410 Bibliographical Notices. 



execution are not only a presumptive evidence of the growing in- 

 terest on the subject felt by the general public, whose extensive pa- 

 tronage alone can render the speculation remunerative, but are full 

 of promise for the future progress of the study, since the clear and 

 definite exposition of the state of our knowledge will serve as a solid 

 basis for new investigation, and will point out to each special in- 

 quirer in the wide field of natural science how his labours may be 

 rendered most directly beneficial to the general progress. 



Although physical geography may be considered as a modern sci- 

 ence, it can hardly be said to be in its infancy, for, like the sister 

 science, geology, it is of such a nature that it could not exist as a 

 distinct branch of study until it had obtained so many data from the 

 results of the simple sciences, as enabled it to assume at once a high 

 rank among the divisions of human knowledge. Like geology, in 

 fact, physical geography must be regarded as a compound science, 

 whose province is the generalization of facts furnished by the pure 

 natural sciences, these two magnificent paths of philosophical in- 

 quiry parting as it were from a common point where we have to ex- 

 amine the mighty phenomena of existing nature which are uncea- 

 singly operating to affect the ever- changing face of the earth ; 

 while one recedes into the dark and unfathomed depths of time, the 

 other leads us forward into the light spreading over the living world, 

 and makes clear to us the wonders among which we dwell, the trea- 

 sures that surround us, and in addition to the surpassing practical 

 relations to human interests which such a course possesses, the in- 

 tellectual pride of those who follow it is both encouraged and chas- 

 tised as it feels its way step by step to a clear insight into the works 

 around it, which are at once the proof of man's high destiny and the 

 evidence of his insignificance. 



It is at a happy period that this work makes its appearance among 

 us; when the first of physical geographers is laying before us 

 the great generalizations, the fruits of a life devoted to the personal 

 investigation of the grandest of terrestrial phenomena. Now that 

 the illustrious Humboldt is giving to the world his philosophic sum- 

 mary of the natural laws, and the interest in these speculations is so 

 rapidly extending, it will be no small advantage to those whose op- 

 portunities have not admitted of their becoming acquainted with 

 these matters, to meet with a work, in which the results of the la- 

 bours of the sons of enterprise, the voyager, the traveller, naturalist, 

 hydrographer, &c, are philosophically systematized by the more 

 tranquil efforts of deductive science and presented in a tangible 

 form ; from which, by a careful study of a few maps comprehensible by 

 any one of common intelligence and application, they may acquire 

 an amount of knowledge which years of reading of the works in 

 which the facts have hitherto been stored up would not have given 

 so clearly, nor fixed so firmly in the memory. 



Indeed an acquaintance with the subjects illustrated by these maps 

 must ere long become a necessary part of an enlightened education, 

 and much gratitude is due to Dr. Berghaus, the author of the ori- 

 ginal German work, and to Mr. Johnston, to whose skill and enter- 



