SKETCH OF CARL BITTER. 691 



In 1807, accompanied by his pupils, he started on the first of a 

 series of journeys undertaken for purposes of study and investigation. 

 This time he visited Italy and Switzerland. In Switzerland he fonned 

 the acquaintance of Pestalozzi, Pictet, and De Candolle, living in 

 Geneva a year. In Italy he enlisted Thorwaldsen, Overbeck, and Cor- 

 nelius among his friends. In 1813 he went with his pupils to the Uni- 

 versity of Gottingen, where he had an opportunity to make use of the 

 treasures of the library for his great geographical work. He still regu- 

 larly visited the lecture-rooms of the professors and attended the dif- 

 ferent colleges. After two years at Gottingen he went to Berlin, and 

 there, in 1817, piiblished the first part of his "Erdkunde im Verhalt- 

 nisse zur Natur und Geschichte des Menschen, oder allgemeine Ver- 

 gleichende Geographic als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und des 

 Unterrichts in physikalischen und historischen Wissenschaften (Geog- 

 raphy in Relation to Nature and the History of Men, or General Com- 

 parative Geography as the Secure Basis of Study and Instruction in 

 Physical and Historical Knowledge), a work in which the treatment 

 of geography was completely transformed, and the study was raised to 

 the rank of a true science. This part included Africa and a portion of 

 Asia. A year afterward appeared the second part, in which Asia was 

 concluded. In this work he delineated the form and surface of the 

 earth, in its horizontal and vertical features, with great accuracy. 

 Taking a comprehensive view, he considered the peculiarities of the 

 different parts of the earth's surface in their relations to each other 

 and to the earth as a whole, and regarded them as the underlying basis 

 of all living existence, and the foundation and condition of the devel- 

 opment of single peoples and of the whole human race in its manifold 

 changes of relation. 



In 1819 Ritter was appointed Professor of History in the gymna- 

 sium at Frankfort ; but he soon exchanged this position for a higher 

 one, for in the next year he accepted an invitation to Berlin, where he 

 was appointed to the chair of geography in the military school and 

 the university. Here begins the second great division of his life, in 

 which he could enjoy both in the department of scientific research and 

 as a teacher the ripe fruits of his earlier activity. Berlin, where a 

 new, fresh life was then beginning to beat, where he was associated 

 with Alexander von Humboldt as his hearty friend, was the right place 

 for him to work, and he was fully conscious of it. After Prince Albert 

 became enrolled among his scholars, he was introduced to the circle of 

 the CroAvn-Princes, and afterward to King Frederick William IV,, be- 

 fore whom he gave lectures on geography. In 1825 he became direc- 

 tor of studies to the Cadet corps, and in 1828 founder and first Presi- 

 dent of the Berlin Geographical Society. 



Ritter was accustomed, during his autumn vacations, to take con- 

 siderable journeys, which not only gave him mental and bodily recrea- 

 tion, but also assisted in the advancement of his geographical studies. 



