52 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 



cas, who from this lofty abode, as from a high throne, exer- 

 cised a heneficent power on the surrounding slopes down to the 

 shores of the ocean. In delineating, with a master hand, all 

 these natural types so strongly marked with distinctive char- 

 acteristics, these sharp contrasts between sister countries of the 

 same landmass, and that variety of natural aspects, Humboldt 

 actually revealed for the first time the true nature of the con- 

 tinent. He did more, for he clearly traced the close connec- 

 tion and the mutual dependence of all those orders of natural 

 phenomena, and taught the true method by which such an 

 investigation should be conducted in every other portion of the 

 globe. 



Such a knowledge, Ritter felt, was to be acquired of every 

 other continent, and above all, of the historical continents. 

 That alone could be a safe basis for the further study of the 

 influence of those distinct natural regions on man's character 

 and peculiar development, and on the special functions per- 

 formed in the civilization of mankind, by the nations which 

 occupied them during the periods of their growth and activity. 

 Applying to the study of Geography the objective and com-- 

 parative method to which the natural sciences owe their rapid 

 progress and a deeper understanding of the system of organized 

 beings, Ritter carried out a series of investigations which led 

 him to results which are acquired forever to geographical 

 science, and are, or soon will be, universally regarded as funda- 

 mental truths. I beg leave briefly to mention those which 

 have exercised the greatest influence on the recent progress of 

 Geography, and are more characteristic of his method. 



Every one of the great landmasses raised above the ocean 

 is a geographical individual, which differs from all the others 

 by its size, by its form, horizontal and vertical, by the ar- 

 rangements of its parts or its internal structure, by its climate, 

 by the peculiar association of plants and animals which be- 

 longs to it, and by the character of the race of men which 

 occupies it. The continents are the primary organs in the 

 great organism of our planet. Their specific characteristics 

 have to be determined by a careful study of all their elements, 

 and a close comparison of their analogies and differences. 

 Their relative situation, the arrangements which bind them 

 into a connected whole, and their peculiar position with re- 

 gard to the great zones of climate, or their physical situation, 

 as we might call it. " Raumliche Anordnung und Weltstel- 

 lung," in Bitter's style, should not receive a less share of at- 

 tention ; for those general relations, combined with those 



