COREECTIOX OF GEOGRAPHICAL ERKOES. 41Ji 



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maaj points burst througli tlie firm crust with tremen- 

 dous force, made clefts and depressions in it into which 

 the molten masses of metal, basalt, and other matter 

 flowed, which were petrified, and now lie in the thus- 

 formed mountain ridges. Thus arose the Cordilleras of 

 the Andes, the Himalaya mountains, and thus was petri- 

 fied the waving surface of the broken soil into those hills 

 and valleys which transform our plains into picturesque 

 landscapes. From these causes Humboldt explained the 

 peculiarities of the Asiatic soil. It was in consequence 

 of the volcanic power which raised mountains and conti- 

 nents, and swelled up the earth-crust bubbling like a 

 gigantic vault, that these hollow vaults sank down in 

 the course of ages, and thus Humboldt established that 

 the depression of the surface of the old world, where the 

 level of the Caspian Sea, like that of the Sea of Ural, 

 lies two hundred or three hundred feet below the level 

 of the ocean, and where the depression of the firm soil 

 extends as far as Orenberg, Saratow, and south-east, pro- 

 bably as far as the so-called central plain, is nothing but 

 a crater-land like that of the moon, where the large 

 points, above one hundred miles broad, called Hipparch, 

 Archimedes, and Ptolemy, form a basin formation such 

 as exists also nearer home ; for instance, in Bohemia. 



Before Humboldt's journey into the interior of Asia, 

 there existed many erroneous notions of the geography, 

 the connexion of the mountain-chains, and the produc- 

 tions of the soil of those districts, but an entirely new 

 view of the country was acquired through this bold and 

 penetrating traveller, who made a large number of inde- 

 pendent latitude measurements, and who obtained varied 

 information on travelling routes and local circumstances 



