But no; his teeth are firmly set; His knee upon the stanchion pressed, 11. One moment yet, one moment yet! Hath saved them from the fearful fire, 12. But where is he, that helmsman bold? His nerveless hands released their task, 1 FLECKED. Spotted; streaked. 2 ĮM-PEND'ED. Hung over; threatened. 4 STAN'ÇHION. An upright post sup 3 IN-SID'I-OŬS. Lying in wait; treacher- 5 PYRE. A pile to be burnt. ous. C. - THE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF HUMBOLDT. AGASSIZ. [Louis Agassiz was born in Switzerland in 1807, and died in New York in 1873. He was one of the most eininent naturalists of the age. He came to the United States in 1846, and the next year accepted the professorship of zoölogy and geology at Harvard College, Cambridge.] 1. THE scientific discoverer of America, as the Germans delight to call him, was destined to start from the same shore as Christopher Columbus. He not only received permission to visit the Spanish colonies, but special facilities 1 for his investigations were offered him. This liberality was unexampled on the part of Spain, for in those days that government guarded its colonies with jealous exclusiveness. Humboldt's enthusiasm disarmed all suspicion, and the king cordially sustained his undertaking. 2. Nearly ten years passed in maturing his plans, preparing himself for their execution, and obtaining the means of carrying them out. He was not quite thirty years of age when he sailed from the harbor of Corunna,* running out in a dark and stormy night to evade the English cruisers, which then blockaded the Spanish coast. 3. No period of Humboldt's life has had a more powerful influence upon knowledge and education than these five years of travel. In the very glory of his youth, and yet with an intellectual maturity which belongs to later manhood, his physical activity and endurance kept pace with the fertility and comprehensiveness Pronounced Co răn'nă. of his mind. Never were the strength of youth and the knowledge of age so wonderfully united in the same person. 4. At the first step of the journey he paused at the Canary Islands, and has left us a graphic2 picture of his ascension of the Peak of Teneriffe* and of the volcanic phenomena of the place. Landing in Cumana,+ he made his first long station there. His explorations of the mountains, valleys, and sea-shore, in that neighborhood, and his collections of every kind, were of vast scientific importance. He had already begun his studies upon the averages of climate, the result of which, known as the "isothermal3 lines," was one of his most original contributions to science. With the intuition of genius, he saw that the distribution of temperature obeyed certain laws. He collected all that could be learned of the average temperatures in various localities, and, combining all these facts, he first taught geographers to trace upon their maps the curves which give, in one undulating line, the varying aspects of climate upon the whole globe. 5. After months spent in the neighborhood of the coast, Humboldt crossed the great plains which divide the basin of the Orinoco from the sea-shore. Every step of his journey was marked by original researches. He turned those desert plains into enchanted land by the power of his thought, and left us descriptions as fascinating for their beauty as they are valuable for their novelty and precision. In his long and painful journey through the valley of the Orinoco, he traced the singular network of rivers by which this great * Pronounced Ten'e-riffe. ↑ Pronounced Cû-ma-nä'. stream connects with the Amazon a fresh-water route which is yet to become one of the great highways of the world. 6. The next great stage of Humboldt's journey was along the ridge of the Andes. There is a picturesque charm about this part of the undertaking which is irresistible. At that time travelling in those mountains was infinitely more difficult than it is now. We follow him with his train of mules bearing the most delicate instruments, the most precious scientific apparatus, through the passes of the great chain. Measuring the mountains, sounding the valleys as he went, tracing the distribution of vegetation on slopes twenty thousand feet high, examining extinct 4 and active volcanoes, collecting and drawing animals and plants, he brought away with him an incredible amount of information, which has since remodelled popular education, and become the common property of the civilized world. 7. Many of these ascensions were attended with infinite danger and difficulty. He climbed the Chimborazo to a height of eighteen thousand feet, at a time when no other man had ever ascended so far above the level of the sea, and was only prevented from reaching the summit by an impassable chasm, in which he nearly lost his life. Returning from the Andes, he skirted the Pacific from Truxillot to Acapulco, and paused in Mexico. From Mexico he went to Havana, and thence sailed for Philadelphia. stay in this country was short. He was warmly welcomed by the scientific men in Philadelphia, and Pronounced Chim-bo-rä'zō. + Pronounced Trû-hēl'yō. ✰ Pronounced Ăc-a-pûl'co. His was cordially received by Jefferson on his visit to Washington. 8. He returned to Paris in to Paris in 1804, having been absent from Europe for five years. It was a brilliant period in science, letters, and politics, in the great capital. The young traveller, bringing intellectual and material treasures even to the men who had grown old in scientific research, was welcomed by all, and in this great centre of social and intellectual life he made his home, for the most part, from 1805 to 1827. [From "Rural Homes," a book published in New York in 1850, and written by Miss Cooper, a daughter of the celebrated novelist.] 1. ON the shores of Southern Florida, and among the rocky islets, or "keys," of the Gulf of Mexico, there is a rare and beautiful bird, to which the name of the Zenaïda Dove has been given by Prince Charles Bonaparte, the ornithologist. This creature is very beautiful in its delicate form, and in its coloring of a warm and rosy gray, barred with brown and white on back and wing; its breast bears a shield of pure and vivid blue, bordered with gold, its cheeks are marked with ultramarine, and its slender legs and feet are deep rose-color, tipped with black nails. |