.'^^hi^i. recently carried on in the Russian Empire. 287 



I l'6'(f6ived from this illustrious Academy, as a public mark of 

 its favour, the honour of being made one of its members. 

 Even now it is agreeable to look back to that epoch of my life 

 when that same eloquent voice which you have heard at the 

 opening of this meeting, called me among you, and almost per- 

 suaded me, by ingenious fictions, that I had deserved the palift 

 which you had given me. How little could I then conjecture 

 that I should again sit under your presidency, after having re- 

 turned from the banks of the Irtish, from the confines of 

 China, Songaria, and the borders of the Caspian Sea ! By a 

 fortunate combination of events, in the course of a troubled and 

 sometimes laborious life, I have been able to compare the auri- 

 ferous soil of the Oural and of New Granada ; the elevated 

 formations of porphyry and trachyte of Mexico, with those of 

 the Altai, and the Savannahs (Llanos) of the Orinoco, with the 

 Steppes of Southern Siberia, which present a vast field for the 

 peaceable conquest of agriculture and to the arts of industry, 

 which, while they enrich nations, soften their manners, and gra- 

 dually ameliorate the condition of society. 



I have been able partly to carry the same instruments, or 

 those of a similar but improved construction, to the banks of the 

 Obi and the Amazon, during the long interval which has se- 

 parated my two journeys, the aspect of the physical sciences, 

 particularly of geognosy, chemistry, and the electro-magnetic 

 theory, has been considerably changed. New apparatus, I had 

 almost ventured to say, new organs have been created, to bring 

 man into the most intimate contact with the mysterious forces 

 which animate the work of creation, and of which the unequal 

 struggle, and the apparent perturbations are subject to eternal 

 laws. If modern travellers are able to observe in a short time 

 a great part of the surface of the globe, it is to the progress of 

 the mathematical and physical sciences, to the precision of in- 

 struments, to the improvement of methods, and to the art of 

 grouping facts and raising them to general laws, that they owe 

 the advantages which they enjoy. The traveller who is fitted 

 for observation, is he, who, by the valuable influence of Aca- 

 demies, and by the pursuits of a sedentary life, has been pre- 

 pared in the silence of his study. In order to form an accu- 

 rate judgment of the merit of travellers of different periods, we 



