America both at the time of his death and on the occasion of the centen- 

 nial anniversary of his birth. 



Humboldt devoted five years of his life to scientific investigations 

 in South and Central America, in Mexico and in Cuba. He ascertained 

 the course of the greatest rivers; he climbed the summits of mountains 

 where man's foot had never trod before; he studied vegetation, astro- 

 nomical and meteorological phenomena, gathered specimens of all natu- 

 ral products and a great deal of historical information about the early 

 population of these parts of the New World. It was he that drew the 

 first accurate maps of these regions. With almost prophetic forecast 

 of the needs of generations to come, he examined the Isthmus of Panama 

 and considered carefully the possibility of establishing there an inter- 

 oceanic waterway. 



It is well known how great an interest Alexander von Humboldt 

 took in the United States. Indeed, so strongly was he attracted by 

 the problems of the new-born Republic that putting aside even his 

 habitual scientific occupations, he devoted himself entirely for some 

 months to the study of the American people and the institutions of this 

 country. 



Finally, the great scientist, he whom people call the scientific dis- 

 coverer of America, returned to his country, carrying with him a vast 

 store of intellectual and material treasures of science. So abundant 

 were the results, reaped from his expeditions, that he needed the coopera- 

 tion of the best scholars of his time to compile that great miss of material, 

 and to place it in proper shape and form. 



Throughout his long and industrious life, Alexander von Humboldt 

 ever retained his love for and devotion to the country where his great 

 field of labor lay, and for its people with whom he always felt closely 

 connected by his love for freedom in thought and for liberty. It is a 

 well-known fact that in his later days of all the foreigners, who 

 knocked at his door, no one was more heartily welcomed than the 

 American citizen. 



The benefits of his investigations in America returned to that country 

 in the course of time. No wonder that her people recognize him as 

 their benefactor. Another great man, whose monument will be unveiled 

 today, and most deservedly placed beside the one of Alexander von 

 Humboldt, Louis Agassiz, says of him: 



"To what degree we Americans are indebted to von Humboldt, no 



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