation of yitai activity is there pre* 
sented to our senses. It is only from analogies, frequently 
from purely ideal combinations, that we hazard conjectures 
on the specific elements of matter, or on their yarious modifi- 
cations in the different planetary bodies. But the physical 
knowledge of the heterogeneous nature of matter, its diemical 
differences, the regular fbrms in which its molecules combine 
together, whether in crystals or granules ; its relations to the 
deflected or decomposed waves of light by which it is pene- 
trated ; to radiating, transmitted, or polarised heat ; and ta 
the bnUiant^or invisible, but not on that account less active 
phenomena of electro-magnetism-— all this inexhaustible trea- 
sure, by which the enjoyment of the contemplation of nature 
is so much heightened, is dependent on the surface of the 
planet which we inhabit, and more on its solid than on its 
liquid parts. I have already remarked how greatly the study 
of natural objects and forces, and the infinite diversity of the 
sources they open for our consideration, strengthen the mental 
activity, and call into action every manifestation of intellectual 
pi ogress. These relations require, however, as littie comment 
as that concatenation of causes by which particular nations are 
permitted to enjoy a superiority over others in the exercise of 
a material power derived from their command of a portion of 
these elementary forces of nature. 

If, on the one hand, it were necessary to indicate the diffe- 
rence existing between the nature of our knowledge of the 
Earth and of that of the celestial regions and their contents, I 
am no less desirous on the other hand to draw attention to 
the limited boundaries of that portion of space from which we 
derive all our knowledge of the heterogeneous character of 
matter. This has been somewhat inappropriately termed the 
Earth's crust ; it includes the strata most contiguous to the 
upper surface of our planet, and which have been laid open 
before us by deep fissure-like valleys, or by the labours of man, 
in the bores and shafts formed by miners. These labours* do 

* In speaking of the greatest depths within the Earth reached by 
Uumaii labour, we most recollect that there is a difference between the 
absolute depth (that is to say, the depth below the Earth's surface at that 
point) and the relative depth (or that beneath the level of the sea). The 
greatest relative depth that man has hitherto reached is probably ^e bore 
at the new salt works at Minden, in Prussia : in June, 1844, it wa« 



TEBBESTSIAL PHENOHSITA. 149 

not extend beyond a Tertical depth of somewhat more than 
2000 feet (about one-third of a geographical mile) below the . 
level of the sea, and consequently only about ^tV^ ^^ ^® 
Earth's radius. The crystalline masses that have been erupted 
fi-om active volcanoes, and are generally similar to the rocks 
on the upper surface, have come from depths, which although 
not accurately determined, must certainly be sixty times 

exactly 1993 feet, the absolute depth being 2231 feet. The temperature 
of the water at the bottom was 91"F., which, assaming the mean tempera* 
«iire of the air at 49^*3, giv^ an augmentation of temperature of V* fa 
every 54 feet. The absolute depth of the artesian well of Crenelle, nev 
Paris, is only 1795 feet. According to the account of the missionary 
Imbert, the fire springs, ** Ho-tsing," of the Chinese, which are sunk to 
obtain [carburetted] hydrogen gas for salt-boiling, far exceed our artesian 
springs in depth. In the Chinese province of Sztt-tschuan these fire 
springs are very commonly of the depth of more than 2000 feet ; indeed^ 
at Tseu-lieu-tsing (the place of continual flow) there is a Ho-tsing which, 
in the year 1812, was found to be 3197 feet deep. (Humboldt, Asie 
CentralCj t. ii. pp. 521 and 525. Annalea de VAuociation de la Propa* 
ffoHon de la Foi, 1829, No. 16, p. 369.) 

The relative depth reached at Mount Massi, in Tuscany, south of Vol- 
terra, amounts, according to Matteuci, to only 1253 feet. The boring at 
the new salt works near Minden, is probably of about the same relative 
depth as the coal-mine at Apendale, near Newcastle-uuder-Lyme, in Staf- 
fordshire, where men work 725 yards below the surface of the earth. 
(Thomas Smith, Miner's Guide, 1836, p. 160.) Unfortunately, I do not 
Imow the exact height of its mouth above the level of the sea. The relative 
depth of the Monk-wearmouth mine, near Newcastle, is only 1496 feet. 
(Iliillips, in the Philos. Mag., vol. v., 1834, p. 446.) That of the Liege 
coal-mine, PEsp^rancef at Seraing, is 1355 feet, according to M. von 
Dechen, the director ; and the old mine of Marihaye, near Val-St. -Lam- 
bert, in the valley of the Maes, is, according to M. Gemaert, Ing^nieur des 
Mines, 1233 feet in depth. The works of greatest absolute depth that 
have ever been formed are for the most part situated in such elevated 
plains or valleys that they either do not descend so low as the level of the 
sea, or at most reach very little below it. Thus the Eselschacht, at Kut- 
tenberg in Bohemia, a mine which cannot now be worked, had the enormoua 
absolute depth of 3778 feet. (Fr, A. Schmidt, Berggesetze der dster Mon,^ 
abth. i. bd. i. s. xxxii.) Also, at St. Daniel and at Geish, on the Rorer- 
hlihel, in the Landgericht (or provincial district) of KitzbOhl, there were, 
in the sixteenth century, excavations of 3107 feet. The plans of the works 
of the lUJrerbtthel are still preserved. (See Joseph von Sperges, Tyroler 
JSergwerksgeschichiet 8. 121, Compare also Humboldt, Gufachten Uber 
Herantreibung des Meissner Stollens in die Preiberger Erzrevier, printed 
m Herder, Uber den jefz begonnenen Erbstollen, 1838, s. cxxiv.) We 

ly presume that the knowledge of the extraordinary depth of the R5rer» 



150 coMOi. 

greater than Utaae to wiiich human labour has been enabb 
to penetmte. We are able to ^ye in numbers the depth 
the shaft where the strata of coal, afler p^ietrating a carta 
way, rise again at a distance that admita of being aocurate! 
defined by meaaurements. llKse dips show that the earb 
niferous strata, together with ^e fiseral a^anio remains wbii 

bUhel reached EngUad at an eartf period, for I fiad it remarked in Gilbe 
de Magnele, thiit Bkd have peneQ-Ued 2400. ar even 3000 feet into t 
crust of the earth. {" Eri jna yidetur !«*» portio, qniE Mnquam hominib 
Bpectsuda emergEt ant endtur; laim profondiaa in ejus Tncera, ultra eS 

tanqaam per Teuas acaturieotes aut propter aeris aalnbrioris ad vitom op 
rBriorum autineodam necesBarii defeetsm, aiit propter iagentes aoitipC 
ad tantoa Laborea axantJandoH, moltaBqne itiffieuJtates, ad pTXtfimdior 
terne partes penetrare non poMumus; adeo nl qnadringentaa aat [qoi 
rariBaime] quingentas orgyas in quibnsdam tnetallis descoulisse, atnpend 
omuibus lideatnr conatos." Gnlielmi Gilberti, Colcnlieiisis, dt Magru 
Fhyaologia nova. Load., 1600, p. 40.) 

The abaulute depth of tbe mines in theSixon Engebirge. nearFrcibar 
■re : in tbe Thnrmbofer mines, 1914 feet ; in tbe Honaibirker mini 
1B27 feet; tbe relfltiye depths are onlj 677 and 277 feet, if, in order 
calculate tbe eleiadon of the mine's maath aboTO the level of the sea, i 
regard the elevation of Freibnrg aa determined by R^di'a rec«it obserr 
tions to be 1269 feet, llie absolute depth of the celebrated mine 
Joacbimsthal in Bohemia (Terkreuiung des Jang Haaer Zechea-ui 
Andreasgangea), ia fuU 2120 feet ; bd that, aa Von Decheo'a measnremai 
■bow that its surface is about 23S8 feet above tbe level of the soi, it fo 
Iowa that the eicavations have not as yet reached (bat point. In tbe Hai 
the Samson mine at Andreasbeig, has an abeolnte depth of 2197 feet. ] 
what VBs formerly Spanish America, I know of do mine deeper than tl 
Valenciana, near Gnanaxoato (Mexico), where 1 found the absoluta dep 
□f tt.e Planea de Sau Semar^io to be 16S6feet; bnt theae planes are 69) 
iitet above the level of the sea. If we eotupare Ihe depth of the old Kd 
tenbet^r mine (a depth greater than the height <if our Brocken, and on 
200 feet less than that of Vesnvius) with the lofCieat structures that tl 
bands of man have erected, (nitb the Pymnid of Cheops and with ti 
Cathedral of Strasburg,) we Itnd that they stand in the ratio of et|^t 
one. In this note I have collected all the certain information I could fii 
regarding the greatest absolute and relative depths of mines and boring 
In descending eastward from Jerusalem, towards the Dead Sea, a vie 

£ resents itself to the eye, which, according to our present bypaotoetric 
nowledgc of the surface of our planet, is unrivalled in any counbyi . 
we approach the open ravine through which tbe Joidan tilres its oonrs 
we tread, with the open sky above us, on rocks which, acoording to ti 
barometric measarements of Berton and Russegger, are 1385 feet behi 
Che level of tbe Mediterranean. (Homboldt, Atie CttUraU, th. ii. p. 323 



TESBESTSIAL PHEKOMEKA. 161 

ihey ecmtain, must lie, as, for instance, in Belgium, more than 
five or six thinisaad feet* below the present level of the sea ; 
and that the^ calcareous and the ouryed strata of the Deyonian 
basiii psnetiate twice that depth. If we compare these sub- 
terraaean basms with the summits of mountains that have 
hitherto been ocmsidered as the most elevated portions of the 
raised crust of the Earth, we obtain a distance of 37,000 feet 
(about seven miles), that is about the Tyrth of the Earth's 
radius. These, therefore, would be the limits of vertical depth 
and of the superposition of mineral strata, to which geognos- 
tieal inquiry could penetrate, even if the general elevation of 
the upper sorfece of the earth were equal to the height of the 
DhEOwalagiri in the ELimalaya, or of the Sorata in Bolivia. 
All itfaat lies at a greater depth below the level of the sea than 
the shafts or 1he basins of which I have spoken, the limits to 
whieh m^m's labours have penetrated, or than the depths to 
which the sea has in some few instances been sounded, (Sir 
James Boss was unable to find bottom with 27,600 feet of 
line,) is as much unknown to us as the interior of the other 



* Baatn-shaped curved strata, which dip and reappear at measure- 
able distances, although their deepest portions are beyond the reach of 
•he miner, afford sensible evidence of the nature of the earth's crust at 
great depths below its surface. Testimony of this kind possesses, con- 
sequently, a ^eat geognostic interest. I am indebted to that excellent 
geognoeist, Von Dechen, for the following observations. " The depth of 
the coal-^asin- of Liege,. at/Mont St. Gilles, which I, in conjunction with 
our friend Von Oeynhausen, have ascertained to be 3890 feet below the 
sur&ce, extends 3464 feet below the surface of the sea, for the absolute 
height of Mont St. Gilles certainly does not much exceed 400 feet ; the 
coal-basin of Moas is fully 1865 feet deeper. But all these depths are 
trifling compared mth those which are presented by the coal-strata> of 
Saar-Revier (Saarbrflcken). 1 have found, after repeated examinations, 
tiiat the lowest coal-stratum which is knavm in the neighbourhood of 
Duttweiler, near Bettingen, north-east of Saarlouis, must descend to 
depths of 20^682 and 22,015 feet (or 3*6 geographical miles) below the 
level of the sea." This result exceeds, by more than 8000 feet, the 
assnmption made in the text regarding the basin of the Devonian strata. 
Tliis coal*£eld is therefore sunk as far below the surface of the sea, as 
Chimborazo is elevated above it : at a depth at which the earth's tempe- 
rature must be as high as 435** F. Hence, from the highest pinnacles of 
the Himalaya to the lowest basins containing the vegetationof^in earlier 
world, there is a vertical distance of about 48,000 feet, or of the 436th 
part of the Earth's radius. 



IJ2 COHM03. 

planets of our solar system. We only know the idom of the 
whole Earth and ita mean density by comparing it with the 
open strata, which alone are accessible to -as. In ths interior 
of the Earth, where all knowledge of its chemical and minera- 
logical character fails, we are again limited to as pure conjeC' 
ture,a8in the remotest bodies that revolve round tbe Sun, We 
can determine nothing with certainty regarding tlie depth at 
which the geological strata must be suppMed to be in state of 
softening or of liquid Vision, of the cavities occupied by elastic 
vapour, of the condition of fluids when heated under an 
enormous pressure, or of the law of the increase of density 
from the upper surface to the centre of the Earth. 

The consideration of-the increase of heat with the increase 
of depth towards the interior of our planet and of the reaction 
of the interior on the external cruat leads us to the long series 
of volcanic phcnoroena. These elastic forces are manifested 
in earthqumces, eruptions of gas, hot wells, mud volcanoes 
and lava currents froni craters of eruptions, and even in pro- 
ducing alterations in the level of the sea.* Lai^e plains and 
variously indented continents, are raised or sunk, lands are 
separated from seas, and the ocean itself, which is permeated 
by hot and cold currents, coagulates at both poles, convert- 
ing water into dense masses of rock, which are either stratified 
and fixed, or broken up into floating banks. The boundaries 
of sea and land, of fluids and solids, are thus variously and 
frequently changed. Plains have undergone oscillatory move- 
ments, being alternately elevated and depressed. After the 
elevation of continents, mountain-chains were raised upon 
long fissures, mostly parallel, and, in that case, probably con- 
temporaneous ; and salt lakes and inland seas, long inhabited 
by the same creatures, were forcibly separated; the fossil 
remains of shells and zoophytes still giving evidence of their 
original connexion. Thus, in following phenomena in their 
mutual dependence, we are led from the consideration of the 
forces acting in the interior of the Earth, to those which 
cause eruptions on its surface, abd by the pressure of elastic 
vapours, give rise to burning streams of lava that flow from 
open fissures. 

* {See Danbeney On Volcmoa, Sad edit. 1648, p. S39, Sic., on the 
w>-ca]led mud toleanoei, and the reuoni advuicttd in bYour of adopting 
the term "salfles" to designate these phenomenB.} — TV, 



GEOOBJLPHICiX DISTSIBTTTIOIT. 153^ 

The some powers that raised the chains of the Andes and 
the Himalaya to the regions of perpetual snow, have occasioned 
new compositions and new textures in the rocky masses, and 
have altered the strata which had been preyiously deposited 
from fluids impregnated with organic substances. We here 
trace the series of formations, divided and superposed accord- 
ing to their age, and depending upon the chanees of configu- 
ration of the surface, the dynamic relations of upneaying forces, 
and the chemical action of vapours issuing from the fissures. 

The form and distribution of continents, that is to say, of 
that solid portion of the Earth's surfisu^e which is suited to the 
luxurious development of vegetable life, are associated by inti- 
mate connexion and reciprocal action with the encircling sea, 
in which organic life is almost entirely limited to the animal 
world. The liquid element is again covered by the atmosphere, 
an aerial ocean in which the mountain-chains and high plains 
of the dry land rise like shoals, occasioning a variety of cur- 
rents and changes of temperature, collecting vapour from the 
region of clouds, and distributing life and motion by the action 
of the streams of water wbich flow from their declivities. 

Whilst the geography of plants and animals depends on 
these intricate relations of the distribution of sea and land, the 
configuration of the surface, and the direction of isothermal lines 
(or zones of equal mean annual heat), we find that the case is 
totally diflerent when we consider the human race — ^the last 
and noblest subject in a physical description of the globe. 
The characteristic diflerences in races, and their relative nu- 
merical distribution over the Earth's sur&ce, are conditions 
affected not by nat4j:al relations alone, but at the same time 
and specially, by the progress of civilization, and by moral 
and intellectual cultivation, on which depends the political 
superiority that distinguishes national progress. Some few 
races, clinging, as it were, to the soil, are supplanted and 
mined by the dangerous vicinity of others more civilized 
than themselves, imtil scarce a trace of their existence 
remains. Other races, again, not the strongest in numbers, 
traverse the liquid element, and thus become the first to 
acquire, although late, a geographical knowledge of at least 
the maritime lands of the whole surfsice of our globe, from 
pole to pole. 

I have thus, before we enter on the individual characters of 



164 COSMOS. 

that portion of thedelineatioii of nature which inchides the 
sphere of telloric phenomena, shown generally in what manner 
the coneideration of the form of the Earth and Ihe inoessant 
action of eleetro-magnetism and subterranean heat may enable 
VB to embrace in one Tiew the relations of horizontal expsD- 
sion and elevation on Ihe Earth's surface, the geognostic type 
of formations, the domain of the ocean, (of tiie liquid portions 
of the Earth,) the atmosphere with its meteorological pro- 
eesses, the geographical distribution of plants and animals, 
and finally, the physical gradations of the human race, which 
is, exclusively and everywhere, susceptible of intellectual cul- 
ture. This unity of contemplation presupposes a connexion of 
phenomena according to their internal combination. A mere 
tabular arrangement of these &cts would not fulfil the object 
I have proposed to myself, and would not satisfy that require- 
ment for cosmical presentation awakened in me by the aspect 
of nature in my joumeyings by sea and land, by the careM 
study of forms and forces, and by a vivid impression of the 
imity of nature in the midst of the most varied portions of 
the -Earth. In the rapid advance of all branches of physical 
science much that is deficient in this attempt will, perhaps, 
at no remote period, be corrected, and rendered more perfect, 
for it belongs to the history of the development of knowledge 
that portions which have long stood isolated become gradually 
connected, and subject to higher laws. I only indicate the 
empirical path, in which I and many others of similar pur- 
suits with myself, are advancing, fuU of expectation that, as 
Plato teUs us Socrates once desired, "Nature may be inter- 
preted by reason alone."* 

The delineation of the principal characteristics of telluric 
phenomena must begin with the form of our planet, and its 
relations in space. Here, too, we may say that it is not only 
• the mineralogies character of rocks, whether they are crys- 
talline, granular, or densely-fossiliferous, but the geometrical 
farm of the Earth itself which indicates the mode of its origin, 
and is, in fact, its history. An elliptical spheroid of revolu- 
tion gives evidence of having once been a soft or fiuid mass. 
Thus, the Earth's compression constitutes one of lite most 

* Plato, Phado, p. 97. (Arist. Metaph,, p. 985.) Compare . Hegdf 
PMlosopMeder Gfatehichte/lSiO, s. 16. 



TIGT7SX 07 THE 2ABTH. 165 

moient ge<^ostic events, as every attentiye reader of ihe 
book of ^mture can easily discern; and an analogous &ct is 
presented in the case of the Moon, the perpetual direction 
of whose caes towards the Earth, that is to say, the increased 
acciimalation of matter on that half of the Moon which is 
tamed towards us, determines tiie relations of the periods of 
rotation and reyolution, and is probably contemporaneous with 
the earliest epoch in itte fonnatiye history of this satellite. 
The mathematical figure of the Earth is that which it would 
have were its surface covered entirely by water in a state of 
rest ; and it is thi^ assumed form to which all geodesical 
measurements of degrees refer. This mathematical surface is 
different from that true physical surface which is affected by 
all the accidents and inequalities of the solid parts .^ The 
whole figure of the Earth is determined when we know the 
amount of the compression at the poles and the equatorial 
diameter; in order, however, to obtain a perfect representa- 
tion of its form it is necessary to have measurements in two 
directions, perpendicular to one another. ^ 

Eleven measurement! of degrees, (or determinations of the 
curvature of the Earth's surfiice in different parts,) of which 
nine only belong to the present eentury, have made us ac- 
quainted with the size of our globe, which Pliny named " a 
point in the immeasurable tmiverse.^f If these measiirements 
do not always accord in the curvatures of different meridians 
under the same degree of latitude, this very circumstance speaks 
in favour of the exactness of the instruments and the methods 
employed, and of the accuracy and the fidelity to nature of 
th^ partial results. The conclusion to be dhuwn from the 

* Beftel, Attgetneine Betraehtungen ^er Gradmewungen naeh astro* 
nomisch-geod&tischen Arbeiten, at the conckinon of Bessel and Baeyer, 
Gradmessung in Ostpreuaeen, s. 427. Regarding the accumulation of 
matter on the side of the Moon turned towards us, (a subject noticed in 
an earlier part of the text,) see Laplace, Expos, du Sgst. du MondSf 
p. 308. 

t Plin., ii. 68. Seneca, Nat Qnuest. Praef.y c. ii. " El mundo es poco," 
(the Earth is small and narrow) writes Columbus from Jamaica, to Queen 
Isabella, on the 7th of July, 1503 ; not because he entertained the philo- 
sophic views of the aforesaid Romans^ but because it appeared advantageoos 
to him to maintain that the journey from Spain was not long, if, as he 
ohsenres, ** we seek the east from the west.'' Compare my Examen eritm 
de VHist, de la GSogr. du Ibme SUcle^ t. i. p. 83, and t* ii. p« 327 » 



id6 COBHOS. 

increase of forces of attraction (in Ihe direction from the 
equator to tiio poles) with respect to the figure of a planet is 
dependent on the distrihution of density in its interior. 
Newton, from tJieoretieal principles, and perhaps likewise 
prompted by Cassini's discovery, previously to 1666, of the 
compression of Jupiter,* determined, in his immortal work, 
Philotophiie Ifattiralis Frineipia, that the^compressionof the 
Earth, aa a homogeneous mass, was y^. Actual measure- 
menfs made by the aid of new and more perfect analysis have, 
however, shown that the compression of the poles of the ter- 
restrial spheroid when the density of the strata is regarded si 
increasing towards the centre, is very nearly .j^. 

Three methods have been employed to investigate the cur- 
vature of the Earth's surface— viz., measurements of degrees, 
oscillations of the pendulum, and observations of the inequa- 
lities in the Moon's orbit. The first is a direct geometrical 
and astronomical method, whilst in the other two, we deter- 
mine from acciu^tcly observed movements, the amount of the 
forces which occasion those movements, and fiiim these forces 
we arrive at the cause from whence they have originated— 
viz., the compression of our terrestrial spheroid. In this 
part of my dehneation of nature, contrary to my usual pnic- 
tiee, I have instanced methods because their accuracy afibidi 
a striking illustration of the intimate connexion existing 
amongst the forms and forces of natural phenomena, and vise 
because their application has given occasion to improvement! 

where I hare Ehoim that the opinion maintained by Delisle, Fr^ret, tac 
GoBselin, that the eioesiive differences in the statements regarding thi 
Earth's eireumferenee, found in th« nritinga of the Greeks, are onlj ap- 
parent, and dependent on different Talnes being attached to the stadia, wai 
put forward as early aa 1495 by Jaime Ferrer, in a proposition regardinj 
the determinaljoa of the line of demarcation of the papal dominioaa. 

• Brewiter, L^e of Sir Itaae Nevlon, 1831, p. 162. "The disco- 
Terf of the spheroidal form of Japiter by CssEini, had probably dinctei 
the attention of Newton to the determination of its cause, end conse- 

Saently, to the inrestigation of the true figure of the Earth." Althoogt 
assini did not announce the atnoant of the compression of Jupiter ( Aii' 
'ia 1691, {Andem Mlmoirti dt i'Acad. dea Seimra, t. ii. p. 108.) yei 
we know from Lalande, {Aitron., 3rne id,, t. iii. p. 335,) that Marald 
possessed same printed sheets of a Latin work, " On the Spots -of tht 
Ranets," commenced by Cassini, from which it was obviova that he wb' 
aware of the compression of Japiter before the year lliSS, and therefor^ 
at leaat twmtf-OM jtmn before the pnblication of Newton's PriiieipU. 



TIOTTBE OF THE SASTH. 157 

in the exactness of instruments (as those employed in the 
measurements of space) in optical and chronological observa- 
tions; to greater perfection in the toidamental branches of 
astronomy and mechanics in respect to lunar motion and to 
the resistance experienced by the oscillations of the pendu- 
lum; and to the discovery of new and hitherto untrodden 
paths of analysis. With -die exception of the investigations 
of the parallax of stars, which led to the discovery of aberra- 
tion and nutation, the history of science presents no problem 
in which the object attained — ^the knowledge of the compres- 
sion and of the irregular form of our planet—is so far exceeded 
in importance by the incidental gain which has accrued, 
through a long and weary course of investigation, in the 
general furtherance and improvement of the mathematical 
and astronomical sciences. The comparison of eleven mea- 
surements of degrees, (in whicn are included three extra-Eu- 
ropean — ^namely, the old Peruvian, and two East Indian,) 
gives, according to the most strictly theoretical requirements 
allowed for by Bessel,* a compression of -j-^. In accordance 
with this, the polar radius is 10,938 toises (69,944 feet), or 
about 11} miles, shorter than the equatorial radius of our 

* According to Bessers examination of ten measarements of degrees, 
in which the error discovered by Puissant in the calculation of the 
French measurements is taken into consideration, (Schumacher, Astron, 
Nachr., 1841, Nr. 438, s. 116,) the semi-axis major of the elliptical 
spheroid of revolution to which the irregular figure of the Earth most 
eloaely approximates, is 3,272,077*14 toises, or 20,924,774 feet; the 
semi-axis minor, 3,261,159-83 toises, or 20,854,821 feet; and the 
amount of compression or eccentricity, ^rsi; the length of a mean 
degree of the meridian, 57,013109 toises, or 364,696 feet, with an error 
of -f 2*8403 toises, or 1816 feet, whence the length of a geographical 
mile is 3807*23 toises, or 6086*7 feet. Previous combinations of measure- 
ments of degrees varied between g*-r and ^J,: thus Walbeck (Z)e 
Forma et Magnitudine teUuria in demenais arcubua Meridiani de- 
fniendis, 1819,) gives jgj^: Ed. Schmidt, {LehrbucJi der mathem. und 
jphys. Oeographie, 1829, s. 5,) gives ,^, as the mean of seven mea- 
sures. Respecting the influence of great differences of longitude on the 
polar compression, see BiblioMgue UniveraeUeft. xxxiii. p. 181.. and 
t. XXXV. p. 6Q; likewise Connaissance des Terns, 1829, p. 290. From 
the lunar inequalities alone, Laplace {Exposition dy, Syst. du Monde, p. 
229) found it, by the older tables of BUrg, to be ^; and subFeq^uently 
from the lunar observations of Burckhardt and Bouvard, he fixed it 
•* iwT> (Micanigue c&eHe, t. v. pp. 18 and 43.) 



l(t% COSMOS 



t' 



toBfestnal sphexoid. The excess at tha equator in,, oonse*. 
qiience of llie curvature of the upper siur&ce of tlie glob^^ 
amoimts, consequently, in tke durection of graTitation^ to 
Bomewhat more than 4^ times the height of. Mont. Blano, or 
only 24 times the probable height, d^ the summit of the.. 
Dhawalagiri, in the Himalaya, chain. Hie lunar inequities 
(perturbation in the moon's latitndo: and longitude) give,, 
according to the last investigations of LapUce, almost the 
same result for the elliptlcity as. the measurements of degrees 
—-viz., -j^. The results yielded by the oscillation of the 
pendulum give on the whole a much, greater amount of com- 
pression—viz., 7^.* 

* The oseillaUons^f the pendulwQ. give ^^, a&ihe general resolt of 
Sabine's great expedition (1822 and 1S23, from the equator Ao 80" nortii 
latitude) ; according to Fre}^:inet, ^^ exclnsiTe of the experiments in- 
stituted at the Isle of France, Guam, and Mowi (Mawi) ; according to 
Porster, n}.,; aecording to Duperrej', 3^.7; and according to Liitke 
{Partie J^cnUiqite, 1886, p. 232),: ^, caicnliiied from eleyea stations. 
On the other hand, Mathieu {Connaus. des Temps^ 1816, p. 330) fixed 
the amount at ^g^ ^ from obsierFations made between Formentera and 
Dunkirk ; and Biot, at 3^ from obsenrations between Formentera and. 
the Island of Unst. Compare Baily, Report on Pendulum Expertmenis, 
in the Memoirs ofihe Royal Astronomical Society, vol. vii. p. 96 j also Bo- 
raiins, in the RuUetin de VAcadAe 8t, PStershowrg, 1843, t. i. p, 25. The 
firet proposal to apply^ the length of the pandnlnmnsinstftadard of measure 
and to establish the third part of the seconds pendulum (then supposed 
to be everywhere of equal lei^th) as a pes horariuSf or general measure, 
that might be recovered at any age and by all nations, is to be found in 
Huygens' Horoloffium OsciUatoriimi, 1673, Prop. 25. A similar wish 
was afterwards publicly expressed, in 1742, on a monument erected at 
the equator by Bougner, La Ccmdamine, and Godin. On the beautiful 
marble tablet which exists, as yet uninjured, in the old Jesuits' College 
at Quito, I have myself read the inscription, Pendvli simplicis atqui- 
noctialis univs minttU secundi ctrchetypuSf mensurcs natvralis exemj^dar, 
tUinam universalis/ From an observation made by La Condamine,in 
his Journal du Voyage dL rEquateur, 1751, p. 163, regarding parts of 
the inscription that were not filled up, and a sligbi difference between 
Bouguer and himself respeoting the numbers, I wasJed to expect that 
I should find considerable discrepancies between the marble tablet and 
the inscription as it had been described in Paris; but after a carefol 
comparison, I merely found two perfectly unimportant diffcr^ioes; 
" ex arcu graduum 3^/' instead of " ex arcu graduum plnsqpiam 
trium," and the date of 1745, instead of 1742. The latter circumstance 
is singular, because La Condamine returned to Europe in November, 
1744, Bouguer in June of the same year, aiui Godin had left South 



yjouBs or shs xabth. 169 

Galiko, wbo £ist obaemd wbea & boj, (having;, piobablyy 
•offered bis tixou^ts to wander from the service,) that the- 
height of the vaulted roof of a.ohurdi mi^i .be* measured by 
the time of the vibEotioBL of the chandeliers suspended at di£> 
ferent altitudes, could' hacdtty have antieipated<tiiat the pen- 
dulum vFould one day« be carded fitan pole to pole, in order to 
determine the form of the Earth; or rather tiiat the unequal 
density of the strata of the Earth, affects the length of the 
seconds pendulum by meanaof intiieote forces of local attrac* 
tion,, wMch are, however, almost regular- in;; huge tracts of 
land* These gec^paostie. relations of am instrument intended 
for the measurement of time--4hifii property of the pendulum, 
by whidi, like. a sounding lino, it searehes unknown depths, 
and reveals in yoloanio islanda,* or in the declivity of elevated . 
continental mountain chains^ dense ma«8ca of basalt and 

America hi July, 1744. Thd most nccessaiy and use&l amendment to 
tJie numbers on thia inscription would have been the astronomical longi* 
tadeofQnito. (ajm^ldt,BmMdP0b8erviAetnm.,tAi.]^p. 319-354.) 
Nonet's latitudes, engrayed on Egyptian monumentSy-offer a more recent 
example of the danger preaonted by the grave. parpetaatiMi offaUo or 
careless results. 

* Bespecting the augmented intensity of theaitraetion of gravitation 
in volcanic islands, (St. Helena, Ualan, f^mndo de Koronha, Isle of 
Fiaaoe^ Guam, Mowi, and Galapagos,) Rairak (Ltttke, p. 240) being an 
exception, probably in ccmaaquence of its proximity to the high land of 
l^ew Guinea, see Mathieu^ in Delambre, Hist, de VAMronomie, a« 
l&nc Si^de, p. 701. 

f Numerous observationsFaJlso show great irregularities in the length 
of the pendulum in the midst of continents, and which are ascribed 
to local attractions. (Deiaunbre, Mesure de la Mfyrdienne, t. iii. p. 
548; Biot, in the ^im. de VAoadimie des Seieneea, t. viii., 1829, 
pp. 18 and 23.) In passing over the South of France and Lombardy, 
from west to east, we find the minimum intensity of gravitation 
at Bordeaux; from thence it increases rapidly as we advance eastward^ 
through Figeac, Clermoni^-Ferrand, Milan, and Padua; and in the last 
toim we find that the intensity has attained its maTimum. The influ- 
ence of the southern declivities of the Alps is not merely dependent on 
the general size of their mass, but (much more) in the opinion of £Ue 
de Beaumont, (Rech. evx Im MivoL de la Surface du Globe, 1830, p. 729,) 
on the rocks of melaphyre and serpentine, which haye elevated the chain. 
On the dedivity of Ararat, which with Caucasus may be said to lie in 
the centre of grarity of the old continent formed by Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, the very exact p^idulum-experiments of Fedorow give indications 
not of sul)terranean cavitiea but of dense volcanic .masses. (Parrot, Beise 
9um Ararai, bd. ii. a. 143.) In the geodesic operations of CarllnL and 



16C COSMOS. 

melaphyre instead of cavities, render it difficult, notwith- 
standing the admirable simplicity of the method, to arrive at 
any great result regarding the figure of the Earth from obser- 
vation of the oscillations of the pendidum. In the astrono- 
mical part of the determination of degrees of latitude, moun- 
tam chains, or the denser strata of the Earth, likewise exercise, 
although in a less degree, an unfavourable influence on the 
measurement. 

As the form of the Eartn exerts a powerful influence on 
the motions of other cosmical bodies, and especially on that of 
its own neighbouring satellite, a more perfect knowledge of 
the motion of the latter will enable us reciprocally to draw an 
inference regarding the figure of the Earth. Thus, as Laplace 
ably remarks,* " An astronomer, without leaving his obser- 
vatory, may by a comparison of Innar theory with true obser- 
vations, not only be enabled to determine the form and size of 
the Earth, but also its distance from the Sun and Moon — residts 
that otherwise could only be arrived at by long and arduous 

Plana, in Lombardy, differences ranging from 20" to 47" '8 have been 
found between dif&st obaerratlons of latitude and the results of these 
operations. (See the instances of Andrate and Mondovi, and those of 
Milan and Padua, in the Op&rationa Oeodea. et Astron. pour la Mesure 
cPun Arc du ParaUile Moyen, t. ii. p. 347 ; Effemeridi Aatron. di Mi- 
lam, 1842, p. 67.) The latitude of Milan, deduced from that of Berne, 
according to the French triangulation, is 45" 27' 52", while, according 
to direct astronomical observations, it is 45° 27' 35". As the perturba- 
tions extend in the plain of Lombardy to Parma, which is far south of 
the Po, (Plana, Op^at, Oeod., t. ii. p. 847,) it is probable that there are 
deflecting causes concealed beneath the soil of the plain itself. Struve 
has made similar experimenta [with corresponding results] in the most 
level parts of eastern Europe. (Schumacher, Astron. NachriclUen, 1 830, 
Nr. 164, s. 399.) Regarding the influence of dense masses supposed to 
lie at a small depth, equal to the mean height of the Alps, see the ana- 
lytical expressions given by Hossard and Rozet, in the Comptes Bendus, 
t. xyiii., 1844, p. 292, and compare them with Poisson, Traiti de Mi- 
canique, (2me ed.) t. i. p. 482. The earliest observations on the influence 
which different kinds of rocks exercise on the vibration of the pendulum 
are those of Thomas Young, in the PhUos. Transactions for 1819, pp. 
70-96. In drawing conclusions regarding the Earth's curvature from 
the length of the pendulum, we ought not to overlook the possibility 
that its crust may have undergone a process of hardening, previously to 
metallic and dense basaltic masses having penetrated from gi-eat dentha, 
through open clefts, and approached near Uus surface, 
* Laplace^ Mhspos. du SysL du Monde, p. Wl. 



162 COSMOS. 

nf neighbourii^ strata. Of these three methods,* the last is 
the most certam, since it is independent of the difficult deter- 
mination of the density of the mineral masses of which the 
Gfpherical segment of the momitain consists, near which the 
observations are made. According to the most recent experi- 
ments of Reich, the result obtained is 5*44 ; that is to say, the 
mean density of the whole Earth is 5*44 times greater than that 
of pure water. As according to the nature of the mineralogical 
strata constituting the dry continental part of the Earth's sur- 
&ce, the mean density of this portion soarcely amounts to 2*7, 
and the density of the dry and liquid surface conjointly to 

* The three methods of observation give the following results: (1) by 
the deflection of the plumb-line in the proximity of the ShehaUien 
H onntain, (Gaelic, Thichallin,) in Perthshire, 4*713, as determined by 
Haakelyne, Hutton, and Playfkir, (1774-1776 and 1810i)8ecordingtoa 
method that had been proposed by Newton ; (2) by pendulum vibiatiioos 
tm mountains, 4*837, (Carlini's obaerratioiis on Moant*Cenis compared 
with Blot's observations at Bordeaux, Effemer. Astron. diMilano, 1824, 
p. 184) ; (3) by the torsion-balance used by jOavendish, with an s^ppa- 
ratus originally devised by Mitchell, 5*48, (according'to Button's revision 
of the calculation, 5*82, and^ecording-to that of Eiduard 8chmidt^ 5*52; 
Lehrbuch der-mcUh. Geographic, bd. i.&. 487) ; by the toiaion-bailaDee, 
according to Reich, 5'44. In the calculation of these ezperimenteof 
Professor Reich, which have been made with masterly accuracy, the 
original mean result was 5*43, (with a probable error of only 0*0233,) a 
result which being increased by the quantity by which the £a[rth's centri- 
fugal force diminishes the force of gravity for the latitude of Freiberg, 
(50** 550 becomes changed to 5*44. The employment of masses of east- 
iron instead of lead, .has not presented any sensible difierence, ornone 
exceeding the limits of errors of observation ; henoe disclosing no 
traces of magnetic influenc^is. (Reidi, VermLche aher die miUlere Diehr 
tigheit der Erde, 1838, s. 60, 62, and 66.) By the assumption of too 
slight a degree of ellipticity of the Earth, and by the uncertainty of the 
estimations regarding the density of rocks on its surface, the mean 
density of the Earth, as deduced from experiments on and near moon- 
tains, was found about one-sixth smaller than it really is — ^namely, 4*761, 
(Laplace, Mican. cSleate, t. v. p. 46,) or 4*786. (Edaard Schmidt, ikArft. 
der math. Geogr., bd. i. § 387 und 418.) On Halley's hypothesis of the 
Earth being a hollow sphere, (noticed in page 163,) which was the germ 
of Franklin's ideas concerning earthquakes, see Philoa. Trans, for the 
year 1693, vol. xvii. p. 563, {On the Structure of the Internal Parts of 
the Earth, and the coiuMve habited Arch of tJie Shell.) Halley regarded 
it as more worthy of the Creator, " that the Earth, like a house of several 
stories, should be inhabited both without and within. For light in toe 
hollow sphere (p. 576) provi8ioa.mi9ht.2n some jnauier be contiived." 



DENSITY OF XHE EABTH. lit 

Bcareely 1 *6, it follows, that the elliptioal unequally compressed 
layers of the interior must greatly iucrease in density towaidi 
the centFe, either through pressure or owing to the hetero- 
geneous nature of the substances. Here, again, we see that 
the irertical, as well as the horizontally vibrating pendulum, 
may justly be termed a geognostical instrument. 

The results obtained by the employment of an instmmeiit 
3f iliia kind, have led celebrated physicists, according to the 
difference of the hypothesis from which they started, to adofit 
entirely opposite views regarding the nature of the interior of 
the. globe. It has been computed at what depths, liquid-«r 
even gaseous substances would from the pressure of their onm 
superimposed rtrata, attain a density exceeding that of platinum 
or even iridium ; and in order that the compression which hm 
been determined within such narrow limits might be brought 
into harmony with the assumption of simple and infiniteJy 
compressible matter Leslie luis ingeniously conceived tbe 
nucleus of the world to be a hollow sphere, BUed with an as- 
sumed " imponderable matter, having an enormous foree of 
expansion." These venturesome and arbitrary conjectures 
have given rise, in wholly unscientific circles, to still moie 
£mtastic notions. Ihe hollow sphere has by degrees been 
peopled with plants and animals, and two small subterranean 
revolving planets— Pluto and Proserpine — were imaginatively 
supposed to shed over it their mild light ; as, however, it 
vms further imagined that an ever-uniform temperature 
reigned in these internal regions, the air, which was made 
self-lununous by compression, might well render the planets 
of this lower world imnecessary. Near the North Pole, at 
82^ latitude, whence the polar light emanates, was an enor- 
mous opening through which a descent might be made into 
the hollow sphere, and Sir Humphrey Davy and myself were 
even publicly and frequently invited by Captain Symmes to 
enter upon this subterranean expedition: so powerful is the 
morbid inclination of men to fill unknown spaces vrith shapes 
of wonder, totally immindfiil of the counter-evidence furnished 
by well-attested fects and imiversally acknowledged natural 
laws. Even {ke celebrated Halley, at the end of the seven- 
. teenth century, hollowed out the Earth in his magnetic specu- 
lations! Men were invited to believe that a subteiTanean 
freekfwmiating miokns^oocaaions by its position the diurnal 

ic 2 



164 COSHOB. 

and atmuol changes of magnetic declination. It has thus been 
attempted in our own day, with tedious solemnity, to clothe in 
a scientific garb the quaintly devised fiction of the humorous 
Holbeig* 

The figure of the Earth and the amount of solidificatdon 
(densi^') which it has acquired are intimately connected with 
tiuj forces by which it is animated, in so far at least as they 
have been excited or awakened from without, through its 
planetary position with reference to a liuninouB central body. 
Oompression, when considered as a consequence of centrifugal 
feree acting on a rotating mass, explains the earlier condition 
of fluidity of our planet. During the solidification of this 
-fluid, which is commonly conjectured to have been gaseous 
and primordially heated to a very high temperature, on 
enormous quantity of latent heat must have been liberated. 
If the process of solidification began, as Fourier conjectures, 
by radiation from the cooling sur&ce espoeed to the atmo- 
sphere, the particles near the centre would have continued 
fluid and hot. As, oflier long emanation of heat from the 
centre towards the exterior a stable condition of the tem- 
perature of the Earth would at length be established, it has 
leen assumed, that with increasing depth the subterranean 
heat likewise uninterruptedly increases. The heat of the 
water which flows from deep borii^ (Artesian wells), direct 
experiments regarding the temperature of rocks in mines, 
but above all, the volcanic activity of the Earth shown by the 
flow of molten masses from open fissures, afibrd unquestionable 
evidence of this increase for very considerable depths from the 
upper strata. According to conclusions based certainly upon 
mere analc^es, this increase is probably much greater towiuds 
the centre. 

* [The work reTened to, one of the vitUeat pnxiuctiom of the learned 
Nonregian aatiriEt and dramatist, Holberg, was irritten in Latm, and 
firel appeared under ths following title : Nicolai Klimii iter subterra- 
neum tunant telliirie t/teoriam ac kutoriam quinta monorchia adhuc 
no^M ineogniitx exliibaw e biblioAcca b. Abeiini. EafnifB el Lipti/c 
tuaU. Jac Freiat, 1741. An adinirable DanUk tranalaliou of tbia 
learned but severe satire on the institutions, morals, and manners of the 
iohabitaatB of the upper Barth, appeared at Copenhagen in 1T8S, and 
■waa entitled, NifU KUm'i vndeijordiake reisc ved Lvdurig Molberg, 
«ver»ai ^/ler den laiauke aigintd ajf Jem Baggeaen. Halbei^, wba 
•tndied for a time at Oxford, was bom at Bergen in ISSt, wd died ta 
ITM u Bector of Du UniTerntj of Oopenh^en.}— 3V. 



poM tiiat the ppiiodio elevations and deprefisionB of die moltei 
nmH under the already solidified strata must have caiuet 
mequaliliea in the vaulted surface from the force of pressure 
Tht! amount; and action of such oscillations must, however, b 
small ; and if the lelatiTe position of the attracting cosmica 
bodies may here also excite " spring tides," it is certainly no 
to these but to more powerfiil intern^ forces tlint we rauK 
ascribe the movements that shalte the Earth's Burfh.ce. Then 
BIB gronps of phenomena to >ffhose existence it is neceBsary t 
dnw attention, in' order to indicate the universality of 111' 
influence of the attraction of tiie Sun and Moon on the externa 
and internal conditions of the Earth, howcTer little we may b 
able to determine the quantity of this influence. 

According to tolerably accordant experiments in Artesiai 
i*«11b, it has been shown that the heat increases on an a-verag 
about l" ibr every 54-5 feet. If this increase- can be reduced ti 
arithmetiual relations, it will follow, as T have already ob 
served,* that a strstom of granite would be in a state of fUsioi 

*' &«e The Introduction. Ttm incraase of temperatare has bee 
Rrand in the Pnits de Qrenelle at I^ris, nl SB'S feet ; in the boriag- s 
Ute tunr salt woriLs at Minden. almost SS'6 ; at Pregiij, near Genen 
■ccording to AngnBte de la Sive and Marcel^ untTithsl^diiig that th 
moath of the both^ Is 1809 feet abeve the level of tie sea, it is als 
5S'6 feet. This comdJcnee betreen the rcsultii of a method Gist pn 
pMsdb; Arago, in- the year 1821 {AnrtvaiTe rbtBiireau des Longitude. 
1S8C, p. 234), for three different mines, of the absolute depths i 
1794, 2231. and 72B feet reapeetiveiy, is remaitable. The two pointa o 
Hie Earth Ijing at a small vertical distance ft\im each other, whose tumu: 
mean t«mpemture8 ore most accurately known, are probably at the Ep( 
on which the Pbria observatory stands, and the Caves de I'Ob^rvatoii 
beneath it: the mean temperature of the former is Si's, and of li 
latter 53-3, the dlEference being 1°'8 for 92 feet, or 1" for 5177 fee 
(Poiason, Thiorie maili. de la Chaleur, pp. 415 and 462.) In ti 
connie of the last 17 fears, IWmi causes not yet perfectly understood, hi: 
probably not coiinecl«d with the actual temperature of the caves, tl: 
tiiennometer standing there has riBen TCty ueorly 0°'4. Althou^ i 
Aftcaian wells there are Bometimes alight errors from the lateral permci 
tion of water, these errors are less injiirioos to tbe accurac; of concluaioi 
thsn those resulting from cnrrents of cold air, which are almost olwaj 
pnsent in mines. The general result uf Keicli's great work on the iea 
perature of the mines in the Saxonv mining districts, gives a, somi 
what slower increase of the terrestrial heat, or 1° to 76'3 feet, (Eeicl 
Beob. fiber die Teraperatur dee Oisleins ia verediiedi i en Tiefen, 183' 
S. 134.) Wiillipa, however, found (Fogg. J:nn(den, bd. iiiiv. a. 191 
In a shaft of the coal -mine of Uookweormouth, near Newcastle, in wbid 



MEAN TEHFEBATTTllE OF THE EAETH. 167 

at a depth of nearly 21 geographical miles, or between four and 
fiire times the elevation of the highest summit of the Himalaya. 

We must distinguish in our globe three different modes &r 
the tranjsmission of heat. The£rst is periodic, and affects the 
temperature of the terrestrial strata according as the heat 
penetrates from above downwards, or from below upwards^ 
being influenced by the different positions of the Sun and the 
seasons of the year. The second is likewise an effect of the 
Son, althoi^h extremely slow : a portion of the heat that has 
penetrated into the equatorial regions moves in the interior of 
the globe towards the poles, where it escapes into the atmo- 
^here and the remoter regions of space. The third mode of 
transmission is the slowest of all, and is derived from the secular 
oeoling of the globe, and from the small portion of the primi- 
tire heat which is still being disengaged from the smface. 
Tbia losBiesEperienced by the central heat must have been very 
considerable in the earliest epochs of the Earth's revolutions, 
bat vnthin historical periods it has hardly been appreciable by 
our instruments. The surface of the Earth is therefore situated 
between the glowing heat of the inferior strata and the uni- 
versal regions of space, whose temperature is probably below 
the freezing-point of mercury. 

The periodic changes of temperature which have been 
oeeasioned on the Earth's surface by the Sun's position and 
by meteorological processes, are continued in its interior, 
ahhough to a very inconsiderable depth. The slow con- 
ducting power of the ground diminishes this loss of heat 
in llie winter, and is very favourable to deep-rooted trees. 
Points that lie at very different depths on the same vertical 
line attain the maximum and minimum of the imparted 
temperature at very different periods of time. The further 
they are removed from the surface the smaller is this dif- 
ference between the extremes. In the latitudes of our tem- 
perate zone (between 48° and 52°) the stratum of invariable 
tranperature is at a depth of from 59 to 64 feet, and at half 
that depth the oscillations of the thermometer, from the 

as I have already remarked, ezcayations are going on a^. a depth of about 
1500 feet below the level of the sea, an Increase of l"* to 59*06 feet^ 
SKresiLli. almost identioftl mik that fouxid- by-Ango in the Puits da 



iirfhce, and this fact has been ingenious! 
ringault to obtain a convenient and, as hi 
mination of the mean temperature of 11 
8.* This mean temperature of the air a 
rroup of contiguous points on the sur& 
le the fiindamental element of the climat 
ons of a district ; but the npan tempers 
■X is veij different from that of the j 
ions so often agitated, whether the n 
xperienced any considerable difference! 
lies, whether the climate of a country, 
whether the winters have not becomi 
lers cooler — can only be answered by n 
;ter ; this instrument has however scare 
than two centuries and a half, and its i 
hardly dates back 120 years. The ni 
e means interpose, therefore, very nari 
tigation regarding the temperature o: 
otherwise however with the solution of 
1 internal heat of the whole Earth. Aa 
rmity of temperature from the uualten 
of a pendulum, so we may also lean 
rotatory velocity of the Earth the amoi 
lean temperature of our globe. Thit 
ons between the length of the day am 
\ is the result of one of the most brilliai 
nowledge we had long possessed of the 
ma to the thermic condition of our plan 
ity of the Earth depends on its volimi 
radual coolii^ of the mass by radiation 
would become shorter, the rotatory velo 
■ increase, and the length of the day 
ase of the temperature. From the c 
ar inequalities in the motions of tht 
les observed in ancient times, it folloi 
of Hipparchus, that is, for fall 2000 ye 
louBsingault, Sur la /'rq/ondeur d laqudk tt 
IraluTt invariabU entire lea Tropiqaa, in tlu 
Physique, t UiL, 1833, p. 226-2*7. 



TSBBESIBIAL HAGKETISK. 169 

the day has certainly not dumnished by tiie hundredth part of 
a second. The decrease of the mean heat of the globe during a 
period of 2000 years has not, therefore, taking the extremest 
limits, diminished as much as y^th of a degree of Fah- 
renheit.* 

This invariabihty of form presupposes also a great invari- 
ability in the distribution of relations of density in the interior 
of the globe. The translatory movements, which occasion the 
eruptions of our present volcanoes, and of ferruginous lava, and 
the filling up of previously empty fissures and cavities with 
dense mEisses of stone, are consequently only to be regarded as 
slight superficial phenomena affecting merely one portion of 
Uie Earth's crust, which from their smallness when compared 
to the Earth's radius become wholly insignificant. 

I have described the internal heat of our planet, both with 
reference to its cause and distribution, almost solely from 
the results of Fourier's admirable investigations. Poisson 
doubts the feet of the uninterrupted increase of the Earth's 
heat from the surface to the centre, and is of opinion that all 
heat has penetrated from without inward, and that the tem- 
perature of the globe depends upon the very high or very low 
temperature of the regions of space, through which the solar 
system has moved, lliis hypothesis, imagined by one of the 
most acute mathematicians of our time, has not satisfied 
physicists or geologists, or scarcely indeed any one besides 
its author. But whatever may be the cause of the internal 
heat of our planet, and of its limited or imlimited increase in 
deep strata, it leads us, in this general sketch of nature, through 
the intimate connection of all primitive phenomena of matter, 
and through the common bond by which molecular forces ai'e 
imited, into the mysterious domain of magnetism. Changes of 
temperature call forth magnetic and electric currents. Ter- 
restrial magnetism, whose main character expressed in the 
threefold manifestation of its forces is incessant periodic 

* Laplace, Bxp. du Syst du Monde, pp. 229 and 263 ; Micanigue 
c&egtej t. v., pp. 18 and 72. It should be remarked, that the fraction 
sfj of a degree of Fahrenheit of the mercurial thermometer^ given in 
the text as the limit of the stability of the Earth's temperatm*e since the 
days of Hipparchus, rests on the assumption that the dilatation of the 
Bubstances of which the Earth is composed is equal to that of glass, that 
is to guy, ^ 'jjji^ for 1°. Regarding this hynothesis see Arago, in tli« 
Annmire for 1834, pp. 177-190. 



la ascribed either to lite heated mosa at the Earth 
those galTanic currents which we coasidpr as 
a motioD, that is, electricity moving in a closed 

eriouB course of the magnetic needle is eqaallj 
ime and space, by the sim's course, and by changes 
the earth's surface. Between the tropics, the 
lay may be known W the direction of the needle 
Y the oscillations of the barometer. It is aflfected 
it only transiently, by the distant northern lig^t 
from the pole, flashing in beams of coloured U^t 
earens. When the uniform horary motion of the 
iaturbed by a magnetic Btorm, the perturbation 
self simultaneously, in the strictest sense of the 
lundreds and thousanda of miles sea and land, or 
taelf by degrees in short intervals of time in every 
er the earth's surface.]: In tie former case, the 

* 'William Gilbert, of Colchester, irbom Gslileo pronounoed " great to 
ftjtegrec that might be envied," said " magniu magnes ipse est ^obm 
tancstria." He ridicules the nutgDetlo moimlains of f raaeatori, ttie grol 
contempoi&iy of Columbus, as b&ing magnetic poles: " rejicienda eat 
vulgaris opinio de moctibus magQetitis, aul rape aliqua magnetica, anl 
polo pbantasticoa polo mundi disUmte." He assumes the dGcliaation o1 
the magnetic needle at any g^ven point on the eurlace of tbe Eartli 
to be invariable (variatio imiugciynsque ioci constana est), and refen 
Un curratures of the iaogonic lines to the con%nratioii of rontincnti 
and tbe relative poaitianB of aeabadns, whitJi poaiiesa a weaker maguetii 
fJDrce than the solid masses rising above the ocean. (Oilbcrt, de MagneU. 
ed. 1633, pp. i2, B8, 352, and 165.) 

+ Gauss, Allgemeinc Thcarie des Erdmagnetitmiu, in the Besuilah 
mill den Beob del mo^fll. VereiBt, ]B38, s. 41, p. SG. 

t There are aim pertnibatiODB which are of a local cbaiactcr, and di 
not extend themselves far, and ore probably less deep-seated. Som 
yean ago f described a rare iuslaucc of this kind, ic vhich an eztn 
ordinaiy disturbance was felt in the mines at Freiberg, but was nol 
perceptible at Berlin. ^Leltre de M. de Humbi^dtd, Son Altease Boyaii 
ta Due de Svaetx sur las moyetui propreit A per/ectumner la. cimnaitiaiKi 
du Afagntiimae TerrestTe, in Beequatel's, Trailt sepiriiaenUii ds CSUt 
tri/cia, t, vii. p. 412.) Maguetic skirms, viiich irera simultaaeoualy fell 
from Sicily to Upsala, did not eitond from Upsala Ui Alton, (GauBs ami 
Weber, RetuUate dea magnet. Vereins, 1839, § 128; Lloyd, in tin 
Compter Jtendaade rAaid.deaSriencef.t. iiii.lAi3,S6m.ii.p.12Biaa 
827.) Amongst the uumerousexamples that have been recently obiDTved 
of pertnrbaUons occurring simullaneously and extending otbt vidi 



172 COSMOS. 

When the needle, by its sudden disturbance in its horaiy 
course, indicates the presence of a magnetic storm, we are 
still unfortunately ignorant, whether the seat of the disturbing 
cause is to be sought in the earth itself, or in the upper regions 
of the atmosphere. If we regard the earth as a true magnet, 
we are obliged, according to the views entertained by Friedrich 
Gauss (the acute propounder of a general theory of terrestrial 
magnetism), to ascribe to every portion of the globe measur- 
ing one-eighth of a cubic metre, (or, 3-^ of a French cubic 
foot) in volume, an average amount of magnetism equal to 
that contained in a magnetic rod of lib. weight.* If iron 
and nickel, and probably also cobalt (but not chrome, as has 
long been believed) ,f are the only substances which become 
permanently magnetic, and retain polarity from a certain 
coercive force, the phenomena of Arago's magnetism of 
rotation and of Faraday's induced currents show, on the 
other hand, that all telluric substances may possibly be made 
transitorily magnetic. According to the experiments of the 
first-mentioned of these great physicists, water, ice, glass, 
and carbon affect the vibrations of the need}.e entirely in the 
same manner as mercury in the rotation experiments.^ 

lately that I discovered, for the first time, that as early as at the close of 
the sixteenth century, and consequently hardly twenty yetirs after Robert 
Korman had inyented the inclinatorium, William Gilbert, in his great 
work De Magnete, proposed to determine the latitude by the inclination 
of the magnetic needle. Gilbert (Phyaiologia Nova de Magnete, lib. v. 
cap. 8, p. 200) commends the method as applicable " aSre caliginoso." 
Edward Wright, in the introduction which he added to his master's 
great work, describes this proposal as " worth much gold." As he fell 
into the same error with Gilbert, of presuming that the isoclinal lines 
coincided with the geographical parallel circles, and that the magnetic 
and geographical equators were identical, he did not perceive that the 
proposed method had only a local and very limited application. 

* Gauss and Weber, ReavJUate dea magnet, Vereina, 1838, § 81, s. 146. 

+ According to Faraday {London and Edinburgh PhUosopkical 
Magazine, 1836, vol. viii. p. 178) pure cobalt is totally devoid of mag- 
netic power, I know, however, that other celebrated chemists (Heinrich 
Bose and Wohler) do not admit this as absolutely certain. If out of two 
carefully-purified masses of cobalt totally free from nickel, one appears 
altogether non-magnetic (in a state of equilibrium), I thii^ it probable 
that the other owes its magnetic property to a want of purity; and this 
opinion coincides with Faraday's view. 

X Arago, in the Annxdea de ChimU, t. zxxii. p. 214; Brewster, 
Treatiae on Magnetiam, 1837, p. Ill ; Baumgartner, in the Zeitachri/l 
flbr Phya, und MaUiem,, bd. ii s. 419. 



1T4 

the horizontel deviation from the terrestrial jneridiftu of the 
spot. Their combined action may, therefore, be gmphioalbF' 
represented by three Byfrtems of lines, the uodynamie, iseidimc, 
and itogonic (or those of equal foroe, equal inclination, and 
equal declination). The distanoes apart oud the relatiTe^posi' 
tions of the^B moving, oscillating, aitd advanoinfi; Banrea, do 
not alwnjrs remain the same. The total deviatien (TBriation or 
dediiiation of the magnetic needle) hag not otoU changed, or, 
at any rate, not in any appreciable degree during a 'whole 
century, at any particular point on the earth's snrfaoei* as. 
for inetance, the western port of the Antdlles, or Bpitabergen. 
In like nmnner, we observe that the isogonic curves, when 
diey poM in their secular motion from the anr&ce of tfae«ea 
to a continent or on island of coneideimble extent, conliiiiie 
fhr a long time in the-eame pontien, and become inflected as 
ihev advance. 

These gradual cdiange! in the ibrms assumed hj the linec 
in their tranelatory motions, and. which so unequally modi^ 
the amount of eastern and western declinaticm, in the eonree 
of time render it difScnlt to trace the transitione and sna- 
h^es of forms in the graphic representatioiis belonging to 
diflbrent centuries. Each branch of a curve has its history, 
but this history does not reach ftirther back amongst the 
nations of the West than the memorable epoch of the 13th t^ 
Beptember. 1492, wtca the re.diacoverer of the New World 
found a line of no variation 3° west of the meridian of the 
Island of Flores, one of the .Azores.'}' The whole of Bnrope, es- 



trial influences in the bonndariea of land, vbec, irith an ntter disregsiTl 
(br the correction of declin lion, estates are, after long inteiralR, 
nieitsiireit b; the mere application of the contpass. " The whole mts of 
West Indian property," says Sir John Herechel, "has been SBred jtchd 
tiie holUnileaij pi(of mdless Htigatian b; the invaruibilit; of the mag- 
netic declination in Jamaica and the snrTonndinf^ Amfaipelogo dniing 
tiie vhole of the last century; all «un>e;s of properly tiiero having beeo 
mnduitod solely by the compass." See Robertson, in the Pkilof»pAieai 
Traaaactiona for 1806, part ii. p. W8, On Ike permananeg q/* tie Ci>»i»- 
pOM in Jamaica siwx 16S0. In the mother country (Enfland) Hie 
magnetic declination has varied by fully 14' dnring that period. 

■(■ I hnve elsewhere ^a>m Hut, from tbe doenments which hsreconte 
down to ua regarding the Toyages of Columbus, we ean, wifh nradi 
certainty, fix tipan three placet in Ae AtiaMic lime tg^ito -iuUMation 



TESBE8TBIAL KAGKETISM. 175 

oepting a small part of Hufsia, hacrnow a western declinationu 
whilst at the dose of the seyenteenth century the needle first 
painted due north, in London in 1657, and in Paris in 1669, 
there being thus a differMice of twelve years, notwithstanding 
the small distance between these two places. In eastern 
Russia to the east of the mouth of the Volga, of Saratow, 
Nischni-Nowgorod and Archangel, the easterly declination of 
Asia is advancing towards us. Two admirable observers, 
Hansteen and Adolphus Erman, have made us acquainted 
with the remarkable double curvature of the lines of decli- 
nation in the vast region of Northern Asia : these being con- 
cave towards the pole between Obdorsk, on the Oby, and 
Turuchansk, and convex between the Lake of Baikal and the 
Gulf of Ochotsk. In this portion of the Earth, in northern 
Asia, between the mountains of Werchojansk, Jakutsk, and 
the northern Korea, the isogonic lines form a remarkable 
dosed system. This oval configuration* recurs regularly, 

for the 18th of S^tember, 1482, the 2l8t of May, 1499, and the leth 
of Angnst, 1498. The Atlantic line of no declination at that period 
ran firom north-east to south*west. It then touched the South American 
continent a little east of Cape Codera, while it is now observed to reach 
that continent on the northern coast of the Brazils. (Humboldt, ^zamen 
critique de VHist. de la OSogr., t. iii. pp. 44-48.) Prom Gil^iertTs 
Pkfftiologia Nova de Ma^gnete, we see plainly (and the &ct is Ytary 
reinsricable) that in 1600 th. declination was still null in the region of 
the Azores, just as it had been in the time of Columbus (lib. 4, cap. 1.) 
I believe that in my JSxamen critique (t. iii. p. 64) I have proved from 
documents, that the celebrated line of demarcation by which Pope 
Alexander VI. divided the Western hemisphere between Portugal and 
Spain, WHS not drawn through the most western point of the Azores, 
becMise Colambnn wished to convert a physical into a political division. 
He attached great Importance to the zone (raya) " in which the p-nrnpauff 
shows no variation, y^ere air and ocean, the latter covered with pastures 
of sea-weed, exhibit a peculiar constitution, where cooling winds begin 
to blow, and where [as erroneous observations of the polar star led him to 
imagine] the form (sphericity) of the Earth is no longer the same." 

* To determine whether the two oval systems of isogonic lines, si 
singularly included each within itself, will continue to advance for cen- 
turies in the same inclosed form, or will unfold and expand thomseiyee^ 
is a question of the highest interest in the problem of the physical causes 
of terrestrial magnetism. In the Eastern Asiatic nodes the declination 
increases from without inwards, while in the node or oval system of the 
South Sea the opposite holds good ; in fact at the present time, in 
the whole South Sea to the east of the meridian of Kamtschatka^ 
there is no line where the declination is null, or indeed in which it it 



JS COSMOS. 

id over a great extent of tiie Soutii Sea, almost as far as Uie 
eridian of Pitcaim and the group of tiie Marquesa Islands, 
jtween 20° north and 45" south lat. One would almoat be 
clined to regard this sii^ular con£guration of closed, almost 
incentric lines of declination, as the effect of a local cha- 
pter of that portioB of the globe ; but if in the course of 
oituries these apparently isolated systems should also advance, 
e must suppose, as in the case of all great natural forces, 
lat the phenomenon arises from some general cause. 
The horary variations of the declination, which, although 
ipendent upon true time, are apparently goTemed by Gie 
Ui, as long as it remains above tliQ horizon, diminish in 
igular value with the magnetic latitude of place. Near the 
[uator, for instance, in the island of Bawak, they scarcely 
nount to three or four minutes, whilst they are fi^m thirteen 
' fourteen minutes in the middle of Europe. As in the 
hole northern hemisphere the north point of the needle 
oves &OIU east to west on an average from 8J in the mom- 
g until 1^ at mid-day, whilst in ^e southern hemisphere 
e same north poiat moves from west to east,* attention has 
cently been drawn, with much justice, to the fact, that there 
list be a region of the Earth between the terrestrial and the 
agnetic equator, where no horary deviations in the declina- 
jn are to be observed. This fourth curve, which might be 
lied the curve of no motion, or rather Ihe line ofno variaiiim 
'horary declination, has not yet been discovered. 
The term magnetic poles has been applied to those points of 
e Earth's surface where the horizontal power di&appcars, 
id more importance has been attached to these points than 
operly appertains to them ; \ and in like manner the curve, 
lere the inclination of the needle is null, has been termed 
e magnetic equator. The position of this line and its secular 

s than 2° (Enntui, in Fogg. Annal, bd. zzii. § 129). Yet Coraeling 
lioulen, on Easter Sundaj, 1S16, appears to have found the declination 
U, somewhere to tho Bouth.east of NukahiTa, in 1 6° south laL and 
2° west long., and conaeqnenll;^ in the middle of the present closed 
gonal ajBtem. (Hansteen, Magna, der Erde, 1819, S 28.) It most 
L be forgotten, in the midat of all these conaiderationa, that we can 
y folloir the direction of the magnetic lines in their progreaa, as tbej 
I projected upon the surfitce of the Earth. 

' AragD, in the Annuaire, 1836, p. 284, and 1310, pp. S30-S£% 
|- Qausa, Al^. Theorie det BrdmagiteL, % 81. 



MAGWETISM. 177 

change of oonfiguration, have been made an object of carefu* 
mrestigation in modem times. According to the admirable 
work of Duperrey,* who crossed the magnetic equator six times 
between 1822 and 1825, the nodes of the two equators, that 
is to say, the two points at which the line without inclination 
intersects the terrestrial equator, and consequently passes from 
one hemisphere into the o^er, are so unequally placed, that in 
1825 the node near the island of St. Thomas, on the western 
coast of Africa, was 188-}-° distant from the node in the South 
Sea, close to the little islands of Gilbert, nearly in the meri- 
dian of the Viti group. In the beginning of the present cen- 
tury, at an elevation of 11,936 feet above the level of the sea, 
I inade an astronomical determination of the point (7^ 1' south 
lat., 48® 40' west long, from Paris), where, m the interior of 
the New Continent, tiie chain of the Andes is intersected by 
the magnetic equator between Quito and Lima. To the west of 
this point, the magnetic equator continues to traverse the 
South Sea in the southern hemisphere, at the same time slowly 
drawing near the terrestrial equator. It first passes into the 
northern hemisphere a little before it approaches the Indian 
Archipelago, just touches the southern points of Asia, and 
enters the African continent to the west of Socotora, almost in 
the Straits of 6ab-el-Mandeb, where it is most distant from 
the terrestrial equator. After intersecting the imknown regions 
of the interior of Africa in a south-west direction, the 
magnetic equator re-enters the south tropical zone, in the Gtdf 
of Guinea, and retreats so far from the terrestrial equator, that 
it touches the Brazilian coast near Os Ilheos, nor& of Porto 
Seguro, in 15° south lat. From thence to the elevated plateaux 
of the Cordilleras, between the silver mines of Micuipampa 
and Caxamarca, the ailcient seat of the Incas, where I observed 
the inclination, the line traverses the whole of South America, 
which in these latitudes is as much a magnetic terra incognita 
as the interior of Africa. 
The recent observations of Sabine f have shown that the 

* Duperrey, De la Configuration de VEquateur MagnStique, in the 
Annales de Chimie, U xlv. pp. 371 and 379. (See also Morlat, in the 
Mimoires prieenUe par divert Savana d VAcad, Roy. dea Sdencea, 
t iu. p. 132.) 

+ See the remarkable chart of isoclinJc lines in the Atlantic Ocean for 
the years 1825 and 1837; in Sabine's Gontributione to Terrestrial Mof" 
netism, 1840, p. 134. ^ 



178 coatcoa. 

node near tiie Island of St. Thomas lias moved 4° from e&st t 
west between 1825 and 1837. It wovild be extrcmdy impod 
ant to know whethn' tlie oppo«it« pole seax the Gilbert IsWd 
in the Soutli Sea has approached the taeridian of ibe Cofo 
linss in a weeterly directioD. These general remarks wi] 
be sufficient to CMnnect the diffident Bystems of tsoclinic non 
paiallcl lines with die great phenomenon of equilibrium whic 
IB manifested in the ma^ietic equator. It is no small ad 
vantage, in the espositionof the laws of terreatrial magneticn 
that the jnagnetic equator (whose Mcillatory change of form, an 
whose nodal motion exercise on infiuence on the inclination c 
the needle in the remotest districts of the world, in consequeno 
of the altered magnetic latitudea.)* should mverse the ocea 
throughout its whole course, eiceptiag about one-fifib, an 
oonsequentlj' be made so much more accessible, owing to th 
rcmarkaUe relations in apace between the sea asd land, and t 
the means of which we are now possessed for determinin| 
with much exactness both the declination and the inclinataa 
at sea. 

We have described the distribution of magnctisiD. on th 
■urfaoe of our planet according to the two forms of decUaalie. 
and incUaaUon ; it now therefore remains for us to speak ( 
the ijitentiiy of ihefaret which is graphically expressed by isc 
dynamic curves (or lines of equal intensity.) The investi^tio 
and measuiemeait of this force by the oscillations of a verli 
cal or horizontal needle, have only excited a general an' 
lively interest in its telluric relations since the beginning c 
the nineteenth century. The Explication of delicate optici 
and chronometrical instnuuents has rendered the measure 
ment of this horizontal power susceptible of a degree of accv 
rat^ &r surpassii^ that attained in any other magoeti 
determinations. The tsogonic lines are the more important i 
their immediate application to navigation, whilst we find froi 
the most recent views that isodynamic lines, especially thos 
which indicate the horizontal force, ore the most valuabi 
elements in the theoiy of terrestrial magnetism.f One c 

* Humboldt, UA^ die teeulSre . VerSndenmff der moffnetitd^ 
Indinaiion, (On llie seculsr ChioEe in the H*gnetie IncUnatioo) i 
Fogg. Annal., bd. it. a. 322. 

t Gauss, Reaahaf. der Beob. da magn. Veririta, 1838, § 21 ; SsHm 
B^>ort o» the Yariatioiu <fftht Magnetic IntauOy, g. 63. 



1T9 

the eariiast £m^ yidded by obecrvation is, tbat the intensity 
<^ the total i&rce increases &om the equator towards the pole.^ 
The knowledge which we possess of the quantity of this 
increase, and of all the numerical relations of the law of 
intensity alfecting the 'whole Earth, is especially due, since 

* The- fefiowhxg ts* the history i>f the tdisesvviy of the Isw that the 
intensity of the force inereasee (in geaeral) iHAh the magnetic latitude. 
When I ii«s ttudoiis to sMadi myeelf in \7H to Ihe expedition of 
Geq^rtain Batidin, iHio taitwided to eircuunsvisgate the globe, I yna re- 
^cotod by BimxUi, who took a irann inteiest in the biicomb of my project, 
to examine the oscillations of a vertical needle in the magnetic meridian 
in different latitudes in each hemiiq>here^ in order to detennine wheiher 
the intensity of the force fnus the same, or whether it varied in different 
places. During my travelB in the tropical legions of America, I paid 
msch attention to this subj eet. I observed that the same needle whioh in 
the tspace of ten minutes made 246 oBcilhitions in Paris, 246 in the Ha- 
vaana, and 242 in Mexico, performed only 216 oscillationg during the 
mae period at St. Carlos del Rio Negro (l"* 63' north lat. and 80" 40' west 
long, from Paris), on the magnetic equator, t. e, the line in which the in- 
dination= ; in Peru (7* 1' south lat. and 80** 40' west long, from Paris) 
only211; while at Lima (12** 2' south lat.) the number rose to 21 9. Ifound, 
in the years intervening between 1709 and 1803, that the whole force, if 
we SBBume it at 1*0000 on the magnetic equator in the Peruvian Andee^ 
between Micuipampa and Caxamarca, may be expressed at Paris by 
1-3482, in Mexico by 1-3155, in San Caries del Rio Negro by 1*0480, 
and in Lima by 1*0773. When 1 developed this law of the variable 
intensity of terrestrial magnetic force, and supported it by the numerical 
value of observations instituted in 104 different places, in a Memoir 
read before the Paris Institute, on the 26th Frimaire, An XIII. (of 
which the mathematical portion was contributed by M. Blot), the faets 
irere regarded as altogether new. It was only after the reading of the 
paper, as Biot expresdy states (Lam^therie, Journal de Physigtie, t. lix. 
p. 446, note 2), and as 1 have repeated in the RdaMon historiqtie, t. i. 
p. 262, note 1, that M. de Rossel communicated to Biot his oscillation- 
experhnents made six years earlier (between 1791 and 1794) in Yan 
Biemen's Land, in Java, and in Amboyna. These experiments gave 
evidence of the same law of decreasing force in the Indian Archipelago. 
It must, I think, be supposed ih&t this excellent man, when he wrote 
his work, was not aware of the regularity of the augmentation and dimi- 
nation of the intensity, as before the reading of my paper he never 
mentioned this (certainly not unimportant) physioal law to any of our 
mutual friends, La Place, Delambre, Prony, or Biot. It was not till 
1808, four years after my return from America, that the observations 
made by M. de Rossel were published in the Voyage de PSntrecasteattx, 
t. ii. pp. 287, 291, 321, 480, and 644. Up to the present day it is still 
asnal, in all the tables of magnetic intensity which have been published 
in Germany (Hansteen, Magnet, der Srde, 1819, e. 71; Gauss, B^ob, 

n2 



19, to the unwearied actifity of Edward Sabi 
ring observed t}ie 03cillH.tioiis of the same i 
lencan north, pole, in Greenland, at Spitzbei^ 

■ magnet. Vtrein*, 1838, t. SB-39 ; Bnnan, Fhynii 
129-579), ]□ Engliuid (Sabine, M^ittrt on Magna. 
lS-62 ; Contrihtdiont to TerreMriai Magnelitm, 
mee (Beoquetel, Traitf de EUctr. et de MagnU., t. ' 
reduce the OBcillatioiia oburved in any part of the Em 

of force which I found on the magnetic eqoalor in ] 
Ihat, according to the unit thus arhitrarilj assumed, 

magnetic force nt Paris is put domi as 1'348, T 
de by Lamuion in the unfortunate expedition of La 

stay at Teneriffe (1785), uid on the voyage to Macao 
er than those of Admiral Sosset. They were sent to 
ences, and it ia known that they were in the poasessi 
Ihe Jaly of 1787 (Becquerel, t. rii. p. 320) ; but notq 
Bt careful search, they are not now to be found. F; 
J important letter of Lamanon, now in the posses 
percey, which waa addressed to the then perpetual i 
aderoy of Sciences, bnt was omitted in the narrative 
La Perouee, it is stated " that Uie atliactive force 
lesa in the tropics than when we approach the pole 
^etic intensity deduced &om the number of oecillatic 

t^e inclioation-compafiB varies and increuses with 
the Academicians, wliile they continued to expect t 
brtunate La Perouse, had felt themaalTes Justiiied, ' 
17, in publishing a truth which had been independi 
no leES than three different travellers, the theory of 
ism would have been extended by the inowledge of 
ervatioDB, dating eighteen years earlier than they 
iple ataCementof tacts may probably justify the observ! 
Ilie third volume of my Rdaiion hietoriqae (p. 615) 
ions on the variation of terrestrial magnetism, to 
oted myself for Ihirty-two years, by means of insi 
nit of comparison with one another, in America, En 
brace an area eitonding over 188 degrees of long 
ttier of Chinese Dzoungarie to the west of the South II 
sCs of Mexico and Peru, and reaching from 60° north 
I regard the discovery otthe law of the decrement oi 
n the pole to the equator, as the most important result 
age." Although not absoloWly certain, it is very pro 
cet read Lamanon's letter of July 1787 at a meet 
idemy of Sciences ; and such a simple reading I regsi 
of publication, (,^nni«itre dii BvTeau des LoagitwU: 
! first recognition of the law belongs, therefore, beyo 
he companion of La Porouae ; but long disregarded i: 
ivledge of the law that the intenaitf of the magnel 



KA0NETI8H. 181 

coasts of Guinea and Brazil, has continued to collect and arrange 
all the facts capable of explaining the direction of the isodyna- 
mic lines. I have myself given the first sketch of an isodynamio 
system in zones for a smaU part of South America. These lines 
are not parallel to lines of equal inclination (isoclinic lines), and 
the intensity of the force is not at its minimum at the magnetic 
equator, as has been supposed, nor is it even equal at all parts of 
it. If we compare Erman's observations in the southern part of 
the Atlantic Ocean, where a feint aone (0*706) extends from 
Angola over the island of St. Helena to the Brazilian coast, 
with the most recent investigations of the celebrated navigator 
James Clarke Boss, we shall find that on the surface of our planet 
the force increases almost in the relation of 1 : 3 towards the 
magnetic south pole, where Victoria Land extends from Cape 
Crozier towards the volcano Erebus, which has been raised to 
an elevation of 12,600 feet above the ice.* If the intensity 
near the magnetic South Pole be expressed by 2*052 (the 
Tinit still employed being the intensity which I discovered on 
the magnetic equator in Northern Peru), Sabine found it was 
only 1*624 at the magnetic North Pole near Melville Island 
(74° 27' north lat.), whilst it is 1*803 at New York, in the 
United States, which has almost the same latitude as Naples. 

Earth varied with the latitude, did not, I conceive, acquire an existence 
in science until the publication of my observations from 1798 to 1804. 
The object and the length of this note will not be indifferent to those who 
are familiar with the recent histoiy of magnetism, and the doubts thai 
have been started in connexion with it, and who, from their own expe- 
rience, are aware that we are apt to attach some value to that which has 
cost us the uninterrupted labour of five years under the pressure of a 
tropical climate, and of perilous mountain expeditions. 

* From the observations hitherto collected, it appears that the 
•mii-riTnnm of intensity for the whole surface of the Earth is 2*052, and 
the minimum 0*706. Both phenomena occur in the southern hem>> 
sphere : the fonner in 72^* 47' S. lat., and 169'' 30' B. long, from Paris, 
near Mount Crozier, west-north-west of the south magnetic pole, at a place 
where Captain James Boss found the inclination of the needle to be S?"* 1 1', 
(Sabine, ContriinUioiis to Terrestrial Magnetism, 1843, No. 5, p. 231); 
the latter, observed by Ennan, at 19* 69' S. lat., and 37° 24' W. long, from 
Paris, 320 miles eastward from the Brazilian coast of Espiritu Santo 
(Ermany Phya. Beob., 1841, s. 570), at a point where the inclination ia 
only 7" 65'. The actual ratio of ike two intensities is therefore as 1 to 
2*906. It was long believed that the greatest intensity of the magnetio 
force was only two and a half times as great as the weakest exhibited 
«n oar Earth's surface. (Sabine, Report on Magnetic Intensity, p. 82.) 



The brilliukt dieooreries of Oersted. Arago, and FanuUij 
iY6 eetabHshed a more intitnate cotmexion betvreen the 
ectric tensioa of the atmosphere tmd the magnetic tension of 
ir tcrreBtrial globe. Whilst Oersted has discovered that 
ectricity excites magnetism in the neiglibourfiood of the 
mducting body, Faraday's experim«nts have elicited electric 
irrents irMn the libwated magnetism. Magnetism is one (^ 
le manifold forms under which electrieity rcTeak itself. The 
icient vague presentiment of the identity of electric and 
lagnetic attraction has been yerified in our oira times. 

When electrmn (amber)," says Pliny, in the spirit of the 
mlc natural philosophy of Thales,* " is animated by fi'iction 
ad heat, it will attract bark and dry leaves, precisely as the 
tadstone attracts iron." The same words may be found in 
le literature ot an Asiatic nation, and occur in a eulogium 
n the loadstone by the Chinese physicist, £uo)dio.'f' I 
bserved with astonishment, on the woody banks ot the Ori- 
oco, in the sports of the natives, that the excitement of 
Lectricity by Motion was known to these savage races, who 
ocupy the very lowest place in the scale of hiunani^. 
Children may be sfcen to rub the dry, flat and shining seeds or 
Bska of a trailing plant (probably a Negrttia) until they are 
ble to attract threads of cotton and pieces of bamboo cane, 
liat which tl^us delights the naked copper- coloured Indian is 
alculated to awaken in our minds a deep and earnest im- 
TOSsion. What a chasm divides the electric pastime of these 
avages from the discovery of a metallic conductor, discharg- 
ag JtB electric shocks, or a pile composed of many chemically 

* Of amber (sDfxinam, gleganm) Plia; abserres (ixivii. 3.), ." Qoma 
jus plara. Attrita digitonun sccepta caloria anims triibuiit in a* p»leae 
c folia arida qnfe levia snot, ac ut magnea lapis ferri ramcnta qnoqM.' 
Plato, in Timao, p. 80. Martin, Blade *iir U TimSe, t. ii, p. g«3-34*. 
twbo, IV., p. 70S, (i-sanb. ; Clemens AIbji., SUam., ii., p. 370, n-here eiii' 
nlorlv enough a diflereace is made between ri rroir^iov and rb ^\nrrpav] 
nien Thulea, in Aiistot. de Aninta, 1, 2, and Hippias, in 'Dtog. lAeit, 

21, descritw the magnO ttoA. amber as possessing a soul, the; refer odI] 
g a moving principle. 

+ " The magnet attracts iron as amber does the smallest grain bI 
loatard-seed. It is like a breath of vind which mysteriouel; peaetntM 
IkTough both, and communicatee itself with the rapidity of an amnr,' 
!heee are (he vords of Kuopho, a Chinese paaegjrist on the ntsgnM, 
rlio wrote in the beginnmg of tlie fourth centarr. (Klaproth, Leiini 
If. A. dt Htiaiboldt, sue FlnventUm de la Bouiaob, 1S31, p. ISS.) 



ICAOKETISM. 18$ 

deoomposing substances^ or a light-engendering nrngnetic 
apparatus! In sudi a chasm lie buried thousands of yean 
that compose the history of the intellectual derelopment ok 



The incessant change or oscillatory motion which ire dis- 
corer in aU magnetic phenomena, whether in those of the 
inclination, declination and intensity of these forces, accordintf 
to the hours of the day and the night, and the seasons anor 
the course of the whole year leads us to conjecture the ex* 
istence of very Tarious and partial syst^ns of electric currents* 
on the surface of the Earth. Are these currents, as in SeebeeVs 
experiments, thermo-magnetic, and excited directly from un- 
equal distribution of heat? Or, should we not rather regard 
thintt as induced by the positkm of the Sun and by solar heat ^^ 
Have the rotati(»i of the planets, and the different degveea 
of Telocity which the individual zones acquire according te 
their respective distances from the equator, any influence on 
the distribution of magnetism? Must we seek the seat of 
these currents, that is to say, of the disturbed electricity, in 
the atmosphere, in the regions of planetary space, or in the 
polarity of the Sun and Moon? Galileo, in his celebrated 
Dialoffo, was inclined to ascribe the parallel direction of the 
axis of the Earth to a magnetic point of attraction seated 
ia universal space. 

K we represent to ours^es the interior of the Earth as fused 
and undergoing an encmnous pressure, and at a degree of 
temperature the amount of which we are unable to assign, we 
must renounce all idea of a magnetic nucleus of the Eartii. 
AU magnetism is certainly not lost until we arrive at a white 
heatyf smd it is manifested^hen iron is at a dark red heat ; how- 

* " The phenomena of penodical vBriations depend manifestly on tlie 
action of solar heat» operating probably througli the medium of thermo* 
electric cnrrents induced on the Ekuih's surface. Beyond this rude gneaa, 
howeTer, nothing is as yet known of their physical cause. It is even 
Btill a matter of speculation, whether the solar influence be a principal 
or only a subordinate cause, in the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism." 
(Odtervntfions to be7nade> in ihe Antarctic Expedition, 1840, p. 35.) 

t Barlow, in the Philos. Trans., for 1822, pi i., p. 117-; Sir David 
Brewster, Treatise on Magnetismy p. 129. Long before the times oC 
Gilbert and Hooke it was taught in the Chinese work Ow-Htsortsou thai 
heat diminished the dtreetiTe force of the magnetic needle. (Klaprsli^ 
Ltttmd.M, A. do Humboldt, eur Vlmmtion de la BouKoUy p. 96.) 



er different tberefore tlie modifications may be wbich are 
cited in subatauces in their molecular state, andin thecoer- 
re force dependiag upon that condition in experiments of this 
ture, there will still remain a considerable thickness of the 
ixestrial Htratmn, which might be assumed to be the seat of 
tgnetic currents. The old esplonation of tLe bonuy Taria- 
ms of declination by the proEi"e8sive warmii^ of the Earth 
ike apparent rerotution of the Sun from east to west, must 
limited to the upp^most surface; since thermometers sunk 
to the Earth, which are now being accurately observed at so 
my different places, show how slowly the solar heat pene- 
ites even to the inconsiderable depth of a few feet. More- 
er, the thermic condition of the sur&ce of water by which 
o-thirds of our planet is covered, is not favourable to such 
:)des of explanation, when we have reference to an immediate 
tion and not to an effect of induction in the aeiial and 
ueous investment of our terrestrial globe. 
In the present condition of our knowledge it is impossible to 
'ord a saliBiaclory reply to all questions regarding the ultd- 
ite physical causes of these phenomena. It is only vrith refer- 
ee to that which presents itself in the triple manifeatatioae 
the terrestrial force, as a measurable relation of space and 
ae, and as a stable element in the midst of change, that sci- 
ce has recently made such brilliant advances by the aid of 
e determination of mean numerical values. From Toronto 
Upper Canada, to the Cape of Good Hope and Van Dicmen's 
md, from Paris to Pekin. the Earth has been covered, since 
28, with mimetic observatories.* in which every regular or 
* Ab the fireb demand for the «stabligluneiit of these obserrataries 
TLetrVoti. of stations, provided with ^miUr tnstrumeDts) procaeded 
m me, I did not dare to cherish the hop« that I should live long 
lu^ to see the time when both beroUpheres should be uniformlj 
rered wttJi magnetic houses under the sasociatcd activity of ible 
yBicigU and astronomers. This has, however, been ncconipUslied, 
1 chiefly through (he libeml and con binned support of the Buauan and 
itish Ooveromeiits. 

In the yeaiB IS08 and 16DT, I and my friend and fellow-Iabonrei, 
irr Oltmamis, whilst at Berlin, observed the movements of the needle, 
lecially at the times of the solBticea and equinoxes, &om hour to hour, 
1 often from half-bonr to half-honr, for five or six dnyaand nights nnin. 
Tuptedly. 1 liad persuaded myself that continuous imd uninteirnpted 
— "ons of several days and nights (observatio perpetua) -were pie- 
i the mngle observations of many mouths. The app>n(«^ 



HAGITETISM. 185 

irregular manifestation of the terrestrial force is delected by 
umnterrupted and simultaneous observations. A variation of 
- ^ftjftft of the magnetic intensity is measured, and, at certain 

a Prony's magnetic telescope, suspended in a glass case by a thread 
deroid of torsion, allowed angles of seven or eight seconds to be read off 
on a finely divided scale, placed at a proper distance, and lighted at 
night by lamps. Magnetic perturbations (storms), which occasionally 
recnrred at the same hour on several successive nightis, led me even then 
to desire extremely that similar apparatus should be used to the east and 
▼est of Berlin, in order to distinguish general terrestrial phenomena 
from those which are mere local disturbances, depending on the inequality 
of heat in different parts of the Earth, or on the cloudiness of the atmo- 
sphere. My departure to Paris, and the long period of political dis- 
turbance that involved the whole of the west of Europe, prevented my 
wish from being then accomplished. Oersted's great discovery (1820) 
of the intimate connexion between electricity and magnetism again 
excited a general interest (which had long flagged) in the periodical 
variations of the electro-magnetic tension of the Earth. Arago, who 
many years previously had commenced in the observatory at Paris, with 
a new and excellent declination instrument by Ghunbey, the longest 
uninterrupted series of horary observations which we possess in Europe, 
showed, by a comparison with simultaneous observations of perturbation 
made at Kasan, what advantages might be obtained from corresponding 
measurements of declination. When I returned to Berlin, after an 
eighteen years' residence in France, I had a small magnetic house erected 
in the autumn of 1828, not only with the view of carrying on the work 
commenced in 1806, but more with the object that simultaneous ob- 
servations at hours previously determined, might be made at Berlin, Paris, 
and Freiburg, at a depth of 35 fathoms below the surface. The simul- 
taneous occurrence of the perturbations, and the parallelism of the move- 
ments for October and December, 1829, were then graphically repre- 
sented. (Pogg. AnnaJen, bd. xix., s. 357, taf. i.-iii.) An expedition 
into Korthem Asia, undertaken in 1829, by command of the Emperor 
of Bussia, soon gave me an opportunity of working out my phui on 
a huger scale. This plan was laid before a select committee of one of 
the Imperial Academies of Science, and, under the protection of the 
Director of the Mining Department, Count von Cancrin, and the ex- 
cellent superintendence of Professor Kupffer, magnetic stations were 
appointed over the whole of Northern Asia from Nicolajeff, in the line 
through Catharinenburg, Barnaul, and Nertschinsk, to Pekin. 

The year 1882 (OdUinger gelehrte Anzeigen, st. 206) is distinguished 
as the great epoch in which the profound author of a general theory of 
terrestrial magnetism, Friedrich Gauss, erected apparatus constructed 
on a new principle, in the Gbttin.n:en Observatory. The magnetic 
observatory was finiedied in 1884, and in the same year Gauss distributed 
new instruments, with instructions for their use, in which the celebrated 
physicist, Wilheim Weber, took extreme interest^ over a large portion of 



flpxjha, obaervatioDa ize made at intervalB of 2\ nuniites, an 
oontinmed for 24 hotin oonseeutirely. A great Enfclish aatrc 
noner and phjsicist has calcuLated* that die masa of obsem 
tions which are m process will accumulate in the course ( 
lliree yean to 1,9^8,000. Never before haa so noble aa 
dkeerfdl a spirit presided over the inquiry into the ^uonA'Ai 
live relations of the laws of the phenomena of nature. W 
are, therefore, juetified in hoping, that these laws, when K«a 
paied with tboae which govern the atmoephere and the r^aote 
r^kms of ^oce, may by dcg;ree« lead ua to a more intimat 

Qemuuiy and Bveden, and the whole of Italy. ISemllate der Beei. di 
maenttixhett Verenu im Jahr, 18S8, a. 135, and Poggend. AntiaUa 
bd. iixiii., B. 423.) In the magnetic asBOciatioD that was now forme 
vith Oattingen for iU centre, simaltaneoiu obaerratioDS have bee 
undertaken foar timeaa yeax since 1836, and eontinned ODintermptedl 
for S* honre. The periods, however, do not coincide with those of th 
eqninozea and solstices, wMch I had proponed and foUoved out in 183< 
Up to this period, Great Britain, in possesion of the most extensit 
MOimerc« and the largest navy in the world, had Uken no part in tli 
movement which eince IS28 bad 1>egiul to yield important results fo 
the more fixed groondwork of terrestrial magnetism. I had the goo 
ttataae, by a public appeal from Berlin, iriiich 1 sent, in April 1836, t 
the Dutie of SnsseE, at that time Preeident of the Royal Society, (Letti 
de M, de Hnmboldlr % S.A.R le Due de Snaaei. sor tea moyens propre 
& peifectionner la eomiaisssiice du majm^tiame terreBtre par I'^tablim 
ment dea stations magnitiques et d'ObBcrvations oorreapondantee), t 
excite a friendly inlemt in the undertaking which it had eo long bee: 
the chief obiect of my wiali to carry out. In niy lettw to the Duke c 
Simex I urged the establishment of permanent ststjona in Canadi 
St. Helena, the Cape of Qood Hope, the lak of France^ Ceylon, ua 
New Holland, which ftve yean previnualy 1 had advanced as goo 
pMitLima. The Koyal Society appointed a joint physical and meteorolt 
giieal eoDimiltee, which not only proposed to the Oovemment the esU 
bliahment of fixed dutgnetic obeervaloriea in botji hemicpheres. bnt als 
the equipment of a naval expedition for magnetic observations in th 
antarctic seaa. It ia needless to proclaim the obligationa of science u 
this matter to the great activity of Sir John Uerschel, Sabine, Ain 
and Lloyd, aa well as the powerful support that was afforded by th 
Britiah Aasociation for the Advancement of Science, at their raeethii 
Jleld at Newcastle in 1338. In June 1839, the antarctic magneli 
expedition, under the command of Captain James Cla^ Koee, was fidl; 
arranged ; and now, aince ila sncce^fnl retnm, we reap the doabl 
&ni(A of highly important geographical diacoveriea around the Sootl 
Pole, and a series of gimultaneoua observationi at eight or ten nu«neti 

li M«g»ai*m in the QaarUrh/ Sanem 



AXTBOSA B0BEAX18. 187 

acquaintance with the genetic conditions o£ magnetic pliena- 
znena. As yet we can only boast of haying opened a greater 
number of paths which may possibly lead to an explana- 
tion of this subject. In the physical scieace of terrestrial 
magnetism, which must not be confoimded with the purely 
mathematical branch of the study, those persons only will 
obtain, perfect satis&ction who, as in the science of the 
meteorological processes of the atmosphere, conveniently turn 
aside the practical bearing of all phenomena that cannot be 
explained according to their OMm views. 

Terrestrial magnetism, and the electro-dynamic forces com^ 
puted^y the intellectual Ampere,* stand in simultaneous and 
intimate connection with the terrestrial or polar light, as well 
as with the internal and external heat of our planet, whose 
magnetic poles may be considered as the poles of cold.| 
The bold conjecture hazarded 128 years since by Halley,;]: 

* Instead of aflcribing the internal heat of the earth to the transition 
of matter from a vapour-like fluid to a solid condition, which accom- 
paaies the formation of the planets. Ampere has propounded the idea, 
whi<^ I regard as highly improbable, that the earth's temperature may 
he tlie consequence of the continuous chemical action of a nucleus of 
the metals of the earths and alkalies on the oxidising external cnist. 
" It cannot be doubted/* he observes in his masterly ThSorie des PMno- 
Tn^nes Mectro-dynamiques, 1826, p. 199, " that electro-magnetic currents 
exist in the interior of the globe, and that these currents are the cause 
of its temperature. They arise from the action of a central metallic 
nucleus, composed of the metals discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy^ 
acting on the surrounding oxidised layer." 

■f- The remarkable connection between the (;arvature of the magnetic lines 
and that of my isothermal lines, was first detected by Sir David Brewster. 
See the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix. 1821, 
p. 818, and Treatise on Magnetism, 1837, pp. 42, 44, 47, and 268. 
This distinguished physicist admits two cold poles (poles of maximum 
cold) in the northern hemisphere, an American one near Cape Walker 
(73* lat., 100* W. long.), and an Asiatic one (73* lat., 80° E. long.) ; 
whence arise, according to him, two hot and two cold meridians, i. e., 
meridians of greatest heat and cold. Even in the 16th century, Acosta 
(Historia Na;tural de las Indias, 1589, lib. i. cap. 17), grounding his 
opinion on the observations of a very experienced Portuguese pilot, 
taught that there were four lines without declination. It would seem 
from the controversy of Henry Bond (the author of The Longitude 
Fo^tend, 1676) with Beckborrow, that this view in gome measure in- 
fluenced Halley in his theory of four magnetic poles. See my Examjen 
Oritiqite de VHist. de la GSographie, t. iii. p. 60. 

t Halley, in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxiz. (for 1714- 
1716), No. 841 



the aurora borealls was a mag:aetlc ] 
lired empirical certainty from Faraday's 1 
lie evolution ot light by magnetic force 
t is preceded by premonitorj' signs. Thi 
re the occurrence of the phenomenon, tb 
'se of the magnetic needle generally indie 
le equilibrium in the distribution of terrea 
en this disturbance attains a great dc 

equilibrium of the distribution is res 
ge attended by a development of light 
f is therefore not to be regarded as an 

[The aQrDra,borealU of October 21, ISIT, vliicb 
iant ever knoim in this country, was precedei 
irbance. On the 22nd of October the Toaiimu 
in was 23° 10' ; oa the 23Td the position of t 
ill; changing, and the extreme west declina 
14' and 23° ST' ; on the night between the 23n 
ihangeg of position were very large and vei? fi 
mcB fflOring actoss the Geld so rapidly that a 
:ed in foUoiring it. During the dky of the 24 
1 constSDt change of poeitlon, but after midni^ 
n perceptibly to decline in brightness, the < 
id. The changes of position of the borizontal-f 
; and as frequent as those of the declination n 
•force magnet was at no time so much aflecli 
iiments. 9ee On Oie Aurora Borealia, tu U t 
vug, OcU^ar 2iih, 1847, at Blacilieaih, by Jan 
Boyal Observatoiy, Greenwich, in the Londc 
[in Philoa. Mag. and Journal of Science, fi 
ler, An Account of the Aitrora BorealiBofOa 
jbn E. Morgan, £aq. We must not omit to me 
ibance is now registered by a pholoip^pkic 
tering photographic apparatus ii^ for this p 
7 at Greenwich, was designed by Mr. Brooke, at 
ument of tbis kind has been invented by Mr 
roond Observatory. ]^?V. 
Dove, in Poggend. Annalm, bd. xx. s. 34 
a declination needle acts in very nearly th 
spheric electrometer, whose divergenee in lit 
ased tension of the electricity, before thia has t 

a spark." See also the excellent observations 
a LeJirbueh der Xetiorologie, bd. iiL s. 511- 
■Bter, in his Treatiae on Magneliam, p. 2S0. 

properties of the galvanic flame, or luminous a 
in and zinc batteiT, se " 
), s. 68-83. 



AT7B0BA B0BE1LI8, 169 

fested cause of this disturbance, but rather as a result of 
teUuric activity, manifested on tiie one side by the appear- 
ance of the light, and on the other by the yibrations of the 
ma^etic neecQe." The splendid appearance of coloured polar 
light is the act of discharge, the termination of a magnetic 
storm, as in an electrical storm a development of light— the 
flash of lightning — vindicates the restoration of the disturbed 
equilibrium in the distribution of the electricity. An electric 
storm is generally confined to a small space, beyond the limits 
of which the condition of the atmospheric electricity remains 
unchanged. A magnetic storm, on the other hand, shows its 
influence on the course of the needle over large portions of 
continents, and, as Arago first discovered, far from the spot 
where the evolution of light was visible. It is not im- 
probable that as heavily chained threatening clouds, owing 
to frequent transitions of the atmospheric electricity to an 
opposite condition, are not always discharged, accompanied by 
lightning; so likewise magnetic storms may occasion far- 
extending disturbances in the horary course of the needle, 
without there being any positive necessity that the equilibrium 
of the distribution should be restored by explosion or by the 
passage of luminous e£^ons from one of the poles to the 
equator, or from pole to pole. 

In collecting all the individual features of the phenomenon 
in one general picture, we must not omit to describe the 
origin and course of a perfectly developed aurora borealis. 
Low down in the distant horizon, about the part of the 
heavens which is intersected by the magnetic meridian, 
ihe sky which was previously clear is at once overcast. A 
dense wall or bank of cloud seems to rise gradually higher 
and higher until it attains an elevation of 8 or 10 degrees. 
The colour of the dark segment passes into brown or violet ; 
and stars are visible through the cloudy stratum, as when a 
dense smoke darkens the sky. A broad brightly luminous 
arch, first white, then yeUow, encircles the dark segment; 
but as the brilliant arch appears subsequently to the smoky 
gray segment, we cannot agree with Argelander in ascribing 
the latter to the effect of mere contrast with the bright 
luminous margin.* The highest point of the arch of hght is, 

* Argelander, in the important obserrations on the northern Hght 
embodied in the Vortr&gen gehalten in der phy8iJealUchr6hmomi&<SUn 
CfeueUschafituKQnigsberg, bd. i. 1834, s. 257-264. 



196 ooMfos. 

kcctn'dlng to accurate observations made os this eulgect,' 
not generally in the magnetic meridian itself, but &om 5* t 
18* towards tlte direction of Hie magnetic deoUnotioa of Uk 
abtoe.f In nortbern latitudes, in tbe iranediate vicinity of tb 
luwnetic pole, the smoke-like coaiad sepnent appears Ui 
iaxk, and sometimes is not even seen. 'Wbere the norizont« 
force ia the weakest tbe middle of tbe luminous arcb deviate 
the most from the magnetic meridian. 

The luminous arch remains stHuetimes for hours tt^etbe 
flashing and kindling in ever-varjiim uncUilations, before raj 
and streamers emanate from it, and shoot up to the zenitl 
The more intense the dischai^s of the northern iight, th 
more br^ht is the play of colours, through all the varyin 
gradations from violet and bluish white to green and crim 
son. Even in ordinary electricity excited by friction th 
sparks are only coloured in cases where the ei^losion ia ver 
violent after great tension. The magnetic ctdunms of flam 
rifle either singly from the luminous arch, bl^ided with bhic 
rays similar to thick smoke, or simultaneously in man 
^moeit« points of the horiz<m, uniting togethei' to farm 
flickering sea of flame, whose brilliant beauty admits of a 
adequate description, as the Imniaous waves are every momen 
assuming new and varying forms. The intensity of this ligt 
isKt times so great, that Lowendm (on the 29th of June, 1786 
recogniacd the ooruscation of the polar light in bright sui 
shine. Motion renders the phenomenon more visible. Roun 
the point in the vault of heaven which corresponds to th 
directiou of the inclination of the needle, the beams unil 
together to form the so-called corona, the crown of tli 

* For on accoimt of the renilU of the obserrations of Lottin, Bravai 
and Si^eratriim, who spent a winter at Bosetcop on tho coast of Laplui 
(70° N. lai), and in 210 Eights saw the northern lighta 160 times, st 
the Compl^ ratdiui de lAead. rfe* ScUnces, t, i. p. 289, and Martin 
Mttiordogie, 1843, p. d53. See also Argelander, in tlis Vsrtntgt 
gA. tn. der KOnigtberg Ottaelltehafi, bd. i, s. 2B9. 

+ [Professor ChaliiB, of Cambridge, states that in the «iipoi»of0 
lober 24th, 1847, the streamars all conyerged towards a single point i 
the heaTena, utuatod in or ven? near a vertical circle paaEing* throng 
■ the magnetic pole. Around thia po'nt a corona was formed, the lavs ( 
which divBi^d in »!1 directions from the centre, leaving a gpacc'fre 
from light ; its azimuth was 18° 41' from south to east, and its ^titnd 
88' 6i'. See Profeesor ChuUU, in the Alheaasum, Oct. 31, 184T,>-ri 



AUBOBA. BOBHALIS. 1^1 

noart&eni li^t, which encircles ^tte summit ci the hewevly 
csnopy with a milder radutiicc and nnfficfeftriag exoaaations of 
light. It is only in lare insfeanoee ihat a perfect crown cr 
cxrde is fenned, but on its completion the pkenoinenon has 
invariably reached its maximum and the radiatkws become less 
frequent, shorter, and saore c<dourle8s. The crown and the lu- 
minous arches break up, and the whole vault of heaven becom:es 
«OT«red with irregularly scattered, broad, £Ktnt, almost ashy 
^ray luminous immovable patches, which in their turn dis- 
appear, leaving nothing but a trace of the dark, smoke^like 
segment on the horison. There often remains nothing of 
tlie whole spectacle but a white, delicate doftd with feathery 
edges, or divided at equal distances into small roundish 
groups, like cirro-^imuli. 

This connection of the polar light with the most delicate 
cirrous clouds deserves special attention, because it shows that 
tile electro-magnetic evolution of light is a part of a meteoro- 
lo^cal process. Terrestrial magnetism here manifests its 
influence on the atmosphere and on the condensation of 
aqueous vapour. The fleecy clouds seen in Iceland by 
T%ienemami, and which he considered to be the northern 
light, have been seen in recent times by Franklin and Richard- 
son near the American North Pole, and by Admiral Wrangel 
OH the Siberian coast of the Polar sea. All remarked '' that 
the aurora flawed forth in the most vivid, beams when masses 
of cirrous strata were hovering in the upper regions of the 
air, and when these were so thin that their presence could only 
be recognised by the formation of a halo round the moon." 
These clouds sometimes range themselves, even by day, in a 
similar manner to the beams of the aurora, and thea disturb 
the course of the magnetic needle in the same manner as the 
latter. On the morning after every distinct nocturnal 
aurora, the same superimposed strata of clouds have still been 
observed that had previously been luminous.* The apparently 

* John Franklin, 2farr<Uive of a Jovrney to the Shores of the Polan 
Sta, in the Teaara 1819-1822, pp. 562 and 597; Thienemaiin, in the 
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. xx. p. 866 ; Farquharson, in 
voL vi. p. 392, of the same journal ; Wrangel, Phys. Beob,, s. 59. 
Ptary even aaw the great arch of the northern light continue throughout 
the day. (Jowmal of a Second Voyage, performed in 1821-1828, 
p. 156.) Something of the same nature was seen in England on the 9lh 



erfpng polar nmea (streaks of clouds in the directum < 

nagnetic meridian), which constantly occupied my attei 
during ray journeys on tlie elevated plateaux of Mexici 
in Northern Aaia, belong probably to the same grou 
umal phenomena.* 

luthem lights have often been seen in England by tli 
ligent and indefatigable observer Dalton, and northei 
s have been observed in the southern heniisphere as fi 
>" latitude (as on the 14th of January, 1831). On occasioi 
are by no means of rare oeeurrenee, the eq^uihbrium i 
poles has been aimultaneously disturbed. I have disci 
d with cert&inty that northern polar lights have been eee 
in the tropics in Mexico and Peru. We must distinguis 
rcen the sphere of simultaneous visibility of the phen( 
on and the zones of the earth where it is seen nlmoi 

splember, 1827. A Inminon* arch, 20° high, wili columns pr 
ng from it, was seen at noon in a pui of the ekj that bad be< 

after rain. {Joarnal of the Boy<d Institation of Oreat BrUai: 
, Jan., p. 429.) 

On m; retnm fTom m; American travels, I described Uie detica 
-cnmuloa clood, which appeari uniformly divided, s8 if bj tha aetii 
ipulsive forces, under the name of polur bands l}iandes polairti 
jse their perspective point of convergence is nioBtly at first 
OB^etic pole, so that the parallel rovB of Seecy clouds follow tl 
1* tic meridian. One peculiarity of this mjileriouB pheoomeuon 
ecillation, or oocauonally the gradually progreBsive motion, of tl 
\, of convergence. It is usually observed that the bands are on 

developed in one region of the heavena, and they are seen to moi 
from soulh to north, and then gradually from east to nest. I coo) 
jace Hoy connection between the advancing motion of the ban< 
alterations of the currents of air in the higher regions of the Sicm 
re. They occur when the air is eiCremely calm and the heavens ai 

seiene, and are much more common under the tropics than in tl 
erate and frigid zonee. I hare seen this phenomenon on the Ande 
Bt under the equator, at an elevation of 15.920 feet, and in Northei 

in the plains of KraBnojarsIti, south of Buchtarmiosk, bo similarl 
oped, that we must regard the influencea producing it as vei 
'y distributed, and as depending on general natural forces. 3< 
[uportant observations of KSmtz ( Vorleeungtn iiber Meteoroiogi 
, B. 146), and the raon recent ones of Martins and Bravaia (jf^ 
logic, 1843, p. 117). In south polar bands, composed of vei 
ite clouds, observed by Arago at Paris on the 23rd of Jane, 184< 
mya shot upwards from an arch running east and west. We hai 
ly made mention of black mys resembling dark smoke, as occni 
in brilliant noctamal northern lightji, 



AUSOBA BOBKAXIB. 

bserrer no doubt sees 
ees a separate rainbow, 
ioualy engenders these pi 
any nights may be inst 
l>een simultaneously oh 
lia, in Rome and in I 
s diminish with the d< 
be understood to be maj 
i& from the magnetic pi 
ndland, on the ^ores of 
! in Northern Canada, 

Bt eertain seasons of tl 
beams, according to the 
labitants of the Shetlai 
* Whilst the auiora it 
Italy, it is frequently sei 
•T), owing to the south 
i pole. In the districts 
kmtinent and the Sibei 
e of this phenomenon, 
f longitude, in which 

and brilliant, f The 
herefore, be denied in tl 
icy diminish as he left 
ischne-Kolyinsk. The 
r expedition appear to 
of the magnetic pole t 
least degree more inteni 
mit. 
rhich we at present pos! 

based on ineasurementi 
it oscillation of the ph 
t uncertainty of the an) 
ich confidence. The re 

data, fluctuate between 



194 COSMOS. 

an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet ; (md, in all prabafa 
the northern lights at different times occur at veiy difil 
elerationA.* The most reoecit observes ore disposed to ] 
the phenomenOB in the region of clouds, and not on the 
fines of the atmo^there ; and th^ even believe that tlie 
of the anrora may be affected by winds and Dutrents c^ a 
llie phenomenon of light, by which oione the existence c 
eiectro-magnetic cmreiit is appreciable, be actually oooBi 
frith material groups of veeidee of vapour in mstion, or i 
correctly speaking, if li^ penetrate them, paaamg &<nB 
vcflicle to ano^ier. Franklin saw near Gi«M Bear la, 
beaming northern I^ht, the l«^Ter side of vrhich he tbo 
illuminated a stratum of doud* ; whilst, at a ■distaiMe of 
eighteen geogiaphieal miieo, Kendal, wbo was oa w 
thronghout the whole n^fat, and never lost sight of the 
perceived no phenomenon of l^ht. 13te asBerti«a ao 
qnently maintained of late, that the raye of the aurora J 
been seen to shoot down to the ground between the sped 
and some neighbaoiring hill, is open to the eharge of op 
d^Dsion, as in the cases of 'Strokee of li ghtning or of the & 
fire-balls. 

Whether the magnetic storms, whose local dumMta 
have illustrnted by each reKiarkable esamples, share naia 
well as light in ixmnaQu with deotrio stanaa, is a q 
tion that has become difficult to answer, sime implieit i 
fidence is no longer yidded to the relattons cf Orcen 
whalC'fisheTs, and Siberian foz-huntcrs. Northern li; 
appear to have become less noisy since their oocuits 
have been more aceurateiy recorded. Parry, Franklin, 
Bichsrdaon, near the Norm Pole ; lliieiiemann, in Icels 
Gieseke, in Ghreenland ; Lottin and Biavais, near the N- 
CajK ; Wrangel and Anjon on the coast of the Polar 
hare Wither seen the aurora thousands of times, but m 

* Fsrqabftnnn In the Sdiiibvrgh Phiht. Journal, voL xtL p. . 

Philot. Tratuaet. tar 1829, p. 113 

[The height of the bow of light of tbe ftorora seen st the Csmbi 
observatory Hsrcb Ifl, 1647, was determined by Profesaon Challi 
Cambridge, and Chevsllier, of Doriiam, to be I7T miles sboye the 
&ce of tbe earth. See the notice of ihis meteor in An Aaxntni q/ 
Aurora Boncdia ^ QeL 24, 1847, bj' John U. Uotgan, E*q., 1S4E 
3V, 



AITBOBA B0BEJLLI8. lj||5 

heard any sound attending the phenomenon. If this negative 
testimony should not be deemed equivalent to tiie positive 
oounter evidence of Heame on the Biouth of the Copper Eiver 
and of Henderson in Iceland, it must be remembered that 
although Hood heard a noise as of quiekly*QiO¥ed muakiet- 
balls and a dight cracldiig sound duriBg an aurora, he also 
notified the same noise on the fc^wing day, wheat there was 
no northern ligbt to be seen; and it mnat not be Ibrgottisn 
that Wrangel and Gaes«ke were ftilly convinced that the sound 
they had heard was to be ascribed to the ooaitraetion g£ tiie 
ice and the crust of the snow on the sudden cooling oi the 
atmosphere. The bdiief in a <».*aekling sound has arisen not 
amongst the people generally, but rather amongst learned 
travellers, because in earlier times the northern light was de- 
clared to be an efiBact (^atmospheric electricity, cm account of 
the luminous manilestaticm of the electricity in rarefied space, 
and the observers found it easy to hear what they wished to 
hear. Recent experiments with very sensitive electrometers 
have hitherto, eontrary to the expectation generally enter- 
tained, yielded only negative results. The ccmdition of the 
electricity in the atmosphere* is not found to be changed 
during the most intense amrora ; but, on the other hand, the 
three expressions of the power of terrestrial magnetism, de- 
clination, inclination, and intensity, are all affected by polar 
light, so that in the same night, and at different periods of the 
magnetic devdopment, the same end of the needle is both 

* [Mr. James GlalBher, of the Boyal Observatoiy, Greenwich, in his 
interesting Remarka on the Weather during the Quarter ending Dtcemr 
her Z\8t, 1847, sayei, '^ It is a &ct well worthy of notice, that from the 
begiiming of this quarter till the 20th of December, the electiioity of 
the atmoq)here was aUnost always in a neutral state, so that no signs of 
electricity were shown for seyeral days together by any of the electrical 
instruments." During this period there were eigH exhibitions of the 
aurora borealis^ of which one was the peculiarly bright display of the 
meteor on the 241h of October. These frequent exhibitionB of brilliant 
anrwee seem to depend upon many remazikable meteorological relationa, 
for we find, according to lifr. Qlaisher^s statement in the paper to whloh 
we have already alluded, that the previous fifty years afford no parallel 
season to the closing one of 1847. The mean temperature of evapora- 
tion, and of the dew point, the mean elantic force of vapour, the mean 
reatiting of the barometer, and the mean daily range of the readings of 
the thermometers in air, were all greater at Greenwich during that 
season d 1847 than the average mge of ma^y pMceding 'yfmf-Tt, 

o2 



attracted and repelled. The assertion made by Pany, on 
•bength of the data yielded by his observations in the neij 
bourhood of the magnetic pole at Melville Island, that 
anrom did not disturb, but rather exercised a calming ini 
ence on the magnetic needle, has been satisfactorily refuted 
Parry's own more exact researches* detailed in his joun 
and by the admirable observationB of Richardson, Ho 
and Franklin in Northern Canada, and lastly by Bravais i 
Lottin in Lapland. The process of the aurora ia, as J 
already been observed, the restoration of a disturbed condit 
of eqmlibriiun. The effect on the needle ia different accord 
to the degree of intensity of the explosion. It was only i 
appreciable at the gloomy winter station of Bosekop wh 
the phenomenon of light was very faint and low in the horiz 
The shooting cylinders of rays have been aptly compai 
to the flame which rises in the closed circuit of a voltaic j 
between two points of carbon at a considerable distance apt 
or, according to Fizeau, to the flanic rising between a ail' 
and a carbon point, and attracted or repcUed by the magn 
This analogy certainly sets aside the necessity of assuming 1 
existence of metallic vapours in the atmosphere, which so 
celebrated physicists have regarded as the substratum of t 
northern light. 

When we apply the indefinite term polar light to the lui 
nous phenomenon which we ascribe to a galvanic current, tJ 
is to say, to the motion of electricity in a closed circuit, 
merely mdicate the local direction in which the evolution 
light is most frequently, although by no means invariab 
seen. This phenomenon derives the greater part of its impo 
ance from the fact that the Earth becomes self-luminous, a 
that as a planet, besides the light which it receives from t 
central body, the Sun, it shows itself capable in itself 
developing light The intensity of the terrestrial hght, 
rather the luminosity which is mfflised, exceeds, in cases 
the brightest coloured radiation towards the zenith, the li^ 
of the Moon in its first quarter. Occasionally, as on the ' 
of January, 1831, printed characters could be read without d 
ficulty. This almost uninterrupted development of light in t 
Earth leads us by analogy to the remarkable process exhibit 

■ KEiBt^ LthfiuA der MtUorologie, bd. iiL t. 403 and EOl. 



OE0OK08TIC PHENOMSNA 197 

tn Vemis. The portion of this planet which is not illumined 
by the Sun often shines with a phosphoresc^it light of its own. 
It is not improbable that the Moon, Jupiter, and the comets 
shine with an iiidependent light, besides the reflected solar 
light visible through the polariscope. Without speaking of the 
problematical but yet ordinary mode in which the sky is illu- 
minated, when a low cloud may be seen to shine with an 
uninterrupted flickering light for many minutes together, we 
still meet with other instances of terrestrial development of 
light in our atmosphere. In this category we may reckon the 
celebrated luminous mists seen in 1783 and 1831 ; the steady 
luminous appearance exhibited without any flickering in great 
clouds observed by Eozier and Beccaria ; and lastly, as Arago* 
well remarks, the &int di&sed light which guides the steps 
of the traveller in cloudy, starless, and moonless nights in 
autumn and winter, even when there is no snow on the 
ground. As in polar light or the electro-magnetic storm, 
a current of brilliant and often coloured light streams through 
the atmosphere in high latitudes, so also in the torrid zones 
between the tropics, the ocean simultaneously developes light 
over a space of many thousand square miles. Here the 
magical effect of light is owing to the forces of organic nature. 
Foaming with light, the eddying waves flash in phosphores- 
cent sparks over the wide expanse of waters, where every 
scintillation is the vital manifestation of an invisible animal 
world. So varied are the sources of terrestrial light! 
Must we still suppose this light to be latent, and combined in 
vapours, in order to explain Moser's images produced at a 
distance^ — a discovery in which reality has hitherto manifested 
itself like a mere phantom of the imagination. 

As the internal heat of our planet is connected on the one hand 
with the generation of electro-magnetic cmrents, and the pro- 
cess of terrestrial light, (a consequence of the magnetic storm,) it 
on the other hand discloses to us the chief source of geognostic 
phenomena. We shall consider these, in their connection 
with and tlieir transition from merely dynamic disturbances, 

* Arago, on the drjr fogs of 1783 and 1831, which illuminated the 
night, in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 1832, pp. 246 and 
250; and, regarding extraordinary luminous appearances in clouds 
without storms, see Notices sur la Tonnerre, iix tiie Annuaire pow 
Van 1838, p. 279-285. 



; r 
i '■ i 






■\ 1/' •'. 






* 



I 



i:-- 



198 COSMOS. 

fiom the elevatioii of whole continents and moimiain <4mms to 
the development and efiPiision of gaseous and liquid fluids, of 
hot mud, and of those heated and molten earths which be- 
come solidified into crystalline mineral masses. Modem 
geognosy, the nmieral portion of terrestrial physies, has made 
nT^ght Uv»Dce in ha4ig investigated Uiis^ection ofphe- 
nomeaa. This investigation has led us away from the ddhisive 
hypothesis, by which it was eustomary formerly to endeavour to 
e^lain, indi^iduaUy, ererjr expiessk^ of ferceintheterRstrial 
globe ; it shows us the eoaneetion of the occitrrenee of heteroge- 
neous substances with that wMch oniy appertains to changes 
in space (disturbances or elevations) and groii^ together 
phenomena which at first sight appeared most heterogenous; 
as thermal springs, effusion of carbonic a«id and sulphurous 
vapour, innocuous salses (mud eruptions) afid thedreadful devas- 
tations of volcanic moimtains.* Idl a general vi^w of nature all 
these phenomena are fused together in one sole idea of the 
reaction of Ihe interior of a planet on its external surface. We 
thus recognise in the depths of the earth, and in the increase 
of temperature with the increase of depth from the surface, 
not only the germ of disturbing movements, but also of the 
gi^idual elevation of whole continents (as mountain chains on 
long issur^), of volcanic eruptions, and of the manifold pro- 
duction of mountains and mineral masses. The influence of 
this reaction of the interior on the exterior is not, however, 
limited to inorganic nature akme. It is highly probable, that 
in an earlier world more powerful emanations of carbonic 
acid gas, blended with the atmosphere, must have increased 
the as^milation of carbon in vegetables, and that an inex- 
haustible supply of combustible matter (lignites and car- 
boniferous formations) must have been thus buried in the 
upper strata of the earth hv the revolutions attending the 
destruction of vast tracts of forest. We likewise perceive 
that the destiny of mankind is in part dependent on the form- 
ation of the external surfece of the earth, the direction of 
mountain tracts and high lands, and on the distribution of 
elevated continents. It is thus granted to the enqidring mind 

♦ [See Manteirs Wonders of Oedhgy, 1848, vol. L pp. 84, 36, 105, 
also LyeU's Prirteiples of Cfeology, vol. ii., and JDaubeney, On Volcanoett 
2nd ed. 1848, P, II., ch. xxxii. xxxUi.]— 2V. 



EABTHQI7JLKE8. 190 

to pass fbom. link to link along the chain of pfaaiomena until 
it reaches the period when, in tiie solidifying process of our 
pknet, and' in its &S»t transition from the gaseous form to the 
aggiomerataon of matter, tliat portioii of the inner heat of the 
eniiL was developed, wliicb does not beloog to tiw action of 
tile Sisi. 

la <»:der to gifw a general ddinestion of the causal eon« 
needxxx of geognoetkal ph^ioanena, we will begin with those, 
wbose chief characteristic is dynamic, consisting in motion 
and in change in space. Earthquakes manifest themsdves by 
quick and successiTe yertical, or horizontal, or rotatory vibra* 
tions.* In the rery considerable number of earthquakes 
which I have experienced in both hemispheres, alike on land 
and at sea, tibte two first-named kinds of motion have often 
appeared to me to occur simultaneously. The mine>like explo- 
sion — ^le^vertical action from below upwards — ^was most strik- 
ingly manifested* in the overthrow of the town of Biobamba 
in 1797, when the bodies of many of the inhabitants were 
feund to have been hurled to Cullca, a hill several hundred 
feet in height and on the opposite side of the river Licaa. 
The propagation is most generally effected by undulations in 
a linear direction,! ^^^ ^ velocity of from twenty to twenty- 
eight miles in a minute, but partly in circles of commotion 
or large ellipses, in which die vibrations are propagated 
with decreasing intensity from a centre towards the circum- 
ference. There are districts exposed to the action of two 
intersecting circles of commotion. In northern Asia, where 
the Father of Hi^yory,:]: and subsequently Theophylactus 
Siinocatta,§ described the dietricta of Scythia » free from 
earthquakes, I have observed the metalliferous portion of the 
Altai mountains under the in&ence of a twofold focus of 

• [See Danbeney, On Volcanoes, 2nd ed., 1848, p. 509.]— ^A 

*h [On the linear direction of earthquakes, see Danbeney, On VokcL' 
noes, p. 615.] — Tr, 

X Herod., iv. 28, The prostration of the colossal statne of Memnon^ 
which has been again restored, (Letronne, La Statue vocale de Menmonp, 
1835, pp. 25, 26,) presents a fact in opposition to the ancient prejudice 
that Egypt is free from earthquakes (Pliny, ii. 80) ; but the valley of the 
Nile does lie external to- the circle of commotion of Byzantium, the 
Archipelago, and Syria (Ideler ad Aristot. Meteor.^ p. 584). 

§ Saint-Martin, in the learned Notes to Lebeau, Hist du BasEmpirt^ 
tw iz. p> 401. 



mmodoa, tiie lake of Baikal, and the Toloano of the Celes- 
J Mountain (Thianscliiiii).* When the circleB of commo- 
»t intereect one an'other, when, for iiutaiice, an elevated 
un lies between two volcanoes simultaneously in a state ol 
lotion, several wave-gystema may exist together as in fluids, 
d not mutually disturb one another. We may even sup- 
ise interference to exist here as in the interaeotii^ waves of 
imd. The extent of the propagated waves of conunoti<»i 
ill be increased on the upper surkoe of the earth, according 
the general law of meclumics, by which on the transmissioa 
motion in elastic bodies, the stratum lying &ee on the one 
ie endeavours to separate itself from the other strata. 
Waves of oommotion have been investigated by means ol 
e pendulum and the seismometert with tolerable accuracy, in 

ret to their direction and total intensity, but by no meani 
reference to the internal nature of their alternations and 
eir periodic intumescence. In the city of Quito, which 
IS at the foot of a still active volcano, (the Rueu Piehineha), 
id at an elevation of 9540 feet above the level of the sea, 
tuch has beautiful cupolas, high vaulted churches, and inassivc 
lifices of several stories, I have often been astonished thai 
e violence of the nocturnal earthquakes so seldom causes 
isures in the walls, whilst in the Peruvian plains oscillationf 

• Humboldt, Aeie CentrdU, t ii. p. 110-H8. In r^ard to the dif 
'ence between sgitatiau of the Burfoce and of the EtiHta Ijing beneall 
see Oaj-Iinaaac, in the AnnaUi de Ckimie et dt Physiqae, t. xiii 
i28. 

t [This ioBtnunent In Ita simplest form cooBieta merely of a bask 
led trith some viscid liquid, which on the occurrenee of a shock of an 
rthqu&^e of sufficient force to diaturb the eqailibrium of the baildicE 
which it is placed. Is tilted ou one side, and the liquid made to riw 
the MTrte direction, thus showing \>j its height, the degree of tbe 
rturbance. Professor J. Forbes has invented an instrument of thii 
ture, although on a greatly improved plan. It consiata of a vertieal 
itol rod, having a ball of lead moveable upon it. It is supportetl 
Ml a cylindrical steel wire, which may be compressed at pleasure hj 
sns of a aeren-. A lateral movement, such as that of an carthqnaie, 
ich carries forward the base of the instrnment, can only act npoQ the 
11 through the medium of the elasticity of the wire, and the direction 
the displacement will be indicated by the jdane of ribration of the 
idulnm. A self-registering apparatus is attached to the machine. 
9 Professor J. Forbes* s«eount of hig invention in Edinb. Phil. Tnmt. 
I XT., pt 1.}-2V. 



£ABTHQITAKE8. 201 

apparenfly rnach less intense injure low reed cottages. The 
natives, who have experienced many hundred earthquakeSy 
belieye that the difference depends less upon the length or 
shortness of the waves, and the slowness or rapidity of the 
horizontal vibrations,* than on the uniformity of the motion 
in opposite directions. The circling rotatory commotions ore 
the most uncommon, but at the same time the most dangerous. 
Walls were observed to be twisted, but not thrown down : 
rows of trees turned from their previous parallel direction ; 
and fields covered with different kinds of plants found to be 
displaced in Hie great earthquake of Biobamba, in the pro- 
vince of Quito, on the 4th of February, 1797, and in that of 
Calabria, between the 5th of February and the 28th of March, 
1783. The phenomenon of the inversion or displacement of 
fields and pieces of land, by which one is made to occupy the 
place of another, is connected with a translator^ motion or 
penetration of separate terrestrial strata. When I made the 
plan of the ruined town of Biobamba, one particular spot 
was pointed out to me, where all the fiimiture of one house 
had been foimd imder the ruins of another. The loose earth 
had evidently moved like a fluid in currents, which must be 
assumed to have been directed first downwards, then hori- 
zontally, and lastly upwards. It was found necessary to 
appeal to the Audiencia^ or Coimcil of Justice, to decide upon 
the contentions that arose regarding the proprietorship of 
objects that had been removed to a distance of many hundred 
toises. 

In countries where earthquakes are comparatively of much 
less frequent occurrence, (as, for instance, in southern Europe,) 
a very general belief prevails, although unsupported by the 
authority of inductive reasoning,! that a cabn, an oppressive 

• " Tutiasiinum est cum vibrat crispante aedifidoram crepitu; et cum 
intimiescit assurgens altemoqne motu residet, mnoxium et cum concur- 
rentia tecta contrario ictu arietant; quouiam alter motus alter! renititur. 
ITndantis inclinatio et fluctus more qusedam yolutatio infesta est, aut 
com in unam partem totus se motus impellit." — Plin., ii. 82. 

+ Even in Italy they have begun to observe that earthquakes are un- 
connected with the state of the weather, that is to say, with the appear- 
ance of the heavens immediately before the shock. The numerical 
results of Friedrich Hoffmann {Hinterlassene Werke, bd. ii. 366-876) 
exactly correspond with the experience of the Abbate Scina of Palermo. 
I have myself several times observed reddish clouds onj^e day otan 



202 CO8MO0. 

fiefit, and a misty horizon are alnrays the foreniimers of thia 
phenomemm. The Mlacy of this popular opinion is not onij 
refuted by my own experience, but likewise by the observa- 
tions of all those who lukve lived many years in districts where, 
8B in Cumana, Qoito, Peru, and Chili, the earth is freqnendy 
and violently agitated. I have felt earthquakes in clear air 
and a firesh east wind, as well as in rain and t^rander-stonnB. 
The regularity of the horary changes in tilie declination of the 
magnetic needle and in the atmospheric pressure remained 
undistiirbed between the tropics on the days when earth- 

earthquake, and shortly before it; on the 4th of November, 17d9, 1 ez 
perienced two sharp shocks at the moment of & loud clap of tliimder. 
(Relat. hist., Liv. iv. chap. 10.) The Turin physicist, Tasaalli Eoadi, 
observed Yolta'cr electrometer to be strongly agitated during the pro- 
tracted earthquake of Pignerol, which lasted from the 2nd of April to 
the 17th of May, 1808 ; Journal de Pkynque, t Izvii p. 291. Bat 
these indieationB presented by clouds, by modificationa of aiaaaoapheric 
electricity, or by calms cannot be regarded as generaUy or neceeaarilff 
connected with earthquakes, since in Quito, Peru, and CMli, as weU as 
in Canada and Italy, many earthquakes are observed along witii the 
pitfest and clearest skies, and wilh the freshest land and sea breezes. 
But if no meteorological phenom^ion indieates the eoming earthquake 
either on the morning of the shock or a few days previocely, the influence 
of certain periods of Uie year, (the vernal and autmmial equinoxes,) the 
commencement of the rainy season in the tropica after long droughty and 
the change of the monsoons (according to general belief cannot be oter- 
looked, even though the genetic connexion of meteorological procesaeB 
witli thoee going on in the interior of our globe is still enveloped in ob- 
scurity. Numerical inquiries on the distribution of earthquakes thrcRi^* 
oattiie eouFse of the year, such as those of von Hoff, Peter Ifeiian, and 
Friedrich HofEinann, bear testimony to their frequency at the periods 
the equinoxes. It is singular that Pliny, at the end of his fanciful 
theory of earthquakes, names the entire frightful phenomenon, a sub- 
terranean storm ; not so much in consequence of the rolling sound which 
frequently accompanies the shock, as because the elastic forces, concus* 
sive by their tension, accumulate in the interior of the Earth whenthej 
are absent in the atmosphere ! ** Yentos In causa esse non dubium reor. 
Neque enim unquam intremiscunt terrse, nisi sopito mari, coeloque adeo 
tranqnillo, ut volatus avium non pendeant, subtracto omni spiritu qui 
vehit ; nee unquam nisi post ventos conditos, scilicet in venas et cavenafl 
^tts occulto afflatu. Neque aliud est in term tremor, quam in nube toni- 
truum; nee hiatus aliud quam cum fulmen erumpit, incluso spirita 
luctante et ad libertatem exire nitente.'' (Plin. ii. 79.) The germs of 
almost everything that has been observed or imagined on the causes of 
earthquakes, up to the present day^ may be found in Seneca^ NaL QuaA, 
vi. 4-31. 



quakes oceurred.* ' These fusts «gne with the observafdons 
made by Adolpii Ermaa, (in the tenxpesate zone, on the 8th 
of March, 1829,) on the oecasioai of an earthqnake at Irkutsk, 
near the lake of Baikal. During the violent earthqui^e of 
Cumana, on the 4th of Noyember, 1799, 1 found the decliaa' 
tionand the intensity of the magnetic Ibrce alike unchanged, 
but to my surprise, tke inclination of the needle was diminished 
about 48'.f There was no ground to suspect an error in the 
calculation, and yet in the many other earthquakes which I 
haye experienced on the elevated plateaux of Quito and Lima, 
the inclination as well as the other elements of terrestrial mag- 
netism remained always unchanged. Although in general, 
the jMTOcesses at work within the interior of the earth may not 
be announced by any meteorological phenomena or any specia. 
appearance of tne sky, it is, on the contrary, not improbable, 
as we shall soon see, that in cases of violent earthquakes some 
effect may be imparted to the atmosphere, in consequence of 
which they cannot always act in a purely dynamic manner. 
During the long-continued trembling of the ground in the 
Fiedmcmtese valleys of Pelis and Clusson, the greatest changes 
in the electric tension of the atmosphere were observed whilst 
the sky was cloudless. The intensity of the hollow noise which 
generally accompanies an earthquake does not increase in the 
same degree as the force ef the oscillations. I have ascer- 
tained with certainty that the great shock of the earthquake 
of Rioban^ (4th Feb. 1797)-*^ne of the most fearful phe- 
nomena reeo^ed in* the physical history of our planet — was 
not aecompaffiied by any 'noise whatever. The tremendous 
noise {el gran ruido) which was heard below the soil of the 
cities of Quoto aud Ibarra, but not at Tacunga and Hambato, 
nearer the centre of the motion, occurred between eighteen 
and twenty miButes e^ier the aetoal catastrophe. In the cele- 
brated eardi(|uake of lima and CaHao, (28th (^October, 1 746,) 
a noise resembling a subterranean thimder-dap was heard 
at Truxillor a quarter of an hour alter the shock, and unaccom- 
panied by any trembling of the ground. In like maniier 
long after the great earthquake in New Granada, on the 16th 

* I have given proof that the course of the hororary variations of ths 
baTOBMter is not affected before or after earthquakes, in my ReUU, kutp 
tip. 811 and 513. 

t Humboldt^ Helat, hdat, t. i. p. tl&-Si7. 



204 coiMOs. 

of November, 1827, described by BouSiingauU, subteiraneai 
detonations were heard in the wbote valley of Cauca during 
twen^ or thirty Beconds, unattended by motion. The natun 
of the noise varieB also very much, being either rolling, oi 
rustling, or clanking like chaina when moved, or like neai 
thunder, as, for instance, in the city of Quito ; or lastly, cleai 
and Tinging, as if obsidian or some other vitrified masses wen 
struck in subterranean cavities. As sohd bodies are excellen 
conductors of sound, which is propagated in burnt clay, fo) 
instance, ten or twelve times quicker than in the air, the sub 
terranean noise may be heard at a great distance from thi 
place where it has originated. In Caracas, in the grass] 
plains of Calabozo, and on the banks of the Bio Apure, whicr 
falls into the Orinoco, a tremendouslv loud noise, resembling 
thunder, was heard, unaccompanied by an earthquake, over t 
district of land 9200 square miles in estcnt, on the 30th o: 
April, 1812, whilst at a distance of 632 miles to the north- 
east, the volcano of St. Vincent in the small AntiUes, pouret 
forth a copious stream of lava. With respect to distance, Ihii 
was as if an eruption of Vesuvius had been heard in the nortt 
of Prance. In the year 1744, on the great eruption of tht 
volcano of Cotopasi, subterranean noises, resembhng the dis 
charge of cannon, were heard in Honda, on the Magdalen! 
River. The crater of Cotopaxi lies not only 18,000 feet highei 
than Honda, but these two points are separated by the colossa 
moimtain-chain of Quito, Pasto, and Popayan, no less than b; 
numerous valleys and clefts, and they are 436 miles apart 
The sound was certainly not prop^ated through the air, bn 
through the earth, and at a great depth. Ihiring the violen 
earthquake of New Granada, in February, 1835, subterraneai 
thunder was beard simultaneously at Popayan, Bogota, Santi 
Marta, and Caracas, (where it continued for seven hours withou 
any movement of the groood,) in Haiti, Jamaica, and on thi 
Lake of Nicaragua. ::- • 

These phenomena of sound when unattended by any per- 
ceptible ^ocks, produce a peculiarly deep impression even oi 
persons who have lived in countries where the earth has beec 
frequently exposed to shocks. A striking and unparallelec 
instance of umnterrupted subterranean noise, unaccompanied 
by am trace of an earthquake, is the phenomenon knovni in 
the Hex loan elevated plateaux by &e name of the " Roaring 



EASTHQITAllES. 205 

and the subterranean thunder*' {hramidos y truenos suhter- 
raneos) of Ghianaxuato.* This celebrated and rich mountain 
city Hes fer remoyed from any actiye volcano. The noise 
began about midnight, on the 9th of January, 1784, and con- 
tinued for a month. I haye been enabled to give a circum- 
stantial description of it from the report of many witnesses, 
and from the documents of the municipality, of which I was 
allowed to make use. From the 13th to the 16th of January, 
it seemed to the inhabitants as if heavy clouds lay beneath 
their feet, from which issued alternate slow rolling sounds and 
short quick claps of thunder. The noise abated as gradually as 
it had begun. It was limited to a small space, and was not 
heard in a basaltic district at the distance of a few miles. 
Almost all the inhabitants in terror left the city, in which 
large masses of silver ingots were stored, but the most cou- 
rageous, and those more accustomed to subterranean thimder, 
soon returned in order to drive off the bands of robbers who 

* On the bramidos of Guanaxnato, see my Esaai polit. sur la Nouv. 
Etpagne, t. i p. 303. The subterranean noise, unaccompanied with any 
appreciable shock, in the deep mines and on the surface (the town of 
Guanazuato lies 6830 feet above the level of the sea) was not heard in 
the neighbouring elevated plains, but only in the mountainous parts of 
the Sierra, from the Cuesta de los Aguilares, near Marfil, to the north of 
Santa Rosa. There were individmd parts of the Sierra 24-28 miles 
north-west of Guanaxuato, to the other side of Chichimequillo, near the 
boiling spring of San Job6 de Oomangillas, to which the waves of sound 
did not extend. Extremely stringent measures were adopted by the 
magistrates of the large mountain-towns, on the 14th of January, 1784, 
when the terror produced by these subterranean thunders was at its 
height " The flight of a wealthy family shall be punished with a fine 
of 1000 piastres, and that of a poor femiily with two months' imprison- 
ment. The militia shall bring back the fugitives." One of the most 
remarkable points about the whole affiiir is the opinion which the ma- 
gistrates (el cabildo) cherished of their own superior knowledge. In 
one of their jproc2ama«, I find the expression, " The magistrates, in their 
wisdom, (en su sabiduria) will at once know when there is actual danger, 
and will give orders for flight, for the present let processions be insti- 
tated.'* The terror excited by the tremor gave rise to a famine, since it 
prevented the importation of com from the table-lands, where itabounded. 
The ancients were also aware that noises sometimes existed without 
earthquakes; Aristot., Meteor., ii. p. 802; Flin., ii. 80. The singular 
npiae that was heard from March, 1822, to September, 1824, in the 
Dahnatian island, Meleda, (sixteen miles from Bagusa,) and on which 
Partach has thrown much Ught^ was oocasionally accompanied by ahocki. 



5K>6 €€kSM<M. 

bad attempted to possess themselves of the tiieamires of tiie 
city. Neither on the surface of the earth, nor in xaines 1600 
feet in depth was the slightest ehfiek to he peioeiTed. No 
similai* noise had ever hefore beeia heard on the elev&tc»d taiale- 
land of Mexico, nor has this terrific phenomenon isjoceoeeucced 
there. Thus elefU are opened or closed in tbe iotkenar of ^ 
Earth, by which waves of sound pmietrate to us orareimpeded 
in their propagation. 

The activity of an igneous mecmtam, hower^ temfie and 
picturesque the spectacle may be wMeh it psesents to^our con- 
templation, is always limited to a -very small q»ace. It is £00* 
otherwise with earthquakes, whioh, althou^ scarce^ pereep- 
tible to the eye, nevertheless siimdianeoudjy propagate their 
waves to a distance of many tibouaand miks. The great 
earthquake which destroyed the city of lisboox, on the Ist of 
November, 1755, and whose effects were so admirably inrea- 
tigated by the distinguished j^ilosopher Emmaonei Kant, was 
felt in the Alps, on the coast of Sweden, in the Antilles, Antigoa, 
Barbadoes, and Martinique; in the great Canadian Lakes, in 
Thuringia, in the ikt eountry of Northem Germany,- and in 
the small inland lakes on the shores of the Baltic* Remote 
springs were interrupted in their flow, a phenomenon attend- 
ing earthquakes which had been noticed amongst the aaciecitB 
by Demetrius the Callatian. The hot springs g€ Toplitz dried 
up, and returned, inundating everything around, and having 
their waters coloured with iron ocm-e. In Cadiz, the sea rose 
to an elevation of sixty-four feet, whilst in the Antilles, where 
the tide usually rises only from twenty-six to twenty-eigpht 
inches, it suddenly rose above twenty feet, the wjater being cf 
an inky blackness. It has been com^nted that on the Ist of 
November, 1755, a portion of the Earth's sur^Eiee, four times 
greater than that of Europe, was simxdtaneously shaken. As 
yet there is no manifestation of farce known to us, including 
even the murderous inventioufi- of our own race> bff wluch a 

* [It ]ifta been CQnaputcd tbat tke shock of this eaartkquake pervwled 
an area of 700,000 miles, or the twelfth part of the circumference of 
the globe. This dreadful shock lasted oaly fiFe minutes; it hap- 
|)6ned about nine of clock in the muimuig of the FeMt of All SiUnii^ 
when almost the whole population was wkhin the churches, o«iing4o 
which circumstance no leas than 20,000 perseos perubetl by the Ml of 
these edifices; See Baabeney, On Folconoea, pp. 614^17.}— ^?V« 



EJkBTHQTTAKES. 207 

greater number of people have been killed in the short spaoe 
of a few minutes : sixty thonaand were destroyed in Sicily in 
1693, from thirty to forty thousand in the earthquake of Rio- 
bamba in 1 797, and probably five times as maay in Asia Minor 
and Syria, under Tiberius and Justinian the dder, about the 
years 19 and 526. 

There are instaaees in which the Eartii htts been shaken for 
many successive days in the chain of the Andes in South 
Ameriea, but I am oniy acquanited with the following cases 
in whick shocks that have bem &h almost enrery hour for 
months together, have occurred £eu: irom any Tx^eaao, as, for 
instance, on the eastern deetivity of the Alpine chain of 
Mount Cenis, at Fenestrelles and Pigaerol, from April, ISOd ; 
between New Madrid and Little Prurie,* north of Cincinnati, 
IB the United States of America, in December, 1811, as well 
as throv^ the whole winter of 1812; aodin the Pachalik of 
Aleppo, in the months of August and September, 1822. As 
the mass of the people are seldom able to rise to general 
views, and axe consefuently always disposed to ascribe great 
phaiomena to local teUuric and atmospheric processes, 
wherever the fsdiakii^ of the earth is continued for a long 
time, fears of the eruption of a new volcano are awakened. 
In some few cases, this apprehensien has certainly proved to 
be well grounded, as, for instance, in the sudden elevation of 
volcanic islands, and as we see in the elevation of the volcano 
of Jorullo, a mountain elevated 1684 feet above the ancient 
level of the neighbourisig plain, on the 29th of September, 
1759, after ninety days of earthquake «id subterranean 
thunder. 

U we could obtain information regarding the daify condition 
of all the Earth's sur&u^e, we should prdMibly discover that 
the Earth is almost always undergoing shocks at some point 
of its superficies, and is continually influenced by the reaction 
of the interior on the exterior. The frequency and general 
prerfalence of a phenomenon which is prcdttbLy dependant on 
the raised temperature of tiEiedeef>est molten strata ex.] 



• Dnke, Nat. «md JStoikt. View <^ Oinannaii, pp. 282-218; 
Mitchell, in the TratuaeiioM nf the IdL and Pkiloe, See, of Ntm 
Tcrh, vol. i pfp. 281-808. In the PiedmonAese county of PignoFol, 
gkiopen of water filled to the very brimw exMhitedfor hours a coBtinaMa 
motion* 



1 • • - 

, ■ J ■ 

■ f "•• • 



208 COSMOS. 

its independence of tihe nature of the mineral masses in which 
it manifests itself. Earthquakes have even been felt in the 
loose alluyial strata of Holland, as in the neighbourhood of 
Middleburg and Yliessingen, on the 23d of February, 1828. 
Granite and mica slate are shaken as well as limestone and 
sandstone, or as trachyte and amygdaloid. It is not, there- 
fore, the chemical nature of the constituents, but rather the 
mechanical structure of the rocks, which modifies the propa- 
gation of the motion, the wave of commotion. Where this 
wave proceeds along a coast, or at the foot and in the direction 
of a mountain-chain, interruptions at certain points have some- 
times been remarked, which manifested themselves during the 
course of many centuries. The imdulation advances in the 
depths, below, but is never felt at the same points on the sur- 
face. The Peruvians* say of these unmoved upper strata that 
**• they form a bridge.'' As the mountain-ohams appear to 
be raised on fissures, the walls of the cavities may perhaps 
fiivour the direction of undulations parallel to them; occa- 
sionally, however, the waves of commotion intersect several 
chains ahnost perpendicularly. Thus we see them simultane- 
ously breaking through the littoral chain of Venezuela, and the 
Sierra Parime. In Asia, shocks of earthquakes have been por- 
pagated from Lahore and from the foot of the Himalaya (22ud 
of January, 1832) transversely across the chain of the Hindoo 
Chou, to Badakschan, the upper Oxus, and even to Bokhara-f 
The circles of commotion unfortunately expand occasionally 
in consequence of a single and unusually violent earthquake. 
It is only since the destruction of Cumana, on the 14th of De- 
cember, 1797, that shocks on the southern coast have been felt 
in the mica slate rocks of the peninsula of Maniquarez, situated 
opposite to the chalk-hills of tiie main land. The advance from 

* In Spanish, they say, rocas qiu hacen puerUe, With this pheno- 
menon of non-propagation through gnperior strata is connected the re- 
markable &ct that in the beginning of this centniy shocks were felt in 
the deep silver mines ac Marienbeig, in the Saxony mining district^ 
while not the slightest trace was perceptible at the surface. The minen 
ascended in a state of alarm. Converselj the workmen in the mines of 
Falun and Persbeig felt nothing of the shocks which in November, 1823, 
spread dismay amongst the inhabitants above-ground. 

t Sir Alex. Humes, Travela in Bokhara, voL L p. 18 ; and Wathen, 
Mem. on the Uihek 8t€ae, in the Journal of t^ AeiaHc Sodefy ^ 
Benffol, vol. iii. p. 887. 



SAATHQX7AKE8. 209 

south to north was very striking in the ahnost unintennipted 
undulations of the soil in the aUuvial valleys of the Mississippi, 
the Arkansas, and the Ohio, from 1811 to 1813. It seemed 
here as if subterranean obstacles were gradually overcome, and 
that the way being once opened, the undulatory movement 
could be freely propagated. 

Although earthquakes appear at first sight to be simply 
dynamic phenomena of motion, we yet discover, from well 
attested &cts, that they are not only able to elevate a whole 
district above its ancient level (as for instance, the UUa Bund, 
after the earthquake of Cutch, in Jime, 1819, east of the 
Delta of the Indus, or the coast of Chili, in November, 1 822), 
but we also find that various substances have been ejected 
during the earthquake, as hot water, at Catania, in 1818; 
hot steam at New Madrid, in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, in 1812 ; irrespirable gases, Mofettes which injured the 
flocks grazing in the chain of the Andes ; mud, black smoke, 
and even flames, at Messina, in 1781, and at Cimiana, on the 
14th of November, 1797. During the great earthquake of 
Lisbon, on the 1st of November, 1755, flames and colimins of 
smoke were seen to rise from a newly-formed fissure in the 
rock of Alvidras, near the city. The smoke in this case 
became more dense as the subterranean noise increased in 
intensity.* At the destruction of Eiobamba, in the year 
1 797, when the shocks were not attended by any outbreak of 
the neighbouring volcano, a singular mass caJled the Moya was 
uplifted from the Earth in numerous continuous conical ele« 
vations, the whole being composed of carbon, crystals of 
augite, and the silicious shields of infusoria. The eruption of 
carbonic acid gas from fissures in the valley of the Magdalene, 
during the earthquake of New Grenada, on the 16th of No- 
vember, 1827, suffocated many snakes, rats, and other animals. 
Sudden changes of weather, as the occurrence of the rainy 
season in the tropics, at an unusual period of the year, have 
sometimies succeeded violent earthquakes in Quito and Peru. 
Do gaseous fluids rise from the interior of the Earth and Tm> 
with the atmosphere ? or are these meteorological processes 
the action of atmospheric electricity disturbed by the earth« 
quake ? In the tropical regions of America, where sometimes 

• Bli\lc£. TVawtfoct, vol xlix., p. 414. 



210 COSMOS. 

not a drop of rain falls for ten months togetLai, tke natiTes 
consider tke repeated shocks of earthquakes, which do .not 
endanger the low rced-hnte, as. auspicious harbingers of fruit- 
fulness and abundant rain. 

The intimate coimexioufof the phenomena which we haye 
considered is still hidden in obscurity. Elastic fluids are 
doubtlessly the cause of the slight and perfectly harmless 
trembling of the Easth's suv£aoe, which, has often continued 
several days (as in 1816, at Scaccia, in Sicily, before the 
volcanic eleyatbn of the island of Julia), as well as of the 
terrifie explosions accompanied by loud noise. The focus <^ 
this destructive agent, the seat of the moving, fdree, lies far 
below the Earth's surface ; but we knowaa litde of the extent 
of this depth as we know of the chemical nature of -these 
vapours that are so highly compressed. At the edges of two 
craters, Vesuvius and l^e towering rock which projects beyond 
the great abyss of Fichincha, near Quito, I have felt periodic 
and very regular shocks of earthquakes, on each occasion from 
20 to 30 seconds befbriC. the burning scorioB or gases were 
erupted. The intensilfy of the shocks were increased in pro- 
portion to the time intervening between them, and conse- 
quently to the length of time in which the vapours were 
accumulating. This simple fact, which has been att^ted by 
the evidence of so many travellers, iiimishes us with a general 
solution of the phenomenon^ in showing that aetive volcanoes 
are to be considered .as safety-valves for the immediate neigh- 
bourhood. The danger of earthquakes increases when the 
openings of the volcano are closed, and deprived of free.oom- 
nmnioation with the atmosphere ; but the destruction of Lisbon, 
of Caracas, of Lima, of CSaahmir in 1554,* and of so many 
cities of Calabria, Syria, and .Asia Minor, shows us, on the 
whole, that the force of the shock is not the greatest in the 
neighbourhood of active volcanoes. 

As the impeded activity of the volcano acts upon the shocks 
of the Earth's sur&ce, so do the latter react on the volcanic 
phenomena. Openings of fissures &vour the rising of cones 
of eruption, and the processes which take place in these cones, 
by forming a &ee communication with the atmosphere. A 

*' On the f^qneney^f ^esrthqnakes hi CashmiTy see Troye^s Gennta 
translation of the ancient Radjataringini, vol. 11., p. 297, and Carl r. 
Htigel, Reisen, bd.iL s. 034 



SABTHQITABLES. 211 

colmnn of smoke, "which had been obsen^d to rise for months 
together firom the volcano of Pasto, in South America, sud- 
denly disappeared, when, on the 4-^1 of February, 1797, the 
province of Quito, situated at a distance of 192 miles to the 
south, suffered from the great earthquake of Biobamba. 
After the earth had continued to tremble for some time 
throughout the whole of Syria, in the CVclades and in Eubea, 
the shocks suddenly ceased on the eruption of a stream of hot 
mud on the Leiaatine plains near Chalcis.* The intelligent 
geographer of Amasea, to whom we are indebted for the 
notice of this circumstance, ftirther remarks : " since the 
craters of Etna have been opened, which yield a passage to 
the escape of fire, and since burning masses and water have 
been ejected, the country near the sea-shore has not been so 
much shaken as at the time previous to the separation of 
Sicily from Lower Italy, when all communications with the 
external surfece were closed." 

l^e thus recognise in earthquakes the existence of a vol- 
canic force, which although everywhere manifested, and as 
generally diffused as the internal heat of our planet, attains 
but rarely, and then only at separate points, sufficient intensity 
to exhibit the phenomenon of eruptions. The formation of 
veins, that is to say, the filling up of fissures with crystalline 
masses bursting forth from the interior (as basalt, melaphyre, 
and greenstone), gradually disturbs the free intercommuni- 
cation of elastic vapours. This tension acts in three different 
ways, either in causing disruptions, or sudden and retroversed 
elevations, or, finally, as was first observed in a great part of 
Sweden, in producing changes in the relative level of the sea 
and land, which, although continuous, are only appreciable at 
intervals of long period. 

Before we leave the important phenomena which we have 
considered, not so much in their individual characteristics as 
in their general physical and geognostical relations, I would 
advert to the deep and peculiar impression left on the mind by 
the first earthqui^e winch we experience even where it is not 

* Stfabo, lib. i. p. 100, Casanb. That ihe egression TrrjXev Siavvpov 
vorapov doe» not mean erupted mud, but laim^is obrious fboBi-a pasaage' 
In Stxabo, lib. yi. p.' 4-12. Compare Walter, in hisrAhnahme der vuihib- 
nUchen Thdtigkeit in historiecJien Zeiten (On the Beeseaee-of YoleaBie 
ActiTitj during Historical Time^), ISii, s. 25. 

f 2 



212 COSMOS. 

attended by anj subterranean noise.* This impression is not 
in my opmion the result of a recollection of those fearful 
pictures of devastation presented to our imaginations by the 
liistorical narratives of the past, but is rather due to the 
sudden revelation of the delusive nature of the inherent faith 
by which we had clung to a belief in the immobility of the 
solid parts of the Earth. We are accustomed from early 
childhood to draw a contrast between the mobility of water and 
the immobility of the soil on which we tread ; and this feeling 
is confirmed bv the evidence of our senses. When, therefore, 
we suddenly reel the ground move beneath us, a mysterious 
and natural force with which we are previously imacquainted 
is revealed to us as an active disturbance of stability. A 
moment destroys the illusion of a whole life— our deceptive 
feith in the repose of nature vanishes, and we feel transported 
as it were into a realm of imknown destructive forces. Every 
soimd— -the faintest motion in the air— arrests our attention, 
and we no longer trust the groimd on which we stand. Ani- 
mals, especially dogs and swine, participate in the same 
anxious disquietude ; and even the crocodiles of the Orinoco, 
which are at other times as dumb as our Httle lizards, leave 
the trembling bed of the river and run with loud cries into 
the adjacent forests. 

To man the earthquake conveys an idea of some universal 
and unlimited danger. We may flee from the crater of a 
volcano in active eruption, or from the dwelling whose destruc- 
tion is threatened by the approach of the lava stream ; but in 
an earthquake, direct our flight whithersoever we will, we stili 

* [Dr. Tschudjj, in hia interesting work, Travels in Peru, translated 
from the German by Thomasina Ross, p. 170, 1847, describes strikingly 
the effect of an earthquake upon the native and upon the stranger. 
"No familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt l^is feeling. The 
inhabitant of Lima, who from childhood has frequently witnessed these 
convulsions of nature, is roused from his sleep by the ^ock, and rushes 
from his apartment with the ciy of Miaericordia ! The foreigner from 
the north of Europe, who knows nothing of earthquakes but by descrip- 
tion, waits with impatience to feel the movement of the earth, and longs 
to hear With his own ear the subterranean sounds which he Ims hitherto 
considered fabulous. With levity he treats the apprehension of a com< 
ing convulsion, and laughs at the fears of the natives ; but as soon as his 
wish is gratified, he is tenor-gtridjcen, and is involuntarily prompted to 
K«k safety in flight."}— 2V. 



£ABTHQTJAKE&. 213 

feel as if we trod upon the very focus of destruction. This 
condition of the mind is not of long duration, although it 
takes its origin in the deepest recesses of our nature ; and 
^/«rhcn a series of faint shocks succeed one another, the inha- 
bitants of the country soon lose every trace of fear. On the 
coasts of Peru, where rain and hail are unknown, no less than 
the rolling thunder and the flashing lightning, these luminous 
explosions of the atmosphere are replaced by the subterranean 
noises which accompany earthquakes.* Long habit, and the 
very prevalent opinion that dMigerous shocks are only to be 
apprehended two or three times in the course of a century, 
cause £Eiint oscillations of the soil to be regarded in Lima with 
scarcely more attention than a hail storm in the temperate 
zone. 

Having thus taken a general view of the activity, the innei 
life as it were, of the Earth, in respect to its internal heat, its 
electro^magnetic tension, its emanations of light at the poles, 
and its irregukrly-recurring phenomena of motion, we will 
now proceed to the consideration of the material products, the 
chemical changes in the earth's surface, and the composition 
of the atmosphere, which are all dependent on planetary vital 
activity. We see issue from the ground steam and gaseous 
carbonic acid, almost always free from the admixture of 
nitrogen,t— carburetted hydrogen gas, which has been used in 

* [" Along the whole coast of Pern the atmosphere is almost mii- 
foimlj in a state of repose. It is not illuminated by the lightning's 
flash, or disturbed by the roar of the thunder; no deluges of rain, no fierce 
hurricanes, destroy the fruits of the fields, and with them the hopes of 
the husbandman. But the mildness of the elements above ground is 
frighfiilly counterbalanced by their subterranean fury. Lima is fre- 
quently visited by earthquakes, and several times the city has been 
reduced to a mass of ruins. At an average, forty-five shocks may be 
counted on in the year. Most of them occur in the latter part of 
October, in November, December, January, May, and June. Experience 
gives reason to expect the visitation of two desolating earthqui^es in a 
century. The period between the two is from forty to sixty years. The 
moist considerable catastrophes experienced in Lima since Europeans 
have visited the west coast of South America happened in the years 
1686, 1630, 1687, 1713, 1746, 1806. There is reason to fear that in the 
course of a few years this city may be the prey of another such viaita- 
tion." — Tschudi, op. cit.]— !7V. 

i* Bisdu>r8 comprehensive work, WdrmMire des inneren Erdh9t' 



e Sse-tschnan* for ecveml thousand yeaia 
in the Tillage of Fredonia in the state of Non 

States, in cootinp anA for illumination. — sulphu 
Va gae and Bulphurcms vapours, — and more rarely i 
id hydrochloric acids,]; Suoh effusions from tht 
le earth not only oeonr in the districts of stil 
Dg extin^shed volcanoes, but they may likewist 
occasionally in districts where neither trachyti 
! volcanic rocks are exposed on the earth's sur- 

chain of Qmndiu I have seen sulphur depositee 

from warm sulphurous vapour at an elevation o 
»ve the level of the sea, whilst the same speciei 
)h was formerly regarded as primitive, contains 

Cuello near Tiscan, south of Quito, an iimueiis« 
Iphur imbedded in pure quartz. 
i8 of carbonic acid {mof sites) are even in our days t( 
I OS the most important of all gaseous emanations 
to thrir number and the amount of their efiusion 
■ermaay, in the deep valleys of the Eifel, in thi 

ttsian firs^rings (Ho-tsmg) 'n China, and the andea 
gas (in bamboo canea) in Uie city of Kiuung-tahea, ae 
J Atie QentraU, iiL pp. 619-fiSO. 
alt (AnnaUi de Chimie, t. Ui, p, 181,) obeerred do ero 
■cbloric acid from the volcanoes of New Granada, whili 
,d it in euormoDB quantit}> in the emptioa of Vesnrins ii 

raseom compoonda of snlphiir, one, BoljAiiiroiia amd 
iominale chieSy in Tolcanoas posaamE^a certain ilegrei 
lilat the othfiT, enlpharetled hydiogeti, has been mos 
sired amon^ those in a donnani coadHion, The occni 
idant eihalstiona of snlpfatiiic acid, which have beei 
1 cbiefl; in extinct volcanoen, as, for inirtance, in a atrean 
lat of Fnisc^ between Bogota and Qnito, from eitinc 
[ava, is satJBtactorilj explained in a recent paper b; 
tofts dt Ohimie, Dec. 1 S46. Ho ahowi that when sulphu 
in, at a tampei^nro above 100° Fahr., and etill belM 
', comes in 'Contact with certain porous bodiea, a catalytv 
p, bj whioh water, salphuric acid, and salphnr are pro 
I probably the vast depoeita of sulphur aasocisted wit) 
ne and gliontiwi, whioh are met witb in the western part 



GASEOirS ISHAKATIONS. 215 

neighbourhood of the Lake of Laach * m the crater-Hke 
valley of the Wehr and in Western Bohemia, exhalations of 
carbonic acid gas manifest themselves as the last efforts of 
voloanic activd^ in or near the fooi of an earlier world. In 
those earlier periods, when a higher terrestrial temperature 
existed, and when a great number of fissures still remained 
unfilled, the processes we have described acted more power- 
&illy, and carbonic acid and hot steam were mixed in larger 
quantities in the atmosphere, from whence it follows, as 
Addiph Brongniart has ingeniously shown,t that the primitive 
vegetable world must have exhibited almost everywhere, and 
independently of geographical position, the most luxurious 
abundance and the Mlest development of organism. In these 
constantly warm and damp atmospheric strata, saturated with 
carbonic acid, vegetation must have attained a degree of vital 
activity, and derived the superabundance of nutrition necessary 
to fnmish materials for the formation of the beds of lignite 
(coal), constituting the inexhaustible means on which are based 
the physical power and prosperity of nations. Such masses are 
distributed in basins over certain parts of Europe, occurring 
in large quantities in the British Islands, in Belgium, in 
France, in the provinces of the Lower Ehine, and in Upper 
Silesia. At the same primitive period of universal volcanic 
activity those enormous quantities of carbon must also have 
escaped from the earth which are contained in limestone 
rocks, and which, if separated from oxygen and reduced to a 
solid form, would constitute about the eighth part of the abso- 

* [l!be Lake of Laach, m the district of the Eifel, is an expanse of 
irater two miles in circumference. The thickness of the vegetation on 
the sides of its crater-like hasin renders it difficult to discover the nature 
of the subjacent rock, but it is probably composed of black cellular 
angitic lava. The sides of ^he crater present numerous loose masses, 
vliich appear to have been ejected, and consist of glassy feldspar, ice- 
spar^ sodalite, hauyne, spinellane, and leucite. The resemblance between 
these products and the masses formerly ejected from Vesuvius is most 
remarkable. (Daubeney, On Volcanoes, p. 81.) Dr. Hibbert regards 
the Lake of Laach as formed in the first instance by a crack caused by 
the cooling of the crust of the earth, which was widened aftenvards into 
a circular cavity by the expansive force of elastic vapours. See History 
qf ike Exf''nct Volcanoes of iJie Basin of Neutoiedj 1832.] — TV. 

ir Adolph Brongniart, in the Annales des Sciences NatureUes, t. zr* 
p. 225« 






216 COSMOS. 

lute bulk of these mountain masses.* That portion of the car« 
bon which was not taken up by alkaline earths, but remained 
mixed with the atmosphere, as carbonic acid, was gradually 
consumed by the vegetation of the earlier stages of the world, 
so that the atmosphere, after being purified by the processes 
of vegetable life, only retained the small quantity which it 
now possesses, and which is not injurious to the present orga- 
nization of animal life. Abimdant eruptions of sulphurous 
vapour have occasioned the destruction of the species of 
moUusca and fish which inhabited the inland waters of the 
earlier world, and have given rise to the formation of the con- 
torted beds of gypsum, which have doubtless been frequently 
affected by shocks of earthquakes. 

Gaseous and liquid fluids, mud, and molten earths, ejected 
from the craters of volcanoes, which are themselves only a 
Idnd of " intermittent springs y*^ rise from the earth under pre- 
cisely analogous physical relations.-)- All these substances 
owe their temperatm'e and their chemical character to the 
place of their origin. The mean temperature of aqueous 
springs is less than that of the air at the point whence they 
emerge, if the water .flow from a height ; but their heat in- 
ereases with the depth of the strata with which they are in 
contact at their origin. We have already spoken of the 
numerical law regulating this increase. The blending of 
waters that have come from the height of a moimtain with 
those that have sprung from the depths of the earth, render it 
difficult to determine the position of the Isogeothermal linesX 
(lines of equal internal terrestrial temperature), when this 
determination is to be made from the temperature of flowing 
springs. Such at any rate is the result I have arrived at from 
my own observations and those of my fellow travellers in 
Northern Asia. The temperature of springs, which has become 
the subject of such continuous physical investigation during 

* Bischof; op. cit.^ s. 324, Amn. 2. 

+ Humboldt, Asie CentrcUe, t. i. p. 48. 

t On the theory of isogeothermal (chthonisothennal) lines, consult 
the ingenious labours of Kupfier, in Fogg. AnncUen, bd. zt. 8. 184, and 
bd. xxxii. s. 270, in the Voyage dans VOural, pp. 382-398, and in the 
Edinhurgh Journal of Science, New Series, vol. iv. p. 355. See also 
KSmtz, Lehrb. der Meteor., bd. ii. s. 217 ; and, on the aseent of tho 
chthonisothermal lines m mountaiiious districts^ Bischof, s. 174-19& 



HOT 9PBIKG8. 217 

the last half century, depends, like the elevation of the line 
of perpetual snow, on very many simidtaneous and deeply 
involved causes. It is a Amotion of the tempetature of the 
stratum in which they take their rise, of the specific heat of 
the soil, and of the quantity and temperature of the meteoric 
water,* which is itself diflferent from the temperatui-e of the 
lower strata of the atmosphere, according to the different 
modes of its origin in ndn, snow, or hail.f 

Gold springs can only indicate the mean atmospheric tem- 
perature when they are immixed with the waters rising from 
great depths, or descending from considerable mountain eleva- 
tions, and when they have passed through a long course at a 
depth from the surface of the earth which is equsd in our lati- 
tudes to 40 or 60 feet, and, according to Boussingault, to about 

* Leop. V. Buck in Fogg. Annalen, bd. zii. a. 405. 

•f On the temperatnre of the drops of rain in Cnmana, which fell to 
72"*, when the temperature of the air shortly before had been 86% and 88% 
and during the rain sank to 74**, see my HekU. hist, t. ii. p. 22. The 
rain-drops while falling change the normal temperature they originally 
possessed, which depends on the height of the clouds from which they 
fell, and their heating on their upper surface by the solar rays. The 
min-drops on their first production hare a higher temperature than the 
Burrounding medium in the superior strata of our atmosphere, in conse- 
quence of the liberation of their latent heat ; and they continue to rise 
bi temperature, since in falling through lower and warmer strata vapour 
5s precipitated on them, and they thus increase in size (Bischof, 
Wdrmelehre dee inneren ErdkOrpera, s. 73) ; but this additional heat- 
ing is compensated for by evaporation. The cooling of the air by rain 
(putting out of the question what probably belongs to the electric pro- 
cess in storms) is effected by the drops, which are themselves of lower 
temperature, in consequence of the cold situation in which they were 
formed, and bring down with them a portion of the higher colder air, and 
which finally, by moistening the ground, give rise to evaporation. These 
are the ordinary relations of the phenomenon. When, as occafiionally 
happens, the rain-drops are warmer than the lower strata of the atmo- 
sphere, (Humboldt, Rel. hist., t. iii. p. 513,) the cause must probably 
be sought in higher warmer currents, or in a higher temperature of 
widely extended and not very thick clouds, from the action of the Sun's 
rays. How, moreover, the phenomenon of supplementary rainbows, 
which are explained by the interference of light, is connected with the 
original and increasing size of the fidling drops; and how an optical 
phenomenon, if we know how to observe it accurately, may enlighten us 
regarding a meteorological process, according to diversity of zone, has 
b^i shown, with mnch talent and inirenuity, by Arago, in the Anntuiire 
Cor 1836, p. 800. 



al regions ;* these being the depi 
y of the temperature begins in t 
:s, that is to say, the dep&a at -whi 
i]^ duuges of heat in the atiaospht 

the most various kinds of rocks ; t 
■s that have hitherto been obserr 
8 confirm, at a distance from all t 
ert to a notice in my journal c^ t 
mcherai in South America, betire 

Valencia and the Aguas tie Conn 
itory, near Ghianaxuato ; the fom 
1 granite, had a temperature of 194' 
salt, 205'''5. The depth of the 8om 
awed with this temperature, judgi 
te law of the increase of heat in I 
probably 71 40 feet, or above two mil 

terrestrial heat be the cause of tlu 
I'olcanoee, the rocks can only eEert 
mt capacities for heat and by tb 
e hottest of all permanent spriii 
) are likewise in a most rcmarkal 



„ ItfiiUyoo 
e of the grouiud, at a rei; elight dep 
mean tempenture of the air. The foUi 
illiiEtrale this fact : — 



... 69-9 ",'.. 8669 

mature of the earth irhhin the tropics, 
i degree the onuee by mj obaciratJinB 
el Giacharo), {Rd. hut., t. iiL pp. 1{ 
leiileration tiiat I compared the preton 
of the oonrent of Caripe, 65°*3, not w 
the cave, 65°-e, bnt v'ltit the tempenti 
3°-3 ; atthoDgh I observed {Sel. hist^ t. : 
nn water from a great he^ht might p 
ir of the cave. 



HOT SFSING8. 219 

degree the purest, and such as hold in solution tiie smallest 
quantity of minecal substances. Their temperature appears on 
&e whole to be less constant than that of springs between 122^ 
and 165° which in Emrope at least have maintained in a most 
remarkable manner their /tWarta&f^Vy of heat and mineral con- 
te»U during the last £%* or sixty years-^a period in which 
theimometrioal measurements < and chenxioal analyses have 
been applied with increased exactness. Bousstngault foimd in 
1 823, that the thermal springs of Las Trincheras had risen 12° 
during the twenty-three years that had intervened since my 
travels in 1800.* This oalmlyi^wing spring is therefore 
now nearly 12° hott^ than the intermittent fountains of the 
Geyser and the Strokr, whose temperature has recently been 
most carefully determined by Krug of Nidda. A very strik- 
ing proof of the origin of hot springs by the sinking of cold 
meteoric water into the earthy and by its contact with a volcanic 
focus, is ajOPorded by the volcano of Jomllo in Mexico, which 
was -unknown before my American journey. When in Sep- 
tember, 1 759, Jorullo was suddenly elevated into a mountain 
11^ feet above the level of the surrounding plain, two small 
rivers, the Rio de Cidtimha and Rio de San Pedro, disappeared, 
and some time afterwards burst forth again, during viol^it 
shocks of an earthquake, as hot springs, whose temperature I 
found in 180a to be 166°'4. 

The springs in Greece stiU evidently flow at the same places 
as in the times of Hellenic antiquity. The spring of Erasinos, 
two hours* journey to the south of Ai^s, on the declivity of 
Chaon, is mentioned by Herodotus. At Delphi we still see 
Gassotis (now the springs of St. Nicholas) rising south of the 
Lesche, and flowing beneath the Temple of Apollo ; Castalia, 
at the foot of PhsedriadsB; Pirene, near Acro-Corinth; and 
the hot baths of JEdipsus, in EuboBa, in which Sulla bathed 
during the Mithridatic war.f I advert with pleasure to these 

• Boussingault, in the AnndUa de (Thimie, t. lii. p. 181. The spring 
of Chaudes Aigues, in AuTergne, is only 176**. It is also to be observed, 
that whilst the Aguas Calientes de las Trincheras, south of Porto 
Cabell o (Venezuela), springing from granite cleft in regular beds, and 
far from all volcanoes, have a temperature of fully 206''*6, all the springs 
which rise in the vicinity of still active volcanoes (Pafito, Cotopazii, and 
Tnnguragua) have a temperature of only 97*'~130'', 

*f- Cassotis (the spring of St. Nicholas) and Castalia, at the Phsedriada^ 
mentioned in Pausanias, z. 24, 25, and x. 8, 9 ; Pirene (Acro-Corinth^ 



220 COSMOS. 

facts, as tihey show us that even in a country subject to fre- 
quent and violent shocks of earthquakes the interior of our 
phinet has retained for upwards of 2000 years its ancient con- 
figuration, in reference to the course of ^e open fissures that 
yield a passage to these waters. The Fontaine jaillissante of 
Lillers, in the Department des Pas de Calais, which was bored 
as early as the year 1126, still rises to the same height and 
yields the same quantity of water ; and as another instance, I 
may mention that the aomirable geographer of the Caramanian 
coast, Captain Beaufort, saw in the district of Phaselis the same 
flame fed by emissions of inflammable gas which was described 
by Pliny as the flame of the Lycian Chimera.* 

The observation made by Arago in 1821 that the deepest 
Artesian weUs are the warmest,f threw great light on the 
origin of thermal springs, and on the establishment of the law 
that terrestrial heat increases with increasing depth. It ib a 
remarkable fact, which has but recently been noticed, that 
at the close of the third century St. Patricius,]: probably 

In Strabo, p. 379 ; the spring of EraainM at Mount Chaon^ south of 
Argos, in Herod, vi. 67^ and Pausanias, ii. 24, 7 ; the springs of iBdipsus 
in Euboea, some of which have a temperature of 88**, whilst in others it 
ranges between 144° and \^V, in Strabo, pp. 60 and 447, and Athenaeus, 
iL 3, 73 ; the hot springs of Thermopylae, at the foot of (Eta, with a tem- 
perature of 149**. All from manuscript notes by Professor OnrtiuSj the 
learned companion of Otfried MUller. 

* Pliny, ii. 106; Seneca, Epi^, 79, § 8, ed. Ruhkopf, (Beaufort, 
Survey of the Coast, of Karamaniaj 1820, Art. Yanar near Deliktasch, 
the ancient Phaselis. p. 24). See also CtesiaSy Fragm., cap. 10, p. 250, 
€d. B&hr; Strabo, lib. xiy. p. 666, Casaub. 

['' Not &r from the Deliktash, on the side of a mountain, is the per- 
petual fire described by Captain Beaufort. The travellers found it as 
brilliant as ever, and even somewhat increased, for, besides the luge 
flame in the comer of the rains described by Beaufort, there were small 
jets issuing from crevices in the side of the crater-like cavity five or six 
feet deep. At the bottom was a shallow pool of sulphureous and turbid 
water, regarded by the Turks as a sovereign remedy for all skin com- 
plaints. The soot deposited from the flames was regarded as efiicacioas 
for sore eyelids, and valued as a dye for the eyebrows." See the highly 
interesting and accurate work, Ttavds in Lyda, by Lieut. Spratt and 
Professor B. Forbes.]— TV. 

+ Arago, in the Annvmrepour 1835, p. 234. 

1 Acta 8. PatricU, p. 555, ed. Buinart, t. ii. p. 385, Mazochl 
Dureau de la Malle was the firat to draw attention to this remarkable 
passage in the Becherches 8ur la Topographie de Cardiage, ISS^ 
p. 27«. (See also Seneca, Nat. QutJMt., ill. 24.) 



HOT 8PBINQA. 221 

fiishop of Pertusa, was led to adopt yery oorrect yiews 
r^arding the phenomenon of the hot springs at Carthage. 
On being asked what was the cause of boihng water bursting 
from the earth, he replied, '^ Fire is nourished in the clouds 
and in the interior of the earth, as Etna and other mountains 
near Naples may teach you. The subterranean waters rise as 
if through siphons. The cause of hot springs is this : waters 
which are more remote from the subterranean fire are colder, 
whilst those which rise nearer the fire are heated by it, and 
bring with them to the surface which we inhabit an insup- 
portable degree of heat.** 

As earthquakes are often accompanied by eruptions of 
water and vapours, we recognise in the SaUes,* or small mud- 
volcanoes, a transition fix)m the changing phenomena presented 
by these eruptions of vapour and thermal springs, to the 
more powerfrd and awful activity of the streams of lava that 
flow from volcanic mountains. If we consider these moun^ 
tains as springs of molten earths producing volcanic rocks, we 
must remember that thermal waters, when impregnated with 
carbonic acid and sulphurous gases, are continually foiining 
horizontally ranged strata of limestone, (travertine), or conical 
elevations, as in Northern Africa (in Algeria) and in the Bancs 
of Caxamarca on the western declivity of tiie Peruvian Cor- 
dilleras. The travertine of Van Diemen's Land (near Hobart 
Town) contains, according to Charles Darwin, remains of a 
vegetation that no longer exists. Lava and travertine, which 
are constantly forming before our eyes, present us with the 
two extremes of geognostic relations. 

Salses deserve more attention than they have hitherto re- 
ceived from geognosists. Their grandeur has been overlooked, 
because of tiie two conditions to which they are subject, it is 
only the more peaceful state in which they may continue foi 
centuries, which has generally been described : their origin is 
however accompanied by earthquakes, subterranean thimder, 

* [True volcanoes^ as we have seen, generate sulphuretted hydrogen 
and muriatic acid, upheave tracts of land, and emit streams of melted 
feldspathic materials ; Salses, on the contraiy, disengage little else but 
carburetted hydrogen, together with bitumen and other products of the 
distillation of coal, and pour forth no other torrents except of mud, or 
aigillaceous materials mixed np with water. Daubeney, op. cit., 
p. 640.]— rr. 



222 eosKOB. 

the elevation <rf a ^ole distriot, and lo&iy emissioiia of flame 
short dunttioiL When the mud yolc&no of Jokmali began 
form, on the S7th of NoTember, 1^27, in the penineala 
Abscheron, cm the OacipiBQ eea, east of Baku, the flames flash 
up to an extraordinary height for three houra, whilst during t 
next twenty hours they scarcely rose tfanee feet above the crab 
trom -which mud was ejected. Near the Tiltage of Baklich 
west of Baku, the fltunes rose so high that they oould be se 
at a distance of twenty-four miles. Huormoua masses of ro 
were torn up and soattered around. Similar masses may 
seen round Uie now inactive mud volcano of Monte Zibi 
near Sassnolo, in Northern Italy. 'Hie secondary condition 
repose has been maintained for upwards of fifteen centuries 
the mud volcanoes of Girgenti, the Afacaluii, in Sicily, whi 
have been described by the ancients. These salses consist 
many contiguous conical hills, from eight to tan, or even thii 
feet 12. height, subject to variations of elevation as well as 
form. Streams of ai^illaceous mud, attended by a perio« 
development of gas, flow &om the small basins at the summi 
which tre filled with water ; the mud, although usually co! 
is sometimes at a high temperature, as at Damak, in i. 
province of Samarang, in the island of Java. The gases th 
are developed with loud noise differ in their nature, consistiii 
for instance, of hydrogen mixed with naphtha, or of carbon 
acid, or, as Parrot and myself have shown (in the peninsu 
of Taman, and in the Volcaneitos de Tttrbaco, in Sou 
America), of almost pure nitrogen.* 

Mud volcanoes, after the first violent explomon of tii 
which is not perhaps in an equal degree common to a 
present to the spectator an image of the uninterrupted b 
weak activity of the interior of our planet. The communic 
tion with the deep strata in which a hi^ temperature preva 
is soon closed, and the coldness of the mud-emissions of i 
talses seems to indicate that the seat of the phenomem 

* HouiboHt, JRO. hilt. t. iiL p. 662-B87; Atie Omlrali!, t. i. p. ■ 
t, il pp. 605-615; VuesdeiCordiUh-ei.pi. lU.HegtTdinst'be M'aealt 
(the Arabic Jfoijfai, the overtkrotonoT inverted, from thevoid KhalaA 
and on " the Earth ejecting fluid earth," see Solinus, c»p. 5 : " idem bj 
Agrigentinua erucUt limoaas Ecaturigencs, et ut veaie fontium anfficin 
riTis BubminiBtnuidiB, ita in hac Slcilite parte solo nnnqimm deSciNt 
reteroa rq'eotatione teiram terra evomil.'' 



8AXS£S. 223 

canaot be far xemoYed.firom the surface diirmg their ordinary 
eoziditioxi. The reaction of the interior of the Earth on its 
external sur&ce is exhibited with totally different force in true 
volcanoes or igneous mountains, at points of the Earth in 
which a permanent, or at least continually renewed connexion 
with the volcanic force is manifested. Wc must here carefully 
distinguish between the more or less intensely developed 
volcanic phenomena — as, for instance, between earthquakes, 
thermal, aqueous and gaseous springs, mud volcanoes, and the 
appearance of bell-formed or dome-shaped trachytic rocks 
without openings ; the opening of these rocks^ or of the ele- 
vated beds of basalt, as craters of elevation; and lastly, the 
elevation of a permanent volcano in the crater of elevation, 
or amongst the dihris of its earlier formation. At diifcrent 
periods, and in different degrees of activity and force, the 
permanent volcanoes emit steam, acids, luminous scoriae or^ 
when the resistance can be overcome, narrow band-like streamy 
of molten earths. Elastic vapours sometimes elevate eithel 
separate portions of the Earth's crust into dome-shaped un- 
opened masses of feldspathic trachyte and dolerite (as in 
Puy de Dome and Chimborazo), in consequence of some great 
or local manifestation of force in the interior of our planet, or 
the upheaved strata are broken through and curved in such a 
maimer as to form a steep rooky ledge on the opposite inner 
side, which then constitutes the enclosure of a crater of ele- 
vation. If this rocky ledge has been uplifted from the bottom 
of the sea, which is by no means always the case, it determines 
the -whole physiognomy and form of the island. In this manner 
h<w arisen the circular form of Palma, which has been de- 
scribed with such admirable accuj::acy by Leopold von Buch, 
and that of Nisyros,* in the .^Igean sea. Sometimes half of 
the annular ledge has been destroyed, and in the bay formed 
by the encroachment of the sea corallines have built their 
cellular habitations. Even on continents craters of elevation 
are often filled with water, and embellish in a peculiar manner 
the character of the landscape. Their origin is not connected 
with any determined species of rock : they break out in 
basalt, trachyte, leneitic porphyry (somma), or in doleritic 

* -See the hiteresthig little map of the ishmd of Nii^yros in Boss's 
Utnen mffden grieehi^chm Imeln, bd. ii, 1848, 8. 68. 



224 COBUOB. 

mixturee of augite and labradorite ; and 
different nature and external confonnatioa c 
of craters, tfo phenomena of eruptions are i 
craters, as ihcy open no permanent channel 
•with the interior, and it is but seldom th 
totcee of volcanic activity either in the neigh 
interior of these ciaterB. The force which w 
BO important an action must have been lonj 
the interior before it could overpower the 
mass pressing upon it ; it sometimes, for 
origin of new isWda, will raise granular roi 
rated masses (strata of ta& filled with mar 
the surface of the sea. The compressed vapoi 
the crater of elevation, but a large mass s< 
closes the opening which had been only 
manife stations of force. No volcano can, 
duced.* A volcano, properly so called, ei 
permanent connexion is established betwe 
the Earth and the atmosphere, and the read 
on the surface then continues during long 
It may be interrupted (or centuries, as 
Vesuvius, Fisove,'!' and £hen manifest itself 

" Leopold Ton Bach, Pliye. BeKkrabang der 
B.3261 anibiaMemoir GberErhebungacrateTeund 
Annol., bd. iixTii, a. 169. 

Id hia remu-ka on the separation of Sicil; from ( 
an excellent description of the two modea in whicl 
" Some islands," he obserTes (lib. TJ. p. 258, ed. 
ments of the contment, others Iiave arisen from t 
present time is known to happen : far Ite ieland 
Ijing (ar from the main laad, haye probably been r 
while on the other hand those near promontories 
reason) to hare been separated from the continent. 

+ Ocre Fisove (Mona Vesuvius), in the Umbrii 
DeiUung der Bv,ffabiniachen T/^eln in Jthein. M. 
The word ockrf. is Teiy probably genuine Cmbrian, 
to Featna, mountain. XtoA would be a buntinK ai 
if VoHs is correct in shttlng that Airvij is an he 
conneclred with aWiii and aWivof, but the inteUij 
doubts this hellenio origin on etymological groun 
Mtai, was by no means regarded as a luminona 
iianderers, in the same manner as (he ever-tramlii 
Sfte), to which Homer seems to refer In the Oc 



YOLCAKOES. 



225 



tivity. In the time of Nero, men were disposed to rank Etna 
among the volcanic mountains which were gradually becomine 
extinct;* and subsequently ^lianf even maintained that 
mariiiers could no longer see the sinking summit of the moun- 
tain from so great a distance at sea. Where these evidences 
—these old scaffoldings of eruption, I might ahnost say- 
still exist, the volcano rises from a crater of elevation, while a 
high rocky wall surrounds, like an amphitheatre, the 'isolated 
conical mount, and forms around it a kind of casing of hiffhlv 
elevated strata. Occasionally not a trace of this enclosure u 
visible, and the volcano, which is not always conical, rises 
immediately from the neighbouring plateau in an elongated 
form, as m the case of Pichincha, J at the foot of which lies 
the city of Quito. 

As the nature of rocks, or the mixture (grouping) of simple 
minerals into granite, gneiss, and mica slate, or into trachyte 
basalt, and dolorite, is independent of existing climates and is 
the same under the most varied latitudes of the Earth • 'so also 
we find everywhere in inorganic nature, that the same laws of 
configuration regulate the reciprocal superposition of the 
strata of the Earth's crust, cause them to penetrate one another 
m the form of vems, and elevate them by the agency of 
elastic forces. This constant recurrence of the same phe- 
and 219), and its geographical position was not so well determined. 
I suspect that Etna would be found to be a Sicilian word if we had anv 
fiagmentaiy mateiials to refer to. According to Diodorus (v. 6.). the 
Sicani, or abongines preceding fhe Sicilians, were compelled to fly to 
the western part of the island, in consequence of successive eruptions 
ertendmgover many years The most ancient eruption of Mount Etna 
on record is that mentioned by Pmdar and .Eschylus, as occurring under 
Hiero^ m the second year of the 76th Olympiad. It is probable that 
H^od was aware of the devastatmg eruptions of Etna before the period 
of Greek immigration; there is, however, some doubt regarding theword 
Atrvi, m the text of Hesiod-a subject into which I have Entered S 
some len^h m another place. (Humboldt, Examen cnL de U Oiogr^ 
t. 1. p. 168.) " ' 



* Seneca, Epist, 79. 

t MUm, Var.ffist, viii. 11. 



* [This mountain contains two funnel-shaped cmters, apparently 
resultmg from two sets of eruptions : the western nearly circular and 
haviB^ in Its centre a cone of eruption, from the summit and sides of 
which are no less than seventy vents, some in activity and others extinct 
It 18 probable that the larger number of the vents were produced H 
periods antenor to hwtoiy. Daubeney,op.cit.,p.488.]--JJ» 



226 C08MO8. 

fiomena is most strikingly manifested in yolcanoes. When 
the mariner, amid the islands of some distant archipelago, is 
no longer guided by the light of the same stars with which 
he had been fiuniLiar in his native latitude, and sees himself 
surroimded by pahns and other Ibrms of an exotic vegetatiaii, 
he stiU can trace reflected in the indiyidual characteriaties of 
the landscape, the forms of YestLvitis, of the dome-shaped 
summits of Auyergne, the craters of eleyation in the Canaries 
and Azores, or the fissures of eruption in Iceland. A ghmce 
at the satellite of our planet will impart a wider gex^raliz- 
ation to this analogy of configuration. By means of the 
charts that have been drawn in accordance with the observ- 
ations made with large telescopes, we may recognise in the 
Moon, where water and air are both absent, vast craters cf 
elevation surrounding or su^^rting conical nMumtains, thus 
affording incontrovertible evidence of the effects produced by 
the reaction of the interior on the sur&ce, fiivoured by the 
influence of a leebler force of gravitation. 

Although volcanoes are justly termed in many laE^o^s 
<* fire-emitting moimtains,'* mountains of this kmd are not 
formed by the gradual accumulation of ejected currents of 
lava ; but their origin seems rather to be a general conse- 
quence of the sudden elevation of aoit masses of trachyte or 
liabradoritic augite. The amount of the elevating Ibrce is 
manifested by &e elevation of the volcano, which varies fit)m 
the inconsiderable height of a hill (as the volcanb of Cosima, one 
of the Japanese Kurile islands) to that of a cone above 19,000 
feet in height. It has appeared to me that relatioins of height 
have a great influence on the occurrence of eruptioiLSy whidi 
are more frequent in low than in elevated volcanoes. I m%ht 
instance the series presented by the following moimtains: 
Stromboli, 2318 feet ; GKiacamayo, in the province of Quixos, 
from which detonations are heard almost daily, (I have myself 
often heard them at Chillo, near Quito, a distance of eighty- 
eight miles;) Vesuvius, 3876. feet; Etna, 10871 feet; the 
Peak of Teneriffe, 12,175 feet; and Cotopaxi, 19,069 feet 
If the locus of these vcleanoes be at an equal depth below the 
surface, a greater force must be required where the fused 
masses have to be raised to an elevation six or e%ht tsBMs 

freater than that of the lower eminences. Whilst the vokano 
tromboli (StFongyte) ha3 been moeaeam^ active smee the 



TOLOAKOES. IST 

Homeric i^es, and has served as a beacon-Hglit to guide the 
mariner in the Tyrriienian Sea, lofder yolcanoes have been 
characterized by long intervals of quiet. Thns we see that a 
whole century often intervenes between the eruptions of most 
of the colossi which crown the summits of the Cordilleras of 
the Andes. Where we meet with exceptions to this law, to 
which I long since drew attention, they must depend upon 
the circumstance that the connexions between the volcanic 
foci and the crater of eruption cannot be considered as 
equally permanent in the ease of all volcanoes. The channel 
of communication may be closed for a time in the case of the 
lower ones, so that they less frequently come to a state of 
eruption, although they do not on that account approach more 
nearly to their fiial extinction. 

The«e relations between the absolute height and the fre- 
quency of volcanic eruptions, as far as they are externally 
perceptible, are intimately connected witii the consideration 
of the local conditions under which lava carrents are erupted. 
Eruptions from the crater are very unusual in moay moun- 
tains, generally occurring- from lateral fissures, (as was ob- 
served in the case of Etna, in the sixteenth century, by the 
celebrated historian, Bembo, when a youth,*) wherever the 
sides of the upheaved mountain were least able, from their 
configuration and position, to offer any resistance. Cones of 
eruption aro sometimes uplifted on these fissures ; the laeger 
ones, which are erroneously terzned new volcanoes, are ranged 
together in a line marking the direction of a fissure, which is 
soon reclosed, whilst the smaller ones are grouped together, 
coTcring a whole district with their dome-like, or hive-shaped 
forms. To the latter belong the homitos de JoruUo,\ the 

* Petri Bexnbi Opnscula, {^ina Dialoffus,) Basil, 1556, p. 6S: 
'* Qoicqtiid In Minsb matris utero coalescit, nunquam exit ex cratere 
saperioie, quod vel eo inseondere gravis materia non queat, vel, quia 
inferiuB alia spiiamenta sunt, non fit opus. Despumant flsosmiis uigen- 
tibuB ignei rivi pigro fluxu tolas delambentes plagas, et in lapidem 
indureacunt.'' 

i* See mj drawing of tiie Tolcano of JoruUo, of its hcmiios, and of the 
uplifted malpays, in my Vttes de CordilUrea, pi. xliiL p 239. 

[Burckhardt states that during the twenty-four years that have intor- 
rened since Baron Humboldt's visit to Jorullo, the homitof have either 
wholly disappeared, or completely changed their forms. See AufenlSM 
tmd Reieen^in Umco in 1825 tmd 1834.]—^. 

Q3 



cone of Vesuvius erupted in October, 1822 

socording to Postels, and those of the lava- 
Erman, neai the Baidar Mountains, in 
Kamtschatka. 

When Tolcimoes are not isolated in a pl» 
as in the double chain of the Andes of Qu 
having on elevation from nine to thirteen 
oircumstance maj probably explain the ' 
streams are formed* during the most di 
iniited scorite accompanied hy detonatiom 
M more than a hundred mUcs. Such a 
Popuyan, those of the elevated plateau of 
the Andes of Quito, with the exception, ] 
of the latter, of the volcano of Antisana. 
cone of cinders and the size and form o 
menta of configuration whicb yield an esp 
character to volcanoes, olfhough the cont 
crater are both wholly independent of tl: 
mountain. Vesuvius is more than three t 
PrHtk of TenerifTe ; its cone of cinders rise 
height of the whole mountain, whilst thi 
the Peak is only ^ of its altitude-f In 
oano than that of TenerifFe, the Rucu-Pi< 
tioos occur which approach more nearly 
Amongst all the volcanoes that I have se 
spheres, the conical form of Cotopaxt is 
regular. A sudden fusion of the snow a 
announces the proximity of the eruption, 
visible in the rarefied strata of air surroun 
the opening of the crater, the walls of th( 
sometimes in a state of glowing heat, wh 
tain presents an appearance of the most ft 

* Humboldt, Eitai tar la Qtogr. de* Planlt 
Btgioru Equinixdaies, 1807, p. 130, and E»»ai 
da Bochu.p. 321. Host of theTolcanaeainJt 
CMse of the perfect absence of Uvo-slreaxiu ii 
actiritj is not alone to be eonght for io thdr tot 
Loop. Von Bach, De»a: phya. de» Ilea Canarta 
Hoffinann, in Poggend., A nnaUn., bd. lii h. 6(1 

f |1t m^ be remarked in genetal, although ti 
tloiu, thai the dmien»oaB of a crater are in 
eloration of the monntain. Dautienef, op. cit. 



TOLCINOES. 229 

blackness. The crater, which, with very few exceptions, occu- 
pies the summit of the yolcano, forms a deep cauldron-like 
valley, which is often accessible, and whose bottom is subject 
to constant alterations. The great or lesser depth of the crater 
is in many volcanoes likewise a sign of the near or distant 
occurrence of an eruption. Long narrow fissures, from which 
vapours issue forth, or small roundish hollows filled with 
molten masses, alternately open and close in the cauldron-Hke 
valley ; the bottom rises and sinks, eminences of scori® and 
cones of eruption are formed, rising sometimes far over the 
walls of the crater, and continuing for years together to im- 
part to the volcano a peculiar character, and then suddenly 
fall together and disappear during a new eruption. The 
openings of these cones of eruption, which rise firom the 
bottom of the crater, must not, as is too often done, be con« 
founded with the crater which encloses them. If this be in- 
accessible firom extreme depth and from the perpendicular 
descent, as in the case of the volcano of Rucu-Pichincha, 
which is 15,920 feet in height, the traveller may look from 
the edge on the simmiit of the mountains which rise in the 
sulphurous atmosphere of the vaUey at his feet ; and I have 
never beheld a grander or more remarkable picture than that 
presented by this volcano. In the interval between two erup- 
tions, a crater may either present no luminous appearance, 
showing merely open fissures and ascending vapours, or the 
scarcely heated soil may be covered by eminences of scoriae, 
that a^nit of being approached without danger, and thus pre- 
sent to the geologist the spectacle of the eruption of burning 
and fused masses, which Ml back on the ledge of the cone of 
scorise, and whose appearance is r^ularly announced by small 
wholly local earthqiuelkes. Lava sometimes streams forth from 
the open fissures and small hollows, without breaking through 
or escaping beyond the sides of the crater. If, however, it does 
break tiirough, the newly-opened terrestrial stream generally 
flows in such a quiet and well-defined course, that the deep 
valley, which we term the crater, remains accessible even 
during periods of eruption. It is impossible, without an ex- 
act representation of the configuration — the normal type, as 
it were, of fire-emitting mountains, to form a just idea of those 
phenomena, which, owing to fantastic descriptions and an 
undefined phraseology, have long been comprised under tho 



280 cofticos. 

bead of craters, eones of erupiton, and vokanoee. Hie mazginal 
ledges of craters vary muoh less than one wwuld be led to 
sij^pose. A iCompaiison of Saussure^s measozements with my 
own, yields the remarkable result, for instance, that in the 
coaise of forty-nine years, (firom 1773 to 1822,) the elevation 
of the north-western mai^in of Mount Vesuvius {Eocca del 
Pcdo) may be considered to have remained unchanged.* 

Volcanoes which, like the chain of the Andes, lift their 
summits high aboYc the boundaries of the region of perpetual 
snow, present peculiar phenomena. The masses of snow by 
their sudden fiision during eruptions occasion not only the 
'most fearful inimdations and torrents of water in which 
smoking scori» are borne along on thick masses of ice, but 
they likewise exercise a constant action whilst the volcano is 
in a state of perfect repose, by infiltration into the fissuies of 
the trachytic rock. Cavities which iare either on the declivity 
or at the foot of the mountain, are gradually converted into 
subterranean reservoirs of water, which communicate by 
numerous narrow openings with mountain streams, as we see 
exemplified in the h^hlands of Quito. The fishes of these 
rivulets multiply especially in the obscurity of the hollows, 
and when the shocks of earthquakes which precede all erup* 
tions in the Andes have violently shaken the whole mass of 
the volcano, these subterranean caverns are suddenly opened, 
and water, fishes, and tufiaceous mud are all ejected together. 
It is through this singular phenomenonf that the inhabitants 
of the highlands of Quito became acquainted with the existence 
of the little cydopic fishes, termed by them the prenadiUa. 
On the night between the 19th and 20th of June, 1698, when 
the summit of Carguairasso, a mountain 19,720 feet in height, 
fell in, leaving only two huge masses of rock remaining of the 
ledge of the crater, a space of nearly thirty-two square miles 
was overflowed and devastated by streams of liquid tuffa and 
argillaceous mud, {lodazales,) containing large quantities oi 
dead fish. In like manner, the putrid fever, which raged 
seven years previously in the moimtain town of Iban*a, north 

* See the ground-work of my measureinents compared with those of 
Saussure and Lord Minto, in the AbJiandlungen der Akademie der 
Wise, zu Berlin, for the years 1822 and 1823. 

t Pimelodes cyclopnm; see Humboldt, Reeaeil d^ObscrvaUons di 
Zooloffie et tPAnaiomie (kmparie, t. i. p. 21-25. 



TOi.cA.iroiE:s. 231 

of-Qnihito, was fneribed to the ejectiofii of fiah &om the volcano 
of liahkbOTtt .• 

Water and mud, Tdrichflo-wnot from the crater itself, but 
fipom. the hollows in the trachytic mass of the mountain, can- 
not; stricdy speaking, be classed amongst volcanic phenomena. 
Tb&y are only~ indirectly connected with the volcanic activity 
of the mountauLj resembling, in that respect, the singular me- 
teorological process which I have designated in my eai'licr 
writings by the term of j)olcanic storm. The hot stream 
which rises from the crater during the eruption, and spreads 
itself in the atmosphere, condenses into a cloud, and suiroimds 
the column of fire and cinders which rises to an altitude of 
many thousand feet. The sudden condensation of the vapours, 
and, as Gray Lussac has shown, the formation of a cloud of 
enormous extent, increase the electric tension. Forked 
lightning -flashes from the column of cinders, and it is then 
easy to distinguish (as at the close of the eruption of Mount 
Vesuvius, in the latter end of October, 1822) the rolling 
thunder of the volcanic storm from the detonations in the in- 
terior of the mountain. The flashes of lightning that darted 
from the volcanic cloud of steam, as we learn from Olafsen's 
report, killed eleven horses and two men, on the eruption of 
the volcano of Katlagia, in Iceland, on the 17th of October, 
1755. 

Having thus delineated the structure and dynamic activity 
of volcanoes, it now remains for us to throw a glance at the 
diffbrences existing in their material products. The subter- 
ranean forces sever old combinations of matter in order to 
produce new ones, and they also continue to act upon matter 
as long as it is in a state of liquefaction from heat, and 
capable of being displaced. The greater or less pressure 
under which merely softened or wholly liquid fluids are soli- 
dified, appears to constitute the main difference in the forma- 
tion of plutonic and volcanic rocks. The mineral mass which 
flows in narrow, elongated streams from a volcanic opening 
(an earth-spring) is called lava. Where many such currents 
meet and are arrested in their course, they expand in width, 

* [It wauld appear, as there is no doubt that these fishes proceed 
from the mountain itsdf, that there must be large lakes in the interior, 
which in ordinary seasons are out of the immediate influence of tbo 
volcanic action. See Daubeney, op. cit., pp.. 488, 497.] — Tr, 



232 coflvoB. 

filling lai^e basiiu, in wUch they become solidified in mpei 
impcMed strata. These few senteDces describe tiie genen 
(Jiaracter of the products of volcanic activi^. 

Bocks which are merely brokea tiirou^ by the Yolcani 
action are ottea inclosed in the igneous products. Tbn 
I have fonnd angular fragments of fcldspathic syenite en 
bedded in the black angitic lava of the Tolcano of JoruUo, i 
Mexico : but the masses of dolomite and granular limeston 
which contain magnificent clusters of crysteJline fossils (vesi 
Tian and garnets, covered with mejonite, nepbcline, and sod 
lit«), are not the ejected products of Vesuvius, these belongir 
rather to very generally distributed formations, viz., strata > 
tuSit, which are more ancient than the elevation of the Somn 
and of Vesuvius, and are probably the products of a dee] 
seated and concealed submarine volcanic action.* We 6i 
five metals amongst the products of existing volcanoes, iio 
copper, lead, arsenic, and selenium, discovered by Stromc^ 
in me crater of Voloano.-j- The vapours that rise irom tJ 
Jmtiarolks cause the sublimation of the chlorides of iro 
copper, lead, and ammonium ; iron glance,! and chloride 
flodium (the latter otlen in large quantities) fill the caviti 
of recent lava streams and the fissures of the mai^;in of tJ 

The mineral composition of lava differs according to tl 
nature of the crystalline rock of which the volcano is forms 
the height of the point where the eruption occurs, whether 
the foot of the mountain or in the neighbourhood of the crati 
and the condition of temperature of the interior. Vitreo 
volcanic formations, obsidian, pearl-stone, and pumice, a 
entirely wanting in some volcanoes, whilst in the case 

' Leop. von Euch, in Po^end. Anntden, bd. zzivii. a. 17B. 

+ [Tlie little ialand of Volcano is Bepaial«il from Lipari by a narr 
diannel. It appear? to have exhibited atrong signl of volcanic attii 
long Ijcfore the Chriatian era, and still emits gaseous eihalatio 
Stromejer detected tlic presence of selenium in a mixture of eal-« 
mouiac and sulphur. Another product supposed W be pccnliar to ll 
volcano is Ijoiacic acid, which lines tho sidce of the cavities in beanti 
Xrtiite silky crystals. Daubeney, op. cit., p. 257.] — Tt. 

t'Kegarding the chemical origin of iron gliuice in volcanic maaeea, i 
Hi(£cherlich, in Poggend. .Jnna^. bd. xv.b.630; andontheliberati 
of hydrochloric acid in the crater, see Gay Luauc, in the Annalet 
Chmique el de Physique, i. xxU. p. j2S. 



TOLCAN'OES. 233 

odiers^ they only proceed from the crater, or at any rate from 
very considerable heights. These important and involved 
relations can only be explained by very accurate crystallo- 
graphic and chemical investigations. My fellow-traveller in 
Siberia, Ghistay Hose, and subsequently Hermann Abich, 
have already been able, by their fortimate and ingenious 
researches, to throw much light on the structural relations of 
the various kinds of volcanic rocks. 

The greater psirt of the ascending vapour is mere steam. 
When condensed this forms springs, as in Pantellaria,* where 
they axe used by the goatherds of the island. On the morning 
of the 26th of October, 1822, a current was seen to flow 
from a lateral fissure of the crater of Vesuvius, and was long 
supposed to have been boiling water ; it was, however, shown 
by Monticelli's accurate investigations to consist of dry ashes 
which feU like sand, and of lava pulverised by friction. The 
aslies which sometimes darken the air for hours and days 
together, and produce great injury to the vineyards and olive 
groves, by adhering to the leaves, indicate by their columnar 
ascent, impelled by vapours, the termination of every great 
earthquake. This is the magnificent phenomenon which Pliny 
the younger, in his celebrated letter to Cornelius Tacitus, 
compares, in the case of Vesuvius, to the form of a lofty 
and thickly-branched and foliaceous pine. That which is 
described as flames in the eruption of scoriee, and the radiance 
of the glowing red clouds that hover over the crater, cannot 
be ascribed to the effect of hydrogen gas in a state of com- 
bustion. They are rather reflections of light which issue 
from molten masses, projected high in the air, and also re- 
flections from the burning depths, whence the glowing vapours 
ascend. We wiU not, however, attempt to decide the nature 
of the flames which are occasionally seen now, as in the time 
of Strabo, to rise from the deep sea during the activity of 
littoral volcanoes, or shortly before the elevation of a volcanic 
island. 

When the questions are asked, what is it that bums in the 
volcano ? what excites the heat, fuses together earths and 
metals, and imparts to lava-currents of thick layers a degree 

* [Steam issues from many parts of this insular mountain, and several 
hot springs gush forth from it, which form toge^er a lake 6000 feet in 
drcvnference. Danbeney, op. cit.] — Tr, 



234 CO>5M08. 

of heat lYM lasts for many yeais }* it is necessarily implied 
that volcanoes nxost be cozmected with the existence of sub- 
stances capable of maintaining combustion, like the beds of 
coal in subterranean -fires. A&sording to the different phases 
of chemical science, bitumen, pyrites, the moist admixture of 
finely pulverised sulphur and iron, pyrophoric substances, and 
the metals of the alkalies and earths, have in turn been desig- 
nated as the cause of intensely active volcanic phenomena. 
The great chemist. Sir Humphrey Davy, to whom we are 
indebted for the knowledge of the most combustible metallic 
substances, has himself renounced his bold chemical hypo- 
thesis in his last work {Oonsolaiion in Travel, and last Days of 
a Phtlascpher) — ^a work which cannot fisdl to excite in the 
reader a feeling of the deepest melancholy. The great mean 
density of the earth (5*44), when compared with Qie specific 
weight of potassium (0*865), of sodium (0*972), or of the 
metals of the earths (1'2), and the absence of hydrogen gas in 
the gaseous emanations from the fissures of craters, and fixmi 
still warm streams of lava, beddes many chemical consi- 
derations, stand in opposition with the earlier conjectures 
of Davy and. Ampere.f If hydrogen were evolved firom 
erupted lava, how great must be the quantity of the gas dis- 
engaged, when, the seat of the volcanic activity being very 
low, as in the case of the remarkable eruption at the foot 
of the Skaptar-Jokul in Iceland (from the 11th of June to 
the 3rd of August^ 1783, described by Mackenzie and Soe- 
mund Magnussen), a space of many square miles was covered 
by streams of lava, accumulated to the thickness of several 
hundred feet ! Similar difficulties are opposed to the assump- 
tion of the penetration of the atmospheric air into the crater, 
or as it is figuratively expressed, the inhalation of the earthy 
when we have regard to the small quantity of nitrogen 
emitted. So general, deep-seated, and far-propagated an 
activity as that of volcanoes, cannot assuredly have its source 
in chemical affinity, or in the mere contact of indi\'idual or 

* See the beautiful experiment on the cooling of masses of rock^ in 
Biflchof's Wdrmdehre, s. 384, 443, 500-612.; 

f See Berzelius and Wohler, in Poggend. Anncden, bd. i. s. 221, and 
bd. xi. B. 146; Gay Lnssac, in the Annales de Chimiet t. x. xii. p. 422; 
and Bischof s J^easons against the Chemical Theory qf VolcanoeBf ll 
the English edition of his WUrmelehre 297-309. 



TOLCllKOES. 235 

merdly looally distributed substances. Modern geognosy* 
rather seeks ihe cause of this activity in the increased tern- 
peimture with the increase of depth at all degrees of lati- 
tude, in that powerful internal heat which our planet owes to 
its first solidxfication, its formation in the regions of space, 
and to the spherical contraction of matter revolving elliptic 
cally in a gaseous condition. We have thus mere conjecture 
and supposition side by side with certain knowledge. A phi- 
losophical study of nature strives ever to elevate itself above 
the narrow requirements of mere natural description, and does 
not consist, as we have already remarked, in ike mere accu- 
mulation of isolated facts. The enquiring and active spirit of 
man must be suffered to pass from the present to the past, to 
conjecture all that cannot yet be known with certainty, and 
still to dwell with pleasure on the ancient myths of geognoinr 
which are presented to us under so many various forms. If 
we consider volcanoes as irregular intermittent springs, etidt- 
ting a fluid mixture of oxidised metals, alkalies, and earthsf 
flowing gently and calmly wherever they find a passage, or 
being upheaved by the powerful expansive force of vapours, 
we are involuntarily led to remember the geognostic visions of 
Plato, according to which hot springs, as well as all volcanic 
igneous streams, were eruptions that might be traced back to 
one generally distributed subterranean cause, Pyriphleg€thon,\ 

* [On the Tarious theories thai have been advanced m explanation of 
vokamic action, see Daubeney On Volcanoes, a work to which we have 
made continiial reference during the preceding pages, as it coxustitutes 
the most recent and perfect compendium of all the important facts relat- 
ing to this sabject, and is peculiarly adapted to serre as a source of 
reference to the Cosmos, since the learned author in many instances 
enters into a full clposition of the views advanced by Baron Humboldt. 
The appendix contains several valuable notes with reference to the most 
recent works that have appeared on the Continent, on subjects relating 
to volcanoes; amongst others, an interesting notice of Professor Bi&chof's 
views " on the origin of the carbonic acid discharged from volcanoes," 
as enounced in his recently published work, LehrbiLcIi der chemischen 
und physikalisclien Geologie.] — Tr. 

+ According to Plato's geognostic views, as developed in the Pho&do, 
Pytipblegethon plays much the same part in relation to the activity of 
volcanoes, that we now ascribe to the augmentation of heat as we descend 
from the Earths surface, and to the fused condition of its internal strate. . 
Fhcedo, ed. Ast. p. 603 and 607 ; Annot., p. 808 and 817.) " Within 
the earth, and all around it, are larger and smaller caverns. Water flows 



236 008M08, 

The different yolcanoes oyer the Eartli's sur&ce, when 
they are considered independently of all climatic differences, 
are acutely and characteristically classified as central and 
linear volcanoes. Under the first name are comprised those 
which constitute the. central pomt of many active mouths of 

there in abundance, also much fire and large streams of fire, and streams 
of moist mud (some purer, and others more filthy), like those in Sicily, 
consisting of mud and fire, preceding the great eruption. These streams 
fill all places that fall in the way of their course. Pyriphlegethon 
flows forth into an extensive district burning with a fierce fire, where it 
forms a lake larger than our sea, boiling with water and mud. From 
thence it moves in circles round the earth, turbid and muddy." This 
stream of molten earth and mud is so much the general cause of vol- 
canic phenomena, that Plato expressly adds, " thus is Pyriphlegethon 
constituted, from, which also the streams of fire (ol pvaKtg), wherever they 
reach the earth (Joirrj &v rvxoxrc TrJQ yrJQ), inflate such parts (detached 
fragments)." Volcanic scoriae and lava-streams are therefore portions of 
Pyriphlegethon itself, portions of the subterranean molten and ever- 
iiydulating mass. That oi pvaxeg are lava^treams, and not^ as Schneider, 
Passow, and Schleiermacher wUl have it, " fire-vomiting mountains," is 
clear enough from many passages, some of which have been collected by 
Ukert {Oeogr, der OrieAen und B(Jmer, th. ii., s. 200) ; pva^ is the 
volcanic phenomenon in reference to its most striking characteristic, the 
lava stream. Hence the expression, the pvaKeg of ^tna. Aristot. 
Mirab. Ausc, t. iLp. 833; sect 88, Bekker; Thucyd., iii. 116; Theo- 
phrast., De Lap., 22, p. 427, Schneider; Diod. v., 6, and xiv, 59, 
where are the remarkable words, " Many places near tie sea, in the 
neighbourhood of Etna, were levelled to the ground, vxo tov KoXovfuvov 
ovaKOQ ;" Strabo, vi. p. 269, xiii. p. 628, and where there is a notice of 
the celebrated burning mud of the Lelantine plains, in Euboea, i. p. 58, 
Casaub. ; and Appian. De BeUo CivUi, v. 114. The blame wMch Aris- 
totle throws on the geognostical fantasies of the Phaedo {Meteor., ii., 
2, 19), is especially applied to the sources of the rivers flowing over the 
earth's surface. The distinct statement of Plato, that " in Sicily erup- 
tions of wet mud precede the glowing (^ava) stream," is very remarkable. 
Observations on Etna could not have led to such a statement, unless 
pumice and ashes, formed into a mud-like mass by admixture with 
melted snow and water, during the volcano-electric storm in the crater 
of eiTiption, were mistaken for ejected mud. It is more probable that 
Plato's streams of moist mud {vypov TrijXot) •jrorafioi) originated in a 
faint recollection of the Salses (mud volcanoes) of Agrigentum, which, 
as I have already mentioned, eject argillaceous mud with a loud noise. 
It is much to be regretted, in reference to this subject, that the 
work of Theophrastus nept ovaKog rov ev 'IikeXui, On the Volcanic 
Stream in Sicily, to which mag, Laert, v. 49, refers, has not eooM 
down to us. 



TOLCAJroES. 237 

eruption, distributed almost regularly in all dii*ections ; under 
the second, those l3dng at some little distance from one another, 
forming, as it were, chimneys or vents along an extended fissure. 
Linear volcanoes again admit of further subdivision ; namely, 
those which rise like separate conical islands from the bottom 
of the sea, being generally parallel with a chain of primitive 
mountains whose foot they appear to indicate, and those vol- 
canic chains which are elevated on the highest ridges of these 
mountain chains, of which they form the smnmits.* The 
Peak of Teneriffe, for instance, is a central volcano, being the 
central point of the volcanic group to which the eruption of 
Palma and Lancerote may be referred. The long rampart- 
like chain of the Andes, *wmch is sometimes single, and some- 
times divided into two or three parallel branches, connected 
by various transverse ridges, presents, from the south of Chili 
to the north-west coast of America, one of the grandest in- 
stances of a continental volcanic chain. The proximity of 
active volcanoes is always manifested in the chain of the 
Andes, by the appearance of certain rocks (as dolerite, mela- 
phyre, trachyte, andesite, and dioritic porphyry), which divide 
the so-called primitive rocks, the transition slates and sand- 
stones, and the stratified formations. The constant recurrence 
of this phenomenon convinced me long since that these spo- 
radic rocks were the seat of volcanic phenomena, and were 
connected with volcanic eruptions. At the foot of the grand 
Tnnguragua, near Penipe, on the banks of the Rio Puela, I 
first distinctly observed mica slate resting on granite, broken 
tfirough by a volcanic rock. 

In the volcanic chain of the new continent, the separate 
volcanoes are occasionally, when near togetber, in mutual de- 
pendence upon one another; and it is even seen that the 
volcanic activity for centuries together has moved on in one 

* Leopold von Buch, PhysikcU. Beschreib, der Canarischen Inseln, 
i. 826-407. I doubt if we can agree with the ingenious Charles Darwin 
{CfeologicaZ Observations on Vt^canic Islands, 1844, p. 127) in regard- 
ing central yolcanoes in general as volcanic chains of small extent on 
parallel fissures. Friedrich Hofiman believes that in the group of the 
Lipari Islands, which he has so admirably described, and in which two 
emption fissures intersect near Panaria, he has found an intermediate 
link between the two principal modes in which yolcanoes appear^ namely, 
the central yolcanoes and volcanic chains of Yon Buch (Poggendorff^ 
ArwaUn der Physik, bd. zxvi a. 81-88.) 



-238 COSMOS.. 

and the sanie direction, as, for instance, fixjm noi^ to fionih 
in the pi'ovincc of Quito.* The focus of the Yolcanic action 
lies below the whole of the highlands of this proTince ; the onlj' 
channels of communication with the atmosphere ftfe, however, 
those monntains which we designate by special names, as the 
moimtains of PicLIncha, Cotopaxi, and Tunguragna, and which 
firom their grouping, elevation^ and Ibrm, constitute the grandest 
and mo^ picturesque spectacle to be found in any volcanic 
district of an equally limited extent. Experience shows us 
in many instances, that the extremities of such groups of yol- 
canic chains are connected together by subterranean oommn- 
nicfttions ; and this &ct reminds us of the ancient and true 
expression made use of by Seneca,f that the igneous nKmntain 
is only the issue of the more deeply-seated volcanic forces. In 
the Mexican highlands a mutual dependence is also observed 
to exist among the volcanic mountains Orizaba, Popooatepetl, 
Jorullo, and Colima ; and I have shown :[: that they all he in 
one direction between 18° 69' and 19° 12* north lat.; and »e 
situated in a transverse fissure running from sea to sea. The 
volcano of Jorullo broke forth on the 29th of September, 1759, 
exactly in this direction, and over the same transverse fissure, 
being elevated to a height of 1604 feet above the level of the 
surrounding plain. The mountain onlyonce emitted an erfipti<m 
of la^Ti, in the same manner as is recorded of Mount Epomeo 

* Humboldt, Otogncst. Bechctck. Hber die VuUeane dea Hoekkandm 
von Qttito, in Poggend. AnncU. der Physik, bd. xliv. s. 194^^. 

f Seneca, while he speaks very clearly regarding the problematiMl 
smking of Etna, says in his 79th Letter : " Though thismight happen, 
not because the mountain's height is lowered, but beeaose tk6 fii«s are 
weakened and do not blaze out with their fonner T^emoiee; and for 
which reason it is that such vast clouds of smoke are not seen in the 
day time. Yet neither of these seem incredible, for the monntain may 
possibly be consumed by being daily devoured, and the fire not be so 
lasge as formerly, since it is not self-geoexated here, but is kindled in the 
^0baat bowels of the earth, and there rages, being fed wztb continual fbel, 
not with that of the mountain, through yMoh it only makes its paange." 
The subterranean commonication, " by galloies,'' between, the voleaDoee 
of Sicily, lipari, Pithecnsa (IscMa), and YeaaTius^ ''of the last cf which 
we may eoi\jecture that it Ibnnerly burned and presenttAd a fteiy eiide,'' 
seems folly understood by Strabo (Ub. i. pp. 247 and 24S}. He teoH 
the whole district " subigneona." 

t Humboldt, Eeaai politique mr la Ifotw, JStpagnSrU ii<|g^ 17^ 
.176. 



Saatorino is the most important of all the islands ofa-aptt 
bdoi^ng to volcanic chains.* " It combines within itself t 

markable degree with Aristotle's account {Meteor., jj. 8, 17-19,) of I 
Qpheaval of ielimds of eruption : " The heaving of the earth does i 
cettse till the wind (avspoc) which occaaions the shocks has made 
escape into the cmst of the earUt. Jt ig not long ago aiace this actoa 
happened at Heraclea in Pontus, and a ^milar event formerly ocean 
tk Uieia, one of the £oli&n Islands. A portion of the earth swel 
up, and with loud noise rose into the form of a hill, till the migl 
nrgiog blast (irvcii^n) found an outlet, and ejected sparks and aal 
which covered the neighbonrhood of Lipari, and even citeoded 
■everal Italian cities." In this description, the vesicular distension 
the earth's crust (a stage at which man; tiscbTtic mountains bs 
nmained) is very well distin£;uiBhed from the eruption it^If. Strsl 
lib. i. p. 59 (Casaub.), likewise describes the phenomenon as it ocean 
at Methone; near the town, in the Bay of Hermione, there arose 
turning emption ; a fiery mountain, seven (Ij stadia in height, was th 
thrown up, which daring the da; was inaccesuhle from its heat and t 
tihurcona stench, but at night evolved an agreeable odour (?), and was 
hot tiiat the sea boiled for a distance of five stadia, and was turbid : 
full twenty stadia, and also was filled with delacbed masses of roi 
Begarding the present mineralogical character of the peuinsnla 
Methina, SCO Fiedler, Jfeise duTch Qriedienland, th. L s. 257-263. 

* [I am indebted to the kindness of Professor B. Forbes for \ 
following interesting account of the Island of Santorino, and the ad 
eent islands of Neokaimcni and Microkaimeni. " The aspect of the I 
is thilt of a great crater filled with water, Thera and Theiasia forming 
walls, and the other islands being after-productions in its centre. ^ 
Bounded with 250 fethoms of line, in the middle of the bay, betw( 
Therasia and the main islands, but got no bottom. Both these islai 
appear to be simihirly formed of anccesaive strata of volcanic aali 
which being of the m:^ vivid and variegated colours, present a striki 
eontrast to the black and cindety aspect of the central isles. Neoi 
men:, the last formed island, is a great heap of obsidian and scor 
So also is the greater mass, Microkaimeni, which rises np in a coni 
form, and has a cavity or crater. On one side of this island, howev 
a section is exposed, and cli% of fine pumiceons ash appear stratif 
in the greater islands. In tie main island the volcanic strata al 
against the limestone mass of Mount St. Elias, in such a way aa to li 
to the inference, that they'were deposited in a sea bottom in which ' 
present mountain rose as a submarine mass of roch. The people 
Santorino assured us that subterranean noises are not unfrequen 
heard, especially during calms and sonth winds, when they s^ ■ 
water of parts of the bay becomes the colour of sulphur. My own i 
preseion is, that this group of islands constitutes a crater of elcvati 
of which the outer ones are the remains of the walla, whilst [he cent 
gronp are of later origin, and conaist partly of upheaved sea-bottoi 
and partly of erupted i>iatl«T, — eraptM, however, beneath the gnrC 
«fth«water.-^3V. 



T0LCAN0E8. Ml 

History of all islands of eleyation. For upwards of 2000 
years, as far as history and tradition certify, it would appear 
as if nature were striving to form a volcano in the midst of 
the crater of elevation."* Similar insular elevations, and 
almost always at regular intervals of 80 or 90 years,! have 
been manifested in &e Island of St. Michael, in the Azores ; 
but in this case the bottom of the sea has not been elevated 
at exactly the same parts. J The island which Captain Tillard 
named Sabrina, appeared unfortimately at a time (the 30th of 
January, 1811), when the political relations of the maritime 
nations of Western Europe prevented that attention being 
bestowed upon the subject by scientific institutions, which 
was afterwards directed to the sudden appearance (the 2nd 
July, 1831), and the speedy destruction of the igneous island 
of Ferdinandea in the Sicilian sea, between tibe limestone 

* Leop. von Bnch, Phyaih. Beschr. der Canar, Inseln, s. 856-858, 
and particnlaxly the French translation, of this excellent work, p. 402 ; 
and his memoir in PoggendorfTs AnnaJen, bd. zxxviii. s. 183. A sub- 
marine island has quite recently made its appearance, within the crater 
of Santorino. In 1810 it was still fifteen fathoms below the surface of 
the sea, but in 1830 it had risen to within three or four. It rises 
steeply, like a great cone, from the bottom of the sea^ and the oon- 
tinuoos activity of the submarine crater is obvious from the circum> 
stance that sulphurous acid vapours are mixed with the sea water, in 
the eastern bay of Keokammeni, in the same manner as at Yromolimni, 
tiear Hethana. Coppered ships lie at anchor in the bay, in order to 
get their bottoms cleaned and polished by this natural (volcanic) 
process. (Yirlet, in the BvUetin de la Sociiti O^clogique de France, 
t. iii. p. 109, and Fiedler, Beise durch Griechenland, th. ii. s. 469 
and 584.) 

f Appearance of a new island near St. Higuel, one of the Azores, 
11th June, 163^ Slst December, 1719, 13th June, 1811. 

X [My esteemed friend. Dr. Webster, Professor of Chemistry and 
Mineralogy at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, IT. S., in 
his Description of the Island of St. Michael, dtc, Boston, 1822, giyes 
an interesting account of the sudden appearance of the idand named 
Sabrina, which was about a mile in circumference, and two or three 
hundred feet above the level of the ocean. After continuing for some 
weeks, it sank into the sea. Dr. Webster describes the whole of 
the Island of St. Michael as volcanic, and containing a number of 
conical hills of trachyte, several of which have craters, and appear at 
some former time to have been the openings of volcanoes. The hot 
springs which abound in the island are impregnated with sulphuretted 
hydrogen and carbonic acid gases, appearing to attest the existence of 
Tokanic action.] — Tr, 



§bar0S of Sciacca ani the purely volcaouc isl^td of Pa 
tellaria.'* 

The geogmphical distribation of the Tolcaaoea whieh ha 
been in a. atate of activity during historical times, the gre 
Bumhcr of insular and littoral volcanic mountains, and t 
ocoasioiial, althou^ ephemeral, eruptions in the bottom 
the aea, eoriy led to the belief tiiat voloaaic activity was ce 
nected with the aeighbourhood of the sea, and was depeudc 
upon it fur its ccmtiiiuance. " For many hundred yean 
says Justinian, or rather Tragus Fompmus, whom he fiAlowi 

• Prfirost. Itt the Bulietin di la SodOi (Jtoloffiqut, t. iii. p. 3 
Frierlrich HoBniiin, Hijiterlaaaene Werke, bd. ii. a. 451 -4£6. 

+ " Aceedimt vioini ct petpetui ^tB» moBlis ignes et inaolan 
.Solid um.vcluti ipaU undia alatur incendiom; neque enim &liteiduK 
lob seculia tantua ignia potuUaet, nM hmnoriii nutrimentis alereto 
(Justin, Misi. Philipp., iy. i.) The volcanic theory with which I 
physical doecription of Sidly here begins, in eitpemely intiieale. Di 
strata of sulphur and rceia ; a very tiaia eoil full of cavities and use 
figsnred ; violent motion of tfae waves of the sea, whiclt, as they stn 
together, draw down the air (the wind,) for th« muateaaace of ihe & 
■neh are the elemenle of the theory of Trogus. Since he seems fn 
Pliny (li. S2) to have been a physiogntmuGt, we may presume tl 
his nniceroas lost voi^ were not confined to history alone. 1 
opinion that ur is forced into the iotea^or of the earth, there lo act 
the volc>riii> furnaces, was connected by tlie ancients with the sappoi 
inflnence of winds from diSerent quarters on the intensity of the % 
barning in .£tna, Hiera, and Stromboli (see the remarkable passi 
bi Stnbo, lib. vi. p. 275 and 276.) The maunfaio iiland of Stromh 
(Strongyle,) was regarded therefore as the dweUing-Fdace of JBid 
"(ho regulator of the winds," in consequence of the s^ora foretelli 
the weather, from the activity of the volcanic eruptions of this idai 
The connexion between the eruptiou of a small rolcaiio with the state 
the barometer and the direction of the wind la still geneially recognisi 
(Leop. von Buch, Deter, phys. da Ilea Canariea, p. 334 ; HoSmann, 
Poggend. AnnaUn, bd. iivi. s. viii.) although our present knowledge 
Toloinie phenomena, and the slight changes of atmospheric pressi 
■MOO^ianyilig our winds, do not enable us to offer any satisfactt 
czplanatitm of the Ikct. Bembo, who during his youth was brought 
In Sloily by Greek rofugeea, gave an agreeable narrative of '. 
wanderings, and in liis jEtaa JMalogua (written in the middle of 1 
aixteenUi century,) advances the theory of the penetration of eea-wMei 
the very centre of the volcanic action, and of the necessity of I 

BDzimity of the sea to active vdcanoea. In ascending .£Lna I 
loving qnestion was propoeed. " Eiplana potiue aobie quie petim 
ea inoendia unde oriautor et oits qnonuMo perduMut In .omni telh 
Bospiam m^ores-fiatnltB aat meatos ampUorai awLquam in loei^ ^i 



^ Etaa aad the Eolkea islaEtis have been btraing, and how 
eouki this have continued so long, if the fire had not been fed 
by the neighbourkig sea F*' In order to explain the necessity 
of the Tieisity of the sea, recourse has been had, even in 
modem times, to tke hypothesis of the penetration of sea- 
water iato the foci of volcanic agency, tlmt is to say, into ' 
deep»«eated terrestrial strata. When I collect tc^ther all 
the &ets that may be derived from my own observation and 
the laborious researches of others, it appears to me that 
everything in this involved investigation depends upon tho 
questions whether the great quantity of aqueous vapours, 
wHch are unquestionably exhaled firom volcanoes even when 
in a state of rest, be derived from sea-water impr^nated. 
with salt, or rather, perhaps, with fresh meteoric water ; oi* 
whether the expansive force of the vapours (which at a depth 
of nearly 94,000 feet is equal to 2800 atmospheres,) would be 
able at different depths to counterbalance the hydrostatic 
pressure of the sea, and thus afford them under certain 
ccmditians a free access to the Ibcus ;t or whether the forma- 

rel m&ri vicina simt, vel a man protinus alluuntnr : mare erodit ilia 
&dllime pergitque in viscera terras. Itaque cum in aliena regna sibi 
viam fociat; ventis etiam fetcit ; ex quo fit, ut* loca quaeque maritima 
maximc terrse motibus subjecta aint, parum mediterranea. Habea 
quun in sulfuris venas venti fiirentes inciderint, unde incendia oriantur 
.£to» tose. Yidea, qu» mare in radicibus habeat, quae sulfarea sit^ 
Quae cavernosa quae a mari aliquando perforata ventos admiseiit 
aestnantes, per quoB idonea flammfa materies incenderetur." 

* [Although extinct volcanoes seem by no means confined to the 
neighbourhood of the present seas, being often scattered over the most 
inland portions of our existing continents, yet it will appear that at the 
time at which they were in an active state, the gr6ater part were in the 
neighbourhood either of the sea, or of the extensive salt or freshwater lakes, 
which existed at that period over much of what is now dry land. This 
may be seen either by referring to Dr. Bonn's map of Europe, or to that 
published by Mr. Lyell, in the recent edition of his Principles of Oeology 
(1847,) from both of which it will become apparent, that at a compara- 
tively recent epoch, those parts of Franee, of Germany, of Hungary, and 
of Italy, which afford evidences of volcanic action now extinct, were 
eovered by the ocean. Daubeney, On Vdeanoes, p. 805.] — TV. 

+ Compare Gay Lussac, 8ur lea V oilcans, in the Anncdes de Chimie, 
i. xxii p. 427, and Bischof, Wdrmelehre, s. 272. The eruptions of 
smoke and steam which have at different periods been seen in Lanee- 
Wbe, Iceland, and the Eurile Islands, during the eruption of the neigh- 
Louring volcanoes, afford indications of the reaction of volcanic fod 

R 2 



344 cosHos. 

tion cf metallic chlorides, fhe presence of chltmde of sodii 
in ^e fissures of the crater, and the frequent miztore 
hydrochloric acid with the aqueous vapours, necessai 
imply access of sea- water ; or finally, whether the repose 
volcanoes (either when temporary or permanent and complc 
depends upon the closure of the channels by which the set 
meteoric water was conveyed, or whether the absence of flai 
and of eshalations of hydrogen (and sulphuretted hydrq 
gas seems more characteristic of solfataras than of active ^ 
canoes) is not directly at variance with the hypothesis of 
decomposition of great masses of water ?* 

The discussion of these important physical questions d 
not come within the scope of a work of this nature ; I 
whilst we are considering these phenomena, we would en 
somewhat more into the question of the geographical disi 
bution of still active volcanoes. We find, for instance, t! 
in the new world thi^e, viz., Jorullo, Popocatepetl, and i 
volcano of De la Fragua, are situated at the respective ( 
tances of 80, 132, and 136 miles from the sea^coast; wh 
in Central Asia, as Abel Remusatf first made known 
geognosists, the Thianschan (celestial mountains), in wh 
are situated the lava-emitting mountain of Pe-schan, 
eolfiitara of Urumtsi, and the still active igneous mo 
tain (Ho-tscheu) of Turfan, — lie at an almost equal dista 
(1480 to 1528 miles) from the shores of the Polar Sea i 
those of the Indian Ocean. Pe-scban is also fully 1! 
miles distant from the Caspian Sea.]; and 172 and '. 
miles from the seas of Issikul and Balkasch. It is a 1 
worthy of notice, that amoligst the four great parallel mo 
tain chains which traverse the Asiatic continent from t 
to west, the Altai, the Thianschan, the Kuen-Lun, and 

throDgh tense coIumnB of water ; that is to my, theM plieoon 
occnr when the erpsnsive force of the vapanr exceeds the hjdioal 
prewnre. 

* [See Daubeney, On Vokanota, pt iij., ch. iiivi. iJtxviiL mix 
Tr. 

f Ahel Kfmiuat, Letire A M. Cordier, in the Atmalti dt Chi. 
t V, p. 1S7. 

; Humboldt, AtU eaitraU, tap. 30-33, 38-G2, 70-SO, and i 
428. The exigence of active raleauoes in Kordo&ui, 640 mites f 
tJie Bed Sea, has been recentl; eootndicted by BUppell, Etiti 
Svbitn, IS29, «. \61. 



VOIiCAKOES. 245 

Himalaya, it is not the latter chain, which is nearest to the 
ocean, but the two inner ranges, the Thianschan and the 
Kuen-lim, at the distance of 1600 and 720 miles from the sea, 
which haye fire-emitting mountains like Etna and Vesuvius, 
and generate ammonia, like the volcano of Guatimala. Chinese 
writers imdoubtedly speak of lava streams when they describe 
the emissions of smoke and flame, which issuing from Pe- 
8chan devastated a space measiuing ten li,* in the first and 
seventh centuries of our era. Burning masses of stone flowed, 
according to their description, " like thin melted fat." The 
&cts that have been enumerated, and to which sufficient 
attention has not been bestowed, render it probable that the 
vicinity of the sea, and the penetration of sea- water to the 
foci of volcanoes, are not absolutely necessary to the erup- 
tion of subterranean fire, and that littoral situations only 
fiivour the eruption by forming the margin of a deep sea 
hasin, which, covered by strata of water, and lying many 
thousand feet lower than the interior continent, can ofler but 
an inconsiderable degree of resistance. 

The present active volcanoes, which communicate by per- 
manent craters simultaneously with the interior of the earth 
and with the atmosphere, must have been formed at a subse- 
quent period, when the upper chalk strata, and all the tertiary 
formations, were already present ; this is shown to be the &ct 
by the trachytic and basaltic eruptions which frequently form 
the walls of the crater of elevation. Melaphyres extend to 
the middle tertiary formations, but are found already in the 
Jura limestone, where they break through the variegated sand- 
fitone.f We must not confound the earlier outpourings of 
granite, quartzose porphyry and euphotide, from temporary 
fissures in the old transition rocks, with the present active 
volcanic craters. 

The extinction of volcanic activity is either only partial-— m 
which case the subterranean fire seeks another passage of 
escape in the same mountain chain— or it is total, as in 
Auvergne. More recent examples are recorded in historical 

* [A U 18 a Chinese measarement, equal to about l-80th of a mile.] 

t ]>afr6noy et Slie de Beaumont, McplicaUon de la Carte ffiolofftgul 
de la France, tip. 89. 



246 COSHO& 

times, of the totoi extinctioiD. of the voloaao of MosjeUbe^* 
on the island sacred to Hephsestos (Yukan), whose ^'hi^ 
whirling flames'' were known to Sopho<des ; and of die toI- 
cano of Medina, which, according to Burckhardt, stiU contiaiied 
to pour out a stream of lava on the 2nd of November, 1 276. 
Every stage of volcanic activity, firom ita first origin to its 
extinction, is chaxacterised by peculiar products; first by 
ignited scoriae, streams of lava consisting of tradiyte, pyrox^ 
ene, and obsidian, and by rapilli and tui^ueeous ashes, 
accompanied by the development of large quantities of pure 
aqueous vapour ; subsequently, when the voleano becomes a 
sdLfatara, by aqueous vapours mixed with sulphurated 
hydrogen and carbonic acid gases ; and finally, wh^i it is 
completely cooled, by exhalations of carbcmic acid alone. 
There is a remarkable class of igneous m<»zntains, which do 
not eject lava, but merely devastating streams of hot wttter,f 
impregnated with burning sulphur and rocks reduced to a 
state of dust (as, for instance, the Galimgung in Java) ; but 
whether these moimtains present a normal condition, or only 
a certain transitory modification of the volcanic proeess, must 
remain undecided until they are visited by geologists possessed 
of a knowledge of chemistry in its pres^it condition. 
I have endeavoured in the above remarks to fumiiBb a 

* Sophocl, Philoct,, V. 971 and 972. On thd supposed ^>och of 
the extinction of the Lemnian fire in the time of AlezRiider, compile 
Bnttmann, in the Museum der Alterthumewissenschafi, bd. i 1807, 
8. 295 ; Bureau de la Malle, in Malte-Brun, Annales des Voyages, t. ix. 
1809, p. 5 ; Ukert, in Bertuch, Oeogr. JEpheTneriden, bd. xzzix. 1812, 
8. 861 ; Rhode, Res LemniccB, 1829, p. 8 ; and Walter, Ueber Abnahme 
der vtdkan. ThiUigkeit in historischen Zeiten, 1844^ a. 24. The chut 
of Lemnos, constructed by Choiseul, makes it extremiely piobabk 
that the extinct crater of Mosychlos, and the Island of Ch^se, thfi 
desert habitation of Philoctetes, (OtMed Miiller, Minyer, b. 300,) hsve 
been long swallowed np by the sea. Reefis and shaals, to the nori^-east 
of Lemnos, still indicate the spot where the JSgean Sea once possessed 
an active volcano like jSltna, YesuviuSy Stromboli^ and Yolcano Qn. the 
Llpari Isles). 

+ Compare Heinwardt and Hoffinann, in Poggendorflf's AnncUen; 
M. xii. s. 607; Leop. von Buch, Descr, des lies Canaries, pp. 424-426. 
^e eruptions of ai^llaceous mud at Cargnairazo, when that voleano 
was destroyed in 1698, the Lodazales of Igualata^ and the Moya of 
Pelileo-^U on the table-land of Quito — are vcdcaaic phenomena of a 
similar nature. 



SOCKS. 241 

gcoxrA description of volcanoes— comprising one of the most 
miportant sections of the history of terrestrial activity — and I 
have based my statements partly on my own observations, but 
more in their general bearing on the results yielded by the 
labours of my old friend, Leopold von Buch, the greatest 
geognosist of ottr own age, and the first who recognised the 
intimate connection of volcanic phenomena, and their mutual 
dependence upon one another, considered with reference to 
their relations in space. 

Volcanic action, or the reaction of the interior of a planet 
on its external crust and surface, was long regarded only as 
an isolated phenomenon, and was considered solely with respect 
to the disturbing action of the suhterranean force ; and it is 
only in recent times that^— greatly to the advantage of geognos- 
tical views based on physical analogies*— volcanic forces have 
been regarded as forming new roc/cs, and tr<msforramg thoae 
that already existed. We here arrive at the point to which I 
have already alluded, at which a well-grounded study of the 
activity of volcanoes, whether igneous or merely such as emit 
gaseous exhalations, leads us, on the one hand, to the mineral- 
(^cal branch of geognosy (the science of the texture and 
the succession of terrestrial strata), and on the other, to the 
science of geographical forms and outlines — the configuration 
of continents and insular groups elevated above the level of 
the sea. This extended insight into the connection of natural 
phenc«nena, is the result of the philosophical direction which 
has been so generally assumed by the more earnest study of 
geognosy. Increased cultivation of science, and enlargement 
of political views, alike tend to unite elements that had long 
been divided. 

If instead of classifying rocks according to their varieties 
of form and superposition into stratified and unstratified, 
schistose and compact, normal and abnormal, we investigate 
those phenomena of formation and transformation, which are 
still going on before our eyes, we shall find that rocks admit 
of being arranged according to four modes of origin. 

Rocks of eruption, which have issued from the interior of 
the earth, either in a state of fusion from volcanic action, or 
in a more or less soft, viscous condition, from plutonic action. 

Sedimentary rocks, which have been precipitated and depo« 
sited on the earth's sur&ce from a fiuid, in which the most 



34S COSMOS. 

minute poxticles were eidier dissolved or held in sngpeneu 
conatituting the greater part of the secondary (or &otz) a. 
tertiary groups. 

Transformed or metamorphic rocks,* in which the inten 
texture and the mode of Htratification have ' been changi 
either by contact or proximity with a plutonic or volcai 
^idogenous rock of eruption,| or what is more frequently 1 

* [As the doctrine of miaeral metunorphiam ia now exciting t 
general attention, we subjoin a few eipliumtor; obserrBtiona b; 
celebrated Swiss philosopher, ProfesaoT Studer, talen from the Edi 
jew Pkiloi. Joum., Jan. 1848 ; — " In ita widest sense, mineral mi 
morphism metms efeiy change of BggregatiOD, stmcture, or che: 
«al condition which rocks have undergone subseqacntly to Uieir depi 
tioD and stratification, or the effects which have been produced bj ot 
Ibrces thn." grsvit; and coheeion. There fall under this definition- 
discoloration of the Bur^e of black limestone bj the loes of carbi 
tile formation of brownish red crusts on rocka of limestone, sandeto 
num; slatestones, Berpentini!, granite, 4c. by tho decomposition of I 

r'tes, or magnetic iron, linel; disseminatied in the mass of the nx 
conversion of anhydrite into gypsum, in consequence of the abac 
tion of water ; the crombliug of map-y granites and porphyries L 
gravel, occasioned bj the decomposition of the mica and felspar. 
Its more Umil^d sense, the term metamorphic is confined to Ih 
changes of the rock which are produced, not by the effect of 
atmosphere or of wat«r on the exposed aur&ces, bnt which are produc 
directly or indirectly, by agencies seated in the interior of the eai 
In many cases the mode of change may be explained by our physi 
or chemical theories, and may be viewed as the eSect of temperatun 
of electro-chemical actions. Adjoining rocks, or connecting cbmmi 
cations with the interior of the eartb, also distinctly point out the e 
from which the change proceeds. In many other cases the metamorp 
process itself remains a mysteiy, and from the nature of the prodc 
alone do we conclude that such a metamorphic action baa taken plai 
—Tr. 

4' In a plan of the neighbourhood of Tezcuco, Totonilco, and Moi 
{Atlat gfo^raphique et phyaiqae, pi. vii.) which I originally (18 
intended for a work whleh I never published, entitled PaMgrafia 6 
gnoitica deslinada ai uao ds lot Jovenes del CoUgio de Mineria 
Mexico, I named Tin 1832) the plutonic and volcanic eruptive ro 
endoffe/iDua (generated in the interior), and the sedimentary and B 
rocks exofjeno'iit (or generated externally on the suiiace of tlie ear 
Paaigraphicfjly, the former were designated by an arrow directed 
wards f , ail* the latter by the same symbol directed downwards 
These signs liave at least some advantage over the ascending lines, wh 
in the older systems represent arbitrarily and ungracefully the horiz 
tally ranged sedimentary strata, and their penetration throu;^ maf 
< basalt, porphyry, and syenite. The names proposed in the pasif 



BOCKS. 249 

case, by a gaseous sublimation of substances* which, accom- 
pany certain masses erupted in a hot fluid condition. 

Conghmerates ; coarse or finely granular sandstones, or 
breccias composed of mechanically divided masses of the three 
previous species. 

These four modes of formation, — by the emission of volcanic 
masses, as narrow lava-streams ; by tiie action of these masses 
on rocks previously hardened ; by mechanical separation or 
chemical precipitation from liquids impregnated with carbonic 
acid ; and finally, by the cementation of disintegrated rocks 
of heterogeneous nature — are phenomena and formative pro- 
cesses, which must merely be regarded as a fstmi reflection of 
that more energetic activity which must have characterised the 
chaotic condition of the earlier world, under wholly different 
conditions of pressure, and at a higher temperature, not only 
in the whole crust of the earth, but likewise in the more 
extended atmosphere, overloaded with vapours. The vast 
fissures which were formerly open in the solid crust of the 
earth have since been filled up or closed by the protrusion of 
elevated moimtain chains, or by the penetration of veins of 
rocks of eruption (granite, porpnyry, basalt, and melaphyre) ; 
and whilst on a superficial area eqiuil to that of Europe there 
are now scarcely more than four volcanoes remaining, through 
which fire and stones are erupted, the thinner, more fissured, 
and unstable crust of the earth was anciently almost every- 

phico-geognostic plan were borrowed from Decandolle's nomenclature, 
in which endogenous is i^ynonymous with monocotyledonous, and esco- 
gtnoua with dicotyledonous, plants. Mohl's more accurate examination 
(tf vegetable tissues has, however, shown that the growth of monocotyle* 
dons from within, and dicotyledons from without, is not strictly and 
generally true for vegetable organisms (Link, Elementa PhilosophioB 
Botanicce, t. i. 1837, p. 287; Endlicher and linger, Orundziige der 
Botanik, 1848, s. 89 ; and Jussieu, TraiU de Botanique, t. i. p. 85.) 
The rocks which I have termed endogenous are characteristically distin- 
guished by Lyell, in his Principles of Oeohgy, 1833, voL iii. p. 874, 
as "nether-formed" or "hypogene rocks." 

* Compare Leop. von Buch, Ueiber DolomU aJIs Gebirgsart, 1823, 
8. 36 ; and his remarks on the degree of fluidity to be ascribed to plu- 
tonic rocks at the period of their eruption ; as well as on the formation 
of gneiss from schist, through the action of granite and of the substances 
upheaved with it ; to be found in the Abhandl, der Akad, der Wissen- 
teh. zu Berlin, for the year 1842, s. 58 und 63, and in the Jahrbudifllr 
wisaenachqfUiche Kritik, 1840, a. 195. 



350 ootxot* 

wiiere coyered by channels of oommmiication between thfi 
fused interior and the external atmosfdiere. Gaseous emuuu 
tions, rising from very nnequol depths, and therefore oonrejisg 
flufaetances differing in their chemical nature, imparted greater 
activity to the plutonic processes of formation and tnasfor. 
mation. The sedimentary formations, the d^)o»ts of liquid 
fluids from cold and hot springs, which we daily see producixig 
the travertine strata near Rome and near Hobart Town in 
\'en Diemen's Land, a£R)rd but a faint idea of the fl^tz farmi^ 
tion. In our seas, small banks of limestone, almost equal in 
hardness at some parts to Carrara marble,* are in the course of 
formation, by gradual precipitation, accumulation, and cementa- 
tion^— processes whose mode of action has not been sufficiently 
well investigated. The Sicilian coast, the Island of Ascension, 
and King George's Sound in Australia, are instances of this 
mode of formation. On the coasts of the Antilles, these 
formations of the present ocean oontaip articles of pottery, 
and other objects of human industry, and in Guadaloupe even 
human skeletons of the Carib tribe8.f The negroes of the 
French colonies designate these formatiooB by the name of 
Maconne'bon-Dieu.X A small oolitic bed, formed in Lan« 
cerote, one of the Canary Islands, and which notwithstanding 
its recent formation bears a resemblance to Jura limestone, 
has been recognised as a product of the sea and of tempests.§ 
Composite rocks are definite associations of certain orycto- 
gnostic, simple minerals, as feldspar, mica, solid silex, augite, 
and nepheline. Rocks, very similar to these, consistiDg of 

* Darwin, Volcanic Islands, 1844, pp. 49 and 154. 

f [In most instances the bones are dispersed, bnt a Uurge dab of rock, 
in which a considerable portion of the skeleton of a finale is imbedded, 
is preeerred in the British Mnsenm. The presence of these bones hii 
been explained by the circumstance of a bwttle, and the masncre of a 
tribe of Gallibis by the Caribs, which took phu;e near the spot in whidi 
they are found, about 120 years ago ; for as the bodies of the shin 
were interred on the searshore, their skeletons may have been snbs^ 
quently covered by sand-drift, which has since consolidated into lime- 
stone. Dr. Moultrie, of the Medical College, Charleston, U.Si, ia, how- 
ever, of opinion, that these bones did not belong to indiyiduals of the 
Carib tribe, but of the Peruvian race, or of a tribe poesesffing a similir 
craniological deyelopment.} — Tr. 

t Moreau de Jonnfes, Hist, phys, des AntiUes, t i. pp. 136, 188, ami 
MS.; Humboldt, ReUdion kistorigtie, t iii. p. 367. 

f -Near Teguiza. Leop. von Buch, CkmariscJie Inseln, a. SOL 



261 

llie some elements, but grouped differently, ore still formed 
by Tolcanic jnocesses, as in tiie earlier periods of the world. 
The character of ro(^, as we ha^e already remarked, is so 
independent of geographical relations of space,* that the 
geologist recognises with sarprise, alike to ihe north or the 
south of the equator, in 1^ remotest and most dissimilar 
zones, the familiar aspect, and the repetition of even the 
niost minute dbaracteristics in the periodic stratification of 
the Silurian strata, and in the effects of contact with augilie 
masses of eruption. 

We will now enter more fully into the consideration of the 
four modes in which rocks are formed — the four phases of 
their formatiye processes manifested in the stratified and 
unstrati£ed portions of the earth's sur&ce ; thus in the en^ 
dogenous or erupted rocks, designated by modem geognosists as 
compact and abn<»inal rocks, we may enumerate the following 
principal groups as immediate products of terrestrial activity. 

1. Granite and syenite of very different respective ages ; the 
granite is frequently the more recent, | traversing the syenite 
m veins, and being in that case the active upheaving agent. 
" Where the granite occurs in large insulated masses of a faintly 
arched ellipsoidal form, it is covered by a crust or shell cleft 
into blocks, instances of which are met with alike in the Harts 
district, in Mysore, and in Lower Peru. This sea of rocks 
probably owes its origin to a contraction of the surface of the 
granite, owing to the great expansion that accompanied its 
first upheaval.''^ 

Both in Northern Asia,§ on the charming and romantic 
shores of the Lake of Kolivan, on the north-west declivity of 
the Altai mountains, and at las Trincheras, on the slope of 
the littoral chain of Caracas, || I have seen granite divided into 
ledges, owing probably to a similar contraction, althov^h the 

* Leop. von Bnch, op. eil p. 9. 

t Benduutl Cotta, Oeognoaie, 1839, 8. 273. 

t Leop. Ton Bnch, Ueber Oranit und Cfneisa, in the AbhandL der 
Berl, Akad., for the year 1842, s. 60. 

§ In the piojectmg mural maoeB of granite of Lake Eolivan, divided 
faito narrow parallel beds, tlrare are numerous eiTstals of feldspar and 
albite, and a few of titamum, (Humboldt, Asie oenirule, tip. 295 ; 
fiustav Bose, Seise nach dem Uraly bd. i. s. 524.) 

B Humboldt, BekUian historique, t. u. p. 99. 



252 COSMOS. 

divisions appeared to penetrate far ii^to the interior. Fuxtiier 
to the south of Lake Kolivan, towards the boundaries of the 
Chinese province Ili (between Buchtarminsk and the river 
Narym), the formation of the erupted rock in which there is 
no gneiss, is more remarkable than I ever observed in any 
other part of the earth. The granite, which is always covered 
with scales and characterised by tabular divisions, rises in the 
steppes, either in small hemispherical eminences, scarcely six or 
eight feet in height, or like basalt in mounds, terminating on 
eitiier side of their bases in narrow streams.* At the cataracts 
of the Orinoco, as well as in the district of the Fichtelge- 
birge (Seissen), in Galicia, and between the Pacific and tiie 
highlands of Mexico (on the Papagallo), I have seen granite 
in large flattened spherical masses, which could be divided, 
like basalt, into concentric layers. In the valley of Irtysch, 
between Buchtarminsk and Ustkamenogorsk, granite covers 
transition slate for a space of four miles,t penetrating into it 
from above, in narrow, variously ramified, wedge-like veins. 
I have only instanced these peculiarities, in order to designate 
the individual character of one of the most generally diffused 
erupted rocks. As granite is superposed on slate in Siberia, 
and in the Departement de Finisterre (Isle de Mihau) so it 
covers the Jura Hmestone in the mountains of Oisons (Fer- 
xnonts), and syenite, and indirectly also chalk, in Saxony, 
near Weuibohla. X Near Mursinsk, in the Uralian district 
granite is of a drusous character, and here the pores, hke 
3ie fissures and cavities of recent volcanic products, enclose 
many kinds of magnificent crystals, especially beryls and 
topazes. 

2. Quartzose porphyry is often found in the relation ot 
veins to other rocks. The base is generally a finely granu- 
lar mixture of the same elements which occur in the larger 

* See the sketch of Biri-tau, which I took firpm the south side, where 
the Kii^his tents stood^ and which is given in Boae's Beise, hd. I 
B. 584. On spheres of granite scaling off concentrically, see mjr 
Bdat. hist,, t. ii. p. 497, and JSssai Oiogn, awr Us Cfisement des Roches, 
p. 78. 

t Hmnboldt, Asie centrcUe, t. I pp. 299-311, and the drawings in 
Bose's Heise, bd. i. s. 611, in which we see the curvature in the layen 
of granite which Leop. von Bnch has pointed out as characteristic. 

X This remarkable superposition was first described by Weiss is 
Kajrsten's Ardnvfir Bergbau und HUUenwesen, bd. zvi. 1827, s. 5. 



BocRs. 253 

embedded crystals. In granitic porphyry that is very poor 
in quartz, the feldspathic base is almost granular and lami- 
nated."*^ 

3. Greenstones^ Dtorife, are granular mixtures of white 
albite and blackish green hornblende, forming dioritic porphyry 
when the crystals are deposited in a base of denser tissue. 
The greenstones, either pure, or enclosing laminaB of diallage 
(as in the Fichtelgebirge), and passing into serpentine, have 
sometimes penetrated in the form of strata, into the old 
stratified fissures of green argillaceous slate, but they more 
frequently traverse the rocks in veins, or appear Os globu- 
lar masses of greenstone, similar to domes of basalt and 
porphyry.f 

Hypersthene rock is a granular- mixture of labradorite and 
hypersthene. 

Euphoiide and serpentine, containing sometimes crystals of 
augite and uralite, instead of diallage, are thus nearly allied 
to another more frequent, and I might almost say, more 
energetic eruptive rock — augitic porphyry. J 

Melaphyre, augitic, uralitic, and oHgoklastic porphyries. To 
the last named species t)elongs the genuine verd-antique, so 
celebrated in the arts. 

Basalt, containing olivine and constituents which gelatinise 
in acids ; phonolithe (porphyritic slate), trachyte, and dolerite ; 
the first of these rocks is only partially, and the second always, 
divided into thin laminse, which give them an appearance of 
stratification, when extended over a large space. Mesotype 
and nepheline constitute, according to Girard, an important 
part in the composition and internal texture of basalt. The 
nepheline contained in basalt, reminds the geognosist both of 
the miascite of the Ilmen mountains in the tri^,§ which has 

♦ Dufrgnoy et Elie de Beanmont, GSoloffie de la France, t. i. p. 130. 

i« These intercalated beds of diorite play an important part in the 
monntain district of Nailan, near Steben, where I was engaged in 
mining operations in the last century, and with which the happiest asso- 
ciations of my early life are connected. Compare Hofiinann, in Poggen- 
dorff's Annalen, bd. zvi. s. 558. 

t In the southern and Bashkirian portion of the Ural. Rose, Heise, 
M. ii. s. 171. 

§, G. Rose, JReise nach dem Uraly bd. ii. s. 47-62. Respecting the 
identity of eleolite and nepheline (the latter containing rather the more 
]ime)| see Scheerer, in Poggend. AamaienL bd. xlix. 8. 359-381. 



SM COSMOS. 

been confounded with granite, and sometimes contains 
conium, and of the pyroxenic nephelijae discova^ed by Chun- 
precht near Loban and Chemnitz. 

To the second or sedimentary rocks, belong the greater 
part of the formations which have been comprised under the 
old systematic, but not very correct, designation of transition^ 
flotz or secondary^ and tertiary formations. If the erupted 
rocks had not exercised an elevating, and owing to the simul- 
taneous shock of the earth, a disturbing inEuence on these 
sedimentary formations, the surface of our planet would have 
consisted of strata, arranged in a uniformly horizontal direc- 
tion above one another. Deprived of mountain chains, ob 
whose declivities the gradations of vegetable forms, and the 
scale of the diminishing heat of the atmosphere appear to be 
picturesquely reflected — ^furrowed only here and there by 
valleys of erosion, formed by the force of fresh water moving 
on in gentle imdulations, or by the accumulation of detritus, 
resulting from the action of currents of water — continents 
would have presented no other appearance from pole to pole 
than the dreary uniformity of the llanos of South America, or 
the steppes of Northern Asia. The vault of heaven would 
everywhere have appeared to rest on vast plains^ and the stars 
to rise as if they emerged from the depths of ocean. Such 
a condition of things could not however have generally pre- 
vailed for any length of time, in the earlier periods of the 
world, since subterranean forces must have striven in all 
epochs, to exert a counteracting influence. 

Sedimentary strata have been either precipitated or de- 
posited from liquids, according as the materials entering into 
their composition are supposed, whether as limestone or argil- 
laceous slate, fjo be either chemically dissolved, or suspended 
and commingled. But earths when dissolved in fluids im- 
pregnated with carbonic acid, must be regarded as under- 
going a mechanical process, whilst they are being precipi' 
tated, deposited, and aooumtdated into strata. Thiis view 
is of some importance with respect to the envelopm^it of 
organic bodies in petrifying calcareous bods. The most 
ancient sediments of the transition and secondary formations 
have probably been formed from water at a more or less high 
temperature, and at a time when the heat of the upper sur- 
fiuse of the eartii was still very considerable. Considered io 



of view, a pluKmic actum eeenu to ft 
% taken place in the sedimeutary sti 
ancient; but these stiata appear 
oto a schistose stmctsre, and ander j 
hare been solidified by cooling, like 
1 &om the interior, as for instance groi 
By degrees, as the waters lost thai 
ible to absorb a copious supply of the 
hich the atmo^ihere was overchargct 
lid in solution a larger quantity of li: 
imenlaty strata, setting aside all oth 
hanieal deposits of sand or detritus, ai< 
f the lower and uf^r traosilion lo 
Laud devonian formations ; from the 
oh were once termed Cambrian, to th 
red sandstone or devonian formation 
nith the mountain limestone. 
erous deposits .■— 

tea imbedded in the transition and 
; zedistein, muschelkalk. Jura formal 
ortion of the tertiary formation whi 
andstone and conglomerate. 
te, fresh-water limestone, and eiliceo 
igs. formations which have not been p 
■e of a large body of sea water, but 
ntact with the atmosphere, as in ah 

it deposits: geognosticol phenomena 

in proving die mfluence of organic 
if the solid part of the earth's crust, 

a recent period, by my highly gift 
slier, Ehrenberg. 

lis short and superficial view of the 
' the earth's crust, I do not place imi 

sedimentary rocks, the conglomert 
ttions which have also been deposited 

liquids, and which have been embed 
t and limestone, it is only beoauw 
ith the detritus of emptiye and sedi 
tritus of gneiss, mica slate, and otli€ 
he obscnre^xiccss of thia i 



356 COSMOS. 

aetion it produces, most therefore compose the third clai 
the fimdunental fbrms of rock. 

Endi^nous or erupted rocka (granite, porphyry, and n 
phjre,) produce, es I have akeady frequently remarked, 

only dynamical, shaking, ujdieaving actions, either vertii 
or laterally displacing tbe strata, but they also occi 
changes in their chemical composition, as well as in the m 
of their interiial structure. New rocks being thus for 
u gneiss, mica slate, and granular limestone (Carrara and 
rian marble.) The old Silurian or deTooian transition sd 
the belemnitic limestone of Tarantaise, and the dull 
calcareous sandstone {Macigno) which contains algse i' 
in the northern Apennines, o^n assume a new and i 
brilliant appearance after their metamorphosis, which rcn 
it difficult to recognise them. The theory of metamorp! 
was not established until tlie individual phases of the ch 
were followed step by step, and direct chemical experin 
on the difference in the fusion point, in the pressure and 
of cooling, were brought ia aid of mere inductive conclus 
Where the study of chemical combinations is regulate" 
leading ideas,* it may be the means of throwing a clear 
on the wide field of geognosy, and over the vast laborato 
nature in which rocks are continually being formed 
modified by the agency of subterranean forces. The p 
Bophical enquirer will escape the deception of appi 
analogies, and the danger of being led astray by a na 
view of natural phenomena, if he constantly bear in viev 
complicated conditions which may, by the intensity of 
force, have modified the counteractii^ effect of those 
vidual substances, whose nature is better known to us. Si 
bodies have, no doubt, at all periods, obeyed the same ki 
attraction, and wherever apparent contradictions present iJ 
selves, I am confident that chemistry will in most cast 
able to trace the cause to some corresponding error in 
esperiment, 

* See the admirable resesrches of Mitscherlich, in the Ahhattd 
Beri. Akad. for the years 1822 and 1823, b. 25-41 ; and in P(^ 
Annaien, bd. s. s. 137-162, bd. zi. n. S23-S32, bd. xli. s. 213 
(OuataT Roae, Ueber BUdwag dca KtdlapatJu taid Aragoniit, in 
gead. Annalen., bd. ilii. b. 353-366 ; Hudiuger, in the TVoRindti 
tie £oi/ai Society qf Edii^ntrgh, 1S2T, p. US.) 



BOCKS. 261 

Observations made with extreme accuracy over laa^ tracts 
o( land, show that erupted rocks have not been produced in 
an irregular and unsystematic manner. In parts of the globe 
most remote from one another, we often find that granite, 
basalt, and diorite haye exercised a regular and uniform meta- 
morphic action, even in the minutest details, on the strata 
of argillaceous slate, dense limestone, and the grains of quartz 
in sandstones. As the same endogenous rock manifests almost 
everywhere the same degree of activity, so, on the contraiy, 
different rocks belonging to the same class, whether to the 
endogenous or the erupted, exhibit great differences in their 
character. Intense heat has undoubtedly influenced all these 
phenomena, but the degree of fluidity (the more or less 
perfect mobility of the particles— 'their more viscous com- 
position,) has varied very considerably from the granite to 
the basalt; whilst at different geolc^cal periods (or meta- 
morpbic phases of the earth's crust,) other substances dissolved 
in vapours, have issued from the interior of the earth, simul- 
taneously with the eruption of granite, basalt, greenstone- 
porphyry, and serpentine. This seems a fitting place again 
to (&aw attention to the fact, that, according to the admirable 
views of modem geognosy, the metumorphism of rocks is not 
a mere phenomenon of contact, limited to the effect produced 
by l^e apposition of two rocks, since it comprehends all the 
generic phenomena that have accompanied the appearance of 
a particular erupted mass. Even where there is no imme- 
diate contact, the proximity of such a mass gives rise to 
modifications of solidification, cohesion, granulation, and 
Gr3rstallization. 

All eruptive rocks penetrate, as ramifying veins, either 
into the sedimentary strata, or into other equally endogenous 
massed; but there is a special importance to be attached to the 
difference manifested between plutonic rocks,* (granite, por- 
phyry, and serpentine,) and those termed volcanic in the 
strict sense of the word (as trachyte, basalt, and lava). The 
rocks produced by the activity of our present volcanoes, 
appear as band-like streams, but by the confluence of several 
of them, they mev form an extended basin. Wherever it has 
been possible to trac© basaltic eruptions, they have generaTiy 

• [LyeU, Pfindpka of Geology, voL iii pp. 863 and 869.]— TV. 

8 



been found to tennini 
these narrow openings 
nuuiy, in the " Pflaster- 
Eisenach i in the blue ' 
of the Werta, and in tii 
(Siegen,) where the ba! 
sandstone, and greywa 
cup-like f\uigDid enlai 
together, like rows of 
in thin lamittn. The t 
quartEose porphyty, Be 
stratified compact rocb 
mytholf^cal nomenclat 
"ITiese, wife the except! 
not erupted in a stat« c 
ditjon, not from narroi 
extending gorges, ^i 
flowed forth, and aie f 
extended maBses,* & 
indicate a certain d£^ 
have been expanded i 
hfiTe been only in a sc 
elevation. Other trach 
I have frequently perce: 
stones and syemtic poi 
without quarts), are de 
and quartzoae porphyrj 

* The description here g 
gnnite occnrs, eipnssee (£ 
fonnalioii. But ita aspect 
una iKCHaiouallj more flui 
BcriptiOn given bj Rose, i 
paH of th« KaiTUt chain n 
veil Bs the evidence aSbrdt 
Elie de BeaumcHit, in thai 
p. 70, Hnving alreadj s^ 
through which the baiilts 
notice the large fissures, n 
melsphjres, irhich mnat ni 
son's intereiUng: account {'i 
feet wide, through which n 
•( Conibroid:, Hoar £dge. 



B0G&8. SM 

Esperimentfl on the changes which the teiture and 
chemidal constitution of rocks experience from the action of 
heat, have showil that volcanic masses,^ (diorite, augitie 
porphyry, basalt, and the lava of !lStna) yield different pro^ 
ducts* according to the difference of the pressure under which 
they naye been fused, and the length of time occupied during 
their cooling ; thus, where the cooling wfius rapid, they form 
a black glass, haying a homogeneous micture, and where the 
cooling was slow, a stony mass of granular crystalline structure. 
In the latter case, the crystals are formed partly in cayitiet 
and partly enclosed in the matrix. The same materials yield 
the most dissimilar products, a fact that is of the greatest 
importance in reference to the study of ike nature of erupted 
rocks, and of the metamorphic action which they occasion. 
Carbonate of lime w,hen fused under great pressure, does not 
lose its carbonic acid, but becomes when cooled, granidar 
limestone; when the crystallization has been effected by 
the diy method, saccharoidal marble; whilst by the humid 
method, calcareous spar and aragonite are produced^ the 
former under a lesser degree of temperature than the latter.f 
Differences of temperature, likewise, modify the direction in 
which the different particles arrange themselyes in the act oi 
crystallization, and also affect the form of the crystal. { Even 
when a body is not in a fluid condition, the smallest particles 
may undergo certain relations in their various modes of 
arrangement^ which are manifested by the different action on 
light.§ The phenomena presented by devitrification, and by the 
formation of steel by cementation and casting, — the transition 
of the fibrous into the granular tissue of ^e iron, from the 
action oi heat,|| and probably, also, by regular and long con- 

* Sir James Hall, in the Edin, Tran»., vol. y. p. 48, snd vol. yi. p. 71 ; 
Qregory Watt, in the Phil. Trans, of ^ Roy. 8o6» qf London/^ 1804, 
^ ii. p. 279 ; t)artigneB and Fleariau d« Belleyne, in the Journal de 
Physique, t. Iz. p. 456; Bischof, Wdrmdehre, s. 813 nnd 443. 

t Gnstay Rose, in Poggend. Annals, bd. xlii. s. 864. 

t On the dimorphiflm of salphur, see Mltscherllchi .Le^r^ttoft der 
Chemie, § 56-68. 

8 On gypsum as a nniazal crystal, and on the sulphate of magnesia, 
and the oiddes of zinc and nick^, see Mitscherlieh, in Poggend. AnnitAei^ 
hd. zi. 6. 828 

. I Cost% Venwihe mn Oreuao$ €Aer dm hrHehig toerdeH du SUA' 
tisens. Me de Beaomoati JiiHn, OSok, 4» 11. p. 411, 

82 



260 OMKoa. 

tmned concnsaiona — Ukewise throw a consicleFable St^ 
light on the geological process of metomorphism. Heat 
even simultuieouBly induce opposite actions in crysti 
bodies, for the adroirable experiments of Mitscheriich 
establinhed the &ct* that calcareous spar, without aitt 
its condition of a^^^regation, expands in the directioii ol 
of its axes and contracts in the otiier. 

If we pass from these general considerations to indiTi 
examples, we find that schist is converted, by the Ticini 
plutonice rupted rocks, into a bluish-black glistening roo 
slate. Here the planes of stratification are intersects 
another system of divisional stratification, almost at : 
anglea witii the former.^ and thus indicating an action 
sequent to the alteration. The penetration of sihca a 
the argillaceous schist to be traversed by quarti, t 
forming it in part into whetstone and eilicious schist; 
latter sometimes containing carbon, and being then caj 
of producing ^vanic effects on, the nerves. The bij 
degree of silicification of schist is that observed in li 
jasper, a material highly valuable in the arts,{ and whii 
produced in the Oural mountains by the contact and eru] 
of augitic porphyry (at Orsk); of dioritic porphyry (at Au 
kul); or of a mass of hypersthenic rock, conglomerated 
spherical masses (at Bogoslowsk) ; at Monte Serrato, ii 
Island of Elba, according to Frederick Hoffinan, and in 
cany, according to Alexander Brongniart, it is fbnne 
contact with euphotide and serpentine. 

The contact and plutonic action of granite have somei 

* Mitscherlich, (T^er die Avaddavung der Icryttdliiiirtai K 
dtavh die WSrme., in Poggend. Annalen, bd, i. s. 161. 

+ On the donble STstem of dmsionol planes, see Elie de Beia 
Ololoffie de la France, p. 41 ; Credner, Oeognoaie Tharingait tn 
Hane», s. 40; and BSmer, Das SlieiBiKAe Uebtrgaagigdiirse, 
s. G und 9. 

t The dlica is not mere!}- coloured 'by peroxide of iron, but is > 
ponied by cUy, lime, and potuh ; Koee, Seist, bd. ii. b. 18!. 
tiie formation of jseper by the action of dioritic porphyry, angilf 
hfpersthene rock, see Rose, bd. ii.g. 16B, 1ST, and 192. SeeaJw 
•■ 427. "here there is a drawing of the porphyry spheres betireen ' 
jasper occnra, in the calcueoos greywacke of Bc^oolowd:, beist 
doced by the plntonic iuflnence of the aagitie rock; bd. it. l MI 
UkewlMHnmboldt, AtU Centrdie, t, L p. 480. 



ZOOKB. 261 

made argillaceous schist granular, as was observed by Gustav 
Rose and myself in the Altai mountains (within the fortress of 
Buehtarminsk),* and have transformed it into a mass resem- 
bling granite, consisting of a mixture of feldspar and mica, in 
which larger laminss of the latter were again irobedded.f 
Most geognosists adhere, with Leopold von Buch, to the well- 
known hypothesis '* that all the gneiss in the silurian strata of 
the Transition formation, between the Icy sea and the Gulf of 
Finland, has been produced by the metamorphic action of 
granite4 In the Alps, at St. Gothard, calcareous marl is 
likewise changed from granite into mica-slate, and then trans- 
formed into gneiss/' Similar phenomena of the formation of 
gneiss and mica-slate through granite present themselves in 
tiie oolitic group of the Tarantaise,§ in which belenmites are 
found in rocks, which have some claim to be considered as 

* Bose, JReise nach dem Ural, bd. i. & 586-588. 

f In respect to the yolcanic origin of mica, it is important to notice 
that ciystals of mica are found in the basalt of the Bohemian Mittelge- 
birge, in the lava that in 1822 was ejected from Vesuvius (Monticelli, 
Storia del Vesuvio negli Anni 1821 e 1822, § 99), and in fragments of 
argillaceous slate imbedded in scoriaceous basalt at Hohenfels, not far 
from Gerolstein, in the Eifel, (see Mitscherlich, in Leonhard, Basalt- 
GebUde, s. 244). On the formation of feldspar in argillaceous schist, 
through contact with porphyry, occurring between Urval and PoXet 
(Porez), see Dufr6noy, in Oiol. de la France, t i. p. 187. It is probably 
to a similar contact, that certain schists near Paimpol in Brittany, with 
whose appearance I was much struck, while making a geological pedes- 
trian tour through that interesting country with ProfMsor Kunth, owe 
their amygdaloid and cellular character, — ^t. i. p. 234. 

X Leopold yon Buch, in the AbJiandlungen der Akad. der Wissen- 
schaft zu Berlin, aus dem J. 1842, s. 63, and in the JahrhUcIiem f&r 
WissenschafUiche Kritik Jahrg, 1840, s. 196. 

§ Elie de Beaumont, in the Annalea des Sciences Nabirelles, t. zv. 
p. S62-372. "In approaching the primitive masses of Mont Bosa, and 
the moimtains situated to the w^ of Coni, we perceive that the 
secondary strata gradually lose the characters inherent in their mode of 
deposition. Frequently assuming a character apparently arising from a 
perfectly distinct cause, but not losing their stratification, they some- 
what resemble in their physical structure a brand of half-consumed 
wood, in which we can follow the traces of the ligneous fibres beyond 
the spots which continue to present the natural characters of wood." 
(See also the AnnaXes des Sciences Naiurelles, t. ziv. p. 118-122, and 
Ton Dechen, Oeognosie, s. 553.) Amongst the most striking proofs of 
the transformation of rocks by plutonic action, we must place the belem- 
nites in the schists of Knffenen (in the Alpine viJley of Eginen and ii| 



163 COSMOS. 

mica-slate, und in llie schistose group In (be weslsni part 
of the island of Elba, near the promontory of Calamita, and 
the Fichtelgebirge in BaireuHi, between Lomitz and Mark- 
leiten.* 

Jasper, which,t as I have already remarked, is a production 
fbrmed by the yolcanic action of angitic porphyry, could only 
be obtained in small quantities by the ancients, whilst another 
material, very generally and e^ciently used ly them in the 
arts, was granuEir or saccharoidal marble, which is likewise to 
be regarded solely as a sedimentary stratum altered by terrestrial 
beat and by pro:dniity with erupted rocks. This opinion is 
oorroboratea by the accurate obsenrations on the phenomena 
cxf contact, by the remarkable experiments on Aision, made by 
8ir James Hall more than half a century ago, and by the 
attentiye study of granitic yeins, which has contributed so 

the Ories-glaciers), and the belemnites foimd by K. Charpentier in the 
■o-ca]led primitlTe limestone on the western aescent of the GqI de la 
Seigne, between the Enclove 4e Montjovet and the chdlet of ta^ laxi- 
chette, and which he showed to me at Bex in the autumn of 1822 
(Annates de Chimie, t zxiii. p. 262). 

* Hofihiann, in Poggend. Annqlen, bd. xfi, a, 652, ^Strala of iann- 
sition aigillaceous schist in the Fichtelgebirge, which can he traced for 
a lepgth of 16 milesi are transformed into gneiss anly at the two extre- 
mities, where they come ii\ contact with granite. We can U^re follow 
the gradual formation of the gneiss, and the development of the mica 
and of the feldspathic amygdaloids, in the interior of the aigillaceous 
■chist, which indeed contains in itself aUnost all Uie elements q( these 
■ubetances." 

t Amongst the worics of art which hare come 4own to us from the an- 
elent Greeks and Romans, we obsenre tliat none of any size — as eolymna 
or large rases — ^are forme4 from jasper ; and even at the present day 
this substance, in large masses, is only obtained from ti^e IJnd qioant&ui& 
The material worked as jasper from the Hhubarb mountain (Eeyeniaga 
Bopka), in Altai, is a beautiful ribboned porphyry. ^ The wot^ jasper is 
derived frt>m the Semitic languages, and frx>m U^e confused deamptionsof 
Theophrastus {De Lapidibus, 23 and 27) and Pliny (xxxviL 8 and 9), 
who rank jasper amongst the *' opaque gems," the name appears to hftve 
been given to fr^igments of jaspachat, and to a substance which the 
ancients termed jaaponyx, which we now know as opalrjcisper, Pliny 
considers a piece of jasper eleven inches in length so rare, as to require 
his mentioning that he had actually seen such a specimen : " Magnitu- 
dinem jaspidis undecim unciarum vidimus, formatamque inde efSgiem 
Keronis thoracatam." According to Theophrastus, the gtone which he 
calls emerald, and from which 1^^ obelisks werQ ciiti| n^os^ hav9 IfO^a 
aa ImperfBot jaspeii 



BOOKS. 1168 

largely to the establishment oi modem geodesy, flometfanes 
the erupted rock has not transformed the compact into granular 
limestone to any great depth from the point of contact, llius, 
for instance, we meet widi a slight transformation— « penum- 
bra — as at Bel&st in Ireland, where the basaltic veins traverse 
the chalk ; and, as in the compact calcareous beds, which have 
been partially inflected by the contact of i^enitie granite, at 
the Bridge of Boseampo and th^ Cascadp of CanzocoU, in the 
Tyrol, (rendered celebrated by the mention made of it by 
Count Mazari Feucati.)* Another mode of transformation 
occurs where aU the strata of the compact limestone have 
been changed into granular limestone by ike action of granite, 
and syenitio or dioridc porphyry .f 

I woul4 here wish to make special mention of Parian and 
Carrara marbles, which have acquired such celebrity from the 
noble works of art into which they have been converted, and 
whieh have too long been considered in our geognostic collec- 
tions as the main types of primitive Umestone. The action of 
granite has been manifested sometimes by immediate contact, 
as in the Pjrrenees,^ and sometimes, as in the mainland of 
Greece, and in the insular groups in the ^gean sea, through 

* 'H.vaxiboldt.LeUre d M, Brochant de ViUiera, in the AnncUes de 
Chimie et de Physique, t xziii. p. 261 ; Leop. yon Buch, Oeog. Britfe 
liher daa sUdliche Tyrol, a. 101, 105, nnd 278. 

i* On the tninsformation of compact into gnmular limMtone, by the 
action of gi^tOi in the Pyrenees at the Montagues de Bancie, see 
Bufr^oy, in the M&moires giologiques, t. ii. p. 440 ; and on similar 
changes in ihe Montagnes de VOuans, see Slie de Beaumont, in the 
Mim. gSolog., t ii. pp. 879-415 ; on a similar effect produced by the 
action of dioratio and pyrozenie porphyry (the ophite described by Elie 
de Beaumont, in the 06ologie de la France, t i. p. 72), between Tolosa 
and St. Sebuiriian, see Bufr^noy, in the Mim, giolog., t. ii. p. 180 ; and 
by syenite in the Isle of Skye, where the fossils in the altered limestone 
may still be distinguished, see von Pechen, in his OlagnoHe, s. 578. 
In the transformation of chalk, by contact with basalt, the transpoaitiou 
of the most minute particles in the processes of crystallization and 
granulation, is the more remarkable, because the excellent microscopic 
investigations of EUirenbeig hare shown that the particles of chalk 
preyioiuly existed in the form of closed rings. See Poggend. Annalen 
der Phyeik, bd. xxxix. s. 105 ; and on the rings of aragonite deposited 
irom solution, see Gustay Bose, in yol. xlU. p. 354 of the same journal 

t Beds of granular limestone in the granite at Port d'Oo, and in the 
Moat de Labourd. See Charpentier, Comtif^Uion gSohgigite deiPyrf' 
nSes, pp. 144, 146, 



S64 cosKOi* 

the intermediate layers of gneiss or mica-slate. Both^ cases 
presuppose a simultaneous, but heterogeneous process of trans- 
formation. In Attica, in the Island of Eubea, and in the 
Peloponnesus, it has been remarked, " that the limestone, when 
superposed on mica-slate, is beautiful and crystalline in propor- 
tion to the purity of the latter substance, and to the smallness 
of its arg^aceous contents ; and, as is well known, this rock, 
together with beds of gneiss, appears at many points, at a con- 
siaerable depth below the sur&ce, in the islands of Paros and 
Antiparos/'* We may here infer the existence of an imper- 
fectly metamorphosed flotz fonnation, if Mth can be yielded 
to the testimony of Origen, according to whom, the ancient 
Eleatic, Xenophanes ot Colophon,f (who supposed the whole 
earth's crust to haTC been once covered by Qie sea,) declared 
that marine fossils had been found in the quaiTies of Syracuse, 
and the impression of a fish (a sardine) in the deepest rocks 
of Paros. The Carrara or Luna nuirble quarries, which con- 
stituted the principal source from which statuary marble was 
derived, even prior to the time of Augustus, and which will 
probably continue to do so imtil the quarries of Paros shall be 
re-opened, are beds of calcareous sandstone — macigno— altered 
by plutonic action, and occurring in the insulated mountain 
of Apuana, between gneiss-like mica and talcose scliist| 
Whether at some points granular limestone may not have 
been formed m the interior of the earth, and been raised by 
gneiss and syenite to the surface, where it forms vein-like 

* Leop. von Bnch, Descr. des Canaries, p. 394; Fiedler, Meiaedvrck 
das K&nigreich Chrieeliefdand, th. ii. s. 181, 190, und 516. 

•I* I have previously alluded to the remarkable passage in Origen's 
PhUoaophumena, cap. 14, {Opera, ed. Delarue, t. i. p. 893). From the 
whole context it seems veiy improbable that Xenophanes meant an 
impression of a laurel {rvirov ^a^v^g) instead of an impression of a fish 
{tvtov a0vi7c). Delarue is wrong in blaming the correction of Jacob 
Oronovius in changing the laurel into a sardel. The petrifaction of 
a fish is also much more probable than the natural picture of SUenus, 
which, according to Pliny (lib. xzzvi. 5) the quarry-men are stated to 
have met with in Parian marble from, llount Marpessos. Serviut ad 
Virg. jEn., vi. 471. 

X On the geognostic relations of Carrara {Tlie City qf the Mocn^ 
Btrabo, lib. v. p. 222), see Savi, Osservazioni sui terreni antichi To9' 
cani, in the Nuovo Gionidle de* Letterati di Pisa, and HofiimanD, in 
Karsten's Ardiivfilr Mineralogie, bd. vi. s. 268-263, as well as in hii 
Oeogn, ReUe dvrch Italien, s. 244-265. 



BOOKS. 265 

fissures,'*^ is a question on which I cannot hazard an opinion, 
owing to my own want of personal knowledge of the subject. 

According to the admii*able obseiTations of Leopold von 
Buch, the masses of dolomite found in Southern Tyi*ol, and on 
the Italian side of the Alps, present the most remarkable 
uistance of metamorphism produced by massive eruptive rocks 
on compact calcareous beds. This transformation of the lime- 
stone seems to have proceeded from the fissures which travei'se 
it in all directions. The cavities are everywhere covered with 
rhomboidal crystals of magnesian bitter-spar, and the whole 
formation, without any trace of stratification or of the fossil 
remains which it once contained, consists only of a granular 
aggregation of crystals of dolomite. Talc laminee lie scattered 
here and there in the newly formed rock, traversed by massc'S 
of serpentine. In the valley of the Fassa, dolomite rises per- 
pendicularly in smooth walls of dazzling whiteness to a height 
of many thousand feet. It forms sharply-pointed conical 
mountains, clustered together in large numbers, but yet not in 
contact with each other. The contour of their forms recall to 
mind the beautiful landscape, with which the rich imagination 
of Leonardi da Vinci has embellished the background of the 
portrait of Mona Lisa. 

The geognostic phenomena which we are now describing, 
and which excite die imagination, as well as the powers of 
the intellect, are the result of the action of augitic porphyry 
manifested in its elevating, destroying, and transforming 
force, t The process, by which limestone is converted into 
dolomite, is not regarded by the illustrious investigator, who 
first drew attention to the phenomenon, as the consequence of 
the talc being derived from the black porphyry, but rather as 
a transformation, simultaneous with the appearance of this 
erupted stone through wide fissures filled with vapours. It 
remains for friture enquirers to determine how transformation 
can have been effected without contact with the endogenous 

* According to the afisumption of an excellent and very experienced 
observer, Karl von Leonhard; see his Jahrbuch fdr MinercUoffie, 1884, 
8. 829, and Bemhard Cotta, Oeoffrume, s. 810. 

i* Leop. yon Bnch, Oeognoatische Biirfe an Alex, von ffumhokUp 
182«, B. 86 and 82 ; also In the Annalen de CTiemie, t. xxiii. p. 276, and 
in the Abhandl, der Berliner Akad. au» der /. 1822 vnd 1828| & 88« 
186; von Dechen, Qtognotie^ a. 574*^79. 



MS OOBMOt. 

stone, where rtrata of dolomite are Ibund te be interspened 
in limestone } Where, in this case, are we to seek the con- 
cealed channels by which the plutonic action is conveyed ? 
Even here, it may not, however, be necessary, in conformity 
with the old Roman adage, to believe '' that much that is 
alike in nature may have been fbrmed in wholly different 
ways.** When we find, over widely extended parts of the 
earth, that two phenomena are always associated together, as, 
for instance, the occurrence of melaphyre and the transibnna- 
tion of compact limestone into a orystalline mass differing in 
its chemical character, we are, to a certain degree, just^ed 
in believing, where the second phenomenon is manifested 
unattended by the appearance of the first, that this apparent 
contradiction is owing to the absence, in eertain oases, of 
some of the conditions attendant upon the exciting eauses. 
Who would call in question the volcanic nature and igneous 
fluidity of basalt, merely because there are some rare instances 
in which basaltic veins, traversing beds of coal or strata of 
sandstone and chalk, have not materially deprived the coal 
of its carbon, nor broken and slacked the sandstone, nor 
converted the ohalk into granular marble? Wherever we 
have obtained even a faint light to guide us in ihe obseure 
domain of mineral formation, we ought Qot ungrateAilly to 
disregard it, beeause there may be muoh that is still unex- 
plained in the history of the relations of the transitions, or in 
the isolated interposition of beds of unaltered strata. 

After having spoken of the alteration of compact carbonate 
of lime into granular limestone and dolomite, it still remains 
fi)r us to mention a third mode of transformation of the same 
mineral, which is asoribed to the emission, in the ancient 
periods of the world, of the vapours of sulphurio acid. This 
transformation of limestone into gypsum, is analogous to the 
penetration of rock-salt and sulphur, the latter being depo- 
sited ivom sulphuretted aqueous vapour. In the lofty Cordil- 
leras of Quindiu, fiir from all volcanoes, I have observed 
deposits of sidphur in fissures in gneiss, whilst in Sicily (at 
Cattolica, near Girgenti) sulphur, gypsiro, and rock-salt 
belong to the most recent secondary s^ata, the chalk forma- 
tions.^ I have also seen, on the edee of the crater of VesuviuSi 

^ Hoftnan, Oeoffn. Reise, edited \xj von Dechex), s. l\t U9| ^ 
UO-386 ; Poggend. AnntOm 4ee Phyiik bd xzvL s. 41 



96S C081C01. 

rence of a vast number of beautiful and most Tarious crystals, 
as garnets, vesuvian, augite, and ceylanite, on the sur&ces of 
contact between the erupted and sedimentary rock, as for 
instance, on the junction of the syenite of Monzon with 
dolomite and compact limestone.* In the Island of Elba 
masses of serpentine, which perhaps nowhere more clearly 
indicate the character of erupted rocks, have occasioned the sub- 
limation of iron glance and red oxide of iron in fissures of cal- 
careous sandstone.f We still daily find the same iron glance 
formed by sublimation from the yapours and the walls of the 
fissures of open Tcins on the margin of the crater, and in the 
fresh lava currents of the volcanoes of Stromboli, Vesuvius, 
and Etna.} The veins, that are thus formed beneath our 
eyes by volcanic forces, where the contiguous rock has already 
attained a certain degree of solidification, show us how in a 
similar manner mineral and metallic veins may have been 
everywhere formed in the more ancient periods of the world, 
where the solid but thinner crust of our planet, shaken by 
earthquakes, and rent and fissured by the change of volume 
to which it was subjected in cooling, may have presented 
many communications with the interior, and many passages 
for the escape of vapours impregnated with earthy and 
metallic substances. The arrangement of the particles in 
layers parallel with the margins of the veins, the regular 
recurrence of analogous layers on the opposite sides of the 
veins, (on their different walls), and, finally, the elongated 
cellular cavities in the middle, frequently sdETord direct evi- 
dence cf the plutonic process of sublimation in metalliferous 
veins. As the traversing rocks must be of more recent 
origin than the traversed, we learn from the relations of 

* Leop. von Bnch, Britfe, s. 109-129. See also Elie de Beaumont^ 
On the contact of Oronite with the Beds of the Jura, in the Mfyn. g6ol.t 
t ii. p. 408. 

t Hofiinan, Beise, s. 80 nnd 87. 

t On the chemical process in the formation of specular iron, see Gay- 
Lussac, in the Annalea de Chimie, t, zzii. p. 415, and Mitscherlich, in 
Poggend. Annxden, bd. zv. s. 630. Moreover, crystals of oliyine hsye 
been formed (probably by sublimation) in the cavities of the obsidian 
of Cerro del Jacal, which I brought from Mexico (Gusta^r Rose, in Pog- 
gend. Annalen, bd. z. s. 328). Hence olivine occurs in basalt, lava^ 
obsidian, artificial scoriaB, in meteoric stones, in the syenite of Elfdale^ 
and (as hyalosiderite) in the Wacke of the KaisezBtohl, 



BOOKS* S69 

stratification existing between the porphyry and the argen^ 
tiferous ores in the Saxon mines, (tlie richest and most 
important in Germany), that these formations are at any rate 
more recent than the vegetable remains found in carboniferous 
strata and in the red sandstone.** 

All the facts connected with our geological hypotheses on 
the formation of the earth's crust, and the melamorphism of 
rocks, have been unexpectedly elucidated by the ingenious 
idea, which led to a comparison of the slags or scoriae of our 
snoielting tonaces, with natural minerals, and to the attempt 
of reproducing the latter from their elements.f In all these 
operations, the same affinities manifest themselves, which 
determine chemical combinations both in our laboratories 
and in the interior of the earth. The most considerable part 
of the simple minerals which characterise the more generally 
diffused plutonic and erupted rocks, as well as tliose on which 
they have exercised a metamorphic action, have been 
produced in a crystalline jstate, and with perfect identity, in 
artificial mineral products. We must, however, distinguish 
here between the scoriae accidentally formed, and those which 
have been designedly produced by chemists. To the former 
belong feldspar, mica, augite, olivine, hornblende, crystallised 
oxide of iron, magnetic iron in octahedral crystals, and 
metallic titanium ;| to the latter, garnets, idocrase, rubies, 

* Constantin von Benst, Ueher die Parphyrgebilde, 1835, b. 89-96; 
also his BeleucJitung der Wemet'sdien Oangtheorie, 1840, s. 6 ; and C. 
von Wissenbach, Abbildungen merhwurdiger Oangverhdltnisse, 1836, 
fig. 12. The ribbon-like structure of the veins is, however, no more 
to be regarded of general occurrence than the periodic order of the 
different members of these masses. 

i* Mitscherlich, Ueher die kilnsUicke DarsteUung der MinercUien, in 
the AbJiandl. der Akademieder Wise, zu Berlin, 1822-3, s. 25-41. 

X In Bcorise, crystals of feldspar have been discovered by Heine in the 
refuse of a furnace for copper fusing, near Sangerhausen, and analysed 
by Kersten (Poggend. Anncden, bd. xxxiii. s. 337) ; crystals of augite 
in scoriae, at Sahle (Mitscherlich in the AbJiandl. der Akad. zu Berlin, 
1822-23, 8. 40) ; of olivin by Seifstrbm (Leonhard, BasaltrOehilde, bd. ii. 
8. 495) ; of mica, in old scoriae of Schloss Garpenberg (Mitscherlich, in 
Leonhard, op. cit. s. 506) ; of magnetic iron, in the scoriae of Cbatillon 
snr Seine (Leonhard, s. 441) ; and of micaceous iron, in potter's clay 
(Mitscherlich, in Leonhard, op. cit, s. 234). 

[See Ebelmer's papers in Ann. de Chimie et de Physique, 1847 ; also 
Report on Hie Crystalline Slags, by John Pen^i M.D., F.R.S., and William 



S70 oosxoi. 

(equal in ^hardness to those found in the East), oliTins, and 
•ugite.* These minerals constitute the main constituents of 
of granite, gneiss, and mica schist, of basalt, dolerite, and 
many porphyries* The artificial production of feldspar and 
mica is of most especial geognostio importance, with reference 
to the theory of ihe formation of gneiss by the metamorphic 
agency of argillaceous schist, which contains all the consti- 
tuents of granite, potash not excepted.! It would not be 
very surprising, therefore, as is well observed by the distin- 
guished geognosist, von Dechen, if we were to meet with a 
fragment of gneiss formed on the walls of a smelting &maoe, 
which was bmlt of argillaoeous slate and graywacke. 

After having taken this general^ew of the three classes of 
erupted, sedimentary, and metamprphic rocks of the earth's 
crust, it still remains for us to consider the fourth class, com- 
prising conglomerates^ or rocks qf detritus. The very term 
recalls the destruction which the earth's crust has suffered, 
and likewise, perhaps, reminds us of the process of cementa- 
tion, which has connected together, by means of oxide of iron, 
or of some atgiUaceous and calcareous substances, the some- 
times rounded and sometimes angular portions of fragments. 

Hallows Miller, M.A., 184t. Br. Percy, in & coinlnimicatton with which 
he has kindly fayotired Ine, sajs, that tiie minerals which he has found 
artificially produced and proved by analysis, are humboldtilit^ gehlen- 
ite, olivine, and magnetic oxide of iron, in octahedral crystals. He 
snggests that the circumstance of the production of gehlenite at a high 
temperature, in an iron furnace, ma^ possibly be made available by 
geologists in explaining the formation of the rocks in which the natural 
mineral occurs, as in Fassathal in the Tyrol.] — Tr. 

* Of minerals purposely produced, we may mention idocraie and 
garnet (Mitscherlich, in Poggend. AnncUen der Phyaikf bd. xxxiL 
B. 340) ; ruby (Gaudin, in the Comptes vendue de rAcad&mie de Science, 
t. iv. pt. i. p. 999) ; olivine and augite (Mitscherlich and Berthier, in 
the AnncUes de Chimie et de Physique, t. xxiv. p. 3?6). l^olwith- 
standing the greatest possible similarity in ciystallin^ form, and perfect 
identity in chemical composition, existing, according to Gustav Boee, 
between augite and hornblende, hornblende has never been found 
accompanying augite in sconce, nor have chemists ever 8u<Jceeded in 
su*tificially producing either hornblende or feldspar (Mitscherlich in 
Poggend. Anncden, bd. xxxiil, & 840, and Hose, Reise nock dem Uraij 
bd. ii. s. 358 und 863). See also Beudant in the MeHk. de VAcad. deg 
Sciences, t viii. p. 221, and fiecquerers ingenious experiments in his 
J^aiU de VElectrieUi, t. i. p. 334, t. iii^. 218, and t. v. pp. 148 and.l8& 

t D'Anbuisson^ in the Journal de*Jnifmqit€, i IzViii p. l2d. 



SOCKS. 271 

Conglomerates and rocks of detritus, when considered in the 
widest sense .of the term, manifest characters of a double 
origin. The substances which enter into their mechanical 
composition have not been alooe accumulated by the action 
of the waves of the sea, or currents of fresh water, for there 
are some of these rocks the formation of which canhot be 
attributed to the action of water. " When basaltic islands 
and traehytic rocks rise on fissures, friction of the elevated 
rock against the walls of the fissures causes the elevated rock 
to be inclosed by conglomerates composed of its Own matted. 
The granxdes composing the sandstones of many formatloflB 
have oeen separated, rather by friction against the erupted 
volcanic or plutonic rock, than destroyed by the erosive forCe 
of a neighbouring sea. The existence of these friction con- 
glomerates, which are met with in enormous masses in both 
hemispheres, testifies the intensity of the force with which the 
erupted rocks have been propelled from the interior through 
the earth's crust. This detritus has subsequently been taken 
up by the waters, which have theii deposited it in the strata 
"wtdch it still covers."* Sandstohe formations are foimd im- 
bedded in all strata, from the lo^et Silurian transition stOtie 
to the beds of the tertiary formations, superposed on the chalk. 
They are foiind oh the margin of the boundless plains of the 
new continent, both within and without the tropics, extend- 
ing like breastworks along the ancient shore, against Which 
the sea once broke in foaming waves. 

If we cast a glance on 3ie geo^phldal distribution of 
rocks, and their relations in space, in that portion of the earth's 
crust which is accessible to us, We shall find that the most 
universally distributed chemical substance is sitmc acid^ 
generally in a variously coloured and opaque form. Next to 
solid Silicic acid, we ttiust teckOn carbonate of lime, and then 
the combiUatioUs of silicic acid with alumina, potash, and 
soda, with litne, magnesia, and oxide of iiron. 

The substances which We designate as racks are determi- 
nate Associations of a small number of minerals, in which 
some Combine parasitically, as it were, With others, but only 

• Leop. von Bnch, OeognoH. Britfit, & 76-82, where it is also shown 
why the new red faandstone (the TodUiegende of the Thuilngian FliiU: 
formation)^ and the ooal measorea^ must be regarded as produced hgf 
erupted porphyiy. 



3T3 cosuoE. 

under definite re>atious; thus, for instance, althcn^ qn 
(i>ilica), feldspar, and mica, are the pnscipal constita 
of granite, these minerals also occur, either individu 
or collectively, in many other formations. By way of il 
trating how the quantitative relations of one feldepa 
h)ck differ from another, richer in mica than the forme 
wotdd mention that, according to Mitscherlich, three ti 
more altunina and one-third more silica than that 
sessed by feldspar, give the constituents that enter into 
composition of mica. Potash is contained in both 
substance whose existence, in many kinds of rocks, is 
bably antecedent to Hie dawn of vegetation on the eai 
sur&ce- 

The order of succession, and the relative age of the difFe 
formations, may be recognized by the superposition of 
sedimentary, metamorphic, and conglomerate strata; by 
nature of the formations traversed by the erupted masses. 
—with the greatest certainty— by the presence of oi^;ani( 
mains and the differences of ^eir structure. The applicatii 
botanical and zoological evidence to determine the relative 
of rocks— this chronometry of the earth's eur£ice which 
already present to the lo% mind of Hooke — indicates oi 
the most glorious epochs of modem gcf^osy, which 
finally, on the Continent at least, been emancipated &om 
sway of Semitic doctrines. Pakeontological investigal 
have imparted a vivifying breath of grace and diversity U 
science of the solid structure of the earth. 

The fossUifcrous strata contain, entombed within them, 
floras and faunas of bygone ages. We ascend the atreai 
time, as in our study of the relations of euper-positior 
descend deeper and deeper through the different strata 
which lies revealed before us a past world of animal and v 
table life. Far-extending disturbances, the elevation of g 
mountain chains, whose relative ages we are able to de: 
attest the destruction of ancient, and the maniiestatioi 
recent organisms. A few of these older structures 1 
remained in the midst of more recent species. Owing to 
limited nature of our knowledge of existence, and from 
figurative tenns by which we seek to hide our ^norance, 
apply the appellation recent etructwre to tbe historical ph< 
mena of transition manifested in tiie otganisms, aa well ai 



PALJEOKTOLOGT. 278 

tbe fonns of primitive seas, and of elevated lands. In some 
cases these organised structures have been preserved perfect 
in the minutest details of tissues, integument, and articu- 
lated parts, whilst, in others, the animal passing over sofk 
ai^iUaceous mud, has left nothing but the traces of its 
course,* or the remains of its undigested food, as in the 
coprolites.f In the lower Jura formations (the lias of Lyme 
Regis), the ink bag of the sepia has been so wonderAiUy pre* 
served, that the material, which myriads of years ago might 
have served the animal to conceal itself from its enemies, stOl 

* [In certaui localities of the new red sandstone, in the valley of the 
Gonnecticnt, nmnerous tridactyl markings have been occasionally 
oheeryed on the siirfiEU2e of the slabs of stone when split asunder, in like 
manner as the ripple-marks appear on the sncceasiYe layers of sandstone 
in Tilgate Forest. Some remarkably distinct impressions of this kind, 
at Turner's Falls (Massachusetts) happening to attract the attention of 
Dr. James Deane, of Greenfield, that sagacious observer was struck with 
their resemblance to the foot-marks left on the mud-banks of the adja- 
cent river by the aquatic birds which had recently frequented the spot. 
The specimens collected were submitted to Professor G. Hitchcock, who 
followed up the inquiry with a zeal and success that have led to the 
most interesting results. No reasonable doubt now exists that the 
imprints in question have been produced by the tracks of bipeds 
impressed on the stone when in a soft state. The announcement of this 
extraordinary phenomenon was first made by Professor Hitchcock, in 
the American Journal qf Science, (January, 1836,) and that eminent 
geologist has since publi^ed full descriptions of the different species of 
imprints which he has detected, in his splendid work on the geology of 
Hassachusetts. — Mantell's Medals qf Creation, vol il. p. 810. In the 
work of Dr. Mantell above referred to, there is, in vol. ii. p. 815, an 
admirable diagram of a slab from Tumer^s Falls, covered with numerous 
foot-marks of birds, indicating the track of toi or twelve individuals 
of different sizes.]— 2V. 

-t* [From the examination of the fossils spoken of by geologists under 
the name of Coprolites, it is easy to determine the nature of the food of 
the animals, and some other points; and when, as happened occasionally^ 
the animal was killed while the process of digestion was going on, the 
stomach and intestines being partly filled wi& half-digested food, and 
eidiibiting the coprolites actually in situ, we can make out with cer- 
tainty, not only the true nature of the food, but the proportionate size 
of the stomach, and the length and nature of the intestinal canal. 
Within the cavity of the rib of an extinct animal, the palaeontologist 
thns finds recorded, in indelible characters, some of those hieroglyphiai 
upon which he founds his history. — The Ancient World, by D. T. 
Ansted, 1847, p. 178.}-2rr. 



tT4 0O8XOS. 

yields the colour with which its imi^ may be drawn.* In 
other, strata again, nothing remains but the faint impression of 
a muscle-shell, but even this, if it belong to a main diyidon of 
mollusca,t may serve to show the traveller, in some distant 
knd, the nature of the rock in which it is found, and the 
organic remains with which it is associated. Its discovery 
gives the history of the country in which it occurs. 

The analytic study of primitive animal and vegetable life 
has taken a double direction; the one is purely morphological, 
and embraces, especially, the natural history and physio- 
logy of organisms, filling up the chasms in the series of still 
living species by the fossil structures of the primitive world. 
The second is more specially geognostic, considering fossil 
remains in their relations to the superposition and relatiye 
age of the sedimentary formations, llie former has long 
predominated over the latter, and an imperfect and superficiid 
comparison of fossil remains with existing species has led 
to errors, which may still be traced in the extraordinary 
names applied to certain natural bodies. It was sought to 
identify all fossil species with those still extant in the same 
manner as, in the sixteenth century, men were led by &lse 
analogies to compare the animals of the New Continent with 

* A discovery made by MIbb Maiy Anning, who was likerwise the 
discoverer of the coprolites of fish. These coprolites, and the excre- 
meniM of the ichthyosauri, have been found in sucn abundance in England 
(as for instance near Lyme Regis), that, according to Bnckland's ez- 

greasion, they lie like potatoes scattered in the ground. See Buck- 
knd, G^logy considered witk ^r^&renc* to Na/baral Theology, vol. I 
pp. 188-202 and 305. With respect to the hope expressed by Hooke 
" to raise a chronology" from the mere study of broken and fossilized 
shells "and to state the interval of time wherein such or such catastrophes 
and mutations hare happened/' see his Posthwmoua Works, Lecture^ 
Feb. 29, 1688. 

[Still more wonderful Is the preservation of the substance of the 
animal of certain cephalopods in the Oxford clay. In some specimens 
recently obtained, and described by Professor Owen, not only the ink- 
bag, but the muscular mantle, the head, and its crown of arms, are all 
preserved in connection with the belemnite shell, while one specimen 
exhibits the large eyes and the funnel of the animal, and the remains of 
two fins, in addition to the shell and the ink-bag. See Ansted's Ancient 
World, p. 147.]— ^r. 

t Leop. Yon Buch, in the Ahlutmdlwngen det Akad. der Wtmk cv 
Berhn in dem J. IW, u. 64. 



PAi.jfioirTot.ooT. 275 

those of the old. Peter Camper, S6mmering, and Blumen- 
bach, had the merit of being l£e first, by the soientifio appli- 
cation of a more accurate comparati^ anatomy, to throw 
light on the osteological branch of palseontology— the ardue- 
ology of organic life; but the actual geognostic views of 
the doctHne of fossil remains, the felicitous combination of 
the zoological character with the order of succession, and the 
relatiTe ages of strata, are due to the labours of George 
CuYier, and Alexander Brongniart. 

The ancient sedimentary formations, and those of transition 
rocks, exhibit, in the organic remains contained within them, 
a mixture of structures very variously situated on the scale of 
progressively developed organisms. These strata contain but 
few plants, as, for instance, some species of Fuci, LycopodiacesB 
which were probablv arborescent, EquisetaceeB, and tropical 
ferns ; they present, however, a singular association of animal 
forms^ consisting of Crustacea (Trilobites with reticulated 
eyes, and Calymene), Brachiopoda {Spirifer^ Orthis), elegant 
SphsBronites, nearly allied to the Crinoiaea,* Orthoceratites, 
of the fiimily of the Cephalopoda, corals, and blended with 
these low organisms, nshes of the most singular forms, 
imbedded in Qie upper silurian formations. The family of 
the Cephalaspides, whose fragments of the species Ptericktya 
were long held to be Trilobites, belongs exclusively to the 
Devonian period, (the Old Red); manifesting, according; to 
Agassis, as peculiar a type amongst fishes as do the Ichthyo- 
sauri and Plesiosauri amongst reptiles.f The Goniatites, of 
the tribe of Ammonites,^ are manifested in the transition 
chaUc, in the greywacke of the devonian periods, and even in 
the latest silurian formations. 

The dependence of physiological gradation upon the age of 
the formations, which has not hitherto been shown with per- 
fect certainty in>the case of invertebrata,§ is most regularly 

• Leop. von Buch, OeHrgt^cnrrnMionen von Ruaaland, 1840, b. 24-40. 

f Ag:u3si2, Monographie des Poissona foBsilea du vieux Cfria Rouge, 
p. vi. and 4. 

X Leop. von Buch, in the Abhandl. der Bed. Akad., 1838, 8. 149- 
168 ; Beyrich, Beitr, zur KenntnUs dea Rheiniaclien Uehergangage- 
hirges, 18S7, s. 45. 

§ Agaauz, Recherc!iea sur lee Poisaons fossiles, i 1. Introd, p. xviU. 
Davy, C<nmkaion in Tratei, dial, iii 

I 2 



370 OOSKM. 

manirested in Tertebrated animals. The most ancieT 
these, as we have already seen, are fishes; next in the ' 
of succession of fongation, passing from the lower t< 
upper, come reptUes and mammalia. The first replj 
Saurian, the Monitor of Cuvier), which excited the atte 
of Leibnitz,* is found in cuperiferous schist of the Zecli 
of Thuringia; the Falieosaurus and Thecodontosaurus of 
tol are, according to Murchison, of the same age. 
Saurians are found in lai^ nnmbers in the muschelliall 
the keoper, and in the oolitic formations, where the; 
the most numerous. At the period of these forsu 
there existed Pl^osauri, having long swan-like necks 
sisting of thirty vertebrte ; Megalosauri, monsters resem 
the crocodile, forty-five feet in length, and having 
whose bones were like those of terrestrial mammnHiij 
species of large-eyed lehthyosauri, tbe Geosaurus or La 
gigantea of Sonimering, and finally, seven remarkable sf 
of PterodaotyleB,J or Saurians furnished with membrt 
wings. In tiie chalk the number of the crocodilial Sau 
diminishes, although this epoch is characterised by th' 
called Croco4lile of Maestricht, (the Mososaums of Ccmylx 
and the colossal, probably graminivorous Iguanodon. C 
has found aninmlH belonging to the existing families o 
crocodile in the tertiary formation, and Scheachzer'e at 
luvian man {homo diluvii testis), a large salamander i 
to the Axolotl, which I brought with me from the 

* A FroioBamna, according to Hemiami von Mejer. The ril 
Suiriau Hsserted to have been found in the mounUin limestone 
bonate of lime) of Northuinberlaiid (Herm. von Meyer, Paiaol 
B, 299), la regarded by Lyell (Geology, 1832, vol. i. p. 148) lu 
doiibtfuL Tlie discoverer himgalf refeired it to the itllavial strata 
cover the moantaiu limestone. 

t F. von Alberti, Manographie dea BvnUtn Sandateini, Muache 
untZ Keupera, 1834, s. 119 und 314. 

X See Hermann von Meyer's ingenioiiB coiusiderationB ref^atdii 
organizBtioD of the flying SiiurianB, in his Falieologica, s. 22S-251 
tbe fosail specimen of the Ptcrodactylns craadraalina, nbich, aa well 
longer known P. longiroBtria (Omilhoeephalus of Summering) 
fonnd at Solenhofen, in the lithographic slate of the upper Jura 1 
tion, Profcaaor Goldfuss has even discovei'ed (lacea of the membi 
wing, " irith the impressions of curling tufU of hair, in some pb 
fiill inch in leneth." 



PiXiEONTOlOGY. 277 

Mexican lakes, belongs to the most recent fresh- water forma- 
lions of Qilningen.* 

The determination of the relative ages of organisms by 
the superposition of the strata has kd to important results 
regarding the relations which have been discovered between 
extinct ^milies and species, (the latter being but few in 
number) and those which still exist. Ancient and modem ob- 
servations concur in showing that the fossil floras and faunas 
differ more from the present vegetable and animal forms in 
proportion as they belong to lower, that is, more ancient 
sedimentary formations. The numerical relations first deduced 
by Cuvier from the great pheonomena of the metamorphism 
of organic life,f have led, through the admirable labours of 
Deshayes and LyeU, to the most marked results, especially 
with reference to Ihe different groups of the tertiary forma- 
tions, which contain a considerable number of accurately 
investigated structures. Agassiz, who has examined 1700 
species of fossil fishes, and who estimates the niunber of 
living species which have either been described or are pre- 
served in museums, as 8000, expressly says, in his masterly 
work, that " with the exception of a few small fossil fishes 
peculiar to the argillaceous geodes of Gfreenland, he has not 
found any animal of this class, in all the transition, secondary 
or tertiary formations, which is specifically identical with any 
still extant fish." He subjoins the important observation 
" that in the lower tertiary formations, for instance, in the 
coarse granidar calcareous beds, and in the London clay4 one- 
third of the fossil fishes belong to wholly extinct families. 
Not a single species of a still extant family is to be found imder 
the chalk; whilst the remarkable family of the Sauroidi 
(fishes with enamelled scales), almost allied to reptiles, and 
which are found from the coal beds — ^in which the lai^er 
species lie — ^to the chalk, where they occur individually, bear 
the same relation to the two families, (the Lepidosteus and 
Polypterus,) which inhabit the American rivers and the Nile, 

• [Ansted'B Ancient World, p. 66.] — Tr. 

+ Cuvier, Becherches sur les Ossemens fossiles, t. i. pp. 62-67. Se^ 
ftiso the geological scale of epochs in Phillips' Geology, 1837, pp. 166- 
185. 

t See Wonders qf Oeohgy, vol. o, 230 "•— IV 



378 C08H08. 

as our present eleplumts and tapirs do to the Hastodon and 
Anaplotheriun of die primitive world."* 

The beds of chalk which contain two of these sanroid fishes 
and gigantic reptiles, and a whole extinct world of corals and 
musdes, have been proved by Ehrenberg's beautiful discoTe 
ries to oonsist of microscopic Pol^alamia, many of which 
still exist in our seas, and in the middle latitudes of the North 
Sea and Baltic. The first group of tertiary formations above 
the chalk, which has been designated as belonging to the 
JBoewM Period, does not, therefore, merit that designation, 
since *' the dawn of the world in which we live extends much 
further back in the history of the past than we have hitherto 
■uppo8ed.''t 

As we have already seen, fishes, which are th6 most ancient 
of all yertebrata, are found in the Silurian transition strata, and 
then uninterruptedly on through all formations to the strata 
of the tertiary period; whilst Saurians begin with the sech- 
stone. In like manner we find the first niftTnniAliA {Thyh' 
cotherium prevosHi, and T. httckiandn, which are nearly allied, 
according to Valenciennes,;!: with marsupial animals,) in the 
oolitic formations (Stonesfield-schist), and the first birds in the 
most ancient cretaceous strata. § Such are, according to the 
present state of our knowledge, the lowest 1| limits of fishes, 
saurians, mammalia, and birds. 

Although corals and serpuHdaa occur in the most ancient 
formations simultaneously with highly developed Cephalo- 
pedes and Crustaceans, thus exhibiting the most various orders 
grouped together, we yet discover very determinate laws in 
die case of many individual group? of one and the same orders. 

♦ Agaasia, Poiaaona foesUee, t. i. p. 80, and t. iii. pp. 1-52 ; Bnckland, 
Oeohgy, vol. i. pp. 273-277. 

+ Ehrenberg, Ueber nock jetot lebende Thierarten der KreidM 
dung, in the Abhandl der Berliner Akad., 1839, s. 164. 

X Valenciennes, in the Comptes rendus de rAcadimu des Sciences^ 
t. vii., 1838, pt. 2, p. 680. 

§ In the Weald-clay; Beudant, GSologie, p. 173. The omitholitea 
increase in number in the gypsum of the tertiary formations Cuvier, 
Ossements fossileSf t. ii. p. 302-328. 

II [Kecent collections from the southern hemisphere, show that this 
distribution was not so universal during the earlier epochs, as has gen^ 
rally been supposed. See Papers hy Darwin, Sharpe, Moma> vtA 
HcCoy, in the GeohffuxU JoumalJy^Tr. 



S80 008X08. 

measures, together with the lower new red sandstone (Todt- 
liegende and Zechstein).* 

3. The upper trios, including variegated sandstone,* mus- 
chelkalk, and keuper. 

4. Jura limestone (lias and oolite). 

5. Green sandstone, the quader sanstein, upper and lower 
ehalk, terminating the secondary formations, wmch b^in with 
limestone, 

6. Tertiary formations in three divisions, distinguished as 
granular limestone, the lignites, and the sub-apennine grayel 
of Italy. 

Then follow, in the alluvial beds, the colossal bones of lihe 
mammalia of the primitive world, as the Mastodon, Dinoihe- 
rium, Missurium, and the Megatherides, amongst which is 
Owen's sloth-like Mylodon, eleven feet in length.f Besides 
these extinct £Eunilies we find the fossil remains of stiU extant 
animals, as the elephant, rhinoceros, ox, horse, and stag. 
The field near BogqtBL, called the Campo de Oigantes, which 
is filled with the bones of Mastodons, and in which I caused 
excavations to be made, lies 8740 feet above the lerel 
of the sea, whilst the osseous remains, found in the elevated 
plateaux of Mexico, belong to true elephants of extinct 
species.]: The projecting spurs of the Himalaya, the Sewalik 

* Mnrchiflon makes two diyisions of the hunter sandstone, the upper 
being the same as the trios of Albert! ; whilst of the lower division, to 
which the Vosges sandstone of Elie de Beaumont belongs— the zechdein 
and the todtlieffende — ^he forms his Permian system. He makes the 
secondaiy formations commence with the upper trios, that is to say, 
with the upper division of our (German) hunter sandstone ; while the 
Permian system, the carboniferous or mountain limestone, and the 
Devonian and Silurian strata constitute his palceozoic formations. 
According to these views, the chalk and Jura constitute the upper, and 
the keuper, the muschelkalk, and the bunter sandstone ^e lower 
secondaiy formations : whilst the Permian system and the carboniferous 
limestone are the upper, and the Devonian and Silurian strata are the 
lower palaeozoic formation. The fundamental principles of this general 
classification are developed in the great work in which this inde&tigable 
British geologist purposes to describe the geology of a large part of 
Eastern Europe. 

+ [See MantelVs Wonders of Geology, vol. I p. 168.]— TV. 

t Cnvier, Ossemensfossiles, 1821, t. i. pp. 157, 261, and 264 ; see also 
Humboldt, Ueber die Hoehebene von Bogota, in the Deutsdien Viet' 
Ulgahrs-schr^ 1889, bd. L a. 117. 



PAIiiBOXTOLOaT. 281 

hills wUch haTe been so zealously investigated by Cap^ 
tain Cautley* and Dr. Falconer, and the Corderillas, whose 
elevations are, probably, of very different epochs, contain 
besides numerous Mastodons, the Sivatherium, and the gigantic 
land tortoise of the primitive world ( Colossochefys), which is 
twelve feet in length, and six in height, and several extant 
femilies, as elephants, rhinoceroses, and giraffes; and it is 
a remarkable jG^ct, that these remains are found in a zone 
which still enjoys the same tropical climate, which must be 
supposed to have piievailed at the period of the Mastodons. f 

Having thus passed in review both the inorganic forma* 
tions of the eiuth's crust and the animal remains which 
are contained within it, another branch of the history of 
organic life still remains for our consideration, viz., the epoch of 
vegetation, and the successive floras that have occurred 
simultaneously with the increasing extent of the dry land and 
the modifications of the atmosphere. The oldest transition 
strata, as we have already observed, contain merely cellular 
marine plants, and it is only in the devonian system that a few 
cryptogamic forms of vascular plants (Calamites and Lyco- 
podiacese), have been observed.} Nothing appears to corro- 
borate the theoretical views that have been started regarding 
the simplicity of primitive forms of organic life, or that 
vegetable preceded animal life, and that the former was neces- 
sarily dependent upon the latter. The existence of races of 
men inhabiting the icy regions of ^e North Polar lands, and 
whose nutriment is solely derived from fish and cetaceans, 
shows the possibility of maintaining lifie independently of 
vegetable substances. After ^e devonian system and the moim- 
tain limestone, we come to a formation, the botanical analysis 

* [The fofisil fanna of the Sewalik range of hills, skiriing the southern 
base of the Himalaya, has proved more abmidant in genera and species 
of mammalia than that of any other region yet explored. As a general 
expression of the leading features, it may be stated, that it appears to 
have been composed of representative forms of all ages, from the oldeH 
of the tertiary period doum to the modem; and of aU the geographical 
divisions of the Old Continent grouped together into one comprehensive 
&una. Fauna ArUiqua SivaXiensia, by Hugh Falconer, M.D., and 
Miyor P. T. Cautley.]--2V. 

t Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1844, No. 15, p. 109. 

t Beyilch, in Karaten's Archiv ffkr Minerahgie, 1844, bd. xriii. 
1.218. 



Sid OOSXOi. 

of which has made such brilliant advanees in modem timet.* 
The coal measures contain not only fern-like cryptogamie 
plants and phanerogamic monocotyledons (grasses, yuoca-Hke 
uliaoeeB, and palms), but also gymnospermio diootoledons (com- 
fersB and cycadeae), amounting in all to nearly 400 species, as 
characteristic of the coal formations. Of these we wiH only 
eoumerate arborescent calamites and lyoopodiaceie, scaly lepi* 
dodendra, sig^iUariflB, which attain a height of sixty feet, and are 
sometimes found standing upright, being distui^uished by a 
double system of vascular bundles, cactus-like stigmarie^, a 
great number of ferns, in some cases the stems, and in others 
the fronds alone being found, indicating by their abundance 
the insular form of the dry land,f cycadeee,! es^cially palms, 
although fewer in number,^ asterophyllites, haying whorl-like 
Aeaves, and allied to the n^ades, with araucaria-like conifene,! 
which exhibit fiunt traces of annual rings. This difference 
of character from our present vegetation, manifested in the 
vegetative forms which were so luxuriously developed on the 
drier and more elevated portions of the old red sandstone, 
was maintained through all the subsequent epochs to the 
most recent chalk formations; amidst the peculiar character, 
istics'exhibited in the vegetable forms contained in the coal 
measures, there is. however, a strikingly marked prevalence 

By the important labonn of Oonnt Stembeig^ Adolphe Bnmgniar^ 
CKlppert, and Lindley. 

t See Bobert Brown's Botany oj Congo, p. 42, and the Memoir of 
the unfortunate D'Urville, De la distribuium dea Fquf/^ea wr la mar- 
face du Olobe Terreetre, 

X Such are the cyoideea diflcovered by Count Sterabei^^ in the old car 
boniferouB formation at Radnitz in Bohemia^ and deseribed by Corda, 
(two species of cycatides and zamites Oordai ; see GQppert, Fo8sUe Cyoor 
deen in den Arbeiten der ScMes. ChseUschqft, fikr vaterf, OuUur im 
J. 1848, s. 83, 87, 40, and 50). A oycadea (PterophyUum gonorrhaehis, 
Otfpp.) has also been found in the carboniferous fbrmationa in Upper 
Silesia, at EOnigshUtte. 

§ Lindley, Fossil Flora, No. xv. p. 163. 

II Fossil Coni/erce, in Buckland's Geology, pp. 488-490. Witham baa 
the great merit of liaying first recognised the existence of coniferss in 
the early yegetation of the old carboniferous formation ; almost all the 
trunks of trees found in this formation were preyionsly regarded sf 
palms. The species of the genus Araucaria are, however, not peeih 
liar to the coal formationa of the British islands ; they likewiM oceor ia 
Upper Silesia. 



PALlEOKTOIiOOY. 2SS 

of the same families, if not of tlie same species* in all paiis of 
the earth as it then existed, as in New Holland, Canada, 
Greenland, and Melville Island. 

The vegetation of the primitive period exhibits forms, which 
from their simultaneous affinity with several families of the 
present world, testify that many intermediate links must have 
become extinct in the scale of organic development. Thus, 
for example, to mention only two instances, we would notice 
the lepidodendra, which, according to Lindley, occupy a place 
between the coniferee and the lycopodiace8B,f and the arauca- 
idae and pines, which exhibit some pecu liaritiesin the union of 
their vascular bundles. Even if we limit our consideration to 
the present world alone, we must regard as highly important, 
the discovery of cycadeae and comferaB side by side with 
sagenarise and lepidodendra in the ancient coal measures. 
The conifercB are not only allied to cupuliferas and betulinas 
with which we find them associated in lignite formations, 
but also with lycopodiaceee. The family of the sago-like cyoa- 
dese approaches most nearly to palms in its external appear- 
ance, whilst these plants are specially allied to comferaB in 
respect to the structure of their blossoms and seed4 Where 
maay beds of coal arc superposed over one another, the feimi- 
lies and species are not always blended, being most frequently 
grouped together in separate genera; lycopodiaceae and cer- 
tain ferns being alone found in one bed, and stigmariaa and 
sigOlarisB in another. In order to give some idea of the 
luxuriance of the vegetation of the primitive world, and of 
the immense masses of vegetable matter which was doubtless- 
lessly acoimiidated in currents and converted in a moist con- 
dition into coal,§ I would instance the Saaxbriicker coal 

• 

* Adolphe Bpongniart, Prodrome cTune Hist, des V^gitauxfossiles, 
p. 179 ; Backland, Qeohgy, p. 479 ; Endlicher and Unger^ OrundzUge 
der JBatanik, 1848, 8. 455. 

ir ** By means of Lepidodendron, a better passage is established from 
flowering to flowerless plants, than by either Eqnisetum or Cycas, or any 
other known genus." — Lindley and Hutton, Fossil Flora, vol. ii. p. 68. 

X Eunth, Anordnung der Pflanzenfamilien in his Handh. der 
Botanik, s. 807 und 314. 

§ That coal has not been formed from vegetable fibres charred by 
fire, but that it has more probably been produced in the moist way by 
the action of sulphuric acid, is strikingly demonstrated by the excellent 
observation made by Gdppert (Karsten, Archiv fUr MinercUogie, 
bd. xviii. s. 580), on the conyerslon of a fragment of amber-tree into 



S84 00SK08. 

meastires, where 120 beds are superposed on one anoHier, 
exclusive of a great many which are less than a foot in thick- 
ness ; the coal beds at Johnstone, in Scotland, and those in the 
Creuzot, in Burgundy, are some of them, respectively, thirty 
and fifty feet in thickness,* whilst in the forests of our tempe- 
rate zones the carbon contained in the trees, growii^ over a 
certain area, would hardly suffice, in the space of a hundred 
Tears, to cover it with more than a stratum of seven French 
lines in thickness.f Near the mouth of the Mississippi, and 
in the " wood hills" of the Siberian Polar Sea, described by 
Admiral Wrangel, the vast numb^ of trunks of trees accu- 
mulated by river and sea-water currents, affords a striking 
instance of the enormous quantities of drift wood which must 
have £a,voured the formation of carboniferous depositions in 
the inland waters and insular bays. There can be no doubt 
that these beds owe a considerable portion of the substances 
of which they consist to grasses, small branching shrubs, and 
cryptogamic plants. 

The association of palms and coniferss which we have indi- 
cated as being characteristic of the coal formations, is dis- 
coverable throughout almost all formations to the tertiary 

black coal. The coal and the unaltered amber lay side by side. Eegard- 
Ing the part which the lower forms of vegetation may have had in the 
formation of coal-beds, see Link, in the AbhandL der Berliner Akade- 
mie der WtMenachafteny 1838, s. 38. 

* [The actual total tMckneas of the different beds in England yaries 
considerably in different districts, but appears to amount in the Lanca- 
shire coal-field to as much as 150 feet. — Ansted's ^wcte«< World, p. 78. 
For an enumeration of the thickness of coal measures in America and 
the Old Continent, see MMitell's Wonders of Geology, vol. ii p. 69.]— 
Tr. 

t See the accurate labours of CheTandier, in the Comptes rendus de 
VAcad&mie des Sciences, 1844y t. xviii. pt. i. p. 285. In comparing this 
bed of carbon, seven lines in thickness, with beds of coal, we must not 
omit to consider the enormous ipressure to which the latter have been 
subjected from superimposed rock, and which manifests itself in the 
flattened form of the stems of the trees found in these subterranean 
regions. '' The so-called wood-hills discovered in 1806 by Sirowotskoi, 
on the south coast of the Island of Kew Siberia, consist, according to 
Hedenstrom, of horizontal strata of sandstone, alternating with bitu- 
minous trunks of trees, forming a mound thirty fathoms in height ; at 
the summit the stems were in a vertical position. The bed of drift- 
wood is visible at five wersts distance." See Wrangel, Reise Idngs der 
XiordkOste von Siberien in den Jahren 1820-24, th. L & 102. 



rujwinoLOOT. 

[n the present condition of the world tJ 
exhibit no tendency vhaterer to occui 
We have so accustomed ourselves, alt 

regard coniferaa as a northern form, tbi 
'pling of surprise when, in ascending fron 
jth Pacific towards Chilpansingo and t 
Mexico, between the Venla de la Moxm 
r Citrone8,4000feet above the level of the 
' through a dense wood of pinus occiden 

1 that Qicse trees which are so similar t 
e, were associated with fan palms* ( Cory 

with brightly-coloured parrots. Soul 
but not a single species of pine ; and tl 
in saw the familiar form of a fir tree i 

with the strange appearance of the 
er Columbus, in his first voyage of dis* 
md palms growing tt^ther on the nc 

of Uie island of Cuba, likewise within ' 
eely above the level of the sea. 

whom nothing escaped, mentions the 

a remarkable circumstance, and his &ieni 

ary of Ferdinand the Catholic, remarks 

■' that palmeta and pineta are found 

irjpha ia the toyate, (in Aztao, loyaU) or the 
reB ; see Hmuboldt Bii|L Boupland, Synopsis . 
Noni, tip. 302. Professor BnBcbnuum, who 
with the American langusges, remarke, Uini 
) named in Tepe's VoadnikErio de la Lengtw 
tec word zoyatl (Moliuit, VocaJralario en Leng 
a, p. 25,) recnrs in names of places, such as, 2 

Baracoa and Cayos de Hoya ; see ttie Admin 
id 2Tth of November, 1492, and Hnmbnldt, ]> 
It la GiographU du Nouveaii Conti«enl, t. i 
ColumbuB, who invariably paid the most rem: 
latural objects, was the first to observe the diffei 
g and Pin-as. " I find," said be, " en la tiei 
s que no llevan pinas (fir-cones), pero porta 

naturaleza, que (las frutos) parecen azeytunas d 
rhe great botanut, BicliaFd, when he publishetl 

CycadcEe and Conifene, little imagined that bi 
.er, and even before the end of the fifteenth « 
Apoiated Podocarptia from the Abietiueee. 



S86 OOBMOS. 

together in the newly-discoTered land." It b a matter o! 
much importance to geology to compare the present dis- 
tribution of plants over the eaurth's surface with that exhibited 
in the fossil floras of the primitive world. The temperate 
Eone of the southern hemisphere, which is so rich in seas and 
islands, and where tropical fotms blend so remarkably with 
those of colder parts of the earth, presents, according to Dar- 
win's beautiful and animated descriptions,"^ the most instruc- 
tive materials for the studv of the present and the past 
geography of plants. The nistory of the primordial ages is, 
in the strict sense of the word, a part of the history of plants. 

Cy cadese, which, £rom the number of their fossil species, must 
have occupied a far more important part in the extinct than 
in the present vegetable world, are associated with the nearly 
allied comfersB from the coal formations upwards. They are 
almost wholly absent in the epoch of the variegated sandstone 
which contains conifersB of rare and luxuriant structure ( VoU 
tizia, Haidingera, Albertia) ; the cycadeee, however, occur most 
frequently in the keuper and lias strata, in which more than 
twenty chfferent forms appear. In the chalk marine plants 
and naiades predominate. The forests of cycadesB of the Jura 
formations had, therefore, loi^ disappeared, and even in ^e 
more ancient tertiary formations they are quite subordinate to 
the comferae and palms.f 

The lignites, or beds of brown coalj which are present in 
all divisions of the tertiary period, present, amongst the most 
ancient cryptogamic land plants, some few palms, many coni- 
fersB having distinct annu^ rings, and foliaceous shrubs of a 
more or less tropical character. In the middle tertiary 
period we again find palms and cycadeae frdly established, and 
finally a great similarity with our existing flora, manifested 
in the sudden and abundant occurrence of our piaes and firs, 
cupuliferse, maples, and poplars. The dicotyledonous stems 
found in lignite are occasionally distinguished by colossal 

• Charles Darwin^ Journal of the VoyageB qf the Advenmre and 
Beagle, 1839, p. 271. 

+ GSppert describes three other Cycadese (species of Cycadites and 
Pterophyllum), found in the brown carboniferous schistose clay of Alt- 
Battel and Commotau, in Bohemia. They very probably belong to the 
Pocepe period. Qdppert, Fosaile Oycadem, s. 61. 

t \Medah of Creatwn, vol. L ck v. &c. Wonders ^ CMofff, 
yroL I pp. 278, 892.]— arV. 



Ttvat Mge. In the tnmk of a tree found at ] 
h counted 793 annual mge,* In the north of Fi 
, near Abbeville, oaks have been disooTered ii 

rg of the Somme, which measured fourteen fe 
a thickneas which is very remarkable in th 
and without the tropica. According to G6p' 
inveeligationi, which, it is hoped, may soa 
1 by plates, it would appear that " all the amfa 
; cornea from a coniferous tree, which, to judf 
xtant remains of the wood and the bark at difl 
iroachea veiy nearly to our white and red ] 
formiag a diatinct apecies. The amber tree o 
ivorld {PiniUs mccifer), abounded in resin 
r surpasaing Ihat mamfeated by any extant conif 
not only were large massea of amber depositi 
the bark but also in the wood itaelf, followin 
' the medullary taya, which together with ligi 
till diaceniible under the microscope, and periphi 
the rings, being sometimes both yellow and wh: 
Qg the vegetable forms inclosed in amber are mal 
ilossoms of our native acicular-leaved trees 
B, whilat fragments which are recogniaed aa be 
lia, cupreaaua, ephedera, and castania vesca, bl< 
le of junipers and firs, indicate a vegetation difl 
; of the coasts and plains Of the Baltic. "f 

and, Oedosy, p. E09, 

for^rta of amber-pines, PinUa mcafgr, irere in Uis 
rt of what ii now the bed of the Baltic, In about 65° ] 
long. The diffferent colours of amber are derived froi 
sdmixtnre. The amber contdns fra^enta of vcj 
d trom these It has been ascertained that the ambi 
lained four other speoiea of pine (besides the Pinitet 
tl cjpresaea, yens, and junipers, with oaks, poplars, bi 
ether forty-eight species of trees and shrubl, constitu 
irth American character. There are slao aome ferns, i 
iivenrorts. 3ee Profeisor Gapped, Oeot. Tram., ISi! 
ira, small crastacsanB, leaves, and fragments of vegetable 
led in some of the masses. Upwards of 800 species of 
observed ; most of them belong t» speolea, snd even \ 
.r to be distinct from any now knowu, but others are 
udigenons species, and some are identical with existing 
It more sontbem climes.— Wmden (/ Oeohfg, voL i. p 



288 COSMOS. 

We have now passed through the whole series of forma- 
tions comprised in the geological portion of the present work, 
proceeding from the oldest erupted rock and the most ancient 
sedimentary formations to the alluvial land on which are 
scattered those large masses of rock, the causes of whose 
general distribution have been so long and variously dis- 
cussed, and which are, in my opinion, to be ascribed rather 
to the penetration and violent outpouring of pent-up waters 
by the elevation of mountain-chains, than to the motion of 
floating blocks of ice.* The most ancient structures of the 
transition formation with which we are acquainted are slate 
and greywacke, which contain some remains of sea weeds 
from the silunan or cambrian sea. On what did these so- 
called most ancient formations rest, if gneiss and mica schist 
must be regarded as changed sedimentary strata? Dare we 
hazard a conjecture on that which cannot be an object of 
actual geognostio observation? According to aa aacient 
Indian mylh, the earth is borne up by an elephant, who in his 
turn is supported by a gigantic tortoise, in order that he may 
not fall; but it is not permitted to the credulous Brahmins to 
inquire on what the tortoise rests. We venture here upon a 
somewhat similar problem, and are prepared to meet widi 
opposition in our endeavours to arrive at its solution. In the 
first formation of the planets, as we stated in the astronomical 
portion of this work, it is probable that nebulous rings revolv- 
mg round the sun were agglomerated into spheroids, and 
consolidated by a gradual condensation proceeding from the 
exterior towards the centre. What we term the ancient 
Silurian strata are thus only the upper portions of the solid 
crust of the earth. The erupted rocks which have broken 
through and upheaved these strata, have been elevated from 
depths that are wholly inaccessible to our research; they 
must, therefore, have existed imder the silurian strata, and 
been composed of the same association of minerals which we 
term granite, augite, and quartzose porphyry, when they are 
made known to us by eruption through the surfsice. Basing 
our inquiries on analogy, we may assume that the substances 
which fill up deep fissures and traverse the sedimentary strata, 

* Leopold von Buch, in the Abhandl. der ATcad. der Wwenach, jm 
Berlin, 1814-15, s. 161; and in Poggend., AnncUen, bd. iz. s. 57fi; 
£iie do Beaumont^ in the AnncUes dee Sciences NcOwreUea, t ziz. p. 60i 



aEOOKOSIIC PEBIOSS. 269 

unificaliong of a lower deposit. The foci of 
are situated at enciTmous depths, aad judging 
ftble &igiaeiite which I have found ia various 
1 incrusted in lava currents, I should deem it 
ble that a primordial granite rock ftmns the 
le whole stratified edifice of fossil reQutins.* 
g olivine first shows itself in the period of 
yte Btm later, whilst eruptions of granite 
am fi:om the products of their metamorphio 
>och of the oldest sedimentaiy strata of the 
ion. Where knowledge cannot be attained 
perceptive evidence, we may be allowed from 
8 than from a careM comparison of facts, to 
ire by which granite wouM be restored to a 
mtes^ right and title to be considered aa 

ogress of geognosy, that ia to say, the more 
idge of the geognostic epochs characterised 
mineral formations, by the peculiarities and 
i oi^ianisms contained withm them, and W 
be strata, whether uplifted or inclined hon- 
i, tw means of the causal connection existing 
i phenomena, to the distribution of solids and 
intments and seas, which constitute the upper 
lOt. We here touch upon a point of contact 
cal and gec^raphical get^osy, which would 
complete history of the form and extent of 
; limitation of the solid by the fiuid parts of 
ee, and their mutual relations of area have 
derably in the long series of geognostic ^wchs. 
' different, for instance, when carboniferous 
Eontally deposited on the inclined beds of the 
>ne and old red sandstone ; when lias and oolite 
mm of keuper and muschelkalk, and the chalk 
.opes of green sandstone and jura limestone. 
Beaumont, we term the waters in which the 
nd chalk formed a soft deposit, the jarassin or 
retaceous seas, the outlines of these formations 
: the two corresponding epochs, the boundaries 



290 eosMOS, 

between the already dried land and the ocean in which these 
rocks were forming. An ingenious attempt has been made to 
draw maps of this physical portion of primitive geography, 
and we may consider such diagrams as more correct than 
those of the wanderings of lo or the Homeric geography, 
since the latter are merely graphio representations of mythical 
images, whilst the former are based upon po@itiye ftcts 
deduced from the science of geology. 

The results of the investigations made regarding the %real 
relations of the solid portions of our planet are as follows ; 
in the most ancient tmies during the silurian and devonian 
transition epochs, and in the secondary formations including 
the trias, the continental portions of the earth were limited 
to insular groups, covered with vegetation; these islands 
at a subsequent period became united, giving rise to numer- 
ous lakes and deeply indented bays ; and £nally, when the 
chains of the Pyrenees, Apennines, and Carpathian moun- 
tains were elevated about the period of the more and^t 
tertiary formations, large continents appeared, having almost 
their present si^ie.* In the silurian epoch, as well as in that 
in which the cycadea? flourished in such abundance, and 
gigantic saurians were living, the diy land, &om pole to pole, 
was probably less than it now is in tixe South Pacific and tlie 
Indian Ocean. We shall see, in a subsequent part of this 
work, how this preponderating quantity of water combined 
with other causes must have contributed to raise tSie tempe- 
rature and induce a greater uniformity of dimate. Here we 
would only remark, in considering the gradual extension of 
the dry land, that shortlv before the disherbances which at 
longer or shorter intervals caused the sudden destruction of 
BO great a number of colossal vertebrata in the diluvial period^ 
some parts of the present continental masses must have bi»n 

* [Those movementa, desoribed in so few wwdn, were doubtlen goiiig 
on for many thousands and tens of thoiuands of revolutioxis of our 
planet. They were aocomplUiied also by vast but slow ehanges of other 
kinds. The expanalye force employed in lifting np by migh^ move- 
ments the northern portion of the continent of Asia» found partial v«nt; 
and from partial subaqueous iissiu'es there were poured out the tabular 
masses of basalt occuiring in Central India, while an extenedye area of 
depression in the Indian Ocean, marked by the coral islands of the 
LaccadiyeS; the Maldiyes, the great Cha^:o8 bank, and some other% were 

the course of depression by a conntenustjing inov«nM3n(^AnaM's 
'ent World, p. 346, &c]-2V. 



PHTSICAL GEOGBAPHY. 391 

completely separated from one another. Theffe is a great 
similarity in South America and Australia between still living 
and extmct species of animals. In New Holland fossil 
remains of the kangaroo have been found, and in New Zea- 
land the semi-fossilised bones of an enormous bird, resembling 
the ostrich, the dinomis of Owen,* which is nearly allied to 
the present apteryx, and but little so to the recently extinct 
dronte (dodo), of the Island of Rodriguez. 

The form of the continental portions of the earth may, 
perhaps, in a great measure, owe their elevation above the 
surrounding level of the water to the eruption of quartzose 
porphyry, which overthrew with violence the first great vege- 
tation, from which the material of our present coal measures 
was formed. The portions of the earth's surface which we 
term plains are nothing more than the broad summits of hills 
and mountains, whose bases rest on the bottom of the ocean. 
Every plain is, therefore, when considered according to its 
submarme relations, an elevated plateau, whose inequalities 
have been covered over by horizontal deposition of new sedi- 
mentary formations, and oy the accumulation of alluvium. 

Am.ong the general subjects of contemplation appertaining 
to a work of this nature, a prominent place must be giveii^ 
first to the consideration of the qitanttty of the land raised 
(ibove the level of the sea, and next to the individual configu- 
ration of each part, either in relation to horizontal extension 
(relations of form), or to vertical elevation, (hypsometrical 
relations of mountain-chains.) Our planet has two envelopes, 
of which one, which is general — ^the atmosphere-^is composed 
of an elastic fluid, and the other — ^the sea^is only locally dis- 
tributed, surrounding, and therefore modiiying, the form of tho 
land. These two envelopes of air and sea constitute a natural 
whole, on which depend the difference of climate on the earth's 
surface, according to the relative extension of the aqueous and 
solid parts, the form and aspect of the land, and the direction 
and elevation of mountain chains. A knowledge of the reci- 
procal action of air, sea, and land, teaches us that great 
meteorological phenomena cannot be comprehended when 
considered independently of geognostio relations. Meteor- 

* [See American Jcmmal {^ Science, voL zlv. p. 187; and Medals 
^Creaiion, vol. ii. p. 817 ; Traois. Zootog, Soeieiifqf Limdon, vol ilA 
Wonders of Oeoloffyk vol* i* P. 129.]— 2V. 

v2 



S92 cosMOf. 

ology, as well as the geography of plants and animals, has 
only begun to make actual progress since the mutual depend- 
ence of the phenomena to be investigated has been fiilly 
lecognised. The word climate has certainly special rf>ierence 
to the character of the atmosphere, but this character is itself 
dependent on the perpetually concurrent influences of the 
ocean, which is univerisally and deeply agitated by currents 
having a totally opposite temperatu^, and of radiation from 
the diy land, which varies gready in form, elevation, colour, and 
fertility, whether we consider its bare rocky portions or those 
that are covered with arborescent or herbaceous vegetation. 

In the present condition of the sur&ce of our planet the 
area of the solid is to that of the fluid parts as 1 : 2|-, (accord- 
ing to Bigaud, as 100 : 270)*. The islands form scarcely -^ 
of the continental masses, which are so unequally divided that 
they consist of three times more land in the northern than in 
the southern hemisphere; the latter being, therefore, pre- 
eminently oceanic. Prom 40® south latitude to the Antarctic 
Pole the earth is almost entirely covered with water. The 
fluid element predominates in like manner between the east- 
em shores of ihe old, and the western shores of the new conti- 
nent, being only interspersed with some few insular groups. 
The learned hydrographer Fleurieu has very justly named tiis 
vast oceanic basin which, imder the tropics, extends over 145*^ 
of longitude, the Great Ocean, in contradistinction to aU other 
seas. The southern and western hemispheres (reckoning the 
latter from the meridian of Teneriffe) are therefore more rich 
in water than any other region of the whc^e earth. 

These are the main points involved in the consideration of 
the relative quantity of land and sea, a relation which exer- 
cises so important an influence on the distribution of tempe- 
rature, the variations in atmospheric pressure, the direction 
of the winds, and the quantity of moisture contained in the 
air, with which the development of vegetation is so essentially 
connected. When we consider that nearly three-fourths of 
the upper sur&ce of our planet are covered with water,t we 

* See TraiMac6iona of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol yl 
pt. 2, 1837^ p. 297. Other writers hav<o given the ratio as 100 : 284. 

f In the middle ages, the opinion pre^iuiled, that the sea covered only 
ciie4eTen1h of the siurfiB.ce of the globe, an opinion which Cardinal 
d' Ailly i/mago Mimdi, cap. S,) founded on the fouith apocryphal book of 



f STHCiX OSOaKAFRT. 293 

irised at tbe imperfect condidoii of meteor- 
begiimmg of tlie present century; eince it is 
subsequent period tliat sumerouB accurate 
the temperature of (he sea at different lati- 
ierent eeasons, have been mode and numeri- 

. confignratioii of continents in their general 
leion, was already made a subject of intellec- 
m by the ancient Qreeka. Con^ecturcB were 
ing the maximum of the extension &om west 
sarchus placed it, according to the tcBtimony 
in the latitude of Rhodes, in Uie direction of 
■om the pillars of Hercules to Thine. This 
leen termed the parallel of the du^kragtn of 
aid down with an astronomieal accuracy of 

OS I hare stated in anodier work, is well 
□g surprise and admiration.* Strabo, wbo 
ifluenced I^ Eratostlienes, appears to have 
convinced that this parallel of 36° was the 
i extension of the thien existing world, that 
ftd some intimate connection with tlie finm of 
[lereibrc, places under this line tlie continent 

he divined in die northern hemisphere. 
ind the coftsts of Thine. f 
already remarked, one hemisphere of the 
we divide the sphere through the equator 
meridian of Teneriffe,) has a much greater 
evated land than the opposite one: these 
a;irt tracts of land, which we term the east' 
1, or the old and new continents, present, 
tly with the most striking contrasts of con- 
Msitiou of their axes, some simiLu-ities of 

, who derived s greit portimi of his ccemognipMcal 
3 Cardinal'a work, irw mnch iutersBted in npholdins 
illueai of the sea, io which the miaunderBtood expreg- 

att'eom" contributed not a little. See Humlwldt, 
e VHUl. de la OSograpkit, t, i. p. 186. 
in Hndson, Qeogretphi minwei, t. ii. p. 4; see Hmo- 
t. i. pp. 120-125. 

p. es, Castrob ; see Eoiaboldt, Ezamtn eriL, t L 



fi94 ooticoa. 

form, especially wilh reference to the mutual rdalaoiu of 
their opposite coasts. In the eastern continent, the predomi- 
nating direction-— the position of the major axis— inclines from 
east to west (or more correctly speaking from south-west to 
north-east), whilst in the western continent it inclines from 
south to north, (or rather fr^)m south south-east to north 
north-west). Both terminate to the north at a parallel coin- 
ciding nearly with that of 70®; whilst they extend to the 
south in pyramidal points, having submarine prolongations of 
islands and shoals. Such, for instance, are die Archipelago 
of Tierra del Fuego, the Lagullas Bank south of the C^pe of 
Good Hope, and Van Diemen*s Land, separated from New 
Holland by Bass's Straits. Northern Asia extends to the 
above parallel at Cape Taimura, which, according to Ejrusen- 
stem, IS 78° 16', whilst it fells below it from the mouth of the 
Great Tschukotschja Biver eastward to Behring's Straits, in 
the eastern extremity of Asia^— Cook's East Cape— which, 
according to Beechev, is only 66° 3'.* The northern shore of 
the New Continent rollows with tolerable exactness the paral- 
lel of 70°, since the lands to the north and south of Barrow's 
Strait, from Boothia Felix, and Victoria Lend, are merely 
detached islands. 

The pyramidal configuration of all the southern extremities 
of continents belongs to the simititudines physicfB in configura- 
tione Mundi, to which Bacon already called attention in his 
Novum Organon, and with which Beinhold Foster, one of 
Cook's companions in his second voyage of circumnavigation, 
connected some ingenious considerations. On looking east- 
ward from the meridian of Teneriffe, we perceive that the 
southern extremities of the three continents, viz., Africa as 
the extreme of the Old World, Australia, and South America, 
successively approach nearer towards the South Pole. New 
Zealand, whose length extends fully 12® of latitude, forms an 
intermediate link between Australia and South America, like- 
wise terminating in an island. New Leinster. It is also a re- 
markable circimistance that the greatest extension towards the 
south falls in the Old Continent, imder the same meridian in 

* On the mean latitude of the Northern Asiatic shores^ and the 
true name of Cape Taimura (Cape Siewero-Wostotschnoi), and Cap« 
Korth-Easfc (SchfUagskoi Mys), see Humboldt, Asie centnUe, t ill 
pp. 86, 37. 



FHYSICAIi OECaUAPHY. 29ft 

whicli the extrelnest projection towards the North Pole is 
manifested. This will be perceived on comparing the Cape of 
Good Hope and the Lagtillas Bank with the North Cape of 
Europe, and the Peninsula of Malacca with Cape Taiinura in 
Siberia.* We know not whether the poles of the earth are 
Burronnded by land or by a sea of ice. Towardii the North 
Pole the parallel of 82^ 5& has been reached, but towards 
tbe South Pole only that of 78° 10'. 

The pyramidal terminations of the great Continents are vari- 
Dusly repeated on a smaller scale, not only in the Indian Ocean, 
uid in the Peninsulas of Arabia, Hindostan, and Malacca, 
but also, as was remarked by Eratosthenes and Polybius, in 
the Mediterranean, where these writers had ingeniously com- 
pared together the forms of the Iberian, Italian, and Hellenic 
peninsulas.f Europe, whose area is fire times smaller than 
that of Asia, may almost be regarded as a multi^iously 
articulated western peninsula of the more compact mass of the 
Continent of Asia, me climatic relations of the former being to 
tibose of the latter as the Peninsula of Brittany is to the rest 
of France.} The influence exercised by the articulation and 
higher development of the form of a continent on the moral 
and intellectual condition of nations was remarked by Strabo,§ 
who extolls the varied form of our small continent us a special 

* Hiunboldif Aiie centraie, i i. pp. l{^8-20d. The southern point 
of Ametica^ a&d the Archipelago wiaSh we eall Terra del Fuego, lie in 
the meridian of the north-western part of Baffin's Bay^ and of Qie great 
polar land, whdse limits have not as jet been ascertained^ and which 
perhaps belongs to West Greenland. 

t Strabo, lib* 11. pp. 92, 108, Cflsaub. 

t Humboldt, ^tf^ eeniraie, i ilL p. 25. As early as the year 181 <r, 
Ift my Workj De dis^HbtUione gwgraphiea plantarum €ecundum codi 
iempeHem ieH aUUudinem motUivm, I directed attention to the impor- 
tant influence of cotnpact and of deeply-artieolated oontinents on climate 
and hnman eitillzation, ** Be^onesrel per Binns lonatos in longa comua 
porrectie, angnloeis littormn recessibns quasi membratim discerptsB, vel 
spatia patentia in inmiensom^ qnorom littora nullis incisa angulis ambit 
sine oi^ractu Oceanus" (pp. 81, 182). On the relations of the extent of 
coast to the area of a continent (coiuaidered in some degree as a measure 
of the accessibility of the interior), see the inquiries in Berghaus, 
AnncUen der Erdhmde, bd. zii. 1835, 8. 490, and PhysikcU. Jtkup 
1839, Ko. iii s. 69. 

§ Strabo, lib. ii pp. 92, 198, QtmaUk 



996 coflMOS. 

adTantage. Africa* and South America, which mamfest so 
great a resemblance in their configuration, are also the two 
continents that exhibit the simplest littoral outlines. It is 
only the eastern shores of Asia, which, broken as it were by 
the force of the currents of the oceanf (Jrctctas ex mqwrt 
ternis) exhibit a richly yariegated configuration, peninsulas 
and contiguous islands alternating from the Equator to 60° 
north latitude. 

Our Atlantic Ocean presents all the indications of a yalley. 
It is as if a flow of eddying waters had been directed fint 
towards the north-east, then towards the north-west, and back 
again to the north-east. The parallelism of the coasts north 
of 10** south latitude, the projecting and receding angles, the 
convexity of Brazil opposite to the Gulf of Guinea, that of 
Africa under the same parallel, with the Gulf of the Antilles, 
all favour this apparently speculative view. J In this Atlantic 
valley; as is almost everywhere the case in the configuration 
of liu:ge continental masses, coasts deeply indented, and rich 
in islands, are situated opposite to those possessing a different 
character. I long since drew attention to the geognostic 
importance of entering into a comparison of the western 
coast of Africa and of South America within the tropics. 
The deeply curved indentation of the African continent 

* Of Africa^ Plmy eays (r. 1) " Nee alia pars terrarnm pauciores recipit 
i^us." The small Indian peninsula pn this side the Ganges presents, 
in its triangalar outline, a third analogous form. In ancient Greece 
there prevailed an opinion of the regular configuration of the dry land. 
There were four gulfs or bays, among which the Persian Gulf was placed 
in opposition to the Hyrcanian or Caspian Sea, (Arrian, vii. 16; Pint, /a 
vita Alexandrif cap. 44 ; Dionys. Perieg., v. 48 and 630, pp. 11, 88, 
Bemh). These four bays and the isthmuses were, according to the 
optical fancies of Agesianaz, supposed to be reflected in the moon 
(Plut., De Facie in orhem LuncB, pp. 921, 19). Bespecting the terra 
guadrifida, or four divisions of the dry land, of which two lay north and 
two south of the equator, see Macrobius, Comm. in Somnium Scipiwu, 
ii. 9. I have submitted this portion of the geography of the ancients, 
regarding which great confusion prevails, to a new and careful examinar 
tion, in my Examen crit. de VHist, de la 0€ogr., t. i. pp. 119, 145, 180-- 
185, as also in Asie centr., t ii. pp. 172-178. 

f Fleurieu, in Voyage de Marchand atUour du Monde, i, iv. pp> 
88-42. 

t Humboldt, in the Journal de Physique, liiL, 1799, p. 88; and 
£eU hiei^ t IL p. 19, t. ill pp. 189, 198. 



PHTSICiX GEOOSAPBT. 297 

at Fernando Po, 4° 30 north latitude, is repeated on the 
coast of the Pacific at 18* 15' south latitude, between the 
Valley of Arica and the Morro de Juan Diaz, where the Peru- 
vian coast suddenly changes the direction from south to north 
which it had previously followed, and inclines to the north- 
west. This change of direction extends in like manner to the 
chain of the Andes, which is divided into two parallel branches, 
affecting not only the littoral portions* but even the eastern 
Cordilleras. In the latter, civilization had its earliest seat 
in the South American plateaux, where the small Alpine lake 
of Titicaca bathes the feet of the colossal mountains of Sorata 
and mimani. Further to the south, from Yaldivia and Chiloe, 
(40° to 42** south latitude,) through the Archipelago de los 
Chonos to Terra del Fuego, we find repeated that singular 
configuration of fiords (a blending of narrow and deeply 
indented bays), which, in the Northern Hemisphere, charac- 
terises the western shores of Norway and Scotland. 

These are the most general considerations suggested by the 
study of the upper surface of omr planet with reference to the 
form of continents, and their expansion in a horizontal direc- 
tion. We have collected fiicts and brought forward some 
analogies of configuration in distant parts of the earth, but we 
do not venture to regard them as fixed laws of form. When 
the traveller on the declivity of an active volcano, as, for 
instance, of Vesuvius, examines the frequent partial elevations 
by which portions of the soil are often permanently upheaved 
several feet above their former level, either immediately pre- 
ceding or during the continuance of an eruption, thus forming 
roof-l^e or flattened summits, he is taught how accidental 
conditions in the expression of the force of subterranean 
vapours, and in the resistance to be overcome, may modify 
the form and direction of the elevated portions. In this 
manner, feeble perturbations in the equQibriiun of the internal 

* Humboldt, in PoggendorfiTs Afmakn der Physih, bd. zl. s. 171« 
On the .*eiiiarkable fiord foimation at the south-east end of America, see 
I>arwin's Journal (Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and 
Beagle, vol. iii.), 1889, p. 266. The parallelism of the two mountain 
ehains is maintained from 5° south to 5° north lat. The change in the 
direction of the coast at Arica appears to be in consequence of the altered 
eouise of the tmnxe, above which the Gordilleza of the Andes has been 
upheaved. 



298 COSMOS. 

elastic forces ot out planet may have inclined them mote to itt 
northern than to its southern direction, and caused the con- 
tinent in the eastern part of the glohe to present a broad mass, 
whose migor axis is almost parallel vnm the Equator, whilst 
ia the western and more oceanic part, the southern extremity 
is extremely narrow. 

Very little can be empirically determined regarding the 
eausal connection of the phenomena of the formation of con- 
tinents, or of the analogies &nd contrasts presented by their 
configuration. All that we know regaraing this sal:gect 
resolves itself into this one point, that the active cause is sub- 
terranean, that continents did not arise at once in the form 
they now present, but were, as we hare already observed, 
increased by degrees by means of numerous oscillatory eleva- 
tions and depressions of the soil, or were formed by the Ibsion 
of separate smaller continental masses. Their present form is, 
therefore, the result of two causes which have exercised a con- 
secutive action the one on the other: the flrst is the expiiession 
of subterranean force whose direction we term accidental, owing 
to our inability to define it from itd removal from within the 
sphere of our comprehension ; whilst the second is derived from 
forces acting on the surface, amongst which volcanic eruptions, 
the elevation of mountains, and currents of sea water plkv the 
principal parts. How totally ditferent wotdd be the condition 
of the temperature of the earth, and consequently Of the state 
of vegetation, husbandry, and human society, if the mftjor axis 
of the New Continent had the same direction as that of the 
Old Continent; if, for instance, the Cordilleras, instead of 
having a southern direction, inclined from east to West; if 
there had been no radiating tropical continent, like Africft to 
the south of Europe; and if the Mediterranean, which was once 
connected with the Caspian and Red Seas, and which has 
become so powerful a means of furthering the inter-commu- 
nation of nations, had never existed ; or if it had been elevated 
like the plains of Lombardy and Cyrenef 

The cnanges of the reciprocal relations of height between 
the fluid and solid portions of the Earth*s surface, (changes 
which, at the same time^ determine the outlines of contuiaits, 
and the greater or lesser submersion of low lands), are to be 
ascribed to numerous tmequally working causes. The most 
powerful have incontestibly been the force of elastic Vapourt 



PHYSICAX CfeOGBAFHT. 299 

indosed in the interior of tlie earth, the midden change of 
temperature of certain dense strata,* the unequal secular loss 
of heat experienced by the crust and nucleus of the earth, 
occasioning ridges in the solid surface, local modifications of 
gravitation,! and as a consequence of these alterations, in the 
curvature of a portion of the liquid element. According to 
the views generally adopted by geognosists in the present day, 
and which are supported by uie observation of a series of well 
attested &cts, no less than by analogy with the most import- 
ant volcanic phenomena, it would appear that the elevation of 
continents is actual and not merely apparent or owing to 
the configuration of the upper surface cf the sea. The merit 
of having advanced this view belongs to Leopold von Buch, 
who first made his opinions known to the scientific world in 
the narrative of his memorable Travels through Norway and 
Sweden in 1806 and 1807.^ Whilst the whole coast of 

* De la Beche, Sedume a/itd Viewe iUugtraUw qf Geological Phe- 
nomena, 1830, tab. 40 ; Charles Babbage, Observations on tiie Temple 
qf Serapis ai Pozevoli, near Naples, and on certain Causes which 
mayprodiLce Geological Cycles qf great extent, 1834. "If a Btratum of 
sandstone five miles in thickness, should hare its temperature raised 
about 100% its sur&ce would rise 20 feet Heated beds of clay would, on 
ike contraiy, occasion a sinking of the ground by their contraction ;" see 
Bischof, Warmdehre des Innem unseres Erdkdrpers, s. 803, concerning 
the calculations for the secular elevation of Sweden, on the supposition 
of a rise by so small a quantity as 7° in a stratum of about 155,000 
feet in thickness, and heated to a state of fusion. 

f The opinion so implicitly entertained regarding the inyariability of 
the force of gravity at any given point of the esurth's surface, has in 
some degree been controverted by die gradual rise of large portions of 
the earth's sur&ce. See Bessel, Ueher Maxxs void Gewicht, in Schu- 
macher's Jahrhuclifiir 1840, s. 134. 

{ Th. ii (1810), 8. 889 ; see Hallstrdm, in Kongl Vetenskaps-Aca- 
demiens Handlingar (Stockh.), 1823, p. 30; Lyell, in the PhiloS, 
Trans, for 1835; Blom (Amtmann in Budskerud), St/aJt. Beschr, von 
Norwegen, 1843, s. 89-116. If not before Yon Buch's travels through 
Scandinavia at any rate before their publication, Playfair, in 1802, 
in his illustrations of the Huttonian theory, § 39S, and according to 
Keilhau {Om Landjordens Stigning in N'orge, in the Nyt Magazinefor 
Naturvidenshahern^, and the Dane Jessen, even before the time of Pluy- 
fidr, had expressed the opinion that it was not the sea which was sinking, 
but the solid land of Sweden which was rising. Their ideas, however, 
were wholly unknown to our great geologist, and exerted no influence on 
the progress of physical geography. Jessen, in his work, Kongeriget 
NorgefiemstiHet ^Ur dds natarlige eg borgerlige TtUtand, EjobeiilL« 



800 C08X08. 

Sweden and Finland, horn, Solyitzborg on iihc limits of Nortih- 
em Scania past Grefle to Tomea, and from Tomea to Abo, 
experiences a gradiM rise of four feet in a century, the south- 
em part of Sweden is, according to Neilson, undergoing a 
simultaneous depression.* The maximum of this eleTating 
force appears to lie in the north of Lapland, and to diminish 
gradually to the south towards Cabnar and Solvitzborg. 
Lines marking the ancient level of the sea in pre-historic times 
are indicated throughout the whole of Norway ,t from Cape 
Lindesnses to the extremity of the North Cape by banks of 
shells identical with those of the present seas, and which haye 
lately been most accurately examined by Bravais during his 
long winter sojourn at Bosekop. These baiiks lie nearly 650 feet 
above the present mean level of the sea, and reappear, accord- 
ing to Keilhau and Eugene Eobert, in a north-noiili-west direc- 
tion on the coasts of Spitzbergen, opposite the North Cape. 
Leopold von Buch, who was the first to draw attention to the 
high banks of shells at Tromsoe (latitude 69® 40'), has, how- 
ever, shown that the more ancient elevations on the North Sea 
appertain to a different class of phenomena from the regular 
and gradual retrogressive elevations of the Swedish shores in 
the Gulf of Bothnia. This latter phenomenon, which is well 
attested by historical evidence, must not be confoimded with the 
changes in the level of the soil occasioned by earthquakes as 
on the shores of Chili and of Cutch, and which have recently 
given occasion to similar observations in other countries. It 

1763, sought to explam the causes of the changes in the relative lerels 
of the land and sea, basing his views on the early calculations of Celsiug, 
Kidm, and Dalin. He broaches some confused ideas regarding the pos- 
sibility of an internal growth of rocks- but finally decianM kiimself in 
favour of an upheaval of the land t>y earthquakes, "although/* he 
observes, " no such rising was apparent immediately after the ear&quake 
of Egersnnd, yet the earthquake may have opened the way for other 
causes producing such an effect." 

• See Berzelius, Jahrshericht aher die FortschriMe der phifsischeti 
Wise., No. 18, s. 686. The islands of Saltholm opposite to Copenhageo, 
and Bjomholm, however, rise but very little — Bjon^olm scarcely one foot 
in a centuiy; see Forchhammer, in PhUos, Magazine, Sid Series, 
vol. ii. p. 309. 

+ Keilhau, in Nyt Mag. for NaJhirvid., 1832, bd. L, pp. 106 — 264; 
bd. ii. p. 57; Bravais, Sur Us ligw34 Sanden niveau de la Metf 
1843, pp. 15-40. See also Darwin '* on the Parallel Boads of CHen-Bq^ 
and Locfaaber " in PUlos, Trans, for 1889. p. 6a 



VKYBICAl. OEOaSAPHY. 301 

fcnmd that a perceptible siiiljng resultmg from m 
; of the strata of the upper etirfiice eometimea 
rresponding with an elevation elsewhere, as, for 
1 West Oreenland, according to Fingel aad Oraah, 

a and in Scania. 

B bigUy probable that the oscillatory movements of 
d &.e rising and sinking of the upper surface, were 
gly marked in the early periods of our planet than 
we shall be less surprised to find in the interior of 
some few portions of the Earth's surface lying 
general leTcl of existing seas. Instances of this 
in the soda lakes described by General Andreossy, 
bitter lakes in the narrow Isthmus of Suez, the 
)&, the Sea of Tiberiias, and especially the Dead 
; level of the water in the two last named seas, ig 
112 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. If 
suddenly remove the alluvial soil, which covers 
strata in many parts of the earth's surface, we 
iover how great a portion of the rocky crust of the 
then below the present level of the sea. The 
hough irregularly alternating rise and &M. of the 
be Qispian Sea, of which I nave myself observed 
ees in the northern portions of its Dasin, appears 
as do also Uie observations of Derwin on the coral 

dt, Atie eenlrah, t U. pp. 319-33* ; t. Ui. pp. 6*9-661. 
on of Um Dead Sea hia been BuccessiTel; deternuned hj the 

measurements of Count Bertoa, by the more careful ones of 
nd b; the trigonometrical Borre; of Lieut Sjmond, of the 

who Btales iLai the difference of leiel between the eurface 

Bea and the highest houxes of Jafh it abont 160S feet, 
t, wbo commonii^ted this result to the Qeographical Society 
n a letter, of the contents of which I yraa informed by my 
Wsfiington, was of opinion (Nov, 28, 1811), Ihst the Dead 
1 1*00 feet ander the level of the Meditenanean. A more 
imiication of Lieut. Symond (Jameson's Edininirgh Neia 
d JouTTmi, tot xxxiY. 1843, p. 178,) givea 1312 feet as the 
if two very accordant trigonometrical operetioni. 
Afobiliti du fond dt la Mer Cofpienne, in mj AsU centr^ 
-284. The Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petera- 
130, at my request, charged the learned physicist Lenz to 

indicating the mean level of the sea, for definite epochs, in 
ces near Bskn, in the peninsula of Abscheron. In the same 
in appendix to the instruotlons {^n& to Capl^n (now Six 



S02 coixot. 

eeas,* tliat without earthquakes^ prc^rly so called, the surfiuse 
of the Earth is capable of the same gentle and progressiye 
oscillations, as those which must have prevailed so generally 
in the earhest ages, when the surface of the hardening crust 
of the Earth was less compact than at present. 

The phenomena to which we would here direct attention 
remind us of the instability of the present ord^ of things, 
and of the changes, to which the outlines and configuration of 
continents are probably still subject at long intervfds of time. 
That which may scarcely be perceptible in one generation, 
accumulates during periods of time, whose duration is revealed 
to us by the movement of remote heavenly bodies. The 
eastern coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula has probably 
risen about 820 feet in the space of 8000 years; and in 
12,000 years, if the movement be regular, parts of the bottom 
of the sea which lie nearest the shores, and are in the present 
day covered by nearly fifty ^.thoms of water, will come to the 
surface and constitute dry land. But what are such intervals 
of time compared to the length of the geonostic periods 
revealed to us in the stratified series of formationsy and in the 
world of extinct and varying organisms! We htfve hitherto 
only considered the phenomena of elevation; but the analogies 
of observed facts lead us with equal justice to assume the 
possibility of the depression of whole tracts of land. The 
mean elevation of the non-mountainous parts of France amounts 
to less than 480 feet. It would not, therefore, require any 
long period of time compared with the old geognostic periods, 
in which such great changes were brought about in the 
interior of the Earth, to effect the permanent submersion of 
the north-western part of Europe, and induce essential alter- 
ations in its littoral relations. 

James 0.) Boss, for his Antaictic expedition, I oiged the neoesalty of 
causing marks to be cut in the rocks of the southern hexnisphere, as had 
already been done in Sweden and on the shores of the Caspian Sm. 
Had this measure been adopted in the early voyages of Bougainville and 
Cook, we should now know whether the secular relative changes in the 
level of the seas and land, are to be considered as a general, or merely a 
local natural phenomenon ; and whether a law of direction can be re- 
cognized in the points which have simultaneous elevation or depreasioD. 
* On the elevation and depression of the bottom of the South S^ 
and the different area^ of altmats movwMnti^ see Darwin's Jcuma^ 
pp. £57, 661->C6flL 



PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHT. 803 

The depression and elevation of the solid or fluid parts of 
the Earth— -phenomena which are so opposite in their action, 
that the effect of elevation in one ptirt is to produce an 
apparent depression in another,— -are the causes of all the 
changes which occur in the configuration of continents. In 
a work of this general character, and in an impartial exposi- 
tion of the phenomena of pature, we must not overlook the 
poastbUify of a diminution of the quantiser of water, and a 
constant depression of the level of seas. There can scarcely 
be a doubt that at the period when the temperature of the 
Bur&ce of the earth was higher, when the waters were 
enclosed in larger and deeper fissures, and when the atmo- 
sphere possessed a totallv different character from what it 
does at present, great cnanges must have occurred in the 
level of seas, depending upon the increase and decrease of 
the liquid parts of the earth's sur&ce. But in the actual 
condition of our planet, there is no direct evidence of a real 
continuous increase or decrease of the sea, and we have no 
proof of any gradual change in its level at certain definite 
points of observation, as indicated by the mean range ol 
the barometer. According to experiments made by Daussy 
and Antonio Nobile, an increase in the height of the baro- 
meter would in itself be attended by a depression in the level 
of the sea. But as the mean pressure of the atmosphere at 
the level of the sea is not the same at all latitudes, owing to 
meteorological causes depending upon the direction of the 
wind and varying degrees of moisture, the barometer alone 
cannot afford a certain evidence of the general change of 
level in the ocean. The remarkable fkct that some of the 
ports in the Mediterranean were repeatedly left dry during 
several homrs at the beginning of this century, appears to 
show that currents may, by changes occurring in their 
direction and force, occasion a local retreat of the sea, and a 
permanent drying of a small portion of the shore, without 
being followed by any actual diminution of water, or any 
permanent depression of the ocean. We must, however, be 
very cautious in applying the knowledge which we have 
lately arrived at, regarding these involved phenomena, since 
we might otherwise be led to ascribe to water, as tiie elder 
element, what ought to be referred to the two other elements 
— -earth and air. 



804 oosxoi. 

As the external configuration of continents whick we have 
already described in their horizontal expansion, exercises by 
their variously indented littoral outlines a favourable influence 
on climate, trade, and the progress of civilization; so likewise 
does their internal articulation, or the vertical elevation of 
the soil, (chains of mountains and elevated plateaux,) give rise 
to equally important results. Whatever produces a polymor- 
phic diversity of forms on the sur£Eiee of our planetary habita- 
tion—such as mountains, lakes, grassy savannas, or even 
deserts encircled by a band of forests — ^impresses some peculiar 
character on the social condition of the mhabitants. Bidges 
of high land covered by snow impede intercourse; but a 
blending of low discontinued mountain chains* and tracts of 
valleys, as we see so happily presented in the west and south 
of Emrope, tends to the multiplication of meteorological pro- 
cesses, and the products of vegetation; and from the variety 
manifested in different kinds of cultivation in each district, 
even imder the same degree of latitude, gives rise to wants 
that stimulate the activity of the inhabitants. Thus the 
awful revolutions, during which, by the action of the interior 
on the crust of the earth, great mountain chains have been 
elevated by the sudden upheaval of a portion of the oxidised 
exterior of o\ir planet, have served after the establishment of 
repose, and on the revival of organic life, to furnish a richer and 
more beautiful variety of individual forms, and in a great 
measure to remove from the earth that aspect of dreary uni- 
formity which exercises so impoverishing an influence on the 
physical and intellectual powers of mankind. 

According to the grand views of EHe de Beaumont, we 
must ascribe a relative age to each system of mountain 
chains t on the supposition that their elevation must neces- 
fcarily have occurred between the period of the deposition 
of tike vertically elevated strata, and that of the horizon- 

* Humboldt, Eel. hiet., t, iiL pp. 232-234. See also the able remaiiLa 
on the configaration of the Earth, and the position of its lines of eloTa- 
tion, in Albrechts von Boon, Grundziigen der Erd V&lker und Staaien- 
kunde, Abth. i 1837, s. 168, 270, 276. 

f Leop. von Buch, Ueber die geognostiachen Systeme von Deiutech- 
land, In his Qeogn, Brirfen an Alexander von Humboldt, 1824, s. 20^ 
271 ; Elie dc Beaumont, Hecherchea eur lea BivoliUume de la 8urfam 
Gkbe, 1829; pp. 297-807. 



Tsnieu, obosoAjht. SOft 

Irata rmming at the base of tiie mcranbuiu. 
he earth's cniat— «levationa of strata which 
ke get^OBtio age — appear moreoTer to fol- 
i direction. The Uneof strike of tiie horizontal 
ways parallel with the axis of the chain, but 
that according to my views,* the phenomenon 
he strata, which is even found to be repeated 
iring plains, muet be more ancient than the 
chain. The main direction of the whole con- 
! (from Bouth-weet to north-ea^t), is opposite 
rreat fissures which pass fi-om north-west to 
L the mouths of the Rhine and Elbe, through 
L Red Seas, and through the moimtain system 

in Luristan, towards the Persian Gulf and 
ean. This abnost rectangular intersection 
;a exercises an important influence on the 
.tions of Europe, Ajia, and the nortli-west at 

the prepress of civilization on the fonnerly 

shores ra the Mediterranean. f 
ind lofiy mountain chains so strongly excite 

by the evi<lenoe they afibrd of great terres- 
, and when considered as the boundaries of 
IB of separation for waters, or as the site of a 
' vegetation, it is the more necessary to demon- 
•.ct numerical estimation of their volume, how 
tity of their elevated mass when compared with 
ijacent continents. The mass of the Pyrenees, 
: mean elevation of whose summits, and the 
f whose base have been ascertained by accurate 
Tould, if scattered over the sur&ce of France, 
ean level about 115 feet. The mass of the 
item Alps wotJd in like maimer only increase 
urope about 21} feet above its present level. 
y a laborious investigation, { which from its 

«eeenirafe,t,i. pp. 377-268; see »iBOiDjI!*»ai*ur 
oches, 1822, p. 67, and Jtelat. hut.,i. ill. pp. 211-2G0. 
, L i. pp. 284, 286. The AdriaUc Sea likewise follom! 
3. to N.W. 

'r moyeant da Continents, in my AtU ttnimle, t 1. 
S9. The reenlts which I hare obtained, ore to be 
tieme vahu {aombruiimUa), Laplace's estimate of 



906 oottxos. 

tmbaae can omlj give a mftximiim limit, that tiie oeiitre td 
gravity of the voliiine of the laud raised aboye the present 
kvel of the sea in Europe and North America, is respectiTelY 
situated at an elevation of 671 and 748 feet, while it is at 1132 
and 1152 feet in Asia and South America. These numbers 
show the low level of northern regions. In Asia the vast 
Steppes of Siberia are compensated for by the great eWrations 
of the land (between the Himalaya^ the North Thibetian 
chain of Kouen-lun, and the Celestial Mountains), firom 
28° 30' to 40° north latitude. We may to a certain extent 
trace in these numbers the portions of the earth, in which the 
plutonic forces were most intensely manifested in the interi(»-» 
Dy the upheaval of continental masses. 

There are no reasons why these plutonic forces may not in 
i^ture ages add new mountain-systems to those which £He de 
Beaimiont has shown to be of such different ages, and inclined 
in such different directions. Why should the crust of the 
earth have lost its property of being elevated in ridges? 
The recently elevated mountain-systems of the Alps and the 
Cordilleras exhibit in Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, in Sorata, 
niimani, and Chimborazo, eolossal elevations which do not 
&vour the assumption of a decrease in the intensity of the 
subterranean forces. All geogilostic phenomena indicate the 
periodic alternation of activity and repose ; "* but the quiet we 
now enjoy is only apparent. The tremblings which still 
agitate the sur&ce under all latitudes, and in every species of 
rock, the elevation of Sweden, the appearance of new islands 
of eruption, are aU conclusive as to the unquiet ccmdition oi. 
our planet. 

The two envelopes of the solid sur&oe of our planet-— the 
liquid and the aeriform,— exhibit, owing to the mobility of 

the mean height of continents, at 8280 feet, is at least three times too 
high. The immortal author of the MScanigue celeste (t r. p. 14), 
vas led to this conelusion by hypothetical views as to the meaa depth 
of the 83a. I have shown {Aeie centr., t. i. p. 93,) that the old Alex- 
andrian mathematicians, on the testimcmy of Plutarch {in jSmUio 
Paulo, cap. 15), believed this depth to depend on the height of Uie 
mountaina. The height of the centre of gravity of the volume of the 
continental masses is probably subject to &ght yariations in the eouBe 
of many centuries. 

* Zweiter geoioffiacher Bri^ von Mie de Beaymont an 
ti9» MumMddfiR ^oggsQd9xS*B Anaakt^ bd. zxr. s. 1-68. 



PHTSICAt BEOGHAPHX, 307 

their currenta, and their atmospheric relations, 
combined witli the contrasts which arise from 
ince in lie condition of their t^regation and 
•■ depths of ocean and of air are aSke imknowB 
a few places niider the tropics no bottom has 
th Boundings of 276,000 feet (or more than 
jilat in the air, if according to WoUaston we 
nt it haa a limit from which waves of sound 
rated, the phenomenon of twilight would incline 
, height at least nine times as great* The 
its partly on the solid earth, whose mountair. 
rated plateaux riee oa we have already seen 
ded sttoals, and partly on the sea, whose sur- 
oving base on miieh rest Uie lower, denser, 
ited strata of air. 

pwards and downwards from the common limit 
Equid oceans, we find that the strata of air and 
rt to determinat* laiw of decrease of tempera- 
Tease is much less rapid in the air t'hi" in the 
a tendency under aE latitudes to maintaip ita 
tiie strata of water most contiguous to the 
Tng to the sinking of the heavier and more 
I. A laige series of the most earefnUy con- 
tions on temperature shows ns that in the 
lean condition of its surface, tbe ocean from 
the for^-eighth degree of nordi and south 
what warmer than the adjacent strata of air.f 
decrease of temperature at increasing depths, 
r inhabitants of the sea, the nature of whose 
■espiratory organs fits them for living in deep 
en under the tropics find tLe low degree o£ 
i the coolness of climate characteristic rf more 
more northern latitudes. This circumstance 
pus to the prevalence of a mild and even cold 
,ted plains of the torrid zone, exercises o special 
e migration and geographical distribution of 
limals. Moreover, the depths at which fishes 

i n^er, On WoOattDn'a Armament fiom Ae Ximf* 
o^ihentutothefiailelHviiibiiitgqf if alter.— Tram*. 
\ttii <if E^nb., ToL iTi. p. 1, 18*6.]— TV. 
bMim hitL, 1 ill. chap. xxiz. p. 61 4-6Se. 



806 008X08. 

live, modify, by the increase of preisure, their cntaneom 
respiration, and the oxygenous and nitrogenous contents of 
their swimming bladders. 

As fresh and salt water do not attain the maximum of their 
density at the same deme of temperature, and as the saltness 
of the sea lowers the uermometncal degree corresponding to 
this point, we can understand how the water drawn from 
great depths of the sea during the voyages of Eotzebue and 
Dupetit-Thouars could have been found to have only the 
temperature of 37° and 36*'5. This icy temperature of sea 
water, which is likewise manifested at ike depths of tropical 
seas, first led to a study of the lower polar currents, which 
move from both poles towards the equator. Without these 
submarine currents, the tropical seas at those depths could 
only haye a temperature, equal to the local ma-ginrmTn of cold 
possessed by the falling particles of water at the radiating and 
cooled surface of the tropical sea. In the Mediterranean the 
cause of the absence of such a refrigeration of the lower strata 
is ingeniously explained by Arago, on the assumption that the 
entrance of me deeper polar currents into the Straits of Gib- 
raltar, where the water at the sur&ce flows in from the 
Atlantic ocean from west to east, is hindered by the submarine 
counter currents which move from east to west, from the 
Mediterranean into the Atlantic. 

The ocean, which acts as a general equalizer and moderator 
of climates, exhibits a most remarkable uniformity and con- 
stancy of temperature especially between 10° north and 10^ 
south latitude,* oyer spaces of many thousands of square 
miles, at a distance from land where it is not penetrated 
by currents of cold and heated water. It has, there- 
fore, been justly obseryed, that an exact and long continued 
inyestigation of these thermic relations of the tropical 
seas, might most easily afford a solution to the great and 
mudi contested problem of the permanence of climates and 
terrestrial temperatures.f Ghreat changes in the Imninous disc 

* See the series of observations made by me in the South Sea, from 
0** 5' to 13* 16' N. lat., in my Asie centrale, t. iii. p. 234. 

t " We might (by means of the temperature of the ocean under the 
tropics) enter into ^e consideration of a question which has hitherto 
remained unanswered, namely, that of the constancy of terrestrial tem- 
peratures, without taking into account the Teiy circumscribed local 
uiflnenoes arising from tiie diminution of wood in the plains and en 



FHTSICAI. QXOQBAPHT. 309 

a would, if they were of long duration, be reflected 
! eertaintj' in the mean temperature of the sea, &Ba 
' the BoKd land. 

mes, at which occur the Tnnnimn. of the Oceania 
ire and of the density (the saline content§) of its 
lo not eorreepond with tJie equator. The two 
ire separated from one another, and the waters of 
;et temperature appear to form two nearly parallel 
b. and south of the geographical equator. Lenz, in 
p of circumnarigation, found in the Pacific the 
of density in 22° north and 17' south latitude; 
minimum was situated a few degrees to the south of 
or. In the region of calms the solar heat can eser- 
ittle influence on evaporation, because the stratum 
.legnated with saline aqueous vapour, which rests on 
e of the sea, remains BtUl and unchanged, 
rfece of all connected seas must be considered as 
general perfectly equal level with respect to their 
ation. Local causes (probably prevailing winds and 

may however produce permanent although trifling 
n the level of some d^ply indented bays, as for 
he Red Sea. The highest level of the water at the 
if Suez is at different hours of the day from 24 to 
>ove that of the Mediterranean. The form of the 
Bab-el-ltfandeb, through which die waters appear to 
eier ingress than egress, seems to contribute to this 
le phenomenon, which was known to the ancients.* 
cable geodetic operations of Corabceuf ajid Delcrois, 

no perceptible drSbrenee of level exists between the 
feces of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, along 
of the Pyrenees, or between the coasts of northern 
ai Marseilles-t 

and the drying up of lakes and msuhcs. Each ago might 
mut to the succeeding one soine feir data, -which vould 
•aiab the most mnple, exact, and direct means of deciding 
; Bun, which U almost the sole and eiclnsive source of the 
planet, chiinges its phjBical constitution and splendour, like 
number of the stars, or whether, on the contraiy, that lumi- 
tiuned to a permanent condition."— Arago, in tbe Compies 
Blaaca de VAcad. des Sciences, i xi. pt. 2, p. 309. 
oldt, AHe centraie, t. iL pp. 321, 327. 
le numerical resultt, in pp. S28-333 of the volums ]iirt 



310 GOBKOS. 

DiBturbances of equilibrium and oonsequeat moyemsski» of 
the waters are partly irregular uid transitory, dependent upon 
winds, and producing waves which sometiiaes at a distance 
from the shore and during a storm rise to a height of more 
than 35 feet; partly regukr and periodicy occasuMied by the 
position and attraction of the sun and moon, as the ebb and 
flow of the tides ; and partly permanent, although less intense, 
occurring as oceanic currents. The ph^iomena of tides which 
prevail in aU seas (with the exception of the smaller ones that 
are completely closed in, and where the ebbing and flowing 
waves are scarcely or not at all perceptible) have been perfectly 
explained by the Newtonian doctrine, and thus brou^t 
'^ within the domain of necessary facts." Each of these 

riodically recurring oscillations of the waters of the sea 
a duration of somewhat more than half a day. Al- 
though in the open sea they scarcely attain an elevaticm of 
a few feet, they often rise considerably higher where the 
waves are opposed by the configuration of the shores, as for 
instance, at St. Malo and in Nova Scotia, where they reach 
the respective elevations of 50 feet, and of 65 to 70 feet. '' It 

named. From the geodesical lereUings which^ at my request^ my friend 
General Bolivar caused to be taken by Lloyd and Fahnare, in the yean 
1828 and 1829, it was ascertained that the level of the Pacific is a.t the 
utmost 3^ feet higher than that of the Caribbean sea; and even that 
at diiFerent hours of the day each of the aeaa is in turn the higho; 
according to their respective hours of flood and ebb. If we reflect^ that 
in a distance of 64 miles, comprising 933 stations of observation, an 
error of three feet would be very apt to occur, we may say that in these 
new operations we have further confirmation of the equilibrium of the 
waters which communicate round Cape Horn (Arago, in the AnmuUre 
du Bureau dea Lonffitudes pour 1831, p. 319). I had infenned, 
from barometrical observations instituted in 1799 and 1804, that 
if there were any difference between the level of the Pacific and the 
Atlantic (Caribbean Sea), it could not exceed three metres (nine 
feet three inches); see my Edai, hist,, t ill pp. 555-657, and 
AnncUea de Chimie, t i pp. 55-64. The * measurements, which appear 
to establish an excess of height for the waters of the Qulf of Mexico, 
and for those of the northern part of the Adriatic Sea* obtained by com- 
bining the trigonometrical operations of Delcroisand Choppin with those 
of the Swiss and Austrian engineers, are open to many doubts. Kotwith- 
standing the form of the Adriatic, it is improbable that the level of ita 
waters in its northern portion should be 28 feet higher than that of the 
Mediterranean at Marseilles, and 25 feet higher than the lerel el ihc 
Atlantic Ocean. See niy Ane^ cefttrcde, t n, p. 332. 



PHTSIOAK «BO«BAFHT. Sit 

has been shown by the analysis of the great geometriciaii 
Laplace, that supposing the depth to be wholly inconsiderable 
when compared with the radius of the earth, the stabili^ of 
the equilibium of the sea requires that the density of its 
fluid ^ould be less than that of the earth; and as we have 
already seen, the earth's density is in fact five times greater 
than that of water. The elevated parte of the laud cannot 
therefore be overflowed, nor can the remains of marine 
animals found on the summits of mountains, have been con- 
veyed to those localities by any previous high tides."* It is 
no slight evidence of the importance of analysis, which is too 
often regarded vdth contempt amongst the imscientiflc, that 
Laplace's perfect theory of tides has enabled us in our astro- 
nomical ephemerides, to predict the height of spring-tides at 
the periods of new and full moon, and thus put the inhabitants 
of the sea shore on their guard against the increased danger 
attending these lunar revolutions. 

Oceanic currents, which exercise so important an influence 
on the intercourse of nations and on the climatic relations of 
culjacent coasts, depend conjointly upon various causes, differ- 
ing alike in nature and importance. Amongst these we may 
reckon the periods at which tides occur in their progress round 
the earth; the duration and intensity of prevailmg winds; the 
modiflcations of density and specific gravity which the particles 
of water undei^ in consequence of diflerences in the tem- 
perature and in the relative quantity of saline contents at dif- 
ferent latitudes and depths;! and lastly, the horary variations 

* Bessel, Ueber Flteth und Jibhe, in Schumacher^s Jahiimek, 1838^ 
8. 225. 

f The relative density of the particles of water depends simulta- 
neoady on the temperature and on the amount of the saline contents, — ^a 
circmnstsuifce that is not sufficiently borne in mind in considering the 
cause of currents. The submarine current, which brings the cold polar 
water to the eq[uatorial regions, would follow an exactly opposite course, 
that is to say, from the equator towards the poles, if the difference in 
saline contents were alone concerned. In this view, the geographical 
distribution of temperature and of density in the water of the ocean, 
under the different zones of latitude and longitude, is of great import- 
ance. The numerous obserrations of Lenz (Poggendorff's AnncUen, 
bd. XX. 1830, s. 129), and those of Captain Beechey, collected in his 
Voyage to the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 727^ deserve particular attention. 3ee 
Humboldt^ Bdat, hiaL, t. i p. 74, and Asie centraie, t. ilL p. 859. 



4iS oosxot* 

of the atmospheric pressure, saccessively propagated from east 
to west, and occurring with such regularity in the tropics. 
These currents present a remarkable spectacle ; like rivers of 
uniform breadth, they cross the sea in different directions, whilst 
the adjacent strata of water which remain undisturbed form, as 
it were, the banks of these moving streams. This difPerence 
between the moving waters and those at rest, is most strikingly 
manifested where long lines of sea weed borne onward by Sie 
current, enable us to estimate its velocity. In the lower 
strata of the atmosphere, we may sometimes during a storm 
observe similar phenomena in the limited aerial current, 
which is indicated by a narrow line of trees which are often 
found to be overthrown in the midst of a dense wood. 

The general movement of the sea from east to west between 
the tropics (termed the equatorial or rotation current), is con- 
sidered to be owing to the propagation of tides and to the trade 
winds. Its direction is changed by the resistance it experi- 
ences from the prominent eastern shores of continents. The 
results recently obtained by Daussy regarding the velocity of 
this current, estimated from observations made on the dis- 
tances traversed by bottles that had purposely been thrown 
into the sea, agree within one-eighteenth with the velocity of 
motion (10 French nautical miles, 952 toises each, in 24 hours) 
which I had found from a comparison with earlier experiments."*^ 
Christopher Columbus during his third voyage, when he was 
seeking to enter the tropics in the meridian of Teneriffe, 
wrote in his journal as follows: f '* I regard it as proved that 
the waters of the sea move from east to west, as do the 
heavens (Uis <iff%Ms van con los ctelos), that is to say, like the 
apparent motion of the sun, moon, and stars." 

The narrow currents or true oceanic rivers which traverse the 
sea, bring warm water into higher and cold water into lower 
latitudes. To the first class belongs the celebrated gulf stream | 

* Hnmboldt^ EekU, huL, t i. p. 64 ; NcwotXka Anndlea dea Vayageh 
1889, p. 255. 

t Humboldt, Examen criL de Vhiat, de la GSagr., t. lit p. 100. 
Columbus adds shortly after, (Navarrete, Coleccion de los viagea y d^ 
acubrimientos de las EspanoUss, t. i. p. 260,) that the movement is 
strongest in the Caribbean sea. In fact, Rennell terms this region, ** not 
a current, but a sea in motion" (Investigatian of Currents, p. 28). 

t Humboldt^ Eosamen tri^ique, t iL p. 250; Baku, huL, t i 
pp. 66-74 



rBTSIOAL OX0flSA»BT. 31S 

Dovm to Amghiera,* and more especially to 

r Gilbert in the sixteenth century. Its first 
ligin is to be sought to the south of the Cape of 
liter a long circuit it pours itself firom the Ca- 
nd the Mexican Gulf, through the Straits of 

and following a course from south-south-n-est 
-east, continues to recede from the shores of the 
, until further deflected to the eastward by the 
foundland, it approaches the European coasts, 
owing a quanti^ of tropical seeds {Mimosa 
landina bonduc, Dolichot urens.") on the shores 
B Hebrides, and Norway. The north-east«m 
i^ds to mitigate the cold of the ocean, and to 
! climate on the most northern extremity of 
At the point where the Ghilf stream is deflected 
1 of Newfoundland towards the east, it sends off 
e south near the Azores.f This '» the situation 
90 Sea, or that great bank of weeds, which so 
ed the imagination of Christopher Columbus, 
jdo calls the sea-weed meadows. {Praderiai de 
it of small marine animals inhabits these gently 
rergreen masses of Fucut natans, one of the 

distributed of the social plants of the sea. 
■part of this ouirent, (which in the AtlantiG 
1 Africa, America, and Europe, belongs almost 
the northern hemisphere,) is to be found in the 

where a current prevails, the efifect of whose 
re on the climate of the adjacent shores, I had 
' of observing in the autumn of 1802. It brings 
■B of the high southern latitudes to the coast of 
he shores i^ this continent, and of Peru, first 

north, and is then deflected from the bay of 
9 from south-south-east to north-north-west. 
BOOB of the year the temperature of this cold 
t is, in the tropics, only 60° whilst the undis- 
it water exhibits a temperature of 81'''5 and 
it part of the shore of South America, south of 

^deAaghiem,I>eSebusOceanicUtlOrbe Vihid, Bm., 
b. vi. p. ST. See Homboldt, JEaamea critique, t. U, 
L iil p. 108, 
Bxcaaea criL, l. iii, f^ 61-100, 



314 <KMX08. 

Paytt, which indines fiirdiest westward, the current is 8ud< 
denly deflected in the same direction from the shore, taming 
BO sharply to the west, that a ship sailing northward passes 
suddenly firom cold into warm water. 

It is not known to what depth cold and warm oceanic cm- 
rents propagate their motion; but the deflection experienced 
by the south African current, fix>m the LaguUas bazik, which 
is fully from 70 to 80 &thoms deep, would seem to imply the 
existence of a &r extending propagation. Sand banks and 
shoals lying beyond the line of these currents may, as was first 
discovered by the admirable Benjamin Franklin, be recognueed 
by the coldness of the water over them. This depression of 
the temperature appears to me to depend upon the fact that 
by the propagation of the motion of the sea, deep waters rise 
to the margin of the banks and mix with the upper strata. 
My lamented friend. Sir Humphrey Davy, ascribed this ph^o- 
menon (the knowledge of which is often of great practical 
utility in securing the safety of the navigator) to the descent 
of the particles of water that had been cooled by noctomal 
radiation, and which remain nearer to the sur&ce owing to 
the hinderance placed in the way of their greater descent by 
the intervention of sandbanks. By his observations Franklin 
may be said to have converted the thermometer into a sound- 
ing line. Mists are frequently foimd to rest over these depths, 
owing to the condensation of the vapour of the atmosphere by 
the cooled waters. I have seen such mists in the south of 
Jamaica, and also in the Pacific, defining with sharpness and 
deamess the form of the shoals below them, appearing to 
the eye as the aerial reflection of the bottom of the sea. A 
still more striking effect of the cooling produced by shoals 
is manifested in the higher strata of air, in a somewhat analo- 
gous manner to that observed in the case of flat coral ree&, 
or sand islands. In the open sea &r from the land, and when 
the air is calm, clouds are often observed to rest o^^r the spots 
where shoals are situated; and their bearing cuiy then be 
taken by the compass in the same manner as that of a high 
mountain or isolated peak. 

Although the surface of the ocean is less rich in living forms 
than that of continents, it is not improbable that on a fiirther 
investigation of its depths, its interior may be found to possess 
a greater richness of organic life than any other portion of our 



PHT8ICAX 0BOOBAPHT, Sid 

planet, Charles Darwin, in the agreeaUe DamtiTe of his 
extensiTeToyages, justly remarks that our forests do notooneeal 
so aumy ajiimals as the low woody regions of the ocean, where 
the sea weed rooted to the bottom of the shoals, and the 
seyered branches of fuci loosened by the force of the waves 
and currents, and swimming free, unfold their delicate foliage 
upborne by air-oeUs.* The application of the microscope 
increases, m the most striking manner, our impression of the 
rich luxuriance of animal life in the ocean, and reveals to the 
astonished senses a consciousness of the universality of life. 
In the oceanic depths &r exceeding tlie height of our lofdest 
mountain chmns, every stratum of water is animated with 
polygastric sea worms, cydidise, and ophrydin®. The waters 
swarm with countless hosts oi small luminiferous animalcules, 
mammaria (of the order of acalephsB), Crustacea, peridi- 
nea, and circling nereides, which when attracted to the sur&ce 
by peculiar meteorological conditions, convert every wave into 
a foaming band of flashing light. 

The abundance of these marine animalcules, and the animal 
matter yielded by their rapid decomposition, are so vast that 
the sea water itself becomes a nutrient fluid to many of the 
larger animals. However much this richness in animated 
forms, and this multitude of the most various and highly 
developed microscopic organisms may agreeably excite the 
fancy, the imagination is even more seriously and I might say 
more solemnly moved by the impression of boundlessness and 
inmieasurabiHty, which are presented to the mind by every 
^ea voyage. All who possess an ordinary degree of mental 
activity, and delight to create to tfaCemselves an inner world 
of thought, must be penetrated with the sublime image of the 
infinite, when gasdng around them on the vast and boundless sea, 
when involuntarily the glance is attracted to the distant horizon 
where air and water blend together, and the stars continually 
rise and set before the eyes of the mariner. This contem- 
plation of the eternal play of the elements is clouded, like 
every human joy, by a touch of sadness and of longing. 

A peculiar predilection for the sea, and a grateful remem- 

* [See Strueture cmd DistrtbtUion of Coral Itetfs, by Charles Darwin, 
London, 1842. Also, Narrative of the Surveying voyage of HJd.8, 
*^Fly^ in the Eastern Archipelago, during the years 184SS--1846, by 
J, B. Jnkea^ Naturalist to the expedition, 1847.}~2V. 



S16 COSMOS. 

bnnce of tiie impression which it has excited in my mind, when 
I have seen it in the tropics in the calm of nocturnal rest, or 
m the toy of the tempest, have alone induced me to speak of 
the individual enjoyment afforded by its aspect before 1 
entered upon the consideration of the favourable influence 
which the proximity of the ocean has incontrovertibly exer- 
cised on the cultivation of the intellect and character of many 
nations, by the multiplication of those bands which ought to 
encircle the whole of humanity, by affording additional means 
of arriving at a knowledge of the configuration of the earth 
and furthering the advancement of astronomy, and of all other 
mathematical and physical sciences. A portion of this influ- 
ence was at first limited to the Mediterranean and the shores 
of south- western Aflica, but from the sixteenth century it has 
widely spread, extending to nations, who live at a distance 
from the sea in the interior of continents. Since Columbus 
was sent to " unchain the ocean,"* (as the imknown voice 
whispered to him in a dream when he lay on a sick-bed near 
the River Belem) man has ever boldly ventured onward towards 
the discovery of imknown regions. 

The second external and general covering of our planet, the 
aerial ocean, in the lower strata, and on ti^e shoals of which 
we live, presents six qlasses of natural phenomena, which 
manifest the most intimate connection with one another. They 
are dependent on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, 
the variations in its transparency, polarisation, and colour, its 
density or pressure, its temperature and hiunidity, and its 
electricity. The air contains in oxygen the first element of phy- 
sical animal life, and besides this benefit it possesses another 
which may be said to be of a nearly equally high character, 
namely, that of conveying soimd — a fisu^ulty by which it like- 
wise becomes the conveyer of speech and ihe means of com- 
municating thought, and consequently of maintaining social 

* The voice addressed him in these words, " Maravillosamente Dies 
hizo Bonftr tn nombre en la tieira ; de los atomientos de la mar Oceana, 
que estaban cerrados con cadenas tan fuertes, te di6 las Uaves" — " God 
will cause thy name to be wonderfully resounded through the earth, and 
give thee the keys of the gates of the ocean, which are closed with 
strong chains.^' The dream of Columbus is related in the letter to the 
Catholic monarchs of July the 7th, 1508 (Humboldti, Bxamem critique, 
i. flL p. 234.) 



KETX0B0I.0OY. 817 

intercourse. If the Earth were depriyed of an atmosphere, as 
we suppose our moon to be, it would present itseLf to our 
imagination as a soimdless desert. 

The relative quantities of the substances composing the 
strata of air accessible to us have since the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, become the object of investigations, in 
which Gay-Lussac and myself have taken an active part; it 
is, however, only very recently that the admirable labours of 
Dumas and Boussingault have by new and more accurate 
methods, brought the chemical analysis of the atmosphere to 
a high degree of perfection. According to this analysis, a 
volume of dry air contains 20*8 of oxygen and 79*2 of nitrogen, 
besides from, two to five thousandth parts of carbonic acid 
gas, a still smaller quantity of carburetted hydrogen gas,"*^ 
and, according to the important experiments of Saussure and 
Liebig, traces of ammoniacal vapours,f from which plants 
derive their nitrogenous contents. Some observations of Lewy 
render it probable that the quantity of oxygen varies percep- 
tibly, although but slightly over the sea, and in the mterior 
of continents, according to local conditions, or to the seasons 
of the year. We may easily conceive that changes in the 
oxygen held in solution in the sea, produced by microscopic 
animal organisms, may be attended by alterations in the 
strata of air in immediate contact with it.| The air which 
Martins collected at Faulhom at an elevation of 8767 feet, 
contained as much oxygen as the air at Paris. § 

The admixture of carbonate of ammonia in me atmosphere, 

* Bonssinganlt, Recherchea 9ur la composition de VAlmosph^e, in 
the Annalea de Chimie et de Physique, t. lyii. 1834, pp. 171-173 ; and 
Ixzi 1839, p. 116. According to Boassingault andLewy, the propor- 
tion of carbonic acid in the atmosphere at Andilly, at a distance, there- 
fore, from the ezhalationB of a city, varied only between 0*00028 and 
0*00031 in volume. 

i* Liebig, in his important work, entitled, Die organische Cfhemie in 
ihrer Antoendung at^ AgricuUtvr und Physiohgie, 1840, s. 62-72. On 
tiie influence of atmoepheric electricity in the production of nitrate of 
ammonia, which coming into contact with carbonate of lime, is changed 
into carbonate of ammonia, see Boussingault's Economie rurale consu 
dirie dans ses rapports <wec la Chimie et la MiUorologie, 1844, t, ii. 
pp. 247, 267, and t. 1. p. 84. 

t Lewy, in the Comptes rendtis de VAcad. des Sciences, t. zvii. pt. % 
pp. 235-248. 

i Dnmaa^ in (he iififia2e» de Chimie^ 8e SMe^ t iiL 1841, p. 257. 



5*M 



SI 8 COSMOS. 

nay probably be considered as older than the existence of 
organic beings on the surface of the earth. The sources from 
wUch carbonic acid* may be yielded to the atmosphere, are 
most nimierous. In the first place we would mention the 
respiration d animals, who receive the carbon which they 
inhale from yegetable food, whilst yegetables receive it firom 
the atmosphere; in the next place, carbon is supplied from the 
interior of the earth in the vicinity of exhaustea volcanoes and 
thermal springs, firom the decomposition of a small quantity of 
carboretted hydrogen gas in the atmosphere, and from the elec- 
tric dischai^es of clouds, which are of such frequent occurrence 
within the tropics. Besides these substances which we have 
considered as appertaining to the atmosphere, at all heights 
that are accessible to us, tihere are others accidentally mixed 
with Ihem, especially near the grotmd, which sometimes in 
the form of miasmatic and gaseous conta£:ia, exercise a noxious 
influence on animal OTganlTtion. I^Tchemical natoie has 
not yet been ascertained by direct analysis ; but from the con- 
sideration of the processes of decay which are perpetually 
going on in the animal and vegetable substances with whidi 
ihe suri&ce of our planet is covered, and judgii^ from analo- 
gies deduced from the domain of pathology, we are led to 
infer the existence of such noxious local admixtures. Ammo- 
niacal and other nitrogenous vapours, sulphuretted hydrogen 
gas, and compounds analogous to the polybasic ternary and 
quaternary combinations of the vegetable kingdom, may pro- 
duce miasmata,f which under various forms may generate 
ague and typhus fever (not by any means exclusively on wet 
marshy ground, or on coasts covered by putrescent moUusea, 
and low bushes of Ehizophora mangle and avicennia.) Fogs, 
which have a peculiar smell at some seasons of the year, 
remind ns of these accidental admixtmes in the lower strata 



* In this enmneratioD, the exhalation of eaiboaie add hj pk&ti 
during the night, wMlsl ihey inhale Qxygen, n not taken isto aeconn^ 
because the increaee of carbc^ie aeid trim this souroe is aBq>ly eomter' 
balanced by the lespiaitoiy process of plants during the day. See Boobhb- 
gault's Econ. mardUe, t i pp. 53-68, and liebi^s OrysmacAe Chemie, 
B. 16, 21. 

t Gay-Lossac, in Annaie^ de ChwUe, t. liii. p. 120; FtB^yei^ Jfim, 
sur la composition chimique des Vigitavx, pp. 86, 42 ; JJsiiig, Off, 
Chemie, a 22^-846; Bgnirtngin^ Mam, mrarfe^ t. i.CT> li^lM> 



MZXBOXOX.OOT. 819 

of the atmosphere. Winds and cnnentfl of air eaiued by the 
heatii^ of the ground even carry up to a considerable eleyation 
solid substaaces reduced to a fine powder. The dust which 
darkens the air for an extended area and Mis on the Cape 
Yerd Islands, to which Darwin has drawn attention, contains, 
according to Ehrenberg's discovery, a host of siliceous shelled 
infusoria. 

As principal features of a general descriptiYe picture of 
the atmosphere, we may enumerate:-— 

1. VarieUions of afyMspheric pressure: to which belong the 
horary oscillations, occurring with such regularity in the 
tropics, where they produce a kind of ebb and flow in the 
atmosphere, which cannot be ascribed to the attraction of the 
moon,* and which differs bo considerably according to geogra* 
phical latitude, the seasons of the year, and the eleyation above 
the level of the sea. 

2. CUmiUie distribution ofheeU^ which depends on the relative 
position of the transparent and opaque masses (the fluid and 
solid parts of the surface of the earth) and on the hypsome- 
trical configuration of continent&»-relations which determine 
the geographical position and curvature of the isothermal 
lines (or curves of equal mean annual temperature) both in a 
horizontal and vertical direction, or on a uniform |^ane, or in 
different superposed strata of air. 

3. The distribution of the humidity of the atmosphere. The 
quantitative relations of the humiddty depend on the differ- 
ences in the solid and oceanic smiaces— on the distance from 
the* equator and the level of the sea — on the form in which the 
aqueous vapour is precipitated, and on the connection exist- 
ing between these deposits and the changes of temperature, 
and the direction and succession of winds. 

'^^ 4. 2he electric condition of the atmosphere. The primary 
cause of this condition, when the heavens are serene, is still 

* BonvEurd, by the appUcation of the formnln, in 1827, which Laplaee 
had deposited with the Board of LoBgitude i^rtlj before his death, 
found that the portion of the horary oecillatioiis of the pressure of the 
atmosphere, which depends on the attraction of the mooD, cannot raise 
the mercury in the barometer at Paris more than the 001 8 of a milli- 
metre ; whilst eleven years' observations at the same place show the 
mean barometric oscillation* from 9 a.m. to 3 P.M., to be 0*756 miUira.« 
and from 3 f.m. to 9 f.m., 0373 milUm. ; see MimQiree die I Acad, des 
Sciences, t vii. 1827, p. 267. 



S20 _ CMWX08. 

much contested. Under tliis head we must consider the lebu 
tion of ascending vapours to the electric charge and the form 
of the clouds according to the different periods of the day and 
year, the difference between the cold and warm zones of the 
earth, or low and high lands; the frequency or rarily of 
thunder storms, their periodicity and formation in summer 
and winter; the causal connection of electricity with the in- 
frequent occurrence of hail in the night, and with the pheno- 
mena of water and sand spouts, so ably investigated by Peltier. 

The horary oscillations of the barometer which in the 
tropics present two maxima, (viz., at 9 or 9^ jl.u., and 10|- or 
lOf P.M., and two minima at 4 or 4^ p.m., and 4 a.m., occur- 
ring, therefore, in almost the hottest and coldest hours,) have 
long been the object of my most carefril diurnal and nocturnal 
observations.* Their regularity is so great, that, in the day- 
time especially, the hour may be ascertained from the height 
of the mercurial colimm without an error, on the average, of 
more than fifteen or seventeen minutes. In the torrid zones 
of the New Continent, on the coasts as well as at elevations 
of nearly 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, where the 
mean temperature falls to 44"-6, I have found the r^u- 
lanty of the ebb and flow of the aerial ocean undisturbed by 
storms, hurricanes, rain, and earthquakes. The amount of 
the daily oscillations diminishes from 1*32 to 0*18 French 
lines from the equator to 70° north latitude, where Bravais 
made very accurate observations at Bosekop.f The supposi- 
tion, that much nearer the pole the height of the barometer is 
really less at 10 a.m. than at 4 p.m., and consequentiy that 
the Lximum and minimum influences of S hoxJs are 
inverted, is not confirmed by Parry's observations at Port 
Bowen (73° 14'). 

The mean height of the barometer is s<»newhat less under 

* Observations fades pour eonstater la marche des variaiiUmtt 
horaires du BaromMre sous les Tropigues, in my RelaJtum historique 
du Voyage aux Regions Equinoosiales, t ill. pp. 270-818. 

+ Bravais, in Kaemtz and Martins, MitSorohgie, p. 263. At Halle 
(51° 29' N. lat.), the oscillation still amounts to 0*28 lines. It would seem 
that a great many observations will be required, in order to obtwn results 
tbat can be trusted in regard to the hours of the maTiTnn n^ and mini- 
mum on mountains in &e temperate zone. See the observations of 
honuy variations, collected on the Faulhom in 1882, 1841, and 1842. 
(Martin^ MiUorohgie, p. 264.) 



ATMOSPHEBIC PRBSSUBE. 321 

a in the tropiw, owing to tLe effect of the 
QiBJi in the temperate zones, and it ajipeara 
:imum in Western Europe between the paral- 
5°, If with Kamtz we connect t<^ther by 
38 those places which present the same mean 
en the monthly extremes of the btirometer, wo 
} whose geographical position and inflections 
conclusions regarding the influence exercised 
the land and the distribution of seas on the 
! atmosphere. Hindostan, with its high moun- 
Tiangular peninsulas, and the eastern coasts of 
ent, where the warm gulf stream turns to the 
bundland banks, exhibit greater isobarometric 
do the group of the .^tilles and Western 
revailing winds exei'cise a principal influence 
>n of the pressure of the atmosphere, and this, 
dy mentioned, is accompanied, according to 
evation of the mean level of the sea.f 
important fluctuations of the pressure of tie 
ither occurring with horary or annual regU' 
ntally, and then often attended by violence 
e, like all the other phenomena of the wea- 
kDg to the heating force of the sun's rays, it 
suggested, (partly according to the idea of 
the direction of the wind should be compared 
of the barometer, alternations of temperature, 
and decrease of humidity. Tables of atmo- 
duiing different winds, termed baromelrie 
i a deeper insight into the connection of 
phenomena.^ Dove has, with admirable 
ised, in tlie " law of rotation" in both hemi- 
he himself established, the cause of many 
)ses in the aerial ocean. |] The difiercnce of 

sat mr la OiographU da PlanUi, ISOT, p. 90 ; and 

p. 813; uid.oD the dimumtion of atmospheric prceiare 

ioQB of the Atlantic, in Poggend. Annaien der Phy- 

I45-2S8, and b. 468-186. 

! Compiea reitdvi, t. iii. p. 186. 

lie SiUrme, in Poggend. Aanaten, hd. Iii. a. T. 

Buoh, Baromelriache Windrose. in Abkandl. ifci- 

V Berlin am dai J. ISlS-lStS, a 1ST. 

'4»rotoffi*che Untermchtmgen, 1837. a. 9a-S43; wii 



322 COSMOS. 

temperature between the equatorial and polar legionM 
engenders two opposite currents in the upper strata cdT Hie 
atmosphere, and on the Earth's surface. Owing to the dif- 
ference between the rotator^r velocity at the poles and at the 
equator, the polar current is deflected eastward, and the 
equatorial current westward. The great phenomena of atmo- 
spheric pressure, the warming and cooling of the strata of 
air, the aqueous deposits, and even, as Dove has correctly 
represented, the formation and appearance of clouds, alike 
depend on the opposition of these two currents, on the 
place where the upper one descends, and on the displacement 
of the one by the other. Thus tlie figures of the clouds, 
which form an animated part of the charms of a landscape, 
announce the processes at work in the upper regions of the 
atmosphere, and, when the air is calm, the clouds will often 
present, on a bright summer sky, the ^' projected image " of 
the radiating soil below. 

Where this influence of radiation is modified by the relative 
position of large continental and oceanic sur&ces, as between 
the eastern shore of Africa and the western part of the Indian 
peninsula, its effects are manifested in the Indian monsoons, 
which change with the periodic variations in t^e sun's decli- 
nation*, and which were known to the Greek navigators 

tli6 excellent obseryationB of K&mtz on the descent of the west nind of 
the upper current in high latitudes, and the general phenomena of the 
dixection of the wind, in his Vorleeungen itber Meteroloffie, 1840, 
& 58-66, 196-200, 327-386, 353-364 ; and in Schumachei's Jahrbuck 
fijKT 1838, 8. 291-302. A very satisfactory and yivid represoitttdon 
of meteorological phenomena is given by Dove, in his small work 
entitled WiUerungsverhcUtnisse von Berlin, 1842. On the knowledge 
of the earlier navigators, of the rotation of the wind, see Oharruca, 
Vioffe cU Magellanes, 1793, p. 15; and on a remarkable expression of 
Columbus, which his son Don Fernando Colon has presented to us in his 
Vida del Almirante, cap. 55, see Humboldt, Sxamen critique de 
VMst. de Giographie, t. iv. p. 253. 

* Monsun (Malayan, mtmm, the hippcUaa of the Greeks,) is derived 
from the Arabic word mausim, a set time or season of the year, the time 
of the as^mblage of pilgrims at Mecca. The word has been applied to 
the seasons at which certain winds prevail, which are besides named 
from places lying in the direction from whence they come ; iima, for 
instance, there is the matisim of Aden, of Guzerat, Malabar, Ac 
(Lassen, Jndische AUerOiumshinde, bd. 1. 1843, s. 211). On the ooo- 
trasts between the solid or fluid substrata of the atmosphere, see Dote, 
iai^^r ul6i^n(;;. <;er ^A;a<;. (fer ^iM. sni .0e7{«» <N» dem/. 1842, SL 2ld. 



CLIIUTOLOaT. 32ft 

of Hippaloa. Iq the knowledge of the mon- 
undoubtedly dates back thonsanda of yean 
ohabitants of Hindostan and Cbina, of the 
: the Arabian Giilf and of tiie weBtem shores 
SeEi, and in the still more ancient and more 
tanee with land and Bea winds, lies concealed, 
;enn of tbat meteorological science, which is 
;h rapid progress. The long chain of magnelie 
ng from. Moscow to Pekin, across the whole of 
will prove of immense importance in detei- 
of the minds, since these stations hare also, for 
: investigatiou of general meteorological rela- 
iparison of observations made at places lying 
ia miles apart, wiU decide, for instance, whe- 
east wind blows from the elevated desert of 
^or of Russia, or whether the direction of the 
rat began in the middle of the series of the 
! descent of the air from the higher regions. 
eh observations we may leam, in the strictest 
le wind cometh. If we only take the results on 
depend from those places, in which the obeer- 
direction of the winds have been continued 
ity years, we shall find, (iVom the most recent 
3ulations of Wilhehn Mcjilniann,) that in the 
s of the temperate zone, in bodi continents, 
lerial current has a west-south-west direction, 
nto the distribution of heat in the atmosphere 
:ed more clear since we attempt has been made 
ether by lines those places, where the mean 
and winter temperatures have been ascertained 
rvations. The system of Uoihermal, isolAeral, 
' lines, which I first brought into use in 1817, 
if it be gradually perfected by the united 
%ator8, serve as one of the main foundationi 
cliinatology. Terrestrial m^;netism did not 
to be r^;ajded as a science, until partial resulte 
y connected in a system of lines of e^al deeU- 
clinalion, and egiial intermly. 
rnate, taken in its most general sense, indicates 
in the atmosphere, which Bensibly affect oiir 
perature, hnmidity, variations in uie baiome- 
zS 



924 COSMOS. 

trical pressure, the calm state of the air or the action of oppb > 
fite winds, the amount of electric tension, the purity of the 
atmosphere or its admixture with more or less noxious gase- 
ous exhalations, and, finally, the degree of ordinary trans- 
parency and clearness of the sky, which is not only important 
with respect to the increased Tadiation firom the earth, the 
organic development of plants, and the ripening of fruits, hut 
also with reference to its influence on the feelings and mental 
condition of men. 

If the surface of the earth consisted of one and the same 
homogeneous fluid mass, or of strata of rock having the 
same colour, density, smoothness, and power of absorbing heat 
from the solar rays, and of radiatmg it in a similar maimer 
through the atmosphere, the isothermal, isotheral, and isochi- 
menal lines would all be parallel to the equator. In this 
hypothetical condition of the Earth's sur&ce the power of 
absorbing and emitting light and heat would everywhere be 
the same under the same latitudes. The mathematical consi- 
deration of climate, which does not exclude the supposition 
of the existence of currents of heat in the interior, or in the 
external crust of the earth, nor of the propagation of heat by 
atmospheric currents, pi*oceeds &om this meau, and, as it were, 
primitive condition. Whatever alters the capacity for absorp- 
tion and radiation, at places lying under the same parallel of 
latitude, gives rise to inflections in the isothermal lines. The 
nature of these inflections, the angles at which the isothermal, 
isotheral, or isochimenal lines intersect the parallels of latitude, 
their convexity or concavity with respect to the pole of the 
same hemisphere, are dependent on causes, which, more or 
less, modify the temperature imder diflerent degrees of 
longitude. 

The progress of climatology has been remarkably feivoured 
by the extension of European civilization to two oppo^te 
coasts, by its transmission from our western shores to a con- 
tinent which. is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. 
When, after the ephemeral colonisation from Iceland and 
Greenland, the British laid the foimdation of the first perma- 
nent settlements on the shores of the United States of Ame- 
rica, the emigrants (whose numbers were rapidly increased in 
consequence, either of religious persecution, fanaticism, or 
love of freedom, and who soon spread oyer the vast extent of 



CLIUAIOLOQY. 325 

betweeo tlie Carolinas, Virginia, and the St. 
re astonished to find themselves exposed to an 
Qter-cold far esceedins that which prevailed in 
and Scotland, situated in coiresponding paral' 
But however much a consideration of these 
ans may bare awakened attention, it was not 
y practical results, until it could be based on 
data of mean annual temperature. If, between. 
irth latitude, we compare Nain, on the coast of 
1 Gotteiiborg; Halifax with Boideamc; New 
lies; St. Augustine, in Florida, with Cairo; we 
r the same degrees of latitude, the differences of 
id temperature between Eastern America and 
le, proceeding irom north to south, are succes- 
[°-9, 6°-8, and almost 0". The gradual decrease 
«s in this series extending over 28° of latitude 
;. Further to the south, under the tropica, the 
M are everywhere paraJlei to the equator in 
■es. We see, from the above examples, that the 
. asked in society, how many degrees America, 
nguishing between the eastern and western 
&i than Europe? and, how much the mean 
iture of Canada and the United States is lower 
orresponding latitudes in Europe? are, when 
'.xpresaed, devoid of meanii^. There is a sepa- 

for each parallel of latitude, and without a 
[son of the winter and simimer temperatures of 
lasts, it will be impossible to arrive at a correct 
: relations, in their influence on agriculture and 
I pursuits, or on the individual comfort or dis- 
ikind in general. 

ing the causes which produce disturbances in 
1 isothermal lines, I would distinguish between 
aise and those which lower the temperature, 
ss beloi^ the proximity of a western coast in 
tone, the divided configuration of a continent 
1, with deeply indented bays and inland seas ; 
je position of a portion of the land with refer- 
a sea of ice spreading far into the polar circle, 
' continental land of considerable extent, lying 
eridian, either under the equator or, at leas^ 



526 COSMOS. 

within a portion of the tropical zone; the preTalenoe of 
fatherly or westerly winds on the western shore of a conti- 
nent in the temperate northern zone; chains of mountains 
acting as protecting walls against winds coming from colder 
iegi<Mis; the infirequency of swamps, which, in the spring and 
beginning of summer, long remain covered with ice, and tbe 
absence of woods in a £y, sandy soil; finally, the constant 
serenity of the sky in the summer months, and the vicinity of 
an oceanic current, bringing water which is of a higher tem- 
perature than that of the surrounding sea. 

Among the causes which tend to lower the mean annoal 
temperature I include the following:— -elevation above the 
level of the sea, when not forming part of an extended plain; 
the vicinity of an eastern coast in hi^h and middle latLtndes; 
the compact configuration of a contment having no littoial 
curvatures or bays; the extension of land towards the poles 
into the region of perpetual ice, without the intervention of a 
sea remaining open in the winter; a geographical position, m 
which the equatorial and tropical r^ons are occupied by the 
sea, and, consequently, the absence, under the same meridian, 
of a continental tropical land having a strong capacity for the 
absorption and ra^tipn of heat ; mountain-chains, whose 
mural form and direction impede the access of warm winds ; 
the vicinity of isolated peaks, occasioning the descent of cold 
currents of air down their declivities; extensiye woods, which 
hinder the insolation of the soil by the vital activity of their 
foliage, which produces great evaporation, owing to the exten* 
sion of these organs, and increases the surface that is cooled by 
radiation, acting consequently in a three-fold maimer, by shade, 
evaporation, and radiation ; the frequency of swamps or marshes, 
which in the north form a kind of subterranean glacier in the 
plains, lasting till the middle of the summer; a cloudy summer 
sky which weakens the action of the solar rays; and finally, a 
very clear winter sky &vouring the radiation of heat.* 

The simultaneous action of &ese disturbing causes, whether 
productive of an increase or decrease of heat, determines, 
as the total effect, the inflection of the isothermal lines, 
especially with relation to the expansion and configuration of 

* Humboldt, JRecherches mtr lea catuea dee Inflexione dee 
ieothfrmee, in Aeie cetUr., t iu. p. 108-114, 118, 122, 188. 



cLnuTOLoer. SSV 

1 masses, na compared with ibs liquid oceanit. 
ions give rise to convex and concave summita 
oal corves. There are, howerer, distent 
bing causes, and each one must, therefore, be 
irately, in order that their total effect may 
ivestigated with reference to the motion (direc- 
itnre) of the. isothermal lines, and the actiona 
lie connected t<^ther, modified, destroyed, or 
ensity, as manifested in the contact and inter- 
oscillatory movements. Such is the method 
pe, it may Bome day be possible to connect 
ipirical and numerii^y expressed laws, vast 
mtly isolated fectfi, and to exhibit the mutual 
ch must necessarily esist among them, 
jids — easterly winds blowing within the tro- 
in both temperate zones, to the west, or west- 
la which prevail in those regions, and which 
to eastern coasts, and sea winds to western 
g over a space which, from die great mass and 
ts cooled particles, is not capable of any con- 
I of cooling, and hence it follows, that the east 
intinent must be cooler than the west winds, 
iperature is not affected by the occurrence of 
I near the shore. Cook's young companion on 
ge of circumnav^tion, the intelhgent George 
m I am indebted for the lively interest whidi 
1 nndertake distant travels, was the first who 
in a definite manner, to the climatic differ- 
irature existing in the eastern and western 
vntincnts, and to the similarity of temperatore 
coast of North America in the middle lati- 
it of Western Europe.* Even in northern 
ibservations show a striking difference between 
il Umpo'ature of the east and west coasts of 
mean annual temperature of Nain, in Labrador, 
fully 6°'8 below the freezing-point, whilst, on 
30B8t, at New Archangel, in Russian America, 

er, Kleint Schrifttn, th. iii. 1794, b. 87 ; Dove, I» 
Tbueh fur Itil, 8,289; MmU, Meteorologie, IjA. iL 
Se ; Araeo, in. Uie Cen^tei rtndrnt, t. L p. 268. 



328 COSMOS. 

(lat. 57^ 3'), it is 12^*4 above this point. At the first-named 
place, the mean ,8ummer temperature hardly amounts to 43^, 
whilst, at the latter place, it is 57**. Pekin (39° 54'), on the 
eastern coast of Asia, has a mean annual temperature of 52^*3, 
which is 9° below that of Naples, situated somewhat further 
to the north. The mean winter temperature of Pekin is, at 
least, 5" '4 below the freezing-point, whilst in Western Europe, 
even at Paris, (48° 50'),. it is nearly 6° above the freezing- 
point. Pekin has also a mean winter cold which is 4° '5 lower 
than that of Copenhagen, lying 1 7° further to the north. 

We have already seen the slowness with which the great 
mass of the ocean follows the variations of temperature in the 
atmosphere, and how the sea acts in equaHsing temperatures- 
moderating simultaneously the severity of winter and the heat 
of summer. Hence arises a second more important contrasl^^ 
that, namely, between insular and littoral climates enjoyed by all 
articulated continents having deeply-indented bays and penin- 
sulas, and between the climate of the interior of great masses 
of solid land. This remarkable contrast has been fully deve- 
loped by Leopold von Buch in all its various phenomena, both 
with respect to its influence on vegetation and agriculture, on 
the transparency of the atmosphere, the radiation of the soil, 
and the elevation of the line of perpetual snow. In the 
interior of the Asiatic Continent, Tobolsk, Barnaul on the 
Oby, and Irkutsk, have the same mean summer heat as Berlin, 
Munster, and Cherbourg in Normandy; the thermometer 
sometimes remaining for weeks together at 86° or 88°, whilst 
the mean winter temperature is, during the coldest month, as 
low as — 0°'4 to — 4 . These continental climates have, there- 
fore, justly been termed excessive by the great mathematician 
and physicist, Buflbn; and the inhabitants who live in coun- 
tries having such excessive climates seem almost condemned^ 
as Dante expresses himself, — 

*' A Bofierir tormenti caldi e geli.*** 

In no portion of the earth, neither in the Canary Islands, 
in Spain, or in the south of France, have I ever seen more 
luxuriant fruit, especially grapes, than in Astrachan, near the 
shores of the Caspian Sea (46° 21'). Although the mean 
axmual temperature is about 48°, the mean summer heat rises 

* Bantei Dtvina Commedia, Purgaltorio, canto ilL 



Bordeaux, whilst not only there, but also further 
as at Kisiar on the mouth of the Terek, (in the 
rignon and Rimini) the thermometer sinks in the 
13° or — 22°. 

iiemsey, and Jersey, the Peninsula of Brittany, 
Normandy, and of the south of England, present, 
8S of their winters, and by the low temperature and 
if their summers, the most striking contrast to the 
limate of the interior of Eastern Europe. In the 
Ireland (54° 56'), lying under the same parallel 
B Konigsberg in Prussia, the myrtle blooms as 
3 in Portugal. The mean temperature of the 
[gust, which In Hungary rises to 70°, scarcely 
,t Dublin, which is situated on the same isothcr- 
19°; the mean winter temperature, which falls to 
Pesth, is 40° at Dubhn, (whose mean annual 
is not more than 49°); 3°'6 higher than that of 
, Padua, and the whole of Lombardy, where the 
temperature is upwards of 55°. At Stronmess, 
eys, scarcely half a degree fiuiher south than 
lie winter temperature is 39°, and consequently 
;hat of Paris, and nearly as high as that of Lon- 
in the Faroe Islands, at 62° latitude, the inland 
freeze, owing to the favouring influence oi' the 
nd of the sea. On the charming coasts of Devon- 
»lcombe Bay, which has been termed, on account 
ma of its cUmate, the Montpellier of the North, 
exicana has been seen to blosBom in the open air, 
i-trees trained against espahers and only slightly 
matting, are found to bear fruit. There, as well 
ee and Gosport, and at Cherbourg on the coast 
', the mean winter temperature exceeds 42°, fell- 
r only 2°'4 of the mean winter temperature of 
and Florence.* These ohserrations will suffice 

, Sar lea Lignea imlherma, in the M^moirea de Phy- 
mie de la SodUl cCArcuea, t ili., Paris, 1817. pp. 143- 
in the TranaactiBna of Vte Horticultural Society <^ 
. p. 32 ; WalaoQ, Remarka on (Ae Qeografhiciil Z>Utribu- 
I Plants, 1835, p. 60 ; Trevelyim, in JamicBon'a jEdin- 
U. Joiimat,Ho. 13, p. 1S4 ; Mahhuann, in his admirable 
itiou of my Asia caaraie, th. il. s. 60 . 



990 cosMO». 

to show the important influence exercifiied on vegetatioa and 
agriculture, on the cultiyation of fruit, and on the comfort of 
iwnnlriiiH^ Ify differences in the distribution of the same mean 
annual temperature, through the different seasons of the year. 

The lines which I hseve termed isochimencU and isothertu 
(lines of equal winter and equal summer temperature) are bj 
no means parallel with the isothermal lines, (lines of equd 
annual temperature.) K, for instance, in coimtries where 
myrtles grow wild, and the eardi does not remain coyered 
with snow in the winter, the temperature of the summer and 
antumn is barely sufficient to bring apples to perfect ripeness, 
and if^ again, we obserye that the grape rarely attains the ripe- 
ness necessary to conyert it into wine, either in islands or in 
the yidnity of the sea, eyen when cultiyated on a western coast, 
the reason must not be sought only in the low degree of sum« 
mer heat, indicated, in littoral situations, by the Qiermometer 
when suspended in the shade, but likewise in another cause 
that has not hitherto been sufficiently considered, although it 
exercises an actiye influence on many other phenomena, (as, 
for instance, in the inflammation of a mixture of chlorine and 
hydrogen,) namely, the difference between direct and diffiised 
light, or that which preyails when the sky is clear, and when 
it is oyercast by mist. I long since endeayoured to attract the 
attention of physicists and physiologists* to this difference, 
and to the unmecisured heat which is locally deyeloped in the 
liyii^ yegetable cell by the action of direct light. 

If, in forming a thermic scale of different kinds of eultiya- 

* " Hsec de temperie aeris« qni terram late circumfundlt, ac in quo^ 
longe a solo, instromenta nostra meteorologica saspensa habenms. Sed 
alia est caloris vis, quern radii solis nullis nubibus velati, in foliis ipsis 
et fructibns maturesoentibus, magis minusve coloratis, gignnnt, qnem- 
qne, ut egregia demonstrant experimenta amiciasimoram €to>j-Lii88acii et 
Thenardi de combustione cblori et hydrogenis, ope thermometri metiii 
nequis. Btenim locis planis et montanis^ vento libe spirante, circumfiiBi 
aeris temperies eadem esse potest coelo srido yel nebuloso; ideoqne 
ex obserrationibus solis tbermometricis, nullo adhibito Photometro, 
hand cognosces, qnam ob causam Gallise septentrionalis tractns Anno* 
ricanus et Kervicus, vennis littora, coelo temperate sed sole raro utentla, 
Yitem fere non tolerant Egent enim stirpes non solum caloris stimulo, 
sed et lucis, qu» magis intensa locis excelsis quam planis, duplici 
modo plantas moyet, vi sua turn propria, turn calorem in supei^cie 
eamm excitante." — Humboldt^ De dUtribuHone geographica pkm» 
tarum, 1817, p. 163-164. 



CLIKAIOLOOY. 331 

b^in with tluMe plants whicli require the hottest 
u die vanilla, the cacao, baoana, and cocoa nnt, 
sed to pine apples, the sugar cane, coffee, fruit-bear- 
trees, the cotton tree, citrons, oliyes, edible chesnute, 
I producing potable wine, an exact geographicaJ con- 
L of the limits of cuttivatLon, both on plains and on 
'ities of mountains, will teach us that other climatic 
besides those of mean annual temperature are io- 
these phenomena. Tailing an example, tor instance, 
cultivation of the vine, we find that, in order to pro- 
lix wine.j- it is requisite that the mean unnim l heat 



illoviiig table UlnBtrates Uie cultivation of the vine In Europe, 
e depreciation of its produce according to climatic relntiooii. 
lie centrale, t, iiL p. Ifi9. The examples quoted in the text 
ux and Potsdam, &re, in respect of numerical relatioD, alike 
(o tJie countries of the Rhine and Maine («S° W to 50° T' N. 
irbonrg in Normandj, and Ireland, show in (lie most re- 
manner how, with thermal relations verj nearlj similar to 
tiling in the interior of the Continent, (as estimated by the 
er in the shade,) the remits are, neverthelesB, extremely 
e regardg the lipenen or the unripeness of the fruit of the 
difference audoubt«dly depending on the clrcirnigtance, 
a vegetatjan of the plant proceeds under a bright aunny sky, 
sky thftt Is bsbituaUy obscured bj clonda ;— 



U60 


SB' 


48 as 


479- 


49 24 




48 29 


soo- 


49 48 


fiKK- 


50 7 




fi2 31 


mf.- 


49 39 


... 


58 23 





332 COSMOS. 

akould exceed 49^ tb^t the winter temperature shoidd be 
upwards of 33®, and the mean summer temperature upwards 
of 64**. At Bordeaux, in the valley of the Garonne (44® 60' 
lat.), the mean annual winter, summer, and autumn tempera- 
tures are respectively 57^, 43^, 71°, and 58°. In the plains 
near the Baltic (52° 30' lat.), where a wine is produced that 
can scarcely be consideredpotable, these numbers are follows: 
47°-5, 31°, 63°-7, and 47*5. If it should appear strange 
that the great differences indicated by the influence of climate 
on the production of wine should not be more clearly mani- 
fested by our thermometers, the circumstance will appear less 
singular, when we remember that a thermometer standing in 
the shade, and protected from the effect of direct insolation 
and nocturnal radiation cannot, at aU seasons of the year, and 
during all periodic changes of heat, indicate the true superfi- 
cial temperature of the ground exposed to the whole effect of 
the sun's rays. 

The same relations which exist between the equable littoral 
climate of the peninsula of Brittany, and the lower winter and 
higher summer temperature of the remainder of the continent 
of France, are likewise manifested, in some degree, between 
Europe and the great continent of Asia, of which the former 
may be considered to constitute the western peninsula. 
Emx)pe owes its milder climate, in the first place, to its posi- 

The great accordance in the distribntion of the annual temperature 
through the different seasons, as presented by the results obtained for the 
valleys of the Rhine and Maine, tends to confirm the accuracy of these 
meteorological obseryations. The months of December, January, and 
February, are reckoned as winter months. When the different quali- 
ties of the wines produced in Franconia, and in the countries around the 
Baltic, are compared with the mean summer and autumn temperature 
of WUrzburg and Berlin, we are almost surprised to find a difference of 
only about two degrees. The difference in the spring is about four 
degrees.' The influence of late May frosts on the flowering season, 
and after a correspondingly cold winter, is almost as important an 
element as the time of the subsequent ripening of the grape, and the 
influence of direct, not diffused, light of the unclouded sun. The 
difference alluded to in the text, between the true temperature of the 
surface of the ground and the indications of a thermometer suspended 
in the shade, and protected from extraneous influences, is inferred by 
Dove, from a consideration of the results of fifteen years' observatioDS 
made at the Chiswick Gardens ; see DoTe, in Bericht aber die Verhandk 
dtr BerL Akad. der Wiss., August, 1844, s. 285. 



S84 eosMOB. 

talleyB, or accordmg to the effects of the h yp gam eir i cal lehl&mp 
cm their own summits, wMch often spread into elevated pla- 
teaux. The division of mountains into chains separates Ihe 
earth's snrfoce into different basins, which are often narrow 
and walled in, forming cauldron-like valleys, and (as in Greeee 
and in part of Asia Minor) constitute an individual local ch- 
mate with respect to heat, moisture, transparency of atmo- 
sphere, and frequency of winds and storms. These cmmm-> 
stances have, at all times, exercised a powerful influence on 
the character and cultivation of natural products, and on the 
manoers and institutions of neighbouring nations, and even 
on the feelings with which they regard one another. This 
character of geographical indiviaudlity attains its maximmn, 
if we may be allowed so to speak, in countries where the dif- 
ferences in the configuration of the soil are the greatest possi- 
ble, either in a vertical or horizontal direction, both in relief 
and in the articulation of the ccmtinent. The greatest oon- 
trast to these varieties in the relations of the surfeuse of the 
earth are manifested in the Steppes of Northern Asia, the 
mussy plains (savannahs, llanos, and pampas) of the New 
Continent, the heaths {Ericeta) of Europe, and the sandy and 
fltcmy deserts of Africa. 

The law of the decrease of heat with the increase of eleva- 
tion at different latitudes is one of the most important subjects 
involved in the study of meteorological processes, of the 
geography of plants, of the theory of terrestrial refraction, 
and of the various hypotheses that relate to the determina- 
tion of the height of the atmosphere. In the many moun- 
tain journeys which I have undertaken, both within and 
without the tropics, the investigation of this law has always 
formed a specisd object of my researches.* 

Since we have acquired a more accurate knowledge of ^e 
true relations c^ the distribution of heat on the stufaoe of the 
earth, that is to say, of the inflections of isothermal and iso- 
theral Hues, and their unequal distance apart in the diiferent 
eastern and western systems of temperature in Asia, central 
Europe, and North America, we can no longer ask the 

* Hnmboldt, HecueU d^Ohaervaiiona (ufyfxmomiguea, t i. pp. 126-140; 
S&ation historique, t i. pp. 119, 141, 227; Blot, in Cotmaiaacmee dm 
tempa pour ran 1841^ f . &0-109. 



CLIMATOLOGY. 336 

general question— what fraction of the mean annual or summer 
temperature corresponds to the diff<»:ence of one degree of 
geographical latitude, taken in the same meridian? La each 
system of isothermal lines of equal currature there reigns a 
close and necessary connection between three elements; 
namely, the decrease of heat in a vertical direction from 
)elow upwards; the difference of temperature for every one 
degree of geographical latitude ; and the uniformity in the 
mean temperature of a mountain station, and the latitude 
of a point situated at the level of the sea. 

In the system of eastern America the mean annual tempe- 
rature, from the coast of Labrador to Boston, changes 1^*6 
for every degree of latitude ; from Boston to Charleston about 
1^'7; from Charleston to the tropic of Cancer, in Cuba, the 
variation is less rapid, being only l°'2. In the tropics this 
diminution is so much greater, that frt)m the Havana to 
Oumana the variation is less than 0^*4 for every degree of 
latitude. 

The case is quite different in the isothermal system of cen« 
tral Europe. Between the parallels of 38° and 71° I found 
that the decrease of temperature was very regularly 0°*9 for 
every degree of latitude. But as, on the other hand, in Cen- 
tral Europe the decrease of heat is 1°'8 for about every 534 
feet of vertical elevation, it follows that a difference of eleva- 
tion of about 267 feet, corresponds to the difference of one 
degree of latitude. Tlie same mean annual temperature as 
that occurring at the Convent of St. Bernard, at an elevation 
of 8173 feet, in lat. 45° 50', should, therefore, be met with 
at the level of the sea in lat. 75° 50^ 

In that part of the Cordilleras which &lls within the tropios 
the observations I made, at various he^hts, at an elevation of 
upwards of 19,000 feet, gave a decrease of 1° for every 341 feet; 
and my friend, Boussingault, foimd, thirty years afterwards^ 
as a mean result 319 feet. By a comparison of places in the 
Cordilleras, lying at an equal elevation above the level of the 
sea, either on the declivities of the mountains, or even on exten- 
sive elevated plateaux, I observed that, in the latter, there was 
an increase in the annual temperature, varying from 2°' 7 to 
4^*1. This difference woTild be stiU greater if it were not for 
the cooling effect of nocturnal radiation. As the different 
dimates are arranged in successive strata, the one above the 



336 COSMOS. 

other, from the cacao woods of the valleys to the rcgio/i 
of perpetual snow, and as the temperature in the tropica 
yaries but little throughout the year, we may form to our- 
selves a tolerably correct representation of the climatic rela- 
tions to which the inhabitants of the large cities in the Andes 
are subjected, by comparing these climates with the tempera- 
tures of particular months in the plains of France and Italy. 
While the heat which prevails daily on the woody shores of 
the Orinoco exceeds, by 7°'2, that of the month of August at 
Palermo, we find, on ascending the chain of the Andes, at 
Popayan, at an elevation of 5826 feet, the temperature of the 
three summer months of Marseilles ; at Quito, at an elevation of 
9541 feet, that of the close of May at Paris ; and on the Para- 
mos, at a height of 11,510 feet, where only stunted Alpine 
shrubs grow, tiiough flowers still bloom in abundance, that of 
the beginning of April at Paris. The intelligent observer, 
Peter Martyr de Anghiera, one of the friends of Christopher 
Columbus, seems to have been the first who recognised (in the 
expedition undertaken by Kodrigo Enrique Colmenares, in 
October 1510), that the limit of perpetual snow continues to 
ascend as we approach the equator. We read, in the fine 
work, De rebus Oceanicisy* " the River Gaira comes from a 
mountain in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which, 
according to the testimony of the companions of Colmenares, is 
higher than any other mountain hitherto discovered. It 
must, undoubtedly, be so if it retain snow perpetually in a 
zone which is not more than lO*' from the equinoctial line." 
The lower limit of perpetual snow, in a given latitude, is the 
lowest line at which snow continues during summer, or, in 
other words, it is the maximum of height to which the snow 
line recedes in the course of the year. But this elevation must 
be distinguished from three other phenomena: namely, the 
annual fluctuation of the snow line ; the occurrence of sporadic 
falls of snow ; and the existence of glaciers, which appear to 
be peculiar to the temperate and cold zones. This last phe- 
nomenon, since Saussure's immortal work on the Alps, has 
received much light, in recent times, from the labours of 

* Anglerius, De rebus Oceanicis, Dec 11, lib. ii. p. 140 (ed. Col, 
1574). In the Sierra <de Santa Marta, the highest point of which 
appears to exceed 19,00a feet, (see my JRSkU, hist,, t it p. 214,) there ii 
A peak that is still called NPico de Gaira. 



\ 

\ 



\ 



THK SNOW-LINE. 337 

Venetis, Charpenticr, and the Intrepid and persevering observer 
Agassiz. 

We know only the lower and not the upper limit of per- 
petual snow, for the mountains of the earth do not attain to 
those ethereal regions of the rarified and dry strata of air in 
which we may suppose, with Bouguer, that the vesicles of aque* 
GUB vapour are converted into crystals of ice, and thus rendered 
perceptible to our organs of sight. The lower limit of snow if 
not, however, a mere Amotion of geographical latitude, or oi 
mean annual temperature; nor is it at the equator, or even in 
the region of the tropics, that this limit attains its greatest 
elevation above the level of the sea. The phenomenon of 
which we are treating is extremely complicated, depending on 
the general relations of temperatm-e and himiidity, and on the 
form of mountains. On submitting these relations to the test 
of special analysis, as we may be permitted to do from the 
number of determinations that have recently been made,* 
we shall fmd that the controlling causes are the differences 
in the temperature of different seasons of the year; the direc- 
tion of the prevailing winds and their relations to the land 
and sea; the degree of dryness or humidity in the upper 
strata of the air; the absolute thickness of the accimiulated 
masses of fallen snow; the relation of the snow-line to the 
tc/tal height of the mountain; the relative position of the latter 
iu the chain to which it belongs, and the steepness of its 
declivity ; the vicinity of other summits likewise perpetually 
covered with snow ; the expansion, position, and elevation of 
the plains from which the snow-mountain rises as an isolated 
peak, or as a portion of a chain; whether this plain be part 
of the sea coast, or of the interior of a continent; whether it be 
covered with wood, or waving grass ; and whether, finally, it 
consist of a dry and rocky soil, or of a wet and marshy 
bottom. 

The snow-line which, under the equator in South America, 
attains an elevation equal to that of the summit of Mont 
Blanc in the Alps, and descends, according to recent mea- 
surements, about 1023 feet lower towards the northern tropio 
in the elevated plateaux of Mexico (in 19° north latitude),, 

* See my table of the height of the line of perpetual snow, in both 
hemispheres, from 71** 15' K. lat. to 58** 6i* S. lat., in my Ane cetUraU, 
t iii. p. 860. 

z 



886 oofiKOfl. 

rises, aoeoxding to Pentlaad, in the southeim tropical aone 
(14^ 30' to 1 8° south latitude), being more than 2665 feet bi^ 
in the maritime and western brandi of the CordillerBS of 
Chili, than under the equator near Quito on CSiimboraKO, 
Cotopazi, and Antisana. Dr. Gillies even asserts that mnelL 
iurther to the south, on the dedivity of the yolcano of Fen- 
.qvenes (latitude 33^), he found the snow-line at an elevation ef 
between 1 4.520 and 1 5,030 feet The evaporation of the sbow 
in the extremely dry air of the summer, and under a doudkffi 
Ay, is so powerftil, that the volcano of Aiccmcagua, north-east 
of Valparaiso (latitude 32^ 30'), which was found in the expe- 
dition of the Beagle to be more than 1400 fe^ h^her than 
Chimboraso, was on one occasion seen firee from snow.* la 
«a almost equal northern latitude (from 30^ 45' to 31^) the 
snow-line on the southern declivity of the Himalaya, lies 
at an elevation of 12,982 feet, which is about the same as the 
height which we might have assigned to it from a comparison 
witJ^ other mountain chains; on the northern declivity, how- 
ew, imder the influence of the h^h lands of Thibet (whose 
mean elevation appears to be about 1 1 ,510 feet), the snow line 
is atuated at a height of 1 6,630 feet. This phenomenon, which 
has long been contested both in Europe and in India, and 
whose causes I have attempted to devdope in various works, 
published since 1820,f possesses other grounds of interest 

* Darwin, Journal pf ^ Voyagn ^ Ihe Adve$Utwn and Beoffle, 
p. 297. Ab the volcano of Aconcagaa was not at that time ia a state of 
eruption, we must not ascribe the remarkable phenomenon of the 
absence of snow to the internal heat of the mountain (to the escape of 
heated air through fissures), as is sometimes the case with CotopaxL 
Gillies, in the Journal of NaiurcU Science, 1830, p. S16. 

+ See my Second M&noire sur lee Montagnea de Vlnde, in the 
AnnaZes de Chimie et de Physique, t xiv. pp. 5-55; and Asie cenirak, 
t. iii. p. 281-827. Whilst the most learned and experienced travelleia 
in India, Colebrooke, Webb, and Hodgson, Victor Jacquemont, Forbes 
Boyle Carl von Httgel, and Yigne, who haye all personally examined 
the Himalaya range, are agreed regarding the greater elevation of the 
snow-line on the Thibotian side, the accuracy of this statement is called 
in question by John Gerard, by the geognosist MacClelland, the editor 
of the Calcutta Journal, and by Captalp Thomas Hutton, assistant 
' surveyor of the Agra Division. The appearance of my work on Central 
Asia gave rise to a rediscussion of this question. A recent number 
(foL iv. January, 1844) of MacClelland and Griffith's Calcutta Jwr- 
"W qf Matured History contains, howeyerf a veiy remarkable vo^ 



THE 8M0W-LIITB, ' 339 

' a purely physical nature, since it exercises no 
e degree of influence on the mode of life of 
[jes — the meteorological processes of the atmo- 

}f the detenninatton of Uie Enow-lins In the HimalsTas. 
he Bengal Barriee, vriUs la followa, from camp Seoiulka, ■ 
. river, Knmaoa : " In the Jnly, 1843, No. 11 of yonc 
1 of Natural History, vbicb I hare onlj latel; had the 
leeing, I read Captain Button's paper on Che eaov of Um 
1, ae I difiered almOHt entirely from the concluBioan so 
raim by that gentleman, I thought it right, for iiM 
tific truUi, to prepare some kind of auEver; as, hoirerer, 
itite perusal, I End thnt jrou foureelf appear implicitly' 
n Hutlon'B viewa, and actually use these words, ''VVehsTC 
aona of the error here so well pointed out by Captain 
■mon milA every one mho has vi»ited the Himaiaya,' I 
.ed to address you, in the Erst instance, onil to ask irfao- 
ibliih a short reply vhich I meditate ; and whether yonr 
Hutlon's paper was written after your own full and car*- 
i of the subject, or merely on a general kind of acqnies- 
bet and opiniona of your able conljibntor, who la so well 
emed aa a collector of scientific data? Now I am one 
d the Himalaya on the weetem side; I have crossed the 
wriit Pass into the Bnepa valley, in Lower Kanawar, 
the Eewuen moantains of Gburwol bj the Koopin Pass; 
(he source of the Jumna, at Jumnoolree ; and moving 
nireea of the Kolee or Mundaknee branch of the Oanges, 
of the Vishnoo Gunga, or Aiuknunda, at Buddrinstli 
he Pindur, at the foot of the Great Peak Nundidcvi; of 
mch of the Oangee, beyond Neetee, crosidng and.reorosi- 
that name inlo Thibet; of (he Goree or groat brandi of 
Ealee, near OonU Dhoora, beyond Hetujo. I have alBi^ 
ipacity, made the eettleincnt of the Bhote Mehala of thia 
reaidence of more than aix years iu the hills has thrown 
ji the way of European and native travellers, nor have I 
quire information from the recorded labours of others, 
is experience, 1 am prepared to affinn that the perpfiual 
a higher elevation On the northern dope of ' the Hima- 
le southern elope. 

lentioned by CaptaJu Hntton appear to me only to refer 
1 sides of all mountains in these regions, and not to 
ay, the reports of Captain Webb and others, on which 
ned his theory. Indeed, how can any fads of one 
1 place, falsify the facta of anolhcr observer, ia another 
iglj allow that the north side of a hill retiuns the sno«- 
iper than the south side, and this obaervation applies 
its in Bhote; but HamhoMt's theoiy is on the question 
il snow-Uae, and Caplnin Button's references to Simla 



340 cosjcoff. 

spliere being the oontroUing causes on whicli d^Jiend tiiA 
agricultural or pastoral pursuits of the inhabitants of exten« 
idye tracts of continents. 

As. the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere increases 
vdth the temperature, this element, which is so importaat for 
the whole organic creation, must -vary with the hours of the 
day, the seasons of the year, and tb^ diflferenoes in latitude 
tftna elevation. Our knowledge of the hygrometric relations 
of the Earth*c sur&ce, has been very materially augmented 
of late years, by the general application of August's psychro- 
meter, framed in accordance vdth the views of Dalton and 
Daniell, for determining the relative quantity of vapour, or 
the condition of moisture of the atmosphere, by means of the 
difference of the dew point and of the temperature of the air. 
Temperature, atmospheric pressure, and the direction of the 
wind, are all intimately connected with the vivifying action of 
atmospheric moisture. This influence is not, however, so 
much a consequence of the quantity of moisture held in solu- 
tion in different zones, as of the nature and firequency of the 
precipitation which moistens the ground, whether in the form 
^f dew, mist, rain, or snow. According to the exposition made 
by Dove of the' law of rotation, and to the general views of 
this distinguished physicist,* it would appear, that in our 
northern zone, " the elastic force of the vapour is greatest with 
a south-west, and least with a north-east wind. On the west- 
em side of the windrose this elasticity diminishes, whilst it 
increases on the eastern side; on the former side, for instance, 

and Mussooree, and other mountain sites, are out of place in this ques- 
tion, or else he fights against a shadow, or an objection of his own 
creation. In no part of his paper does he quote accurately the dictam 
which he wishes to oppose." 

If the mean altitude of the Thibetian highlands be 11,510 feet, they 
admit of comparison with the lovely and firuitful plateau of Gaxamarca 
in Peru. But at this estimate they would still be 1300 feet lower 
than the plateau of Bolivia at the lake of Titicaca, and the causeway of 
the town of Potosl. Ladak, as appears from Yigne's measurement^ by 
determining the boiling-point, is 9994 feet high. This is probably also 
the altitude of H'Lassa (Yul-sung), a monastic city, which Chinese 
writers describe as the realm of pleamre, and which is surrounded by 
Wneyards. Must not these lie in deep valleys 1 

* See Dovo, Meteorologiache Vergleichung von Nordameriha and 
Europa, in Schumacher's Jahrhuch f&r 1841, s. 811 ; and his i^efe0^ 
^logUche Untetnuchungen, s. 140^ 



HYQBOMETItY. 841 

the cold, dense, and dry current of air repels the warmer lighter 
current containing an abundance of aqueous vapom*, \yhilsf 
on the eastern side, it is the former current which is repulsed 
by ihe latter. The south-west is the equatorial current, while 
the north-east is the sole prevailing polar current." 

The agreeable and iresh verdure which is observed in many 
trees in districts within the tropics, where, for five or seven 
months of the year, not a cloud is seen on the vault of heaven, 
and where no perceptible dew or rain fells, proves that the 
leaves are capable of extracting water from the atmosphere by 
a peculiar vital process of their own, which perhaps is not 
alone that of producing cold by radiation. The absence of 
rain in the arid plains of Cumana, Coro, and Ceara in North 
Brazil, forms a striking contrast to the quantity of rain which 
fells in some tropical regions, as for instance, in the Havannah, 
where it would appear from the average of six years' observa- 
tion by Kamon de la Sagra, the mean annual quantity of 
rain is 109 inches, equal to four or five times that which 
fells at Paris or at Geneva.* On the declivity of the Cordil- 
leras the quantity of rain, as well as the temperature, dimi- 
nishes with the increase in the elevation.f My South 
American fellow-traveUer, Caldas, found that at Santa Fe de 
Bogota, at an elevation of almost 8700 feet, it did not exceed 
37 inches, being consequently little more than on some parts 
of the western shore of Europe. Boussingault occasionally 

* The mean annual quantity of rain that fell in Paris between 
1805 and 1822, was found by Arago to be 20 iuches ; m London, 
between 1812 and 1827, it was determined by Howard at 25 inches; 
whilst at Geneva the mean of thirty-two years' observation was 30*5 
inches. In Hindustan, near the coast, the quantity of rain is from 115 
to 128 inches; and in the island of Cuba, fully 142 inches fell in 
the year 1821. With regard to the distribution of the quantity of rain 
in Central Europe, at diOferent periods of the year, see the admirable 
researches of Gktsparin, Schouw, and Bravais, in the Biblioihlque Uni' 
verscUe, t. xxxviii. pp. 54 and 264; Tableau du Climat de VlUdie, 
p. 76 ; and Martins' notes to hie excellent French translation of K&mtz's 
Vorlesungen aber Meteorologie, p. 142. 

■f* According to Boussingault (Economie rurcde, t. ii. p. 693), the 
nean quantity of rain that fell at Marmato (latitude 5" 27^ altitude 
4675 feet, and mean temperature 69**,) in the years 1833 and 1884, 
was 64 inches; whilst at Santa F6 de Bogota (latitude 4"* W, alti- 
tude 8685 feet, and mean temperature 58%) it only amounted to 894 
ineheSk 



S42 COSMOS. 

observed at Quito, that Saussure's hygrometer receded to 26r, 
with a temperature of from 53^**6 to 55^*4. Gay-Lussac saw 
the same hygrometer standing at 25^*3 in his great aero- 
static ascent in a stratum of air 7034 feet high, and witib. a 
temperature of 39°'2. The greatest dryness that has yet 
been observed on the surface of the globe in low lands, is 
probably that which Gustav Hose, i^^renberg, and myself 
foimd in Northern Asia, between the valleys of the Irtisch 
and the Oby. In the Steppe of Platowskaja, after soutb-west 
winds had blown for a long time frt)m the interior of the 
Continent, with a temperature of 74°* 7, we found the dew 
point at 24°. The air contained only -j^ of aqueous vapour.* 
The accurate observers, Kamtz, Bravais, and Martins, have 
raised doubts during the last few years regarding the greater 
dryness of the mountain air, which appeared to be proved by 
the hygrometric measurements made by Saussure and m3rBelf 
in the higher r^ons of the Alps and the Cordilleras. The 
strata of air at Zurich and on the Faulhom, which cannot be 
considered as an elevated mountain when compared with non- 
European elevations, furnished the data employed in tiie 
comparisons made by these observers.f In die tropical 
region of the Paramos (near the region where snow b^ins to 
fim, at an elevation of between 12,000 and 14,000 feet) some 

rnes of large flowering myrde-leaved alpine shrubs are 
ost constantly bathed in moisture, but this &ct does not 
actually prove the existence of any great and absolute quantity 
of aqueous vapour at such an elevation, mra^y a£ftn:ding an 
eiddence of Ihe frequency of aqueous precipitation, in like 
ikianner as do the frequent mists with which the lovely 
plateau of Bogota is covered. Mists arise and disappear 
several times in the course of an hour in such devations as 
these, and with a calm state of the atmosphere. These rapid 
alternations characterise Ihe Paramos and the elevated plains 
of the chain of the Andes. 

7%6 electricity of the atmosphere, whether considered in ^e 
lower or in the upper strata of the douds, in its silent pro* 

* For the particulars of this ohservation, see my Ane cenirale, t. iii. 
pp. 85-89 and 567 ; and regarding the amount of vapour in the atm^ 
Sphere^ in the lowlands of tropical South Amerio^ consoil mj BUtL 

Ml, t L pp. 242-248, t. ii. pp. 45, 164. 

t K&mtZy VwUmmgen aber Meteorologie, a. 117. 



iLTlfOSFHEBIC BLEGTBICITT. 34S 

j)IfinniHcal diurnal oourse, or in the explodon of the lightning 
and thunder of the tempest, appears to stand in a manilbld 
relation to all phenomena of the distribution of heat, of the 
pressure of the atmosphere and its disturbances, of hydro- 
meteorie exhibitions, and probably also of the magnetinn of 
the external crust of the earth. It exercises a powerM 
influence on the whole animal and vegetable world; not 
merely by meteorological processes, as precipitations of 
aqueous vapour, and of the acids and ammoniacal compounds to 
which it gives rise,, but also directly as an electric force acting* 
an the nerves, and promoting the circulation of the organio 
juicesr This i& not a place in which to renew the discussion 
that has been started regarding the actual sourse of atmo- 
spheric electricity when the sky is clear, a phenomenon that luui^ 
fUtemiUely been ascribed to the evaporation of impure fluids 
impregnated with earths and salts,"*^ to the gnrwth of plants,t 
or to some other chemical decompositions on the sur&ce of the 
earth, to the unequal distribution of heat in the strata of tho' 
air,:|: and, finally, according to Peltier's intelligent researches, § 
to the agency of a constant charge of negative electricity in 
the terrestrial globe. Limiting itself to results yielded by 
electromctrio observations^ such for instance as are fumi^ed 
by the ingenious electro-magnetic apparatus first proposed by 
CoUadon, ^e physical description of the universe should 
merely notice the incontestible increase of intensity in the 
general positive electricity of the atmosphere, |1 accompanying 
an increase of altitude and the absence of trees, its daily varia- 
tions (which, according to Clark's experiments at Dublin^ 
take place at more complicated periods than those found' by 
Saussure and myself), and its variations in the different seasons 
of the year, at different distances from the equator, and in 
the different relations of continental or oceanic sur&ce. 
The electric equilibrium is less frequently disturbed where 

* Kegarding the conditions of electricity from evftpontion at high- 
temperatures^ see Peltier, in Hie Atmalea de CMmie, t Ixxv. p. 380. 

i* Pouillet» in the Anncdes de Chimiet t. zzzv. p. 405. 

i De la Biye, in his admirable Msaai hutorique sur VMectricUi- 
p. 140. 

§ Peltier, in the Con^ptea rendm de VAcad. dea Sciences, t. xii* 
p. 807 ; Becqaferel,. 3!rait6 de VElectridU et du McLgn§tiame, U IfW 
p. 107. 

il Ihiprez^ Sur VMeeCricitS de VAir, (Broxelles, 1844;) pp. 5&-61* 



M4 COSMOS. 

the aerial ocean rests on a liquid base than irhere it impends 
over the land; end it is very striking to observe how in 
extensive seas small insular groups affect Ihe condition of the 
atmosphere, and occasion the formation of storms. In fogs, 
and in the conmiencement of £alls of snow, I have seen, in a 
long series of observations, the previously permanent positive 
electricity rapidly pass into the negative condition, both on the 
~ ins of the colder zones, and in the Paramos of the Cordil- 



pla 
ten 



ras, at elevations varying from 11,000 to 15,000 feet The 
alternate transition was precisely similar to that indicated by 
the electrometer shortly before and during a storm.* When 
the vesicles of vapour have become condensed into donds, 
having definite outlines, the electric tension of the external 
0ur&ce will be increased in proportion to the amount of 
electricity which passes over to it from the separate vesicles 
of vapour.f Slate-grey clouds are charged, according to 
Peltier's experiments at Paris, with negative, and white red, 
and orange-coloured clouds, wit^ positive electricity. Thunder 
douds not only envelope the highest siunmits of the chain of 
the Andes, (I have myself seen the electric efiect of light- 
ning on one of the rocky pinnacles which project upwards of 
16,000 feet above the crater of the volcano of Toluca), but 
they have also been observed at a vertical height of 26,650 
feet over the low lands in the temperate zone4 Sometimes, 

* Humboldt, JRSlcUton hUtorique, t. lit p. SI 8. I here only refer to 
those of my experiments in which the three-foot metallic conductor of 
Saussure's electrometer was neither moved upwards or downwards, nor, 
according to Yolta's proposal, armed with burning sponge. Those of 
my readers who are well acquainted with the qnasatumes vexaUs of 
atmospheric electricity, will understand the grounds for this limitation. 
Sespecting the formation of storms in the tropics, see my JiH, hui^ 
t. ii. pp. 45 and 202-209. 

+ 6ay-Lu8sac, in the Annalea de ChimU et de Phjfsiqua, i. viii. 
p. 167. In consequence of the discordant views of Lam6, Becquerel, 
and Peltier, it is difficult to come to a conclusion regarding the cause of 
the specific distribution of electricity in clouds, some of which have a 
positive, and others a negative tension. The negative electricity of the 
air, which near high water-falls is caused by a disintegration of the 
drops of water — ^a fact originally noticed by Tralles, and confirmed by 
myself in various latitudes — is very remarkable, and is sufficiently 
Intense 1o produce an appreciable effect on a delicate electrometer, at a 
distance of 800 or 400 feet. 

t Arago, in Uie Annuatre du Btareau de$ LangUudet pemr 1858L 
p. 246. 



JlTVOSPHEBIC ELECTKICITI. 34fl 

i stratum of cloud from which the thunder pro- 
to 8 distance of 5000, or indeed only 3000 feet 

to Arago's inTCBti^tionB — the moat compreheii' 
poBSess on this difficult branch of mcteorol<^— 
. of light (hghtning) is of three kinds: — zig-zag, 
tejined eX the edges ; in sheets of light, illuminat- 
cloud which geems to open and reveal the light 
id in the form of fire-balls.* The durntion of 
; kinds scarcely continues the thousandth part of 
t the globulnr hghtning moves much more slowly, 
sible for several seconds. Occasionally (as is 
e recent observations, which have confirmed the 
^ven by Nicholson and Beccoria of this pheno- 
ited clouds standing high above the horizon, 
nterruptedly for some time to emit a luminous 
1 their interior and from their margins, althou^ 
lunder to be heard, and no indication of a storm; 
!B even hail-stones, drops of rain, and flakes of 
%n seen to &11 in a luminous condition, when 
non was not preceded by thunder. In the geo- 
trihution of storms, the Peruvian coast, which is 
i tJiunder or lightning, presents the most striking 
he rest of the tropical zone, in which, at certain 
e year, diunder-storms occur almost daily, about 
hours after tlie sun has reached the meridian. 
I the abundant evidence coUected by Arago f from 
ly of navigators (Scoresby, Parry, Ross, and 
ere can be no doubt that, in general, electric 
re estremelv rare in high northern regions 
' and 75° latitude.) 

ological portion of the descriptive history of nature 
e now concluding, shows, that the processes of 
n of light. &e liberation of heat, and the vario- 

. clt, pii. 24&-2ee. (See also pp. 268-278.) 
. ciL, pp. 38&-3ei. The learned Academician von B&er, 
ao much for the meteorology of Northern Asia, has not 
Bideratjon the extreme rarit; of storms in Icelund and 
i has only remnrked {Btdletin de tAcademie de St. 
839, Mai), that in Kova Zembla and Spitzbergen it is 
'd to thuoder. 



M6 00SK08. 

tioiui in the elastic and electric tension, and in the hygxma^ 
Ine condition of the vast aerial ocean, are all so intimat^jr 
oonnected together, that each indiyidual meteorological prooeas 
is modified by the action of all the others. The complicated 
nature of these disturbing causes (which involuntarily remind 
UB of those which the near and especially the smallest cosmicd. 
bodies, the satellites, comets, and shooting stars^ are subjected 
in their course) increases the difficulty of giving a fiill explan- 
ation of these inyolved meteorological phenomena; and like- 
"Wise limits, or whoUy precludes the possibility of that 
predetermination of atmospheric changes, which would be s& 
important for horticulture, agriculture, and navigation, no 
leaa than Ibr the eomfiurt and enjoyment of life. Those who 
place the value of meteorology in this problematic species cf 
prediction rather than in the knowledge of the phenomena 
themselves, are firmly convinced that this branch of scienoe, 
on account of which so many expeditions to distant moon.- 
tainous regions have been undertaken, has not made any v^y 
considerable progress for centuries past. The confidence 
which they revise to the phyoeist they yidd to changes o£ 
the moon, and to certain days marked in tii« calendar by the 
s u perstition of a by-gone age. 

*'*' Great local deviations from the distribution of the mean 
temperature are of rare occurrence, the variations being in 
maenl uniformly distributed over extensive tracts of land. 
The deviation after attaining its maximum at a certain point, 
^Badually decreases to its limits ; when these ate passed, hoiw- 
ever, decided deviations are observed in the opposite cUreeium. 
SimOar relations of weather extend more frequentiy from south- 
to north, than from west to east. At the close of the year 182^, 
(when I had just completed my Siberian joiuaiey) the max* 
imnm of cold was at Berlin, whilst North America enjoyed 
an unusually high temperature. It is an entirely arbitraiy 
assumption to believe that a hot summer succeeds a seveape 
winter, and that a cool summer is preceded by a mild winter." 
Opposite relations of weather in contiguous countries^ or m 
two corn-growing continents, give rise to a beneficent equal- 
ization in tiie prices of the products of the vine, and of agricul- 
tural and horticultural cultivation. It has been jnsify 
remarked, that it is the barometer alone which indicates to 
us the changes that occur in the pressure of the air thxou^^ 



oBaAKic I.IPE. 34Y 

erial strata from the place of observatioii to Urn 
\£iiea of tlie atnuMpliere, whilst* the thermometer 
Deter only acquaint ub with all the Tariations 
the looal best and moiature of the lower Btiata cf 
with the ground. The simultaneous thermic and 
DodificatiaDfl of the upper regioos of the air, cut 
(when direct obgervations ou moimtaiii stations or 
ents are impracticable,) from hj'pothetical combi- 
aking the barometer serve both as a thermometer 
imet«r. Important changes of weather are cot 
ely local causes, situated at the place of observa- 
the consequence of a disturbance in the equili- 
lerial currents at a great distance from the sur&ce 
in the higher strabi of the atmosphere, bringing' 
1, dry or moist air, rendering the sky cloudy or 
Dnvertiug the accumulated masses of clouds mto 
cirri. As therefore the inaccessibility of the 
IS added to the manifold nature and complication 
ances, it has always appeared to me, that mete- 
first seek its foundation and pn^ress in the 
rhere the variations of the atmospheric pressure, 
bydro-meteore, and the phenomena of electric 
I all of periodic occurrence, 
e now passed in review the whole sphere of 
restrial life, and have briefly considered our 
^ference to its form, its internal heat, its electxO' 
lion, its phenomena of polar light, the voloanio 
s interior on its variously composed solid crust, 
he phenomena of its twofold envelopes — the' 
[uid ocean — we might, in accordance with the 
of treating physical geography, consider that we 
i our descriptive history of the globe. But the 
lave proposed to myself^ of raising the contempla- 
: to a more elevated point of view, would be- 
diis delineation of nature would appear to lose 
jtive charm, if it did not also include the sphere 
I, in the many stages of its typical development. 

Schamscher'B Jahrbuch Jiir 1S3S, >i. 2S5. Segardina 
tribntioD of beat in the east aad the neat of Europe ana 
, Me Core, Seperttmtan der PkytOc, bd. iiU s. 3U2- 



S48 COSMOS. 

The idea of vitality is so intimately associated with ih« ictea 
of the existence of the active ever blending natural forces whidi 
animate the terrestrial sphere, that the creation of plants and 
animals is ascribed in the most ancient mythical representa- 
tions of many nations to these forces, whilst the condition o! 
the sur&ce of our planet, before it was animated by vital 
forms, is regarded as coeval with the epoch of a chaotic con- 
flict of the struggling elements. But the empirical domain 
of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet 
in its present condition, do not include a consideration 
of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and 
existence. 

A cosmical history of the universe, resting upon &ots as its 
basis, has, from the nature and limitations of its sphere, neces- 
sarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a 
history of organisms y^ if we understand the word history ia its 

* The history (^plants, which Endlicher and Unger Ii&tc described 
in a most masterlj manner (OrundzHgt der Botanik, 1843, a. 449-468), 
i myself separated from the geography of plants, half a century ago. 
In the aphorisms appended to my Subterranean Flora, the following 
inssage occurs : — ** Gbognosia naturam animantem et inanimam vel, ut 
Tocabulo minus apto, ex antiquitate saltern hand petito, utar, corpora 
organica teque ac inoiganica considerat. Sunt enim tria quibus absol- 
vitur capita : Geographia oryctologica quam simpliciter Qeognosiam vel 
Qeologiam dicunt, virque acutissimus Wemerus egregie digcsiut ; Qeo- 
graphia zoologica, cujus doctrines fimdamenta Zimmermannua et 
Tteviranns jecerunt; et Geographia plantamm quam sequales noatri 
din intactam reliquerunt Geographia plantarum vinculo et cognatio- 
nem tradit, quibus omnia vegetabilia inter se conneza aint^ terrss 
tractus quos teneant, in aerem atmosphttricum qu» sit eorum vis osten- 
dit, saza atque rupes quibus potissimum algarum primordiis radid- 
busque destruantur docet, et quo pacto in telluris superficie homua 
nascatur, commemorat. Est itaque quod di£ferat intei Gkognosiam et 
Physiographiam, historia naturalis perperam nuncupatam quum Zoo- 
gnosia, Phytognosia^ et Oryctognosia, quas quidem omnes in natoree 
investigatione versantur, non nisi singulorum animalium, plantarum, 
rerum metallicarum vel (venia sit verbo) fossilium formas, anatomen, 
vires scrutantur. Historia Telluris, Geognosise magis quam PhysiogTa- 
phise affinis, nemini adhuc tentata, plantarum animaliumque genera 
orbem inhabitantia primasvum, migrationes eorum compluriumque 
interitum, ortum quem montes, valles, saxorum strata et venso metalli- 
fer» ducunt, aerem, mutatis temporum vicibus, modo purum, mode 
vitiatum, terrae superficiem humo plantisque paulatim obtectam, flumi- 
num inundantium impetu denno nudatam, iterumque siocatam et gn- 
mine vestitam commemorat. Igitur Historia zoologies^ Historia j^ania* 



MOTION IK FLJLKTS. 349 

brCMidest sense. It must, however, be remembered, that the 
inorganic crust of the Earth contains within it the same 
elements that enter into the structure of animal and vegetable 
organs. A physical cosmography would therefore be incom- 
plete, if it were to omit a consideration of these forces, and 
of the substances which enter into solid and fluid combina* 
tions in organic tissues, imder conditions which, from our 
ignorance of their actual nature, we designate by the vague 
term of tntal forces, and group into various systems, in accord- 
ance with more or less perfectly conceived analogies. The 
natural tendency of the human mind, involuntarily prompts 
us to foUow the physical phenomena of the Earth, through all 
their varied series, imtil we reach the final stage of the mor- 
phological evolution of vegetable forms, and the self-deter- 
mining powers of motion in animal organisms. And it is by 
these links that the geography of organic beings^^ plants and 
animals — ^is connected with the delineation of tiie inorganio 
phenomena of our terrestrial globe. 

Without entering on the difficult question of spontaneoui 
motion, or in other words, on the difference between veget« 
able and animal Hfe, we would remark, that if nature had 
endowed us with microscopic powers of vision, and the inte- 
guments of plants had been rendered perfectly transparent to 
our eyes, the vegetable world would present a very different 
aspect from the apparent immobility and repose in which it is 
now manifested to our senses. The interior portion of the 
cellular structure of their organs is incessantly animated by 
the most varied currents — either rotating, ascending and 
descending, ramifying, and ever changing their direction, as 

mm et HiBtoria oiyctologica^ quae non nisi pristinam orbis term 
stakim indicant^ a Geognosia probe distingaendaB." Humboldt, Flora 
Friburgensis subterranea, cut accedurU ApJiorismi ex Physiologia 
ehemica Plantarum, 1793, pp. ix.-x. Respecting the '' spontaneous 
motion/* which is referred to in a subsequent part of the text, see the 
remarkable passage in Aristotle, De Cceh, ii. 2, p. 284, Bekker, where 
the distinction between animate and inanimate bodies is made to 
depend on the internal or external position of the seat of the determin- 
ing motion. "No movement," says the Stagirite, " proceeds from the 
vegetable spirit, because plants are buried in a still sleep, from which 
nothing can arouse them." (Aristotle, De Oenerat. Animal, v. i. p. 778, 
Bekker) ; and again, " because plants have no desires which incite 
them to spontaneous motion.'' (Arist., De Somno et Vigil, cap. 1. p. i^lim 
Bekker.) 



MO COSMOS. 

manifested in. the motion of the granular mucus of mirine 
filants, (naiades, charaee», hydrocharidn,) and in the hain of 
phanerogamic land plants ; in the molecular motion first &• 
oorered by the iUustrious botanist Robert Brown, and whidi 
may be traced in the ultimate portions of every molecule cC 
matter even when separated from the organ; in the gynt- 
tory currents of the globules of cambium {cydasis) cxnsa- 
lating in their peculiar vessels; and finally, in the singik- 
larly articulated self-unrolling filamentous vessels in the 
aniheridia of the chara, and in the reproductive organs of 
liverworts and algSB, in the structural conditions of whidi 
Meyen, unhappily too early lost to science, believed that he 
recognised an analogy with the spermatozoa of the anii^ 
kingdom.* If to these manifold currents and gyratory move- 
ments we add the phenom^ia of endosmosis, nutrition, and 
growth, we shall have some idea of those forces, whiclL are 
ever active amid the apparent repose of vegetable life. 

Since I attempted in a former work, Ansiehten der Naiiir, 
(Views of Nature) to delineate the universal division of life 
over the whole surfietce of the Earth, in the distributi<m of 
organic forms, both with respect to elevation and depth, our 
knowledge of this branch of science has been most remark- 
ably increased by Ehrenberg's brilliant discovery " on micro- 
scopic life in the ocean, and in the ice of the polar regions," 
•—a discovery based not on deductive conclusions, but cm 
direct observation. The sphere of vitality, we might almost 

* [" In certain fMurts^ probably, of all plants, are found peealiar spiral 
filaments, having n strikiDg resemblance to the spermatozoa of animals. 
They have been long known in the organs called the antheridia of 
Mosses, Hepaticse, and Characeae, and have more recently been disco- 
vered in peculiar cells on the germinal frond of ferns, and on the very 
young leaves of the buds of Phanerogamia. They are found in peculiar 
cells, and when these are placed in water they are torn by the filament, 
which commences an active spiral motion. The signification of these 
organs is at present quite unknown ; they appear, from the researches of 
NSgeli, to resemble the cell mucilage, or proto-plasma, in composition, 
and are developed from it. Schleiden regards them as mere mncila- 
ginous deposits, similar to those connected with the circulation in cells^ 
and he contends that the movement of these bodies in ?rater is analo- 
gous to tiie molecular motion of small particles of organic and inoiganic 
substances, and depends on mechanical causes." — OtUlines of Structural 
and PhyaioU)gic(d Botany, by A. Henfiiey, F.L.S., &c., 1846, p. 28.J— iTV. 



TTNITEBSJLLITT OS* A.NIHiLL LIFE. 311 

nj, the horizon of life, has been expanded before our eyes. 
'^ J^ot only in the polar regions is there an uninterrupted 
devdbpment of active microscopic life, where kirger aTijtrti ^ 
can no longer exist, but we find that the microseopic animab 
coUeoted in the Antarctic expedition of Captain James Kosfli, 
exhibit a remarkable abundance of unknown and oftai mast 
beaxLti&d forms. Even in the residuum obtained from themelted 
iee, swimming about in round fragments, in the latitude of 
70° 10\ there were foimd upwards of fifty species of siliceouft- 
^lelled polygastria and ooscinodiscsa with their green ovaries, 
and therefore living and able to resist the extreme severity of 
the cold. In the Gulf of Erebus, sixty-e^ht siliceous-shelled 
polygastria and phytolitharia, and only one calcareous-shelled 
polythalamia, w^Te brought up by lead sunk to a depth of 
from 1242 to 1620 feet." 

The greater number of the oceanic microscopic forms 
hitherto discovered have been siHceous-shelled, although the 
analysis of sea water does not yield silica as the main con- 
tftituent, and it can only be imagined to exist in it in a state of 
sus^nsion. It is not only at pcuticular points in inland seas, 
or in the vicinity of the land, that the ocean is densely 
inhabited by living atoms, invisible to the naked eye, but 
j9am{des of water taken up by Schayer on his return firom 
Van Diemen's Land (south of the Cape of Good Hope, in 57® 
latitude, and under the tropics in the Atlantic) i^ow that 
the ocean in its ordinary condition, without any apparent 
discoloration, contains nimierous microscopic moving o]^i;aa- 
isms, which bear no resemblance to the swimming frag- 
m^itary siliceous filaments of the genus chsetoceros, similar 
to the osciUatoriaB so common in our fresh waters. Some 
few polygastria which have been found mixed with sand and 
excrements of penguins in Cockbum Island appear to be 
spread over the whole earth, whilst others seem to be peculiar 
to the polar regions.* 

* See Ehrenberg's treatise Ueher das Jcleinste Lehen im Ocean, read 
before the Academy of Science at Berlin, on the 9th ef May, 1844. 

[Br. J. Hooker found Diatomacese in countless numbers between the 
parallels of 60° and 80° south, where they gave a colour to the sea, and 
also to the icebergs floating in it. The death of these bodies in the 
Soath Arctic Ocean is producing a sub-marine deposit, consisting 
entirely of the siliceous particles of which the skeletons of these 
vegetables are composed. This dejj^slt exists on the shores of Victoria 



TTNIVER8ALITY OF ANIMAL LIFE, 853 

B, diameter which does not exceed -j^nnr ®^ ^ ^®» ^^^ 7^^ 
these sDiceous-shelled organisms form in humid districts 
subterranean strata of many fathoms in depth. 

The strong and beneficial influence exercised on the feel- 
ings of mankind by the consideration of the di&sion of life 
throughout the realms of nature, is common to every zone, but 
the impression thus produced is most powerful in the equa- 
torial regions, in the land of palms, bamboos, and arborescent 
ferns — where ihe ground rises fi-om the shore of seas rich in 
mollusca and corals, to the limits of perpetual snow. The 
local distribution of plants embraces almost all heights and all 
depths. Organic forms not only descend into the interior of 
ihe earth, where the industry of the miner has laid open exten« 
eive excavations, and sprung deep shafts, but I have also 
found snow-white stalactitic columns encircled by the deli- 
cate web of an Usnea, in caves where meteoric water 
could alone penetrate through fissures. PodurellsB penetrate 
into the icy crevices of the glaciers on Mount Eosa, the 
Orindelwaid, and the Upper Aar; the Chioncea araneoides 
described by Dalman, and the microscopic Discerea nivalis 
(formerly known as Protococcus), exist in the polar snow as 
-vfell as m that of our high mountains. The redness assumed 
by the snow after lying on the ground for some time, waa 
known to Aristotle, and was probably observed by him on 
the mountains of Macedonia.* Whilst on the lofdest sum- 
mits of the Alps, only LeoidesB, Parmelise, and Umbilicariee, 
cast their coloured but scanty covering over the rocks, ex- 
posed by the melted snow, beautiful phanerogamic plants, as 
the Culcitium rufescens, Sida pinchmchensis, and Saxi&aga 
boujssingaulti, are still found to flourish in the tropical region 
of tiie chain of the Andes, at an elevation of more than 
15,000 feet. Thermal springs contain small insects (Hydro* 
porus thermalis), gallionellaB, oscillatoria, and confervse, whilst 
their waters bathe the root-fibres of phanerogamic plants. 

great work, IHe Infimonslhierchen aU voVhmvmne Organiafnen, 18S8y 
«. xiit ziz. and 244. " The milky way of these orgauisms compriset 
the genera Monae, Vibrio, Bacterium, and Bodo." The muveraality of 
life is so profusely distributed throughout the whole of nature, that th« 
smaller infusoria live as parasites on the larger, and are themselvea 
inhabited by others : s. 194, 211, and 512. 

* Aristot., Hi&t» Animal.^ v. six, p. 652, Bekk. 

2a 



eEOGBAFHY OF PI.iLNTS AND ANIMALS. 996 

and the more so, as Ehrenberg,' as I have already remarked, 
has discovered that the nebulous dust or sand which mariaeiiB 
often encounter in the vicinity of the Cape Verd islands, and 
even at a distance of 380 geographical miles from the Afd- 
can shore, contains the remains of ^hteen species of sili- 
ceous-shelled polygastric animalcules. 

Vital organisms, whose relations in space are comprised 
under the head of t|ie gec^raphy of plants and animals, may 
be considered, either according to the difference and relative 
numbers of tlie types, (their arrangement into genera and 
species,) or accoromg to the number of individiuds of each 
species on a given area. In the mode of life of plants, as in 
l^atof animals, an important difference is noticed; they either 
exist in an isolated state, or live in a social condition. Those 
species of plants which I have termed social,* uniformly cover 
vast extents of land. Among these we may reckon many of 
the marine algsd— cladonies and mosses which extend over 
the desert steppes of Northern Asia — grasses, and cacti grow- 
ing together like the pipes of an organ— avicennise and man- 
groves in the tropics— 4mid forests of coniferee and of birches 
in the plains of tiie Baltic and in Siberia. This mode of geo- 

mentum In Area fuisse omnia genera, si in insolis qno transire non posaen^ 
multa ftniTnaUn. terra produzit." Augustinus, J)e CiviUUe Dei, lib. rvi 
cap. 7 ; Opera, td, Monach. Ordinia S. BenedicH, t. vii, Venet. 1782, 
p. 422. Two centuries before the time of l^e Bishop of Hippo, we find 
by extracts firom Trogus PompeiuS; thai the ffeneratio primaria WM 
brought forward in connection with the earliest drying vp of the andeai 
worlds aad of the high table-land of Asia, precisely in the same mannftr 
as the terraces of Paradise, in the theory of the great Linnsens, and in 
the visionary hypotheses entertained in the eighteenth century regarding 
the £Eibled AUuitis : '' Quod si omnes quondam term snbmersee profimdo 
faemnt, profecto editissimam quamque partem deeorrentibuB aqnis pii- 
mum detectam; hnmiUimo antem solo eandem aquam diutiaaimA 
immoratam, et qnanto prior quaeque pars terrarum siccata sit, taato 
prins animalia generare coepisse. Porro Scythlam adeo editiorem omni- 
buB terris esse ut cuncta flumina ibi nata in Maeotium, tum deinde in 
Ponticum et Jlgyptium mare decurrant." Justinus, lib. ii. cap. 1. The 
erroneous supposation that the land of Scythia is an elevated table-land, 
is so ancient, that we meet with it most clearly expressed in Hippocrates, 
J>c jEn €t AquiSy cap. 6, § 96. Coray. " &qrthia,'* says he, *• consiste of 
high and naked plains, which, without being crowned with mountainSy 
aseend higher and higher towards the north." 

* Humboldt, Aphoriami ex Physiologia chenUca ploMta/rum, in, h9 
Flora JFribergenna subterranea, 1798, p. 178. 

2a2 



6S>0SAPHy OF FLAKTS. 

bation of heat over tbe sur&ce (* the earth, and whei 
arrangement of vegetable forms in natural femilies adm 
of a numerical estimate being made of the different fi 
which increase or decrease as we recede from the eqi 
towards the poles, and of the relations in which, in dlSi 
parts of the earth, each family stood with reference to 
whole mass of phanerogamic indigenous plants of the f 
region. I consider it a happy circumstance, that at the 
during which I devoted my attention almost exclusivel 
botamcal pursuits, I was led by the aspect of the grand 
strongly characterised features of tropical scenery, to d 
my invest^tions towards these subjects. 

The study of the geographical distribution of anir 
regarding which Bufibn first advanced general, and in ] 
instances very correct views, has been considerably aidei 
its advance by the progress made in modem times in the 
graphy of plants. The curves of the isothermal lines, 
more especially those of the isochimeoal lines, correspo d ' 
the limits whidi are seldom passed by certain species of pli 
and of animals which do not wander £tr from their f 
habitation, either with respect to elevation or latitude.* 

* [The rollDwing valiuble remaAs 'bj Prof^Bior Forbe^ on the 
respoiideace existing between the dietribntian of existing Aunss 
floras o£ Uie BriCidi Istuida, nod the geological changes that 
affected their area, vill be read -with much intereaC ; they have 
copied, by the aathor's permlgsioa, from the Survey Report, p. IS : 

" If the view I have put forward respecting the origin of the fio 
the British moontuns be true — and every geological and botanical 
bability, so &t as the area ia concerned, favouTS it — then must ire ei 
vour to Sod some more plaoaible cause tiian any yet shown, foi 
presence of muneroug epectea of plants, and of some ammals, oi 
higher parts of Alpine ranges in Europe and Asia, specifically idei 
with animals and plants indigenoDS in regions very far north, and 
found in the intermediate lo^tlands. Toumefort first remarked, 
Humboldt, the great organizer of the science of natural iiistory gei 
phy, demonstrated, that zones of elevation on mountains correspon 
parallels of latitude, the higher with the more northern or souther 
the case might be. It is well tuown that this correspondence is rt 
nizcd in the general ./acted of the flora and fauna, dependent on gei 
correspondences, specific representatives, and lii some caaes, Bp< 
identities. But when announcing and illustrating the law, that clia 
zones of animal and vegetable life are mutually repealed or represe 
by elevation and latitude, aatDialists have not hitherto sufficiently i 
»11} distinguished between the evidence of that law, as eihibittc 



TLOSiLS OF DIFFEBEKT COUNTBIIcS. Z&9 

yeyed to a distance througli the air. When once they hai7« 
taken root, they become dependent on the soil and on the 
strata of air surrounding them. Animals, on the contrary, can 
at pleasure migrate from, the equator towards the poles ; and this 
they can more especially do where the isothermal lines are 
much inflected, and where hot summers succeed a great degree 
of winter cold. The royal tiger, which in no respect d^Ran 
&om the Bengal species, penetrates every summer into the north 
of Asia as far as the latitudes of Berlin and Hambiu-gh — a fact 
of which Ehrenberg and myself have spoken in other works.* 
The grouping or association of difiPerent vegetable species, 
to which we are accustomed to apply the term Floras, do not 
appear to me, from what I have observed in different portions 
of the earth's surface, to manifest such a predominance oi 
individual families as to justify us in marking the geographical 
distinctions between the regions of the UmbellateB, of the Soli- 
dagino), of the Labiatee, or the ScitaminecB. With reference to 
this subject, my views differ from those of several of my :| 

Mends, who rank among the most distinguished of the 
botanists of Germany. The character of the floras of the ele- 
vated plateaux of Mexico, New Granada, and Quito, of Euro- 
pean Russia, and of Northern Asia, consists, in my opinion, 
not so much in the relatively larger number of the species 
presented by one or two natural families, as in the more com- 
plicated relations of the co-existence of many families, and in 
the relative nimierical value of their species. The Gramine«B 
and the Cyperacese imdoubtedly predominate in meadow lands 
and steppes, as do Coniferee, CupulifersB, and Betulinese, in our 
northern woods ; but this predominance of certain forms is 
only apparent, and owing to the aspect imparted by the social '^ 

plants. The north of Europe, and that portion of Siberia r 

which is situated to the north of the Altai mountains, have no -^ 

greater right to the appellation of a region of Gramineee and | 

Coniferse, than have the boundless llanos between the Orinoco 
and the mountain chain of Caracas, or the pine forests of 
Mexico. It is the co-existence of forms which may partially 
replace each other, and their relative numbers and association, 
which give rise either to the general impression of luxuriance 

* Ehrenberg, in the Annales des Sciences naiureUes, t. xxi. pp. 387- 
412 ; Humboldt, Asie c&mtrale, t i. pp. 83^342, and t. ill. pp. 9d-101. 



860 C0SH08. 

and diyenity, or of poverty and imifonnity in the oonteanpla- 
tion of the y^;etable world. 

In this fragmentary sketch of the phenomena of organisa- 
tion, I haye ascended from the simplest cell* — the first mani- 
festation of life — progressively to higher structures. ** The 
association of mucous granules constitutes a definitely-formed 
cytoblast, aroimd which a vesicular membrane forms a closed 
cell/' this cell being either produced from another pre-existing 
cell,f or being due to a cellular formation, whicli, as in the 
case of the fermentation-fungus, is concealed in the obscurity 
of some imknown chemical process.]: But in a work like the 
present we can venture on no more than an allusion to the 
mysteries that involve the question of modes of origin — ^the 
geography of animal and vegetable organisms must limit 
itself to the consideration of germs, akeady developed, of 
their habitation and transplantation, either by voluntary or 
involuntary migrations, their numerical relation, and their 
distribution over the surface of the earth. 

The general picture of nature which I have endeavoured to 
delineate, would be incomplete, if I did not venture to trace a 
few of the most marked features of the human race, consi- 
dered with reference to physical gradations — ^to the geogra- 
phical distribution of contemporaneous types — ^to the influence 
exercised upon man by the forces of nature, and the reciprocal, 
although weaker, action which he in his turn exercises on 
these natural forces. Dependent, although in a lesser degree 
than plants and animals, on the soU, and on the meteorological 
processes of the atmosphere with which he is surrounded — 
escaping more readily from the control of natural forces, by 
activity of mind and the advance of intellectual cultivation, 
no less than by his wonderful capacity of adapting himself to 

* Sclileiden, Ueher die IthUwicklungsweiae der PfianzenzeUen, iii 
MUller's ArchivfUr Anatomie und Pkysiologie, 1838, s. 137-176; alao 
his Chrundzuge der wissentschct/Uichen Botanik, th. i. s. 191, and th. ii. 
8. 11. Schwann, Mikroscopiache Unterswchungen Hber die Ueberein' 
stimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachathum der Thiere und P/km- 
zen, 1889, s. 45, 220. Compare also, on similar propagation, Joh. MUIler, 
Phyaiologie des Menschen, 1840, th. ii. s. 614. 

+ Schleiden, Orundzuge der wiasentschcLftlichen Botanik, 1842, th. i. 
8. 192-197. 

t [On cellular formation, see Henfrey's OuUinea of Structural and 
Physiological Botany, op. cit. pp. 16-22.] — TV. 



MAN. 361 

all climates — ^man everywhere becomes most essentially asso- 
ciated with terrestrial life. It is by these relations that the 
obscure and much contested problem of the possibility of one 
common descent, enters into flie sphere embraced by a general 
physical cosmography. The investigation of this problem will 
impart a nobler and, if I may so express myself, more purely 
human interest to the closing pages of this section of my work. 

The vast domain of language, in whose varied structure we 
see mysteriously reflected the destinies of nations, is most 
intimately associated with the affinity of races; and what 
even slight differences of races may effect, is strikingly mani- 
fested in the history of the Hellenic nations in the zenith of 
their intellectual cultivation. The most important questions 
of the civilisation of mankind, are connected with the ideas of 
races, community of language, and adherence to one original 
direction of the intellectual and moral faculties. 

As long as attention was directed solely to the extremes in 
varieties of colour and of form, and to the vividness of the 
£rst impression of the senses, the observer was naturally dis* 
posed to regard races rather as originally different species 
than as mere varieties. Hie permanence of certain types* in 
the midst of the most hostile influences, especially of climate, 
appeared to favour such a vie^, notwithstanding the shortness 
of the interval of time from which the historical evidence was 
derived. In my opinion, however, more powerful reasons can 
be advanced in support of the theory of the unity of the 
himian race, as, for instance, in the many intermediate grada* 

* Tacitus, in his speculations on the inhabitants of Britain, (Agricola, 
cap. ii.,) distinguishes with much judgment between that which may be 
owing to the local climatic relations, and that which, in the immigrating 
races, may be owing to the unchangeable influence of a hereditary and 
transmitted type. ** Britanniam qui mortales initio coluenmt, indigenn 
an advecti, ut inter barbaros, parum compertum. Habitus corporis 
varii, atque ex eo argumenta ; namque mtilse Caledoniam habitantium 
comae, magni artus Qermanicam originem adseverant. Silurum coloratl 
vultus et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, Iberos 
veteres trajecisse, easque cedes occupasse fidem faciunt : proximi Gallis, 
et similes sunt : sen durante originis vi ; seu procurrentibus in diversa 
terris, positio cceli corporibus habitum dedit." Regarding the persistency 
of types of conformation, in the hot and cold regions of the earth, and 
in ^e mountainous districts of the Kew Continent^ see my ReUUion 
Jiistorique, 1. 1. pp. 498, 503, and t. ii. nn. 572. 574. 



probletnaticsl inflnenoe of climate on races. " Faml 
■nimala and plants," writes one of the greatest anatom 
the day, JobauneB Miiller, in his Bobte and compreb 
iTork, Phr/siohffie det Menacken, " andergo, witlim < 
limitatioiiE peculiar to the different races and species, i 
modificationB in their distribution over the surface 
earth, propagating these Tariations as oi^anic types c 
eies.* The present races of artimals have been pr du 
* [In illusinitioii oritiB, the conclnsions of Profeasor Edwsrd 
reepecUug tiie oTigin and diffiision of the Britiah flon, mxy bi 
See the Survey Memoir aireaiiy qnoted, On the Connection betv. 
DiMrHmUon ijf the cetBiinj Favna and Flora of t}ie Britith J 
&R., p. S5. " 1. The Qora uid faimu, tecrcBtrial and msrine, 
British islands and eeas, have originated, so far as that area is con 
Biace the meiocene epoch. 2. Thi; aHfcmblages of uiimaU and 
composing that fauna and Qors. did not appear in tlie area th 
Inhabit BimultaneoaBl;, but at several distinct points ia time, i 
the fauna and flora of the Britiafa JBlands and seas are composed 
of species which, either pemianently or for a time, appeared 
aies before the glacial epoch ; partly of eudi as inhabited it duri 
epoch; and in great part of those which did not appear ther 
■ftenrards, and whose appearance on the Earth was coeral w 
elevation of the bed of the glacial sea, and the consequent c 
diangea. i. The greater part of the terrestrial animals and So 
plants now inhabiting ths British islands, ore members of i 
centres beyond theit area, and have migrated to it over continue 
before, during, or after the glacial epock 5. The climatal condil 
the area under discussion, and north, east, and west of it, were 
during the glacial epoch, when a great part of the spaca now m 
by the Britisli isles was under water, tbui they are now or were 
Init there is good reaaou to beliere. that so far from those con 
having continued severe, or iiavicg gradually diminished in s 
southwards of Britain, the cold region of the glacial epoch 
directly into contact with a region of more sonthem and t 
character t^an that in which the most southern beds of glacial d 
now to be met with. S. Tliis state of things did not materiall; 
&om that now existing, imder corresponding latitudes, in the 
American, Atlantic, and Arctic seas, and on their bounding 
7. The Alpine floras of Europe and Asia, so far as they are id 
with tlie Goia of the Arctic and sub- Arctic zones of the Old Woi 
fragments of a flora wluch was difitised from (he north, either by 
of transport not now In action on the temperate coasts of Eur 
over conUnuODS land which no longer exists. The deep sea faaa 
like manner a liagment of the general glacial fauna. 8. The 8 
the iskinda of the Atlantic region, betweui the Qulf-weed Bank e 
Old World, are fragments of the great Mediteriaoean flora, an 
difl^iaed over a land constituted out of the ophMved and nevei 



364 COSMOS. 

the oombiiied. action of many different internal, as wfD as 
external conditions, the natore of wbix^ cannot in all cases 
be defined, the most striking varieties being fonnd in tiiose 
fiunilies which are capable of the greatest dtstribation over 
the sar£use of the eartiu The difPerent races of iwmlnTi^ axe 
fimns of one sole 'species, by the nnion of two of whose mem- 
bers descendants are propagated. They axe not different 
species of a genns, since in tibat case their hybrid descendants 
would remain nnfroitfuL But whether the human races ha^ 
descended from several primitive races of men, or from one 
alone, is a question that caimot be determined from expe- 
nence. * 

Ge(^;raphical investigations r^;arding the ancient seat, the 
so-called cradle of the human race, are not devoid of a mythical 
character. " We do not know," a&jB Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
in an unpublished work. On the Varieties of Languages and 
Nations, '* either from history or from authentic tradition^ 
any period of time in which the human race has not been 
divided into social groups. Whether the gregarious condition 
was original, or of subsequent occurrence, we have no historic 
evidence to show. The separate mythical relations found to 
exist independently of one another in different ports of the 
earth, appear to refute the first hypothesis, and concur in 
ascribing the generation of the whole human race to the union 
of one pair. The general prevalence of this myth has caused 
it to be regarded as a traditionary record transmitted from 

sabmerged bed of the (shallow) Meiocene Sea. This great flora, in the 
epoch anterior to, and probably in part during the glacial period, had 
a greater extension noithward than it now presents. 9. The termina- 
tion of the glacial epoch in Europe was marked by a recession of an 
Arctic fauna and flora northwards, and of a fiiuna and flora of the 
Mediterranean type southwards ; and in the interspace thus produced 
there appeared on land the Germanic fauna and flora, and in the sea 
that fliuna termed Celtic. 10. The causes which thus preceded the 
appearance of a new assemblage of organised beings, were the destrao> 
tion of many species of animaU^ and probably also of plants, either 
forms of extremely local distribution, or such are were not capable of 
enduring many changes of conditions, — species, in short, with yeiy 
limited capacity for horizontal or vertical division. 11. All the changea 
before, during, and after the glacial epoch, appear to have been gradual^ 
and not sudden ; so that no jnarked line of demarcation can be drawn 
between the creatures inhabiting the same element and the same localite* 
duing two proximate periods."] — lir, 
* Joh. MUUer, Physiologic des MenscJieny bd. ii & 763. 



BACES. 865 

the primitiTe man to his descendants. But this very circiun- 
stance seems rather to prove that it has no historical founda- 
tion, but has simply arisen from an identity in the mode of 
intellectual conception, which has everywhere led man to 
adopt the same conclusion regarding identical phenomena ; in 
the same manner as many myths have doubtlessly arisen, not 
from any historical connection existing between them, but 
mther from an identity in human thought and imagination. 
Another evidence in fiivour of the purely mythical nature of 
this belief is afforded by the fact that the first origin of man- 
kind— a phenomenon which is wholly beyond the sphere of 
experience — ^is explained in perfect conformity with existing 
views, being considered on the principle of the colonisation of 
some desert island, or remote mountainous valley, at a period 
when mankind had already existed for thousands of years. It 
is in vain that we direct our thoughts to the solution of the 
great problem of the first origin, since man is too intimately 
associated with his own race, and with the relations of time, 
to conceive of the existence of an individual independently of 
a preceding generation and age. A solution of those dij£cult 
questions, which cannot be determined by inductive reasoning 
or by experience— whether the belief in this presumed tradi- 
tional condition be actually based on historical evidence, or 
whether mankind inhabited the earth in gregarious associa- 
tions from the origin of the race— cannot therefore be deter- 
mined from philological data, and yet its elucidation ought 
not to be sought from other sources." 

The distribution of mankind is therefore only a distribution 
into varieties, which are commonly designated by the some- 
what indefinite term races. As in the vegetable kingdom, and 
in the natural history of birds and fishes, a classification into 
many small families is based on a surer foimdation than where 
large sections are separated into a few but large divisions ; so it 
also appears to me, that in the determination of races a pre-* 
ference should be given to the establishment of small feonilies 
of nations. Whether we adopt the old classification of my 
master, Blumenbach, and admit ^ve races, (the Caucasian, 
Mongolian, American, Ethiopian, and Malayan,) or that oa 
Prichard, into seven races,* (the Iranian, Turanian, American, 
Hottentots and Bushmen, Neeroes, Papuas, and Alfomous,) 
we fail to recognise any typictu sharpness of definition, or any 

* Txiokud, op, eU,» roL i. p. 247. 



t66 COSMOS. 

general or well established principle, in the division of Ihess 
groups. The extremes of form and colour are certainly aepa- 
rated, but without regard to the races, which cannot be 
included in any of these classes, and which have been 
alternately termed Scythian and AllophyUic. Iranian is 
certainly a less objectionable term for tiie European nadooB 
tiian Caucasian; but it may be maintained generally, Ihat 
geographical denominations are very vague when used to 
express the points of departure of races, more espedally 
where the country which has given its name to the race, as, 
Ibr instance, Turan (Mawerannahr) has been inhabited at dif- 
ferent periods* by Indo-Germanic and Finnish, and not by 
Mongolian tribes. 

Languages, as intellectual creations of man, and as closely 
interwoven with the development of mind, are, independ- 
ently of the ncUional form which they exhibit, of the greatest 

* The late arrival of the Tnrkish and Mongolian tribes on the Oxob 

and on ihe Kirghis Steppes, is opposed to the hypothesis of Kiebnhr, 

according to which the Scythians of Herodotus and Hippocrates wen 

Mongolians. It seems far more probable that the Scythians (Sooloti) 

should be referred to the Indo-Germanic Massagetso (Alani). The Men* 

golian, true Tartars, (the latter tenn was afberwarda wisely giiren to 

purely Turkish tribes in Russia and Siberia,) were settled, at thai 

period, far in the eastern part of Asia. See my Asie cetUrdle, 1. 1 

pp. 239, 400 ; Examen critique de Vhistoire de la Qiogr., th. ii. p. S20. 

A distinguished philologist, Professor Buschmann, <»Il8 attenticm to 

the circumstance that the poet Urdousi, in hia half mythical pre&toiy 

remarks in the Schahnwmeh, mentions ** a fortress of tlie Alam," on the 

sea-shoro, in which Selm took rofuge, this prince being the eldest son 

of the Eling Feridun, who in all probability lived two hundred years 

before Cyrus. The Kirghis of the Scythian steppe were originally 

a Finnish tribe ; their three hordes probably constitute in the present 

day the most numerous nomadic nation, and their tribe dwelf^ in the 

sixteenth century, in the same steppe in which I have n^aelf seen them. 

The Byzantine Menander, (pp. 380--882, ed. Nieb.) eipresBly states 

that the Chacan of the Turks (Thu-Ehiu), in 569, made a present of a 

Kirghis slave to Zemarohus, the ambassador of Justinian if. ; he terms 

her a x^PX^Q >* "id we find in Abulgasi (HiaUnia Mongohrum et Tata- 

rorum), that the Kiighis arc called Kirkiz. Similarity of msonen^ 

where the nature of the countiy determines the prindpal cbA^lete^ 

istics, is a very uncertain evidence of identity of race. The life of ths 

steppcMB produces amongst the Turks (Ti Tukiu), the Baachkirs OPii»)» 

the Kirghis, the Torgodi and Dsungari (MongoUans), the same habiti 

cf nomadic life, and the same use of felt tents^ caroed on waggons sad 

pitched amongst herds of catUe. 



369 COSMOS. 

feelii^, by depriving this general picture of nature of tlKMse 
brighter lights and tints, which may be borrowed from con- 
siderations, however slightly indicated, of the relations exist- 
ing between races and languages. 

Whilst we maintain the unity of the human species, we at 
the same time repel the depressing assimiption of superior 
and inferior races of men.* There are nations more suscep- 
tible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by 
mental cultivation than others — but none in themselves nobler 
than others. All are in like degree designed for freedom; a 
freedom which in the ruder conditions of society belongs 
only to the individual, but which in social states enjoying 
poUtical institutions appertains as a right to the whole body 
of the community. *' If we would indicate an idea which 
throughout the whole course of history has ever more and 
more widely extended its empire—or which more than any 
other, testifies to the much contested and still more decid- 
^y misunderstood perfectibility of the whole human race«- 
it is that of establishing our common humanity— of striving 
to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of 
every kind have erected amongst men, and to treat all mankind 
without reference to religion, nation, or colour, as one frater 
nity, one great community, fitted for the attainment of one 
object, the unrestrained development of the phychical powers. 
This is the idtimate and highest aim of society, identical with 
the direction implanted by nature in the mind of man towards 
the indefinite extension of his existence. He regards the ' 
earth in all its limits, and the heavens as &r as his eye can scan 
their bright and starry depths, as inwardly his own, given 
to him as the objects of his contemplation, and as a field 
for the development of his energies. Even the child longs 
to pass the hUls or the seas whidi enclose his narrow home; 
yet when his eager steps have borne him beyond those limits, 
he pines, like the plant, for his native soil: and it is, by this 
touching and beautiful attribute of man — ^this loi^ing for that 
which is unknown, and this fond remembrance of that which 
is lost — that he is spared from an exclusive attachment 

* The very cheerlefB, and in recent times too often discnsBed, doctrine 
of the unequal rights of men to freedom^ and of abyeiy as an institu- 
tion in conibrmity with nature, is unhappily found most ByBtematieaUy 
iereloped in Aristotle's PoUtica, i« 8f 6> O- 



CbNOLUBION OF THE SUBJECT. 369 

to the present. Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature 
of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tenden- 
cies—the recognition of the bond of humanity becomes one of 
the noblest leading principles in the history of mankind."* 

"With these words which draw their charm from the depths 
of feeling, let a brother be permitted to close this general 
description of the natural phenomena of the universe. From 
the remotest nebulae and from the revolving double stars, we 
Lave descended to the minutest organisms of animal creation, 
whether manifested in the depths of ocean, or on the surface 
of our globe, and to the delicate vegetable germs which clothe 
the naked declivity of the ice-crowned mountain summit ; and 
here we have been able to arrange these phenomena according 
to partially known laws; but other laws of a more mysterious 
nature rule the higher spheres of the organic world, in which 
is comprised the human species in all its varied conformation, 
its creative intellectual power, and the languages to which 
it has given existence. A physical delineation of nature 
terminates at the point where the sphere of intellect begins, 
and a new world of mind is opened to our view. It marks the 
limit but does not pass it. 

* Wilhelm von Humboldt^ Ud>er die Kavn-Sprcuihe, bd. ill. s. 426. 
I subjoin the following extract from this work : " The impetuous con- 
qnests of Alexander, the more politic and premeditated extension of 
territoiy made by tne Romans, the wild and cmel incursions of the 
Hexicans, and the despotic acquisitions of the Incas, have in both hemi- 
spheres contributed to put an end to the separate existence of many 
tribes as independent nations, and tended at the same time to establish 
more extended international amalgamation. Men of great and strong 
minds, as well as whole nations, acted under the influenee of one idea, tha 
purity of which waa, however, utterly imknown to them. It was Christian- 
ity which first promulgated the truth of its exalted charity, although 
the seed sown yielded but a slow and scanty harvest. Before the reli- 
gion of Christ manifested its form, its existence was only revealed by a 
faint foreshadowing presentiment. In recent times, the idea of civilisa- 
tion has acouired additional intensity, and has given rise to a desire of 
extending more widely the relations of national intercourse and of 
intellectual cultivation ; even selfishness begins to learn that by such a 
course its interest^ will be better served, than by violent and forced 
isolation. Language, more than any other attribute of mankind, binds 
together the whole human race. By its idiomatic properties, it cer- 
tainly seems to separate nations, but the reciprocal understanding of 
foreign languages connects men together on the other hand without 
ii^joring individual national characteristicfl.** 

2b 



The spot whence these precioiu relics of 
inhabited the igUnds of Hew Ze«Uad wen 
Uod, Deal the embouchure of a river, Daint 
Wangaani, which hu its rise in the volnanif 
The DstiTes affirm that this lerel tract vai 
npoa by Ibeir remote ancestors ; and thia tn 
eiiBteace of aameroiis heaps and jnta of ashes 
■ncdent fires, lonj; bnming on the same sp 
ManteU fonnd burnt bonea of mm, moit, an 

The ftaKDienta of e^-shellB, imbedded in 
escaped the notice of all prerious natnralii 
my small portion* — tbe-Urgeit being onlj 
afford a chord by which to ettimBte the size 
obHTTes that the egg of the Moa most bare 1 
form a good ^g-mp for it. These rehcs 
more apeoei, periiapi genera. In Bome eii 
smoothi in others it is marked with shor 
resembling the eggt of some of the StruUii< 
fanown recent tjpes. In this valuable col 
mammal has been detected, namely, lhe/«n 

An interesting memoir, on the probal 
age of the ornithic bone- deposits of Nei 
based on the observations of his enCerpris 
Quarterly Jounial of the Geological Sod 
appears that ui many instances Che bones ai 
which lie beneath a thick deposit of lolca 
argillaceous stratum abounding in marine si 
in the rivers and streams have been washt 
currents, which now flow through channels 
fonned in the more ancient alluvial soil. 
the Islands of New Zealand were densely p< 
recent, though historically remote, by tril 
birds allied to the ostrich tribe, all, or almi 
now eitinct ; and that subsequently to the i 
ornithic deposit, the sea-coast has been elevi 
feet above its oiigiugllevel ; and hence the 
which now skiri: the maritime districts ; the 
torrents flow in deep guilics which they I 
centuries in there pleistocene strata, in like i 
Auvergne, in central France, are excavated 
depodta of that coontry. The last of tho 
2 B 2 



INDEX TO VOL. I. 



Abich> Hennann, structural relations 
of Yolcanic rocks, 283. 

Acosta, Joseph de, Historia Natural de 
las Indias, 48, 187. 

Adams, Mr., — ^Planet Neptune. — See 
note by Translator, 74— 76. 

JSgos PotamSs, on the aerolite of, 
103, J09, 110. 

^lian, on Mount Etna, 3^54 

Aerolites (shooting starsj meteors, me- 
teoric stones, flre*balls, &g.), general 
description of, 97 — 125; physical 
character, 98 — 111 ; dates of remarlt- 
able falls, 101 : their planetary velo- 
city, 102—107; ideas of the ancients 
on, 101, 102; Norember and August 
periodic £eU1s of shooting stars, 106^ 
107, 111 — 118; their direction from 
one point in the heavens, 106; alti- 
tude, 107 ; orbit, 115; Chinese notices 
of, 116; media of communication 
with other planetary bodies, 125; 
their essential difference from comets, 
126; specific weights, 102, 103; large 
meteoric stones on record, 108; 
chemical elements, 104, 11 7-— 119; 
crust, 117, 118; deaths occasioned 
hy, 124. 

lEschylus, ' Prometheus Delivered,* 
102. 

Agassiz, Researches on Fossil Fishes, 
26, 275—279. 

Alexander, influence of his campaigns 
on physical science, 862, 368. 

Alps, the, elevation oft 6, 7. 

Amber, researches on its vegetable ori- 
gin, 287; Goppert on the ambor tree 
of the ancient world (Pinites succi- 
fer), 287. 

Ampere, Andr6 Marie, 40, 187, 234. 

Anazagoras, on aerolites, 109, 110; on 
the surrounding ether, 123. 

Andes, the, their altitude, &e. See 
Cordilleras. 

Anghiera, Peter Martyr de, remarked 
that the palmeta and pineta were 
found aaaodated together, 285—286 ; 



first recognized (1510) that the Umii 
of perpetual snow continues to as- 
cend as we approach the equator, 
336. 

Animal life, its universality, 350 — 354 ; 
as viewed with microscopic powers 
of vision, 340 — 355; rapid propaga- 
tion and tenacity of life in animal- 
cules, 352—355; geography of, 349 
—355. 

Anning, Miss Mary, discovery of the 
ink bag of the sepia, and of copro- 
lites of fish, in the lias of Lyme 
Regis, 278, 274. 

Ansted*ii, D. T., 'Ancient World.' 
See notes by Transhitor, 273, 274, 
277, 284. 290. 

Apian, Peter, on comets, 86. 

ApoIJonius Myudius, described the 
paths of comets, 89. 

Arago, his ocular micrometer, 18; 
chromatic polarization, 38; optical 
considerations, 68; on comets, 84 — 
91 ; polarization experiments on the 
light of comets, 90, 91; aerolites, 
101 ; on the November &I1 of me- 
teors, 112; Zodiacal light, 132; 
motion of the solar system, 136, 137; 
on the increase of heat at increanng 
depths, 166; magnetism of rotation; 
172; horary observations of declina- 
tion at Paris compared with simul- 
taneous perturbations at Rasan, 185 ; 
discovery of the influence of mag- 
netic storms on the course of the 
needle, 189; on south polar bands, 
192; on terrestrial light, 197; phe> 
nomenon of supplementary rainbows, 
217; obeer?ed the deepest Artesian 
wells to be the warmest, 220; expla- 
nation of the absence of a refrigera- 
tion of temperature in the lower 
strata of the Mediterranean, 308; 
observations on the mean annual 
quantity of rain in Paris, 841; his 
investigations on the evoluti(» of 
lightning, 945. 



L 8 1 



I, €ittpn of tlie ancient mytli of 
the Nemean lunar lion, 123. 

Bc^jttdawski, foils of footing stars, 
106,116. 

B<mpland, M., end HumboMt, on the 
pelagic shells found on like ridge ol 
&e Andes, 25. 

Bopp, derivation of the word Cosmos, 
«2, 53. 

Boa8Singault,on the depth at winch is 
Jbund the mean annual tOTEiperatnre 
within the tropics, 168; on the vol- 
canoes of New Granada, 214; on 
the temperature of the earth in the 
tropics, 217, 218; temperature of the 
tbRmal springs of Las Trincheras, 
dl9; his investigations on the che- 
mical analysis of the atmosphere^ 
S17, 318 ; on the mean annual quan» 
tity of rain in different parts of South 
America, 841,3412. 

Boorard, M., 90 ; his observations on 
that portion of tlte horary oscilla- 
tions of the pressure of the atmo- 
sphere, which depends on the attrac- 
tion of the moon, 319. 

Biamidos y truenos, of GuaBaxnato, 
d04,205. 

Brmde, tails of shooting stars, 100, 
102 ; height and velocity of shooting 
stars, 107; their periodic falls, 113. 

Bravais, on the aurora, 106; on the 
daily oscillations of the barometer 
in 70° north latitude, 320; distribu- 
tion of the quantity of rain in Cen. 
tral Europe, 341; doubts on the 
greater dryness of mountain air, 
342. \ 

Brewster, Sir David, first detected the 
connection between the curvature of 
mfljgnetic lines and my isothermal 
lines, 187. 

Biongniart, Adolpbe, luxuriance of the 
primitive vegetable world, 215; fos- 
sil flora contained in coal mrasures, 
383. 

Brongniart, Alexander, formation of 
ribbon jasper, 260; one of the 
founders of the archfeology of or- 
ganic life, 275. 

Brown, Robert, first discoverer of molec- 
ular motion, 350. 

Bnch's, Leopold von, theory on the 
elevation of continents and mountain 
chains, 25; on the craters and cir- 



cular Ibrm of iSke Island of Pahna, 
223; on volcmmes, 232, 237, 241, 
242,246, 247; on metamonrfiic rocks, 
249—252, 261, 264, 265; on the 
origin of various conglomerates and 
rocks of detritus, 271 : classification 
of Ammonites, 279 ; physical canses 
of the elevation of continents, 299; 
on the changes in height of the 
Swedish coasts, 299, 300. 

Buckland, 274; on the fossil flora of 
the conl measures, 282. 

Buffon, his views en the ge<^aphical 
distribution of animals, 357. 

Burckhardt, on the volcano of Medina 
246; on the homitos de Jornllo. 
See note by Translator, 227. 

Bumes, Sir Alexander, on the purity 
of the atmosphere in Bokhara, 100, 
101; propagation of shocks of earlli- 
quakes, 208. 

Gaille, La, pendulum measurements at 
the Cape of Good Hope, 161. 

Caldas, quantity of rain at Santa F6 
de Bogota, 341. 

Camargo's M.S. Hisloria de Tlaseala, 
130. 

Capocci, his observations on periodic 
fiills of aerolites, 113, 114. 

Carlini, geodesic experiments in Lorn- 
bardy, 159, 160; Mount Cenis, 162. 

Carrara marble, 263, 264. 

Carus, his definition of " Nature," 21. 

Caspian Sea, its periodic rise and fall, 
301,302. 

Cassini, Dominicus, on the Zodiacal 
light, 127,128; hypothesis on, 130; 
his discovery of the spheroidal ft>rm 
of Jupiter, 156. 

Cautley, Capt, and t>r. Falconer, dis- 
covery of gigantic fossils in the Hi- 
malayas, 281; see also note by 
Translator, 281. 

Cavanilles, first entertained the idea of 
seeing grass grow, 140. 

Cavendish, use of the torsion-balance 
to determine the mean density of the 
Earth, 162. 

Challis, Professor, on the Aurora, 
March 19, and Oct. 24th, 1847, tee 
note by Translator, 190, 194. 

Chardin, noticed in Persia the famons 
comet of 1668, called 'nyzek, or 
* petite lance,' 128. 



1 



C 4 J 



Chttpeiitier, M., bdemnitet found in 
the primitiTe limeatone of the Col de 
kSeigne, 263; glaciers, 836, S37. 

Chemistry, as distinguished from phy- 
sics* 44 ; chemical affinity, 44. 

Chevandier, calcalations on the carbon 
contained in the trees of the forests 
of our temperate zones, 284. 

Childrey first described the Zodiacal 
light, in his Britannia Baconica, 
127, 128. 

Chinese accounts of comets, 84, 85, 
86 ; shooting stars, 116;' fire springs,' 
149; knowledge of the magnetic 
needle, 173; electro-magnetism, 182, 
183. 

Chladni, on meteoric stones, ^c, 
105, 124; on the selenic origin of 
aerolites, 108; on the supposed 
phenomenon of ascending shooting 
stars, 110; on the obscuration of the 
Sun's disc, 121 ; sound-figures, 124 ; 
pulsations in the tails of comets, 
183. 

Choiseul, his chart of Lemnos, 246. 

Chromatic polarization. See Polariza- 
tion. 

Cirro-cumulus cloud. See Clouds. 

Cirrous strata. See Clouds. 

Clark, his experiments on the raria- 
tions of atmospheric electricity, 848. 

Clarke, J. G., of Maine, U.S., on the 
Comet of 1843, 85, 86. 

Climatic distribution of heat. 810, 823 
->885; of humidity, 335,841, 842. 

Climatology, 823—336; climate, ge- 
neral sense of, 323, 324. 

Clouds, their electric tension, colour 
and height, 344, 345 ; connection of 
cirrous strata with the Aurora Bo- 
realis, 191; cirro-cumulous cloud, 
phenomena of, 192; luminous, 197; 
Duye on their formation and ap- 
pearance, 321, 822; often present 
on a bright summer sky the 'pro- 
jected image' of the soil below, 322; 
volcanic, 231. 

Coal formations, ancient regetable re. 
mains in, 282, 283. 

Coal mines, depths of, 149 — 151. 

Colebrooke, on the snow line of the 
two sides of the Himalayas, 10. 

Colladon, electro-magnetic appacatus, 
343. 

Columbus, Ids remark that ' the Earth. 



is small and narrow, 155 ; fimid tlra 
compass showed no variatica in the 
Azores, 174, 175; of lava streaois, 
245; noticed conifers and palms 
growing together in Cuba, 285 ; r» 
marks in his journal or. the equato- 
rial currents, 312; of the Sai^jaaso 
Sea, 813; his dream, 816. 

Comets, general description of, 84 — 98; 
Biela's, 23, 69, 92—94; Blanpain's, 
94; Clausen's, 94; Encke s, 23, 46, 
69, 92—94; Faye's, 98, 94; Halley's, 
23,84,87—95; Lexell's and Bnrk- 
hardt's, 94, 96; Mesners, 94: Ol- 
hers', 94 ; Pons', 94; famous one of 
1668, seen in Persia, called ' nyzek,' 
or ' petite lance,' 128, 129 ; comet of 
1848, 85, 86; their nucleus and tail, 
70; small mass, 85; density of form, 
85—87; light, 89—91; velocity, 95; 
comets of short period, 92—94; long 
period, 95,96; number, 84; Chineae 
observations on, 84 — 86 ; value of a 
knowledge of Uieir orbits, 23; poa 
sibility of collision of Biela's and 
Encke's comets, 93 ; hypothesis of a 
resisting medium conjectured firom 
the diminishing period of the revolu- 
tion of Encke's comet, 92 ; a]^re- 
hensions of their collision with the 
Earth, 23, 96, 97; their popular 
supposed influence on the vintage, 
97. 

Compass, early use of by the Chinese, 
173; permanency in the West In- 
dies, 174. 

Condamine, La, inscription on a mar- 
ble tablet at the Jesuit's College, 
Quito, on the use of the pendulum 
as a measure of seconds, 158, 159. 

Conde, notice of a heavy shower of 
shooting stars, Oct, 902, 106. 

Corabceuf, and Delcrois, geodetic opera- 
tions, 809. 

Cordilleras, scenery of, 4, 8, 12 ; vege- 
tation, 1 3, 14 ; intensity of the Zo- 
diacal light, 126. 

Cosmography, Physical, its obiet andc 
ultimate aims, 88, 39, 40, 41 ; mate- 
rials, 42. 

Cosmos, the author's olgect, 18, 61; 
primitive signification and preciaa 
definition of the word, 51 ; how em- 
ployed by Greek and Koman writers, 
51—58; derivat' sn, 5% 53. 



CralBTS. 


. SwVoltsnM.. 




Cartius 




aolH on ( 




a luring. 


U»e. 






Cuvier, 


one of the foil 


nden of 1 




Bolog; of orB.dk 


lif6.aTa,35 


dilCDi 


.017 of fowil CTO. 




terliarj fmraEiUon, 270 




DsViuc 


i.o.,onthoph™< 


>inona atl« 


iog tlie r&ll of Ui« Bluna g/ .£t 


Pott> 






Dalmiiii 


. on Ihs edslaiio 


B or Chion. 




oid« in polar «w 


w, 3S3, 


DallonJ 


observed tile »ul 


Jiera lights 


Eogl. 


iud, 1B2. 





Se SoutbMn Hemi.pbcn (br t 
»(mlf of the presfnt uid pHAl gi 
graphj of plonti, 986; onllisfia 
foiuiaitoQ at the Kuth-eest end 
AmericB, 367 ; od Iho eleiatiou ai 
de^irtssiDn of the botlam of the Sou 
Sea, 303; rilh luiurianee of anin 
Ul'e in the ocean, 314, 31«; on t 
Tolcano of Aconcagua, 338. 
Dwibeny, um volcaiiDiB. See Ttai 



Daug»7, his hBTometric expenmen 
303; obsenalions on Iho voloci 
ot iha equalorial current, 313. 

D«»J, Sir Humphrey, hjpothwii 

the low tfEDperaturo of y.-%ba 

■hoal!, 314. 
Dead Sea, iti depTOsuon bekv I 

level of the MeditenaneOD. SOI. 
Dochen. Von, on tho depth of the 

haaib of Liege, 191. 
Delciois. See Coraboeaf. 
DMcarteg, his ftx^enli of a contt 

plated work, entitled ' Monde,' i 

on cometi, 138, 13B. 
DEihafa and Lyell, their iutttli 

•ttioct and eiiating oiiiiiiiir 1 



[ « ] 



946; genenl daUnflation of its n- 
action, 109—201; fantastic Tiew* on 
its interior, 1 63. 

Baitbqtiakes, general aceonnt of, 199 
— ^314; their raanifestatbns, 199 — 
201 ; of Riobamba, 199, 201, 208, 
309, 211; Lisbon, 206, 207, 909, 
210; Calabria, 901; their propaga- 
tion, 199, 208, 209 ; waves of com- 
motion, 200, 201, 208, 209; action 
on gaseous add aqaeons springs, 
206, 219, 221 ; salses and mud vol- 
canoes, 221 — ^224; erroneous popu- 
lar belief on, 201—203; noise ac- 
companying earthquakes, 203—206; 
their vast destruction of life, 206, 
907; volcanic force, 210, 211 ; deep 
and peculiar impression produced on 
men and animak, 211, 213. 

Ehrenberg, his discovery of infusoria 
in the polishing slate of Bilin, 141; 
infusorial deposits, 255, 263: bril- 
liant discovery of microscopic life in 
the ocean and in the ice of the polar 
regions, 360; rapid propagation of 
animalcules and their tenacity- of life, 
351^—354; transformation of chalk, 
963. 

Electricity, magnetic, 182 — 197; con- 
jectured electric currents, 183, 184; 
electric storms, 189; atmospheric, 
842—345. 

Elevations, comparative, of mountains 
in the two Hemispheres, 6, 7. 

Encke, 91; his computation that the 
showers of meteors, in 1833, pro- 
ceeded from the same point of space 
in the direction in which the earth 
was moring at the time, 106. 

Ennius, 63, 64. 

Epicharmus, writings of, 54. 

Equator, advantages of the countries 
bordering on, 11, 12, 13; their or- 
ganic richness and fertility, 13, 14; 
magnetic equator, 176 — 178. 

Erman, Adoiph, on the three cold 
days of May (11th— 13th), 121; 
lines of declination in Northern 
Asia, 175; in tiie southern parts of 
the Atlantic, 181 ; observations during 
the earthquake at Irkutsk, on the 
non-disturbance of the horary 
changes of the magnetic needle, 203. 

Eruptions and exhalations (volcanic), 
lava, gaseous and liquid fluids, hot 



mud, mud mofettes, ^c, 159, 906— 
272. 

Edmograpbical studies, their iapait> 
ance and teaching, 366—368. 

Etna, Mount, its elevation 6, 226 ; sup- 
posed extinction, by the ancients, 
225 ; its eruptions fhna lateral £s> 
sures, 227 ; similarity of its zones of 
vegetation to those of Ararat, 356. 

Eoripidea, his Fhaetoo, 110. 

Falconer, Dr., fossil researches in the 
Himalayas, 281. 

Faraday, radiating heat, electnHoag- 
netism, &;c., 29, 172, 182; briiliaat 
discovery of the evoluti<m of lif^t, 
by magnetic forces, 188. 

Farquharson, on the connection of cir- 
rous clouds with the Aurora, 191; 
its altitude, 194. 

Fedorow, his pendulum experiments, 
159. 

Feldt, on the ascent of shooting stars, 
111. 

Ferdinandea, igneous island of, 241. 

Floras, geographical distribution of, 
359, 360. 

Forbes, Professor E., refbrenoe to his 
Travels in Lycia, 220; accooitf of 
the island of Santorino, 240. 

Forbes, Professor J., his improved seis- 
mometer, 200 ; on the corre^mndence 
existing between the distributkm of 
existing floras in the British islands, 
357, 358 ; on the or^n and diffusion 
of the British flora, 863. 

Forster, George, remarked the dimatie 
difference of temperature of the 
eastern and western coasts of both 
continents, 327. 

Forster, Dr. Thomas, monkish notice 
of ' Meteorodes,* 111. 

Foster, Reinhold, pyramidal configura- 
tion of the southern extremities of 
continents, 294. 

Fossil remains of tropical plants sad 
animals found in northern regions, 
26, 27, 272—288; of extinct vege- 
tation in the travertine of Yin 
Diemen's Land, 221 ; fossil hoasn 
remains, 250. 

Fourier, temperature of our planttsiy 
system, 145, 164, 165, 169. 

Fracastoro, on the direction of the tail* 
of comets from the sun, 86. 



} 



L 7 ] 



Fnehn, fiill of stars, 106. 

Ftanklin, Benjamin, existence of sand 

banks indicated by the coldness of 

the water over them, 814. 
Franklin, Capt., on the aurora, 101, 

194, 106; rarity of electric explo« 

sions in high northern regions, 345. 
Freycinet, pendulum oscillations, 168. 
Fusinierion meteoric masses, 110. 

Galileo, 89, 159. 

Oalle, Dr., 75. 

Galvani, Aloysio, accidental discoverj 
of galvanism, 33. 

Gaseous emanations, fluids, mud, and 
molten earth, 214 — 217. 

Gasparin, distribution of the quantity 
of rain in Central Europe, 341. 

Gauss, Friedrich, on terrestrial magnet* 
ism, 172; his erection, in 1832, of a 
magnetic observatory on a new prin- 
ciple, 185, 186. 

Gay-Lussac, 200, 231, 232, 268, 317, 
318, 342, 344. 

Geog^ostic, or geological description of 
tbe earth's surface, 197 — 290. 

Geognosy, (the study of the textures 
and position of the earth's surface), 
its progress, 198, 190. 

Geography, physical, 291 — 316; of 
animal life, 349 — 355; of plants, 
855—360. 

Geogn^hies, Ritter's (Carl), 'Geogra- 
phy in relation to Nature and the 
History of Man,' 28, 49, 50; Vare. 
nius (Bemhard), General and Com- 
parative Geography, 48, 49. 

Gerard, Capts. A. G. and J. G., on the 
snow line and vegetation of the Hima- 
layas, 10, 11, 338, 339. 

German 8cienti£c works, their defects, 
27. 

Geyser, intermittent fountains of, 219. 

Gieseke, on the aurora, 194, 195. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, gulf stream, 
312, 313. 

Gilbert, William, of Colchester, ter- 
restrial magnetism, 150, 170, 172, 
175. 

Gillies, Dr., on the snow line of South 
America, 338. 

Gioja, crater of, 83. 

Girard, composition and texture of 
basalt, 253. 

Glaisher, James, on the Aurora Boreali* 



of Oct 24, 1847. See Translator's 
notes, 188, 196. 

Goldfuss, Professor, examination of 
fossil specimens of the flying sau- 
rians, 276. 

Goppert, on the conversion of a frag- 
ment of amber-tree into OiBgIl cou, 
28::(, 284; cycedeee, 286; on the 
amber-tree of the Baltic, 2S7. 

Gothe,21,27,34. 

Greek philosophers, their use of the 
term Cosmos, 51, 52; hypotheses on 
aerolites, 109, 110, 122, 123. 

Giimm, Jacob, graceful symbolism 
attached to falling stars in the Li- 
thuanian mythology, 99. 

Gulf Stream, its origin and course, 
312, 313. 

Gumprecht, pyroxenic nepheHne, 254. 

Guanaxuato, striking subterranean 
noise at, 205. 

Hall, Sir James, his experiments on 
mineral fusion, 262. 

Halley, comet, 23, 84, 87—95 ; on the 
meteor of 1686, 105, 122: on (he 
light of stars, 142; hypothesis of 
the earth being a hollow sphere, 163; 
his bold conjecture that the Aurora 
Borealis was a magnetic phenome- 
non. 187—188. 

Hansteen, on magnetic lines of decli- 
nation in Northern Asia, 176 — 176. 

Hansen, on the material contents of 
the moon, 80. 

Bedeustrom, on the so-called 'Wood 
Hills' of New Siberia, 284 

B egel, quotation from his ' Fhilosopl^ 
of History ,'59. 

Heine, discovery of crystals of feldspar, 
in scorioB, 269 

Hemmer, fdliag stars, 106. 

Bencke, planets discovered bj. Sea 
note by Translator, 74, 76. 

Henfrey, A., extract from his Outlines 
of Structural and Physiological Bo- 
tany. See notes by Translator, 360, 
360. 

Bensius, on the variations of form, in 
the comet of 1744, 87. 

Herodotus, described Scythia as fr«e 
from earthquakes, 199; Scythian 
saga of the sacred gold, which ftti 
burning from heaven, 102. 

Herschel, Sir William, map of tae 



J 



I 8 j 



World, 48; inieription on hu nidbu* 
meat at Upton, 71; satellites of 
Saturn, 81; diameters of comets, 
86; on the comet of 1811, 88; star 
gaugings, 140; starless space, 141, 
143; time required for light to pass 
to the earth from the remotest lumi- 
nous vapour, 144. 

Herachel, Sir John, Letter on Ma* 
gellanic Clouds, 60; Satellites of Sa- 
turn, 81 ; orhits of the Satellites of 
Uranus, 83 ; diameter of Nebulous 
stars, 180; Stellar Milky Way, 141 ; 
light of isolated starry clusters, 142; 
observed at the Cape, the star rj in 
Argn increase in splendour, 144; 
invariability of the magnetic decli- 
nation in the West Indies. 174. 

Hesiod, dimensions of the Univene, 
144. 

Herelius, on the comet of 1618, 91 

Hibbert, Dr., on the Lake of Laach. 
See note by Translator, 215. 

Himalayas, the, their altitude, 7 ; sce- 
nery and vegetation, 8, 9; tempera- 
ture, 9 ; variations of the snow line, 
<m their northern and southern de- 
clivities, 9—12, 838. 

Hind, Mr., planets discovered by. See 
Translator's note, 74, 76. 

Hindoo civilization, its primitive seat, 
M, 15. 

Hippalos, or monsoons, 822, 823. 

Hippocrates, his erroneous supposition 
that the land of Scythia is an ele- 
vated table land, 8d5. 

Hoff, numerical enquiries on the dis- 
tribution of earthquakes throughout 
the year, 202. 

Hoffman, Friedrich, observations on 
earthquakes, 201,202; on eruption 
fissures in the Lipari Islands, 237 

Holberg, his Satire, 'Travels ofNic. 
Klimius, in the world underground,' 
See Translator's note, 1 64. 

Hood, on the Aurora, 195, 196. 

Hooke, Robert, pulsations in the 
tails of comets, 183; his anticipa- 
tion of the application of botanical 
and zoological evidence to deter- 
mine the relative age of rocks, 272 — 
274 

Ho-tsings, Chinese fir&«pring8, their 
depth, 149; chemical composition, 

mi. 



Howard, on thd etilA&tft df LdiidoQ, 
113; mean annual quantity of Iwii tn 
London, 341. 
Hiigel, Carl Von, on the «1^atiofi of 
the valley of Kashmir, 12; on the 
snow line of the Himalayas, 338. 
Humboldt, Alexander Von, works by, 
referred to in various notes : — 
Annales de Chimie et de Phy- 
sique, 9, 810. 
Annales des Sciences Nature11es,7. 
Ansichten der Natur, 350, 352 

856. 
Asie Centmle. 7, 9, 12, 103, 149, 

150, 173, 200, 214, 216, 223, 

244, 251, 252, 200, 293—296, 

801, 30.J, 306, 308—311, 326, 

829, 331, 837, 388, 342, 359, 

366. 
Atlas Geographiqne et Physique 

du Nouv«au Continent, 12,248. 
De distribuUone Geographica 

Plantarum, secundum coeli tem< 

periem, et altitndinem Mon* 

tium, 12. 295, 330. 
Examen crittque de I'Histoire de 

la Geogmphie, 40, 173, 175. 

225, 293, 206, 312, 313, 316. 

322, 366. 
Essai Geognoatique sur le Gise- 

ment des Roches, 228, 352,267, 

805. 
Essai Politique sur la NoaveUe 

Espagne, 117,238. 
Essai sur la Geographie des 

Flantes, 12, 228, 321. 
Flora Friburgensis Suhterranea, 

348, 349, 355. 
Journal de Physique, 171, 396. 
Lettre au Due de Sussex, snr lea 

Moyens propres a perfectionner 

la oonnaiasance du Magnetisme 

Terrestre, 170, 186. 
Monumens des Peiiples Indigenes 

de TAmerique, 129, 130 
Nouvelles Annales des Voyages 

812. 
Becueil d'Observations Astrono- 

miques, 7, 159, 834. 
Recueil d'Observations de Zoo- 

iDgia et d'Anatomie Comparee, 

214,280. 
Relation Historiqne du Voyage 

aux Regions equinoxiales, 9S, 

»9, 100, 10^ 110 114, 116. 



L 9 ] 



179, 180, 203, 208, 217. 218, 
222, 261, 252, 296, 304, 306, 
307. 310—312, 320, 321, 834, 
336, 342—344. 
Tableau Physique des Regions 

equinoxiales, 12, 228. 
Yoes des Cordill^es, 222, 227 
Humboldt, Wilhelm Von, on the pri 
mitive seat of Hindoo civilisation, 
16; sonnet, extract from, 146; on 
the gradual recognition bj the hu- 
man race of the bond of humanitj, 
868, 369. 
Humidity, 319, 340—342. 
Hutton, Capt. Thomas, his paper on 
the snow line of the Himalayas, 
338—840. 
Huyghens, polarization of light, 8C} 

nebulous spots, 127. 
Hygrometry, 340 — 842; hygrometric 
vindrose, 840,341. 

Imagination, abuse of, by half-civi- 
lized nations, 16, 17. 

Imbert, his account of Chinese 'fire 
springs,' 149. 

Ionian school of natural philosophy/ 
47, 60, 67, 123. 

Isogenic, isoclinal, isodynamic, See, 
See Lines* 

Jacquemont, Victor, his barometrical 

observations on the snow line of the 

Himalayas, 11, 838. 
Jasper, its formation, 260 — 262. 
Jassen, on the gradual rise of the 

coast of Sweden, 299, 300. 
Jotmllo, homitos de, 227. 
Justinian, coi^ectures on the physical 

causes of volcanic eruptions, 242, 

243. 

Kamtz, isobarometric lines, 821; 
doubts on the greater dryness of 
mountain air, 342. 

Kant, Emanuel, 'on the theory and 
structure of the heavens,' 31,47; 
earthquake at Lisbon, 206. 

Keilhau, on the ancient sea line of the 
coast of Spitzbergen, 300. 

Kepler, on the distances of stars, 72; 
on the density of the planets, 77, 78 ; 
law of progression, 79 ; on the num- 
ber of comets. 84; footing stan, 99; 



on the obscuration of the sun*s dise, 
121 ; on the radiations of heat from 
the fixed stars, 126; on a solar at- 
mosphere, 128. 

Kloden, shooting stars, 107, 112. 

Knowledge, superficial, evils of, 28. 

Knig, of Nidda, temperature of the 
V^eyser and the Strokr intermittent 
fountains, 21 9. 

Krusenstem, Admiral, on the train of 
a fire-ball, 100. 

Kuopho, a Chinese physicist, on the 
attraction of the magnet, and of am- 
ber, 182. 

Knpfier, magnetic stations in Northern 
Asia, 186. 

Lamanon, 180* 

Lambert, suggestion that the direction 
of the wind be compared with the 
height of the barometer, alterations 
of temperature, humidity, (Sec, 321. 

Lament, mass of Uranus, 78; Satel- 
Ites of Saturn, 81. 

Language and thought, their mutual 
alliance, 37; author's praise of his 
native language, '67. 

Languages, importance of their study, 
366, 367, 369. 

Laplace, his ' Syst^me du Monde,' 28, 
44, 76, 130; mass of the comet of 
1770, 93; on the required velocity of 
masses projected from the Moon, 108, 
109; on the altitude of the bounda- 
ries of the atmosphere of cosmici^ 
bodies, 130; Zodiacal light, 130; 
lunar inequalities, 168; the Earth's 
form and size inferred from lunar 
inequalities, 160, 161 ; his estimate 
of the mean height of mountains, 306, 
307; density of the ocean required 
to be less than the earth's for the 
stability of its equilibrium, 311; re- 
sults of his perfect theory of tides, 
811. 

Latin writers, their use of the term 
* Mundus,' 68, 64. 

Latitudes, Northern, obstacles they 
present to a discovery of the laws of 
Nature, 16; earliest acquaintance 
with the governing forces of the 
physical world, there displayed, 16 ; 
spread from thence of the germs of 
civilization, 16. 

Latitudes, Tropical, their advantages 



r ^i ] 



Bii^pBBfiseo Soanmod, dMcripdoa of 
remarkable erupdeu is Xeslaod. 
2S4. 

M«h]mmn» Wi&elni, loatlbiveet direc- 
tioB of the aerial cuxreot in the 
middle latitodn of the tenqMiate^ 
zooe^ 8S3» 
Mainut, on the ZodiMal li|^ 1S7, 
128, 181; hie opiniett tha* tfa» Sun 
is a jubuktm star, 180. 

Malapevti aaimlar mnnm«in,88w 

MaUe, ihuean d»la, 290. 

Man, genacal view of, 800—860; 
pmo& of tha flodbili^ of hie nature, 
6; reaolta. of his intellectaal pro- 
gress, 84^35; gBognphieal distribu- 
tiom of nuces, 900 — 860; on the aa> 
snn^en of soperior and iufi»rior 
raoas, 861 — 808; hia gradual reeeg- 
nittOD of the boiid of hamanil7, 808, 
300. 

Mantall, Dr., Ua ' Wonders of €leo- 
looj,' see notes by Trsnalatos, 25, 
46, 40, 198, 277, 280, 284, 280, 287, 
201 : ' Medals of Creation/ 20, 278,. 
266,291. 

Maifarita Pfailosopluca, by Gregoxy 
Beisch,SO. 

Marius, Simon, first described the ne- 
bulous spots in Andromeda and 
Orion, 127. 

Martins, observations on polar bands, 
192; found that air collected at 
Faulhoni contained as much oxjgeu 
aa the air of Paris, 817; on the dis- 
tribution of the quanti^ of rain in 
Central Europe, 841 ; doubts on the 
greater dryness of mountain air, 
342. 

Matthieasen, letter to Arago on the 
Zodiacal light, 182. 

Mathien, on the augmented intensity 
of the attraction of gravitation in 
volcanic islands, 169. 

Mayer, Tobias, on the motion of the 
Solar System, 136, 138. 

Mean numerical values, their necessity 
in modem physical science, 64. 

Melloui, his disooveries on radiating 
heat and electnMnagnetism, 29. 

Menzel, uuedtted work by, on the flora 
of JapttQ, 866. 

Measier, comet, 94 ; nebulous spot re. 
sembUng our starry stratum, 141. 

Metamorphic Rocks. See Bocks. 



Meteorology, Sl*- 

Meteoxs, see A^'reltoes; metoorittkiAb 
soria, 854, 866. 

Meihooe, Hillof,280. 

Meyen, on forming a theimal soaleof 
cultivation, 381; on the reprodno- 
tive organa of liTerworts and algsu 
350. 

Meyer, Hermann Von, on the oigani- 

. zation of flying saurians, 276. 

Milky Way, its figure, 78; viewa of 
Aristotla on, 81^: vast telesoopic 
breadth, 140, 141; milky way of 
nebulous wpotn at right angles with 
that of the stszs, 141, 142. 

Miniirals, artificiaUy forarad, 260^ 270. 

Mines, greami depth of, 148^ 149, 
160; tempeaalnre, 149. 

Mist, phoephoreseeut, 131. 

Mitchell, protracted earthquake sho^s 
in North America, 207. 

Mitseherlieh, on the chemical origin of 
irou-glaiice in voleanic masses, 232; 
chemibal coaalmiHtions, a means of 
throwing a clear light on geognosy, 
266 ; on gypsum, as a uuiaxai crys- 
tal, 259; experiiueuts on the simul- 
taneously opposite actions of heat on 
crystalline bodies, 200; formation 
of crystals of mica, 20 1 ; on artifieial 
mineral products, 269, 270, 273. 

Mufettes, (exhalations of carbonia acid 
gas), 211—216. 

Monsoons, ( Indian V, 322, 323. 

MoDticelli, on the current of hydro- 
chloric acid fixnn the crater of Vesa* 
vius,233; crystals of mica found in 
the lava of Vesuvius, 261. 

Moou, the, its relative magnitude, 80; 
densi^, 80, 81; distance from the 
earth, 81, 82; its libration, 83, 156; 
its li(^t compared with that of the 
Aurora, 196, 197; volcanic action 
in, 226. 
Moods, or satellites, their diameter, 

distances, rotation, dec , 80 — 84. 
Morgan, John H., * on the aurora bo« 
realis of Oct 24, 1847.' See Trana- 
lator's notes, 188,194. 
Morton, Samuel George, his magnifi- 
cent work on the- American Races, 
362. 
Moser's images, 107. 
Mountains, in Asia, America, and 
Europe^ their altitude sceuerj, and 



I' 



1- 



i ■ 
r . 



[ 13 i 



Olben, comets, 80, 94; aerolites, 100, 
105; on their planetary Telocity^ 
108, 109: on the supposed phenom- 
ena of ascending shooting stars. 111; 
their periodic retnni in August, 
113; November stream, 114; pte- 
dictiou of a brilliant fall of shooting 
stars in Nov. 1867, 116; absence of 
fossil meteoric stones in secondary 
and tertiary formations, 110; zo- 
diacal light, its vibration through the 
tails of comets, 132; on the trans* I 
parency of celestial space, 142, 143. { 

Olmsted, Denison, of Newhaven, Con- 
necticut, observations of aerolites, 
09,105,107,112. 

Oltmanns, Herr, observed continuously 
vrith Humboldt, at Berlin, the move- 
ments of the declination needle, 184, 

Ovid, his description of the volcanic 
Hill of Metlione, 239. 

Oviedo, describes the weed of the Gulf 
Stream, as Praderias de yerva (sea- 
weed meadows), 313. 

Palaeontology, 272—287. 

Pallas, meteoric iron, 120. 

Palmer, Newhaven, Connecticut, on 
the prodigious swarm of shooting 
stars. Nov. 12 and 13, 1833, 112; 
on the non-appearance in certain 
years of the August and November 
fall of aerolites, 117\ 

Parallaxes of fixed stars, '72, 73; of 
the solar system, 13^, 136. 

Parian and Carrai-a marbles, 263, 
264. 

Parry, Capt, on auroras, their connec- 
tion with magnetic perturbations, 
191, 196; whether attended with 
any sound, 195; seen to contmue 
throughout the day, 191 ; barometric 
observation at Port Bowen, 320; 
rarity of electric explosions in nor- 
them regions, 345. 

Patridus, St., his accurate conjectures 
on the hut springs of Carthage, 220, 
221. 

Peltier, on the actual source of atmos- 
pheric electricity, 343, 344. 

Pencati, Count Muzari, partial inflec- 
tion of calcareous beds by the con- 
tact of syeiiitic granite, in the Tyrol, 
263. 

Pendulum, its scientific uses, 24; ex- 

Vol. I, 



periments with, 46, 168, 162; em- 
ployed to investigate the curvatur«' 
of the earth's surface, 156, 1117; local 
attraction, its influence on the pen- 
dulum, and geognostic knowledge 
deduced from 24, 26, 159, 160; ex- 
periments of Bessel, 46. 

Pentland, his measurements of tne 
Andes, 7. 

Percy, Dr., on minerals, artificially 
produced. See note by Translator, 
270. 

Permian system of Murchison, 280 

Perouse, La, expedition of, 180. 

Persia, great comet seen in, (1668|, 
128, 129. 

Pertz, nik the large aerolite that fell in 
the bed of the river Nami, 103. 

Peters, Dr., velocity of stones projected 
from iEtna. 109. 

Phillips on the temperature of a coal 
mine at increasing depths, 1 66. 

Philolaiis, his astronomical studies, 47 1 
his fragmentary writings, 51, 52. 

Philosophy of nature, first germ, 16. 

Phosphorescence of the Sea, in the 
torrid zones, 197 

Physics, their limits, 30; influence of 
physical science on the wealth and 
prosperity of nations, 33, 34 ; pro- 
vince of physical science, 40; dis- 
tinction between tlie physical his- 
tory ^ and physical description of the 
world, 64; physical science, cha- 
racteristics of its modem progress, 
64. 

Pindar, 226. 

Plana, geodesic experimepts in Lom- 
bardy, 159,160 

Planets, 73 — 84; present number dis- 
covered, 74. (See note by Trans- 
lator, on the mos»t recent discoveries, 
74 — 76 ;) Sir Isaac Newton on their 
composition, 120; limited phvsical 
knowledge of, 147,148: Ceres,' 46— 
76; Earth, 72— 84; Juno, 46, 76— 
82, 92; Jupiter, 46, 70, 76—82,107; 
Mars, 70, 75—78, 121; Mercury, 
70, 76—78; Pallas, 46. 76; Saturn. 
70, 76—78: Venus. 75—78, 107; 
Uranus, 74, 76 — 78; planets \vhich 
have the largest number of moons, 
80. 
Plants, geographical distributi<m o^ 
356—860. 



o 



L C 



L w ] 



Plalo, on di* heKreaij bodies, dec., 51 ; 
iaterpieUtkm of natun, 164; his 
geognmtic views on hot springs, 
and Tolcanic ignaoos streams, 235, 
336. 

Fliuj, the elder, his Natural Historr, 
55; on comets, 89; aerolites, 100, 
110,118; magnetism, 173; attrae- 
tion of amber, 182 ; on earthquakes, 
201,202; on the flame of inflan- 
mable |cas, in the district of Pha- 
selis, 220; rarity of jssper, 2«2; on 
the configuration of AMca, 296. 

Plinj, the younger, his descriptim of 
the great eruption of Mount Vesu* 
Tius, and the phenomenon of yoI- 
canic ashes, 233. 

Plutarch, truUi of his coi\jectnre that 
falling stars are celestial bodies, 122. 

Poisson, on the planet Jupiter, 46; 
conjecture on the spontaneous igni- 
tion of meteoric stones, 104, 105 ; 
Zodiacal light, 130 : theory on the 
earth's temperature, 165, 166, 169. 

Polarization, chromatic, results of its 
discovery, 33; experiments on the 
ligbtof comets, 90, 91. 

Polybius, 296. 

Posidouius, on the Ligyau field of 
stones, 102. 

Pouillet, on the actual source of at- 
mospheric electricity, 343. 

Ptejudices against science, how ori- 
ginated, 17; against the study of 
the exact sciences, whv fallacious, 
20, 33. 

Prichard, his physical history of Man 
kind, 362. 

Pseudo-Plato, 35. 

Fsychrometer, 340, 347. 

Pythagoras, first employed the word 
Cosmos in its modem sense, 51. 

Pythagoreans, their study of the hea 
venly bodies, 47; doctrine on co- 
mets 88, 89. 

Quarterly Review, article on Terres- 
trial Magnetism, 186. 

Qnetelet, on aerolites, 100; their pe- 
riodic return in August, 118. 

Uaces, human, their geopfraphical dis- 
tribution, and unity, 360—369. 
Bain drops, temperature of, 217; meaa 



■imaal qamkHkf ia dw two 
apheres, 842, M8. 

Beich, mean density of the esiih,sa 
asoartained by tbe torsioD bslsBoe, 
162; tempentme of the nuoes in 
Saxony, 166. 

Beisch, Gregory, hia ' Margsrita Vhi- 
Wsophica,* 39. 

Bemnsat, Abel, Mongolian tradition 
on the fell of an aeroUte, 103; active 
Yolcaaees in Central Asia, at gnat 
distances firom the sea, 244. 

Bichardson, magnetic phenomeBa st- 
tending the Aurora, 191 iriiedMr 
aooompanied by sound, 194; in- 
fluence on the magnetic needle of 
the Aurora, 195, 196. 

Bidbamba, earthquake at, 199, 301, 
203,209,211. 

Bitter, Carl, his * Geography in rela- 
tion to Nature and the Hialary of 
Man, 28, 49. 

Bobert, Eugene, on ihe ancient sea 
line, on the coast of Spitzbeigen, 
300. 

Bobertson, on the permaneni^ ci Ike 
compass in Jamaica, 174. 

Bocks, their nature and configuration, 
225, 226; geognostical clasafication 
into km groups, 247 — 251 ; L rocks 
of enq>tion, 247, 251—254; iL sedi- 
mentary rocks, 247, 248, 254. 255 ; iiL 
transformed, or, metsmorphic rocks, 
248, 256,-270 ; iiii. conglomerates, 
or rocks of detritus, 270—272; their 
changes fix>m the action of heat, 259, 
260; phenomena of contact, 259 — 
269 ; efiects of pressure and the ra- 
pidi^ of cooling. 259, 268. 

Bose, Gustavo, on the chemical ele- 
ments, &;c. of various aerolites, 119; 
on the structural relations of vol- 
canic rocks, 233 ; on crystals of feld- 
spar and albite found in granite, 251; 
relations of positiou in which gra- 
nite occurs, 252 — 270; chemical 
process in the formation of varioua 
minerals, 267—270. 

Boss, Sir James, his soundings with 
27,600 feet of line, 151; magnetic 
observations at the South Pole, 181 ; 
important results of the Antarctic 
magnetic expedition in 1839, 186; 
rarity of electric explosions in high 
northern r^ons, 346. 



[ 16 ] 



RoMell, M. de, Ins magnetic oscillation- 
experiments, and their date of pub- 
licaUon, 179—181. 

Bothmann, confounded the setting Zo- 
diacal light wilh the cessation of 
twilight, 132. 

Bozier, observation of a steady lumi- 
nous appearance in the clouds, 197. 

Romker, Encke's comet, 92. 

ftiippell, denies the existence of active 
volcanoes in Kordofan, 244. 



Sabine, Edward, observations on days 
of unusual magnetic disturbance, 
171; recent magnetic observations, 
177, 178, 180, 181. 

Sagra, Ramon de la, observations on 
the mean annual quantity oPrain in 
the Havannah, 841 . 

Saint Pierre. Bernardin de, — ^Paul and 
Virginia, 4 ; Studies of Nature, 856. 

Seises or mud volcanoes, 221 — 224; 
striking phenomena attending their 
origin, 221, 222. 

Salt works, depth of, 148 — 150; tem- 
perature, 166. 

Santorino, the most important of the 
islands of eruption, 240, 241 ; de- 
scription of. See note by Trans- 
lator, 240. 

Sargasso sea, its situation, 313. 

Satellites revolving round the primary 
planets, their diameter, distance, ro- 
tation, &c., 78, 84; Saturn's, 81, 82, 
115; Earth's, see Moon, Jupiter's 
81,82; Uranus, 81, 83. 

Sanrians flying, fossil remains of, 
276— -278. 

Saussure, measurements of the mar- 
ginal ledge of the crater of Mount 
Vesuvius, 280; traces of ammoniacal 
vapours in the atmosphere, 817; hy- 
grometric measurements with Hum- 
boldt, 342—344. 

Schayer. microscopic organisms in the 
ocean, 351. 

Seheerer, on the identity of eleollte 
and nepheline, 258. 

Schelling, on nature, 36; quotation 
from his Giardino Bruno, 60. 

Scheuchzner's fossil salamander, con- 
jectured to be an antidiluvian man , 
276, 277. 

Schiller, quotation from, 16 



Schnurrei, on the obscnntioD of tht 
sun's disc, 121. 

Schouten, Cornelius, in 1616 found 
the declination null, in the Pacific, 
176. 

Schow, distribution of the quantity of 
rain in Central Europe, 841. 

Sclirieber,on the fragmentary character 
of meteoric stones, 104. 

Scientific 4toearches, their frequent re- 
sult, 81; scientific knowledge a re- 
quirement of the present age, 88, 34; 
scientific terms, their raguenese and 
misapplication, 89, 50. 

Scina, Abl>ate, earthquakes uncon- 
nected with the state of the weather, 
201,202. 

Scoresby, rarity of electric explosions 
in high nortibem regions, 345. 

Sea. See Ocean. 

Seismometer, the, 200. 

Seleucus, of Erythrea, his astronomical 
studies, 47. 

Seneca, noticed the direction of the 
tails of comets, 87 ; his views on the 
nature and paths of comets, 89; 
omens drawn from their sudden 
appearance, 07; the germs of later 
observations on earthquakes found 
in his writings, 202; problematical 
extinction and sinking of Mount 
iEtna, 225,288. 

Shoals, atmospheric indications of their 
vicinity, 814. 

Sidereal systems, 72 — 74. 

Siljerstrom, his observations on the 
aurora, with Lottin and Bravais, on 
the coast of Lapland, 190. 

Sirowatskoi, 'Wood Hills' in Nev 
Siberia, 284. 

Snow, line, of the Himalayas, 9 — 12, 
338—340; of the Andes, 337, 338; 
redness of long fallen snow, 353. 

Solar system, general description, 74^- 
145; its position in space, 72, 73; 
its translatory motion, 134 — 140. 

Solinus, on mud volcanoes, 222. 

Sommering, on the fossil remains of the 
large vertebrata, 276. 

Somerville, Mrs., on the volume of fire« 
balls and shooting stars, 103 ; faint* 
ness of light of planetary Nebula 
130. 

Southern celestial hemisxfhere, its pio* 
turesque beauty, 69. 

c2 



L 



W J 



SpcDtaneous gnieratkm, S54, So5. 

SpringR, hot and cold, 216— *i23 ; inter- 
miUent, 216; causes of their temper- 
ature, 316—219: tlicmwl, 219. 353, 
364; deepest Artesian welb the 
warmest, obsenred by Arago, 220; 
sokes, 221— 224; influence of earth, 
quake sliocks on hot flings, 206, 
219—221. 

Stexs, general account of, 6^-74 ; fixed, 
71—74, 89; double and multiple, 
78, 137; nebulous, 68, 69, 142; their 
translatory motion, 136 — 140 ; paral- 
laxes and distances. 136 — 130; com. 
putalions of Bessel and Herschel on 
their diameter and volume, 138; 
immense number in the Milky Way, 
140 — 141; Stardust, 69; star gaug- 
logs, 140; starless spaces, 141 — 142; 
telescopic stars, 143; Telocity of the 
propagation of light of, 143, 144; 
apparition of new stars, 144. 

Storms, magnetic, and volcanic. See 
Magnetism, Volcanoes. 

Strabo. observed the cessation of shocks 
of earthquake on the eruption of lava, 
31 1 ; on the mode in which islands arc 
formed, 224 ; description of the Hill 
of Methone, 239—240; vulcanic 
theory, 242; divined the exutence of 
a continent in the northern hemi- 
sphere between Theria and Thine, 
293; extolled the varied form of our 
small continent as liivourable to the 
moral and intellectual development 
of its people, 295— 296. 

Struve, Otho, on the proper motion of 
the solar system, 136; investigations 
on the propagation of light, 143; 
parallaxes and distances of fixed 
stars, 143 ; observations on Halley s 
Comet, 90. 

Studer, Professor, on mineral meta- 
morphisra. See note by Translator, 
348. 

Sac, magnitude of its volume compared 
with that of the fixed stars, 124; 
obscuration of its disc, 121; rotation 
round the centre of gravity of tlie 
whole solar system, 134; velocity of 
its translatory motion, 134, 135; 
narrow limitations of its atmosphere 
as compared with the nucleus of 
other nebulous stars, 129, 130; ' sun 
stOQes' of the ancients, 110; views 



of the Greek philtjaophers on diecoii, 
110. 
Symond, lieaL, his txtgaomnetrictil 
' lorvej of the Dead Sea, 301. 



Tacitus, distingnished local dimad! 
relations from those of race, 361. 

Temperature of the globe, see Eaitk 
and Ocean; remarkable anifiamitt 
over the same spaces of the surfiice 
of the ocean, 308; sones at which 
occor the maxima of the oceanic 
temperature, 309; causes which 
raise the temperature, 325; causes 
which lower Uie temperature, 326; 
temperature of various places, an- 
nual, and in the different seasons, 
338, 329, 330—33-5 ; thermic scale 
of temperature. 330—332 ; of conti- 
n^ital climates as compared with 
insular and littoral climates, 328, 
329 ; law of decrease with increase 
of elevation, 334; depression of, by 
shoals, 314: refrigeration of the 
lower strata of the ocean, 308. 

Teneriffe, Peak of, its striking scenery, 
4. 

Theodectes, of Phaselis, on the colour 
of the Ethiopians, 362. 

Theon, of Alexandria, described comets 
as ' wandering light clouds,' 85. 

Theophylactus, described Scythia, as 
free from earthquakes, 199. 

Thermal scales of cultivated plants, 
830—332. 

Thermal springs, their temperature, 
constancy, and change, 218 — ^221; 
animal and vegetable life in, 353, 
354. 

Thermometer, 347. 

Thibet, habitability of its elevated 
plateaux, 338—40. 

Thienemann, on the aurora, 191, 194. 

Thought, results of its free action, 34 ; 
union with language, 37. 

Tiberias, Sea of, its depression below 
the level of the Mediterranean, 301. 

Tides uf the ocean, their phenomena, 
810, 311. 

Tillard, Capt, on the sudden appear* 
ance of the Island of Sabrina, 241. 

Toumefort, zones of vegetation on 
Mount Ararat, 356. 

Tralles, his notice of the n^ative ele^ 



L " ] 



tricity of the air near higli water- 

Tnaslator, notes by, 7; on the in. 
crease of the eaxth's internal heat 
with increase of depth, 26 ; siliceous 
infusoria and animalculites, 26 ; che- 
mical analysis of an aerolite, 45, 
40; on tiie recent discoveries of 
planets, 74—76; observed the comet 
of 1848, at New Bedford, Massa- 
chussetts, in bright suushine, 66 ; on 
meteoric stones, 97; on an MS., 
said to be in the library of Christ's 
College, Cambridf];e, 111; on the 
term 'salses,* 152; on Holiierg's 
satire, 'Trarels in the World 
Underground,' 164; on the Aurora 
Borealis of Oct. 24, 1847, 188, 190, 
194; on the electricity of the atmo- 
^here daring the aurora, 195; cm 
volcanic phenomena, 198, 199; de- 
scription of the seismometer, 200; 
on the great earthquake of Lisbon, 
206; impression made on the na- 
tives and foreigners by earthquakes 
in Peru, 212; earthquakes at Lima, 
213; on the gaseous compounds of 
sulphur, 214 ; on the Lake of Laach, 
its cratexB, 215; on the emissions of 
inflammable gas in the district of 
Phaselis, 220 ; on true volcanoes as 
distinguished from salses, 221; on 
the volcano of Pichincha, 225 ; on 
the homitos de JoniUo, a» seen by 
Humbi/Mt, 227; general rule on 
ihe dimension of craters, 228; on 
the ejection of fish from the vol- 
cano of Imbaburu, 231; on the little 
isle of Volcano, 232; volcanic steam 
of Pantellaria, 233; on Daubeney's 
work ' On Volcanoes,' 235 ; account 
of the Island of Santorino, 240; of 
the island named Sabrina, 241 ; on 
the vicinit}' . of extinct volcanoes to 
the sea, 243; meaning of the Chinese 
term ' li,' 245; on mineral metamor- 
phism, 248; on fossil human re- 
mains found in Gtadnloupe, 250; 
on minerals artificially produced, 
260, 270; fossil organic structures, 
273, 274; on Coprolites, 278; 
geognostic distribution of fossils, 
278; fossil fauna of the Sew.Jik 
hills, 281 ; thickness of coal mea- 
sures, 284; on the amber pine 



forests of the Baltic, 287; elevation 
of mountain chains, 290; the din- 
omis of Owen, 291; depth of the 
atmosphere, 307; richness of organic 
life in the ocean, 315 ; on filaments 
of plants resembling the spermatozoa 
of animals, 850 ; on the Diatomacea 
found in the South Arctic Ocean, 
851, 352; on the distribution of the 
floras and faunas of the Briii^ Isles, 
857, 858; on the origin and diffu- 
sion of the British Flora, 863, 304. 

Translatcvy raoticm of the Solar Sys- 
tem, 135—140 

Tregus, Pompeins. on the supposed 
necessity that volcanoes were de- 
pendent on their vicinity to the sea 
for their continuance, 242, 243; 
views of the ancietits on spontaneous 
generation, 3o5. 

Tropical latitudes their advantages 
for the contemplatlor of nature, II, 
12; powerful iniprmnons from Uieir 
organic richness aiid fertility, 13; 
facilities they present for a know- 
ledge of the laws of nature, 14; 
transparency of the atmosphere, 100, 
101 ; phosphorescence of the sea, 1 97. 

Tschudi, Dr., extract from his ' Tra- 
vels in Peru.' See Translator s note, 
212,213. 

Turner, note on Sir Isaac Newton, 
120. 

Universality of animated life, 351. 

Valz, on the comet of 1 618, 91. 
Varenins, Bemhard, his exciUlent gene- 
ral and comparative Geography, 48; 
edited by Newton, 49. 

Vegetable world, as viewed with micro- 
scopic powers of vision, 349, 350; 
its predominance over animal lifeu 
352. 

Vegetation, its vari*^d distribution on 
the earth's surface, 8 — 10, 43; rich- 
ness and fertility in the h-opics, 12— 
14 ; zones of vegetndon on tlie decli- 
vities of mountains, 8 — 11, 35-5^ 
360. See Etna, Cordilleras, Hima* 
layas, Mountains 

Vico, satellites of Satnm, 81. 

Vigue, measurement of Ladak, 340. 

Tin' , thermal scale of its cultivatioD 
831. 



L 18 3 



VoleaDo«.« 0,14,149,153,210,211, 
231 — 247; author's application of 
the term volcanic, 26 ; active volca- 
noet, safety yalves for their tmme- 
diate neighbourhood, 210; volcanic 
eruptions. 162, 206-^273; mad vol. 
canoes or salses, 221 — ^224 ; traces of 
volcanic action on the surface of the 
earth and moon, 226; influence of 
relatious of height on the occurrence 
of eruptions, 226 — ^281; volcanic 
storm, 231 ; volcanic ashes, 231 ; 
clnssification of volcanoes into cen- 
tral and lineas 236, 237; theory of 
the necessity of their proximity to 
the sea, 242 — 246; geographical 
distribution of still active volcanoes, 
244 — 246; metamorphic action on. 
rocks, 240—248. 

Violik, his aiiatooical investigations bn 
the form of the pelvis, 802. 



Wagner, Rudolph, notes on the races 

of Africa, 362. 
Walter, on the decrease of volcanic 

activity, 211. 
Wartmnnn, meteors, 100. 
Weber, his anatomical investigadons 

on the form of the pelvis, 302. 
Webster, Dr., (of Harvard College, 

U. S.,) account of the island named 

Sabrina. See note by Translator, 

241. 
Winds, 321—328; monsoons, 322, 328 ; 

trade winds, 827, 328; law of rota- 

tion, importance of its knowledge, 

831—323. 



Wine, on the temperature reqntiedte 
its cultivation, 380; thermic taUeef 
mean annual heat, 331. 832. 

Wollaston, on the limitation of flw 
atmosphere, 307. 

WrangeL Admiral, on the brilfianey 
of the Aurora Borealis, coincident 
with the fall of shooting stars, 114^ 
116; observationa of the Auron 
191, 194, 196; wood hills of the 
Siberian Polar Sea, 284.* 

Xenophanes, of Colophon, described 
comets as wandering l^ht clonda, 
86; marine fossils found in maiUa 
quarries, 264. 

Young, Thomas, earliest observer of 
the influence diflerent kinds of roeka 
exercise on the vibrations of the pen* 
dulum, 100. 

Tul-sung, described by Chinese wri- 
ters, as ' the realm of pleasure,' 340. 

Zimmerman, Carl, hypsometrical r^ 
marks on the elevation of .the Himi^ 
lay as, II. 

Zodiacal light, conjectures on, 69 — 76; 
general account of, 126—184; bean- 
tifnl appearance, 126, 127; first de> 
scribed in Childrey's Britannia Ba- 
conica, 128, 129; probable causes, 
130, 131 ; iu«nsity in tropical cli- 
mates, 131. 

Zones, of vegetation, on the declivities 
of mountains, 8—11: of latitude, 
their diversified regetation, 44; oi 
the southern heavens, their mi^i 
ficence, 69; polar, 192. 



MESSRS. BELL AND DALDY'S 



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CLASSIFIED INDEX, 



Angler. Wstlm . . 



not Uorphf 



I^El'i FilnllDg . . 
L«tuM oa PainUng . . . 
Michael Angelo and Rii^iHl , 
RsynoldB' (Sr J.) Wor'- 
Sdileeers £>UietlcWi 

BUIltC)''B SinniKlB of I 

Vasul'iUveaofthel 
aBBsKal Qeogrspb; . 



Locke's Ure ud I#tt«re 
Lntbei^iLlfe.Ulchelet . 

It]|ie'e Lire, (^rrulhen .' 



CmillDBWorlb'B Religion o 
G™goi7'» Evidences . 



Andenrn'i Ttin . 



Modem Novellsu of Friuics 
MuncbAuscD's Lite , 
KoUnaon Cnuoe . , 



WiUls-aTulet. . . . 

Yule Ttile Stories . . 
lEKCH AUTHoae. 

F«ii«l(iu'sT«l£nuqTie . 
lAFonaiije'sFitHes 

PIccioli 

Voltaire's Charles Sll. . 

OEramn Bal'ads . , . 

ScbUler'a Walleuet^n . 



Oaelhc's 
Heine's F 
SchUler'a 



Tl 



CLASSIFIED INDEX. 



FAGK 

Obxsk Authobs. 

.ffiachylus . . . .• . . . 46,4Y 

DemoBthenes 45 

Earipides 46,47 

Herodotas 45, 47 

Hesiod 45 

Homer 45 

Fbkto 46 

Sophodes 46 

TtMicydldes '.'47 

Xenophon's AnalMsls ... 47, 47 
Qrropfledla .... 47 

QbXKK (THB) TkANSLATIijKB VBOIC 

AchiUes Tatliu 34 

JEschtneB 16 

.Ssdiylas 32 

Anthology, Greek 34 

Arl8tophane« 32 

Aristotle's Ethics 32 

History of Anlwab . . 32 

Hetiq)hyBlcs .... 32 

>- Orgsnoii 32 

Politics and Economics 32 

Rhetoric and Poetics . 32 

Atbemens 33 

Bion 36 

GallimachiiB 34 

Demosthenes' OraUons . . . 16, 33 

Diogenes Laertlos 34 

Eoripides 34 

Hellodonu 34 

Herodotos 34 

— — - Analysis of .... 18 

Notes 18 

Hesiod 34 

Homer's lUad 34 

Pope 30 

Ody8:iey 3t 

— .pope .... 30 

Longus 34 

Moschus .36 

Philo^adsos 20 

Pindar 35 

Plato 35 

Sophocles 36 

Theocritus 36 

Tbeognis 34 

Thucydides 36 

— Analysis of .... 19 

Tyrtaeus 36 

Xenophon 36 

fll8I>)BIGAL MbMOIBS. 

Garafiu of Maddnlonl 9 

Coxe's Lire of Marlborough . . 10 
- ■ Memoirs of the House of 

Austria 10 

Guizot's Life of Monk .... 24 

■ Monk's Contemporaries . 24 
Irving's Life of Washington . 17, 24 

James's Louis XIV li 

Richard Coeur de I^on . 11 

Koasuth, Memoirs of .... 11 
Lodge's Portraits of Uluslrious Per- 
sonages 28 

Memoir of Colonel Hutchhison . 11 
Duke of Sully ... 16 



ot 



PAGE 

HOBOBKUi. IHtxoTas— continued. 

Memoir of Hampden, by Lord Nu- 
gent . . . . .15 

— Philip de Coramines . U 

Naval and Military Heroes of 

Britain 2» 

Fault's Life of Alfred the Great . 23 
Hofiooe'B Life of Leo X. .... 13 
Lorenzo de Medici 13 

HiarORT AND TSAYBLS. 

Anglo-Saxons, Miller . . 
Antiquiaes, Popular, Bnmd 
Arabs In Spain, Oondd . . 
Christianity, Flrat Pianthig 
Neander 

CHBOKIOLB& 

Anglo-Saxon Chnmicle, Bede 

Florence of Woroester's 

Geoflfrey de Vinsauf 

Henry of Hunttugdon's 

Ingulph's Chronicle 

Matthew of Paris . . 

Westminster 

Richard of Devizes . . 

Roger de Hovendea 

Six Old English Chronicles 

William of Malmesbuiy 
Chronological Tables, Blair . 
Church History, Neander . 
Civilization, Guizot . . . 
Conquest of England, Thkny 
Diary, Evelyn . . . . . 

• — ■ — Pepys 

Ecclesiastical History, Bede 

Eusebius 

-^— — Ordericos VI 

talis . 

Socrates 

— Sozomen 

■ Tbeodoret & 

Evagrius 



Egypt, Lepeius ... 
England, History of, Hughes 

Hume . 

Smollett 



English Constitution, Delolme 

Revolution of 1640, Guizot 

Florence, Machiavelli 
French Revolution of 1848, Lamar- 
tine . . . 



Frendi Revolution, Michelet . 

Mignet . . 

Smyth . . 

Germany, Menzel .... 
Giraldus Cambrensis, Historical 

Works 

Girondists, Lamartine . . . 
History Philosophically Considered, 

MiUer ....... 

Hungary, History of ... . 

Index of Dates 

India, Conquest of. Hall . . . 
Jesuits, History of, Nicolini . 
Modem History, Schlegel . . 

Smyth. . . 

Naples under Spanish Dominkn 



CLA8BIPIBD INDEX. 



Vll 



Hbiort Ain> TtiAYniA—conHttued 
Naval BattleB, Allen . . 
Nineteenth Gentuiy, Gervlnus 
Northern Antiquities, Mallet 
Pfailoeopby, Tenneman . . 

■ of Hisioiy, Hegel 

Schlegel 



FAGS 



26 
24 
22 
19 
18 
14 
13 
16 
11 



Popes, Banke . . 
Pretenders^ Jesse . 
Bepresentative Government, Guizot 
Bestoration of the Monardiy, La- 

martlne 12 

Bevolntfon, Ootmter, in Bogland, 

Oarrel 9 

Boman Empire, Gibbon .... 20 

Bepublic, Micbelet ... 12 

Bussla, History of 13 

Saraoens, Ockley 13 

Servia. Banke 13 

Stuarts, Jesse 16 

Three Months in Power, LamartJne 26 

Tiers Etat, Thierry 16 

Travels, Early, in Palestine . . 21 

" ■ ■ ■ ■ in America, Humboldt . 39 

— — — of Maroo Polo .... 22 

Wellington, Victories of ... 28 

Italian (thk) Tsahslations ntOK. 

Ariosto's Orlando Furiosa . . 26 

Dante, Gary 16 

Wright 26 

Tasao's Jerusalem Delivered . . 31 

Latin Authobs. 

CsBsar, De Bello Galileo ... 46, 47 

_ Bka 1-3 ... 46 

Cicero's Cato Major . . . .46,47 

— •Orations 46 

Horace 46, 46, 47 

Juvenal, Satires. 1-16 . . . .46 

— and Persius .... 45 

Lucretius 47 

Ovid's Fasti 46 

Sallust 46, 47 

Tacitus, Germanla, &c 46 

Terence 46 

Virgil 46,47 

liATIV (THK), TRASSLATIONiJ FEOlC 

Ammianus Marcellinus .... 82 

Antonlnud's Thoughts .... 44 

Apulelus, the Golden Ass ... 32 

Boethius 21 

Cesar 33 

CatuUus 33 

Cicero's Academics, &c . . . .33 

. Nature of the Gods, &c . 33 

Offices, &c 33 

OnOratoiy 33 

Orations . , .... 33 

Comelius Nepos 34 

Eatropius ........ 34 

Floras 36 

Horace 17, 34 

Johannes Secnndus 36 

Justin 34 

Juvenal 34 

Livy 34 



PAOB 

Latin (thx) Tbakslatioks fboh^ 
contiimed. 

Lucan • • 35 

Lucilitts 34 

Lucretius 35 

Martial's Epigrams 35 

Ovid 35 

Persius 34 

Petronius ........ 35 

Phffidnu 36 

Plautns 35 

Pliny's Natural History . ... 35 

Propertius 35 

Quintillan's Institutes .... 36 

SaUust 36 

Suetonius .36 

Sulpicia 34 

Tacitus 36 

Terence 38 

Tibullus 33 

Velleius Patercnlus 86 

Virgil 36 

LiTERART HdSIORT, &C. 

Lowndes's Bibli<^apheT's Manual 18 

SchlegeVs Hlstoiy of Literature • 14 
Sismondi's Literature of South of 

Europe 14 

MlSCELLAKEOUS. 

Ascham's Schote Master ... 45 

Bacon's Essays 9,44 

Browne's f Sir T.) Works ... 21 

Cape and the KafBrs 23 

Coin Collector's Manual, Hum- 
phreys . 39 

Cotton Manufactures, Ure ... 40 
Cruikshank's Three Courses, &a . 26 
Dictionaiy of Obsolete Words . . 19 
Emerson^s Orations and Lectures . 23 

— Bepresentative Men . 23 

Epitaphs 21 

Foster's Essays, Sec 10 

Lectures, &c 10 

Miscellaneous Worics . 10 

Fneteriana 10 

Fuller's Works 10 

Gray's Works 44 

Hall's (Basil) Lieutenant ... 41 

Midshipman ... 41 

(Bobert) Works .... 11 

Herbert's Works . . . .41,42 

Jesse's Dogs, &C. 21 

Juntus's Letters 11 

Lion Hunting .26 

Iiocke's Conduct, Aie. 45 

Luther's Table Talk 12 

Magic (Ennemoeer's) 38 

Manufactures (Philosophy of). Ure 40 
Moral Sentbnents, Smith ... 14 

Political Cyclopedia 18 

Pottery and Porcelain .... 30 
Preachers and Preaching ... 25 
Prout's (Father) Beliques ... 30 
Starling's Noble Deeds of Women. 30 
Taylor's Logic In Theology ... 45 

Physical Theory ... 43 

Ultimate Civilization . . 45 



• • • 

VIU 



CLASsnmcD ikdex. 



PAGE 

MvKKLLAsnoitm— continued. 

Temperance, Carpenter .... 23 

Wines, Bedding on 30 

Tomig L«dy'ri Book . . j . . 31 

Katurai, HmroBT. 

British Birds. Mndie £9 

Cage Birds, Bechstein .... 26 

Poultry, Dickson and Mowbray . 16 

Seasons, Howitt 27 

Selbume, White 31,41 

Warblen^ Sweet 26 

POBTST. 

▲kenside's Poems 43 

British Pbets— Milton to Kirke 

White 17 

Bums's Poems 41,42 

Songs 41 

Butler's Hudibras 26 

Coleridge's Poems . . . . 41, 42 

Colllns's Poems 43 

Cowper's Poems 43 

Works 10 

Dibdhi's Sea Songs 23 

Dryden's Poetical Works ... 43 
Ellis's Metrical Romances ... 21 

Goldsmith's Poems 41 

Quwer's Confesdo Amantis ... 43 

Gray's Poems 41,44 

Herbert's Poems 41, 43 

Kirke White's Poems .... 44 
Longfellow's Poems . . . . 28,41 
Milton's Paradise Lost . . 28,41,42 

Regained. . 28,41 

Petrarch's Sonnets 29 

Pope's Poetical Works .... 30 

Robin Hood Ballads 41 

Sea Songs and Ballads .... 41 
Shakespeare's Poems ... 18, 43 

Spenser's Works 43 

Tjiomson's Poems 44 

1 Seasons 44 

Vaughan's Poems 41,45 

Young's Poems 44 

Pbovkrbs akd Quotatioxs. 

Dictionary of Greek and Latin Quo- 
tations 34 

Handbook of Proverbs .... 21 
Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs . . 22 

SOSEKCB AND PHILOSOPHY. 

Anatomy, Comparative, Lawrence . 17 
Animal Physiology, Caipenter . . 38 
Arts and Sciences, Joyce ... 17 

Astrolt^y, Lilly 17 

Astronomy, Carpenter .... 38 

Hind 39 

Bacon's Advancement of Learning 37, 44 

Novum Organum . . 37, 44 

Botany, Carpenter 38 



PAGE 

SCIKNCB AND PHiijoeoPHT^Ctonttmied. 

Botany, DeJussieu 39 

Bbidoewatbh Treatises. 

Chalmers on Moral Man . . 37 

Kidd on Man . f .... 37 

Klrby on Animals .... 37 

Prout on Chemistiy ... 37 
Whewell's AstroiMMiiy and 

General Physics .... 37 

Chemibtrt. 

Agricultural, Stockfaardt" . .40 

Elementary, Parkes .... IS 

Principles of, Stockhardt . . 40 

Chevreul on Colour 38 

Comparative Physiology, Af^tssix . 37 

Comte's Philosophy of the ^jences 3s 

Cosmos, Humboldt's 39 

Geology. 

General, RicfaardBcm ... 40 

Medals of Creatitm. Mantell . 39 

Of isle of Wight, Mantell . . 39 

Of Scripture, Pye Smith . . 40 

Petrifactions, &c., Mantell . . 39 

Wonders of Geol(^, Mantell 39 

Horology, Carpenter 33 

Inventions, B^kmann's Histoiy of . 9 

Joyce's Scientific Dialogues ... 39 

Kuit's Pure Reason 18 

Life, Philosophy of, Schlegel . . 14 

I^ocke's Philosophical Works . . 12 

Logic, Devey 18 

Mechanical Philosophy, Caipenter . 36 

Medicine, Domestic 3s 

Mineralogy, Richardson ... 40 

Natural Philosophy, Hogg . . . 3S 

Oersted's Soul in Nature ... 40 

Palaeontology, Richardson ... 40 

Physics, Hunt 39 

Races of Man, Pickering. ... 29 

Schouw's Earth, Plants, Man . . M 

Science, Poetry of. Hunt. ... 39 

Technical Analysis, Bolley ... 37 

Vegetable Phybiology, Carpenter . 33 

Views of Nature, Humboldt . . 39 

Zoology, Carpenter 38 

Topography. 

Athens, Stuart and Revett ... 31 

China 26 

Egyptk Lord Lindsay's Letters . . 21 

Geography, Modem 29 

Strabo . . . . • . 36 

India 27 

London, Pictorial Handbook of . . 29 

Redding 25 

Nineveh, Bonomi 26 

Norway 25 

Paris 29 

Rome 30 



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