38 [342] 



DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



American ramblings. Short 

 was, however, — for he was 

 only nine months, — he brought to 

 the undertaking such an amount of 

 collateral knowledge, that its sci3n- 

 tific results are of the utmost import- 

 ance, and may be considered as the 

 culmination of his mature research 

 and comprehensiveness of views. Hi > 

 success was insured also by the ample 

 preparations of the Russian govern- 

 ment, orders having been given along 

 the whole route to grant him every 

 facility. Descending the Volga to 

 Kasan, and hence crossing to Ikate- 

 rinenburg over the Ural Mountains, 

 he passed through Tobolsk on the 

 Irtish, to Barnaul on the Obi, and 

 reached the Altai Mountains on the 

 borders of China, thus penetrating | 

 into the heart of Asia. His researches I 

 into the physical constitution of what f 

 was considered the high table-land of j 

 Asia revealed the true features of i 

 that vast range of mountains. Touch- 

 ed by his cultivated genius, the most 

 insignificant facts became fruitful, I 

 and gave him at once a clew to the 

 real character of the land. The , 

 presence of fruit-trees and other | 

 plants, belonging to families not ! 

 known to occur in elevated regions, j 

 led him to distrust the existence of 

 an unbroken, high, cold table-land, \ 

 extending over the whole of Central j 

 Asia, and by a diligent comparison of j 

 all existing documents on the sub- 

 ject, combined with his own observa- 

 tions, he showed that four great par- 

 allel mountain ridges, separated by 

 gradually higher and higher level j 

 grounds, extend in an east-westerly | 

 direction. First, the Altai, bordering j 

 on the plains of Siberia, from the j 

 northern slope of which descend all , 

 the great rivers flowing into the Arctic ■ 

 Ocean, — as the Irtish with the Obi, j 

 the Jenisei and the Lena ; then the \ 

 Thian-Shan, south of the plateau of ■ 

 Soongaria ; next, the Kuenlun, south ' 

 of the plateau of Tartary ; finally, the ; 

 Himalaya range, separating the pla- 

 teau of Thibet from the plains of the 

 Ganges. He showed also the con- 

 nection of the Himalaya Mountains 



through the Hindoo-koo and the De- 

 mavend with the far-off range of the 

 Caucasus. These east-westerly ranges, 

 giving form and character to the 

 continent of Asia, are then contrasted 

 with the north-southerly direction of 

 the Ghauts, the Soliman and Bolor 

 range, and the Ural Mountains which 

 divide Europe from Asia. Approach- 

 ing the great highways, over which 

 the caravans of the East, from Delhi 

 and Lahore, reach the northern marts 

 of Samarcand, Bokhara, and Oren- 

 burg, he opens to us the most striking 

 vistas of the early communication be- 

 tween the Aryan civilization and the 

 Western lands lying then in the 

 darkness of savage life. He inquired 

 also into the course of the old Oxus, 

 and the former channels between 

 Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea. The 

 level of that great inland salt lake, 

 about two or three hundred feet lower 

 than the surface of the sea, suggested 

 to him its former communication with 

 the Arctic Ocean, when the Steppes 

 of the Kirghis formed an open gulf 

 and the northern waters poured over 

 those extensive plains. After ex- 

 amining the German settlements 

 about the Caspian Sea, he returned to 

 St. Petersburg by way of Orenburg 

 and Moscow. 



The scientific results of this journey 

 are recorded in two separate works, 

 the first of which, under the title of 

 'Asiatic Fragments of Climatology 

 and Geology," is chiefly devoted to 

 an account of the inland volcanoes 

 which he had had an opportunity of 

 studying during this journey. He 

 had now examined the volcanic phe- 

 nomena upon three continents, and 

 had gained an insight more penetrat- 

 ing and more comprehensive than was 

 possessed by any other geologist into 

 their deep connection with all the 

 changes our globe has undergone. 

 Volcanoes were no longer to him 

 mere local manifestations of a limited 

 focus of eruption ; he perceived their 

 relation to earthquakes and to all the 

 phenomena coincident with the for- 

 mation of the inequalities of the 

 earth's surface. 



