144 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



Although Alexander von Humboldt had 

 selected Berlin as his permanent residence, the 

 publication of his new works required a pro- 

 longed residence in Paris, in order to obtain the 

 personal co-operation of his scientific friends. 

 Thus he lived alternately in both cities. The 

 French Revolution of 1830 caused a sudden 



that country, and consider its present advanced state, we 

 may truly say that the strides made in the quarter of a cen- 

 tury which has elapsed are most surprising. At that time 

 there was not even a reliable map of Russia in Europe ; no 

 railroad had been commenced, and now such lines of com- 

 munication are in the course of extension over wide tracts 

 of European Russia. Nay, more, the electric telegraph is 

 about to be carried on the one hand across Eastern Siberia 

 and Mongolia to Pekin, and on the other from the mouth of 

 the great river Amur northwards, to the shore of the Sea 

 of Okutsk, passing by Kamschatka to Behring's Straits ; 

 across which there will be no difficulty in establishing a sub- 

 marine cable. Thence traversing Russian North America 

 and running along the shores of British Columbia, this gigan- 

 tic line will terminate in California and the United States." 

 The numerous important changes which have been made in 

 the position of places and the contour of the vast countries 

 of Eastern Siberia, and all that portion of Asiatic Russia 

 which borders Mongolia and China, will soon appear in a 

 general map, the numerous and laborious researches on 

 which it is founded, being mentioned in the Compte Rendu 

 of the Imperial Geographical Society. Other highly im- 

 portant works in the great province of the Caucasus, and 

 the results of the surveys around and soundings in the 

 Caspian Sea, are also enumerated. 



