370 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



ation, to the solution of which his active mind was earnestly 

 directed. 



Upon his return from America, in the year 1804, he was 

 unable to institute comparisons between the limits of perpetual 

 snow on the Cordilleras, and the snow line on the Himalaya, 

 Hindu-Khu, Ararat, or the Caucasus. It was not till 1812, that 

 Moorcroffc visited the elevated plain of Daba, in Thibet, while 

 the important series of geodetic and hypsometric observations 

 undertaken by Webb, Hodgson, the Brothers Grerard and 

 "William Lloyd, were not carried out till some years later, 

 between 1819-1821. In Asia, as in every other quarter of the 

 globe, adventurous explorers had preceded any expedition of a 

 scientific character, and many discussions had been raised as to 

 the accuracy of the measurements made by such travellers, of 

 the height of the mountains in India, and especially as to the 

 extreme height of the limit of perpetual snow upon the northern 

 slopes of the Himalayas a height which had been received 

 with incredulous surprise. 1 These circumstances gave rise to 

 a Memoir, ' Sur les Montagues de 1'Inde,' written by Humboldt 

 in the year 1816, which aroused considerable attention, espe- 

 cially in England. 



At the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1818, where, by desire 

 of the king, Humboldt was in close attendance upon him, the 

 long-cherished project of an expedition into Asia was again 

 revived ; and from being supported by the favour of his sove- 

 reign and the long-established friendship of Prince Hardenberg,. 

 Chancellor of State, there seemed at length to be abundant 

 warrant for the hope of its final accomplishment. 



To meet the expenses of the journey the king granted a 

 yearly stipend of 12,000 thalers. For the purchase of astro- 

 nomical and other scientific instruments, as well as of maps 

 and books, requisite for such a journey, the sum of 12,000 

 thalers was in May of the following year remitted to Hum- 

 boldt, in Paris, with the accompanying injunction, that, upon 

 the completion of the journey, the instruments should be de- 

 posited in the Eoyal collection ; 'it is not, however, at all the 

 intention of his majesty to render this condition in the least 

 of an oppressive character. As in the course of such an expe- 

 dition, instruments are liable to be broken, or by frequent use 

 1 ' Annal. de Chim. et de Phys.' vol. iii. p. 103. 



