ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 129 



height of fifteen thousand feet, and a fly was ob- 

 served sixteen hundred feet higher. . . . When we 

 were at a height of about seventeen thousand four 

 hundred feet we encountered a violent hailstorm." 

 The height of the mountain is over twenty-one 

 thousand feet. 



The intrepid Humboldt four times crossed the 

 Andes ; he travelled over Peru ; he called attention 

 to the fertilizing properties of guano, and then he 

 sailed for Mexico, where he remained for a year. 

 Here he met a lady greatly esteemed in that coun- 

 try, called the "fair Rodriguez," the most beauti- 

 ful woman he had seen in his journeys, but whom 

 he admired more " for her graces of mind than her 

 beauty of person." He regarded her as an Ameri- 

 can Madame de Stae'l. It is asserted that the 

 grave man of science was deeply interested, but 

 it was too late she was already the wife of an- 

 other, and had two children. Humboldt, like 

 most other great men, all his life enjoyed the 

 society of intellectual women, who were a constant 

 inspiration. 



After two months passed at Havana, Humboldt 

 came to the United States, spending three weeks 

 with President Jefferson, at his home at Monticello. 

 He never failed to speak in grateful terms of the 

 courtesy he received from Americans. He studied 

 carefully our institutions, and greatly admired the 

 republic ; slavery alone saddened him. 



On July 9, 1804, after five years of absence, he 

 set sail for France. Europe received him with 



