TRAVELS IN ASIATIC RUSSIA. 389 



Director in Europe, with full liberty of action, by which I 

 should have gained 20,000. sterling, and returned a large gold 

 snuff-box which was presented me as a token of gratitude from 

 those who had made a fortune by speculating in the mines, and 

 ascribed their success to my writings ; in short, I have always 

 manifested a wish to keep aloof from such affairs. All this is 

 well known in England, and therefore I have offered no reply 

 beyond correcting some figures of an exaggerated character, 

 which appeared in German newspapers, and which might 

 readily have been ascribed to me, although I never publish any- 

 thing, even in newspapers, without my signature. Immediately 

 on my return to Berlin, I placed myself in communication 

 with the former Director-General of Mines in Brazil, Baron von 

 Eschwege, now resident at Lisbon, in order to lay before him 

 some enquiries as to the yield from the gold and platinum 

 sands at Brazil. I hope to give your Excellency, in my next 

 work upon the Ural Mountains, an interesting comparison 

 between them and the mines of Brazil. So far the returns 

 seem in faVour of the Ural districts.' 



The scientific results obtained by Humboldt in his Asiatic 

 journey proved of high and lasting importance, though it 

 cannot be denied that his expedition to Asia is greatly inferior 

 in interest to his travels in America not only as to its extent 

 and duration, the personal adventures of the travellers, but also 

 as to the range of subjects under investigation, and the variety 

 and multiplicity of the results obtained. Yet during the Asiatic 

 journey a surprising number of new facts and ideas were ac- 

 quired, and an astonishing amount of observations accumulated, 

 the results of which were far from being confined to the benefit 

 of the internal economy of Kussia. Additional knowledge of a 

 much more accurate character was acquired concerning the 

 configuration of the interior of Asia, the features of the 

 mountain ranges, the phenomena of climate and the magnetic 

 changes, the distribution of Flora and Fauna, and the grand 

 historical roads, which had for ages been the means of com- 

 munication with the interior of the country, so that the boun- 

 daries of science had been widely extended in the various 

 branches of Physics, Geography, and History. The views which 

 Humboldt had ever entertained upon the connection existing 



