THE LAST TEN YEARS. 379 



Indies, I passed through the midst of black vomit and yellow 

 fever untouched." 



' I spoke of my projected visit to Eussia, and my desire to 

 traverse the Kussian-Tartar provinces of Central Asia. The 

 Kirghiz steppes, he said, were very monotonous, fifty miles gave 

 you the picture of a thousand ; but the people were exceedingly 

 interesting. If I desired to go there, I would have no difficulty 

 in passing through them to the Chinese frontier; but the 

 southern provinces of Siberia, he thought, would best repay me. 

 The scenery among the Altai mountains was very grand. From 

 his window, in one of the Siberian towns, he had counted eleven 

 peaks, covered with eternal snow. The Kirghizes, he added, 

 were among the few races whose habits had remained unchanged 

 for thousands of years, and they had the remarkable peculiarity 

 of combining a monastic with a nomadic life. They were partly 

 Buddhist and partly Mussulman, and their monkish sects fol- 

 lowed the different clans in their wanderings, carrying on their 

 devotions in the encampments, inside of a sacred circle marked 

 out by spears. He had seen their ceremonies, and was struck 

 with their resemblance to those of the Catholic Church. 



' Humboldt's recollection of the Altai mountains naturally 

 led him o speak of the Andes : " You have travelled in 

 Mexico," said he ; " do you not agree with me in the opinion 

 that the finest mountains in the world are those single cones of 

 perpetual snow rising out of the splendid vegetation of the 

 tropics ? The Himalayas, although loftier, can scarcely make 

 an equal impression ; they lie further to the north, without the 

 belt of tropical growths, and their sides are dreary and sterile in 

 comparison. You remember Orizaba," continued he ; " here is 

 an engraving from a rough sketch of mine. I hope you will find 

 it correct." He rose and took down the illustrated folio which 

 accompanied the last edition of his " Miscellaneous Writings," 

 turned over the leaves, and recalled, at each plate, some remi- 

 niscence of his American travel. " I still think," he remarked, 

 as he closed the book, " that Chimborazo is the grandest moun- 

 tain in the world." 



'Among the objects in his study was a living chameleon, in 

 a box with a glass lid. The animal, which was about six inches 

 long, was lazily dozing on a bed of sand, with a big blue-fly 



