352 ASIATIC JOURNEY. 



where it was said that the allied powers had re- 

 quested him to draw up a political view of the South 

 American colonies. In November of the same year 

 the King- of Prussia granted him an annual pension 

 of 12,000 dollars, with the view of facilitating the 

 execution of a plan which he had formed of visiting 

 Asia, and especially the mountains of Thibet. In 

 the year 1822 he accompanied his majesty to the 

 congress of Verona, and afterward visited Venice, 

 Rome, and Naples ; and, in 1827 and 1828, delivered 

 at Berlin a course of lectures on the physical con- 

 stitution of the globe, which was attended by the 

 royal family and the court. But, excepting the re- 

 sults of his investigations, which have appeared at 

 intervals, we have no particular account of his occu- 

 pations until 1829, when he undertook another im- 

 portant journey to the Uralian Mountains, the fron- 

 tiers of China, and the Caspian Sea. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Journey to Asia. 



Brief Account of Humboldt's Journey to Asia, with a Sketch of the Four 

 great Chains of Mountains which intersect the Central Part of that 

 Continent. 



No detailed narrative has yet been published of 

 Humboldt's journey to Asiatic Russia ; and the only 

 sources of authentic information on the subject are 

 to be found in a work lately printed at Paris, under 

 the title of Fragmens de Geologie et de Climatologie 

 Asiatiques, par A. de Humboldt, from which the fol- 

 lowing particulars are extracted : 



This illustrious traveller, accompanied by MM. 

 Ehrenberg and Gustavus Rose, embarked at Nijnei- 



