Letter from Vtn Humloldt to Lalande: 355 



Conclujion. 



If the experiments I have dcfcribed in the courfe of this 

 memoir are exaft, and if I have properly obferved the phce- 

 nomena they exhibited, the refult will be, that the fafts an- 

 nounced by C. Guvton and Deformes, though for the moft 

 part true, cannot lead to the conclufions which they have 

 deduced from them, on account of the nature of the fub- 

 ftances which they employed : we mnft therefore conclude, 

 till othervvife Ihown, that the alkalies and earths mull be 

 retained in the clafs of fimple or indecompofed bodies ; that 

 the experiments of thcfe cheniifts do not prove that potafh 

 is formed of lime and hydrogen ; that magnefia and azote 

 produce lime ; that azotcd alumine conftitutes magnefia ; 

 and, in the lall place, that magnefia and hydrogen give birth 

 to foda. I do not, however, pretend that thefe iubftances 

 are fimple, but only that the fa£ls adduced as a proof are not 

 proper to prove it. 



LVII. Extra3 of a Letter from M. VoN HuMBOLDT 



to Lalande. 



ACaraccas, Dec. 14, 1799. 

 FEW weeks after my arrival in South America, I 

 tranfmitted to Delambre an extraft from my aftronomical 

 obfervations, becaufe I hoped that fome of them might be 

 interefling to the Board of Longitude : as J have, however, 

 Jearncd that the brig by which I fent my letters was wrecked 

 near Guadaloupe during the ftorm which lately prevailed in 

 thefe regions, I think it neceffary to tranfmit to you a copy 

 of them. 



After a paflfage of about fix weeks, in the frigate Pizarro, 

 I arrived at the coaft of Paria. My plan was to proceed firft 

 to the Havannah, and thence to Mexico ; but I could not 

 withftand the firong defire I had of feeing the wonders of the 

 Oronoko, and the lofty Cordilleras, which extend from the 

 high land of Quito to the rivers of Guarapcche and Arco. 

 As I have now returned from a very interelting journey tp 

 the interior of Paria, through the Cordilleras of Cocolar, Tu- 

 meri, and Guiri, and to the lettlement thereof the Capuchins, 

 never before vifited by any naluralift, during which 1 carried 

 with me, on three mules, my aftronomical inftruments, viz. 

 a quadrant by Bird, and fcxtants, tel.efcopes, and microme- 

 ters, by Bamfden and 'IVoughton, you will perhaps expe6l 

 that I have done a great deal for aftronomy ; but you knowr 

 that this fcience is too remote from my principal objefts — i 

 philofophy in general, geology, eudiometry, and the phyfi- 



Z Z ology 



