Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent During the Years 1799-1804, Volumes 1-2Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818 - Natural history |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 74
Page v
... globe , which have immortalized the name of Cook , have always had a par- ticular attraction for my mind ; and led me in my early youth , to weave an humble chaplet for the brow of that great navigator , which my venerable friend ...
... globe , which have immortalized the name of Cook , have always had a par- ticular attraction for my mind ; and led me in my early youth , to weave an humble chaplet for the brow of that great navigator , which my venerable friend ...
Page vi
... - tending the limits of science , but by pre- senting new aspects of the variegated scenery of the Globe . Happy the traveller , with whom the study of Nature has not been merely the cold research of the understanding , in vi PREFACE .
... - tending the limits of science , but by pre- senting new aspects of the variegated scenery of the Globe . Happy the traveller , with whom the study of Nature has not been merely the cold research of the understanding , in vi PREFACE .
Page ix
... Globe was yet un- known . What has hitherto been wanting is now accomplished . M. de Humboldt has in this work displayed , more than in any other he has yet published , his peculiar manner of contemplating nature in all her over ...
... Globe was yet un- known . What has hitherto been wanting is now accomplished . M. de Humboldt has in this work displayed , more than in any other he has yet published , his peculiar manner of contemplating nature in all her over ...
Page xii
... globe . To comprehend the laws which are observed in the position of these rocks , and determine the age of their successive for- mations , and their identity in the most distant regions , the geologist ought to be previously acquainted ...
... globe . To comprehend the laws which are observed in the position of these rocks , and determine the age of their successive for- mations , and their identity in the most distant regions , the geologist ought to be previously acquainted ...
Page xii
... globe , that treats of the rela- tions the plants have to each other , with the soil whence they spring , or the air which they inhale and modify . The progress of the geography of plants depends in a great measure on that of ...
... globe , that treats of the rela- tions the plants have to each other , with the soil whence they spring , or the air which they inhale and modify . The progress of the geography of plants depends in a great measure on that of ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according Africa America ancient Andalusia angles appear Araya Atlantic Ocean atmosphere Azores barometer basalt Borda calcareous Canary islands Cape climate coasts color contains Cordilleras covered crater Cumana cyanometer degree of latitude Deluc distance earthquakes elevated equinoctial eruption Europe extremely feet Globe Guanches gulf of Cariaco heat height horizon hundred toises hygrometer inches inhabitants isle Lanzerota latitude lavas leagues less longitude magnetic mass mean temperature measure meridian Mexico mica-slate mountains naturalists nature navigators needle observations obsidian Oroonoko oscillations Peak of Teneriffe Peru phenomena phenomenon Piton plain plants porphyries port of Orotava pumice pumice stone Punta Quito regions rocks salt Santa Cruz Saussure scarcely snows soil Spain Spanish species strata summit surface tains Teneriffe thermometer tion toises torrid zone travellers trees tropics vapors variations vegetation vessel Vesuvius volcano voyage winds
Popular passages
Page 20 - In the solitude of the seas, we hail a star as a friend, from whom we have been long separated. Among the Portuguese and the Spaniards, peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling ; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recalls the sign of the faith, planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the new world.
Page 58 - ... Canary Islands, to reach the coast of Caraccas ; ten months to make the tour of the Gulf of Mexico and reach Tortoise Shoals, opposite the port of the Havannah ; while forty or fifty days might be sufficient to carry it from the straits of Florida to the bank of Newfoundland. It would be difficult to fix the rapidity of the retrograde current from this bank to the coasts of Africa : estimating the mean velocity of the waters at seven or eight miles in twenty-four hours, we find ten or eleven...
Page 57 - ... flowing from the equator * to the poles, and from the poles to the equator, form warm or cold streams 'f' amid the motionless waters of the * TV Gulf-slrer.m.
Page xxxviii - I had left Europe with the firm intention of not writing what is usually called the historical narrative of a journey, but to publish the fruit of my inquiries in works merely descriptive; and I had arranged the facts, not in the order in which they successively presented themselves, but according to the relation they bore to each other.
Page 223 - Quito underwent such a destructive commotion, that, notwithstanding the extreme feebleness of the population of that country, near 40,000 natives perished,, buried under the ruins of their houses, swallowed up in the crevices, or drowned in lakes that were suddenly formed. At the same period, the inhabitants of the eastern Antilles were alarmed by shocks, which continued during eight months, when the volcano of Guadaloupe threw out pumice stones, ashes, and gusts of sulphureous vapours.
Page 3 - ... the poles. It is known, that in the passage from Santa Cruz to Cumana, as in that from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands, seamen are scarcely ever under the necessity of working their sails. We pass those latitudes as if we were descending a river, and we might deem it no hazardous undertaking if we made the voyage in an open boat.
Page 289 - Let us announce to them that God " hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell on the face of the earth.
Page 18 - We saw distinctly, for the first time, the cross of the south, only in the night of the 4th and 5th of July, in the sixteenth degree of latitude. It was strongly inclined, and appeared, from time to time, between the clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by uncondensed lightnings, reflected a silver light. The pleasure felt on discovering the southern cross was warmly shared by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies.
Page 20 - ... minutes a day; and no other group of stars exhibits, to the naked eye, an observation of time so easily made. How often have we heard our guides exclaim, in the savannahs of the Venezuela, or in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, ' Midnight is past, the Cross begins to bend...
Page xii - I had in view a two-fold purpose in the travels of which I now publish the historical narrative. I wished to make known the countries I had visited ; and to collect such facts as are fitted to elucidate a science of which we as yet possess scarcely the outline, and which has been vaguely denominated Natural History of the World, Theory of the Earth, or Physical Geography.