28 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



series of recognizable monuments of volcanic 

 activity." * 



But should not Humboldt, who so well knew 

 the interior of the earth, have directed his atten- 

 tion to the precious treasures the metals ? In 

 America and in Siberia he searched for the laws 

 which necessitate the presence of metals ; and 

 he thus discovered the most important fact, with 

 regard to mining, that to a certain degree, with 

 reference to the beds and the distribution of gold 

 and platina, there must have been in America 

 and in Siberia analogous circumstances ; and, at 

 his suggestion, diamonds were discovered in the 

 gold-mines of the Ural Mountains. It would 

 be a subject worthy of consideration to notice 

 in detail the conspicuous examples of the influ- 

 ence which the discovery of precious metals 

 exercised on the rise and the progress of nations. 

 "Gold dust led more Spaniards to follow in the 

 footsteps of Columbus, of Cortez, of Pizarro, 

 than the spirit of adventure, or the religious 

 zeal which sought to ennoble it. Its influence 

 is perceptible in the commercial greatness of the 

 Phoenicians, certainly as old as the days of 

 Abraham, when all was gold, from the earrings 

 of the Midianites, their carriers of the desert, 

 * Narrative of Surveying Voyages of H.M.S. Fly. 



