296 Baron Humboldfs View of the scientific Researches 



served — in Europe, between St Petersburg, Kasan, and Astra- 

 kan, — in Northern Asia between lekaterinebourg, Miask, Oust- 

 Kamenogorsk, Obdorsk, and Jakoutsk. These results cannot be 

 obtained by strangers who traverse the country in one direc- 

 tion, and at one time. It is necessary to establish a system of 

 observations well arranged, continued during a long space of 

 time, and confided to philosophers established in the country. 

 St Petersburg ^ Moscow, and Kasan, are fortunately placed 

 very near the first line of no declination which traverses Euro- 

 pean Russia. Kiachta and Verkhne-Oudinsk offer advantages 

 for the second, viz. that of Siberia. When we reflect on the 

 comparative precision of observations made by sea and land with 

 the aid of the instruments of Borda, of Bessel, and of Gambey, 

 we may be readily convinced, that Russia, by its position, may 

 in the space of twenty years cause the most gigantic progress 

 to be made in the theory of magnetism. In entering upon 

 thege considerations, I am, so to speak, only the interpreter of 

 your wishes. Gentlemen. The eagerness with which you have 

 received the request which I addressed to you seven months 

 ago, relative to the corresponding observations of the horary va- 

 riations made at Paris, at Berlin, in a mine at Freyberg, and 

 at Kasan by the learned and laborious astronomer M. SimonofF, 

 has proved that the Imperial Academy will ably second the 

 other academies of Europe in the thorny but useful research of 

 the periodicity of the magnetic phenomena. 



If the solution of the problem which I have mentioned is 

 equally important for the physical history of our planet and the 

 progress of the art of navigation, the second object to which I 

 wish to draw your attention. Gentlemen, and for which the ex- 

 tent of the empire presents immense advantages, is more closely 

 connected with general wants, — with the choice of cultivation, 

 — the study of the configuration of the soil, — and the exact 

 knowledge of the humidity of the air, which obviously decreases 

 with the destruction of forests and the diminution of the waters 

 of lakes and rivers. The first and the noblest object of the 

 sciences lies no doubt in themselves, in the enlargement of the 

 sphere of our ideas, and of the intellectual energy of man. It 

 is not in an academy like yours, and under the monarch who 

 rules the destiny of the empire, that the investigation of great 



