OBSERVATIONS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 421 



"But the Asiatic journey," continues the Professor, 

 " became of vast importance in its more extensive re- 

 sults. Where Humboldt could not himself institute 

 observations, he arranged further studies for others, with 

 prudence and foresight. In many parts of Siberia, he 

 left carefully compared thermometers in the hands of 

 competent and intelligent persons, and awakened the 

 taste for these measurements and comparative experi- 

 ments, especially among the Russian mining superin- 

 tendents of the Ural Mountains. In addition to this, he 

 gained the assistance of the imperial academy of St. 

 Petersburg, by submitting to them an excellently regu- 

 lated plan for instituting over the entire extent of the 

 Russian empire a regular system of observations on the 

 daily changes in the state of barometer, thermometer, 

 and hygrometer, on the temperature of the air, the direc- 

 tion of the wind, and the moisture of the atmosphere. 

 The interest which all the members of the Academy 

 took in Humboldt's plan was increased by the Emperor's 

 interest ; and if it is taken into account that the Russian 

 empire presents a surface larger than the whole visible 

 surface of the moon, it will be comprehended what 

 important laws of terrestrial organization can be deduced 

 and revealed by contemporary and comparative observa- 

 tions over such a large field. The Russian government 

 at once acknowledged the importance of these plans, and 

 instituted a physical observatory in St. Petersburg, whose 

 task it was to choose the other observatory stations, to 

 compare and adjust the instruments with which the ex- 

 periments were to be made ; accurately to determine the 

 astronomical position of the stations selected, to superin- 

 tend and direct the magnetic and meteorologic researches, 



