TESTIMONY

FEOM
Prop. Arnold Guyot, Princeton College.

It is with unmixed feelings of pleasure that I hail your attempt to

make our great and excellent Ritter known to the American public by his

own works, and thus to give, in his own words, to the numerous lovers

of Scientific Geography in this country, the large and suggestive views

contained in the translated memoirs.

I am aware that, owing to Hitter's mode of thought and style, both so

eminently German, — as you remark yourself, — this work may not be des-

tined to become what is termed by our booksellers a popular book ; but I

think too well of the American mind and culture not to believe that it

will find its way to a large number of true scholars, by whose influence it

will largely contribute to foster a deeper and more philosophical study of

both Geography and History.

Having myself begun, many years «ago, to translate several portions of

Hitter's works into French, I can, perhaps better than many others, appre-

ciate the great difficulties that you had to overcome to give us his thoughts

in the clear and flowing English which distinguishes your translation.

For this success I sincerefy congratulate you.

I remain, dear sir, with sincere esteem, and cordially, yours,

Arnold Guyot.

Proe. D. C. Gilman, Yale College. (From the New Englander.)

By common consent, Humboldt and Ritter are regarded as the

founders of the department of Physical Geography. For its promotion they
labored, not unitedly, but harmoniously, during a longer period than is

appointed for the life of most men. While they differed widely in char-

acter, and exerted themselves in very different ways for the promotion of
 TE STIMONY.

their favorite study, their names will always be remembered together in

their works. The Cosmos and the Erdkunde will together be handed down
to posterity as an enduring monument of the extent to which the knowl-
edge of nature, and especially of its relations to man, has been carried

in the nineteenth century of the Christian era.

In contrast with the popular homage generously lavished upon Hum-

boldt, both in Europe and America, stands the equally honorable and
equally enduring reputation which the genius of Bitter has achieved, not

indeed among the multitude, but among his peers in the higher ranks of

intellectual culture. Yet we would not disparage the well-earned fame

of the author of the Cosmos, when we say that the author of the Erdkunde
was far more nearly his equal in genius, in learning, and in perpetual influ-

ence, than would be supposed by those who should judge them by their

present notoriety ; for the New Geography is almost equally indebted to

them both. It is not easy to say whether Humboldt or Ritter has done
most in this science, for they have labored by different methods and
in different departments, — Humboldt inclining decidedly to the study of

material science, in geologv, hydrography, orography, and terrestrial phys-

ics ; and Ritter in as marked a manner evincing his love for the study of

mankind, in history, ethnology and archaeology, and regarding the world

as a theatre for human progress. To define the relative value of their

services is happily as needless as it would be difficult. They acted and

reacted upon each other.

At the basis of all Ritter's writings lies the thought that each of the

grand divisions of the earth has its own peculiar character as really as

any person ; and that thus it is designed to fulfil a specific office in the

culture of mankind. This idea, promulgated and illustrated with such

eloquence and skill in the University lectures of Ritter, has already to

some extent pervaded the geographical literature of the day, and may be
traced in many of the school-books of Germany, which are based upon his
method. His principles are brought out in a volume composed of various
contributions to the Academy of Science, and other occasional essays,
which was published in Berlin in 1852. It is this volume which is now
first brought before the English reading public, no translation of it having
appeared in England.
GEOGKAPHICAL STUDIES.
BT THE LATE

PROFESSOR CARL RITTER

OF BERLIN

fätunnlnüiö from t\z (friginal fötxmKn,

BY

WILLIAM LEONHARD GAGE,

TRANSLATOR AXD EDITOR OF PROF. HEIKRICH STEFFINS'S
STORY OF MY CAREER," ETC.
'•

Is it not worth while, for the sake of the history of men and of nations, to study the surface
of the earth in "
its relation to its inhabitants ?

BOSTON:
QOULD WASHINGTON
ANDLINCOLN, 59 STKEET.'
NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.
CINCINNATI: GEORGE 8. BLANCHARD.
1863.
 Wl
f
i
u "

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by

GOULD AND LINCOLN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

X*t$J I
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The papers presented to the American public in the fol-

lowing work are so purely the product of German thought,

and retain, even in our own language, such distinct traces

of their source, that a translation becomes necessarily haz-

ardous. An eminent living writer has said that "every

great nation has a mode of expression and of thought pe-

culiar to itself, and with which its sympathies are intimately

connected. To introduce any foreign model, however admi-

rable it may be, is to violate this connection, and to impair

the value of literature by Hmiting the scope of its action."

Physical Geography, and the generalizations which it in-

volves, have been to so great an extent the fruit of German

soil, that its terminology has hardly forced itself yet into

other tongues, and its ideas are still colored with the nation-

ality of their origin. To cast the thought in an English

mould of expression has been a prominent object with me in

executing the translation, yet I am aware that the result has

been but imperfectly reached. The obstacle has been not

so much in the extremely involved style of Ritter (though

in this respect educated Germans grant that he has hardly

his parallel) as in the newness of his field of inquiry.

There are some pages of this work whose contents have

been presented heretofore to the American and English reader
 ,

IV

in our standard treatises on Physical Geography ; and they

are here given anew mainly to show them in their first state-

ment, to bring them forward in the light in which they ap-

peared to the eminent discoverer. /But a large part of the
generalizations of this book are not as yet worked out : they
may appear loose and vague and unmeaning ; and yet they
had to their author, conversant as he was with the myriads of
geographical details, a distinctness of meaning which hardly
any one can see who has not read the twenty thousand pages
of Bitter's Erdkunde..

Mr. Buckle has elaborated, in one of the opening chap-

ters of the History of Civilization in England, two or three

of Hitter's thoughts, and has applied them briefly to a few

countries; and while he goes to an extent to which Ritter

was ever a stranger, abusing the thought instead of using it,

that nations as well as individuals are modified by their geo-

graphical conditions, yet his chapter shows how wide a field

of application lies still open to the generalizations of the great

geographer. Ritter nowhere makes man subject, in silent,

unresisting dumbness, to the influences of nature ; he allows

for results which issue from the mutual conflict of geograph-
ical conditions and the freedom of man's will ; but Buckle,
going far beyond Ritter, makes the former element all, and
reduces the latter to a cipher.
The Introduction to the Erdkunde, and the General Ob-

servations on the Fixed Forms of the Earth's Surface, are the

only portions of Ritter's great work, of any length, which
could be incorporated into this translation. The Erdkunde,
or Physical Geography of Asia and Africa (for the work
never went beyond these two continents), is a monument of
 translator's preface. V

genius as well as of research ; and yet the nineteen volumes,

with their twenty thousand pages, are not filled with general-

izations, — they are made up almost exclusively of details.

The Erdkunde differs from all preceding geographical works,

as diamond differs from charcoal: the details are not thrown

together in a hap-hazard way, but are organized into unity..

The sciences of botany, geology, chemistry, astronomy, nat-

ural philosophy, and mineralogy are made subservient to

the great purpose of the work, and the results of all these

and kindred sciences are introduced and unified. The prin-

ciples that underlie the Erdkunde are found in the two papers
which are translated here, but, as the reader will see, the work
itself could not be to any great extent used.

The six lectures read before the Royal Academy of Science

at Berlin, in different years, from 1826 to 1850, are esteemed
the consummation of Hitter's geographical labors. Guyot
and the English geographers have made the public acquainted
with a part of their contents, yet some of them have not been
drawn upon at all. They will all repay study ; though it is to

be regretted that the turn of the German mind is so little

towards illustration of principles ; that it rolls out thought

after thought, keeping them in an abstract shape, instead of

casting them in that more concrete form which is characteristic

of the results of the French, English, and American mind.

Ritter, unlike Humboldt, seems to have paid no attention
to beauties of style ; and this although he had a poet's sensi-
bility, and was alive to every natural grace. The reader will
not fail to see, especially in the Introduction to the Erdkunde,
that its author had an imagination of rare strength, one which
threw a rich and warm glow over all that he wrote. But as
 :

VI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

for beauty of style, he had none of it. He fully illustrates

the truth of what has been said by an eminent living writer

" The great German authors address themselves not to their

country, but to one another. They are sure of a select and

learned audience, and they use what is in fact a learned lan-

guage ; they turn their mother tongue into a dialect, eloquent

indeed and very powerful, but so difficult, so subtle, and so

full of complicated inversions, that to their own lower classes

it is entirely incomprehensible."

Of two pictures of Ritter in my possession, I present the

earlier one, taken at the height of his power. Although it

does not in any way represent his appearance as I knew him

in his advanced age, yet it is certified to as a very correct
likeness of him in middle life.

I cannot close without expressing my thanks to Mr. Bal-

four, of Dantzig, Prussia, for valuable hints and help in the
execution of this undertaking, and more especially for revis-

ing the entire translation, word by word, thus at once ensuring

and assuring its accuracy.

May this work, which in another language has already

given a new direction to Geography in all civilized lands, be

more fruitful of good, now that it can be read in the tongue

which will always be largely employed in diffusing its results.

WILLIAM LEONHAIID GAGE.

Portsmouth, N. H., March, 1861.

 CONTENTS

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR RITTER,

BY THE TRANSLATOR, 13.

ACCOUNT OF RITTER'S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS,

BY DR. BÖGEKAMP, OF BERLIN, 33.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO GENERAL COMPARATIVE

GEOGRAPHY.

The study of Man as an individual preliminary to the study of the globe, 55.—
The norm of individual and national development, 56. — Sources of individ-
uality, 57.— Slow workings of nature, 58. — The earth the scene of all natural
phenomena, 59. — Natural life a resultant, 60. — Influences of nature, 60. — A
knowledge of God solving a thousand seeming contradictions, 61. — Impos-
sible that a single mind should compass the whole theme of this work, 61. —

The greatest triumph of the human mind to trace the influences which modify
man, 61. — Possibility that some may be able to forecast history, 62.— The
beginning of historical development a circuitous and rambling course, 62. —
All forms to be studied, 63. —Man must find his true locality to attain his

perfect development, 63. — General Comparative Geography in its

 —

Tili CONTEXTS.

Aim and Ob ject, 64. — Every observation on nature conducts from details
— Regularity in diversity, 65. — Illustra-
to their relation with the whole, 64.

tions, 65.— Influences of periodic change, 66. — Contrast between east and
west, 66. — Contrast between the Old World and the New, 67- — Special

characteristics of Asia, Europe, and Africa, 68. — Influences active in the

western half of the globe, 70. — Advancement from the simple to the com-

plex, — Africa as rightly the

70. field of study, 71. — The Continents as
first

Fined Forsts, 71. — Africa, Asia, and Europe, the natural order of study
in the continents of the Old World, 71. —These three continents contain all

leading types, — Reason of the above order in naming them, 73. — Unity
72.

of the Old World, — Strict use of the term Old World, 74.— General
73.

usage in the names Old and New Worlds, 74. — The Fluid Forms on the
Earth's Surface, — The geographical elements, their laws, activity,
75.

functions, and mediatorial agency, — The Three Natural Kingdoms,

75.

78. — Their relation to Man, —Method or Arrangement, 81. — The

79.

deductive system, 82. — Brief resume of authorities, — Why called Physi-

82.

cal Geography, 83. — Why called General, 83. — Excellence of a systematic

arrangement, — Importance of hypotheses in geographical investigations,

84.

85. — The union of all truths, 85. — Fundamental principles of this work,

87. — Geographical Authorities, 89.— Nat ure of the Authorities, 91.—

Ritter's personal observations, 91. — Books written by investigators them-
— Books written by others than the
selves, 93. investigators, 94. — Yalue
first

of maps, 95. — Specification of authorities, 96. — On the Features of the

Earth's Surface, 99. — Ritter's personal acquaintance with leading author-

ities,100.— On Oceanic Forms, 104. — Contributions of British navigators to
science, 104. — Benjamin Franklin and American savans, 105. — On the

Atmosphere, 107. — The barometer and historical development, 108.

its

Labors of Von Buch, Humboldt, De Saussure, and Sömmering, 111. — On

the Subterranean Regions, 114. — Forces of fire and heat, 114. — Observations

on volcanic eruptions, 115. — Leopold Von Buch's investigations, 116. —

Scotch naturalists and Humboldt, 117. — Authorities in the Vegetable King-

dom, 118. — Authorities in the Animal Kingdom, 123. — Remaining Materials,

125. — Early geographical investigators, 125. — The agency of boards of trade,

missionary societies, and the like, in collecting facts, 127. — Tribute to Hum-

boldt, 128.— Universality of modern studies, 129. — The course of human

inquiry, 130. —Mission of nature, 130.

 — — —

CONTENTS. IX

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIXED FORMS

OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE.

Sky, Sea, and Land, in their mutual relations and their inherent activities,

133. — Using the past to illustrate the present, 135. — Order of investigation,
135. The Laud, 136. — Equipoise of continents, 136. — Southerly direction
of continents, 137. — Divisions of the Old World, 138. — Africa, Asia, and
Europe, in respect of form, 138. — Tlie Elevations of the Earth, 141. — Relative

and absolute elevation, 142. — General water horizon, 143. Definition of

Mountain Banges, 144. — Chains of marine mountains, 145. — Watersheds,

146. — Mineral mountains, 150. — Inner formation of mountains, 151. — Illus-

trations, 151. — Incorrect use of the term "mountain," 152. — False use of the

-words " low " and " high," 153. — Establishment of Terms indicative of Eleva-

tion, 154. — Buil ding of the earth, 156. — Streams of Water, 157. — Course

of streams, 157. — River Systems and the Districts which they ivater, 159.
Watersheds as a means of internal communication, 162. — Direction, Fall,
Upper, Middle, and Lower Course of Streams, 164. — The direction and fall

of streams, 164. — Their upper course, 166. — Middle course, 167. — Lower
course, 170. — The Terrace Lands of the Earth, 172.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND HORIZONTAL

EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS.

Progress in a knowledge of the globe, 177.— The earth as an organism, 178.—

The earth as the theatre of the forces of nature, 178. —The unequal division
of the earth into land and water, 179. — Conformations of the earth's surface,
179. — Contrast between the Land Hemisphere and the Water
Hemisphere, 180. — Exhibited in Australia, America, and Africa, 181. — In-
fluence of the oceans upon the atmosphere, 184. — The Grouping op the
Land Masses. 185— Breadth at the northern extremities contrasted with

that at the southern, 185. — Proximity of all lands around the JSbrth Pole,

186. — Uniformity of products in Arctic regions, 187. — Diversity in unity,

all

188. — Rifting of the continents, 189. —Influence of internal seas and arms
of the ocean, 190- —The various districts of the earth brought into intimate
 CONTENTS.

relations arts of navigation, 191. — Positions of the Separate

by the
Continents, 191. — Of Europe, 192.— Figurative appellations of the conti-
nents, 193. —Position of America and Australia, 194. — Size oe the Conti-

nents, 195. —Its influence, 195.— Extension in Length and Breadth,

196.— The Conformation of the Continents and their Broken Out-
line, 199. —Conclusion, 208.

REMARKS ON FORM AND NUMBERS AS AUXILIARY IN

REPRESENTING THE RELATIONS OE GEOGRAPHI-
CAL SPACES.

The application of geometrical figures in geography, 212. — Use of numbers in

aiding to grasp relations, 219. —Want of accurate measurements, 221. — Hum-
boldt's method of description praised, 224. —Final use of measurements, 225. \

— Application of numbers to shore-lines, 225. — Also to river systems, 228. — I

To mountains, 234. — Geographical labors which ought to be undertaken,

THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT IN GEOGRAPHICAL

SCIENCE.

True scope of the geograpical — The world the theatre of historical

sciences, 241.

development, 242. — Mutual and geography, 242. — The

relation of history

former consciousness of this relation, 243. — Gradual improvement in text-

books, 243. — The union of all sciences, 246. — Sources of geographical science,

246. — Its field of study, 247. — Changes in places, times, and forms, 249. —

Objects formerly remote or inaccessible brought near, 250. — Fixed and fluid

forms, 251. — All natural forces made subservient to human uses, 252. — The

complete transformation of the earth, 252. — Difference between geography

and astronomy, 254. — Difference between geography and other natural sci-

ences, 254. — Changes on the earth, 255. —Victory of man over natural forces,

257. — Unprogressive notions have influence over the aspects of nature,

little

257. —Effects in this regard of the configuration of surface, 258. — The Ural
chain as an example, 260. — Effects of all level regions to bring men together
 —

CONTENTS. XI

and to diffuse the results of industry, 260. — Effects of the progress of nautical
art, 261. — Influence of improved river navigation, 263. — All countries now
in virtual proximity, 265. — The longest way often the shortest way, 270.

Favorable situations in relation to the — Conditions of nations of

sea, 271.

former times, — Change in the methods of descriptive geography, 274. —

273.

Influence of incorrect astronomical data, 2~5. — Concluding remarks, 277.

NATURE AND HISTORY AS THE FACTORS OF NATURAL

HISTORY: OR, REMARKS ON THE RESOURCES OF
THE EARTH.

A knowledge of the resources of the earth an important part of geographical

science, 281.— Deficiency of standard treatises in this regard, 282. — Influence

of the diffusion of the gifts of nature, 283. — A thorough knowledge of the

theme yet wanting, 283. — A knowledge of natural history indispensable to

the full appreciation of geography, 284. — Relation between the mental state

of a people and its surroundings, 285. —Lack of data in geographical science,

290. —Efforts to reduce fragmentary facts to order, 292. — The relations of the
mineral kingdom to organized productions, 296. — Diversity in the geognos-
tic forms of the globe, 297.— The science of comparative natural history a
new one, 300. — Duties of a naturalist, 301. — Three questions preliminary

to an explanation of the laws of propagation on the globe, 302. — Diversity

leading to harmony, 307.

THE EXTERNAL FEATURES OF THE EARTH IN THEIR

INFLUENCE ON THE COURSE OF HISTORY.

The apparent confusion on the globe, 311. — Difference between works of nature
and works of — Man's capacity of progress, 314. — Clear accordance
art, 313.

in all the relations of things, 315. — Influence of the wedge-like masses of land

in the Antarctic hemisphere, 316. — Contrast between the land and water

hemispheres, 316. — The great belt of coast-line, 317. — Influence of the

continental and oceanic divisions of the globe, 318. — The great volcanic
Xll CONTENTS.

circle, 319. — Volcanic — Laws of volcanic activity, 325. — Laws

groups, 323.

governing the direction of mountain chains, 325. — The cradle of history, 330.

— Significance of the continents in their relations to each other, 331. —

Ancient ideas of the Orient and the Occident of the globe, 333. — Under the
influence of navigation, old contrasts disappearing, 334. — Future conquests

of science, 335. — Characteristics of the separate continents, 337. — The island

formation of Europe, 344. —Absence of islands on the coast of Africa, 345.

— Products of various islands, 346. — Effects if the world were entirely insu-
lar, 347. — Favorable position of Europe, 348. — Connection between nature

and history, 348. —A secret principle of unity, 349. — Historical value of

each continent, 350. — America in this regard, 351. — Australia and Southern
Asia, 353. — The future greatness of the New World, 354. — Concluding

remarks, 356.
 A SKETCH

LIFE OF CAßL RITTEß.

The first day of October, 1859, witnessed a funeral in Ber-

lin, second only in the display of public sympathy and appre-
ciation of worth to that which was exhibited in May of the

same year, when Alexander von Humboldt was carried to

his grave in Tegel. I refer to the burial ceremonies of

Carl Ritter, the most eminent geographer in the world — the

man who not only gave the first impetus to the study of
physical geography, but also raised it to the dignity of a
science, and who remained till his death without a rival in

the branch of knowledge which he had created. This lan-

guage may seem unwarrantably strong, but it is not more

emphatic than that expressed by the savans of Berlin over

his grave. His influence is felt in America ; for such works
as Guyot's "Earth and Man," and Mrs. Somerville's trea-

tises, confessedly owe their origin to the teachings and dis-

coveries of Ritter. A brief memoir of so great and influential

a man cannot be misplaced as a threshold to his writings;

and though no full biography of Ritter has yet appeared,

yet the sketches of Kramer, Hoffmann, and Strauss, aided by
14 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

personal recollections of his teaching, must suffice, in want

of more complete materials.
Carl Ritter was born at Quedlinburg, Prussia, 1779. The
time was most favorable, for it was then that the world was
beginning to be deeply moved by the great intellectual

struggles which preceded the French Revolution, and yet it

was late enough to perceive whither all the currents and

counter currents of opinion would run, if left to their own

self-direction. His father was a physician of skill and note.

Dying when Ritter was a mere child, he left a large family

utterly without means. Carl was the youngest child ; he was
then but five years of age. Through the kindness of friends

and the gentry of the neighborhood, three of the children found

homes immediately. Carl and another brother were cared for

in an almost providential way. It was just at that time that

Salzmann was founding his famous school at Schnepfenthal.

He was looking carefully around to discover some boy of
promise whom he might adopt in his sixth year, and bring
to manhood, applying his favorite system of moral suasion.
Salzmann accidentally learned of the death of Dr. Ritter, and
knowing of his large family, he thought that in it there might

be some promising boy whom he might adopt, and sent two

friends to Quedlinburg to make the proper inquiries. They
were so well pleased with Carl, and so well satisfied that

he would be a suitable subject for Salzmann's experiment,

that they proposed to his mother to surrender him to their

friend to be educated at his expense. She consented, after a

hard struggle, and accompanied her boy to Schnepfenthal. A
friend of the family went with them. She remained for some
 OF THE AUTHOR. 15

time with her son, and returned to her home, having conceived

the greatest respect for Salzmann and his system. Thus Carl
Ritter was the first pupil in the school which has since risen to

such eminence, the institution at Schnepfenthal. He remained

there eleven years, till his entering the university, and so this

pleasant place became his real home. And scarcely could a

better one have been found to develop a mind like Bitter's,

and fit it for the pursuit of such studies as he was to become

eminent in. Surrounded by the charms of a highly diversified

landscape, on the border of the Thuringian forest, looking out

on all sides upon a most fruitful plain dotted with cities and
villages, with meadows and mountains full in view, he was

not only able in all this beauty to penetrate to the goodness of

the Creator, but also to get glimpses of many geographical

forms, there thrown together, which in most other places

would be scattered. So to him Schnepfenthal became a
miniature Cosmos ; and I can easily see how his whole later

method of regarding the entire world in its cosmical unity

grew out of the blended unity and diversity in the midst of

which he passed from childhood to manhood. His education

was conducted with the most jealous care. Schnepfenthal was

one of the first schools where the languages of Greece and

Rome were pushed aside in favor of the modern tongues,

and where the attention of the teachers was specially directed

to the practical branches, and the formation of character. To
the latter Salzmann devoted most of his energies. To give

physical strength, and hardihood of nature, and ruggedness of

spirit, he much preferred to merely imparting the details

of learning. It is but just to say, that the religion taught was
16 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

the rationalism of those times, of which Salzmann was a

prominent supporter ; but Bitter seems never to have been

affected by it. During the last days of his life, while he was

suffering great pain, his thoughts ran back to Schnepfenthal;

he sent a word of greeting to the home of his youth, and

expressed his thankfulness that God had made that school the

place where he had begun to enjoy the consolations of religion.

This institution still exists, and among the eight hundred men
whom it has sent into the world, Hitter stands incontestably

on the highest stage of eminence.

Eleven years spent in Schnepfenthal brought him to the

age of sixteen. He must be thinking of the future. He had

chosen no profession. He had a strong relish for study, but how
he should support himself during the years to be spent at the
university, he did not know. The way before him seemed
quite dark, as it had been to him, when a boy of five years,

at his father's death. But again Providence disclosed the

path that he should take. Mr. Hollweg, a wealthy merchant

of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and partner in business with the

same Bethmann whose name every visitor to Frankfort still

recognizes in connection with Dannecker's statue of Ariadne,

sent him, upon Salzmann's recommendation, to the university,

under the condition that after leaving it he should become the

private tutor of his two sons. So Ritter went to Halle. He
had then no special inclination towards geography, and entered
upon the study of finance. Halle was then the centre of the
intellectual life of Germany, as it now is of its religious life,

and, happily for Ritter, he soon found himself domesticated

in the home of one of the most distinguished of the professors,

 OF THE AUTHOR. 17

Niemeyer, who may be said to have been the most eminent

educator of his age. He had just published his first principles

of the pedagogic art, and was then at the height of his fame.

During the two years which Ritter spent in Halle, he was

brought under the daily influence of Niemeyer, and it is not
strange that it gave him not only a great bias towards the life

of a teacher, but an admirable knowledge of the principles

which underlie a teacher's work. In the year 1798, he en-

tered upon his duties as private tutor of the children of Mr.
Hollweg, of Frankfort.
It was a trying step for the youth of nineteen, who had
always moved in the most retired way, to enter at once the
family of a very wealthy man, in the richest city of Germany,

and to mingle freely with its aristocracy. Of course he found

a multitude of difficulties to overcome. But he set himself

in good earnest to his duty, and the result has followed as it

has to few teachers beside. One of the two little boys died
in the very freshness of childhood ; the other has grown up
to be first a contemporary professor with Ritter in the Uni-
versity of Berlin, and now to be the distinguished head of
medical, ecclesiastical, and educational affairs, — Baron Beth-
man Hollweg, — a man not only of the finest talents, but also

the great pillar of evangelical religion in Germany ; a man of

such exalted character and true influence that I cannot write

his name without a glow of enthusiasm.

There are few places which so call every quality of a

teacher into action — trying at every point, attainments, tem-
perament, judgment, disposition, and strength — as the post

of tutor in such a house as Ritter was called to, where there

2*
18 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

are the most capable of children to receive, and the most capa-

ble of parents to judge. But Ritter went to his duty fully-

equipped. And the longer he staid, the more he was loved.

He was brought not only into daily contact with such men as

Sömmering and Engel, but with Leopold von Buch and Alex-
ander von Humboldt. Such acquaintanceship drove him
deeper into study ; and amid the advantages of a place like

Frankfort, with wealth, art, and books at his free disposal,

with friends to reward and stimulate his zeal, and in the midst
of an attractive country like the valley of the Main and the

Rhine, his mind was enriched with all the accomplishments

that could adorn it.

And all these advantages he appreciated and improved.

The time of his stay in Frankfort was a period of the most

diversified studies, to which not only his duties as teacher

invited him, but to which his own nature drove him. So,

among other things, he turned his attention to the languages

of Greece and Rome, which had been overlooked in his educa-

tion at Schnepfenthal, and read the most eminent authors in

Latin and Greek literature. It was at Frankfort, too, that

he turned his mind with special interest to geography and

history. The thought of devoting himself to these depart-

ments presented itself to him while a teacher in Mr. Holl-

weg's house. So he began his studies in this direction by
going over, first, all the most eminent works then written on

geography and its relations. The little excursions which he

made with his pupils into the environs, near and remote, of
Frankfort, aided him in collecting independent observations.

The happy faculty which he possessed of grasping, with per-

 OF THE AUTHOR. 19

feet ease, all the features of a landscape, was to him of great

service, and, by sketching them on his little journeys, he

rendered them forever his own. So, from every one of these

little trips he used to bring home a portfolio full of sketches,

which served him as the points to which important observa-

tions began by and by to attach themselves. It was in this

way, by studying in this minute and careful manner the mere

neighborhood of Frankfort, that he gained that thorough
grounding in geography which displayed itself in his first

publications. He began his career as an author by sending

to a paper for youth, published by his friend Engelmann,
these geographical studies of which I have just spoken. But
in 1806 appeared his six maps of Europe, and in 1811 the
Geography of Europe, in two volumes. In both of them can
be seen the singular capacity of his mind for grasping the
facts of geography and apprehending their relations. They
are the first efforts to express what lay in his soul. Many more
preparations were needed to ripen him for his great work.

In 1811 he began his series of short journeys, which

lasted through his whole life, by excursions with his pupils

into Switzerland and Italy. I do not need to speak at any

protracted length to make intelligible to my readers of what

never-ending significance the careful observation of these

two countries — the most perfect representatives of the most

important and weightiest geographical types which Europe

has to show — was to such a man as Ritter, whose mind was
so singularly sensitive to external impressions, and so well

adapted to trace the relations existing between the formative

features of a country and the character of its population.

20 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

In Switzerland he studied nature in her most stupendous

forms. Italy, which he traversed from north to south, gave
him an insight into volcanic activity, the relation of the land

to the sea, the effects upon climate, and of all geographical

features upon the character of a people. The riches of art

which Italy possesses as does no other land, laid the finishing

touch upon his most delicate and sensitive soul. And of not \

less worth to him were the personal relations which he i

entered into on those journeys with the most eminent men of !;

the times. I mention Pestalozzi before whom

all, he met in i

his excursions to Switzerland, and whom he repeatedly '

visited ; the time which he spent with him and his coadjutors

iu discussing the method of instruction which Pestalozzi was

exhibiting to the world he used to look back upon as most [

valuable and delightful. With Saussure and de Candolle — '

names known to all my readers — he was on terms of intimacy, f

meeting them in the course of his Swiss journeys. "With his I

pupils he penetrated into every corner of this country, tarry- I

ing months at a time in places of special interest, as, for

example, at Geneva, the centre of the intellectual life of

Switzerland, and at the base of Mont Blanc, the point of the

greatest interest to the geographer. He tarried long at Rome,

too, not only on account of its manifold historical associations,
but because it was then the centre of attraction to men of world-
wide reputation; and while there he became intimate with
such artists as Cornelius and Overbeck, the painters, and Thor-

waldsen, the sculptor, — men whose gifts were not those alone
of a skilful hand, but of able minds, and new and rich

thought. With all the vast range of knowledge, with all the
 OF THE AUTHOR. 21

sharpness of his genius, with all the energy of his activity

and the strength of his intellect, the quality which most

endeared him to his friends was the sweetness of his nature,
his friendly mien, the cheerful, bright, child-like soul ; these

made a bond that could not be broken. This made them

almost forget at times that that noble intellect was, and would

remain, the basis of his fame.

Thus enriched by the fruits of all these journeys, he began

to lay his hand upon the work of his life. In 1814 he went
with his two pupils to Göttingen, for they were then ready to

commence their studies at the university. Here he could

associate freely with eminent men, and have the use of the
vast library which had been recently gathered there. He spent
two years at Göttingen ; thence he went to Berlin, and there
finished the first copy of his great geographical work, and
commenced printing the " Erdkunde." Like Niebuhr's " His-
tory of Koine," the first edition is but the basis of what stood
as the Erdkunde when he died. In 1817 the first part of

his life-work appeared. Its title, which I translate, hints plainly

at its character : * The Science of the Earth in Relation to

Nature and the History of Man ; or, General Comparative Ge-

ography as the Foundation of the Study of and Instruction in

the Physical and Historical Sciences.'^ In this work the true

treatment of geography has been fully unfolded and estab-

lished, and it has been raised to the place of a sister between
the natural sciences and history. It would be impossible to give

a characterization of this work in few words. Its Introduction

has done this fully ; but that is too extended to be reduced to

the dimensions of this sketch. The Physical Geographies

22 -
SKETCH OP THE LIFE

which have abundantly appeared in our country within the y

past ten years are the faint shadow, as they are the direct result-

ant of this work of Carl Ritter. Mrs. Somerville's books, and

Guyot's " Earth and Man," are the best representatives of the If

Erdkunde, but in size they are but miniature, compared with

Bitter's ponderous tomes. In this great work he has succeeded
in presenting the forms of the earth's surface in their hori-
zontal and vertical dimensions, embracing geology as well as

the mere description of the exterior ; in bringing all the facts

connected with geology proper and geography proper into di-

rect relations ; and in presenting, besides, a view of the entire

productions of the earth, the whole animated creation, and

more especially in grasping the development of races from

their surroundings. To have accomplished this immense un-

dertaking in a clear, and at the same time comprehensive way,

was a great service and a high praise ; and yet, perfect as

was the result, his hopes and attempts were directed to an

ideal as much higher than what he wrought out as the ideal
of an artist is raised above the actual result. But Ritter was
admirably fitted for his work. To enable any one to accom-
plish what Ritter did, there were wanting those varied qualities

of mind which had come to be his through the circumstances of

his youth, his later course of education, and the most pro-
tracted studies. And, added to these advantages, Ritter pos-

sessed the following in a manner that no man of our times or

past times has surpassed, — the union of a power of combin-
ing with a thoroughness which went unweariedly to the small-

est details ; a great fulness of scientific knowledge, with a com-

plete mastery of historical facts ; and the ability to present
 OF THE AUTHOR. 23

in a thorough and exhaustive way, and at the same time in

a picturesque and vivid manner. But it was this that struck

the deepest roots into Ritter's soul, and displayed itself as the

basis of his book — the search for the knowledge of the liv-

ing God in his works. It was from this that arose that well-

known, humble, and complete surrender of himself to his sub-

ject, making him never satisfied, yet not allowing him to shrink

back before so ponderous an undertaking ; it was from this

living spring that arose that ceaseless sprightliness of his,

which was not crushed by the immense accumulation of his

facts. His work was to him, as he once wrote of it in his diary,
his " song of praise to God."
During the printing of the Erdkunde he lived in Berlin.

Here work of all kinds accumulated upon his hands. He was

appointed, in 1819, Professor of History in the Gymnasium of

Frankfort, spent one year there in that capacity, during which

he married, and then obeyed a call to Berlin to become Pro-

fessor extraordinary of Geography in its university. On the

nineteenth of September, 1820, he entered upon his duties in

this new capacity.

With that event began the second half of his life, in which
all his scientific studies and his work as a teacher bore their

best fruit. There was indeed no place which presented so

varied attractions to a man of such attainments and abilities to

interest others, as Berlin. In the university he found an in-

tense scientific activity, sustained by men of world-wide re-

nown, into whose circle he at once stepped as an equal, and was

soon cherished as one of the chief ornaments. His lectures
were received with the greatest satisfaction; and his intimate
24 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

acquaintance with such men as von Buch and von Humboldt,

and the vast scientific interests which are centred at Berlin,

constantly stimulated him to advance in his studies. So his

life, therefore, became not only full of delight to him, but in

the highest degree advantageous in the prosecution of his

labors. His former pupil, Bethmann Hollweg, had become a

professor also in the same University of Berlin.
His ceaseless activity now turned itself upon the issuing of
the second edition of his great geographical work, in so far as

his time could be spared from his direct duties as a teacher.

It soon began to appear, much enlarged ; yet his devotion to

that duty suffered many interruptions. His time was more and
more taken up with new demands. He was elected a member of
the Scientific Commission of Enquiry in Geography and His-
tory ; shortly after, was appointed Lecturer on History in the

War School ; and almost immediately thereafter director of the

studies of the corps of Cadets. Upon this followed the appoint-

ment of Ritter as the private tutor to Prince Albert of Prussia

in the department of history; and he was directed to read lec-

tures to the Prince Regent and a few noble friends during the
winter months. With these and kindred demands, his time was
largely taken up. He discharged them all with his wonted faith-
fulness and care, and yet had time — such was his physical

strength and unwavering activity — to devote a part of each

day to his great geographical work. In the years of which I
am now speaking, he founded the Geographical Society of
Berlin, in connection with friends, and remained its most
active working member, and generally its president, down to

his death. His place in that society is now filled by the dis-
 OF THE AUTHOR. 25

tinguished Dove ; his place as professor in the university, by

Kiepert, tbe well-known Cbartograpber.

Of the greatest worth to him in connection with his studies

were the journeys which he used to take in the long autumn

vacation. Twice they were so extended that they embraced

the largest part of the summer. These journeys served not
only to refresh him, but to give him an immense mass of
observations of the greatest importance to him in the prosecu-

tion of his studies. He made frequent visits to Vienna, Paris,

London, and other great cities. He repeatedly traversed Cen-
tral Europe, travelled through Greece, Wallachia, Bulgaria,
Hungary and Turkey ; crossed France in all directions, and

explored the Pyrenees ; visited Denmark, Norway, and Swe-

den ; and was familiarly acquainted with England. Germany,
Switzerland, and Northern Italy, were however his geograph-

ical homes, and with them he was the most familiar. His let-

ters home while on these travels are charming; for he was

open to impressions of all kinds, was introduced to the most emi-

nent men, and was, of course, one of the closest of observers.

Any one who has enjoyed the pleasure of hearing Ritter

lecture, would mark everywhere the results of those personal

wanderings.
But, after a succession of years spent in miscellaneous work,
obeying all the demands which were laid upon him, he found
that he must concentrate himself upon his great work, which
lay but imperfectly completed ; and in 1831 he had to give up
the private instruction of princes, and the delighting of select

circles with his wisdom, and devote himself entirely to the

" Erdkunde." The result of this new step was soon apparent.
3
26 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

In 1832 began to appear the first of the volumes, and they fol-

lowed in rapid succession till the nineteenth was published, and

the great monument of his life was complete. They remain

now, and will long remain, the fullest encyclopedia of geograph-

ical lore ; and he who brought geography into the rank of the
sciences as an equal sister, is still at the head of the one he
loved so well.

With the advance of his work his fame advanced with equal
steps, his relations with naturalists extended into all lands,

and he became one of the central points of science, not more

known for the almost unparalleled extent of his knowledge
than for the soundness of his judgment, and for his sweetness

and patience in answering all questions put to him ; bearing

himself with unwavering " humanity," as the Germans say, in

his relations with all kinds of men.

In such ways it could not fail to follow that all manner of
honors should pour in upon him. He was elected member
of almost all the scientific societies of Europe, and numerous
orders were bestowed upon him. He received all these things

thankfully, but was far from valuing them beyond their worth.
In his journals is to be found scarcely any mention of them.
But he did prize the personal affection of the present king of

Prussia, and the familiar intercourse which he had with him,

and always regarded it as one of the things to be cherished,

that he had such private access to the affections of his king.

I have thus far spoken of Eitter as a learned man and an

author. But, eminent as is his rank in these relations, it is not

higher than his position as a teacher in the lecture-room. Very

few teachers have had the extended and lasting reputation
 OF THE AUTHOR. 27

which he enjoyed. When he came to Berlin in 1820, and

announced in the university his lectures on Universal Geog-

raphy, there were no hearers at the opening of the course,

very few at the close, and but a handful in the following course.

Yet still there was a gain ; and ever on went his success, till in

1823, only three years from the beginning of his labors as pro-

fessor in Berlin, he wrote in his diary : "Full lecture-room ; I

must have a larger." And so it went on, till the largest hall

in the university could hardly contain his pupils. It soon

began to be " the thing" to hear Ritter, and nearly every stu-

dent of the natural sciences was a daily attendant on his

course. When I was in Berlin, five years ago, Hitter's room

was still full ; more than three hundred young men were hear-
ing his lectures. He knew his art well. With almost womanly
tact, he seized upon those features which present circum-
stances made interesting, and culled out of the immense masses
of matter lying in his mind just what he could use with the

greatest profit. He illustrated freely by excellent maps, and

was a master in the use of the blackboard, sketching gracefully

and readily whatever made his subject clear. I shall not for-

get the patriarchal appearance of Carl Ritter in the lecture-

room in 1855. He used his notes about half the time, but
read them easily, and with great distinctness. Obscure and
involved almost without parallel in his written dissertations, yet

his style was simple in the lecture-room, and his clear articula-

tion and well-chosen emphasis, combined in a highly musical

voice, made it easy to follow him. He was a tall, finely-pro-

portioned man, with a noble head, a most sincere and earnest

manner, yet unusually quiet and simple. His dress was peculiar
28 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

when an old man, and no one who frequented the famous Lin-

den-avenue of Berlin would fain to remark that tall and vener-

able figure, clad in a long blue cloak and broad-rimmed hat,

both half a century out of date. He used to wear a large roll-

ing collar, like that worn by a past generation of New England

grandfathers ; and that, together with the huge horn spectacles,

gave him a rusticity of appearance, and a simple friendliness,

which captivated every one who knew his learning, his talents,

and his heart. It was a characteristic of Ritter, that the ex-

ternal man was so penetrated by his inner nature, that the two
were inseparable and indistinguishable. He was such a one
that if you had looked upon his face you had read the whole
man ; and therefore he belonged to that class of minds which
always makes the same impression upon men of all conditions

and mental varieties. The cause of this uniform impression is

found in his natural humility, in the quiet peacefulness of his

inner life, which was more than mere tranquillity : it was the
holy calmness of a Christian.

Indeed, there has hardly lived a man of so great eminence

who has been of such purity of heart, simplicity of manner,

and strong personal sympathies as Carl Ritter. His loss is felt

in Berlin more as a personal calamity than as a mere break

in the list of scientific men ; for in all things which consti-

tute a still, pure, peaceful soul, loving home and loving friends,

Ritter was most eminent : a man who found his greatest delight

in serving those who loved him. He was absolutely free from

egotism and from personal vanity. Towards the close of his

life he made the assertion, which so few can make, that he had
never alienated an old friend, and that the remembrance of
 OF THE AUTHOR. 29

every one whom he had loved, and who had been removed by
death, was cherished by him through life. It was only natural
that this should be so, for Ritter's circle of sympathies knew no
bounds ; and, despite his retiring way, and the quiet of his dis-

position, he was an untiring helper of all who needed advice or

active assistance. In private he was benignant and fatherly —

were the word allowed, I should say grandfatherly — as I knew
him. I went to Berlin to study under his direction, and found

him most kind and gracious ; opening his hand, his library, and
his house to the young American, and attaching me to him by
a strong bond. I am most happy to be able to speak of him to
my countrymen, and testify to his greatness and his worth.
I must allude to another aspect in Hitter's character. He
was one of the foremost Christians in Germany. He cherished
from his schooldays a living faith in God and Christ, which
the loss of his wife, twenty years before his own death, only

strengthened. He was a Christian in the full sense of the word.

He was a man who spoke little of faith ; but it lay deeply at his

heart, and showed itself in his active cooperation in the great

Christian enterprises of the day. He was one of the most active

men in Germany in promoting church harmony; and when
the Evangelical Alliance met in Berlin three years ago, Ritter

was one of the greatest voices there. He was steadfastly op-

posed to all forms of strife in the church ; but he cherished, as

the chief joy of his life, his faith in Christ and the grace which
God had implanted in his heart. God's word was the light of
his steps ; and it was the great end of all his scientific labors

to confirm the truth of the Bible. Hoffmann, his pastor, the

eminent cathedral preacher of Berlin, uses these words in his

3*
30 SKETCH OF THE LIFE

address over Hitter's grave :

" No one who lived in near inti-

macy with him will forget the bright glance of his eye when
the richness of God's grace was spoken of, nor that serious
earnestness of his with which he traced the hand of the Eter-

nal in his works ; no one will forget that venerable head and
that reverential face, as he sat in the house of God during the
hour of afternoon worship, nor the few but precious words
with which he proclaimed his peace in God through Jesus
Christ, and expressed his hope of future glory. No one could

approach him without feeling that the richness and vastness

of his knowledge were all subordinated to a desire for His

praise, by whom, and through whom, and for whom all things

have been created. The blessing of the meek was plainly his,

and no one could be with him even for a season and not feel it

to be so ; for he would note the universal peace of Ritter's soul,

and the humility of his nature, pictured in every feature of his

countenance. His was the face of a man whose labors, investi-

gations, and researches — whose collecting, arranging, and link-

ing together of facts, drawn from a field uninvestigated before

him, culminated in the study of the workings of God. Even

in the midst of the woes of life, and those bitter separations

which God's providence compelled him to meet, his head re-

mained unbowed ; for He whom he knew as his redeemer

from death was his redeemer from every evil."

Ritter carried his religion into his scientific studies. This

earth was to him not a mere dwelling-place for nations ; it was
the material out of which life is woven ; it was the garment in

which the soul clothes itself, the body wherein the spirit formed
by God must move. This was Ritter's central thought ; all
 OF THE AUTHOR, 31

his ideas illustrated, all his researches confirmed it ; through

the earth as his way he reached God as his goal. The globe was

to him but the place where God's kingdom should be founded ;

and in all his study of man, Christ became the middle point.

In his most valuable scientific writings the thought that under-

lies them all — whether his subject be mountain heights or dark
valleys, heaths or cities — is, that everything in the world

comes from the counsels of God, and has a relation to the king-
dom of Christ. This is the secret of those impressions which his

geographical writings produce. Free from all striving after

effect, his great aim was to show the workings of the living

God in the conditions of history. This was the reason why

he always expressed the purpose of his work in a manner
equally indicative of his humility and of the religious bearings

of science. In sending me a copy of his last volume, he wrote

in it with his own hand that it was another note added to the

harmony of that general song of praise in which all branches

of science must unite, if they will retain the honor which God
has lent to them, until the time shall come when they shall

raise the " gloria in excelsis " in still nobler notes.

A brief passage written by him in 1845, just on the eve of

his departure for the Pyrenees,, and found after his death, will

throw light on his faith. It runs thus : "Although now, in my

preparations for my departure to west France and the Pyrenees,
well and strong, yet my life lies in God's hand, whose grace
and compassion have already accompanied me so many years,

that in all my thoughts and actions I must give praise and

thanks to Him so long as I live. Should it please Him not
to send me back safely to my beloved ones and my work, but
32 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

to take me to a place in his blessed kingdom, it is my request

that there be no sorrow over my journey home to him, for

what God does is well done. My Saviour, in his compassion,

will care for my eternal future. I am deeply conscious of my

weakness and my sin, and yet I trust him ; for I know that

God is everlasting love, and I know that my Redeemer lives,

who will make his believers participators in his eternal

grace."

Ritter died, at the age of eighty years. On the night before

his decease, as his pastor sat by his bedside and pressed his

hand, quoting the beautiful twenty-third Psalm, " The Lord

is my Shepherd," Ritter replied, " He has guided me thus far,

and he will not desert me now." These Avere among the last

words of that rare man, — rare for his learning, his talents,

his sweetness, and his Christian strength. In England and

America the men of loftiest powers and the widest learning
are the men most firmly persuaded of the truth and saving

blessedness of Christianity; while those who doubt or dis-

believe are now found almost wholly among the half-edu-

cated or the utterly neglected. But in Germany the order is

reversed. The lowest classes are those that are to be found

within the walls of churches, while the men of thought are,

to a great extent, disbelievers. Ritter stands, therefore,

more eminent for his grace than for his intellect. And as

Kant led the way in giving the Germans philosophy instead

of Christ, it may be that Ritter, a spirit of hardly less magni-

tude than his, may inaugurate the reign of Christian principle

among the future scholars of Germany.

 AN ACCOUNT

PROF. HITTER'S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS.

DR. H. BOGEKAMP.

If the question be asked, In what spirit did Ritter investi-

gate geography, and in what way did he elevate it to the rank

of a science ? the answer can only be found by a perusal of
his great work, and the lectures which he delivered before the
Royal Academy of Berlin. The outlines of thought contained

in the Introduction to the Erdkunde are briefly these: As

every individual has received from God certain peculiarities

of character, and certain mental tendencies, so the nations

of the globe have an aggregate of such peculiarities and

tendencies, because nations comprise but a multiplicity of
individual lives. It is the student's task to trace the source

whence these peculiarities proceed, to ascertain the conditions

which form the character of nations. The individuality of a

nation — that which makes it unlike all others — is only to be

traced in its own inner nature, and in its relations to itself, to

its parts, and to its surroundings ; . and since no nation can

exist without state and country, — that is, without political

organization and localized position,— so the individuality of a

 ;

34 bögekamp' s account of

nation is to be traced in its relations to neighboring districts

and neighboring political organizations. Thence arises the

influence which nature exercises upon a people,- — an influence

which, as Ritter remarks, can only be justly appreciated by

one of those calm, reflective minds, who delight to trace work-

ings which, though involving great power, are yet silent and
mysterious. Thus he leads the way to his favorite thought,

that geography and history have mutual influences upon

each other, — history not standing outside of nature and

natural influences, but in their very heart ; so that the histo-

rian only grasps a people's character with true perception

when he keeps in full view its position, and the influence
which its surroundings have wrought upon it.

Nor can the geographer dispense with history; on her

pages he has to read the tasks and destinies which have been
assigned to the various nations to fulfil. And this brings us

to the theoretical postulate of Hitter's method, which, as he

himself has told us, does not find truth in a single phase

of truth, but in the union of all truths, and thus in the domain
of belief. He rests upon an inward intuition which has been
gradually forming by contact with nature on the one side, and

with man on the other. In other words, a living God is at the

head of the physical and moral world. Mankind is a whole

but it is divided into peoples, which, in the counsels of God,

have their tasks to perform, — tasks apparently disunited and

different, yet linked together by a secret law of God, who

alone sees the accordance and unity of so varied results : the
earth itself a whole, divided into many parts, but all these

parts to be the field where the nations shall, each in its own
 ;
;

hitter's geographical labors. 35

way, solve the problem of its destiny. Thus history is not a

lawless thing, —a shapeless, uncrystallized mass of mere details

its parts fit together jh a regular and beautiful connection.

The surface of the earth does not remain as something with-

out influence and relations; but the various districts have

mutual dependence upon each other, — all in harmony, like

the events of history, — making of nature no lawless chaos,

but a unit, an organism, a Cosmos.
Thus, as early as 1818, Ritter had grasped the conception
of the close inward connection between history and nature,

between a people and the country which it inhabits ; and it is

clear that no materialistic philosophizings could creep in with

this elevated thought. More sharply outlined and clearly ex-
pressed, this view is unfolded in one of Ritter's early papers,

written in 1826, entitled The Geographical Position and Hori-

zontal Extension of the Continents. The earth, he there

states, is not alone a member of the solar system ; it exists as

itself a system of phenomena ; and the division of its surface

into so many parts, and the apparently random manner in

which these different districts have been scattered, are not for-

tuitous, but in conformity to important laws : nor have these*

districts stood without any mutual play of action and reaction,

but they have powerfully influenced each other. So all the

countries of the globe are in immediate and direct connection

each, as an active member of the whole, has its own share in

the general result, and the individuality of the earth as a

"planet springs from the combined individuality of its parts.

In this result, which embraces animate and inanimate na-

ture alike, and which throws equal light upon nature and
36 BÖGEKAMP'S ACCOUNT OF

upon history, there is another element present, one which

pertains exclusively to the earth, not as a planet, but as a sys-

tem of phenomena complete in itself. In a true, but by no

means in a loose, materialistic or pantheistical sense, the earth

as a whole is an organism ; and there is a certain principle of

life interfusing all its parts, bringing into crystalline regularity

its inorganic parts, and reaching all the activities of organized

life. We trace the workings of this mysterious force espe-

cially in the connection of history and geography. They two

have a unity not shared by any other two departments ; and
the former is not understood till the earth, the field where its

events occur, is regarded as the home, the place of develop-

ment for the human race.

The study of these activities is the peculiar task of science.

Every detail which meets the naturalist is seen to have its

connection with a universal law. There is no point, however

trivial, but it has relations with the entire system of phe-
nomena on the earth; and in a scientific light, the chain is

apparent which connects the entire round of facts, and shows

their relation to each other.
The earth is the field on which man is to gain his educa-

tion. As in the higher arrangements of all things, mere rude

force and the external aspect of greatness gain no lasting

sway, but only that greatness which is real and inwardly nour-
ished, so with the features of our globe. Ritter himself, in

his account of Palestine, writes :

" Does not every garden spot
owe to the cherishing care of the gardener its influence over

the trees, the fruits which are in it, in their growth and fruit-

age ? And can any country in God's wider domain lie under
 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS. 37

his active rule without affecting its people and the inhabitants

of the earth ? The historian has a vast field of inquiry yet

open to him ; and in the want of a full view of his field, he

has fallen into many false judgments. But this much is cer-

tain : history does not stand outside of nature, but wholly

within her domain ; she is truly a part of God's garden.

The activities of nature cannot hereafter be excluded from the

list of those agencies which God himself uses for the welfare

of the human race. Yet the activities of nature are as yet

far from being comprehended by us, in spite of that tone of

confidence which a false and presumptuous science not seldom

assumes, while nevertheless it is hardening in its own ground-

less delusion."

This, in general terms, was the groundwork of Bitter's

geographical conceptions. The forms of the earth's surface

are not disposed by accident ; on the contrary, they display a

wise plan which we are now able to grasp. The various dis-

tricts of the globe have been created for the life of connected

people ; and the world is as much fitted to be the home of

man as the body to be the habitation of the soul. It is* at

once apparent how full of life and interest a science must be

which traces these influences of nature on history, and how
widely the geographical method, founded by Ritter, differs
from what used to be called geography, namely, a lifeless

summary of facts about countries and cities, mingled with all

possible scientific incongruities. We have now to show how

Ritter not only established a new foundation for geographical
inquiry, but how he applied it in detail, and showed, as in the

4
 ;

38

words quoted above, how to connect general principles with

accumulated facts.

Nature presents contrasts of every kind ; but the one which

is most apparent is that existing between the water, land, and

atmosphere. A mere glance at the surface of the earth leads

us to notice this contrast, and a more attentive consideration

of it shows us that these bodies cannot be without a strong

influence upon each other. The mutual action and reaction
of land and water is the one which becomes first apparent.

If we suppose what is technically called a great circle to

pass around the earth, traversing the west coast of Peru,

and running along the southern shore of China, and across

the island of Malacca, we have a north-eastern hemisphere

which is specially continental, and a south-western hemi-

sphere which is specially oceanic. England is the centre of

the first ; New Zealand of the last. The climate of the two

is widely different. The water takes warmth up slowly, and

slowly parts with it ; it easily maintains an equilibrium with the
atmosphere, and, so far as temperature is concerned, the two

do not widely vary. The land, on the other hand, takes up

warmth very quickly, and loses it as quickly again. The
temperature of the atmosphere overhanging the land passes
from one stage of heat or cold to another with great rapidity
and as uniformity is characteristic of the oceanic districts, so

diversity is characteristic of continental regions. A conti-

nental climate is marked by extremes ; hot days are followed

by cold nights, hot summers by cold winters ; whereas an
ocean climate has great uniformity between day and night,

summer and winter. The latter climate is moist, and favors

 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LARORS. 39

luxuriance of growth, but not a large number of species,

whether of plants or animals, if we except butterflies and

reptiles ; it has, too, a strong influence upon man, making him
lose his elasticity, and become enervated and unenterprising.
A continental climate, on the contrary, does not give luxuri-

ance, but a great variety of species ; its animals, too, have

more spirit, and man has more life and fire.

A second contrast is that of the Old and New World, or of

the eastern and western hemispheres. Here the Old World is

the continental, the New the water hemisphere. The contrast

in climate is the same as between the land and water hemi-

spheres, although not so sharply defined. Connected with
this is a contrast in the main direction of the continents. The
Old World belongs almost exclusively to the temperate zone,
and has its longest extent from east to west. The result of

this was that wandering tribes could pass from east to west

without experiencing a great change in climate, and in the

flora and fauna of the regions through which they should pass.

But the New World has its greatest extension from north to

south, from pole to pole. This occasions a great diversity in

climate, ranging from the icy cold of the extreme north to the

burning heat of the equator, and thence onward to the cold of

the south pole. A third contrast presents itself between the

northern and southern hemispheres. In the northern, the land

bears to the water the relation of one to one and a half ; in

the southern, of one to five. The former is characterized by

continental, the latter by oceanic forms.
But all these contrasts vanish in a higher unity, in the com-

pleteness of the earth as itself an organic whole. And l lie

40 bögekamp' s account of

previous course of history allows us to see what part has been

assigned to each district to play in the grand universal drama.

Thus the Old World is subdivided into three great parts, which
stand to each other in varied contrasts, — Asia, Africa, and

Europe. Asia has been regarded, from the earliest times, as the

land where the human race began to be. In Asia all the germs

of culture are to be sought, while in Europe they have unfolded.

Africa is the Soudan of the earth. Says Ritter, in his highly

imaginative way, " If the morning and evening greeting be-

come to every man, even to the most wearied pilgrim on the

road of life, a heart-felt necessity, yet one which is not known
when the glaring hour of midday comes, the hour poorest in

hope of all, — then, from a like analogy, all the people of the

Soudan of the earth, in the peaceful possession of the bright

midday, seem bound only to the present, which no legend of

gray antiquity beautifies, which no care for the future dis-

turbs, and which no hope for that future ever bears on the

pinions of imagination endlessly away." To the Old World the

New stands in direct contrast, and offers its great Atlantic

slope as a field ready to receive the ripened results of Euro-

pean culture, but ready also, in consequence of its simple

structure and its uniform climate, to soften the strong con-
trasts and the tendencies to individualization manifest in the

Old World, and to produce the same uniformity in it which

characterizes the New.
In this way we pass from contrast to contrast, as the anato-
mist does when he dissects the body and shows the functions
of the several members.

The varied position of the separate continents is occasioned

 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS. 41

by the contrasts between the land and water hemispheres, th6

Old and New World, and the northern and southern hemi-
spheres. " Europe," as Ritter remarks, in a lecture given

before the Royal Academy, in 1826, — " Europe, the smallest

of the continents, surrounded by the others in a broken ring,

and Australia, the largest island, surrounded by the open

ocean, are the regions which in the north and south respec-
tively hold the middle place in the land hemisphere, the conti-

nental side and the oceanic side of the globe. This position
gives Europe, in preference to any other of the continents
which are linked together, the right to be called the most con-
tinental of all ; for it is the highway of all, and the link that
binds them all. So the classical soil of the west of hither
Asia, and the lands of northern Africa, have largely affected

the world's history, for theirs is a great part of the coasts of

the Mediterranean. The influence of this section of the world

on the whole course of human culture is confessedly great,

and is produced by a combination of causes which can hardly

be repeated in any other spot, — an indisputably favorable

arrangement in the elements of position and form. In any

other part of the globe the careful student could see in the sur-

roundings, if he looked at them in their analogies, that it would

need a longer time, and that greater limitations and difficulties

must be met, before the needed conditions should evolve equally

perfect results. And so, too, the old strugglings after a higher

culture in other places, as in India and China, which, with all

other helps, yet lacked the true position for attaining to a de-

velopment which should embrace the earth, yet show that as

everywhere the unseen only works itself out through the seen,
4*
42 bÖgekamp' s account of

so the development of the inhabitants of the world stands in

close relation and harmony with the organization of the earth

to which they directly belong.

" A harmonious and general arrangement of the various con-

tinents of the earth, in their relations to light and heat, and
to the rising and setting of stars, has, from the earliest times,

awakened the interest of man, and in the course of history

has received a variety of appellations, which have, in a mea-
sure, been indicative of the character of the continents to which
they have been applied, and which can still be used in a wider
sense, and one more adapted to our modern needs. From the
earliest times men considered Asia as the land of the morning,

and Europe as the land of the evening ; and they indicated

the contrast thus conveyed by the terms Orient and Occident,

which find their fitting application in all the phenomena of

these two continents. Between these, more to the south, lies

Africa, divided exactly by the equator, the true south of the

globe, which is not to be sought at the south pole, but at the

place of greatest light and heat, the bright midday, to use the

old figure, between morning and evening.

"America forms, in consequence of its remote position, the

entire western arc of the great land circle ; and since Europe
has for all the past been the Occident of the Old World, and

has fulfilled its mission in being the place of transition for

the whole globe, America must become the latest goal for the

efforts and activities of men — must be the New World, the

land of the evening, in contrast to the Old World, which has

already become the land of the morning.

" None of these historical relations, with the mass of phe-
 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS. 43

nomena connected with them, could be shared with Australia,

in consequence of its position. Continent though it is, in its

isolation it is like an island of the sea, and seems to be con-

nected with the land hemisphere merely as the great conti-

nental form of the oceanic world.

" To this cosmical arrangement of the continents there cor-

respond those relations of nature and history which are in

part displayed in the course of human development. But the

position of special places also gives rise to subordinate charac-

teristics ; and the formative influence which special places

have exercised, especially where they have been the field for

the most marked transfer of different races across them, on

the development of man and the course of affairs, is a subject
worthy of the most careful study."
In a masterly manner Ritter has applied these generaliza-
tions to the smallest countries on the globe. I refer, for
example's sake, to Palestine. In one of the volumes of the
Erdkunde he writes :
" Palestine was from the beginning an
isolated land, as Israel was an isolated people, and therefore,

for thousands of years, both have been unintelligible to the

world at large. No great highway led through Palestine from

people to people ;
aJJ. passed by it, and not over it ; all its

coast was without favorable harbors. No one of the pagan

states of antiquity could come into close geographical, mercan-

tile, political, and religious relations with a people existing

under the sway of Jehovah. All the nations around Canaan

were kept aloof from it by the theocratic circle of ideas which
had the supremacy among the Hebrews."
Palestine forms a part of the great district of Syria,
44 BÖGEKAMP'S ACCOUNT OF

between the Isthmus of Suez and Arabia on the south, and

extending to the middle plateau of the Euphrates, where its

turbulent waters break through the narrows of the Taurus

range.

Syria is bounded on the west by the Mediterranean, and

on the east by the desert of what is in the widest sense

Arabia. Separated thus from Orient and Occident alike,

and left by itself, having its longest course from north to

south, and being quite narrow from east to west, it formed a

natural bond between the Armenian highlands of Taurus and
the lowlands of Egypt ; and the characteristics of its popula-

tion must correspond to the conditions amid which they are

formed ; and people must be found there who had come from
the regions of inner Asia, and others who had left the culture

of Egypt for a home in Syria. And thus, from the very

beginning of human history, the position of Palestine has been
such that it has served as a bridge, parting a sea and a desert
waste, and connecting the Euphrates and the Nile. It has

been, too, an appointed home for culture in the very centre of

hither Asia, and at the same time it has remained isolated and
unaffected by external influences. No other land on the globe
lies like Palestine, in this respect. T^he northern half of

Syria has not so favorable a location, for, traversed as it is by

the great highway from Asia Minor to Assyria, it was subject
to the influences of foreign travel from the earliest times.
But Palestine lay surrounded by populous countries, and yet
isolated from them. In the midst of six of the greatest na-
tions of antiquity — the Babylonians, the Assyrians, Medes,

Persians, Phenicians, and Egyptians — it was yet separate from

 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS. 45

them all. This allowed it to maintain its contrast with them,

— to follow its appointed course of development, and not to lose

its monotheism. It seems to have been placed equidistant

from all three continents of the Old World, and near five great

seas, that it might be a central point whence the gospel of

Christ could be sent at once to all parts of the known world.

In characteristics of such prominence as these, — character-

istics which have had a great influence over the destinies of

millions of beings, — is there not seen, asks Ritter, "the hand of

a higher Power ? Or are they to be attributed to mere chance,

to the activity of nature, to an upheaval promoted by water or
fire held within the bosom of the earth, where mountain chains,

devoid of regularity in form or direction, are thrown up by

the irresponsible forces of nature, and where the waters of the

sea run in to fill the new-formed hollows? If we are in a

position to trace the forces which have the most weight in

giving order and harmony to the destinies of nations, — forces

which act intensively where they act, and which yet reach
over large fields, — can we not see the workings of a superior

Mind in the arrangements of the world, manifest not only in

effects existing before our eyes, but in actual progress ? And

can science account for the spiritual activities which are mov-
ing over the face of the earth, if she does not see in the globe

itself an organism, and loses sight of those vital relations

which exist between its parts ? In a hundred places which

have already exerted a strong historical influence, a close and
scrutinizing study will disclose the functions of the earth as an
organism; and the places which have not yet become the
scenes of historical events will fulfil their destiny in the course
46

of time not less faithfully than those which have been the

theatres of classic story."

Next in importance to the position of the various countries

on the surface of the globe, Ritter pays special attention to the

relations which grow out of the superficial dimensions of the

continents, and the proportion of the coast-line of different

lands to their internal extent, and the proportion of the area

of peninsular formations to that of the main body.

" In these regards," says Ritter, " Africa presents the sim-

plest forms. It is distinguished palpably from the other con-

tinents by its almost insular position, connected as it is with

western Asia by a mere strip of land, and that probably of re-

cent formation — the Isthmus of Suez. In its close and com-

pact form, and very regularly outlined coast, it resembles an

ellipse, although its diameters are of about equal length, and

although the climatic features are nearly the same on both

sides of the equator, advancing as far as the thirty-fifth paral-

lels of north and south latitude. Having no great sea inlets,

its entire circuit is only about seventeen thousand miles in

extent, and is the simplest coast-line of all the continents.

Africa has, therefore, in spite of its insular position and its

great area, relatively the shortest as well as the most uni-

formly regular and simple coast of all the great divisions of

the earth, and in consequence of this meagre outline its in-

terior has the least contact with the ocean.

" Asia, washed on only three sides by the sea, unites with
Europe in the formation of a common trunk, and thus com-

pletes the vast range of territory extending from east to west.

Its eastern and southern coasts abound in far-projecting penin-

 ritter's geographical labors. 47

sulas and half-insular forms, which are all to be regarded as

the more or less scattered limbs of an immense body. From
the peninsulas of Tschuktschan and Kamskatka, round the
continent, over Corea, China, the two Indies, Arabia, and so
west to Asia Minor, these projecting forms, wholly wanting
to Africa, embrace a vast extent of territory. And even the
Siberian coast, although, in itself considered, small and espe-

cially unfavorably situated, is more extensive and more pro-

vided with sea inlets than the whole shore-line of Africa.
Yet there remains, notwithstanding, in the interior of Asia a

district very large and broad which is not brought in contact

with the seas that partly penetrate the continent, and which
so greatly modify all things within their reach ; and this inner

region is the true trunk of the whole. This central district

does, indeed, preponderate in respect to area over that in-

cluded in all the projecting peninsulas: But Africa is a trunk

without any limbs. The great influence of so large and so

complex a coast upon the wealth and the variety of all natural
gifts is evident at a glance ; its entire shore-line has promoted,

in consequence of the projections which it occasions, not only

individuality, but also an increase of influence with reference

to Asia, and the rest of the world besides.
" Europe, the smallest of the three continents of the Old

World, is, in its superficial form, the most varied, and rifted,

and divided up of all. Its most remarkable characteristics are

its broken form, and the individuality not only of its coast

outlines, but of the countries which these enclose. For its

main body, which, long though it is from east to west, is yet

relatively very small, diminishes constantly in breadth towards

48 BÖGEKAMP'S ACCOUNT OF

the west, and is divided by the numerous arms of the Atlantic

into several peninsulas of greater or smaller size, some of

which again are subdivided in the same way, as, for instance,

the very peculiar and remarkable conformation of Greece,

which seems to have reached the last degree of complexity in

its coast outline. Not. only on the east and south, like Asia,

but also and in as marked a degree on the north, this subdi-

vision in Europe goes on, so that there its projecting forms,

relatively to the whole area so great, enclose, in entire con-

trast to the northern coast of Asia, two large inland seas —
the North and the Baltic. As the result of this marked char-
acteristic of Europe, its shore-line, measured in all its sinuosi-

ties, is of very great length. The area of its enclosed seas is

equal to nearly half of its true territory. Although its superfi-

cial contents are three times smaller than Africa, yet the ex-

tent of its coast is far greater — twelve times the length of its

land boundary between itself and Asia. The shore-line of Asia

is, indeed, about a third longer than that of Europe ; but the
area of Asia is more than four times greater. Thus Europe
is the continent with the greatest relative coast-line, and with

the most varied conformation of the lands which lie on its

outer limit ; it is therefore the continent most approachable of

all from the sea."

After the influence of position and of superficial extents had

been established in this way, Ritter advanced to the study of

vertical distances. Naturally, it is not a matter of indifference

whether a land rises to the dry and cold regions of the atmos-
phere, like the table-land of central Asia, or whether it is

sunk to the level of the sea. The most superficial glance dis-
 RITTER' S GEOGRAPHICAL LABORS. 49

cerns this. Had the land of the Indus and the Ganges the
elevation of the plateau of Thibet, it would not be the luxu-
riant tropical clime that it now is. Had the terra caliente of the

Mexican plain the height of the terra templada, — the home

of a perpetual spring, — it would not be the home of fearful

fever which it now is. Even, further, were the north of Asia,
Europe, and America mountainous, the south, on the contrary,
a low plain, instead of the north being level, as is really the

case, the south mountain land, our earth would never fulfil

the mission which it has fulfilled. The north would lie in

perpetual ice ; the south would sicken under the blaze of a

tropical sun. Even more apparent is this division into high

land and low land, if we follow it into the details of continents

and separate countries. The Old World displays itself as the

land of mountains and high lands ; the New "World, as the

land of plains. Five-sevenths of the area of Asia belong to

the mountainous region and the plateaus ; two-sevenths to the

low lands. Two-thirds of Africa are elevated; one-third is

low. In the New World, on the contrary, two-thirds belong to

the districts which are level and not high, while one-third is

elevated. In those parts of Europe which have been the

scenes of history, the mountain forms prevail ; but if we add
Russia, then three-fourths of the whole are low lands. Only
the east is uniform in its geographical features — uniform as

is its history ; the west, on the contrary, as varied as is its his-

tory. What a rich historical part has the south, — the coast

of the Mediterranean Sea ! Here was the theatre of ancient

history, — here the domains of the Egyptians, Hebrews, Phe-

nicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Iberians, Cartha-

5
 ;

50 BÖGEKAMP'S ACCOUNT OF

ginians; and when the Roman Empire was shattered, the

Mediterranean coasts still continued to be the field of modern

history. We need but refer to the Crusades, the wide rule
of Eome, Venice, and Genoa. America was discovered by-

Spain; and then the great march of history turned to the

north-west, exchanging the localities of the early nautical en-

terprises for the Atlantic, — for the art of voyaging was then
able to use the ocean as its field. Here navigation unfolded
itself to an extent that made the whole earth accessible, and'
that drew all countries within the domain of history.
What has been said may suffice to convey a tolerably per-
fect conception of Carl Hitter's leading thought, and his appli-

cation of a new method to geographical science. It is. hardly

necessary to add that his study did not content itself with the

mere position of the continents, and with matters of vertical

heights and depths, and of superficial dimensions. From these

things he advanced to climate, conditioned by them as it is

and at last, passing from the animal world, he came to man, to

the state, to the nation, to history, — seeing in all the working

of divine laws, and the active and constant presence of God.

Only a few have followed the great naturalist in all his

researches ; and yet the gold which was gained from the earth
by him, now transformed into available coin, runs everywhere,

and passes freely even into the hands of our children at the
schools. Upon the last point Ritter laid great stress. It

went against his soul to see geography regarded as a confu-

sion of incoherent details; it went against his soul to find

geographical treatises but medleys of all possible things. He

thought that this was unjust to the science which he regarded
 ritter's geographical labors. 51

as a kind of mediator between all the sciences, — as the one

which gathers up and uses all the fruit of the sciences.

Geography, he held, if it lacked an inward germ capable of

unfolding, would never render other sciences fruitful, nor en-

rich life. Born dead, it would remain lifeless, and only bear
the semblance of being animated by the illusions of art. It

would then have no claim to be considered a means of disci-

pline in the attainment of culture, and it would merit no place

in the ranks of the constructive sciences. But he would have
geography be a brief statement of all divine laws, a revela-

tion of God in nature and history, to be used in instructing

youth to see and to trace the manner of working which the
Deity follows. He therefore hailed all books written in this

spirit, although he did not live to see the day in his country

when the popular teachings of the science which came in with

his own researches were largely used, either in oral instruc-

tion or in the most noted text-books.

 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

GENERAL COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY.

5*
 GEOGRAPHICAL STUDIES.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
TO

GENERAL COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY.

[WRITTEN IN 1818.]

The introduction of an effort to exhibit the collec-

tive natural sciences in an inwardly united, more
scientific whole, demands, before a statement be made
of plan, methods, and sources, an exposition of their
connection with Man, for whose sake indeed they in
great part exist and become a desirable object of
study. But here we shall only briefly state the rela-

tion of Nature to History, of the Country to its People,

and in special of the Individual to the Globe, in order
to direct the reader's attention to the ultimate object

of our undertaking.
If it be confessed that every moral being who would
be wholly true to his vocation and fill up his entire
measure of right action, must be completely conscious
of the extent of his power, and conscious, too, of the
5<0 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

influence of his surroundings and of his relation to

them, then it is also clear that every association of
moral beings, in one word every people, must be fully

aware of its strength, both internal and external, and

of the strength of neighboring peoples ; conscious, too,
of all influences which are moulding it from without,
in order not to lose sight of its true aim and destiny.
mere unintelligent de-
It is not a blind striving nor
siring that give a man, with and effort, the
all his zeal

power of attaining right being and right action the :

striving must be directed, the desire must be intelli-

gent, and correspondent with his abilities, and then,
uniting clear views with a truthful aim, he can attain
to those fair and great and memorable deeds whose
influence is eternal. It is not the confused number
of loose, unbridled powers, but the sight of measure
and law in the limitless fulness of God's power,
which impresses us irresistibly in the moral world
with the conviction that the Maker's hand is there.

A right will in man, and the recognition in all his

surroundings of what is supplementary to his own

peculiar powers, come only from a deep and thorough

knowledge of himself, and from the observation of
men, and of everything which has been disclosed in

the history of Man.

Now, as not every man is fitted by his training for
every place, or called to every post, so it is not every
people that can attain to the crown of glory and of
fortune. It is characteristic of human nature that in
every man some peculiarity is lodged, his own alone,
 THE ERDKÜNDE. 57

through whose unfolding he can become a complete

being. This is true of every nation, also. In the
perfect development of this peculiarity lies the moral
greatness, and indeed all the greatness of man ; in this
development, too, the nationality and individual great-
ness of nations. It is this which cheers and illumines
the present as well as the future, and throws far out its

glancing rays over the entire realm of national life as

it is and of history as it is to be.
Individuality is not a thing that a people can coin
for itself, any more than it is what a man can make for
himself: all that they can do is to preserve it. Indi-
viduality springs from a higher and a more permanent
source than from the nature of short-lived man. All
that man can do is to become aware of the peculiar
nature and the true direction of his powers ; for with-
out this knowledge he will not accomplish the mission
of his life. And the individuality of a people can only
be perceived in its own nature, in its relations to itself,

to its members, to its surroundings, and — since no

people can exist without a country and without the
state — in its relations to both of these, and in the rela-

tions of country and state to neighboring lands and

to neighboring governments. And here is displayed
the influence. which nature exercises over nations, and
that in a far higher degree than over individuals,
because here masses work upon masses, as it we're, and
the individuality of a people rises far above that of
single beings. This influence is well known, and has
been at all times a weighty subject of investigation in
58 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

the history of nations, government, and man ; and in

it is a theme of general consideration.
our times, too,
But nature always works only gradually, and much
more in secret than in the open day. The seed ger-
minates beneath the earth, and, veiled in the bud, is

going on the preparation for the creation of a new

harvest. [Link] just so are the relations and influences
of nature everywhere deeper than they appear to be,
simpler than in their first manifold variety they seem,
and widely reaching out and winning large results.

And the still power which nature exerts demands a

like peaceful soul 1 to watch its workings, and see that
even to the very heart of its activity it always moves
conformably to law. It often demands, in order to dis-

cover such a soul, only some sign which is recognizable,

such as a right view, or some inwardly spoken word,
because like always understands like. But nature
does not now at least stand so conveniently near to
man ; she has become a hidden and unknown existence
to him, and yet she refuses to be studied except in
the great mutual play of all her powers, in the connec-
tion of all her manifestations. Only when thus studied
does she irradiate with life and light all the paths which
human activity dares to tread ; only when so studied
does she become a constellation of such dazzling light
that we cannot bear all its fullness ; only thus studied
does she illuminate all the relations of that creation

1 What confirmation do this and the following sentences find in the

author himself, of whom no friend speaks but as the mild, calm Ritter !

— Translator.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 59

which we are wont to call the world of animate and

inanimate nature, and give us clear convictions about
all things which we investigate, and, above all, about
man.
Ought it not to repay our trouble, for the sake of the
history of man and of nations, once to take our stand
on a side hitherto little regarded, on the place of their
united activities, and consider the earth in its real rela-
tion to man ; that is, to view the surface of the globe as
the type of life, in as close and pointed a manner as
special agencies will permit ; to study these agencies in
their unity, and to trace the course of the simplest as

well as the most diffused geographical laws in results,'

some vf which are settled and permanent, some chang-
ing, some living and organic ?

Independent of man, both without him and before

him, the earth has been the scene of the occurrences
of nature. The law of their working does not proceed
from him. In a science of the earth, the earth itself

must be questioned regarding its laws. The monu-

ments erected by nature upon it, and their hieroglyph-
ics,must be observed, described, and deciphered. Its

surface, its depths, its heights must be measured, its

features arrayed in accordance with their real charac-
ter, and the inquirers of all times and people must
be listened to and understood in the purport of that
which the study of these things has revealed to them.
And the facts which are freshly brought out by such
observations, as well as those which have long been
known, must be brought forward ; and though they, in
60 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

their number, variety, and unity, have been kept out

of sight and well-nigh forgotten, they must be rear-
ranged as a clearly-seen and harmonious whole.
Thus from every single feature of the earth, and
thus from every group of features, a resultant truth
appears, whose existence manifests itself in the phe-
nomena of nature, and then is carried over and repeated
in the life of those nations whose individual peculiarity
coincides with this or that group of formative influ-
•

ences. For nations, like men, are formed under a law

superior to themselves, and they become a part of the
great circle of the world's life by being woven by the
activities of nature as well as of mind out of physical
no less than out of spiritual elements. Every organism
forms itself in accordance with its inner nature and
its modifying surroundings, and thus the formula of
its existence is read in the law imposed on it and
in the mould in which it is found ; both of these con-
dition it : in no way is it subject to chance or accident.
Nor is it alone of the narrow vale or the mountain
range, of one people or of one state, but it is everywhere,
on plains and high lands, among all peoples and in all

states, that external agencies condition history, from

primitive eras up to the latest times. They all« exist

under the influence of nature ; and although the fact

may not always appear, yet it is just as certain that

nations are formed under this influence, and that it has
everywhere and at all times penetrated to the very
heart of history, as it is that God, although unknown
to the ancients, yet was always and everywhere pres-
ent.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 61

And of the Divine Being we can see that although

in earlier days he was recognized and reverenced only
in his special workings, even when no mortal eye had
looked upon him, yet that even when this step had
been taken, this small knowledge been gained, all at

once the contradiction in a thousand scattered and

seemingly antagonistic powers was solved, the veil
which concealed their internal unity was removed, and
the unity of nature became one of the ideas of the
human mind.
By confidence in the principles already laid down,
every effort, however weak, to comprehend the workings
of nature in their mutual relation may be of service ;

and only when regarded from this point of view can an

essay like the present be regarded with favor by con-
temporaries, and its contents become a vital part of
knowledge. But it is not in the compass of a single
mind to entirely exhaust a theme to which every man
of more than common power must contribute some
share of labor and research, if its depths are to be pen-
etrated. The solitary investigator must join himself,
with all the ability which has been intrusted to him, to
all other inquirers, and trace with them, in the true
method of historical research, the unity of law among
a variety of phenomena.
The palm of glory is awarded to those students of
nature, as it is to the heroes of history, who, furnished
with great keenness of sight and strength of charac-
ter, are able to eliminate human nature from a mass
of events, from the ordinary channel of ideas, from the
62 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

external history of the individual, or of the nation, or

of the group of nations ; and, having grasped and held
firmly to the nature of man in the midst of so many
things which modify it, are able to illustrate it and
throw light upon it in its entire range, from its deepest
abasement up to its noblest heights ; and who, through
their teachings on the law of individual development
from simple beginnings to the highest national and
moral greatness, become the immortal instructors of all

nations of men.
And it is not impossible that the time may some time
come when such great minds as these, when they shall

have compassed the world of nature as well as of morals

and mind, shall be able, sending their glance back-
wards and forwards, to determine from the whole of a
nation's surroundings what the course of its develop-
ment is to be, and to indicate in advance of history
what ways it must take to attain the welfare which
Providence has appointed for every nation whose direc-
tion is right and whose conformity to law is constant.
To reach a goal so glorious and so striven for, the
highest limit of statesmanship — a result which in its
entire grandeur is hinted at nowhere but in the bursts
of song to which the prophets gave utterance when in-

spired with deep intuitions of the significance of nature

and history — to reach again such a goal, needs such
helps from science as I shall briefly sketch in this

essay.
At the beginning, then, of a course of historical de-
velopment, the path or course, at first very rambling
 ;

THE ERDKUNDE. 63

and circuitous, leads from its starting-place just in the

direction to which, speaking in the common way, it

happens to be turned ; and although in this irregular

wandering it is not approaching its final goal, yet the

points of observation which it brings to view, and the
fragments of knowledge which it throws up, are not in
themselves insignificant. Without losing itself in the
maze of special phenomena, it leads on step by step
from experience to experience, and at last resolves itself
into the curve which expresses the universal law in
which various results and materials find their formula
and become available for high uses.
Pursuing the same figure, in tracing the course of

historical development we must subject to our observa-

tion not alone the universal law of one set of forms,
but^of all, both where nature works on the largest
scale over the entire surface of the earth, and where it

works on the smallest scale in insignificant localities

for it is only from the perfect blending of the general

laws in the inanimate as well as in the animate crea-
tion that the harmony of the entire world of phenomena
can be conceived.
And if it is true, as we have already hinted, that the
idea of a human race cannot be grasped without a con-
ception of the earth as its habitation, then is it also
true that man as an individual, and that nations (being,
as they are, farmore dependent on the earth than the
upon its surroundings), cannot attain
state, as such, is

to perfect harmony with themselves before they find

their true place to live and develop what is in them.
64 INTBODUCTORY ESSAY TO

Or, in other and simpler words, it is this harmony

between people and country, this relation of the state

to nature and to the life of man, and so to politics and

philosophy, which has given, through the course of his-
tory, prosperity and renown to peoples and states.

And if, in the less advanced ages of the past, this

harmony has been imperceptible, if in the organic de-
velopment of nations it has not been marked, then,
in these our times, the law which controls this har-

mony, its never-failing source, must be sought with all

the aids which science gives, and must become a part

of human knowledge.

GENERAL COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY IN ITS

AIM AND OBJECT.

Every observation on man and nature conducts us

from details to their relation with the whole, from
what is apparently accidental to what is really the
result of law. But it is to be remarked that the com-
plete knowledge of the whole does not result from the
study of details, if we begin without some recognition

of the whole. Through the whole we sometimes come

to a knowledge of a part and it is at times the case in
;

the course of our studies that the working of law

throws light on details, and conducts us from the
whole back to the specific and individual. We may
illustrate this by the fact that the course of the earth
 THE ERDKUNDE. 65

through the heavens is learned from the working of

the solar system, and that from a conception of the
world as a planet and globe the arrangement of its
divisions and their mutual relations is understood.
Whenever a conception of the unity existing be-
tween the whole and its parts becomes a matter of
clear consciousness, then regularity appears in the midst
of diversity; but whenever there seems to be only a
striving after this unity, and whenever it appears that
there can never be more than a striving after it, it is
only because the conditions of order are not complete.
The details are yet to be marshalled into regularity,
and some full and simple truth to be evolved.
Thus the establishment of an equilibrium in the
attracting and repellant forces of the earth in the» di-

rection of its axis produced a conformation in the

relation of north and south that was soon mathemati-
cally outlined ; and in the contrasts of north and south
a way was opened to the discovery of a contrast in all
the activities of animate and inanimate nature. The
establishment of this equilibrium and its supplement-
ary influence has produced characteristic and uni-
versal effects, yet they have ever been more striking
on the purely physical side and in the lower stages of
development, and more remote and hidden, yet always
present and indeed powerful, in that which has life and
spirit.

But in the direction from east to west we do not yet

discover that the forces towards and from the earth's

centre have exerted so great an influence over the
6*
m INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

physical conformation of the globe, or even have deter-

mined the existence of a settled and absolute east and
west. To this, indeed, they se"em to be tending ; but
we must regard these forces as yet in a state of de-
velopment, and it is even possible that the earth in its

daily revolution is seeking its equilibrium, its final

poise.

But subject to this influence of periodic change,

which is most apparent in the daily rotation of the
globe, everything is placed which comes and goes
upon the surface of the earth. But this influence is
less marked than that which attends the relation of

north to south, because it has more sway on the in-

tellectual than on the physical side, and because in
its contrasts of east to west it acts more on the plains
of higher development than in organic and undevel-
oped nature ; and yet it always exerts power, espe-
cially in the yet unfixed forms of plastic elements.
And because this relation of east to west is not
more fixed, and exhibits itself in a formative state, in
whose process of unfolding man himself is embraced,
— just from this cause would the contrast between
east and west appear, according as controlled by the
relations of times and circumstances, a constantly
changing and formative contrast. Nor indeed have
we attained to the knowledge whether what appears to
us to be changing in the physical world may not have
elements at its foundation which are constant, whose
vast reach the great land systems of both hemispheres
might indicate, yet whose prevailing influences we
 THE ERDKUNDE. 67

might have to seek in the east, whence the earlier and

higher development of the life of the earth appears to
have proceeded.
But since the time when the discovery of the New
World on the western half of the globe revealed its
true contrast to the old continent which had hereto-
fore divided itself into a minor east and west, the
efforts of man have taken a new direction in seeking
to grasp all that is now required for a complete study

of the structure of the earth. And if the physical

world had existed from the beginning as a whole,
which had resulted from a certain mutual trial of
forces between north and south, east and west, yet it

is only now that it can be comprehended by man as it

is. Now, first, can the relations of the Old World be seen
in its contrast to the New, and what is peculiar to both
hemispheres be understood. Thus the great divis-
ions of the earth have come to be viewed as so many
wholes more or less severed from nature, and we have
to regard them in a general way as the great indi-
vidual features of the globe. The Old World will there-
fore rightly be the first subject of our study.
In the east the sun rises, and passes with radiant
curve through the heavens to the far west, and thus
this great cosmical relation displays itself at the very

beginning; nature's first division of the earth's sur-

face commencing with the sun itself, the source of all
life.

In the east is Asia, the portion of the globe whose

real character is expressed in the widest sense of the
68 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

word Orient. Europe has been in all times, and is

characteristically its Occident, contrasted with it in

every part of its nature, and on every page of its his-

tory, notwithstanding that there is, in the broadest

view, a subordinate lapping of one over upon the other,

which, though subordinate, is not insignificant. This
contrast is not only expressed in the countries them-
selves, their skies, their productions, and their ani-
mals ; the voices of all their nations express it in the
whole course of their history, in their songs, religions,

philosophies, and languages. Truly, says an eminent

writer, " The nations of the east and of the west are
turned from each other : the former, with face towards
the rising of the sun, the morning ; the latter, with
face towards the setting sun, the evening. The for-

mer sacredly guarding the unchanged seat of the

primitive past, the latter ever seeking through all the
changing forms of existence for a glorious future."
But between both, on the south, in the bright mid-
day, lies Africa, the Soudan of the earth, the land over
which the sun follows a uniform course ; the land
where the changeable and startling phenomena of Asia
and Europe are not seen : where the climate, from
spring to winter, does not know inconstancy and per-
petual change ; where do not exist this strongly con-

trasted sinking and rising as we look at past and

future ; and where, through a want of contrast between
nature and man, there is no effort to add to the

wealth of nature, or to quicken and stimulate man

with the thought of eternity and another world.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 69

If the morning and evening greeting become to

every man, even to the most wearied pilgrim on the
road of life, a heart-felt necessity, yet one which is not
known when the glaring midday comes, —-the hour
poorest in hope of all, — then, from a like analogy, all

the people of the Soudan of the earth, in the peaceful

possession of the bright midday, seem only bound to the
present, which no legend of gray antiquity beautifies,

which no care for the future disturbs, and which no

hope for that future ever bears on the pinions of
imagination endlessly away.
And in yet another direction, where there is no
daily sunrise and sunset ; where a clear, warm mid-
day does not leave the world, as in the south, in peace-
ful stillness ; where the heat quickens no burning
passions ; beneath the polar star extends the north,
whose wider, flatter, and more intersected area sur-
rounds the pole like a disk,'and seems like the realm of
night, which, dark as it is, yet has gleams of bright-
ness that beautify the earth like a dream. In that
region the day wholly vanishes, as it were, with all its

variegated attendant train ; and when it does appear

with sudden glimpses, it is no real day, but rather the
flashings of a great meteor in the long night.
Thus, stating in one word the result of what we
are expressing in the language of metaphor, Asia
represents the morning ; Europe, the evening ; Africa,
the midday ; and the cold regions of the north the
night.
In like manner, this same cosmical law is repeated
70 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

in the western half of the globe, only subject to other

limitations, because there the atmosphere, — which
from its dryness exercises a most definite influence
upon the eastern half, —
floating above the oceanic
regions, becomes saturated with moisture, especially
near the surface. The water, as a geographical ele-
ment, has a tendency adverse to individualization and ;

so in the western hemisphere the contrasts which exist

in the whole are fewer and less sharp, and the entire
mass falls more into the attitude of a uniform group.
Its nature can therefore only become completely clear
after a subsequent study of its contrast with the Old
World, since the latter has so early and so powerfully,
by means of its more perfected culture, struck in with
the working of nature, partly modifying it, partly
furthering it.

As we now enter on the observation of individuality

in these divisions of the globe, or rather on an investi-
gation of their basis, and progress towards the position
which nature itself proclaims that they sustain to the
world, it more conformable to the course of
will be
the most natural development, where relations are
various, to advance from the simple to the complex.
Through this course, the inquirer is often rewarded by
meeting a gleam of light, which sometimes penetrates
into the most intricate labyrinths.
As in the observation of the inorganic world the
nature of attraction to a centre in contrast with the
attraction of opposite poles is studied first as the sim-
pler ; as cohesion in contrast with chemical affinity is
 THE ERDKUNDE. 71

studied first for the same reason ; as in the world of

plants the examination of cryptogamous forms, and
in the world of animals the examination of polyps and
organisms more simple yet, are antecedent to subtler
investigations ; as in the processes of life inquiries

into the nature of simple activities must precede, if we

would be rightly taught, our deeper questionings ; — so
here, in the field of geography, as conditioned by the
external form of the earth, our course must be from
the simple to the complex.
Now Africa, which lies in what I have called a con-
stant midday, is, par excellence, the most compact and
unrifted continent of all. Africa has the most simple
coast-line, the most equal division into high and low
land, the slightest inequality of uniformity in its

surface, and, in one word, does not exhibit contrast

and diversity as a salient, but as a subordinate fea-
ture. Through these conditions are developed the
remarkable uniformity which in Africa distinguishes
nature and the world of plants, animals, and men.
Therefore Africa rightly opens the series of observa-
tions which are devoted to the characteristics of the
continents.
72 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

PART FIRST.
THE CONTINENTS AS FIXED FORMS.

The first part of a general comparative geography

will embrace primarily Africa, Asia, Europe, then the
other continents. We proceed from the earth, taken
as a unit, or rather we begin with high land, which,
like a ruin of the primitive world, even yet locked
against us by the power that reared it, rises in the

midst of every great division of the earth as many iso-

lated features, or as one vast plateau, and gives char-

acter to the continent, as if its lower lands were strewn
with sundered fragments, or with loose debris. The
rivers of the earth, in their systems and chief water-
courses, then conduct us through those large regions,
of medium elevation, whose limits are so well defined
by cataracts and rapids and swollen floods, and which
are, in a special degree, favored by nature and culture,
until at last we are conducted down to the lowest
lands of all.

These low lands reach out in vast extent, and are

the mediators, if I may so speak, between the high
lands on the one hand and the oceans on the other,
influenced, each in a manner peculiar to itself, by the
mountain chains and elevated plateaus of the conti-
nent, and by stagnant morasses, banks of sand and
the neighboring islands of the sea.
And as the three great divisions mentioned above —
Africa, Asia, and Europe — embrace all of these ele-
 THE ERDKUNDE. 73

ments, mountain ranges, lands of medium elevation,

and low, marshy regions, we can find in them, therefore,
all leading types of animal life contained in this entire
earth. But these are only discovered after the most
refined investigation of all characteristics of the conti-
nents, and after the most painstaking measurement of
their horizontal and perpendicular dimensions. And
the tracing of the outlines of our globe, as they have
been determined by the plastic hand of nature, instead
of degenerating into a mere mechanical task, will be-
come even a high necessity, if we regard them as the
real basis of the whole living creation.
And it is just on this account that these three divi-
sions which we are now considering — Africa, Asia, and
Europe — do not come before us mere external
in their
limitations, a knowledge of which, fixed as it is by
careful surveys, is presupposed, but in the place they
hold in relation to the whole earth, or, we might say, to

nature and the history of man. Therefore they appear

in the order given above, as Africa, the Soudan of the
globe ; Asia, the land of morning ; Europe, the land of
evening, figuratively, and in reference to the advance
of civilization ; and, coming to the other divisions, the
northern continent, and the New World, by the dis-

covery of which the entire Old World has again become

an Orient, as it were, to this new land of the evening.
If by the name Soudan of the Libyans and Ethiopians
we understand to-day the larger half, to speak in a —
loose but common manner of the division which we
call Africa, — then it is exactly the Soudan which, in
7
74 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

the history of the world and of human culture, has exer-

cised the larger half of influence in that great conti-
nent of which we speak.
Thus closely linked are geographical characteristics

and historical phenomena. They constitute together

a necessary unity, and therefore it is not by accident
that we find, in coming to the study of the Old World,
as well as to a study of the past, that geographical
characteristics and historical phenomena rest upon the
same basis.

The name Old World belongs, in its strictest sense,

only to those limited regions where whatever is great-
est and highest in human history has been formed,
from the primitive wisdom of the inhabitants of India
down to the latest products of kindred races.
So far as all which lay outside of this limited thea-

tre of great historical events remained long unknown

as the* extreme northern, eastern, and southern ex-
tremities of the old continent, the name of New World
was as fitly applied to such as it was to the lands of the

western hemisphere. And

when we had the well-
yet,

known Old and comparatively unknown New exist-

ing in lands almost or quite contiguous, this distinction
was lost ; all took the name of the Old World, in con-
trast with the regions newly discovered, and separated
by intervening oceans, properly called the New World.
But since seas often bring the great continental
divisions more nearly together than lands interposed
would do, so in the course of our investigation it will

appear how much the New World is now narrowed

 THE ERDKUNDE. 75

in consequence of natural conditions, now enlarged,

reaching over into the Old ; and that the latter, on
the other hand, under different conditions, has already
usurped, and still seems to usurp, a place in the New.
Thus the close of this first part of the present work,
after characterizing each of the continents in its essen-

tial features, and their influences upon nature and his-

tory, displays the combinations and reciprocal relations
which grow from the physical formation of the earth,
and thus we begin to comprehend how a limitless
variety is marshalled into symmetry in the great whole.

PART SECOND.
THE FLUID FORMS ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE.

A sharply-defined individuality in natural features

does not indeed wholly disappear in this second part,
but the fluid forms are distinguished by broader and
more general relations.

The name elements is often applied to these, not in

its exact chemical sense, but in the language of com-
mon life, or, rather, in accordance with the former
usage of words, caught as it were from nature herself.

In the movable fluid forms the earlier physicists used

to find the representatives of nature's method of work-
ings ; but we shall consider them here in their charac-
teristics, in their uniformity, and in their influence, as
they meet us in the indistinct and impalpable forms of
water, air, and heat, or fire.
76 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

These follow in their working the primitive laws of

expansion, inertia, and gravitation, and they are to be
regarded as the supple, hundred-armed, skilful, un-
ceasingly busy carriers and servants in the household
of nature. They have a mediator's office, too for they ;

unite heights, depths, and common levels in friendly

relations, bring north and south, east and west, to-
gether, and soften that alienation which exists between
the sharply-outlined and widely-sundered continents,
by interposing their mild voice.

They are water, air, and fire : water, as existing in

oceans, seas, rivers, as well as in vapor ; the air, as a
veil encompassing the earth, — the element especially
modified by its relations with sea and land, where it

comes in contact with them, and thus the storehouse of

climatic influences ; and, thirdly, the fire, which exists

in the heart of the earth, always living and reappear-

ing, and which, although buried beneath the earth's
surface, cannot lurk there secret and unknown, but in
the shocks of earthquakes and the eruptions of vol-
canoes often brings death and destruction in its train.

All these three elements are in constant activity;

they all seem to have but random relations to the earth,
and to exist independently of laws ; and yet, with all
their freedom, they are held within their bounds en-
tirely in conformity to law. We shall not be able to
examine them in their specific characteristics, but
only in their connection with the earth's surface as a
whole. Thus alone can the fact be discovered that
their course is fixed and uniform, not devious and
 THE ERDKÜNDE, 7«

changeable ; thus alone can their unceasing influence

upon the animate and inanimate creation be seen.
This still, constant, often unseen and secret working
of the elements, is, beyond comparison, more subtle
and deep and true, and a worthier object of study
when we are observing nature as a whole, than the
passionate and rare moments of their fearful outbreak-
ing, when their balance is lost. These may, indeed,
now alarm and afterwards deeply stir us, but they do
not best open to us the hidden things of the world's
laboratory.
It is the fluid elements, everywhere met, and com-
passing heights and depths alike, which have the
highest significance in relation to the globe. Yet,
from the lowest forms up to the grade of civilized man,
their influence is more apparent in a general view
than by looking at The significance of the
details.

fluid elements was not unknown to antiquity, for Hip-

pocrates, a careful student of natural phenomena, has
sketched with masterly clearness the influence of
climate upon the political conditions of states.
At the same time, these elements, whether con-
sidered in large or small masses, become, in conse-
quence of their ceaseless motion, mediators between
organized and unorganized bodies. Thus the water
seems not only in geology and vegetation, but in the
history of animals and nations, to be the first condi-
tion of increase or improvement, from lands well
watered by rivers, coast regions, and internal seas, up
to the great union of the world by oceans.
78 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

PART THIRD.
THE FORMS OF THE THREE NATURAL KINGDOMS.

The third part of General Comparative Geography

is devoted to the chief forms of the three natural king-
doms, so far as those forms have had influence on the
earth's surface as a whole. They are adduced, accord-
ing to their genera, first from the mineral, then from
the vegetable, and lastly from the animal kingdom.
In the first part, all which was stated with regard to
these kingdoms was given merely to characterize the
continents or fixed elements ; they now appear, so far
as they belong to the province of General Geography,
as independent forms, having their special peculiarities,
and related in their threefold way to the earth's sur-

face and to human history.

These kingdoms are first viewed in their conforma-

tion as leading types of some one spot on the earth,
selected because nature has given it a degree of indi-
viduality, and thus they appear as representatives of

certain localities on the globe. Their natural home

and the law of their geographical appearance are
traced in the second place over the entire earth. This
involves of course the investigation of the extent of
their activities. In the third place the mastery which
the working forces of nature and man have gained
over the rude material of the earth must be exhibited
geographically and historically.
 ;

THE ERDKUNDE. TJ
(

Thus in every representative feature of the three

natural kingdoms the individual is found to be linked
to the' whole. One series of living forms is seen to be
resting upon another, and receiving from it its char-
acter. In like manner, when a thorough study of
climates has gone before, a correspondent climate will
be found in all cases to mirror itself in every one of
these forms, so that, by the observation of climatic con-
ditions alone, its own place, in relation to the animate
world, can be determined for every spot on the earth.
The belts which serve to show the regions especially
characterized by the unorganized bodies of the mineral
kingdom lead us to certain general geological phe-
nomena, which, where they have been made subservient
to the uses of man, conduct us at once to the history

of art, and to the earliest culture of fixed races. On

the other hand, the lines which indicate the home of
the most useful vegetable productions and animals
seem to throw some light upon the history of man dur-
ing its infancy and development. Man naturally fol-

lowed where these led the way for him to enjoy them
and as these productions and animals changed their
home or increased their bounds, the history of man
moved in parallel course. And. when nations wan-
dered from their old haunts, these sources of subsist-
ence flourished without men's care, and waited for
some new-coming people to again enjoy them.
Thus these and other results arise from the close
connection of the history of man with nature. In one
view history is inevitably dependent upon nature,
80 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

and all the more, the lower man stands in respect of

culture, and the more like wild hordes the nations live.

In another view, however, there is seen a constantly in-

creasing freedom from this dependence, and as culture
advances, the outward conditions of country and na-
ture lose their power. While the inhabitants of great
cities can, through an artificial supply of all their

wants, live wholly apart from nature, having neither

connection with her nor dependence upon her, man,
even if alone, and in whatever place, is able to raise
himself above her, if the ideal of the genuine philoso-
pher is present in his life, as the divine Plato has
represented it in his Theatetos. And it is interesting
to remark incidentally, and as a confirmation of the
close connection between man and nature, the great
value set by all nations upon their native land. The
Germans recognize this connection in every utterance
of Fatherland.
In the path which we only open through this great
field of interest, we get some glimpses of the way in
which diversity in detail is yet in nature ruled into
perfect unity, even if the whole of this great truth
shall remain veiled to us.
•+

Man.
Man is the highest subject in nature. Through him
she becomes complete, and attains her full significance.
Man is the thread which leads us through the mazes
of the labyrinth. All types culminate in him. He
becomes the mirror of nature, to reflect her secrets
and make them intelligible.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 81

It is in this general manner that we express what

are those relations of nature subject to which nations
are placed, and from which proceed all the progres-
sive developments that nature conditions.
Were it now in human power to trace all the influ-

ences of nature, one phase of general history would

take a great step forwards ; for the active working of
exterior natural conditions upon the advancement
of man, a subject which has given much light to the
investigators of ancient history, would be more clearly
understood than even now. There would then »remain
still another province of inquiry, — that subtle action
of nature, when viewed in a purely spiritual light, and
not as seen and measurable, upon man, nations, and
states. This field would be found not less exalted,
and no less fruitful in profitable results.

METHOD OF ARRANGEMENT.
The title of the present work indicates that it falls

within the province of the historical or experimental

sciences, whose advancement can only progress at an
equal pace with the course of experience, and will,
therefore, be more and more marked as age follows
age.
The section following this shall be devoted to the
leading sources whence we draw our experimental
knowledge, while the present shall delineate some of
the chief features in our mode of arrangement.
The method which will be followed in the study of
 ;

82 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

this special department of science will be the deductive

our object being to exhibit the base-type of geograph-

ical forms, and thereon to ground a true system, fol-

lowing out all the relations which are inherent in the

very being of nature. The whole arrangement must,
therefore, be widely different from that of those excel-
lent earlier works which treated of the same science
under the names of Geography, or a Physical Descrip-
tion of the Earth, according to the method of classifica-
tion, and for the needs of other sciences, not for their

own department as specially worthy of attention or

existence.
So, then, Eratosthenes, of Cyrene, in developing the
first astronomical geography, Herodotus and Strabo,
the first geographical history and historical geography,
and among the moderns, Cluver, the first ancient
geography, Bergmann, the first geographical physics,
Biisching, the first application of geography to politics,
were all, by these elaborate preparations and the con-
stantly advancing knowledge of natural phenomena,
laying the foundations for a thorough system of Physi-
cal Geography. Werner first stated all the facts, so
far as science reveals them, of the creation of the
earth ; Saussure, De Luc, and Humboldt, the connec-
.tion of the earth and the atmosphere; BufFon, the
connection of animate and inanimate nature. Zim-
imermann first showed the relation of animals to the
surface of the earth ; and Blumenbach gave his obser-
vations upon the races of men to the science of Phys-
ical Geography.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 83

The naturalists have thus opened the way for such a

Physical Geography as is here attempted, which, how-
ever, in order to reserve all its strength for what is

strictly within its own sphere, disclaims to treat of

relations which have always been considered foreign to
it, those which are only commensurate with the uni-
verse, and those that are. strictly political, growing out
of the constitutions of states. All these may be found
in the special works devoted to them.
The science is called physical, because the theme is
the forces of Nature, in so far as they work in the
world, conditioning forms, and ordaining changes.
Nor can we confine ourselves to mechanical and
chemical forces. We have to study those which are
organic and less known, those which time gradually
reveals, and which enter into rational and moral
natures. Therefore, the common term, Physical Ge-
ography, is too meagre to express the whole signifi-

cance of our work, while another, and one more exactly

conveying it, Physiological Geography, is too harsh,
and capable of being misunderstood. From the two
expressions taken together the real nature of our work
can be gathered.
This geography is called General, not because it

strives communicate everything known, but be-

to

cause, without giving special prominence to any single

feature, it aims to portray, with equal care and accord-
ing to its true character, every part of the earth, and
each of its forms, whether in the waters or on land,
whether in distant regions or in our own country,
84 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

whether in the home of the world's culture or on bar-

ren wastes ; for only from the types which form the
basis of geographical forms can a true system spring.
It is called Comparative in the same sense in which
that word is applied to other leading branches of
science, as, for example, Comparative Anatomy.
In studying special localities on the globe, we should
take our place upon that point from which we may
practically institute comparisons of analogous forms
and influences. Herodotus it was, the keen observer,
as well as extensive traveller, who first suggested this
method and its use in geography (n. c. 33), and in
the same place he has largely used the Niger and the
Danube in drawing a comparison between Northern
Africa and Europe.
The bringing of small things into a systematic
arrangement is preferable to the mere collecting of
details which have no inner unity, and which the
memory has to retain singly, if these small things only
show a relation to great laws and groups, to ideas and
wide-reaching views. What gain for science can pro-
ceed in all directions from this source, has been shown
by Alexander Yon Humboldt, the founder of Physical
Geography. He has opened a new field for this
science, which we, with our weak powers, shall try to
till. The fruit, when it shall in the future be ripe,
will be a Universal Geography.
The arrangement of all the facts collected in this
work must, in order to lead to a methodical and
natural system, have an ideal background, a point of
 THE ERDKUNDE. 85

departure. Only in this way can what is empirical

come into a digested statement, and what is manifold
attain that unity which would be wanting were nature
but a lifeless form. Without this imaginary back-
ground, hypothesis, theory, — call it what you will, —
let it be, or let it not be, a matter of consciousness,
and you will gain no view of a perfect whole. For
even a sure conviction, in the absence of any other
background to aid you, is, in truth, as Playfair has
said, in itself the first of theories. The absence of a
preconceived theory does not guide one to the truth,
nor guard from partial views. A knowledge of the
history of philosophy and of the sciences, care in the
application of thought, and the devout striving after

truth, are all that can help human impotence, and

justify the expression, " an impartial view," which
every naturalist so freely employs.
That ideal background which the author of this
work sets up as his point of departure does not lie in
the truth of a single conception, but in «the union of
all truths, and thus in the domain of belief. An in-

tuition of this union has gradually been forming dur-

ing his study of nature and of man. Through con-
versation with one of the great men of the age it came

to the author's consciousness, and it is the grand prin-

ciple on which he builds. Did we know the whole of
truth, this intuition would become general. And
smce these things are thus, the science which forms
the theme of the present work does not admit of the
sharpest definition at the outset, nor does it allow that
86 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

its bounds be rigidly set ; this can only be done when

the whole is before our eyes, and when the completion
of our undertaking is just at hand.
And here we remark, in passing to the fundamental
principles of our science, that, in comparing an intui-

tion with a sharply-defined comprehension, the former

seems especially adapted to that process of combining
and constructing by which the whole form of the
present work has been shaped.
A few general principles of arrangement can now be
more definitely determined, by the aid of which to

look through our edifice with a more critical eye.

The fundamental principle which can conduct us to

truth in the study of our subject as a whole, is to ad-
vance from observation to observation, and not from
opinion or hypothesis to observation. Hard and uncom-
mon as it is to remain perfectly true to this principle, yet
men always come nearer and nearer to the bearings of
a result as the throng becomes numerous and varied of
the most accurate observers and the most accom-
plished naturalists of all times, far and near, and of all

lands, distant and remote. Therefore, in the establish-

ment of every point, the best authenticated proofs from
all nations and ages should be summoned, if not to be
brought into harmony, yet to be compared. They
should be quoted as much as possible in the language
of the original statements, which generally retain a
characteristic individuality. Thus, what seems in one
view to be lost, in consequence of a diversity of color-
ing and a want of being understood, is, in view of the
 THE ERDKUXDE. 87

whole, brought out as unquestionable truth. Then

the special theory links itself to our view of the point
under study, and to the expression which conveys it,

and even becomes the winged genius to aid in further

search. Thus hypothesis finds its place, and, once in
a while, can be in advance of its age, as when it pro
ceeds from a Halley, a Leibnitz, a Lucas, or a Frank-
lin, and a thousand years in advance, as when a theory
of the planetary system springs from a Pythagoras.
The fundamental principle which gives character to
the exposition of our science is the same which condi-
tions the forms of the earth. We have first to view the
world according to length and breadth, which we call

the geographical dimensions, and then according to

height and depth, which we call the physical dimen-
sions. The former are determined most accurately
and conveniently from the stars, the latter from the
atmosphere. It is much to be regretted that in early
times these physical dimensions, in great contrast with
the other class (which, indeed, had more relations
with the world, as a unit, than with political divisions),
were entirely left out of consideration, and can, to-

day, be followed with rigid exactness over only a small

portion of the earth's surface. The study of this class
of dimensions has, therefore, brought forward the
science of comparative physical geography, and with
the study of that class all our observations have to
begin. As much as solid measure differs from long
and square measure, so much does the present form
of this science differ from that which it formerly had.
88 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

The fundamental principle which ensures progress

to the whole, and gives its use to every detail, is to'

pass from the simple to the complex, from the sides to

the centre, from diversity to unity, from the rule to its

exceptions, and thus to do in all departments of the

earth's relations. Thus, for example, from heights to
plains, from river sources to mouths, from water vege-
tation to land vegetation, from the frigid and torrid

zones to the temperate, from mechanical, chemical,

and organic influences to living bodies, from nature to

man, from general to special characteristics, from the

universal to the individual.
A subordinate law, which aids in gaining greater
clearness, is the grouping of things similar and related ;

another, which gives us an insight into the various

designations and conceptions of different epochs, comes
from the effort to trace them back to their beginning,

and in their progress to see their development,and to

distinguish them geographically from one another ; a
third is, that of the superiority of intenseness in every
phenomenon to its mere extent. The drift of them all

is aid in the subjection of mere matter to the sway of

universal law.
Where there is a failure in the execution of what we
have now briefly sketched, the fault must be laid upon
the want of materials, and upon the manner in which
the writer discharges his part ; but it may not be laid
upon the method, which, with many weak points in
the execution, will yet accomplish some part of what it

promises.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 89

GEOGRAPHICAL AUTHORITIES.

All the special authorities need not here be cited

which have been used in the preparation of this work.
They are to be found in the libraries, and the judg-
ment of the learned world has, as a general thing,
decided their worth ; and, besides, a volume would
hardly suffice even to briefly characterize what has
been done by those who have gone before me.
. Yet, needless as it may seem, the most conscien-
tiously prepared list of authorities is essential in a
branch of the historical sciences which heretofore has
not received careful examination. And it becomes
especially serviceable in a treatise in which the state-

ments may be made to appear in other relations, or in

a different light. Only by such a list is the disclaim-
ing, in the province of geography, justified, of new
methods of representation, and facts which time has
not sanctioned, or which are but newly ascertained, as
of uncertain character, or contrary to the truths of
nature.
But since we shall not occupy ourselves with partial
views of the earth, but with the general facts of nature,
there will be, if possible, no link in the connected
chain considered as a thing by itself and out of its rela-

tions, but as each theme comes before us we shall seek

its origin, and what is its hold upon our general sub-
ject as a whole..
In this way alone will it be possible to replace the
 90 - INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

weak parts, whose number is greater than we are wont

to think, with stronger, and to give to science, as an
inalienable possession, a chain incapable of being
broken, or to disclose, by a careful examination, want
of coherence, and thus, for the good of science, again to
sever it.

It will often be important, as has already been

hinted, when disputed points arise, to adduce all the
authorities of any weight, in order to give the clearest

insight into first sources. For so many errors have

crept into geographical science, that one who has
grown up with a knowledge of the truth has to wonder
exceedingly at the learned nonsense which the world
contains in such abundance. The story is told of the
eminent Abyssinian, Abbe Gregory, that in a company
of savans, in the heart of Germany, he burst into loud
laughter, and expressed the sensible wish that nothing
at all should be printed rathef than lies ; he was speak-
ing of his own country at the time. And yet we con-
fess that it is very rare that geographical accounts are
purely false. As a general thing, they are only unskil-
ful or incomplete which are
presentations of views
one-sided, limited, and narrow, or they result from
false and perverted views. They may all bear, sub-
jectively, the stamp of truth, but they are far from
being measured with the standard of objective reality.
And therefore it is not unimportant to know whether
it is Tacitus, iEneas Sylvius, or Petrarch who has
painted the land of the Germans, or whether it be a
Reissner, a Frundsberg, a Frank, or a Kinkelback por-
traying his native land.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 91

Just as necessary is it to know whether it is a Vene-

tian,Marco Polo, an Armenian, Haiton, a Byzantine,

Procopius, a Persian, Scherifecldin, an Arabian, Ebn-
Hankal, an inhabitant of India, Abu Fazil, a body of
Chinese savans in the emperor Kang-hi's geography,
modern European naturalists, or the histories of the
ancients, which are the leading authorities on the
nature of the Asiatic Highland.
Nor is it a matter of indifference to know whether
an inhabitant of coast regions or of the interior, of high

lands or of low lands, an experienced scientific inqui-

rer or a man of mean mind, has discovered and com-
municated this or that fact. For only a few, among
many, possess that gift of faithful description, of sharp
delineation, and of childlike simplicity in style, of
which the father of history, Herodotus, has given us an
enduring example.

NATURE OF THE AUTHORITIES.

The nature of the sources where our facts are re-

corded are widely diverse in another respect, according
as they result from personal observations, from the in-

vestigations and documents of others, or again from

the digests of those documents, among which we in-

clude also drawings and charts.

This work would never have been undertaken with-
out some personal investigations of the surface of the
earth, and acquaintance with its most significant forms.

Under favorable circumstances, many facts connected

92 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

with the most important geographical relations of Ger-

many and its inhabitants, from the Oder to the Rhine
and Danube, have been ascertained and confirmed by
personal observations. The entire valley of one of
the largest streams in Europe, the majestic Rhine, from
its source to its mouth, with a large share of its

branches, was, during many years' wanderings, the sub-

ject of our special study. One of the leading lakes
of Europe, Lake Lenian, was studiously observed in all
seasons of the year, and in all its relations to nature
and to natural influences. So the extensive Alpine
region, which gives character to the whole of Europe,
was explored by us, during three different years, and
in all directions. By more than a year's sojourn at
the foot of its highest summits, and months' sojourn
on its icy heights, we have felt the influence of those
gigantic masses, extending from Mont Blanc to the

Brenner, and have confessed that it is great enough

to reach far away and exert a controlling force upon
surrounding natural forms.
On the other hand, a visit to the extremity of
Italy made us acquainted with the nature of vol-
canic activity, and with that classic land, as a type of

high intellectual culture, and with the general coast

formation of the Mediterranean Sea. There too we
learned to perceive some of the relations between sea
and land, and between the three natural kingdoms and
men. Regarding this relatively small portion of the

earth, the sources have, therefore, been in a measure

personal observations, which sometimes have been
 ;

THE ERDKUNDE. 93

joined with the results of others' inquiries, now com-

municated" orally, at other times by writing ; and thus
results which personal research has first gained, and
which others have corroborated, have become the most
valuable standards in judging of other parts of the
earth. It is in this way that a true foundation is laid

for a knowledge of the various relations of the surface

of the globe, and that maps become serviceable in a
further study of physical geography.
These contain but seldom the personal observations
of the naturalist himself, brought together under his
own eye, although they always assume an authoritative
form. Among such as are the works of the investiga-
whose names they bear, we mention
tors themselves,
La Condamine's and Humboldt's Charts of Peru and
Mexico, Rennell's Map of Bengal, Yon Hermilin's At-
las of Sweden, Cassini's Map of France, Rizzi Zanoni's
of Campagna Felix, Peter Anion's first Map of Tyrol
as a masterpiece among all the smaller special maps,
the Carte de Chasse of Louis XIY., and among larger
works, Green's Bavaria, Amman's and Bohnenberger's
Swabia, Le Coq's Westphalia, and many others.
Among those which present natural forms with con-
siderable fulness, and which are the direct fruit of
personal observations, are Humboldt's view of the
Mexican plateau, Lichtenstein' s Essay on the terraces
of South Africa, Marsigli's and Yon Wiebeking's
courses of the Danube and the Rhine, Yon Riedl's
charts of the Bavarian lowlands, bogs and lakes,
Reinke's view of the mouths of the Elbe and Weser ;
94 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

of those giving the sea-bottom, Heather's chart of the

North Sea and the Baltic of volcanic regions, Borg's
;

Map of the Isle of Bourbon, and Frey cine t's of the Isle
of France ; of the Alpine chain, the most important
views in Weiss' s chart of Switzerland. Yery lately
Salzburg and Karnthen have issued admirable maps
to represent the formation of mountain ranges these ;

owe their origin to a German archduke. Fluider' s

maps of the coast line of Australia are equally fine in
representing that feature.
These, and similar ones, certainly appearing but sel-

dom, which afford material for enlarged and compre-

hensive study, must be termed leading authorities in
every respect. Many excellent maps and works, as, for

instance, those of D'Anville, Arrowsmith, Lapie, Sotz-

mann, Mannert, Streit, Reimann, Reichard, Schmidt,
Klöden, and others, who have made the most assidu-
ous use of astronomical and historical researches, but
without personal observation of the countries which
they portray, have their value, a value great indeed,
but not to be specified here, because for a knowledge
of physical geography they are all liable to mislead,

and must be used with caution. They convey the

truth only, so to speak, symbolically or hieroglyphic ally.
"While all are thus erroneous as guides in the science
which claims our attention, that of Gutsmuth is to be
specially designated as so.
If an attempt be made to represent the nature of a
country on a chart, it ought to be executed in a full re-

membrance of that background of hypothesis of which

 THE EKDKUNDB. 95

we spoke a few pages back. This has been done by

Buache, Gatterer, Zimmermann, Schnitz and Reichard,
and not without advantage to science. By Zenne it

has been accomplished in a very complete manner.

Bnt in consequence of the blind theory of imitators,
who work without this hypothetical background, the
advantage is often lost again ; and instead of a repre-
sentation of nature, a caricature appears, which physi-
cal geography rejects as summarily from the rank of
her authorities as physiognomy spurns a badly exe-
cuted silhouette.
But the best maps even are related to the study of
General Comparative Geography as collections of
preparations are to Physiology, whicTi are of no value
so long as the physiologist sees only lifelessness in the
dry trunk, the injected heart, and in the sundered
limbs. Should the geographer use the valuable aid of
maps for the prosecution of his science, as many have
done in their systems, he must fall into greater errors
than the physiologist who seeks in the dead fo#m the
living heart and the centre and mystery of life, for the

former would only have at command a distorted and

reduced drawing of the dead mass.
If many of the foregoing remarks do not harmonize
with, or directly contravene, that which characterizes
the great body of our maps of the earth's surface, then
it is plain that the reproaches still hold good which
Ludolf, that critical and most accomplished man,
brought against the map-makers, when, a full century
ago, he published the first and the best map of the
unknown land of Abyssinia.
96 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

Advancing now, in onr indicating of authorities, to

the second general division of them, we remark, that

if in the first the poverty of observations on the world
considered as a unit is confessedly great, in this the
wealth of observations and treatises is extraordinary.
Although pure gold does not run from all, although
in many some ore unquarried, and in but
there lies
few is we owe a
a wealth of treasure to be found, yet
great burden of thanks to our predecessors, and we
have gratefully to remember that the eighteenth cen-
tury was so rich in men who spared not their means
nor their strength to promote the growth of this sci-

ence freely and widely, and to cherish its bloom and

its fruit for the good of coming ages. The result has
been entirely reached which the first modern physical
geographer, the great Scheuchzer, prophesied, in a poor
age for science, a century and a half ago :
" Should
men continue in the same right course of observa-
tions which has been adopted within a few years, the
learned world will reap more advantage from it in
the next hundred and fifty years than in thousands
heretofore." He gave to the world a treasure in his
observations made in the Alpine region and to him, ;

as to an active member of the London Society, the

great profit in investigating the laws of the entire
world of phenomena was clear. He saw the connec-
tion between every fact and the whole ; between the
universal law and all that follows from it in the entire
round of sciences ; and he said, most fitly, in speaking
of barometrical measurements :
" Every truth gleams
 THE ERDKUNDE. 97

with its own special radiance ; and as one light height-

ens another, so one truth imparts its brightness to

another. First truth is a rich spring, from which
other truths flow ; and again, every special truth is
like an abounding river, which branches off in count-

less little streams."

The greatest number of physical truths is unques-
tionably found in the volumes, extending over a period
of more than a century, of the London Society of Sci-

ence, in the Philosophical Transactions since 1660, and

in the Memoirs of the Academy of Paris. These, as
well as the valuable Acts of the Societies of Turin,
Petersburgh, Berlin, Stockholm, and of other places,
are of the first degree of usefulness to the student of
Geography.
At the commencement of the eighteenth century
there were two men born in the same year, 1707, Lin-
neus and Buffon, who, in a wide and philosophical
spirit, devoted their lives to the same department of
study, although in opposite ways, and therefore, per-
haps, with the greater advantage to science. Since
the middle of that century their labors, being sec-
onded by many others, have given a new life to the
investigation of nature. With the beginning of the
second half of the century scientific efforts were more
unitedly undertaken, and the newly-awakened interest
called out three great undertakings, widely different
from each other, and taking very diverse courses, but
which have become perennial springs to the study of

physical geography.
9
98 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

We mention first the valuable and protracted scien-

tific journeys of members of the Petersburgh Academy
through the great Russian Empire, from the Baltic to

the northwest coast of America, and from the North-

ern Ocean to the Caucasus and the Altai mountains,
whose rich results the unwearied G-meline, Pallas,
Georgi, Steller, Guldenstadt, and others, mostly Ger-
mans, have collected, and thus made general a knowl-
edge of the North.
At the same time Captain Cook, called the Discov-
times round the earth between 1768
erer,' sailed three

and 1779, and enlarged our knowledge of the globe in

all directions. Through his means, and that of his
associates, Banks, Solander, Sparrman, and the Fors-
ters, father and son, we have gained our knowledge of
the oceanic world.
At the same period, 1774, Werner, in the mountains
of Saxony, and De Saussure, 1772-79, through the
study of the Alps, in his native land, had found the
soil and the roots of a new branch of physical geog-
raphy, which, though yet in its youth, is heavy with
fruit, and which shall yet, a royal tree, raise its top to

the heavens.
The most civilized nations of Europe vied with the
learned societies in India (Asiat. Research., Calcutta,
1778) and in North America (Transac. of the Amer.
Soc. of Philadelphia, and Mem. of the Americ. Acad.)
in furthering these varied discoveries.
All these good results have been attained, in part,
by individual observers, but more by men closely
 THE ERDKUNDE. 99

bound together by friendship, struggling, side by side,

after truth. What physical geography owes to Joseph

Banks, senior, can hardly be overstated. And what
he did in Great Britain and its vast empire, J. F.
Blumenbach did in Germany, through his writings,
his collections, and yet more by his living word as a

teacher. Others have done the same in Brunswick,

Berlin, and Vienna. In France, Delametharie and
Cuvier have labored; in southern Europe, Bonnets
and Saussure' s accomplished pupil, companion, and
friend, M. A. Pictet, whose name is held in so high
esteem in his own country.
The sum of the facts established, by means of this
wealth of authorities, ismore important in conse-
the
quence of their being traced in special fields. But
even here we can only allude to the leading author-
ities, those from which the weightiest facts are ad-

duced, while all others will appear in the places where

we shall need to employ them. While we shall follow

the connection of the ideas which generalize our whole

theme, we shall name the works from which those
ideas are taken, and thus avoid, in this place, the un-
necessary length to which a list of books would run,
which have become known, indeed, for other reasons
than from their bearing upon the science of geography.

Werner discovered, by following the indication of

fossil forms, the first universally intelligible language,
100 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

descriptive of the countless myriads of bodies which

are buried in the earth. From accepting various
earlier and later, general and partial deluges, and
the theory of the precipitation of different deposits
from these, he sought to understand the masses of the
surface, hitherto regarded as chaotic, and without rela-

tions to law in their formation. He then advanced to

all the facts which offered themselves to him in his ex-
amination of the Ertzgebirg, and those which came to
him, as the great teacher of Ms time, from distant lands,
with detailed accounts and specimens, until the idea
dawned upon him of homogeneousness in the creation
of the parts of the globe ; and thus his mind threw out
the first plan for deciphering the process of the earth's
formation. By the numerous pupils of this great man
his thought was widely diffused, and almost all new
facts relating to this subject are described with little

deviation from his language.

At the same period, the genial De Saussure had ex-
amined in all directions the extensive chain of the Alps,
— whose formation seemed clear, — had questioned
its nature, and had received perplexing answers about
its characteristics, the number, the course, and the im-
portance of all its subdivisions, whose hidden signifi-

cance neither the older theories nor his own genius

could unfold. Yet, while he gave to physical geog-
raphy the whole treasures which he had won and
recorded, with the greatest care, in his work, he also
gave a language which makes intelligible the whole
outer surface of the earth ; and in this language
 THE ERDKUNDE. 101

science still continues to teach. By these two men's

labors the earth found a tongue to express her secrets
and her varied relations.

Alexander von Humboldt was the first to trace the

working of universalforces, the law of mountain eleva-
tion,and the law of continental extents. He widened
the knowledge of this whole domain by bringing into
view the analogies in the different features of the
earth, and showed the relation between the New and
the Old World. He has been one of the greatest bene-
factors of physical geography.
Leopold von Buch introduced into science the idea
of local and general mountain formations, understood
how to outline more sharply what was known before,
to characterize it, to disclose its nature, and to enrich
it still more. He observed every local feature accord-
ing to its inner and its outer qualities, in its individu-
ality, and in its relation to the whole. Studying the
formation of the earth's surface according to its physi-
cal dimensions, that is, by height and depth, every step
brought him to some new fact in nature ; and the pre-
sent work is largely indebted to him for his instructive
additions to scientific knowledge, and for the spirit

which encourages its appearance even in an incom-

plete form.
Through the combined efforts of these two eminent
friends the geognostic relations of the earth's surface
were carefully examined, — the tropical regions, in the
direction of the parallels of latitude, by Humboldt, and
the northern hemisphere, in the direction of the merid-
9*
102 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

ians, by Yon Buch, from the southernmost point of

Italy, through the heart of Europe, to the North Cape,
— and the beginning made possible by both of a strict
comparison. It has been for the great furtherance of
geography that they both employed the comparative
method. What a gain would still accrue to it if these
naturalists, carrying their mode of inquiry to the
Asiatic plateaus, would there institute their compari-

sons and researches, and thus complete our knowledge

of the entire surface of the earth, studied in this way.
Meantime, the third man of the youthful party of
geognostical friends, J. C. Freiesleben, in his more
limited field, collected the material for his work on the
copper formations of Thuringia, — as the venerable
Heim had done before, in preparing his account of the
Thuringian Forest Mountains, — and, in that model
of scientific investigation, he arranged all his facts in
their mutual relations. The works of these three men
show how the present scientific efforts, springing from
youthful friendship, not only are more earnest on that
very account, but that they, in every case, attain
higher and more valuable results for the world.
At the same period J. G. Ebel, in his classic work
on Switzerland, which speaks to the solitary traveller
in every place there like a wise friend, and has become
a people's book, was showing how to communicate the
vast richness of the whole Alp system, because a rich
soul was in the man himself. Therefore he took his
first step in the work of elevating and instructing the
people in the exalted regions of geography and history.
 3

THE ERDKUNDE. 10

So, too, the larger part of the cultivated travellers who

yearly stream to that attractive country, to enrich
themselves with its magnificence, was humanized yet
more by being led by him to Nature, and to her work-
ings in the solemn silence of the Alpine heights. So,
animated in this, as in all things, with a ceaseless in-
terest in behalf of the enrichment of men's minds,
incessantly toiling for this end, his second work took a
scientific form ; he exhibited the combinations of the
many classes of facts which nature made him ac-
quainted with, and that idea of uniformity in the
formation of the strata, and in the reproduction of the
primitive types, which Hausmann had discovered at
the -same time in the North ; he showed the universal
connection in nature, passed from a new view of the
mountain system as a whole to its scattered members
and their forms, and thus conveyed that settled con-

ception of a highland of the earth which Humboldt

had traced on the other hemisphere, and introduced it

within the domain of physical geography. The pre-

sent work is indebted to an intercourse of many years
with Ebel for what of warmth and life it may possess.
Already, before the epoch of these active discoveries,
the Swedes, Gahn and Hauy, had traced, with their
peculiar mathematical keenness, the laws of the crystal-
lizations exhibited in the working of the forces at the

poles of the earth.

The modern chemists, in their observations on the
atmosphere and in the laboratory, were carried through
a diversity of paths to the discovery of elective affinities,
104 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

whose conformity to laws Berzelius first employed in

the use of mathematical symbols.

Thus, after observing this varied activity in the inor-

ganic world, after an analysis and a synthesis of the

formative conditions inherent in them, and after noting
too the beautiful coherence of them all, the concep-
tion arose of an inorganic class of forms, and of all

the relations which spring from such a class. The lat-

ter were traced by Hausmann through the whole inor-

ganic kingdom, even to its very confines. From this

view was developed a great wealth of truths and gen-

eralizations for all departments of natural science.
The citation of some of them, communicated to me
orally by this valued friend, in so far as they are appro-
priate to the uses of the present work, may compen-
sate for many other imperfections ; and let me here
record a word of the deepest thankfulness to this
unwearied seeker after truth, this most enthusiastic of
teachers.

OCEANIC FORMS.

The extraordinary progress which has been made in

the knowledge of the sea and of oceanic forms we owe
almost exclusively to the British. What has been
done in this department, up to the present time, by
other nations, the Portuguese, the early Spaniards,
along the coasts and within the tropics, and what has
been accomplished by the French, Marchand, Fleurieu,
and La Peroiue excepted, is easy to pass in review ;

even Kxusenstürn's journey round the world is really

 THE ERDKUNDE. 105

to be ascribed to the British. The Americans, though

they have become rivals for the mastery of the deep,
and their sails whiten every part of the Sonth Sea,
1
have, unfortunately, so far as we know, cared more
for their own gam than for the advancement of sci-

ence ; but they have compensated for this in giving

the great name of Benjamin Franklin to the world.

The British, — only name the
on the other hand, to
mere outlines of what they have done, — have sought,
in behalf of science, to reach both poles, through Cap-
tain Cook's endeavors, and especially the northern one
through the exertions of Captain Phipps ; they have
not only discovered and given to the world a knowl-
edge of the youngest of the continents, by the agency
of a long succession of voyages, which have been
recorded in Zimmermann's Australia, but they have,
through the careful investigations of Flinders, sur-
veyed, with the utmost exactness, the entire coast of
the mainland of New Holland. Thus the nature of
the sea has taken entirely new relations to the surface
of the globe.
The researches of those naturalists who devote them-
selves to the botany and zoology of the sea, — Ellis,

Lightfoot, Turner, Mertens, Donati, Forskai, Müller,

DeBosc, Peron, Tilesius, — have brought the life and
activity of those depths to light. Merely from Capt.
Baudin's unfortunate expedition to Australia, Peron
brought home, as the result of his own and his friends'

1
The date of the writing of this Introductory Essay will be borne in
mind by the reader, as he meets these and kindred remarks. — Tr.
106 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

activity, 18,414 specimens, of which there were, accord-

ing to the statements of the savans of Paris, 1400 new
specimens from oceanic zoology. More remarkable still

are the observations upon the life of the organized

forms, of which Tilesins collected so many during his
journey round the world. Those which yield gener-
alizations relating to the oceanic economy will be given
in their place, as we have received them from his own
mouth.
The observations of Peyssonel, Benjamin Franklin,
Captain Cook, Charles Blagden, Bladh, and Marchand,
upon the local movements of the sea, awoke the atten-

tion of navigators. La Place completed his theory of

a universal oceanic motion ; Lamotherie threw out an

hypothesis to explain the local currents which Romme
has observed. But Fleurieu, Rennell, Humboldt and
Krusenstern, enriched this new field with the most
definitely determined facts, showed the changes in the
course of these currents, their limits, and their average
velocity. Rennell and Humboldt made them a special
object of study, in order to increase the safety of human
life, and to trace their historical influence in promoting
ready communication between seafaring nations.
They first drew Franklin to that study of the sea's
temperature, which, since his day, has at extreme
depths, and near the surface, led to the most remarka-
ble facts. By means of the measurements of Irving
and Forster, near the North and South poles, and of
Peron, Humboldt and Horner in the equatorial seas,
our knowledge of the diffusion of the inhabitants of
the sea lias received much enlargement.
 THE ERDKUNDE. 107

THE ATMOSPHERE.

In the domain of the atmosphere, viewed without

reference to its cosmical and chemical relations, the
efforts of observers, from the last half of the past cen-

tury on, have been very marked, and their works,

based almost invariably upon facts, have become rich
sources for General Comparative Geography.
Not only have astronomers like La Place, Olbers,
Brandes and Benzenberg, striven to determine the
upper limits of the atmosphere, by the study of the
laws of refraction, but the strongest efforts to ascertain
its dimensions have also been made by the ascent of
the highest mountains by De Saussure, De Lucs, Hum-
boldt, and others, as well as by penetrating the surface
and the depths of the earth. Others, like Robertson,
Jungius, Gay Lussac, and Biot, have made long jour-
neys, that they might study the atmosphere as the lab-
oratory where climates and climatic characteristics are
formed.
But become which
especially weighty have the facts
barometrical observations, and yet more the efforts to
determine heights with the barometer, have established.
Even Pascal, who first (1648) saw at the Puy de Dome
that the Toricellean vacuum is of the greatest signifi-
cance for the comparison of distant levels, could as
little suspect as Scheuchzer, who first (1709) made
an application of this discovery in a series of observa-
tions, imperfect indeed, among the Alps, to what
varied results the now perfected barometer would lead,
108 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

as used by mathematicians, physicists, naturalists, and

artists. Without this instrument, comparative geogra-
phy would be still in an unsettled state ; our knowledge
of vegetation and our knowledge of climates would still
be isolated branches ; while now, still further estab-
lished by the hygrometer and the thermometer, each
of these branches finds, even in its minute subdivisions,
its exponents in the other, so that the round sum at
least of their diversities could be divided into its fac-

tors.

Every step forwards in the history of this remarka-

ble instrument has become, through contemporaneous
discoveries on the earth and in the atmosphere, rich in
facts illustrating the physical nature of the globe. The
barometrical investigations set on foot by Townley,
and conducted by Mariotti and Boyle, led to a knowl-
edge of the variance in the density of different layers
of air ; from the study of this varying density Halley
drew his barometrical formula.
*

Since De Luc's journey through the Alps, in 1795,

portable barometers have come into general use, and,
through his corrections of barometrical formulas, our
knowledge of atmospheric conditions has become favor-
able to our understanding what pertains to the whole
domain of nature.
By means of M. A. Pictet's first and long-protracted
investigations, at Cartigny, 1778, into the temperature
of the atmosphere directly above the earth's surface, in
layers of from half an inch to five feet, and so on to
seventy-five feet in perpendicular thickness, important
 THE ERDKUNDE. 109

additions were made to our knowledge of general vege-

tation, especially of facts relating to evaporation, the

formation of dew and clouds, the direct and reflected

warmth of the sun on plains and in the soil, and par-
ticularly the relation of this warmth to shade. From
his investigations, too, sprang the first generalizations
on the remarkably unequal and yet constant relation
of warmth to light in the daytime and twilight of every
revolution of the earth. To an acquaintance with this

skilful naturalist among the Alpine valleys, and to

communications from Ms lips, this work is indebted for
many an important thought.
De Luc's contemporaneous observations on the state
of the barometer, taken at fifteen points of observa-
tion on the Saleve, and Sclmckburgh and Le Roy's
applications of those observations, led to important
knowledge relative to the advantage of a moderate
temperature to vegetation, and to the expansion of the
air as connected with winds and their dependent
phenomena : thus incorporating these topics into phys-
ical geography, which was yet further to be enriched
with the important facts and applications of De Saus-
sure.
Ramond's exact and full barometrical observations
at six stations of various absolute heights within the
range of small horizontal distances, led to a mathe-
matical certainty of a medium state of the barometer,
and assisted in reaching an understanding of the rela-

tions of absolute heights to the level of neighboring

seas and oceans.
10
110 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

M. A. Pictet's contemporaneous barometrical obser-

vations over greater horizontal distances, but at the
same absolute heights, afterwards followed further,
and with the most scrupulous care, by the acute Wahl-
enberg, between Vienna, Casmark, and the Carpathian
range, illustrated by the vivid drawings of J. F. Pictet,
and applied most advantageously by Pfaff to the theory
of climates, led to remarkable generalizations on the
contemporaneousness and succession of atmospheric
phenomena over large districts, and sometimes over
entire continents.
These continued observations from the same stand-
point taught — through the agency of the curvilinear
tables of Studer, in Berne (continued a whole life

long) , the works of so many Academies, and the com-

parisons ofLa Cotte, Gronau, and others that nature —
does not move in cycles of a quarter of a century each,
or even of a whole century ; and they also showed
that a man who always argues a 'priori with regard to
the course of nature, reasoning outwards from some
stand-point purely subjective, may make great strides
forwards, but to no purpose. Meantime, all unex-
pectedly, the finest and most neglected features of
nature were examined by French naturalists in the
heights of Quito, by the English on the plains of
Bengal, by Mutis and Humboldt on the coast of Ca-
raccas, and the universal and constant currents in
the atmosphere of the tropics were discovered, as they
had been by Chiminelli in Padua, Ramond in Au-
vergne, and Von Buch in Germany, as existing in the
 THE ERDKUNDE. Ill

temperate zone, and by Horner for the sea. Flinders

went so far in his barometrical observations, during
his voyage round Australia, as to trace the influence
of sea and land winds upon the weight of the atmos-
phere, and to prepare a table to show the mariner how
to employ this fact in determining his distance from
the shore. Thus, this little quicksilver tube has even
become an instrument to make men feel at home upon
the ocean, as upon the land it has undertaken the
duty of determming for us all heights and depths.
The barometer, too, brought into light the weighty
difference between relative and absolute heights, and
afterwards the differences in plains. These things had
before formed no part of the science of geography, for
the former method of scientific study was to search for
the most striking phenomena and men who followed
;

that method were content with measuring and won-

dering at the stupendous height of the loftiest moun-
tains.

What a mass of efforts must precede in order to

exhibit in numbers the series of facts regarding the
altitudes so fully given in Miltenburg's comprehensive
collection Only he who has made researches of his
!

ovn upon the Alps knows how to prize the worth of

every name recorded there.
These collections of measurements and observations
were first turned to the profit of geography by De
Saussure, Humboldt, Yon Buch, and their pupils, by
yielding the means for comparing general, climatic,
geologic, and botanic relations. To Yon Buch be-
112 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

longs the credit of bringing out, following in the path

of De Saussure, the characteristics of mountain passes,
driving many errors from the science of Physical Ge-
graphy, and of establishing many truths ; since it is the
mountain passes, and not the extreme tops, which are
the stand-point of observation for all travellers through
such regions, in the east and west of the earth.
By the agency of the two naturalists, Yon Buch and
De Saussure, who have merited so much of science,
and with the signal help besides of the equally inde-
fatigable Wahlenberg, in the different flora of Lap-

land, Carpathia, and Switzerland, the climatic charac-

teristics, as limits of vegetation in the vegetable world,
were compared with those of the tropics ; and through
the completeness of their treatment of the heat of the
earth, gained by a large acquaintance with the facts of

temperature, the perfect order and beauty and consist-

ency in the arrangements of the earth's surface, espe-
cially on the side explored by them, were exhibited in
detail. Meanwhile, the efforts of these men, stimu-
lated by the early investigations of Scheuchzer, Tour-
nefort, De Saussure, Bamond, Townson, and the
calculations of Kirwan, had really determined, by the
help of barometrical observations, from the North Cape
to the southernmost point of Europe, as well as upon
the heights of the torrid zone, the limits of vegetation,
and had showed that the line of eternal snow is the
border of the living creation.
The special influence of the investigations which the
barometer has served, like a wanderer's staff, in the
 THE ERDKUNDE. 113

confused world of phenomena, must here be particu-

larly referred to, since it is the soul of the whole
arrangement of the present work. And yet the first

efforts to leave the earth, and to penetrate to the very

heart of a knowledge of the atmosphere, that is, to

compass the whole secrets of meteorology, have in no
way been satisfied, nor have all results been subjected
to a strict analysis. Every prognosis seems to be un-
favorable to science, and to be more a matter of
egoistical curiosity than of pure and earnest striving,
because it lacks humility and confidence in Divine
Providence ; so there seems to be no suitable reward
held before the zeal which does not grow from a
worthy root ; but every disinterested effort after truth
has already been often crowned, by being led back to
certainty and the living God.
Thus, from what has now been said, without any
more specific citing of authorities, the bearing appears
of all these results upon an understanding of the laws
which control the whole world of life. If, here and

there, in the present work, an interesting view holds

the reader's attention, and charms him into patience,
the author extends his thanks for it to a long, instruc-
tive, and, with pride be it said, intimate acquaintance
with a noble man, S. T. Sömmering, the ornament of
his age and nation ; for his spirit imparted to others
glimpses into those depths of nature which his own
genius had penetrated to their most secret recesses.
10*
114 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

THE SUBTERRANEAN REGIONS.

If we now pass to the third element, to the workings

of the forces of fire and heat, we find that the pro-

tracted efforts of men who have studied ocean charac-

teristics, and those who have studied volcanic phe-
nomena, have awakened a lively interest to overthrow
something old, or to establish something new, and
have ever been making these researches more keen.
If they have not satisfied themselves, yet their efforts

have enriched Comparative Geography with a treasure

of unquestioned facts regarding the details and the
extent of subterranean and marine phenomena.
Only the latest times have taken the first important
steps towards the settlement of that old vexed question,
whose symbol the primitive wisdom of India used to
represent to the people as the lotus flower, with a boy
in the garden by, and flames licking the corolla, — the
question which the gods of Greece renewed in their
strife with Poseidon, Athene in Attica, Helios in
Corinth, and Here in Argolis, and whose heat the
divine Plato seems to have kindled among mortals, by
his story of Tartarus on the earth, recorded in the
Phädon. At last the happy settlement of the question
has confirmed the truth of the old motto, that every-
where error, as well as truth, has been the instructress
of men.
At first, the inhabitants of Campania and of Sicily
at the South, and of Iceland at the North, recorded
carefully in their annals the eruptions of the neigh-
 ;

THE ERDKÜNDE. 115

boring volcanoes ; then P. Bonguer, la Condamine and

Aut. Ulloa, explained volcanic formation, and brought
out the fact that even more constant activity was mani-
fested in the volcanoes of the New World. The earth-
quake of the first of November, 1755, which was so
powerfully felt in the southwest of Europe, carrying
destruction from the Escurial to Lisbon, did not spend
its force there, but rolled along the Atlantic shores, from
Madeira, over Morocco, Tetuan, and Algiers to Tunis
shook Corsica and Valais, and all the lakes of central
Europe ;
passed from Zurich down the Rhine to the
Netherlands, over the North Sea to the British Islands as
far äs Loch Ness, in Scandinavia even to Falun, and Abo
in Finland, and filled all Europe with fear. But when,
from all sides, the accounts of Wolfall, Sachetti, Ulloa,
Stoqueler, Foroke, Heberdeen, and many others, came
in, with the tidings of a violent commotion of the sea
at the Antilles taking place at the same time, and
the report of a fearful earthquake occurring but two
days later at Java and Sumatra, all together filling
an entire volume of Transactions, naturalists came to
an insight into these phenomena, and hypothesis fol-

lowed hypothesis, explaining them all on physical or

physico-theological principles. First, Stuckeley, and,
after the earthquakes in Italy, Yivencio and Dol-
mieu, and after them Williams, Mitchell, and Frank-
lin in North America, sought to form a theory from
the numerous facts, and so drew men's thoughts not
only to the phenomena of earthquakes, but to their
periodical recurrence. Hamilton described volcanic
 ;

116 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

eruptions Dolmieu and Ferrara observed them as

;

naturalists, in respect to their phenomena, Breislack

in respect to their results and chemical causes and all ;

these framed interesting hypotheses connected with

them.
Leopold Von Buch was the first who was able to
separate the exceptional from the essential in volcanic
phenomena ; to indicate the means of determining the
great periods of upheaval and sinking ; to designate

the chief elements of every period in the preliminary

earthquake, — the throwing out of lava, the smoke,
and the belching of ashes. In the course of his
repeated wanderings through Italy, he grasped the
idea of volcanic construction, inward and outward
described volcanic products ; and indicated the subma-
rine district of tufa strata at Epomeo, and in the classic
soil of Rome itself. He propounded a bold hypothesis
regarding the peculiarity of the formation of Auvergne,
which, indeed, is not now much regarded, since Weiss
at Yiveray has given more satisfactory explanations.
And Von Buch, too, first established a definite and
universally intelligible language for this department
of science.
What his keen search has elicited from a solitary

volcano, doubtlessly, indeed, admirably calculated for .

study, the ever active Vesuvius, was traced on another

side of the earth, at the isles of France and Bourbon,
in the Indian Ocean, by Bory St. de Vincent, in the
nicest detail. There he studied volcanic groups, and
confirmed and added to all that had been taught by

Von Buch.
 THE ERDKÜNDE. 117

At the North, too, the Scotch naturalists, unbeknown

to him, gave the hand of welcome to the ideas which
he had originated. The renowned hypothesis of Hut-
ton, founded upon the granite courses of Cornwallis,
and developed in a better method, with yet greater

acuteness, and with a more masterly group of facts, by

Playfair ; the chemical experiments of Hall, upon vol-
canic products, so far as they had been formed under
the influence of pressure from above, enriched physi-
cal geography with views and conjectures, which
appear to have been reached not only in Iceland by
Olafsen, and later still by Mackenzie, but at almost all
the volcanic formations of the Alantic Ocean.
Alexander Yon Humboldt not only enriched the
whole field with a vast mass of measurements and
facts, drawn from his own researches, but, while he
compared the familiar details of the Old World with
the analogous or different features of the New, he
threw much light upon the widely various character-
istics of both continents, as well as upon phenomena
which are coextensive with the world. Leopold Von
Buch turned his inquiries to what is truly continen-
tal in the oceanic forms ; and, while his sharp search
was thus directed, islands were rising above the sur-
face of the Atlantic and Pacific, as it were, to do him
honor.
And so, perhaps, the time is not distant when the key
shall be found to the perplexing and gigantic ridges of
basaltic rocks, which break through the heart of India
and of Europe, in colossal courses, from a coast bor-
118 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

der even to the extremities of great peninsulas, and are

everywhere rich in grottos and pillared caves.
Only that man who is most deeply skilled in the

secrets of nature will be able to make this discovery,

which in truth is only the prelude to one yet greater.

There is something magical in the mysterious lines,

once good and useful, but now worse than useless,

which men drew over our globe, lines which were

dragged from mathematical to physical uses, but men
can no more proscribe and banish them than they can
draw the stars from their courses in the heavens.

THE VEGETABLE WORLD.

The study of the vegetable growths, after its reäni-

mation by Tournefort, Jussieu, and Linneus, spread
over the earth more rapidly than any other, and called
out everywhere active scholars. A long list of dis-
tinguished names might be given of men who have
enriched science with new facts. But only those could
be valuable authorities for general comparative geogra-
phy who have either contemplated their science as a
whole from the side of nature, and thus stood ele-

vated, as it were, above the level of science, or who

have considered certain portions of their theme in
special connection with the surface of the earth.
Thus the works of Gmelin, Pallas, and Willdenow,
manner of Linneus, have called our
written after the
attention to the flora of mountains, in contrast to that
of plains. Pallas, for example, has explored exhaust-
 THE ERDKUNDE. 119

ively the flora of eastern Europe, Siberia, and the

Taurus, while Haller, Scopoli, Wulfen, Römer, Hoppe,
Suter, and others, have made great additions to our
knowledge of the flora of the Alps. Desfontain first

investigated the growths of the Mediterranean and the

Atlantic coasts ; Cavanilles devoted himself to the bot-
any of Spain, and Decandolle to that of France.

Willdenow was the first to call attention to the char-

acteristics of the collective flora of all the continents,

and to establish in Europe a flora of the North, a

Swiss, an Austrian, a Spanish flora, and a flora of

the Apennines. Lamark, while he sought for a cer-

tain centre to every botanical order, believed that he
had discovered eight leading flora on earth, the Vir-
ginian, the West Indian, the African, the Australian,
the Antarctic, the Northern and the Asiatic, and in
these again, with equal ground, various special floras ;

he thus enriched physical geography with all the facts

which the natural system of grouping employed by
French botanists offered. Decandolle carried the idea
of special floras through his whole researches in France,
with the greatest persistency, and found, from the prev-
alence of growths in different districts, five great regions
which are characterized by distinct physical natures.

On the other hand, George Forster had already thrown

his penetrating glances upon the nature of vegetable
growths, while Humboldt, in his Ideas on Botanical
Forms, had established the existence of sixteen char-
acteristic varieties in the torrid regions, and exhibited

the richness of tropical vegetation by that vast array

 — ;

120 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

of facts which he knew how to exhibit with the skill

of an artist. So, too, Wahlenberg, by his exceedingly

close observations, set the polar floras in a new light

he did the same with the Swiss, displaying it from his

own standpoint, and in addition he enriched science
with a highly characteristic flora, — the Carpathian,
which, as the noteworthy link between the vegetable
forms of Europe and of Asia, has led to the most val-
uable results for comparative geography. It was Wah-
lenberg, too, who first ascertained definitely the influ-
ence of a continental climate upon vegetation in con-
trast with an oceanic climate, and their mutual action
and reaction in continental flora. Aubert du Petit
Thuars had already showed the union of the natural
floras of two continents — America and Africa — upon
the oceanic island of Tristan d'Ancuna, in the torrid
zone ; while Zoega, Mohr, Hooker, and Mackenzie had
displayed in the frigid zone the poverty of the island
flora of Iceland, in contrast with continental polar
floras.

Tournefort's view, which occurred to him more than

a hundred years ago, as he ascended the Armenian
highlands and Mount Ararat, of the decrease of veg-
etation with the increase of absolute height, and the
thought of comparing this reduced vegetation with
that of plains in the colder zones, became a hundred
years later, under the able guidance of the naturalists
whom we have named, and others, one of the most
fruitful storehouses of facts for geography.

The partly practical, partly historical and antiqua-

 THE ERDKUNUE; 121

rian, works of Linneus, Arthur Young, Pallas, Georgi,

Michaux, Yon Buch, Wahlenberg, Heyne, Sprengel,
Durean de la Malle, and others, have informed us
regarding the spread of imported growths through the
northern countries of the earth, during ancient as well
as modern times ; the Forsters, father and son, have
treated thoroughly of the flora of the South Sea
islands. Raynal, Sprengel, Edwards, and others, have
discussed the growths of colonial lands. Bory and le

Dru, and before them the Spanish botanists, seized the

idea of a general flora in the climate of the islands of
East and West Africa. Bernier in Cashmere, B,ei-

neggs, Güldenstadt, and Yon Biberstein in Caucasus,

the Portuguese missionaries in Abyssinia, Poncet and
the Spaniards in the New World, have exhibited the
rich vegetation of terrace formations, but their vast
resources were reduced to a scientific form by Hum-
boldt. Through the aid of these men, Link has delin-

eated the topography of Spain. The almost complete

banishment of a native flora by imported growths in
the Nile valley has been described by Forskal, Browne,
Girard, and others.
The Chinese agriculturists, the great masters in
their department, had for a long time established the
principles governing the influence of situation upon
the productions of a given district, when the English,
French, and Germans were beginning to study the facts
of their own experience in the same light. De Saus-
sure wished to show by chemistry the relation of the
animate to the inanimate forms in the vegetable world.
11
122 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

Leslie demonstrated the diversified influences upon

the native growths of a power, resident in the soil, of
absorbing moisture. Pallas treated of the flora of
salt steppes, Humboldt that of sandy regions and des-
olate heaths. A new field was opened by the study of
the cryptogamous plants in their broadest relations,
and thereby our knowledge of the north of the earth
became more sharply characterized. In the lichens,
whose formation is clearly conditioned by their sur-
roundings, and which appear to stand in the lowest
grade of plants not aquatic, Hausmann discovered a
first principle relating to the favorable influence of
inorganic upon organic forms, and the disintegrating
influence of organic upon inorganic forms. Neeb
showed how the power which plants have of drawing
their food to them compensates for the power of motion
which animals possess. Through the comparisons
instituted by Florke between the cryptogamous forms
of Kamskatka and Europe, their uniformity through
the northern hemisphere appeared, while a further
comparison of these with the flora of the island of
Bourbon and the Isle of France revealed uniform-
ity still between the cryptogamia of the North and
of these isles. This marked exception to the diversity
of the higher forms of vegetation, as existing in dif-
ferent parts of the world, displays uniformity in the
cryptogamus plants of the northern and southern hem-
ispheres, which, by their countless varieties, show the
infinite diversity of which nature is capable.
 THE ERDKÜNDE. 123

THE ANIMAL WORLD.

The geographical relations of animals have long

been known in a general way, and have long formed
a part of human knowledge. In their most danger-
ous as well as in their most useful classes their haunts
have been near the homes of men, in their leading
forms they have been open to view ; and, since zoology
is the centre, as it were, of natural history, they have
been studied in their most prominent and character-
istic features. Almost every writer of antiquity has
given us accounts of them, and what modern times
have added, as contained in the writings of Buffon,
Zimmermann, Blumenbach, Cuvier, Treviranus, was
known and worked out by the ancients, and stands
recorded in their works as our authority. May the
general relations of those minor classes of the animal
world, whose relations to nature and to man have not
yet been traced, be yet more clearly taught and better
known.
Those results which the restless activity of that sig-

nal benefactor of Physical Geography, Count Hoff-

mannsegg, has deduced from numerous facts, his daily

observations and comparisons, as they are exhibited in

his systematized geographical works, would of them-
selves alone give a new aspect to the relation between
vegetation, climate, and all natural influences, and the
forms and life of animal organizations, as well as the
world of birds and insects, in its entire extent. Some
facts bearing upon this might, to advantage, be ad-
124 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

duced in their proper place, and would manifestly be a

part of a system of General Comparative Geography.
Meanwhile, the study of the remains of a world,
once full of life, now buried in the heart of the earth,

whose myriads of forms have astonished ancient and

modern times alike, has first attained its true signi-

ficance, and the vast number of species, fully known

or only partially understood, has been reduced to sys-
tem by Blumenbach, that veteran in the domain of
animate nature. Through him and J. Kant, the con-
ception of the archaeology of the earth has been intro-
duced into physical geography, which now, with this

vast accession, seems to rejoice in a new creation. If

it was long a matter of astonishment to see what a
vast store of bones of colossal creatures, like in kind,
lay hidden in the North, not less wonder did it cause
to have discovered the most varied genera of a lost

animal world in a single spot on the earth, the gypsum

deposits of Montmartre. By the most exact study of
the Testacea, the widely diffused formations of the
primitive world have been brought to light, so far as
regards the uppermost strata of the earth's surface, and
the most limited tracts ; as, for example, before the gates
of Paris, outside of Berlin, and in other places, hundreds
of the most varied species have been found side by side.
The observations and discoveries which the works of Oli-
vier, Brougniart, Parkinson, Daudebard, Schlottheim,
Merk, Sömmering, Pallas, Fortis, Faujas, Peale, Jeffer-
son, Torrubia, Humboldt, Link, and others, contain, have
yielded such a mass of facts as make the mind giddy
in looking back into the ages of the primeval world.
 ;

THE ERDKUNDE. 125

REMAINING MATERIALS. — CONCLUSION.

Thus we come to the close of our summary of author-
ities which have been our chief guides, and which
have given not only our material, but also, in still

higher degree, the form pervading this entire work

they having been what we may call the organizing

instruments which have shaped it.

Through what was done by Aristotle and his follow-

ers in the Alexandrian school, — Eratosthenes, Hippar-
chus, and others, — a net-work was so thrown over the
earth, for the establishment of mathematical geogra-
phy, that every spot in the old known world, or in the
new world to be discovered, might be represented in
its true place, according to the determination by degree
and minute of its latitude and longitude. The object
in this was to ascertain the relation of every spot to
the earth's surface as a whole, and to secure, for the
present and the future, all the facts which have any
connection with it.

So too that honored band of men of the last cen-

tury, and especially of the last quarter of a century,
who have united the observation of nature with a
mathemathical method, in order to attain to the clear-

est views, have disclosed an invisible net-work, like-

wise enfolding the globe, and woven by the laws of

nature. In its leading strands, nature herself reveals
it, by the facts brought to light in the heart of the
earth, by the movements of the elements, by the life of
the organic world, so that short-sighted man, by follow-
11*
126 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

ing the lines which lead from one point to others related
to it, and ascertained by comparison with it, finds a re-
flection of himself in the richness and variety of nature.
After the era of Alexander the Great, there was
indeed many a planet revealed in the heavens, and yet
the ground of the division which had been made, and
which lay in .truth, remained fixed, and will remain
fixed to the end of time. And even now there are but
few leading points ascertained of the physical life of
the globe and the organic conditions of the earth as a
planet ; and many a star is yet to appear above the phys-
ical horizon, and gradually dawn upon our full under-
standing; but as certainly as they all belong to the
same solar system, so certainly, if their grand princi-
ples lie in truth, a knowledge of them may be end-
lessly increased, but their nature can never be dis-

owned and rejected. If the main lines of the net-work

are correctly drawn, and the manner of construction

is appreciated by the understanding, then all the facts
of physical geography find in it at once their true
and determined place. Everything which we have
thus far said aims at conveying this ; and this essay has
for its purpose to show how all geographical materials
are related, and all belong to a system whose deficien-
cies will soon be made good.
It would not be desirable to cite all the authorities
which have been employed in the preparation of this
work ; they shall all be specified in the places where
they are employed. It would indeed be impossible to
state them all, much as we hope to attain to complete-
 ;

THE ERDKUNDE. 127

ness in our work ; but none of the most important

shall be wanting here which have to do with the work
as a whole.
We have not spoken in this essay of what we owe to
the geographical and historical systems of the Greeks
and Romans, the Arabians, the learned men of the
middle ages, as well as to those of the very latest years
nor have we named those instructive books of travel
which, from the wanderings of Ulysses down, have
enriched our knowledge of the earth and its peoples.
Many of them are very valuable, and have been used,
where it has been possible, in the languages in which
they were written, and not in the rarely unmutilated
translations, in which, only too often, the scientific por-
tions have been omitted, as heavy and uninteresting
reading. This has been done even with works of
prime importance, as, for example, Flinder's Researches
on the youngest of the continents.
We have made no mention of the share which entire
organizations have had in the opening of sources to us
such as boards of trade, missionary societies, scientific

institutes, as the African Society in England ; nor of

the share which great powers have exercised in the
same direction, such as Alexander the Great, Timur
Beck, or the Russian Czars and the Chinese Emperors,
in opening the interior of Asia ; nor of that which the
histories of the wars of the world have had in opening
a knowledge of the earth to us. Nor have we showed
how much the masses of population have contributed,
century after century, towards our understanding
128 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO

general physical relations, as, for example, the hordes

which have wandered from East to West, the pressing
of the inhabitants of mountains into the vales, the
armies of Crusaders thronging to the Orient, the fleets

of the Portuguese along sea-coasts, the Spaniards in the

track of the trade-winds, the struggles of the British
after dominion in Hindostan.
The phenomena^ appearance of one single traveller
shall here make an exception, and the name of Alex-

ander Von Humboldt be cited yet again at the close of

my list of authorities, because it is to him, who united
all the knowledge of an Academy of Sciences with a
grasp of what is the basis of all phenomena, that the
present work owes its whole form ; without him it

would never have been brought to its completion.

The extraordinary progress which has accrued to

the system of General Comparative Geography through

Humboldt's personal researches, — as well as through
the ideas which have been propounded by him, and have
been resisted or accepted through the whole of culti-

vated Europe, — appears to lie, speaking in general

terms, in this: that he, endowed with the spirit of
antiquity and with a mathematical method, passed
through the entire domain of physics, as far as astro-

nomy, geology, and a third science, — which the last

century has carried almost to its height, — physiology,

and employed his method as the measuring rod of the
world. Moreover, he caught glimpses of nature on
another and not measurable side, in its still hidden,
higher, organic life, even in its connection with his-
 THE ERDKUNDE. 129

tory (for its connection with the general order of the

world had been traced before) ; and so he searched for
the workings of this higher life, and its results in its
most exalted domains, and endeavored, in every direc-
tion, to strike to its very centre. Thus, through this

happy league of union between all the kingdoms of

science and nature, and the free scope which it gave to
man to trace more than simple bonds between them, —
to look deeply and see their hidden connections, science

became enlarged in its grasp, and was invested with

new charms.
Yet the influence of this man, who, as he himself
says, has stood not alone, but in the midst of co-
laborers, seems to be only one of the indications of the
position which the scientific inquiry of our times has
specially established, and which exhibits the greatest
possibilities for the next hundred years.
Earlier times gave themselves more exclusively to
the forms, phenomena, and facts which are general,
and which lie loosely and at random in each one of the
natural. kingdoms. The present times study what is

universal : men now reach to the farthest extremes,

come to the places where different regions encroach
upon each other, or else exist in a continued state of
action and reaction, measure the world according to
length and breadth, height and depth, as well as by
more subtle measurements of organic and intellectual
conditions, and seek to penetrate to the living heart of
the whole.
This characteristic, already apparent in what we
 ;;

180 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY TO THE ERDKUNDE.

have written, will appear more fully in the body of the

work, and will indicate that contrast between the
efforts of man and those of nature, which the words
striving and being plainly suggest. Man advances in
his domain only through ideas which spring from his
most inner self, ideas to which external activity had
been subjected even before results had been proved
from the testimony of facts ; he extends the bound-
aries of his knowledge only step by step ; extraordi-
nary minds make advances, at long intervals, for the
use of all, or else each man works out his facts for
himself alone, and thus a fitful and irregular progress
is made. But wherever Nature is unveiled to human
sighE, we see her steadily working, from her centre to
her circumference, from circumference steadily back
to centre ; not from one living point outwards, but in
her great kingdom, everywhere so full of life ; not at
broken intervals, but with unvarying force, and mys-
tery, and vastness, through all time.
And thus Nature was appointed by God to be the
constant and the near friend, mentor, and comforter
of mortal man ; to be his guardian spirit, calling him
to unity with himself; — with himself as an individual
with himself as a race. As the earth is the mother of
all human beings, so ought Nature to be their awak-
ener from careless and thoughtless slumbers ; she ought
to be the steps on which they mount to nobler life

she ought to be the organizing power of humanity,

ever making it more exalted, and preparing it for the
final contemplation of the unseen and the eternal.
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE.

 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
ON THE

FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE.

[FROM THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE ERDKUNDE.]

SECTION I.

SKY, SEA, AND LAND.

The sky completely envelops the globe, one part of

whose surface the waters cover, while the other or
fixed portion is ever dry. In contrast with the two
movable forms, which we call atmosphere and sea, the

fixed portion is termed the land.

Sky, sea, and land are formed from a variety of ele-
ments, as their components, which we need not ex-
amine here in detail, either in respect to their extent,

or in respect to their functions ; that is the care of

other departments of science. It is for us to consider
the forms which sky, sea, and land take in relation to
the globe, and to discuss, even more thoroughly still,
what is dependent upon them. The forms we are to
examine in detail, i. e., their parts, and the mutual
relation of these what is dependent upon them we are
;

12
134 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

to consider in a general light, striving to reach its

essential nature. The collective body of all these

forms, or the study of the globe as such, we must pre-
suppose in our investigation, since the detailed treat-
ment of the world in that light is the proper province
of astronomy. On the other hand, the investigations
of what is dependent upon these forms, if we should
seek to follow them into details, would lead us into
the province of mechanics, physics, chemistry, physi-
ology, and other sciences, whose truths, so far as they

have been traced, and can serve us as helps, must be

presupposed, and used as results, without our going
out ourselves on the path of those who study them
exclusively.
The forms which are the special subject of our
present inquiry are, of course, material, and, being
material, cannot exist without inherent forces ; sky,
sea, and land cannot be without certain activities,

working on one another, in one word, without mutual

relations. The root of this system of relations is the
play of the constraining and formative powers of
nature ; and in all the alternations and changes which
they induce, these forces appear moving, in short,
periodically recurring, or in ever-widening circles,
between which certain periods of equipoise are appa-
rently interposed.
It is not the history of these changes and modifica-
tions that we have here to trace ; this is the province

of physics and of archaeology. Nor is it ours to in-

vestigate the laws of these changes. The chief object
 135

of our inquiry is their external phenomena, the rela-

tion between the forms of the earth's surface, and the

fixed element in these changes.
Certainly, in the incomplete and constantly advanc-
ing condition of the science of Comparative Geog-
raphy, it will be often necessary to call in the past to
help us understand the present, and sometimes we
shall even have to consult subordinately in the inter-
pretation of the world its primitive state. In this
view, we embrace all that period which the history of
man covers as belonging to the present, in contrast
with that period of formation and change in the earth's
surface which precedes our records. The account of
the workings of natural forces, which have been in any
age remarked by man, is historical ; but in the begin-
nings of things, in the ages which antecede history,
theory has to be our guide.
All the changes and alternation to which we have
alluded above will only be referred to here in as far as
they are grounded in the diversity and the mutual re-
lations of sea, sky, and land, in their superficial extent,
and in their heights and depths.
In the present investigation of the relations of these
three forms, various ways open. Why we choose the
course leading from solid to fluid forms has been
hinted above. Besides, it seems most natural to fol-

low this course, because man himself, from whom all

observation proceeds, has made his home upon the

fixed form, and because this is the most distinctly out-
136 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

lined, and therefore the most definite ; the other forms

being, in some respects, subordinate to it.

The chemical arrangement would be capable of a

more exact treatment, since in it the advance is made
from liquid to solid or concrete forms : every begin-
ning of things is in the fluid state. Therefore, since
we are delineating the progress of development, we
shall enter in the second part of this work, in what we
shall have to say of the elements, upon a stricter treat-

ment of relations than in this first part, which con-

cerns itself with what has at last become fixed, without
reference to the manner how. And so we come di-

rectly to our theme.

SECTION II.

THE LAND.

In early times men's knowledge did not go farther

than to embrace a single continent, with the islands
belonging to it ; but within the last three hundred
years Columbus has brought into view the western
continent, in contrast with the older or eastern.
Soon the conception arose that there must be an
equally large continent in the south, to give equipoise,
and this held its ground till Cook, the discoverer, in
the last half of the past century, showed the groundless-
ness of such an idea, by exhibiting the outlines, not of
one, but of many lands, coasts, and islands in the son'h,
to which, also, the latest discovered, New South Shot-
 ;

FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 137

land (between 55° to 6b° west of Greenwich, 62° to 63°

south latitude) , appears to belong.
The conception of a great continent towards the
South Pole was a result of the rational supposition
that the largest mass of lands, surrounded by water,
both of the Old and the New World, lay, in the north-

ern hemisphere, in such vast extent around the North

Pole, that the promontories jutting out from them
approach within a few miles of each other. For
towards the south the continents all have a pointed,
wedge-like form, the points being very widely apart
and three promontories alone, running far down
towards the South Pole, and parting the waters of the
southern seas, are the sole representatives of three
mighty continents.
All that pertains to the southern portion of the great
land divisions is easy to determine ; but towards the
north there are so many difficulties in the way of find-
ing a passage, and discovering be known
all that is to

about the regions there, that we have by no means

reached the limits of what is yet to be learned.
Instead of encroaching upon our space with any
theories of the origin of these continental forms, with a
numerical statement of their special divisions, with
outlining their boundaries, giving their superficial con-
tents, and other familiar facts, we advance at once to
the general study of the forms themselves ; and in the
first place, on grounds already indicated in the Intro-
duction, only in relation to
12*
138 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OX THE

THE OLD WORLD.

A mere glance at the globe reveals to us the Old

World in its external, mathematico-physical form,
which, measured according to its superficial dimen-
sions, is a simple, great, coherent land-mass, divided,
however, into three leading subordinate parts. These
parts are so disunited that we can get no very definite
conception of them as related to each other ; and the
very naming of them continents conveys an indefinite
idea to the mind. Nevertheless, if we look at them
historically, we see plain marks of individuality in
them, psychological characteristics running through
the human family in them, and physical characteristics
in their surface.
Africa forms, in consequence of its sea border on
every side, a nearly isolated whole ; and thus comes
the nearest of all to being in itself complete and inde-
pendent.
Asia, sharply outlined on three sides by the sea,
makes, with Europe, one common trunk, as it were ; it

being much more connected with Europe than with

Africa.
Europe, in consequence of its many projecting forms,
and its enclosed arms of the sea, is more multiform
and complex than any other grand division of the
earth, and is more and more broken into subordinate
members as it recedes from the long line of its Asiatic

boundary.
Africa appears like a body without limbs, Asia as a
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 139

body with linibs, indeed, on three sides, but of dispro-

portionate size compared with the vast trunk, and
Europe as a body divided into countless limbs, in
combined importance vastly preponderating over the
continent itself.

Equally unlike are the three in form and in what

regards physical dimensions, i. e., heights and depths.
Africa is subdivided into two almost equal parts,
the southern of which is largely highland, the north-
ern being the level portion of the continent. The
boundary between them is a straight line running
almost due east and west, and upon this line (if we
except a few scattered points and sea-coasts) occur all

the combination of contrasts, all the varieties of de-

velopment, and even all the action and reaction of the
relations of nature and man. A greater uniformity in
the union of two leading forms cannot be pointed out
in the world.
Asia, not so equally divided into halves, is dis-

tinguished by its immense highlands, formed from

two terraces, a higher and a lower. Its great table-
lands do not lie at one extremity, but centrally, and
sink away towards the four cardinal points, till they
are lost in the lowlands (of which Africa has but one)
which, wide and varied, surround the elevated central
plateau. On these lowlands, again, are found scattered
groups .of smaller highlands (of which Africa displays
but one), in various directions around. From the
combination of these manifold relations result equally
manifold phenomena, ^hile the simplicity in Africa
140 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

induces an equally marked uniformity. There is no

part of the earth in which Nature works on so grand
a scale as in the Orient of the world.
The prevailing form which characterizes Asia and
Africa repeats itself but once in Europe, and that in a
very small measure, as exhibited in the Spanish high-
land. In the central portion of this continent, which
is so much less in mass in proportion to its extremities,
and in every respect so much more rifted and broken
into fragments by the branches of the sea than the
other two, there is wholly wanting the disunited, inac-
cessible form of the highland; Only here and there
mere types are found of the plateau formation. In
Europe that vast mass no longer appears which in Asia
and Africa form widely extended regions of elevated
plains. Instead of great superficial areas, we have in
Europe scattered points towering to the sky, and rich
in precipices and glancing sides. The great Alp-land
is the characteristic form of central Europe. With the
loftiest elevation, with the greatest diversity of produc-
tions upon the smallest amount of surface, broken
through everywhere with water torrents and with val-

leys, it possesses a greater closeness of connection

between its northern and southern approaches, and a
greater accessibility, than any leading form of the other
two continents. On every side it sinks away into level
tracts, which again, through the mediation of lakes,
are broken up and separated from mountain lands and
highlands of the lowest grades.
Thus, in the fine subdivision of a country of limited
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH"' S SURFACE. 141

extent, in the large variety of fixed and fluid forms,

and in the clearness with which the relations of nature

and man are seen in the lapse of brief periods, the
peculiar character of Europe shows itself, through
which that continent seems to have been, from the
beginning, shaped for a different function from those
with which it is connected in a manner equally
peculiar.
Yet, in order to read these general sentences in a
comprehensive manner, and to be able to assign to
every spot on the earth its uses for science and for life,

a thorough and protracted inquiry into the details of

every great feature on the globe is needed. This shall
be the task of the first part of the present work.
We must, at the outset, come to an understanding
about the usual expressions which designate the course
of formation in the earth's surface. Their whole signi-
ficance is only fully felt after personal observation, or
from what exposition of them we shall be able to
make in the future course of these investigations. No
theory shall, therefore, now be laid down, but only
just so much of the prevailing views and opinions
given as will serve to indicate what is most important
to help us grasp true conceptions afterwards.

EXPLANATION FIRST.

THE EARTH'S SURFACE : MOUNTAINS, PLAINS.

The earth's surface is considered as consisting of a

multiplicity of forms, all rising above the level of the
 ;

142 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

sea, and may be conveniently called the land, which,

with countless heights and depths, reaches from sea to
sea. The manner of division into those heights and
depths gives to the greatest continent, as well as to the
smallest tracts, their limitations and their areas, and
thus the conformation of the whole.
The elevations of every kind, in so far as they can
be observed from a lower standpoint, are called hills

and mountains ; the tracts intervening, valleys.

So, too, those elevations, important so far as we know,
which rise above the level of the sea, have also been
called mountains, in contrast with the depths which
surround them, although, of course, no one has been
able to look at them from a standpoint lower than
themselves.
Thus the same expression indicates two wholly dif-

ferent relations, namely, absolute height and the con-

trast between height and depth, a circumstance which
has occasioned nearly all the great confusions and
errors in geography, so that we, from the very outset,
have to be on our guard against similar ones. For
whoever knows to what conditions, taken generally, the
various portions of the earth's surface have been sub-
jected in the warfare of forces, will readily perceive
that it cannot be a matter of indifference whether
great continents rise above the sea's level into the .

atmosphere or not, and whether it be with some a few

hundred feet more or less than with others.
According to that same double use of speech, the
mountains are now called gigantic, now insignificant
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH"' S SURFACE. 143

and worse yet with the valleys, which are collectively

viewed, in almost all cases, as depths.
In the most careful maimer we have to consider
these two relations : firstly, the relative relation of
heights and depths to their surroundings, and secondly,
their absolute relation to the level of the sea. Only
after protracted study, and a course of investigation
extended through entire continents, can we attain to a
correct knowledge of the earth's forms, and view the
world as in relief. This method alone leads us to see
what is common in diversity, and so to trace a unity in
the whole.
By comparing mountains and plains with this abso-
lute standard of the sea's level, we discover their rela-
tion to one another, and their height considered by
themselves. For on the supposition of the surface of
the sea being uniformly distant from the centre of the
earth, and uniformly diffused over the globe, we accept
it as a general water horizon. It gives us the natural
base of measurement, the zero point of the scale, to
reckon upwards and downwards, and compare the ele-

vations and depressions of the earth's surface. Hence

arises this first law of the arrangement of all heights
and depths according to their relation to the earth as
a whole.
The second law follows this directly, of the relative
arrangement of heights and depths in their relations
to the separate continents „ the hidden connection
;

between each grand feature of the globe, considered

as a unit, and its subordinate parts.
144 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

Our task, therefore, will be to investigate these

two
permanent relations of height and depth to view the ;

earth's surface in respect to its two great forms or

types, the mountain system and the valleys of the
earth, as well as all their modifications, and the results
which they condition.
By such a course of research, we shall soon learn
how all diversity in the organic world results from the
combination of both these forms ; firstly, from this,

where and how they find their limits, and secondly,

with what they are in contact.

EXPLANATION SECOND.

DEFINITION OF MOUNTAIN RANGES.

If under the term mountain range we imply, in an

orographical sense, that feature which brings the ele-
vations and depressions of the earth's surface into pal-
pable contrast, and if we mean the aggregate of quali-
ties in mountains grouped together, submitted to a
certain arrangement, subjected to certain laws, and def-

initely founded, we obviate, at the very outset, many

troublesome misunderstandings in geography. For
under the term mountain range the most various, as
well as the most similar, features have been embraced ;

or, if there has been an effort to express any common

quality, the character of what is common has been
drawn from what is special and peculiar. Or, in one
word, as the child thinks all mountains are like the
hill on which he plays, so geography has, up to the
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH' S SURFACE. 145

present time, supposed an equal uniformity to exist in

the relations of mountain chains to the level regions
of the earth, and has developed those relations in a
wholly one-sided manner. And yet there is an indi-
viduality in the forms of the earth's surface which, by
personal observation alone, must win its place in sci-

ence before we can treat of general classifications.

And, therefore, in order rapidly to touch upon a few

points (for these appear in their individual character-
istics, each in its own place) , a hydrographical, geognos-
tical, miner alogical conception of mountain chains must
be freely blended with what is purely orographical.

1. Chains of Marine Mountains. — In 1752, the

hydrographer Buache published his Physical Plani-
sphere and his Memoir on the Mountain Chains of the
Globe, in which he considered them all as connected
features, which break the continent up into certain
divisions. These features he traced through the deep-
and near, finding them in island groups,
est oceans, far

rocks, and shallows (que je regarde comme les som-

mets de la suite des montagnes marines). But the
fact that the volcanic groups of the Atlantic rise

abruptly from vast depths, shows that this theory does

not rest upon a broad induction of facts ; so far as we
can see, there exists no real proof, but only a faint sus-

picion of a submerged continent (the Atlantis) ; and

where shallows are found, confirmations of this

hypothesis are equally wanting. The division of the

ocean into huge basins by these chains of marine moun-

 ;

146 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

tains has no real existence in nature, and is merely a

pleasing view from a theoretical standpoint.
There are, it must be confessed, in special districts,
such sub-marine continuations of mountain chains, as,

for example, in inland seas ; but where this is the case

there are other and decisive reasons for it, as in the

Aleutian Isles, those of the Greek Archipelagos, and

the Straits of Sicily.
The systems of elaborate mountain net-work, moun-
tain equators, mountain meridians and parallels, are all
artificial, superinduced upon nature, and in no way

appertaining to her.

2. Watersheds. — Altogether different from these

are Buache's chdines de Montagues terrestres, — those
continental chains which have been pointed out by
him, as designated by the sources of rivers, cataracts,
and the courses of streams.
If such a watershed does really exist (and its existence
is hinted at in classical accounts of the connection
subsisting between all elevations), it divides the earth's
surface in the most definite manner possible, and this

division affords observations of the utmost interest

and yet, although it draws over all the lands of the earth
a real and permanent net-work, it is not able to reveal
the inner nature and reason of the earth's formation
as a whole. These are only displayed in collective
masses, which, because independent of the mere lav-
ing of those streams, whose power to shape and fashion
is slight, exhibit in the contrasts of absolute heights
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH' S SURFACE. 147

and depths the relations which characterize the differ-

ent features of the earth. There must first exist a

sharp and clearly discernible form to every great natu-
ral division of the globe, before we can trace the sub-
ordinate working upon it of water, whether in the
primitive action of the sea, or the later action of rivers.
Thus the present system of watersheds only exhibits a
very recent tertiary modification of the earth's surface,
often indeed widely changed from the primary form,
and therefore well worthy of careful study, even if it

does not reveal the true reason of the conformation of

the great natural divisions of the earth. From the
interchange of the most varied relations, hereafter to
be traced over the entire globe by careful observations
and measurements, many unfounded generalizations
early arose, which crowded themselves into not a few
general geographical descriptions and systems, and in
particular this, that a watershed must always coin-
cide with a mountain range, and be one with it. It

is a great exaggeration of the truth to suppose that

where a watershed is there must be a mountain chain
also.

But this seductive view has contaminated the later

geography ; and instead of assigning to the continents
a system of highlands, it has covered them all over
with mountain chains, which exist, only too abun-
dantly, in the mere imagination of the designers of
atlases and the writers of school books.
It has therefore become necessary to revert every-
where to the first sources and primitive documents,
148 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

from which all that follows has been drawn, and of

which it is a continuation.
In the first place, a real mountain range does not
always form a line of Avatershed, even in a wide and
level district, as, for example, the Hartz, in this respect
so isolated ; the whole chain lies outside of the water-
sheds ; and if these are the necessary condition of ex-
istence to a mountain system, all that does not pertain
to them has but a secondary and subsidiary importance.
In the second place, in case that watershed and
mountain range coincide, yet the course of the water-
shed is not unfrequently entirely different from the
course of the mountain range, as in the whole Pyre-
nees and Alps. Often the highest peaks of a mountain
chain are wholly outside of the watershed, which may
extend to only a very moderate elevation ; as, for exam-
ple, Mount Perdu, of the Pyrenees, lies aside of the
watershed, and not in its course. Often the watershed
lies on the plain, hard by a high mountain range, as in
the country south of the Carpathian chain, between
Hernad and Poprad, where the waters of the Baltic and
Black seas divide upon the uniform plains of Teplics
and Canoes, eighteen hundred and sixty feet above the
sea, and not upon the highest ridge of the Carpathians

themselves.
In the third place, there are large districts on the
earth's surface where the waters divide, and yet where
there is no mountain range. This occurs where great
absolute height coincides with a plateau formation,
and where relative heights are therefore lost. We look
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 149

for this coincidence between high ranges and between

important river systems, as, for example, the district
north of Lake Constance, where the waters of the
Rinne and the Danube divide, and which neither con-
tains a mountain ridge, nor indeed any chain whatever
of prominent elevations, false as our atlases are in
representing it thus. So the. low range of hills, hun-
dreds of miles in length, which runs through Poland and
Russia, between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Northern
Ocean, and the greatest portion of the watersheds of
North America, as well as of northern and eastern
Siberia, appear on our maps as extensive ranges of
mountains, rivalling the Alps in importance, and yet
having nothing in reality which entitles them to the
name of mountains.
And, in the last place, there is often a wholly pecu-
liar combination of watersheds and mountain ranges,
out of which there is formed, as in Spain, a complex
system. Here the watershed is wholly separated from
the mountain range. Not the chain of the Pyrenees,
but the main watershed, has been the political bound-
ary of this peninsula, between it and the continent,
since the treaty of 1660, for the watershed is an
imaginary line, while the mountain range is sometimes
a hundred miles in breadth. The division into prov-
inces, too, is based upon the lines of watershed, and
these run over elevated plains. This comes in conse-
quence of the very curious windings of mountain
ranges on Spanish maps, while their general course, as
far as they are distinguishable, is parallel from east to
13*
150 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

west, entirely independent of those windings. There

is an opinion that rivers always rnn along by the side

of mountain chains, when, in point of fact, as in Spain

itself, and all over the world, they often break directly
through such ranges. The Euphrates is an instance.
It rises in the high plains of Armenia, and breaks

through the important chain of Taurus, which obstructs

its way, —a circumstance which has led Rennell into
error, and which has had its effect upon the generaliza-
tions of ancients and moderns.

3. Mineral Mountains. — The miner's use of the

word mountains to designate all places where ore is to
be found, has misled geography, and has caused writers
of travels and makers of maps to represent them as

real mountains wherever they occur. Yet Freyberg

itself lies between mere hills, rich in metal and the
;

highest parts of the so-called Erzgebirge, or mineral

mountains, in Saxony and Bohemia, are only elevated
plains. Schemnitz, in the gold mountains, lies in level

Hungary ; and so many other ranges, as the Ural, the

Altai range, the mineral mountains of South America,
appear on the maps as true Alps, while nature gives no
ground for such an exaggeration, only the general use
of the term mineral mountains to indicate the source
of the metals, whether it be in plains, Mils, or veritable
mountains.

4. The Geognostical Yiew of the inner formation

of a mountain range can only be fully presented later
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EAKTH'S SUKFACE. 151

in our work. Meantime it may be serviceable to re-

mark that we gain much, in coming to a consideration
of this side of our general subject, if we regard every
mountain system as composed of members, even if

these are only externally related to the entire system.

This is a new theme in the study of the geography,
i. e., the exterior, of the earth. But there may not be
in our study, if it have a truly scientific character, any
collision between what is exterior and what is interior
to the surface of the globe.
If, with a certain degree of reason, the Neptune
Mountains, and those of Cape Peloro, in Sicily, be con-
sidered as a true continuation of the Apennines, since
they have the same direction and materials (granite
and gneiss) with the mountains in Calabria opposite,
yet, on the other hand, it is a wholly false assumption,
resulting from a glance at maps, rather than from the
study of natural phenomena, to treat of the mountains
of Sardinia and Corsica as a continuation of those of
Genoa* That the granite Cape Corte, of Corsica, is a
continuation of the Genoese Cape delle Malle, promi-
nent indeed, but composed of black transition calcary-
rock, sounds as singularly, says a great student of
mountain formations, 1 as if the Vosghes Mountains
should be treated, as is often lightly done in the
geographies, as a continuation of the Jura chain.
On the other hand, to separate anew what really

belongs together as a perfect whole, as, for instance, the

1 L. von Buch.
152 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

Asiatic highland and the African highland, would, on

the orographical side, be just as arbitrary, just as
adverse to the observing of the earth as a whole, and
just as barren of results as heretofore. Our views of
geographical features as connected have certainly
come to us gradually, and the nations and peoples of
all kinds, who live and wander over the earth, in a

state of constant warfare and contention, have seen

little but diversity on the globe; and yet no true
observer has yet failed to trace, in all special and
separate forms, some characteristic common to all.

5. Incorrect use of the term Mountain. — The

custom which has become quite general, and which is

met in almost all level countries, of calling hills and

slight elevations mountains, of taking everything
which bears the name of mountain as equally im-
portant, and, to go still further, of representing every
rough country, like Hesse and Transylvania, as filled

with mountain chains, which upon the map seem to be

of Alpine height, has introduced many errors into
physical geography, and in special the opinion that all
the high ranges of the earth, or even of a continent,
must stand in solid phalanx.
The Carpathian chain extends from the Sudetes
Mountains, in Bohemia, in a great circle of about five

hundred miles extent, entirely around Hungary. The

highest part of the range is but about forty miles across ;

the rest is of such moderate dimensions, that the

loftiest peaks would only be called hills in Switzerland.
 ;

FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 153

Townsend, the traveller, was deceived in Hungary by

the word mountain, which the Germans employ so
loosely, but for which other nations use nicely graded
expressions, coteaux, collines, montagnes, hillocks,
hills, mounts.
In just as arbitrary a way are the Alps and the Pyr-
enees, in southern France, united by mere rows of
hills, and by hilly land, and thus treated as one vast
cohering system, although the factitious union is en-
tirely untrue to the character of both of its members.
The very general custom, on the other hand, of calling
all level countries plains, whether their position is low
or absolutely high, has led to the separation of what,
according to its formation, belongs together, and to the
oyerlooking of a true connection where there seems to
exist real separation. The elevated terraces of Spain,
for instance, really existing in entire unity, have been
described as separate ; while in Germany great num-
bers of low mountain ranges have been cited as if
existing independent of each other, and the common
basis of relation has been overlooked ; and so, with
the exception of the most striking instances, this fact
has been unnoticed, or at any rate only touched upon
in geography. Although it has been confessed to be
a subject worth attention, its widely reaching influence
has not been studied, and in our special treatises there
isno recognition whatever of this very weighty fact
and notwithstanding that Humboldt long since called
attention to it, it has hitherto exerted very little influ-

ence to the advantage of science.

154 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

EXPLANATION THIRD.

ESTABLISHMENT OP TERMS INDICATIVE OP ELEVATIONS

OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE.

It is our first and special duty to grasp firmly and

look fairly at the essential characteristics of the leading
forms on the globe, and to weigh the most important
relations which exist between the highlands and the
lowlands of the earth's surface.
Those elevations above neighboring plains, or above

the sea's level, which plainly belong together in a

cohering mass, which are large and unbroken by any
river forcing its way through them, which have com-
mon characteristics, and are scattered over a wide
reach of territory, are called mountain systems or pla-
teaus. They may appear as plains, as terraces, or in
knob-like form ; they may lie at various degrees of
absolute height, may themselves bear up other moun-
tains, or be in the fullest sense elevated plains. Those
of great length and height, but of comparatively small
breadth, having definite and discernible ranges (see
Explanation Second), are termed the great mountain
chains of the earth ; these appear as girdles to bind
the world together ; sometimes they may be called
the framework of highlands, and, considered by
themselves, are, with strict propriety, designated as
mountains.
Where we find a number of mountains standing
together, forming a collective mass not long in propor-
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 155

tion to its breadth, we treat it as a mountain group, the

name by which in orographical language it is generally
called. A more intimate acquaintance with mountain
systems alone can help us to indicate with exactness
the characteristics of these mountain groups, for their
forms are various, their relations numerous, complex,
and as yet unstudied with a view of drawing valuable
results from them by personal observation. We need
remark no further on them now. Suffice it to say, that
our present knowledge of them will lead directly from
the facts which we now have to those broader results
which will follow. The absolute height of all these
forms above the level of the sea is the starting point
in a scientific treatment of them, and that will help

us to future exactness.
All collective elevations of more than four thousand
feet above the level of the sea we will designate as
highlands of the first or highest grade, and below that
of the second grade ; all between we will call of an
intermediate degree, or intermediate terraces. Single
heights of one to two thousand feet altitude we will

designate as hills ; from three to four thousand feet, as

mounts. There is not much dependent upon a very

nice discrimination of these subordinate elevations.

Mountains of the second class may be ranked between

four and six thousand feet, while those of six thousand
feet upwards are mountains of the first class. Those
above ten thousand feet are exceptional and gigantic.
From this it can be readily determined what is

meant by hilly country, mountainous country, and the

156 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

like ; although in using these terms we can refer to no

scientific and exact standard, because the poverty of

measurements thus far made does not allow us to

speak with certainty of the whole world.

Remark. — Building of the Earth. — If we employ

term building of the earthy it will indicate
at times the
nothing connected with the supposed fixedness and
cohering unity of the globe, but only convey a hint
that at the base of its exterior form lies an inner con-
structive force, which must yet be investigated and
ascertained.
Buache first introduced the expression Charpente
du Globe, and Desmarest changed it to Ossature du
G-lobe, which makes a skeleton or a scaffold of bones
out of the earth. Scheuchzer rightly named the moun-
tains, taken collectively, the frame-work of the earth,
and called special attention to the process of moun-
tain formation. The expression " mountains of the
globe " has a narrow meaning, while the expression
" building of the earth " hints at an internal as well as
an external arrangement, and has been employed, there-
fore, by Alexander Yon Humboldt. Yet the term,
building of the earth, belongs really to the department
of geology, and has introduced some evils into phys-

ical geography.
After what was said in the Introduction regarding
our general course, and what has been said in these
remarks upon geographical nomenclature, we may
advance at once to an explanation of special features.
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 157

Gaining thence an ample treasure of observations and

generalized results, we shallwork our way back to the
system which includes them all. But till we attain
this, we allow ourselves, in the most vivid conviction
of our personal ignorance and blindness, to be lost in
the wealth of forms and forces which the earth har-
bors, hoping to come from the special, and the com-
parison of the special, to the universal, and to exhibit
oiu* results in a scientific method.

SECTION III.

STREAMS OF WATER.

In accordance with natural laws, streams take their

course from high lands to the low ; the effects of their
descent are manifested in a great variety of ways. This
variety must correspond with all the combinations
which on the oneside arise from the quantity of water

and the time of its wear upon the soil, and on the
other side from the number and kind of resistances
brought against it. The inexhaustible diversity thus
produced is subdued into that harmonious blending of
natural objects which we term landscape. The land-
scape will always and everywhere exercise a charm
over who live surrounded by it
all ; and so it becomes
a marked basis of all organic life.
We are accustomed, too, to think of the effects of
streams as something everywhere the same, because
everywhere carried to the same point, and to overlook

the fact that there is a constant development going on

u
158 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

in their work. This false view creeps in, because wo

are in the habit of considering the whole earth as
everywhere uniform, like some work of man, from
which the master workman has withdrawn his hand,
and which can now, in its completeness, be measured
with absolute exactness. But the study of nature pre-
vents any such idea of river systems, shows us that
their effects are only partly ended, that their distribu-
tion over the earth is not uniform, and enables us to
see, even in the present state of our knowledge, that
many of them have their characteristic peculiarities.
In the region where rivers find their sources, there
is at one time so little individuality in each, that they
exist without any distinct watersheds separating one
from another, but have in the first part of their course
a common channel, the whole year through, as often
occurs in northern countries, or only a part of the
year, the rainy season, in the tropics, as in the highest
probability is the case with the Nile and Niger in
Africa, and many others.
Where rivers break through mountain chains, the
constantly changing condition of their channel reveals
itself in the succession of wastes and of beds of peb-
bles, as in Africa ; or, elsewhere, by a series of lakes

stretching along, which are commonly regarded as

true enlargements of the rivers, connected together by
rapids, cataracts, and rocks rising above the surface.
This feature is displayed in the more depressed polar
countries, and also in the most elevated regions of
southerly latitudes, where mountain lakes are formed,
 159

which elsewhere are entirely wanting. The swampy

districts, which are almost uniformly found where
river systems escape from a mountainous country, also
furnish a proof that the channels of the streams have
not reached a perfect and settled condition.
As rivers draw towards the lower portion of their
course, their channels become fixed, certain, and easily
traced ; frequently, indeed, filled up again in some
rivers, as in the Nile, the Ganges, and the Euphrates,
but less observably so in others, as the Niger, and the
American and Siberian rivers. There are even cases
of a cross stream connecting two river systems, as
the Cassiquiare, in South America, the lake above
Martaban between the Ava and the Pegu, in Annam,
between the Siam and the Camboja, and the Tarando
between the Tornea and the Calix.
And here, in order to make intelligible what is to
follow, we must insert a few remarks.

EXPLANATION FIRST.

RIVER SYSTEMS, AND THE DISTRICTS WHICH THEY WATER.

If the range of elevations which we trace near the

sources of all streams as the watershed indicates the
line where the fall in their course begins, then the
channel far down in the valley is the line of ending ;

for at the mouth of the river all motion ceases, the

level of the sea is reached, and both bodies come into
equilibrium.
This absolutely lowest channel, in a narrow sense
160 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

called the stream, and all the district which the line
that passes from spring to spring encloses, is called,

in a general sense, the source. All waters which are

tributary to the main stream are called right or left
branches, and the entire system which all form is not
unlike the arterial system of the human body.
The district watered is the region which pertains to
the stream, and which is in direct relations with it, as
circumference is to centre ; while the entire body of
land and water, conceived as in unity, and having
mutual dependencies, is known by the general term
river system.
The comparison of streams according to their
breadth and depth determines the size and impor-
tance of their main currents, while the comparison
according to length and the number and size of the

branches gives the extent of their influence. After these

points had been settled, matters connected with the
use of maps of rivulets, brooks, and rivers, might be
determined. Yet this would hardly reward the toil,

for such maps will always differ in scale according as

they present their objects as relative to the entire globe,
or to a single part of it. Yet there are happily words,
local indeed, yet significant, which designate the
smaller class of rivers of the world ; such are the
wadys of Arabia, the ulastus of the steppes of Tar-
tary, the weds of Barbary, the barrancos of all Por-
tuguese possessions, the creeks of North America, the
elfs in Sweden, the gangas of Hindostan. To arrange
all such in a mathematical scale, according to relative
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE 161

rank, would be in great measure unfruitful of valu-

able results ; at all events, it would not be more prof-
itable than the severe divisions of Chinese geography,
in which provinces, cities, and mountains are named
according to their relative greatness and thus the
;

very titles of Chinese rivers, such as Kiang, Ho, Choui,

express their relative importance.
Our method is to arrange river systems according
to their length and to the superficial area which they
drain (including the district where their sources lie),
and to consider them, whether taken in relation to a
single continent or to the whole earth, as river systems
of the first, second, or third rank.
But a stream which, in view of the whole globe, is
insignificant, is of much importance to the local district
to which it belongs. The little Bavarian Isar receives,
between its source and its mouth, eight hundred and
sixty tributaries on the left side, among which are
forty-four small rivers ; on the right side, four hundred
and thirty-three, running into it through fifty-nine

channels ; on both sides, one hundred and thirty-one

lakes, and five branches of importance, empty into it.

In the whole, it is fed by a hundred and thirty-six

lakes, and twelve hundred and ninety-three tributaries,

which enter it through a hundred and three channels.

But the Isar is only one of the thirty-four branches of

the Danube, which in relation to the great river sys-
tems of the earth can only be classed in the third rank.
Not the size merely, but the entire combination of
elements which enter into the composition of a river
14*
162 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

system, indicates its characteristic individuality. There

lies a certain unity at the base of them all, a ground
principle which can be mathematically expressed, and
which a comprehensive view of them as a whole
reaches and grasps. For an example, look at the great

river systems of the East, the Ganges and the Indus.

The word Mabar, i. e. the great frith, signifies in the
East Indies the collective body of land extending from
the Bay of Bengal, along the Ganges on both sides, up
to the Himalayas, and corresponds completely to our
conception of a river system. We may mention that
the people of North America have traced, with great
care, the boundaries of their river systems, and learned
the bearing which they have had in the historical
development of their country.

Remarks. — Watersheds as a Means of internal

Communication. — The watershed indicates always the
beginning of a river system ; the sources of a stream
are, in every case, to be found there. The waters
which are to flow to oceans, remote from each other,
here are brought almost together. On the watershed
of theRocky Mountains, the sources of the Missouri
and of the Columbia are not a half mile from one
another but they empty indirectly into the Atlantic
;

and Pacific, which are widely separated at the north-

ern part of North America. The watershed of the
Black and Baltic seas lies between Teplics and Canoes,
on the Carpathian table-lands. The Caucasians indi-
cate the streams that flow to opposite seas by the
 FIXED FOKMS OF THE EARTH"' S SURFACE. 16o

name Rioni ; the Buraetes, in Siberia, call them Dogno,

as, for example, all which flow from the watershed
between the China Sea and the Arctic Ocean ; the
streams running northerly into the Lena, they call
Aru-Dogno ; those which belong to the upper course
of the Amur, Urbu-Dogno. The Mongolians pay hon-
ors to the elevations which serve as watersheds, erect
heaps of stones or stations for prayer upon them, and
the Tungneses never go by such stone heaps without
casting a cedar branch upon them, in order, as they
say, that the holy mountains which part the waters
may not diminish, but always increase. Underlying
this usage is the correct observation that watersheds
are not to be regarded as absolute boundaries, that the
river courses are, at the place of their beginning, work-
ing backward, eating their way slowly but surely, and
in the fall of trees and rocks carrying change, some-
times destruction, in this retrograde advance.
On the wide plains of the northern part of North
America the watersheds are used as means of commu-
nication and of transport ; in the Russian steppes,
they are known as wolocks, the word itself being sig-

nificant, wolocsit meaning in Russian, to carry, and the

people themselves have been named from this word
Tschudi transvolocani. There are only two such
wolocks in Russia between the Black Sea and the Arc-
tic Ocean, the one at Zarizyn, between the Don and
the Yolga, the other above Tcherdin, between the
Kolwa and the Petschora. In Hungary they are called
haetz, as, for instance, Themeskaetz, between the
Themesch and the Marosch.
164 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OX THE

Watersheds are found in the different continents

variously apportioned, and not of uniform significance.
America has nine important ones between the Atlantic
and the Pacific. Europe has ten, which are note-
worthy, between its sea-basins of the North and of the
South, and, in consequence, is more readily traversed,
a fact not unnoticed by Charlemagne. Asia and
Africa, on the other hand, are remarkable for their
meagreness in those forms, which, acting as water-
sheds, must be presupposed to condition a means of
communication between the interior of every continent
and its borders.
The leading watersheds divide the surface of the
earth into five basins of the largest size, sixteen of the
second, and twenty-six of the third ; the consideration
of which will engage us at another place.

EXPLANATION SECOND.

THE DIRECTION, FALL, UPPER, MIDDLE, AND LOWER COURSE

OF STREAMS.

The main or normal direction of a river is condi-

tioned in part by the amount of water and its fall,

and in part by the barriers which mountain ranges and

masses of earth and rock form to check its course.
The law of the parallelogram of forces is often very
apparent, but only seldom, or perhaps never, does the
course of a stream proceed purely from the conflict of
two bodies of water. The always varying district

through which it has to pass creates a resistance, which

 165

has a powerful influence upon the direction of a river.

The slight deviations from a general course are often
caused by mountain barriers. This is strikingly the

case in the Rhine, between Bingen and Kaub, in the

upper Ticino, and in the Swedish Dal, where the
causes of deviation are readily marked.
From an angular zigzag line of short, unbroken
courses, running this way and that way, and all in a
perfectly and painfully regular manner, if the stream
passes through a compact, thoroughly stratified, and
completely crystallized district, it softens down to a
gentle, wave-like line if it enters a district where the
rock is easily disintegrated, and where the soil has
been formed by deposit. The practised eye can judge
with tolerable correctness, from an accurate delinea-
tion of a river's course, what are the general charac-
teristics of the soil through which it makes its way.

It is the common law that streams break through in-

tervening obstacles in those directions in which they
find the least resistance. In the case of mountain
barriers, where the strata are perpendicular, the river

course is made as nearly parallel with it as the fre-

quent occurrence of cataracts can effect it. Where
the strata are horizontal, rivers always take their
course through the most marked clefts which lie in
their way. Where the mountain barriers are of hetero-
geneous composition, the streams choose their course
where different elements come together, and thus, as
is so often the case in the Alps and the Pyrenees, keep
upon the borders of all, without running directly
 ;

166 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

across any. This is probably the great reason often-

times of the sudden bending of a river where it

emerges from a mountain range (according to Heim,

the attraction of the river to the mountain) , which not
only appears in small streams, as, for example, those
which flow out from the Hartz, but also on the largest
scale in the great rivers of India; the Indus, the
Ganges, the Chinese river systems, and others from
the Asiatic highlands, apparently demonstrating this
feature as a general one. From all these things we
see that' rivers neither form their channels where and
as they will, nor do they take possession of courses
which have been always formed, but which have before
been, res nullius, the property of none.
The rapidity of streams depends upon the amount
of water, upon the friction occasioned by different
kinds of soil and bottoms, upon the pressure from
above, and upon the fall. It must, therefore, be

widely various. In passing through or from moun-

tains the fall is greater, the pressure from behind less
in the valleys the pressure behind is greater, and the
fall less. Rapidity is hindered by the accumulation of
waters where they run into and are resisted by the
sea and by the levelness of their course, but it is in-
creased by receiving auxiliary streams. Rapid streams
pass in a second over a space varying from three to
seven feet, slow ones far fewer, torrents far more.

1. Upper Course of Streams. — In mountainous

tracts the waters plunge rather than run, and so they
 ;

FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 167

are known by appropriate names in different lan-

guages: torrents with us, wildbaeche in Germany,
aehen in Switzerland, gaven in Spain and Portugal,
elfs in Norway. In the Pyrenees the fall of the
gaven, or mountain streams, an inch in every foot
is

here and there occur cataracts of two to three feet, and

sometimes more, which are very beautiful. We meet
this feature in all mountainous „districts, and on the
sharply defined crests of polar regions. Even the
mountain lakes have often a considerable fall, as, for
instance, Lake Maggiore, above Milan, between Maga-
din and Arona, where, in so inconsiderable a distance,
there is a fall, according to the measurements of Count
Morozzo, of fifty-two feet.

2. Middle Course of Streams. — The descent be-

low the mountain country and the lakes where rivers
rise is far less, and far less, too, in streams which
have in the main but a slight grade, as, for instance,

the Neckar, which, from its source to Heilbronn, a dis-

tance of one hundred and fifty miles, has a fall of only

thirty-two feet to every three miles, and to every thirty-

two feet a fall of an inch. Still less is it in the grade

of the Oder, and less yet in the Danube from its source
to Presburg, there being only seventeen hundred feet
to nine degrees of longitude. The general very slight
fall of streams has already received some attention
from observers, and ought not to be lost from sight by
us in the course of this work.
By the term bed of the stream is meant its entire
168 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

width, which, of course, varies with the height of the

water, as, for instance, the Mississippi, at Natchez, is

a mile wide at low water, while at high water it is

thirty miles wide. The Orinoco, at St. Thomas, is

ordinarily three miles wide, but at the time of the

floods it is, according to Dupons, nearly ninety miles
in width.
The channel of a river is different from its bed ; it

is the channel which gives life and motion to the whole

mass of water, the beating artery, as it were, of the
stream. In the upper course the channel and the bed
mostly coincide, but in the middle course the channel
becomes distinct, and indicates the direction, slope,

and rapidity of the river. It does not ordinarily lie in

the middle of the stream, but follows the general fall,

drawing, however, in its greatest depth near the

steepest rocks which form the banks. By the influ-
ence of the channel the windings of streams, as they
pass through level lands, are increased ; these* wind-
ings check the onward motion, the serpentine or
meandering current is increased, and becomes a char-

acteristic of the middle course of rivers. Here and

there islands and meadows are formed, but with few
exceptions none of the lakes which characterize the
upper course of rivers. At the same time the low
intervale lands abundantly indicate that they are at
present only broad and dry basins of old lakes.
This last feature is observable in the Rhine from
Schaf hausen to Bartberg, below Strasburg, and again
from Ladenburg to Bingen. It is to be seen, too, in
 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH' S SURFACE. 169

the course of the Danube from Ulm to the Narrows,

at Kloster Neuburg, above Vienna, and from there the
same feature appears several times above Pesth, and
below Semlin, in the rapids of Orsova. It is also ob-

served in the Granges, the Indus, the Euphrates, and

the American rivers. In the yet imperfect river sys-

tem of the St. Lawrence the series of lakes is seen still

existing, forming many separate basins, one emptying

into another, and thus all constituting the stream ; and
nowhere else can the different steps in the process of
river formation be observed on so great a scale as
there.
The passages through which the running waters
way from the higher of these dry sea-basins
force their
to the lower, are in almost all streams yet visible, more
or less characterized by defiles or narrows, often by the
accumulation across the river-bed of former banks,
rocks, slopes, and shallows, producing frequent eddies
and rapids, and, in America especially, cataracts. Not
to go farther than examples in Europe, there are the
Saltor de Lobo of the Guadiana, the rapids above
Monte Corvo in the Duero, the swift current below
Saragossa in the Ebro ; the rapids of the Rhone be-
tween the granite banks of Pierre Encise below Lyons,
the rocky shores of the Loire at Iguerando, those of
the middle Rhine, below Strasburg at Bingen Loch,
at St. Goar, and below Andernach ; those of the Elbe
at Leitmeritz, Aussig, Rauhe Ford, Klingler, and Meer-
schützen Ford, below Meissen. There are the whirl-
pools of the Danube at Grein, the rapids at Kloster
15
170 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

Neuburg, the rocky passes at Tachtali, Demirkapi,

Orsova ; in the Dnieper, there are the fifteen rapids
(porogs) below Katharinoslaw. We might easily adduce
others. They are characteristic of streams in all the
continents, and the study of them will yet lead to im-
portant results in our knowledge of river formations.
They impede shipping everywhere, or stop it entirely.
They are not, of course, to be confounded with real
cataracts. The latter, and the sharply-defined rocky
outline, are the characteristics of the upper course of
a stream as it makes its way through the high lands ;

the rapids, the broad, level sea-basins, and the winding

course, on the other hand, indicate the middle course
as it passes through the shelving lands. Below the
last rapids, the river spreads out over *the low and level
districts, where the third class of characteristics appear.

3. Lower Course. — The beds of the upper and

middle courses, as they lose by degrees their redun-
dance of water, become dry ; the barriers which impede
rivers near their beginnings are broken through only
to allow their lower channels to be more abundantly
filled. This indicates, in a word, the history of all

river formations.
The fall of the lower courses is often unobservable \

as, for instance, that of the Senegal, according to Adan-

son, from Podor to the ocean, a distance of sixty
leagues, is only two feet and a half; the fall of the
Amazon, according to Condamine, for two hundred
miles is only ten feet and a half, — for every thousand
feet but one-sixth of an inch.
 171

The pressure of immense masses of water behind,

the antagonistic pressure of the tide, and the yearly
floods, create, before an equilibrium is adjusted, a con-
stant strife of the elements, whose result will, of course,

vary with the region exposed to it.

The body of water carried down the channel of riv-

ers sometimes seeks to find a level by dividing or fork-
ing near its mouth, as the Nile does at Cairo ; the
action of the stream upon the land, and the resistance
which the sea gives, occasion the alluvial deposits,which
when remaining below the surface of the water are
called bars, and when above the surface, deltas. Thus,
for instance, in the Granges, Indus, Euphrates, Nile,
Rhine ; briefly, in fourteen of the main river systems

of the earth. The contrary form, the wide estuaries

not filled up, called negative deltas, or inlets of the
ocean, are to be seen in nine leading river systems,
such -as the Obi, Genesee, St. Lawrence, and Colum-
bia ; in short, mainly in northern parts of the earth,
and noticeable even of the small elfs and creeks.
Another peculiarity of the lower course is the ex-
tremely frequent change of the channel, and therefore
the wandering of the river-bed from one side of the
plains through which it flows to another, which, when
historically traced in the Ganges, Indus, Euphrates,

Nile, and Rhine, is so remarkable.

In the lower course of rivers begins the annually
recurring general inundation of the low districts,

common to all tropical regions, and this gives rise to a

new deposit of alluvium, the result of what Herodotus

called 7roTa/xo? ipyartKo^, or stream forces.
172 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

According as rivers are brought in conflict with the

resisting waters of an inland sea or the tides of the

ocean, the whole nature of the lower course is affected.

This is shown, for instance, in the. river systems of

the Nile, the Danube, and the Yolga, that triad of
systems which do not run into the ocean, on the
one hand, in contrast to those, on the other, which are
exposed to the highest waves of the ocean, as the great
streams of China, India, and eastern America ; and in
contrast, too, to those which are only one degree less

affected by the waves beating in, such as, in general,

those mouths of rivers looking towards the west and
north, in opposition to those looking to the east and
south.

EXPLANATION THIRD.

THE TERRACE-LANDS OF THE EARTH.

It follows from the brief indication of the leading

peculiarities of river systems now given, if they are
compared with each other, and if, too, they are viewed
in relation to the highlands and the lowlands of the
earth as a whole, that they have three main forms,
which gradually appear as the observer passes down
their whole course from the most elevated to the lowest
point.
In reference to the stream, we indicate these forms
by the expressions upper, middle, and lower courses in ;

reference to the area of the entire river system, we can

 FIXED FORMS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE. 173

indicate them as the three terraces, and the lands

thought of in this connection as the three terrace-lands
of the earth. For the same laws which show them-
selves in the main channel of a stream repeat them-
selves, though in less degree, in all its ramifications,

and pervade the entire river system. It is not, as in

vegetation, the working out of certain forces from the

root, and going from below upwards ; it is just the
reverse, — a gradual formation and conditioning pro-
cess from above downwards ; an old bursting of the
barriers which confined the waters of the earth to the
highest places on the earth's surface, after which they
forced their way downwards, working out channels,
and spreading a net-work over the world, as a tree
daily throws out new branches from its central trunk.
And as the vital forces of a tree occasion an intri-

cate system of ramifications, so does this moving of

water from mountainous regions give rise to an intri-

cate system, whose development, it is to be remem-

bered, is ever downwards, and whose ramifications are
not fortuitous, coming from this point and that, run-
ning this way and that, but are the result of a singu-
larly constant law running through all such systems,
that common effects must be referred to common
causes. We do not dwell here upon single excep-
tions. But the uniformity with which this law
works «occasions this constant and natural division

into three grades of land between the sources and

the mouths of rivers, which we have already quite
fully indicated.
15*
174 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON FIXED FORMS.

Monographs on the river systems will yet further

disclose how various natural divisions can come in,

and how the peculiarity of every leading river system

is modified by them.
These observations assume a yet greater importance
in Comparative Geography when we think that some
nations have reached the highest grades of elevation
only within the limits of great river systems, and that
the pulsation of the great veins of the earth, if I may
call the rivers such, conduces to the activity of the
human race, and calls states and nations forth, and
stamps them with conscious individuality.
 THE

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
AND

HORIZONTAL EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS.

[READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OE BERLIN.]

 —

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND HORIZONTAL

EXTENSION OE THE CONTINENTS.
[READ DECEMBER 14, 1826.]

Since the method arose of viewing the Earth, not

in a purely mathematical light, but physically, as a
body moved by the forces of nature, as Newton led
theway in showing, the greatest progress has been
made in a knowledge of the globe in all its divisions.

This later method has already given a new direction

to mathematical inquiries, and it will serve as a step-
ping-stone to all future mathematical investigations.
The most. varied phenomena on our planet now find
their solution in the great yet simple laws of attrac-
tion. These phenomena display themselves as the
results of very manifold, although harmoniously united
influences of the members of the solar system,
members largely unlike ; here, nearly joined ; there,

widely sundered; yet only in appearance divorced

from each other, and constantly and regularly having
a controlling power over the earth, and mutual influ-
ence over one another.
The earth, a mere member of the solar system, exists
 8

IT THE POSITION AND

in itself as a complete system of phenomena, under

the influence of which the sundering of its parts, their

scattered position in one place, and their compact close-

ness in another, have, in a variety of ways, affected the

surface. And so, too, every one of the earth's divisions
gives rise to special effects : each does not merely lie

separated hy chance from other, but they are all closely

related to the whole. Each is a needed and rightful

link in the perfect chain ; and the peculiarity of the
globe, considered as a planet, grows out of what is

special and distinct in the arrangement of all its divis-

ions. This arrangement generates special relations.

In this arrangement, which has a connection with
the nature and history of the earth considered as in
itself a system, there is a real though peculiar ele-

ment,— an element having do with the earth alone,

to
embracing lands, whether devoid of or teeming
all

with — an element
life, concerned with the
directly

earth as a unit, and carefully to be distinguished from

any force which acts in scattered countries, or in the
earth when not regarded in its wholeness. You grasp
this when you view our planet as itself an organism,
which, having higher functions than the mere filling

of space, or the lying idle in unorganized forms, pene-

trates the realm of vegetation, influences life, and
even reaches with a formative and controlling hand
into the sphere of spiritual activities.
This higher system of agencies reveals itself in all

the phenomena of history, exhibiting the earth as the

theatre of the forces of nature ; as, in a certain sense,
 ;

EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 179

the mother of races ; as the home and the temporary

field of development for man.
The analysis of this general relation to its nicest
details is the task of science; every minor relation
gains thereby its significance, as standing between and
connecting what is individual with what is universal
and thus causes apparently insignificant are seen to
give rise to large and complex results. Among these
causes belong unquestionably matters of distance and
space, following their natural divisions ; and of those
we shall be allowed here to say a few words.
The unequal division of the earth into land and
water has long been remarked ; and the relation, in

respect to quantity, of what is fixed to what is unstable,

has been ascertained with approximate exactness ; as
to mere area,we have a knowledge of the extent of
the globe. But less attention, it seems, has been paid
to the conformations of the earth's surface, and to the
mutual relations of the parts to the whole ; and this

in spite of the fact that from the beginning there have

lain in those conformations the very germs and condi-
tions of these developments, whether already realized
or yet in progress, which give nature her force, and
which cover our planet with organized life. Besides
the striking climatic differences, upon which these
diversities of the globe have a great effect, and which
ought never to be overlooked, there is also a direct
system of action and reaction in time and place ;

that is, a certain correspondence between the confor-

mations of the earth's surface and the phenomena of
180 THE POSITION AND

history, —a correspondence growing out of contact,

separation, or changes, and which, in one word, is de-
pendent upon nearness and distance in point of place,
and has a parallel development in the events of time.
It is indisputably certain that to every physical condi-

tion there answers some result in the course of things ;

every cause in nature has its correspondent develop-

ment in history, influencing what is hidden or appa-
rent, what is special or general.
We will here consider merely some of those relations
which lie in horizontal dimensions and extents ; later
we will study the relations of vertical dimensions, —a
topic which has heretofore called out much observation,
but which has never been rightly viewed, excepting far
enough to correctly establish fundamental principles.

I. CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LAND HEMISPHERE AND

THE WATER HEMISPHERE.

Some observers have already called attention to the

unequal division of the earth's surface into land dis-

tricts and water districts, and have also showed that

the former lie more around the north pole than the
south, and that they are more compacted towards the
east than towards the west.
From the double system of relations which this
division of the earth's surface occasions, there arises
naturally an arrangement as regards the fixed and
fluid forms of a northeasterly land hemisphere and
a southwesterly water hemisphere, forming together
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. lSl

the greatest contrast, probably, on the globe. The

system of relations arising from the mutual action of
these on each other may be indicated by the contrast
once supposed to exist between the circle of land (in
the sense of the ancients) and the circle of water,

which were together thought to cover the vast plain

of the earth's surface. We may speak, therefore, of a

continental and of an oceanic side of the earth. The
boundary of these two hemispheres of land and water
is not indicated by a mere line, but by a broad belt,
which, spanning tracts of water and coasts of seas, is

readily traced, passing round the globe as it does, and

crossing the equator northeast of the Mozambique
Channel, and in the neighborhood of the coast of Peru,
at an angle of somewhere near forty-five degrees.
In the heart of the northern, or land hemisphere, lies

Europe, surpassing in its perfected civilization all other

countries, brought into the greatest possible contact
and connection with the other continents, in the centre
of the greatest activities, and at the head of all the high-
est and noblest developments which history exhibits.

The and island groups of Australia, situated

shores
at the middle of the water hemisphere, were always
external to a natural, inevitable, and, even in early
times, important contact with the great land hemi-
sphere ; and hence the people inhabiting them, antipo-
des to .us, could only be brought within the sphere of
our influence after the art of navigation should be far
advanced, and after many centuries had rolled away.
The mere position of Australia was the cause of its

16
 —

182 THE POSITION AND

entire want of development, just in the same way that

the wonderful capacity exhibited by Europe of assimi-

lating the peculiarities of all surrounding countries,
and the consequent early maturity of its culture,
occasioning as it did a powerful reaction and a gen-
eral diffusion of the gains reached by itself, — were
the result of Europe's central position in the land
hemisphere.
Entirely different from the position of the scattered
and remote lands of Australasia is that of other conti-
nents apparently equally separated, such as America,
Africa, and a great portion of eastern Asia. Belong-
ing to the land hemisphere, they lie, in point of dis-
tance, far nearer to the common centre ; favorable
connections of both land and water, in every form,
unite them in the progress of time yet nearer to the
great theatre of life and activity, which would natu-
rally arise and assume importance first in the midst of
the land hemisphere, — the field of the world's early
history. Therefore, almost all the countries of the
land hemisphere show, in their productions, popula-
tions, old sayings, monuments, and traditions, the tra-
ces, at least, of this ancient connection of the parts
which make up the whole, and show them the more
the nearer they lie to the common centre. They show
them, on the other hand, less, but in every respect
more individualized, the more removed they lie from
the centre of the land hemisphere, and the nearer they
approach its limits ; and in the islands which have no
connection with the main land, excepting those which
can be called neighboring islands, they wholly fail.
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 183

In this respect the southern extremities ©f South

America and South Africa are to be reckoned with the
isolated tracts of Australasia, not merely because they
extend beyond the boundary line into the region where
the oceanic form is predominant, but because the
advantages of a general connection of countries do
not, to any marked extent, accrue to them, in conse-
quence of their solitary, very remote position, and the
unfavorable nature of their surface. And if they do
not wholly partake of the character of oceanic islands,
they yet belong to that belt or zone of coast lands
which separates the land hemisphere from the water
hemisphere, —a belt of various widths, sometimes
partly or wholly sundered, — of disunited and isolated
continental extremities and islands, forming the outer
periphery of the land hemisphere ; a circle which has
in its entire extent but two breaks of different lengths,
— one where it comes nearest to the south pole, in the

space between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope,

and again in the short distance intervening at Behr-
ing' s Straits between Northeast Asia and North-

west America. In the uniform position of this belt

of coast lands, the only one of its kind in the world,

in relation to the water hemisphere, lies the fact
that it is in its characteristics more allied to this than
to the land hemisphere ; that though the place of trans-
ition forms, yet it partakes more of the water than of
the land. And yet, uniform as is its relation to the sea,

it has climatic differences notwithstanding. Yet these

are but slight, and their relation to the general charac-
184 THE POSITION AND

teristics «of the entire belt is like that of species to

genera. Within this circle of coast line fall the
southerly portions of South America, southern Africa
and Madagascar, southern India, with the isles of
Sunda, the volcanic groups along the eastern coast of
Asia, Japan, Kamskatka, Alaska, Northwest America,
California, and the volcanic shores of South America,
back to the southern portions of this continent again.

The contrast in the relative position of these vast

land and water hemispheres appears to have just as
great an influence on the organization of the globe as
the mathematical contrast between the north and
south at both poles, and as the climatic contrast which
is indicated by the terms tropical and polar regions.
The first of these intersecting and mutually influen-
tial contrasts rests upon the peculiar extension of the
fixed and fluid forms, and thus its relations are the sim-
plest, though they exercise sway over the whole globe.
They even directly affect the most movable and pliant
element of all, the atmosphere ; and, by the combined
action of the sun's heat and light with moisture, this
veil, enveloping the earth, is woven. One half of it,

surcharged with the excess of moisture, contains with-

in itself suspended seas, while the other half spans
with its clear, dry arch the regions of the land hemi-
sphere ; while, again, you seek the place where the moist
and the dry come into equilibrium on the great belt
of coast lands, where the monsoons, for instance, are
found. The greenness of the earth is the indication
of the ever-changing contrast between the continental
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 185

and the oceanic regions : with the predominance of

oceanic influences the greenness of vegetation becomes
more deep and beautiful.

II. THE GROUPING OF THE LAND MASSES.

A second subject, entirely different from the fore-

going division of the surface of the earth into land
and water hemispheres, is the grouping of the land
masses, expanding themselves, as it were, from a cen-
tral principle, just as vegetation as it grows always
advances towards the sky, and as the soil, full of all
kinds of germs for the future to develop, is covered
now with all forms of beauty, yet reserves itself for the

unfolding in days to come of nobler forms.

This grouping of which we speak comprehends,
indeed, the accumulation of continental forms in the
northeast, but it concerns more directly this very sig-

nificant phenomenon in the formation of the land

portion of the globe, — the compactness of the region
around the common centre, and the rifting and sund-
ering of the exterior regions.
A glance at a globe will show how the two great
bodies of the Old and New Worlds lie around the
northern polar circle from the seventieth to the eighti-
eth degrees of latitude, and reach out in capes and
promontories to such an extent that they approach each
other so nearly that in one place — namely, between
Asia and America — the distance is not greater than a
man ordinarily walks in a day. This great breadth at
16*
186 THE POSITION AND

the north is set in contrast to the constantly increas-

ing narrowness as you go southwards ; a contrast

between breadth and contraction which is seen every-
where, and which characterizes small masses of land
as well as large ones.
It is everywhere noticeable that none of the conti-
nents point towards the Arctic regions, but that they
all tend in wedge-like form towards the south, in ever
narrowing peninsulas ; the small projections from the
main land into the water hemisphere, and lastly the

islands, form the final representatives of the continen-

tal form, until even these become mere rocks in the

open ocean, and then wholly disappear.
It is this contrast between the extension and the
contracting towards the extremities, together with the
radiation of the land masses from a common point, one
of which is found in the Old World and one in the
New, which gives the collective groups a character
which must be of decisive and lasting influence upon
subordinate tracts, and which is increased and strength-
ened by the fact that the amount of water on the
globe is twofold greater than that of land.
From the system of grouping of which we are
speaking there results, that the Arctic regions of the
entire earth are brought into great proximity; they,
therefore, display, in the various degrees of longitude,
less diversified phenomena than occur under the same
meridians, but in parts of the earth lying widely
sundered. Geognostically, these regions stand very
near each other. The organic formations are condi-
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 187

tioned by geographical forms brought into proximity,

and standing in very simple relations, and show in the
two great divisions of the Old and New Worlds great
similarity. Even the distribution of races displays a
similarity of characteristics in man, peculiar to the
Arctic regions of the earth.
Yet not only in general the Arctic extremities of
the earth, but also in special all those extremities of
the continents which turn to the north, remain, since
they tend more or less to converge to the great land
centre, in a greater degree of relationship as to their
productions and phenomena than those which turn
southward, which are separated from each other by
relatively greater tracts of ocean, and which, therefore,
lying under other meridians and in other conditions,
exhibit entirely different phenomena. This is shown
not only in the southern extremities of the great divis-
ions, America, Africa, Asia, but also in the contrast
between the tropical peninsulas of southern Asia and
the temperate peninsulas of southern Europe. For
intervening distances between countries, measuring
from east to west, occasion great diversities in the
land systems and all their phenomena ; so that specific
and productions of lands
differences in the formations
which are separated are not only determined by the
question of latitude, but also by their distance from
other lands.
The radiation and the breaking up of the periphery
of the land hemisphere into fragmentary parts has
given rise to more natural divisions and differences,
188 THE POSITION AND

depending upon the double action of the fixed and

fluid forms, at the outer limits of the system of groups
than at their common centre. And, therefore, even
without reckoning in climatic differences, which confer
their share in shaping the characteristics of a country,
it is at the outer limits that the great diversity of con-

trasted land systems, each of which is in itself com-

plete, appears in sharply defined and individualized
features, between which, in the lands contrasted, there
are no softened stages of transition. But towards the
centre, on the other hand, diversity wholly disappears,
more comprehensive relations of all kinds enter in,
transitions, and those not alone in climatic peculiari-
ties, are met with and thus there was the field of
;

classical history, established as such because the cen-

tral tract of the great group of countries compos-
ing the land hemisphere was fitted for the duty,
which it at length discharged, of bringing into ad-
justment all the contrasts in physical and historical
phenomena before unsettled, and, in great measure,
unstudied.
The peculiar advantages which accrued from the
arranging of wide districts around a common centre,
indicated by the harmonious solution of contradictory
relations, would have almost wholly disappeared, as
they partially have done, from the earth, if the cen-
tral part should have spread out in an unbroken form,
and would have robbed the great land hemisphere of
that diversity in unity, consequent upon its broken
outline, which was just as essential to the full develop-
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 189

niefrt of its central regions as to the enrichment of

its shores.

As physical phenomena always and everywhere con-

dition mathematical ontline and form, the compactness
of the continents is not perfect, but they are rifted
even to the very centre. The openings thus occasioned,
which we call straits, bays, gulfs, inland seas, — some-
times even parts of the ocean, as the Arctic and North
Atlantic, for instance, — are yet, with all their magni-
tude, in comparison with the great, open, unconfined
water hemisphere, only narrow basins mere contracted, ;

and we can say with much propriety, continental bodies

of water. But, although they have their general char-
acteristics in common, yet they have, in their two
classes, relations different from one another and pecu-
liar to each, arising mainly from their situation. Take,
for instance, what gives waters their life, and what is

their chief characteristic, — their motion. While some,

lying open and unconfined, follow laws whose influence
is universal, others, like the inland seas of Europe,
either do not share at all in the larger movement, or,

like the North Sea, they exhibit different phenomena,

although primarily deduced from those which are gen-
eral ; or, in cases where the waves of the sea have a
direct action upon them, as is the case with the broad
channel of the Atlantic in its relation to the great
water hemisphere, there is often a counter motion, as,
for instance, in the Gulf Stream, setting from America
towards Europe, in opposition to the great current
from east to west, which results from the earth's rota-
190 THE POSITION AND

tion. All this indicates plainly enough how great

effects arise from the relative position of bodies of

water to bodies of land, and how the various move-

ments of seas, and bays, and gulfs have their share
in the influences of the oceanic world.
These tracts of water, with their ceaseless move-
ments and currents, have done something to soften
down, especially towards the west, the great separation
of the common centre of the land hemisphere from
the water hemisphere and the great boundary of shore
line already described,and have thus brought Europe
into far more immediate connection with the rest of
the world than its mere position, aside from communi-
cation by sea, would have made possible thus, this ;

continent has become more marked than any other,

because it unites the advantages of a central position
with those of the land lying on the external boundary
of the land hemisphere. Similar subdivisions else-
where, by channels of water and arms of the sea,
greater degrees of isolation, and other situations of the
continents, would have awakened influences just as
various and just as striking.
The peculiar division of the land hemisphere into
two great masses, known as the Old and the New
World, and the subdivision of these into the four
continents, has occasioned a most favorable arrange-
ment for them to be brought into more close connec-
tion than they would be if they were all a solid mass,
by the intervention of a coast-line, which is especially
advantageous on the northwest shore of the Old World
 ;;

EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 191

and the northeast shore of the New ; —a coast-line

whose quickening and enriching influence, far beyond
its own immediate self, appears at once when one
thinks for a moment of the places which gave a home
to the people of the ancient world, — the Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Greeks, Carthaginians, the Scandinavians
of the North, as well as the more modern races of
western Europe and northeastern America.
Still, an advantageous coast-line is denied to the
great mass of the boundary of the land hemisphere
it is of profit to island groups, but not to those conti-
nents which are too remote to present a shore-line
easily attainable and made of service by currents and
winds for the distribution of races, and of plants and
animals, as well as for the diffusion of culture. The
perfected art of navigation alone has brought the
southern extremities of the earth into the closest

relations with us.

All these great and mutual relations depend alone
upon the peculiar arrangement of land and water, or
upon that division and grouping of them in reference
to the whole surface of the earth already described
and a long list of general and special phenomena,
easily traceable in detail, finds its satisfactory solution,

so far as concerns all subordinate characteristics of

different regions, in the relations which arise directly

from the dimensions of the earth's surface in length

and breadth.
192 THE POSITION AND

III. POSITIONS OF THE SEPARATE CONTINENTS.

Quite different phenomena have been occasioned by

the special positions and extents of the separate divis-
ions of the earth in their relation one to another.
These new sources of influence are to be discrimi-
nated from that general system of action and reaction
of which we have spoken, but they work harmoniously
with it.

Europe, the smallest of the continents, surrounded

by the others in a broken ring, and Australia, the
largest island, surrounded by the open ocean, are the
regions which, in the north and south respectively, hold
the middle place in the land hemisphere and the water
hemisphere, — the continental side and the oceanic side
of the globe. This situation gives Europe, in prefer-
ence to any other of the continents which are linked
together, the right to be called the most continental of
all, for it is the highway of all, and the link which
eminently unites them all. So the classical soil of the

west of hither Asia and the lands of northern Africa

have largely affected the world's history, for theirs
is a great part of the coasts of the Mediterranean.
The influence of this section of the world on the
whole course of human culture is confessedly great,
and is produced by a combination of causes which
can hardly be repeated in any other spot, — an indis-

putably favorable arrangement in the elements of posi-

tion and form. In any other part of the globe the
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 193

careful student could see in the surroundings, if he

looked at them in their analogies, that it would need
a longer time, and that greater difficulties and limita-
tions must be met, before the needed formative condi-
tion should evolve equally perfect results. And so, too,

the old strugglings after a higher culture in other

places, as in India and China, which, with all other
helps, yet lacked the true position for attaining to a
development which should embrace the earth, show
that as everywhere the unseen only works itself out
through the seen,. so the development of the inhabit-
ants of the world stands in close relation and harmony
with the organization of the earth, to which they
directly belong.
A harmonious and general arrangement of the vari-

ous continents of the earth in their relations to light

and heat, and to the rising and the setting of stars,
has, from the earliest times, awakened the interest of
man, and in the course of history has received a va-
riety of appellations, which have been in a measure
indicative of the characteristics of the continents to
which they have been applied, and which can still be
used in a wider sense, and one more adapted to our
modern needs. From the earliest times, men con-
sidered Asia as the land of morning and Europe
as the land of evening, and they indicated the con-
trast thus conveyed by the terms Orient and Occident,
which find their fitting application in all the phenom-
ena of these two continents. Between these, more to
the south, lies Africa, divided exactly by the equator,
17
194 THE POSITION AND

the true south of the globe, which is not to be sought

at the south pole, but in the place of greatest light and
heat, — the bright midday, to use the old figure, be-
tween morning and evening.
The night side of the earth, in the view of the an-
cients, or the broad extents of the land around the
north pole, form the true cosmical contrast to these
three ; for the south pole, the mathematical contrast
to the north pole, is the domain of the world of waters
and of oceanic phenomena.
America forms, in consequence of its remote posi-
tion, the entire western arc of the great land circle,

and, since Europe has, for all the past, been the Occi-
dent of the Old World, and has fulfilled its mission in
being the place of transition for the whole globe,
America must become the latest goal for the efforts

and activities of men, — must be the New World, the

land of evening, in contrast to the Old World, which
has already become the land of morning.
None of these historical relations, with the mass of
phenomena connected with them, could be shared with
Australia, in consequence of its position. Continent
though it is in its isolation, it is like an island of the
ocean, and seems to be connected with the land hem-
isphere merely as the great continental form of the
oceanic world.
To this cosmical arrangement of the continents
there correspond those relations of nature and history
which are in part displayed in the course of human
development. But the position of special places also
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 195

gives rise to subordinate characteristics ; and the form-

ative influence which special places have exercised on
the development of man and the course of affairs,
especially where they have been the field for the most
marked transfer of different races across them, is a
subject worthy of the most careful study.
If one looks at the continents in detail, they exhibit
in size, length, breadth, shape, and manner of subdi-
vision, very diverse characteristics, which cannot be
without their influence.

IV. SIZE.

That Asia was the largest of the continents, made

it and its inhabitants, from the beginning, able to

confer rich and diversified gifts upon its western neigh-

bors, the continents of less dimensions, without im-
poverishing itself, and without over-filling, checking, or
disturbing the independent development of Africa and
Europe, connected with it as they were by both land
and water communications. That Europe was limited,
in point of space, in comparison with the more colos-
sal continents, favored, unquestionably, the more har-

monious development of the nature of its people and

governments, and forwarded discovery and coloniza-
tion, in consequence of the impetus given to culture
and navigation, resulting, first, from its small and man-

ageable and next, because its great extent of coast-

size,

line brought it into immediate relations with the other

continents.
196 THE POSITION AND

The great size of America has united with its insu-

lar position to increase its susceptibility for the gifts of

the Old World, and with the meagre numbers and
the weakness of its aboriginal races to secure its trans-

formation, in the course of time, into a Transatlantic

Europe, and to make it acquire, in the course of a few
centuries, what has been wrought out in Europe only
in the lapse of thousands of years. The small extent
of Australia leaves a much freer play and larger
opportunity for the commerce of the world than would
have been the case had a broad and barren Antarctic
continent usurped the whole southern regions of the
earth, as it was once supposed to do. The unfavorable
effects of a conglomeration of lands in the Arctic
regions will constantly diminish, in consequence of
their really slight extent at the extreme north, and in
consequence of their broken and fragmentary condi-
tion ; while their position in the ring of continents, and
near the centre of the land hemisphere (not in the
unattainable middle point of remote seas, but in the
neighborhood of the greatest human activities), has
exercised an influence over the whole globe by no
means conservative, but stimulating and promotive of
progress.
The mere element of size, and, indeed, every physi-
cal element, will everywhere become more and more
subordinate as civilization advances, and as art gains
renewed and unresisted mastery over nature.
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 197

V. EXTENSION IN LENGTH AND BREADTH.

The continents are widely various as regards length

and breadth. Africa and Australia are more equal in
these respects, and therefore their remote interior
becomes extremely difficult of access on all sides.

America is unequal in the highest degree, in conse-

quence of its vast range from north to south, com-
pared with the distance from east to west, and so in its
most narrow part — the part, too, most open to access
from the sea — it was easily mastered by the power of
invaders. At its broad extremities, that is, in the
northern portions of North and South America, it

exhibits similar phenomena to those which Africa and

Australia exhibit at their very centre. Asia in itself,

and more with its continuation, Europe, has, on the

still

contrary, its greatest length from east to west and in ;

the contrast between these two old and closely united

continents lies the foundation of their intimate con-
nection and reciprocal action in all natural phenom-
ena and all the affairs of history.
Lying in unbroken connection, these two continents
cover more than a half of the circumference of the
earth, a space of more than two hundred degrees of
longitude. The distance from north to south is, on
the other hand, very much less. In Asia, which lies

wholly north of the equator, it does not embrace a

quarter of the distance around the earth, and in Eu-
rope not a sixth ; while the united length of both, from
east to west, is about one half of the circumference of
the globe.
 ;

198 THE POSITION AND

America's extensions are precisely the reverse ; from

north to south it spans nearly one half of the earth,
while its measurement from east to west is much
less, not amounting to much over a fifth. The two
worlds stand, then, in these regards, in entire contrast
and the results which these conditions have brought
about cannot be thought slight and unworthy of
notice.

America extends through far more zones of the

earth than Asia ; its special countries are characterized
by far greater climatic differences, — reckoning numeri-
cally, by double as many ; for Asia has not, between
the equator and the polar circle, more than half
the changes of climate that America has. Therefore
America suffers from greater climatic extremes in its

special countries. Asia, with greater variety of sur-

face, has yet a greater climatic unity. This great dis-

tinction between the eastern and the western worlds

would have given rise to a sharp contrast between them,
were it not for some circumstances which soften it, as,

for example, the existence of the great range of the

Cordilleras, running from north to south. Yet wide
differences in all productions, as well as in the ethno-
graphical character of races, must result from this cli-

matic diversity, and all the more in proportion to the

small progress which human culture has made in over-
coming, by art and civilization, the hindrances which
nature interposes. The greater climatic unity of
Asia has conditioned and favored a marked common-
ness of results, a greater uniformity in man, and, with-
 ;

EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 199

out taking the advance of navigation into account,

the closest union of its nations, and the largest ex-
change of their manners, customs, ideas, and religions.
It was comparatively easy for the early races of Asia

to pass from the greater climatic unity of a common

home to the climatic diversity of the world, and divide
themselves up in their new possessions. But they had
in all their divisions and wanderings, at least so far as
is known to us, no contrasts to encounter which were
great enough to be destructive ; they could go forth
in search of kindred climates and surroundings ; the
Old World displayed to. them, in the most favorable
light, its immense area from east to west. It was,
therefore, in this direction that, in the eastern conti-
nent, the great stream of life and culture set ; and Asia
was more perfectly prepared for this course of progress

than any other great division by reason of its vastness,

for it could supply the needs of wandering races and
tribes as well as of those which should be permanently
settled.

VI. THE CONFORMATION OF THE CONTINENTS AND THEIR

BROKEN OUTLINE.

In our treatment of the general and broader charac-

teristics of the continents, we have yet to consider
them in respect to their conformation and their broken
outline.
In these regards, Africa presents the simplest forms
it is distinguished palpably from the other continents
200 THE POSITION AND

by its almost insular position, connected as it is with

western Asia by a mere strip of land, and that proba-
bly of recent formation, the isthmus of Suez. In its

close and compact form, and very regular coast out-

line, it resembles an ellipse, although its diameters

are of about equal length, and although the climatic
features are nearly the same on both sides of the equa-

tor, advancing as far as the thirty-fifth parallels of

north and south latitude. Having no great sea inlets,

its entire circuit is only about seventeen thousand miles

in extent, and is the simplest coast-line of all the con-
tinents. Africa has, therefore, in spite of its insular
position and its great area, relatively the shortest, as
well as the most uniformly regular and simple coast of
all the great divisions of the earth, and in consequence
of this meagre outline its interior has the least contact
with the ocean.
Asia, washed only on three sides by the sea, unites

with Europe in the formation of a common trunk, and

thus completes the vast range of territory extending
from east to west. Its eastern and southern coasts
abound in far-projecting peninsulas and half-insular
forms, which are be regarded as the more or less
all to

scattered limbs of an immense body. From the penin-

sulas of Tschuktschen and Kamtschatka, round the
continent, over Corea, China, the two Indias, Arabia,
and so west to Asia Minor, these projecting forms,
wholly wanting to Africa, embrace a vast extent of
territory ; and even the Siberian coast, although in
itself considered small, and especially unfavorably sit-
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 201

uated, ismore extensive and more provided with sea

inlets than the whole shore-line of Africa. Yet there
remains, notwithstanding, in the interior of Asia a
district, very large and broad, which is not brought in
contact with the seas that partly penetrate the conti-
nent, and which so greatly modify all things within
their reach ; and this inner district is the true trunk
of the whole. This central portion does, indeed, pre-
ponderate in respect to area over that included in all

the projecting peninsulas ; but Africa is a trunk with-

out any limbs. The great influence of so large and
complex a coast upon the wealth and the variety of all
natural gifts is evident at a glance ; its entire shore-
line has promoted, in consequence of its projections
and indentations, not only individuality, but also an
increase of influence, with reference to Asia and the
rest of the world besides.
Europe, the smallest of the three continents of the
Old World, is, in its superficial form, the most varied
and rifted and divided up of all. Its most remarka-
ble characteristics are its broken form, and the indi-
viduality, not only of its coast outlines, but of the
countries which these inclose ; for its main body,
which, long though it is from east to west, is yet rela-
tively very small, diminishes constantly in breadth to-
wards the west, and is divided by numerous arms of the
Atlantic into several peninsulas of greater or smaller
size,some of which again are subdivided in the same
way, as, for instance, the very peculiar and remarkable
conformation of Greece, which seems to have reached
 ;

202 THE POSITION AND

the last degree of complexity in its coast outline. Not

only on the east and south, like Asia, but also, and in
asmarked a degree, on the north, this subdivision of
Europe goes on, so that there its projecting forms, rela-
tively to its whole area so great, inclose, in entire con-
trast to the northern coast of Asia, two large inland
seas, — the North Sea and the Baltic. As the result of
this marked characteristic of Europe, its shore-line,

measured in all its sinuosities, is of very great length.

The area of its inclosed seas is equal to nearly half of
its true territory. Although its superficial contents

are three times smaller than Africa, yet the extent of

its coast is far greater, — more than 24,000 miles, —
twelve times the length of the land boundary between
itself and Asia. The shore-line of Asia is, indeed,
about a third loliger than that of Europe, nearly
32,000 miles ; but the area of Asia is more than four
times greater. Thus Europe is the continent with the
greatest relative coast-line, and with the most varied
conformation of the lands which lie on its outer limit
it is, therefore, the continent most approachable of all

from the sea.

In the conformation of Europe we arrive at the most

perfect and equal adjustment of the fixed and fluid

forms to one another which we meet on the globe,

divested of the prejudicial effects which would have
been produced had it been wholly instead of partially
divided, and had it consisted of widely sundered
islands instead of mutually connected peninsulas. We
have an opportunity to observe this from a district of
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 203

nearly equal area, — the island group of Sunda, south-

east of Asia. Here the division is perfect ; every
member stands apart from the others ; and, through
too great a subdivision, we have the exact contrast to
Africa, which has no subdivision at all. Of course two
such extremes must work in exactly contrary ways,
and entirely unequally, and yet they both constrain
alike the progress of man ; and in these isolated islands
he can, at best, arrive only to the stage of development
which one continent or one shore might attain, and
never enjoy the benefit of the reciprocal action of con-
tinent upon continent and of shore upon shore. We
find a proof of this as an actual result in the condition
of the Malay race. But Europe enjoys not only its

large extent of sea-coast, but also its central position

in the land hemisphere, and, in brief, all the advantages
which nature can give to help it realize this remarka-
ble fact, that the smallest continent should be the field
for the greatest deeds of history, and that the smallest,
too, should gain the mastery of the whole.
As to Africa, we cannot speak of the relation be-
tween the members to the main body of the continent,
for these members are there wholly wanting ; in the
absence of favorable forms, none of its coasts have
received in a high degree those diversities and abun-
dant resources which the shores of the other conti-
nents present ; the natives of Africa form, in compar-
ison with the inhabitants of other divisions of the
globe, a very uniform group of nations, and, in conse-
quence of their limited and purely continental rela-
204 THE POSITION AND

tions, are left far behind. Asia is much partitioned

up by sea inlets, and in the southeast and south is it

especially divided into the richest and largest peninsu-

las, every one of which offers in itself a world of phe-
nomena. We seek them in China, farther India, Hin-
dustan, Arabia, and Asia Minor. But the seas which
form these peninsulas do not penetrate and bring a
kind of individuality into the heart of the great cen-
tral body. This vast extent stretches away in a colossal
mass ; the area of the members in comparison with
the whole of the continental form ever seems to shrink.
The relations between nature and man have displayed
themselves in the most diversified and special manner
in the various members of the continent ; far more
uniform has been their manifestation in the centre, for
there the vast intercepting mass of land has been the
main cause of preventing the attainment of results
which contact and intercommunication and the ex-
change of gifts and forces could give. Thus central
Asia ever remained severed from its own border-lands.
In Europe the mutual relations of the various parts of
the continent have been entirely different ; for in Asia
the area of the members to themain body of the con-
tinent is Europe it is
as one-fifth to four-fifths, while in
as one-third to two-thirds. Thus in Europe the mem-
bers have a far wider significance in their relation
to the body, and they have become of paramount
influence in consequence of their diversified forms.
Europe always narrows as it approaches its penin-
sulas, and its central portion is a means of connect-
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 205

ing their branches. Thus the influences of sea and

coast are felt through the entire continent : no other
grand division of the earth resembles it in this. Its

interior countries are brought almost to the shore,

and enjoy all the activities and advantages of the
shore. The historical development of Europe, of its

peoples, and states, is in harmony with its geograph-

ical conditions. Not alone through its half-sundered
peninsulas, but through its wholly sundered islands,
the coast of Europe has been especially enriched ; not
through the mass of distant, scattered islands, which
properly belong to no continent, but to the sea alone,
but through the signal greatness and number of the
neighboring islands which follow the coast-line, and
which are to be regarded as continuations of the con-
tinent. These islands increase the number of its mem-
bers two or three fold.
To Africa islands are almost wholly wanting ; the
south coast of Asia is so largely bordered by them,
that that labyrinth, of which the isles of Sunda are
merely the most level group, has no special action upon
the continent, and exists as a world in itself.

In Europe, where the areas of the main body, its

peninsular forms, and its islands stand in the relation

of 2, 1, 4tsi the significance and value of the last being
special, it is manifest that there is such a rifting and
dividing up of the main body as to make it especially

accessible to neighboring countries.

America alone remains to close this series of brief

observations, for it, in a certain manner, completes the

18
206 THE POSITION AND

circle of continental forms, — reaches the limits of the

possible varieties in conformation, by repeating in

itself the contrasts of the Old World, and bringing
them into union and harmony. Entirely unlike Africa,
America is divided by an inland body of water, the
Gulf of Mexico, into a double continent, whose bond
of connection, the isthmus of Panama, though in
itself not narrow, is utterly inconsiderable compared
with the great land masses which it connects. Its

small size operates to make it rather a barrier between

the two countries than a connecting link, and only by
the agency of the intermediate oceans are North and
South America brought into that close relation which
is needful for the development of nature and the
unfolding of history.
In connecting these two widely separated continen-
tal forms, the great central island group which Amer-
ica exhibits plays an important mediatorial part ; at
any rate, it has done so since the discovery of that
group, and its being opened to navigators and adven-
turers. The two great bodies which are separated by
the Mexican Gulf have many features in common,
— their greater breadth at the north, their constantly
increasing narrowness towards the south, a triangular
form, like that of Africa, repeated in both North and
South America. There is, also, in consequence of
this regular outline, a diminution of the length of
coast in America, and in this regard South America
stands next to the simplest of all the continents,
Africa, which however it is in other respects unlike,
 EXTENSION OF THE CONTINENTS. 207

on account of its entirely different hydrographical

and orographical features. North America exhibits a
greater diversity in its outline, favored as it is with
a very broken shore on the side of the Atlantic.
The vast bays and inland lakes, which penetrate so
deeply into the heart of North America, give it a
great advantage over northern Asia, and create for it,

well watered as it is at the south and supplied with

inland lakes, easy and perfect accessibility, and impart
to it great resemblance to Europe, notwithstanding the
nearness of its northern regions to the pole. The sim-
ilarity of climate aids in completing the resemblance
between North America and Europe ; and thus the
New World — having the extent which it enjoys, having
its position on the globe, having the favorable advan-
tage of broken shores and an extensive coast-line —
seems destined to become a second Europe within a
short lapse of time, and to plant civilization at the
most northern regions of the earth.

If, from these observations on the conformations of

the continents, it appears that to the features which
we have briefly indicated progress and individual
development are in great part to be ascribed, and if

the outlines of a systematic arrangement are discerni-

ble in what we have advanced, it will follow that all
the remaining phenomena are not independent of this
systematic arrangement, or connected with it in a

loose and indefinite way, or antagonistic to it, but that

they are all conditioned by it and related to it in a

fixed and ascertainable manner.

208 POSITION AND EXTENSION OF CONTINENTS.

But the complete action of all the forces of nature,

in special and in general relations, cannot be discerned
by any one-sided view of them. The extents of the
earth's surface, measured horizontally, are only one
side of what we have to study. To a complete view
of the earth as a whole, and of its parts, there is
needed the study of vertical dimensions, which are
the complement of horizontal dimensions, and which
condition them in a hundred ways. A view of both,
and an application of both to the development of
forms, relations, and laws, alone lead to a comprehen-
sive view of the earth, to a clear understanding of the
influence of nature upon history, and to a true system
of geographical science.
 REMARKS
ON

FORM AND NUMBERS

AS AUXILIARY IN REPRESENTING THE

RELATIONS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SPACES.

[EIEBT READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OE BERLIN.]

18*
 REMARKS ON FORM AND NUMBERS
AS AUXHIAEI IN REPRESENTING THE

RELATIONS OP GEOGRAPHICAL SPACES.

[DELIVERED JANTJART 17, 1828.]

I shall venture to communicate now, in a desultory

manner merely, a few remarks, the digested results of
which would be more worthy of presentation here, if,
at the present time at least, the means were not
wanting for the attainment of such results. And, in
truth, efforts made under very disadvantageous circum-
stances to lay out for one's self a scientific path
through new and unexplored regions, demand of the
judgment a measure of leniency, while the very effort
isof some service in aiding the acquisition of means
to lead us to valuable results.
In a former paper it was my effort to reach the basis
of the relations which spring from the position and the
superficial divisions of the continents, and to develop
those relations in reference to the entire surface of the
earth. This could only be done in broad and rough
lines, whether in reference to the collective forms and
212 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

the more general subdivisions of the surface of the

globe, or in reference to the course of history.
But should the application of these general relations
lead us back to an instructive method of considering
every special country, and of studying its people, and
bring to clear view the share of every district in the
collective circle of its influences, it would be neces-
sary, it seems to me, in order to make these relations
intelligible, that the auxiliaries of form and numbers
should both be employed, and in a way hitherto but
little used.
We call to our aid the auxiliary of form, in the use
of well known geometrical figures, to bring into view
before the mind, without the employment of measure-
ments, the characteristic to which we would give prom-
inence in the portion of the earth at any given time
under our consideration. The right use of geomet-
rical figures, and their intelligent application to the
study of geographical forms, should be largely brought
out in a scientific treatise, in order to conduct the
student, in a very simple and direct manner, to well
defined conceptions. He may be securely led to new
applications of these figures, and thus to a constant
succession^ of new views, which shall exhibit in the
distinctest manner whatever features of the earth's
surface are capable of representation in geometrical
forms.
This use of geometrical figures was a long time
since introduced into botanical science with very great
advantage, and, while it has imparted clearness to it,
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 213

it has been not at all wanting in accuracy. But in

geographical science this coadjutor has, with very few
exceptions, and those mostly of a light and playful
sort, not been brought into use, because people have
hitherto been content with the old-fashioned descrip-
tions, and have made no attempt to reach scientific
results, or even to grasp the central idea on which all

specialphenomena rest. In a method wide enough

and consecutive enough to embrace the great system of
countries that cover the globe, this use of geometrical
figures, applied to superficial surfaces of very compre-
hensive or subordinate size, would lead to a clear view
and definite comprehension of the earth's surface ; pro-
vided only and always that these geometrical figures
were not arbitrary and imaginary, but plainly existing
in nature, and expressing natural forms, as in a math-
ematical formula. How speedily would such a method
lead geography to entirely new phases, and rid it,

whether in its elementary or in its scientific forms, of

the vast mass of mere undigested descriptions which
only burden the mind with endless details. And it is

just because these materials have not been brought

into system, and still lie in this crude state, that geo-

graphy is yet in its rudimentary condition, and that

the scholastic works and the treatises for schools are all
in their primitive form. The free and full application

of geometrical progress to this science would lead, as

may easily be seen, to a reconstruction of it, to greater
breadth of scope, and to a thorough digestion into a
systematic shape of facts now loose and burdensome.
214 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

In the preceding paper the attempt was made to pnt

to some use geometrical figures in the establishment of

those general relations which spring from the grouping

of the continents, their position on the earth, their
respective length and breadth, their configuration, and
brokenness or unbrokenness of outline.
This application of geometrical figures would lead
to a clearer view, and therefore to a speedier and surer
comparison of special countries, as well as to greater
brevity and exactness in geographical terminology,
because a geometrical outline conveys at a glance what
it would take many sentences to describe. But in
order to reach a more perfect conception of geograph-
ical forms, since geometrical figures are only partially
exact, not strictly coinciding with the outlines of
countries or continents, here falling short, here hav-
ing an excess, we must designate the countries which
overrun or do not come up to the limits of the figure
taken as the basis by the -f- and — signs. This sim-
ple arrangement proves very convenient and service-

able.

In the application of geometrical forms in the man-

ner just indicated, we should find that some countries
were measured by the square, as Spain and the Pelo-
ponnesus ; others by the rectangle, as Thessaly and
Epirus ; others by the circle, the ellipse, the triangle,
the pentagon, and so forth : that these things meet the
eye at a glance, and that this variety of contact with
the surroundings gives immediate and perceptible
occasion to direct results. Yet it is not easy,it must
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 215

be confessed, to reach, in the generality of instances,

the geometrical figure which best expresses geograph-
ical forms, because the number and size of the irregu-

larities prevent the observer from imagining its base

type in his mind, and reaching that pure outline on
which depend, however, a great many important things,
— the climate, the productions, the river systems;
these all have much more intimate relation with the
geometrical figure which is the type than with the

-f- and — excesses or fallings off from it.

After the analogies had been carefully traced be-

tween different countries and geometrical figures, it
would be time to advance to deviations from the base
types, peculiar as they are in the case of every separate
district. Even in the individuality of these deviations
does every country show that it has a specially desig-
nated place for itself, and for its peculiar productions,

surroundings, and relations. The two great triangu-

lated countries of North and South America (to speak
only of the largest), when brought into contact with
the triangle of hither India and the south half of
Africa, will offer, upon careful consideration, points
of resemblance, and yet again points of difference ;

they will at the same time show many other features

less studied, in respect to size far inferior, but in
which everything dependent upon conformation is

subjected, though in less degrees, to the same general

laws and influences.
In this way there will result from the use of geomet-
rical forms as the types of geographical configuration
216 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

certain classes and classifications, which, in reference

to the type and the deviations from it, allow of a sharp
scientific statement of the relations and characteristics

which spring from the entire class, from the subordi-

nate divisions, and from individual members.
This making intelligible and bringing into subjec-
tion of the varied, unwieldy, and almost unmanageable
mass of material, by the simple employment of the
element of form, seems to be the great improvement
of the age in geographical science, which has always
remained in the rear of her sister sciences of natural
history ; and so continues to-day a vast helpless mass,
of very little service in the instruction of schools, or
for yet higher needs, and whose very ponderousness
and shapelessness has prevented her being reduced to
compact and useful forms.
These geometrical figures are not only applicable in
this broad way to the different continents and their
natural or arbitrary subdivisions, but they may equally
well serve to clearly indicate other characteristics of
the earth, such as tracts of water, mountain and pla-
teau districts, plains, lowlands, wastes, fruitful spots,
connected forests, regions watered by river systems,
grain lands, mineral locations, and the like ; and here,
where there is not palpable regularity, but only an
approximation to the coincidence of geographical con-
figuration with geometrical form, the deviations may,
as before, be designated by the + and — signs.
This second manner of applying geometrical figures
to the other characteristics of a country besides mere
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 217

extent, is, as may at once be seen, more difficult than

the first, which merely embraces the relations of space
and distance. The first would only presuppose a pure
geometrical statement, to enable one to discern in the
best existing maps and charts the simplest figures
which would express the outline of any given coun-
tries. By applying a geometrical figure in this way,
the maximum and minimum of deviation from it

in the protrusion of peninsula formations would be

instantly apparent. Thus Europe, to cite the most
irregular of all the continents, the one which is the
least congruent with a geometrical figure, and which
is in this respect characteristically unlike the other
grand divisions, would in a general view present itself

as an immense right-angled triangle, with the shortest

line from north to south, in the direction of the Ural
as the basis, for a distance of about fourteen hundred
miles. The right angle would fall at the Caucasian
isthmus, not far from the mouth of the Volga. The
next larger side would be that of the Mediterranean,
from Astracan westward through all Europe, to Ba-
yonne, more than twenty-three hundred miles ; and the
hypothenuse would pass from there northwards by the
North Sea, the Baltic, and Archangel to the sources
of the Ural, a distance of over twenty-eight hundred
miles. The space embraced within this triangle would
comprehend by far the greater part of the continental
mass of Europe, about two-thirds of the whole, (two
millions five hundred thousand square miles, the whole
being three millions seven hundred and sixty-seven
19
218 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

thousand), and outside of it would lie the three pen-

insulas towards the south, Greece, Italy, Spain, and
at the north, Scandinavia. Thus one-third of the
whole would lie outside of the inscribed figure, and
this third would be characterized by relations quite

unlike those of the main body of the continent. In

this case, while there would be much excess beyond

the figure used as the norm, there would be few places

where the measure would come noticeably short. The
use of this figure is plainly valuable in helping to ob-
serve a large number of relations which are dependent
upon the essential unity of the continental surfaces, in
contradistinction to the contrasts produced by land
and sea, or that which might be called the contrast
between the body and members of the continent. In
respect to the relations of temperature and the wind
systems, in so far as they are dependent upon the
configuration and position of the country, the name
of the European climatic triangle properly pertains to

it, and, in fact, has been recently applied by a French

writer. What is true of temperature and wind sys-
tems, and their relation to the geometrical form of a
country, will be found true of many other influencing
agents. How instructive would it be always to have
at easy command in this way a very simple and yet
universally intelligible expression for action and reac-
tion in comparative geography, and thus to indicate,
in a word, the natural home of the various families of
beasts and plants, of peoples, and whatever else might
need expression. The bearings of this upon what may
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 219

be technically called the qualitative relations, in dis-

tinction from quantitative relations (and by the term

quantitative I mean all the conditions which result
from extent, by the term qualitative all other condi-
tions), can only be traced after a very careful prelim-
inary acquaintance with the workings of nature ; but
after such an acquaintance it becomes at once apparent,
as in an instructive and in every view masterly and
comprehensive sketch of the outlines of South America,
contained in the fifth part of Alexander Yon Hum-
boldt's Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the
New World, which has so greatly enriched geographical
science. From the grouping of geometrical figures
according to quantitative and qualitative relations,
with all that is subordinated to this arrangement, the
briefest expression would arise for the characterization

of continents, countries, special tracts, provinces, dis-

tricts ; in short, a statement in brief, as a substitute
for the general and unreliable descriptions which, in
consequence of the constant repetition of the same
principles, make geographical science diffuse and
tedious, and thus inflict upon it serious injury. Nor
does it need prolonged remarks to show what a ready
means of characterizing arbitrary political divisions is
also found in the same method, if they be regarded

as readily determined sections of these geometrical

figures.

From the employment of form for the more correct

and profitable comparison of different countries, we
pass to a large and important use of numbers, to aid
220 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

in grasping another set of the relations of geographical

districts to one another, and getting full and accurate
knowledge of them. We shall not introduce, as is so

often done in books of statistics and geography, that

misuse of numbers which always creeps in where
more upon mere facts expressed in the
stress is laid

numerical form than upon the relations which they

indicate. We shall employ numbers solely and strictly
for the determining of fixed and definite relations. As,
in descriptive botany, figures and numbers indicate the
different parts of a plant, as, for instance, stamens,
pistils, glands, calyx, corolla, leaf-incisions, stem
divisions, manner of flowering, and rootlets, and
give a clear conception of all the qualities of the
plant, and the relative place which it occupies in the
vegetable creation, since all these things are but ex-
ponents of all the causes which condition it ; so, in the

formation of every natural division of the earth, there

is a large number of physical relations capable of
numerical expression, all of them essential to a
true conception, none of them of indifferent worth
and accidental position, like so many things thrown
together at hap-hazard, but which are so regular and
so needed that in them can be seen the general prin-
ciples which control the separation, connection, and
grouping of similarly conditioned tracts, wherever
they occur.
The numbers thus used will either indicate horizon-
tal and vertical extents, rest upon measure-
and thus
ments in square miles, miles of length, and feet above
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 221

and below the sea level, or they will be the state-

ment in numerical form of matters directly kindred to
these.
Measurements have already come into general use
for the expression of certain relations, at least ; com-
monly those of political divisions. And yet, for a true

system of scientific geography, the statement of the

area of political divisions does not suffice ; that of the
divisionsmarked out by nature itself, and expressed
by geometrical figures, must be first ascertained in
square miles, that such tracts may judged in their true
relation to the entire globe. Hitherto no efforts have
been made to ascertain any areas, excepting those of
the continents, and of political states, — and these,
indeed, are not without value, — but we ask in vain
for the statistics of the size of natural divisions, as,

for example, how large the right-angled triangle which

is inscribed in Europe is, in proportion to the projec-
tions from that continent, and the seas, gulfs, straits,

wholly or in part inclosed within it by means of these

projections. And whence arises that varied share
which these geographical forms, seas, gulfs, and straits

have respectively had, and still have, in the powerful

influences which they exert upon the entire continent ?

In what relative magnitude do the great and the small

peninsulas stand to each other, to the islands which
belong to them, and to the vast continental domains
untouched by the sea ? In what numerical relations
can we estimate the area of the great and well-watered
river basins ; of the regions lying between them, poor
19*
222 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

in streams or wholly unwatered ; of the coast lands,

which are traversed by the short rivers characteristic

of the shore, and which, therefore, are quite other-

wise related to the sea than the central continental
districts which are watered by important streams and
their branches ? We look in vain to find the area in
square miles of fruitful plains, of great grain districts,

of morasses, of peat bogs, of sand wastes, of heaths, of

mountain regions ; only here and there have natural
features been subjected to measurement, and the rela-

tive areas ascertained of lakes, arable lands, forests,

and meadows. Valuable as it is, for some statistical

purposes, that we learn such facts as these, no less

advantageous would it be for all historical and geo-
graphical ends that we ascertain such data as those
alluded to a moment since, in order to be able to deter-
mine and compare, in tabular form, -the varied influ-
ences of physical forms on countries and people. This
would be a comparatively easy task, because such facts,
having to do with inanimate and fixed forms, do not
partake of that constantly changing character which
marks the movements of men. After ascertaining the
limits of the natural divisions of the earth, even if in
an incomplete way, the various changes which past
centuries have witnessed in the boundaries of states,
the movements forward and backward of those boun-
daries in ancient and modern times, the diffusion of
nations and of languages, the progress of culture, and
many other like things, could be established and indi-
cated in a more precise way. A great mass of valua-
 :

RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 22o

ble historic relations could be indicated, for which lan-

guage would otherwise have no fitting expression.
Take, for example, the relation existing between the
life and occupations of men, and the characteristics of
the earth's surface where they live, and which supports
them. Observe the people of the sea-coast, the peo-
ple of the mountains, the dwellers on continental ara-
ble land, whether grain-producing or not, and see how
great a share the nature of the soil on which they live
has in determining their political states ; see how mutual
is the action and reaction, and what varied results flow
from it in all the countries of Europe. Such topics as
these, of wide and manifold relations, have been sub-
jected to the severest investigations, and their principles,
when ascertained, have been stated in those well known
modern works, which have opened a new era in histori-
cal, geographical, and statistical sciences as connected.
We will refer only to Malthus' Essay on the Princi-
ples of Population : London, 1803 ; Dupin's standard
works on Great Britain and France (Force maritime,
militaire, commercielle et industrielle de la Grrande
Bretagne, Yol. in., 1824 ; Forces froductives et com-
mercielles de la France, Vol. n., 1827) ; and on Italy
the classical researches of Lullin de Chateauvieux,
QLettres sur Vltalie, Yol. I., where he treats of agricul-

ture). Not unimportant would it be, in reference to

every country of the world, be it great or small, to be
able to speak in the same manner with which Hum-
boldt commences his description of South America
" South America is one of those great triangular-
224 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

shaped masses which constitute the three continental

divisions of the southern hemisphere ; of the area
which it embraces, 6,560,000 square miles, the fourth
part, 1,640,000 square miles, is covered with moun-
tains which lie in ranges or groups ; the other three-
fourths are plains, of which four-fifths lie east of the
Andes. The mountainous region, one quarter of the
whole, is so divided, that somewhat over one-third
forms the great chain of the Andes on the west. More
than one-third of this chain, measuring by superficial
area 577,400 square miles, lies above the snow-line ;

nearly two-thirds, 862,600 square miles, never reaches

the snow-line, and lies mainly upon the east side of
the Andes," etc. The more simple the results from
very intricate conditions as here, so much the more
instructive. At once there are evolved from such clear
exhibitions of relations the differences and contrasts of
other regions in an entirely different way than from de-
scriptions. The student is led on to further researches
into their peculiarities, as, for example, the mutual rela-

tion of the three greatmountain systems of the world,

the Andes of America, the Himalayas of India, and the
Alps of Europe, as ascertained from their areas and
their most important dimensions. Through this method
of study and criticism, he is led from these masses to
see the nature of all elevations, to learn how countries
are watered, to discover the constituents of soils, their

mineral wealth, the extents of flora, of fauna, of na-

tions, of political divisions and their resources, the num-
ber of roads over mountainous tracts, of passes through
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 225

them, and of settlements upon them, and thus to bring

them into a true and complete relation with all their
surroundings and the whole earth. This method
of treatment is almost unknown, even in our best
descriptive works.
The final use which we make of measurements and
of computations embraced in geometrical figures,

and in the districts which can be considered as large

or small, according as the point of view may demand,
and according as they are regarded absolutely or rela-
tively, — the final use of measurements is to sum up
together a number of geometrical forms, i. e. to gain
the aggregate of areas, in order to draw a general
principle from them, to analyze them as a mass, to
subdivide them and treat them historically, physi-
cally, or politically, in order to get at whatever may be
peculiar to each, and thus to reach the minor charac-
teristics of the parts which compose the great whole.
Merely to indicate a few such will be for the present
sufficient to show the diversity and the abundance of
such analysis. We only name these : the varied con-
figuration of coast, the effects of river systems, and
the relations of medium heights to the loftiest moun-
tains and the depressions which stand in direct con-
trast with them. Other examples we shall not need
to cite.
The relations induced by coast configuration depend
upon the length of shore-line, upon the superficial con-
tents of the area inclosed by the surrounding seas,

roughly represented as it is by a geometrical figure,

226 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

but more exactly expressed by the application of the

+ and — signs to those sides of the figure which over-
run or fall short. There is for every assignable place
a possible maximum or minimum of intricacy in the
configuration of its outline, from the most simple out-
line of such continents as Australia and Africa, advanc-
ing to the favorable conformation of the shores of Asia
and America, on to the intricate configuration of Eu-
rope, and its radical division into trunk, members, and
isolated, dissevered fragments. There is met even such
an extent of coast as to be a superabundance, where
the word continent is a misnomer, where there is such
a complete dismemberment by the intervention of the
sea, that the combined periphery of the islands thus
formed is equal to the coast-line of a continent. This
is the case with theSunda group, which has a total
shore-line nearly equal to Europe. To a less extent,
the same principle holds good down to the smallest
groups. The relation of the extent of coast to the
area is a prime element in the establishment of a mar-
itime character, whether in the largest or the smallest
continents. We have, in previous parts of this work,
showed, that although Europe is threefold less than
Africa in area, yet it has a much greater extent
of shore, 24,685 miles, — the distance around the
world, — while Africa has but 17,300 miles of coast.
Asia, with five times the territory of Europe, has but
.

32,000 miles of shore-line. These continents, thus

widely unlike in respect to the extent of trunk, mem-
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 227

bers, and isolated parts, or islands, correspond, briefly

stated, to these numbers :
—
Main body. Peninsulas. Island
Africa, 1
50
Asia, 4 -
1
i
Europe, 2 1
ih

When one considers how dependent upon the coast-

line are the contact of the sea with the earth, and the
whole vast variety of their mutual activity, influencing

both animate and inanimate nature ; when one thinks

how the conformation even of countries has been con-
ditioned by and how the various groups of elevations
it,

and depressions have received from it their boundary

lines, their grades of ascent and of descent, and their
absolute distance, whether upwards or downwards, and
that all these results appear in the smallest peninsulas
and islands, as well as in the largest continent ; when
one considers all this, it will be confessed to be a
matter of the greatest geographical interest to judge
the coast-line always and everywhere in reference to
the area to which it belongs, — to the land boundaries,

to the country enclosed, and to every other feature ; to

grasp by numbers, computations, and measurements

whatever relations they may disclose, and apply them
as auxiliaries in every direction that may seem desira-
ble. More than this ; these numbers and computa-
tions ought to have a place in every delineation of the
surface of the earth. Only then would appear every
advantage possessed by countries by the sea, in their
228 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

relative gain from winds and currents, in their config-

uration, in their ease and safeness of approach, and in
their supply of harbors ; and only then should we have
all the data which we need to estimate rightly the rela-

tion of countries washed by seas and oceans, to the

people who inhabit them.

In like manner, by the application of measure and
number, the form of territory watered by rivers can
become very serviceable in the study of those districts
which are usually the home of culture and the seat of
organized political states, if the principle that under-
lies all relations comes clearly into view, and is made
more conveniently available for scientific comparison
than mere description allows. The various river sys-
tems of the earth have been entirely neglected thus
far as to the marked peculiarity and individuality of
form which appear in the plainest manner among the
largest of them, and are capable of being seen in all.

And yet this is a feature too prominent to allow us to

forget on what foundation geographical science must
stand that it may not suffer to lie unused one of the
greatest means at our command for its enrichment.
In every description of a country the rivers are
mentioned because they water it, and some scattered
remarks are added ; very rarely are details given re-
garding their rate of fall, the source as it is of move-
ment in their current, or regarding their depth and
navigableness, the source of their usefulness ; and yet
all such details might be exhibited in tabular form
with great fulness. There do, indeed, exist treatises
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 229

on the length of rivers from their source to their

mouth, in which an attempt has been made to supply
existing wants, and to ascertain the significance of
streams, by presenting their length in tabular form,
arranged in the order of relative magnitude. Among
the most valuable of these are some measurements of
Buache (1752), from which, however, he himself, as
well as his followers, neglected to draw any useful
inferences. (Essai d'un Parallele des Fleuves de
V Europe.) But it was seen, notwithstanding, that here,
as everywhere, there was in the phenomena of coun-
tries watered by rivers a close interior union, which
would not be arbitrarily broken without being utterly
[Link] diverse features of the river systems had
to be grouped in their mutual dependence at once, if

the student would be led directly to a comparison of

their characteristics, and to the true meaning of every
detail in its connection with the economy of nature
and the course of history. The relations of extent,
which form the basis of all relations, and which, be-
cause essential to the highest wants of science, must,
in the case of all leading streams, be first established,
are more or less closely connected with the depression
and elevation of the surface. The first one of these
is the distance, in an air-line, from the source of a river
to the mouth ; the absolute fall is to be traced in the
result of this measurement. The second is the max-
imum distance from source to mouth, following the
bendings ; in this is seen the tract of the intervale land
which has gradually accumulated. The third is the
20
280 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

area of the river basin, embracing all the valleys of

tributary rivers ; or, stated in other words, the area of

the entire surface which is indebted to a river system
for being watered and enriched in manifold ways, and
thus fitted for its place in influencing the human race.

By being studied in reference to these three points,

every river system assumes its true shape, allows all

that is peculiar in itself to appear, and is itself formed

by the combination of most diverse features. In follow-
ing this method of research, it becomes possible, and at

the same time greatly conducive to the furtherance of

a scientific treatment in extended descriptions (needed
in their proper place to complete our conception), to
draw from a comprehensive view of relations such
observations as can become a basis for all future teach-
ing and investigation, but which, unless established by
scales of magnitudes, would not become a part of true
science. A few examples will suffice to exhibit this.

The river Volga, measured from source to mouth, is

at least two thousand miles in length ; the Danube

seventeen hundred, — about one-eighth shorter ; while
the Rhine is only eight hundred miles long, or about
half the length of the Danube. Thus it may be seen
that these European rivers, looked at in their relative
length, do not vary widely from the proportions 3, 2,
1 . But looked at in reference to the district which
they water, the proportions change to 8, 4, 1 ; since
the basin of the Volga, which is of nearly the same
size as the Nile valley, embraces an area of about six
hundred and forty thousand square miles ; that of the
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 231

Danube three hundred thousand, and that of the

Rhine only seventy-five thousand six hundred. Looked
at in reference to the fall of the rivers, as it is com-
monly called, together with the many phenomena which
spring from this source, the proportions again mate-
rially change ; for the sources of the Rhine lie eleven
thousand feet, those of the Danube three thousand
three hundred, those of the Volga one thousand two
hundred feet, above the level of the sea. These pro-
portions continue, not seriously changed, throughout
the entire length of these rivers. Yet their general
course is widely unlike, being southeast, east, and north-
west ; and, in consequence of their different situa-
tions in Europe, all the varieties of their attendant
climate, seasons, high water, and productiveness are
essentially modified. Simple as seem the lines on our
maps that indicate the river courses, yet the greatest
diversity appears in their influences, when first their
relations are more carefully settled, and are grasped
in a single conception. How much more complete is
the result for the investigation of the whole, as well
as of details, if the student take note in this manner
of all the most important elements which manifest
themselves.
The six most important streams of Europe which have
a marked nearness in their course and in the place of
their termination, are the Kuban, Don, Dnieper, Bug,

Dniester, and Danube. Herodotus long ago wondered

at the fact that the mouths of rivers so large and so long
should lie in Southern Russia, in a land of not over
232 FORM ÄND NUMBERS IN THEIR

four hundred miles in width, between the Kuban from

Causasus and the Danube from Hungary. Among
these six, the Danube is the most important but next ;

to the Danube is the Dnieper, whose whole valley is

three times that of the Rhine and Elbe combined,
— two hundred and thirteen thousand three hundred
square miles. The entire length of the Dnieper, inclu-
sive of curves, is nine hundred and seventy-eight miles ;

while its distance, as the bird flies, from source to

mouth, is six hundred and twelve ; the mere bendings
adding about four hundred and fifty miles to its

length. The result of this sinuous course is the en-

largement of the relatively extraordinary extent of the
district that it waters, the number of branches which
run into it, and the great fruitfulness and variety of
the surface where it leads its lingering way. Its neigh-

bor on the west, the Dniester, ]:>ursuing a course also

towards the southeast, and through a very similar tract
of country, yet displays entirely different characteris-
tics. It is, indeed, less in size, and yet it is not in this
that the great reason lies which occasions so many
different relations. The shortest distance from the
source of the Dniester to the mouth is three hundred
and eighty miles ; its entire course, inclusive of all
bendings, is only four hundred and forty miles ; its

sinuosities do not, therefore, prolong its course more

than one-sixth of its length, as the bird flies. The
district which it waters, considered relatively to its

length, is very small ; we might almost say, insignifi-

cant — thirty thousand square miles ; about half that
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 233

of the Rhine, and about equal to that of the Tagus.

The low place which this river takes in the important
hydrographical system of Eastern Europe appears not
only when it is compared with its important neighbors,
but also when compared with rivers not in themselves
remarkable. From the fact that its course is so nearly

straight arises the dependent fact that the area of

territory watered is relatively to the length of the river
the smallest known. Since it is so uniform in its

course, and runs through a narrow strip of land ex-

tending from northwest to southeast, it lacks to a great
extent the variety which tributary streams effect hardly ;

disturbed as yet even by the boats of explorers, it re-

mains without interest, having little to confer upon

geographical seien ce, and having no history which it

would be useful to unfold.

In striking contrast with this is the Vistula, the
largest river that empties into the Baltic, constituting,
with the Danube, the Elbe, and the Rhine, the four
most important streams of Central Europe. In size,

the Vistula stands in the general hydrographical sys-

tem of the globe next to the Rhine, — between the Elbe
and the Rhine. The direct distance of the mouth of
the Vistula from its source is three hundred and
twenty-nine miles ; the length, including curves, five
hundred and sixty-two miles the windings them-
;

selves, therefore, occupy two hundred and thirty-three

miles, or more than two-thirds of the entire length of

the river. Tins accounts for the extent of the coun-
try that the Vistula waters. The shortest length of
20*
234 FORM AND NUMBERS IN THEIR

the Oder, that is, measured as the bird flies, is the

same as the Vistula ; but its winding is far less, only

about ninety miles, and, therefore, it waters a tract

far less in magnitude than the valley of its neighbor
on the east. The Elbe is a much longer river, meas-
ured by the bird's course, than the Vistula, it being
three hundred and eighty-four miles ; but the territory
which it waters is relatively less. The Rhine in both
of these respects surpasses the Vistula in absolute
magnitude ; the direct distance from source to mouth
is about four lumdred and fifty miles ; its length,
inclusive of windings, is about six hundred and
seventy-two miles ; but the sinuosities do not consti-
tute two-thirds of the whole, and are, therefore, rela-

tively inferior to the Vistula. This detracts a little

from the greatness of the otherwise majestic Rhine,

and the result of this circumstance is, that the terri-
tory watered by both is almost equal. The diversity,

too, in the rate of descent in rivers introduces another

new element, and demands attention in every hydro-
graphical system ; for this also gives rise to new con-
trasts, and occasions still other characteristic points
of individuality to each river.
But we pass over an enlarged consideration of this,
for our object is to show briefly how the application of
form and numbers conducts us to the principle that
underlies all geographical relations. Without this

new employment of form and numbers, this grand

principle would be unobserved ; but with its use we
reach a clear method of expressing what could hardly
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 235

be expressed before, and attain that systematic state-

ment which geographical science has so long needed, to
enable its votaries to reduce into orderly arrangement
the vast mass of confused materials.
To the third point referred to above, the relations of
mountains of medium height to those of the loftiest

altitude, we need only allude briefly in passing, because

the very fruitful results of one eminent naturalist, who
has carefully studied the structure of mountains and
mountain chains, have been presented in his various
treatises upon the ranges of India and in his journey
to the equinoctial regions of the New World. That
relation of mere height, which used to be exalted into
a matter of prime importance in studying the charac-
teristics of mountains, and which in the Pyrenees,
Alps, Cordilleras, and Himalayas, is expressed in the
series 1, 1^, 2, 2-J, has withdrawn into the background,
and now the ridge itself, taken in its average or rather
its ordinary height, is thought to give a more complete
and true idea of its characteristics, and, by being stud-
ied in a wider range of view, the height of the highest
peaks is regarded as a single and subordinate element.
This method is illustrated by the following brief cate-

gory of relations, — relations which are just and real,

and far more worthy of thought than those of isolated

peaks. The general altitude of the Andes is the same
as that of the highest mountains of the Pyrenees the ;

general altitude of the Himalayas is the same with

that of the highest of the Alps the range of the Alps
;

is almost equal in its general altitude to that of the

236 FORM AND NUMBERS E* THEIR

Pyrenees ; they are slightly distinguished from each

other by the superior height of individuals of the
Alpine range. It will be easily seen that the study of
the minimum elevation of great mountain chains
reveals the available passes and places of transit ; here
is a fresh point to which a great number of facts join
in new relations, and here is a germ whence results
distribute themselves over entire continents; in its

application to the making of charts, many vertical

measurements of heights and depths become a rich

and fruitful object of study.

These heights exhibited in tabular views from baro-

metrical and other measurements, give a basis for
generalizations and comparisons, which are convenient,
and will ultimately be serviceable. We have intro-
duced these remarks on the relations of vertical and
other dimensions only as an index of the manner in
which other relations should be viewed.
These remarks on the use of form and numbers, as
tributary to the expression of many relations which
otherwise would be difficult to make clear, may suffice,
although the number might easily be extended, to
show how much might and must be done in this

direction, not only for the furtherance of geography

as a science, but also to facilitate the communication
of its results, before both scientific advance and the
clear imparting of what science sh&ll gain shall be
promoted, as they should be, and shall take the high
place that this new method will enable them ulti-

mately to win.
As the ascertaining of these relations, although re-
 RELATIONS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 237

quiring no extraordinary exertions, would yet demand

a patient survey of the best materials at hand, and a
great number of observations made with this end in
view, and as time and means for this are not at the
command of every one, the question has recently been
agitated, in consequence of the somewhat antiquated
character of the maps published by the Academy of
Berlin, whether the former progress in this department
should not be still sustained, and the number of im-
proved elementary auxiliaries be still enlarged. And
it has seemed not unsuitable to undertake, in a manner
easy of realization, and yet worthy of the Academy and
of the needs of science, to assume anew this service,
and to secure its accomplishment. With the materials
now at command,
there might be gradually formed a
work which, while it should embrace all the relations
that geography makes known, should also grasp the
central principles of all systems of relations, reach
the common ground on which they all, greater and
smaller, rest, and present its results in mathematical
expression. The clearest ascertainment of the weighty
relations of the earth's surface to all departments of
historical and physical, as well as natural and geo-
graphical, science, would be the first care, and the
discharge of this ought to devolve upon a geometri-
cian well acquainted with the entire body of details
necessary for the successful preparation of maps. He
should be supported by all the auxiliaries which could
ensure success to the undertaking. The second care
would be to display scientific results in the clearest

manner, and so combined as to be applicable to all

238 FORM AND NUMBERS.

uses, meeting the needs alike of physics, natural his-

tory, geognosy, botany, history, and geography. To
accomplish this, general charts, tables, and special
maps should be employed, for these agencies serve best
to display the relations with which the study of the
earth's surface makes us acquainted. The third duty
would be to follow this thorough scientific preparation
by giving a better form to the text-books of our schools,
and thus to establish the real difference between the
general chart or the reduced form, which, in conse-
quence of its diminished size, has the appearance of a
copy, and the special map or the real copy. Through
these combined means, geographical science, as taught
in our schools, would enter upon a new course, and,
instead of being mere description, would become an
organized system, marshalling its rich materials into
orderly arrangement, and showing constant capacity
of advancement.
 THE

HISTORICAL ELEMENT
IN

GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE
[FIRST READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF BERLIN.]
 THE

HISTORICAL ELEMENT IN GEOGRAPHICAL

SCIENCE.

[DELIVERED JANUARY 10, 1833.]

The geographical sciences have to do especially with

the earth's surface as related to the natural kingdoms,
and as made up of forms. Therefore, their province
is to describe the mutual relations of districts near
together, in their special as well as in their most gen-
eral phenomena. In this they are distinguished from
the historical sciences, whose province is to portray
events in their sequence, and to unfold, investigate,
and exhibit their development in all relations, inner
and outer, general and special. Both classes proceed
from plain and positive details which stand side by
side, or from occurrences which follow each other in

the order of time. Yet they soon pass to more hidden

relations, which have at first to be measured by geom-

etry and chronology, but for which the standard soon

fails in the world of thought, as well as in the physical
world. Meantime, the inner laws of nature, as well
as moral principles, come into yet plainer view, and
both classes of sciences, geographical and historical,
21
242 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

at length attain their highest results. These results

are, the action of physical relations and laws upon the
combinations and the standards of thought. Thus
both classes of sciences link into philosophy.
We have to keep constantly in mind that there is

such a truth as the contemporaneous existence of

things, as well as their chronological sequence. The
science which embraces the affairs of place can just
as little do without a measure of the order of events
in point of time, as the science which embraces the
affairs of time can dispense with a theatre of observa-
tion where those affairs can be brought before the eyes
of men. History demands such a theatre for its own
development ; it must, whether it declares the need or
not, have a geographical department, field where it —a
may display its must give a prominent posi-
events ; it

tion to that science which concerns the places where

events occur, whether in the writings of such men as
Thucydides and Johannes Mueller, who open their
works with a broad geographical survey, or in the
writings of Herodotus, Tacitus, and other masters in
this department, who give geographical delineations
in the course of their historical progress, and by way
of illustration ; or, again, in the writings of such as
only tinge their works with geographical tints, as it

were. In the philosophy of history, as Leibnitz and

Bacon have outlined it, and as Herder has carried it

into fulfilment, the bearing of geography has of course

a doubly conspicuous place.
But, on the other hand, geographical science can
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 243

just as little dispense with the historical element, if

it wishes to take rank as embracing all the relations
of extents on the earth's surface, — not as an imper-
fect and partial thing, the mere frame and rafters of

a structure, but the whole perfected dwelling itself,

comely, shapely, and in every part complete.

A kind of blind, unreasoning consciousness of this,
as well as the clear sense of some want, has, there-
fore, always linked geographical and historical science
together ; and the geographers, from Hekatceus, Dikcear-
chus, and Strabo on, have gained their richest harvests
on the field of history, while the Oriental nations, the
Arabians and Chinese in special, have given their
geographies a strikingly historical tone. The Euro-
peans impressed upon theirs, in the middle ages, an
ecclesiastical stamp in modern times, a
; political stamp.

But a modern school, freeing itself from these old ways,

has imagined that a transition is at hand to a wholly
new method of grasping the essential nature of this
science that assumes so many protean forms.
If now this new reform, beginning with Buache's
Physical Atlas and Gatter er 's brief sketch of Geogra-
phy, should be carried by its advocates to its logical
results, there would arise, from this casting away of
the whole historical element, a merely physical geogra-
phy, which, however completely it might be worked
out, would yet signally lack one part of geographical
science, if that science is to embrace a knowledge of
the earth in all its relations. The poverty, and to a

certain extent the stiffness, which at once took away

244 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

the life of geographical study as soon as history was

eliminated from the text-books, that the purity of
geography might be increased, were all the more re-

markable, inasmuch as these compends did in no wise

penetrate physics deep enough to compensate by thor-
oughness for the rejection of history. In order to pro-
ceed more securely, their authors ought to have ban-
ished the geometrical and arithmetical element from
their pure science. &ot satisfied with the results of
frequent and oft-recurring contests, which have had
signal influence upon elementary as well as more
advanced and which have flooded
scientific instruction,

our literature with manuals more or less useful, with-

out giving a single geographical compend which could
satisfy a high scientific demand, there are those who

have gone, as is so often the case, from one extreme

to another. Not satisfied with pure geography, they
came back so far as to see the historical side in its
higher significance as related to science, and they hoped
to give their books more interest and a higher tone,
and adapt them better to elementary as well as scholarly
uses, by interfusing a portion of
. history. As people
used to be subject to the delusion of regarding that
as military geography wherein roads, bridges, battle-
fields, and fortresses are indicated, or that as political

geography wherein the external features of the state

are arranged side by side, or summed up in a tabular

view, so they believe that the trunk of geographical
science would be ennobled if it were grafted with
various shoots of history. To accomplish this, appeared,
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 245

after many old attempts, Schacht' s Manual of Ancient

and Modern Geography for the use of under classes, a
work in which to every description there is added a
brief historical summary, which either embraces in-
structive anecdotes, or takes a comprehensive review
of facts. In the account of the Grisons, there is a
sketch of the Rascians from the earliest times ; in the
account of the Rhine district there is given an abstract
of the history of the Swiss Republic, the battles of
the ancient Romans and Franks on the banks, and the
outlines of the history of the Netherlands ;
— excellent
subjects, generally worked out in an instructive, some-

times even in a spirited manner. So, after the an-

nouncement of a new geography for the higher classes

of our advanced schools, appeared the work of a very

painstaking scholar, Yolger, in which every paragraph,
be the subject lands or people, cities or mountains,
sketches the history in the briefest outlines, with the
description of the subject as it appeared in ancient,
early, and modern times. To this work, as to the one
last mentioned, there cannot be denied a certain use-

fulness ; and yet, without ignoring the good which both

books, written by personal friends of my own, include,
and not wishing to approach these and kindred works
in too critical a spirit, it must be confessed that no sci-

entific progress has been made in consequence of them,

and that from them cannot come any true gain for
that method which in no point, from the rudiments on
to the completed outline, fails to display a scientific
unity.
21*
246 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

That science can never stand which refuses help

from other sciences, and which will not be linked with

them in that chain which unites all true sciences, and

makes them one and so, too, a science which lacks an
;

inner germ, which might be devolved into rich and

abounding life, can never come into contact with, and
make fruitful, other sciences, but will remain dead and
ineffectual, and no human power can waken it into
activity. Lacking an inner vital germ, it can never
be an agent in giving generous culture to the human
mind, and would have no place in the circle of con-

structive sciences.
Geographical science could, by virtue of the nature
peculiar to itself, only arise from the scattered observa-
tion of places remote from each other sometimes, and
always in a manner isolated. It naturally joined with
this, to a certain extent, historical phenomena, whether
occurring in the lives of individuals or of nations,
whether in the career of kingdoms or states, but not
in the sense of phenomena taken collectively, but sep-
arately, and without note of sequence and arrange-
ment in them. After so false a course, a long time
was needed before the one great end of geographical
science could be seen, — the grasping of a conception of
the earth as a whole, and the getting at what may be
called its essential nature. The task to be done was
to get away from mere description to the law of the
thing described ; to reach, not a mere enumeration of
facts and figures, but the connection of place with
place, and the laws which bind together local and gen-
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 247

eral phenomena of the earth's surface, ut cum eventis

causce cojmle?itur, to use Lord Bacon's words. The

whole course of historical events is intimately inter-
woven with the vast geographical field that embraces
all the forms of the globe, and whose wide-reaching
domain, taking in, as it does, the whole of the produc-
tions, life, material, and resources of the earth, is like
the most variegated piece of mosaic.
What then is the task imposed upon geography, in
its work of analysis, but to reach the connection which
exists between parts ; or, in other words, to get at the
relation between places and what fills and occupies
them ? This leads us to, —
Firstly : the arithmetical relations, or those of aggre-
gates, distance, and size.

Secondly : the geometrical relations, or those of

conformation and situation.
The material itself of the earth's surface is our
study ; not as mere material in its nature^ composites,
and forces, for these fall under two other sciences,
physics and chemistry ; but according to its diffusion,

its length and breadth and thickness, — matters which

the two sciences just named hardly touch. We have,
of course, to treat of those things which result from
all the combinations of geographical forms in their
diffusion, and thus we are led to matters of aggregates,
distance, and size, and also to those of configuration

and situation. Man cannot be regarded as dissociated

from those things which cover the earth and occupy
space. He belongs to the earth, and to the three natu-
 ;

248 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

ral kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable and the ani-

mal, having, by virtue of his material form, character-

istics found in all of these. And yet man, whether
regarded as an individual or as having collective,
national existence, is not bound to one spot as are the
members of the three natural kingdoms ; still he is

very much modified by his surroundings, both in his

physical and intellectual nature. Thus it results that
the effects of situation, however great they may be,
upon the inanimate world as well as upon living forms,
and the spiritual development in special of human
beings and nations, of the whole human race indeed,
is an important part of the themes which fall within
the province of geographical science. But, though
laws do not change, the elements which make up the
earth's surface are in constant change. All the sur-
roundings which condition life are in never-ceasing
flux and reflux ; obeying the great promptings of the
earth, they manifest a constant movement and advance
they are all obedient to great and harmonious laws of
progress. But man, although following the laws of
development which have their home in his soul, yet, so
long as he is a creature moving upon the surface of
the earth, is brought into conflict with the unceasing
movement of his surroundings. And thus reflex
influence of place upon the lifeman, and the mould-
of
ing of the human race, physically and spiritually, be-
come the crowning task of geographical science.
The field of geography, which at the outset seems to
embrace all the domain of human knowledge, and
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 249

which, after it has been shown that its work is not to

explore the depths that lie below the earth's surface,
but to confine itself to the diffusion of the forms upon
the surface, even then in its rank richness has not
attained the most abundant fruit, seems now to be
sufficiently well marked out to prevent him who tills

it from wandering into neighboring domains, — well

enough known to have force and time spent upon the
kernel, instead of being wasted upon the shell.

It is the observation of the whole which gives us the

measure of the parts. And now that we have spoken
in another place of the numerical and geographical
relations of various places, and of their forms accord-
ing to their horizontal extents, we would add some
further observations in explanation of that which, in
place of mere anecdotes, seems to be, in a general sense,

the historical element in geographical science. We do

this, not so much in view of exalting the significance
of this expression, as not to lose sight of it, as is too
often done.
And since a protracted treatment of this subject is
not practicable, we shall be compelled to gather some
details from the entire body of facts, in order to ren-

der our theme the more intelligible.

Places, times, and forms, in their special features,

in all that relates to themselves alone, do not change
in their value ; they always remain one and the same.
But in their relation to the earth, viewed as the habi-
tation of the human race, they do change their real
250 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

value and significance with the progress of centuries.

The contents of the globe have to be regarded as alter-
ing from age to age, from decade to decade. For if,

to use Humboldt's expression, man creates new means

for himself, in order to penetrate further into the
earth's crust and the sea's depths, and with the most
exact instruments to extend the field of his senses,
ascertaining the temperature at the bottom of the
ocean, studying the unknown components of the soil

and the waters, examining the salt basins, the strata

of earth and of water, and all that pertains to them,
by means of the thermometer, the sounding appara-
tus, the pendulum, deep-sunk wells, and the like, what
else can occur than that the various localities on the
earth's surface take entirely different relations from
what has been the case, in the light of a dwelling-place

for man ? And just in proportion as, by means of the

barometer, the hygrometer, and other instruments of
measurement, as formerly by the telescope, astrolabe,
and other discoveries of the ingenuity of man, the
field of human observation and sympathy has been
widened, in the same measure has the outer world
been brought nearer, and the relations of man to the
globe which he inhabits changed.
And not only the regions above and below the sur-
face, but also those lying in all directions, have been
transformed by this chain which links the entire earth
together ; whether by improved instruments, such as
those just named, or by scientific advancement, or
by that spread of the human race over new lands,
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 251

flourishing, as well as animals and plants, in a change

of climatic conditions, and bringing within the range
of civilization regions which have before been untrav-
ersed, — the remote shores within the polar circles, the

loftiest mountain heights, the solitary islands of dis-

tant seas, formerly utterly unknown as the habitations
of men. What once lay beyond human reach now has
not only a reality to us, but lies accessible, and regions
once remote come daily more within our reach and
the circle of our intercourse.
The contents of the earth's surface are distributed
into two forms, — the fixed and the fluid. With the
separation of the immovable forms one from another,
correspond, as complementary to it, the differences
which exist in all the fluid or movable forms, snch as
seas, oceans, as well as the atmosphere. The fluid or

movable forms have double relations, — those of space

and those of time ; of the space in which theymove
-and act, and of the time during which they move and
act_ Their motion and change of place are again of
two kinds, — either according to mechanical and chem-
ical laws, as is the case in the diffusion of the impon-
derables, heat, electricity, and magnetism, in whose
course of working cause and effect are so closely

brought together as to seem undistinguishable and

coincident ; more palpable, as in the
or the motion is

case of bodies obeying broad and comprehensive laws,

— the winds, tides, oceanic currents, the atmosphere
in its ever-varying phenomena, and meteors ; and, in
general, all bodies in immediate connection with these
and dependent upon them.
 ;

252 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

To these mere blind and mechanical motions, utterly

irresponsible for any connection with human wills

or human intelligence, there are joined the uses to

which man reduces them, compelling the agents of

nature into obedient service. Thus, the use of sails

and steam is but an application of these appliances

to the broad fields and spaces which the world offers
and nearly all the means which man employs to facili-
tate his ease of passing from place to place are
coincident with helping forces of nature. And not
only are the parts of the earth united in a close
and intimate connection, by the application of human
intelligence to the elements which the earth furnishes,
constraining them into service, but the history of these
triumphs of man's science becomes inwoven in the
same field, and our interest is drawn to that gradual
mastery which mind has won over nature, and the past
and the present are seen as the links of a never-ending
chain.
Although many natural occurrences, such as volcanic
eruptions, earthquakes, and floods, have caused great
and rapid changes on the face of the earth, yet they are
not the agents which are the most effectual, and which
have the largest share in reorganizing the surface of
the planet ; there are slow yet surely working causes
which are more deeply seated and powerful. Their
results are recorded in history, but they themselves are
not seen in the course of their action. In the progress
of centuries the earth has been completely transformed
in its outward relations. We might call the discovery
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 253

of this truth the grand dowry of our race for future

ages. It teaches man to view the earth as the house in
which he lives, sustaining the same relation to him
that the body sustains to the soul. The earth, viewed
in this light, has a progress and a growth no less truly

than the child, who is led on from youth to the full

development of his physical strength and mental
powers. And when the time of this progress and
growth has become well advanced, and the earth has
reached a kind of maturity, the proper season has
come for tracing connections and dependences, for
grasping the whole range of physical facts. Man's
task, in viewing the earth, becomes like the farmer's,

as he familiarizes himself with the lands which he cul-

tivates. Thus, even in the time of the Phoenicians,
the Indian Orient seems to have been brought near to
Western Europe. During the life of Columbus, a new
half of the globe, whose existence had been suspected
but not ascertained, and -which was not even suspected
to be within any moderate distance, was wedded, as it

were, to the other half of the globe. The southwestern

half of the oceanic world, the Australian archipelago,
with its thousands of scattered islands, has within
little more than half a century been united, in terms
of considerable intimacy, with the northeastern and
continental part of our globe. And thus the various
regions of the earth, formerly widely separated, have
been so closely brought together as to promote civ-

ilization, benefit science, extend the productions of

human industry, and to exercise, in consequence, a
22
 ;

254 THE HISTORICAL ELEMEXT

perceptible influence upon the history, politics, and

general culture of nations.
In the effects of what we may briefly designate the

historical element upon the physical changes of the

globe, lies the difference which exists between geogra-
phy and astronomy. Geography points out the joint
relations between the different parts of the globe
astronomy treats of the earth as a planet, and dis-

cusses the laws which connect it with the universe.

Geography has to do with telluric formations ; astron-
omy, with those grand principles which are absolute
and universal. The unchanged distance of the planets
one from another, and their constant courses in their
orbits, have undergone no variation since the reigns of
the followers of Sesostris, excepting a progression of
the signs of the ecliptic. But the distances on the
earth's surface, which at first sight would seem equally
fixed and constant, have been largely changed, and
the distance of India from Egypt in the days of Beren-
ice was reduced one-half during the reigns of the
Ptolemies, when Hippalus made use of the monsoons
in crossing the Indian Ocean ; and how much nearer
yet have the Indies been brought to the western
world by the application of human science and skill

in bringing the forces of nature into obedient service.

Geography differs from the various branches of the
natural sciences in this : that, while they are all de-

voted to the same general theme, the so-called natural

sciences discuss special laws and forces and organiza-
tions of matter, while geography has to do with all
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 255

that promotes human agencies, the capacity of passing

from place to place, the compelling of all the elements

to be the servants of man in his work of taking pos-

session of the globe. The universe remains, therefore,
like Deity, unchanged ; the forces of nature as exhib-
ited upon the surface of the globe, in their combina-
tion, action, and results, remain also unchanged they ;

are only better understood now than formerly. Solo-

mon and Aristotle described only a few compared with
those now known, and since their days the uses to
which men subject nature have largely increased.
But in a historical point of view, that is, in the view
which makes the earth the habitation of man, it has
undergone radical changes. Yet, in the broadest sense,
it is true that the globe has been subjected to little

modification. For, unable to renew itself by any pro-

cess, as its organic forms reproduce themselves by
propagation, placed as a whole beyond the action of
chemical or magnetic forces, it attained, as crystalline
forms do, its perfect consummation in the moment of
its creation. The globe, regarded in its unity, could
not be changed, as its component parts can be, nor
could it be subject to decay or dissolution. It held,

and always has continued to hold, the same relations

to the universe as other planets, and, like them, it

has not been subjected to changes which we might call

cosmical or universal in their character. Only by be-

coming the theatre of history has it become subject,
in a certain sense, to the laws of change, and made sub-
ject to mechanical and intellectual forces.
256 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

And yet the earth, as made up of subordinate parts,

is subject to changes, many of them deep-seated and
radical. The heavings of earthquakes, the eruptions
of volcanoes, the workings of a gradual dissolution and
of chemical forces, have not been without their influ-
ence on the configuration of the globe. Even the
places of greatest inequality have not remained un-
changed ; many such rough formations have been
reduced, and have been converted even to the uses of

men, making the highways sometimes for the world's

Masses of material whose uses have been dis-
traffic.

covered have been drawn away from this place, or

accumulated at that, such as humus and peat ; many
like substances have now lost their claim of being
found only in certain limited regions. Many organic
forms, on the other hand, have entirely disappeared,
or their number has been materially reduced. We
see this in the groups of petrifactions found in lakes
and swamps and streams, in the displacement of wild
by cultivated floras in Egypt and Lombardy, the dis-
appearance of game and of fur-bearing animals, the
dislodging of colossal animals from the polar seas, and
of the droves of wild elephants from the interior of
the continents. The forces of nature which might be
made subservient to mechanical purposes, as well as
those which were formerly unrestrained and destruc-
tive, have been subdued into use, the influences of
climate surmounted by civilization, while the tropics
and the poles have been transformed by the agencies
of science and knowledge. In many places want has
 ;

IX GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 257

been transmuted to opulence by artificial culture

man has learned everywhere to gain the mastery over
nature.
In view of all these things it is supposable that
many districts on the globe, have acquired their im-
portance by the changes which man has been able to
effect in their nature ; that, in consequence of human
efforts, all their characteristics have been materially
changed.
It is evident that the forces of nature in their forma-
tive influences upon what is human in national devel-
opment always had to withdraw more and more as
these influences advanced. At the very commence-
ment of history, the activities of nature were impulses
which exercised a very decisive influence upon the
infancy of mankind. The diversities thus occasioned
we may perhaps yet perceive in the characteristics of
the various races, and in the diverse groups of nations
whose origin is lost in the past.
But this influence had to decline ; at the appointed

time the individual rose above the limitations of child-

hood, which is far more subject than manhood to the

influences of nature. Civilized humanity threw off

after a while, as the individual had done before, the

constraining fetters of situation. The influences of

the same conditions and position on the world's sur-
face do not always remain the same.
In the case of unprogressive nations the aspects of the
earth do not seem to change ; such nations have little

relation with the shifting phases of the world's surface.

22*
 258 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

But nations who are advancing or going back in civ-

ilization are brought into direct relations with the
changes which are constantly occurring in the forms
and the configuration of the globe. A few examples
will show how this is, not alone in isolated countries,
but in whole continents. The first inhabitants of the
sandy valley of the Nile were wanderers in the desert,
as the surrounding tribes, the Libyans and the nomadic
Arabs, are even at this day. But the civilization and
culture of the Egyptians transformed this sandy waste
into the richest grain country in the world, by the
simple expedient of irrigation. Hemmed in on all
sides by rocky wastes and barren plains, they created

a country whose fertility is its noblest monument.

In consequence of the indolence and tyranny of suc-
cessive generations down to the reign of the Osman
dynasty, one part of this fruitful valley relapsed into a
desert, another, the rich Mareotis, into a marsh. In
this manner many changes were going on, modifying
not only their surface, but also affecting their re-
lations with all with which they were in contact,
through the influences of commercial intercourse.
We must attribute such remarkable changes, even
s
when they occur in continents, to the configuration of
the surface. From this cause it was that, during the
early centuries of modern history, the refined regions
of southern Europe were effectually excluded from
the uncultivated Celtic and Teutonic hordes of the
North by a great and then impassable barrier, — the
nntraversed chain of the Alps. South of this vast
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 259

range lay the civilized states of the Old World, at the

base of its northern declivities extended the barbarous
states of the North. But this barrier, reared by nature,
and which was so effectually a line of separation in
earlier times, has, within the past five hundred years,
no longer been an obstacle. So great has been the
change, that within the past century this colossal form-
ation has gained such easy access as even to have
become one of the most attractive objects, in respect to
natural scenery, that the world displays. A long range
of civilized nations and. states, extending from the
Provence to Styria, has arisen out of the former wilder-
ness, the deepest valleys and the mountain sides have
become habitable, and in many places densely peo-
pled ; the forests have partly disappeared. Every valley
and mountain pass can be penetrated, and even heavy
loads can be conveved with ease to remote places. At
the time of Hannibal and Caesar the intercourse be-
tween the North and the South was carried on at great
disadvantage, but now the country is perfectly open to
transit. As the wild and seemingly intractable horse
found in the steppes of Turkestan is transformed into
the docile steed, subservient to the needs and uses of
civilization, so has this Alpine region been transformed
in all its relations to the surrounding lands. To such
an extent do the great forms of nature lose their power
to separate or to connect nations, and are annihilated,
as it were, by the supremacy of the powers of the
human mind. The physical conditions remain the
same, yet the introduction of what we call the histori-
260 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

cal element, that is, the forces which attend man, and
which spring from his intelligence, teach and enable
the human race to be independent of the obstructions
which nature places in the way of advancement and
change.
In the same light we may view the Ural chain, the
eastern frontier of Europe. It differs from the Alps
in this regard in degree rather than in kind. It never
has been the barrier intervening between civilization
and barbarism, only between varying shades of igno-
rance. Yet, having fulfilled its function in separating,
for many centuries, two continents from each other, it

has become, since the reign of Peter the Great, even

the medium of connection and of transit between
Europe and Asia. The time will yet come when this

mountain chain will no longer be regarded as a bar-

rier between the Orient and the Occident of the Old
World, as it was in the days of Herodotus ; it is much
nearer so in the case of the Ural than of the lofty
chain of the now impassable Caucasus, although the
latter lies closer to the centre of classical and histori-

cal countries. In considering how the forces of man

enter into the process of subduing mountain chains
to human uses, we discover an entire range of rela-
tions that can be called neither physical nor historical,
but which offer a rich field for the investigations of
geographical science.
Such changes as those which we have thus briefly

indicated in the relations of mountain chains are

equally apparent in plains, sandy wastes, primitive
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 261

forests, and low swampy tracts. So, also, on a more

enlarged scale, is it with continents and oceans. Form-
erly seas and oceans were but hindrances to human
progress, impassable obstacles which the winds of
heaven alone could freely cross. But now the mineral
wealth of the world, the fruits of agriculture, the vari-
ous classes of animals, and even the races of men, have
taken new relations to the earth, because they have been
scattered over regions to which they were formerly
strangers. In earlier times, a few objects were drifted
about loosely and at hap-hazard, such as the fruits of
the islands of the Pacific, drift-wood, ice-cakes, and
sea-wraik, tossed from coast to coast by the currents
of the air or ocean. Now, it cannot be said that seas
separate lands or continents ; they are the chains that
link them together. They form not only the most
convenient, but, in fact, the safest medium of passage
and of transport, and the oceanic regions, which en-
compass three-fifths of the entire surface of the globe,

have been changed from a vast impediment to human

change and progress, to the most sublime instrument
in accomplishing their furtherance.
The progress of navigation has completely altered
the whole relations of the globe and its inhabitants.
Had it not been for the modifying influences of naviga-
tion, how would it have been possible for the volcanic

rock of St. Helena, in former ages wholly unknown,

and only msed within recent times as a watering sta-
tion, to have been changed, not twenty years after the
opening of the present century, into an island which
262 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

we may call a neighbor of Northern Europe ? From

the opening of the fifteenth century for nearly a
hundred years, — from the time of Don Henrique el

Navegador to that of Bartholomeo Diaz, — Portuguese

navigators attempted in vain to sail from England to
the Cape of Good Hope. Now the voyage to this cape
is regarded as a short passage, and the use of favorable
winds, currents, and seasons of the year, enables the
mariner to traverse the 9200 geographical miles, lying
between 50° north latitude and 40° south latitude,
in from fifty-five to sixty days, or a distance of about
two hundred miles in every twenty-four hours. The
southern point of Africa can now be reached by one
from the northwest of Europe in fewer days than it

required years in former times.

At the close of the eighteenth century ships required
eight or nine months time, and in unfavorable sea-

sons even longer, to sail from the mouth of the British

Channel to Canton. At the present, the passage, which
is equal to half the distance round the world, is re-

duced to one-half of this time. Rarely does it require

more than an average of one hundred and twenty days
to accomplish this passage. (Prof. Ritter here details
some records of trips which had just been made when
this was written, in 1832 ; but the improvements
introduced by steam navigation and by the use of
clipper ships have superseded results which, though
striking then, now seem not at all remarkable.) It is

so with all ocean voyages ; and the North American

fast sailers vie with British ships in shortening the
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 263

distance between the Old World and the New. The

New York sailing packets sometimes accomplish the
passage, a distance of nearly 3500 miles, in less than
sixteen days, or about 220 miles in twenty-four hours.
The Atlantic Ocean has become but an arm of the
sea, and to cross it now has lost its greatness and its
heroism.
The small interior seas, the bays, the arms of the
ocean, are already changed into sea-bridges, which
we can cross with the greatest speed in contrast with
the slowness of roads over land ; for the Baltic is

traversable for half the year, and the Mediterranean

the entire year. The Meteor, when it made its first

passage in the English service from the Levant stations

home, carried letters of the third of March from Corfu,
of the seventh from Malta, and was from the tenth
to the twenty-fourth in passing from Gibraltar to Fal-
mouth, including the time spent at Cadiz to take in
freight.

Throughout the regions of calms on the oceans, as,

for example, in the African waters, the use of sailing

ships has nearly ceased ; the use of steamers has super-
seded the old method of navigation ; and thus vessels

pass rapidly through regions which were once the most

dangerous.
So, too, the waters of the continents, the colossal
rivers, have lost their former length ; they are practi-
cally shortened six or seven fold; and whereas they
used to be navigable only in one direction, excepting
with the greatest difficulty, their current is now almost
as readilv stemmed as followed.
 ;

264 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

The Mississippi river system, one of the largest on

the globe, which, with its net-work of branches, waters
an area of 1,200,000 square miles, —
a district a third
as large as Europe, —
traverses, from the Mississippi's

source to its confluence with the Missouri, a distance

of twenty-eight hundred miles, while the Ohio, the
Illinois, and other of its branches, are not of much
less size. In 1833, there were no less than three hun-
dred steamers in daily employ on this river system. 1
Ascending with difficulty, it used to take from sixty to
seventy days to sail from Cincinnati to Pittsburg, a
distance of five hundred miles ; now it is accomplished
in nine days. 2 In the city of Cincinnati alone were
built, in twenty years, from 1811 to 1831, one hundred
and eleven steamers for use on the Mississippi and its

branches. Louisville, on the Ohio, and St. Louis, the

chief commercial city of Missouri, six hundred and
thirty miles apart, are now connected by lines of
steamers which accomplish the passage in less than a
week ; in like manner, too, is St. Louis connected with
New Orleans, and boats can now pass in two weeks
from one city to the other, even against the stream
and, thus, all these are brought nearer together than
they formerly were ; the whole river system of the
Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Michi-
gan, has assumed quite other dimensions, and the long
labor of months, in passing from New Orleans to Pitts-

1
The number is now far greater. Tk. —
2
is now abbreviated more than
This time one-half. — Te.
 ;

IX GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 265

burg, is embraced already in less than three weeks,

and will be reduced still further yet.
Thus, these constantly moving elements have now
been bound, as it were, and subjected completely to
the will of man. Purely continental relations have
now to be studied in the very heart of continents

they have been driven back to the places where rivers

rise. This penetrating to the centre of wide-spread
regions in search of continental characteristics takes
the place of that older method which designated as
continental what had merely a continental form.
Although these changes are not so evident in other
countries as they are in America, yet they are every-
where accompanied by the same results, and new
combinations are effected which not only influence
contiguous lands, but which, also, extend to the civ-

ilization of more remote nations. A system of com-

mercial exchanges is one of the results gained. By
means of the Rhine steamers the orchards of the
Palatinate, Heidelberg, and the Rheingau supply the
London market in a few days with the first cherries
and grapes of the season. Steamers now pass up the
Ganges, from Calcutta to the upper provinces of Hin-
dustan, beyond Benares, Agra, and Delhi ; a voyage
which formerly required four months, in consequence
of the opposing winds and currents, now accom-
is

plished in two or three weeks by steamers. By means

of steam the Bay of Bengal becomes traversable, and
Rangoon, at the mouth of the Irrawaddy, the great
river of Ava, becomes an easily accessible port ; and
23
266 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT *

during the season of monsoons the straits of Malacca

are navigable as far as Singapore. The Chinese alone,
stationary in everything, have despised and ridiculed
this new instrument of civilization, this " fire thing,"
as they termed it ; and so long as this indifference to
the auxiliaries prevails among that people, the interior
of the Chinese empire will remain unchanged, while in
neighboring countries, such as Australia and India, the
whole aspect of nature is transformed. Nations must
follow in the course of civilization, although it be only
in the guise of promoting colonization, commerce, and
warlike expeditions. A remarkable instance of the
independence which steam has given to the embassies
of powerful governments in modern times, is found in
the voyage of the English ambassador, John Crawford,
who sailed up the Irrawaddy, in the steamer " Diana,"
to the residence of the emperor of Ava, a distance of
more than five hundred miles, in twenty days. The
effect of this movement, surrounded as he was by a
treacherous nation, was such as to render easy the
gaining of that commercial treaty which put an end
to the Burman war.
Australia, too, is not so far distant as in former times ;

and although discovered but little more than a century

ago, it is able to tread, even now, the same path of
civilization with the older continents, since, young as
it is, their mature results and attainments have been
merely transported to it. It is easier and takes less

time to reach Australia at this day than it does to pen-

etrate to the interior of Asia, the cradle of civilization.
 IX GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 267

So, all over the world, distances which were once re-

garded as almost untraversable, are now readily trav-

ersed by the aid of sails and steam. Harbors, found
everywhere, afford places of general refuge, and, pro-
vided with all the appliances which an improved system
of navigation has introduced, they serve as the spots
where many widely radiating interests converge in
unity. The whole physical conditions of earth are
changed as the mind of man gains wider and firmer
rule ; and in the course of centuries the subtle life

and less palpable characteristics of nations assume

different aspects. America is now less than a journey
of ten days' distance from Europe, and other conti-
nents proportionally near. But Europe, as we have
said before, is the only one of the continents that has,
as yet, the greatest advantages from its use of the sea
as a mean? of transport or of travel. These advan-
tages would be still greater if the isthmus of Panama
could be made navigable, for, as Humboldt has shown,
the east coast of Asia would be brought six thousand
miles nearer the west coast of Europe, a distance equal
to nearly a quarter of the circumference of the globe.
This would realize the dreams of Columbus, and his
golden Chersonesus would be as near as he fondly im-
agined it The progress of improvement in this
to be.
direction is by no means at its end perhaps as great ;

advances are yet to come as have been already expe-

rienced. The carrying of a canal through the isthmus
of Suez, joining the Levant with the seas of the East,
is not impossible ; the sandy hills of the isthmus did
268 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

not, in all probability, separate the waters of the Red

and Mediterranean seas in former times, and form a
link to join Africa with Asia. Yet we learn from the
present condition of Europe that some parts of the
earth are more favorably situated for progress and im-
provement than others ; that no dull repetition, no
possible cessation, can ever occur in the advance of the
world's condition. The continents of the Old World
have, through a continual course of development, com-
pletely changed their relations to civilization. Times
and distances are not what they were ; both have been
so shortened that, in our loose freedom of speech, we
talk of their annihilation. In this, it is true, the West
has outstripped the East. The old centre of civiliza-
tion has approached the sea. Places once noted for
culture and refinement have relapsed into savage wild-
ness. The extensive plains of the interior of Asia
are not more united by the ties of commercial inter-
course than they were in the days of Alexander the
Great, during the caliphate or the crusades. In those
times the medium of admirable highways opened
those districts, more than is now the case, to inter-
change of every kind. And while in our day the
improved means of navigation have brought the
coasts of Asia into closer relation with the world,
the interior may yet be regarded as sealed and
unknown.
The East Indies, the West Indies, the old Indian
Archipelago, might now be regarded, when looked at
from Great Britain, Holland, or France, as integral
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 269

parts of Europe, maritime members, as it were, of the

European world, standing, despite the intervening dis-
tance, in direct contact and in the closest relations.
Though they lie so remote from us, yet incessant
commerce and travel have brought them to our doors
and made them neighbors. They are so far more
truly than the mouth of the Euphrates or the Tigris or
the Gihon is neighbor to its source, though the natural
conditions of the basins of those rivers are uniform
through their entire length. They are neighbors far
more than many interior countries are which border
directly upon each other, as Bengal and Thibet, Per-
sia and Sogdiana, Afghanistan and Cashmere, the

Caucasus and Bucharia, the west of the Chinese terri-

tory and the east of Europe. For centuries the south-
east part of Europe and the central parts of western
Asia have, in spite of their nearness, been in fact widely
sundered. The chains of the Caucasus and the Taurus
have been barriers, which even yet have hardly been
passed ; the savage tracts of the Chirgises and the Tur-
komanns, the rooted barbarism and tyranny of the
Turkish hordes, and, lastly, the still more formidable
barrier of the Mohammedan religion against all Chris-
tian peoples, have been greater obstacles in the way of
close relations between these countries than interven-
ing oceans would have been.
What a powerful influence the agencies which fol-

low the course of human intelligence exert upon the

globe, is abundantly testified in the ruins of former
affluence which abound in Asia Minor, in the once flour-
23*
270 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

ishing Sogdiana, and throughout western Asia. In trac-

ing the history of countries, we have to do not only with

those forces which favor progression, but with those
which promote retrogression. Science has to take note
of the most general and comprehensive causes, and of
those too which are minute, specific, and moving over
little space. As history may be analyzed into a vast
number of biographies, so, in investigating the broadest
and most general results, we may trace them to what
is in the- truest sense local, individual, and special.

Yet, without a general survey of historical events in

their wholeness, it would be difficult to see at a glance
the changes which have come over the globe. The
common method of describing countries, nations, and
states geographically, is just as senseless as writing
universal history according to one idea. The histori-

cal element cannot justly be excluded from geographi-

cal science, for the globe only attains to its noblest
uses when it comes into relation with man, and be-
comes the theatre of human deeds. The study of
mere laws is but a dead and barren task if we do not

apply them to man, if we do not regard them, and,

indeed, all scientific deductions, as the key to the solu-
tion of problems of history.
In order to illustrate a point on which we have
touched in the course of these remarks, we may men-
tion that in the months of winter, when snow can be
used, the easiest course from Cronstadt to the harbor
of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamtschatka, is in a direct
line across Russia and Siberia, although for the trans-
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 271

portation of bulky merchandise the longest way proves

itself the shortest way, and, instead of the seven thou-
sand miles of land, the still more intimidating distance
by sea is preferable. Geography does not lay great
stress upon what is long and short, measured by geo-
metrical standards ; it simply judges by the tests of
convenience and practicability.
The smallest group of islands in the world, per-
haps, the Sandwich group, lying intermediate between
three continents, has gained a great influence on the
commercial relations of Eastern Asia, Australia, and
Western America, by the improvement of harbors and
the building of ships, thus stimulating the trade in
many articles, as, for instance, the interchange of furs
between Russia, China and North America. It is not
unfrequently the case that a district of small extent
may have far more intimate relations with neighbor-
ing seas than many countries of large extent less
favorably situated. Cities especially, which, like Alex-

andria, Ormuzd, Macao, Havanna, and in modern

times the free port of Singapore, have been founded at
the most advantageous times have attained to pros-
perity in a very brief term of years. So much depends
upon a favorable situation in relation to the sea, that
from the beginning of the sixteenth century the Cape
of Good Hope, which served the Dutch as a means of
promoting their own aggrandizement, might have ex-
erted a mighty influence on the whole southern hem-
isphere, had its value but been known. The British
have at last discovered its worth, and are making it
 ;

272 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

instrumental in enlarging their political and com-

mercial power.
With what remarkable rapidity has the development
of Australia, the antipode of Great Britain, proceeded
since communication by sea has reached its present
perfection. It may now be said to be an adjunct of
Europe. Its progress has been furthered by the re-

markably favorable formation of its coast, its excellent

harbors, its fine climate, and, in general, its situation
relatively to the other continents, and the remarkable
adaptation of the wind and water-currents to the neces-
sities of commercial intercourse between Europe and
itself. A drawback to the prosperity of the southern
hemisphere is found in the fact that the large number
of islands isolates each, and, as each is touched com-
paratively rarely by ships, its connection with civiliza-

tion is too fitful and inconstant to insure the highest

progress. But Australia is so large, and withal so

productive, and navigation has been directed to it

so largely, that its progress has been rapid without

precedent.
The ancients confined the arena of history within
the limited sphere called by them the orbis terrarum
the people of ages intermediate between us and them
extended their knowledge to all parts of the Old World,
while modern history encompasses the course of events
over the entire globe. What we designate as the his-
torical element has, therefore, a varying influence
upon physical geography, dependent in part upon the
epoch of time, and in part upon the progress which
man has already made.
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 273

In earlier times, when nations were more isolated

than now, and when they knew very little of that com-
prehensive science which embraces the relations of the
whole earth, the local influences of their own land, its

climate, soil, and formations, were much more power-

ful as formative agents than they can be at present.
So individualized and independent of surrounding
nations were they, that those which had been richly
endowed with natural gifts, and which had gained a
high degree of culture and refinement, stood more
plainly in advance of others not so favored than the
close connection of nation with nation and their
mutual dependence allows in these modern times.
Men grew up in lives of stern simplicity, uncontami-
nated by contact with strangers, rich in their love for
home and their native land. This love nourished
and strengthened their patriotism and national unity
so long as immigration and commercial intercourse
had not stimulated change and augmented wealth.
We find ready instances in the Egyptians, Persians,
Hebrews, Greeks, and Italians. In ancient times, dis-

tricts which did not enjoy the advantages of foreign

intercourse only reaped what their own industry had
sown, but yet under this advantage, that what was
their own was in its complete maturity. The Libyan
Desert retained its noble date-palm ; the Lebanon, and
the region where the Jordan rises, enjoyed the lofty
cedar as their own ; the shores of the Greek Archipel-
ago rejoiced in the fair plane-tree, and Italy nourished
its favorite pine. And these natural productions we
274 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

may regard as typical of a certain degree of refine-

ment which all nations reached, unassisted by the
advantages of dependence upon their neighbors' ad-
vancement.
In ancient times, also, the range afforded by the
three continents then known was, in consequence of
the diversity which they offered, an ample field for the
development of history. Men put more value then
than now upon simple and isolated forms, and did
not busy themselves with complexities, with mutual
dependences and relations. But with the opening of
commercial intercourse all was changed. The ocean
lost its vastness in human eyes, and all distances were

shortened. A study of the world requires now, not

alone a survey of the continents, but of the oceans,
and the laws which are active in promoting oceanic
influences.
The methods of descriptive geography have, there-
fore, changed materially in these our days from what
they formerly were when the world was younger. If

we were to advance from the orhis terrarum of the

ancients to the present conception of the globe, we
should require new methods of delineation, in order
to convey a faithful picture of the changes which
modern times have witnessed in commercial and po-
litical affairs. A simple contrivance could easily be
made, by an ingenious mechanic, out of unfolding
plates, capable of being brought closely together, to
indicate the world as known to the ancients, and then
to be pulled out, piece after piece, to represent that
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 275

gradual enlargement of the world which the discov-

eries of navigators have made a part of human knowl-
edge. Any such contrivance as this would show the
great changes which have accrued in the material, —
the capital of geographical science. The improved
means of communication would show in one place a
great diminution in the value of horizontal distances,
and in another a reduction of heights, as obstructions
in the path of transit over continents. Europe would
v
be comparatively but little affected by this, but Asia
would be largely changed in its relations to the other
continents. Though its interior is still nearly as inac-
cessible as it has ever been, yet its coast is brought
into contact, as it were, with more civilized lands. So,
too, in other parts of the globe, we should find that
the application of the forces and intelligence of man
has completely transformed their connections and
mutual dependence. If we do not study the map of
the modern world in this light, it is a caricature, and
not a portrait of the globe ; and our conceptions of
relative spaces and distances will be all false if we do
not keep in mind the working of that historical ele-
ment, as we have repeatedly called it, that compelling
of the elements to obey the human mind and human
will, which makes many regions neighbors which on
the map seem most remote, and which widely disjoins
those which seem almost in contact.
How erroneous would have been our representations
of the solar system had we continued to calculate the

distances of the sun and the planets from the earth, as

276 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT

in former times, without regard to the laws discovered

by Kepler, or the theory of attraction propounded by
Newton, both of which correct former false estimates

of the distances which the stellar bodies traverse, and

the times in which they accomplish their courses. And
no greater influence do the laws of attraction exercise
over planetary motions than history exercises over the
surface of the globe, as a home for its inhabitants.

Our common literature gives no sign of a recognition

of this view of the globe. The earth as we commonly
regard it, as presented on our maps, is a caricature,
and not a portrait of features which are closely united

in living [Link] is too much the custom to apply

to it mere standard of measurement of length,

the
breadth, height, and depth, and to forget that true
nearness consists of ease of passage from land to land,
and true distance in the difficulty of communication.
We trust that enough has been said to indicate the
difference between the mere accidental mingling of
history with geography, and that necessary blending
of the two which results from the application of hu-
man forces and intelligence in bringing the world into
subservience to the wants and progress of man.
We have also made it a prominent desire, in what
has been said above, to treat of geography as a system-
atic whole, and to show that in it, as everywhere else,
the part can only be known from a conception of the
whole, and that without this conception every effort
to grasp a part will be imperfect, one-sided, and un-
scientific.
 IN GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 277

And a scientific treatment of the different countries

of the globe, viewed as the cohering members of the
earth as a whole, whether such a treatment were phys-
ical, ethnographical, or political, would be within the
province of a system of geography more perfect than
we at present possess ; and it will only be with the
attainment of such a system that civil geography can-
be subjected to a scientific and thorough discussion.
24
 NATURE AND HISTORY
AS

THE FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY:

OR, REMARKS ON

THE RESOURCES OF THE EARTH.

[FIRST READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OE BERLIN.]

 NATURE AND HISTOEY
AS

THE FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY:

OR,

REMARKS ON THE RESOURCES OF THE EARTH,

[DELIVERED APEIL 14, 1836.]

A knowledge of the widely varied resources of the

earth, in their diffusion over its entire surface, in their
amounts, their kinds, and their relations to special
lands and peoples, as well as to the entire system of
the globe, would always constitute, if rightly viewed,

a real, if not a prominent, part of geographical science.

Up to the present time, however, this has by no means
been the case. Blinded by the vastness of her riches,
she overlooked their systematic proportions, and never
compassed their uses and applications. She never
rose above her material possessions, which always
remained a lifeless and a useless load to her. She
never pressed forward to a systematic survey of her
whole domain, which, without an understanding of its

contents, could neither be useful to her, nor to the

circle of sciences. If the kindred sciences, history,
physics, climatology, mineralogy, geology, botany,
24*
282 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

zoology, had not met her from their side, she would
still be playing with her treasures, like children with
gold pieces, as she did four hundred years ago.
It is, perhaps, not incorrect to say that a system-
atic and accurate description of the mineral, animal,
and vegetable kingdoms is to be found in our standard
treatises on natural history ; their localities, the places
where they may be found, are detailed in our works
on geography ; and thus in a general and yet not
inaccurate way their uses and applications to meet and
supply all the needs of man are known.
But granting all this, can we consider the subject
as thoroughly investigated in its entire relations, when
we consider the extraordinary progress which science
has been making in late years ? By no means. A cor-
rect statement of the whole system of connections and
dependences in geography is wanting, the limits of
all countries are not definitively designated, their his-
torical expansion and development has not been fully
described, no accurate delineation of the distribution
of the earth's surface among the different races has
been completed, no account given of the course along
which commerce, civilization, colonization, and all

their instrumentalities have advanced in attaining

their present position. The place where all these sub-
jects ought to be fully unfolded is in our geographical
treatises. In history we do not meet this lack, but
find with the statement of results the statement of
their causes ; in the natural sciences, we find phenom-
ena traced carefully in every direction to discover their
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 288

entire round of relations and dependences ; but geog-

raphy, instead of attempting to be the complete mis-
tress of itsown domain, and to embrace as truly its
own what rightfully falls within its precincts, surren-
ders its own resources to other sciences, for them to
work and develop.
The diffusion of the gifts of nature over the whole
surface of the earth exercises now, and always has exer-
cised in the past, a powerful influence upon the char-
acteristics of the inhabitants of different districts.

The very productions of the soil have been interwoven,

as it were, into the texture of the human mind.
Through all zones, and in all stages of the world's pro-
gress, the effects of the distribution of natural produc-

tions have been Even the very nature of human

felt.

thoughts, feelings, and abstract ideas has been sub-

jected to this influence. We cannot glance for a mo-
ment at the characteristics of agricultural, hunting,
fishing, and of shepherd people, without seeing how
their occupation stamps the whole of the feelings and
thoughts, directs their simple philosophy of life, and
gives tone even to their religious ideas. To trace the
workings of the agencies involved in this is often a
difficult task, and often defies our most carefully
directed efforts to ascertain them.
A thorough knowledge of the earth's resources in
their relation to the earth itself is yet wanting, as well
as what we have just been tracing, the connection with
the characteristics of man. Nor is their classification

according to the three natural kingdoms, or according

284 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

to their local distribution, yet perfected. And yet a

knowledge of this is as necessary to a complete under-
standing of the organization of the globe, as the inqui-
ries upon which natural philosophy has entered in
order to gain an insight into phenomena which have
hitherto been unexplained.
If, as we have shown in previous articles, we need
to employ mathematical figures and expressions in
conveying correct impressions of form and size, and
cannot dispense with natural philosophy in elucidating
many of the problems of hydrography, we find that
natural history is just as indispensable in enabling us
to master those provinces of geography which have
their closest relations with the productions and re-

sources of the earth's surface. We have already

attempted to show the close relation between history
and geography, and yet there are just as intimate
relations between natural history and geography, and
the study of the connections between them is no less

profitable.

With ever enlarging preparation and observation

with* more thorough study in all departments, some-
thing further might, perhaps, be won in behalf of geo-
graphical science, if the element of natural history in its

relation to that science were more fully grasped by geog-

raphers. On the one side, scientific geography would
be enabled to confine the vast flood of observations in
natural history to its proper domain, and to draw from
it in fit channels for the fertilization of its own fields ;

on the other side, becoming master of these rich acqui-

 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 285

sitions, it would attain a higher place, and gain a new

means of studying nature and history through the
unity of both in the characteristic individual forms of
the three natural kingdoms.
The earth viewed as a whole, or as divided into land
and water, which again have their own subdivisions, is
the producer, wherever human art has not turned it

from its natural functions, of objects of every kind,

which we arrange and classify in definite groups, deduc-
ing from them, when our classification is complete,

the laws of their organization and distribution. It is

thus that we become able to explain and illustrate the

play of the great natural forces, and gain a system-

atized conception of the productions of the globe.
Grouping all the productions of a district together,
and tracing certain principles of distribution in their
diffusion, the mind is able at last to grasp the whole
characteristics of the region, and to determine, with
considerable accuracy, what would be the mental char-
acteristics of the people inhabiting it. This would be
the more easy were the people in a rude and primitive
condition, but it is still possible in the case of the
most cultivated. The influence of external conditions
is (and we include not alone the mere pro-
so great
ductions of the earth and its developed resources, but
also what may be summed up, as an eminent English
writer has done, in the expression aspects of nature),
that when men are rudely torn away from the scenes
of their childhood, and have lost the old associations,
whether of mountains or plains, whether of wood or
286 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

prairie, of island or sea-coast, they experience a rest-

less longing for the old home, which seems to agitate

every fibre of the heart, and which is satisfied only by
returning to the old scenes once more. Psychology
thus has this question to answer : whether this secret

longing of the soul for the old haunts may not accom-
pany man even to the highest stages of civilization,

and prompt him to revisit the home of his ancestors.

Many instances of this desire to return to the old
family estate, or in the case of colonists to revisit the
parent country, may be found, and they all seem to

find their explanation in this longing to be again

among the scenes and associations which were forma-
tive in moulding family characteristics and national
traits.

The full enjoyment of continuing in undimmed

freshness the relations which bind men to their former
homes gives an element of strength to those nations
that cherish it, of which those who neglect to revisit
the spots where character was formed have as little
conception as the civilized European has of the
sacredness ascribed to the Ganges by the Hindoos, or
as the mathematician of to-day can have of the ecstasy
of the discoverer of the relations which arithmetic
reveals, in advance of the knowledge of mathematical
truths held by antiquity. It cannot be doubted, too,
that the constant presence of the planetary hosts in
the view of man had wrought, not alone fitful impres-
sions, but deep and permanent influences upon the
human character, affecting the nature and disposition
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 287

and peculiarities of mankind all over the earth, and

lasting through all times. Thus, whether it be from
the contemplation of the forms on the surface of the
globe, or the spheres which float through the sky, the
influence of nature becomes one of the prominent
sources of the individuality of national character, and
men take, therefore, from their surroundings a stamp,
the peculiarity of which is dependent upon the locality

where they live. The nomadic Arab is not only in-

debted to the country where he lives for the necessity
of hunting the creatures which supply him with food
from day to day, but the wild deserts and the cloudless
sky give him that relish for a free and untutored life,

and for those quick and soaring dreams of fancy, with

which he always delights himself. The reserved and
meditative Hindoo, accustomed to the profuse luxuri-
ance of his country, takes the fantastic ideas of his
mythology from plants, flowers, and trees, and believes
in the transmigration of souls from men to beasts.

This infinite diversity and richness in the forms of

vegetation, some of them being of colossal magnitude^
the aspects of beauty and of terror which daily con-
front him, in time make him their subject. His sur-
roundings exercise at last the strongest of influences

upon him, until, imagining himself under the sway of

divine or demoniac powers, he becomes at last an easy
victim of tyranny.
If we take as an example of the truth which we are
illustrating the inhabitants of the tropics of the Old
World, we notice that, west of Arabia, one part over-
288 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

ran the arid and barren desert of Libya as far as the

Atlas mountains, and soon attained a high intellectual
development. Another part, east of Arabia, took
possession of the rich and fertile plains extending as
far as the straits of Sunda, but exhibiting a far infe-

rior degree of refinement and mental advancement in

its population. It cannot be the climate which occa-
sions this difference of results, for in this respect there
is not a great difference. It is effected by the com-
bined influences of natural scenery, food, and, in one
word, geographical surroundings, and these have
stamped the characteristics of the theology, philosophy,
and poetry of those districts for long ages."
All the impressions derived from this source will be
as various as the diversities in the causes are numerous.
They will give tone, too, to all the occupations of life
will affect the mariner, the tiller of the soil, the hunter,

and the peaceful dweller in the city ; they will have

their sway in times of peace or in times of war ; they
will be felt equally by men who live together and by
men who live in solitude. Man's complexion, his
customs, all his characteristics are modified, in what-
ever latitude he may live, by his surroundings. The
poems of Ossian are but the echo of the wild, rough,
cloudy Highlands of Scotland ; the forest song of the
Canadian, the negro's plaintive melody in the rice
fields of the Joliba, the refrains in which the hunters
of Kamtschatka record their exploits with the polar
bear, and in which islanders celebrate their fishing
feats and dangers, are only tokens all of the
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 289

influence which the scenes of daily labor have in

moulding the thought and feeling of men.
To what an extent Nature can, through a lofty and
spiritual interpreter, express herself in and modify
the culture of the individual, as well as of an entire
people, can be seen on Ionian soil in the verse of
Homer, which, called forth under the most favorable
sky, and on the most luxuriant shore of the Grecian
archipelago, not only charms us to-day, but, bearing
this impress, has determined what shall be the classic
form through all coming time.
This action of the forces and phenomena of nature
upon the human race in all its varieties has been one
of the chief springs in the education of man and in
all historical development. But for a full view of this

subject we must refer the reader to special works on

ethnography ; and yet there does not exist a thorough
treatise dealing with these laws, which are the very

foundation of true ethnography.

In looking at the combined conditions which deter-
mine the characteristics of nations, it is not the right
course to dwell exclusively on their primitive type
and constitution, on what tradition recounts of the
peculiarities of their infancy, but rather to trace how
far the bodily constitution of the people, their tem-
perament, modes of life, habitations, customs, language,
and religious opinions have been formed or modified
under the influences of that magic circle of nature
which surrounds them, and which so powerfully affects
what is individual in national character. Poetry and
25
290 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

its sister in the arts, landscape-painting, have tried to

wield these instruments, and to produce the same effect
that the subjects do which they in an artificial man-
ner represent. They have not tried in vain. The poet
and the artist are of all men able to stir men's hearts
the deepest, because they use the very agents which
have already wrought the most powerfully in forming
their natures and shaping their genius. We see in
this daily repeated fact the echo of the sublime truth
which we are now illustrating. Poetry and painting,
when they represent natural scenes, only reawaken
the impulses which had been caught during childhood
and infancy, and testify how mighty a hold the agencies
of nature have upon us.

This thought suggests the bond of connection which

runs through all the forms of the earth, revealing
subtle analogies, which, though real, are yet difficult to

trace ; but of these we will not speak.

Analysis must always be the precursor of synthesis,
and before the three natural kingdoms can be viewed
in their wholeness, they must be divided and sub-
divided, and arranged in families, genera, species, and
orders. And yet we can hardly say that the time has
come for geography to elevate itself to a branch of
natural philosophy ; and though it is unquestionable
that the conception of the earth as a single organism
is the true basis of geographical science, yet an attempt
to build a system, complete in all its parts, upon it,

would, like many geological systems in past times, be

imperfect, from a want of data. To build a structure
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 291

which will endure for ages, we need a more compre-

hensive range of materials than have as yet been accu-
mulated. But to sum up, in the manner of most of
our geographical works, all the products which are
met in any province, to connect them together just as
they happen to be found, and without regard to any
general principle, and to make no mention of their
uses, effects, and higher relations, is not only tedious,
but unprofitable for any scientific results. The com-
mon methods of description will always fall short of the
richness and fulness of nature, and will always be
regarded as unsatisfactory and commonplace. The
highest advantage which they serve is to discipline the
memory of the reader. In such masses of isolated facts,
no chain of cause and relation can be grasped ; there
is no profitable comparison of analogies, no internal
progress, no good results worked out from past inqui-
ries; there is no perception of the great object of
geographical investigations, no thought as to how the
facts of this science can be adapted to the wants of man-
kind, no true conception of the great economic func'
tions of the globe. While a new method of inquiry
.

and study would enlarge our knowledge, the modes of

research hitherto familiar will only ensure and perpet-
uate the same narrowness of view, the same want of
progress, and shut the gates upon an increase of
knowledge.
The constant desire manifested in modern times to

supply these wants by full lists of the productions of

every quarter of the globe, and to collect specimens of
292 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

minerals, flowers, and animals, is deserving of notice

for an accurate knowledge of the mineralogical, botani-
cal, and zoological riches of a country must always be
desirable. Yet these strictly belong to the department
of natural history.
Besides, it would be impossible to bring together
even the most important productions of all countries ;

it would fill the volumes of libraries \ and, even if we

should reduce them within moderate dimensions, repe-
titions could not be avoided. The facts, too, which
would be given would have to be regarded as fragmen-
tary and isolated ; their number would preclude the
power of tracing their connections and mutual rela-

tions. Doubtless much instruction might be gained

from so complete collections, yet it would only be
drawn fortuitously ; the amount of matter to be exam-
ined would be so great as to form an insuperable bar-
rier, hiding from sight what we were endeavoring to
discover.
Efforts have been made in modern times to supply
past deficiencies, and to give a systematic shape to
the older, stiff, and pedantic catalogues of produc-
tions, by introducing some branches of natural philos-
ophy, — climatology, for instance, — and thus some val-
uable geographical works have made some progress in
disciplining into an orderly arrangement the infinite
richness of the gifts of nature. By such steps as this
we compress the vast range of facts within such limits
as to be within the grasp of the mind. A science like
climatology, which is simple in itself, and which is the
 FACTORS OF ^ATURAL
: HISTORY. 293

same all over the globe, becomes thus especially ser-

viceable in promoting scientific advancement. And by
the word climatology we would imply everything which
is covered by latitude and longitude the situation of
:

places relatively to the temperature on land and on

sea ; all matters connected with the seasons, with
isothermal lines, with the average distribution of cold
in wintersand of heat in summers, with winds, both
regular and variable, with all hygrometrical phenom-
ena, such as dew, rain, and the climate of oceans, of
sea-coasts, and of the interior of continents. In conse-
quence of help from this source, physical geography
has made great progress within late years, and clima-
tology has not only givenwhat we have briefly hinted
above, a systematic knowledge of many products of
the earth, but it has also showed conclusively how
closely geography is united to other sciences. Clima-
tology designates the conditions under which vegeta-
tion thrives and new organizations assume their func-
tions ; and therefore no comprehensive view of the
earth can be taken without a recognition, at least, of
the science which marks out the zones, and establishes,

indeed, all climatic distinctions.

Yet the use of auxiliary sciences to illustrate geog-
raphy is just in its infancy. Yery few physical laws
have as yet been applied to generalize the relations of
the natural productions of the earth. So far as vege-
tation is concerned, the most dependent of all nature's
upon soil and climate, we find
gifts certain limits
marked out, beyond which only special classes of veg-
25*
294 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

etables can exist. But we are not aware that any

attempt has yet been made to study the laws involved
in this, nor to classify and group such productions
according to their natural relations.
Schauw, who has published a work on the
scientific

agriculture of Europe, has done more than any previ-

ous inquirer to form such a classification. He estab-
lished in that continent four zones, not determined so
much by latitude as by the trees indigenous to them
one was the zone of the pine and birch ; another of the
beach and oak ; another of the chestnut, and still an-
other of those tropical trees whose verdure is continual.
He also indicates important subordinate zones, espe-
cially those characterized by the cereals, the vine, and
the olive.
Such zones of indigenous trees and vegetables, taking
their character from the chief products of each, the —
landmarks of climate, as it were, —
may easily be estab-
lished over the entire earth. No better means could
be devised for distributing, according to climate, the
immense variety of the productions of the globe, as
well as for making that scientific division into genera
and classes, from a glance at which it could be deter-
mined whether each is found hi the field designed for
it by nature.

Much light has been thrown upon method ofthis

classification by Humboldt's voyages in tropical Amer-

ica, Brown's travels on the coasts of Africa and Aus-

tralia, Link's researches into the botanical forms of

the past, and by other learned investigations ;
yet such
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 295

works have not to any great extent treated of any

countries but those in Europe and the islands of the
globe. We ought to except, however, the attempt,
the first of its kind, and elementary in its character,
to illustrate the connection of natural history with
geography, contained in Canstem's chart of the dif-

fusion of plants over the globe ; nor ought we to

overlook Meyer's Geography of Plants, a work of
great value, on account of its practical, personal
observations.
Without entering into that closer classification of the

vegetable kingdom, which would be needful were it

our object to gain some conception of the copiousness

of the plants upon the earth's surface, in other words,
to learn how vast are the domains of a single one of
the three great natural kingdoms, we have to speak
briefly of the other two kingdoms in respect to their
resources.
Our knowledge of the distribution of the animal
world, like that of the vegetable world, is limited to
the results of such investigations as those which Zim-
mermann has prosecuted, carried on by personal
inquiries and observations. So far as regards climate
and elevation above the sea-level, animals are less de-
pendent on the soil than the vegetable world. The
sphere of their activity is greatly influenced by their
manner of gaining their food. The laws of their
diffusion are, therefore, widely different from those of
plants, although in many respects these two king-
doms perfectly coincide.
296 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

A much more complete and finely graded physical

scale, for the various regions of the globe, than the
instruments which have been so elaborately prepared,

might be gained, if the living organism of the animal

and vegetable world, in their most distinctly marked
localities, should be used as an index ; that is, if the
orders of beasts, birds, insects, fishes, etc., supposed
to be more or less dependent upon position and climate,
should be examined and compared according to their
diffusion. The suitably modified forms of sea and
land birds, particularly the American birds, according
to Lichtenstein's investigations in that hemisphere,
offer already valuable hints of what can be done in
thi§ direction. The season when all the varieties of
plantscome to their leafage and their bloom, the times
of coming and going for all the migratory birds, might
serve as a rude climatometer, and not be observed
without important advantages.
The relations of the third or mineral kingdom to the
globe, independent as this kingdom is of the forms
found on the surface of the earth, and connected but
indirectly with the existence of organized productions,
are examined with strict scientific exactness in works
which treat of geognosy and geology. And yet it may
be remarked, that, coincident with all the analogies
which we discover in entire domains of physical geog-
raphy, the aspect of all the features of the outer crust
of the globe is dependent upon the inward arrange-
ment, or the laws of stratification, and on principles
of elevation, depression, length, and breadth, similar
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 297

to those which we have indicated as having so great

influence in the instances of the forms of the exterior
of the earth and their effect upon the character and
history of man. In the diffusion of all the contents
of the vegetable and animal creation over the Old and
New World, through all zones, and in all climates,
there is the greatest possible variety of form and char-
acteristics, even if the classes or families in which they
occur be the same ;
yet in the mineral kingdom there
is the most remarkable uniformity ; the various kinds
of strata are the same, and the mineral forms are ho-
mogeneous over the whole earth. The individuality
which characterizes the continents is not found in their
mineralogical features, and the diversity which prevails
in their flora and fauna is not shared by the com-
ponents of their soil.

There is, however, in respect to the combinations of

strata and the depth or deficiency of soil, a great diver-
sity in the geognostic forms of the globe. While the
same component parts or elements are found every-
where, even in districts where the formations are
irregular and mfique, the quantity of the proportions
combined changes. While some of these formations
maintain their place, or become large and prominent,
others, which are their concomitants, or are subordi-
nate to them, disappear, contrary to all analogies.
And herein is one great difference between organized
and unorganized matter. Organized bodies disappear
entirely from the earth ; but unorganized forms, that
is, those of the mineral world, outlive decay, and hold
298 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

enclosed, in a fossilized state, the petrified bodies which,

were it not for such guardianship, would have been
lost from the earth.
Thus the components of the kingdom of which we
speak, homogeneous as to their nature, but heteroge-
neous as to combination and position, are traced in
all quarters of the earth, and at all heights and depths ;

subject everywhere to the principle which we have

hinted at, that its elements are the same in all lands,
in all climes, and under all conditions whereas the
;

forms of the animal and vegetable kingdoms vary

wholly with the place where they are found, and with
the influences which are brought to bear upon them.
Geological formations, in other words, do not vary
in their inner nature. Some plants and some animals
which belong in one district are found with unchanged
forms in another, but the components of the mineral
kingdom are everywhere the same. And they are
found, too, generally in a certain similarity of combina-
tion, although in respect to extent such collections
have no resemblance. Hills and mountains, are often
composed of the same materials, though the careless
eye would, from the great disparity in size, see no
resemblance. So, while the landscapes of the world
seem widely various, rejoicing in all the profusion of
color and variegated forms of beauty, the soil which
underlies them, and which supports their life, is often
composed of substances so nearly alike as to be almost
undistinguishable from one another.
A mere enumeration of all the important minerals
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 299

will as little cover all that ought to be embraced in an

account of the geognostical contents of the earth's sur-
face, as a mere list of animals could rightly be termed
a treatise on zoology. It is necessary to state their

connection with the country where they are found. To

be studied in relation to their localities are the vari-
eties of earth, the elementary mineralogical forms,
slate, limestone, the sandstone formations, basaltic
columns, trachyte groups, porphyry, veins of metal,
gold and tin ores, salt rocks and salt springs, mineral
and thermal springs, diamonds, gravel and silica,

boulders, plutonic and fossiliferous rocks, and many

others. Whatever country comes under consideration
must be judged geologically the inorganic compo-
;

nents which enter into the structure of its forms must

be critically and carefully studied, and all their rela-
tions and influences traced ; for geology is just as
applicable in furthering our knowledge of geography,
as far as the latter science includes unorganized mat-
ter, as climatology is in assisting us to understand the
relation between geography and organized forms.
The results of all these studies, the working of natu-
ral laws, and the exceptions to them, which from time
to time appear, are the true material to be inwoven
into geographical text-books, and not, as is often the
case, a superficial discussion of geology, mineralogy,
botany, zoology, climatology, and natural philosophy.
Only by using them correctly, by drawing from them the
generalizations which are applicable to our theme, can
we make them of service. To bring them in uncon-
300 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

nectedly is but taking upon our shoulders an unneces-

sary burden. But we have elsewhere indicated the
deficiencies of our geographical manuals, and we will
not rehearse them at length again. We will only say
that we have not yet met with a work which meets in
an adequate manner our wants. Whatever has been
done worthily in this way, is what has been exclusively
physical in its bearings, or what has been done with a
main eye to the furtherance of other sciences.
The demands that a scientific description of the
resources of the earth, according to physical laws,
should form a part of geography, are not exhausted.
As has already been said, the statements which have
hitherto been made regarding the earth's surface have
been merely concerned with questions of extent and
absolute position ;- but their specific character, that
which connects them with certain localities, and sus-

tains that connection, has not yet been traced ; their

positive characteristics, the cause of their activity in

influencing the life of the world, and their relative situ-

ation to the world as a whole, have not been investi-
gated with the care which they deserve. The various
productions of nature are yet to be studied in their
relations, before their unity can be seen, — before they
can be viewed as a broad and comprehensive system.
This work has hardly been begun ; the science of
comparative natural history has been as yet studied but
little ; classes, genera, and species have been treated
absolutely, rather than in their mutual connections
and the great fact has not yet been developed that the
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 301

roots of all things, if we may so say, are woven together

in unity, while in their leaves and trunks they are
widely separate and unlike.
The first task of a naturalist is, therefore, to dis-
cover the sphere of productiveness for every individual
form, before specifying its relations to the botanical or
animal kingdom, and before advancing to the study of
all the classes which are found in the same localities,

or which are widely diffused. There is so great a

diversity in all the relations to which such a method
of inquiry leads, and there is such a complexity of the
combinations of the gifts of nature, that there must
be an indefinitely large number of organizations in the
animal and vegetable world in nature really con-
nected.
And not only the natural history of these organiza-
tions, but also the laws of their acclimatization, the
investigation of their importance in the countries where
they are indigenous, the tracing of their development
onward towards perfection, or towards their maximum
diffusion, or, on the other hand, of their diminution
and gradual disappearance from the earth, fall strictly
within the sphere of a full description of the earth's
resources. But it is not enough to become acquainted
with the primitive home of indigenous products, for
the means of their diffusion now are quite different
from what they were at former times. From the times
when men lived on the sports of the chase, and^led an
unsettled, migratory life, down to our days, when new
modes of transplanting are taught by our scientific
26
302 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

agriculturists, and when commerce quickly transfers

and exchanges the gifts of all lands, there has been a
constant progress.
A true and fruitful inquiry into the resources of the

earth, or, to speak more exactly, the introduction of

natural history into a geographical work, and the trac-
ing of the connection of natural philosophy, climat-
ology, and geology, present three principal questions
preliminary to an explanation of the laws of propaga-
tion on the globe.
The object of the first is to discover the primitive

land, the soil which first supplied the conditions of

their existence, and to trace them from their life in
paradise, so to speak, down to the time of their depre-
ciation, and to their disappearance. Instances of this
may be found in various species of grain, in some fruit-

trees, and in spices.

The second question concerns itself with the agency
of natural causes, as a means of diffusing the gifts of
nature, and of carrying them into regions where the
conditions of their existence will differ somewhat from
what they were in the sphere where they were indigen-
ous.- We refer to such agencies as the movement of
boulders, the transferring of seeds, either through the
air by violent winds, in the sediment swept down riv-
ers, or by the currents of the ocean what may be ;

carried, and sometimes in fact is, by animals and birds ;

and, in general, the effect of the constant movement

which is going forward on the globe. It would be im-
possible to specify all that might be auxiliary to this
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 303

diffusion. Yet it is easily understood how the appli-

cation of natural history to geographical investigations
accounts for the great influence of physical causes in
promoting a change of place ; how inanimate nature
itself has produced great effects upon the external
appearance of the globe ; and, again, how man has
made the instrumentalities of nature the servants of
his will, — has changed the whole aspect of relative

distances between place and place, making near what

was once remote.
The object of the third will be distinctively the in-
vestigation of the sphere of civilized man ; to trace the
agencies which he has brought into play to increase the
diffusion of natural organizations. This question con-
cerns itself with what was called in the preceding paper
the historical element ; its special dealing is with the
world as the home of civilization ; it shows how the
diffusion of the earth's products has followed the course
of human migration, whether by land or water, and
indicates the bearing which colonization, and even per-
secution, has had in promoting distribution, and how
there has been, as the result of the movings of men,
increase here, diminution there, and sometimes a kind
of oscillation in the diffusion of all kinds of organiza-
tions. This last question shows, too, how ethnography
and natural history are connected by geography as an
intermediate link, and that the two former can be
studied without interfering with, but rather as aux-
iliary to, the latter.

The solution of the first of theso three questions,

304 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

that is, the one which relates to the primitive home

of the gifts of nature, conducts us to the soil and cli-

mate which were specially favorable to them. The

collecting of kindred groups gives a character to every
locality, and aids in establishing the archeology of a
country, and in understanding its civilization. By con-
tinuous researches, those districts which have been the
most richly endowed are brought more conspicuously
into view than others less favored, and the attention is

especially directed to those that have had a greater

influence over the rest in consequence of the superior
advantages which they have enjoyed from the begin-
ning.
The inquiry into the second question, or the one
which relates to diffusion promoted by the inanimate
agencies of nature, leads to a discrimination between
such products as must, from the partiality of nature, be
confined to certain limited but unchangeable locali-
ties, — gold, diamonds, and spices, for example, — and
those which were specially designed, in accordance
with more bountiful designs, to be more easily distrib-

uted over the earth. And while the former began

to be, in the course of time, the points of attraction
for the avarice of nations, or, in some cases, the in-
centive of nobler impulses in stimulating scientific
research, the latter, — flocks, seeds, the cocoa-nut
fruit, and the like, — distributed by natural agencies,
prepared regions less endowed to become capable of
supporting human existence.
To employ a bold but true figure, we might liken
 FACTORS OF NATyRAL HISTORY. 305

the productions of nature which were confined to the

spots which produced them to islands, which stand
alone and unconnected in the sea; but when the
agencies of nature had scattered them abroad they be-
came like continents ; and as in continents there is the

closest connection between the various parts, so in

process of the wide distributions of natural organiza-
tions they are commingled in the nearest relations.
The third question advances to man, the noblest of
created things, of whom we may say that he is the
head of all the organizations of the earth, as the lion
is king of beasts, and as the palm is queen of trees.

Man has a capacity for progress not unlike that of

which we find abundant examples in the vegetable
and animal kingdoms. As some of these are develop-
ing and progressing, while others are diminishing and
dying out, so man exists in all stages of advancement,
from the savage to the most highly civilized. A great
part of this advancement is owing to the habit of
travel so common among men. As nations move their
homes, and as they colonize, they become in time so
ennobled that their primitive characteristics disappear,
and their connection with their former places of abode
is lost. This habit of travel brings them into contact
with objects whose uses they have not hitherto known,
aii'd which in time become much diffused, and are
considered as indispensable to life. Such are the horse
as a means of locomotion, and rice and the cereals as
articles of food.

To trace this third class of results, the guidance

26*
306 NATURE AND HISTORY THE

of history is invoked. In studying the laws which

control the diffusion of natural resources, natural phi-
losophy, climatology, and natural history must be
submitted to the uses of geography and history.
After investigating all three modes of diffusion
which have just engaged our attention, that of orig-
inal creation, that caused by inanimate agencies, such
as winds and water currents, and that which man
directs, and having examined the localities which have
exercised a special influence upon the earth as a whole,
we shall find that we have gained important knowl-
edge of man Such branches
in his relations to nature.
of this knowledge as ethnography, physical and po-
litical geography, have themselves been unfolded by
the new improvements in agriculture, manufactures,
mechanics, as well as from advancing commerce,
trade, and colonization. Still, such is the distance
which intervenes between the great divisions of the
earth, that commerce is the main agency for promot-
ing the diffusion of the world's products, and yet its

powerful influence has never been so fully treated as

it deserves. It is to commerce that we are indebted
for the blending together in a common stock of all
the varied productions of the earth, for the light which
the men of one country can lend to those whose busi-
ness is the same in another land. Commerce, there-
fore, is the great combiner of all the activities of
the world.
The study of the agencies everywhere promoting
the distribution of all the productions of the earth
 FACTORS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 307

leads us to see that, in large and small countries alike,

diversity only guides to harmony; that, though the
gifts of nature are heterogeneous, yet they fall into
hands which can mix and unite them in true pro-
portions and make them all of service. More than
this: it draws in distinct and well-defined lines the
characteristics which give rise to political and physical
divisions, and traces with clear hand the reasons which
stamp its own individuality on each.
From all this it becomes apparent what an influence
is exercised on the progress of our planet by the
situations of countries and their productions ; how
these modify and determine political boundaries at
the present time, and will continue to do so in time
to come. The historical course of every country is
read in its natural conditions, and from the primitive
endowment of a continent its capacity for historical
development is legible at a glance.
And when geography shall be able to collect, in a
truly scientific manner, all the resources of the earth,
presenting them in all their relations, and as the source
and cause of wide and lasting influence, will that
1
science take a position which it has yet never reached.

i It may be remarked that the sharp criticisms of Eitter upon the geo-
graphical treatises of his day and the times preceding, as well as the hints
which he has given in many places in these papers, have been greatly in-
fluential in their results. Such works as those of Frederic de Eougemont
and Heinrich Berghaus are elaborate performances in Hitter's method,
while smaller treatises in the same manner are now numerous in the
English, French, and German languages. For a tribute to Eitter's in-
fluence, the reader need only turn to Eougemont' s Precis oV Ethnographie,
and to Guyot's " Earth and Man." — Te.
308 NATURE AND HISTORY, ETC.

Remark. — As appendices to a thorough work on

the resources of countries, the reader will find ser-
viceable the various treatises on the diffusion of the
date-palm, the sago-palm, and others of this family
those on the plantain (Musa), the mangrove, tea,
coffee, cotton, silk, opium, frankincense, camels,
diamonds, tabascheer, pepper (piper nigrum), faufel,
cinnamon ; on the extent of the district containing

the banyan tree, the Indian lion and elephant; on

the diffusion of the Indian pearl ; — all of which have
been partly treated of in various volumes of my
General Comparative Geography.
 THE

EXTERNAL FEATURES OF THE EARTH

IN THEIR

INFLUENCE ON THE COURSE OF HISTORY.

[READ BEFORE THE ROYAL ACADEMY OE BERLIN.]

 4
THE

EXTERNAL FEATURES OF THE EARTH

IN THEIR

INFLUENCE ON THE COURSE OP HISTORY.

[DELIVERED AEEIL 1, 1850.]

Ip we glance at a globe, which, although the best

representative of the earth that we have, is yet inad-
equate to express perfectly the form of its surface
(although the spherical form conveys best that unity
in diversity which so powerfully strikes the mind,) the
most prominent characteristic which meets the eye
is the vast complexity, the apparently chaotic confu-
sion of land and water, interfusing and interpenetrat-
ing each other, and presenting in their contrasts not
the slightest trace of a systematic arrangement. No
regions marked by straight lines, or lying in perfect
geometrical configurations ; only an intricate net-work
spread out over the earth. The poles themselves are
only mathematical points which result from the earth's
rotation, having no reality besides. No architectural
symmetry, to which our eyes are accustomed in works
of human art, is to be perceived, not even in that
312 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

measure which meets us in the organisms of the ani-

mal and vegetable kingdoms. And this completely
unsynfmetrical, apparently planless whole, which can
hardly be compassed with repeated observations, has
something in it which bewilders the senses, and only

thenames that we give to the separate parts prevent us

from viewing it as a chaos, and enable us to see that
thought and order have had a part in its creation.
In studying the world men have paid far more atten-
tion to its forms in detail than to the consideration of
their unity, and the geographical treatises have chiefly
confined themselves to descriptions of the earth's natu-
ral features. Geographical science has thus narrowed
itself within very small domains, and has become a sci-

ence of mere isolated facts ; she has not yet risen to a

place where she may view the relations of facts, con-
template high and universal laws, and thus become a
science which, instead of grasping mere details, shall

compass the earth as a whole.

Although the earth cannot be adequately repre-
sented on the reduced scale of an artificial globe, since

the latter can only be a poor symbol of the former,

yet we have been obliged to adopt from this inade-
quate representative the terms of expression with
which we describe the earth. And so the greatest
part of our geographical terminology has been drawn
from this copy in miniature of the globe, instead of
from the original itself. As it is impossible to con-
ceive of that vast net-work of physical forms which
is thrown over the great world as pertaining to the
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 313

smaller representative, our terms and definitions, as

illustrated by school globes, can only be imperfect,
incomplete, and by no means adequately thorough for
scientific purposes, whether in the study of superficial
extents, or of heights and depths, or of the relation
of different districts to each other, or of parts to the
whole.
But works of nature have this marked distinction
from works of art, that although the latter seem to
bear the signs of the greatest excellence, to be con-
summately perfect, and symmetrical down to the
smallest details, yet on a closer search we discover
that an inner connection of parts is wanting; the
microscope, too, reveals an external roughness, whether
it be in the most delicate fabric or the most finished
mechanism, the most beautiful pictures or the most
polished But the apparent disproportions
surfaces.
and incongruities and roughness of nature's works
dissolve into a finer and nicer organization when
scrutinized under the microscope. The delicate
threads of a spider's web, the exactness of form in
vegetable cells, the arteries of animals, the regularity
of the smallest crystals, even of those too small for
the naked eye, are examples in point. Nor is this

contrast seen alone in the things which are minute

and delicate, but also in the mutual play and relation
of larger bodies ; in such are revealed the workings
of the laws of nature to which the sciences of chem-
istry, natural philosophy, optics, and mechanics are
indebted for their being. And ought we not to find
27
314 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

this contrast in the largest of bodies which we have

to study closely, — our own planet, — even if we were
acquainted with its surface merely in a superficial
manner ? Has the earth reached its present stage
of progress in course of the workings of law, or by
following without aim and plan the dictates of irreg-
ular, internal forces? How' can we answer these
questions when we consider the advance of the human
race, study the development of man, and see that our
earth is only his nursery, or rather, we may say, the
school of man ; its highest function being to assist him
in his training, and to prepare him for the discharge
of the noblest duties of life ?

Every plant demands the soil most suitable for it,

that it may become capable of bearing fruit. Every

form of the animal creation has an element in which
it was intended to draw its being. And shall man be
bound to a habitation opposed to his nature ? Should
chance bind him to a home which is not in harmony
with his necessities ? Because we are not yet able to

compass the undeveloped riches of the earth, are we

to consider its parts as a mere unorganized conglom-
eration, which has happened to take a globular shape,
and, carelessly tossed from the hand of the Maker, has
been left to its own course, to follow no law but its

own unregulated will ? And has man no inward ca-

pacity of progress? We have warnings enough in

nature not to judge of things which pertain to the
Infinite and the Eternal by the small standards which
we wield in the present warnings not to confound
;
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 315

our impressions with their source, nor to consider the

laws of nature the result of our sagacity, but rather
what a happy discovery shows have existed always, and
which were in older times unrevealed. The gradual
formation of nebular worlds, the seeming irregular
movements of the winds, are some of the many exam-
ples that teach us that the most perfect unity and
order exist in the utmost apparent disorder and
confusion.
The longer we investigate the surface of our planet
and its apparently unconnected parts, ever gaining a
better knowledge of its nature, the more clearly a per-
fect accordance in all its relations, as well as a pro-
gressive development in them, are seen, especially if the
natural sciences and history aid in illustrating their
connection. Astronomical topography, geodesy, hy-
grometry, geognosy, meteorology, and natural philoso-
phy have done a great deal to make these things clear
and if we study the historical development of individ-
uals and nations, and compare the various productions
of nature according to their indigenous character, we
discover that their situation is always conformable to
the strictest law ; that there is no confusion in their ar-
rangement, but that there is everywhere perfect order.
There is no occasion for dwelling here at length
upon the elements which are most evidently influential
in conditioning the life of the globe, — air, water, and
land. These have been spoken of in a previous paper
in a general way, and the former remarks do not need
to be repeated here. We also pass over the well-known
316 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

accumulation of the continental masses in the north-

ern hemisphere, and the contrast to this found in the
wide diffusion of water in the southern, in consequence
of which the preponderance of heat, the superiority
of population, and the ease of communication and
the interchange of ideas are greater in the northern
regions of the globe.
Humboldt has called the attention of students to
the pyramidal and wedge-like form of the southern
points of the continents in the antarctic hemisphere
and their influence on the globe ; it is, therefore, not
necessary to enter fully upon this subject ; we only wish
to remind the reader that, in consequence of these
pointed extremities, all marked southern extremities
are the most susceptible of all to external influences.
Perhaps less known than the above is the great
contrast between the land hemisphere and the water
hemisphere southwest of it, which two divide the
possession of the globe, and give us two worlds, a
continental and a maritime. In the latter we find
the most extensive oceans, while the only land is

found in islands and in the pointed extremities of

continents ; in the former we find nearly all the con-
tinents, while all the large masses of water may be
regarded as inland seas. New Zealand is the centre
of the oceanic hemisphere ; while southern England
and the coasts of the North Sea are the antipodes of
New Zealand, and the centre of the land hemisphere.
England enjoys an insular position, in addition to this
great advantage, and hence has been enabled to take
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 31

almost undisputed possession of the seas, and to cany

its commerce and its dominion over the world.
The barrier which separates the continental from
the oceanic hemisphere is the belt of coast-land which
crosses the meridians and parallels diagonally, mak-
ing a circle almost as large as a great circle of the
earth. This belt of coast-line forms a certain zone of
transition between the two hemispheres. The various
characteristics of both are seen in the daily change
of land and sea winds, and in many other climatic
phenomena. For in this great ring of coast-line,
intersecting as it does the northern and southern
hemispheres, and forming the periphery of the oceanic
world, is included the whole sea-coast of Africa, of
Southern and Eastern Asia, and of West America,
which completes the circle. On the south this circle
is widely broken, for here the continental form is com-
pletely missing. No trace of that transition between
land and ocean is found there, upon which depend the
phenomena of evaporation, dryness, and moisture, the
direction of the winds and the ocean currents, and
the irregular action of tides.
It cannot be denied that there exists a great law for
the promotion of life on our globe in these arrange-
ments, which, though arising from the mutual relation
of land and sea, is yet so largely influential in shaping
the destinies of nations. A mere glance at the world
shows that upon such geographical conditions as those
Ulrich we have hinted at depend large results. The
imperfect soundings of the oceans, and our very incom-
27*
318 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

plete knowledge of the constituents of the earth and

the laws of construction in the formation of continents,
do not allow us to pass a full judgment on the unequal
diffusion of land and water over the surface of the
globe.
Two great divisions of the globe, the continental
and the oceanic, each extending diagonally across the
meridians and parallels, would naturally modify all

contrasts in the atmosphere, and in the vegetable and

animal world. The customs of individuals and nations
differ in all countries, because man is dependent on
the nature of his dwelling-place. The results in the
history of individuals and nations were also diversified,
and civilization took an altered course of development.
The land hemisphere was civilized first, in consequence
of the different nations coming in contact with each
other, causing collisions in some cases, and in others
an interchange of ideas. The oceanic world, however,
contained numberless groups of barbarous and isolated
nations, till navigation was perfected around the world,
and the progress of civilized man awoke them out of
their stagnation. The nations that inhabited the great
coast-belt which served as the barrier of these two
main divisions of the globe, were very much favored
in their primitive advancement by a variety of natural
causes. This can be seen in the example of the Ethi-
opians, the Egyptians, Arabians, Chinese, and the
inhabitants of India andWest America, as the Aztec
ruins of Mexico and Peru bear witness.
We have hitherto made use of such expressions as
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 319

centres, great circles, zones, hemispheres, pyramidal

divisions, etc., but we must always keep in mind, that
as in physics all mathematical definitions can at best
only serve as analogies, so also this takes place in their
application on the surface of the globe, where we re-

gard them as hinting at, rather than as fully expressing,

the settled relations of objects on the earth. We may,
therefore, make use of geometrical figures, as rhombs,
triangles, ovals, and the like, without fear of causing
any misconception of ideas.

Passing from the divisions of the earth's surface

into land and water hemispheres, we find another class

of contrasts in the volcanic forms of the globe. These

are found especially in the continental division, while
the greater oceanic hemisphere, although not quite
free from its influence, has only a few scattered groups,
that show volcanic activity at rare intervals, although
they are full of the vestiges of past eruption.
This unbroken volcanic circle has been shown by
one of the greatest naturalists of the age to pass
around the Pacific Ocean and the South Sea, and to

coincide in part with that great circle of coast-line

which has been already mentioned. The two are coin-
cident on the western coast of North America and on
the northeastern coast of Asia ; in another part of
Asia, the southeastern, the volcanic circle runs in a
number of parallel rows over the islands along the
coast, until, diverging from the continent in a south-
east direction, it at last takes its course towards the

centre of the South Sea. Thus it becomes, not indeed

320 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIOXS

so colossal as the great shore-circle of the Pacific, but

somewhat inferior in size to that, coinciding in part

with it, but including, as it passes through the middle

of the Pacific, the thousands of small, high, isolated
basaltic islands and island groups, which have all been
formed volcanically, but which still exist above the

surface ; the submarine activity which threw them up

having become much weakened. East of the Pacific
this volcanic circle includes the Cordilleras, an extent
of forty-five hundred miles along the western coast of
North America, in which Humboldt discovered over
fifty craters in action, and saw numbers which had
once been active. West of the Pacific, Yon Buch has
shown lines of volcanoes to exist parallel with the
coast outline of Australia and eastern Asia, on the
long range of mountainous islands there. With uni-
form course towards the northwest, and of similar
formation in the inner and outer ranges, they, too,
extend about forty-five hundred miles from the double
island of New Zealand to the north of the Philippines,
with one forking in the Moluccas, in the east branch
of which are eighty raging volcanoes, in incessant
activity. Prom thence, the range advances in a vast
curve towards the north, over Japan, the Curile isles,

Kamtschatka, the Aleutian islands and Analaska. In

this division there yet exist more than fifty active vol-
canoes, a part of which have been thrown up from the
sea, as in the Australian range, while another part are
of continental formation. This division joins the Cor-
dilleras at Mount St. Elias and Buen Tiempo, and thus
 OF HISTORY A!NT) GEOGRAPHY. 321

completes a circuit of more than two hundred volca-

noes in constant action, rightly giving it the name of
the Volcanic Circle.
Only in the south is this active volcanic circle broken
in the extreme north, where the separation of the Old
World from the New becomes very slight, the close

connection of the two continents does not prevent

it from completing its natural circuit and binding
together what the sea appears to sunder. There do,
indeed, converge the continents of Northeast Asia and
Northwest America, — the Behring's
at they are Straits

almost contiguous, — and may indicate that the

this

forming of the great volcanic circle was contempora-

neous with the upheaval of the vast table-lands of the
continent close by. A confirmation of this appears to
be offered in the great break of about five thousand
miles extent from Cape Horn, in South America, to
Tasmania, in South Australia, in the latter of which
volcanoes disappear, and so, too, does this vast volcanic
circle. In this connection, too, it will be noticed that
the sea within this volcanic circle is rich in islands,
while without it is barren of them, and stretches away,
unrelieved by them, over the larger portion of the
globe. It is astonishing, on passing the eye over that
part of the maritime regions of the earth, to see how
few are the islands which appear in those vast tracts of
water. While a belt in the torrid zone, extending in the
diagonal direction of the ecliptic from the Philippines
southeast to the solitary Easter Isle, is studded with
islands, making a kind of oceanic milky-way ; and
322 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

while there is, also, more to the northward, another

belt, inferior in importance to this, yet not insignifi-
cant, running in the same direction, and extending
from Japan to the Sandwich group, the student of
island formation finds outside of the volcanic circle
the greatest poverty of material. But the navigator
is, of course, best acquainted with these latter tracts,
where the sea is open and the sailing safe. The cir-

cumnavigator of the globe in its southern latitudes,

who should sail southward of the well-known break in
the volcanic circle, and should advance to Victoria
Land, the region recently discovered by James Ross,
would encounter only scattered rocks, mere fragments,
which, with the exception of the Alexander and Peter
Isles, are hardly worthy of the name of islands. In
the vast spaces of the Southern Ocean, which James
Weddel traversed in 1822, not a single rock is seen.
So, too, in the northern waters of the Indian Ocean,
between West New Holland and Southeast Africa, the
rocks of Kergnelens, St. Paul, andAmsterdam may
scarcely be called islands. Bourbon and Mauritius
stand there as islands, quite alone. In the Atlantic
Ocean, if you pass from the antarctic rocks of Sand-
wichland to the New South Shetland group, there are
only, in the line reaching from Western Africa to the
eastern shores of South America, these widely sun-
dered islands, Trinidad, St. Helena, Ascension, which

rise from the depths of the ocean fourteen thousand

five hundred and fifty feet, the height of Mont Blanc,
according to the first measurements of James Ross,
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 323

and which, according to later researches, have been

shown to have a height of twenty-seven thousand six
hundred feet from their base to the level of the sea.
North of the equator there appear, as antipodes of
the South Sea islands, numerous volcanic groups,
always small, the Canaries, the Azores, the Faro isles,

and so onwards up so far as Iceland, which is not to

be regarded as belonging to the open sea, but rather
to the polar coast. Thus, in the neighborhood of both
poles, at the north John Mayen Isle, and at the south
Mount Erebus, twelve thousand feet high, according to

Ross, there are volcanic fires in renewed and constant

activity, again winning a place which a long interval
has denied to them.
The heaving, internal fires, which have now but few
outlets beyond the circle of volcanic activity, have con-
centrated their force in active volcanoes more than in
former times, when they were felt in the upheaval of
the group of islands from the whole of the South Sea
basin ; and, besides sharply marked islands, a great
number of shallows, banks, and rocks have been thrown
partially up, though not enough to emerge above the
surface. But these pent-up and invisible forces have
not been able to effect the upheaval of an entire con-
tinent, and we are left to trace by soundings the pos-
sibility of such a continent having resulted from vol-
canic action.
This former diffusion over large extents of volcanic
phenomena, instead of their concentration as now in

a few spots, was apparent outside of the great volcanic

324 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

circle, in the upheaval of the Old and New Worlds, in

which the mountains always attain their greatest
height in the neighborhood of the volcanic circle. The
less steep slope of these mountain ranges is always on
the side away from the volcanic circle. This slope
uniformly takes its direction towards the centre of the
continent, and in both the Old and New World, having
reached its place of greatest depression at the centre,
the surface spreads out horizontally towards the north,
northeast, and northwest, till it comes to the Arctic

Ocean. Thus, the same forces which upheave islands

upheave continents too, and fit them both for the func-

tions which they are to fulfil in developing the history

of the human race.
A large continental plain, the island of New Hol-
land, lies westward and outside of the great volcanic
circle, and yet not an active crater is found upon it.

It seems as if the forces which have thrown it to its

present height were unable to upheave it further, and

allowed it to rest at its present elevation, while they
found their vent and outlet elsewhere. Even the great
coral sea-bed, lying between that island and New
Guinea, either fell back after being raised higher, or
the forces of upheaval failed after it had been raised
as far as it was.
The great district of moderate upheaval, which com-
mences with the Australian continent, continues north
even of the isthmus of Sunda, enters Asia upon its

southern coast, is found in the lowlands of Farther

India, Tunkin, and eastern China, and does not find
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 825

its limit till it meets the great central plateau of Asia,

and the steep shores of Leaotong and Corea, opposite
the isolated groups of large volcanoes in Japan.
Analogous to this formation are the depressions on
the continents of North and South America, beyond,
or rather in the rear, of the great volcanic chain of the
Andes, with their narrow but lofty plateaus, which
were elevated at the same time with the mountains.
Within all this depressed region there is, as in the
Australian plain, no active volcano. As hinted above,
the slopes in North and South America are away from
the great volcanic circle, following the courses of the
rivers, and spreading out in broad and fertile plains,

while on the side of the mountain range that looks

towards the centre of the volcanic circle the slopes
are rocky and precipitous.
We pass from the observation of the depressions and
the slopes of Australia and America to the analogous

formations of the Old World. Here the same law is

repeated. The volcanic range runs away from eastern

Asia in a southeasterly direction, while the low range
of shores stretches away towards the west, crossing
southern China, both the Indies, South Arabia, and
the whole eastern coast of Africa as far as the Cape of
Good Hope.
It is interesting to recognize in Humboldt's view
of Central Asia that this principle runs through the
entire Old World. The diagonal which traverses the
great Asiatic plateau, passing from southwest to north-
east, and dividing it into the northwestern and south-
28
326 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

eastern triangular halves (of Thibet and Mongolia), is

at the same time the axis of the maximum altitude,

the greatest rise being towards the southeast, and

the greatest depression towards the northwest. The
maximum of elevation in the plateau is at the south-

east, in the table-land of Thibet, and is about fourteen

thousand feet, while the mountains which hem in this
plateau range from twenty thousand to twenty-five
thousand feet. Those mighty cliffs, which, like an
immense wall, stretch out into the plains of Farther
India and Bengal, rise to even greater heights, and are
the most elevated on the globe. Although no perfected
measurements have been made, yet the fact that the
elevation increases as we approach the east confirms
the principle which we are illustrating. The most
recent survey of Kunchinginga, in Sikim, by Colonels
Waugh and Hooker, shows its height to be twenty-
eight thousand one hundred and seventy-four feet, and
thus higher than Juwahir, Dwaleghiri, and Chamaluri,
in the southern declivities of the Himalaya chain.
Beyond the diagonal axis of elevation in this cen-
tral plateau, the Mongolian or northern half begins,
which, dropping away in terraces towards the north-
west, gradually falls, in long and gradual slopes, in its

northwest course, till it at length reaches the sea-coast

of North Siberia, and finds its limit at the Arctic

Ocean.
Beginning near Pekin, on the southern edge of Cobi,
eight thousand eight hundred feet above the level of
the sea, it stretches on towards the northwest, drop-
 or HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. Z'li

ping, according to the Russian scientific explorers,

through the varying heights of five thousand five

hundred feet, four thousand four hundred, three thou-

sand seven hundred and fifty, two thousand six hun-

dred and fifty, to the level of lake Baikal, one thou-

sand four hundred feet, and thence to lake Zaizan, the

source of the Irtish, one thousand one hundred feet

above the level of the sea. This slope, following the

whole extent of the continent, progresses uniformly
towards the west till it reaches the large and well-
known basin of the Aral and Caspian seas, eighty feet
below the level of the sea. Near Tobolsk it sinks
gradually to about one hundred feet above the sea's
level, and then passes over to that part of Eastern
Europe which lies near to the Caspian, Black, and Bal-
tic seas, which spreads itself out in a vast system of
plains, and which has no elevation again till it reaches
the remotest north and west.
The same general law of the elevation of mountain
masses to their greatest height towards the southeast,
where |;hey fall off steeply towards the coast, while
the gradual slope is towards the centre of the land
hemisphere, is repeated in all plateau formations,
whether large or small, whether continuous or not.
Thus we come to the conclusion that similiar causes
and forces have produced similar results. The prin-
cipal direction of the axis of elevation in Central Asia
coincides with the diagonal to which all elevated
masses on our globe tend. Thus the law of elevation
on the earth's surface seems to be expressed in this
328 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

diagonal line, for mountain chains of the greatest

heights. And yet, often where there is a plateau
formation running in the direction of this diagonal,
a high mountain chain may be found running diamet-
rically across it. The entire range of laws bearing
upon this whole subject of the direction of mountains
and of plateaus has been scientifically discussed by
Elie de Beaumont, a French naturalist.
In the Persian plateau, the southeast elevation rises

at the table-land of Kelat, in Beloochistan, to the great

height of eight thousand eight hundred feet above the
sea, while its elevation as it passes northward sinks at
Ispahan to the half of that height, at Teheran to less

than four thousand feet, at Kom to two thousand two

hundred feet, and diminishes more rapidly as it nears
Bucharia and the Sea of Aral, until at the south of

the Caspian it sinks suddenly below the level of the

sea. The plateau Dekkan reaches its greatest
of
height, ten thousand feet, at Utacamund, in the south,
near Cape Comorin it sinks more and more as it
;

advances towards the high plains of Mysore, Malwa,

Mewar, and so northward to the lowlands of Sind,
whose northern boundary is the Himmalaya range.
In like manner the plateau of Arabia reaches its

greatest elevation in the southeast corner, at Hadra-

maut, Oman, and Jemeu (the mountains of incense,
five thousand five hundred feet high, Dschebel Ach-
dar in Oman, six thousand five hundred feet, Dschebel
Taas seven thousand seven hundred, according to
Botta); but advancing northward towards Sanaa it
 OF HISTORY AND GEOttKAPHY. 329

sinks to four thousand five hundred feet, at Taif, near

Mecca, it has fallen to three thousand three hundred,
and as it approaches the confines of Syria, and the
plains of Mesopotamia it is lost in broad lowlands.
Even the Sinai group, although lying between two
arms of the Red Sea, only a single elevation with
a small plateau extending to the north, follows the
same general law. This group turns its steep side, at
the place of its greatest height, southwards to the
Red Sea ;
just as, on a far larger scale, the whole of
the mountain district of southern and eastern Africa
attains the maximum of its elevation on the side

towards the Indian Ocean. The greatest diminution

of elevation in Africa is well known to be seen in
advancing northwards to the depression of Sahara and
the long valley of the Nile, and thus towards the
centre of that grand depression which the Mediter-
ranean in part fills, and towards which the great tract

of flat land in eastern Europe, lying west of the

Euxine, gradually sinks, just as the mountain land of
middle Europe sinks as it nears the North Sea and
the Baltic. Only those mountain ranges which follow
the meridians, that is, whose course is from south to
north, the three great parallel ranges of the Ural, the
Scandinavian Alps, and the Aileghanies, divide the
vast depressed area into radically different parts ; Ttnd
these, partly covered with water indeed, are found in
all the northern continents. The mountain chains
which run from east to west, such as the Caucasus,
the Carpathian, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, have no
28*
380 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

connection with those chains which run north and

south, excepting as the margins of the plateaux are
subject to the laws spoken of above ; for towards the

western part of the Old World these last-named chains

stand out as independent systems, giving character to
Europe.
We have thus far only spoken of five or six of the
most remarkable arrangements in the nature of the
earth's surface, so far as they can be traced, as an
example of the general appearance of the exterior of
the globe. We have not entered into possible causes,
or into the results which proceed from these arrange-
ments, although the latter are easily found. From
this great law of general depression it follows, in the
Old World, that the family of nations was in early
times brought together on an accessible spot, which
was destined to be the cradle of history. Some
branched off from this central spot, and spread out
where the formation of the country permitted them to
go. All the roads of commerce lay near together
then, and converged at one place, as rivers run to a
common basin, and this all the more since the slopes
of the Old World and its depressed areas lay within
homogeneous temperatures, and not as in America,
where the countries of similiar characteristics lie in
a northerly and southerly range, and are hence sub-
ject to all varieties of temperature. In the Old Worl
they extend from east to west, and so promote a diffu-
sion of population by not changing the conditions
under which they live. The declivity of the moun-
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 831

tain ranges being steep on the outside, or that nearest

the volcanic circle, operated as a barrier to the nations,
while the more gradual slopes turning northward have
favored the advancement and spread of the human
race.
It has been our effort to trace briefly in the apparent
irregularity of mountain ranges the traces of a sym-
metry of which a superficial observer would hardly
have an idea. The combinations of nature are so
various, and local peculiarities are so apparent, that
oftentimes a result which appears perfectly lucid and
simple when brought before the eye, is gained only
slowly, and after most patient research.
We speak only in this sketch of features which are
broad, and deal only with the outlines of our subject.
Modifications, of course, largely ensue ; and the mass
of geographical conditions, which affect the life of the
globe, is so intricate and complex, that we can only
compare it to a net-work encompassing the earth.
We will now touch upon the figure of the conti-
nents, so far as they are independent of each other.
They are under the general laws which influence all

the formations of the world, yet each bears a distinc-

tive character. Yet they play together in perfect
harmony, they stand in a wholesome relation to the
development of history, and they illustrate the steady

progress of human culture.

It is evident from that contrast between Orient and
Occident, or, to use terms which are not so limited by
usage to the Eastern Hemisphere, between the East and
332 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

West, that the relative positions of the great masses of

land on the globe have exercised a deep and abiding

influence. Nor is this confined alone to the relations
between East and West ; it has been observed, also,

in the relations between Hyperboreans and people of

Africa : it was remarked before the arbitrary division
of the earth into continents. If we seek for analogies
to these contrasts, they are to be found. The East
represents hope, the West fulfilment ; or, again, the
East represents the morning, the West the evening,
while the polar regions are the still night. So the
Orient in Asia is the contrast with the Occident in
Europe ; and yet again, and on a wider scale, the
whole Old World is in contrast with the New, as
Orient with Occident. Ancient and modern, past,
present, and future, are in the Orient, the cradle of the
world and of the world's culture and history; but prog-
ress is in the Occident, the development of national life,

of political organization, of the whole circle of thought

and its influences. All this results from the relative
grouping of the continents : even the inertness of the
nations in Africa, the land of light, heat, spiritual
sluggishness, and dense population, as well as the
unawakened activity of the nations in the sparsely
inhabited, dark and cold North, harmonize, too, with
this, and will continue just so long as means remain
undiscovered to master the limitations and influences
of nature, to free man from its fetters, and raise him
above the narrow world which his own horizon bounds.
This work, however, lias been begun. Nautical sei-
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 333

ence, with steam as its auxiliary, is peopling the

solitudes of the sea and vanquishing distance, and,
by the great system of colonizing, the productions and
peoples of one side of the globe are daily transferred
to the other.

The contrasts spoken of above meet and are recon-

ciled in the Si-Yu (Occident) of the Chinese, and in
the Para and Apara of the extinct Sanscrit race, the
real Orient of the Old World. According to the tradi-
tions of those races, their gods sprang from an indefinite

eastern region, just as Oannes of Chaldea and^Brahma

were reputed to have risen from the sea, as the sun
rises at the early morning from a region in the distant
east. Farther west, the Greeks placed their Anatolia
in Asia Minor, their Hesperia in Italy ; the Romans
placed their Orient in the Levant, their Hesperia in
Spain, and the Insulce fortunatce at the most western
part of the known world ; the Arabs fixed their Occi-
dent there also, naming it El Magreb. The modern
European removes it beyond the ocean to the New
World, and so enlarges his associations and views, and
sees the relations of the continents in a new light.

Distances disappear as civilization progresses, and the

old contrasts are solved. The land of the embrowned
Ethiopians, and that of the Hyperboreans of Homeric
times, disappeared long ago. The Hindu of to-day
has his Hyperborean or Northland called Uttara-Kura,
but the Ethiopian Libya has increased so far as to
become the great African Continent.
• These contrasts, real in themselves, could only have
334 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

a relative influence on national life when civilization

had completely changed the effect of different locali-

ties. From this we see that there must be a great

difference in the method of studying ancient and
modern geography.
The position of the different countries on the globe
will always exert a powerful influence, although this
influence is under great modifications, for, by the
progress of time and the facile connection by the art
of navigation, the old contrasts are disappearing. The
small space, called the classic ground of Universal
History, and embracing the three continents of the
Old World, from the Indus to the Tiber, and from the
Nile to Oxus and Tanais, will, for all future times, be
considered the field that has had the largest influence
on the development of mankind. But civilization has

abridged the influence which select localities exercised

in former times on the culture of nations, and trans-
ferred it elsewhere.
The various portions of the globe have received,
with reference to the different periods of history,
diverse endowments ; and each has also received a
peculiar capability of development, which can only be
recognized in the progress of history. Only a very
small portion of these properties has been revealed in
the course of time, their capacity of development has
only begun to be understood within the past few hun-
dred years, while the greater part lies as a secret,
yet to be unveiled. The profound depths of man's
spiritual nature were revealed sooner because we were
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 835

more nearly associated with them, but the mysteries

of our planet were hidden from man a much longer
time.
In former times the uses of the sea were revealed to
mankind by the science of navigation. Mariners, too,
discovered the laws regulating wind and ocean cur-
rents, and by establishing tide-marks determined the
ebb and flow of the great tidal-wave. Regions now
favored with the results of civilization were open to
human knowledge by the efforts of navigators, yet by
far the greater part of the earth's surface lies still

unknown ; but science and the progressive course of

civilization are penetrating the secrets of nature in the
most remote regions of the earth. We have not as
yet compassed the knowledge of all the elements
that enter into the composition of the earth's surface.
Geognosy, as a .science, is but beginning to be under-
stood. In course of time we shall learn what influence
the unexhausted metallic veins and subterranean coal-
fields are yet to exercise in many parts of the earth
what influence settlements, colonies, and missions are
to have on places that have not been touched by the
hand of history, or where the seed of civilization has
only produced thin crops, and where the mind of man
has not been able as yet to effect those mighty results,
so vital to the welfare of a whole country, as were met
in former times on the classic grounds of antiquity.
The lowlands, plains, and valleys have assumed
entirely new relations to the progress of mankind in
consequence of the modern appliances of railroads and
836 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

canals ; they are capable of being applied on the grand-

est scale, and of becoming subservient to the largest
uses. The construction of a canal through the isthmus
of Suez would bring the East Indies vastly nearer than
at present ; and if the isthmus of Panama were to be

similarly cut through, the circumference of the globe

would be shortened by one-fourth part, and China
would be brought six thousand miles nearer to
Europe.
The river systems of Europe, and also the most
colossal ones in other parts of the globe, such as the
Ganges and the Mississippi, may always be said to
flow backwards as well as forwards, since steam navi-
gation has been brought to its present state. Upon
the Mississippi hundreds of steamships daily sail, plying
backwards and forwards, like the shuttles of busy
weavers. The group of the great American lakes,
formerly so solitary, and hardly traversed by naviga-
tion, are now thronged with ships which sail from
Lake Superior to Lake Ontario. They have become a
medium of civilization, in size equal to one-half of the
Mediterranean, the great medium of culture in former
times. We cannot foresee what a future these lakes,
with their influences, are to inaugurate in the New
World.
The foregoing remarks are sufficient to show that
by the action of civilization the surface of the earth,
and all the different forms of nature, are undergoing a
constant modification, — are in a state of advancement.
The task of the geographer is to discover what causes
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY, 337

have exerted a promotive or retarding influence on

the various forms of the globe and their development
hitherto. Space, however, is hardly allowed us for a
full consideration of the subject.

A previous statement, at some length, of the dis-

tances of the earth, measured horizontally, spares us the
trouble of entering now upon a repetition of details.
It is sufficient to remark, that the three continents of
the Old World have each a separate and distinct form,
that of Africa being oval, of Asia rhomboidal, and of
Europe triangular. The greatest uniformity of shape
is seen in Africa. Its length from north to south
being nearly the same as its greatest breadth from east
to west, it is in extreme contrast to Europe, whose
breadth is nearly three times the distance from north to
south. Europe directs the most prominent angle of the
triangle which it forms towards the Atlantic, while
the base rests on Asia ; Africa is a compact mass,
without any indentations ; Asia, also, is a solid mass,
but less compact, and having large and fruitful penin-
sulas in the east and south. Europe is a continental
mass, open on all sides, and accessible by water even
to the very heart ; in Europe, trunk and branches
have had equal opportunity for the development of
civilization. Far inferior in size to Asia, and being
rifted into many parts, it has enjoyed the largest
advantages for the diffusion of culture throughout its

entire extent. Asia, more compact than Europe, and

not so open to maritime influences, has preserved
its middle portions uninfluenced by the indentations
29
3o8 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

of the sea, which, although penetrating very deeply,

have not equalized the contrast of sea and land, and
have not brought the mountain ranges, as in Europe,
in direct connection with the ocean. The north and
the soutli have not been brought together by water
communication, and a vast extent of country in Central
Asia, not much smaller than the entire continent of
Africa, has been excluded from the advantages of those
indentations, which do not penetrate the great Asiatic
trunk. The southern coast of Asia is the most rent
by these arms of the sea, the north the least so. The
peninsular forms of this continent, although nearly as
large when combined as half of Europe, yet bear a very
slight proportion to the entire body of Asia ; and while
they have ever been inhabited by peoples in a high
state of civilization, their influence on the great conti-

nental trunk has been small. The whole vast body

of the Asiatic continent has remained the home of
nomad tribes, while the nations living on the peninsu-
las so richly endowed by nature as China, Farther
India, Hindostan, Arabia, and Asia Minor, have so

largely developed the resources of their own country,

although they have been unable to penetrate to the
heart of Asia.
The whole sea-coast of Africa is not penetrated by
arms of the sea. That country presents, therefore,

the least development by far in comparison with the

other continents, and its centre has been regarded as
totally inaccessible ; individuality has, therefore, been
denied to Africa, in consequence of its form ; and since
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 339

its extremities are all nearly equidistant from the

middle point, and since its position on both sides of
the equator does not suffer it to extend far beyond the
torrid zone, we discover that all phenomena on this

division of the globe attain their culmination within

the tropics, and that they there appear more uniform
and homogeneous, and destitute of great contrasts,
than elsewhere. On that account the patriarchal and
primeval conditions of human society have not been
altered in the course of time, have known little ad-
vancement. Thus Africa seems to be spared as a
field of development for future ages ; for only a gen-
eral progress, but no advancement of the individual,
displays itself in this sluggish land ;
plants and ani-

mals, nations and men, all move on in one unvarying

course ; the palm-tree and the camel are distributed
everywhere alike ; the negro race, a population having
uniform characteristics, is predominant ; it exists in a

state of dense compactness, and has remained far be-

hind in the career of development, undistinguished
by any special peculiarities of civilization, political

institutions, national or individual life. The greatest

uniformity of language prevails, varied only by unim-
portant dialects . A partial development of the coast
in certain portions of this continent may form an
exception to the rule ; but this development has been
called forth mainly by colonies from abroad.
An entirely different world of phenomena is ex-
hibited in the coast formation of Asia, a singularly
fruitful field of study, notwithstanding that it is
340 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

wanting on one side of the continent. A striking

individuality distinguishes all the peninsulas of the

Asiatic coast, for each is influenced by the marked
continental characteristic of its neighborhood, as well
as by the sea ; such agents as the atmosphere, moun-
tains, vales, and streams, the wear of the waves and
wind systems, must be in a large sense modifiers, and
have great effect upon population and culture. Hence
arises the individuality of the Chinese, Malays, Hin-
dostanese, Persians, Arabians, Syrians, and the inhab-
itants of Asia Minor. In sharp contrast with this well-
known coast-line is the main body of the continent,
even yet locked up against the influences of the cul-
ture whose home is by the sea. For centuries the
nomadic life of the interior has been unchanged ; no
civilizing influences have been brought to bear upon
Calmucks and Mongolians, people of Turkestan, Kir-
ghiz and Bokkaria. Still less have these influences
penetrated to the remote north; and with all the splen-
dor of so enlarged fields of enlightenment along the
coast, the excellence of a universally distributed civil-

ization is lost. To the formation of these differences

between the coast-line and the interior those colossal
forms of vegetation have also contributed, the record
of which is historical ; forms whose equals in point of
size are rarely met in civilized lands; and 'still the
luxuriant development of growth contributes to the
same end, for great climatic differences give sharp
contrasts to this growth. Extending from the equator
high into the frigid zone, Asia exhibits the greatest
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 341

variety of animals and plants; and yet not alone in

the direction from north to south, but none the less
in the still vaster extent from east to west, where just
as sharply defined contrasts are seen, of which we
might adduce China and hither Asia as representative.
In the former we find the sago-tree and the tiger, in
the latter the date-palm and the lion. Looking at the
extreme north we find the mosses, all needle-leaved
trees, and the reindeer ; in the south, strongly in con-
trast, are the bread-fruit tree, the sugar-cane, and
the broad-leafed plantain, the elephant, rhinoceros,
tapir, and monkey.
The consequences which the inexhaustible richness
of the soil effected in relation to the character of the
indigenous nations of Asia were various ; for al-

though multitudes of people were sent out at different

times to take possession of the neighboring continents,

the Asiatic population was by no means exhausted
on the contrary, it remained rich in its native charac-
teristics, whether in races, stature, color, mode of life,

religious, political, and social features, culture, lan-

guage, and nationality. No other continent shows

analogies of this kind, even in its primitive ages ; and
Asia, therefore, rightly preceded all others, because
the first civilized, and the first prepared to throw its

colonies into other countries.

Europe may be called a continuation of Central Asia«
It surpasses its oriental neighbor, however, in the ad-
vantage of having no internal mountain barrier to
divide its north from its south. Thus Europe has
29*
342 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

been able to develop itself more independently and

freely, in consequence of the number and size of its

peninsular forms. A more uniform and harmonious

advancement has /taken place in Europe than in any
other of the continents of the Old World. The char-
acter of its culture has been so conditioned by the
form of the country, that Europe, although the smallest
of the continents, has become the most powerful of
all. Asia has been so bountifully endowed by nature,
stretching out, as it does, through all three zones, and
excelling in size and richness of productions, that it
has poured its abundance and wealth over the neigh-
boring countries without impoverishing itself; but
Europe, confined alone to the temperate zone, and
rifted by the arms of the sea into scores of scattered
limbs, has been made especially accessible to naviga-
tion, and open to the reception of colonies and an
immigrant population, the more especially as it was
not liable to great extremes of temperature. The na-
ture of the^ country and the energy of its population
were well adapted to the work of turning human
ingenuity to the manufacture of useful materials from
natural productions. Europe, too, has been especially
able to increase by artificial aids the gifts of nature,
and to raise all the diversities of culture to a higher
standard, and afterwards to become the place whence
the ripened fruits of civilization might be transferred
to all other nations of the globe. It is well known
that the destiny of Europe, in developing the richness
of its natural productions and the intellectual quali-
 OF HISTORY AXD GEOGRAPHY. 343

ties of its population, has been modified from the be-

ginning by the conformation of the country itself. In
history the honor of fulfilling the destiny of nations is

attributed to the efforts of man, and more especially

to the European race, although this honor ought only to
be partially ascribed to it. For brevity's sake we will
state, in but a word, the three characteristic features
in the formation of Europe that are the physical
grounds of the development of its nations : its large
extent of seaboard, its peninsular forms, and the num-
ber of its islands.

The coastline of Europe is, relatively to its area,

the largest of all the continents. While Asia, whose
area is five times greater, has about thirty thousand
miles of coast, and Africa, with three times its area,
has eighteen thousand miles, Europe has a sea-line of
twenty-six thousand, — more than the circumference
of the globe. From this there results, that, although
lying within the great land hemisphere, it has, through
its branches formed by the inlets of the sea, relatively

the largest contact with the world of waters of all the

continents of the Old World. Its favorable position

in regard to the currents of the sea and of the atmos-

phere is an additional advantage ; and so, too, is the
large number of valuable harbors, a natural result of
the many ocean inlets. These circumstances combined
have given great prominence to nautical science, and
show why Europe has the control of the seas. In
these our times, the group of Great Britain and Ire-

land have a special prominence in these regards, just

344 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

as in ancient times the control of the Mediterranean

was in the hands of Greece, the most broken penin-
sula of the Old World, and therefore the one most
rich in harbors. The Europe in the north,
division of
by the German Ocean, the Baltic, and the White Sea,
into the Scandinavian peninsulas and islands, has
secured to those cold regions as positive progress as is

exhibited in fair and fertile Greece, Italy, and Spain.

Scandinavia gives to the north of Europe a great ad-
vantage over the adjoining district of Asia; for the
flat regions of Siberia lack the ocean inlets of northern
Europe as well as of southern Asia. Besides this,
they are sundered from the more favored Asiatic dis-

tricts by the vast table-lands inhabited by nomadic

tribes. Less favored, too, than northern Europe by
soil and climate, Siberia can never compete with its

advancing civilization.

Finally, the island formations of Europe must be

considered superior to all other continents, for, being
near the sea-coast, and within easy reach of the conti-
nent, they have immediate connection with it ; they
form the sea station for Europe ; and in this regard
they have special advantages, since their size is not
insignificant, affording an area sufficiently large for a

dense population. The tendency of this has been to

stimulate these islands to a high degree of develop-
ment. They are not single fragments, or long series
of oceanic rocks, or steep and inaccessible peaks ; for
the south of England is only a continuation of northern
Franco, as Sicily is of Calabria, and as Candia is of
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 345

the Morea. we could suppose the British

In short, if

isles maps of northwestern Europe,

blotted out of the
how impoverished would the history of the continent
in its maritime relations have been. The peninsula
of Jutland, without the islands of Zealand and Funen,
is only a narrow neck of sandy land. In former
times the history of Rome and Italy would have been
quite different without the adjoining isle of Sicily.
Crete, the iEgean and Ionian isles, served as the
medium for the transferring of civilization from
hither Asia to Greece and Italy.

It would take us too long to enter upon the conse-

quences produced by the want of islands on the coast of
Africa, for Madagascar can hardly be considered as
immediately connected with this coast, since it is sepa-
rated from it by oceanic currents ; nor can we state
with the fulness which the subject demands the effects

resulting from the immense number of islands south-

east of Asia, the so-called Sunda-Australian group,
unquestionably the largest and the most individualized
group on the globe. In its triangular form it encloses
an area equal to that of Europe, and extends like an
isthmus between Asia and Australia, having a certain
analogy with the American isthmus of Panama, since
both series of continents are north and south of each
other. We notice here also that the great number of
these islands, and their nearness to each other, cause
them to appear in the light of an insular division of
the globe, having a distinct and characteristic popula-
tion. This immense group of islands, therefore, is not
346 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

to be regarded as having an immediate connection with

the continent of Asia, although its nearness to that
continent causes a reciprocity of influence, not unlike
that of other islands more directly connected with the
mainland.
The remark which Strabo made with regard to
Sicily, that the fragmentary parts of continents, espe-
cially contiguous islands, are the most richly endowed
portions of the globe, holds true with the insular
groups from Ceylon to New Guinea ; for every island

appears to possess some characteristic resources, which

contribute greatly to the development of commerce in

the equatorial zone. Thus, the white elephant, pearls,

cinnamon, and also rubies, are found in Ceylon. The
rhinoceros, tapir, ourang-outang, and the finest dye-

stuffs and most costly woods, are indigenous to Suma-

tra. Banca is the richest tin country in the world
Borneo furnishes gold, diamonds, and a hundred other
kinds of precious stones. Java, well known as the
barley islands of Ptolemy, abounds in grains of all

kinds, bread-fruit, and sugar-cane. The adjoining

islands possess each their peculiar kind of species as
far as the Moluccas and New Guinea, where the cam-
phor-tree and the sago-tree grow luxuriantly. There,
too, we find birds of paradise, and many produc-
tions of the three natural kingdoms, indigenous to
these islands, and not found in Asia. If the greatest
progress which civilization has anywhere made had
commenced in this part of the globe, the best endowed
of all, where physical aids appear in their perfection,
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 347

where water and land combine with a tropical climate

to further the efforts of nature, this region would
have been the foremost in the world. But the laws
that govern the development of the intellect are
widely different from those which regulate physical
conditions.
Had it been accordant with the plan of the Maker
to create all divisions of land as scattered islands,
and not as connected continents, as we have seen in
Polynesia is the case (by which Europe, with a surface
of two million six hundred and eighty-eight thousand
square miles, would have been subdivided into fifteen
large islands such as Borneo, Sumatra, and the Celebes,
or, more exactly speaking, of the size of Spain), the
nations of the earth would have been far less connected
than at present, and more independent of each other.
We find in the formation of the European continent all

the advantages which accrue from an insular position,

and also a complete balance of contrasts, without the

disadvantages of too great a dismemberment, such as

that in the insular world of Suncla, so perfect a con-
trast to articulated continents. Both forms, the ex-

tremes of subdivision into islands, as in Polynesia,

and the compact mass of such a land as Africa, have
exerted a retarding influence on the progress of man.
The result has been the same, although the causes
have been unlike ; in both cases it has hindered the
free development of national character. In the place
of maximum subdivision, the Eastern Archipelago, the
Malay tribes have been so disconnected as to enjoy
348 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

but few of the advantages of mutual health and

dependence. In Africa, on the other hand, the coun-
try of maximum compactness, we find an imperfectly
educated population, and in many places tribes in the
rudest stage of development.
These two physical conditions are both, as we have
seen, unfavorable to the advancement of nations from
the first estate of barbarism. Europe was placed be-

tween these extremes not to be retarded, but to be

favored and urged forward. It received for its portion

a much smaller area than the other continents ; it was,

therefore, much easier known, and was sooner brought
into cultivation. In consequence of its amount of sea-
board, its articulated form, and its islands, it was soon
able to realize its historical mission and destiny. Al-
though apparently the poorest in natural productions
of all the continents, its end was to become the place
where all the finer fabrics of the Old World should
take their form, and to be the centre of all intellectual

progress. Europe was to be the middle point of devel-

opment for both the Old and New World, was to
become the workshop of the globe. It was to become
susceptible to all healthy changes, it was to remain
unfettered in its natural forces, and its inhabitants
were to enjoy the most ample opportunity of culture
and progress.
In searching for a connection in the events which
nature and history bring into view, we have to suppose
the existence of a certain physical organization of our
globe, by which the different continents and the larger
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 349

features of the earth are brought into relations of

action and reaction, which greatly affect human life

and character. The organization to which we allude

is entirely different from that which concerns the flora
and fauna of the earth ; instead of dealing with forms
that are temporary, it deals with those that are perma-
nent. The world, if it could be rightly viewed, would
be seen to be a perfect organism, and what appears to
be unsymmetrical chaos would be found, could the
observer take his place outside of the earth, to exist
in perfect harmony and symmetry. The seeming
prevalence of confusion does not result from the want
of system, but only from the fact that man is not able
to investigate all the relations of the globe.

In the very dissimilarity of size and form, in the

confusion and want of connection that seem to pre-,

vail in the order of the world, there does yet lie a

secret principle of unity, and the forces which control
the workings of the world are linked together by a
real though invisible chain. As the human body is

one, although composed of many parts, so the world

is by like analogy a unit, of which the countless
animal and vegetable organisms are the dependent
parts.

We find a cause of the mutual influence of nature

and history upon each other in the unequal distribu-
tion and extent of land and water, and also in the
changeable temperature and irregular motion of the
winds. The difference in the size of the continents
is accordant with the difference of the size of great
30
350 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

nations. In the contiguity of land masses lie laws

that influence the whole development of mankind.
The separation by natural barriers of the Old from the
New World, and of continents from their dependent
islands, are only stimulants to a general union by
the aid of the arts of navigation. The difference of
endowment in the various countries of the world gives
impulse to distribution by commerce. In the size of
Europe, and the harmonious relation of its parts,

we find the principal conditions of its greatness and

freedom. ,

We may express the proportion of the continents, in

round numbers, as follows : Europe is about one-fifth
as large as Asia, while it is a more than one-third
little

the dimensions of Africa. The size of America is

between that of Asia and Africa. Australia is smaller
than Europe, containing about one-fifteenth of all the

continents, or, including the islands, about one-twen-

tieth of all the land on the globe. But these absolute
relations of area are not decisive in judging the history
of the world ; their position and the date of their
discovery ought to be taken into account. Australia,
for example, though embracing one-twentieth of the
land-surface of the globe, has only come to the theatre
of history in the most modern times.
In estimating the historical value of each continent,
we have to consider its own specific relation to itself,

that is, the size, in superficial extent, of its main

body, compared with its peninsular forms and its
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 351

islands. The three continents of the Old World have

in this respect the following relations :
—
Main Body. Peninsular Forma. Island
Africa, 1 0^
Asia, 4 1
*
Europe, 2 1
&
The relations expressed by these proportions do not
suggest all main body,
of the influences exerted by
peninsular form, and islands, but they suggest them
in so far as they are dependent upon the superficial
extent.
But America, or the New World, displays, in its
external form, quite different relations. Although it

repeats the contrasts of the Old World, yet the course

of its mountain chains is not from east to west, but
from north to south. We have already shown, in
a former part of this work, that the northern part of
America extends farther towards the north pole than
the Siberian coast, and surpasses that coast, too,
in the minuteness of its articulation. We showed
that the development of its mountain chains and the
position of its inland seas make it, as a continent,
analogous to Europe. Its sea-coast best endowed with
harbors and islands is on the eastern side, and so

turned towards the civilization of the Old World.

The Gulf Stream, which may be called the great
commercial highway of nations, brought both of the
continents bordering on the North Atlantic into direct
connection.
352 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

We are now in a position to sum up briefly our

results.

North America was destined to be discovered by

Europeans, and not by Asiatics. Asia could easily
have transferred a part of its population to America,
in consequence of the proximity of their shores at
Behring' s Straits. But the eastern sea-coast of North
America is so richly furnished with harbors and
islands that it readily attracted European civilization.
The gentle slopes of the American continent, too,
offered a most favorable field to Europeans, allowing,
as they did, civilization to penetrate without obstruc-
tion every portion of the land.
Nature has shown us, by giving to America river
systems which run northward to the numerous groups
of islands and peninsulas of the Polar Sea, that Amer-
ica was destined even more than Europe to send civili-
zation to the northern portions of the globe. Even
now, after the lapse of a very short time, human
culture has advanced along the western coast of
Greenland to 70° north latitude. The Arctic Ocean
is covered with fishing vessels and craft of all kinds,
and more northern barriers still will in the course

of time be overcome by the advancing power of civil-

ization.

And so the southern part of Australia, formerly

terra incognita to mariners, embracing in small circuit
some of the finest harbors in the world, and having
Tasmania as its central port, was, ages since, prepared
to become, in the course of a few decades, the source
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 353

of activity upon the whole southern hemisphere. But

this was to be accomplished by means of a maritime
connection witli Europe, and under the direct stimulus
of that continent.
Northern Asia received at the beginning its civiliza-

tionfrom the central part of that continent, through

the agency of great river systems. It received its

population from that quarter too, till the advancing

progress of Eastern Europe exerted a stronger influ-
ence upon it than did Central Asia, especially since
the Ural chain proved no hindrance to civilization,
but, in consequence of its great mineral resources, a
promoter of it. A favorable position was the cause
that Western Asia enriched Southern Europe, and the
Mediterranean, that washes the shores of three conti-
nents, was the agent in promoting this. But this
relation was only temporary ; in modern times Euro-
pean civilization reacts on the Levant.
Each continent, as a member of the entire organiza-
tion of the earth, has had a particular function to

fulfil, in consequence of its position and conformation.

Southern and Eastern Asia are so largely pene-
trated by arms of the sea that civilization culminated
there earlier than elsewhere, and the Indies were the
focus of learning and arts for ages.
The three great peninsulas of Southern Asia, Ara-
bia, Hindoostan, and Farther India, are repeated on
the south coast of Europe in the three dissimilar

peninsulas there, Greece, Italy, and Spain. They lie

twenty degrees farther north, outside of the tropics,

30*
354 THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

so that their whole influence on the culture and

thought of dependent countries is unlike that of the
Asiatic peninsulas.
Both groups, those of Asia and of Europe, each
containing three peninsulas endowed with the richest
gifts of nature, are among the most potential agencies
of the globe. By means of them Asia has received
in the tropic zone, and Europe in the temperate, the
best advantages for influencing the life of the globe
that the Creator has ever bestowed. North America
has received the same in a degree, and Tasmania, too
but these are reserved for a future development, of
which the beginnings are making now.
The future greatness of the yet young American
double continent, in its colossal extension from north
to south, may be partly anticipated from a study of the
relation of the peninsulas of Southern Asia and South-
ern Europe, for an inference can be made from what
has already been seen of the future progress which
America will make in civilization, especially if South
America endeavors to compete with the northern con-
tinent. The great peninsulas of Southern Asia reach
out into that silent and deserted Indian Ocean, that is

without islands and without life ; the southern penin-

sulas of Europe look towards the barren and sandy
shores of Northern Africa ; but the rich coasts of the
southern portion of the United States and of Mexico
lienot far removed from opposite coasts most richly
endowed by nature. South America with its luxuri-
ance lies before them, and as Europe was once the
 OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. ööö

Occident of civilized Asia, so North America awaits

the time when its southern neighbor shall awaken to
a development of which the beginnings are not yet
seen. The intermediate groups -of the Antilles will
probably, in course of time, link both continents more
closely together.

If the outward arrangements of the globe had

denied to the American continent the Old World's
past progress in population and in all departments
of culture from east to west, following the leading of
kindred countries and temperature, a compensation
would have been found in the possibility of a new
course of development in a different direction, namely,
from north to south.
In the contrasts which are often observed to exist
in scientific geography, history shows us that climate,
by its many modifications in temperate and tropical
regions, is the harmonizing element. This reconciling
power has been given to it that man might become
the unconditioned master of the earth. That he may
learn to be this is to be the study and the task of the
next centuries. The past ages have given him the
means of gaining the victory over nature ; the New
World, now in its infancy, is to apply them.
Once, when the conformation of countries and their
relative positions gave them a larger measure of re-

sources than lands situated less favorably enjoyed,

no method of distribution was in general use ;some
districts were glutted, while others lacked. With the
course of time a change comes, and the lands which
356 RELATIONS OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.

geographical situation has especially favored confer

their productions upon those which have not this
advantage; thus countries once insignificant through
the poverty of their resources become strong.
To what an extent this can result is already re-
vealed in the contrasts of ancient and modern history
it is revealed, too, in the most striking and sublime

manner in the new life and increased wealth which

the art of the navigator has now accumulated on the
entire coast of the continents and on all the islands
of the sea; it is manifested, too, by the culture of
Europe.
On the other hand, what I must call a nicer suscep-
tibility to influences displayed in the land hemisphere,
the true continental regions, leaves scarcely room for a

doubt that through a use of all the resources of art

a possibility is opened for yet greater changes in the
unfolding progress of human history.

THE END.

3477-6